Thomas Merton Still Vital After All These Years

“We have to recognize that a spirit of individualism and confusion has reduced us to an ethic of ‘every man for himself and the devil take the hindmost.’ This ethic, unfortunately sometimes consecrated by Christian formulas, is nothing but the secular ethic of the affluent society, based on the false assumption that if everyone is bent on making money for himself the common good will automatically follow, due to the operation of economic laws.

An ethic of barely disguised selfishness is no longer a Christian ethic. Nor can we afford to raise this to the national level and assume that the world will adjust itself if every nation seeks its own advantage before everything else. On the contrary, we are obliged to widen our horizons and to recognize our responsibility to build an international community in which the right of all nations and other groups will be respected and guaranteed. We cannot expect a peaceful world society to emerge all by itself from the turmoil of a ruthless power struggle – we have to work, sacrifice and cooperate to lay the foundations on which future generations may build a stable and peaceful international community. Every Christian is involved in this task, and consequently every Christian is obliged to seek information and form his conscience so that he may be able to contribute his own share of intelligent political action toward this end.” - From Peace in the Post-Christian Era, by Thomas Merton. Orbis Books; Maryknoll, New York. 2004. p.92-93.

Thomas Merton died in 1968 and yet his words were never truer than they are today. In the 37 years since his death this ethic of selfishness in an affluent society has been raised to the national level and with the birth of the European Union and capitalist China has spread to other continents, as well.

• How did we, America, get where we are today?
• How do we have a President, as well as a climate, that espouses conservative Christianity yet is so far removed from what Jesus taught as to be unrecognizable as Christ-like?
• How do we have a President who mistakes political debt as political capital that he has earned?
• How do we have a President and a majority ruled Senate and Congress that would rather offer American and Iraqi lives to slaughter than to admit that this war was a mistake?
• How do we have an American citizenry that is so wrapped up in consumption that it can't do anything but work and compete against it's neighbors and fellow citizens, the great antidote to political awareness and activity?

I have no answers. I only have questions, and bewilderment, and confusion. I seek out understanding and I have a desire for a life with more meaning and less possessions, but I rarely succeed. My only recourse is my brain, my voice and my vote. They, too, are over taxed in an effort to keep-up and earn future security. Seeing and being the rat on the treadmill is one thing. Getting off the treadmill is another.