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 primal cornerstones of creation have lost meaning to us. Yet these four elements continue to exert a hypnotic influence on humans. We can gaze into a fire, be mesmerized by a fast river running, be moved by the otherworldly spirit of a landscape, and be shocked by the power of a hurricane. In the 20th century, a new equally attractive fifth element took shape. These days, we can fly through cyberspace, feeling by turns contemplative, spiritual, stunned, and enlightened. When developing technologies created the first radio, then TV, and then the Internet, it became a repository of knowledge, thought, beauty, power, and creation, just as earth, air, fire, & water once were to ancient man.
The ubiquity of TV and the Internet has made the world a village where all information is accessible to everyone. Some lament this fact, but anti-global demonstrators never asked a man in a third-world village for his opinion. In many countries, people are glued to their televisions and computers, watching films and soap operas from everywhere. These soap operas are understood mostly by women for the same reasons – fantasy and escape into another world that is far from their own, but with the same simple dramas of their everyday lives. It is not true that if an Italian woman watches The Bold & the Beautiful, Italian culture will be destroyed. The artificial settings of most soap operas are as foreign to an Italian housewife as they are to an average American.
Anti-global protesters take offence at the opening of a McDonald's on every corner in every part of the globe, but even if a McDonald's existed on every street, it wouldn't have much effect on people's traditional eating habits. Dining at McDonalds is not a rule, but a choice. A McDonalds in Rome doesn’t spell the end of Italian cooking. The anti-globalists seem to think that people are not capable of making their own choices, that when confronted with a traditional dish and a hamburger, they will choose the hamburger. This is like saying that women should be covered from head to toe because the sight of her skin might stimulate a man's appetite to such an extent that he loses control of himself. This insults both women and men. Free will exists.
The anti-globalists say that multinational companies use clever brainwashing techniques in marketing to the have-nots, and they are correct, but poor people are not automatically fooled by advertising. We buy things based on a variety of factors – the least of which is that we've seen an item advertised on television or online. If we see an ad on television, it is never for something we need. If the ad was for something essential, the expensive hard sell wouldn’t be necessary. To say that the obesity epidemic in America is caused by the companies that sell the food to those who are already overweight is a red herring. The truth is that the cultural identity of America is consumerism, which prefers that individuals not think for themselves. Governments collaborate with multinationals in keeping individuals on the straight & narrow consumer path. Governments and companies prefer citizens who do as they are told, and use intimidation and shame to enforce this. Advertisers exploit human weaknesses, including the desire to feel superior to others. And how has shopping become a cure for unhappiness? Shopping malls on a Sunday have become the new churches, and their merchandise the new God. Yet to say that these marketing techniques will eliminate cultural identity insults the intellect of men and women. Rather than cry foul when multinationals attempt to export consumerism, time and energy would be better spent on teaching individuals to examine their choices, to think critically about what they do, what they consume, and why.
Our new technologies have pushed us ahead at warp speed to absorb information and make choices based on what we know. For our advancement and survival, we have always used information passed on from others. We build on the shoulders of the past. Television and the Internet are simply tools for passing on memes in an accelerated fashion. When an ancient man shared the concept of the wheel with his tribe, were there protesters who claimed that the wheel would ruin their society that was built on beasts of burden? Probably. Do all anti-globalization protesters walk or ride horses to their demonstrations? Probably not. We can understand the harmful consequences of rampant consumerism by looking at our own society, even as we are in the process of exporting it.
Our digital technology has the same power as any of the four cornerstone elements, and like the originals, it is an element that we can use to survive and thrive, or to distribute false information and do harm. As the creators of global consumerism, it is our responsibility to educate those new to the technology about the power and pitfalls of this 21st-century element, so they don’t fall into the same traps we did. Perhaps some bright spark on the other side of the world has an antidote that will counter the sickness of greed and will use the latest technologies in ways that ensure there is enough for all, without killing the messenger in the process.
