Efficiency and our Culture

I’ve been analyzing culture and worldview lately and, with the help of discussion with others, found some interesting observations.

It seems that our culture in this day and age is run on the premises of efficiency; efficiency based on the ratio of effort and sacrifice to values and rewards. The primary flaw in this system is that we also live in an age that remains quite ignorant of what is truly valuable. We base our system on sacrificing some benefits for the sake of others; this in itself is an understandably necessary evil, however, if one sells his birthright for a bowl of soup then it makes one wonder if he had any understanding of the value of his birthright to begin with.

Here we are as Americans living in a culture that is motivated by the pursuit of ease; our modern technology being constructed less for the purpose of research and progress as much as for how these inventions can provide us with more luxury, and essentially less thought. We no longer need to know how to grow food, how to prepare meals, how to provide for, construct and maintain a family; we only need to earn money. On a side note, it’s no wonder that we consider ourselves occupationally defined. We no longer ascribe to the systems of old, stating our introduction as our name followed by either our geographical heritage or our genetic ancestry. Now we simply say “I’m a teacher”, or “I’m a doctor” or “I’m a musician” or whatever we happen to consider our societal function. It also makes an amount of sense to me that marital infidelity is sky rocketing when spouses are no longer directly reminded of their loyalties every time they lift a finger in their occupation. When a husband’s job was to build a house and literally “put food on the table” and a wife’s job was to prepare meals for her family and run their home why the husband was away, their “occupation” was directly related to their marital roles. But when our society for the sake of efficiency, drives us to specialize in one particular field of expertise and not to be a whole and well rounded person, it seems to be very easy to separate one’s job and one’s family life, leading to an attempt at serving two masters.

To go back to the original observation, it seems that what we are willing to sacrifice for this ease is of an inestimable value. The character that is built from old fashioned hard work, the rewards of discipline and preparation, the beauty of chastity and fidelity are immeasurably more valuable then the short term “benefits” of ease, financial success, and technological “progress”. Birthright can’t be seen, and soup smells enticing, but what is the greater worth?

I wonder if perhaps efficiency is a misguided ideal. In truth, you always get what you pay for; you always appreciate more what is waited for. Perhaps “efficiency” is an attempt at cheating the system by sacrificing the priceless for immediate gratification.
I don’t pretend to have the fix for this culture’s problem, but I find it profitable to analyze it in comparison with other cultures of the past.

These are not original ideas; I’ve only been listening and discussing these matters with a number of people lately and thought I’d try to put it down.

God is sovereign; may He be glorified even in man’s folly.