300 years ago, humanity experienced much more unpredictability, death, disease, loss, instant poverty, crop failures, etc., than it does today. Regardless of how hard one might try to control the world, there weren’t any guarantees that things would work out – even the kids knew it.
In the mystery and lack of control, our thoughts about us and God were much different. It was easier to be thankful when things worked out, and more dependent on others when they didn’t. Folks lived more intimately with the reality that this world is not our oyster; it does what it wants, caring little about justice, suffering, the American dream, or being at anyone’s beck and call.
It was more difficult for our cultural forbears to live under the illusion of control and mastery that governs our minds today.
Then, we grew up.
In a short time, everything changed. In rushed the railroads, the telegraph, telephones, light bulbs. Then radios, cars, TVs, jets, nuclear weapons, skyscrapers, satellites – a new kind of war. Not long after came the computer, which made the crazy ride we were on even crazier.
I remember when the first home video game system came out. All you had to do was connect it to your TV’s antenna, find the right channel, and play video games in your living room. On. Your. Own. TV.
We couldn’t believe it.
In my lifetime, I’ve witnessed the advent of the color TV, the microwave, the personal computer, the laptop, VCR’s, DVD’s, MP3’s, the internet, email, push-button phones, wireless phones, cell phones, smart phones, Google, iTunes, YouTube – on and on. I can’t wait to see what we come up with next.
Here in the States we’ll pay dearly for the “latest” things, although they bring no significant, positive change to our lives. Manufacturers make billions from this and will frequently re-package their products without significantly changing what’s under the hood.
And are we ever suckers for it.
Years ago, on the eve of the iphone 5s, late night host and comedian Jimmy Kimmel took to the streets with the first generation iphone, outdated by 10 years, telling people it was the latest model. Following are excerpts from the video:
Kimmel:
“There are two new iphones on the way, which is kind of crazy because the last iphone came out less than a year ago but we’re now programmed to feel like if we don’t get the new one we’re missing out on something. So today we went on the street and asked people to try out the new Iphone and tell us what they think. Now, even though they announced it yesterday, the new iphone won’t even come out until later this month, so what we did was, we gave people the oldest iphone, the original, first generation iphone that came out in 2007, and told them it was the new iphone and… well… here’s what they thought of it.”
Participants:
“Oh, cool, nice and light. Small. Fits in the palm of my hand, quite comfortable.”
“Actually uh, quite comfortable, better than my 4.”
“Much, much faster… It’s actually very exciting.” “I like how fast the processor’s movin’…”
“The resolution on the screen itself is much sharper.” “The pictures are clearer.”
“Apple, you’ve done it again”
Granted, these are people trying to avoid looking stupid on national television, as anyone would, but it does reflect an interesting phenomenon: we love the latest stuff, even if it just looks like the latest stuff. It’s part of our culture, part of the ethos of Western life.
Our gadgets have become little more than mascots, symbols, and logos paying tribute to our belief that we’ve got this universe all figured out. We’ve grown up, commanding our world like no other culture before us. We know more than we did 300 years ago by a factor of a thousand, easily. We’re rightly impressed with what we’ve managed to accomplish and what we’re sure to conquer in the future.
But we’re blind to the vast expanse of unknowns that lie ahead. Our hubris should be tempered by this, but it’s instead fueled by the relatively meagre amount of things that we’ve managed to conquer. I don’t mean to make light of our advances, but they don’t seem very impressive compared with what we don’t know about our universe – the things we can’t do, the places where we’re utterly powerless.
We don’t approach our world like a child, or an adult, but like an adolescent – mercenary at ignoring our ignorance. We know so much more than we did when we were children, so we move forward at breakneck speed like we’ve got nothing left to learn, redefining everything that our ancestors held so dear, pooh-poohing the voices begging us to slow down.
We are no longer infants, thank God, we’re worse – we’re pre-adults. Consider the evidence:
> Above All Else, Feel Good
Our “modern” understanding of right and wrong revolves around two core values – “freedom” (not freedom from injustice and tyranny, but the freedom to do whatever we want), and “pleasure.”
We value immediate reward, and no boundaries whatsoever on our desires – they should be trusted, let off-leash as much as possible. Gone is the blind obedience to our parent’s prudish ways, foisting boredom and the gray-black of lifeless drudgery upon us.
Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing evil about freedom and pleasure. They are both concepts and realities placed here by God Himself and should be respected. But seating them in the highest places of our values system won’t lead us to a higher truth.
And we’re not asking many questions about the consequences of seeking pleasure and freedom at the expense of so many other powerful things, despite the hordes of elderly folk and former convicts who would gladly speak to the wisdom of healthy boundaries and the folly of following our whims.
> Disposable Love
Our emphasis on freedom and pleasure have supplanted humanity’s long-time emphasis on relationship. In our culture, relationships are only important when they have something to offer.
When difficulties come, we write off our dear ones and excuse ourselves from the friendship, no matter how important it might have been in the past. There are too many shiny things in our future, multiple dangling carrots that look far more appealing than than this, the brussels sprout of emotional wellbeing.
> Not Easily Amused
When we’re not chasing carrots, we’ve got our faces glued to a screen, or we’re eating something, or travelling. Again, there’s nothing evil about these, but the frequency of our fun time is making it much more difficult to have fun.
We’ve become a picky, entitled, hard-to-entertain people, so our entertainment has become increasingly extreme. We spend more, eat more, “love” more, waste more, move more, quit more, and in general trade more of the good stuff for a temporary rush that’s become the point and focus of our lives.
> Angry. A lot
It doesn’t take much in our culture to make someone angry, or feel cheated, thwarted, lied to, or misunderstood. We’re less-than-functional in the art of voicing our mounting frustrations, and since relationships have become less of a priority, so has reconciliation.
So, we carry our anger instead of finding a healthy way to deal with it.
And when things gets too heavy, we explode.
Road rage, broken marriages, child abuse, spousal abuse, drug abuse, etc. are all symptoms of teenagers who have too much money, too much time, unhealthy expectations, and a mountain of angst, with nobody to reel us back in.
> Don’t Tell Me What to Do
Our understanding of authority has also “matured.” We’ve become individualistic, placing more importance on the rights and authority of the individual than any culture before us. It’s now considered inappropriate to challenge somebody’s perspectives, plans, decisions, rationale, whatever.
We are our own highest authority, nobody has a right to challenge us. As a result, like the good teenagers we’ve become, we perpetrate all manner of stupidity upon ourselves and others because we’re not open to anyone else’s perspective (unless they agree with us), even if they’re miles ahead on the road that we’re travelling.
We’ll Grow Out of It
It may sound harsh to accuse humanity of having progressed only as far as adolescence. Many will find this offensive and dismiss it altogether. But our values, our mood swings, our horrible financial situations, throw-away relationships, lack of humility, the importance of “me” above all else – all point to one thing:
We’ve grown up, but we’re not grown-ups yet.
But, rest assured, we’ll keep growing. The universe has a way of beating the arrogance out of stupid teenagers, leading them into the humility, grace, compassion, temperance, honesty, etc. that comes part and parcel with being a grown up who bears the image of God.
Our universe will continue to be a difficult, dangerous, unpredictable place that’s not as conquerable as we’re now convinced it is.
Ultimately, we’ll throw up our hands and submit to the way things are, then have nowhere else to turn but to the easier things, the simpler things, the more human things. We’ll find a deeper peace, deeper relationships, better theology, and a better life.
We’ll have travelled farther into the unknown than any culture before us, only to drop our jaw at how much more there is to know. We’ll allow mystery her old seat at the table and mourn the painful years that transpired since we asked her to leave. We’ll once again feel the depth and meaning that can only come from living in her shadow.
This deeper knowledge of our world, a new dance with mystery and with each other, and the smoldering reminders of our arrogance will conspire to create a humanity that is truly greater than it is now. We’ll be much more willing to accept our place before God and each other, and trust that, while there are things we can’t figure out, He’s still good.
The future of us is bright, but we’ve got some things to reckon with: our adolescent internment is far from over.
There will be hell to pay before it is.
Just as teenagers seem to use everything at their disposal to destroy themselves, so will we. And, thanks to technology, look at what we have at our disposal.
I agree with your assessment of where we are as a race, our place in history, our relationship with our planet. I think I’m a little more cynical about things getting better. History seems to show that we repeatedly reach a pinnacle in civilization and then our sinful natures cause us to collapse and go back to a simpler if mote brutal way of living (ie fall of Rome followed by dark ages). And then we slowly get our act together and build another empire only to have our selfishness and greed and dark desires cause us to crumble again. At least that’s my take on it.
Good point- I have that too. When I say “future,” I’m talking about a long, long time from now.