We live in a culture of "use." A utilitarian culture. And it affects all of us to some degree. You just can't get away from the rush, from "the go," from the "buy this," from the "do this," from the "this will bring you happiness" and so on.
What do I mean by utilitarian culture....?
In recent decades, this was a term used a lot by St. John Paul II when he pointed out the dangerous "utilitarian" mentality of western society. Basically, this is a mindset or philosophy of life in which a person's own happiness is their ultimate goal (which, in itself, aiming for happiness is a good thing!). Yet utilitarianism is very relative - meaning that actions are right and acceptable only to the proportion that they tend to promote one's own happiness and actions are wrong only to the degree that they cause unhappiness or displeasure.
A person with this mindset believes happiness is defined as pleasure and the absence of pain; by unhappiness, pain and the privation of pleasure. Happiness, thus, does not anymore become an eternal goal or eternal life and beatitude, but rather a reduction to the sensual and emotional - what we feel and experience right here and now. With such a philosophy, it leads one to justify their happiness...even if that's at the expense of using others to meet that own personal need....even if it's at the expense of rejecting God's law and sinning.
From Paragraph 23 in John Paul II's Evangelium Vitae or Gospel of Life:
"The eclipse of the sense of God and of man inevitably leads to a practical materialism, which breeds individualism, utilitarianism and hedonism. Here too we see the permanent validity of the words of the Apostle: "And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a base mind and to improper conduct" (Rom 1:28). The values of being are replaced by those of having. The only goal which counts is the pursuit of one's own material well-being. The so-called "quality of life" is interpreted primarily or exclusively as economic efficiency, inordinate consumerism, physical beauty and pleasure, to the neglect of the more profound dimensions-interpersonal, spiritual and religious-of existence."
With this materialistic, consumeristic, utilitarian mindset our culture endorses, life becomes a very superficial and based on money, vanity, self-importance, prestige and power, and things. It becomes justifiable to use people (and things) for one's own personal happiness, which is an indication of selfishness.
The example doesn't have to be as extreme as a person aborting her child because "it will mess up my life's plans." Although that's wrong for its obvious reasons, it is motivated by a utilitarian mindset. But utiliarianism can also be manifested through smaller things, such as maintaining a relationship to meet one's emotional needs (or financial needs). It can mean being kind to your spouse so that you will get your way, or so that he will buy you what you want. Even though you have no particular interest in a person, it's great they give you free rides to school or work, or sub for you at work...even though there lacks a mutual understanding of an exchange of services. It leads to a use of people...and people are not things to be used, they are humans to be loved.
The Church has always warned and stood against this selfish mentality which leads to a superficial interpretation of the "quality" and meaning of life. In fact, in another encyclical John Paul II wrote, Veritatis Splendor, or The Splendor of the Truth, a utilitarian philosophy of life is ultimately summed up as a mindset "where morality of human acts would be judged without any reference to man's true ulitmate end" (VS 74).
Man's True Ultimate End
"Man's true ultimate end." This leads us back to a few very important questions we should ask ourselves that our society neglects. You see, we are so caught up in the "do, do, do" and "go, go, go" and "busy, busy, busy" of life that it causes us to be very distracted from the basic important truths of our existence. They are things that Satan does not want us to confront because it will lead us to search for the truth and meaning of life. If he can just keep us busy and our minds off of these things, then we just live in a whirlwind of "busy-ness" and "doing-ness" which has not ultimate purpose in terms of eternity and our destiny of "meriting" heaven or hell.
What are those questions we might ask ourselves?
What is the purpose and meaning of life? Not just my life, but life in its general sense?
What is the purpose of my entire existence and the actions I do...is it just for this life, the hear and now, or does this point me toward something greater?
Do I fall into this utilitarian mindset sometimes? Do I think the focus on the external things of life are more important than the state of my interior life, my soul and my virtue? "What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul?" (Mark 8:36)
Do my actions and beliefs make sense toward an ultimate end, or is it all just random, pick-as-I-choose-when-I-feel-like without a consistent "goal" that weaves through it all?
See this is the problem with our culture today - it's very inconsistent and leads to no ultimate end. A thing which has no end is aimless and lacks a final purpose. Everything else in life has a purpose - the purpose of a car is to get you from point A to point B. The purpose of a microwave is to heat up your food. But life....what is the purpose and meaning of life? Is it what I say it means, or is there something greater - more objective - beyond the "I"? If it is just "I," then life and its meaning is very limited and finite because I am not superhuman; I am human, I am mortal, I will have an end and I am limited.
But people run from facing this reality of death - and if they don't run from it, they distract themselves from it. And if they do face it - without living certitude of God - it seems hopeless and dispairing. If there is nothing supernatural, nothing beyond the "I" and self, then one only becomes focused on the here and now of life - that materialism, that consumerism, that utilitarianism, that vanity, all for me and my defintion of happiness.
Hey - it's easier to just focus on those material things - the daily activities I'm involved in, my daily schedule, what I have to do, what I have to buy. It takes effort, time, and energy to ponder and search for deeper meaning to all of this. The easy way out is more convenient right now....so let's just not think of anything more.
Reminds me of the Scripture reading the other day from Mass: "....those who through fear of death had been subject to slavery all their life" (Hebrews 2:15). This fear of death leads us to only focus on what we see and feel: The material life to the neglect of the supernatural life and its supernatural meaning.
Christians and Utilitarianism
Christians fall victim to this too because this utiliarian mindset is so embedded in our culture, in our culture's "morality" (or immorality more accurately speaking), in our culture's mass media, conversations, and so on. It. Is. Everywhere. Christians fall victim to utilitarianism when they "pick and choose" the moral laws of God that they want to follow because it best suits their own defintion of happiness. If so-and-so is too hard, too inconvenient, too demanding of my life, then I will ignore it or justify it away. Being difficult or hard or inconvenient is not excuse to reject God's laws. It is an excuse, however, for our eternal damnation, if we continue along this path...and we have chosen it.
This, be it known, is not humbly following the Lord in true discipleship, it is making ourselves into our own little gods, choosing for ourselves what is morally right and wrong. Guess what? We cannot earn our own salvation. This is what you would call placing oneself above God and that is a serious offense against God Himself. Do we realize we do this when we pick-and-choose what we want to ignore about the Catholic Church's teachings about the moral life? This is no small thing, yet it is all-too-common, moreso than it once was. It is one thing (and a good and healthy thing) to sincerely search and ask questions about the Church's teachings, and an entirely different thing (and dangerous thing to our salvation) to obstinantly refuse to live by it. It was St. Thomas Aquinas who said that being humble is being able to judge oneself according to the truth - not our personal dispositions, preferences, and tastes.
St. Therese, who, when asked at her death if she had attained humility, responded, “it appears to me that humility is truth. I know not whether I am humble, but I know that I see the truth in all things.” She sought the truth - found in the One, True, God and guarded within the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church - and she sought, in every action, the way that was most faithful to Him. It requires true humility of heart to follow God - to desire to know what ways are most pleasing to Him, and what ways are not. Humility allows us to know the truth and then judge ourselves according to that truth.
"Make known to me your ways, LORD; teach me your paths...
Good and upright is the LORD,
therefore he shows sinners the way,
He guides the humble in righteousness,
and teaches the humble his way."
- Psalm 25:4,8-9
Show me where I am in darkness Lord, and bring me into the light!