How in the world do you handle obedience in today’s world? Supposedly, freedom means we respect no person’s authority to tell us what to do. Yet we are continually forced to comply with the demands of the system. And we all suspect there are some Wizards of Oz back there manipulating the whole thing, even though they do not seem to be at all sure how it works. At least, there are some oligarchs making an obscene amount of money. We, however, are forced to fall in line and obey because things happen too fast and are too big for us to do otherwise.
After rather quickly writing that paragraph, a number of interactions took place that convinced me to let it stand. Assuming your forgiveness for my being so self-centered and acknowledging my friends might not be a good standard for evaluating what is going on, let me report the effect of those interactions.
I found myself exclaiming in a large group of learned friends, “It’s all fantasy. The whole economic conversation is pure fantasy. Modern technology has completely destroyed the old system that served us fairly well in the past. There is no market control, no risk for the real players, no commitment to the common good, and no moral virtue. The only conclusion I can make is that we are either on the brink of a total cultural collapse or in transition to a new kind of society.”
Chittister claims the way to that better society lies in moving from system to community. I liked the way she described this, although I had some trouble understanding what this has to do with authority. It sounded more like just basic decent decision-making to me.
I especially resonated with her statement that community implies an “unremitting readiness to admit you may be wrong.” We are back to Jesus calling for repentance in terms of rethinking all of that on which we based our lives.
She wanted to say the Benedictine Rule gives voice to leaders only when they speak for the will of God in the community. At least she wrote that we are Gospel people who should resist anything that does not sound like Gospel, even if the words are spoken by respected leaders or sacred institutions. She illustrated this with a warning that failure to do this led to the Holocaust and Inquisition. We are back to remembering the basic distrust found throughout the Bible for political and ecclesiastical leadership. After all, they executed the Son of God as an enemy of humanity.
Her bottom line seemed to be that authority resides in true community that forces me to open myself to other people and to God. It calls on me to give others a part in the decisions I make in my own life. She sees acknowledging this as a way to restore accountability and responsibility that will lead to serving one of another.
I think I am going to report the interactions I received in the past few days. They were at least enlightening for me. Most of our readers are old fashioned and direct e-mails to me personally. I am going to take the liberty to post parts of them as I assume they are sent in the spirit of participating in a conversation.
For the time being, let me note two themes that reoccur. The first is a call for decision-making being made from bottom up rather than top down. There is a general recognition that the latter has led to the entitlement and exploitation we see all around us.
The second is that the system has so entrapped the young that they have no time for coming together to share knowledge. In the drive to accumulate more and more information, the wisdom to use it well has been lost. A new responsibility falls on the elderly who have time to share their wisdom. Hmmm!
