” Consider, says Buber, the language of so-called primitive people, meaning those who are poor in objects, and whose life develops in face-to-face relationships of strong presence (p 69). The result is that “man becomes an I through a thou.” (p 80) This was and is always true, but the thou is becoming weaker, less present, in the contemporary world, as the it becomes more.
In sick ages [like our own] it happens that the it-world, no longer irrigated and fertilized by the living currents of the thou-world, severed and stagnant, becomes a gigantic swamp phantom and overpowers man. (p 102)
People want certainty, which leads men to flee from everything “unreliable, unsolid, unlasting, unpredictable, and dangerous” to a world marked by possessing things. You may treat your iPhone as a thou, but it will always remain an it, and you will become more it-like if you forget this.”
How my heart sings 