[work in progress]
Enlightenment is man’s emergence from his self-imposed immaturity. Immaturity is the inability to use one’s understanding without guidance from another. This immaturity is self-imposed when its cause lies not in lack of understanding, but in lack of resolve and courage to use it without guidance from another. Sapere Aude! [dare to know] “Have courage to use your own understanding!”–that is the motto of enlightenment. - Immanuel Kant, What is Enlightenment? (1784)
Are we now living in another period of enlightenment? Throughout history, every time a new technology has empowered more people to communicate with each other in more meaningful ways and become widely disseminated through a society, it has resulted in fundamental changes and shifts within the structure of that society. The introduction of sea commerce between early cultures, the phonetic alphabet, the printing press, the radio, the telephone, and the television, to name a few. The latest of these technologies is the internet, and it has connected people from all over the globe more immediately and richly than any previous technology. We have always suspected that the internet is novel and powerful, but only now are we beginning to get a perspective of the full repercussions of this technology on society.
Over the course of the last month I have witnessed people all over the globe take their tents and friends down to local parks and form ‘occupations’; groups of strangers working together to share ideas for building cohesive but open communities. Most of the friends I have made over the past weeks at the occupation found out about what was happening over Facebook and other ‘social media’. The online communities we have grown up in are beginning to materialise in the physical centres of our cities. I have met a large number of practical idealists at the occupation; men and women, young and old, they all know how to dream of a better world and have the skills to work together towards it. We have learnt the powerful lesson that by combining our ideas and skills we are quickly able to achieve things far beyond anything we could as isolated individuals.
Many people are asking the question ‘what is occupy?’, but seeing no further than the 15 minute attention span that the media has conditioned us to, we miss the deeper question ‘what age is this?’ If we step back and consider what is happening by the scales of history, then we see that deep motions are stirring in our society. Our technology has opened up possibilities that have never existed for humanity before. It is only a matter of time before our whole society catches up with the new playing ground.
It is vital that we remain conscious that this is now our own narrative. +We+ can make this into and about whatever +we+ really want.
We are peaceful, but let us not delude ourselves that we are not entering a time of struggle. Our weapons are love and knowledge, let us wield them bravely.
