We live in a mechanistic world, meaning a world that responds to a principle of causality. According to this mechanism, everything around us responds to absolute rules, and derives from a cause-effect relationship. Basically, most people believe that only science matters, and that there is no higher power. Science has enabled human beings to make colossal achievements, and to enjoy the use of artificial light, radio, television, cars, and the internet. For hundreds of years, people had to learn to adapt to their surroundings, and in the modern era it is the complete opposite. Our world is now shaped by humans, for humans. As a result, we all live more comfortable lives. The thing is, there are also quite a few disadvantages, the first of them being our disconnection with nature. Artificial light and the clock have broken the natural rhythm with which our days used to be organised. Our daily lives are no longer governed by the rising and setting of the sun, but other dynamics linked to work or other needs prevail.
Industrialisation has forever broken the connection between humans and nature. Even the relationship between people has been seriously compromised. The TV, radio, and internet endanger human interactions on a daily basis, which are becoming ever more fleeting, superficial, and flat. Technology has made us lazier; we no longer seek other people’s company, we don't think we need them anymore, because there is always a screen at our disposal that can entertain, distract and amuse us.
Progress has indeed made people’s lives more comfortable, but it has also made them feel powerless and isolated. All this has given rise to a society that the philosopher Hannah Arendt would call atomised, which means made up of lonely and alienated individuals. Individuals who, for the very reason that they have become lonely and alienated from one another, become the perfect victims of totalitarian regimes.