|#| The great danger in today’s world, pervaded as it is
by consumerism, is the desolation and anguish born of a complacent yet
covetous heart, the feverish pursuit of frivolous pleasures, and a blunted
conscience. Whenever our interior life becomes caught up in its own interests
and concerns, there is no longer room for others, no place for the poor.
[....]
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|#| Sometimes we are tempted to find excuses and
complain, acting as if we could only be happy if a thousand conditions were
met. To some extent this is because
our “technological society has succeeded in multiplying occasions of
pleasure, yet has found it very difficult to engender joy”. I can say that
the most beautiful and natural expressions of joy which I have seen in my
life were in poor people who had little to hold on to. I also think of the
real joy shown by others who, even amid pressing professional obligations,
were able to preserve, in detachment and simplicity, a heart full of faith.
[....]
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|#|
Goodness always tends to spread. Every authentic experience of truth and
goodness seeks by its very nature to grow within us, and any person who has
experienced a profound liberation becomes more sensitive to the needs of
others. As it expands, goodness takes
root and develops. If we wish to lead a dignified and fulfilling life, we have
to reach out to others and seek their good. [....]
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|#| Saint Thomas Aquinas taught that the Church’s moral
teaching has its own “hierarchy”, in the virtues and in the acts which
proceed from them. [....] [According to] Thomas ..., as far as external works
are concerned, mercy is the greatest of all the virtues. [....]
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|#| It is not the task of the Pope to offer a detailed
and complete analysis of contemporary reality, but I do exhort all the
communities to an “ever watchful scrutiny of the signs of the times”. This is
in fact a grave responsibility, since certain present realities, unless
effectively dealt with, are capable of setting off processes of
dehumanization which would then be hard to reverse. .
[....] This involves [...] choosing
movements of the spirit of good and rejecting those of the spirit of evil.
[....]
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|#| In our time humanity is experiencing a turning-point
in its history, as we can see from the advances being made in so many fields.
We can only praise the steps being taken to improve people’s welfare in areas
such as health care, education and communications. At the same time we have to remember that the majority of
our contemporaries are barely living from day to day with dire consequences.
A number of diseases are spreading. The hearts of many people are gripped by
fear and desperation, even in the so-called rich countries. The joy of living
frequently fades, lack of respect for others and violence are on the rise,
and inequality is increasingly evident. It is a struggle to live and, often,
to live with precious little dignity.
This epochal change has been set in motion by the enormous qualitative,
quantitative, rapid and cumulative advances occuring in the sciences and in technology,
and by their instant application in different areas of nature and of life. We
are in an age of knowledge and information, which has led to new and often anonymous kinds of power.
|
|#| Just as the commandment “Thou shalt not kill” sets a
clear limit in order to safeguard the
value of human life, today we also have to say “thou shalt not” to an
economy of exclusion and inequality. Such an economy kills. How can it be
that it is not a news item when an elderly homeless person dies of exposure,
but it is news when the stock market loses two points? This is a case of
exclusion. Can we continue to stand by when food is thrown away while people
are starving? This is a case of inequality. Today everything comes under the laws of competition and the
survival of the fittest, where the powerful feed upon the powerless. As a
consequence, masses of people find themselves excluded and marginalized: without work, without possibilities,
without any means of escape.
Human beings are themselves considered consumer goods to
be used and then discarded. We have
created a “throw away” culture which is now spreading. It is no longer simply
about exploitation and oppression, but something new. Exclusion ultimately
has to do with what it means to be a part of the society in which we live;
those excluded are no longer society’s underside or its fringes or its
disenfranchised – they are no longer even a part of it. The excluded are not
the “exploited” but the outcast, the “leftovers”.
|
|#| In this context, some people continue to defend
trickle-down theories which assume that economic growth, encouraged by a free
market, will inevitably succeed in
bringing about greater justice and inclusiveness in the world. This opinion,
which has never been confirmed by the facts, expresses a crude and naïve
trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power and in the sacralized
workings of the prevailing economic system. Meanwhile, the excluded are still
waiting. To sustain a lifestyle which excludes others, or to sustain
enthusiasm for that selfish ideal, a globalization of indifference has
developed. Almost without being aware of it, we end up being incapable of
feeling compassion at the outcry of the poor, weeping for other people’s
pain, and feeling a need to help them, as though all this were someone else’s
responsibility and not our own. The culture of prosperity deadens us; we are
thrilled if the market offers us something new to purchase. In the meantime
all those lives stunted for lack of opportunity seem a mere spectacle; they
fail to move us.
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|#| One cause of this situation is found in our
relationship with money, since we calmly accept its dominion over ourselves
and our societies. The current
financial crisis can make us overlook the fact that it originated in a profound
human crisis: the denial of the primacy of the human person! We have created
new idols. The worship of the ancient golden calf [sic] has returned in a new
and ruthless guise in the idolatry of money and the dictatorship of an
impersonal economy lacking a truly human purpose. The worldwide crisis
affecting finance and the economy lays bare their imbalances and, above all,
their lack of real concern for human beings; man is reduced to one of his
needs alone: consumption.
|
|#| While the earnings of a minority are growing
exponentially, so too is the gap separating the majority from the prosperity
enjoyed by those happy few. This imbalance is the result of ideologies which
defend the absolute autonomy of the marketplace and financial speculation.
Consequently, they reject the right of states, charged with vigilance for the
common good, to exercise any form of control. A new tyranny is thus born,
invisible and often virtual, which unilaterally and relentlessly imposes its
own laws and rules. Debt and the accumulation of interest also make it
difficult for countries to realize the potential of their own economies and
keep citizens from enjoying their real purchasing power. To all this we can
add widespread corruption and self-serving tax evasion, which have taken on
worldwide dimensions. The thirst for power and possessions knows no limits.
In this system, which tends to devour everything which stands in the way of
increased profits, whatever is fragile, like the environment, is defenseless
before the interests of a deified market, which become the only rule.
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|#| Behind this attitude lurks a rejection of ethics and a
rejection of God. Ethics has come to be viewed with a certain scornful
derision. It is seen as counterproductive, too human, because it makes money
and power relative. It is felt to be a threat, since it condemns the
manipulation and debasement of the person. In effect, ethics leads to a God who
calls for a committed response which is outside the categories of the market
place. When these latter are absolutized, God can only be seen as uncontrollable,
unmanageable, even dangerous, since he calls human beings to their full
realization and to freedom from all forms of enslavement. Ethics – a
non-ideological ethics – would make it possible to bring about balance and a
more humane social order. With this in mind, I encourage financial experts and
political leaders to ponder the words of one of the sages of antiquity: “Not to
share one’s wealth with the poor is to
steal from them and to take away
their livelihood. It is
not our own goods which we hold, but
theirs”. |
|#| A financial reform open to such ethical
considerations would require a vigorous change of approach on the part of
political leaders. I urge them to face this challenge with determination and
an eye to the future, while not ignoring, of course, the specifics of each
case. Money must serve, not rule! [....] I exhort you to generous solidarity
and to the return of economics and finance to an ethical approach which
favours human beings.
|
|#| Today in many places we hear a call for greater
security. But until exclusion and inequality in society and between peoples
are reversed, it will be impossible to eliminate violence. The poor and the
poorer peoples are accused of violence, yet without equal opportunities the
different forms of aggression and conflict will find a fertile terrain for
growth and eventually explode. When a
society – whether local, national or global is willing to leave a part of
itself on the fringes, no political programmes or resources spent on law
enforcement or surveillance systems can indefinitely guarantee tranquility.
This is not the case simply because inequality provokes a violent reaction
from those excluded from the system, but because the socioeconomic system is
unjust at its root. Just as goodness tends to spread, the toleration of evil,
which is injustice, tends to expand its baneful influence and quietly to
undermine any political and social system, no matter how solid it may appear.
If every action has its consequences, an evil embedded in the structures of a
society has a constant potential for disintegration and death. It is evil
crystallized in unjust social structures, which cannot be the basis of hope
for a better future. We are far from the so-called “end of history”, since
the conditions for a sustainable and peaceful development have not yet been
adequately articulated and realized.
|
|#| Today’s economic mechanisms promote inordinate
consumption, yet it is evident that unbridled consumerism combined with
inequality proves doubly damaging to the social fabric. Inequality eventually
engenders a violence which recourse to arms cannot and never will be able to
resolve. It serves only to offer false hopes to those clamouring for
heightened security, even though nowadays we know that weapons and violence,
rather than providing solutions, create new and more serious conflicts. Some
simply content themselves with blaming the poor and the poorer countries
themselves for their troubles; indulging in unwarranted generalizations, they
claim that the solution is an “education” that would tranquilize them, making
them tame and harmless. All this becomes even more exasperating for the marginalized
in the light of the widespread and deeply rooted corruption found in many
countries – in their governments, businesses and institutions – whatever the
political ideology of their leaders.
|
|#| In the prevailing culture, priority is given to the
outward, the immediate, the visible, the quick, the superficial and the
provisional. What is real gives way to appearances. In many countries
globalization has meant a hastened deterioration of their own cultural roots
and the invasion of ways of thinking
and acting proper to other cultures which are economically advanced but
ethically debilitated. This fact has been brought up by bishops from various
continents in different Synods. The African bishops, for example, taking up
the Encyclical Sollicitudo Rei Socialis,pointed out years ago that there have
been frequent attempts to make the African countries “parts of a machine,
cogs on a gigantic wheel. This is often true also in the field of social communications which, being run by centres mostly in the
northern hemisphere, do not always give due consideration to the priorities
and problems of such countries or respect their cultural make-up”. By the
same token, the bishops of Asia “underlined the external influences being
brought to bear on Asian cultures. New patterns of behaviour are emerging as
a result of over-exposure to the mass media… As a result, the negative
aspects of the media and entertainment industries are threatening traditional
values, and in particular the sacredness of marriage and the stability of the
family”.
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