Lucas Kilian: Second Vision, from Mirrors of the Microcosm (1613)

"On my better days, I catch reassuring glimpses of it."

In the beginning was an idea, a concept expansive enough to encapsulate everything. As that idea spread, it began decomposing into constituent pieces, not because these were necessary, but because each represented choices, and because they seemed to better serve somebody or some constituency. The cynical, as they often do, eventually co-opted the more idealistic. They insisted that a system capable of connecting could easily accomplish division. They proposed creating profit centers. They encouraged shady operators to promote patent medicines and conspiracy rumors, certain to attract and entertain the least discerning. They encouraged trolls. The most progressive invention in the history of humanity became the primary engine of repression. Social media retains the DNA of its hopeful founders, though its stewards long ago largely chose cynicism because it offered greater revenue potential. Have we forgotten the originating whole? Has the medium lost its soul?

Each platform serves as a microcosm of the originating Macrocosm’s whole. Unlike a conceptual microcosm, though, each platform poorly represents the whole. We’ve easily mistaken some part as representative of the entire potential, when it most certainly doesn’t. Continued exposure to unrepresentative parts easily supports unwarranted conclusions. We catch ourselves contributing to what we never wanted, seemingly addicted, endlessly repeating meaningless memes. A few reassuring results emerge, even from the most cynical swirl. Minneapolis seemingly spontaneously organizes against cynical oppression, which can find no effective defense against such seamless opposition. The kind of communication originally envisioned by the idealistic founders suddenly seems capable of saving our beleaguered democracy.

The Macrocosm speaks a universal language transcending distracting quibbling. Those who came to believe that reality was theirs to represent however they chose will lose to those who came to know better. Propaganda could never replace the obvious, especially when amplified innumerable times. The few who said they knew better, who flooded the “inter-tubes” with their cynical blather, collected their meager thirty pieces of silver and purchased cybercredits. They became masters for a second of a disappearing universe. As the first generation of suckers passed, the next generation became more circumspect. They’d seen what happened when their parents swallowed cynicism hook, line, and sinker. Their offspring found reason to feel more hopeful.

The first iteration of perfection tends to fall the furthest from the ideal. Further attempts might tighten up results a bit, though perfection eventually loses its appeal. Perfection makes a truly crappy design principle. Better to use material for what it’s capable of producing instead of getting too awfully tangled up pursuing ideals. The choices in any Macrocosm sum to infinity. No failure, however catastrophic, proves fatal to the remaining potential. We properly iterate and come to understand the essential difference between cynicism and wisdom. We are the ones chartered to choose. We do not need to take any offering on its face value. We can make acceptable what first seemed fake. We can render any authentic unacceptable by the choices we make or those we allow others to cynically make for us. Social media might be a minefield now, but it retains its potential.

The originating ideal also retains its appeal. No, we have not yet so mortgaged our future and experience that we’re doomed to become as cynical as the current losers became. Their influence wanes as ours waxes. Cynicism inevitably governs poorly. It seems most attractive before it becomes physically interactive. It’s built on bright ideas destined not to work nearly as well in practice as they seemed they would in theory. Heaven help those who choose to try to govern their society by cynical means, for they will find the true price of the liberty of choosing to lie to themselves. Before the truth sets anyone free, it first must have its way. It will sit you down and insist that you choose. I doomscroll seeking glimpses of the idealism I know must be lurking in there somewhere. On my better days, I catch reassuring glimpses of it.

©2026 by David A. Schmaltz - all rights reserved

Tags: #Unscrolling, #PureSchmaltz