The Problem of Modernity

By Richard Hazzlewood

This essay looks at the decline of tradition as an unfortunate ongoing event that affects heart, mind and soul on a fundamental level. Nevertheless we have achieved great advancements, especially in medicine and poverty reduction. How are we to square the collapse of ontological quality with the alleviation of suffering around the globe? Is there a final answer to this question? Includes a list for further reading.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Richard Hazzlewood
• Release date: Aug 19, 2018
• ISBN: 9780463324387

Richard Hazzlewood

Quiet academic type from North West England. BA English, MA Renaissance Literature.I studied in exile by the rivers of Babylon for 3 years, aka Cambridge. And I descended into Egypt, aka PricewaterhouseCoopers. Now I live in a spiritual hermitage where I study literature, philosophy and religion.I am a Roman Catholic convert, and particularly find spiritual fulfilment in the Divine Mercy Chaplet and the Liturgy of the Hours.Beer, wine, and spirits are my three branches of government. I am currently especially interested in French and Italian red.Philosophy is really the driving force of my life, and I always seek to question and open up new vistas on being. From Classical ethics to Medieval metaphysics to existentialism, I like to run the gamut of philosophical thought.Poetry is an abiding passion of mine.Finally, a list of books I hold very close to my heart: Augustine, 'Confessions'; Bonaventure, 'Journey of the Mind to God'; Dante, 'The Divine Comedy'; Plato, 'Phaedrus'; Cervantes, 'Don Quixote'; 'The Bhagavad Gita', & of course, 'The Bible'.

Book preview

The Problem of Modernity

Richard Hazzlewood

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Copyright 2018 Richard Hazzlewood

Introduction

Modernity is a febrile contradiction: a superabundance of information, less knowledge, even less understanding, and a paucity of wisdom. The transcendent is closed off to many in a haze of technologically induced gratification. We are left reducing spirituality to a subjective realm of fancy, utterly lacking the foundations of absolute truth, on which it would have been securely guaranteed in prior ages. In any case, I will attempt to set out the good and the bad in this introduction.

The essential problem of modernity is that it is alienating. It fills the soul with noise and leaves little room for things of substance. Smartphones, the internet, social media, are only the tip of the iceberg. We are becoming more superficially connected and more deeply disconnected. And on our private islands we fulminate and ruminate and generally live in a tolerable stasis of spiritual stagnation and distracted thoughts.

This may seem quaint – after all, the modern world has done much for us. Key amongst these are medicine and poverty alleviation, which I will discuss in a later chapter. In short, our material wellbeing improved substantially in the twentieth century, as technological advancement went parabolic. But now that seems to have a sad effect, whereby everything is about our comfort and shallow satisfactions. The depths of being have been hidden in obscurity by the sheer noise of cities and the dalliance of a hedonistic life. This is much