Two Views Of Our World
In conflict
The rage and division we see manifesting on our streets and university campuses are the visible result of a fundamental shift in thinking.
This morning’s media reports point out that for the past couple of days, the platform TikTok has been awash with videos of young Americans leaping to the defense of the 9-11 terrorist attacks, and their mastermind Osama bin Laden. These created apparently after his writings justifying the attacks on New York and Washington D.C. were trending on the platform. This is also a result of that same fundamental shift in thinking.
Despite the truth that society is composed of imperfect people, and can therefore never be perfect, it has been the ideal in Western society since at least the Enlightenment, to hold the individual as sacred. Our society has of course often fell well short of this ideal, but nevertheless it has stood as a beacon, and as time has passed tremendous progress in the areas of human dignity and human rights has been made.
Freedom of speech for all. Freedom of religion for all. Equality of opportunity for all. Education for all. Free and fair elections for all. Due process for all. These are some of the ideals that Western society has held dear for hundreds of years, and slowly, not without missteps, these freedoms have been extended, here at home and abroad in the world.
Classical Western Liberalism, with its view that the individual has the right to do as he or she pleases so long as it does not interfere with the equal rights of anyone else has held sway in Western thought, and it has vastly improved the lives of billions around the world.
These are the ideas that have given each of us the prosperity and liberty that we enjoy. These are the ideas that have lifted our society from barbarism, mob rule, and tyrannical rule.
These ideas can not be defeated by gunfire. Hitler, Mussolini, and Franco tried. Pol Pot, Stalin, and Castro tried.
But these ideas can be defeated by words. By kind and just sounding words strung together in support of barbaric ideas.
This is the battle our society faces today.
A radically different way of looking at the world has taken shape, and it has begun infecting our society.
This way of thinking does not see individuals, nor what is good for individuals. Instead it sees groups. And it labels these groups as either oppressor or oppressed in relation to each other. It then goes on to conclude that any act by an oppressed group or individuals within that group, against anyone included in an oppressor group is morally justified.
This is a strikingly different view of morality than that which those in the West have held for hundreds of years. It is an attempt to morally justify barbarism. A way of excusing the inexcusable.
An individual is judged not by his or her actions, or expression, or character. Rather by characteristics that the individual has no control over. Race, nationality, religion, sexual orientation.
It is a set of ideas, that if allowed to flourish, will drag our society backwards hundreds of years. Into a new dark age, a time of barbarity.
There have not been widespread attempts to counter the evil of this supposed new morality. I think that everyone has likely seen it out on society’s horizon, but written it off as nonsense that no reasoning person could believe.
But we should know, by now, that is not true. People today, particularly young people are starting to believe it. Young Americans justifying the worst terrorist attacks in U.S. history shows that. Young Americans arguing against the right of free speech shows that. Young Americans seemingly gleeful participation in violent protests shows that.
This alternate way of thinking exists, and its influence is growing rapidly in our society. It is time that we, each and every one of us, stand up for the ideas and ideals that have resulted in freedom and prosperity for billions of people around the world.
We must fight to prevent this spread of the ideas of violence and barbarism.
Freemasonry, as a moral society, a peace society, and as both mother and child of the Enlightenment has a special duty to take a stand for these ideas that it has cradled since time immemorial.
An interesting perspective on the TikTok events I noted:
https://www.theintrinsicperspective.com/p/osama-bin-ladens-tiktok-popularity
I have not had a lot of time to formulate and organize my thoughts on this, so this may be a bit clumsy. I think that in the particular example of societal change that happens as a result of or in conjunction with a 'viral' phenomenon (i.e., internet based social media, sharing a meme or article from one person to another with q geometric increases in the sharing rate) is the result of our society giving too much value to the information from social media. Social media might be better described as gossip media. It's my opinion that most of the content is intended to result in an emotional reaction, which is then shared thru communities of people. Once this happens the shared emotions become a shared reality. No one asks if the facts are true. People have died from this phenomena in the past decade, and I am sure more will. As Masons we are called to subdue our passions / emotions and I think in these cases of 'viral' phenomenon we need to apply this recommendation, and strong courage others to do the same.