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We Must Die to Be Born Again
Can we change the internet back?
Between deaths and births, chaos. Allergies too, usually. That may be common in March around the world, as the middle seasons bring about different allergens in the air, casting pollen and dust like specks of ancient little curses. Autumn, like spring, can also be a time of birth. As the mythology of fall goes, pumpkins, squashes, and persimmons come alive, swelling in the fresher air and sweetening under the watchful eye of oranging and reddening leaves. In Italy, where autumn arrives around September, chestnuts are sought after, and farmers dust off powdery white substances from their fully grown grapes, using their rough, calloused thumbs.
In this time of reinvention, as autumn shyly reaches the south of Australia, the limelight falls on anything on fire. And there’s a lot. Economies are collapsing, political extremism is winning across the world, and even airplanes seem to prefer life upside down, as if in defiance of accepting the current state of things.
In this vein, I came across the magnificently written book The Disconnect by Roisin Kiberd. From the utopian birth of the internet, she describes how we slowly descended into addiction, as well as compliance with tech giants who not only became extremely rich but also continuously surveil us — while mining for advertising every single…
