And We Are Lost

A Society of Machines

A nightly viewing of CNN regarding the war in the Ukraine is an exercise in shock therapy—images of charred out buildings where people days before had gathered around tables for evening meals; burnt out tanks while housing young men forced into battle by a distant despot; incoming missiles raining down fear and destruction while people scurry into alleyways seeking shelter. Shocking indeed.

Such distressing images remind me of the words of a modern day prophet who is equally disturbed by our 21st century ‘techno-human’ condition:

“We have become a society of machines and business degrees, of stocks and bonds, of world power and world devastation, of what works and what makes money. We train our young to get ahead, our middle-aged to consume, and our elderly to be silent. We are sophisticated now. We talk about ideas for getting ahead rather than about our ideas for touching God…We have forsaken the good, the true, and the beautiful for the effective, the powerful, and the opulent. We have abandoned enoughness for the sake of consumption. We are modern. We are progressive. And we are lost.” (Joan Chittister)

How do we find our way home?