Don’t give yourselves to these unnatural men – machine men with machine minds and machine hearts
The Great Dictator, Charlie Chaplin
The prophecies of George Orwell have been realized Cameras, gadgets and sensors colonize every part of our bodies The Machine slowly creeps in, gradually but deliberately It watches you, tracks you, measures your every move We surrender privacy and freedom for the sake of efficiency, progress and 'human optimization' Everyone thinks the same, acts the same, is the same - copies of copies of copies What is beauty? What is justice? What is wisdom? My questions go unanswered as the crowd remain mesmerized by the shiny black gadgets in their hands The preachers of Silicon Valley promise salvation, heaven on earth - immortality Technology is their saving grace Everything they say can be bought Everything they say is just a click away Dissent is swallowed by the Machine, repurposed and sold to the masses on glowing billboards Consume more Buy more Be more There remain a few, however Who love their humanity, who cherish nature and the beauty of existence They find wealth in simplicity and strive for virtue The Machine searches, but cannot find them It longs for these people, but cannot conquer or control them They reject the false promises, hopes and dreams it offers Their fortress , their strong impenetrable fortress, is found within These last humans provide me with a north star, an ideal to aspire to A life to long for I walk towards them for solace, for hope
A Life of Virtue: Philosophy as a Way of Life 