I've been slowly working my way through Francis's recent encyclical Fratelli tutti. It's a rewarding exercise; I haven't read everything Francis has written, but I generally try to read his major writings, and it's always interesting and spiritually enlightening (and, not infrequently, challenging!). I am not far into it yet (it's another very long document), but the pessimistic tone so far has surprised me: the optimism of the Vatican II era seems to have given way to a darker mood.
Here is a passage I read this morning. I find the analysis pretty interesting in its own right. I also expect it should be of interest to our little online community here - which, if I may say so, is not as bad as some of what the encyclical describes. And finally, it should be of intense interest to those of us who are trying to understand how a large section of the country has become so unmoored from reality that they can't accept that valid election results are valid.
42. Oddly enough, while closed and intolerant attitudes towards others are on the rise, distances are otherwise shrinking or disappearing to the point that the right to privacy scarcely exists. Everything has become a kind of spectacle to be examined and inspected, and people’s lives are now under constant surveillance. Digital communication wants to bring everything out into the open; people’s lives are combed over, laid bare and bandied about, often anonymously. Respect for others disintegrates, and even as we dismiss, ignore or keep others distant, we can shamelessly peer into every detail of their lives.
43. Digital campaigns of hatred and destruction, for their part, are not – as some would have us believe – a positive form of mutual support, but simply an association of individuals united against a perceived common enemy. “Digital media can also expose people to the risk of addiction, isolation and a gradual loss of contact with concrete reality, blocking the development of authentic interpersonal relationships”.[Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Christus Vivit (25 March 2019), 88.] They lack the physical gestures, facial expressions, moments of silence, body language and even the smells, the trembling of hands, the blushes and perspiration that speak to us and are a part of human communication. Digital relationships, which do not demand the slow and gradual cultivation of friendships, stable interaction or the building of a consensus that matures over time, have the appearance of sociability. Yet they do not really build community; instead, they tend to disguise and expand the very individualism that finds expression in xenophobia and in contempt for the vulnerable. Digital connectivity is not enough to build bridges. It is not capable of uniting humanity.
Shameless aggression
44. Even as individuals maintain their comfortable consumerist isolation, they can choose a form of constant and febrile bonding that encourages remarkable hostility, insults, abuse, defamation and verbal violence destructive of others, and this with a lack of restraint that could not exist in physical contact without tearing us all apart. Social aggression has found unparalleled room for expansion through computers and mobile devices.
45. This has now given free rein to ideologies. Things that until a few years ago could not be said by anyone without risking the loss of universal respect can now be said with impunity, and in the crudest of terms, even by some political figures. Nor should we forget that “there are huge economic interests operating in the digital world, capable of exercising forms of control as subtle as they are invasive, creating mechanisms for the manipulation of consciences and of the democratic process. The way many platforms work often ends up favouring encounter between persons who think alike, shielding them from debate. These closed circuits facilitate the spread of fake news and false information, fomenting prejudice and hate”.[Ibid., 89.]
46. We should also recognize that destructive forms of fanaticism are at times found among religious believers, including Christians; they too “can be caught up in networks of verbal violence through the internet and the various forums of digital communication. Even in Catholic media, limits can be overstepped, defamation and slander can become commonplace, and all ethical standards and respect for the good name of others can be abandoned”.[Apostolic Exhortation Gaudete et Exsultate (19 March 2018), 115] How can this contribute to the fraternity that our common Father asks of us?
Information without wisdom
47. True wisdom demands an encounter with reality. Today, however, everything can be created, disguised and altered. A direct encounter even with the fringes of reality can thus prove intolerable. A mechanism of selection then comes into play, whereby I can immediately separate likes from dislikes, what I consider attractive from what I deem distasteful. In the same way, we can choose the people with whom we wish to share our world. Persons or situations we find unpleasant or disagreeable are simply deleted in today’s virtual networks; a virtual circle is then created, isolating us from the real world in which we are living.
48. The ability to sit down and listen to others, typical of interpersonal encounters, is paradigmatic of the welcoming attitude shown by those who transcend narcissism and accept others, caring for them and welcoming them into their lives. Yet “today’s world is largely a deaf world… At times, the frantic pace of the modern world prevents us from listening attentively to what another person is saying. Halfway through, we interrupt him and want to contradict what he has not even finished saying. We must not lose our ability to listen”. Saint Francis “heard the voice of God, he heard the voice of the poor, he heard the voice of the infirm and he heard the voice of nature. He made of them a way of life. My desire is that the seed that Saint Francis planted may grow in the hearts of many”.[From the film Pope Francis: A Man of His Word, by Wim Wenders (2018).]
49. As silence and careful listening disappear, replaced by a frenzy of texting, this basic structure of sage human communication is at risk. A new lifestyle is emerging, where we create only what we want and exclude all that we cannot control or know instantly and superficially. This process, by its intrinsic logic, blocks the kind of serene reflection that could lead us to a shared wisdom.
50. Together, we can seek the truth in dialogue, in relaxed conversation or in passionate debate. To do so calls for perseverance; it entails moments of silence and suffering, yet it can patiently embrace the broader experience of individuals and peoples. The flood of information at our fingertips does not make for greater wisdom. Wisdom is not born of quick searches on the internet nor is it a mass of unverified data. That is not the way to mature in the encounter with truth. Conversations revolve only around the latest data; they become merely horizontal and cumulative. We fail to keep our attention focused, to penetrate to the heart of matters, and to recognize what is essential to give meaning to our lives. Freedom thus becomes an illusion that we are peddled, easily confused with the ability to navigate the internet. The process of building fraternity, be it local or universal, can only be undertaken by spirits that are free and open to authentic encounters.
Wow. I think he nailed it. He certainly doesn't have his rosy-colored glasses on. But I believe he correctly perceives the problem(s).
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting this bit from the encyclical. I regret to say I am usually too daunted by the length of those documents to plow into them.
While I agree with many of Francis criticisms, I also think he lacks appreciation for positive aspects of the digital world.
ReplyDeleteI really like digital church services. My friend Betty and I enjoy ‘going to Canterbury’ each morning to join the Dean in the Deanery Garden for Morning Prayer in the Anglican tradition. He shares this day in history from both a British and American perspective. The first week of December was national tree week in England, so he has begun sharing the richness of the garden’s trees with us. The readings are continuous with commentary on the Book. He just finished Revelations and is now doing Thessalonians. Usually one of the cats is there, often the rooster, chickens and other fowl show up. Sometimes pigs. And many different types of birds which he points out by their songs even if we can not see them. Actually Betty and I can do this even when she is back in her apartment. We just dial each other up on the phone and click the button on Youtube at the same time.
Betty and I also watch Choral Evening Prayer from Canterbury, as well as Vespers from Saint Meinrad. We like the Saint Meinrad psalms so much we now sing along.
I am going to be eighty in a couple of years. While Betty and I have enjoyed singing in two different choirs (she in one very professional one, and I in another more amateur one) and going to the local Orthodox church for vespers, we both have a lot of health problems and both get exhausted easily. Betty misses her more professional singing, but I am quite happy to sing along here at home.
The church needs to come to us not us to the church; household churches are the future, and not just for old people.
Francis talks a lot about all the misbehavior on line; I could go on and on about all the misbehavior in our parishes by the clergy, pastoral staff and the church ladies but we have shared a lot of that over the years on this blog. I don’t think face to face behavior is automatically better.
I enjoy commenting on blogs. I commented on the PrayTell Blog for about four years, and for several years on the old Commonweal blog. Both were mostly civil blogs. I think professional contributors whether at Commonweal or PrayTell need the input of amateurs.
I like NewGathering. I had wished that over time we might add some new people, and I wished we discussed more Commonweal articles. However I think being able to post is very important since many of my comments usually end up being the equivalent of a post. I like to make things more like a symposium than a lecture, question and answer session.
Over the last three years I had tried to establish a Commonweal Local Community in Cleveland. Although we now have more than thirty subscribers signed up it has been difficult to get people to come to meetings because of distance and time conflicts. I am now trying to convince people we need to start a blog like NewGathering only limited to discussing Commonweal articles. There has not been much enthusiasm for that so far. I wish I could introduce them to NewGathering, but I think we all need the privacy that we currently have.
Blogs can be very valuable even if they do not allow comments. Rocco Palmo Whispers in the Loggia has been extremely useful in getting an inside view of the bishops world. His ambition in starting it was to do for Church politics what a local reporter had done for city politics in Philadelphia. I think he has succeeded remarkably well.
Blogs like this one probably lend themselves more to civility than other social media forms, in part because this is "long form" social media - we are able to communicate in paragraphs rather than in bite-size chunks of emotion (usually anger) as on Twitter.
DeleteI think one reason blogs like this tend to lend themselves to civility more than some other forms is that over time we get to know one another. We don't just talk about one subject, but we share little bits of our lives.
DeleteI am remembering that on the old Commonweal forum there were a few people who seemed to get angry easily and didn't appear to have a lot of tolerance for views not their own. I think that is a common problem and don't know why it is.
I don't get the idea that Pope Francis is against social media, just the way that some people use them. I think they have been a godsend in my ways during this time of pandemic isolation. But there's no getting around the fact that they have been a force multiplier for rancor and misinformation during this election cycle.
"my ways" should be "many ways"
DeleteI agree about some people who get angry easily and don't tolerate divergent viewpoints. I think that is human nature. Probably all of us have it to some extent or other (or perhaps more so on some topics than others) but some people are just more intolerant overall. Chances are, people with a high "intolerance quotient" wouldn't be attracted to NewGathering.
Delete"I don't get the idea that Pope Francis is against social media, just the way that some people use them."
DeleteRight. The overall tenor of the encyclical is that he is against anything which interferes with genuine and holy relationships between one another. As the name of the document indicates, we're called to all be sisters and brothers with one another. Francis is noting something, in a distinctive way and from a distinctive viewpoint, what others have noted: social media, despite their promise to bring together people across many geographies and cultures, also can serve as instruments of isolation, division and conflict.