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The Cost of Anti-Humanism
By Earl R. Smith II, PhDDrSmith@Dr-Smith.com www.Dr-Smith.com Much is made these days of theextended reach that all of us havegained because of the development of‘communications tools’ like the internet,e-mail, social marketing sites andprofessional and social networkingorganizations. But there are costs thatdon’t seem to find their way intodiscussions about this brave new worldof interconnectivity.It seems to me that several importantcomponents of human relationshipshave taken a beating over the lastseveral decades and that thedenigration of their importance andvalue is directly related to the anti-humanist nature of the newtechnologies and new
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vision of howhumans develop and maintain healthyrelationships.
Anti-Humanism
For my purposes here I am using theterm anti-humanism to mean anindividual’s preference for technology-mediated relationships which insulatethem from direct contact with otherindividuals. Elsewhere I have writtenabout the tendencies which result in thispreference but here I want to focus onsome of the collateral damage that itcauses to the very fabric of any cultureand to the people who inhabit it.
Freedom to be an Avatar
Probably the most notable [advantage]of technology-mediated relationships isthe incredible flexibility that it allows
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and unproven …
when it comes to self-definition.
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Thisadvantage comes from the ease withwhich a person can ‘make up’ apersonality or history and promulgate itwith relative impunity.At the core of this [freedom] is theproposition that who you representyourself to be should have more to dowith who you should be or need to bethan who you are or ought to be.
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Theease of this creation induces atendency towards larceny – sometimeon a truly epic scale.This behavior is ‘empowered’ by thevery nature of internet-basedtechnologies and the fact that most ofthe people participating are simplystretched too thin to be bothered withthe efforts of verification let alonedisclosure. To say it another way, therelationships simply do not havesufficient substance or importance tomake it worth the effort to verify the truthor lies. The internet, in all its incarnations,prefers the avatar to the person – thedigital representation to the messydetails that each human represents.And those who use it are forced into thisvalue proposition or marginalized asstatic.Pretty much since the 60s Americans inparticular have been worshiping in thisanti-humanist temple.
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At the same time
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I’ll put terms in brackets to highlight mybelief that terms like [advantage] actuallyshould have the reverse meaning
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The press is always carrying stories aboutpoliticians, movie stars, executives andpreachers who have spent their livespontificating only to face a time of truth andadmission – the avatar is sheared away –
ecce home
!!!
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The great icon of this 60s generation wasStar Trek’s Spock – who interestingly sharedhis name with a famous baby doctor andwas occasionally forced – much to his shame
 
that traditional culture was dissolving –families were breaking up and dispersing– and a vocal generation was insistingthat they had a new vision for society –technology was advancing in wayswhich would allow the refinement of thisnew anti-humanist vision of humanrelationships.You see, the real challenge of directhuman contact and deep personalrelationships is to a person’s vision of self-worth. In the anti-humanist vision ofreality, the difficulties of building andmaintaining such relationships came tobe seen as unnecessary overhead –there is an easier, far less painful andexposing way.
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Veracity Where Are Thou?
When Avatars define existence one ofthe first casualties is the idea of veracity.
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 If you can make up whom it is that youpresent yourself to be then why not takea bit of literary license and embellish?The transition here is from the traditionalidea that every individual is the author oftheir own life to the idea that everyindividual is the author of the virtualrepresentation of their virtual life. Once
– to experience and evidence humanemotions.
 
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Spock solves this problem by burying hishuman side under his Vulcan one. Since hewas half human and half Vulcan he couldhave gone either way – but he chose theanti-humanist path. Also, it seems significantthat his father was Vulcan and mother washuman. This suppression of the feminine isstarkly Christian.
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Here used to mean adherence to the truth;truthfulness - conformity to fact or truth;accuracy or precision:
a report of doubtful veracity.
Something that is true.
that leap has been made the entireidea of non-virtual veracity becomes aninconvenience.Think about it this way – what are youreally to an avatar with whom you have[connected]? Mostly you represent anoccasional e-mail – a stream of onesand zeros – a co-conspirator in thegame of mutually agreed upon self-deception and self-denial – aconsenting player in the great anti-humanist game – a safe haven from thereality that refuses to cooperate or playthe game by the rules.Within the confines of the virtual,relationships become disposable andthe threshold for their abandonmentbecomes very low indeed. Becausethere are so many opportunities for new,fresh avatar-to-avatar [connections],why fuss over one that has become abother. A click and it is gone.One of the surest triggers for that ‘click’is the request for veracity – an effort tosee behind the mask that is the avatar.The entire anti-humanist project is toprovide protection from the prying eyesof others – a mask that hides the nakedtruth. And to understand why that issuch an offensive request, we need totake a look at the relative values of thereal and virtual.
Which is Truer?
Anti-humanist existence – if it is to betolerable at all – depends on the revisionof values – in fact, the inversion ofvalues. What is ‘real’ cannot be allowedto be true until the definition of what is[real] has been transformed to meanwhat is defined as [real] in virtual
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terms.Once this jump has been made, theidea of truth becomes benign andcompletely supportive of the anti-humanist project – the accommodationhad been made.
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and provisional …
After all, a nip here and a tuck therecan’t really be deception, can it?One must always put forward thebest face possible.
 
 
 Here is an example. I occasionally havehad people recommended others tome. When I ask “how well do you knowthem” I get “I met them online – theyseem to be a great person.” Furtherinquire only brings a repeat of theoriginal description. I realize that theirsupport of this person’s avatar is basedon an acceptance of the truth of thatavatar and a calculated ignorance ofthe person who exists behind it.But why ratify the virtual? That questionbothered me for quite some time until Irealized that it wasn’t ratification butself-ratification that was in play. Byrepresenting the avatar of the other asreal they were doing the same for theiravatar(s) – it was a re-statement of therules of the game and anannouncement that they haveaccepted those rules and would complycompletely. In other words it was adeclaration of the abandonment of thetrue self for the virtual one.
Provisional Morality
The current generations are likely to godown in history as some of the mostmorally corrupt in history. That is notbecause they are essentially evil – butbecause the entire idea of morality isnow considered mostly tangential tohuman relationships. Whole industrieshave evolved based on the marketingof lies - a now socially acceptable formof parasitic behavior. No longer is theonus on the provider to be ethical –honest and considerate – but on thebuyer to avoid being taken in. But in avirtual world all there is is being taken inand all there are are buyers!Once morality has been relegated to‘provisional’ status, the field opens up toall sorts of behaviors which can belegitimized merely by the contentionthat they are ethical. Once the virtualdemonstration of ethical behaviorbecomes the currency of determiningmorality, the entire world becomes a sillyputty mass that can be formed andreformed at will.
Identity Theft
It is notable that the crime of identifytheft is thriving in a virtual world thatbegan with the anti-humanist intentionto abandon identity in favor of virtualidentity. Identity theft is really the theftof that virtual identity – the hijacking ofthe avatar. And the crime is onlypossible if the virtual has become morereal than the actual.But identity theft is not limited tosubversion of entire avatars – it alsoinvolves the denigration of conceptsand ideals which have historically beenimportant to a stable definition of thehuman self. For instance the idea ofintimacy becomes transformed when itis intimacy with avatars.
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One of thegreat assumptions of the anti-humanistproject is that humans can do without allsorts of things that they thought theyreally needed. Technology modifies thisassumption – humans can exist on virtualrepresentation of those things which
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Something of the difference between foodand virtual food
Sometimes I listen to people talkabout their favorite movie star as if they know them – as if their avataris actually who they are.
We’ve all seen these sad storied ofpeople who have had their virtualselves stolen. They now findthemselves facing a world that insiststhat that virtual [self] is the real oneand the physical person before themis an inconvenient avatar. Thissubjugation of the real represents thecomplete triumph of the anti-humanist idea.
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