The homogenization of signs

It is basic to human nature to want to be headed somewhere. And signs are needed to get you there.

In cultures past, signs tended to be few. But what signs a culture had were precious.

In medieval times, folks had signs of the Church to tell them where to go: the cross, the holy days, the paraphernalia of the clergy. Set aside what you might think about all that stuff; the point is that the signs of the Church -- or more to the point, the sign of the Church -- was all a person had to tell him where he was headed.

One consequence of our cybernetic culture is the infinite proliferation of signs. Each sign, as it were, takes you in its own direction. The choices are many; they in fact seem infinite.

Once it was freedom of choice to worship God.

Now it is just freedom of choice.

Rather than one Road we all go down, each of us go down many roads. Rather than one Road for a lifetime; our roads last minutes or seconds.

We change them with a wave of a finger or a click of a mouse.

There are so many signs, the very nature of sign-as-direction has been homogenized out of signs. Direction has changed to titillation.

Rather than one precious sign arranging the furnishings of our lives, we arrange them -- countless little signs on a screen -- as we muse and fascinate about one-minute titillations.

With a wave of a finger.

Logos2Go

Luke 12:55-56 You can discern the face of the sky and of the earth, but how is it you do not discern this time?

Matthew 12.39-40 But He answered and said to them, An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.