“The council focuses its attention on the world of men, the whole human family along with the sum of those realities in the midst of which it lives” (GS 2). One such reality the Council discusses in Gaudium et Spes is that of technology. There is no doubt that technology has changed profoundly the “circumstances of the life of modern man… in their social and cultural aspects, that we can speak of a new age of human history” (GS 54). We are a culture that has arisen “from the enormous progress of science and technology” (GS 56) and it is unquestionable that technology has bequeathed us with a lot of good. For example, an immeasurable number of lives have been saved from research into cures for diseases and in the fight against hunger or cold. And in the domain of transmitting the Gospel, it is now much easier to spread the Good News to people located at the far outskirts of the world.[1] This in itself deems technology praiseworthy.[2]
But not many people have stopped to ask what good technology has taken away from us as a result. Deep down perhaps many of us feel that there are some negative consequences associated with technology. Society, however, has never paused to vigorously contemplate the question of the adverse repercussions of it. But it should because technology is not a morally indifferent thing.[3]
The Council did pause to contemplate this question of technology and provided many insights into it. Most importantly, perhaps, it noted that there is strong evidence that points to a decline of faith where technological advances are strengthening.[4] If this is the case, the subject matter is grave and needs to be critically scrutinised. The following post, will present, albeit briefly, what the Council says on this topic. Some themes are expanded on with further insights.
The Essence of Technology
It would be important here to firstly clearly define what me mean by “technology”. The Council does not do this but one can formulate a definition that would comply with Its interpretation. Technology can thus be understood as the treating of nature as standing-reserve.[5] It is an attitude and mode of thinking – a certain, one can say, technical, calculative or scientific mode of thinking – in which nature is set upon and held to being reduced to a single role of, for example, a deliverer of energy. In the past, mankind did not have such a mindset towards nature. For instance, a peasant would maintain and cultivate land. He would plant seeds and allow the forces of growth to keep over them. He would not challenge the land as such. The modern agricultural industry does otherwise, however. It sets upon the land, challenges it, and abuses it for the purpose of the mechanised food industry.
The Effects of Technology
There is, as it were, nothing inherently wrong with treating nature as standing-reserve as long as we do not allow this attitude to dominate us. As a certain mode of thinking, technology needs to remain in its proper boundaries and limitations, assisting and not harming man.[6] In this way, technology can be good. If the technical way of thinking dominates everything, it is bad. Unfortunately, in today’s world, the latter is the case and the effects of this are far-reaching.
Firstly, the scientific mindset causes us to not consider things as things but rather as objects. Science puts things, including experience, into calculable universal characteristics and perceives and analyses the world through them. Science also identifies formulas or equations that can operate on these things – and the entire universe is lumped together and seen as conforming to these equations. This attitude, however, fails to consider that each and every object is a part of its surrounding world. A thing is never something outside of its world, it never exists independently as such, so an authentic attitude towards things ought to consider that every thing has its own unique presence that can speak to us. In modern times, technological thinking closes us to this speak. When treated as objects, when taken out of their surroundings, things become lifeless and veil a deeper and more profound world to us.
What ensues is that the earth, treated as an object, is abused to the point of it being endangered. Indeed, the current destruction of nature is unprecedented. Furthermore, nature is no longer something mysterious that awakens awe and inspiration. We no longer pause to listen it. One can call this being closed to sacramental reality because we cannot in this way engage with God whose divine presence fills the universe. We cannot, thus, see Him in people or in objects and, consequently, we cannot move from the temporal to the spiritual and eternal – from the earthly to the heavenly.[7]
This lack of contemplation of God[8] and man’s continually rising domination over nature is breeding a sense of control and self-dependence in man.[9] Truly, as mentioned in the introduction above, it is a major cause of today’s atheism.[10] Man is “convinced that the future rule of [his] over the earth will satisfy every desire of his heart” (GS 10). People are finding their primary means of fulfillment in the mass culture of consumption, mainly in the privacy of their homes, and in the workplace. What follows is that community and family life ultimately suffers.
The western world is, thus, living in an age of poverty – not of material deprivation or physical suffering but a concealed one that the American philosopher, Albert Borgmann[11], calls advanced poverty. Advanced poverty is chronic but hidden, which makes it all the more difficult to deal with.[12]
Countering the Effects of Technology
To counter the effects of technology one must first become aware of them, which is one aim of the Council. Then, we need to pray for grace and wisdom, especially to see how much we need God to enter into the current situation. Technology has taught us to dominate and control – attitudes that are deeply inhospitable to the truth of our utter dependence and reliance on God.[13] And, something the Council continually emphasises, our endeavours and attitudes need to be Christo-centric because He is the answer to everything.[14] He is the one who delivered us “from bondage to the devil and sin” (GS 22).
We also need to rekindle a sense of community and spirit of brotherhood with each other because, after all, we have a social nature.[15] Not only that, but it is an instruction of God for us to live in this spirit.[16] We can start by having a resurgence in public gatherings and communal celebrations and give them a prominent place in our lives. And it is important to underline, as the Council does, that brotherly dialogue does not reach its perfection on the level of technical progress, but on the deeper level of interpersonal relationships.[17]
We need to revert to true leisure. Leisure ought to give us the opportunity to recollect ourselves and give full rest – but it is failing to do so because it has become totally restricted to entertainment and consumption. The most perfect form of leisure, one that can bring rest and peace, is contemplation and worship.[18] It consists in silence and the contemplative attention to things; it is stopping to see the innate value in things; it is seeing the goodness of God in everything and the worshipping of His presence around us.[19] Leisure among workers will also foster familial, cultural, social and religious life.[20]
Contemplation and worship, therefore, can help us to break away from the technological mindset and assist us to see the world in all its profoundness. We can further break the technological mindset, with the assistance of leisure, by recovering the sense of mystery and awe of nature and people.[21] Beauty and majesty can move us to respect, it can inspire us and dissolve a mentality of objectification. But we need to go out to nature and to people and be immersed in their beauty.
Familial life, the foundation of society[22], can be strengthened by firstly raising the next generation to be free from the grasp of the technological mindset. Time with electronic devices ought to be restricted, for example, in order to teach children to engage with the world and each other in person. A culture of the table can also be fostered. This means allowing the table – rather than the TV or computer – to be the centrepiece in the living room where everyone can naturally gather. It can be a place where members can congregate to play games or just to simply do their homework together. A culture of the table can also foster a celebration of food and dining – because these are things that ought to be celebrated.
Conclusion
At the conclusion of this work it is important to emphasise the point once more that technology has bequeathed us with a lot of good. As the Council says, we should rejoice at our technical enterprises when they are ordered towards the good.[23] Indeed, technological endeavours are a product of a God-given human creativity and are part of God’s command to subdue the earth.[24] It is, therefore, wrong to reject technology.[25] Having said this, it is important to understand that technology does have its side effects. And these effects can become severe if technology is left to reign unfettered. Unfortunately, we live in an age where this is now the case, at least in developed nations, to the point where it is a major cause of today’s atheism. The Council over 50 years ago talked about these issues – it is imperative that we heed its message.
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[1] The Church “has used the discoveries of different cultures so that in her preaching she might spread and explain the message of Christ to all nations” (GS 58); “The Church herself makes use of temporal things insofar as her own mission requires it” (GS 76).
[2] The Council mentions other benefits of technology. See GS 6, 31 and 87.
[3] Pope Francis, Laudato Si’, 107.
[4] “Profound and rapid changes are spreading by degrees around the whole world. Triggered by the intelligence and creative energies of man, these changes recoil upon him… Hence we can already speak of a true cultural and social transformation, one which has repercussions on man’s religious life as well” (GS 4). See also GS 5 & 7.
[5] I am borrowing here a term coined by Martin Heidegger: “Bestand”. See “The Question Concerning Technology” in Martin Heidegger: Basic Writings, tr. William Lovitt, 311.
[6] Men “should observe the right order in their earthly activities in faithfulness to Christ and His Gospel” (GS 72); “For man, created to God’s image, received a mandate to subject to himself the earth and all it contains … a mandate to relate himself and the totality of things to Him Who was to be acknowledged as the Lord and Creator of all. Thus, by the subjection of all things to man, the name of God would be wonderful in all the earth” (GS 34).
[7] “Indeed today’s progress in science and technology can foster a certain exclusive emphasis on observable data, and an agnosticism about everything else” (GS 57).
[8] “Within the individual person there develops rather frequently an imbalance… between a concern for practicality and efficiency… and even of contemplation” (GS 8).
[9] “Today, however, especially with the help of science and technology, he has extended his mastery over nearly the whole of nature and continues to do so… many benefits once looked for, especially from heavenly powers, man has now enterprisingly procured himself” (GS 33).
[10] “Favouring this doctrine can be the sense of power which modern technical progress generated in man… Technology has a promise of liberation especially that of economic and social emancipation” (GS 20); “[M]any benefits once looked for, especially from heavenly powers, man has now enterprisingly procured himself”
(GS 33).
[11] Albert Borgmann, Power Failure: Christianity in the Culture of Technology, (Michigan: Brazos Press, 2003) 40-42.
[12] “No doubt many whose lives are infected with a practical materialism are blinded against any sharp insight into this kind of dramatic situation” (GS 10).
[13] “The intellectual nature of the human person is perfected by wisdom… Our era needs such wisdom more than bygone ages if the discoveries made by man are to be further humanised” (GS 15).
[14] “The Lord is the goal of human history, the focal point of the longings of history and of civilization, the center of the human race, the joy of every heart and the answer to all its yearnings” (GS 45).
[15] “Man’s social nature makes it evident that the progress of the human person and the advance of society itself hinge on one another” (GS 25).
[16] “God, Who has fatherly concern for everyone, has willed that all men should constitute one family and treat one another in a spirit of brotherhood… For this reason, love for God and neighbor is the first and greatest commandment” (GS 24); When man “consciously takes part in the life of social groups, he carries out the design of God manifested at the beginning of time… At the same time he obeys the commandment of Christ that he place himself at the service of his brethren” (GS 57); Brotherhood and the community is “absolutely necessary for the establishment of peace” (GS 78).
[17] “One of the salient features of the modern world is the growing interdependence of men one on the other, a development promoted chiefly by modern technical advances. Nevertheless, brotherly dialogue among men does not reach its perfection on the level of technical progress, but on the deeper level of interpersonal relationships” (GS 23).
[18] Josef Pieper, Leisure: The Basis of Culture, tr. by Alexander Dru (New York: Pantheon Books, 1954), 26-29.
[19] “In this way, the human spirit, being less subjected to material things, can be more easily drawn to the worship and contemplation of the Creator” (GS 57).
[20] Workers “should also all enjoy sufficient rest and leisure to cultivate their familial, cultural, social and religious life” (GS 67).
[21] cf. Pope Francis, Laudato Si’, 112.
[22] “The well-being of the individual person and of human and Christian society is intimately linked with the healthy condition of that community produced by marriage and family” (GS 47); “Thus the family, in which the various generations come together and help one another grow wiser and harmonise personal rights with the other requirements of social life, is the foundation of society” (GS 52). See also GS 61.
[23] “Christians should rather rejoice that, following the example of Christ Who worked as an artisan, they are free to give proper exercise to all their earthly activities and to their humane, domestic, professional, social and technical enterprises by gathering them into one vital synthesis with religious values, under whose supreme direction all things are harmonised unto God’s glory” (GS 43).
[24] “When man develops the earth by the work of his hands or with the aid of technology, in order that it might bear fruit and become a dwelling worthy of the whole human family and when he consciously takes part in the life of social groups, he carries out the design of God manifested at the beginning of time, that he should subdue the earth, perfect creation and develop himself” (GS 57). See also GS 12-13, 34, and 69.
[25] “Technical progress… must be promoted” (GS 64). See also GS 57, 69