An era of vertigo

Each era bears its zeitgeist. What is the zeitgeist of our time? Defining our era is a monumental challenge. Interestingly, this struggle is a defining feature of our time—the intricacy, controversy, and even the potential futility of defining anything, including the very concept of definition.

Consider the question, “What is a woman?” If we approach it solely from a biological standpoint, we risk overlooking its profound social implications. On the other hand, a purely social perspective might ignore its ideological context and meaning in a set of (non-)binary identities. Attempting to encompass all these perspectives could be seen as vague, potentially losing the essence of the term. This complexity underscores the complexities of our societal issues.

Our problem is clear: The more information we have, the less capable we are of defining anything precisely, fairly, and objectively. The overabundance of information increases our inability to form any knowledge clearly and certainly. We are inundated by information, constantly grappling to see the big picture and often ending up in deep doubt, even self-doubt.

This situation represents a state in which it is not that there is not enough information but too much. In simpler terms, it is like being in a library with countless books, but none of them can be trusted to provide accurate information. Furthermore, it is not that there is nothing to know but that what is known can hardly be trusted - knowledge is losing its validity.

On the other hand, COVID-19 has not only claimed countless lives but also eroded people’s fundamental trust in the media, governments, and, most importantly, science. For many, science has become a “factual” form of propaganda in the hands of prominent politicians, corporations, and even governments rather than a pursuit of truth.

We live in an era of epistemological vertigo, which further causes our spiritual vertigo, leaving us confused and disoriented, a peculiar state where we do not know what is happening entirely but intuit something completely wrong. It creates a profound sense of ambiguity. Still worse, many of us feel that what we thought we understood as truth may be false and that what we have been told by our education, media, and governments is a lie. It could give many acute and deep epistemological grief.

The sense of vertigo manifests itself in many highlights, as follows.

Our society is structured in a way that the more educated we become, the more likely we are conditioned to conform intellectually. This often leads to the avoidance of truth, a choice made for the sake of peace of mind. However, this avoidance has serious consequences, as it hinders our critical thinking and perpetuates a culture of fear.

As a result, a generation of meek and weak intelligentsia has been produced, leading to what can be termed intellectual mediocracy. Think of it as a situation where people are more concerned about fitting in and not rocking the boat to challenge the status quo. It leads to a point where intellectual standards are low, moral courage is weakened, and critical thinking is discouraged. And it forms a culture of silence and submissiveness, where the decline in the quality of intellectual discourse and the pursuit of truth is now the new norm.

Partly, due to or because of this decline, the Western intelligentsia is silent on the happening of a set of social inversions. The inversions refer to situations where our societal values are being turned upside down. For example, what was once considered good is now seen as bad, and what was once seen as bad is now celebrated. It turns our perceptions of reality upside down, challenging our sense of logic and the validity of knowledge and disintegrating our rationality, identity, and social connections. Ultimately, it creates existential vertigo, destroying any certainty we have and throwing us into endless anxiety, perplexity, and even paranoia.

Our moral values of good and evil are inversed, along with the inversion of justice - the perversion of justice. Take the examples of the current revelations of horrific gang rape cases in the UK—what the UK MP Starmer is focusing on is not bringing justice to those perpetuators but targeting and vilifying those who claim justice. The crux of the inversion here is that perpetrators are defended; the real victims are abandoned.

In today’s world, on the other hand, politics often resembles a circus, with so many politicians performing like clowns on a tightrope. Their loyalty to the people they represent has shifted towards their donors, handlers and lobbyists. Elections seem to have lost their significance, as nearly any elected official can be influenced, bought or blackmailed, regardless of their party or personal beliefs.