On the Affects of Disenchantment by Nicole Terry First, when staring about his environment, Man explained the unknown with myths and beliefs, and used ritual and custom to appeal to those external forces he did n ot understand but wanted much to appease. When Man deviated from custom and ritual to knowledge of the great wide world about him, he discovered that the qualities of his environment belonged not to some elaborate tale, but to reason and sense. By reason and sense, Man can impact and effect his environment, and in doing so, must accept responsibility of his intentions and his involvement in the intentions of others. He must relinquish control over his environment, because he has none, and recognize his self-control. Through science (that is rigorous experimentation, theory, hypothesis, and accumulation of data) Man is able to comprehend the aesthetic inherent within the thing which he seeks to understand, without capitulation of mind to spells of mysticism and unquestioning, obsequious belief. Through disenchantment of the world about him, Man realizes that his place is not an empty one, pointless beyond its ‘tall tales’ and icons. Although, Man is imbibed with  intellect; and it is his intellect that once Man becomes disenchanted, causes him to render himself from the truer nature of the things which he seeks to discover the meaning of. Max Weber writes in Science and the Disenchantment of the World, of Man facing reality rather than running from a reality he does not fully comprehend. Weber means to say Reality can be frightening, but to conquer this fright Man feels in the world is not achieved by escaping into what Weber refers to as “intellectual lecture-rooms.” To conquer fright Man must gain knowledge of Reality that he may know Reality’s nuances and concepts to cut the strings that bind him in subservience to “one god” and war with another. Through disenchantment, Man can control his place in the world about him by means of experience, rather than allowing the world to control him by means of ignorance. But by becoming disenchanted, Man replaces his service to Reality with service to his own intellect. Disenchantment has left Man outside of his aesthetic nature and created “monstrosities” of invented art and spirit.             The consequence of disenchantment constitutes a purging from the collective realm to the personal realm. With abandonment of intellectual dogma and fundamentalism, a severance of the person from the creature comforts of the Common occurs where protection from the unknown can be reassured by like-minded denizens. The collective offers no soft embrace to the individual who decides to separate himself and embarks upon a pursuit of “the sun.” On the other side, the collective loses some congruence knowing that there exists at least one not enchanted by the spell, thereby creating a chasm between what is considered real, and what is realized through discovery and experiment.             Without a collective All providing thoughts, the individual deviates from the collective and becomes surrounded by persons who have no sense of autonomy beyond that provided by the collective, leaving it susceptible to any outside force strong enough to control it. The individual stands alone before the collective, unless he is able to merge with another collective whose thoughts are similar to his own; but, he then becomes part of a collection again. Without a collective, personal consequence remains undetermined by an extrinsic, authoritative Will to which the individual must comply. Among a collection of individuals, the person can agree and create a harmony of cooperation with independent thoughts absent of fear or subservience. © Copyright 2008 Nicole Terry ALL RIGHTS RESERVED [back to Essays]  [more Writings]