Vaclav Havel

I'm not in the habit of reading speeches about architecture made by Vaclav Havel, but our Archdeacon, Clive Mansell, mentioned this in a circular email today.
Havel (the last president of Czechoslovakia), speaking in Prague on 10 October 2010, made some penetrating comments about 21st Century culture:

...we are also living in the first atheistic civilisation, in other words, a civilisation that has lost its connection with the infinite and eternity. For that reason it prefers short-term profit to long-term profit. What is important is whether an investment will provide a return in ten or fifteen years; how it will affect the lives of our descendants in a hundred years is less important.

 However, the most dangerous aspect of this global atheistic civilisation is its pride. The pride of someone who is driven by the very logic of his wealth to stop respecting the contribution of nature and our forebears, to stop respecting it on principle and respect it only as a further potential source of profit.

I'm reminded of the pride of another civilisation - that of Babylon under Nebuchadnezzar & Belshazzar! He continues:

I sense behind all of this not only a globally spreading short-sightedness, but also the swollen self-consciousness of this civilisation, whose basic attributes include the supercilious idea that we know everything and what we don’t yet know we’ll soon find out, because we know how to go about it. We are convinced that this supposed omniscience of ours which proclaims the staggering progress of science and technology and rational knowledge in general, permits us to serve anything that is demonstrably useful, or that is simply a source of measurable profit, anything that induces growth and more growth and still more growth, including the growth of agglomerations.

And surely he's right. The atheists (or practical atheists) who control Western society are breathtaking in their arrogance and selfishness.

I believe that the recent financial and economic crisis was of great importance and in its ultimate essence it was actually a very edifying signal to the contemporary world.

Most economists relied directly or indirectly on the idea that the world, including human conduct, is more or less understandable, scientifically describable and hence predictable. Market economics and its entire legal framework counted on our knowing who man is and what aims he pursues, what was the logic behind the actions of banks or firms, what the shareholding public does and what one may expect from some particular individual or community.

And all of a sudden none of that applied. Irrationality leered at us from all the stock-exchange screens. And even the most fundamentalist economists, who – having intimate access to the truth - were convinced with unshakeable assurance that the invisible hand of the market knew what it was doing, had suddenly to admit that they had been taken by surprise.

I hope and trust that the elites of today’s world will realise what this signal is telling us.

 But while I agree with his analysis, I don't share his hope or trust. The same arrogant, proud, selfish bankers and corrupt politicians who got us into this mess are still doing their jobs and will only repeat past mistakes. (The argument from the bankers was, 'You have to pay us so much because we're the best'. But then they demonstrated that they weren't the best. So now they say, 'You have to pay us so much because you need the best'!).

I regard the recent crisis as a very small and very inconspicuous call to humility. A small and inconspicuous challenge for us not to take everything automatically for granted. Strange things are happening and will happen. Not to bring oneself to admit it is the path to hell...
...In all events, I am certain that our civilisation is heading for catastrophe unless present-day humankind comes to its senses. And it can only come to its senses if it grapples with its short-sightedness, its stupid conviction of its omniscience and its swollen pride, which have been so deeply anchored in its thinking and actions.

 Now I wish Havel really meant those words in their original sense, and I wish he knew the real answer. Yes, mankind is rushing headlong to hell - real, eternal separation from the love of God which mitigates and limits the proud, arrogant, evil selfishness of men & women. When God withdraws his grace from all those who continue to reject him, it will be the catastrophe of sheer hell.
But if humankind is truly to come to its senses, it has to realise that the only cure for its stupid delusions of grandeur is the new life offered by Christ. Humans can try to pull their socks up, but they'll only fall down again after a few steps. The solution is a completely fresh start, empowered by the Spirit of God himself.

See Vaclav Havel's website for the full text