Babel: Reconstructing the tower

Event Concept:

From Genesis to Facebook, one of the most enduring dilemmas of mankind has been the struggle between language and nonsense, intelligibility and obscurity. From the earliest of history, societies have come together to build as well as to clash. And throughout the centuries, an unfinished Babel towers over us as a broken illusion of muted progress.

But Babel is also a testimony of the paradox of diversity. A project is made all the more exuberant with the richness of contrasting contributions. But, by the same token, this jumble of disparate ideas and bits can in fact, lessen and hinder the common goal.

The mythical tower is also a metaphor for the very concept of progress. Is it foolish to believe that humankind can actually work together, in spite of our differences? And regarding our ambitions to conquer the cosmos: are they our moral and scientific purpose, or an audacity of chutzpah? The sages of the Talmud and of modern politics, as can be expected, do not see eye to eye.




Babel is indeed alive and well.




Yet, we live in a hyper-connected world, 24/7. But does interconnectivity equal communication? We are linked, but we are increasingly isolated as individuals. The old Jewish concepts of community, familiarity and solidarity seem to be nostalgia for todays generation.




Our Babel is a global wiki. Our Tweets, text messages, and Facebook links can indeed be postmodern building blocks, a brave new language for the digitally enlightened. But they might also be but poor excuses for the lost art of conversation.




So lets talk! Wed love to know your input.

Then again, we might not.

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