Who’s wielding the axe?
“Lizzie Borden took an axe And gave her mother forty whacks. When she saw what she had done, She gave her father forty-one.”
An axe is an implement, nothing more, nothing less. You can buy one from any hardware store in New Zealand and they are used daily to chop things down, or up.
Before I go on, I want, maybe I need, to tidy up history. Many people have heard the nursery rhyme and the conclusion from it is obvious, but incorrect. In 1893, a jury acquitted Lizzie Borden of murdering her father and stepmother, they remain unsolved crimes. Lizzie’s step mother died as a result of 18 or 19 blows from a hatchet, her father died from 11 blows.
Back to the point, implements are impartial. The hatchet used to murder Lizzie Borden’s parents was neither good nor evil. Their use makes them part of a good or evil act, at a particular time and place such as August 4, 1892 at 230 Second Street, Fall River, Massachusetts.
The internet is an implement. Social media is an implement. Smart phones are implements. Cameras are implements. Facial recognition technology is an implement. Combined they form a large, sharp axe. The question isn’t, are they force for good or evil in today’s society? The question is, who’s wielding them? A benevolent force focused on making the world hospitable for a diverse ecosystem of flora and fauna, or a cabal of sociopaths fixated with power, money and their own importance?
It's a big question!
