2025-04-23 17:54 Note Type: completed, quotes Tags: worship, narcissism, culture, self, anthropology

“......Perhaps the simplest way into a culture and age is to ask: What do people worship? People have worshipped many different things: the sun, the stars, and the storm. Some people worship many gods, some none. In the 19th and 20th centuries, people worshipped the nation, the Aryan race, and the communist state. What do we worship? I think future anthropologists will look at the books we read on self-help, self-realisation, and self-esteem. They will look at the way we talk about morality as being true to oneself, the way we talk about politics as a matter of individual rights, and they will look at this wonderful new religious ritual we have created. Called the “selfie.” And I think they’ll conclude that what we worship in our time is the self, the me, the I…….” (Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, How we can face the future without fear together, TED Talk published in July 2017)

References:

https://www.altiba9.com/artist-interviews/jing-zhao-conceptual-art-installation-research