Technology as the fifth element

Men once thought that life was based on four elements – earth, air, fire & water. We have now splintered these elements into particles so tiny that the cornerstones of primal sense have lost meaning to us. Yet these four elements continue to exert a hypnotic influence on humans. I can gaze into a fire, watch the river run, be moved by the spirit of a landscape, be shocked by the power of air, as easily as I can move through cyberspace being in turns contemplative, spiritual, stunned, enlightened. In the 20th century a new equally attractive element took shape as new technologies created first radio, then TV, and now the internet. These have become repositories of knowledge, thought, beauty, power and creation, as earth, air, fire, & water once were to ancient man.

These days the ubiquity of TV & internet has made the world a village where all is technically accessible to everyone. There are those who lament this fact – anti-global demonstrators who never asked a man in a third world village for his opinion. I have seen people in many countries watching television, and what they watch is a combination of local TV and global TV - including soap operas from everywhere. These soap operas are watched and understood by women everywhere for the same reasons – fantasy and escape. It is not true that if an Italian woman watches The Bold & the Beautiful, Italian culture will be destroyed. The world of soap operas is as foreign to an Italian housewife as it is to any average American.

Anti global protesters take great offence to McDonalds opening on every corner in every part of the world. The fact that a McDonalds exists on my corner, hasn’t changed my eating habits – I choose not to eat there. Putting a McDonalds on a corner in Rome doesn’t spell the end of Italian cooking. The anti’s assume that people all over the world are not capable of making their own choices – that when confronted with a traditional dish or a hamburger, people will choose hamburgers. This is offensive, like saying that women should be covered from head to toe because the sight of her skin might stimulate man’s appetite, so much that he loses control of himself. This insults both women and men.

The anti movement would also argue that multinationals use clever brainwashing techniques in marketing to the have nots. I am a have not, and I am not fooled by advertising - I buy or don’t buy items based on a variety of factors – the least of which is that I have seen something advertised on television. I believe that if you see an ad on television, it is never for something you need. If ad was for something essential, the expensive hard sell wouldn’t be necessary. To say that obesity epidemic in America is caused by the companies who sold the food to the fatties is a red herring. The truth is that the cultural identity of America is consumerism, which prefers that individuals don’t think for themselves. Governments collaborate with multinationals in keeping individuals on the straight & narrow. Governments and companies prefer citizens who do as they are told, and both use fear to enforce this. Advertisers exploit human weaknesses, including the desire to feel superior to others. Yet to say that these marketing techniques will eliminate cultural identity, insults the intellect of men and women worldwide. Rather than cry foul when multinationals attempt to export consumerism, energy would be better spent by individuals examining their own choices, and attempting to understand why so many unsatisfied souls become victims. How has shopping become a cure for unhappiness? I sometimes look at shopping malls on a Sunday as the new churches, and think that goods are the new god.

Our electronic technology has pushed us ahead at warp speed to absorb information and make choices based on what we know. For our survival and advancement we have always exploited information passed on from others – always building on the shoulders of the past. Television and internet are simply tools for passing on memes in an accelerated fashion. When an ancient man passed the concept of the wheel on to his tribe, were there protesters who claimed that the wheel would ruin their world? Possibly. Did every anti globalization protester walk to his demonstration? Probably not.

Our electronic technology has the same power as any of the four cornerstone elements, and like the originals is an element which we can use to survive and improve our lives. We should understand the harmful consequences of consumerism by looking at our own society, even as we are in the process of exporting it, and talk with those who are new to working in this new element so that they don’t fall into the same traps as we have done. Perhaps some bright spark on the other side of the world has an antidote which will undo the sickness the bigger and more is better, yet a way which ensures enough for all, without killing the messenger in the process.