H.R.H. The Prince of Wales on consumerism and technology

http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/consumerism-no-cure-for-depression-prince-charles/2008/11/26/1227491640538.html

Some wise words from H.R.H. The Prince of Wales at a speech for the Foreign Press Association of London:

The Prince of Wales has delivered an impassioned plea against Western civilisation's burgeoning consumerism, warning that it is leading to an increasing dislocation between humanity and nature.

[…] Speaking at the Park Lane Hotel at the annual Foreign Press Association media awards, Prince Charles said he believed that living in an age in which technological ease had become an accustomed and easy part of life had also contributed to a loss of natural connection with nature and its patterns.

This, he argued, has led to a loosening of what he described as man's inner moorings, shifting a natural orientation outward onto "something extraneous to us".

And he asked if the increasing dependence on technology had begun to make human beings also believe - like the modernists [as in “scientific Modernist rationalism”] - that they and the world are merely part of "some enormous mechanical process".

[…] Prince Charles said that, despite enormous levels of consumption in developed nations, more and more people admitted to feeling dissatisfied and depressed and neurological and sociological research is showing similar results.

[…] "One of the downsides of consumerism, it seems to me, is that it forces us to compromise on issues that should not be compromised. I'm sure there are many people who know that it is wrong to plunder the Earth's treasures as recklessly as we do, but the comprehensive world view which we now inhabit persuades us that such destruction is justified because of the freedom it brings us, not to say the profits," he said.

"In other words, our tendency to consume is legitimised by a view of the world that puts humanity at the centre of things, operating with an absolute right over nature. And that makes it a very dangerous world view indeed."

The text of the speech is available at His Royal Higness’s website:

http://www.princeofwales.gov.uk/speechesandarticles/a_speech_by_hrh_the_prince_of_wales_at_the_foreign_press_ass_1982236630.html

Note that I applaud much (but not all) of the letter of the speech, but not necessarily the spirit of it, if you know what I mean. Nonetheless, the advance of technology has certainly had the unfortunate consequence of the human race starting to think that it can not only subdue nature but even re-write it, so to speak; hence the tinkering with natural institutions like marriage and the obscene production of ‘animal-human hybrids’.

Reginaldvs Cantvar
28.XI.2008 A.D.

Surprise, surprise

http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,,24241361-5001021,00.html

According to Wednesday’s Sydney Daily Telegraph,

MORE than two-thirds of working mums would rather be at home with their children.

This would come as a surprise only to the most hard-core feminist theoretician. Let’s face it, the explosion in mothers’ work-force participation figures over the past forty years has far more to do with the pursuit of economic growth and the spread of consumerism than the liberation of women. Feminism is just the fig leaf with which this truth is covered up; economic rationalism is the real philosophy that has underpinned these changes.

Reginaldvs Cantvar

On this day in history …

(Well, yesterday actually, since this is the small hours of Saturday morning)

I note that it was on August 8, 1984 that New South Wales permitted shopping on Friday night and Saturday afternoon (History section, The Daily Telegraph). This was lamentable in itself because it represented another concession to economic rationalism and consumerism and an encroachment on family time for the workers whom it affected, and also because it signified that Sunday trading was imminent.

With the fortieth anniversary of Humanæ Vitæ, we hear talk that as much as 80% of Catholic couples in America, for instance, might be on contraception; certainly there is widespread dissent from this teaching. But one wonders how many Catholics dissent from the requirement to abstain from servile work (or from availing oneself of others’ servile work) on Sunday. My a priori expectation would be that a good 90% would feel no compunction at doing so, and maybe fewer than 10% might scruple at it if it were to infringe on Sunday worship.

When was the last time one heard Priests or Bishops denouncing Sunday labour for its grave sinfulness? (If you have an example please mention it in the combox.) We hear condemnations of ‘racism’, ‘unsustainable development’, or whatever is the flavour of the month, but as regards sinful Sunday labour, the best we might expect would be expressions of unease at the 24/7 consumerist economy.

Yesterday was also the Feast of St. John Mary Vianney, the great Curate of Ars. I will never forget the image of Sunday labour that he offers:

“When I see people driving carts on Sunday, I think I see them carrying their souls to Hell.”

See http://saints.sqpn.com/stj18009.htm for more of his thoughts on the matter.

Reginaldvs Cantvar