The New Zealand Terror Attack Shows Our Ethics Lagging Way Behind Our Technology
"We are failing. Collectively. Some more
than others. When white nationalist terrorism struck New Zealand, after
similar strikes in Norway, Pittsburgh and Charleston, it showed how we
are failing to meet a central challenge posed by our technologically
hyper-connected world. Namely, the cultural consequences of rapidly
advancing technology require an equally accelerated and
psychologically-informed life-long ethical education. The more things
change, well, the more things have to change. We all have to do better.
Hate speech takes root and sprouts violence in the fertile ground of, as Christian Picciolini describes in White American Youth: My Descent into America's Most Violent Hate Movement--and How I Got Out, someone searching for identity, community, and purpose. Simply put, the developed world is failing to provide good-enough experiences of “identity, community, and purpose" suitable for 21st-century techno-culture.
The old ways for learning how to be a good, decent person no longer work, or don’t work well enough for enough people. Of course it's an incredibly complex issue. But one piece is that people are now paradoxically isolated at their screens at the same time they are globally connected everywhere with anyone they choose. This paradox creates a feeling of community but without the responsibilities of community. The complexity and consequence of being fully with another person is diminished. Opportunities for empathy shrink to a vanishing point. But empathy creates the friction we need to slow and maybe even stop hate. So hate grows."
