As the peoples of the world awaken in the dawn of a new year 2012 the threats of fundamentalism, and the emergence of seemingly Irreconcilable value systems continues to create conflict around us all. So much of late 20th century thinking and culture promoted competitive individualism, ethnocentrism, nationalism and polylogism. All big words that seek to break us apart rather than bring us together. There is nothing more powerful than fellow humans marching forward holding hands. I offer my hand lets all march forward.
We all need help to come to terms with a world struggling with the impact of a rapidly declining feel good factor. Add to our fears of the future the lure of religious fundamentalism and the clash of greed we walk an unsure path into the future. How can we engage in conversations across the divide of families, communities, parties, creeds and nations when, there is no common or universal logic. When there is no way for peoples of opposing groups, with opposing views, to resolve their disputes; it is useless to appeal to facts or to evidence, since the minds which engage in the process of reasoning obey different rules of thinking. Many have chosen comfort in place of living a right life so they live in fear of losing their comfort. It has been said by many before that if you live your life right when the end comes as it will surely come to us all you will have nothing to fear.
In my short life I have seen the internet as a self-organizing community, its subsequent co-option by business interests, the resulting collapse of the dot.com pyramid and the more recent self-conscious revival of interactive real time twitter. The battle for control over new and little understood communication has rendered transparent our political and cultural dysfunction. Meanwhile, to the horror of established controlling bodies the technologies have empowered individuals to take part in thinking about alternative governance. Thus, in an era when crass perversions of populism, and exaggerated calls for national security, remove the very foundation of representational democracy and free speech, interactive technologies offer us a ray of hope for a renewed spirit of genuine human enlightenment.
