By Abdullah Al-Salloum
There is a repetition that accelerates with every era. It resembles an orbit around a vast circle, except that its circumference narrows day by day. The ends remain constant, while the tools change and renew themselves as eras change. These ends, however varied their forms or contents may appear, are ultimately expressions of the human pursuit of what is sound and beneficial — whether in matters of faith or worldly life.
Man moves through trials Allah has decreed for him, relying on the tools of his age, trying to understand the secret of their renewal whenever eras turn. These ends are translated into a form of striving, guided by perception and judgment. One may attain from it a measure of success by Allah’s grace and by the wisdom He has granted him; another may misread the moment, and that misreading becomes a trial he faces, and that others may face in another pursuit. And so it continues.
The tools of striving have a logic of their own. They do not lead to their intended ends merely because they exist. They become effective only when a sufficient number of those moving within the same orbit understand them, and know how to use them within the conditions of the era in which they were born.
This is why a tool that achieves an end today may have failed to achieve it yesterday, and why what worked yesterday may be inadequate today. A tool is not useful in itself, but through the general acceptance that allows it to operate in pursuit of a given end. Once that acceptance expires, the usefulness of striving through that tool begins to fragment.
Media is not outside this orbit. Traditional media once helped lead public opinion in earlier eras, not simply because it existed as a tool, but because a particular time had prepared for it a broad acceptance as a legitimate medium through which such an end could be reached. That acceptance would not have endured if traditional media had not served a function deeper than transmitting news or shaping public discourse. Its function was tied to the primary end: Symbolism.
Symbolism is what gives the tool its meaning and draws people toward it in their repeated pursuit of their aims, regardless of how the mechanisms of that tool may differ from one era to another. Then came digital media, ending that era in a sharp and disruptive way. It opened another path toward the same symbolism, but through subsidiary tools that were more fluid and more rapidly renewed.
Visibility within it became governed by rules unfamiliar to previous eras: Rules that grant symbolic standing to those who know how to speak to the moment, not necessarily to those who rest on established authority or inherited status. For a time, especially in its early rise, digital media was able to lead public opinion and challenge the authority of older media. But that period will not last as long as the eras before it. The circle within which man moves continues to narrow, and its circumference diminishes day by day. Today, we may be witnessing a growing reluctance to be influenced by digital media, or to wade into the turbulent depths of social media. This is not necessarily the result of a particular political position or a distinct social tendency.
Rather, it reflects an effect contrary to what man seeks in his pursuit of symbolism. He has nearly come to understand that truth and confusion have become entangled, and that engagement, even when it contains something true, is often lost in the noise of much that is false. Because every era adorns itself with a more complex intelligence, built upon the accumulated data and experiences of previous eras, man assumes that the present is a new stage in the nature of striving itself. He fails to notice that what is new lies in the tool, not in the end; that the orbit has not changed, only its instruments have.
Allah says: “Were it not for Allah repelling people, some by means of others, the earth would have been corrupted. But Allah is full of bounty to the worlds.” If the era of influence through digital media has carried many harms, it has also carried undeniable benefits. Without it, those who presided over traditional media might have monopolized influence, and symbolism would have remained captive behind narrow gates, entered only by those whom its gatekeepers allowed in. Today, as digital media reaches a stage in which its actual influence appears to be receding, there may be wisdom in the changing reality that we do not yet comprehend. Perhaps when a tool begins to fade, it has already performed its role. And perhaps the orbit of symbolism is now ready to seek another path.
NOTE: Abdullah Al-Salloum is an Economist, Strategic Developer, Investor and Author
