12 and this leads to the planet being squeezed dry beyond every limit (106). The imposition of this model of reality on humans and societies has resulted in the deterioration of our global environment. In addition, technological products are not neutral; they create a framework which ends up conditioning lifestyles and shaping social possibilities along the lines dictated by the interests of certain powerful groups (107). Economic and political life are also dominated by this paradigm: all technological advances are evaluated with a view to profit, without consideration of their possible negative consequences for human beings. The lessons of the global financial crisis have not been assimilated, and we are learning all too slowly the lessons of environmental deterioration (109). It is as if, Pope Francis argues, the problems of global hunger and poverty will be resolved simply by market growth (109). Wasteful and consumerist cultures exist alongside situations where people are dehumanised and deprived; we have, in many ways, lost our way, failing to see the roots of our failures: the direction, goals, meaning and social implications of technological and economic growth (109). An appreciation for relationships and the broader horizon (110) often seems irrelevant, and the principal key to the meaning of existence - the purpose of life and of community living (110) - is lost. Pope Francis challenges us to broaden our vision (112) by putting technology at the service of another type of progress, one which is healthier, more human, more social, more integral (112). Let us refuse to resign ourselves to this, and continue to wonder about the purpose and meaning of life...to look at reality in a different way...to recover the values and the great goals swept away by our unrestrained delusions of grandeur (113-114) III The Crisis and Effects of Modern Anthropocentrism There can be no renewal of our relationship with nature without a renewal of humanity itself (118) Modern anthropocentrism prizes technical thought over reality: it views the cosmos as a mere ‘space’ into which objects can be thrown with complete indifference (115). Our ‘dominion’ over creatures and the world, itself an inadequate presentation of Christian anthropology...should be understood more properly in the sense of responsible stewardship (116). Pope Francis challenges us to acknowledge as part of reality the worth of a poor person, a human embryo, a person Decisions which may seem purely instrumental are in reality decisions about the kind of society we want to build. (107) It has become countercultural to choose a lifestyle whose goals are even partly independent of technology, of its costs and its power to globalize and make us all the same. (108)
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