ARQ [Arts Raising Questions] evokes Noah’s Ark—saving life from catastrophe—as well as the narrative arc of story-telling and urgent arcs shaping efforts to protect democracy and our planet. The ARQ Network amplifies the voices of creative thinkers, from journalists to academic thought leaders to media producers, visual artists and musicians, who raise questions that ignite critical thinking and spur action.
What if one lunatic could destroy an entire world?
This question was raised by Canada’s “dean of science fiction” Robert J. Sawyer, who wrote in Privacy: Who Needs It? “There’s a long-standing problem in astronomy called the Fermi Paradox, named for physicist Enrico Fermi who first proposed it in 1950. If the universe should be teeming with life, asked Fermi, then where are all the aliens? The question is even more vexing today: SETI, the search for extraterrestrial intelligence with radio telescopes, has utterly failed to turn up any sign of alien life forms. Why?
One chillingly likely possibility is that, as the ability to wreak damage on a grand scale becomes more readily available to individuals, soon enough just one malcontent, or one lunatic, will be able to destroy an entire world. Perhaps countless alien civilizations have already been wiped out by single terrorists who’ve been left alone to work unmonitored in their private laboratories.”
Douglas Rushkoff has written a series of books, including Survival of the Richest, Media Virus, Cyberia, Present Shock, Throwing Rocks at the Google Bus, and Program or Be Programmed. He is host of the Team Human podcast. Jazz performer Dr. Martin E. Rosenberg of Unanimous AI writes about the social and political stakes of dominance and resistance and about the agency of metaphor in trans-disciplinary inquiry. The arts go beyond criticism and protest to solve problems, innovate, and uplift.
TRY THIS! The arts as inventive play – necessity as the mother of invention.
Trump’s beyond shock and awe campaign appears designed to instill fear, silencing opposition as he dismantles the United States and disrupts our world. Yet, after a brief silence of fear, many courageous leaders began to speak out. Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Laurie Garrett highlighted actions today that parallel How Hitler Dismantled Democracy in 53 Days, underscoring the urgency of this moment.
On February 8, 2025, New York Attorney General Letitia James and 18 other state attorney generals took decisive action, securing a court order halting Elon Musk’s team from accessing Treasury payment systems, on grounds that there was risk of “irreparable harm” if they were granted control over sensitive bank details and financial infrastructure. Sinclair Lewis foresaw today’s crisis with his 1935 novel, It Can’t Happen Here. A large number of class action lawsuits are being coordinated by American attorney and Congressman Jamie Raskin. Republican Trevor Potter is leading a lawsuit vs. DOGE.
The battle for democracy is unfolding in real time as more and more people have the courage to speak out.
SCARED RED. When taking to the streets to protest is unsafe, artists’ eyes on the world speak.
Crowdsourcing Truth, Aligning Missions, and Sparking Action
1) Crowdsourcing discovers.
Singers Harry Belafonte and Paul Robeson said, “Artists are the gatekeepers of truth.” With journalists, thought leaders, scientists and artists sharing diverse perspectives, we can—like Wikipedia—co-discover shared truths.
NPR CEO Katherine Maher tweeted on Dec. 23, 2024 a message that rapidly reached 50+ Million views. She echoed the late Professor Irving Janis (Yale, later UC Berkeley), who studied how authoritarian regimes enforce “groupthink”—suppressing debate and forcing public alignment with the “one truth” of those in power (what Orwell called the Ministry of Truth). Access to diverse perspectives, required for critical thinking, is blocked when people fear debate and are afraid to ask questions.
2) ARQ [Arts Raising Questions] is an emerging network of independent thinkers—journalists, innovators, and artists across various media—raising vital questions about climate change, war, racism, sexism, and democracy. When free speech is at risk, these topics become taboo.
Nobel laureate Saul Perlmutter, in his 2024 book Third Millennium Thinking: Creating Sense in a World of Nonsense, champions critical thinking as a tool for navigating today’s chaos. Art, media, and storytelling stimulate inquiry and inspire action.
3) Questions spark action. When more than 50 NPR accounts left X, Elon Musk retaliated with “Defund NPR!”—fueling debate over kleptocracy, where government control is wielded to serve the business elite at democracy’s expense. The crowd cheering Musk bears an unsettling resemblance to the masses in Triumph of the Will, Leni Riefenstahl’s infamous 1935 Nazi propaganda film documenting the Nazi Party’s Nuremberg rally. Elon Musk, recipient of a 2014 Lifeboat Guardian Award, has the future of that crowd in his hands.
TWO NAZI SALUTES. No smart man would give two Nazi salutes if he thought anyone could revoke his power.
Facing the Future: Thought Leaders & Existential Risk
Eric Klien, Founder of the Lifeboat Foundation, has been described as a sage, polymath and savant for recognizing several decades ago that our world would need a global network of thought leaders like the Lifeboat Foundation to navigate existential risk. He was preparing for this moment.
Jaan Tallinn, the 2012 Lifeboat Guardian Award winner, foresaw today’s grand challenges and founded the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk at Cambridge University. And Jeff Bezos, 2018 Guardian Award Winner, CEO of Amazon.com, described by Wired as “CEO of the Internet” acknowledged our blind spot in perceiving looming threats, “For better or worse, it is really not a part of our culture to look at things defensively. We rarely say, ‘Oh my God, we’ve got to do something about that existential threat.’ Maybe one day we’ll become extinct because of that deficiency in our nature.”
The Power of Coalition-Building
From climate change to fascism hijacking artificial intelligence, from wars waged with A.I. drones and robots, the most powerful weapon against existential risk is coalition-building. And that begins with telling our stories—our dreams, missions, and the obstacles we’ve faced.
If you’re on a mission with a great idea that aligns, we want to hear your story and promote your work.
If you’ve experienced a climate change disaster, immigration struggle, or police encounter that upended your life, we want to hear problem stories too. If anonymity is necessary, you can use an A.I. avatar to protect your identity.
GAIL, hosted in Europe, working with internet privacy and security experts, is dedicated to reclaiming the internet as a tool for global problem-solving—not surveillance, censorship, or control.
Communicating Science: Urgent Calls to Action
Jim Al-Khalili Ph.D. Hon Dsc OBE FRS FInstPhas dedicated his career to making science accessible to a broad audience, bridging the gap between complex ideas and public understanding.
Jesse Dylan, Founder of Wondros, drives social responsibility through storytelling that inspires action.
Varushka Francheschi created the gripping eco-thriller “A Crack in Everything”, in the spirit of The Year of Living Dangerously. The story was inspired by the unsettling reality of resource exploitation and environmental destruction, captured in these haunting words from Tom Chiarella in Esquire Magazine (January 2013): “There’s a gold rush going on right now. Man is breaking the earth, looking for natural gas. . . . It’s a mad scene, with hucksters on every side of the issue. And that’s just on the surface. You won’t believe what’s happening underground.”
Through science, storytelling, and media, visionaries are challenging the status quo and driving meaningful change.
Above: Post from an Episcopal priest in Canada.
Right: ARQ [Art Raising Questions]
What does the U.S. risk by appointing a Secretary of Defense accused of sexual assault and alleged abuses to his second wife, to the point where she feared for her safety? Should an angry man have his finger on the trigger that can blow up our world?
Newton Lee won the 2024 Book of the Year competition on OnlineBookClub.org for Counterterrorism and Cybersecurity: Total Information Awareness (Third Edition 2024) published by Springer Nature. Endorsement: “I would fully recommend following the author’s steps, reaching beyond our borders, making friends outside our norm, and helping to foster world peace and a better tomorrow.” — Veteran Staff Sergeant Andrew Price, U.S. Air Force
Comments on the post: Here in the US I think the same thing. It is unimaginable what is happening here. ⚠️
What is sad is that it’s happening on our watch and we’re witnessing it with our own eyes!!
How ARQ Counters Brainwashing: Forget Shorter Showers
Forget Shorter Showers brilliantly exposes how public opinion is manipulated – ARQ [Arts Raising Questions], e.g. the LA Fires were an urgent call for global action on climate change, not as an L.A. problem, a California problem, or a U.S. problem, but as a global problem. The film makes two compelling points before drawing a flawed conclusion:
- The Fossil Fuels Industry has manipulated public opinion to convince us that personal lifestyle changes alone can solve climate change, with an agenda to forestall collective action against the fossil fuels industry. The aim is to convince us that if we individually take shorter showers, carpool, recycle, donate to help fire victims etc. we can rest in peace – we’ve done our share. This film’s message is that we’ve been brainwashed by the fossil fuels industry to take individual action and NOT to initiate what’s needed – organizing collective action to stop the fossil fuels industry from exacerbating climate change and to pay for restitution.
- Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth reinforces this narrative. By emphasizing personal responsibility over confronting the fossil fuel agenda, Gore’s film unintentionally reinforces the illusion that individual actions can outweigh corporate responsibility.
- The first two compelling points are followed by the film’s flawed conclusion that all industry and technology is destroying the planet. On the contrary, a people-centered internet and sustainable innovation can contribute to saving this planet.
Despite a flawed conclusion, the film shows the power of ARQ [Arts Raising Questions] to question brainwashing, to engage diverse points of view, and to spark critical thinking, challenging mainstream narratives. Filmmaker Jordan Brown uses media as a catalyst for action and shows that raising powerful questions can launch a resistance to brainwashing that leads to change.
BRAINWASHED. The authoritarian abuse of media as a tool for control to tell us what to think.
Art Impact – Inspiring Action
The true impact of art lies in the action it inspires. Charlie Chaplin’s The Great Dictator (1940) masterfully satirized Adolf Hitler at a time when the U.S. had yet to enter World War II. and became Chaplin’s most commercially successful film, proving the power of art to challenge authoritarianism.
During the McCarthy era of the early 1950s, amidst the mass hysteria of the Second Red Scare, both Lucille Ball and Charlie Chaplin—two of the most influential comedians of their time—were targeted. Though there was no evidence against them, the goal was clear: to silence voices that challenged the status quo. Yet Chaplin’s legacy endured. As Variety wrote in his 1977 obituary, he was “recognized as the greatest comic actor in motion picture history.” His work continues to inspire movements like ARQ [Arts Raising Questions] that challenge the slide from democracy into dictatorship. The Red Scare demanded loyalty to the United States, while Trump demands loyalty to himself and his agenda. When only one point of view is allowed, democracy dies. Art has the power to resist, to question, and to keep democracy alive.
The contrasting styles of comedian Charlie Chaplin and solo independent journalist Johnny Harris, who traveled in 2022 to Korea to document the lasting impact of the Korean War, underscore the power of diverse storytelling and why Katherine Maher’s tweet resonated with millions—it championed the need for critical thinking over authoritarian control of truth.
A healthy media landscape doesn’t enforce “just one truth”—it amplifies diverse voices, crowdsourcing perspectives and raising vital questions. True understanding comes not from imposed narratives but from the freedom to explore, challenge, and debate.
Music, like media, serves as a powerful tool to raise questions. In the postwar era of the 1950s and ’60s, mathematician and musical satirist Tom Lehrer used humor to provoke thought. His song “We’ll All Go Together When We Go” brilliantly underscored the absurdity of nuclear war—an existential threat resurfacing today.
The ARQ movement asks an overarching question, Was Margaret Mead was right or not when she penned her memorable quote?
“Never doubt that small group of thoughtful, committed individuals can change the world. In fact, it’s the only thing that ever has.”
If she was right, what will those of us who want to make a difference do next?
CBS spotlighted Don’t Choose Extinction, a collaboration between the United Nations, UNDP, Jack Black, and Climate Action, which garnered millions of views. Though it did not halt the onslaught of climate change, it was one seed for the ARQ movement, suggesting that many such seeds, collected and disseminated, can have a synergistic impact.
