This is right, though in our situation we can only speak of “illusion of anonymity”, which lets little people think they should have anonymity and all those ideas and conversation opportunities, even if they don’t have these in fact.
Some things are so powerful that even illusion thereof affects the societies.
If we think about Soviet examples - during the Thaw, after Stalin’s cult of personality official condemnation, there has been plethora of cultural sprouts, so to say - poets of the 60s, Soviet science fiction, ideas of peace and how should the humanist and peaceful and kind future be built.
Much of that was based on the picture of the Civil War that was complete fiction, but the concept itself was important - that there really is some idea of decency, and some 40 years of going maybe the wrong way are not enough to undo it. Yes, in reality repressions basically started with the Soviet state, and slowly built up to the level of the 30s. Yes, in reality in the Civil War the main approach to communism wasn’t what people in the 60s dreamed of, it was Trotsky’s war communism. And yes, in reality what Stalin did what pretty much what was planned since early 20s - with the nuance that Lenin himself judged that there should be a long, 50 years at least (so there shouldn’t have been planned economy in the USSR till 80s, when IRL said economy was crumbling), pause, which was NEP, before trying anything radical, but when Lenin died, those who had power judged that there’s a new war coming and they have to build the heavy industries and the military at any cost. Maybe, if NEP were allowed to last for longer, the USSR would simply be much stronger overall, enough to survive WWII. And maybe that lack of modernization focus would lead to it being a much weaker country by 1941. But the point is, that eventually the (imperfect, but really far more functional and culturally rich, and sufficiently alive to be one of the two main offerings of civilization for a couple of decades) society was born from all this that nobody had been building intentionally, but it was present in the illusions given to people.
This is also why while I’m certain that the widespread awe before the Internet is misguided, it was from the beginning built basically as what it’s become, - that despite this some of the ideas it helped spread are worth that awe. What the Internet was advertised as, from its beginnings, is not what it is. But that nonexistent thing has been advertised, and people around us want it, and they will perhaps have it at some point.
If we talk politics, this is also true for “rules-based order”, which was a nice way of saying “American/colonialist order”, but made enough people around the world believe that there should be rules, and now it’s backfiring, because said system doesn’t support doing anything by the declared rules. Say, Putin is basically committing the same international law violations that the USA has. He’s pretty open about it. He’s doing terrible things, but the overall situation is one big response to the order not being in fact rules-based, making it closer to rules-based. Meaning that the fake thing becomes real.
Sort of like Aule created dwarves in Silmarillion, as soulless toys, and Eru made them living creatures. Let’s hope that it happens to the world network as well.
Imgonnatrythis@sh.itjust.works 5 weeks ago
Exactly, plus how are we going to know who’s brown and who’s not if everyone is just anonymous?? 🤷🏾♂️