Most of us have heard of the biblical story about the Tower of Babel.  In fact, one of today’s language learning products, Babbel, is named for it.  In Genesis 11, which takes place after the time of Noah’s ark, we read the following:

“And the whole earth was of one language and of one speech… And they said to one another, ‘Come, let us build us a city, and a tower, with its top in the heaven, and let us make us a name…’ And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower… And the Lord said ‘Behold, they are one people and they have all one language; and this is what they begin to do; and now nothing will be withheld from them, which they purpose to do.  Come let us go down and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.’ So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth… Therefore was the name of it called Babel; because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth.”

Interestingly, humanity seems to be recreating this story in the digital age.  Yes, we still have many languages. But the internet initially held the promise of unifying us into one humanity — one language. Today, technology continues to make even more grandiose promises:   Let’s get brain implants and connect ourselves online, access all knowledge, access all people!  Let’s become superhuman man-machine hybrids — so-called transhumans, who transcend our natural humanity and become immortal gods! In other words, let’s build a tower with its top in the heavens.

But what has actually happened? Rather than unifying humanity, the power of the internet has been manipulated so that it breaks us up into myriad echo-chambers or “silos”. The content of each one tends to parrot the ideologies and “truths” of that silo, whether it is actually true or not. This state of affairs is now being exploited by political parties and other factions. Artificial intelligence technologies exacerbate the problem by providing us with “information” that merely regurgitates a silo’s content. The way ChatGPT works is an exemplar of this.  The net effect is that the difference between fact and fiction has become indiscernible, especially to people who don’t realize that they are living in a silo to begin with. Imagery, video, and more is easily faked, reeling us deeper and deeper into our a particular silo’s illusion.  And so we find that in today’s world, people living in different silos simply “cannot understand one another’s speech.”  It sounds like so much… babbling. 

How to cross these great divides?  The situation has become urgent and promises to grow worse if people do not realize what is going on. Great countries like the United States aren’t very united anymore.  Though we speak the same “language” we don’t understand one another. 

My husband Steve and I have experienced this situation in an intense way ever since the time of COVID.  As I described in my article Looking for America, because of the severe vaccine laws and restrictions of the San Francisco Bay area (where we lived for over 40 years), we felt we needed to leave in order to find liberty.  What Steve and I found outside the Silicon Valley bubble startled us more than we would have been if we visited a remote, foreign culture in a distant land — even though we were still in the same country. We now live in the upstate area of South Carolina within a southern culture that we would never before have considered a potential home.  Up until that point, we viewed the American South as a kind of a no-mans land, a dangerous unknown territory.  We had both started our lives as northeastern “Yankees” and had spent our adult lives in the high-tech world of Silicon Valley.

The truth is, our new home is an amazing, beautiful, and varied place. Naturally, most South Carolinians also live within a silo that colors their perceptions and opinions.  In general, they tend to be rooted in connections with family, friends, community, and place, live within a culture of helping, and usually emanate an inveterate friendliness — even toward strangers and the elderly. It’s that so-called “southern hospitality.” In our experience, these southern values have been completely lost in the world we left behind. Although Steve and I had a long history within Silicon Valley,  we, like anyone else over the age of sixty, increasingly found that we were treated as old, useless, and irrelevant. Yes, there are people in the South who subscribe to ideas often associated with Californians. But most of these people can’t fathom what’s happened in the West; Steve and I can barely understand it ourselves! In our opinion, these southerners simply do not see how following some well-intentioned ideas to their extremes could wind them up in the same hellscape that California has sadly become.

Not surprisingly, when I speak now with my California friends — even the ones who did not buy into the COVID-regime — they are still fully embedded in the California way of seeing the world. They believe the mainstream media they read and listen to, which paints the citizens of much of the country as ignorant yahoos. And how could they not think this way?  As I wrote in my article Finding America, each of us is influenced by the vibrational stew in which we live. It’s pretty inescapable.  And yes, I’m sure that Steve and I are influenced by our new South Carolina southern stew too. In fact, it’s likely that our “old friends”, as Steve and I call them, think we have now become  ignorant yahoos as well.

The bottom line is that Steve and I have had a unique experience that could prove useful to this country. We spent over 40 years in the stew of another very different silo.  We know what it is, we remember what it feels like, we remember the people, and we understand their point of view.  We are now learning about our new silo. We have literally crossed a great divide.  And perhaps, that’s the only way people living in different silos can begin to understand one another. By living in another silo.  By learning to speak one another’s language.

This is not the first time in American history when silos have clashed. Indeed, it seems to be a natural part of human experience. There are the silos of black experience, Jewish experience, gay experience, etc. Sometimes these silos may be forever impenetrable to outsiders.  But that doesn’t mean it isn’t worth making an effort. Unfortunately, in today’s world, such differences are not only being exacerbated by the media, but are actively embraced and lauded in order to further segregate people in the name of “political correctness.” At one time, integration was the goal. Now, segregation is encouraged! Sadly, this has only created new problems, victim mentality, blaming culture, and the like.  Yes, it’s great to celebrate our differences, but let’s also try to understand one another better. Let’s accept one another and have more compassion for each other, not less!

In summary, I suggest that each of us seriously consider the likelihood that we are living in a silo.  And let’s become aware of the fact that the media we read and watch has been curated, often by forces with nefarious motives, in order to keep us squarely within it.  Next, let’s try to listen to people in different silos with an open mind. Allow for the the possibility that they may actually be telling you truths, even if those truths conflict with what you have been told, and even if believing them means you have been actively deceived by sources that you trusted.

In my view, this is the only peaceable way forward for our country and for the entire world.