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Resisting Throwaway Culture; by Charles C. Camosy – Book Review
Our entire common life feels broken. For those who actively come in touch with the wallet of the national politics of United States, the totality of decadence is unmistakable. Covert intentions and divisive rhetoric from the policymakers colour the nightly news. We constantly fear for our safety and wellness as well of those of our family and friends, and the suspicious of one another seem to be ingrained. The sin destructiveness plays is recurrently inside the white supremacy, which encourages hate and killing, in the choices of policy that overlook the hurting people in our societies, and in cultures that tend to treat human beings as commodities. It is considering these cultural experiences that Charles Camosy comes up with the book, Resisting Throwaway Culture. Charles Camosy’s emphasis is neither partisan nor political. His goal is to communicate a moral foresight for America, which is based on the worth of life and existence as an essential commodity from God. According to Charles Camosy, Americans require a different political and moral imagination before tackling and deliberating policy. Towards this end, Charles suggests an outline explicitly based on the Catholic practice: The Consistent Life Ethic (CLE).
Charles Camosy’s thesis clearly says; “the purpose of this book is to show that a revitalized Consistent Life Ethic (CLE), and to demonstrate how to unify a fractured culture and a vision of the good,”(p.20).According to Charles, CLE is an structure that is yet to be articulated, but it is deeply rooted in the tradition of the Catholic. Thus, Charles decides to articulate it all by himself, through an organized ethical vision founded in a Catholic vision. In Chapter one, Charles outlines the 7principles for interpretation and application of the structure. These principles are;
Resist: Reducing someone’s essential dignity for alternative end.
Resist: Application of violence, as well as the abandonment of helpless people.
Promote: Supporting and protecting the inherent lives of helpless people.
Resist: Please to privacy and individual autonomy that disconnect us from one another.
Resist: Languages, social structures and practices that separate us from other people’s dignity
Promote: Care and hospitality for strangers, even when it is risky.
Promote: Mutuality and empathy between living people, between people generations, and between human beings and non-human creations.
Resisting Throwaway Culture continues with every chapter devoted to a wide, modern issue. Some of the issues tackled are; Sex, abortion, advanced reproductive technology, poverty and immigration, factory farming performs, euthanasia, and government-sponsored violence – death penalty, mass incarceration, and war. Referencing Pope Francis’s work, Charles Camosy writes, “if we detach ourselves from the value of everything, then everything becomes disposable,” (p.58). This statement enables us to analytically reflect on our actions and words. Our present culture worships independence and autonomy; however, no one was created for himself or herself, we were created for one another. So, as Christians who are know for whom they were created for should not validate living for one’s self. If we separate ourselves from the part of God’s creation that He refers to as good, then should not claim that we are actively seeking and glorifying Him. We have fallen short to living a faithful tile to God.
Charles explores the issues of sex and rape in chapter two. He writes, “[T]he sobering statistics of spousal rape make it clear that marriages have not been able to avoid the violence of hookup culture,” (p.61). To be precise, spousal rape and sexual assault are not the effects of hookup practice. This conflation, possibly unintended, hints a misinterpretation of these perceptions and demoralizes the authenticity of all other arguments to be created. To be just, it is difficult to criticize sex culture and practices because there is a lot to be discussed and the discussion is usually an intimate one. This chapter demonstrates a loud misunderstanding and misinterpretation of experiences and dynamics that has shaped our present cultural stand regarding sex. Also, Charles goes to great extent to name and rebuke specific women as paradigms of the most horrible of our modern sex culture and practice. A lot can be criticized in our current sex culture, but naming females as the issue, even if it was not intentional, is an outrage to the book’s purpose. Indeed, women referenced here are viewed as commodities, and this leads
