Disarming words

After recovering from an illness, the late Pope Francis wrote a letter to Luciano Fontana, the editor in chief of the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, as a reply to a message of support the latter had sent the pope. In it the pope writes the following: “Human fragility has the power to make us more lucid about what endures and what passes, what brings life and what kills. Perhaps for this reason, we so often tend to deny our limitations and avoid fragile and wounded people: they have the power to question the direction we have chosen, both as individuals and as a community.”

In a sense, human life has never felt more fragile, more vulnerable, than it is today. For all the advances in modern science and technology, for all the excess we are capable of producing and the length of time we are now capable of living, individual human lives still seem cheap. We see that in the hundreds of thousands of innocent lives lost from fighting and political violence. We see this in the push towards the use of new technologies such as AI and unmanned machines in combat in a manner that cuts out moral conscience and obfuscates accountability. We see it in the ease by which people resort to threats or demands for violence, or glorify these acts when performed by others. We see that in the horrifying school shooting that took place in Tacloban last June 22.

That violence exerts a pull on humanity is obvious from our history. But during recent decades, the hope had been that internationalization and interdependency on the national level, together with the greater ease of transportation and communication brought about by modern technology, would lead to greater ties and understanding between both countries and people. That kinder, better world, unfortunately, has not come to pass.

While technology has brought us closer to others than ever before, it has also allowed the malicious and the ignorant access to our innermost sanctums. In the age of ubiquitous internet access, propaganda, misinformation, bullying and indoctrination can easily enter the homes – and minds – of the vulnerable and the unwary. Now, with the advent of AI to smoothen and sanitize the rough edges of honeyed words and doctored media, it becomes even easier for bad elements to blur the lines between reality and truth, to fan the flames of outrage and redirect that anger to carefully selected targets. Anyone who spends even a slight amount of time on the internet can see that, unless moderated diligently and carefully, most popular online spaces are filled with hate and misinformation, with vitriol and oneupmanship, with partisan zealotry and an attitude that prioritizes confrontation and rage-baiting rather than empathy and dialogue.

It is only natural for a person to seek guidance from outside of themselves. After all, every person goes through moments when they question why they are here and what they are here for, and this is especially true of our youth. But the places they are getting these answers from have been infiltrated by poisonous ideologies that devalue human life and that scapegoat other people as “enemies” who must be destroyed.

There can be no peace between nations if there is no peace in the hearts and minds of their people.

While on the topic of potential social media bans for minors, I’ve already stated why I do not believe that universal and ham-fisted bans will be beneficial in the long-run. The internet and social media are so integrated and essential to much of modern life that it is only wishful thinking to believe that regulation could roll it back to any significant degree.

But, as I said in those columns, that does not mean that we must leave the status quo as it is. The ideologies that poison the minds of our citizens, of our youth and the vulnerable, must be uprooted and contested wherever they may be, whether that be on the internet or in traditional media; the speeches of our leaders or the actions of their parents. We must find an alternative to the self-destructive nihilism, the love of violence, that so many with a vested interest are broadcasting to all who can listen. We must be loud and clear with our own message:

That each and every human life has irreplaceable value;

That differences of culture, religion or race pale in the face of our common humanity;

That dialogue and empathy are the only way to break free of the cycle of needless violence;

That peace among people and among nations is a goal worth striving for.

If the ideals above seem naïve, that only shows how far we have fallen. These are the same ideals upon which nations were built, which formed the pillars of many of our major religions. The same ideals we pledge to in our Constitution, which we enshrined in our Bill of Rights.

But maybe that is why we have taken them for granted for so long. We put too much faith in the words that our forebearers have spoken, in the words that lie on a page to be studied in silence. If we still believe these ideals, if we would fight for the better world that they represent – then new words are needed, spoken loud and proud and with conviction. Our words.

We must speak them to our leaders, reminding them that the pursuit of peace should always take precedence over resorting to war or allowing competing interests to shape such grave decisions; we must speak them to our children, that they may not be led astray as they are in the midst of their growth; we must speak them to ourselves, to make it clear where we stand.

In the same letter I cited at the beginning of this column, Pope Francis states: “I would like to encourage you and all those who dedicate their work and intelligence to communication, through the tools that now connect our world in real time, to feel the full importance of words. They are never just words: they are facts that shape human environments. They can connect or divide, serve the truth or use it for other ends. We must disarm words, to disarm minds and disarm the Earth.”

Your words are important, because you are important. Let us fill our spaces with the right messages – of peace, of compassion, of humanity.