“YOU KNOW THE TRUTH” ON FANTASY ISLAND (Atena Editora)

Abstract

This article is prepared through bibliographies of contemporary thinkers such as: Ferguson, Foer, Ab’Sáber, Arendt, D’ancona, Dunker and Hadot. The central objective is to identify that the choices of our representatives are closely and intrinsically related to historical, social, economic, cultural, gender, ethnic, educational factors, in addition to factors such as how these representatives present themselves to the public, making numerous advertisements and exhibitions that lack of rational use and bringing only emotional appeal. With the advent of the internet, digital media and mass communication, the post-truth era has come to put our democracy in check. Poor serpent that gave man – society – forbidden fruit (reason and conscience) and today we do not use such fruit with due care. Digital and social media are responsible for pretending to “give space” for people to express their frustrations, opinions and ideas so that they feel empowered within unrestricted freedom of expression, giving the State great contempt for regulations and controls as well as taxes. and rules. This new political actor enters this board of media war and the means of communication as a tool of alienation through mere complacency and human conformism. Entering the era of views and likes, a certain cognitive limitation and an ego inflamed by participating in a group prevents us from seeking the truth on the technological “island of fantasy”, what Plato would call a cave. We are at a time when we will have to harm one of the revolutions to save the other. If Jesus or Muhammad were born in modern times, would they be treated as religious visionaries or forced to take psychotropic medications? Diversity is, and will continue to be, a given, even with the new cohort of nativists claiming otherwise. In a multi-ethnic and multi-religious society, the goal can never be absolute uniformity. The challenge is to identify a common denominator of social, intellectual and practical exchange on which everyone agrees or that acts as a consensus within cultural norms, legal duties and social responsibility to which all individuals must adhere regardless of their particular opinions. Teaching society to navigate digital platforms with discernment and responsibility is a more urgent mission in our time.