110. The specializationwhich belongs to technologymakes it difficult to see the larger picture. The
fragmentation of knowledge proves helpful for concrete applications, and yet it often leads to a loss of
appreciation for the whole, for the relationships between things, and for the broader horizon, which
then becomes irrelevant. This very fact makes it hard to find adequate ways of solving the more
complex problems of today’s world, particularly those regarding the environment and the poor; these
problems cannot be dealt with from a single perspective or from a single set of interests. A science
which would offer solutions to the great issues would necessarily have to take into account the data
generated by other fields of knowledge, including philosophy and social ethics; but this is a difficult
habit to acquire today. Nor are there genuine ethical horizons towhich one can appeal. Life gradually
becomes a surrender to situations conditioned by technology, itself viewed as the principal key to the
meaning of existence. In the concrete situation confronting us, there are a number of symptoms which
point towhat is wrong, such as environmental degradation, anxiety, a loss of the purpose of life and of
community living. Oncemorewe see that “realities aremore important than ideas”.
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111. Ecological culture cannot be reduced to a series of urgent and partial responses to the
immediate problems of pollution, environmental decay and the depletion of natural resources. There
needs to be a distinctive way of looking at things, a way of thinking, policies, an educational
programme, a lifestyle and a spirituality which together generate resistance to the assault of the
technocratic paradigm. Otherwise, even thebest ecological initiatives can find themselves caught up in
the same globalized logic. To seek only a technical remedy to each environmental problem which
comes up is to separate what is in reality interconnected and to mask the true and deepest problems of
the global system.
112. Yet we can once more broaden our vision. We have the freedom needed to limit and direct
technology; we can put it at the service of another type of progress, one which is healthier, more
human, more social, more integral. Liberation from the dominant technocratic paradigm does in fact
happen sometimes, for example, when cooperatives of small producers adopt less polluting means of
production, and opt for a non-consumerist model of life, recreation and community. Or when
technology is directed primarily to resolving people’s concrete problems, truly helping them live with
more dignity and less suffering. Or indeed when the desire to create and contemplate beautymanages
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ApostolicExhortation
EvangeliiGaudium
(24November 2013), 231:AAS105 (2013), 1114.
