The Most Dangerous Religion of the Modern World?
Paul Kingsnorth's Against The Machine: Ch. 19 & 20 | Book Study # 10
Happy new year! Today we continue our book study of Paul Kingsnorth’s Against the Machine: On The Unmaking Of Humanity and I will offer a few reflections on Chapters Nineteen and Twenty.
For the coming few weeks, please join us most Monday and Thursday evenings at 7:30pm EST for a livestream discussion of Kingsnorth’s book on the Gadfly Academy YouTube channel. Please note that precise dates and times of the livestream are released weekly through our newsletter (please find the sign-up link at the bottom of this post!)
In Chapter Nineteen, Kingsnorth discusses what Klaus Schwab has referred to as the “Fourth Industrial Revolution.” He begins by ironically discussing the “dangerous” rise of the “eco-fascists,” which in Kingsnorth’s telling is more likely to refer to the Amish, to indigenous tribes, and so on, than to some shadowy organizations/individuals. Kingsnorth’s point is that the elites have invented/encouraged a variety of bogeymen to divert our attention away from what is really happening.
“The thing we are avoiding is the thing that we used to call nature, and the reality that we are trying to distract attention from is that we are part of it. We live inside it, and everything we do to it, we also do to ourselves. Change the climate out there and it changes in here, erode the soil, erode the soul, poison the oceans, poison your culture. This is how it works, and this is what we are now facing.
And we cannot truly face it, even those of us who think we can, whatever we think our politics are (and they are likely to be the least important thing about us), we have no idea what to do about the coming end of the brief age of abundance and the reappearance, armed and dangerous, of what we could get away with denying for a few decades: limits. Those who point these limits out, and who point out, especially that the very existence of industrial modernity might be the root cause of the problems we currently face, can expect to be smacked down with the worst insults our culture can conjure.”
~ Paul Kingsnorth, Against The Machine, p. 208
As one reflects on Kingsnorth’s words, it becomes clear that at least two things are happening: 1) the elites either intentionally invent bogeymen, or are happy when “useful idiots” on the political left (“fascists!”) or right (“Marxists!”) come up with them, 2) most of us are happy to live in this fake binary because contemplating what is actually going on is too difficult: “we cannot truly face it, even those of us who think we can…we have no idea what to do about the coming end of the brief age of abundance….”
What is the goal of the elites, however? Do we have to assume that there is some dark conspiracy to undermine all of humanity? No…and perhaps yes. Using Occam’s Razor, it’s easy to see that a dark spiritual cabal is unnecessary, and how the elites (as most humans, untethered from any traditional/substantial ethic) would be motivated to increase their wealth and their power, and therefore willing to use whatever means convenient to do so. As Kingsnorth suggests throughout the book however, there is likely a much deeper conspiracy, less among men, than among fallen spiritual entities. Not surprisingly, the worldly ends of the elites (the acquisition of wealth and power) dovetails nicely with the spiritual ends of the fallen spiritual entities (the destruction of God’s creation, along with the image of God in humans).
“The world of Big Data is a world in which an astute study of ‘the numbers’ can always help us arrive at the right conclusion.
All of this may be done with the best of intentions (or it may not), but the things which cannot be measured will of course be left out of the equation, and the things which cannot be measured happen to be the stuff of life. Love. God. Place. Culture. The profound mystery of beauty. A sense of being rooted. A feeling for land or community or cultural traditions or the unfolding of human history over generations. Song. Art. They’ll ‘datafy’ all of this soon enough, no doubt, or try to.”
~ Paul Kingsnorth, Against The Machine, p. 215
Kingsnorth’s reference in other places to Ian McGilchrist’s argument that the modern world has been created largely by the two-dimensional vision of the left brain is a key to understanding how we ended up in the situation we find ourselves in. Just as those who are colorblind can only see very limited colors, modern humans have been educated to train our focus mostly on those things that can be quantified, and to disregard other aspects of life. The technological levers have become too powerful to control, and whatever balance between the quantifiable and the unquantifiable has been lost.
In Chapter Twenty, Kingsnorth continues his consideration of the dark spirit behind “Progress.”
“Humor me. Imagine for a moment that some force is active in the world which is beyond us. Perhaps we have created it. Perhaps it is independent of us. Perhaps it created itself and uses us for its ends. Either way, in recent years that force seems to have become manifest in some way we can’t quite put our finger on, and has stimulated the craziness of the times…Let’s give this force a name: a less provocative name, for now, than Moloch or Antichrist. Let’s keep it simple. Let’s just call this force ‘Progress’. Then, à la Kevin Kelly, let’s ask ourselves a simple question: What does Progress want?”
~ Paul Kingsnorth, Against The Machine, p. 222
Kingsnorth is a recent convert to Orthodox Christianity and recounts his spiritual journey in a wonderful essay you can find on his website. A “reluctant convert,” he is not one prone to exaggeration or sensationalization, and he is careful not to overplay his hand in touching on spiritual realities beyond human experience. His reference to Kevin Kelly is thus a good way to introduce the idea of a spiritual dimension to these questions (he could have similarly referenced Ray Kurzweil’s The Age of Spiritual Machines). Kingsnorth concludes the chapter by providing a list of “things that Progress wants”: 1) the end of history, 2) the end of transcendence, 3) the death of God, 4) permanent revolution, 5) colonization, 6) the uprooting of everything, 7) liberation from everything, 8) to move beyond nature, 9) to replace us.
“Humans cannot live for very long without a glimpse of the transcendent, or an aspiration, dimly understood, to become one with it. Denied this path, we will make our own. Denied a glimpse of heaven, we will try to build it here. This imperfect world, these imperfect people—they must be superseded, improved, remade. Flawed matter is in our hands now. We know what to do.”
~ Paul Kingsnorth, Against The Machine, p. 229
I sympathize with Kingsnorth’s inability, without reference to man’s spiritual dimension, to properly address the issues that he engages with. This is why, alongside the chapter-by-chapter book study of his book here at Gadfly Academy, I have been writing theological reflections on my Protecting Veil blog. For the better part of the past century, it was possible to address questions of technology from a purely materialistic perspective (although, I would argue that it is at least partially because we didn’t address them from a spiritual perspective earlier that we are in the situation in which we now find ourselves!) Neil Postman (among others) provided wonderful critiques of technology from a humanistic perspective. Clearly, Postman’s humanistic critique was not sufficient. Postman’s, and the other writers’ I have covered here at Gadfly Academy, prophetic voice has gone largely unheard. Tragically, most of the world’s religions have been absent from the critique of technology that Kingsnorth is offering. If there is some possible robust defense against the anti-human (and anti-spiritual) nature of modern technology, the world’s religious communities are the ones best positioned to mount it. Sadly, I am not optimistic that this will ever happen.
I hope you are enjoying Against The Machine, and finding that it provides a fresh perspective for understanding modern culture and history. I’m really pleased to have you along for the ride, and I look forward to connecting with you moving forward. Again, please join us most Monday and Thursday evenings at 7:30pm EST for a livestream discussion of Kingsnorth’s book on the Gadfly Academy YouTube channel. Again, precise dates and times of the livestream are released weekly through our newsletter.
If you haven’t already, please sign up for updates and download The How Did We Get Here? Reading List at the link below. Have a great weekend, and we’ll see you again next week…wishing you and yours many blessings in the new year!
Here is the tentative schedule for our book study:
What: Public book study of Paul Kingsnorth’s Against The Machine: On the Unmaking of Humanity
Where: Gadfly Academy YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@gadflyacademy
How: I will begin by reading my weekly blog covering the content. You are free to post questions or reflections in the comments and I will respond as best I can.
When:
January 1: 7:30pmEST
Pages 206-229
January 8: 7:30pmEST
Pages 230-272
January 15: 7:30pmEST
Pages 273-318