As society degrades, we have slowly seen the elimination of words. Social media, for example, has slowly taken us away from informative books and critically-minded news for us to become peepers, gossipers, and partakers of amusements.
What has led us towards this demise?
There was a quote once heard some years back from Gail Riplinger regarding her studies on doctored bible versions. In essence, she said that we are slowly being led away from a word-based culture to an image-based culture.
This transition in our culture has led us to a completely new and power ways of being manipulated—to the point where reality subsides to a well-maintained fantasy structure. Instead of posting words, we now post pictures to display our thoughts (even though they are usually created by someone else). In order to save time and effort, we now text in general jargon instead of participating in a common dialogue.
With all the effective communication resources now available, it seems we are having a harder and harder time communicating. This essentially means we are also having a hard time understanding.
This is not the first time in history such a culture has existed—we’ve seen it many times before. In ages past, many would worship various image to give them sustenance. Such images would provoke certain responses toward a crowd eventually controlling their way to salvation. From the idols in the Pantheon to the cross of Tamus, these images still attempt to contain us in an idealistic mold—a system which purpose is to make one do something for someone else’s gain.
That is why it is important for us to take notice of where we’re going and what isms are taking us there—be it politically, religiously, financially, or culturally.
True education lies in our present awareness and situation. As soon as we plug our screen into someone else’s wiring, we better check our drive upstairs—because, most likely, someone has gotten to it earlier.