Is it just me, or do these feel like very strange days indeed? The world is holding its breath – and it's stifling. Ever since the financial crash, there's been a sense of stasis, of waiting to see what emerges. As the wait goes on, the feeling of contingency becomes more oppressive. The whimsical slogan that appeared in the immediate wake of the crisis, "Keep calm and carry on", makes all right-thinking people want to hurl. But that's largely because people aren't just keeping calm. A pervasive air of resignation has taken over.
Sure, there's lots of protest on social networking sites, lots of declarations, petitions, information. Yet, this feels like converted people are preaching to each other, their ideas and beliefs only gaining traction when opponents resort to anonymous abuse and threats. Far from bringing people together, social networking sometimes seems only to reveal the depths of our division.
The US, self-appointed standard-bearer of western freedom, has jailed Bradley Manning for a couple of lifetimes because he revealed the electronic messages that those who see themselves as running the world prefer to keep secret. Yet Edward Snowden is on the run, in justified fear of similar punishment, because he did the opposite, and let the world know that those who see themselves as running it, do not afford anyone else the privacy that they insist is their right.
The them-and-us mentality that the elite imposes on its citizens is so painfully obvious. Yet public anger against these twin insults is muted. In part, this is because the scale of the abuse is almost too large to grasp. But it's also because individual resistance seems futile. Look, as you are meant to, at what has become of the individuals who resisted. Full story...
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Sure, there's lots of protest on social networking sites, lots of declarations, petitions, information. Yet, this feels like converted people are preaching to each other, their ideas and beliefs only gaining traction when opponents resort to anonymous abuse and threats. Far from bringing people together, social networking sometimes seems only to reveal the depths of our division.
The US, self-appointed standard-bearer of western freedom, has jailed Bradley Manning for a couple of lifetimes because he revealed the electronic messages that those who see themselves as running the world prefer to keep secret. Yet Edward Snowden is on the run, in justified fear of similar punishment, because he did the opposite, and let the world know that those who see themselves as running it, do not afford anyone else the privacy that they insist is their right.
The them-and-us mentality that the elite imposes on its citizens is so painfully obvious. Yet public anger against these twin insults is muted. In part, this is because the scale of the abuse is almost too large to grasp. But it's also because individual resistance seems futile. Look, as you are meant to, at what has become of the individuals who resisted. Full story...
Related posts:
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