☠️ Pura Luka's Ama Namin, Paris Olympics' Last Supper, and the Concept of Deathworks

This post is a follow-up to what has been built in yesterday's post: radical changes are taking place not just in the Western world but also in Philippine social imaginary. The proof we presented is how the public receives the statement "I am a woman trapped in a man's body." In 1987, it was used in the film Jack & Jill with the intent of making moviegoers laugh. Fast forward to 2024, the same declaration is now considered serious and sensible.

You have seen their blasphemous spoof attempts: Pura Luka on Ama Namin and the Paris Olympics organizers on the Last Supper. Maybe you were one of those who protested in righteous indignation. I think we have not seen anything yet. The worst is yet to come. 

Any society moving towards secularization must use the arts to change the public social imaginary. Only a few read the theories of the philosophers. The greater number of people are changed through the arts. Only a few Filipinos were directly exposed to the writings of Jean Jaques Rousseau but a decade and a half of Vice Ganda on Philippine TV reached saturated the hearts and minds of many. Only a few could could grasp the ideas of David Hume but everyone who listened to Gloc-9's Sirena understood what he was saying. 

The power of arts in changing the moral structure of the society is taken to a higher level in Philip Rieff's (1922-2006) concept of "Deathworks". What is a "deathwork"? It is a work of art that assaults the objects of admiration of established cultures. Assaulting the Lord's Prayer (Ama Namin) is one example. The same is true in assaulting the Last Supper.

In his book The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self (Crossway, 2020), Carl R. Trueman explains:

 ❝deathworks are powerful because they are an important factor in changing the ethos of society, of altering that social imaginary with which, and according to which, we live our lives. Deathworks make the old values look ridiculous. They represent not so much arguments against the old order as subversions of it. They aim at changing the aesthetic tastes and sympathies of society so as to undermine the commands on which that society was based.❞

Jack & Jill and Social Imaginary

 

After reading Carl Trueman's The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self (Crossway, 2020) and listening to a few of his lectures and interviews, this is how I understand Charles Taylor's concept of "social imaginary" at the moment.

Social imaginary is the way ordinary people "imagine" the world. This is often not expressed in theoretical terms. It is acquired less likely by deep thinking over ideas but mostly by sharing in the collective intuitions of the crowd. It is carried largely in visual arts, stories, movies, music, etc.

Theories are often in the possession of a small minority (a few intellectual elites). In contrast, social imaginary is shared by the society's majority if not the whole of it. It dictates what practices in the society are acceptable and which ones are unacceptable. It is the way we as a society look at the world, make sense of the world, and make sense of our behavior within it.

Let's take this statement as an example: "I am a woman trapped in a man's body." I first heard the statement as a small kid in the late 1980s from the character of Jill in the movie Jack & Jill (portrayed by Sharon Cuneta and Herbert Bautista respectively). It was a comedy film. It was intended to make moviegoers laugh. The fact that the statement is now considered serious and sensible indicates that in a short period of time, radical shifts are taking place not just in the Western world but in the Filipino social imaginary as well.