There are numerous opinions about the nature of our society – its decline, its rise, new era, bad habits, old worlds, new horizons, change, reform etc, etc. It seems like never before, have so many voices been given an avenue to vent their spleen, or preach the new gospel according to (feel free to insert ideology/religion). Dominant print and broadcast media are now struggling to cope with the online revolution in the dissemination of “news” and in most instances “comment”. So-called information is beckoned by the quick flurry of keys.

Our connected information age should be resulting in a new golden era for individual freedom and public awareness, and dare I say it, the liberation of people from the powerful elites and processes that keep too many in a subject existence, with little hope of a flourishing life.

We all know that this is not happening. Instead, and at best, we are continuously informed about how connected elites are not only ruling the roost but becoming ever more unaccountable while their wealth and power increases incessantly. The consistent and ubiquitous information to back up this fact serves only to stun the viewer or reader into submission. The scale of the inequality, waste, and destruction is so enourmous on a global scale, that it can barely be comprehended, never mind addressed. We click to other pages and live other lives to escape the reality of our powerlessness. It is better to conform as best we can, to the lie of progress, rather than despair at the truth. Those who can’t, find other ways to escape – addiction, sedation, suicide.

Whether a singularity or the apocalypse may bring a redeeming or concluding moment is moot.

Yet, in the midst of all informed progress, there exists a time to pause…,