As much as we fret about the polarization of cultures ("The West vs Islam", "Jews vs Arabs", "Pakistan vs India" etc etc) and the rise of modern tribalism there is always hope...
"I love Italy!" screamed ecstatic Spaniard Danny Torres in English to a pumped crowd of 20,000 fans as the event was broadcast live on the internet to millions and syndicated to an estimated 100 million on network TV channels around the world. Torres had just clinched the final event of Red Bull X-Fighters in the impressive Stadio Flaminio in Rome but ceded the title to overall winner Nate Adams from the USA. Nate's incredible display of death-defying flips, somersaults and tricks you'd think impossible on a motorbike were just enough to outplay reigning champion Andre Villa of Norway. Italian fans turned out in force with many brandishing makeshift flags and banners pledging allegiance to their heroes of choice - Norwegian, Spanish, Australian, American, Russian... the list goes on.
It's here in Rome, in front of a crowd of young people averaging between 20 and 30 years old that you get a sense of the future. An American and Norwegian duke it out in front of an Italian audience hosted by an Austrian company watched by young people in 5 continents. Where you're from, it appears, is less important than where you're at.
Youth have always been the victim of their parent's geographical choices. The big city lights were always more appealing than suburbia and another city always more enticing that your own. We watched hip hop videos on MTV and wished we were hanging out with those blinged up cliques. We fantasized about running through muddy fields chased by police in search of an illegal Acid House rave hidden in an abandoned aircraft hangar. We broke down the Berlin Wall. We found kinship through Woodstock and Lennon's Bed Peace but every time the media shut the show down. Lennon challenged us to "imagine all the people" but the media's loudspeakers were keen to drown out the dissent. Even though ad agencies pandered to our malaise with striking images of young people reuniting at the Brandenburg gate, the last thing they wanted was youth actually controlling the narrative.
This time however it's different. The key difference being youth's ability to define kinship on the basis of passion rather than proximity.
Rather than compromize their interests based on what the kid next door liked doing they can indulge them on the internet. They can hang out with skaters in Shanghai or gamers in Dubai. They exchange ideas, challenge ignorance and learn that the differences between these peers are smaller than the differences between themselves and people of the same nationality, race or religion.
The previous generation grew up accepting that their hero could be a black golfer, an openly gay singer or a white rapper. Perhaps this generation will grow up accepting that their heroes will speak different tongues and worship different idols.
When this generation grows up empathizing with different nationalities, religions and creeds, notions of the empathy based along traditional lines - i.e being "English", "Chinese", "Jew" or "Hindu" will become less relevant. Being American is defined by a common belief system and heritage yet what happens when tomorrow's youth in San Jose are more like youth in Jakarta and Johannesburg? Difficult to imagine for many because these stories of national origin, belief and identity are so interwoven into the fabric of our lives and personalities.
Yet, empathy has always evolved. In generations past we empathized with the people in our own villages and feared those who lived beyond the valley. As society grew and we learned to trade we also learned that these foreigners weren't monsters and very much like us. Empathy changed from village to and the idea of a shared heritage - a belief system called religion but that itself became challenged when we found differences that challenged our interests. The nation state evolved and remains the most powerful empathic force to adults today. Politics is driven by the stories we tell about our nations and creed. Young people are sent to fight and die to protect these stories.
This may well change too. Not overnight, but as with all revolutions, the idea grows when a simple seed is planted.
The idea grows when it's nourished by opportunities to ask "Why?" in a fertile soil called the internet. And like any plant that grows it will take time. If we look today we see only an acorn that has begun to sprout, not the mighty oak.
In the 16th century the Bible was a lavishly handwritten manuscript that took a team of monks years to complete. Only well patronized churches or the rich landed gentry could afford to own one. When the word of God was limited to the ownership and interpretation of the few, control rested in the hands of the priesthood. Yet, when Gutenberg invented the movable type printing press the seed was sown. Ordinary people could get hold of the scriptures. No longer was the priest the sole divine conduit for interpreting the moral rule of law. The democratization of the Bible not only gave everyman the opportunity to tell the story but also fundamentally challenged the power of the incumbent priesthood. At first, the shifting media landscape appeared innocuous but what followed radically changed not only our relationship with the church, the role of the church within politics and the state but also our idea of what it was to be human. The Reformation changed us from people living in a world of mystery and religious iconicism to one where events were governed by cause and effect, reason, science and where, ulimately, man became the center of his own universe.
Perhaps we are facing our own Reformation. The irony is that just as before, nobody actually used the term "Reformation" until historians began to document change 100 years after the fact. Perhaps we will reflect on the dynamic shift in the media landscape that moved us from monolithic media to the democratization of brands, that redefined our notions of kinship as one that significantly altered the course of history.
Speculation of what this means to us is, however, not for us. We are history. Revolutions begin not when the incoming change agents convince the incumbents that their ideas are wrong but when the incumbents die out.
As much as we fret about the polarization of cultures ("The West vs Islam", "Jews vs Arabs", "Pakistan vs India" etc etc) and the rise of modern tribalism there is always hope... "I love Italy!" screamed ecstatic Spaniard Danny Torres in English to a pumped crowd of 20,000 fans as the event was broadcast live on the internet to millions and syndicated to an estimated 100 million on network TV channels around the world. Torres had just clinched the final event of Red Bull X-Fighters in the impressive Stadio Flaminio in Rome but ceded the title to overall winner Nate Adams from the USA. Nate's incredible display of death-defying flips, somersaults and tricks you'd think impossible on a motorbike were just enough to outplay reigning champion Andre Villa of Norway. Italian fans turned out in force with many brandishing makeshift flags and banners pledging allegiance to their heroes of choice - Norwegian, Spanish, Australian, American, Russian... the list goes on.
It's here in Rome, in front of a crowd of young people averaging between 20 and 30 years old that you get a sense of the future. An American and Norwegian duke it out in front of an Italian audience hosted by an Austrian company watched by young people in 5 continents. Where you're from, it appears, is less important than where you're at. Youth have always been the victim of their parent's geographical choices. The big city lights were always more appealing than suburbia and another city always more enticing that your own. We watched hip hop videos on MTV and wished we were hanging out with those blinged up cliques. We fantasized about running through muddy fields chased by police in search of an illegal Acid House rave hidden in an abandoned aircraft hangar. We broke down the Berlin Wall. We found kinship through Woodstock and Lennon's Bed Peace but every time the media shut the show down. Lennon challenged us to "imagine all the people" but the media's loudspeakers were keen to drown out the dissent. Even though ad agencies pandered to our malaise with striking images of young people reuniting at the Brandenburg gate, the last thing they wanted was youth actually controlling the narrative.
This time however it's different. The key difference being youth's ability to define kinship on the basis of passion rather than proximity. Rather than compromize their interests based on what the kid next door liked doing they can indulge them on the internet. They can hang out with skaters in Shanghai or gamers in Dubai. They exchange ideas, challenge ignorance and learn that the differences between these peers are smaller than the differences between themselves and people of the same nationality, race or religion. The previous generation grew up accepting that their hero could be a black golfer, an openly gay singer or a white rapper. Perhaps this generation will grow up accepting that their heroes will speak different tongues and worship different idols. When this generation grows up empathizing with different nationalities, religions and creeds, notions of the empathy based along traditional lines - i.e being "English", "Chinese", "Jew" or "Hindu" will become less relevant. Being American is defined by a common belief system and heritage yet what happens when tomorrow's youth in San Jose are more like youth in Jakarta and Johannesburg? Difficult to imagine for many because these stories of national origin, belief and identity are so interwoven into the fabric of our lives and personalities. Yet, empathy has always evolved. In generations past we empathized with the people in our own villages and feared those who lived beyond the valley. As society grew and we learned to trade we also learned that these foreigners weren't monsters and very much like us. Empathy changed from village to and the idea of a shared heritage - a belief system called religion but that itself became challenged when we found differences that challenged our interests. The nation state evolved and remains the most powerful empathic force to adults today. Politics is driven by the stories we tell about our nations and creed. Young people are sent to fight and die to protect these stories. This may well change too. Not overnight, but as with all revolutions, the idea grows when a simple seed is planted. The idea grows when it's nourished by opportunities to ask "Why?" in a fertile soil called the internet. And like any plant that grows it will take time. If we look today we see only an acorn that has begun to sprout, not the mighty oak.
In the 16th century the Bible was a lavishly handwritten manuscript that took a team of monks years to complete. Only well patronized churches or the rich landed gentry could afford to own one. When the word of God was limited to the ownership and interpretation of the few, control rested in the hands of the priesthood. Yet, when Gutenberg invented the movable type printing press the seed was sown. Ordinary people could get hold of the scriptures. No longer was the priest the sole divine conduit for interpreting the moral rule of law. The democratization of the Bible not only gave everyman the opportunity to tell the story but also fundamentally challenged the power of the incumbent priesthood. At first, the shifting media landscape appeared innocuous but what followed radically changed not only our relationship with the church, the role of the church within politics and the state but also our idea of what it was to be human. The Reformation changed us from people living in a world of mystery and religious iconicism to one where events were governed by cause and effect, reason, science and where, ulimately, man became the center of his own universe. Perhaps we are facing our own Reformation. The irony is that just as before, nobody actually used the term "Reformation" until historians began to document change 100 years after the fact. Perhaps we will reflect on the dynamic shift in the media landscape that moved us from monolithic media to the democratization of brands, that redefined our notions of kinship as one that significantly altered the course of history. Speculation of what this means to us is, however, not for us. We are history. Revolutions begin not when the incoming change agents convince the incumbents that their ideas are wrong but when the incumbents die out.
