Journal articles on the topic 'Christian Hedonism'

Tocqucville was one of the nineteenth-century’s finest liberal thinkers and, despite serious religious doubt, in his private life he adopted what he regarded as an ethic firmly founded upon Christian principles. By contrast, Nietzsche challenged nearly every political and ethical assumption that Europe and Tocqucville held sacred. Yet both of these thinkers, who appear to have so little in common, feared that Europe might well stagnate in a future of comfort plus doubt, hedonism plus nihilism.

Abstract. This study discussed pastoral activities during the Covid-19 pandemic through WhatsApp group as pastoral space. It investigated group-based communication in WhatsApp based on a survey toward the Catholic Family Ministry in the Diocese of Malang. The result was that the conversations in the WhatsApp group in form of reflections, shared links, inspiration, prayers, and information showed that the ecclesiastical community has the courage to be present and involved in human life today. Conversations in WhatsApp groups taught and shared Christian values that opposed to individualism, consumerism, and hedonism, as well as to be a space to proclaim the values of Christian life, namely: love, care, fellowship, justice, peace, solidarity, sharing and living hopefully to God the source of life.Abstrak. Penelitian ini mendiskusikan aktivitas pastoral selama masa pandemi Covid-19 yang menggunakan WhatsApp group sebagai ruang pastoral. Metode penelitian yang digunakan adalah metode survey. Studi ini mensurvey percakapan yang terjadi di Whatsapp group komunitas Catholic Family Ministry Keuskupan Malang. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa percakapan dalam WhatsApp group berupa renungan, share link, inspirasi, doa, dan informasi menunjukkan bahwa komunitas gerejawi berani hadir dan terlibat dalam hidup manusia pada masa kini. Percakapan dalam WhatsApp group menampilkan nilai Kristiani yang melawan individualisme, konsumerisme dan hedonism di ruang digital, dan sebaliknya, menjadi ruang menyuarakan nilai-nilai kehidupan Kristiani, yaitu: cinta kasih, perhatian, persekutuan, keadilan, perdamaian, solidaritas, berbagi serta hidup penuh pengharapan kepada Allah Sang Sumber Hidup.

The short essaistic paper tries to reassume the main reasons of the ambiguous memory of the great humanist's reform-programme. Erasmus in his numerous writings mocked contemporary politics, the corruption, hedonism and selfishness both of ecclesiastical and secular rulers and exhorted the radical reform of the whole christian society, but in the meantime he might be completely aware of the irrealistic and utopian possibility of such a universal and spiritual turnaround. The reason, why he remained consequent in this wish (which in fact was not a coherent programme) is rooted in the very nature his being as christian humanist: the "universal intellectual" who criticized so sharply the society was both a role but a most serious justification of his personal and intellectual existence; furthermore, Erasmus of course was also aware of the nothing less ambiguous ciceronian requirements of the politically active but the same time withdrawn and creative humanist intellectual.

This article explores the making of gendered and religious identities among a group of Ghanaian Methodist women in London by bringing to the fore the complex and irreverent ways in which the women of Susanna Wesley Mission Auxiliary (SUWMA) negotiate their recognition within the predominantly patriarchal settings of the Methodist Church. If, on the one hand, the association and its members conform to Christian values and widely accepted Ghanaian constructions of womanhood, on the other hand, flouting expectations of pious femininity, they claim a unique, elevated position within the church. Their transgressive hedonism can thus be read as a performative assertion of their claims to respect, recognition and leadership beyond the narrow parameters of gendered modesty. Many of the women are senior church leaders and respected members of the diaspora. All are successful professional career women and economically independent. Their association is simultaneously about promoting the Christian faith while being recognized as successful, cosmopolitan, glamorous middle-class women. It is this duality which the present article highlights by showing how members of the association negotiate and construct their subjectivities both within the Methodist Church and the Ghanaian diaspora, while they also negotiate their relationship with the Methodist Church in Ghana.

This paper investigates how platform design features affect the funding motivation of Muslim users on loan-based crowdfunding platforms. Theoretically grounded in Andreoni’s warm-glow giving theory and Sober and Wilson’s model of evolutionary and psychological giving, this work has high practical relevance, given the increasing demand for Islamic financial products. Loan-based crowdfunding platforms are important to the unique context of this research since Islamic religious constraints regulate monetary transactions involving lending. We used a scenario-based survey developed on the basis of a pilot study and confirmed by our manipulation check. The results show that “hedonism” represented by monetary interest negatively affected Muslim users’ willingness to engage in a loan-based crowdfunding project. This finding challenges the commonly agreed-upon egoistic motivator for loan-based crowdfunding platforms (i.e., monetary interest), which is based on Western Christian and Chinese Confucian capitalist economic and financial paradigms. Remarkably, we also found that Muslim funders’ level of willingness to engage on the hedonistic platform had an exponentially positive effect on the amount of money that funders were willing to lend. By contrast, “warm-glow giving,” manifested as belonging to a community, had no effect on users’ engagement. Implications of these findings for theory and practice are discussed.

This research aims to examine the influence of hedonistic style, spiritual intelligence, and financial literacy on students' personal financial management at the Faculty of Economics, Indonesian Christian University, Toraja. This research utilizes quantitative methodologies. There are 1,845 students enrolled in the Faculty of Economics at the Indonesian Christian University Toraja. The Slovin formula was applied to 95 individuals as research samples. Primary data and secondary data are the types of data that are used, and the SPSS version 25 program is used to manage them. Questionnaires utilizing the probability sampling approach, proportionate stratified random sampling, are among the data collecting methods. This research employs instrument test, classical assumption test, multiple linear regression analysis, and hypothesis testing as data analysis approaches. At a significance level of 5%, the results of the study indicated that financial literacy did not have a significant positive influence on the personal financial management of students, whereas the hedonistic style variable had a positive but non-significant effect. Spiritual intelligence has a beneficial and significant impact on the financial management of pupils. Styles of hedonism, spiritual intelligence, and financial literacy all have positive and significant effects on personal financial management, as evidenced by the estimated F value of 32.210, which is more than the F table value of 2.705 and has a significance level of 0.000 less than 0.05.

Este artigo tem como objetivo propor uma investigação sobre o conceito de Vontade a partir de Malebranche (1638-1715) e Schopenhauer (1788-1860). Partimos do pressuposto de que, guardadas as devidas proporções, existem elementos que nos permitem afirmar certa semelhança entre ambos. Respeitando as particularidades de cada um, também nos dedicamos em apontá-las sumariamente. Para tanto, dividimos este artigo em três partes. A primeira apresenta aspectos gerais do conceito de Vontade proposto por Malebranche. A segunda debate o conceito de Vontade de vida de Schopenhauer. Na terceira apresentamos uma discussão sobre os caminhos distintos que eles tomaram a partir de um ponto de partida comum: a noção de vontade cega. A partir desta investigação, sustentamos nosso argumento acerca das semelhanças e confluências que, entretanto, não diminuem a especificidade de cada autor, especialmente quanto aos resultados; o cristão pendendo para o hedonismo, enquanto o ateu se inclinou ao ascetismo. Abstract This article aims to propose an investigation into the concept of Will from Malebranche (1638-1715) and Schopenhauer (1788-1860). We start from the assumption that, keeping the due proportions, there are elements that allow us to affirm a certain similarity between the two. Respecting the particularities of each one, we are also dedicated to briefly pointing them out. To this end, we have divided this article into three parts. The first presents general aspects of the concept of Will proposed by Malebranche. The second discusses Schopenhauer's Will to Life concept. In the third, we present a discussion of the different paths they took from a common starting point: the notion of blind will. From this investigation, we support our argument about the similarities and confluences that, however, do not diminish the specificity of each author, especially regarding the results; the Christian leaning toward hedonism, while the atheist leaning toward asceticism.

Abstract: The purpose of this study is to describe the context of change faced by today's leaders. Change is a necessary and inevitable thing that must be faced wisely by a leader. In this decade, there have been very rapid changes in the context of people's lives that need to be observed and dealt with appropriately by a leader. This needs to be researched and discussed to be considered by today's leaders. This study uses a qualitative research approach. Data collection techniques are library research and observation. The collected data are presented and analyzed qualitatively. The results show that the contexts faced by today's leaders are postmodernism and globalization which bring challenges to individualism, materialism and hedonism. The rapid progress of information and communication technology has become an agent of fundamental change in world culture, including changes in value orientation. Pluralism and emancipation are also a global culture today. The world is now in rapid change all the time, for that we need leaders who are visionary, spiritual and have high integrity, are ethical, innovative and pluralist. Keywords: Christian distinction, context change, globalization, leadership, postmodernism. Abstrak: Tujuan dari penelitian ini adalah untuk menguraikan konteks perubahan yang dihadapi oleh para pemimpin dewasa ini. Perubahan adalah suatu hal niscaya dan tak terelakkan yang harus dihadapai secara bijaksana oleh seorang pemimpin. Dekade ini terjadi perubahan yang sangat cepat dalam konteks kehidupan masyarakat yang perlu dicermati dan dihadapi secara tepat oleh seorang pemimpin. Hal ini perlu diteliti dan dibahas untuk menjadi bahan pertimbangan bagi para pemimpin saat ini. Penelitian ini menggunakan pendekatan penelitian kualitatif. Teknik pengumpulan data adalah penelitian pustaka dan observasi. Data-data yang terkumpul disajikan dan dianalisis secara kualitatif. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa konteks yang dihadapi oleh pemimpin masa kini adalah postmodernisme dan globalisasasi yang membawa tantangan individualism, materialism dan hedonism. Kemajuan pesat teknologi informasi dan komunikasi menjadi termasuk perubahan orientasi nilai. Pluralisme dan emansipasi juga menjadi budaya global saat ini. Dunia sekarang berada dalam perubahan pesat setiap saat, untuk itu dibutuhkan pemimpin yang visioner, berspiritualitas dan integritas tinggi, beretika, inovatif dan pluralis. Kata-kata Kunci: Distingsi kristiani, kepemimpinan, globalisasi, perubahan konteks, postmodernisme,

From earliest apostolic and patristic times, Christian writers have generally been suspicious of the common human desire to improve one's economic status. In Britain, however, by the end of the seventeenth century, this suspicion had all but vanished as most Christians began to accommodate themselves to the exigencies of an increasingly dynamic commercial society. This article takes up the early eighteenth-century controversy over the compatibility of traditional Christian moral virtues with the demands of economic and material progress as reflected in the writings of the two most important antagonists in the controversy, Bernard Mandeville and William Law. Although both Mandeville and Law spoke the language of Christian rigorism and perfectionism, and proclaimed attachment to the full austerity of the Christian Gospels, Mandeville, it is explained, was really a hedonist in disguise who feigned attachment to traditional Christian and Stoic ascetic principles merely to be able to discredit those principles. Law, it is explained, was a man of uncommon piety and devoutness who was shocked by the increasing secularism and materialism of his age, and who sought to recall his contemporaries to a life of true Christian holiness. The article concludes with an evaluation of the relative merits of the positions of each of the two thinkers.

Abstract:This study aims to find aspects of the potential for corruption in the church and how to minimize this corrupt behavior. The method used is the descriptive qualitative method. By collecting literature in the form of books and journals related to corruption, corrupt behavior, church and corruption, and Christian ethics - using the tools Publish or Perish, and VOS viewer. Information collected and synthesized to find potential aspects of corruption in the church, namely: Pastors from business backgrounds, church financial management that is not transparent, the Church becomes a place for money laundering, hedonic/materialistic lifestyles of pastors and assemblies, and the existence of prosperity theology. The church's efforts to minimize corrupt practices are: Pastors do not do business, the Church forms a foundation that manages church businesses, transparent church financial management is audited using a public accountant, emphasizes a simple lifestyle, and correct biblical-theological education through interpretation (hermeneutic exegesis) and not misinterpretation (eisegesis hermeneutic). This effort is carried out in awareness of the consequences, obligations, and responsibilities of Christians who have high ethical-moral standards, namely the Bible.Abstrak:Tujuan dari penelitian ini untuk menemukan aspek potensi korupsi dalam gereja dan cara meminimalisir perilaku korupsi tersebut. Metode yang digunakan adalah metode kualitatif deskriptif. Dengan mengumpulkan literatur-literatur berupa buku-buku dan jurnal-jurnal yang berhubungan dengan korupsi, perilaku korupsi, gereja dan korupsi, dan etika kristen - menggunakan alat bantu Publish or Perish, dan VOSviewer. Informasi yang dikumpulkan dan disintesis sehingga menemukan aspek potensi korupsi dalam gereja yaitu: Pendeta dari latar belakang pebisnis, pengelolaan keuangan gereja yang tidak transparan, Gereja menjadi tempat pencucian uang, gaya hidup hedonis/materialistik pendeta dan majelis, dan adanya teologi kemakmuran. Upaya gereja untuk meminimalkan praktek korupsi yaitu: Pendeta tidak berbisnis, Gereja membentuk Yayasan yang mengelola bisnis gereja, pengelolaan keuangan gereja secara transparan diaudit menggunakan seorang akuntan publik, menekankan gaya hidup sederhana, dan pendidikan teologi alkitabiah yang benar melalui penafsiran (eksegesis hermeneutic) dan bukan penafsiran yang keliru (eisegesis hermeneutic). Upaya ini dilakukan dalam kesadaran akibat, kewajiban, dan tanggung jawab sebagai orang-orang Kristen yang memiliki standar moral etis yang tinggi yaitu Alkitab.

Abstract: Social care is a real action of each individual or group. Every human being has the freedom to act and behave. One form of human social freedom can do good and bad and even make mistakes. Such a context can be found in the Thessalonian Christian community which has an absolute identity. In the midst of the manifestation of this identity, this community is in a hedonic, individualist tendency, namely fornication which is contrary to their absolute identity. Paul uses the media of letters to praise but at the same time advise them of their existence. In this regard, the writer uses qualitative research methodology, literature study method using sociology exegesis and absolute identity theory used in exegesis, the result is that social care as an absolute identity that is inherent in the individual and Christian community is a special feature. Abstrak: Kepedulian sosial adalah suatu tindakan nyata dari setiap individu maupun kelompok. Setiap manusia memiliki kebebasan untuk bertindak dan berperilaku. Salah satu bentuk kebebasan sosial manusia dapat melakukan kebaikan dan ketidakbaikan bahkan kesalahan. Konteks demikian dapat dijumpai pada komunitas Kristen Tesalonika yang memiliki identitas mutlak. Di tengah perwujudan identitas itu, komunitas ini berada dalam kecenderungan hedonis, individualis yaitu percabulan yang bertentangan dengan identitas mutlak mereka. Paulus menggunakan media surat untuk memuji tetapi sekaligus menasihatkan mereka akan eksisitensi yang dimiliki. Terhadap hal ini penulis menggunakan metodologi penelitian kualitatif, metode studi pustaka dengan menggunakan eksekese sosiologi dan teori identitas mutlak digunakan dalam eksegese, hasilnya bahwa kepedulian sosial sebagai identitas mutlak yang inherent pada individu dan komunitas Kristen menjadi ciri khusus.

Malthus' theological ideas were most clearly presented in the final two chapters of the first edition (1798) of his Essay on the Principle of Population. They can be classified under eight main headings. (i) He admitted that the pressure of population causes much misery and evil, but he did not accept that this in any way impugned the benevolence of the Creator. He situated the population problem within the general context of the problem of evil, and argued that population pressure is permitted and ordained by the Creator as a means of stimulating mankind to attain a higher good. (ii) He opposed the traditional Christian notion that this world is a state of trial, with population pressure being one aspect of that trial. He believed that this notion of a state of trial is inconsistent with the notion of an omniscient Creator, and that it is therefore necessary to reject the notion of a state of trial in order to save the notion of Divine omniscience. (iii) Instead of viewing this world as a state of trial, he viewed it ‘as the mighty process of God, not for the trial, but for the creation and formation of mindr. This notion of the growth of mind is the central aspect of Malthus' theology. (iv) He expressed doubts about the omnipotence of the Creator, arguing that God did not have the power to create perfect human beings instantaneously, but required a certain process or a certain time to form beings with ‘exalted qualities of mind’. Malthus seemed to argue that Divine omnipotence and Divine benevolence are incompatible – because a truly benevolent creator would not have subjected mankind to the miseries of this world if He had the power to create a perfect world. Malthus was prepared to sacrifice the notion of Divine omnipotence in order to save the notion of Divine benevolence. (v) He saw the principle of population as part of the Divine plan for the replenishment of the earth, i.e. its full cultivation and peopling. (vi) His attitude to worldly pleasures and comforts was distinctly unpuritanical, and leaning towards hedonism. His ethics were world-enhancing, rather than world-denying and retreatist. (This point is discussed more fully in Part II below.) (vii) He gave a naturalistic interpretation of the Biblical doctrine of original sin, describing original sin as the original state of torpor and sluggishness of every human being at the moment of birth. The purpose of the principle of population, and of the other difficulties encountered in life, is to stimulate man to raise himself out of this original state. (viii) Finally, Malthus' theology included the doctrine of annihilationism (or conditional immortality), according to which eternal life is not an essential part of the human soul at birth, but is granted only to those who attain during life on earth an adequate growth of mind. The others are, at death, not condemned to eternal suffering, but are annihilated, body and soul.

Two philosophical perspectives on the good life, namely hedonic and eudaimonic, have become references for experts to explain how people understand happiness in Western societies with individualistic culture and the majority of Christians. This descriptive phenomenological study aimed to understand the happiness experiences of a collectivistic Muslim society. The participants in this study were nine Muslims, consists of male and female who were known as religious persons by their relatives. The results of data analysis shows that happiness for a Muslim is a process that provides experiences in overcoming problems and life's trials based on religious guidance. These experiences lead participants to a meaning of happiness as shown by three main themes, namely a sense of being able to overcome problems with acceptance and gratitude, life satisfaction in sufficiency, and a sense of worth for the accomplishment with hard work. The results of this study explain that happiness is a dynamic process that is greatly influenced by persons' understanding and belief in religion.

Nowadays, the shifting of technology and the internet that has an effect on changing consumption patterns, impacted social lifestyle, is a hedonic and leisure prioritize lifestyle. The lifestyle gives a negative impact to the behaviour of millennial generation especially to their consumption behaviour. Parents and teachers have an important role to teach them early about financial education so they have prevention to the consumptive lifestyle. The Financial Mana­gement Programme of Petra Christian University has cooperated with some Early Childhood School and Kindergarten to teach the children about financial education using Education games. Financial education could easily be learned through education games so the children could understand about saving behaviour and spending wisely. The children responded positively to the lesson through education games. The parents and teacher could teach the children easily and efficiently about saving attitude and spending wisely using the education games. Abstrak: Perubahan pola konsumsi yang disebabkan oleh kemajuan internet dan teknologi yang begitu pesat dibandingkan tahun-tahun sebelumnya berdampak pada gaya hidup masyarakat yaitu gaya hidup yang mengutamakan kemewahan dan kesenangan semata. Gaya hidup tersebut memberikan dampak negatif terutama pada perilaku konsumsi generasi milenial saat ini. Orang tua dan tenaga pendidik memiliki peran penting untuk memberikan edukasi keuangan sejak dini supaya perilaku konsumtif tersebut dapat dihindarkan. Program Manajemen Keuangan Universitas Kristen Petra mengadakan kegiatan pengabdian masya­rakat kepada PAUD dan TK yang telah bekerja sama untuk memberikan edukasi keuangan kepada anak-anak TK melalui penggunaan Alat Permainan Edukasi (APE) Keuangan yang dapat membantu anak-anak belajar mengenai tema menabung dan hidup hemat. Anak-anak TK memberikan respon yang baik terhadap pembelajaran melalui alat permainan tersebut. Para orang tua dan pendidik dapat menggunakan APE Keuangan untuk mengajar­­kan anak-anak mengenai kebiasaan menabung dan hidup hemat dengan mudah dan efisien.

RESUMO: Este artigo tem por objetivo refletir sobre a homilética e a pregação cristã como voz de promessa em um contexto paradoxal como o contexto brasi­leiro e latino-americano. Para tanto, refletir-se-á sobre três tipos característicos de relação entre pregação e promessa: a prédica escatológica transcendentalista que deposita a promessa para o além ou o fim dos tempos; a prédica humanista e de libertação que coloca a promessa na dimensão da luta sócio-política de trans­formação no presente; a prédica individualista e de prosperidade que projeta a promessa como realização material e satisfação hedonista. Por fim, diante desta realidade, busca-se por caminhos na literatura (Las dos Palabras, de Isabel Allende) e cultura pop (Filme Central do Brasil, de Walter Salles) que auxiliem a pensar uma prédica que anuncie a promessa em meio aos paradoxos da vida de forma a contribuir não só para satisfação individual, eclesial ou ideológica, mas que aponte para transformações humanas e culturais.ABSTRACT: This paper aims to reflect on homiletics and Christian preaching as a voice of promise in a paradoxical context such as the Brazilian and Latin Ameri­can context. Initially it will reflect upon three characteristic types of relationships between preaching and promise: the eschatological and transcendentalist preaching that deposits the promise to the after life or in the end of time; the humanistic and liberating preaching that puts the promise in the dimension of the transformation of the socio-political struggle in the present; the individualistic and prosperity preaching which projects promise as material achievement and hedonistic satis­faction. Finally, faced with this reality, we seek for ways in the literature (Las dos Palabras, of Isabel Allende) and in the popular culture (Movie Central do Brasil, of Walter Salles) to assist in thinking a sermon that announces the promise amid the paradoxes of life in order to contribute not only to individual, ecclesial or ideological satisfaction, but which points to human and cultural transformations.

This article discusses how the Made in Italy brand helped Italy to recover from economic recession in the 1980s, but also how it redefined the country's identity after the traumatic years of terrorism and especially after the murder of the Christian Democratic Party Secretary, Aldo Moro, at the hands of the Red Brigades. In this period cinema as a form of artistic achievement declined, while fashion and industrial design moved at the centre stage of economic and creative success. The rampant consumerism of the 1980s, fuelled by tax reforms that favoured a wider urban middle class, the retreat of unionism, the abandonment of collective bargaining in many industrial sectors, industrial restructuring with the consequent growth of black market economy in the provincial areas of the so-called Third Italy first and the South later, were all factors that contributed to a social and economic shift within Italy itself. Commercial consumption, propagated by the proliferation of local commercial television networks, hedonism and a re-articulation of identity through appearance replaced the 1970s' political activism and ideological opposition to fashion. Ultimately, 'Made in Italy' was a multidimensional phenomenon that presented itself as a new cultural model for the country’s political tribes of the 1970s.

The purpose of this empirical article is to investigate differences between two Christian denominations: Catholics and Anglicans in terms of religiosity and values. Religiosity was measured within dimensions of centrality of religiosity and religious coping, while the value system contained hedonic, vital, aesthetic, truth, moral, and sacred values. In addition, potential associations between the dimensions of religiosity and values were assessed. One hundred and fifty one participants (75 Catholics and 76 Anglicans) completed three questionnaires: the Centrality of Religiosity Scale, the Brief RCOPE Scale, and the Scheler Values Scale. The results demonstrated that Catholics were characterised by higher levels of religious dimensions representing communal worship related to the sacraments, while Anglicans more strongly favoured religious dimensions reflecting an individual approach to religiosity. Catholics also obtained higher levels of hedonic and vital values than Anglicans. In addition, there were significant associations between most dimensions of religiosity and sacred values. Taken together, the findings emphasise the need for a combined study of religiosity and values which appears central to the formation of people’s religious beliefs and behaviour.

PurposeFashionable brands need to develop brand attachment so that their consumers become fans and act as apostles by recommending them. But how can companies develop brand attachment? This paper aims to investigate, on the one hand, the role of four drivers of brand attachment (perceived quality, brand personality, credibility and awareness) and three effects (loyalty, buying intention and perceived risk). On the other hand, three groups of fashionable brands with different positioning strategies are compared to analyze if the brand positioning strategy moderates the proposed relationships in the analyzed country.Design/methodology/approachTo achieve the two objectives, surveys with the same instrument were conducted twice, and a sample of 1,922 consumers from the three most populated cities of Ecuador (Quito, Guayaquil and Cuenca) took part in the study. They chose fashionable brands with functional (n = 1,066), hedonic (n = 463) and symbolic (n = 393) positioning strategies. They mentioned, for example, functional brands such as Avon, La Lechera, Nokia or Converse; hedonic brands such as Christian Dior, Oreo, Apple or Timberland and symbolic brands such as Axe, Coca-Cola/Coke, Motorola or DBond.FindingsThe results of this study show that (1) brand positioning affects attachment, (2) a functional positioning leads to higher consumers' loyalty, (3) a hedonic positioning leads to the strongest brand personality and credibility and (4) a symbolic positioning seems to be the less useful option in terms of desired effects.Originality/valueFirst, this paper considers three different subscenarios in launching a new product: hedonic, functional and symbolic brand positioning. The comparison of these three scenarios makes progress with respect to previous research since the connection between consumers' brand attachment and positioning brand strategy has been scarcely addressed to date. Second, no study has been found that assesses the simultaneous effect of four key antecedents capable of enhancing brand attachment (personality, quality, awareness and credibility), causing three major effects (loyalty, purchase intention and decrease in perceived risk).

Abstract This article provides the first systematic interpretation of the moral theory developed in Newcome's Enquiry into the Evidence of the Christian Religion (1728, revised 1732). More importantly, it shows that Newcome's views constitute a valuable but overlooked contribution to the development of utilitarianism. Indeed, she is arguably the first utilitarian. Her ethical views are considered in two stages. The article first explores her hedonist approach to the good and then turns to her consequentialist account of right action. The article then situates Newcome's work within the context of the pre-Bentham utilitarian movement. Strikingly, Newcome lived and worked in close proximity to other prominent early utilitarians and was well positioned to have exerted an influence on the development of their views. Newcome has never been discussed in connection with the history of ethics. This article constitutes an argument for her inclusion in our narratives about the development of a major moral theory.

An increasing importance in today's education is placed on emphasising values. Values provide a reference in people’s life and serve as criteria, when making daily choices. However, values are often unconscious and rarely discussed among teachers. Hedonic values that are oriented towards individualism have become self-evident in the society, while classical values are being pushed in the background. The aim of this study is to identify teachers’ perspectives on values within an educational practice. A survey of teachers working in municipal schools and preschools in Latvia was conducted. An in-depth examination was reached by implementing interviews with educational experts. The values definied in the Republic of Latvia recent legislative documents were used in designing the content of a questionnaire. Data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics as well as qualitative content analysis. Implementation of values education is influenced by regulatory framework, its emphasising in educational practice and individual teacher’s personal judgement. The present-day situation in Latvia’s education reveals a discrepancy between the legislation requirements and the educational practice. Unfortunately some teachers lack confidence in the content of values defined in the Constitution (the Satversme) of the Republic of Latvia, namely – in the Latvian folk wisdom, universal human and Christian values. Thus it is important to set common values in upbringing in a family and in an educational institution. By defining and emphasising values at the institutional level, they become a subject of reflection and discussion among teachers and parents.

Over time, many groups have sought to offer alternatives to the dominant culture of the day; for example, the civil-rights movements, antiwar protests, and environmental activism of the 1960s and 1970s. Not all groupings however can be considered countercultural. Roberts makes a distinction between group culture where cultural patterns only influence part of one’s life, or for a limited period of time; and countercultures that are more wholistic, affecting all of life. An essential element in defining a counterculture is that it has a value-conflict with the dominant society (Yinger), and that it demonstrates viability over time: long enough to pass on the values to the next generation (Roberts). Each society has images of what it means to be a good citizen. These images are driven by ideology and communicated through media channels, educational values and government legislation. Ideologies are not neutral and compete for the “common sense” of citizens; seeking to shape desires and allegiance to a particular way of life. A way of life is expressed in the everyday practices, or routines and choices that make up an ordinary day, the sum of which express the values of individuals and communities. A number of groups or movements have sought to counter the values and practices of dominant cultures only to find themselves absorbed into it. For example, the surfing magazine Tracks was an Australian countercultural text that chronicled the authentic surfing lifestyle of the 1970s. As surfing became big business, the same magazine was transformed into a glossy lifestyle publication. The surfing lifestyle had become part of the expanding field of consumption and Tracks had become one more tool to promote it (Henderson). As the “counter” is absorbed into the dominant consumer culture, new ways to engage the hegemonic culture emerge that offer fresh possibilities of living and engaging in contemporary society. Positioning I hold to a critical postmodern perspective of consumption. That is, while I acknowledge some of the pleasures of consumption, I see a dominant posture of detachment as a result of consumer cultures increased distance from production, producers and the products we buy (Cavanaugh; Sandlin, Kahn, Darts and Tavin). The market is a powerful educator of individuals (Kincheloe; Steinberg), but it is not the only educator. Families, schools, churches and other interest groups also seek to educate, or shape, individuals. These competing influences do not however hold equal power. In many instances the families, schools, churches and interest groups have uncritically adopted the dominant ideology of the market and so reinforce the values of consumerism; such is its hegemonic power. I hold that individuals, and more importantly communities, have some agency to consume in alternative ways that give rise to the formation of different identities. I see critical practices as important in the awareness raising, or awakeness, and shaping of an individual and a community (Freire; Rautins and Ibrahim). Contemporary Cultures Consumption has become the organizing principle of many contemporary cultures (Hoechsmann). The message that to be a good citizen is to be a good consumer is pervasive and promoted as key to economic growth and the remedy to lift countries out of recession. This message of consumption falls on fertile ground with the development of consumerism, or consumer culture. Smart (5) sees this expressed as a way of life that is “perpetually preoccupied with the pursuit, possession, rapid displacement, and replacement of a seemingly inexhaustible supply of things.” These “things” have increasingly become luxury goods and services as opposed to the satisfaction of basic needs and wants (de Geus). Contemporary Alternatives There are examples of contemporary alternatives that open spaces for people to imagine that “another world is possible.” Sandlin, Kahn, Darts and Tavin (102, 103) call upon educators to “critically analyze what it might mean to resist a consumer society predicated on the normalization of overconsumption” and to “celebrate the creative and critical agency of all those who resist and interrogate the hegemony of multinational companies/industries.” A number of examples are worth celebrating and critically analysing to offer input in the engagement with the dominant culture of consumption. The examples of the Adbusters Media Foundation, Bill Talen’s work as a political-theatre activist, and the voluntary simplicity movement will be briefly examined before exploring the contribution of monasticism. The Adbusters Media Foundation produces a glossy bimonthly publication and website that seeks to unmask the destructive power of global corporations. Through the use of cultural resistance techniques such as “culture jamming,” Adbusters remix advertisements to catch the reader by surprise, to make the taken for granted problematic, and to open them to the possibility of an alternative view of reality. These “subvertisements” offer the opportunity for detournement; a turning around or a change in perspective (Darts; Sandlin and Callahan). As people get involved in “culture jamming” they become producers of artifacts and not just consumers of them. The work of Adbusters uses the tools of the media saturated consumer culture to critique that very culture (Rumbo). Advertising performs an ideological function within a consumer culture that addresses people as individual private consumers rather than citizens concerned for the public good (Scatamburlo-D’Annibale). Given the ubiquity of advertising, individuals become ambivalent to its messages but still soak in the dominant narrative. The very form of resistance reinforces the culture of the individualistic citizen as consumer. While it might be seen that the “culture jamming” artifacts of the Adbusters type might not have substantial effect on the broader public, it does provide an accessible means of resistive action for the individual (Haiven). Bill Talen is a political-theatre activist who plays the Southern evangelical preacher Reverend Billy as leader of the Church of Stop Shopping. The Reverend stages “retail interventions” or performances in public spaces and retail stores as an act of “culture jamming”. Reverend Billy uses humour, music, art and theatre in his “services” to create strangeness, discomfort or ambiguity in the lives of the public. In doing so he calls people into transitional spaces where what was normal is disrupted and they are free to imagine differently. This disruption that causes a movement into the unknown is a central pedagogical strategy that seeks to encourage people to question their taken for granted understandings of life (Littler; Sandlin, Learning). Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping offer a fuller bodied experience of “culture jamming” that engages both the body and the emotions. The act of creating culture together is what fosters a sense of community amongst culture jammers (Sandlin, Popular culture). And yet Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping appear not to be focused for their own good in that they have formed a number of coalitions with other organisations to work on campaigns that oppose global corporations and the influence of consumerism’s ideology on everyday life. Reverend Billy not only creates disruption in people’s relationship with consumption, he also provides an alternative place to belong. The voluntary simplicity movement involves a growing number of people who choose to limit their incomes and consumption because of new priorities in life. Those involved call into question the dominant cultures view of the “good life” in favour of a less materialistic lifestyle that is more “personally fulfilling, spiritually enlightening, socially beneficial, and environmentally sustainable” (Johnson 527). Grigsby’s research (qtd. in Johnson) found that participants were involved in forming their own identities through their lifestyle choices. The voluntary simplicity movement, it appears, is a niche for those who understand consumption from a postmodern perspective and participate in alternative lifestyle practices. Sandlin (Complicated) sees the formation of collective identity as crucial to a movement’s ability to effectively engage in external education. A shared vision, or telos, is central to that forming of collective identity. However, the voluntary simplicity movement is focused primarily on individual lifestyle changes, thus making it ineffectual as a collective to challenge dominant ideologies or to engage in external education to that end. Each of the examples above provides some insight into a considered engagement with the dominant culture: the creation of Adbuster like “culture jamming” artifacts provides an accessible means of engagement for the individual; Bill Talen’s interventions show an appreciation of the importance of community in supporting countercultural choices; and the voluntary simplicity movement promotes a “whole of life” approach to countercultural engagement. However, when comparing the above examples with Roberts’s definition of a counterculture they appear to be lacking. Roberts (121) holds that “the term counter-culture might best be reserved for groups which are not just a reaction formation to the dominant society, but which have a supporting ideology that allows them to have a relatively self-sufficient system of action.” The remainder of this article examines monasticism as an example of a counter-culture that offers an alternative model of “the good-life” based on a clear ideology and a fifteen hundred year history. Considering Monasticism As seen above, the work of countering the dominant ideology is not without its difficulties. bell hooks found that offering an education that enhances students’ journey to wholeness went against the anti-intellectualism of the current education system. What enabled her to stand within and resist the oppressive dominant culture, and offer alternatives, was the sustaining power of spirituality in her life, the basis of her hope. Tolliver and Tisdell appreciate that spirituality can be an elusive term, but that amongst the definitions offered there are commonalities. These are that: spirituality is about a connection to what is referred to by various names, such as the Life Force, God, a higher power or purpose, Great Spirit, or Buddha Nature. It is about meaning making and a sense of wholeness, healing and the interconnectedness of all things. […] As many have noted, those who value spirituality generally believe that it is possible for learners to come to a greater understanding of their core essence through transformative learning experiences that help them reclaim their authenticity. (Tolliver and Tisdell 38) There is a growing interest in the age-old traditions of Christian monasticism as a means of addressing the challenges of contemporary life (Adams; Jamison). When the BBC broadcast the television series The Monastery in 2005, millions of viewers tuned in to follow the way five ordinary men were affected by the experience of living in a monastery for forty days and nights. Similarly in Australia in 2007, the ABC broadcast the television series The Abbey that followed the experiences of five ordinary women enclosed for 33 days and nights in the space and routines of the Benedictine nuns at Jamberoo Abbey. It was when watching these television series that I was led to consider monasticism as an example of cultural resistance, and to ponder the contribution it might make to the conversation around counter-cultures. As an observer, I find something compelling about monasticism, however I am aware of the possibility of romanticising it as a way of life. The tensions, difficulties and struggles represented in the television series help to temper that. Benedictine spirituality is the foundation for life at the Worth Abbey (The Monastery) and the Jamberoo Abbey (The Abbey). The essential dynamic that underlies this spirituality is a shaping of life according to the Bible and the guidelines set out in the sixth century Rule of Benedict. Monastic life in a Benedictine abbey is marked by certain routines, or rhythms, that are designed to help the community better love God, self and one another (Benedict, chapter 4). “Listen” is the first word in the Rule of Benedict and is closely linked to silence (Benedict, chapter 6). As a key part of monastic life, silence gives the monastics the freedom and space to listen to God, themselves, one another, and the world around them. As Adams (18) points out, “the journey to knowing God must include the discipline of coming to know yourself, and that risky journey invariably starts in silence.” The rhythm of monastic life therefore includes times in the day for silence and solitude to facilitate listening and self-reflection. For Benedict, distractions in the head are actually noises inside the heart: the result of human desires and preoccupations. Silence, and the reflection that occurs within it, allows the monastic to listen for, and see their own relationship to, competing ideologies. This everyday practice of listening might be explained as paying attention to what is noticed, reflecting on it and the internal response to it. In this way listening is an active engagement with the words read (Irvine), the stories heard, the conversations had, and the objects used. Hoffman (200) observes that this practice of attentive listening is evident in decision making within the monastery. Seen in this way, silence acts as a critical practice counter to the educative agenda of consumerism. Physical work is a basic part of monastic life. All members of the community are expected to share the load so that there is no elitism, no avoiding work. This work is not to be seen as a burden but an outlet for creativity (Benedict, chapter 57). By being involved in the production of goods or the growing of crops for the community and others, monastics embody practices that resist the individual consumer identity that consumerism seeks to create. Monastics also come to appreciate the work involved in the products they create and so become more appreciative of, and place greater value on them. Material things are not privately owned but are to be seen as on loan so that they are treated with a level of gratitude and care (Benedict, chapter 32). This attitude of not taking things for granted actually increases the enjoyment and appreciation of them (De Waal). De Waal likens this attitude to the respect shown towards people and things at the Japanese tea ceremony. She says that “here in the most simple and yet profound ceremony there is time to gaze at things, to enjoy them, and to allow them to reveal themselves as they truly are” (87). Such a listening to what products truly are in the dominant consumer culture might reveal chairs made from the denuded forests that destroy habitats, or shoes made with child labour in unsafe conditions. The monastic involvement in work and their resulting handling of material things is a critical practice counter to the ideology of consumerism and the attitude towards products flooding markets today. Community is central to monastic life (Veilleux). Through vows, the monastic commits to life in a particular place with particular people. The commitment to stability means that when conflict arises or disagreements occur they need to be worked out because there is no running away. Because a commitment to working things out requires attention to what is real, monastic community acts as a counter of all that is not real. The creation of false need, the promise of fulfilment, and the creation of identity around consumption can be viewed through the same commitment to reality. This external stability is a reflection of inner stability marked by a unity and coherence of purpose and life (De Waal). A monastic community is formed around a shared telos that gives it a collective identity. While people are welcomed as guests into the community with Benedictine hospitality, the journey to becoming a member is intentionally difficult (Benedict, chapter 58). The importance of committing to community and the sharing of the collective telos is not a rushed decision. The stability and permanence of monastic commitment to community is a counter to the perpetual chasing and replacing of other goods and experiences that is a part of consumerism. The deliberate attention to practices that form a rhythm of life involving the whole person shows that monastic communities are intentional in their own formation. Prayer and spiritual reading are key parts of monastic life that demonstrate that spirituality is central in the formation of individuals and communities (Benedict, prologue). The formation is aligned to a particular ideology that values humanity as being made in the image of God and therefore the need to focus on the connection with God. A holistic humanity addresses issues and development of the mind, body and spirit. Examining Ideology The television series The Monastery and The Abbey demonstrate that when guests enter a monastic community they are able to experience an alternative model of “the good life”. If, as Roberts suggests, a counter-culture looks to reform society by providing an alternative model, then change is based upon seeing the alternative. The guests in the monastic community are involved in discussions that make explicit the monastic ideology and how it shapes the countercultural values and practices. In doing so, the guests are invited to listen to, or examine the consumerist ideology that permeates their society and shapes their everyday experiences. In evaluating the conflicting ideologies, the guests are free to choose an alternative view, which, as the television series showed are not necessarily that of the monastic community, and may in fact remain that of consumerism. Conclusion While ideologies are not neutral, they are often invisible. The dominant ideology of consumerism reduces citizens to individualistic consumers and naturalises the need for never ending consumption. A number of groups or movements attempt to expose the logic of consumerism and offer alternative ways of consuming. 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'He did what the cipher could not, he rescued himself.' -- Alfred Bester, The Stars My Destination (23) On many levels, the new Nine Inch Nails album The Fragile is a gritty meditation about different types of End: the eternal relationship cycle of 'fragility, tension, ordeal, fragmentation' (adapted, with apologies to Wilhelm Reich); fin-de-siècle anxiety; post-millennium foreboding; a spectre of the alien discontinuity that heralds an on-rushing future vastly different from the one envisaged by Enlightenment Project architects. In retrospect, it's easy for this perspective to be dismissed as jargon-filled cyber-crit hyperbole. Cyber-crit has always been at its best too when it invents pre-histories and finds hidden connections between different phenomena (like the work of Greil Marcus and early Mark Dery), and not when it is closer to Chinese Water Torture, name-checking the canon's icons (the 'Deleuze/Guattari' tag-team), texts and key terms. "The organization of sound is interpreted historically, politically, socially ... . It subdues music's ambition, reins it in, restores it to its proper place, reconciles it to its naturally belated fate", comments imagineer Kodwo Eshun (4) on how cyber-crit destroys albums and the innocence of the listening experience. This is how official histories are constructed a priori and freeze-dried according to personal tastes and prior memes: sometimes the most interesting experiments are Darwinian dead-ends that fail to make the canon, or don't register on the radar. Anyone approaching The Fragile must also contend with the music industry's harsh realities. For every 10 000 Goth fans who moshed to the primal 'kill-fuck-dance' rhythms of the hit single "Closer" (heeding its siren-call to fulfil basic physiological needs and build niche-space), maybe 20 noted that the same riff returned with a darker edge in the title track to The Downward Spiral, undermining the glorification of Indulgent hedonism. "The problem with such alternative audiences," notes Disinformation Creative Director Richard Metzger, "is that they are trying to be different -- just like everyone else." According to author Don Webb, "some mature Chaos and Black Magicians reject their earlier Nine Inch Nails-inspired Goth beginnings and are extremely critical towards new adopters because they are uncomfortable with the subculture's growing popularity, which threatens to taint their meticulously constructed 'mysterious' worlds. But by doing so, they are also rejecting their symbolic imprinting and some powerful Keys to unlocking their personal history." It is also difficult to separate Nine Inch Nails from the commercialisation and colossal money-making machine that inevitably ensued on the MTV tour circuit: do we blame Michael Trent Reznor because most of his audience are unlikely to be familiar with 'first-wave' industrial bands including Cabaret Voltaire and the experiments of Genesis P. Orridge in Throbbing Gristle? Do we accuse Reznor of being a plagiarist just because he wears some of his influences -- Dr. Dre, Daft Punk, Atari Teenage Riot, Pink Floyd's The Wall (1979), Tom Waits's Bone Machine (1992), David Bowie's Low (1977) -- on his sleeve? And do we accept no-brain rock critic album reviews who quote lines like 'All the pieces didn't fit/Though I really didn't give a shit' ("Where Is Everybody?") or 'And when I suck you off/Not a drop will go to waste' ("Starfuckers Inc") as representative of his true personality? Reznor evidently has his own thoughts on this subject, but we should let the music speak for itself. The album's epic production and technical complexity turned into a post-modern studio Vision Quest, assisted by producer Alan Moulder, eleventh-hour saviour Bob Ezrin (brought in by Reznor to 'block-out' conceptual and sonic continuity), and a group of assault-technicians. The fruit of these collaborations is an album where Reznor is playing with our organism's time-binding sense, modulating strange emotions through deeply embedded tonal angularities. During his five-year absence, Trent Reznor fought diverse forms of repetitious trauma, from endogenous depression caused by endless touring to the death of his beloved grandmother (who raised him throughout childhood). An end signals a new beginning, a spiral is an open-ended and ever-shifting structure, and so Reznor sought to re-discover the Elder Gods within, a shamanic approach to renewal and secular salvation utilised most effectively by music PR luminary and scientist Howard Bloom. Concerned with healing the human animal through Ordeals that hard-wire the physiological baselines of Love, Hate and Fear, Reznor also focusses on what happens when 'meaning-making' collapses and hope for the future cannot easily be found. He accurately captures the confusion that such dissolution of meaning and decline of social institutions brings to the world -- Francis Fukuyama calls this bifurcation 'The Great Disruption'. For a generation who experienced their late childhood and early adolescence in Reagan's America, Reznor and his influences (Marilyn Manson and Filter) capture the Dark Side of recent history, unleashed at Altamont and mutating into the Apocalyptic style of American politics (evident in the 'Star Wars'/SDI fascination). The personal 'psychotic core' that was crystallised by the collapse of the nuclear family unit and supportive social institutions has returned to haunt us with dystopian fantasies that are played out across Internet streaming media and visceral MTV film-clips. That such cathartic releases are useful -- and even necessary (to those whose lives have been formed by socio-economic 'life conditions') is a point that escapes critics like Roger Scruton, some Christian Evangelists and the New Right. The 'escapist' quality of early 1980s 'Rapture' and 'Cosmocide' (Hal Lindsey) prophecies has yielded strange fruit for the Children of Ezekiel, whom Reznor and Marilyn Manson are unofficial spokes-persons for. From a macro perspective, Reznor's post-human evolutionary nexus lies, like J.G. Ballard's tales, in a mythical near-future built upon past memory-shards. It is the kind of worldview that fuses organic and morphogenetic structures with industrial machines run amok, thus The Fragile is an artefact that captures the subjective contents of the different mind produced by different times. Sonic events are in-synch but out of phase. Samples subtly trigger and then scramble kinaesthetic-visceral and kinaesthetic-tactile memories, suggestive of dissociated affective states or body memories that are incapable of being retrieved (van der Kolk 294). Perhaps this is why after a Century of Identity Confusion some fans find it impossible to listen to a 102-minute album in one sitting. No wonder then that the double album is divided into 'left' and 'right' discs (a reference to split-brain research?). The real-time track-by-track interpretation below is necessarily subjective, and is intended to serve as a provisional listener's guide to the aural ur-text of 1999. The Fragile is full of encrypted tones and garbled frequencies that capture a world where the future is always bleeding into a non-recoverable past. Turbulent wave-forms fight for the listener's attention with prolonged static lulls. This does not make for comfortable or even 'nice' listening. The music's mind is a snapshot, a critical indicator, of the deep structures brewing within the Weltanschauung that could erupt at any moment. "Somewhat Damaged" opens the album's 'Left' disc with an oscillating acoustic strum that anchor's the listener's attention. Offset by pulsing beats and mallet percussion, Reznor builds up sound layers that contrast with lyrical epitaphs like 'Everything that swore it wouldn't change is different now'. Icarus iconography is invoked, but perhaps a more fitting mythopoeic symbol of the journey that lies ahead would be Nietzsche's pursuit of his Ariadne through the labyrinth of life, during which the hero is steadily consumed by his numbing psychosis. Reznor fittingly comments: 'Didn't quite/Fell Apart/Where were you?' If we consider that Reznor has been repeating the same cycle with different variations throughout all of his music to date, retro-fitting each new album into a seamless tapestry, then this track signals that he has begun to finally climb out of self-imposed exile in the Underworld. "The Day the World Went Away" has a tremendously eerie opening, with plucked mandolin effects entering at 0:40. The main slashing guitar riff was interpreted by some critics as Reznor's attempt to parody himself. For some reason, the eerie backdrop and fragmented acoustic guitar strums recalls to my mind civil defence nuclear war films. Reznor, like William S. Burroughs, has some powerful obsessions. The track builds up in intensity, with a 'Chorus of the Damned' singing 'na na nah' over apocalyptic end-times imagery. At 4:22 the track ends with an echo that loops and repeats. "The Frail" signals a shift to mournful introspectiveness with piano: a soundtrack to faded 8 mm films and dying memories. The piano builds up slowly with background echo, holds and segues into ... "The Wretched", beginning with a savage downbeat that recalls earlier material from Pretty Hate Machine. 'The Far Aways/Forget It' intones Reznor -- it's becoming clear that despite some claims to the contrary, there is redemption in this album, but it is one borne out of a relentless move forward, a strive-drive. 'You're finally free/You could be' suggest Reznor studied Existentialism during his psychotherapy visits. This song contains perhaps the ultimate post-relationship line: 'It didn't turn out the way you wanted it to, did it?' It's over, just not the way you wanted; you can always leave the partner you're with, but the ones you have already left will always stain your memories. The lines 'Back at the beginning/Sinking/Spinning' recall the claustrophobic trapped world and 'eternal Now' dislocation of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder victims. At 3:44 a plucked cello riff, filtered, segues into a sludge buzz-saw guitar solo. At 5:18 the cello riff loops and repeats. "We're in This Together Now" uses static as percussion, highlighting the influence of electricity flows instead of traditional rock instrument configurations. At 0:34 vocals enter, at 1:15 Reznor wails 'I'm impossible', showing he is the heir to Roger Waters's self-reflective rock-star angst. 'Until the very end of me, until the very end of you' reverts the traditional marriage vow, whilst 'You're the Queen and I'm the King' quotes David Bowie's "Heroes". Unlike earlier tracks like "Reptile", this track is far more positive about relationships, which have previously resembled toxic-dyads. Reznor signals a delta surge (breaking through barriers at any cost), despite a time-line morphing between present-past-future. At 5:30 synths and piano signal a shift, at 5:49 the outgoing piano riff begins. The film-clip is filled with redemptive water imagery. The soundtrack gradually gets more murky and at 7:05 a subterranean note signals closure. "The Fragile" is even more hopeful and life-affirming (some may even interpret it as devotional), but this love -- representative of the End-Times, alludes to the 'Glamour of Evil' (Nico) in the line 'Fragile/She doesn't see her beauty'. The fusion of synths and atonal guitars beginning at 2:13 summons forth film-clip imagery -- mazes, pageants, bald eagles, found sounds, cloaked figures, ruined statues, enveloping darkness. "Just like You Imagined" opens with Soundscapes worthy of Robert Fripp, doubled by piano and guitar at 0:39. Drums and muffled voices enter at 0:54 -- are we seeing a pattern to Reznor's writing here? Sonic debris guitar enters at 1:08, bringing forth intensities from white noise. This track is full of subtle joys like the 1:23-1:36 solo by David Bowie pianist Mike Garson and guitarist Adrian Belew's outgoing guitar solo at 2:43, shifting back to the underlying soundscapes at 3:07. The sounds are always on the dissipative edge of chaos. "Just like You Imagined" opens with Soundscapes worthy of Robert Fripp, doubled by piano and guitar at 0:39. Drums and muffled voices enter at 0:54 -- are we seeing a pattern to Reznor's writing here? Sonic debris guitar enters at 1:08, bringing forth intensities from white noise. This track is full of subtle joys like the 1:23-1:36 solo by David Bowie pianist Mike Garson and guitarist Adrian Belew's outgoing guitar solo at 2:43, shifting back to the underlying soundscapes at 3:07. The sounds are always on the dissipative edge of chaos. "Pilgrimage" utilises a persistent ostinato and beat, with a driving guitar overlay at 0:18. This is perhaps the most familiar track, using Reznor motifs like the doubling of the riff with acoustic guitars between 1:12-1:20, march cries, and pitch-shift effects on a 3:18 drumbeat/cymbal. Or at least I could claim it was familiar, if it were not that legendary hip-hop producer and 'edge-of-panic' tactilist Dr. Dre helped assemble the final track mix. "No, You Don't" has been interpreted as an attack on Marilyn Manson and Hole's Courntey Love, particularly the 0:47 line 'Got to keep it all on the outside/Because everything is dead on the inside' and the 2:33 final verse 'Just so you know, I did not believe you could sink so low'. The song's structure is familiar: a basic beat at 0:16, guitars building from 0:31 to sneering vocals, a 2:03 counter-riff that merges at 2:19 with vocals and ascending to the final verse and 3:26 final distortion... "La Mer" is the first major surprise, a beautiful and sweeping fusion of piano, keyboard and cello, reminiscent of Symbolist composer Debussy. At 1:07 Denise Milfort whispers, setting the stage for sometime Ministry drummer Bill Reiflin's jazz drumming at 1:22, and a funky 1:32 guitar/bass line. The pulsing synth guitar at 2:04 serves as anchoring percussion for a cinematic electronica mindscape, filtered through new layers of sonic chiaroscuro at 2:51. 3:06 phase shifting, 3:22 layer doubling, 3:37 outgoing solo, 3:50-3:54 more swirling vocal fragments, seguing into a fading cello quartet as shadows creep. David Carson's moody film-clip captures the end more ominously, depicting the beauty of drowning. This track contains the line 'Nothing can stop me now', which appears to be Reznor's personal mantra. This track rivals 'Hurt' and 'A Warm Place' from The Downward Spiral and 'Something I Can Never Have' from Pretty Hate Machine as perhaps the most emotionally revealing and delicate material that Reznor has written. "The Great Below" ends the first disc with more multi-layered textures fusing nostalgia and reverie: a twelve-second cello riff is counter-pointed by a plucked overlay, which builds to a 0:43 washed pulse effect, transformed by six second pulses between 1:04-1:19 and a further effects layer at 1:24. E-bow effects underscore lyrics like 'Currents have their say' (2:33) and 'Washes me away' (2:44), which a 3:33 sitar riff answers. These complexities are further transmuted by seemingly random events -- a 4:06 doubling of the sitar riff which 'glitches' and a 4:32 backbeat echo that drifts for four bars. While Reznor's lyrics suggest that he is unable to control subjective time-states (like The Joker in the Batman: Dark Knight series of Kali-yuga comic-books), the track constructions show that the Key to his hold over the listener is very carefully constructed songs whose spaces resemble Pythagorean mathematical formulas. Misdirecting the audience is the secret of many magicians. "The Way Out Is Through" opens the 'Right' disc with an industrial riff that builds at 0:19 to click-track and rhythm, the equivalent of a weaving spiral. Whispering 'All I've undergone/I will keep on' at 1:24, Reznor is backed at 1:38 by synths and drums coalescing into guitars, which take shape at 1:46 and turn into a torrential electrical current. The models are clearly natural morphogenetic structures. The track twists through inner storms and torments from 2:42 to 2:48, mirrored by vocal shards at 2:59 and soundscapes at 3:45, before piano fades in and out at 4:12. The title references peri-natal theories of development (particularly those of Stanislav Grof), which is the source of much of the album's imagery. "Into the Void" is not the Black Sabbath song of the same name, but a catchy track that uses the same unfolding formula (opening static, cello at 0:18, guitars at 0:31, drums and backbeat at 1:02, trademark industrial vocals and synth at 1:02, verse at 1:23), and would not appear out of place in a Survival Research Laboratories exhibition. At 3:42 Reznor plays with the edge of synth soundscapes, merging vocals at 4:02 and ending the track nicely at 4:44 alone. "Where Is Everybody?" emulates earlier structures, but relies from 2:01 on whirring effects and organic rhythms, including a flurry of eight beat pulses between 2:40-2:46 and a 3:33 spiralling guitar solo. The 4:26 guitar solo is pure Adrian Belew, and is suddenly ended by spluttering static and white noise at 5:13. "The Mark Has Been Made" signals another downshift into introspectiveness with 0:32 ghostly synth shimmers, echoed by cello at 1:04 which is the doubled at 1:55 by guitar. At 2:08 industrial riffs suddenly build up, weaving between 3:28 distorted guitars and the return of the repressed original layer at 4:16. The surprise is a mystery 32 second soundscape at the end with Reznor crooning 'I'm getting closer, all the time' like a zombie devil Elvis. "Please" highlights spacious noise at 0:48, and signals a central album motif at 1:04 with the line 'Time starts slowing down/Sink until I drown'. The psychic mood of the album shifts with the discovery of Imagination as a liberating force against oppression. The synth sound again is remarkably organic for an industrial album. "Starfuckers Inc" is the now infamous sneering attack on rock-stardom, perhaps at Marilyn Manson (at 3:08 Reznor quotes Carly Simon's 'You're So Vain'). Jungle beats and pulsing synths open the track, which features the sound-sculpting talent of Pop Will Eat Itself member Clint Mansell. Beginning at 0:26, Reznor's vocals appear to have been sampled, looped and cut up (apologies to Brion Gysin and William S. Burroughs). The lines 'I have arrived and this time you should believe the hype/I listened to everyone now I know everyone was right' is a very savage and funny exposure of Manson's constant references to Friedrich Nietzsche's Herd-mentality: the Herd needs a bogey-man to whip it into submission, and Manson comes dangerous close to fulfilling this potential, thus becoming trapped by a 'Stacked Deck' paradox. The 4:08 lyric line 'Now I belong I'm one of the Chosen Ones/Now I belong I'm one of the Beautiful Ones' highlights the problem of being Elect and becoming intertwined with institutionalised group-think. The album version ditches the closing sample of Gene Simmons screaming "Thankyou and goodnight!" to an enraptured audience on the single from KISS Alive (1975), which was appropriately over-the-top (the alternate quiet version is worth hearing also). "The danger Marilyn Manson faces", notes Don Webb (current High Priest of the Temple of Set), "is that he may end up in twenty years time on the 'Tonight Show' safely singing our favourite songs like a Goth Frank Sinatra, and will have gradually lost his antinomian power. It's much harder to maintain the enigmatic aura of an Evil villain than it is to play the clown with society". Reznor's superior musicianship and sense of irony should keep him from falling into the same trap. "Complication" juggernauts in at 0:57 with screaming vocals and a barrage of white noise at 1:56. It's clear by now that Reznor has read his psychological operations (PSYOP) manuals pertaining to blasting the hell out of his audiences' psyche by any means necessary. Computer blip noise and black light flotation tank memories. Dislocating pauses and time-bends. The aural equivalent of Klein bottles. "Complication" juggernauts in at 0:57 with screaming vocals and a barrage of white noise at 1:56. It's clear by now that Reznor has read his psychological operations (PSYOP) manuals pertaining to blasting the hell out of his audiences' psyche by any means necessary. Computer blip noise and black light flotation tank memories. Dislocating pauses and time-bends. The aural equivalent of Klein bottles. "The Big Come Down" begins with a four-second synth/static intro that is smashed apart by a hard beat at 0:05 and kaleidoscope guitars at 0:16. Critics refer to the song's lyrics in an attempt to project a narcissistic Reznor personality, but don't comment on stylistic tweaks like the AM radio influenced backing vocals at 1:02 and 1:19, or the use of guitars as a percussion layer at 1:51. A further intriguing element is the return of the fly samples at 2:38, an effect heard on previous releases and a possible post-human sub-text. The alien mythos will eventually reign over the banal and empty human. At 3:07 the synths return with static, a further overlay adds more synths at 3:45 as the track spirals to its peak, before dissipating at 3:1 in a mesh of percussion and guitars. "Underneath It All" opens with a riff that signals we have reached the album's climatic turning point, with the recurring theme of fragmenting body-memories returning at 0:23 with the line 'All I can do/I can still feel you', and being echoed by pulsing static at 0:42 as electric percussion. A 'Messiah Complex' appears at 1:34 with the line 'Crucify/After all I've died/After all I've tried/You are still inside', or at least it appears to be that on the surface. This is the kind of line that typical rock critics will quote, but a careful re-reading suggests that Reznor is pointing to the painful nature of remanifesting. Our past shapes us more than we would like to admit particularly our first relationships. "Ripe (With Decay)" is the album's final statement, a complex weaving of passages over a repetitive mesh of guitars, pulsing echoes, back-beats, soundscapes, and a powerful Mike Garson piano solo (2:26). Earlier motifs including fly samples (3:00), mournful funeral violas (3:36) and slowing time effects (4:28) recur throughout the track. Having finally reached the psychotic core, Reznor is not content to let us rest, mixing funk bass riffs (4:46), vocal snatches (5:23) and oscillating guitars (5:39) that drag the listener forever onwards towards the edge of the abyss (5:58). The final sequence begins at 6:22, loses fidelity at 6:28, and ends abruptly at 6:35. At millennium's end there is a common-held perception that the world is in an irreversible state of decay, and that Culture is just a wafer-thin veneer over anarchy. Music like The Fragile suggests that we are still trying to assimilate into popular culture the 'war-on-Self' worldviews unleashed by the nineteenth-century 'Masters of Suspicion' (Charles Darwin, Sigmund Freud, Friedrich Nietzsche). This 'assimilation gap' is evident in industrial music, which in the late 1970s was struggling to capture the mood of the Industrial Revolution and Charles Dickens, so the genre is ripe for further exploration of the scarred psyche. What the self-appointed moral guardians of the Herd fail to appreciate is that as the imprint baseline rises (reflective of socio-political realities), the kind of imagery prevalent throughout The Fragile and in films like Strange Days (1995), The Matrix (1999) and eXistenZ (1999) is going to get even darker. The solution is not censorship or repression in the name of pleasing an all-saving surrogate god-figure. No, these things have to be faced and embraced somehow. Such a process can only occur if there is space within for the Sadeian aesthetic that Nine Inch Nails embodies, and not a denial of Dark Eros. "We need a second Renaissance", notes Don Webb, "a rejuvenation of Culture on a significant scale". In other words, a global culture-shift of quantum (aeon or epoch-changing) proportions. The tools required will probably not come just from the over-wordy criticism of Cyber-culture and Cultural Studies or the logical-negative feeding frenzy of most Music Journalism. They will come from a dynamic synthesis of disciplines striving toward a unity of knowledge -- what socio-biologist Edward O. Wilson has described as 'Consilience'. Liberating tools and ideas will be conveyed to a wider public audience unfamiliar with such principles through predominantly science fiction visual imagery and industrial/electronica music. The Fragile serves as an invaluable model for how such artefacts could transmit their dreams and propagate their messages. For the hyper-alert listener, it will be the first step on a new journey. But sadly for the majority, it will be just another hysterical industrial album promoted as selection of the month. References Bester, Alfred. The Stars My Destination. London: Millennium Books, 1999. Eshun, Kodwo. More Brilliant than the Sun: Adventures in Sonic Fiction. London: Quartet Books, 1998. Van der Kolk, Bessel A. "Trauma and Memory." Traumatic Stress: The Effects of Overwhelming Experience on Mind, Body, and Society. Eds. Bessel A. van der Kolk et al. New York: Guilford Press, 1996. Nine Inch Nails. Downward Spiral. Nothing/Interscope, 1994. ---. The Fragile. Nothing, 1999. ---. Pretty Hate Machine. TVT, 1989. Citation reference for this article MLA style: Alex Burns. "'This Machine Is Obsolete': A Listeners' Guide to Nine Inch Nails' The Fragile." M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 2.8 (1999). [your date of access] <http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/9912/nine.php>. Chicago style: Alex Burns, "'This Machine Is Obsolete': A Listeners' Guide to Nine Inch Nails' The Fragile," M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 2, no. 8 (1999), <http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/9912/nine.php> ([your date of access]). APA style: Alex Burns. (1999) 'This machine is obsolete': a listeners' guide to Nine Inch Nails' The fragile. M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 2(8). <http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/9912/nine.php> ([your date of access]).