If I existed a thousand years before now, I would have been under the Persian empire and if not then the Rashidun. This would mean the only moment I would ever get to meet other human races of different nationalities would be during wars, and if I was among the few business men then it will be during the silk road trade.
It was in these activities that for the first time I would meet men larger than I’ve ever seen or perhaps shorter, others who are pale than I’ve ever thought possible while others whose eyes are so narrow that I would be mistaken they hadn’t had much of sleep. Such features distinct from mine would trigger primal instincts causing me to either be curious and fond, or suspicious and distant which today would have been seen as a form of racism but that is what kept people safe for history was never politically correct nor has it ever been.
If I was a farmer or a blacksmith or even a woman, it would be nearing impossible to ever find out how vast the world really was. I would probably think my nation, like a country is the only thing existing and ever will be and that people of similar origins, physical appearance, beliefs and traditions was all that what was present in life.
Heck I might not even know who the leader was. There have been anecdotes of kings and princesses mingling with the common folks looking to test their spirit of wandering adventure without anybody realising their status until they found themselves back to their castle walls. The world seemed pretty small back then. When wars were over and battles decided, some citizens would travel far from the protection of their cities to take a glimpse of the corpses that were among the living just the day before who came to challenge their kind.
Their appearances, the mesmerizing hair and eyes. Some would even take body parts as souvenirs to show their loved ones at home.
“Look, golden hair.”
“But is it real gold?”
Imagine living your whole life like that not knowing what lies ahead of your lands and the distant ocean. It’s possible some contemplated on such; seated, hugging their knees and swinging thinking to themselves what if I could cross the ocean and find another world with different people and different food.
“Honestly I’m getting tired of bread, vinegar and horse milk.”
There was no diplomacy nor laws when it came to wars. Anything goes, now it is the same but behind closed doors. It was simple, we also didn’t ponder on what we didn’t have because we thought and believed that what we had was the only thing in existence. The life, the music; the only one of its kind so we couldn’t imagine of anything else existing. It was a feeling of content but rarely free thought would ever be entertained.
With the introduction of the television in the 1920s-50s and the rise of the internet in the 80s everything changed and was not the case anymore. Not many among the opinionated before this were able to deliver their notions and began being heard, they unlike later couldn’t hide behind screens and platforms like “Tor”. If you thought differently and did things what others would define as abnormal then you would probably think that you were weird or unique and the only one alive and breathing.
Today one can easily search on the ever accessible web what they so desire and what they thought was weird about them, what separates them from the rest and treated as deviant or perverted by the public but not surprisingly they find others in there who are just into and interested in that very same thing making them no longer on their own, for now they are part of a community of eccentric freaks. The internet is a home that everyone finds bliss and belonging.
“You see mom, I told you I wasn’t the only one who could see dancing ducks in the dark. Look we have a whole community on the deep web going by the name of ‘The dancing duck gazers.’”
The internet allowed different races and nations to mingle and find out the same problem they are having can also exist in someone else living continents away. A middle aged men from the far corners of Eastern Asia, after having watched a TV program would realise that the citizens of Brazil have the same problems with their leaders as what they are facing in the East. An African man would learn from a video he just watched of a pale man ranting about their women being nagging and self entitled; surprised that despite of the difference in skin tone they have so much in common. The same. This resulted to a lot of unity, brotherhood giving rise to multicultural sense of beliefs; enlightenment was now free.
The rise of social media provided them a platform of discussing topics and status quos resulting them to be open minded, close and more accepting to one another; sharing photos of loved ones and laughing at each other’s jokes despite thousands of years ago the only reason and moment they would have come into contact was for the sole purpose of causing blood shade and fatalities.The one who’s forefathers existed worlds apart slaying each other whenever they met now their progeny interacting, debating, having intelligent discussions and even marrying each other all at the cost of the internet.
To understand an academical concept or conduct research no longer needs one to travel miles seeking great teachers of knowledge. To get a certain anecdote or eye witness accounts of a certain incident no longer forces one to go to each and everyone around the block and ask the same question over and over again. A business man can advertise their businesses on the internet and immediately it is exposed to thousands of people in just one day.
The internet remains and provides a pool of information to whoever dwells into it, it doesn’t discriminate. The good, the bad, the ugly; the useful, the violent, the sins all that existed before it ever came to our hands, now made simply and easily accessible. That’s it. Many use it to further their course which was an in born trait or desire of each and everyone of us even before the internet came to be but now the internet makes it just much more easier to do so.
Alternative news media also became rampant, conflicting in ideas and opinions. No more does the empire or the state control the flow of information and dictate what their citizens can only gain access to for they have grown tired of the same voice; it is in the hands of the people for the people now, like how it should be. Yet easily accessible and exchanged information has always remained to be a big threat to any current system of governance and that someday it will devise a plan to retake control by the name of national security and “false news”.