Emergence in Empire

Last updated on: November 5, 2014 at 7:53 pm by Mike Stavlund

Emergence in Empire 2014-11-05T19:53:16-06:00 Mike Stavlund

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

It’s a four-year-old’s game of infinite regression, yet more profound than she can possibly know.

“Daddy, what would we do if we couldn’t buy gas?,” she asks with an impish grin when she knows she should be eating breakfast.

I will play the game if she’ll have another bite. “Well, sweetie, I guess we’d go to a different gas station!”

“And what if that gas station was out of gas too? And the other one. What if all of them were out of gas?”

Pushing back flashbacks to my favorite TV show ‘The Walking Dead’, my mind starts moving faster. “Well, I guess we’d need to wake up earlier in the morning so we could walk to school instead of driving you… or maybe just ride our bikes.”

She’s smiling even bigger now. “And what if our bike tires didn’t have any air? What would we do then?”

I answer her best I can, but my mind is racing now. Food and water– we would need food and water. Sure, we could walk to the grocery store, but how long would the store continue to have food without a fuel supply? A few years ago I shopped at a nearby grocery store in the wake of a snowstorm: a single missed shipment by a single truck left the place looking like a post-apocalyptic movie.

I remember the first time I heard someone use the phrase ‘the American Empire’. The idea seemed surprising, unsettling, disturbing, dangerous, and subversive. I still feel a tingle whenever I apply it to the land of my birth, even after I’ve come to see the disturbing truth of it, played out in both theory and practice. It’s about much more than oil, of course, but that’s certainly a part of it. And it’s much bigger than the government, in fact a kind of participatory individuated democracy which we endorse every time we buy some cheaply produced good.

What I can’t tell the girl who won’t eat is that she would be very, very hungry if we couldn’t get any gas. I can’t tell her that our whole food supply and way of life is borne on the backs of dinosaurs and all of our fossil fuels. That our existence is dependent upon their extinction. That the whole system hangs in a tenuous balance, furthered by an Empire that buys and sells fuel, and wages wars to ensure the supply continues. The whole thing is obviously unsustainable, but also seems inextricable.

It’s an ugly truth, and one I’d rather ignore. Her innocence only magnifies my guilt, and amplifies our family’s complicity in this system. Her unconscious observations undermine my own illusion that I’m an innocent, slightly pacifistic person who is charting a course separate from this empire. I would like to ignore the fact that her breakfast is bought with blood.

It’s fun to denounce the American Empire, until you see how complicit you are in it. We like to think of ourselves as agents of emergence— as independent actors in a self-organizing system. But that idealist vision takes on another layer of complexity when we pause to consider the system of empire in which we find ourselves.

Uncategorized

Previous Post

November 5, 2014

What do Pee Wee Herman and Non-Attachment have in common?

Next Post

November 7, 2014 Killjoy Prophets: A Response to Tony Jones’ “In Praise of Empires”

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Addiction Advent Atheism Authority Bible Cartoons Christian Year Christmas church church planting Civil Rights Community Contemplative Spirituality Culture emerging church Empire Eschatology Evangelism Events Gender Healing Humanism Islam Justice Kingdom Lent Movement Building Multi-Faith Music mysticism New Wave Emergence origins Personal Poetry politics Prayer Preaching Privilege Racism Religious naturalism Resurrection salvation SKEPTIMERGENT Theology Trauma Uncategorized

Select a Month December 2017 November 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small, out of you will come a ruler over Israel. What makes this town significant?

Select your answer to see how you score.

The birthplace of the Messiah A place of prophecy David's hometown A holy city