Facial recognition software, biometric data, high-speed
processing and lower-order or Narrow Artificial Intelligence are being wed to
authoritarian political structures. It is the Panopticon for a new age.*
I must admit, I found this video to be deeply troubling. I
found myself wondering about the future of the Chinese Underground Church. The
tools of totalitarianism are becoming so pervasive that nonconformists (of any
stripe) are literally going to be forced back into the mountains and forests...
as in the old days.
And yet in the old days, the state apparatus did not possess
drones with thermal imaging and the easy means to access remote places.
Is it too much of a stretch to say I see a new chapter of
persecution on the horizon? The technological revolution is moving along so
quickly there's scarcely any time to reflect on its moral implications.
The dystopia is here. It's now.
For some the fear is with regard to an AI takeover like
SkyNet or The Matrix. While I'm leery of the machines I'm just as concerned
with the phase before that... the one in which the people have control of the
technology... the phase we're entering right now.
There's a real evil to the direction of the technology. It
has taken on a sorcerous character as indeed the very heart of what magic and
alchemy were all about was mastery and manipulation for the purposes of gain
and power.
It sought mastery over the elements of creation, the
transformation of the elemental tool into the sceptre. The tool, the implement
of labour meant to aid man, to mitigate and assuage the grief associated with the
fall is transformed into Babel-deification, its claims to divinity and its
prerogatives. Technology can be used to create leisure time. This leisure can
be toward godliness or it can degenerate into continuous evil, tyranny and decadence.
What we have here is a modern version of Babel. Instead of stones with a portal-altar
on top, we have a transcendent tower made of 1's and 0's... and yet the power
is on a scale hitherto unimagined... unless one wants to argue a precedent in the
antediluvian age.
Modern technological culture is no longer about creating
leisure time for the advancement of culture or a better standard of living.
It's about commoditisation of nature and mankind itself. It is quite literally
attempting to transform this world and create a new cosmos. That is at the heart
of the vision of the great villains of our day... the Jobs', Bezos', Musk's,
Thiel's, Page's and Zuckerburg's. These men are sorcerers who would become gods
and redefine creation. They're also fools who destroy themselves and everything
around them but there's little consolation in that.
Scientism and its ethos of reductionist epistemology, the
move toward monistic singularity, the redefinitions of cosmic teleology and
humanity mark the passing of an old civilisation and the dawn of a new era...
or perhaps we might say the advent of a new darkness, the beginning of a long
and dreadful night.
I literally tremble as I contemplate the direction of our
civilisation over the course of the next generation. I am glad my kids are at
the verge of adulthood and yet I tremble for them as they will seek to raise
their own children in this new world that is even now beginning to take shape.
Technology, a thing that is far from evil in itself is being
twisted into something abominable. It is being transformed into serving a materialistic
and absolutist ideology and thus has taken on a strong religious, even
sacramental hue. It is no longer being designed to aid man in meeting his needs
and providing some respite from the sweat of the brow but is instead being
turned into a force that atomises all aspects of life and then re-shapes and re-defines
them. The new forms of technology and its architects are destroying society and
traditional forms of community and yet they are wickedly re-working them into a
new machine-like and subservient form. We are already seeing the hints of a
type of Neo-Tribalism rooted in tech and consumer allegiance, a new culture
with a new language, ideology, aesthetic, epistemology and mythos. Interface is
becoming eucharistic.
Technological 'advancement' has so often been associated with
forms of warfare and some even praise this aspect of it and yet now these same
forces are being turned on society itself, on all forms of dissent. This is the
Beast of Daniel/Revelation being empowered with sorcerous powers akin to a
fantasy/science fiction novel.
Society is being moved onto a religio-utopian path and
shepherded by the various oligarchies governing the political order. In China
it's one group and in the West it's another. The lines between economic and
political power are blurred. They always have been but in this age it's even
harder to grasp the ever-changing shape and appearance of this power and how it
operates. The factions vie for control and are often at odds. In one sense,
humanly speaking this is the best hope for the masses. Because if the forces
truly unify, the commoditisation of human life, even the nature of existence
and simple but profound questions such as 'meaning' will be transformed. And
woe to those of us who adhere to different categories, we will be the heretics
of the new age.
As others have pointed out and yet it's something I
continually return to... the really astonishing social transformation of the
past generation, (and there have been many) is the shift with regard to
privacy.
Apart from everything else, all the stunning changes and
redefinitions of moral norms, the change in values with regard to privacy is
perhaps the most stunning.
And I believe the battle is already lost. It's over. Because
the new generation, the Millennials and Generation Z cannot even grasp the
issue. They've already bought in wholesale to the new paradigm.
Civilisation ebbs and flows and I think a lot about the
macro- and micro- patterns that we see. There have been times in which huge
shifts take place and nations, cultures and people groups disappear and are
replaced by new civilisations and with them new ideologies. The people of
course don't disappear, the genetics continue but the people are redefined and
divorced from their ancestors. A new type of man comes into being. On a smaller
scale one might point to the Renaissance as typifying such a shift, or even the
notion of a New World Man (as Rush once sang about)... a new type of mindset
divorced from the past and even geographically removed from it.
One thinks of the so-called Bronze Age Collapse and the rise
of European peoples and the fading away of older civilisations such as the
Hittites, Troy and the Mycenaeans. New peoples arose and old cultures faded
away. Such a shift also came with the advent of Rome and its post Punic War dominance
of the Mediterranean. A new type of person was forged and many old cultures,
tribes and traditions faded away. Those that survived were heavily influenced
and modified. These are of course generalisations at best.
Within this framework we can note the shifts that took place
with the fall of Rome in the West, the rise of Christendom and the transitions
that took place with the advent of the High Middle Ages in the 11th
century and after. The Renaissance, itself a nebulous concept marks another
shift and unleashed a chain reaction bringing us to our modern time.
For reasons I will not elaborate here I mark 1945 or perhaps
the period of 1945-91 as the end of not just a micro-cycle but a macro period.
And perhaps not just a macro-shift
but a mega one... one on the order of
what happened about 1200BC or even 27BC when Octavian was declared Augustus and
Rome was undisputed master of the West.
We are on the cusp of a great change. Old things, familiar
ideas and norms that have been with us for centuries, even millennia are about
to pass away.
Some might see this fall of Christendom as signalling the
true 'end' times or even the unleashing of Satan from the bottomless pit.
Since I do not believe Christendom was ever a Biblical
concept to begin with (and for exegetical reasons) I must necessarily reject
such a reading. The exact chronology and identity of the 'man of sin' is
difficult. Is it a popish figure reigning over an apostate totalitarian
Christendom? Many have thought so and for many centuries such a view seemed
warranted and was all but vindicated by the realities of the day. Others look
for some sort of Papal revival and indeed it's hard to know what direction
things will go. The trends I'm speaking of could undergo a significant
modification if a Right-wing 'reactionary' force were to violently take over
society. One thinks of the fanciful 'V for Vendetta' scenario. Apart from the
superhero antics there are aspects to that scenario which are quite plausible
and though ostensibly 'traditionalist' it would certainly create a real dilemma
for faithful believers. The variables with regard to technology and its uses
under such a scenario are too many to contemplate.
More likely we are witnessing the end of Christendom and if
some reads of Revelation and 2 Thessalonians are correct it's something we
should expect. The fall of the Babylonian Whore (Apostate Christendom) is a
cause for rejoicing and yet its replacement, the Beast par excellence is nothing to celebrate and it will bode a darker
chapter. And yet, we must think through such questions with spiritual
discernment. Darker in terms of the Church or in terms of physical well being?
They are not the same thing. A time of persecution, underground life, poverty
and hardship are not pleasant but the Church tends to flourish under such
scenarios. One's life and priorities are certainly put into sharp focus.
Whether we near the end and the time of Christ's return is
something no one can know. Let us hope so. Though I will also admit I believe all
the conditions have already been met and He could have returned at any time.
This has been the case since the early centuries of the Church.
But if it's not decreed to be in the near future, then one
thing is clear. Civilisation as we know it is undergoing massive change.
Remember people didn't wake up one day and say "Oh, Late Antiquity is
over, we're in the Middle Ages now."
Our historical constructs are a means of categorising and
approximation. The Middle Ages ended with the advent of the cannon, the
printing press, the Renaissance and the Reformation. And yet for many a rustic
farmer, daily life did not change until the 19th century.
The categories and labels are legitimate to a point. They are
in the end little more than helpful tools, a means to communicate vast sums of
ideas in a simple phrase.
My point is that a thousand years from now historians will
identify our time period as the shift, the transition that marked a new era.
They might even mark it as beginning in 1945, in which case according to a
future historian, we (today) might already be almost a century into the new era. Some will nod at this and
acknowledge that they can see the argument. Others will say, no, we're not
quite there yet.
Both have a case.
But when I watch what's happening with technology and where
this is all headed, I have no doubts that however we want to mark the
transition and categorise it in the history books... a change is upon us.
The Church is being led by false teachers and fools. They are
not preparing God's people to work through this. Having embraced false notions
of the Church, the Kingdom, our mission as well as their concepts of wealth and
power, they are blind to the reality of our day and ill-equipped to think this
through. They are ill-equipped to lead, to provide guidance and they have no
capacity when it comes to teaching the saints how to think it through
themselves. Their so-called 'Worldview' teaching is a sham.
The Church will (most likely) be swept away by these changes
and we will witness widespread apostasy. Indeed we already are. The blatant
denials of faith don't often appear in a bald-faced manner. They are more often
marked first by foreboding shifts, defections and redefinitions. That's what
we're seeing now. Their children will be the ones who just simply walk away,
who turn away from the faith and deny Christ. Their children not yet born will
not even know who He is.
I am not calling on the Church to become Amish. Far from it.
If so, I wouldn't have a website or use a computer. And yet I am arguing for a
complete reconsideration of technology and how the Church is to function in
society. This cannot happen until larger foundational issues are reconsidered.
As is often the case, to solve a big problem, multiple smaller problems have to
be addressed and resolved at the same time. Always difficult, in the end we can
only leave this to the Holy Spirit. Only He has the power to help people to see
the big picture and grasp in one sweep the Kingdom as presented in the
Scriptures and what it means to be in the world and yet not of it.
When the Beast (which recurs throughout history) rears its
head and 'lifts the horn' proclaiming its divine power, things can get really
difficult for those refusing to conform. Look at Shadrach, Meshach and
Abednego. Look at Polycarp.
And yet the advent of the technological age takes this
struggle into new territory. The Beast is being granted powers not seen or
fathomed since the Days of Noah.
*Helios Panoptes was the all-seeing Titan, a giant of
antiquity which is actually quite fitting when discussing the Days of Noah and
the nature of Beastly power. Argos Panoptes was another who shared the name.
The dream and veneration of Panoptic (all seeing) god-like power is something
also venerated in traditional freemasonry. The Panopticon is the name of a
building designed by English philosopher Jeremy Bentham. Many associate his
Utilitarianism with Socialist and Totalitarian visions of Utopia and yet there
are some rather interesting ideological overlaps when it comes to
Utilitarianism and Capitalism. Some Capitalists provide pragmatic justification
of their system by means of Utilitarian argument. The Panopticon was Bentham's
vision of an institution or prison. His was an era burdened by the problem of
urban poverty often rooted in unseated agricultural labour and the destruction
of the village. Unskilled workers had to be corralled and controlled. The
merely conceptual Panopticon hinted at a surveillance model of control, a means
of manipulating the masses.
The parallels are rather interesting and while many equate Capitalism
with democracy and freedom a closer and more thorough examination of the system
and its phases reveals that in the end it is but another power paradigm, a type
of political order. The dream of some economists to separate commerce,
commodity, currency and financial transaction from the political system has
been demonstrably proven little more than a pipe dream. While there are few
true Utilitarians today, aspects of the philosophy live on and are manifested
in the entirety of the political spectrum. Liberal Capitalism is not exempt.
While we may find one form of the Panopticon at work in authoritarian China,
another version is becoming manifest in the Capitalist Neo-liberal West.
Interestingly both societies are inevitably moving toward an oligarchic corporate-finance/political
alliance. The forms are different but increasingly the substances are the same.
Both are employing the Panopticon. Both are hostile to Biblical Christianity.