Acting as the quasi-sacrificial figure of the novel, he’s brought into the metropolis where he’s treated like a circus act. Disturbed by the hedonism and burned out by the attention the gawkers pay him, John decides to become an ascetic, retreating to a hillside lighthouse where he can be free from the violence of positivity
John could’ve just taken the soma, lived in the experience machine, but he chose reality over the spectacle; his most heroic act is simply resisting the ease of unplugging. But unlike where we find ourselves—as David Kinnaman calls our “digital Babylon”—the crowds in John’s world wouldn’t afford him the space to unplug, ultimately pushing him toward his own self-demise
It was disturbing that even though I was well aware of the necessity for Christians to participate in face-to-face community, it was a fact that I preferred digitized interactions
To deny the narcissism in this level of self-preservation would be narcissistic. Coming out from behind the online persona brought out a visceral rush of self-consciousness that— at least, for me—was rooted in self-obsession. Isolation made me so obsessed with myself that anything that opposed my comfortable bubble felt wrong—even though I had gifts to offer my community, I’d grown to prefer hiding them under a basket
The single best thing that we can do for ourselves is to accept reality as it comes to us each morning when our eyes open and we breathe in creation; and before going to our phones or exercising or grinding on a project, just sit and be human, fully alive and fully God’s.
