Sárospataki Füzetek 1. (1997)
1997 / 2. szám - Dr. Frank Sawyer: How can we go forward? (Hogyan tovább?)
DR. FRANK SAWYER Dr. Frank Sawyer HOW CAN WE GO FORWARD ? SPIRITUALITY IN THE LYRICS OF JOHN LENNON Beatlemania and the postmodern trend Why did the Beatles become the most popular singers of their time? There was something in their music and message which was welcomed by thousands of listeners who were experiencing the cultural changes of the 1960’s. The Beatles expressed what the young generation was feeling and thinking. Looking back over the decades we can see that the Beatles were representative for what sociologist now call postmodernism'. The main characteristic of postmodernism is that there is no center left which can orientate our compasses. It could be called poststructural (there are no fixed structures or truths) and postchristian (the western Christian heritage no longer counts for more than any other religious heritage). People used to think theocentrically (God at the center), and geocentrically (the earth as the center of the universe), and historio-centrically (history had some kind of sweeping, integral meaning). But in the language of the ’big bang’ idea, everything is moving outward and the center is no longer identifiable. In computer language: we are surfing over a world-net of information which gives us many choices, but no center. Life and perspectives on life are lived in fragments.1 Life for the young generation is a network without a center.1 2 In the west the 1960’s were years of rapid transition. The postwar years brought economic growth but by the end of the 1950’s the younger generation had discovered the hollow center of western society.3 The shadow of the cold war between capitalism and communism stretched across great sections of the world. But rapid change continued in the west and the age of 1 cf.Zygmunt Bauman, Life in Fragments: Essays in Postmodern Morality (Blackwell, Oxford, 1995). 2 Communique, nov.1996, Theologische Universiteit, Kämpen - The Netherlands: 'En netwerk zonder centrum’, Bert Koetsier. 3 H.R.Rookmaker, Modern Art and the Death of Culture (Leicester: Apollos, 1994). 58
