The original cartoon by Kudelka had the words “Is our GPS working?” I changed the words to make it more personal – using words that my wife has used on more than one occasion – and to point up the fact that it is more than a question of technology. Many people see technology as the saviour of secular society. I do not. Technological progress merely provides us with a more efficient means of going forwards or backwards. I found it fascinating that it was social networking that increased the efficiency of the violence and looting in the London riots. We now have the ability to communicate at any time and any place – but that is not the point. It is what we communicate that matters.
The other point of difference I have with the cartoon is that the car has pulled up in time and can now retrace the route it took. In today’s culture I see no signs of the brakes being applied and it may well be that the end result will be a tangled wreck with no voices coming from it – a dead end so to speak!
Be these things as they may, I still see the cartoonists as the inheritors of the parable teaching method of Jesus – hence my great respect for their art and insight.