Thomas Merton died in 1968.
Here are some of his words. One wonders what he would say about the affluence today.
I am convinced of the sickness of American affluent society. To bless that sickness as a "temporal value" is something I absolutely refuse to do. Love of "the world" in this case means understanding and love of the millions of people afflicted by the sickness and suffering from it in various ways; compassion for them, desire to liberate them from their obsessions (how can anyone do it? We are all afflicted), to give them some measure of sanity and authenticity.
The error is in rejecting the sick and condemning them along with the sickness.
Thomas Merton. A Search for Solitude. Lawrence S. Cunningham, editor. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1996: 198.
