BELGRADE, THURSDAY

THE EXTRAORDINARY PHENOMENON, of people taking sides in conflicts thousands of kilometers from their own lands, is a direct result of the internet age, according to a leading researcher.

“People who hardly raise an eyebrow at things that occur outside their own front doors, are increasingly totally committed to causes about which they know comparatively little and have absolutely no experience of,” say Dr Terry Faraway of the Distance Institute, which studies the relationship between human concern and distance across the world. “The internet has allowed individuals who would not lift a finger in their own lands to confront, say, injustice, take grandiose positions on issues they only encounter through websites. It has created an extraordinary dislocation, whereby citizens in one country now appear to be more exercised by what is happening across the globe than what is happening to their neighbors. Indeed, it is often accompanied by a growing contempt for their immediate neighbors, even as concern for the distant events increases, until the disdain for the former is equaled by the passion for the latter. And, of course, these web warriors are completely insulated, both from their own activism and what is going on in the distant lands they profess concern about. What this means for nationalism I cannot say, but if it continues for long enough, the sinews that hold nation states together could begin to disintegrate.”