Fight the power
The parallels between religion and social networking are striking and now, instead of praying to the void, you type into it. By James Whitmore, MD at Postar
“Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.” So spoke Karl Marx; although the original thought may have been the Marquis de Sade’s.
I was reminded of this when I saw a news item that the Pope had tweeted to his followers in Latin. I believe that for its adherents, social networking fills the same role as religion and that the Pope’s act is a symbolic passing of the baton from an old faith to the new.
Religion or faith does two things. By creating illusory fantasies, it offers solace to a populace faced with the pain and suffering of everyday life – it is an escape mechanism and a means of coping. This in turn provides the conditions that make it possible for the elite to control the masses. Doomed, we’re doomed!
The parallels are striking. Early Christianity might be viewed as an “up yours” to the Roman oppressors, just as many social networkers no doubt see themselves as cocking a snook to established norms. In time, new autocrats were easily able to adapt Christianity so that it worked as a means of control.
Religions are quick to associate themselves with success. Many ancient military victories have been credited to the aid of a supreme hand. Equally, the new faith was eager to claim credit for the Arab Spring. When events go less well, the responsibility for failure will lie elsewhere.
Social networking is a symptom of a disease. It offers relief to distressed people. Instead of praying to the void, you now type into it.
I fear that those who see a potentially transformative power in social networking may be misguided. The difficulty is that far from challenging elites, these mass movements tend to perpetuate them.
The abuse of power in modern life is mind blowing. Whether it is the big stuff such as banks institutionalising corruption and rewarding themselves handsomely for so doing, multinationals avoiding tax, newspapers acting beyond the law, technology firms abusing the trust of their users or smaller beer like footballers operating in a moral vacuum, wherever you look, iniquity is rife. You would think that the Quaker call of “speaking truth to power” would be deafening.
In a sense it is, but only in the context of short-term outrage. There is nothing in social networking that supports any sort of philosophical heft. A new religion with no clear moral purpose is manna from heaven for the powerful few.
You keep typing and we’ll keep exploiting. Where is the connection between online social protest and long-term commitment? It is easy to resist something that is transitory in nature. If you hold your nerve, you win. In so many ways, our entitled elites are hard evidence of this. There is little evidence of the lasting power of online social protest.
Where religion does have effect is in establishing behavioural norms. What might the new faith mean for the way that we behave and interact with each other? Religion has always been a powerful means to disseminate behavioural and societal mores such as manners and etiquette. Social networks readily fill this role – at a vastly accelerated pace.
Output per capita has inexorably declined at the same time that social networking has gained more and more adherents. The next challenge for the elite is to migrate social networking from a catholic to a protestant religion. The instillation of an ungrudging work ethic could result in a new revolution in productivity – and yet more power for those in control.
Marx would argue that for people to be happy they should forego religion. It is therefore unsurprising that the Pope is an enthusiastic tweeter.
What does this mean for advertising? Well, aside from the micro world of US TV evangelism, there is little commercial opportunity in Christianity. You do not advertise in the bible. I am not aware of any branded hymns. There is the odd sponsored window in the big churches but really you’re talking of a world resistant to commerce.
The most common theme is to take a name from the bible and attach it to your product or brand. So perhaps it is time to unleash the power of the network by launching a Ford Retweet or Cadbury’s Likes.