Racing to Nowhere
Today our society worships the false god of "Continued Economic Growth." He is also known as the god of Greed or Materialism. Upon his idolatrous altar we are willing to sacrifice our all — clean air, pure water, good food, health, happiness, and peace of mind and the well-being of our children.
To do obeisance to this god, 500,000 to 600,000 people a year march as permanent pilgrims from rural areas to his metropolitan Mecca — our teeming cities. There they serve in his temples of technology — the factories, mills and plants — and breathe the acrid, sulphurous incense of industry which is continuously belched into the air like an ever-burning oblation.
If this pilgrimage to the cities were to continue at the present rate, by the year 2000, 100 million more people would be occupying American cities and towns now occupied by 140 million!
In fervent worship to this false god, 95 per cent of man's technological achievements are estimated to have been made in the last 20 years! And pollution has been a serious problem in roughly this same time period. Can't we see the connection?
Isn't it high time we stopped to ask ourselves where we are going — and WHY?
One is reminded of the story about the airline pilot who told his passengers over the loudspeaker, "I have some good and bad news. The good news is that we are making rapid progress at 530 mph. The bad news is that we are lost and don't know where we are going."
The sad fact is that this becomes a true story when applied to our modern urban-industrial society. As Dr. Middleton so graphically stated:
"In our single-minded devotion [idolatry] to achieving the benefits of science and technology we plunged ahead with the abundant materials at hand, without a very precise notion of where we were going, and without serious attention to the possible adverse side effects of our new activities on our environment."
Yes, conceive, invent, design, develop, forge, produce and fabricate. And do it FAST — with a sense of urgency!
But don't ever ask WHY. And don't stop to think where it will end.
Incredible though it may seem, this is today's philosophy!
Confused Values
Hasn't it ever occurred to us that man can produce too much? Can't Western man see that he really doesn't NEED everything he desires?
What we as a people need are fewer conveniences and less soft living and more CHARACTER!
We need to realize that there are some things our factories can't produce. Things like sound minds, healthy bodies, obedient children, a purpose in life, peace of mind, happy homes and marriages — to name just a few.
Examine our modern culture for what it really is. Many things which our industrial society produces are simply not good. Think of all the tons of newsprint consumed each year in producing cheap magazines, pulp novels and outright pornography. Many more of our manufactures are of a cheap, shoddy, inferior quality which serves to instill in both builder and buyer wrong character traits. (To see this, go to any cut-rate furniture store and see what the "bargains" are).
Still other products are not as great a blessing as we think.
For example, what do you find at a supermarket? A fantastic variety of food, mostly in convenient packages and often partially or wholly prepared, then preserved with a battery of unpronounceable and mostly harmful chemicals. (Food pollution was hardly touched at the conference — just the mention that there are 2400 food additives in commercial use today — preservatives, bleaching agents, artificial colors and flavors, sweeteners, emulsifiers, stabilizers, thickeners, neutralizers, etc., etc)
Society points to this variety and convenience as a great blessing. But what are we paying for it?
The penalty of added costs and ill health!
Wouldn't it be a much greater blessing to eat food that had a fresh, tree or vine-ripened taste, food without chemical preservatives and pesticides, food grown on healthy soil without unbalanced chemical fertilizers, food that isn't embalmed, food that contained all the rich flavor and nutrients that God intended?
Isn't good health worth it? How can you compare a few moments’ convenience to a lifetime of good health?
Yet this is just one example of many where a convenience of our mechanized age is called a "blessing" even though it is robbing us of our health and therefore becomes a curse.
A Shocking Report
But let's not just look at physical pollution and its physical effects. The pollution of our surroundings exerts a tremendous influence on our mental and moral well-being.
On the last day of the conference, Dr. Richard A. Prindle, Assistant Surgeon General of the U.S., spoke on the effects of pollution on man. After first explaining the effects that chemicals play in the pollution picture, he said:
"Chemicals are only part of the known or suspected hazards of living in the mechanized, industrialized and urbanized environment of today. I consider the most important of these other hazards to be the many physical and emotional pressures which add up to a total pattern of unrelenting stress upon the individual. . .
"Gone are the satisfaction and a feeling of accomplishment in one's work. With the advent of modern specialization, man often feels that he is simply a cog in the machinery, endlessly performing the same routine task in the assembly line, in a never-ending battle for survival in a fiercely competitive, often brutal world . . ."
Dr. Prindle continued his blistering indictment of modern man's way of life:
"The individual is under constant attack from external influences such as congestion of all types, minor nuisances and daily hazards, noise at work, on the radio, on the television, noise from the telephone, the jets, the streets, and from people living close by. These assaults plus the lack of space and facilities for recreation and all the problems, stresses and frustrations encountered in the course of an average life can add up to an individual who is susceptible to the slightest infection that comes along, or who becomes one of the thousands who suffer from ulcers and other stress-related disorders . . ."
What a penetrating indictment of our WAY OF LIFE!
Yet with foolish pride we hail the trends of urban, industrial and technological growth as the "hallmark of our era."
Don't misunderstand! There is a place for the right kind of cities and industry in a well-ordered society. A "right kind" of city or industry will enhance the TOTAL QUALITY Of human life and will enable the ones living and working in it to develop the true values of life.
But what a rare thing this is today!
Instead, "In almost every major urban area we observe the continual increase in crime and juvenile delinquency, in civil disorders, and in general degradation of the quality of life, and in congestion and in environmental pollution. Few of our cities today offer a foundation for a good life, much less the basis for a Great Society" (Senator Randolph).
WHY?
The answer lies in taking a closer look at the most basic reason of all for pollution — human nature.
Pollution and Human Nature
Human nature is a selfish nature of vanity, jealousy, lust and greed. It wants to GET, to acquire, and to have for the self.
If this means upsetting the delicate balance of nature or hurting your neighbor — SO WHAT? If getting some small comfort or object for the self here and now means robbing a fellow human or future generations of a vital necessity of life — WHO CARES? That's their problem, the reasoning goes.
This is the attitude of human nature. Human nature is completely hostile to God's law which says, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself" (Rom. 8:7 and Matt. 19:19).
Our modern urban-industrial society is ideally suited to giving vent to this selfishness, greed and lust of human nature. It spawns a way of life that appeals to human nature.
A leading pathologist in Canada emphasized recently: "Most of the blame for pollution comes from man's desire [substitute 'lust'] for short term economic gain. We tip things into [our lakes and streams] because it's cheaper, or spray apples because we want [again, lust after'] a bigger crop this year." But, said this pathologist, "We pay for years to come."
How short-sighted man is!
When man allows himself to so LUST for money, material things and polluted foods that he is willing to HURT his neighbor and his own physical, mental and spiritual well-being, then he SINS.
He disobeys God's Law of Love and he directly and indirectly breaks everyone of the Ten Commandments. He breaks the first commandment by placing physical objects ahead of the true God, the second commandment by making an idol of these things, the fourth commandment by misusing time, the sixth commandment by hating his competitor or harming the health of his customer, the eighth commandment by cheating and defrauding, the ninth commandment in faulty advertising, the tenth commandment by coveting what does not belong to him. And the breaking of the third, fifth and seventh are a natural result of this kind of sinful living.
Ever think of it that way?