Again, saved but not published–sorry!   

When I attended Jon Pahl’s lecture, I entered the auditorium with an open mind. From the description that I had read of the event, it seemed to me a plausible idea: Shopping malls are sites of religious violence. I imagined that Professor Pahl would probably make some sort of argument about how “the desire to acquire” material possessions conflicts with the ideology of many various religions.However, this was not the case made. At least, if this idea was stated, it may have only been in passing, because the main point that came across to me was that shopping malls are filled with religious motifs and symbolism designed to “disorient” shoppers in order to make them want to purchase things they do not actually need. I find this conceit difficult to accept on a number of levels. First, I find it highly implausible that the mall architects seriously considered religious motifs when designing the layout. If anything, the plants and fountains are most likely there to provide scenery more pleasant than bare tiles. Furthermore, I also doubt that their aim was to disorient shoppers. I see no proof of any attempt to confuse or brainwash those who enter shopping malls.Overall, I thought Professor Pahl’s presentation offered little substance. While he was a very entertaining and engaging speaker, I found his slideshow bombastic and hard to follow. His definition of religion, for example, was not only lengthy and cumbersome, but ambiguous. The points that I could pick out were also flawed and completely subjective.

Still, Professor Pahl made an interesting statement about violence with which I completely agreed. He used an iceberg as a metaphor for violence and listed its many stages, going deeper and deeper. He referred to the tip as physical aggression. Then he moved down to ultimately include social injustices, something which I had never thought of as a form of violence. Though I was not sold on his overall theory of malls as sites of religious violence, he did make me rethink the idea of violence itself and its numerous possible applications.