When ideas aren’t challenged, they become weak and dogmatic.
When individuals aren’t challenged, they become weak and ineffective.
The Internet has sped up human life. Things that used to take ten years will happen in one year. If a revolution or civil war (or any war) is in our future, it will happen in a fraction of the time.
Bad ideas are being pushed to their extremes faster than ever before. As a result, we are getting a greater divide between the strong-willed and rational vs. the weak, idealistic, and fragile minded.
The problem is, the strong-willed are going into hiding. They are being shamed into silence, or they have decided it’s not worth the effort.
This is extremely dangerous.
Bad ideas like communism and socialism lead to destruction. They must be kept in check.
The US governmental system is founded on checks and balances. It works. While it’s not perfect, it has resulted in a standard of living and safety that no other country in history has been able to pull off.
If we don’t have checks on bad ideas, we will not evolve as a society and a species. What we will get instead is a greater divide between one side vs another, and that is always the precursor to war or revolution.
Perhaps we will split into the East and West territories in this country as it was portrayed in The Man In The High Castle. Maybe there will be a lawless free zone that will resemble the Wild West. Maybe one side will become totalitarian, and another will become free and open (or even more totalitarian). Who knows. I sure don’t like the prospects of having to figure it out.
What’s especially scary about this is the younger generation is growing up with a supercomputer/propaganda machine in their pocket. And it has become the sole source for developing these young minds.
The younger generation isn’t reading books anymore. They aren’t trying to understand history. They aren’t being challenged.
Instead, they are sitting behind a screen and becoming more brainwashed and stuck in dogma.
This is causing our society to become polarized into this camp vs. that camp. This is creating ideology. It is creating radicals.
It will lead to more violence, not less. It will lead to MORE racism, not less.
It will lead to a breaking down of the very safe and very fair society we live in (I said “very,” not “perfect”).
If we want things to improve, we need to meet in the middle rather than push each other to the extremes.
I still have hope, though I’m less optimistic than I used to be, and I’m making plans as a result.