In the book, Return to Order: From a Frenzied Economy to an Organic Christian Society—Where We’ve Been, How We Got Here, and Where We Need to Go, we speak of an explosive element in modern economy that can be seen in the video on Black Friday shopping.
The key to understanding this mad rush to buy is to look at its most profound cause deep
inside the soul of modern man. It is something we describe as “frenetic intemperance.” This term can be defined as a restless spirit inside certain sectors of modern economy that foments a drive inside men to throw off legitimate restraints and gratify disordered passions.
Temperance is the virtue whereby man governs and moderates his natural appetites and passions in accordance with the norms prescribed by reason. Our crisis involves a lack of temperance found in the inordinate desire for goods. It is an explosive expansion of human desires beyond traditional and moral bounds. Its frenetic nature leads those of this undercurrent to resent the very idea of restraint and scorn the spiritual, religious, moral and cultural values that normally serve to order and temper economic activity.
The result is a frenetic almost irrational element that enters into economy and leads to frenzied activities, fabulous fortunes, speculative bubbles, and spectacular failures. Economic activities, which should advance the material welfare of man, end up dominating man, impacting our culture and installing a materialistic way of life.
These are topics discussed in the book, Return to Order.