The Age of Reason.

Australia officially came into being on January 1st 1901 when the states amalgamated to form the federation.
As such Australia and its constitution are children of the Enlightenment with its emphasis on reason and its separation of Church and State.

Australia is a modernist nation.

So Australia has grown up with a mechanistic view of nature and a materialist view of life.
Government is a social contract of self interests.

We were taught in school to view the world as a mechanical whirl of dead matter. God was distant - in heaven.  There was no life in inanimate objects.  There was no meaning in the world.

This has led to the modern experience of alienation.  The lack of meaning that the triumphant ego learns.  There was no great plan.  There were no supernatural beings.  Everything could be explained by science.

But with the advent of post-modernism everyone seems to have become disenchanted with these answers.
No one really believes them anymore but no one knows what to believe instead.
There is a philosophical vacuum.

There are random manifestations like a belief in magic or witchcraft, which seeks to impose the ego's will over reality, but the almost universal aversion to institutionalized religion has left the masses with nowhere to go.

Idealism wells up like a flood.

Suddenly it begins to appear on the internet as activist sites.
And thousands are subscribing.

This is an outlet for pent up idealism.

The collective power of the internet is able to express anonymously our desire to change things.
A desire which is denied us in our work, where we have to conform to the secular materialist philosophy of our almighty employers.

It is notable that many of these campaigns concern the environment and ways of preserving it.
This is post-modern spirituality - idealism and environmentalism.
It is individual and collective.
The internet provides an outlet for our our frustrated spirituality.

Here we can see interconnectedness, community with like minds, freedom, and action.
A new philosophy?

The collective aspects of the internet give it great power.
At last we can see the larger picture.

Is this a vision of a greater plan?

Is the new paradigm appearing here as well?

The internet empowers our idealism.

The larger, transpersonal principles appearing on the internet are:
Environmentalism.
Social Justice.
Egalitarianism.
Humanitarianism.
Compassion.
Generosity.
Human rights.

This would indicate a more political kind of spirituality - one which engages actively with the world and its powers.