Your essay’s thoughtful vibe followed me away from the computer screen, and into conversations with family members, and now I come back wondering, What is the water cask? Maybe our ship is always sinking, often in little ways, yet ways that accumulate and can become real dangers (even before the Great Ship sinks)? Maybe we ought to be daily practicing leaping into the waters?
Peter- Yes, this is it exactly. I have been thinking about it a lot. We do need to practice leaping into waters. The virtual world is continually both lulling us to sleep and ramping up our fear response to keep us coming back for more. The antidote, at least in general, is a deep plunge into the cold water of reality. I may this in part quite literally!
In a broader sense this relates to the practice of Wild Christianity. Though my thoughts on it are too vague at the moment to elaborate.
As someone privileged to body surf, the literal 'leaping into the waters' happens regularly and to great effect as an antidote to persistent messages to be dragged into the maelstrom of man-made reality. And while the water cask is also man-made, it is hollow unless it contains the medium into which we are thrown or cast (in which case it cannot save us). So, if it is hollow or 'empty' perhaps it is inviting us to fill it with the ideals of human love, to buoy us up and save us. By way of extended analogy, the idea of a water cask or some other empty 'container' acting as the 'head of state' of human political institutions seems to me to offer a way to externalise, and metaphorically situate, our best and life-affirming aspirations and goals. The water cask then holds the waters of life, of baptism, of cleansing and clarity - not literally but as something to which we can collectively cling. Thank you for a beautiful rendering of rich ideas in this article.
Yours is a beautiful fleshing out of Poe's story. I really do think A Descent into the Maelstrom has great resonance as a kind of myth of our times. A way to frame a response though it isn't itself yet that response. The story can help our practical efforts in fruitful ways. We need to think deeply about our situation but also must take decisive action. There is a necessary tension there that might yield unexpected fruits. --Jack
Thank you Jack, I appreciate your further insight and the idea of remaining open, observant, and decisive in action. I will reread all your post and immerse myself in the flow of ideas, clinging to the opportunity offered by expressing love as freely as I might.
His essay is beautiful but its also wrong. Technology isn't the problem, it is just another scapegoat on the alter that the devils is using to deceive you. Technology is a tool, an algorithm, its not and never has been alive. The problem is us, t swift got it right... "Its me, Hi. Im the problem, its me."
Blaming technology is just another way to deny our own guilt in the face of the reality of God. Man needs God. All will eventually bend the knee to his glory.
Its that simple. Bend the knee to his will.
This is a dead black box. A tool. Come back home and sit at the feet of Jesus for a spell. He's calling you.
I think you are creating a false dichotomy. It isn't an either/or but a both/and. Also, and perhaps more to the point, I think we are starting from very different assumptions about the nature of technology. At least in regard to the kinds of technology now prevalent (including the one we are using to discuss this, ironically).
I am with McLuhan that technology is *far* from neutral--it isn't simply and naively a "tool". To paraphrase Churchill, we shape our technologies which in turn shape us. The technological world is now so increasingly immersive that it is shaping us in ways we don't yet understand and probably wouldn't like at all if we did understand. The immersive nature of technology will only increase and its ability to shape us more totally will grow along with it.
That said, I agree with you totally that it would be far better to instead live a life in Christ--a life of metanoia, contemplation and prayer. Which is exactly what I am trying to do, however imperfectly.
Reread your own words again. This is a circular statement, a paradox, and a partial truth.
"we shape our technologies which in turn shape us."
Technology can only mimic real life, but its not real life. Its a simulation, a model, and not a particularly good one. Technology cannot shape you any more than a calculator can. Think about the argument that guns kill people, so if we outlaw them it will fix the problem.
But it doesn't, the the number of shootings still remains high.
Why is that?
Its because guns don't kill people. People kill people. The gun is just a tool, an inanimate object, it cannot "shape or do" anything on its own. Technology is similar, on its own it is just a tool. It needs a human to choose to use it as a weapon to hurt others. Does this argument explain the concept any better?
How about the statement below...
We are made in the image of the living creator God. Not a dead black box, Not a machine, Not an algorithm. THE LIVING CREATOR GOD. You are so much more precious and complex than you know. When we believe that technology shapes us, we are also saying that technology is capable of conforming and shaping the image of God into its own image.
This subversion of doctrine is at the core of the problem. This is basically idolatry. God comes first, worship the creator not the creation.
I understand why you think cutting yourself off from technology is the best path forward. We live in a world of wickedness, everywhere you turn you see it. Sin is like a virus, you are aware of this on a subconscious level. The impulse to not be immersed in it for too long, lest you become infected by its sickness is very wise. Unfortunately, it is not enough to preserve you or keep you from suffering. You can only be preserved by anchoring yourself to Jesus.
You are a son of God, made in his image. The image of the creator GOD. And it is a great insult to his glory when we imply that technology is higher than his image. Its a lie, and its okay if we are fooled by it for a bit. Whats most important is that we acknowledge our mistake and try to do better tomorrow. Instead of shame for falling for the lie, think of it in a lessons learned kind of way. I would implore you take a programing course, so you can better understand the deception. Take the time to try to learn how the tool works, its not as hard as you think. But it does require the discipline. Which you seem to already possess in spades, all you need is to be pointed in the right direction. Instead of trusting the opinions of others, take the time to learn how to build, create, and manipulate the machine. You'll be surprise by what you are capable of.
You are still creating a false dichotomy. But regardless, why go around in circles? You have your view and I have mine. And mine may be entirely wrong. But there are fruitful discussions around disagreement and there are pointless ones. With all due respect, I have zero interest in going around in circles with strangers on the internet. More to the point, I have no desire or intention of convincing you or anyone of anything.
The internet is vast!
Again, thank you for your comment. I hope you are well. -Jack
"With all due respect, I have zero interest in going around in circles with strangers on the internet"
Adding the phrase with all due respect does not make the second half of that statement okay. If you respected me, you would not dehumanize me by implying I am a "stranger on the internet" and therefore unworthy of your consideration or attention. Saying shitty things and demonizing my character will not change the truth or make my opinion any less valid. I pray for your hard heart to find the humility needed to love others as you love yourself. Kindness to strangers (even on the internet) is a deed worth doing. I apologize for being so blunt, but I am quite bored with this passive aggressive, language manipulation tactic so many are using. Its so overdone at this point that even small children can see through it. Do better.
Excellent piece. I especially love how the surviving brother repurposed an ordinary object, a water cask, to save himself. That is the kind of adaption we may have to make to survive what is coming. I think it is also necessary to check our assumptions of what the future might look like. The past is prelude, but prelude to what? I assume it will be a gradual decline, and there is already evidence for that, but there might also be a few downdrafts coming. Best to prepare for both possibilities.
Adjusting out mindsets and acquiring skills are both required, and I would give a premium on the former. I think we must, in the words of poet William Everson, "build [a] program for action based on repose." The substacks, I believe, are for the reposing part, and that is great for a beginning. I think the skills part will grow more urgent as we see that the time is running out. That may be sooner than we think.
Jim- I tend to agree that what is coming and already upon us will be difficult to predict. My sense is that it will be non-linear with some wild swings. I often wonder if some otherwise insignificant event will hit the system in a vulnerable spot causing inordinate damage. A kind of catastrophic butterfly effect. To use Taleb's terms we are likely in for some Black Swan events. Are we anti-fragile? I know I'm not. Which is something to work on.
I like the Everson quote and am wary of concocting some slapdash response. Like the narrator we need to remain calm and study the problem deeply. Only then would it be wise to take decisive action. And, yes, time is of the essence here.
I was sat in a ‘meeting’ last evening (please someone give me a more truthful word than the ‘m’ word!) in which we were coming together as two aged care providers seeking better ways of working together. All I could see was shrinkage and decline but no New Creation. We were sat across the road from the city’s major ‘benefactor’ an ‘investment’ company, which effectively operates by creating’value’ by immersing less powerful players in debt.
The maelstrom is like a tornado, or a Gordian knot, it just squeezes all the vitality out of everything it touches, but so few see this or even dare to name it. (Guenon’s ‘The Age of Quantity’ speaks to this in a different manner)
Hebrews 13:13 comes to mind. My recent preaching has been around this ‘idea’. On the ship we have no lasting city, to mix metaphors.
Rhyd W asked me about how in my context we do this sort of stuff. Agency troubles me as it’s our default
I think that it’s more ‘getting thrown off the boat’ to use Eugene Peterson’s lovely phrase. The World vomits out that which would be its Salvation but the Eucatastrophe reveals this as its Salvation.
Rather like the Silence that refuses to play the game - non activity in a world of total human agency perhaps has its place.
I recently read this (again) in my go-to book, and it resonated more deeply than in the past. I think it addresses what you are saying here:
"For Lao Tzu, non-action meant following the Tao, which itself follows the course of non-action. For followers of Christ the incarnate Tao, non-action is raised to a personal dimension called 'faith'."
and:
"In order to practice personal non-action (i.e., true faith) we must come before our Creator and Savior without any preconceived opinions. We must seek salvation on *His* terms and in *His* time, even if it requires that we endure *worse* suffering than we knew before! Having understood on an existential level that of ourselves we can do nothing at all, we cease trying, grasping, contriving--for 'to make is to mar, to grasp is to lose.' We merely acknowledge our sickness and our problem, bring it before our Savior the Tao/Logos, and blindly *trust* that He will save us in ways that only He knows. We do not expect Him to save us immediately and once-for-all-time, but rather we trust that He will *continually* save us--change us and perfect us--through his Uncreated Energy, as long as we continue to give our free will to Him and abandon ourselves to His will, which is the Way of the Universe."
--Christ the Eternal Tao
These passage have really changed how I think about faith, both as an idea and as a practical reality.
I have the wood stove going in the hermitage and it's been a bit foggy lately. I have been told it's not fog but clouds. It shouldn't be too cold today. Otherwise, all is well.
I hope the other side of the planet is treating you and yours well, also.
Following a short course I taught on Romans, I came to understand faith in this way considering Abraham ‘father of us all’
It’s uncomfortable and not helped by seeing others in a comfort zone re faith which seems to keep ‘it’ as it were much as one might have a lucky charm. It led us to this side of the world . . .
. . . where it continues unseasonably warm and dry
Josh- The few times I've worked in a corporate setting I really loathed the meetings. It was like observing a bizarre niche in an unknown ecosystem, the near total use of circumlocution and language as avoidance--all of which was simultaneously fascinating and continually threatened to put me to sleep out of sheer boredom. Now that I think of it, I actually have fallen asleep in corporate meetings. Nodding off is not a good look!
Thankfully I didn't make it very far in the corporate world.
"But it is also a very easy to get lost in an unending intellectual pursuit. There are always more books, more articles, more podccasts more substacks, on and on and on."
Talk about a powerfult trap / habit. My tendency ,unfortunately, is simultaneous awareness of this trap but also little hesitation in buying by next substack monthly subscription!
It seems so "on and on and on."--a real compulsion probably linked to crumbs of recognition/prestige / power which I seem to think I can't do without--even as I close in on the age of 80. In fact, greater and greater awarness of my own mortality often serves to accelerate this knowledge compulsion.
Sunshine- I struggle myself to find some kind of balance in all this. We know that they have deliberately made aspects of the internet as addictive as possible. Yet we are facing a radical and unprecedented shift in what it means to be human. I think it is quite natural to want to understand it. The irony in that so doing it changes us in ways we might not like.
I certainly don't have any answer. In putting our zeal and efforts into the virtual we assist in the emptying out of the real. Is it possible to do both? I hope so, because that is what I am attempting here. The fear is that of getting lost in a very online intellectual pursuit. Can we also build something beautiful in the world? I think we can. Or: I hope we can.
That quote was a wake up call for me too. I've acquired so many books, substacks and podcasts since accepting my Christianity that I risk submerging myself in a maelstrom all of my own making.
And, in the process, losing much of the clarity that brought me here in the first place.
I must therefore thank you deeply Jack, for this beautiful but ultimately very timely essay!
I think it is a very real question whether or not we can engage fully in the very online life and not get sucked into it to our detriment. That said, there are still reasons to take the risk. We are going through a massive and unprecedented shift about what it means to be human. There is a real need, I think, to try to fathom what is happening. The second part, which probably cannot be long delayed, is to start taking practical action in reality. I have no secret formula on how to do it. Maybe the deep realization that we can no longer delay will be enough. I hope so.
I suppose I'm already taking a few small practical steps but it's never easy with a family to provide for. I won't go into that as it's been done to death and is a regularly occurring conundrum that so many face.
I am however spending more time than ever tending our small gardens and attempting to grow and harvest whatever we can. The soil here isn't great, very dense, clay based, and holds a lot of water. It doesn't drain well at all. But it's all a learning curve. I'm also selling many of my possessions that have no practical use. Id love to be able to give it all away to those more needy but what it does, in a small way, is buy time as well as tools and repairs to our aging home.
As for the internet, it's about being disciplined. I spend virtually no time on social media any more and engage even less! Reading the likes of yourself, Paul, Rhyd, Peter and Dougald on here is more than enough. It does teach me a lot as I dive ever deeper into Christianity/the Way but I have to be selective as to which paths I follow. In the last 6 months I've tentatively explored Taoism, Anglicanism, Catholicism, Celtic Christianity and Orthodoxy. To date the only one definitely off the table, so to speak, is Anglicanism. Elements of the others to a lesser or greater degree hold my attention and speak to me on a spiritual level. Especially Taoism, Celtic Christianity and Orthodoxy. Where this will lead I don't yet know, but it's been a wild journey so far and one I never envisaged making.
The problem is there's so much to dive into that's readily available on the net that you can easily lose purpose and focus.
I'll leave it there as I could go on and on, but I am deeply thankful for this community you have brought together and your wonderful essays. I feel very blessed and humble to be a small part of it and to be able to benefit from its collective wisdom.
At the risk of a bad pun, we are all in the same boat (and in the same maelstrom). We do what we can as we can. One of the real benefits of having this discussion online is that we can hopefully help each other deepen our conceptions of what is possible and find practical ways to implement it.
It is my contention that we need not only a deep intellectual understanding of the unprecedented vortex we are caught in; and we do need not only to find practical ways to start to depend on the megasystem less if we can; but the center of what we can do should be some form of silent prayer/meditation/contemplation. Any such practice, of course, is best done within a tradition and within a community of practitioners. That isn't always possible either, so again, we do the best we can.
The deeper we all go into all three elements, i.e., intellectual understanding, practical engagement with the world (and with simply being in the wilderness if possible), and contemplation, the more likely we will begin to come upon insights and ways of being in the world previously hidden from us. That is the hope.
To extend the nautical metaphor, this is an all-hands-on-deck moment.
I am glad you are here with us and part of this conversation. -Jack
Thanks Jack, a lovely, thoughtful response as always.
Amen to every word of that.
One of the key takeaways is very much to focus on what we can do, rather than allow ourselves to be downhearted, frustrated or even angry at what we cannot. I would love to be part of a community, but I have the additional dilemma of not knowing which one, at this early stage. I have to accept that.
Work and family commitments would also make it difficult logistically.
However, I am in a routine now where I pray and quietly contemplate for around 30 to 40 minutes twice a day and it has been of immense value, both physically and mentally. I am also learning to keep God at the forefront of my thoughts as I go through the day. Of course I drift, that's inevitable, but having little reminders around me help to bring focus back.
I'll end with a thought from St John of Kronstadt, which I picked up from The Orthodox Way:
"Prayer is a state of constant gratitude".
Metropolitan Kallistos Ware expanded on this:
"If I do not feel a sense of joy in God's creation, if I forget to offer the world back to God with thankfulness, I have advanced very little along the Way. I have not yet learned to be truly human. For it is only through thanksgiving that I can become myself. Joyful thanksgiving, so far from being escapist or sentimental, is on the contrary entirely realistic - but with the realism of one who sees the world in God, as the divine creation."
What a lovely explanation and one that I can relate to deeply.
It is also a joy to have you as a (virtual!) companion on this journey. Thanks Jack.
Hi Jack, I know there's a never-ending temptation to read just one more substack, but have you looked at Graham Pardun's new one? I just subscribed for a month so I could read the rest of an essay and I wanted to gift you a subscription. Turns out I can't do that without your email. Would you like that? I especially thought you'd like the one called 'The idea of a Forest Liturgy at the End of Time'. My email is simclardy@yahoo.com if you send me yours I'll go through with the gift.
Clara- I have seen Graham's substack. I think he is doing very interesting things, as far as I can tell. I would gratefully accept your kind gift. I will send you an email shortly. Thank you. -Jack
I'm reading Graham's book, the Sunlilies, at the moment. It's my second time through but I'm finding it much more beneficial this time, especially the second essay Living Images of the Living God, which I struggled with a few months back.
I would love to learn how to garden. I think you are right that I would enjoy it. Though the soil up here is probably not the best for a beginner, at least from what I am told. Br. A planted some sunflowers last year and these did alright. I have long hoped for a little plot of land. If nothing else, I would like to see if Fukuoka was on to something or not.
Intriguing and well thought out, Jack, and what a fascinating tale by Poe. I will have to look that one up. Some of us will cling so tightly to our mental poles that we will not see the storm, let alone have the wherewithal to see possibilities to escape its wrath.
Very thoughtful and meaningful piece. Or are they pieces? From the part about McLuhan to the maelstrom – great metaphor – to the “Providence of mammon” – another perfect phrase that expresses it all – not to mention the quote from the Tao te Ching (one of many transliterations) – this is one beautiful and valuable, and useful, article. Thanks for writing it! One thing about diving into the maelstrom – its rugged individual solution is never as good as what you touched on in the piece that followed, that we do need to form human alliances within that maelstrom to pool our solutions and cooperate a collective out of it. Noah did not ship out alone, and neither should we. But how do people taught it’s every one for himself form alliances? There’s a difference between one small off the coast maelstrom that threatens some lives and a global maelstrom that threatens humanity wholesale.
Good eye. There are indeed two pieces here. My intention was to connect them by a slender thread, and not make explicit what that connection is. Whether I succeeded or not is another question. What that connection is, or could be, is I think the conversation we all need to have, or to deepen. In this could be a different kind of practical focus. That is my hope. I need to learn it at least as much as anybody.
"One thing about diving into the maelstrom – its rugged individual solution is never as good as what you touched on in the piece that followed, that we do need to form human alliances within that maelstrom to pool our solutions and cooperate a collective out of it."
Amen, and well said. The unprecedented global maelstrom will call forth from us a response perhaps just as unprecedented. I fear anything less will be insufficient.
Thanks, Jack, for your thoughtful reply; I really appreciate your eloquence, humility, and clarity. Also, I’ve noticed numerous ppl on the internet are expressing similar ideas but have yet to figure out how to bring that energy together.
Siham- I think we are all caught in a performative contradiction, i.e., we are trying find a way to come together via a medium that intrinsically prevents it. For example, I am in the US and have a beloved friend in England. We can talk via video chat--which I am grateful we can do. But the experience is simultaneously one of being very close...and yet we are still some 5,000 miles distant from each other. It is a form of radical dislocation.
Or more simply: if this can be solved at all it will not be solved on the internet. At some point we need to step outside of it and build something in the real world.
Thank you for your comment and for your kind words. -Jack
Very true. And it’s hard to bring those distance-relations together, although some of them I value greatly and have helped me in practical real-world ways. But there comes a point when the distance is truly a felt thing, the zoom meetings aren’t doing what needs to be done but it’s all we have. It’s a kind of poverty that’s all the worse for being undefinable.
excellent! it's wonderful to see this "be like water" approach gaining traction in the wider consciousness
at the risk of promoting "yet another substack" (ha)—i've been working on pulling apart the metanarrative that underpins all this: the idea that we are only safe when we (or those we empower) can control the world. i'm looking more toward the work of repairing the myths that we use to interpret reality; your imperative to learn about making, growing and fixing things is a vital corollary in the material world. thanks for sharing.
Yes! I think that dismantling the myth of progress and (re)creating a new/old mythos is essential to any of this. Analysis and commentary are good and necessary, but I fear do not go deep enough. The old mythos still programs us in ways that are elusive. This is why I think we need the poets, and artists, and musicians to help shift the story we live by. And maybe we need not only these new/old stories but also a new/old way of telling them and living them.
Excellent article Jack! "We are in the maelstrom. There is no escaping it anymore. The ship is coming apart." I just finished a radio piece today on the dire state of mental health of young people caused by the abyss of social media (based on Jon Haidt's research on After Babel). The young are trapped as the net of depression and anxiety is cast onto the entire cohort (even those who reject social media experience isolation because everyone around them lives in their phones).
"A necessary disintegralism will need to begin by helping us disentangle ourselves from the kind of thinking and intuitions that the system has fostered in us." As a homeschool educator I have found that stepping outside the system provides an opportunity for children to grow up with different lenses. When I observe students in my homeschool co-ops I feel hopeful that they are finding ways to disentangle themselves from the Machine and, as you put it, "thrive in the margins".
Ruth- This is a very necessary part of the whole picture. Those of us who were raised in a somewhat less technologically immersive childhood may not fully comprehend what we are doing to children now. I see younger millennials and Gen Z'ers who came of age after the smartphone arrive at the monastery and in some cases the effects have been profound--and baffling to me.
Your second paragraph points to some hope in this. We need to continue to build real alternatives to the megasystem. I am glad to hear that you are involved in doing so. I feel the need to do something in this regard as well. Something I have thought a lot about but need to start actually building.
Your essay’s thoughtful vibe followed me away from the computer screen, and into conversations with family members, and now I come back wondering, What is the water cask? Maybe our ship is always sinking, often in little ways, yet ways that accumulate and can become real dangers (even before the Great Ship sinks)? Maybe we ought to be daily practicing leaping into the waters?
Peter- Yes, this is it exactly. I have been thinking about it a lot. We do need to practice leaping into waters. The virtual world is continually both lulling us to sleep and ramping up our fear response to keep us coming back for more. The antidote, at least in general, is a deep plunge into the cold water of reality. I may this in part quite literally!
In a broader sense this relates to the practice of Wild Christianity. Though my thoughts on it are too vague at the moment to elaborate.
What is the water cask that can save us?
-Jack
As someone privileged to body surf, the literal 'leaping into the waters' happens regularly and to great effect as an antidote to persistent messages to be dragged into the maelstrom of man-made reality. And while the water cask is also man-made, it is hollow unless it contains the medium into which we are thrown or cast (in which case it cannot save us). So, if it is hollow or 'empty' perhaps it is inviting us to fill it with the ideals of human love, to buoy us up and save us. By way of extended analogy, the idea of a water cask or some other empty 'container' acting as the 'head of state' of human political institutions seems to me to offer a way to externalise, and metaphorically situate, our best and life-affirming aspirations and goals. The water cask then holds the waters of life, of baptism, of cleansing and clarity - not literally but as something to which we can collectively cling. Thank you for a beautiful rendering of rich ideas in this article.
Graeme-
Yours is a beautiful fleshing out of Poe's story. I really do think A Descent into the Maelstrom has great resonance as a kind of myth of our times. A way to frame a response though it isn't itself yet that response. The story can help our practical efforts in fruitful ways. We need to think deeply about our situation but also must take decisive action. There is a necessary tension there that might yield unexpected fruits. --Jack
Thank you Jack, I appreciate your further insight and the idea of remaining open, observant, and decisive in action. I will reread all your post and immerse myself in the flow of ideas, clinging to the opportunity offered by expressing love as freely as I might.
Maybe the deeper question is *who* is the water cask...
"Maybe we ought to be daily practicing leaping into the waters?"
Exactly!! Be the wave, not the boats.
His essay is beautiful but its also wrong. Technology isn't the problem, it is just another scapegoat on the alter that the devils is using to deceive you. Technology is a tool, an algorithm, its not and never has been alive. The problem is us, t swift got it right... "Its me, Hi. Im the problem, its me."
Blaming technology is just another way to deny our own guilt in the face of the reality of God. Man needs God. All will eventually bend the knee to his glory.
Its that simple. Bend the knee to his will.
This is a dead black box. A tool. Come back home and sit at the feet of Jesus for a spell. He's calling you.
Afd-
I think you are creating a false dichotomy. It isn't an either/or but a both/and. Also, and perhaps more to the point, I think we are starting from very different assumptions about the nature of technology. At least in regard to the kinds of technology now prevalent (including the one we are using to discuss this, ironically).
I am with McLuhan that technology is *far* from neutral--it isn't simply and naively a "tool". To paraphrase Churchill, we shape our technologies which in turn shape us. The technological world is now so increasingly immersive that it is shaping us in ways we don't yet understand and probably wouldn't like at all if we did understand. The immersive nature of technology will only increase and its ability to shape us more totally will grow along with it.
That said, I agree with you totally that it would be far better to instead live a life in Christ--a life of metanoia, contemplation and prayer. Which is exactly what I am trying to do, however imperfectly.
Thank you for your comment. -Jack
Reread your own words again. This is a circular statement, a paradox, and a partial truth.
"we shape our technologies which in turn shape us."
Technology can only mimic real life, but its not real life. Its a simulation, a model, and not a particularly good one. Technology cannot shape you any more than a calculator can. Think about the argument that guns kill people, so if we outlaw them it will fix the problem.
But it doesn't, the the number of shootings still remains high.
Why is that?
Its because guns don't kill people. People kill people. The gun is just a tool, an inanimate object, it cannot "shape or do" anything on its own. Technology is similar, on its own it is just a tool. It needs a human to choose to use it as a weapon to hurt others. Does this argument explain the concept any better?
How about the statement below...
We are made in the image of the living creator God. Not a dead black box, Not a machine, Not an algorithm. THE LIVING CREATOR GOD. You are so much more precious and complex than you know. When we believe that technology shapes us, we are also saying that technology is capable of conforming and shaping the image of God into its own image.
This subversion of doctrine is at the core of the problem. This is basically idolatry. God comes first, worship the creator not the creation.
I understand why you think cutting yourself off from technology is the best path forward. We live in a world of wickedness, everywhere you turn you see it. Sin is like a virus, you are aware of this on a subconscious level. The impulse to not be immersed in it for too long, lest you become infected by its sickness is very wise. Unfortunately, it is not enough to preserve you or keep you from suffering. You can only be preserved by anchoring yourself to Jesus.
You are a son of God, made in his image. The image of the creator GOD. And it is a great insult to his glory when we imply that technology is higher than his image. Its a lie, and its okay if we are fooled by it for a bit. Whats most important is that we acknowledge our mistake and try to do better tomorrow. Instead of shame for falling for the lie, think of it in a lessons learned kind of way. I would implore you take a programing course, so you can better understand the deception. Take the time to try to learn how the tool works, its not as hard as you think. But it does require the discipline. Which you seem to already possess in spades, all you need is to be pointed in the right direction. Instead of trusting the opinions of others, take the time to learn how to build, create, and manipulate the machine. You'll be surprise by what you are capable of.
You are still creating a false dichotomy. But regardless, why go around in circles? You have your view and I have mine. And mine may be entirely wrong. But there are fruitful discussions around disagreement and there are pointless ones. With all due respect, I have zero interest in going around in circles with strangers on the internet. More to the point, I have no desire or intention of convincing you or anyone of anything.
The internet is vast!
Again, thank you for your comment. I hope you are well. -Jack
"With all due respect, I have zero interest in going around in circles with strangers on the internet"
Adding the phrase with all due respect does not make the second half of that statement okay. If you respected me, you would not dehumanize me by implying I am a "stranger on the internet" and therefore unworthy of your consideration or attention. Saying shitty things and demonizing my character will not change the truth or make my opinion any less valid. I pray for your hard heart to find the humility needed to love others as you love yourself. Kindness to strangers (even on the internet) is a deed worth doing. I apologize for being so blunt, but I am quite bored with this passive aggressive, language manipulation tactic so many are using. Its so overdone at this point that even small children can see through it. Do better.
Forgive me if this is a strange question: is this Cece?
Excellent piece. I especially love how the surviving brother repurposed an ordinary object, a water cask, to save himself. That is the kind of adaption we may have to make to survive what is coming. I think it is also necessary to check our assumptions of what the future might look like. The past is prelude, but prelude to what? I assume it will be a gradual decline, and there is already evidence for that, but there might also be a few downdrafts coming. Best to prepare for both possibilities.
Adjusting out mindsets and acquiring skills are both required, and I would give a premium on the former. I think we must, in the words of poet William Everson, "build [a] program for action based on repose." The substacks, I believe, are for the reposing part, and that is great for a beginning. I think the skills part will grow more urgent as we see that the time is running out. That may be sooner than we think.
Jim- I tend to agree that what is coming and already upon us will be difficult to predict. My sense is that it will be non-linear with some wild swings. I often wonder if some otherwise insignificant event will hit the system in a vulnerable spot causing inordinate damage. A kind of catastrophic butterfly effect. To use Taleb's terms we are likely in for some Black Swan events. Are we anti-fragile? I know I'm not. Which is something to work on.
I like the Everson quote and am wary of concocting some slapdash response. Like the narrator we need to remain calm and study the problem deeply. Only then would it be wise to take decisive action. And, yes, time is of the essence here.
-Jack
"I would give a premium on the former."
Agreed!
Hi Jack
Beautifully expressed
We are feeding the machine which is eating us
Very timely
I was sat in a ‘meeting’ last evening (please someone give me a more truthful word than the ‘m’ word!) in which we were coming together as two aged care providers seeking better ways of working together. All I could see was shrinkage and decline but no New Creation. We were sat across the road from the city’s major ‘benefactor’ an ‘investment’ company, which effectively operates by creating’value’ by immersing less powerful players in debt.
The maelstrom is like a tornado, or a Gordian knot, it just squeezes all the vitality out of everything it touches, but so few see this or even dare to name it. (Guenon’s ‘The Age of Quantity’ speaks to this in a different manner)
Hebrews 13:13 comes to mind. My recent preaching has been around this ‘idea’. On the ship we have no lasting city, to mix metaphors.
Rhyd W asked me about how in my context we do this sort of stuff. Agency troubles me as it’s our default
I think that it’s more ‘getting thrown off the boat’ to use Eugene Peterson’s lovely phrase. The World vomits out that which would be its Salvation but the Eucatastrophe reveals this as its Salvation.
Rather like the Silence that refuses to play the game - non activity in a world of total human agency perhaps has its place.
Thanks again for a most evocative piece
Trust you are well
Eric
Eric-
I recently read this (again) in my go-to book, and it resonated more deeply than in the past. I think it addresses what you are saying here:
"For Lao Tzu, non-action meant following the Tao, which itself follows the course of non-action. For followers of Christ the incarnate Tao, non-action is raised to a personal dimension called 'faith'."
and:
"In order to practice personal non-action (i.e., true faith) we must come before our Creator and Savior without any preconceived opinions. We must seek salvation on *His* terms and in *His* time, even if it requires that we endure *worse* suffering than we knew before! Having understood on an existential level that of ourselves we can do nothing at all, we cease trying, grasping, contriving--for 'to make is to mar, to grasp is to lose.' We merely acknowledge our sickness and our problem, bring it before our Savior the Tao/Logos, and blindly *trust* that He will save us in ways that only He knows. We do not expect Him to save us immediately and once-for-all-time, but rather we trust that He will *continually* save us--change us and perfect us--through his Uncreated Energy, as long as we continue to give our free will to Him and abandon ourselves to His will, which is the Way of the Universe."
--Christ the Eternal Tao
These passage have really changed how I think about faith, both as an idea and as a practical reality.
I have the wood stove going in the hermitage and it's been a bit foggy lately. I have been told it's not fog but clouds. It shouldn't be too cold today. Otherwise, all is well.
I hope the other side of the planet is treating you and yours well, also.
-Jack
Oh, and something which came to me, resonating with a powerful piece I’ve just read by Philip Sherrard, we are doubly distracted in the Modern World
We complain about how we are distracted, but we are now distracted from what distracts us, having lost sight of The One to whom we should attend
It’s a frictionless system
And slightly more back on subject, faith as living only for the Well Done of the unseen one
Thank you, Jack
Funnily enough I only saw that book yesterday
I have a six day silent retreat ahead of me. . .
Yes, faith as ‘Abandonment to Divine Providence’
Following a short course I taught on Romans, I came to understand faith in this way considering Abraham ‘father of us all’
It’s uncomfortable and not helped by seeing others in a comfort zone re faith which seems to keep ‘it’ as it were much as one might have a lucky charm. It led us to this side of the world . . .
. . . where it continues unseasonably warm and dry
Mine and I am well
Thank you
- Eric
‘Stand still and Behold Gods Salvation’
We are wired to exalt our own agency
Tie yourself to the mast and wait for the ship to break up :)
Josh- The few times I've worked in a corporate setting I really loathed the meetings. It was like observing a bizarre niche in an unknown ecosystem, the near total use of circumlocution and language as avoidance--all of which was simultaneously fascinating and continually threatened to put me to sleep out of sheer boredom. Now that I think of it, I actually have fallen asleep in corporate meetings. Nodding off is not a good look!
Thankfully I didn't make it very far in the corporate world.
-Jack
Thanks Josh
Yes
The corporate level which I am required by various connections only amplifies
Masks on masks
Appreciated
"But it is also a very easy to get lost in an unending intellectual pursuit. There are always more books, more articles, more podccasts more substacks, on and on and on."
Talk about a powerfult trap / habit. My tendency ,unfortunately, is simultaneous awareness of this trap but also little hesitation in buying by next substack monthly subscription!
It seems so "on and on and on."--a real compulsion probably linked to crumbs of recognition/prestige / power which I seem to think I can't do without--even as I close in on the age of 80. In fact, greater and greater awarness of my own mortality often serves to accelerate this knowledge compulsion.
Sunshine- I struggle myself to find some kind of balance in all this. We know that they have deliberately made aspects of the internet as addictive as possible. Yet we are facing a radical and unprecedented shift in what it means to be human. I think it is quite natural to want to understand it. The irony in that so doing it changes us in ways we might not like.
I certainly don't have any answer. In putting our zeal and efforts into the virtual we assist in the emptying out of the real. Is it possible to do both? I hope so, because that is what I am attempting here. The fear is that of getting lost in a very online intellectual pursuit. Can we also build something beautiful in the world? I think we can. Or: I hope we can.
-Jack
That quote was a wake up call for me too. I've acquired so many books, substacks and podcasts since accepting my Christianity that I risk submerging myself in a maelstrom all of my own making.
And, in the process, losing much of the clarity that brought me here in the first place.
I must therefore thank you deeply Jack, for this beautiful but ultimately very timely essay!
Andrew-
I think it is a very real question whether or not we can engage fully in the very online life and not get sucked into it to our detriment. That said, there are still reasons to take the risk. We are going through a massive and unprecedented shift about what it means to be human. There is a real need, I think, to try to fathom what is happening. The second part, which probably cannot be long delayed, is to start taking practical action in reality. I have no secret formula on how to do it. Maybe the deep realization that we can no longer delay will be enough. I hope so.
-Jack
I suppose I'm already taking a few small practical steps but it's never easy with a family to provide for. I won't go into that as it's been done to death and is a regularly occurring conundrum that so many face.
I am however spending more time than ever tending our small gardens and attempting to grow and harvest whatever we can. The soil here isn't great, very dense, clay based, and holds a lot of water. It doesn't drain well at all. But it's all a learning curve. I'm also selling many of my possessions that have no practical use. Id love to be able to give it all away to those more needy but what it does, in a small way, is buy time as well as tools and repairs to our aging home.
As for the internet, it's about being disciplined. I spend virtually no time on social media any more and engage even less! Reading the likes of yourself, Paul, Rhyd, Peter and Dougald on here is more than enough. It does teach me a lot as I dive ever deeper into Christianity/the Way but I have to be selective as to which paths I follow. In the last 6 months I've tentatively explored Taoism, Anglicanism, Catholicism, Celtic Christianity and Orthodoxy. To date the only one definitely off the table, so to speak, is Anglicanism. Elements of the others to a lesser or greater degree hold my attention and speak to me on a spiritual level. Especially Taoism, Celtic Christianity and Orthodoxy. Where this will lead I don't yet know, but it's been a wild journey so far and one I never envisaged making.
The problem is there's so much to dive into that's readily available on the net that you can easily lose purpose and focus.
I'll leave it there as I could go on and on, but I am deeply thankful for this community you have brought together and your wonderful essays. I feel very blessed and humble to be a small part of it and to be able to benefit from its collective wisdom.
Andrew-
At the risk of a bad pun, we are all in the same boat (and in the same maelstrom). We do what we can as we can. One of the real benefits of having this discussion online is that we can hopefully help each other deepen our conceptions of what is possible and find practical ways to implement it.
It is my contention that we need not only a deep intellectual understanding of the unprecedented vortex we are caught in; and we do need not only to find practical ways to start to depend on the megasystem less if we can; but the center of what we can do should be some form of silent prayer/meditation/contemplation. Any such practice, of course, is best done within a tradition and within a community of practitioners. That isn't always possible either, so again, we do the best we can.
The deeper we all go into all three elements, i.e., intellectual understanding, practical engagement with the world (and with simply being in the wilderness if possible), and contemplation, the more likely we will begin to come upon insights and ways of being in the world previously hidden from us. That is the hope.
To extend the nautical metaphor, this is an all-hands-on-deck moment.
I am glad you are here with us and part of this conversation. -Jack
Thanks Jack, a lovely, thoughtful response as always.
Amen to every word of that.
One of the key takeaways is very much to focus on what we can do, rather than allow ourselves to be downhearted, frustrated or even angry at what we cannot. I would love to be part of a community, but I have the additional dilemma of not knowing which one, at this early stage. I have to accept that.
Work and family commitments would also make it difficult logistically.
However, I am in a routine now where I pray and quietly contemplate for around 30 to 40 minutes twice a day and it has been of immense value, both physically and mentally. I am also learning to keep God at the forefront of my thoughts as I go through the day. Of course I drift, that's inevitable, but having little reminders around me help to bring focus back.
I'll end with a thought from St John of Kronstadt, which I picked up from The Orthodox Way:
"Prayer is a state of constant gratitude".
Metropolitan Kallistos Ware expanded on this:
"If I do not feel a sense of joy in God's creation, if I forget to offer the world back to God with thankfulness, I have advanced very little along the Way. I have not yet learned to be truly human. For it is only through thanksgiving that I can become myself. Joyful thanksgiving, so far from being escapist or sentimental, is on the contrary entirely realistic - but with the realism of one who sees the world in God, as the divine creation."
What a lovely explanation and one that I can relate to deeply.
It is also a joy to have you as a (virtual!) companion on this journey. Thanks Jack.
Thanks Jack. A beautiful composition; admire the clarity and precision of the call to act. Will be returning to this often over the next few days.
Hi Jack, I know there's a never-ending temptation to read just one more substack, but have you looked at Graham Pardun's new one? I just subscribed for a month so I could read the rest of an essay and I wanted to gift you a subscription. Turns out I can't do that without your email. Would you like that? I especially thought you'd like the one called 'The idea of a Forest Liturgy at the End of Time'. My email is simclardy@yahoo.com if you send me yours I'll go through with the gift.
Clara- I have seen Graham's substack. I think he is doing very interesting things, as far as I can tell. I would gratefully accept your kind gift. I will send you an email shortly. Thank you. -Jack
I'm reading Graham's book, the Sunlilies, at the moment. It's my second time through but I'm finding it much more beneficial this time, especially the second essay Living Images of the Living God, which I struggled with a few months back.
A very kind gesture Clara 😊
Great piece and much to ponder. God give us grace to escape the Machine.
Amen.
So, are you going to plant a little garden at the monastery this spring? I believe you'd enjoy it; and you'd gain some skills. Seeds are cheap.
I would love to learn how to garden. I think you are right that I would enjoy it. Though the soil up here is probably not the best for a beginner, at least from what I am told. Br. A planted some sunflowers last year and these did alright. I have long hoped for a little plot of land. If nothing else, I would like to see if Fukuoka was on to something or not.
Intriguing and well thought out, Jack, and what a fascinating tale by Poe. I will have to look that one up. Some of us will cling so tightly to our mental poles that we will not see the storm, let alone have the wherewithal to see possibilities to escape its wrath.
Very thoughtful and meaningful piece. Or are they pieces? From the part about McLuhan to the maelstrom – great metaphor – to the “Providence of mammon” – another perfect phrase that expresses it all – not to mention the quote from the Tao te Ching (one of many transliterations) – this is one beautiful and valuable, and useful, article. Thanks for writing it! One thing about diving into the maelstrom – its rugged individual solution is never as good as what you touched on in the piece that followed, that we do need to form human alliances within that maelstrom to pool our solutions and cooperate a collective out of it. Noah did not ship out alone, and neither should we. But how do people taught it’s every one for himself form alliances? There’s a difference between one small off the coast maelstrom that threatens some lives and a global maelstrom that threatens humanity wholesale.
Siham-
Good eye. There are indeed two pieces here. My intention was to connect them by a slender thread, and not make explicit what that connection is. Whether I succeeded or not is another question. What that connection is, or could be, is I think the conversation we all need to have, or to deepen. In this could be a different kind of practical focus. That is my hope. I need to learn it at least as much as anybody.
"One thing about diving into the maelstrom – its rugged individual solution is never as good as what you touched on in the piece that followed, that we do need to form human alliances within that maelstrom to pool our solutions and cooperate a collective out of it."
Amen, and well said. The unprecedented global maelstrom will call forth from us a response perhaps just as unprecedented. I fear anything less will be insufficient.
Thank you for your comment. -Jack
Thanks, Jack, for your thoughtful reply; I really appreciate your eloquence, humility, and clarity. Also, I’ve noticed numerous ppl on the internet are expressing similar ideas but have yet to figure out how to bring that energy together.
Siham- I think we are all caught in a performative contradiction, i.e., we are trying find a way to come together via a medium that intrinsically prevents it. For example, I am in the US and have a beloved friend in England. We can talk via video chat--which I am grateful we can do. But the experience is simultaneously one of being very close...and yet we are still some 5,000 miles distant from each other. It is a form of radical dislocation.
Or more simply: if this can be solved at all it will not be solved on the internet. At some point we need to step outside of it and build something in the real world.
Thank you for your comment and for your kind words. -Jack
Very true. And it’s hard to bring those distance-relations together, although some of them I value greatly and have helped me in practical real-world ways. But there comes a point when the distance is truly a felt thing, the zoom meetings aren’t doing what needs to be done but it’s all we have. It’s a kind of poverty that’s all the worse for being undefinable.
Thank you for this. It called me out of the never ending intellectual pursuit.
I just listened to Descent into the Maelstrom on a youtube audiobook, here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cC7yFkE-f8g
It’s about 37 minutes, and skillfully read. A gripping short story, and great to listen to with the themes of this essay floating in the background.
This is the one I listened to as well. I agree, it is very well done.
Nice one Jack. Really enjoyed your observations / reflections.
excellent! it's wonderful to see this "be like water" approach gaining traction in the wider consciousness
at the risk of promoting "yet another substack" (ha)—i've been working on pulling apart the metanarrative that underpins all this: the idea that we are only safe when we (or those we empower) can control the world. i'm looking more toward the work of repairing the myths that we use to interpret reality; your imperative to learn about making, growing and fixing things is a vital corollary in the material world. thanks for sharing.
R.G.-
Yes! I think that dismantling the myth of progress and (re)creating a new/old mythos is essential to any of this. Analysis and commentary are good and necessary, but I fear do not go deep enough. The old mythos still programs us in ways that are elusive. This is why I think we need the poets, and artists, and musicians to help shift the story we live by. And maybe we need not only these new/old stories but also a new/old way of telling them and living them.
-Jack
❤️🩹
Excellent article Jack! "We are in the maelstrom. There is no escaping it anymore. The ship is coming apart." I just finished a radio piece today on the dire state of mental health of young people caused by the abyss of social media (based on Jon Haidt's research on After Babel). The young are trapped as the net of depression and anxiety is cast onto the entire cohort (even those who reject social media experience isolation because everyone around them lives in their phones).
"A necessary disintegralism will need to begin by helping us disentangle ourselves from the kind of thinking and intuitions that the system has fostered in us." As a homeschool educator I have found that stepping outside the system provides an opportunity for children to grow up with different lenses. When I observe students in my homeschool co-ops I feel hopeful that they are finding ways to disentangle themselves from the Machine and, as you put it, "thrive in the margins".
Ruth- This is a very necessary part of the whole picture. Those of us who were raised in a somewhat less technologically immersive childhood may not fully comprehend what we are doing to children now. I see younger millennials and Gen Z'ers who came of age after the smartphone arrive at the monastery and in some cases the effects have been profound--and baffling to me.
Your second paragraph points to some hope in this. We need to continue to build real alternatives to the megasystem. I am glad to hear that you are involved in doing so. I feel the need to do something in this regard as well. Something I have thought a lot about but need to start actually building.
Thank you for your comment. -Jack