As someone who lives in a country that is not yet falling apart at the seams, this culture war that is being waged in many western countries, is both fascinating as well as frightening…
Tribalism is back with a vengeance and it all happened so quickly…
The digital age of the internet allows ideas to spread and take hold at a rate that is historically unprecedented which has many consequences that seem completely predictable and I’m sure some that only historians with hindsight could consider predictable.
Ideas no longer have to endure a crucible of criticism and consideration to spread, they merely need be spoken and carry an appealing promise to be adopted on a large scale.
Where cults and charismatic charlatans could only rope in hundreds, they now could do the same to millions instead…
Where adopting new ideas used to required, out of social necessity, you be able to defend them and earn them respectability amongst neighbors of differing views.
Now you can find a group of lunatics, if needs be, spread throughout the world who will agree with every word you say, regardless of what you say, providing you the illusion of respectability.
Ideas so brittle that they cannot endure any critical scrutiny now can flourish and consequently require that you silence opposing voices to sustain them.
There is no longer a desire to win any argument… but to win a war… and as is always the case, those most eager to fight are certain they have right on their side.
Battle lines are drawn… tribes are formed and it’s always the other who is the problem.
I have been struggling to find a light at the end of this tunnel and the only hope I can muster is perversely found in the very thing I believe is the cause.
The speed at which new ideas spread might also allow us to defuse this bomb before it goes off…
Though I have no idea what perspective would unite the now entrenched tribes, the fact that it could spread fast enough is the only sliver of hope that I can see.
There is another part of me that believes this disease needs to run its course, ruin countless lives and possible shatter a few societies before humanity develops the mental antibodies and adapts to this new technological environment.
A bleak defeatist attitude that doesn’t sit well with me, but that seems unfortunately as plausible as anything else on offer.
Of course the tribals will say their victory would usher in a new utopia or bring back a lost one and so their hopes are tied up in winning this war…
But for those of us who are watching this insanity unfold from afar… it seems clear that this war, like most others, cannot produce winners… it will only produce loss.
History is not clear to those living through it, the answer might be right around the corner and quite obvious… but at the moment, I can’t see it.