Author Wendell Berry has said:
| A person dependent on somebody else for everything from potatoes to opinions may declare that he is a free man, and his government may issue a certificate granting him his freedom, but he will not be free. He is that variety of specialist known as a consumer, which means that he is the abject dependent of producers. How can he be free if he can do nothing for himself? What is the First Amendment to him whose mouth is stuck to the tit of the “affluent society”? Men are free precisely to the extent that they are equal to their own needs. The most able are the most free. h/t |
Is this consistent with a Biblical worldview?
Parts are, parts are not.
No man can be free "if he can do nothing for himself." But "freedom" is not man's summum bonum. Some people, like paraplegics, are dependent on others, and God will use these circumstances to nurture the character of Christ in those who serve and those who are served. Together, we know and do the truth, and thereby become free, become truly human, in our dependence on one another.
An economy/culture totally dedicated to accumulating and hoarding "personal peace and affluence" on an individualist basis is doomed. An economy that churns out empty trinkets of me-centered indulgence, rather than food, housing, medical care and that which serves others, is a fundamentally selfish economy. An economy of war, that beats plowshares into swords and sells them to dictators around the world, is an evil and dangerous cancer on the planet. People who play their part, mindlessly tightening the screws in a meaningless assembly line of death and narcissism, are not whole humans. Their economy might have numbers that appear to prove outward prosperity, but there is inward death. It cannot last.
But the problem with this assembly-line culture is moral rot, not "dependence."
Consider the "Division of Labor" (Romans 12; 1 Corinthians 12).
There is not a single person on planet earth who can build a pencil from scratch. This is because all the labor and skills required to extract the raw materials from God's Creation and assemble them into a pencil are divided among many human beings, no one of them possessing all the skills and knowledge needed to plant and harvest trees, extract and refine chemicals, and build the equipment which fabricates a pencil. While Faber-Castell might get credit for making pencils, many other companies had a hand in the task. Previous generations saw the global human economy as being overseen by an "Invisible Hand." Also called "Providence," about which we'll see more below.
Ultimately, only God can get credit for building the New Jerusalem, but man is commanded to do the work. God gives different skills to different people. We all need each other. We are all dependent upon each other. "No man is an island." "Rugged Individualism" is sub-Biblical. It is a good thing to deny the moral legitimacy of "central planning" and "the State," which "rugged individualism" does, but it is wrong to deny the moral good of being dependent upon and serving others in a "society."
Imagine the construction of a large apartment. I mean really large, like 432 Park Avenue, the tallest residential building in New York. Or five of the ten tallest buildings in the world, found in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. One of these buildings can house 25,000 human beings. Who gets "credit" for building one of these buildings? Maybe the architect -- except it was a team of architects. Maybe the CEO of the Construction firm, but he personally does not know how to build a cement mixer. Suppose your vocation is being a plumber, and you were hired to install a unique sink in one of the residences on the 32nd floor during the construction of one of these buildings. Do you get credit for building the building? Of course not. You knew very little about what kind of building was being constructed. You were just fulfilling your individual calling as a plumber. Should you say, "This is not my building, so I'm not going to contribute to its edification?" That would be disobedient.
Each human being has a calling to build part of the Kingdom of God, the City of God, the New Jerusalem. It is man's job to build the kingdom. God gets all the credit.
Man's divine purpose on earth is to create a flourishing anarchist society, overseen only by an Invisible Hand.
Here is an excursus on The Invisible Hand and the Division of Labor