The Fourth Wall
page 3
Dr. John Bardi
In the annual cycle of the
Earth’s rotation, each day gets
shorter and darker than the last
until the point of maximum
darkness is reached. That day
is the winter solstice and it
occurs around the time of
Christmas. Thereafter the days
gradually get longer, each day
lighter than the last, until the
point of maximum light is
reached. That day is the
summer solstice. And so it
goes, year after year, an annual
cycle of days marked by the
gradual lengthening and
shortening of light.
Not surprisingly, every
religious and cultural tradition
has a major celebration at the
time of the winter solstice. The
pagans of the ancient world
celebrated a festival of the sun.
Although there is no historical
evidence for the precise day or
even month of Jesus’ birth, the
early Church Fathers wisely
placed it at the time of the
Winter solstice. And what a
perfect placement! At the
darkest time of the year, when
the light of the world seems
close to being extinguished, the
“light” of Christ is born into
the world.
Of course, everywhere on
the planet there continues to be
a major celebration at the time
of the winter solstice. Perhaps
it is’ due to the global
dominance of American
media and cultural forms, but
for whatever reason,
Christmas, shorn of its purely
religious connotations, has
become the planet’s default
choice for a global holiday. In
this spirit, “Merry Christmas”
is often taken to mean not
anything religious in a sectarian
sense but just a general wish for
a happy holiday. Indeed, in
our country sometimes even
Jews, Hindus, and atheists have
Christmas trees. In so doing
they celebrate the season of glad
tidings and universal peace
without necessarily meaning
anything religious.
A backlash has begun,
however, as, increasingly, there
are calls during the holiday
season to put the Christ back
into Christmas. Christmas has
become so completely decadent
and commercialized, it is said,
that it is time to put Christ back
into Christmas. There is a lot
to recommend this, of course,
but one down side would be
that, in the wrong hands, it
runs the risk of turning an
increasingly global, non-
sectarian holiday into a more
limited and merely sectarian
celebration. This would cut so
many people out of the holiday
that the world would have to
invent something else to
function as the equivalent of a
global celebration at the time
of the winter solstice. Then, too,
many around the world think
it is more important to put
Christ back into Christianity
than to fuss about the secular
popularity of Christmas.
Still, the charge that
Christmas has become
decadent carries some sting,
and given the general
perception that our way of life
is becoming increasingly
decadent, I want to take a
moment to clarify just what it
means to be decadent. To this
end, I want to analyze a
completely decadent practice
on campus we are all familiar
with—cramming for exams.
It is important to understand
what is decadent about
cramming. Cramming is not
decadent because it is the worst
information crammed into
short-term memory staying
only for the shortest of visits.
And cramming is not decadent
because none of the truly
important things—the deeper
meaning of information, the
ability to analyze and apply it,
a living sense of its
importance—can be crammed,
so that cramming itself actually
distorts learning. No, a thing
only becomes decadent when
it loses its spirit. Cramming is
decadent because there is no
spirit and vitality to it. Indeed,
it is decadence that makes
learning seem like a boring and
difficult chore and prevents it
from being a wonderful
fulfillment of our inner Being.
It is interesting to consider
in this context what Aristotle
said about fulfilling our inner
Being. He said that the greatest
good in life, the very substance
of our happiness, is not, as it is
commonly said to be, good
health and success in business.
These things are good, to be
sure, but they are not the
greatest good because you can
have them and still be unhappy.
The greatest good, Aristotle
said, is a feeling of fullness of
life. And he further said that
this feeling comes from two
main types of activities—from
(1) seeking justice and from (2)
pursuing truth. Now if we add
to these two the feeling of
fullness that comes from (3)
appreciating beauty, then we
have a complete trinity of
learning—Truth (the best that
can be thought), Beauty (the
best that can be made), and
Goodness (the best that can be
done). Once again, cramming
is decadent because it both
fulfilling vitality of the love of
truth, beauty, and goodness. It
is dull and flat, not spirited and
alive.
About 75 years ago a little
known British philosopher,
C.E.M. Joad, in his book,
Decadence, pointed out that we
often mistakenly describe as
“decadent” the expression of
great delight in the sensations
of taste and the pleasures of the
body. This exuberance in
bodily pleasure may rightly be
called pagan, he said, but it is
manifestly not decadent.
Properly understood,
decadence is the opposite. To
be decadent is to Jack
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There are a number of peer
advisors at Penn State who
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programs that are available to
answer any questions you may
have. They can be contacted at
peeradvisor@ip.psu.edu
Full time professor of
geography Don Gogniat is an
administrator for the
Commonwealth College for
International Programs at
Penn State Mont Alto. He has
been to sixty-five countries in
his own travels and has
completed three semesters at
sea.
Why should someone study
abroad? “It’s like seeing the
ocean,” states Gogniat. Maybe
you've seen it in pictures but
nothing compares to seeing it
for yourself and you keep
going back because it’s different.
Gogniat speaks of the
importance of staying in touch
with humanity and this can be
accomplished by studying
abroad: “you don’t have to, but
it makes it easier to be a global
citizen.”
You can contact Professor
Gogniat at DAG1@psu.edu or
Peggy Russo at
U7K@email.psu.edu for
additional information.