Perspectives of a Wanderer

If you read the news these days, you see that a number of news papers and magazines are either going out of business or are going completely electronic.   Part of this is due to their slanted viewpoints and the fact that the information is hours/days/weeks old by the time one reads the paper or magazine.  However, there is more going on here and that is the decline, and possible demise, of the print media in favor of the electronic media.

And it is not only the news media that is being affected.  It has started to creep into literature to.  Whether it is Sony’s Reader, Amazon’s Kindle, or even audio books, many books are now available electronically.   However, I do not see this as progress for a couple of reason.

First, this limits one’s sources of literature to those companies that can afford to, or are allowed to sell their products in the formats readable by these devices.  This is dangerous since censorship could easily creep into the selection of what gets publishes based on viewpoint or that one dares to also publish with the competitor’s proprietary format.  It also smacks of global capitalism since devices for reading literature will be controlled by a few companies due to the proprietary nature of their devices

Secondly, for me, I think it is easier to read books when it is on paper and not on a screen.  It is easier to look up footnotes/endnotes or when something in a previous section is referenced.  You can also highlight and make notes in the books which you cannot do with a electronic file.

Finally, and this applies specifically to audio books, I see this specific media as a threat to literacy.   One no longer has to be able to read to be able to “read” certain books.  However, why learn to read when you can “listen” to the books.  Of course, this limits one’s selection of “reading” material since the majority of books are not and will never be on audio books.  Even then, many audio books are “abridged” which means you are not getting the whole book. In some cases, like driving or as a reinforcement tool, audio books are a good thing but these are few and far between.

Whether it be newspapers, magazine, or books, there is a beginning of decline in the print media.  Some are much further than others.  Whether this, will this lead to the demise of the print media is another thing all together.  I see books as the last to go and, hopefully, not for a long time.

Progress for progress sake is not progress at all.

I have come to the realization that man-made “Positive Law”, whether it be Legistlative, Executive Orders, or Judicial Fiat, is quickly getting approaching the point where one has to consider whether they are able to even obey many of the “Positive Laws”.

If that it is the case, then we must return to the original bases of laws and that is God’s Natural Law as taught by the Catholic Church through its moral and social doctrines.

Not only is criminal law impacted by these doctrines, so is, in fact more so, civil law. God’s Natural Law tells us how to conduct our lives in every aspect.  It even affects how we should conduct business which, for the most part, has been completely forgotten.

Maybe it is time for us to start thinking about actively reconstructing society by refusing to conform ourselves with the current immoral framework and rebuilding it the way it is suppose to be.

Yes, it is a weird analogy, but here is why I am saying this.  I am currently reading The Church and the Land by Fr. Vincent McNabb.  In there he equates employees in the Capitalist System (especially the industrial complex) to the conditions of the Israelites in Ancient Egypt around the time of Exodus. Mind you, he is writing this in the 1920’s

While I can see living and working conditions at the time he is writing this book to be very similar allegorically, I also see where it can be applied today.  With the recent economic downturn, it seem the employers (Pharaoh) are making employees (Israelites) do more with less resources (working more hours to make up for less manpower).

Yes, living conditions have improved, but at what cost.  We are (wage) slaves to companies who know we need them for our livelihood.

Global Capitalism has only made this worse since more and more power is being concentrated in fewer and fewer hands.  I can hear it now “but we can own stock in those companies”.  Yes, we can, however the real power is resides with the few top shareholders, many of which are the executives of the company in question.  This is not real ownership. Pope Leo XIII wrote in Rerum Novarum:

The law, therefore, should favor ownership, and its policy should be to induce as many as possible of the people to become owners.

Does this mean abandoning the current global capitalistic system.  Yes it does, but not for Socialism which is the main competing economic model these days (and makes the State equivalent to Pharaoh).  Distributism (of which Fr. McNabb was one) provides a solution and that is the breakup up of the Global Capitalist Economic model and return ownership and means of production back to local (i.e. family) level.

This should be our Exodus, but who will be our Moses?

I am quicky getting to the point where I am starting to think about transitioning to a new career.  Being an business applications programmer is almost a 24/7 endeavor just to keep up with technology advances.  In addition, it is limiting my time for what is most important and that is God.

But what to do.  I have thought about going for advanced degrees in Theology and/or Philosophy.  I have also thought about taking course that would be helpful in working for a non-profit entity.

I am not sure yet, but I need to make a decision.

In a word, yes.

We live in a world where clutter and noise is the rule rather than the exception.  And the sad thing is, we do not even recognize it.  Between work, family, and other activities, we do not have time for what is really important and that is God.

Did this clutter and noise creep up on us?  The answer is yes and no.  It started centuries ago.  The protestant revolt, industrial revolution, and socialism/liberalism have all marginalized God leaving gaping holes that need to be filled.   However, that is a topic for another post.Even with the events mentioned, life was still slow enough to have time for God.

It has only been in the past couple of decades that the pace of life has pick up to such a pace that we no longer have enough time to do all the tasks we think we have to do and this is what has pushed God to the shadows.  The world’s gods now are relativism, liberalism, and materialism.

This must not be the case.  We must take a long look at our lives and see what is necessary and what is not.  We must look back and see what we lost and how we can recover what was lost.  By renoucing relativism, liberalism, and materialism can we get back to what is important and that is God.

Now, I am not saying that we should take a vow of poverty, but we should do without things we absolutely do not need.   We do not need an Escalade, a 50 inch plasma tv, and designer clothes to make us happy.  Our happiness must come from God.