110. The specialization which belongs to technology makes it
difficult to see the larger picture. The fragmentation of knowledge
proves helpful for concrete applications, and yet it often leads to a
loss of appreciation for the whole, for the relationships between
things, and for the broader horizon, which then becomes irrelevant. This
very fact makes it hard to find adequate ways of solving the more
complex problems of today’s world, particularly those regarding the
environment and the poor; these problems cannot be dealt with from a
single perspective or from a single set of interests. A science which
would offer solutions to the great issues would necessarily have to take
into account the data generated by other fields of knowledge, including
philosophy and social ethics; but this is a difficult habit to acquire
today. Nor are there genuine ethical horizons to which one can appeal.
Life gradually becomes a surrender to situations conditioned by
technology, itself viewed as the principal key to the meaning of
existence. In the concrete situation confronting us, there are a number
of symptoms which point to what is wrong, such as environmental
degradation, anxiety, a loss of the purpose of life and of community
living. Once more we see that “realities are more important than ideas”.[91]
At one time medical doctors had expertise beyond a family practice that makes referrals. They were able to diagnose without help. They saw the whole person. If no one has had that experience it is unique.
When I was first suffering with a new diagnosis of a connective tissue disease my doctors weren't getting it right and they believed I was exhibiting a prolonged allergy to an antibiotic. One day while feeling poorly, the children were playing in a room next to the living room, there was a knock at the door and it was my mother. She took one look at me and without a word she called her physician who was also the local coroner. He specialized in GI medicine, but, he did everything.
I dreaded the idea of seeing what I believed was a horse and buggy doctor, but, I went with her to his office. She was right, I wasn't getting better.
At the office I was taken to the first examining room about 20 feet from where I was sitting in the waiting room. He entered the room, didn't look at me, but, looked at information in the chart and stated, "Do you always breath like that?" Until that moment I hadn't realized I was short of breath. I said, "No." He turned looked at my legs which had a horrid blotchy rash and were swollen. He listened to my chest. He told me he was going to take one x-ray (which was in his office) and he would talk to me at his office desk where there was also a light screen to read the x-ray.
He entered and sat in front of me and stated, "You have sarcoid." I said, "I have what? Am I going to live?" He said, "You have sarcoid (osis) and you will be okay if you do as I tell you." He knew immediately. No fancy blood tests, no specialist and no waiting for medication that would ultimately put me into an extended remission. He was masterful. He saw me for six months and adjusted prednisone during that time until he stopped it. The first two weeks I saw him almost daily. There isn't a doctor alive today that would do that and save a life of difficulty.
That is what the Pope's words remind me of. He wants us to see the world as a whole and not a particular interest. He wants us to take ownership of healing this world and it's people.
111. Ecological culture cannot be reduced to a series of urgent and
partial responses to the immediate problems of pollution, environmental
decay and the depletion of natural resources. There needs to be a
distinctive way of looking at things, a way of thinking, policies, an
educational programme, a lifestyle and a spirituality which together
generate resistance to the assault of the technocratic paradigm.
Otherwise, even the best ecological initiatives can find themselves
caught up in the same globalized logic. To seek only a technical remedy
to each environmental problem which comes up is to separate what is in
reality interconnected and to mask the true and deepest problems of the
global system.
112. Yet we can once more broaden our vision. We have the freedom
needed to limit and direct technology; we can put it at the service of
another type of progress, one which is healthier, more human, more
social, more integral. Liberation from the dominant technocratic
paradigm does in fact happen sometimes, for example, when cooperatives
of small producers adopt less polluting means of production, and opt for
a non-consumerist model of life, recreation and community. Or when
technology is directed primarily to resolving people’s concrete
problems, truly helping them live with more dignity and less suffering.
Or indeed when the desire to create and contemplate beauty manages to
overcome reductionism through a kind of salvation which occurs in beauty
and in those who behold it. An authentic humanity, calling for a new
synthesis, seems to dwell in the midst of our technological culture,
almost unnoticed, like a mist seeping gently beneath a closed door. Will
the promise last, in spite of everything, with all that is authentic
rising up in stubborn resistance?
113. There is also the fact that people no longer seem to believe in a
happy future; they no longer have blind trust in a better tomorrow
based on the present state of the world and our technical abilities.
There is a growing awareness that scientific and technological progress
cannot be equated with the progress of humanity and history, a growing
sense that the way to a better future lies elsewhere. This is not to
reject the possibilities which technology continues to offer us. But
humanity has changed profoundly, and the accumulation of constant
novelties exalts a superficiality which pulls us in one direction. It
becomes difficult to pause and recover depth in life. If architecture
reflects the spirit of an age, our megastructures and drab apartment
blocks express the spirit of globalized technology, where a constant
flood of new products coexists with a tedious monotony. Let us refuse to
resign ourselves to this, and continue to wonder about the purpose and
meaning of everything. Otherwise we would simply legitimate the present
situation and need new forms of escapism to help us endure the
emptiness.
114. All of this shows the urgent need for us to move forward in a
bold cultural revolution. Science and technology are not neutral; from
the beginning to the end of a process, various intentions and
possibilities are in play and can take on distinct shapes. Nobody is
suggesting a return to the Stone Age, but we do need to slow down and
look at reality in a different way, to appropriate the positive and
sustainable progress which has been made, but also to recover the values
and the great goals swept away by our unrestrained delusions of
grandeur.
