Everyone knows something’s wrong in society. Anxiety and depression are at all-time highs, especially among younger generations, despite historically unparalleled access to medication and therapy. The U.S. surgeon general declared loneliness an epidemic. Trust in institutions is at low tide. And even a cursory glance at social media reveals we’re far from united, as we’re plagued with a bad case of self-absorption and self-importance. These aren’t indicators of a well-functioning culture.
Social media and excessive screen time have rightfully been identified as major contributing factors to these problems. But in Platforms to Pillars: Trading the Burden of Performance for the Freedom of God’s Presence, Mark Sayers—pastor of Red Church in Australia—contends that the spiritual, historical, and philosophical roots to our techno-oppressed society go much deeper than our screens. His thesis: We need an exodus from our platform society, and we need to be divinely enabled to live as pillars, seeking society’s renewal and flourishing by lovingly “imprinting the world with God’s ways” (154).
Distant Causes
The seeds of our cultural moment were sown when the powers and principalities, along with our primal parents, played king of the hill with the King of the universe. As Tears for Fears sang, “Everybody wants to rule the world.” Unfortunately, as every human has learned, attempting to crown ourselves king inevitably leads to misery and ruin.
Sin makes us power-hungry. And when we’re power-hungry, we exploit others. Ancient Egypt, for example, institutionalized the pharaoh’s presumption of divine authority. His every wish and whim were to be fulfilled through the subservient labor of “lesser mortals,” like the Israelites.
Yet the quest for power isn’t only an ancient phenomenon. Sayers notes, “We are now returning to a form of neo-feudalism, a mode of society that echoes ancient Egypt . . . where a small, wealthy, and powerful elite, aided by technology, sits atop a social pyramid” (137). We aren’t literally chained and bound, making bricks without straw. But in some sense, we’re chained and bound to our screens. We click and scroll to make money for our tech overlords, without compensation or Sabbath. The difference is that our individualistic desires make us willing captives to their platforms.
We click and scroll to make money for our tech overlords, without compensation or Sabbath.
Proximate Causes
The idealistic hopes of the 1960s ended in a radical individualistic turn in Western civilization. Sayers quotes David Frum, who describes the individualism of the ’70s as “an individualism run amok, an individualism that not only refuses to be bound by the laws of society, but even by the laws of nature” (9). Society adopted the false notion that reality is customizable to our individual preferences. Everything, including gender and math, supposedly bows before individual desire.
The internet threw gasoline on the philosophical fire of self-expression that spawned it. Now, we believe we can have knowledge without effort, pleasure without pursuit, risk without consequences, wealth without stewardship, connection without quality time, meaning without sacrifice, and freedom without boundaries. Aided by the deceptive power of virtual reality, we have “a vision of the self rooted in escapist fantasies” (10).
As existential psychiatrist Irvin D. Yalom remarks, “One of our major tasks is to invent a meaning sturdy enough to support a life and to perform the tricky maneuver of denying our personal authorship of this meaning.” Because this cognitive dissonance is unsustainable, we end up surrendering meaning-making to the owners of our digital platforms. And whoever controls meaning, even if it’s invented, controls the masses.
We believe we’re technological pharaohs. We’re really the oppressed Israelites. Our screens seduce us with visions of glory and control. But hidden from our sight, behind the surface of our screens, is a civilization in decline. As Sayers writes, “Beneath the hood, [the digital platforms’] exploitative business model drives economic inequality, democratic decline, and the exploitation of individuals” (141). We’ve been duped into participating in the objectification and commodification of our whole lives. Sayers notes, “Even as we sleep, smartwatches monetize our heartbeats and breath patterns, which are sold as part of vast data sets, all for someone else’s profit” (115).
Proposed Solutions
Merely limiting our screen usage won’t be enough. Sayers says that, fundamentally, we need “deliverance” (143) and a “new great awakening” (213). He writes, “The journey from platform to pillar can only be undertaken by following the Exodus pattern . . . which takes us from entrapment to the freedom of worshiping God fully” (147–48).
Spiritual revival often precedes cultural reformation. The gospel changes people, and changed people change culture for the glory of God and the good of others. A cross-shaped life is the countercultural cure for our celebrity culture. Whether we’re a lowly Hebrew midwife or a queen like Esther, “the most important thing is to live faithfully” (166). God uses his people’s obedience as pillars to “repair the ruined cities” (Isa. 61:4).
Spiritual revival often precedes cultural reformation
The Great Awakening represents the sort of cross-generational pillar formation Sayers envisions. He argues, “The creation of a counter-society of strong relational ties [during the Great Awakening] was a key and deliberate strategy alongside the sovereign move of God to pour out His Spirit. Institution building, family strengthening, and education brought good news and created a counter-society, which restrengthened social ties with Jesus at the center” (214). In many ways, Sayers echoes James Davison Hunter’s assessment that Christians should build institutions, not merely start movements.
Sayers makes a strong case for his proposed solution. However, some readers may be left longing for specific next steps to begin integrating “heavenly patterns into personal and corporate life” (199). Sayers thoroughly describes the principles of pillar living, but he doesn’t spend much time prescribing how to apply those principles today.
Conversation Starter
Sayers’s argument is compelling, especially for those already aware of cultural trends. He brings together historians, sociologists, theologians, philosophers, and economists to present a cogent cultural analysis. His bibliography alone is worth the price of the book.
Like Sayers’s previous book, A Non-Anxious Presence, Platforms to Pillars promises to be a conversation starter. This book can help professors, pastors, community leaders, and parents understand cultural trends and begin to map a path forward.