New years countdown in LONDON 2020 (31 December 2019). Video Source: Youtube.
Happy New Year, Happy New Decade. In a previous post, I dubbed the 2010s, a '
decade of disillusionment,' because those years drew new political lines. Those lines no longer delineate the outmoded left from the outdated right, but instead divide those who are awake from those who are still asleep.
When I say awake and asleep, I do not mean this as conspiracy theorists would, who constantly nurse anti-Semitic paranoia about who 'really rules the world.' Nor do I refer to the '
woke' protest culture. Such perspectives are distorted extensions of archaic left and right political paradigms.
Rather, I was referring to the development of an enhanced sensibility, induced partly by overexposure to information and disinformation, and partly by technologically-induced shifts in the way we live, which force reappraisal of one's whole experience of reality.
In short, reappraise experience and we will reappraise reality. That development, in conjunction with technological advancement, forms the core of the new politics. The moral challenge is to harness technology without becoming enslaved by it. Mechanical invention, innovation, and engineering are secondary to conscience, creativity, and ideas.
The real battle lies in the cultivation of sound public judgement over information. As the old authorities over information lose ground and the new tech giants seek to censor the narrative of progress, we struggle to discern what information is valuable and ultimately beneficial, even if we can no longer distinguish truth from fiction. Can we retain our moral compasses in the process?
