If space aliens visited us thousands of years ago and returned today, I think one of their first thoughts would be, “What happened to the humans? They held such promise. They were so good at connecting, communicating, solving problems, and creating things together. What happened? Now, they fight for status and use and manipulate each other for selfish gain. They are obsessed with a construct called economics that they react to as if it’s a natural law. It is as if their humanness has been washed away.”

Okay, that’s probably a bit over the top, but it’s not totally off the mark. If we look back over the course of history, we can see why our alien friends are flummoxed. Our humanity has deteriorated, and a little trip through the history of media provides a good example. 

If we begin with the written word, it gave us the ability to communicate messages over large distances and record history and stories, all ways of better connecting us. But it was co-opted by the forces of self-interest when it largely became a method of managing labor resources (i.e., to ensure the right number of servants/slaves were in the right places at the right times to do the work of the overlords and elites). 

Then came the printing press, which opened more avenues for connecting with on-demand literature, poetry, and educational content, until religious leaders and monarchs became fearful of the tool’s potential to spread revolutionary ideas and inspire rebellion. So, to counter it, they enforced an “approved” content agenda that crushed free discourse in favor of compliance with God and God’s proxies. 

This was followed five hundred or so years later by radio. Once a two-way medium invented for communicating and connecting quickly, it devolved into a one-way medium that baited people with entertainment to then bombard them with advertising that fueled competitive, keep-up-with-the-neighbors consumerism. Again, another instance of the wealth and power machine moving us from cooperative connection to self-interested competition in a bid to force compliance, this time with an economic system. 

Then along came television, which turned radio’s campfire of commercial control into a raging inferno because while radio allowed people to hear how their lives would change, television allowed them to see it as well. And while hopefuls initially believed that TV would usher in an era of educational and informational content that would inspire dialogue and community engagement, it was never to be. The grip of wealth and power held sway, and the industrial machine kept chugging along at a now feverish pace. 

This brings us to today, where keeping our humanity in check has found its full stride with the internet and social media. It began benignly enough as a way to access information and bring friends, family, and like-minded people together. It promised more connection, quicker access to news and data, freedom to create and share, and less commercialism, but that quickly changed. When business saw the potential to target individual customers and gather enormous targeting data, all bets were off. Now, instead of companies being the product sold to customers, customers (and their accompanying data) have become the product sold to companies. No longer were we people but dollar signs, commodities to be auctioned off to the highest bidder. 

And this is where we find ourselves: tools to be used, threats to be contained, targets to be sold to, and products to be bought. Instead of human beings to be seen, heard, valued, and encouraged, we are turned, with every development, into human things that work, protect, enrich, and empower an industrial machine that views power and wealth as the purpose of life and has hoodwinked us into believing the same. 

While sad, this doesn’t have to be the end of the story. The key to changing this trajectory is first, knowing it’s happened and is still happening; second, standing up to be seen, heard, and valued; and third, connecting with other like-minded souls in real, human ways rather than digital ones. From there, we must be examples of human being instead of human doing. We must lead the emotion-filled, empathetic, talking, listening, playing, service-focused working revolution that will not sit down and be used, be compliant, be sold to, or be bought. We must reaffirm the human as the priority. 

So, who’s with me? Who’s willing to be inconvenienced to change the pattern? Who’s willing to join the human team and bring back the promise our alien visitors saw so long ago? 

If you’re in, great, find others; we need you. 

“Most people stand on the sidelines. Only a small minority … forge a new path. Along the way, they change the world.” -Rutger Bregman

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