Walker Percy:
This is the age of theory and consumption, yet not everyone is satisfied by theorizing and consuming.
The common mark of the theorist and the consumer is that neither knows who he is or what he wants outside of theorizing and consuming.
This is so because the theorist is not encompassed by his theory. One’s self is always a leftover from one’s theory.
For even if one becomes passionately convinced of Freudian theory or Marxist theory at three o’clock of a Wednesday afternoon, what does one do with oneself at four o’clock?
The consumer, who thought he knew what he wanted—the consumption of the goods and services of scientific theory—is not in fact satisfied, even when the services offered are such techniques as “personal growth,” “emotional maturity,” “consciousness-raising,” and suchlike.
The face of the denizen of the present age who has come to the end of theory and consumption and “personal growth” is the face of sadness and anxiety.
Such a denizen can become so frustrated, bored, and enraged that he resorts to violence, violence upon himself (drugs, suicide) or upon others (murder, war).
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