If one pays too much attention to this corrosive environment, he or she might be swallowed up by a storm of temptation, might become depressed, or might even give up hope. It takes prayer, determination, discipline, and even something akin to missionary attitude to live in a constructive, positive, loving, life-giving way as an Orthodox family. With the above caution in mind, however, I want to consider this corrosive societal environment we live in, an environment which is truly a storm of temptation. It is an environment which has forgotten or rejected God and which, like communism, is preoccupied with base materialism. Making money, wielding power, getting the better of the other - these are the main motives driving daily life.
Competition is a close relative.
Deceit is actively encouraged. Striving to get the most for the least, and at best something for nothing, people trample each other. Material demands have made us technological slaves, and the cost of living has so risen with the pursuit of comfort that few families now escape the fact of both parents' working. Parents and children alike find themselves labouring under the heavy burdens of daily demands, and there is general fatigue and malaise. Families fragment, and most people are lonely.