The Third Ways: mirroring ourselves in the 20th century
Adam Curtis delivered a subtle 20th-century history of political philosophy, which might still be too close for many to be revealed. Technocrats retreated into the make-believe world, and journalism was defeated by perception management; desperate stakeholders are as simple-minded as anyone harmed by them; and the dramatic post-political world we live in invited actors like Trump, Surkov etc. from an actual stage to the ‘real stage’. Theatres can be taken no more seriously, and politics, in contrast.
Predictions and uncertainty may comb the story better than repeating the big names. Akio Kashiwagi being defeated by Jess Marcum and stabbed 150 times (https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/02/japanese-gambler-donald-trump-213635/) added up the more dramatical truth than fiction, and Vladislav Surkov’s artificial creation of uncertainty in Russia remind us the ridiculous fact cannot be more serious. Is Kissinger the one to blame for later Syria’s revenge? Or the politicians themselves cannot escape the systems they created to fool people and end up believing in their make-believe? Another hilarious scenario for an anthropology student to know Lord Antony Giddens and Coronel Gaddafi sat together for their different Third Ways, and I desperately wish to know if there are any relevant publications from him after the death of Gaddafi. The clowns on stage are amusing ourselves to Death, but neither veterans nor refugees would laugh with us. Moreover, the power of belief is embodied in its extreme version of suicide bombings. ‘The poor man’s atomic bomb’, according to Khomeini. He was not the only religious speculator, which could be more apocalyptic news.
One fly in the ointment was the utopian imagination of cyber place as beyond the power of politicians. Rather, the existence of nation-organized Cyber armies is almost a semi-public fact. However, online political circumstances nowadays have exaggerated voices for all bubbles, and the information cells have already been realized by not only commercial entities but also politicians, for which Brexit could be an example. It is impressive that the documentary narrates the near past, but the genuine anxiety is about the near future. AIs are optimistic about mimicking human beings and replacing psycho-therapists when it comes to interpersonal confrontations, but can they predict the near future, not offering what we wish to see within our bubbles but a way out of the bubbles? It is the practicable Third Way that all brilliant brains from the last century struggled for, which all of us are passed the same mission.
Contributed by ConnieWang on 30/01/2023
