Extracts from the Parish News for June 2010

There is an illness diagnosed by an Austrian neurologist Gabriel Anton, called Anton’s blindness. It is a rare medical condition that can occur after a stroke or traumatic brain injury; the sufferers are left blind but left with a fervent belief that they can see.  Patients insist there is nothing wrong with them, despite experiencing strange hallucinations; bruises and injuries are explained in terms of clumsiness or absent mindedness rather than an inability to see. Anton’s blindness falls into a category of illness that is called anosognosia, which is a condition where a patient suffering from a disability, seems unaware of or denies the existence of it.

Things like Anton’s blindness are not just individual afflictions but they are social too  - changing not only the way the patient sees themselves, but also the way the patient  sees others .  Anton’s blindness is a good metaphor for the way we currently see the world, almost exclusively through the prism of markets, where the final decider is not need but profit. Seeing the world through markets driven by the relentless pursuit of profit not only distorts our sense of selves, but projects that same disability onto others. When we are connected with each other as  consumers, we are blinded to the deeper connections between us.

We are also limited in what is available to us; for instance, the level of funding for our schools is driven not by need but by how much can be allocated without upsetting the market in terms of the level of public expenditure. What values become prized are those of competition, efficiency, success, wealth, but none of those demons can ever satisfy those cravings – they just keep us longing for more. We have all become the blind seers of the modern market world – consumers.

The future will be and is being shaped by our capacity to imagine a different way to value the world and each other, which can foster the values of hope, solidarity, belonging and gratitude. I write this on the eve of Pentecost when the church celebrates the irruption of the spirit in the lives of a group of demoralised and down hearted disciples who discovered again that another world is possible and one that continues to  emerge in all sorts of places and people. See differently, they said, change the direction in which you are looking for happiness and you too will experience the fruits of a different spirit than that of the market – patience, gentleness, peace, love  joy, wisdom and compassion. 

With every blessing for the month ahead

Jonathan Morris

Vicar in Haselbury Misterton and North Perrott

(We are sorry that for technical reasons we cannot reproduce the magazine in full.)