Positions and Dispositions

On locating and dislocating ourselves and others.

Depiction of the assembly and testing of Sputnik, a rocket launched into low-earth orbit by the Soviet Union in October 1957, right around the time Marshall McLuhan coined the phrase “The medium is the message.”

“Here is another thought for you that is very controversial: I don’t see any point in making anything but controversial statements. There is no other way of getting any attention at all. I mean, you cannot get people thinking until you say something that really shocks them, dislocates them.” —Marshall McLuhan

In front of many of the questions that confront me in my daily life, or the attempts by others to get me to “take a position” on things that I have scarcely had time to even think about, I’ll say this: I don’t have a position, I have a disposition.

The right disposition is the fundamental key to good discernment—the way in which you let the truth unfold and reveal itself, and the way in which you train your perception to be ready to receive it when it does.

A good dispositi…