The Wisdom Pattern: Order, Disorder, Reorder

by Richard Rohr

I’ll conclude this chapter with a look at a sad by-product of postmodernism: loneliness. Postmodernism and modernism reject a personalized universe. They dis-enchant the universe. We no longer expect miracles. We no longer expect the transcendent to shine through the tree and the leaf, with “every common bush afire with God.”9 This is our modern state of alienation and anxiety, what the French call ressentiment. One aspect of ressentiment describes a world that is no longer safe, no longer sacred, and no longer home. It is disconnected, fragile, and, therefore, always ready to take offense. The experience of the alienated member of society is “I’m alone” and “I have to figure it all out.” The secular world is no longer abundant enough or safe enough to imagine a win/win scenario. Everything is zero sum—all winding down. Our world’s only story line is win/lose, but unfortunately it actually ends up being lose/lose.