Conventional wisdom insists that technology has made life better. We are more connected, more comfortable, and certainly wealthier than ever before.
But at what cost? That’s the subject of Paul Kingsnorth’s forthcoming book, Against the Machine: On the Unmaking of Humanity, out September 23. We’re delighted to be publishing an exclusive excerpt today.
Every culture, Kingsnorth writes, is built around a sacred order. For 1,500 years, the West’s sacred order has been its founding biblical story, which shaped the working week, our understanding of the universe, and the very notion of individuals with God-given rights.
But over the past several decades, we’ve abandoned that sacred order in favor of the breakneck pursuit of wealth, innovation, and power. In the process, we’ve become spiritually bankrupt, grasping for meaning and roots even as we build skyscrapers to the heavens.
Today, we leave you with a question at the heart of his work: When the West’s sacred order falls, what takes its place? —The Editors
Let me tell you a story.
This story begins in a garden, at the very beginning of all things. All life can be found in this garden: every living being, every bird and animal, every tree and plant. Humans live here too, and so does the creator of all of it, the source of everything, and he is so close that he can be seen and heard and spoken to. Everything walks in the garden together. Everything is in communion.
At the center of this garden grows a tree, the fruit of which imparts hidden knowledge. The humans—the last creatures to be formed by the creator—will be ready to eat this fruit one day, and when they do they will gain its knowledge and be able to use that knowledge wisely for the benefit of themselves and of all other things that live in the garden. But they are not ready yet. The humans are still young, and unlike the rest of creation they are only partially formed.
Do not eat that fruit, the creator tells them. Eat anything else you like, but not that.
