Better Than The Real Thing?

Perhaps in retrospect, one of the most prescient films of the new millennium is Surrogates.  The premise of this 2009 science fiction thriller, starring Bruce Willis, is that in the future, the majority of people will never leave their homes and work and interact exclusively through androids that represent their ideal and perfected selves. The users feel no pain and face no unpleasantness in the virtual world of their surrogates. Minus the androids, a painless and idealized virtual future is where much of humanity may well be headed.

Given the hurt, disappointment, and stress that many individuals face in the modern world, it is completely understandable that they might want to create a new reality for themselves in which imperfection, failure, and pain can be avoided, or obviated.  But reality, with all of its brokenness must be faced, because only by confronting the disappointments and grief that are a part of life can people grow and find true meaning, real happiness, and transcendent eternity. This is at the core of the Christian message, and given the direction of the world, it is arguably more relevant than ever.

Virtual Everything

Spurred in part by the pandemic-era movement toward remote workplaces and home offices, Meta (the former Facebook), Microsoft, and other tech companies are pioneering a new virtual world. Meta, has made the development of a fully interactive internet experience and subsequent virtual and augmented reality a principal corporate focus. Meta anticipates a future in which most people will eventually work via virtual reality. Users will go to the office in the metaverse where they will interact with colleagues in a simulated workplace.  Enhanced reality gloves will allow users to actually feel a desk, a keyboard or a pencil.  Thus, without ever leaving home, a person can be fully present in a virtual office.

Believe it or not, virtual real estate is currently available for purchase in this simulated world and has been identified by some investors as the next potential boom market.  An individual or company can now buy an office, or a storefront on virtual Fifth Avenue.  Thus, a corporation can potentially move workers from an actual workspace in a suburban office park to a high rise in virtual midtown Manhattan with a Central Park view. Employees no longer need to commute to work, saving time and fuel, and they can always appear impeccably dressed and groomed in the office with enhanced and perfected features.

Virtual reality is undoubtedly a modern wonder and has been shown to have tremendous therapeutic value for people suffering from various mental and emotional conditions.  It has the potential to allows individuals who wouldn’t otherwise have the opportunity to see each other to connect in a much more real and tangible way than is currently possible. A child who lives on the opposite side of the globe may soon be able to visit with a grandmother in her home and feel the warm touch of her hand.

Virtual reality also offers the potential of a healthy dose of escapism for people seeking to alleviate the stress of modern life.  What could be more therapeutic than coming home from a busy day and having the ability to walk hand-in-hand with a spouse in the warm sand of a Caribbean beach while listening to the sea and feeling a gentle breeze?  For the more religiously minded, perhaps a quiet evening sitting in prayer in a pew at St. Peter’s basilica would be the more edifying experience.  Virtual reality may soon make this all possible.

The Darker Side

But there is a darker side to the escapism that virtual reality offers and that the film Surrogates also addresses.  Bruce Willis’ spouse in the movie, Maggie, played by Rosamund Pike, will only interact with him and the world through her android because of the pain and grief that she still suffers from the loss of their child. The wounds of this trauma have never healed for her, and seemingly never need to, because her idealized surrogate allows her to avoid her grief and tuck it away in a dark corner of her soul.

As much as audiences viewing Surrogates would naturally (and should) identify with Willis’ protagonist, bravely refusing to succumb to the easy temptation to slip into a painless existence lived through an idealized android, Maggie is the more telling character given the general direction of modernity.  She is quite likely the one that is more representative of the reality of the human condition.  She belies a paradox of much of the developed world that, while the majority of the population has never been more comfortable, prosperous, or had greater life expectancy, it seemingly has never been more discontented, unhappy, and anchorless.

Like Maggie, many Americans, Western Europeans, and East Asians want desperately to avoid or escape reality by various means. The evidence appears to suggest that this tendency increases with each new generational cohort.

Unreality and Escapism

Among younger populations, commonly used words like “adulting” refer to mundane tasks that imply that taking responsibility for one’s own existence constitutes a burden, and indicates an aversion to maturity or facing the reality of life.  At the same time, the ubiquity of the abbreviation IRL, which stand for “in real life” indicates that for much of American youth, the principal reality is virtual.

Among older Americans, the fervent desire to escape reality appears equally present, albeit in different forms. The enthusiastic embrace of fantasy conspiracy theories, the popularity of video games, and superhero movies all indicate a tendency toward escapism and disconnectedness with the actual world that is as acute as that of adolescents who cannot communicate with their peers without the aid of a smartphone.

The general breakdown of societal norms and civility seems to be a result of adult Americans’ inability to face and handle reality in a mature manner. The problem appears much more acute among Generation Z as indicated by some experts’ research that shows up to a third of this population may be clinically narcissistic.

Escaping Complexity and Pain

Maggie in Surrogates has good reason to want to avoid the pain of reality.  She suffered an almost incomprehensible loss that resulted in her grief and despair.  It was the death of her child, and to a much lesser extent the decayed state of society, that led her to take the easy path of comfort offered by a virtual existence.

There are other good and legitimate reasons why much of society in the developed world might also want to turn its back on reality. The overwhelming complexity, stress, uncertainty and cruelty of the modern world, to say nothing of the individual losses that are part of life, would be more than justification enough for many to want to seek an alternative and idealized existence.

Yet Maggie, in vivid manner, makes clear what Pascal and so many saints, theologians, and philosophers have stated through the ages: namely, that the pain that is so much a part of existence can only be truly healed and overcome when it is confronted. The easy path of avoidance and escapism only leads to numbness and a vapid life.

The Christian Reality

This cold reality is at the heart of the Christian message.  Perhaps no other faith tradition, save the Jewish root of the Church, so unflinchingly confronts the ugliness of humanity. Regardless of whether one takes Genesis as allegory or historic fact, the story of creation is the story of a fallen mankind. God himself figuratively sits with his creation and helps it see its corruption and pain and to understand that there is a way out of this state. In essence, He pleads, “Come now, let us reason together, though your sins be as scarlet, they will be as white as snow” (Isaiah 1:18).

The transformation of which God speaks happens through repentance, which is an act of acknowledging the brokenness of one’s life and one’s own failings. These failings often come from deep wounds and well-founded fears. Yet unconfronted, they result in separation from God and, at best, a truly virtual existence.

The very core of Christianity is the confrontation of these fears, failings, and the pain of humanity that leads it to succumb to the temptation to think, feel, and do evil.  Christ’s atoning death is the acknowledgement by God that someone has to make this situation right and that humanity just is not up to the job.

The Gospels and New Testament letters, as well as the Jewish Scriptures, call believers to see their brokenness, to confront their failings and their pain, and to be reborn.  The Scriptures make clear that this is the only path to transformation. There can be no resurrection without the cross and without these events, humanity is in a state of virtual reality.

The beauty of this message is that God does not ask His creation to make this change by itself. Christ says in so many words to every one of His followers, “I know.  I really know what that feels like.”  He has felt the sting of betrayal, He knows the ache of dashed dreams, He understands the shame of humiliation, He can relate to the despair of grief and the blackness of being absolutely alone.  He has experienced every burden that mankind carries and says that He is there to shoulder them with us. He only asks that we try to find the courage to face the pain and to give it to Him.

Catholics not only have Christ’s hand to help them to find that courage, but the prayers and assistance of the Virgin and the whole host of heaven who also know trials of human existence. Admittedly, it can seem overwhelming to face one’s own pain, but Christ promises us healing, strength, meaning and true and eternal life if we can do it.

The Choice of Life or Death

In the book of Deuteronomy, God gave the Israelites a choice between life and death.  Christians, and indeed all of humanity, face a largely similar choice.  It is a decision about what to do with the pain and hardship of existence that is unavoidable in life.  It is a choice to confront and make something better and greater out of the pain; to become more understanding, to become more compassionate, to become more patient, to become more generous.

It is equally a choice to become self-absorbed and uncaring because of one’s grief or to visit harm on enemies because of a false sense of justification.  It is also a decision to seek to run from the pain, to find some measure of relief in a virtual, half-lived life.

Certain schools of psychology argue that the greatest of human achievements come from the depths of despair and grief.  By confronting the pain, transformation can occur, and something magnificent can come from it. The spectacular beauty of the resurrection can only happen because of the pain that was borne on the cross. This is how the most meaningful metamorphosis happens. This is the Christian message and the Christian challenge to a world that seemingly has lost the courage and strength to come to terms with its brokenness.

For many, the pain of life may make them feel as if they are losing the ability to tread water in a sea of despair as they slowly go numb. In these circumstances, the offer of a painless virtual existence may seem like salvation. It can keep them from going under the waves, but it will not likely take them back to land even though the shore is within sight. This requires letting go of the raft and facing the cold waters. Christ promises that we will not be overcome by them and that on the shores to which He takes us, healing and true life await.