Technology…Friend or Foe?

This week you may think I am a little naïve. Read again. As we enjoy the summertime I would like to take a moment to reflect upon our planet. Indulge me. OK? Thanks.

You know, any solution to the world’s environmental problems must begin with the individual. Put another way, we must repair the damage done to ourselves before we can attempt to rehabilitate earth’s environment. Concrete ecological action can begin only in the minds and hearts of people. Humankind must break through its technological morass to rediscover within themselves that which is truly natural. Contact with this inner nature will then make possible a harmony with our natural environment.

With extreme emphasis on the environment in the media within the past few years, there now exists cultural movements based upon a new consciousness, which are antagonistic or at least in opposing view, to the present technological culture. Paradoxically, these new movements would not be possible without the affluence, leisure and choice made possible by technology itself. Vivá là Internet?

Technology is not necessarily evil or villainous in itself, nor is money the root of all evil. Essentially, technology and industry are neutral, and can be used for our betterment, or can as well be misused for our destruction. Present in the technology of today are the very forces and factors that can overturn society, or transform it.

For example, although the technological culture, through corporate interests, attempts to artificially create the illusion of a subsistence culture through advertising and rampant consumerism, it won’t work. At some point, though the words of others like me, people are beginning to see through the deluge of noisy propaganda and SPAM, realizing that much of what they are being sold, from Nikes to a philosophy they don’t need. With this awareness, they are rejecting, not only selected goods and services, but also the entire institutions and political and economic machines.

There is also a search for quality of life, adopted by the offspring of the affluent age of the baby boomer. Our three generation drug culture simply reflects this search. It is but one of the manifestations. In reaction to the values of their parent’s society, this segment of young adults is attempting to live in ways that combat or escape the dependency of a technological culture, although, again paradoxically, many also have created and embrace a cyber community, using state-of-the-art computer technology, and indeed are in the forefront of the rebellion of technology. I call them, let me be the first to coin the word,…the cyberhippies.

These new lifestyle values reflect a sounder ecological attitude than the behavior of the older generations. This new society is beginning to understand, to grok, the hostility toward other people and nature itself inherent in the Western approach to the rest of the world.

No matter what you may think, Chattanooga IS a part of the whole world. Rejection of this approach opens to an ever-widening comprehension of the petty and profound means employed by the technological culture to maintain itself. This new awareness slices through the narrow notions of classification and competition to discover a clearer vision of the environment. With this enlightened view, other people are not seen as rivals or lackeys, but simply friends sharing a planet together. To this new wave of aware people, nature is viewed as a friend also, not something to be mistreated or displaced.

This return to, or recovery of, simplicity paves the way for vast changes in the fundamental approaches to the business of living. New attitudes towards work and progress reflect a turnabout from hostility toward, and domination of the environment, to cooperation, harmony and balance with nature and our fellow inhabitants.

This new consciousness is not only manifested in a personal, social and economic way, it is finding its way into politics as well.

Evidence of this can be seen with the Greens, a political party which has gained ballot status in California, and other states. Another organization we have all heard of, Greenpeace, has brought million of minds together resulting in action on campuses and industry a clear protest against what could only be called technological and rational insanity.

There is hope that a way will be found out of the technological trap. How much hope cannot be determined, but it seems closer to possibility than to probability at this point in the leela (divine game). The air, ozone layer, land and water are still being destroyed. We can only put our faith in the power of good ideas and good thinking.

Perhaps we can take heart from the words of a young Native American (Sioux nation heritage), "We natives have a more human philosophy of life. We will show this country how to act human. It is not a question of civil rights, it is a question of the nature of life itself. It isn’t what you eat or whether you eat, or who you vote for, or whether you even vote. What is the ultimate value of a person’s life. That is the simple question."

It has been said by some that our society is 1,000 years too technologically advanced for the civilization using this same technology. I say that when you get back in touch with the nature all around you, and spend less time in Chattanooga’s plastic zone. Happy summer to all of you. As you read this column, I am conducting a tour in Russia exploring contemporary Tantric culture.

If you would like to be kept up-to-date on my Russian travels, with the words of some Russians, simply send a blank e-mail message to blissnewsletter@yahoogropups.com

Chattanooga Spirit
http://www.newfrontier.com/chattanooga

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