All Things Sheening: Reading Charlie Sheen to Find Meaning in a Secular Age

In a recently published book, Hubert Dreyfus and Sean Kelly argue that the crisis of our current age stems from the indecision and resulting nihilism that come from our having lost the system of values provided by monotheism. In the Christian age our correct course of action in all matters was clearly set forth, but now, every decision becomes a crisis. Aggregate these crises and the result is a culture of nihilism. Dreyfus and Kelly argue that the way out of this state is by taking the stance of the Homeric age in which we marvel at the surfaces of things and revel in the mystery of our world. We need to get caught up in the whoosh of the moment.

Now, in a book entitled All Things Sheening: Reading Charlie Sheen to Find Meaning in a Secular Age, Peter Ludlow and his former graduate advisor Charles Parsons* challenge the Homeric solution offered up by Dreyfus and Kelly. While Ludlow and Parsons do not take issue with the Dreyfus/Kelly critique of our current situation, they reject the thesis that the way out is found in the Homeric age. Rather, the way out of our predicament is found in the tiger-blood fueled insights of Charlie Sheen. "Forget whooshing," they argue, "it's about winning."

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