It is natural to become overwhelmed as one looks out and upon the masses of this earth, feeling that our fate as a species cannot be altered so easily. Yet how can we, in the modern era, look at the rise of technology and social platforms and continue to maintain such a pessimistic opinion of what is possible? All around the world, within homes on every continent, the people are viewing the self-same selection of movies and series’ while dancing along to the tune of the self-same pop singles while using the self-same slang and gestures to express themselves. The world is homogenizing like never before due to advances in communications and technology. The trends of society seem to change overnight with the advent of a new social media platform and you’ve suddenly got every tween in the godforsaken periphery hopping around and lip-syncing as if thinking that they exist in an obnoxious music video that never... ever... ends...!

Politics, religion, entertainment and academia make up the primary avenues whereby the masses derive their understanding: both what they want and what they expect from life. All the water in the village comes to us via these streams. This must be kept in mind as we construct our approach, being that the majority can not be swayed by sense and logic; and our instinct may be to equate that fact with immovability, as in the inability of such individuals to be swayed altogether, though it simply means that we must find an alternate way to their hearts and minds. In other words, if we wish for them to understand our message then we must speak out in a language that they will understand.

For an obvious example of such influences at work on an impressionable population, look no further than to the way in which certain populations—especially in the United States—have approached a deadly, once-in-a-century pandemic that has ravished all aspects of our world and lives over the past couple of years. Some will chock this up to a problem of human foolishness, and it’s true that we must be held accountable for our lack of discernment in these cases, although we can not and should not overlook the role played by the media, politics and religious thinking in forming such a dangerous and unhealthy paradigm. And listen... I’m not all that fond of getting into polarizing topics as this, though something of this nature and magnitude should have never come to be seen as a polarizing topic to begin with, and if you take issue with these statements then... honestly I don’t know why you would even bother reading what I have to say—unless in searching for another bogeyman—as the focus of all that I have put forward clearly revolves around the responsibility of the individual unto the greater whole and such empathy and unselfish conviction is something that is evidently a foreign concept to these people.

More disturbing, still, is the fact that few will ever see themselves in that which I have spoken, instinctively viewing my words as a condemnation of the opposing party or position; and it is in this way—through the perversion of language—that the poison gets in. My country (the United States) is heading rapidly toward totalitarian rule and hardly is it because the population actually welcomes the reality of totalitarianism, but because our definitions have become so confused, often via deliberate and malevolent contortion, and our inability to agree on what tyranny and oppression actually look like will be what allows the enemy in through the front door like a welcomed guest. Much of the American population is legitimately convinced, at this point, that ‘tyranny’ refers to being told “Happy holidays” by a well-meaning cashier or finding ethnic diversity among the cast of their beloved superhero franchises. Such is the value of having our associations in order, as with the threat posed by disorder.

This is but one example coming off the top of my head to illustrate the influence on offer, and to deny or underplay the degree to which the individual is capable of steering the tastes, the perceptions and the overall direction of the masses is positively daft in this modern day and age, lacking all sense of realism (with ‘realism’ often being conflated with likelihood by many a self-styled ‘rationalist’). Hardly can we fathom the impact that it would have on our impressionable population if those in power—be them politicians, celebrities or other influential figures—were to not only demonstrate the necessary maturity, empathy and self-awareness through their acts, but consciously endorse these attitudes within their speech.