The power of the click

With a simple click I can nowadays open a heavy garage door. With as much of an effort I can switch on my air conditioner and set the temperature I need. With another simple click I can rise to as many floors I need, without lifting my leg a single step. The sheer physical power available to us at the click of a switch is, to say the least, daunting.

With a simple click on my television remote I can choose to be updated, informed, intrigued, aroused or entertained. With an other click on my computer mouse I can know the weather in Singapore, the time of train departures in Australia, the laws of Malta and the hottest men and women in the world. The amount of information and resources available to our minds through these gadgets is fathomless.

With a few more clicks I can send an SMS and make somebody's day better. I can press a few more keys on my land line phone to donate money through the many fund-raising programmes on TV or I can even vote for the best song in Europe. Another few clicks and I can find products in China, get a quote, pay for them and find them on my door step within a short time.

This world of simulation and virtualities might drive the adrenaline high in us but when a pilot hits a button to demolish his adversaries does he feel anything for the pain and anguish he would have inflicted on the person and the family he has maimed or blown to pieces or is it another Playstation gimmickry to him?

It all seems so easy, intriguing and adventurous but, let's admit it, this simple clicking does carry a price. All this power has a latent dimension, which we very often do not appreciate.

The irony of it all is that all things sit so closely next to each other, on the same keyboard, on the same remote control. The choices are very often one click and not the other. Yet, the effects and repercussions are much more than just the sound of or the effort to produce that click.

To choose to go up by lift and not by stairs seems a simple enough choice but the effects of our electricity consumption on our environment are catastrophic. The choice of using our mobile phones to communicate the most absurd of messages is costing us millions of euros, yet, it all seems so easy and convenient.

The temptation of buying things we want, rather than what we need, thanks to clicking on to an advertising channel, is a seemingly harmless choice. But is it?

Whose side are we on: the government's side, with an economic policy of encouraging purchasing to further the economy, or the environmentalists' and religious leaders' side, who abhor consumerism?

The confusion of values when presented with the EWTN TV station next to the Girls From Playboy mansion programme on the same screen separated by just a simple click must boggle the mind of what is right or wrong. The ability to absorb so many views, ideas, ideologies, opinions and to sort by truth and value is, I'm sure, a feat for anybody's mind. The ability to chat, communicate and follow the corridors of the internet seems to be a harmless pass time. But is it? Is it not the place where many an unfaithful affair has started? Is it not the place where our emotions are jolted without a chance of going back?

In what seems to be such a user-friendly world of clicking, can we really get out of it unscathed? With such tremendous leaps and strides ahead in our technological advances, can the human mind keep pace? Are we really prepared to make such quick decisions as our ATMs need us too before they start their irritable bleeping?

Given such choices that don't carry the tags of their consequences do we have the strength to make the right ones? Do we have the ability to say no and yes according to our principles rather than desires? Given the ease of gambling on the web and the delving into the profane, are we prepared to tell the right from the wrong and to choose without regrets that which we really want?

Maybe the hardest of all these questions is the perennial what is right and what is wrong? Long years ago, we humans made a decision to eat from the fruit of the tree of knowledge, of what is right or wrong, what is good and what is evil. For years we suffered the consequences of that decision. Today, more then ever before, we again need to address that issue. Can we really take it onto ourselves to decide what is right or wrong? Do we have the insight, the wisdom and power to know what is good or bad for us in the long run? Some things are easy to differentiate but when it comes to the subtler ones are we all prepared and capable?

In the new world that is unfolding, let us not repeat the same mistakes. Let us not assume that we are the creators but rather the co-creators of this earth.

The digital world has such a positive potential that can be truly awesome and convenient. Yet, in this world of power and experience let us not get carried away because it seems so simple and available. Let us remember that, though our world is changing, we are still the same beings with a definite time call, with a deep desire for joy and a need to survive. Each click carries a decision, a decision that can move us towards or away from a better world and our destiny. Let us pray that we click the right ones everyday.