{"id":8977,"date":"2018-01-07T16:50:03","date_gmt":"2018-01-07T23:50:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=8977"},"modified":"2018-01-07T16:50:03","modified_gmt":"2018-01-07T23:50:03","slug":"tower-time-is-not-as-simple-as-you-think","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=8977","title":{"rendered":"“Tower Time” Is Not as Simple as You Think"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"One of the Contemporary Pagan Studies Group’s sessions at the American Academy of Religion was titled “Magic in the Time of the Tower” (see program screenshot below), and attendance was good.<\/p>\n

There was discussion of magical workings coordinated by social media, and of magical workings blabbed about on social media.<\/p>\n

At least one presenter acknowledged that the latter might not be a good idea, according to some practitioners. Don’t you remember the old “Magician’s Pyramid,” of which the last for the four admonitions was “To keep silent”?<\/p>\n

Or as they say now, “The first rule of Magic Club is you do not talk about Magic Club.”<\/p>\n

When some of the presenters spoke, I suspect that they \u2014 or rather the people whom they were describing \u2014 think that “the Tower” stands at 721\u2013725 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan \u2014 in other words, Trump Tower.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

But there are other towers. And “Tower Time<\/a>” did not start in January 2017. It has been going on for a while.<\/p>\n

Some people talking about “Tower Time” are standing on ivory towers, and those are cracking too.((New definition of Harvard University:http:\/\/taxprof.typepad.com\/taxprof_blog\/2017\/11\/harvard-a-tax-free-hedge-fund-that-happens-to-have-a-university.html<\/a>. At least under the new tax law it won’t be completely tax-free.))<\/p>\n

The days of building grander universities under the assumption that tuition can always be raised, because the students can always get federal grants and loans \u2014 how long will that continue?((Since I spent about 21 years working in colleges and universities \u2014 and many of my friends still do \u2014 this issue cuts close to home for me.))<\/p>\n

\"\"

Click to embiggen.<\/p><\/div>\n

America has too many colleges and universities, just like it has too many shopping malls, and for much the same reason: everyone thought that there was room for another, and theirs<\/em> would be a success.<\/p>\n

And what about religious groups? The big example is the Roman Catholic Church, where I doubt if the leadership yet understands how much trust they lost over the clerical sexual abuse scandals. The pope can come out on his balcony and say whatever \u2014 and the news media report it \u2014\u00a0 but fewer and fewer people deeply care.((And yet, if those church leaders compromise with secular society and toss out their traditional teachings, do they “lose their contacts,” as the ceremonial magicians say?))<\/p>\n

And that comes on top of the church’s long history of allying with repressive political regimes in both Europe and Latin America.<\/p>\n

Talk about a teetering tower!<\/p>\n

And, of course, there is Hollywood. Is there going to be anyone left? <\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cHarvey<\/a> opened the floodgates,\u201d said one male Academy member. \u201cNow the Academy\u2019s drowning in a tide of s\u2014t. They don\u2019t know what hit them.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Oscar is a “tower” too.<\/p>\n

Ours is the era of “the end of prestige,”<\/a> writes political blogger Richard Fernandez.<\/p>\n

In the unending exposes of financial, moral and sexual turpitude we are witnessing a similar humiliation of a ruling elite. The critical role played by prestige in upholding the current status quo was no less important for the Western elite than it was for the old [imperial British] District Commissioners. Not so very long ago the elites were accepted as woke, part of the\u00a0mission civilisatrice<\/em>; better educated, better looking, better dressed, destined to greater things, the smartest people in the room.\u00a0 They could pronounce on matters of morality, politics and even the climate.\u00a0 What a shock it was to find through the Internet and social media it was all a sham; and these gods of Washington and Hollywood and the media were deeply flawed and despicable people.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Law professor Glenn Reynolds, writing in USA Today<\/em>, makes a similar point in a piece called “The Suicide of Expertise<\/a>“:<\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s the problem that, somehow, over the past half-century or so the educated classes that make up the \u201cexpert\u201d demographic seem to have been doing pretty well, even as so many ordinary folks, in America and throughout the West, have seen their fortunes decaying. Is it any surprise that claims to authority in the form of \u201cexpertise\u201d don\u2019t carry the same weight that they once did?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

You’re not going to fix all this by burying rotten carrots. You might fix it first by be responsible for as much of your own life as you can. I don’t mean that you have to weave your own cloth. Just don’t be the person who can’t change a tire, sew on a button, or understand a loan document.<\/p>\n

And find your community. Not merely the online community: is your Instagram follower going to bring supper over when you’re sick? Can you call your Facebook friend if you need a ride to the doctor?<\/p>\n

Not just a religious community, either. When my Jeep drove itself into a gully near the house (long story), I did not look for a Pagan friend, but rather a neighbor with a big winch-equipped truck who likes solving mechanical problems. (Depending on your neighbors means you cannot just condemn them for their voting patterns and otherwise ignore them.) But that only works if the neighbor can depend on you. If it really is “Tower Time,” the response is to work at the ground level.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the Contemporary Pagan Studies Group’s sessions at the American Academy of Religion was titled “Magic in the Time of the Tower” (see program screenshot below), and attendance was good. There was discussion of magical workings coordinated by social media, and of magical workings blabbed about on social media. At least one presenter acknowledged […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-8977","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-culture"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-2kN","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":441,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=441","url_meta":{"origin":8977,"position":0},"title":"The Nature of MagicSusan Greenwood's\u2026","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"May 20, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"The Nature of MagicSusan Greenwood's new book on the anthropology of magic, The Nature of Magic, has been released by Berg. She previously wrote Magic, Witchcraft and the Otherworld: An Anthropology (Berg, 2000).It's on my purchase list--although I still have not read all the books that I bought at last\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2848,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=2848","url_meta":{"origin":8977,"position":1},"title":"‘The Magical Battle of Britain’","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"July 3, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"\"The Battle of Britain\" usually refers to the German bombing campaign during the summer of 1940, planned to lead into a seaborne invasion across the English Channel. Gerald Gardner claimed that the \"Southern Coven\"\u00a0 performed a ritual in the New Forest at Lammas 1940 against the threatened invasion. Based on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Britain\"","block_context":{"text":"Britain","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=britain"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1304,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1304","url_meta":{"origin":8977,"position":2},"title":"Magical Dolls and Missionary Board Games","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 5, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"From Publishers Weekly, a short review of a new book co-authored by Nikki Bado-Fralick, my co-editor in the Pagan Studies book series (This book is not a part of that series, however!)Toying with God: The World of Religious Games and Dolls by Nikki Bado-Fralick and Rebecca Sachs Norris, Baylor Univ.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"American religion\"","block_context":{"text":"American religion","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=american-religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=chascli-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1602581819","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":7896,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=7896","url_meta":{"origin":8977,"position":3},"title":"Magic in Philadelphia, Worshiping Game Characters, and a Holy Mountain in Scotland","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"April 11, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"\u2022 If you live in or near Philadelphia, visit the U. of Pennsylvania museum for \"Magic in the Anciet World,\" an exhibit that \"explores some of the magical objects, words, and rituals used in ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, Greece, and Rome.\" \u2022 When a Chinese grandmother left an offering at a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Celts\"","block_context":{"text":"Celts","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=celts"},"img":{"alt_text":"exhibitions_magic1","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/exhibitions_magic1-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":12697,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=12697","url_meta":{"origin":8977,"position":4},"title":"Moving at the Speed of Folklore: The Sunflower Curse","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 26, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"The war in Ukraine is a fast-changing affair, but one event from two days ago has already spawn a meme that has folklore scholars (like my friend Sabina Magliocco) shouting, \"Folklore rules. It started with a video (there are two versions) of a confrontation between a Ukranian woman and a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"magic\"","block_context":{"text":"magic","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=magic"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/sunflower-hex-putin.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/sunflower-hex-putin.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/sunflower-hex-putin.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/sunflower-hex-putin.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/sunflower-hex-putin.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1278,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1278","url_meta":{"origin":8977,"position":5},"title":"Our Secret Order Will Rule the Empire","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"January 2, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"What is it with secret societies and magical orders in the movies these days? The Da Vinci Code. National Treasure: Book of Secrets. . . I could go on.Now M. and I are back from watching the new Sherlock Holmes, which felt like \"screenplay by Dan Brown and Dion Fortune,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"movies\"","block_context":{"text":"movies","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=movies"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8977","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8977"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8977\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8999,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8977\/revisions\/8999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}