First, welcome back. I hope you are having an interesting 2025; I know I am. Life is chaotic, but the dark ocean is but a mirror. “Life happens for you, not to you.” It is only as good as we allow it to be. Despite the provocative title, this will not be doom and gloom, though a warning it will be.
Perhaps you have watched a viral video explaining how small the world has become through the manufacturing of a pencil. This concept is based on Leonard E. Read’s essay, “I, Pencil.” Both the essay and video illustrate the delicate web of cooperation. They show the subtle specialization needed to produce a simple pencil.
If you have not seen it, Read reveals how no single individual can make a pencil entirely on their own. This process requires coordinated efforts. Countless people from various industries and regions contribute. These range from the lumberjack harvesting cedar wood to the miner extracting graphite. How can something so seemingly ordinary be so remarkably complex? A great reminder that each person contributes a small but vital part to the process.
This is also a powerful example of free-market principles. Capitalism is critical for the world we rely on. One can hardly quantify the interconnected nature of the global economy. Even the simplest objects result from vast collaboration. We are, without a doubt, dangerously taking it for granted. The process I refer to is more than the making of a pencil. It is more ancient and, dare I say, base. It is the eternal cycle of creation, this process of progress, growth, or maturation. The duty of all divine image bearers, namely the balancing of Order and Chaos.
Mankind, like in the biblical account of the Tower of Babel, can hardly help itself. We strive and make strife to build something, anything to reach heaven from our fallen paradise. As then, so now, this without proper sacrifice will result in everyone talking and no words having any meaning. There is indeed already a real concern about the potential for such confusion. Jordan Peterson does an excellent job expressing this further in Chapter 5 of his book, We Who Wrestle with God. (10/10 recommend.)
Miscommunication on many levels in our increasingly interconnected world is already a worry of the wise. We have placed on the highest altar of our hearts the idol of technology. We have not been working in the physical world or on its infrastructure. Planes falling apart, trains running off the rails, and the grid in various regions showing its incompetence in recent years. The fragile future hangs in the balance of our arrogant blind spots.
What if we are not capable of enduring the winter that is always coming?
What happens when we reach critical mass with our diverse transitions?
We are increasing the strain we place upon the already stressed systems. Can the newcomers hold the world together, or does Atlas finally shrug? Only time will tell.
I said this today: “A man can fight his superior and win. This is possible if his will exceeds the expectation of his opponent. However, no man can fight a horde, even though they be his inferiors.” The little problems of the world as a whole are already piled one atop another.
How long until we acknowledge that mountain, or the dragons underneath?
The sheer volume of information can often lead to serious misunderstandings. The rapid pace of technological change accelerates this modern Tower of Babel we have built. Together, we are engineering events unintentionally that must now come to pass. These events will unfold in the rear-view as they often do. Yet, they will transform the world as we know it for better or worse. Both volume and pace contribute to a lack of shared context within our society. The rest is the result of silos and excessive comfort.
A good gust topples the tallest towers, yet what is a tree without that same cold beating? Are we dead debris blown by the breeze, or a living tree? Best to not stay a sapling.
We ought to all be working on our own protocols. We should make effective use of the intellectual capital while we can. Babylon always falls.
Under every city is a slum. Beneath the surface of our technological marvels lies the fragility of our physical foundations. Our over-reliance on digital infrastructure often masks the neglected state of essential services that sustain our daily lives. Consider the erratic behavior of power grids during extreme weather events. The unsettling frequency of transportation mishaps adding to this concern. The growing vulnerability of so many of our outdated systems. There are echoes of my “woe world” within Read’s pencil. Even the smallest stone cast into a lake causes ripples. So it is with the smallest of tools; any disruptions can rip through the delicate interconnected web, causing unforeseen consequences. Masquerade is great if you have warts under the mask.
In this eternal cycle of order and chaos, progress and potential peril, we must strive for balance. While we all enjoy the advantages of a connected world, we must also tend to the roots of our tree. They are what anchor us.
The future of freedom is that true strength lies in collaboration.
This collaboration is not just in the digital realm. It is also strong in the tangible, everyday efforts that keep society running smoothly. Each of us plays a role no matter where we find ourselves, so let us not forget our foundations.
We must maintain the base upon which our ‘tower’ is built. Otherwise, we must be willing to bear the weight of the world.
Matty Thinks 
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