A New Year

For some reason this did not post yesterday, so here it is a day late!

January 1, AD 2014

On this 8th Day of Christmas 2014, New Years Day I find myself up before the crowd. Well, up before my adult son and his gal. Up before my little one and my wife wake from 'nap time' (she took the morning shift so I could welcome the New Year with the revellers, God bless her..).
The coffee is hissing in the pot. The bacon is ready for the pan. The eggs and herbs ready for the skillet.
Time to reflect and to look forward.
What do I see in 2014? Am I optimistic?
Well, on a personal level, yes. I do not have high expectations or ambitions for the year, so I expect to reach my goals and have some time left over for fun and rest.
On a larger scale, I am no so sure...
What I see is an increasing trend towards polarisation on every issue and at every level. There is only one historical pattern that matches this current trend.
That pattern is one of forced crisis. Divide and rule is the means. The methods increase by order each month. Devices, networks, and entire corporations are working hard at helping you isolate yourself in a nice, sterile little echo chamber. Into a neat little compartment and easy to sort. In Intel jargon, this is called a cell. In
In this brave new age and order, the citizens cells are increasingly self defined; self labeled. That is to say that we are filtering ourselves into compartments of ideology and neatly labeling them. We do it here on blogger, on facebook, by our consumer choice, with our vote. All leaving a wonderful trail of volunteered data in it, wake.
Our economic, political and cultural ideals self define and identify us like never before, and this provides an equally unprecedented opportunity for new control mechanisms.
In the simplest terms, we are becoming more alone, more disconnected, more hostile to differences in a connected, networked world! More easily controlled....
We are doing so at a greatly accelerated rate; and we are doing so by design..
The examples of this are so numerous to list. Consider the phone or tablet in your pocket or on our desk. We are sold a device that is supposed to connect us with those we love, but is in fact another wall of interference between us. Another excuse to be further away, even when physically close..
If this is so between families and friends, can we not extend this sur-reality into business and political matter? I am afraid we must.
Happy New Year, and may God bless and keep you all.
IHSv