Hard Work and Humility: Dealing with the Spirit of an Age

I was recently looking at pictures on the “Humans of New York” Facebook page. Aside from the strange and, perhaps, ironically dehumanizing name, I really appreciate the page for what it is: a wonderful little way to gaze into the very unique lives of very unique individuals in a terribly homogenizing world. When I was on the page today, I came across a picture with a story about a girl who was the assistant to an assistant in the fashion industry. The man who was photographed had seen this assistant’s assistant texting, despite the fact that she had one, simple job during the fitting– to pass pins to the assistant. “Technology is ruining people,” he said. Now that’s all well and good, but I wanted to take some time to clear up some misconceptions people seemed to have, based on what was said on the comments’ section, and maybe elucidate some core human truths along the way.

What was most ridiculous to me was the outpouring of support for the young lady. Sure her job was a simple one. Sure it is boring and dull. Sure whatever TMZ article she was reading was probably more interesting than her job, but the fact is that she has a job. I’ll be the first person to say that the human spirit is oppressed by our corporate, technological society. But she has something a lot of people would kill for. Is it stifling emotionally? Absolutely. But apologizing for her while upholding the validity of her texting on her iPhone is like denouncing big agriculture and then eating at McDonald’s: one is symptomatic of the other.

And that’s the real problem here: our technological society. Can we really expect the majority of people to not use technology negatively? Sure, we as human beings have free will and can decide between disparate choices. But we’re also tempted by circumstance, desire, and sin. In order to truly “oppose” technology in any meaningful sense one would need to go the ironic way of the Unabomber. Computers are good, but can we really be surprised the government is using them to spy on people? We’ve invented drones, but can we really expect their use to be reserved or limited in a meaningful way? Since the serpent tempted Eve, man has struggled with curiosity. This isn’t “technology’s fault,” but anyone saying we can completely autonomously choose between equally appealing ends when dealing with technology is being decidedly ignorant of the reality of human experience.

So why write this post at all? For one, I’m a bit of a Luddite. I don’t hate technology, but I’m with Heidegger in seeing it as an ontology, as something that is arguably beyond our individual control. I also think this little anecdote shows the reality of concupiscence, of the call to do wrong. We’re short-sighted creatures subject to temptation. And, as the old 2pac song goes, “that’s just the way it is.”