Mark Kingwell delivered a talk on our place as citizens in “capita democracy”.

Kingwell claims that capitalism is in its third stage: post-modern capitalism. This stage is marked by the commodification of status (or coolness), the proliferation of desire, and our acceptance of our selves as consumers. We live in a time of the American Dream, he explained, where we vote against our own interests in the dubious belief that we will one day be rich and successful.

He painted the modern citizen as someone who is envious of the success of others, instead of understanding of their relative placement in society. It reminded me of yesterday’s session on the Laconian fear of our neighbours.

To wake ourselves from this over-consumptive stupor we have to become engaged, informed–and most importantly–sympathetic citizens. As Kingwell said, we have to “give ourselves the gift of democracy”.

That is, of course, an oversimplification of a talk that spanned decades of history, but it raised some interesting discussion. The first question posed to Kingwell was, “how do we reach the new level of citizen engagement?”

“That’s always the question,” he responded. “Just not always the first question.”

There were no concrete answers but Kingwell explained that talking about being engaged and sympathetic is the first step towards becoming it. There won’t be a massive paradigm shift, but a slow shift in mentality marked by accessible discourse.

During the discussion, one student mentioned his campaign to make Concordia a bottled-water-free campus. His idea was to include a donation box on the side of every public fountain, “if people want to pay for water, they can.” It’s an interesting way to frame the debate, and I’m guessing that’s the kind of novel (not to mention sympathetic) thinking that Kingwell would root for.

(“This bottled water was here before I got here,” Kingwell said, motioning to his own bottled water. “Isn’t that it always the case?” the student responded.)

The above picture is Kingwell’s slide of an eBoy pixel mosaic of every social media service. He explained that he wasn’t sure of the relevance of it, but that he felt it factored into the solution. I think he’s on to something. Social media has access to the masses, and its been used as a tool for social change–or at least awareness–more than once.

What do you think? Are we lost in a see of self interest? Or is the new era of citizen engagement imminent? Does social media have a place in the discourse? -@TravisBoisvenue