Information Free Flow to Wash Away Obsolete Ideologies

Since the 1990’s there has been a transition from the old analog world order to the new digital world order. As a writer, it is important for me to understand the kind of change that is happening, to appreciate the importance of the free flow of information and to witness how people’s perception is changing. Over the last few years, I became aware of and experienced this transition from the analog to the digital world, and it is rapidly changing our perception.

This transition suggests that, whatever ideological, racial or religious differences there might be, individuals are liberating themselves from the logic of the herd and demanding the right to think and to express themselves freely. In this evolving digital world, the archaic analog world order is becoming less and less relevant, and there is an opportunity to create a brand new world.

According to capitalism and its procedural instrument, modern-day democracy, the system we live in is a consequence of natural evolution and is the best we could achieve; there may be deficiencies of the current system, but all we need to do is to find solutions while remaining loyal to its concepts.

Why cannot democracy be questioned? It is because democracy is a high ideal, which is itself a big lie, and big lies cannot be brought into question. It shouldn’t be, because if it is brought into question, the weapon that has been used by male dominated culture skillfully over thousands of years will become ineffectual. Therefore like Wikileaks, if you start to reveal the fact that today’s democracy is a big lie, the instruments of democracy will not hesitate to destroy you. In order to obscure its own lie, the democracy projected for your sake will destroy you without blinking an eye.

Like all the other supposed ‘high ideals’ that are eviscerated, idealized by concepts not truths, aimed at societies to convince them to believe in the powerful ones to use their powers in any possible way they want, democracy is a cruel and dangerous weapon. And like all the weapons it is deadly.[1]

Democracy as it is, must be open to discussion. For this reason, platforms need to be generated where democracy, as it is, can be undressed from its complex layers. How well can we confront our ideological prejudices? As long as we do not free ourselves from our prejudices, I don’t believe that a new, striking solution can ever be found.

Today, as it is known, there are terrorist attacks in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and other places in the world. Those who are creating terror, and the armies that are fighting against terror, are both from the old analog world. Those who join these groups are not only local young people, but also thousands who come from Western countries. It would be wrong to say that the local young people are joining these groups just for religious reasons. In such areas dominated by these radical groups, there is a common perception in these young people’s minds, of being seen as the other by the Western countries. Those who join them from developed countries are most possibly also considered to be others back in their own country, who found themselves unable to get integrated into the system they were coming from and who clearly have identity problems.

Attempts to eliminate terror only by means of armed forces, which is sadly the most important power of the analog world, will cause terrorists to become even more violent. The most efficient power of the digital world is neither money nor armament. It is information. The governments and companies, which insist on remaining in the old era, are trying to hinder the information access and will continue to do so.

The new world order can only be constructed through sharing of information. In the analog world, information is the power that has been the property of the elites, and the production and ownership of information requires a hierarchical organizational structure. Demolition of the structure of information ownership can only be achieved through these concrete steps:
To share freely.
To access easily.
To be understood simply.

I believe that if everyone, including those who keep information and those who own information, shares and spreads the recently generated ideas, this will be the first step to become a megaphone to one and another.

For this to happen, we need to be able to communicate with younger generations who are already accustomed to being megaphones for each other. The children of 1990s have grown up, and they are the first generation of the transition period from the analog to the digital world. And what is important for these children of the digital world is not to use the language but to cross the borders of fear, share information and spread awareness. Sadly, we, the people of the world have never spoken the same language in the analog world, but we’ve wasted many years trying. Patriarchy made us waste our years in the belief that we could understand each other but, on the contrary, it completely alienated us from one and another. For us to hear each other’s voices was impossible in the analog world because Patriarchy has always been the language of borders, control, judgment and fear. We must not allow the tactics of patriarchy to intrude into the new digital world during this transition period.

Perhaps we can start by learning the language of the digital world and of its children, because for them language is neither a border nor a barrier.

For me the biggest problem today is the language barrier. My English teacher and my friends suggest to me to express myself more in English, listen to people speak English, join conversations in English in order to learn, develop and process it. In the digital world where people of younger generations are able to communicate and where language barriers cease to exist, the actual language itself matters little.

The younger generation, who spend so much time in the world of the internet and in computer games, have started to move away from the restrictive patterns of thought defined by traditional social environments like family and school. In the formation of cultural definition in the analog world, the most important factor was the concept of a “unifying singularity of language.” In other words, the idea that a universal language would facilitate communication. This concept has started to fade, and another is being formed in the digital world community, led by the young. For example, the tools to translate a written sentence into another language on the fly, new shared languages created in computer gaming, and the unity of the language of technology, have eroded the barriers between different languages. Young people have discovered and begun to form their own unique culture. This culture is chipping away at the very notion of national borders. Moreover, this change and its influence is no longer limited to the young. Anyone who can communicate with these young people, anyone who can engage with the technology and who can socialize or interact with the world through digital platforms can bring about change and transformation within this new global culture.[2]

There is not only a generation difference between young people and us but also a huge perception difference. For this reason we need to hear them more, give them more voice and, in order to understand their world, we, the adults, need to develop our use of technology. The embrace of the free flow of information is key in achieving this. We are witnessing each day that those who still try to hinder access to information are only fooling themselves, as it is no longer possible to stop the flow.

Editor’s Notes: Photograph one by K. Hardy; two by Stan Jourdan; three by Mike Willis; four by Jeffrey Zeldman; five by Dee Ashley; six from the archive of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center; and seven by Kristian Niemi.

References
[1] Arikan, Meltem (2011) “Confronting ‘THE BIG LIE’” WikiLeaks Movie [Online] Available from: http://wikileaks-movie.com/blog/2011/the-big-lie-meltem-arikan-occupywallstreet-wikileaks/ [Accessed: 12 July 2015].
[2] Arikan, Meltem (2014) “From analog to digital: the revolution against the patriarchal world order” News Junkie Post [Online] Available from: http://newsjunkiepost.com/2014/01/25/from-analog-to-digital-the-revolution-against-the-patriarchal-world-order/ [Accessed: 12 July 2015].