“In the future, everything will be better. More relaxed. Machines will take over our work. We’ll have more time (and more boredom!) than ever before.”
That’s what quite a lot of smart people (sociologists, historians, philosophers, social theorists) have been saying in their predictions about the future, pretty much ever since industrialization. No joke.
The reality: more like an emotional pandemic
- In Germany, a person dies by suicide every 48 minutes.
- The number of burnout diagnoses has nearly doubled in the last decade.
- One in four Germans experiences depression or anxiety at some point every year.
- Across Germany, more people die by suicide every year than from traffic accidents, drugs and HIV combined.
The million-dollar question now, of course, is: WHY!? Why were the scientists so wrong with their prediction? Why are we actually so stressed 24/7, why is everything always too much for us, and why is “mental health” such a hot-button issue?
How does our society tick?
Of course, the obvious thing is to blame our society. But … is that true? Is our society to blame? Is our society making us sick?
To answer that, we need to understand the DNA and mentality of our society. They can be summed up in five beliefs that you’ve surely heard before and may even share (consciously or unconsciously). What becomes clear: our society challenges ALL of us, and that can affect our mental health.
1. “Your truth isn’t necessarily my truth”
… One of our all-time favorites! We’re living in the age of science, and we’re struggling with the side effects. Today we know more about atoms or the universe than ever before. But a smart philosopher named Habermas taught us: science can tell you how to do something. But not whether you should do it. For all our trust in the “how,” we’ve lost the “why.” Why we’re here. Why we long for love.
Disappointed by science, we as a society have reoriented ourselves and catapulted ourselves into postmodern relativism. You can see it in the trendy value of tolerance (my truth no longer has to be your truth) and in a general skepticism: Is there such a thing as absolute truth at all? It’s become cool and hip to question everything: the (fake news) media, COVID data, the competence of our teachers.
→ Diagnosis: Lack of direction
What sounds like absolute freedom is actually chaos. Modern skepticism (“I don’t want to commit”) and tolerance (“I’m not allowed to commit”) turn life into one big game of Twister. We bend and twist ourselves so we don’t offend anyone. We no longer stand up for positions and stop developing our own. The result: an incredible lack of direction in a society without absolute values and truths.
2. “You can achieve anything”
“Life isn’t all sunshine and rainbows”: that was back then. After the war. Today our life in the West is all sunshine and rainbows, with glitter. And unicorns. At least at first glance. Our narrative: from rags to riches. “The sky has no limit.” Sounds good at first, right? But the American Dream is increasingly turning into a nightmare.
→ Diagnosis: Pressure to perform
Because our achievement-driven society quickly turns the nice “You can achieve anything” into “You have to achieve something.” If everything is possible and you don’t get far, then you weren’t ambitious, smart or talented enough. If you don’t found a startup, don’t save the world. If you don’t have a picture-perfect life on Insta. Of course that leads to pressure to perform.
3. “Stay just the way you are”
“Who am I?” is probably the most central question of our time. Our society’s answer is hand-lettered on almost every birthday card: Be who you are, stay just the way you are, you’re good just the way you are, stay true to yourself. Sometimes with the (pseudo-)social add-on “as long as you don’t hurt anyone.”
Since Rousseau, we have defined our identity ourselves. You can see this right now in the gender identity debate and the dissolution of the binary model of gender. Or in new tendencies to justify everything: everything is okay, there are no mistakes anymore. What used to be sin and needed repentance is now a matter of the psyche and needs therapy. The clearest example: Bond villains used to be “evil.” Today they’re psychopaths.
→ Diagnosis: Identity crisis
The problem: an identity we have to assign to ourselves is always highly unstable. Identity crises are bound to happen. Why? First, it doesn’t work. Nobody lives up to their own standards. And if we don’t make it through our studies, we look stupid. Or if we don’t feel as funny, lovable and beautiful as the others, and maybe really aren’t. What then? Second, it isn’t enough. We humans need affirmation from outside. That’s how we’re made. That’s why, for example, our fragile culture of instant gratification and likes is booming on social media.
4. “The world keeps getting worse”
A global pandemic. Black Lives Matter. Brexit chaos, Trump chaos, climate chaos. Things are going downhill. At least that’s how it feels. And as is the way with going downhill: it keeps getting faster. More and more out of control. Our society has lost what’s called secular optimism about progress. Since September 11, 2001 (or at the latest since the collapse of the US housing market in 2007), for the first time since industrialization, we no longer believe that our children will have it better than we do. Our default state: a general skepticism about the future. We sense it: the next crash, the next pandemic, the climate crisis will come. Maybe as soon as tomorrow.
→ Diagnosis: Fear of the future
On top of that, we now consume news in real time. We spend 5 to 9 hours a day on our phones. On TikTok, we watch the flood rush through Ahrweiler in Germany and fear for the neighbors on the roof. Podcast guru John Eldredge talks about “empathy overload,” about “compassion fatigue”: emotional overload and a drained compassion tank. Our souls have the capacity for a medieval village, but we carry the weight of the whole world. And it feels heavier by the hour. No wonder we struggle with fear of the future.
5. “Everything has to be available all the time”
Strawberries in winter. LTE on a mountaintop. In our world, impossible has become impossible. Everything has to be available all the time. Even us. We used to be limited in our ability to work. Today we’ve put limits on those limits: ever since Edison invented the electric light bulb (1879), there has been no time limit anymore, and we can work even at night. And since the invention of the iPhone (2007), the limit of place is gone, and we work from anywhere.
→ Diagnosis: Constant stress
We are available always and everywhere. That means pressure, a constant load, constant stress. We no longer switch off our devices, and in the process we’re forgetting more and more how to switch off ourselves.
So, is our society making us sick?
No. But it weighs on us. It challenges us. Just as every society challenges its own time. A hundred years ago, it was about a lack of alternatives, a lack of prospects and ideological questions. Our challenges today: lack of direction, pressure to perform, identity crises, fear of the future and constant stress.
What can we do?
There are a few practical tools. We can uninstall unnecessary apps on our phones and turn off push notifications. Get enough sleep. Consume news more selectively. Spread out prayer requests for friends, politics, society, family, etc. over different days of the week. Learn to say no to good things. Reestablish the Sabbath as a day of rest. Learn to do a social detox. And we can learn to think differently. As Christians, we have good answers (real alternatives!) to the challenges of our society. The good news is still so good and relevant today because in God we find direction, perspective, identity, security and rest. Why? Because we are in the world, but part of God’s kingdom, which works so completely differently.
Our perspective as Christians
Jesus lays out what God has in mind in the Sermon on the Mount, for example. There he turns the principles of our society upside down. And that changes everything. Not because our society is as bad or threatening as we Christians often like to believe, but because we see how incredibly beautiful and freeing God’s design for society is by comparison:
| OUR SOCIETY’S DNA | DIAGNOSIS | GOD’S DESIGN FOR SOCIETY | RESULT |
|---|---|---|---|
| “Your truth isn’t necessarily my truth” | Lack of direction | “You are the light of the world” (Matthew 5:14) | Direction, a claim to truth (not excluding, but inviting) |
| “You can achieve anything” | Pressure to perform | “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness” (Matthew 6:33) | Perspective, priority, “your life is still to come” |
| “Stay just the way you are” | Identity crisis | “If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away” (Matthew 5:29) | Identity, correction, “you can come as you are, but you don’t have to stay as you are” |
| “The world keeps getting worse” | Fear of the future | “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow” (Matthew 6:34) | Security, a sense of being safe and held |
| “Everything has to be available all the time” | Constant stress | “… go into your room, close the door” (Matthew 6:6) | Rest, time out, withdrawal |
Do Christians still get burnout? Yes! Being a Christian doesn’t mean bumping along the pothole-riddled road of our society without ever breaking down. The mental health crisis is real. But so is God’s kingdom. That’s why there is hope. And that’s why our faith is still the answer to the challenges of our time today (maybe especially today!).
Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version® NIV®, Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used with permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
