The Amish Problem - Some Personal Thoughts on Technology and "The Modern Project"

The Modern Project

An honest question: Has the "modern project," that is Western society since the Renaissance, been successful in bringing human beings to a better state of being than they were in the Middle Ages? For those interested in Modern philosophy, they will know that it is often characterized by the phrase: "the turn toward the subject." Indeed, the focus of much of modern philosophy is on the subjective individual rather than grand metaphysical understandings. But along with this focus on the individual is also such consternation in the equating of what exists with what I am subjectively certain of. This equating may seem logical on its face, but dig a little deeper and you realize that this idea has missed a very important question ... What if what is most certain to me as a human knower is actually the least-real in terms of all that exists? Well, that would mean that modern man has become only familiar with reality in its lowest and most ephemeral form. 

A student of mine summarized this distinction perfectly in a short essay this semester: 

            

"The issue here is that we use 'real' to mean two different things. When we say that something is most real to us, we mean that it is most knowable to our senses or mind. So when we see a physical chair, this is most real to us because we can clearly perceive it. However, when we say that something is most real in itself, we mean that which is most perfect, most simple, and most universal. Thus, we say that the forms are most real in themselves because they are the perfection of the things and concepts we perceive on earth. Thus, we see that that which is most real to me corresponds to the order of knowing, whereas what is most real in itself corresponds to the order of being." 

(Student CG) 

All Physics and No Metaphysics

All of this, I think, can be seen in the trajectory of the last 400 years of equating "progress" with the understanding and preservation of man's physical body. If I had to summarize it, the modern project has been a project set on harnessing the physical world to aid man's physical body. In a word, the modern project is: Technology. 

My father, Paul Cole Beach, wrote in 1970: 

"The modern world is one of unparalleled abundance, vital potential, and technological sophistication. Never before have so many men enjoyed the necessary precondition to a fully humane existence: leisure. Yet life is widely experienced as being without purpose or creative inspiration. The time is one when man believes himself fabulously capable of creation, but he does not know what to make. Lord of all things, he is not lord of himself. He is lost in his own wealth. With bitter paradox, wealth has bred a spiritual aridity from which the masses are everywhere rising estranged, lawless, violent." 

(Beach, Paul Cole: Catholicity and Revolution. Social Justice Review. April 1970) 

He had no idea, in 1970, the absolute revolution that the computer, internet, smart phone, social media, and artificial intelligence all would have on the world. He did intuit, though, that these technological advances absent the higher teleology of metaphysical narratives would bring a type of nihilism for modern man. We can do all of these things ... but what are we supposed to do? If there is no real ultimate purpose for my life, do I just spend my life chasing the never ending stream of short term gratification: junk food, entertainment, drugs, gambling, pornography, hookups, social media, etc? Is this meta-awareness of my own existential incompleteness the actual problem? Is the solution to the human problem to eliminate conscious thought and reflection, to return to an animalistic state?

The Modern Project's rejection of metaphysics and the wholesale adoption of technology has created a situation in which modern man has every indulgence for his body but is starving to death in his soul. 

The Amish Problem

But what about the Christian who still has belief in objective morality and ultimate purpose and life after death? How should they live in the world which is on this roller-coaster of technological development? Herein lies the heart of what I am calling the "Amish Problem". At what point does technology so change the nature of the human experience that we must stop any further advancement? The Amish have obviously chosen a period in time when they see that be the case. But what about us Catholics? Can we continue to adapt to the changing landscapes of the contemporary world and its discoveries and still keep human nature intact? This is indeed a problem. If we answer in the negative, then we are certainly going to find it difficult to function in the modern world. If we answer in the affirmative, then are we not in danger of letting the world erode our morals and values? 

It might be possible to find an answer if we could answer the question: What is the actual purpose of developing technology at all? One might respond that the purpose of technology is to help eliminate suffering in the world by making life easier. Indeed, the elimination of suffering is a good and noble thing. But if we extrapolate out into the not so distant future, it is not crazy to envision a world in which all suffering is either eliminated or aimed at being eliminated: from sicknesses to aging to any type of servile work. 

The elimination of all suffering, far from being desirable, actually seems dystopian. Don't human beings ultimately need to suffer? Isn't bodily suffering what produces growth and meaning in the soul, in the ties that bind relationships together through sacrificial love? 

Maybe the answer is that it could be ideal to eliminate any suffering that we don't choose for ourselves? I hesitate to agree with this, though it sounds better than eliminating suffering altogether. While I do not have an answer to this paradox, it seems to me that technology (and the elimination of suffering that comes with it) must be placed back in their proper place in the hierarchy of being. The body is the lowest part of reality, with the mind and soul transcending it, and so ultimately I think technology has to once again be understood as subservient to these realities. 

And so I think the Modern Project is doomed to fail and has failed. Are we happier than our ancestors? I honestly don't think so.