The Vital Child
May 11, 2009
Money is not the ultimate status symbol in our world. Energy is.
When someone asks what you do for a living, they are often wondering not how much money you make, but how dynamic you are.
Civilization in the advanced stages of nihilism exhibits this worship of energy. This is one of the profound insights of Father Seraphim Rose, the Orthodox priest who wrote his penetrating analysis of our condition. At Lawrence Auster’s site, there have been interesting discussions about what Rose calls Vitalism, including these comments here, and Auster has written a good summary of Rose’s ideas.
There are so many signs of the cult of energy today, it would be hard to catalogue them all. Let’s focus on one: the Vital Child.
The Vital Child is not a creature of repose. He is a dynamic, rapidly evolving being, capable of “socialization” even as an infant. He does not gaze at the walls wondering as children have done since the dawn of history why childhood is so long. His days are a blur. Television and electronic games fill any meager void and all useless cracks in a life of scheduled activity.
The Vital Child does not indulge in random play, except in small, accidental doses. His play is organized, efficient, directed toward rational self-improvement. He pursues sports with careerist intensity. This is not play, but a means of demonstrating his inner dynamism, of activating his miniature will.
Never pause: that is the inscription carved on the threshold of his youth. Standardized tests, sports, clubs, long school days, all at a pace that far exceeds that of sleepier times – these fill his teenage years, plus more television, games and popular music. Never pause. All this prepares him for the raw energy he will need later. This is his vital initiation into vitality. The Vital Child will keep on moving. He has no expectation of repose and no acquaintance with reflection. He reveres movement: the movement of his own emotions, of his own half-formed will, and of an ultimately meaningless world beyond the self.
