Almost a year ago, I wrote and recorded a piece in response to the now-infamous January 6 Capitol Riot. This is that piece. I still think it rings true. It's not a political take. Instead it has to do with a looming cultural problem that the January 6 riot (as well as the other riots in 2020) brought to the foreground--one that transcends Republican, Democrat, conservative, liberal. That problem is the way the internet is reshaping our lives.
We used to live in a physical space and get certain things on the internet. Now we live on the internet and get certain things done in a physical space. In other words, the internet is de-incarnating our existence. It gives real life to fantasies, but no real way to embody those fantasies. So our modern lives are increasingly being lived in disembodied ways. And when we do actually try to embody our internet fantasies--as in the storming of the capitol--it’s just weird. And bad. And unsustainable. It uncovers a kind of dark dream-world politics that was never meant for the light of actual day.
The storming of the capitol was less a political coup and more an internet meme come to life. And yes, it was actually violent and rage-filled. But some of the same people who fought so hard to get in the door were simply posing for selfies in their strange costumes once they got in.
That's the weirdest part of the whole thing. The storming of the capitol didn't do anything in the traditional political sense. What we witnessed instead was the virtual world spilling out into (and colliding with) the very real, physical symbol of traditional politics. And it was...stupid and ineffective and meaningless and laughable and sad. But it's not enough simply to point fingers at Chewbacca-bikini-guy and his sordid friends. Not enough simply to "condemn" the mob and wash our hands of the thing from the safety of our iPhone screens. Because we were cut from the same cloth. We were all born again in the womb of the internet.
Imagine a drone pilot who plays so many other video games in between his actual job that he can’t tell the difference between bombing fake people and bombing real people. Either way, it doesn’t really matter. Because his job, his entertainment, his identity is found in the virtual control chair and nowhere else.
To some degree, we are all that drone pilot. Or at least slowly moving in that direction. And yet, there is no going back to a pre-internet era. So what is the Christian response to the particular technological age we find ourselves in? Where do we go from here?
Thanks for listening to the VB Fellows Podcast. VB Fellows is a faith-based leadership development and apprenticeship program for recent college grads in Virginia Beach, VA. Our next deadline for applicants for next year’s class is this coming up on January 15. So if you know anyone who is interested, please let them know!
Almost a year ago, I wrote and recorded a piece in response to the now-infamous January 6 Capitol Riot. This is that piece. I still think it rings true. It's not a political take. Instead it has to do with a looming cultural problem that the January 6 riot (as well as the other riots in 2020) brought to the foreground--one that transcends Republican, Democrat, conservative, liberal. That problem is the way the internet is reshaping our lives.
We used to live in a physical space and get certain things on the internet. Now we live on the internet and get certain things done in a physical space. In other words, the internet is de-incarnating our existence. It gives real life to fantasies, but no real way to embody those fantasies. So our modern lives are increasingly being lived in disembodied ways. And when we do actually try to embody our internet fantasies--as in the storming of the capitol--it’s just weird. And bad. And unsustainable. It uncovers a kind of dark dream-world politics that was never meant for the light of actual day.
The storming of the capitol was less a political coup and more an internet meme come to life. And yes, it was actually violent and rage-filled. But some of the same people who fought so hard to get in the door were simply posing for selfies in their strange costumes once they got in.
That's the weirdest part of the whole thing. The storming of the capitol didn't do anything in the traditional political sense. What we witnessed instead was the virtual world spilling out into (and colliding with) the very real, physical symbol of traditional politics. And it was...stupid and ineffective and meaningless and laughable and sad. But it's not enough simply to point fingers at Chewbacca-bikini-guy and his sordid friends. Not enough simply to "condemn" the mob and wash our hands of the thing from the safety of our iPhone screens. Because we were cut from the same cloth. We were all born again in the womb of the internet.
Imagine a drone pilot who plays so many other video games in between his actual job that he can’t tell the difference between bombing fake people and bombing real people. Either way, it doesn’t really matter. Because his job, his entertainment, his identity is found in the virtual control chair and nowhere else.
To some degree, we are all that drone pilot. Or at least slowly moving in that direction. And yet, there is no going back to a pre-internet era. So what is the Christian response to the particular technological age we find ourselves in? Where do we go from here?
Thanks for listening to the VB Fellows Podcast. VB Fellows is a faith-based leadership development and apprenticeship program for recent college grads in Virginia Beach, VA. Our next deadline for applicants for next year’s class is this coming up on January 15. So if you know anyone who is interested, please let them know!