It's not just artificial intelligence that's the problem; it's artificial us.

Sam Smith – We ­haven’t confessed it yet  but we are losing control over the very systems we spent the past couple of centuries building. Our faith in progress as defined by huge institutions, grand corporations, mass media, global concepts and people seemingly skilled enough to run them has turned into a hugely powerful and growingly alien force against us as humans. Despite the amount we spend on our military, this is not the work of an enemy country but of our own goals and desires. The Russians did not invent Donald Trump and Fox News. We did.

Central to this disaster was the assumption that we could maintain our values, our relationships and our morals even as things grew to post-human grandiosity and that decency needed little more than a mention in our “strategic vision” and it would continue to thrive.

With a media absorbed by news of the powerful rather than that affecting most people we are not particularly aware of how our lives as humans – actual beings – have been replaced by institutional substitutes that pretend to  be or us but increasingly fail to be so. And we, in return, increasingly expect less. For example a Wall Street Journal/NORC poll found that in the past 25 years those who think religion is very important has declined from 62% to 39%, those who value community involvement has fallen from 47% to 27% And even seeing value in having children has dropped from 59 to 30%. We now not only face artificial intelligence but artificial humanity.

Although I didn’t really plan it, for most of my life I have treated the nearby as important as the global. I learned early as a reporter that covering national Washington wasn’t enough. I unconsciously thought of news conferences as plays and the major figures in town as theatrical performers. The real Washington, aka DC, was right down the street.

In the mid sixties I started a neighborhood newspaper serving a majority black community near the US Capitol. Later in another neighborhood I served as an elected advisory neighborhood commissioner. I played in bands and took part in meetings in the ‘hood. I didn’t do this as a result of analysis, simply because it seemed both logical, fun and part of being alive.

Now in a Maine village, I have the same feeling. I can’t think of anyone who lies to me around here and I tell folks that on a farm the only bullshit you find is in a field or a barn. There are churches, and businesses and community groups where folks actually enjoy and trust work with one another. Even doing life’s duties – such as going to your doctor or town hall – can be pleasant.

In short, there is a huge difference between what I experience every day and what I see on the television news. Will the global gangsters steal my town as well?

What I think has happened is that as institutions and places have  gotten larger over the years, they have become less human and community oriented, more bureaucratic and technological and more likely to be controlled by those concerned with their own power. 

The good news is that, while clearly, only a few can effectively take on the Trumps, huge institutions, or the America defined for us by mass media, we still have power to deal with the bottom of the story: our places and us.

We forget that positive social change typically begins at the bottom. Consider the civil rights, women’s or environmental movements. It was not giant institutions that brought such movements; it was small groups organizing and aligning with each other. And then the word spread.

We can do it again if we understand the importance of rediscovering the power of the honest, decent, and small. When I think about my own past, I can’t think of a single large corporation, institution or association that led me down the course I chose to follow. It was individuals, my Quaker high school, working on a farm, organizing in my ‘hood and my city, being friends with the wise and the kind, serving on a small Coast Guard cutter, joining local groups, playing in bands  and enjoying my family.

A good way to reduce our subservience to the over-large and over-artificial is to revive some of the institutions near us. For example, back in the 60s in DC, there were churches that welcomed community groups to use their space. I remember attending meetings in church basements organizing what would turn out to be the most successful anti-freeway movement of its time and similar issues. These were religious centers that saw relevant action as important as faith.

Even as a Seventh Day Agnostic, I enjoyed those meetings and even had a handful of close friends who were ministers because we were sharing the same specific goals.

Today, we hardly talk about how  churches, schools, and other community groups can change our culture. The war on what children read and think about is as dangerous as an upscale attack on our culture. The difference is that we can do something about it.

This isn’t a matter of either or. I lived for some decades in a DC neighborhood with quite a few folks engaged in national activities. This didn’t stop them being active in local matters as well.

Behind all our thinking, acting and believing today is not just what you hear about on the evening news. It is also about the people in your community, the children learning things there, the powerful becoming more humble thanks to having to living near others, the institutions that once defined our land in a much bigger way than today.

In short, weak as we may seem, positive change has typically started thanks to those who organized with those around them to create a model of decency and progress.  This, is why, for example, there are so many churches and not just cathedrals  and so many schools with just a few students in each classroom.

We need to rediscover our historic ability to create and support the rational, democratic and kind. And that the best place to start is in our ‘hood.