Approaching Church this morning I am confronted by ‘Progress’ – The Story has moved on. Amidst that which once formed us, Trees and Temple, stands the New Ikon of our Age, the very Goal of Progress! Our New Improved version of Heaven . . . The Skip!

Yesterday I had to endure once more what is one of the more Soul destructive of happenings, the visit of a Technician.  Soul destroying for it further wrote my own capacities, my own agency out of the picture. That is, there was once something which I could do myself, but now, thanks to Progress, I find myself unable to do. (Not I must add due to the increasing crankiness of my joints – for all of us, increasing age means a decline in our physical capacity, and thus physical agency in the world).

The Technician is the great Manifestation of Progress, for his appearing reminds us that Progressively we lack meaningful agency in the world of  Progress. He comes to put us in our place as passive consumers of things. This is a frequent occurrence in these blessed days of Consumer bliss. I now no longer can fix my own car, even bicycle gears are getting ‘a but tricky’. For things have Progressed – which obviously means that they are better, no? Change a plug??!! Why? When we have moulded plugs which are so bound to their ephemeral consumables, that even they, which used to be removed before disposal, now go happily to that place of oblivion.

And so it was that having done what I could, moved our electric cooker away from the wall, I stood back helpless as thanks to Progress, a task which I would have once readily done myself, replaced a faulty element, was done by the new High Priest of our age –  The Technician. (Of course this being Progress, he is a Technician only in a very narrow field, for Progress demands many things and no Thing must be allowed to remain as it is, but be refined to a plane where only those high priests of each individual Craft might be admitted – the rest pay to watch the show)

Increasingly unusually, there was a gleam of light in the visit, a sign that ‘The Old Things’ had not entirely been forgotten. Apparently The Technician could obtain a new element!! and, what is more, at a cost less than a replacement cooker . . . or at least he thought so . . .  So for a time, the cooker (by now an almost prehistoric 5 years old  – what ARE we thinking hoping that it might be repaired???) was spared from that Modern Nirvana, The Skip, even if that were not to be the case for the element.

Along the way we spoke of the ridiculousness of it all (after all ‘I have a degree!’ in that sort of stuff, and indeed used to teach it), before he pulled out his ‘phone’ to photograph a thermostat, which was playing up. Together we marvelled at the picture quality, before the fateful words ‘of course the latest one has an even better camera!’

This brought to mind the wise words of my Biology teacher, Don Passey, and earnest youngish teacher – who told us that the joke of HiFi (remember that?) was that when you were old enough to pay enough for decent sound quality, your hearing had already deteriorated to a degree by which you were unable to tell the difference between that and HiFi half the price. As I looked at the photograph of the Thermostat, (an Image at which I suppose even Michelangelo would have marvelled . . .) I must admit to thinking ‘I’m not sure I’d be able to tell . . . but I suppose it must be worth having?’

I gather that Progress now is becoming more explicit in its goal, hence the new prophetically named iPhone ‘Ex’. This most expensive ever (read ‘for the time being’), has sold out almost overnight. At the Cutting edge of Progress, iPhone ‘Eyeye Exes’ will start to gather dust. Like the elderly in rest homes – or as one Aged Care ‘Manager’ once named them, ‘End of Life facilities’ – they will be forgotten and wait their turn ‘to Pass’, to The Skip . . .

The myth of Progress is probably the most destructive we have ever known. It hides itself in many guises, some of them Religious, but all religious. Out of the ‘planet’ everything is dug, and then Progresses to end up in a hole in the ground – Everything. Phone, element, agency, person, Skipped as we Progress ourselves to The New, The Improved!

Why, even the Skip comes with doors nowadays, to ease our passing . . .