The WEF Tower of Tech Babble

“Come, let us build Smart Cities with Fifth Generation towers in the sky to make a name for ourselves!” Now everyone speaks the same language of coding and ‘ideolatry.’

In my previous essay I wrote about the story of Noah and the trauma of a Biblical equivalent to ‘lockdown.’ The essay touched upon how revolutions do not work as ‘starting again’ is never really possible. Noah’s trauma results from his having witnessed the death of his fellow humans and the devastation of destruction. The Bible is a much more rational (not rationalist) set of texts than is customarily acknowledged. Contrary to what we are often taught, it actually encourages questioning and dissent, provided it is ultimately for the good. And it is Noah’s lack of questioning that ultimately troubles him. He chooses the vine over food crops, and sinks into the despair of alcoholism.

The Tower of Babel story (Genesis 11:1-9) comes after the account of Noah’s Ark and just before we meet Abram the great patriarch who will become Abraham, father to three world religions. The Babel story seems curiously out of place. Why a story about building a tower right after a flood? And why a city after the waters have subsided? And why this before we come to learn about the great patriarch? In the words of Alice, it is curiouser and curiouser, yet this short little story is loaded with significance.

The story begins with the description that ‘all the earth had the same language and the same words.’ The phrase ‘all the earth’ is biblical code for ‘everyone’ and it is mentioned five times during the short account. It is worth noting that this is significant and it is not just language, but words too.

Biblical scholar Judy Klitsner writes that the Tower of Babel story has much in common with the Exodus story. Both feature the building of massive brick structures under harsh conditions. In both stories, there is a foregrounding of man-made technologies. Additionally, both accounts address the matter of identity, be it ethnic or individual; and both demonstrate the adverse effects upon the divine-human relationship when destructive forces attempt to suppress those identities through oppression and servitude. Furthermore, it can be seen that both stories see the movement of people resulting from God’s actions in response to oppressive regimes; one by means of scattering throughout the world, and the other by a sudden rapid escape into the wilderness. In one story, the people do not appear to know that they are slaves, in the other, they do.

Perhaps it goes without saying that both Babel and Exodus narratives expose the evils and perniciousness of slavery. They suggest that it can creep up on us when we are stifled by convenience, comfort, safety or habit. Even after the Israelites leave Egypt, the life of freedom also requires hard work. The people cry out to Moses in the wilderness, we may have been slaves in Egypt, but at least there we were fed! The price of freedom can sometimes seem very high. Many is the time a Biblical character is asked to give up what he knows and is comfortable with in order to follow God’s lead to a new way of living. Today, the realisation is dawning that we too may have to jettison some of our modern conveniences if we are to be truly free.

We now return to the Babel story. On the face of it, a group of seemingly well-meaning people seek to build a tower with its top in the heavens. Who are the people involved in the Babel narrative? Interestingly, none are named. This might seem strange given the Bible’s propensity to include great genealogical lists as it does right before and immediately after the pericope. They seek to ‘make a name for themselves,’ it is written, to avoid being ‘scattered all over the world.’ In a sense, they seek to challenge God’s command to go forth into the world and populate it, preferring to stay put, in one place, speaking in one language, taking upon themselves one project as one anonymous collective. Perhaps these people, as Noah’s descendants, are simply comprised of a narrow, insular inter-connected group; one that is reluctant to ‘go forth’ as Abraham will do in a later narrative.

The call to action begins with the statement: “come, let us build…” First it is bricks, then it is a city. They want to build, and they want fame. Fame brings power. They want their collective prowess at construction recognised in a man-made monument that will reach the heavens. They fantasise about the sense of wonder and admiration received as a result of their endeavours.

A close reading of the text suggests something interesting in the sequencing. The call to make bricks comes before any plan is formed. Surely ‘bricks’ should come after the decision to build the tower as Nahum Sarna points out. This suggests that the technology required is up and running before the idea even forms for the tower. Furthermore, it is as though the idea springs from the technology itself, rather than any need for a tower driving the creation of bricks. We are in Looking Glass world again. It is all the wrong way around. Like with technology in the modern era, we often do things just because we can, and not because of necessity.

Do you hear the cry? The call to action? “Come, let us build Smart Cities with Fifth Generation towers in the sky to make a name for ourselves!”

The so-called Great Reset is presented as a spontaneous ‘opportunity’ presented by supposedly natural events to revolutionise the way we live.

Forever.

Far from some chance happening, it is an entirely top-down process, clearly planned with some precision. It is organised in such a way as to talk the language of equality, but to ensure no such thing. You will own nothing and the rich oligarchs will remain just that. Rich.

Richer even.

The use of technology, in Babel and in our world, suggests a carefully ordered world, one with the necessary organisation, efficiency and desire for Man to control everything he grasps. And an ever-growing bureaucracy. In the ancient world, it was those bricks, ‘burned hard’ that symbolised order, building and culture. Along with that goes the foregrounding of a kind of hyper-rationalism, measuring and counting. This is what Heidegger might term, calculative thinking.

In other words, not thinking.

The biblical author demonstrates familiarity with Babylonian building techniques, notwithstanding the apparent surprise at the use of brick and bitumen in place of stone. As Sarna has explained, there is evidence of an awareness of ancient Akkadian techniques where the making of bricks and inscribing them is part of a pagan cultural practice. A version of the Akkadian creation story understands primeval chaos as a time before the existence of bricks. Akkadian inscriptions frequently mention bricks, and it is notable that the custom surrounding the formation of the first brick as the cornerstone was accompanied by elaborate ceremonies. The pre-computerised past is now construed, like history itself, as something to overcome, another version of a primeval chaos perhaps. Yuval Noah Harari boasts that humans are “hackable animals” and the plans for human augmentation and the internet of ‘things’ seem inevitable. And not due to any authentic need but because, well, they (we?) can.

We know that the tower of Babel refers to the Babylonian ziggurat, a kind of multi-staged temple. So the tower could form one of many monuments rulers like to see created in their name. Furthermore, a grand ‘heavenly’ tower will form an impressive and powerful spectacle for all to see. It is arguably because in desiring to outdo God, humans construe the tower as Man’s own version of the mountain. So, in place of a natural mountain, we have a man-made imitation of a mountain borne of human hard labour and suffering.

Another brick in the wall.

The Swiss mountains and the exclusive club that is the World Economic Forum (WEF) may boast of its stakeholder capitalism qua caring capitalism. But like the illusion of authentic worship conducted within the ziggurat, the WEF project is about power. Raw, uncompromising power.

We have all seen by now images of Schwab boasting on camera that the WEF has their people installed (Schwab’s word is penetrated) the cabinets in governments across the world. Why would he even make that remark if it were not significant in some way? The penetration of which Schwab boasts is the latter-day version of tower-building. One great networking ziggurat for the worship of mammon presenting itself as a suitable ‘good cause.’

Were the people of Babel wrong to try to reach the heavens in this way? Does the attempt to build in this way signify a desire to be closer to God? Or something more sinister? In the same manner, is it wrong to force people into ‘owning nothing’ and having ‘no privacy’ if it can be made to appear to be for a good cause?

Yes. In case it needed saying. It is wrong.

In the Bible, God’s words mirror those of the people’s. Where they say “Come let us make bricks” and “Come let us build a city,” God says, as if joining the refrain and with a hint of sarcastic humour, “Come let us then go down and confound their speech there so that they shall not understand one another’s speech.” Language, or rather the singularity of one language and one way of speaking, becomes a key factor. A brick in the wall.

The Bible further makes use of word play to signal a Hebraic disapproval of pagan practices. Babylon was always regarded as idolatrous in Hebrew culture, and ‘Babel’ is its Hebrew translation. Interestingly, Babel/Babylon was pronounced as Babilim by the Mesopotamians. This was configured as two words in the Akkadian language, Bab and ilim which meant gate of the god. Hence the understanding that the tower was constructed with some kind of (pagan) idolatrous intent. And so through word play, gate of the god becomes meaningless babble, incomprehensible speech.

And yet it turns out that in the Babel story, the tower is neither here nor there, because it is the city that is the most troubling aspect. The tower can be seen as a mere symptom, one inevitable outgrowth among many in city life. Let us not forget, the city dweller is anonymous, hidden. No more lonely is a person than when he is in a city. And even in the city, it is not good for Man to be alone. The isolation of socialist distancing, a trope many in power are still keen for us to maintain, is not good for humans.

The Babel story, like its unfolding counterpart today, is about the abuse of power when worship is not set right, when humans are cajoled into a mass of anonymity, a great collective. More and more of us are encouraged to move into cities, away from the land which is given over to rich oligarchs or the state. Think of what is happening to farmland in Holland or the United States, and similarly in Britain and other parts of Europe. Additionally, the recent rapid roll out of so-called 15-minute cities or Low Traffic Neighbourhoods give further pause for thought here. The initiative has not sprung from the people whose lives will be affected by these measures. Rather, we see a top-down mechanism seeking to control by means of rupturing privacy and monitoring through intensive surveillance. God’s all-seeing eye replaced by a man-made artificial intelligence.

Computer always says ‘no.’

And this is one clue as to where we are going with this story. It is of course not just man’s attempt to meet God but man’s attempt to play God, and the suffering that always ensues.

The WEF and WHO intentions are for one-world government, masterminded by elites who have made it clear that God has no place in their plans. Yuval Noah Harari has made this Godless non-philosophy explicit.

However, Harari does not exactly believe in a godless world; it is merely that he has chosen not to acknowledge the spiritual God of the Bible. Harari’s god is the man-made pagan god of the elites which, naturally enough, turns out to be technology suffused with ideology. A kind of ideolatry. Their vision is a compulsory technologically augmented future which they will impose upon us. Why? Probably, like the opportunity afforded by the Babylonian bricks and bitumen. Just because they can.

Believer or non-believer. It is wrong for Man to ‘play God.’

Schwab, et al, take note.

The Babel narrative initially presents a vision that might gain the approval of well-meaning collectivists. It is just how they like their projects. Free from God, with man replacing God and a large dose of central planning to boot. A project of Babel’s magnitude (and for that matter, the Smart Cities of Schwab’s dreams) would have to be centrally planned. Today, only the technology is different.

Everyone has the Same Language and the Same Words

We have learned how God deals with the idolatry of Babel. He breaks up the ‘collective’ which hinges on a uniformity of language. We see parallels today. Who has not noticed the current attempt to force us into one worldview, with only the most superficial chimeras of diversity foregrounded. Words are redefined and disappeared. Language, and thus thought, is strictly policed.

Contrary to many assumptions, the Bible frequently alludes to the importance of diversity, of language, nation and of religion. There is no singular worldview presented in the Bible. It really is an ‘artful compendium of ideas,’ to quote one Biblical scholar.  Notwithstanding that my mother tongue, the English language, is used internationally; it is another language altogether that forms our new modern Babel cities and prison towers. The common language we see today is binary code, or, the language of the computer. Like the Babylonian bricks, it cajoles us into narrow pathways of thought, via anti-social media and not a little malevolent intent. And, like the artificial mountain tower, artificial intelligence is not really intelligent. There is nothing behind it, nothing behind the curtain, no grounding, no earth. Merely calculative, algorithmic formulae.

Unlike God who decides to come to an accommodation with human nature as he did at the conclusion of the Noah story, Harari and his chums have decided that we are just resource consuming useless eaters. A dark joke puts it rather well: we are the carbon they seek to eliminate. And so they, the WEF the WHO and their friends, take it upon themselves to assume God’s mantle. They seek to refashion the world in their own image. Because, what can possibly be the consequences of their cruelty if, in their worldview there is no spiritual God, nothing beyond the here and now and nothing but a materialistic understanding of existence. For only what can be measured and accounted for materially exists in Harari’s WEF worldview.

Theirs is the classic Darwinian survival of the fittest mentality where the weakest will be removed to make Lebensraum for the elites’ enjoyment. Well why not? Lump the useless eaters into a collective and you no longer see the specialness of each individual human person. And, as a bonus, you get to control their every move.

We cannot remain lulled by convenience and comfort into remaining in their Babble. We must not fall for illusory notions of ‘safety.’ They are not our only source of ‘truth.’

In the Babel story, before God mirrors their speech He intervenes before the tower is completed:

“If, as one people, with one language for all, this is how they have begun to act, then nothing that they propose to do will be out of their reach.”

We have been warned. Nothing that they propose to do will be out of their reach.

We cannot sit passively and hope that God will intervene. Surely by now we have learned the lessons. It is time to get on with the heavy lifting. It is time for an exodus. Into the wilderness towards a promised land, a new world, the like of which we must now, urgently envisage and create. We must, like Abraham, Moses, and Jesus, be prepared to do without our comforts, to make the necessary sacrifice and to Go Forth.

Thank you for reading this essay, I hope you found it interesting and thought provoking. Please do share with others and feel free to comment below. Being rather weary of wading through the treacle of Twitter, I shall be adding my voice to Substack Notes very soon! I hope you’ll join me there for convivial conversation and chat! In the meantime, do subscribe if you have not already.