In a previous article, he has mentioned how the values of communication, win-win, friendship, and cooperation are weakening in society. Instead, neoliberal rules such as infinite competition, everyone for himself, survival of the fittest, and winner-takes-all prevail; the social community that should be a 'house of coexistence' experiences a crisis.
Pope Francis diagnosed the root cause of today's crisis in our society as follows: "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 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 (#55 Joy of the Gospel).
The Pope mentions that material comfort and false values related to "money" took the place of God. This is the fundamental factor fueling the crisis of today’s social community. Amid the loss of man's true purpose and direction, the pursuit of material comfort has taken God's place. Also, more profound dimensions of existence, such as the interpersonal, spiritual, and religious dimensions, are increasingly neglected.
Idolatry is contained in the sins of the ancestors of Genesis. They listened to the serpent's temptation rather than the Word of God, and they committed idolatry by placing their desire to be like God and their own pleasures above God's law. They did not give God the "first place".
The Israelites gathered gold and made a calf to worship while Moses went to Mount Sinai to receive God's law. The idolatry of worshiping the golden calf instead of God appears in various forms in our day as well. Representative among these is the 'techno-bureaucratic paradigm' and 'false anthropocentrism' mentioned by Pope Francis in Laudato Si.
The 'techno-bureaucratic paradigm' is a way of thinking that despises the 'limits of ethics'. As a result, they think that anything that increases human control is beneficial, and if they think it is beneficial, they pursue it. Although it is true that modern scientific and technological development has brought positive development to mankind, but also left numerous negative effects behind.
Multinational corporations using science and technology and networks were born; an economic monopoly system was established, which is accelerating the concentration of wealth. As technology and scientific civilization are used as tools to satisfy human desires, the adverse effects of their abuse are destroying mankind. As we are witnessing now, the whole earth is suffering from climate change and air pollution. In addition, as the production system is increasingly mechanized and automated due to the development of science and technology, jobs are gradually disappearing, and large-scale unemployment is foretold.
'False anthropocentrism' is a way of thinking in which humans try to relate to others and the outside world by centering on themselves instead of God. The Pope saw that when we immerse ourselves in this thinking, "relativism" easily follows. We prioritize only those things that bring immediate benefits and everything other than oneself as relative or meaningless. This is also the internal logic of those who deny objective truth or firm principles and claim that fragile lives not judged useful can be abandoned.
When money and wrong values take the first place in our lives, our lives are twisted, fragile lives are sacrificed, and the meaning of life for members of society is lost. As a result, joy disappears and a feeling of melancholy surrounds us. These days, fetuses conceived in their mother's womb are often not born, downplaying life. Children are under pressure from early education, unable to play freely with their friends. Adolescents need time for self-reflection and exploration to grow up properly, but all are suppressed because of college entrance. College students are driven into a war for employment, and if they do not succeed in finding a job after graduation are prone to falling behind in life.
Even if you are lucky enough to get a job, you are under the pressure of surviving the competition and faced with the difficult reality of marriage. Married couples who divorce are unable to protect their families and many couples are forced to retire early in times of recession. Old age, which has been extended due to the extension of life expectancy, is no longer a time of blessing, but a time of loneliness under economic pressure. In this era, despite achieving economic prosperity the entire life cycle is changing day by day. Is it not because the evils of the idolatry of money and wrong values are at work?
