▪ reams of paper that computer printers spew into scrap bins in endless pursuit of the perfect document;
▪ WALL•E1 landscapes of electronic scrap trashed in pursuit of the latest, greatest;
▪ electronic-sitters that are too overwhelmingly convenient for the health and wellbeing of rising generations;
▪ escalating production of surplus goods worldwide (and far beyond global demand) "because we can";2
▪ connections to worlds that disconnect us from time, place, values, and the company of others. Witness:
-------------------------▫ surreptitious texting during sermons, lectures, entertainments, conversations, work, driving, etc.;
▫ abrupt interruptions to conversations, meetings, work, life, leisure, the pursuit of happiness, etc. to answer the personalized jangle of omnipresent cell-mates and me-phones;
▫ escapism in “pleasant pictures” or “sham battles” from the realities of life and “The Habits of Highly Effective People”;3
▫ surfing into a surfeit of conflicting information/opinion;4
▫ hours of gaming where spouses, children, time and God take a backseat to the labyrinth;
▫ electronic love-affairs disaffecting the family affection;
▫ porno-plagues and incivility exploding within anonymity;
▫ proliferation of “precision Predators” and discounting of “collateral damage”;
▫ micro-manipulations of timing and insider information to capture macro-profits;
▫ dining, driving, deliberating, and dying (and doing it all) while distracted;
▫ and so forth.
1. Pixar’s 2008 movie
2.One of the under-acknowledged crises of the global economy
3. Reference Stephen R. Covey’s “Seven Habits” and “Eighth Habit”
4. “Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.” (New Testament 2 Timothy 3:7)
