Warning:
Long winded, technophobic, angst filled, sky is falling, but there may still be hope rant is coming this way. If you would like to avoid it, [and I wouldn't blame you], click the little red X in the top right hand corner of this window....
Okay. Here we go.
I think we are reaching a moment of critical mass in our society. It's a moment when the pace of technology and its attendant upturning of longstanding social norms, outstrips our ability to assimilate it. It is becoming more and more difficult to integrate it for our ethical, physical, psychological or spiritual good.
I take no credit for this observation. Future Shock covered this ground already. All I am saying is that I think it is reaching a fevered pitch.
For a long time, I have put medical advancement outside my realm of alarm because of the breathtaking achievements that have eased the suffering and prolonged the life of so many. But even medical advances have their existential price tags.
As for other technologies, I'm afraid I am much less generous. I view them with a skeptical eye. Some of them haven't been around long enough to decided if they are good or neutral or just plain bad for us.
Forgive me if I jump around a bit, but I feel like I am wrestling an octopus and sometimes have to deal with a new tentacle while still in the grips of another.
Yesterday I read a headline on the Drudge Report...
"Did Science Find a way to grow back severed finger?"
This irritates me on so many levels. Science is not an ENTITY. It is not a FORCE It is not even a unified group of people. It is not GOD either.
The headline should properly read: "Have Doctors and Researchers Found a way to grow back a severed finger?"
It seems to me when you elevate science to god-like status, you end up with things like this: Cloned Horse.
Even the genetic professor uses exaggerated language about what he is doing.... "Prometea was named after Prometheus, the Titan in Greek mythology who stole fire from the gods and gave it to humankind."
Now I don't know about you, but seems to me, he forgot some of the rest of the story.... from Wikipaedia,
'Prometheus, however, steals fire from Zeus and gives it back to humans for their use. This further enrages Zeus, who sends mortal man the first woman, presumably Pandora: "From her is the race of women and female kind: of her is the deadly race and tribe of women who live amongst mortal men to their great trouble, no helpmeets in hateful poverty, but only in wealth." Prometheus, meanwhile, is chained to a rock where his regenerating liver is eaten daily by a vulture. Years later the Greek hero Heracles would shoot the vulture and free Prometheus from his chains.
Pandora's box. Oh yeah, that's what we want.
Next tentacle....
We have computers and they do some cool things. I admit it. But in the GRAND scheme of what it means to be human, are they really doing us any favors? There are little computers, fast computers, frivolous computers, all of them expensive if you add up what we have already paid for them on our way up... or down depending on your point of view, the technology ladder.
I don't know about you, but I am pretty sure I have information anxiety. And I got it from information overload. Which I get from computers and television. Even I have a cell phone now, something I thought I could live without. But just let me forget it when I venture forth in the car alone, and I have anxiety. What if something happens to the car??? Used to be PEOPLE helped you. Now if I was stuck by the side of the road, everyone would (rightly) assume I had a cell phone and had already called for help.
Okay, page two:
Societal norms are changing so fast, one doesn't even have time to stop and reflect on whether or not they are good changes or if things are going in a direction we want them to. It's hard to defend a tradition when it's only a three year old tradition. Everything is in such a state of flux that to say... 'Wait a minute, I want things to stay the same in this area right here....'
is unthinkable. It looks and sounds absurd.
As a frivolous example of a big principle, people might say... "Why are you so worked up about the fact that mayonnaise jars no longer hold 32 ounces? Who cares? What's the big deal?" When in fact a fair and honest set of scales in business fills pages and pages in the Talmud. It is considered a fundamental cornerstone of a civilized society.... THAT'S why!
And furthermore, it's not a jar of mayonnaise anymore either, because they come in plastic containers now, and I keep reading all these articles about whether plastic is good for us to be eating and drinking out of. Is plastic harmful to our bodies? Not sure.... Hey! Let's let SCIENCE figure it out. Just pay for the damn stuff or get out of line, there's plenty of people behind you who don't give a rat's ass about the entire subject.
Okay, what about some other taken for granted norms? How about marriage, or family, or ethical business practices? And what about the new norms some people are pushing? Right to die, euthanasia, genetic engineering? Quick! Take a side. Get out your slogans and sound bites. Nobody has time for your long thoughtful pauses. Decisions need to be made right NOW!
We are being rushed along so fast that we don't have enough time to take in the signs of the breakdown of our own civilization. We are like lemmings rushing to the cliff in a mass migration. If you stop, you are going to get crushed by the mass of 'progress' behind you. One's only hope seems to be to stay on the fringe, maybe then one might have a chance of veering off.
Oddly enough, to jerk around the lemming metaphor, we have forgotten the power of our numbers, and one reason is that we have been encouraged for some time now to "follow our heart" which can divide us from others. We have also been manipulated into thinking that we have the "power of choice".
[Extrapolate this idea to all levels of society if you would], when in fact the choices available to us are fewer and carefully orchestrated by people who are selling things, or want power. And though we don't want to admit it, we are paying through the nose for this 'choice' crap. So much of what is for sale is actually luxury level stuff. You don't have a choice to find 'basic' very often anymore.
I am very distressed, and as you can probably see, not all that coherent at articulating exactly what is going on in all its aspects. But suffice it to say, I think that what we used to consider the 'rock bottom line' or foundation of certain accepted standards, is no longer there. The rock is gone. We are walking on sand.
While I have named a few things specifically, it's the stuff I can't identify.... but that I am aware of from a more intuitive place that gives me the willies. It's a feeling that's kind of like being in a room with a lot of other people and saying.... "Wait a minute. Did you notice that the walls seem to be closing in?" "No, everyone says, You are just imagining it." But you see, in order to TEST my hypotheses, I would need to go draw some lines by the wall and then come back later and see if they are still there. But here's the problem my dear friends: I might actually GET a line drawn when no one is looking, but along comes the juggernaut of 'Progress' and moves us into a new room.
Is it a bigger room? A better room? I'm not sure any more. But what I AM sure of is that it is going to cost me more to live in this room. It's costing me more money, [which is not ethical[, and more in psychological stress. It's costing me in physical well being, and ultimately it's costing me spiritually because I have become smaller and more agitated and less able to see things clearly. Crabbed and cramped. Harassed and harried. Thrown thither and yon and I have to struggle mightily to eke out a moment to think a clear moral thought
In a word, it's a nightmare.
What to do? What's my plan? How shall I resist?
Since I am so pessimistic about our ability to work as a unity [one nation under God] anymore, I suppose it will have to start with one person. It will be a revolution of individuals.
Here's my existential Waterloo my fellow humans - There are so many fronts and they are so complex and have so much admixture of good, not so good and downright evil in them, I'm finding it near impossible to know where to begin, much less sort it all OUT.
I'm alienated by my own society, intimidated by my government, and overwhelmed by the world I live in.
I write these next words knowing full well some of you will think me naive at best and a raving fool at worst. But write them I must.
Here goes....
I think we need a king who is just and good. Who will look right through all this chaos and see the clear path to enlightenment - to REAL progress for humankind. One who will also see right through us - to the sterling essence that is still there, ready to learn and grow. An anointed leader who will bring new meaning the word, 'Justice'. And who will set things straight.
Because ultimately it is God's desire to dwell among men - Psalm 132. But we are not prepared for such a radical paradigm shift... yet. We need time to get ready, on many levels. We need a Teacher/King to lead us there.
And though even this may be misunderstood, I say it anyway because it is the cry of my soul all the day long....
"T'shuva Adonai, ad matai?" Return O Lord, how long? Psalm 90:13
Send the Moshiach, the anointed one, so we can prepare for Your arrival.
Expand this room Oh Lord, I KNOW it is too small for You. I have no 'proof' but I feel it. I want to live and grow in a larger place. To expand, to 'broaden my tent' - Isaiah 54:2. This is my desire, and nothing else will satisfy me.
Oh, I will rejoice and be thankful for Your blessings, the small and the great. The people, the heavens, the trees, the fruit, the flowers, the plants and the furry creatures that I live among, but I will not give You rest 'until You make Jerusalem a source of praise in the land'..... Isaiah 62.
I will not be silent.