The Corrosive Nature of Soundbites and Memes

The flood of soundbites, and their visual equivalent the meme, on the internet is permeating society, and like a corrosive acid, these fragments are eating away at it. 

Soundbites and memes are essentially bits of information, fragments.  Normally (and traditionally) we encounter information (and things in general) in a context.  We come across a thing along with the time, place, environment, etc. that has caused or influenced it, and then we see the things that it causes and influences.  The best way to put it is that we see it in its natural and active environment, its context. 

The context helps us to give the thing meaning and significance.  The relationship between the thing and everything around it makes it what it is.  In addition to that context, there is the worldview of the person that is encountering the information.  The worldview also helps give the thing meaning and significance, but it also goes beyond that and starts to extrapolate from meaning and significance and rules on truth and falsity. 

Anything that is considered true—even fragments like sound bites and memes—have a context that gives them meaning and a worldview that makes them seem true.  Part of the reason why people with different worldviews can often agree about things is that the context limits how much the worldview can shape the thing.  The stronger the context the less difference can be made of things by differing worldviews.

The internet (and even television) are very good at stripping things of their context and presenting them to us as if they are discrete things that have meaning and significance on their own, without a context.  This leaves the worldviews with more leeway to shape the thing. 

Part of the problem is that people usually are not conscious of what makes up their worldview, and they often bring a context to a fragment without being aware of it.  This means that different people can see the same fragment and have very different reactions to it.  Without a common context and an awareness of the differences in worldview between different people, one may see something as important and true; another as important and false; and yet another as unimportant and not worth attributing truth or falsity to. These differences become a reason for people to doubt the intelligence, intentions, education or even humanity of the others that don’t share their view of the thing. 

These differences and doubts becomes virtually irreconcilable until and unless people start to recover the context and become aware of differences in worldviews.  Yet, that is a difficult process that is often shunned in favor of simply accusing others of being stupid, inhuman, and the like.  This is where information can become divisive and destructive.  Information without context easily becomes a catalyst for arguments and insults between people especially when they are without awareness of (and reverence for) differences in worldviews.  

It is in this way that soundbites and memes tear apart society; they present information and things in a detached and isolated way that easily leads to animosity and division.  

Which Side of History?

I watched Obama’s Oval Office Address on terrorism. There we some things in it that I like; there were something I thought were fairly useless. There was one thing that really upsets me.

One thing that I like was that he did point out the connection between Islam and terrorism. Radical Islam is a perversion of what Islam is for most Muslims and what it should be for all of them. But that does not mean that it is not closely connected to Islam. Along with that comes a huge responsibility for all Muslims to deal with radical Islam. I am very glad he made that point.

One thing that I didn’t like is that he seemed to layout the same plan to deal with ISIS that he has laid out over and over again. This is not as effective as he seems to think it is, but he keeps presenting it as if it is, or will be. I am not sure what else should be done, but his confident and detached repetition of the same approach is frustrating and makes him seem like a clueless manager trying to convince his boss and his subordinates that everything is under control. Part of his demeanor maybe connected to the thing in the speech that I found supremely annoying.

The phrase “we are on the right side of history” is one of the most impotent and out of touch (and maybe even arrogant) phrases I have heard from world leaders lately, and Obama is not the only one to use it. Granted, I used to like the phrase, but now I see it as a sign of cultural decadence and naïve faith in progress. In the context of Obama’s address it implies that we don’t have to change what we are doing in a drastic way to get our way in the future, in the long run. It implies that we don’t have to examine our habits, our values or our social and economic structures to try and better them. It implies that we are good and that we just have to keep doing what we are doing to triumph over extremism. The only way we can lose is to ‘go backwards’ and indulge in Muslim bashing and giving in to the fear that terrorism inspires. I agree that those things would be going backwards, and I think we need to fight against those tendencies. However, I think that there is much more to do than ‘staying the course’ if we want to defeat ISIS or any organization based on radical Islam.

We need to take a serious look at our own culture(s) and values. We need to take a look at the ways in which we have dumbed down our beliefs and discourses that have led to increased polarization in our societies and politics. The radical Islamists have done the same to Islam, and we should take note of that and work with Muslims to fight against that perversion of Islam. But we also need to not be hypocrites and deal squarely with those problems in our own society. 

The reduction of economics to dollars and cents which strips it of other human values is rampant in modern Western societies. That needs to be dealt with. The mudslinging and soundbite (or meme) based political and social discourse needs to be stopped as well. It paints everything as black and white, buries complexities and makes conversation, compromise and cooperation nearly impossible. The over reliance on technology and treating people like computers or mere sources data is also a problem; it dehumanizes people and alienates us from our humanity.

These and other things have created a society where people can easily lose all sense of hope, all sense of value (for anything but money and technology) and all sense of meaning. It is from that point that many take the leap to radical Islam, Christian fundamentalism or crony-capitalism. Or they pick up guns and start shooting people just to go out with a bang. None of these things are conducive to progress, or at least not any sort of progress that I would look forward to. 

We can’t simply think that “we are on the right side of history.” This is like insisting that ‘God is on our side’ and will protect us and see us to victory. It makes it far too easy for us to abdicate responsibility for so many things that are going on in our lives and in our society that need our attention. 

We can’t just follow the current of progress and history to victory. We need to make a future. We need to work for progress. We need to do it now more than ever in our lifetimes. To me, Obama’s comforting address on Terrorism seem to make it all too easy for us to ignore that.