A new Church

Katherine Hayles suggests that we have always been posthuman at the end of her book 'How We Became Posthuman' (2010, p.291), a view evinced by principles of Bruno Latour's argument that 'We Have Never Been Modern' (1991).  I concur.  I'm sure you are all aware of the old adage 'there is nothing new under the sun', and you may have heard guitarist Keith Richards opine that "There's only one song, and Adam and Eve wrote it; the rest is a variation on a theme." (n.d).  Haven't we then been cyborgs since the first tool was fashioned, and as an extension of ourselves put into service to enhance our existence?

Image 1:  Zuckerberg, big Star Wars fan.

By the same token what we are seeing today in society, (accepting that 'God is dead', Nietzsche, 1882), is a transferral of that fundamental human need to belong, once fulfilled by the Church, to social media.  Social Networking Sites are now accepted universally, as the Church was/is.  Facebook's imperatives  translate to Church doctrine, ie: to teach or model appropriate interactions for other members of the network, (McNeill, 2012, p.109).  The Church, once dominant, shepherding  it's constituents and absorbing people and wealth, is now supplanted by Facebook.

While being a member of a church community and having that primary church-going identity, we shift perspective while existing in that community and change identity depending on which facet of our lives, and which friends, we are addressing, (Posthumanism, Wikipedia).  This is true of ourselves on Facebook, and in fact, of our species, since we began grouping together in numbers.  Who we are to one person is not always who we are to another, even though we may all belong to the same larger group.  It is a basic tenet of being human to have and exercise the ability to contradict oneself.  The behaviour Posthumanism describes is not new.

When researching our ancestries, a common resource are Church records.  The recording of our life events on Facebook are the contemporary equivalent of this. Certainly in more detail.  A community's identities, being documented and stored for future reference.  While not being the State, Facebook is nonetheless a mechanism for coercion and control. If one does not abide by it's rules one may be exiled or excommunicated. We want you here, but on our terms, (McNeill, p.107).   You may hold political views that conflict with the core capitalism of this SNS, as represented by Facebook groups such as Very Democratic Socialism (the subject of my observations), but you may continue to belong to the faith as long as you don't contravene it's regulations. Of course the views that you expound are recorded for posterity: The Purpose of PRISM - stopping worldwide socialist revolution forever with Orwellian 1984-style society.


Reference List

Hayles, K. How We Became Posthuman, (2010) University of Chicago Press, Chicago.

Latour, B. We Have Never Been Modern, (1991)  La Découverte, Paris.

McNeill, L. There is no “I” in network: Social networking sites and posthuman auto-biography, (2012) Retrieved from  https://learnjcu.jcu.edu.au/bbcswebdav/pid-1219805-dt-content-rid-920522_1/courses/13-BA1002-TSV-EXT-SP2/McNeill network.pdf

Nietzsche, F. The Gay Science (Die fröhliche Wissenschaft), (1882) publisher unidentified.

Posthumanism (2013) in Wikipedia, retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posthumanism 

 Richards, K. Quote, (n.d.)

 The Purpose of PRISM - stopping worldwide socialist revolution forever with Orwellian 1984-style society, (2013) retrieved from http://thatcheroftheleft.wordpress.com

 Image Credits

Image 1, Pope Vader (2011). Retrieved from http://weknowmemes.com/2011/10/pope-vader/