THE FASTER LANE / TYLER BRÛLÉ
Walking briskly, speaking carefully
On a recent hike down the lake from Zürich I spied some strange poles springing up from a tangled, overgrown stand of trees and bushes. On closer examination the poles had arrays of antennae on top, one had a little microwave relay dish and a slightly taller bowl had a siren atop that looked like a collection of stacked dessert bowls. As I marched closer a weathered, battered metal sign announced that this was a community bunker. While the sign had seen better days, the bunker was clearly ready for action as the grease on the hinges of the half-metre thick doors and metal levers suggested that it had been opened recently. How many people could it fit? Was it stocked with essentials and ready for a more severe form of lockdown? How long could I last in there? A bit further along were other olive-green pipes and vents peeking out of the long grass. This was clearly built to house the whole valley but wasn’t it also a bit of a waste? Couldn’t it have another life beyond being on permanent standby for the end of days?
On my Thursday morning walk I was soaking up the fine mist and the smell of conifers while attempting to make some sense of the morning’s papers. For readers of this column who live outside the English-language world, you’ll know that there’s a certain luxury of thought that comes with being exposed to your local media beyond the Anglosphere. It offers you a different set of headlines, an occasionally wider news agenda and a frequently more nuanced range of opinions. As I made my way up the trail and past the waterfalls I was reminded of what my colleague Andrew said a few months ago about a time for anger. He was referring to how we might reflect on this pandemic and that there’d be a time ahead to ask some tough questions of leaders stretching from Beijing to Geneva, London to Ottawa. Little did he know that lifting lockdowns would also unleash a torrent of emotions from all corners of the world – across a variety of issues and flare-ups – many long overdue, others all in a day of a life lived on-screen. A few weeks ago NZZ, German Switzerland’s newspaper of record, called it when they did a small story about how social media was getting angrier and more polarised as we moved out of “we’re in all in this together” mode. How right they were.
“It’s impossible to have a reasonable discussion around any topic these days.” These were the words from a CEO of a major Swiss-based multinational a few days ago. “PR teams are so terrified of social media that you become frozen if you have to make a statement because terminology changes by the moment and there is a faction out there to pounce on your every word. In the end, you’d rather not say anything.” As we discussed this, we moved on to the danger that comes when everyone expects solutions and comments within hours – particularly when they’re hounded by those who are too quick on their keyboards. “It’s destructive when a communications team feels it needs to respond within minutes and ends up unravelling the reputation of a business that’s taken half a century to build,” he said. Nuanced conversations rarely happen in a short blast of hastily fired characters. Meaningful change requires meaningful dialogue, compromise and kindness – not quick fixes or hasty condemnation.
Monocle has long argued that the digital tools at our disposal demand a serious rethink about how we not only use them but also how we conduct ourselves in society. Is it appropriate to publicly shame people because they’ve used terminology some have deemed out of fashion? That depends on the degree of the infraction and intent but surely more could be achieved (and more constructively) with a quiet, private word? Likewise, why do some corners of society shut down discussion and won’t hear explanations? Could it be because they don’t really want a dialogue? Because it takes too much effort, demands critical thinking and maybe even forgiveness?
Amid all of this, one thing is for sure – discussion shouldn’t go away, nor should it be driven underground and into the shadows. Which brings us back to those bunkers. With so many decommissioned civil defence bunkers across Switzerland reconfigured to host massive servers that help support the world’s social media players, perhaps it’s time for a rethink. Many Swiss-based organisations are dedicated to resolving international conflicts and seeking peaceful outcomes. A good start might be the foundation of a digital disarmament policy and shutting down those servers. Maybe those sound-proof, signal-proof rooms could be transformed into fora where people can express their points of view, face to face, not shielded by a device – all in the comfort of knowing that what they say won’t be taken out of context, disseminated or distorted.