“There does exist something like visual noise, which just like the acoustical counterpart, makes clear perception impossible. One might perhaps presume the TV watchers, tabloid readers, and movie goers exercise and sharpen their eyes. But the opposite is true. The ancient sages knew exactly why they called the ‘concupiscence of the eyes’ a ‘destroyer.’ The restoration of man’s inner eyes can hardly be expected in this day and age—unless, first of all, one were willing and determined simply to exclude from one’s realm of life all those inane and contrived but titillating illusions incessantly generated by the entertainment industry.”
Josef Pieper, “Learning How to See Again,” in Only the Lover Sings
These remarkable words (written in 1952!) have the ring of truth, even if the reason for their truth is not immediately evident. As he often does, Pieper invokes the wisdom of the ancients. Sometimes we might just stop and consider such a long-standing assertion.
The term concupiscence refers to a disordered desire for some good. Here Pieper refers to how the desire to see with our eyes can easily run amok—led astray by an endless stream of seemingly harmless images.
Somehow seeing more with our eyes, when the more is a parade of flashy images, is anything but actually seeing more.
To see well is to notice and fasten upon the finer and deeper aspects of what is before our eyes. It is an acquired skill. It requires an ability to discern and sort through what we see.
But visual noise hinders such discernment; it overwhelms and confuses. It dulls and distracts. Meanwhile the latest research in human physiology and psychology are used by industries—advertising, entertainment, retail—so that they can win our attention to their products, and away from the simpler things of life. It is alarming to note that their increasingly flashy and brazen imaging surely parallel our decreased visual sensitivity.
So Pieper suggests discipline, restraint: a “simple abstention, a regimen of fasting and abstinence, by which we would try to keep the visual noise of daily inanities at a distance.” The analogy to eating is fitting. This will be very difficult; and it is very much in our power to do.
As the restrained eater is the one who develops his palate, learning to delight in refined and nourishing foods, so likewise the disciplined seer is the one who in the end can really learn how to see again.
Learning How to See Again Mini-Series
This is the first in a series: Learning How to See Again. Find the other posts below!
I. The Ability to See with Our Own Eyes
III: Learning to See by Drawing
Josef Pieper (1904-1997) was a German philosopher in the tradition of St. Thomas Aquinas. Many of his works have been translated into English and are still in print, including Leisure the Basis of Culture, Happiness and Contemplation, A Theory of Festivity, and The Four Cardinal Virtues, to name a few.
Husband, father, and professor of Philosophy. LifeCraft springs from one conviction: there is an ancient wisdom about how to live the good life in our homes, with our families; and it is worth our time to hearken to it. Let’s rediscover it together. Learn more.
Again, I recommend reading Carlos Castaneda. I read his books back in the late 1970’s. The sorcerer in the books, Don Juan, set Carlos up with some pretty grueling exercises in “seeing.” If one were to engage in some “visual fasting” these exercises would be a good way to go.
Am I an extremely good observer today because I read the Castaneda books? Maybe, maybe not but they sure didn’t hurt.
Now that i think about it, many of the things is have done in my life required excellent “seeing.” I worked with my friend, Jimmy, in his body shop for a year or two. He could see a tiny imperfection in a fender 30 feet away. I’m not as good as he is but I’m better than most. I worked in a shop making wood furniture finished with epoxy. If you don”t “see” every scratch in the wood they will light up like they have a spotlight on them when you pour on the epoxy. My first self employment was painting horse fences. I could quickly “see” the condition of the fences on a farm as I drove by on the highway.
Now I help my daughter with her horses. “Seeing” the quality of a horse is an extremely fine art. Most people can’t see past the color and condition of the animal but true horsemen can “see” beyond that to the conformation and character of the horse and they can “see” it minutes. Talk about a learned ability to “see” !!!!!!!!
Dick, Great examples. Yes indeed!
We have been discussing how “seeing” is more work or leads to more work and my wife IMMEDIATELY said people don’t want to “see” because it so much easier to say “oh I didn’t notice that. Why didn’t you tell me.”
My college age daughter says her classmates don’t “see” anything unless it’s on their screens. She went on to say that “seeing” has become a passive process as we are bombarded with images scientifically designed to draw our attention. We don’t have to “direct” our attention it is constantly “drawn” She went on to comment that students are not reading much because that requires mental effort to “see” the images in our mind. So much easier to wait for the book to be turned to a movie where we can get the images in a more mentally passive fashion.
Thank you, Professor. Your recommendation of a determined fasting from visual noise coincides with those pursuits in life that are truly meaningful – that is, such pursuits lead to something truly great, truly sublime, and for this reason, they require severe discipline and struggle. Perhaps an aid, in this noble endeavor of visual fasting, is to reign in our eyes, during the Mass, with especial acuity toward the things on the altar, and the sacred objects in the church – the Holy Crucifix, the icons, the chalice, the statues of St. Joseph and the Blessed Virgin. Surely, if we drink in, with determined intensity, the sacred holiness, the aura of blessedness, emanating from these things, we will at once use our vision properly (permitting our eyes to feast on those things which lead to God) and incidentally foster an aversion, thereafter, to viewing things that are *not* holy or elevating – in the same way that, upon reading genuine philosophy, one thereafter feels an even greater distaste in even the thought of reading gossip magazines.
Brian,
I think you’re right on that it is truly a gift that at one and the same time we can be disciplining and strengthening ourselves and also coming to a deeper appreciation of truly great realities.
Great and important thoughts! Thank you very much!