Image source: https://ksr-ugc.imgix.net/assets/011/635/809/ee56f9728bad844ededf7cd1c79590af_original.jpg?crop=faces&w=1552&h=873&fit=crop&v=1463686015&auto=format&q=92&s=dc015b30b09435ed84feb481ad6d3063
Thomas Mertons thoughts on the impact of technology on western society are so well documented; even the casual Merton reader is likely to be familiar with them. In various letters, books, and essays, Merton stated that the reliance on technology in the west was interfering with the ability of the believer to enter a state of contemplative thought. Merton felt so strongly about this, in fact, that it was one of the driving forces that led the mystic to further investigate the religions of the east. Knowing this, it may surprise some to learn that Mertons position was not that modern technology should be done away with, rather, that human beings should learn to live with technology in humility. However, this was not something Merton thought would happen if mankind continued on its current path.
If one is looking for a comprehensive collection of the thoughts of Thomas Merton in regards to this issue, then they may look no further than the 1968 published work Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander. It is here that the reader will find Mertons most developed and articulated discussion of the problem of technology. For Thomas Merton, technology itself is not the issue. What is more distressing, the mystic writes, is the way in which human beings have held up technological advancement as some sort of cure-all. In believing that technology is the highest development of man, Merton believes that western society is overlooking a significant problem. As miraculous and wonderful as technological advancement is, it is of no value if the people making such strides are not equipped to handle them. Merton worries that continuing technological advancement will result in giving too much power to a society that is frustrated and egomaniacal. In this sense, technology becomes
yet another device of our disintegration, Merton writes, which makes contemplative living all but impossible.
In holding up technological advancement as a panacea, Thomas Merton believes that western culture has turned it into a crutch with which people lead their lives. Merton describes this way of living as a type of moral infancy, in which one has turned technology into a sort of quasi-nature, making it the source of their existence. Merton rejects the idea that technological progress necessarily equates to human improvement, stating that this belief alienates human beings from reality, hindering their ability to enter a contemplative state which may lead to a mystic union with God. It is in this separation from God, Merton writes, that we create for ourselves the idol of consumption, further detaching ourselves from what is real.
Thomas Merton writes that, rather than advance the idea that technology ultimately leads to happiness, human beings should have a genuine appreciation and respect for the world which God has given them. This acknowledgment, Merton writes, allows for a sense of contemplative awareness in the believer that cannot be attained by alienating oneself through the veneration of technology. In accepting God, and his place as the rightful creator of all that is, the believer can be said to be drawn closer into a mystic relationship with God. Merton warns that to not follow this path may lead to a false sense of humanism, which inspires nothing but hatred for every aspect of creation, severing the mystic relationship a believer has with God to an ever greater degree.
One may find some of Thomas Mertons later thoughts on technology in a piece written for center magazine just five months before his death. Wherein, Merton discusses what he refers to as the sickness of contradiction, which manifests itself in the destroying of nature and the building of technology. This sickness, Merton believes, is rooted in our Judeo-Christian nature, which, at an unconscious level, actively seeks to destroy any chance of a mystic union with God by destroying Gods creation. It is in our very nature to stray from God, and distract ourselves from the contemplative state which brings us closer to God. In the eyes of Thomas Merton, the veneration of technology is another way of accomplishing this. It is only by recognizing the true place of technology, Merton believes, that the believer may enter into a contemplative state and achieve a relationship with God.
