This short essay is about a monumental problem we have in human civilization and how the internet age is helping us fix it. A lot of people seem to have never even considered what I’m about to discuss, since they are born into this destructive habit, which wastes so much of our lives. What I’m talking about is using labels, both on ourselves and others.

WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY LABELS AND WHAT’S WRONG WITH USING THEM?

People often use labels to describe themselves and the world; christian, muslim, atheist, agnostic, terrorist, republican, democrat, socialist, American, Russian, feminist, monarchist, anarchist, radical, vegetarian, meat eater, patriot, whatever. The list is endless.

The main problem with that is that it tells you nothing about the actual person, what they think, feel, their behavior, goals & ambitions, their upbringing, the kind of people they associate with - basically the crucial process of WHY they think a certain way.

The label is a mere endpoint, the tip of an iceberg peeking out the water. There may be more beneath the surface, a whole chain of thoughts, reasoning, experiences, evidence and logic that lead up to that point, or there may be nothing at all. Two people can identify as being part of the same label (i.e. Republican or Democrat), yet they can come at it from totally different places.

This is incredibly inefficient for communicating because those conversing could be throwing labels about, yet in reality they’re actually talking about different things, since for each person every label can have it’s own definitions and connotations.

You see this amplified in the coverage of mainstream media and the rhetoric of politicians especially, pushing an ‘us and them’ attitude, and it is one of the root causes for so much pain and suffering in the world.

Lest we drop these shallow labels and actually talk to one another.

DECENTRALIZED TECHNOLOGY AS A SOLUTION

“But don’t labels help us save time in our conversations?”. I’m sure some of you are thinking this right now, but I would posit that the time wasted by discussing, arguing and debating over undefined labels after the fact is actually WAY greater, and has been part of many significant conflicts in human history.

The internet is helping to change this.

I think there are a few main components to this problem. Firstly, we don’t have to rely on mainstream media anymore to get our news or knowledge. We can learn independently and get information straight from the source. No editor, pundit or reporters views are necessary. We can view what people say and do and use our critical thinking to assess it for OURSELVES.

The second point which is linked to the previous, is that we now have on demand long form discussions and thoughts which can be accessed by pretty much anyone, anywhere. This turns upside down the stranglehold that mainstream media has over short edited clips and soundbites which while are often due to their legacy format, can also be used to manipulate and distort opinions.

The third point is about the internet being a verifiable record of human thoughts and communications. The often used phrase “whatever you write on the internet is written in permanent ink” is often viewed negatively, but it can be a positive, especially in cataloging and timestamping primary source information as indisputable evidence of a persons opinions. You couple that with the coming wave of decentralized information systems that require no gatekeepers and you can start to see how we can move away from out of context quotes and manipulation when we can hear it directly from those involved.

ONLY CONNECT

We have a chance to radically change how we communicate as humans, finding new understanding with each other, hopefully attaining greater peace and prosperity in the process.

Using labels is worse than two people shouting at each other. It’s closer to two people shouting PAST one another. A totally pointless, destructive and time wasting exercise.

Changing how we use language, and ditching labels allows us to progress as a species and TRULY connect in this hyper connected world.

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BY CHRIS ROBINSON