Where there is hope there is a future

When I was a kid, the future, we were told would be known as “the atomic age”. How wrong did that turned out! No one could have foreseen the silicon (and therefore digital) revolution which has altered the course of our contemporary civilisation. Writer and inventor Arthur C. Clarke came close in the 1960’s though when he said “in the future we will be able to communicate instantly with anyone, anywhere in the world, without even knowing where that person is”. 

That future is now and has become “the age of information”.

It has also become the age of socio-political misinformation. This is inextricably linked with the rise of Individualism across much of the civilised world. It is now the individuals right, not only to believe what they want but to condemn the beliefs of everyone else as false. Of course, not everyone does it. But even though it has been happening for millennia, what is different is that it can be now be done globally with such ease (as Arthur C. Clarke predicted) and that the boundaries between verifiable fact and subjective opinion are becoming blurred. 

Take for example the rocket attack on the Eiffel Tower several years ago. The “report” that it was under attack showed a video of the tower at night belching smoke and illuminated by huge explosions of light. It went viral and was reposted globally. It was in fact proven to be old footage of national celebratory fireworks display. No such terrorist attack on the tower ever took place.

Why do we believe such claims without checking them out thoroughly? Answer, because we want to believe them. On the surface, such “reports" are often only halfway credible. Wanting to believe does the rest. In an uncertain world, human nature has shown that it is ready and willing to believe in simple and often irrational explanations for complex and often frightening circumstances.

It seems to ring true that what matters is not that you tell the truth, what matter is that they believe you.

Furthermore, the rise of individualism has has the potential to corrode the capability, or even the desire to act with empathy towards others for the common good. In this era of individualism, it could become no longer desirable to give up something of self to a greater cause when the greater cause IS self.  

Is there hope of any sort? Yes! Despite how the news and media may portray it, statistically we are living in a less physically violent world.* A more positive consequence of Individualism has given us a code of human rights; recognising that each person is unique and valued. Many religions also promote this. Are we are seeing a move towards a less psychologically violent world too? The ever expanding recognition of alternate lifestyles and orientations seems to suggest we could be.

It is not inevitable though. It is something we need to continually work on. It has been conclusively demonstrated that empathy and coexistence with others can be learned through social inclusion and education. As I have said before, building walls is the easy answer, building bridges, though difficult and demanding is the smart one.

A bit about the new works……….

I have definitely touched on this in most of the new works by trying to take an empathetic approach with “The Word on the Street Is…” (top image) and “Crisis= Danger+Opportunity” (below) where the writing on the back wall states, where there is hope there is a future. See all of the new work on my website.

*Steven Pinker claims in Enlightenment Now that we live in a less violent society. While statistically that may be true of homicide or physical attack, it doesn’t take into account the psychological trauma and abuse caused by social media mis- and dis-information along with cybercrime and online bullying. Comparing the nature of today’s violence with that of the prehistoric or medieval worlds is incomplete.