We did not anticipate anything like what has now happened. We did not foresee that all our sequence of innovations might be at once overridden by a greater one: the invention of a new kind of war that would turn our previous innovations against us, discovering and exploiting the debits and the dangers that we had ignored. We never considered the possibility that we might be trapped in the webwork of communication and transport that was supposed to make us free.
Source: Orion Magazine | Thoughts in the Presence of Fear
Wendell Berry is a modern day Amos, speaking to us in a prophetic voice that we are quick to admonish.
Although written shortly after 9/11, this essay still resonates just as the words of Amos and Hosea challenge us today.