It may feel right to blame Trump and white privilege for
America’s implosion but there is a different story. The decline of religion and
quality education (Parts I and II) are poisons working through the body politik
but those are simple corruptions that are visible and comprehensible. The third
poison is more insidious and revolutionary. It might just be the final nail in our
coffin.
Remember squealing in delight at hearing “You’ve got mail!”?
It was hard to see the downside to such an explosion of information and
connectivity. As Custer said to Sitting Bull when he sold him a case of
whiskey, “What do you mean, what’s the downside? A beverage that tastes good
and makes you feel great, too? What could possibly be the downside?”
No force in history has democratized man like the internet. Vast
distances are meaningless. Commerce and the spread of ideas are instantaneous.
Instead of relying on McDonald’s to transport culture through the delights of saturated
fats, flashy websites and massive commercial platforms now allow us to read
thousands of user reviews from all over the world. The world is united in
Stooge-ian bliss by a woman choking on a spoonful of cinnamon.
The ability of anyone to publish without social connection
or money has led to an explosion of ideas, many of them bad. It used to be that
publishing meant impressing gatekeepers who were both judges of what would sell
but also of what was worthy. This had its downside, of course. Herman Melville
and George Orwell dealt with punishing rejection before experiencing success.
But now, anybody can vomit ideas into cyberspace. Think Alex Jones and Infowars,
QAnon, the proliferation of conspiracy theories and fake news. Think of how
many terabytes of data have been wasted posting pictures of food.
The Great Sorting
This mass democratization started long before the internet,
of course and curmudgeons issued dark warnings long before Omnipotentblog. Printing
ended the monopoly of the Pope. Radio and TV ended the monopolies of
newspapers. And now with Fox News, CNN and MSNBC, we don’t ever have to be
bothered with anybody’s obviously false opinions again. Infinite choice has led
to a sort of ghettoization of like-minded communities, a siloing of information
and parallel realities. Maybe journalistic standards have always been low but there
is no longer any internal pressure to be fair and balanced since there is
confidence the other side will be told. We no longer have a common language, a
common morality, or even a common understanding of basic facts. In 1953,
historian Herb Butterfield wrote, “…the greatest menace to our civilization
today is the conflict between giant organized systems of
self-righteousness—each system only too delighted to find that the other is
wicked—each only too glad that the sins give it the pretext for still deeper
hatred and animosity.” Is this not our world today?
Some believe enlightenment is the inevitable byproduct of
knowledge; The human spirit, they say, is designed to grow. Aided by greater
knowledge, man will inevitably strive towards self-actualization. Conservatives,
obsessing over the difference between knowledge and wisdom, say this is bunk. Knowledge
is meaningless without guidance, they say. Whether from ancient text or
tradition or the old lady down the street who always seems to know the right
thing to say, wisdom must be either forged through experience or handed down by
others who have already done the heavy lifting. Wisdom is not something that
just washes over us. We need a doctrine or heuristic to point us in the right
direction. Can wisdom be found on the internet? Certainly. (See
Omnipotentblog.blogspot.com) But one has to sift through piles and piles of
garbage. And honestly, when one has not even begun to scratch the surface of
all the hilarious cat videos out there, who has the time?
Now that information is essentially instant and free,
another belief system emerges: With Google, who needs to know anything at all?
Mankind has available an instant, voice-operated encyclopedia. We are drowning
in a sea of information and yet, we seem to swallow none of it.
My kingdom for a “like”.
A whole new genre of media deemed “social” has led to a
great irony: we are becoming more and more lonely. This new generation is the
most fragile in history. Seen as a national crisis, British Prime Minister Theresa
May appointed a government minister with 200 million pounds to combat loneliness. One American study
showed the level of anxiety of incoming college freshman is equal to the average mental patient in the 60’s.
Parenting expert John Rosemond states the number of children diagnosed with a
mental illness is 50 times greater than in the 1950’s. Suicide has nearly doubled in the last five years and psychiatric intakes at
Children’s Hospital of San Diego have tripled. They are adding a new wing. A
psychologist affiliated with the program acknowledged that cyber bullying has a
nastiness that old-fashioned school yard bullying did not. Dr. Jean Twenge of
SDSU has published research showing that social media and smartphone use is not only correlated with depression but is the clear and
convincing cause of it
We are in a time where the values of the Enlightenment are
being eclipsed by Romanticism. Feelings dominate reason. The criticism of the
Enlightenment, especially that of the French philosophes, was always that
materialism and cold rationality do not solve the problems of man. Are we not
beings of beauty and light as well as intellect? Clearly. But we are also not
designed for lives ruled by carnality and instinct. It seems the internet is
basically designed for instant gratification and emotional itch-scratching. Are
we not better than rutting tribal beasts fooled into believing this sort of
thing will lead to happiness?
Man has never been healthier, wealthier or safer. We have
also never been more sad. And we are becoming more ignorant about real life by
the day. Of course, the internet doesn’t turn people into drooling masses;
People turn people into drooling masses. It’s just a tool. But misused,
it is a doomsday device of stupidity, insularity and loneliness.
The solution is to go out and meet someone for conversation.
Read a serious book that is not political propaganda. Lie down on your lawn at
night and contemplate the beauty and majesty of the stars. Reconnect with God
through prayer or song. And for crying out loud, stop looking at your phone so
much. Except when the new installment of Omnipotentblog comes out. Obviously.
