Pancasila in the Runaway World of Globalisation and the Digital Revolution

In Runaway World (1999), Anthony Giddens describes the modern world as one that moves very quickly, difficult to control, and constantly changing due to globalisation and technological advancements. The title ‘Runaway World’ does not imply apocalypse or total destruction, but rather a world changing faster than humans and social institutions can adapt. B. Herry Priyono, S.J., translated the title into Indonesian as ‘dunia yang tunggang-langgang’.

Giddens argues that globalisation is not merely an economic issue but a process transforming nearly all dimensions of human life: family, identity, culture, politics, work, and even how humans understand themselves. Globalisation is not just an external phenomenon far away, but one that touches the existential dimensions of human existence. Today, due to the digital revolution, our world has become increasingly interconnected and digitised. In this context, Eka Darmaputera’s earlier efforts in ‘Pancasila and The Search for Identity and Modernity’ (1982) become highly relevant for positioning Pancasila as an anchor of identity in a globally digitised modern world.

Globalisation today no longer manifests primarily through merchant ships, satellite television, or popular cultural penetration as in the 1990s. Instead, it operates more subtly and intensely through algorithms, social media, artificial intelligence, digital platforms, and global data flows that function almost continuously. Whereas once humans entered globalisation consciously through specific economic and cultural interactions, now humans live within globalisation itself. Daily life has become the space where globalisation operates permanently. How people read news, build personal identity, consume culture, form social relationships, and understand political reality are increasingly shaped by global digital networks.

In this situation, globalisation no longer feels like something ‘coming from outside’ but has merged into the rhythm of modern daily life. Digital worlds blur geographical, cultural, and temporal boundaries. A young person in Jakarta can follow Korean music trends, discuss Middle East geopolitical conflicts, buy products from China via e-commerce, and build their identity through American social media platforms all at once. What was once understood as local space is constantly influenced by real-time global dynamics. Giddens calls this condition ‘the intensification of world social relations’, a situation where local life is increasingly shaped by global events and vice versa. The current digital revolution enables this ‘intensification of world social relations’ through increasingly sophisticated devices and faster internet services.

Insights into the information technology revolution can also be viewed through Manuel Castells’ perspective, particularly his work The Rise of the Network Society (1996). Castells argues that the development of computers, the internet, telecommunications, and digital networks has not only produced new communication tools but also birthed a new form of society he calls the network society. When Castells conceived the network society, the internet was emerging as a global public communication infrastructure in the mid-1990s, as the world transitioned from industrial to information society.

Castells observed that this new society is not built primarily on geographical proximity or traditional institutions but on global digital information networks. What was once an embryo then has evolved far more radically through social media, algorithms, artificial intelligence, and digital platforms shaping contemporary society.

Amidst optimism about progress in globalisation and the digital revolution, concerns about identity, both individual and societal, also arise. Both Giddens and Castells note that modernity and globalisation have made human identity increasingly fluid. According to Giddens, in modern society, identity is no longer inherited through tradition but must be continuously constructed by individuals (the reflexive project of the self). Castells, meanwhile, sees modern society as formed between the bipolar opposition of global digital networks (the Net) and the human self (the Self).

At the first meeting of BPUPK (Preparatory Committee for Indonesian Independence) on 1 June 1945, Sukarno answered the question posed by the session leader, Dr. K.R.T. Radjiman Wedyodiningrat, ‘What will be the foundation of the independent Indonesian state we are to form?’ Sukarno clearly and firmly stated that the state’s foundation is Pancasila (the philosophical foundation). In his argument about Pancasila before the BPUPK session, Sukarno also referred to Pancasila as a Weltanschauung, a worldview. This worldview determines how subjects—individuals or societies—exist.

In the context of a modern society with increasingly fluid identities, the concept of Weltanschauung is crucial because humans cannot live without a horizon of meaning. Digital modernity offers vast freedom for individuals to shape themselves, yet simultaneously generates anxiety.