Upon reading “The Intellectual and the Powers,” I was fascinated by Ed Shils’ description of ordinary life. He claims that ordinary people are not concerned with the sacred and it occurs in the present. To my understanding Shils claims that it is the task of intellectuals to look at the past and to be involved in the sacred. He goes on to describe a “spiritual wealth” in which intellectuals gain from. To do this they evaluate symbols and give meaning to past events. He further goes on to to say that members of society “need to have at least intermittently some sense of the stability, coherence, and orderliness of their society; they need therefore a body of symbols, such as songs, histories, poems, biographies, constitutions, etc., which diffuses a sense of affinity among the members of the society” (Shils, 181). The meanings of these symbols are reinforced with ritual practices as we discussed during class. Intellectuals deem some aspects of life to be sacred. In class we defined sacredness as any idea, thing, or symbol separated from mundane everyday life and elevated above those things.
What I found interesting was how we apply sacredness to modern society. One example that we discussed was music and how we view The Beatles and The Rolling Stones as sacred. Furthermore, in sports we view certain players and athletes as sacred. For instance, Serena Williams recently played in the 2022 US Open and many celebrities attended because of their respect and admiration for her skill and athletic ability. We also talked about how sacredness originated in a religious context and how transcendental thinking gave new meaning to the term. Overall, I think it is important to understand how our understanding of the sacred has evolved throughout history and what it looks like in today’s society as well.
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I also thought that how Shils defined ‘ordinary life’ was interesting. He regarded the ordinary as those who did not scrutinize the sacred, which still persists in the common era. After our class discussion about what is sacred and how we provide meaning to objects it made it much easier to understand. It is interesting that even though ordinary people view certain athletes as sacred, we try to emulate them. Professional athletes are able to separate themselves from the ordinary based on their athletic ability. However, contrary to Shils, ordinary people try to find ways to become like the sacred athletes. This is likely through imitation, whether it be through how ordinary people dress, or following a similar lifestyle. Overall, I had never given more thought to how I viewed my favorite athlete. This class discussion was able to contextualize this came to be and was interesting as it is something that everyone, such as ordinary people can likely relate to.