As I sat here thinking what I’m sure is not an original thought (by millions of miles) - that we’re all affected by other nations’ governments - I wondered if there isn’t an approach to a solution.
Like, the globe is heaving around behind Agent Orange, in various and sometimes amusing ways. We’re in the UK about to get the Villain Black Boris into power, which may ultimately result in an election pushing Jeremy Corbyn (the wally) into power.
Surely by reaching out and being more individually inter-connected, in this digital age, we could healthily influence other people with common sense views? AirBNB, other ways people touch eachother internationally - it doesn’t have to be a do-gooder thing.
Reminds me of a passage from Harry Potter where the prime minister, exasperated, asks the minister of Magic why they can’t stop the bad guys when, after all, they have MAGIC? The minister replies: the problem is the other side do too.
It’s sort of the curse of the interconnectedness of modern technology. The bad guys have it too.
Sorry that’s a really depressing reply to your question.
I don’t remember where I was reading (probably boing boing) about this very thing. It might have been a Guardian oped. The comparison was Bannon campaigning and consulting in Europe, but I suppose the CIA will do just fine thatnk-you-very-much as an example of spreading good old American fascism in whatever flavor the locals prefer. The article was a cry for coordination on the left. It did not prescribe anything specific enough to be helpful.
Imagine an app that allowed conversation with people you know are overseas and it modulated language (er … ignore the possibility for interference) in a way that lets people share ideas and common sense without overpowering - even better, teach the people how to communicate well.
I actually am starting to think this could be a thing.
Yeah. I hope that the great majority of people want to do the right thing. Want peace and prosperity for everyone… for a while I thought the internet was taking us there. We were becoming more interconnected. Maybe the point at which I started to worry was when the Egyptian revolution, which I initially saw as this uprising of people wanting freedom and democracy and inspired other movements, kinda went south. Countries started censoring the internet and cracking down on protesters, and almost even more insidiously started using propaganda and trolling on a government level to confuse and divide people. We keep talking about Russia but they aren’t the only ones interested in these things. It’s kinda scary. I still believe the majority of people want peace and happiness and civil society, but I worry we’re being systematically overpowered. This current time we are living in is a huge test of that…
On a personal level… I mean, the initial thought of travel and air bnb - that reminds me of the initial concept of AFS - the american field service, https://www.afsusa.org/about-afs/
the organization that started this whole idea of foreign exchange students in America. The original idea was to expose people to other cultures and to see those people as family - to avoid international tensions and war. It’s a great idea. I think it does influence a lot of people who participate in it. But there’s a lot of other forces in the world. Money and power are strong contenders on a world stage.
