Title: "What is a Techanimist?"" Date: 2018-07-22 Category: Philosophy Slug: what-is-a-techanimist?
If you are here, you might be wondering what the word techanimist means. It is the combination of two words — technology and animism.
-Technology is defined as the practical application of knowledge especially in a particular area. But for the theme or philosophy of this site, I want the word to convey a sense of progress and how it applies to advances in the fields of science, engineering, and the sharing of knowledge.
–Animism is defined as the religious belief that objects, places and creatures all possess a distinct spiritual essence. Animism is the world’s oldest religion. It predates any form of organized religion and is said to contain the oldest spiritual and supernatural perspective in the world. It organizes and animates the material universe.
When I started this site (and quickly abandoned it) five years ago, techanimist meant something quite different than what it means to me now. I had dreams of creating popular technology content causing a massive amount of network traffic and SEO success. I thought I could easily jump on the content conjuring bandwagon, but I quickly found that to be short-sighted.
Now that I have two little boys and am a little older, techanimist now represents to me a major part of the American culture. These days, consumerism can seemlike a dogmatic religion. Souls try to find meaning and purpose in shallowest of endeavors–technological acquisition–getting the newest gear and shiniest things. The most fleeting pleasure it seems, Where a life of true substance is counter-cultural.
There really is no telling the future mindset of the next generation coming up. One can only hope that some blow back occurs and then masses resist this throwaway society and really make a difference. Stepping off the soapbox and checking Instagram.