From We to Me
The title for this post is taken from Craig and Marc Kielburger's book urging people to see a larger world out there and get involved. Only I reversed it because in many ways I worry that the Internet and blogging in particular are summoning Canadians back into themselves at the very time we need to be forming a national consensus as to how we live and function as a modern society.Part of our problem is that we rarely stop to consider that culture is really a very vulnerable thing. If it was just a bunch of self-interests competing it wouldn't survive but in fact spin out into chaos. For this reason, culture itself requires authoritative institutions - policy, newspapers, schools and, yes, parliaments. They are the gathering points for various interests and through these institutions we modify our conduct and attempt to forge consensus. When considering that make-up of Canada and its competing factions, observations of those like Bill Clinton's are revealing:
In a world darkened by ethnic conflicts that tear nations apart, Canada stands as a model of how people of different cultures can live and work together in peace, prosperity and mutual respect."
This country is still an experiment, a grand undertaking that gambles on our ability to get outside of ourselves and see things from a broader perspective. In most cases what keeps us from dissembling are those very institutions that digital contributors seem to take great delight in maligning.An excess of information can disable knowledge and an historical memory that will be required for moving into an unknown future. I find that a large number of bloggers just have opinions unfiltered through those institutions of democratic participation that actually involve people getting together. With the Internet, knowledge is withering away into just information, and that is hugely distracting. Between 40 - 50,000 blogs are created every day worldwide. How many of those stem from Canada I have no idea but you can bet we have our share.A good newspaper provides us with stories of what others are feeling and through them we grow to understand the world better. Blogging merely tells you what the writer is feeling, resulting in an ever shrinking world. And because a lot of us who blog are not bounded by social inhibitors, we have no limits. The people you speak to online aren't as you would see them in a group. You keep the ones you agree with and just delete the comments of those who oppose you. Perfect! But it's not real, nor is it productive. By blogging, you can receive the instant satisfaction of your impulses, but in service organizations, churches, newspapers, political parties, etc., it never works that way. You have to strive for consensus and be careful of how you present your words lest you lose your opportunity to persuade. The most dangerous part of the connected world is not the anonymity it creates (dangerous enough) but that we no longer are patient with the democratic process or with the people who participate in it.All around us are the consequences of the greatest technological reality in history - the Internet. It was supposed to bring us together, to free us. But instead we have just escaped. We don't even notice as important parts of our political life disappear - debates, objective reasoning, a building of grassroots democracy. Even though we blog about our troubles with politics, we are nevertheless blind to the reality that we might very well be assisting it to disappear from public life. Instead of getting us outside of ourselves and into social cohesion and meaning (Me to We), we have withdrawn and escaped into a world where public responsibility is a distant thing and our own capacities are only measured by our own opinions (We to Me) - kind of like Parliament at present.