Australia’s Catholic Bishops have released their annual Social Justice Statement, exploring the link between truth and peace.
So many conflicts nowadays, both domestic and international, are started and then fuelled by information that is incorrect and, in some cases, deliberately incorrect.
A fair share of the blame lays at the feet of the large technology platforms, whose business models rely on clicks and engagement. Triggering and emotive content is always more engaging than calm and rational content.
“What is increasingly clear is that the more disinformation and misinformation proliferate, the greater the risk of conflict. The connection is unmistakeable,” the bishops have written in Truth and Peace: A Gospel Word in a Violent World.
We don’t have to be hapless victims of these technologies, but it requires work.
The first and easiest thing that can be done is to detox ourselves. Put time limits on social media apps. Do some pruning of your feed, unfollowing accounts that consistently push your buttons.
Next, and slightly harder, is to ask ourselves some tough questions about how we are reacting to content we disagree with.
Am I, for example, always at the ready to stand on my rights and engage in a flame war with people online? Why is that? Am I a bit addicted to the outrage and the confrontation?
A couple of weeks ago, more than a few Christian commentators were falling over themselves to rush out outraged statements about the Olympic Games Opening Ceremony. By the time many of these were published, the organisers had already issued an apology for the part of the ceremony that had offended people.
It turned out it was just one person’s misjudgement. People should have known better than claiming there was an agenda to malign Christianity after a climb-down and apology had already been offered.
In reacting to culture warriors, Christians can often carry on with behaviour that is virtually identical to what they are objecting to. Our answer to identity politics is to counterclaim that our identity as Christians counts for more than others’ identity.
Writer James Davidson Hunter was the author who coined the term “culture wars.” Back in 2010, he lamented:
“The tragedy is that in the name of resisting the internal deterioration of faith and the corruption of the world around them, many Christians—and Christian conservatives most significantly—unwittingly embrace some of the most corrosive aspects of the cultural disintegration they decry.
“By nurturing its resentments, sustaining them through a discourse of negation toward outsiders, and in cases, pursuing their will to power, they become functional Nietzscheans, participating in the very cultural breakdown they so ardently strive to resist.”
The challenge is how to navigate contested issues without simply exacerbating difference and division. It may require more subtlety and nuance than simply piling on in the comments section.
Lastly, and maybe hardest of all, is to explore alternatives to the current social media landscape. What can we do that creates and builds trust rather than eroding it?
Familiar examples are mostly offline. Get involved in face-to-face meetings of groups where people hold a diverse range of perspectives. As a parish, look not just for opportunities to invite people from the community to come to your church, but also for opportunities for parishioners to venture out and attend events with other groups in the local community.
Interfaith events and general community events and activities that are open to anybody. The Sydney Alliance is one excellent way to collaborate with people of different beliefs to make the city a better place to live.
This doesn’t have to be a program of “back to the future” though. If you are really into technology, there are emerging alternatives to the big tech and media platforms that use more open architecture.
By their nature, these are participatory because they are built by the shared, collaborative efforts of many individuals.
The real antidote to divisive online content is not firing back with divisive content of our own, but opening new spaces that are not divisive at all.
Dr Michael Walker is a Social Justice Facilitator for the Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney.