"The machinery of propaganda may pack their minds with falsehood and deny them truth for many generations of time. But the soul of man thus held in trance or frozen in a long night can be awakened by a spark coming from God knows where and in a moment the whole structure of lies and oppression is on trial for its life." - Winston Churchill
This quotation is taken from a blog post at Are You There God, It's Me, Generation X on how apparent weaknesses can act as one's greatest strengths in the eleventh hour; it is a beautifully mediated post on personal faith.
Of course, the reverse maxim can also apply, and everything taken now to be a strength can prove in a later crisis to be a weakness. Churchill implied that whole orders of authority rest on defining what is a strength and what is a weakness; and when we subscribe to those attitudes, we enforce those authorities.
But attitudes can change in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, and at the last trumpet (so to speak). The line Handel used is from Corinthians: "Behold, I tell you a mystery: We all shall not sleep, but we shall all be changed." The Christian religious casting of this idea dwells on divine revelation as a great mystery which brings about a sudden change in the mentality of the people.
Certainly, the way values can transform almost overnight seems to come from a mystery. But the highs and bloody lows of the Arab Spring, driven by the Millennials of the Arab world, demonstrate that a technological revolution have altered popular perceptions of the world. Nowhere else is it more clear that that change in perspective affects governments. Whole régimes depend on the stability of their people's consensus on what is a strength and a weakness, what is a virtue and a vice. When tech-driven change revises popular views and values, those régimes crumble like houses of cards. Only in times of rapid change is that connection between what is in our minds and the edifices of authority made so plain.
Because of its speed and power, such a shift in mentalities may later be redefined as a divinely-inspired experience. But this could be a way of explaining any period when science and technology outstrip our capacity to grasp the ramifications of practical advances.
Oddly, technology has rocked the world to its foundations, but those shockwaves have been experienced differently in various places. In repressive states, the Internet has prompted social challenges to push upwards and outwards.
In democratic countries, the Web pushed the challenges downwards and inwards. The Technological Revolution weirdly inspired an implosion of consumerism, a loss of confidence in capitalism, a period of introspection, self-doubt and self-questioning. A recession is a loss of confidence. Only an arcane reversal of attitudes and values can bring about a consequent reversal of fortunes.
Moreover, that reversal of attitudes cannot be prescribed by any current political formula derived from the bright ideas of the 18th, 19th or 20th centuries. Rather, that reversal of attitudes must achieve one thing: to bring moral, spiritual and other human mentalities into alignment with the scope of technological change. When those two horses run in sync again, the economy will improve.
This quotation is taken from a blog post at Are You There God, It's Me, Generation X on how apparent weaknesses can act as one's greatest strengths in the eleventh hour; it is a beautifully mediated post on personal faith.
Of course, the reverse maxim can also apply, and everything taken now to be a strength can prove in a later crisis to be a weakness. Churchill implied that whole orders of authority rest on defining what is a strength and what is a weakness; and when we subscribe to those attitudes, we enforce those authorities.
But attitudes can change in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, and at the last trumpet (so to speak). The line Handel used is from Corinthians: "Behold, I tell you a mystery: We all shall not sleep, but we shall all be changed." The Christian religious casting of this idea dwells on divine revelation as a great mystery which brings about a sudden change in the mentality of the people.
Certainly, the way values can transform almost overnight seems to come from a mystery. But the highs and bloody lows of the Arab Spring, driven by the Millennials of the Arab world, demonstrate that a technological revolution have altered popular perceptions of the world. Nowhere else is it more clear that that change in perspective affects governments. Whole régimes depend on the stability of their people's consensus on what is a strength and a weakness, what is a virtue and a vice. When tech-driven change revises popular views and values, those régimes crumble like houses of cards. Only in times of rapid change is that connection between what is in our minds and the edifices of authority made so plain.
Because of its speed and power, such a shift in mentalities may later be redefined as a divinely-inspired experience. But this could be a way of explaining any period when science and technology outstrip our capacity to grasp the ramifications of practical advances.
Oddly, technology has rocked the world to its foundations, but those shockwaves have been experienced differently in various places. In repressive states, the Internet has prompted social challenges to push upwards and outwards.
In democratic countries, the Web pushed the challenges downwards and inwards. The Technological Revolution weirdly inspired an implosion of consumerism, a loss of confidence in capitalism, a period of introspection, self-doubt and self-questioning. A recession is a loss of confidence. Only an arcane reversal of attitudes and values can bring about a consequent reversal of fortunes.
Moreover, that reversal of attitudes cannot be prescribed by any current political formula derived from the bright ideas of the 18th, 19th or 20th centuries. Rather, that reversal of attitudes must achieve one thing: to bring moral, spiritual and other human mentalities into alignment with the scope of technological change. When those two horses run in sync again, the economy will improve.
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