We enter a new decade with a much greater sense of foreboding than on entering this millennium ten years ago. Of course the big worry then was the Y2K virus; which was going to shut down all the computers on the planet and end life as we know it. And when we needed it, “people”- kind came up with its greatest invention-: The IT guy!
There was the romance of the new millennium, the stupid argument over when the millennium really started and there were the doomsayers who were ready for it all to end. For most of us, though 2000 represented that titillating entity, the Future. It was the standard time set in all early Sci-Fi movies, for being the future. In no small part, because we had modelled inventions on those movies, we entered the millennium with having achieved many of the predictions. Only a few were wrong-: the cars don’t fly and the only people that wear spandex suits, ride bikes.
We were hip and technologically savvy back then, right? Well, maybe not as much as we remember. We used email, today referred to as gray mail, because only old people use it. Some people were still using tapes and cassettes in “Walkmans”, but most of us had “Discmans”. Well of course they are “Sooooo last century.” The first i-pod hit the markets in 2001 and changed the world significantly. We had chat programs and some even had webcam capabilities by 2000. Today the world chats on facebook and twitter and everyone is accessible 24/7.
Could it have been that long ago, when if someone didn’t answer their phone it meant you either had to try later or wait till you saw them. No mobile phones and not even answering machines. How did people do it?
In the latter part of the last century I had the pleasure of being part of a group of people trying to build a kibbutz ( a socialist, commune, farm – based community). Idealists all of us, trying to create a more just society. For the first 5 years I lived there, we had one phone for the whole community. True we were a little isolated and we felt a bit cut off, but socially this little community was alive. Every afternoon we would visit each other. If you stayed at home, people would drop in, if you went out, you would just knock on a door and wait for the invitation.
When phones were introduced we were excited, we could call each other. The interesting phenomena; however was the decrease in social activity. This was not necessarily because of more time spent on the phone either. The phone allowed you to decline visitors; something you couldn’t do if they were standing on your doorstep.
We talk about us being a global village, because all and everyone are accessible 24/7. If something is happening anywhere in the world, except in the most repressive of regimes, we know about it, can watch it and even chat to people on the ground. If we want to call a friend, we can page them or track them down at will.
However, as in the kibbutz scenario, this is not a more social world, just more connected. We can chat to people anywhere in the world, but we don’t sit around over coffee and cake/ wine and cheese/milk and cookies, and discuss. We can’t see the eyes of, nor detect the body language or other nuances of whomever we are conversing with. The less social we are, the less social we are able to be and the less we feel any obligation to participate. Participation can be restricted to random tokenism.
Today, as we enter this new decade, we face an ongoing Global Financial Crisis, likely Global warming and the growing threat of terrorism ( which at the risk of being politically incorrect) the growing threat of Islamism (please note the “ism” . I am not talking about Islam per se). Wars and economic recessions around the world are causing the largest flood of migration since the Vietnam War and maybe even since World War Two.
We live in a world where theoretically we can see each other and speak to each other. Do we though? I don’t think so. I think we observe and then we all make our judgements based on our own “frame of reference” (see first article on blog page). Does familiarity breed contempt? Maybe it does!
Humankind is standing on the edge of the ravine ready to dive in head first. What used to be the “free world” is looking decidedly unsure about its values. Huge waves of migration from Muslim countries have changed the demographic face of Europe. While still ostensibly Christian countries, the demographic is altering. This has led to the rise of the Right, most noticeably with two British National Party members being elected to the European parliament. The outcome is bound to be civil unrest. It is no mistake that Turkey is finding it impossible to get accepted into the European Union. Watch how Germany votes on this issue.
Nationalism and religion are set to set Europe ablaze and many of the western countries seem painfully unaware of how their bowing to the “prevailing” winds, has left them with no credibility. It is interestingly the former Eastern bloc countries that can “Call it as it is”, because they have not being targeted by immigrants and need not pander to any ethnic group in deciding a stance. They truly appreciate the freedom that is offered by being aligned to the West.
Ask any of my former students. I told them in 1997, when I worked it out, and I was still telling them last year-: Following cycles of the last 120 years, I predicted a financial collapse in 2012 ( I could have been wrong, or the worst is yet to come) and World War Three in 2015, which will largely be fought on religious grounds. We are constantly reminded that those who do not learn the lessons of history, are bound to repeat it. Of course the Catch 22 here is that the more something fades into history the less it is considered important.
I would love to finish on an optimistic note. I don’t know if I can, but maybe on a reassuring note. As a species we are survivors and we will survive. It is our most basic instinct. But unlike many other creatures, the human baby has no innate survival mode other than crying. It cannot survive if left alone. This is true, even at quite an advanced stage of motor skills acquisition. We rely on others to survive. We can’t do it by ourselves.
We need other people so that we can survive. That is a truism for us as individuals, nations and a planet. If we take that truism to heart, then maybe we will have cause for optimism
I wish all of my readers well over the Holiday period and a happy, healthy and successful 2010.
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