The price of the advancement of technology lies in the risk of becoming enslaved to it. With so many voices advocating for different directions for the future of technology, it is sometimes hard to gauge the correct relationship humanity should have with tech. Technology, especially social media, is easily viewed as a scourge of modern society. However, it may also be one of the keys to saving America from a spiral into tyranny, as Michael Cernovich suggests.
On “Zero Hour,” Michael Cernovich, an independent filmmaker and author of “Gorilla Mindset,” joins James Poulos to discuss the concepts of time, the West’s narrow understanding of history, and the benefits and drawbacks of technological advancement.
Cernovich argues that we live in a peculiar historical period, which he calls the age of “tech,” in the sense of technology as we know it today, with communication and sharing information. In his view, technology is a key factor in deciding the trajectory of America today: “Trump doesn’t win 2016 without Twitter. America is a right-wing culture, so right-wing that the media had to lie to prop up these other people as moderates and centrists.”
They talk about the transhumanist movement in which people seek to merge their consciousness with technology because they “hate their body and hate humanity as a result.” After dismissing these people as “kooks” and “weirdos,” Cernovich compares the current movement to some of the worst events in recent history, such as Mao’s crushing of China or the Soviet tyranny in Russia.
Poulos adds that, in each case, these events were forced and “compulsory” for the entire population rather than being a fringe movement that left everyone else alone.
To Cernovich’s point, all of these political movements and the destruction that followed occurred in “pre-tech” societies. In present-day America, we have a choice: “You had to live that way in Communist China before tech … it’s not that we have to [live that way].” The question is “whether we’re going to submit … is there a red line, or are we just going to cower and go along with it?”
Technology has clearly advanced to unprecedented and almost unimaginable levels, but the temptation to “advance” humanity out of its present state remains all the same. Cernovich warns about this gnostic impulse to resist human nature and escape its bodily state, but he and Poulos agree that this is ultimately a movement that seeks to “escape responsibility,” both from God and his commandments and from the demands of normal human life.
Clearly, the advancement of technology is a double-edged sword, with as many temptations as it has benefits. According to Cernovich, we are uniquely positioned to resist similar instances of tyranny like those that arose in the 20th century: “If we didn’t have these technological tools, we would have already been decimated.” Will America be able to navigate this treacherous landscape in the future?
To hear more about what Michael Cernovich has to say about tyrannical regimes, technological advancement, transhumanism, and more, watch the full episode of “Zero Hour” with James Poulos.
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