Published 3/16/26
The Unholy City
Part II
III. In the Affirmative
Let’s peek in at your electronic twin.
Like the television programs and newspapers of yesteryear, the City takes every precaution to keep users affirmed, so that they rarely have to tolerate exposure to a contrary opinion or fact. Surfing in such agreeable surroundings deeply affirms one’s beliefs and prejudices, which helps to ensure one’s return and continuing engagement. That is why the echo chambers and algorithmic curation are so essential.
The proverb, “To thine own self be true,” might be considered the motto of popular culture today. Yet, what does it mean? Does it mean to follow your inclinations, to do only what pleases you, to follow your heart? We need no encouragement to do those things, so that cannot be what it means. Perhaps it means to be faithful to the nature you sense within yourself, even if it means being untrue to someone else. Really? I am afraid I am at a loss to explain it. Perhaps that’s because the phrase has no coherent meaning—which was precisely Shakespeare’s point. Shakespeare, in the play, Hamlet, placed this idiotic platitude on the lips of the preposterous busybody and blowhard, Polonius (whom Hamlet inadvertently kills in act III, scene 4, to the audience’s great relief!). Shakespeare’s placement of this platitude was deliberate, evidently as a way of heaping derision on this fatuous sentiment. That it has attained, in our day, the level of lofty, almost biblical, wisdom demonstrates how far we have come as a society since Shakespeare’s day.
The City is a great enabler of being “true to yourself”. Your opinions matter most, regardless how ill-informed, unreflective, foolish, or wicked they are. “Let your instincts lead you, let your heart be your guide. Don’t select a path that would not be ‘right’ for you” (whatever that means). With this affirmation, the user—now captive to the Algorithm—can proceed with whatever ill-advised plan seems most attractive at the moment.
At a deeper level, we love our echo chambers. We don’t like to be confronted with opinions or facts that challenge our own views. We far prefer affirmation. Even more, we love the endless flattery and attention we receive from the City.
The ideal that the City strives for most is for the user to look into the screen and see a reflection of himself—the myth of Narcissus, now industrialized and algorithmically optimized. It appeals to the deepest, darkest, narcissistic impulses we nurture. We are better, more persuasive, more insightful, more intelligent, wittier, and better looking than all those who used to be our friends, but who are now just images on a screen. We imagine our personality partakes of all the best of those icons that populate our virtual world. We see instantly how an influencer’s recommendation makes sense and places us in a better position to attain higher status.
The City sees electronic twins possessing all the features the Algorithm needs to engage us and persuade us to follow its bidding, namely, to return repeatedly, to believe its message, to think the way it thinks, to reduce human reality to objects, so that we can be an object alongside them, and finally, to gaze endlessly on that most captivating of objects in our virtual universe—self. The City sees all; this is how it transmits blindness.
All the while, we haven’t noticed that our charity has been vitiated, that we no longer have neighbors to love. The light is gone. God is a million miles away. We cannot be bothered.
There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.—Proverbs 14:12 (NIV)
The Unholy City is licensed in its entirety under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.
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