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One of my latest posts was about dialogue replacing monologue in many areas of human activity.

Generation G (or P) in action in Seoul, South Korea

Yet when you go through some recent news which we have covered over the last week or two one can notice that in many cases quite the opposite is the case.

Let me give a few examples:

UN observers have entered the Syrian village where anti-government activists claim 200 people were massacred on Thursday. The UN said the attack on Tremseh mainly targeted the homes of rebels and activists. The government in Damascus says it carried out a military operation against terrorists. (/news/world-middle-east-18840285)

At least 42 people including 12 soldiers and 30 rebels have been killed in fighting in the remote Tajik region of Gorno-Badakhshan, state television has reported. People are trapped in their homes because of the heavy fighting in the streets, where armoured vehicles have been seen. Dozens of people have been reported wounded. (/news/world-asia-18965366)

The Uzbek authorities suspended the licence of the Russian Mobile operator MTS for 10 days on July 17. Left without communication and Internet, 9.5 million subscribers of the Russian MTS company’s branch in Uzbekistan are flowing to the company’s competitors in masses. Spokeswoman Yelena Kokhanovskaya said on Wednesday the company was considering the case as an "unwarranted attack" on Russian businesses. "At no time did any audit reveal any significant violation by Uzdunrobita of the laws of Uzbekistan, in particular with respect to tax, foreign exchange and licensing requirements," Kokhanovskaya said in emailed comments. (/uzbek/uzbekistan/2012/07/120717_mts_uzbekistan.shtml)

These events are different in scale, nature, circumstances, location, etc., yet what unites them is the authorities' disregard for dialogue as a form of resolving the issue. Very often it takes rather aggressive, militant forms: 'We do as we wish and you just watch!'

Be it an opposition that disagrees with the direction in which a country is travelling, or customers left at a loss by their own devices, or civilians who die as collateral damage - it's all about a pyramidal, monologic approach as if those who are in power are the masters but not servants of their people.

But as I said in that previous blog entry, something unstoppable is happening in the world, something seismically changing.

Look at today's kids. When I travel I notice that young teenagers, be they in London or in Central Asia, in Africa or in Russia, in Xinjiang or Iran are playing the same games, are addicted to the same social websites, are in a way growing up with the same values.
For my own convenience I call this digital generation Generation G or the Google Generation.

Yes, they might be of different social backgrounds, different levels of education and social mobility, but there's something like the internet which unites them.

A modern Russian writer, Viktor Pelevin, wrote a book called Generation P, meaning Generation of Pepsi, outlining the appearance in today's Russia of the ubiquitous consumerist breed of youth, which is also true.

However, one can argue about which trend will ultimately prevail or on which side the striking balance will lie.

Maybe I'm a bit idealistic, but somehow I want to believe, that just as in the case of the Arab Spring, peers should replace masters and slaves. What do you think?