The fortuitous development of a warm-blooded mammal gifted with the capability of reason constituted the zenith of evolution’s dynamic process. Over the uncountable eons of humankind’s existence, notably, in his ever-increasing acquisition of empirical experience, such remarkable, franchise developed by degrees, ultimately attaining the level of its extant capability. Man usefully learned to live in society and benefit from its cornucopia of facilities, notably, the existentially important franchise to mutually communicate and learn from each other by the relation and exchange of empirical experience./
The ultimate realization of utilitarian cognition beneficially resulted in the development of successful production and agricultural techniques, architecture, and disease prevention. as well as sophisticated levels of social advancement, art and architecture, and self-awareness. Mankind’s advancing potential, gifted from such dynamics of progressive natural evolution. resulted in the development of mechanical and agricultural skills, the discovery of methods of disease prevention, and unfettered mobility. Humankind reveled in its perception of unlimited developmental capability, exponentially ratified by his many positive accomplishments astonishingly, extending to travel to outer space. Mankind, flushed with success, at some determinative point, saw the development and exponential utilization of computer prowess to render services in a facile and accurate manner.
Analogous to the disastrous events, unwittingly confronted by the fictional Apprentice in Goethe’s (and Disney’s) tale, a tsunami of non-fictional disaster resulted from the thoughtless substitution of digital computer facilities for human interaction. An already worrisomely divisive Nation was rendered more disparate by the consequent lack of authentic and socially fulfilling personal interaction. The word “friend” was no longer significant of an intimate relation, emotional expression was curtailed, and as a result, unhealthy feelings of division, loneliness, and isolation were exacerbated. The prophylactic mandate of physical separation and “masking” during the covid pandemic, added to the impersonality of human interaction to the material detriment of societal and personal identification.
Our regular followers know that it has eternally been our view that the all-important guide to personal behavior and reaction to sundry stimuli, is motivated by our developed and maintained “self-image; and that our perception of self-identity is, in large part, an interpretive empirical result of the perceived reaction of other members of society with whom we interact. With delimited or no personal interaction, our self-knowledge and understanding of others, in the lexicon of the naturalist, becomes a “threatened or extinct species.” Reports of anxiety, depression, and even suicide, especially among the young (notably, girls) reportedly have been the tragic result of this convenient, but ultimately, dehumanizing facility.
The “smartphone” has become the mandated encyclopedic repository of ubiquitous human consciousness, personalized experiences, and traditional knowledge, replacing healthy and self-affirming, social activities; such as library research, reading books and magazines, the joint study of maps, taking displayable and durable photographs, mutually sharing the enjoyment of music, writing personal letters, telling time, and the receipt and transmission of notifications and reminders, indeed, constituting a virtual a universe of private and essentially disconnected life experience, most notably, and impactfully. the socially existential franchise of human interaction. The misplacement, or [Horrors!] loss, of this facile and quickly utilized, referable “ersatz persona” is akin to being alone, shipwrecked on a distant and unchartered Pacific island.
Tragically, our figurative, inept, and greatly terrified societal apprentice, haplessly responsible for this analogous deluge of societal tragedy, lacks the benefit of a saving intervention by a sorcerer, capable of halting the deluge and metastasis of this toxic and existential social pandemic. We with great reluctance, confess that we fear for the state of health of an already septic society.
-p.
- Title on generous loan from the Johann Goethe
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