Communication

  • The EU seeks a new social network to hide its own

    The European problem is best described as an issue of hiddenness and what it does. It’s occurred before that concealing intents and concerns in countries in numerous ways has caused a huge lot of trouble. It’s unhelpful for those stuck as pawns in a great game of protection rackets and pretenders to royalty, as much as for those that don’t look for trouble but get it in spades anyway.

    The new idea by the European Commission to start up a social media network for EU users is just the same way of doing it as before, and of expecting a different result. It lacks a sophistication because Facebook, Instagram, and X have already shown the way it’s done, and it’s worth joining in. The ‘invention’ of a secure, almost secretive version of these to satisfy a need to be different is a shadowy way to govern.

    “The organisers of the initiative consider that the ‘process should integrate appropriate entities like companies or universities in creating and functioning of the platform’ and ‘make Europe strategically independent in the area of online communication’.”

    – European Commission/Online

    The risky lack of outside contact is not a dearth the European Commission should want to create. It may be founded on an idea that talking to each other is great, even online, but the idea of an EU-only content network is a fast-track to dystopian nightmares of authorised politics, something George Orwell has warned us about already, and a lesson we need to heed.

  • Thatcher knew the potential of close working

    The Conservatives are said to have had a strained relationship with most public bodies. In fact, Margaret Thatcher said she liked to see it as a “partnership” so that she could explore it further. If she could get into a boardroom, she’d get into their heads. This helped her to “understand their thinking, and to know them better,” she once concluded. It’s a belief that served her well.

    In our time, we’ve got to keep going with what she started. All the public bodies that make up our lives are meant to be aligned with our purposes. It’s important that we keep them close, and never push them too far away. It minimises harm and increases the potential of true leadership. This is something we’re desperately in need of.

  • Our way of thinking is under attack

    The upstarts online are your best friends. They post photos, videos, and graphics to illustrate what they mean. It may be about life. It could be about you. Or it’s about nothing in particular. The point is, however, it fits into your friendship – or overall perspective on life.

    However, social media has got a bad rap in recent years. It rides hot on the heels of public protest-based debate. The fallout is inevitable. The disagreements are riven with bad faith. The altercations are ill-tempered. The complaints socially divisive.

    Social media word ‘cloud’

    It isn’t true that posting online is poor behaviour – or a bad habit. The result of our interest in things – or curiosity – is more nuanced, not less. The cynicism felt by few is not shared by most of us, who, like those before, take things in our stride before we’re riled.

    The dissenters are hard to track down. They exist in the cracks and crevices of life. They speak out to complain, corralling us into different corners. Their evidence is sporadic, and relates only to issues offline. They’re those who take out the meaning of life.