An analogous text might be Beowulf, in the sense that it's a two-part story, with the latter part happening in his old age. The 2007 film version (which I actually love) imagines that the second part happens in a post-pagan era, after the age of heroes is replaced by the Christian age. They think they no longer have need for the old kind of hero now that Christianity has turned that hierarchy of values on its head.
(By the way, I don't think this is what Christianity has done to us, but I think a counterfeit version--the kind practiced by the unctuous minor characters in this movie and, unfortunately, by the vast majority of us--can totally do this. True Christianity builds on, purifies, and ennobles pagan heroism. This is why I, as a Christian, can in my own way echo sentiments like Ibsen's cry "O for a Viking spirit!" Our Christianity needs to be at least as bad-ass as what has come before.)
Digital culture has similarly emasculated us. A comedian once made an amazing point about this. What is the ascendent company of our era?
That's right, Microsoft.
Okay, Bill Gates, I know you have a problem with people reproducing too much, but did you have to choose a name so emblematic of this emasculated age?! And I would disagree that "hardware" is the standard bearer. Quite the contrary: In the old days, we hefted swords, axes, shields, crosses, etc.; in our day, we float like disembodied wraiths through cyberspace, we live out our days out on "the cloud," the result being that our thoughts and ideas are progressively less wholesome, less grounded, less substantive.
Will, it reminds me of your song "We Used to Be People."
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