The truth is that nobody knows with certainty how this will end. Predictions at this point are a waste of time. Whoever ends up being right is merely in it for the bragging rights. By the time we get to figure out who wins, I imagine it won’t matter anyway. It barely matters now. Global politics have devolved into a farce, and it seems appropriate for some season. Isn’t it odd? A reality T.V personality becomes the President of the United States of America and suddenly government becomes a reality T.V show. The world is watching, America, and right now they are laughing, because they don’t understand what is happening, not fully, but some people see it, some people predicted it. But they are not bragging. They are weeping, and they are cursing, and they are trying to remember how to believe in God, and miracles and fairy-tales like when they were younger but it is impossible...the apple has already been eaten and they are no longer innocent. How did this happen?
I believe it has something to do with how our cultures have accommodated 21st century technology. Suddenly photos of our children are eternal on the Internet, people you would have never talked to after high school become the watchers of your life, your actions, your relationships, your family. You cry out for attention and someone is bound to bite. You feel relief, at least someone understands, but the feeling fades fast so you post a photo and an inspirational quote and someone tells you that they believe in you, and you are grateful but don’t understand that they only believe in you because they are also chasing a fading feeling. You post a photo and someone is bound to have been there, you post a relatable story, you share a funny video with a loved one.
The triviality is liberating. You are not ploughing a field, you are not hoping it will finally rain, you are not hoping that your crop won’t fail, you are not slaughtering animals, you are not walking six miles for your water, you are not hoping that it will be warmer tonight, you are not hoping that the militia doesn’t enter your village, you are not hoping to survive. You are surviving. But you know suffering. You know disease. You know famine. You know drought. You know disaster. You know pain. You know despair. You know what it’s like.
So you sit back, and count your likes. Maybe you believe that you deserve to be trivial - you are smart, you are rich, you are white.
Daddy told you that anybody can be rich like us as long as they work hard. Daddy told you that people on welfare are lazy. Daddy told you that niggers leave their children because they are just like animals. Daddy told you that the word of God is sacred, and you must always be listening for the word of God. Daddy told you that queers are going to hell. Daddy told you that men are men, and women are women. Daddy told you that only real Americans look like us. Daddy told you that you’re special. Daddy told you that you’re smart. Daddy told you never to let anyone question your honour. Daddy told you never to let faggots touch you. Daddy told you America will be great again. Mommy said nothing. Daddy told you women should stay home and take care of the kids. Daddy told you to take what you want in life.
Vast amounts of information whether true or false is accessible to millions of people, we learn faster, earlier, we learn more, our days are longer, more productive, more connected - the world is revolutionised. This is the electronic age. Our world is entrenched in a war of attention. I am unsure whether the battle is to keep our attention, to shorten it, or to deflect it from what really matters; but there is no way to know what really matters - there never was. In the end, it is a war of profit. There is a sense of bitter comfort in knowing that at least there is a purpose to the madness. We are, paradoxically, both obsessed with our world and entirely detached from it. This is the world we live in. This is how we have adapted to the technology, and there is no point in making predictions, there is no point in saying that if A happens - perhaps new technology allows us to communicate without speaking, without text, without television - that then B will happen, perhaps our new interconnected culture won’t allow us to deviate from important things. Perhaps there will be no way to separate thought from speech in such communication, forcing an honest society to decide what things ought to be kept in our minds, forcing perspective, forcing ignorance to perish. But there is no point in thinking of such things. I do not believe there is room left for those kinds of discoveries to be made.
This week, forty light-years away, three Earth-like planets our of seven others were discovered in the shadows of a Dwarf Star and I wished I had never known them, because if I hadn’t, I could not be envious. I wondered if my thoughts could travel at the speed of light and if in forty years I might reach TRAPPIST - 1 just by thinking. I don’t think I can.
We are on the brink of something extraordinary on this Earth, and by extraordinary I mean to say that we are about to see some fucked up shit.
For thousands of years, civilisations have risen and fallen, the vast majority being entirely blind to the realities of our Universe. Only we, the last 200 years of humankind, understand the magnitude and insignificance of our existence and yet we still believe we are at the centre of experience.
Huge empires,
the Romans,
the Greeks,
the Egyptians,
the Aztecs,
the Mesopotamians,
all fell.
The rest of the world carried on, business as usual. Millions perished - it did not matter. We don’t even know what was lost. So much has disappeared from history. What will be lost for us, this, the greatest civilisation the world has ever known? I am not speaking of the United States. I am speaking of the world. We have crossed the boundaries of civilisation previously known and into our Global world.
A world where the few prosper and the many suffer as it has always been. A world where the few lead and the many follow as it has always been. A world where we ignore reality and are lost in trivialities as it has always been. A world where we contradict our beliefs at every turn as it has always been. A world, united, as it has never been, by our own failings, about to fail together.
To a world that has achieved a great deal more united than it could ever have done apart. I plead; mistakes made in ignorance are avoided by a combination of luck and humility. To say “ I do not know” is to admit there is a right way. I plead to this world, be not afraid of failure - be afraid of certainty, be afraid of boldness without merit, be afraid of history for that is its purpose, and be hopeful that it is not too late for us. If it is, too late, pray that we are not alone in the Universe, pray to Aquarius, pray that we were not the only ones, pray, pray, pray for forgiveness, just in case.
