St. Digerati

WE have to be familiar with this linguistic figure called “portmanteau.” It’s a word that combines two or three words, and that, of course, compresses the meaning of each term into one powerful concept.

An example of recent coinage is the word “digerati.” It’s a combination of “digital” and “literati,” and refers to a person who is not only a digital native, one born into a digital culture and familiar with its ways, but is also an expert in the digital technology who’s in the forefront of its speedy development.

The concept therefore can iconize the current state of world development that should be properly known, mastered and made to serve our true, objective needs. More bluntly, it evokes the status of today’s world that has to be evangelized, spiritualized and made to serve our ultimate supernatural goal.

That’s why a person who is a digerati should strive also to be a St. Digerati, just as anybody else in whatever profession and in whatever stage or level of expertise is expected to be a saint, since sanctity is for everyone.

This is the challenge we are facing these days as we enter a new year. We can expect not only an increase in the pace of development especially in the technical field, but also major and drastic shifts in balance of power and influence in the fields of world politics and the economy.

Becoming clearer with each passing day is the realization that the up-to-now dominant countries of North America and Europe are sinking in their economic status and are slowly but steadily replaced by an emerging Asian power called China.

It now looks like the flaws of the American and Europeans systems, long hidden by a clever play of politics and economics, are now exposed to be potentially fatal. The mentality of privilege and entitlements has been eroding their culture and is now threatening to deliver a death-blow to them.

This suspenseful phenomenon obviously has far-reaching consequences and countless implications that as of now we may not even be aware of. We have to be quick to learn the lessons of these developments, and be ready for the expected big changes.

We need to closely monitor the developments, identifying the good openings and the dangers as promptly as possible, and without getting distracted from the moral standards that should be upheld and defended, and the spiritual and supernatural goals that should be pursued.

The requirements of religion should be applied on these developments. We should never get contented with satisfying merely political, economic and social criteria. We have to go all the way to meet the demands of our true dignity as persons with moral, spiritual and supernatural dimensions.

Ignoring these demands of religion would be tackling the issues inadequately. We have to wake up from this predicament that has been demonizing us for so long.

The present disturbing turn of events seems to surface this long-ostracized truth about our duty to consistently live religion in our world affairs and human concerns.

We seem to be told that the gap between the spiritual and the material, between faith and reason, between the sacred and the mundane, etc., should now be bridged and blended properly, without destroying or corrupting the nature of each category.

We are now being asked to go further than our usual way of considering, understanding and resolving the issues. We have been reducing things in a way that has gone beyond the valid goal of simplifying things.

We have been falling into simplism, a dangerous process that avoids the most crucial element in human development. This has been responsible for the decadence of once thriving cultures in world history.

The fall of past great civilizations like Greece, Rome, Persia, Egypt, etc., was due ultimately to their inability to grapple with the objective moral and spiritual requirements of man. This explains the various shifts of power in history.

They just got contented with political plays and economic programs, thinking that these would be enough to keep them in power and to grow to higher levels of greatness.

If there was any appeal to religion in their bid for greatness, it was always a false one since their notion of religion was man-made, and not God-given. They were just playing around with tricks and gimmicks, and later on with force and intimidation. Obviously these would not make things last.

Some people may think these views are exaggerated and baseless. But it cannot be denied that we now have serious reasons to give these considerations some serious attention.