Part 2: A Wild Call to Become Human Again

In Part 1, we explored how the allure of technological progress has left our deeper humanity hollowed out - rife with unfeeling apathy and with our worldly embeddedness in a state of atrophy. We attempted to explore and briefly articulate how it is that, out from this state of ‘technological wandering’ comes an apathy, a diminishment of a capacity to pay attention and care about what is inherently and truly valuable at the heart of being human.

Part 1: Atrophy and Apathy 

The Thinking-Machine has seamlessly taken a position in our collective minds as a trusted ‘other’ - something to turn towards for knowing. More disturbing than merely seeking abstract knowledge is that in our dark moments, where so many are isolated and displaced, the Thinking-Machine has now become the one to turn-towards to be-known. 

Righteous anger by itself is no threat to the systems of violence and oppression. In fact it can even serve those systems by directing energy away from anything that threatens real power. 

How can we learn to harness our passion for positive change without contributing to the divides between us?

Here we are, approaching the end of 2024. I’ve heard from my elders that although they’ve lived through many precarious moments in history, right now feels to be the most disorganised, uncertain, and scary time to be alive. There are many important reasons for feeling this which I will not list here, but I would like to focus on one area which seems particularly alive for me now: Conflict.