Last edited Sun Jan 31, 2021, 04:03 AM - Edit history (2)
The sad reality is that actually following environmental news, animal welfare or poverty is depressing when you are a nobody.
Whereas following lunatics-reformed or other is frightening but less depressing. I was reading a really good and substantive book called "The Age of Surveillance Capitalism" but had to put it away 3/4th of the way because it was depressing me so much. And this in spite of how necessary it was for me re: real awareness. But if something makes you feel hopeless, it has to be put away at least temporarily.
I will pick it up again later. It was such a good book.
A few years ago I saw a Guardian poll of either labor voters or Corbyn supporters. And they were categorized as generally: 1) female, 2) either vegetarian or was it concerned about animal welfare? Something like that, 3)environmentalists concerned about climate change, 4) concerned about labor or other progressive causes and 5) depressed.
I couldn't help noticing the obvious - which was that if you were seriously concerned about points 1-4, you would probably be depressed. Not everyone is going to be able to turn that angst into a profession or take action in any effective way outside of small potatoes activism. So it seems likely that people like these would get depressed and hopeless.
But narcotising oneself with immersion in a lunatic and only occasionally deeply scary world is dissociating (all the real problems remain). No exit really.
I think wonky solutions aside, we do need a cultural shift where we eschew the optimism of robber barrons. Real change is hard and grueling. It takes years to see when something was worthwhile and while people should eschew the religious notion of difficulty (which involves maniacally stupid trials and tribulations), the kind of optimism that leads to "get rich quick" schemes that a pirate might relish, is another black hole of suckiness.
There are controversies and controversies. There are these moronic nontroversies like qanon and there is stuff that should be completely non-controversial in a sane society. But because we are a species that likes all the "goodies" of science but eschew the responsibility that should come with the power to wield advanced tech, what would be pragmatism for an evolved species (that would at least not parasitize its host planet and self destruct), is seen as radical.
I see this over and over. Educated people - trained in science, engineering or medicine with some skills. But dig a little a deeper and their true inner core is based on religion and their decision making reflects a combination of that and corporate pr "optimism". If you want to have nutball views in private, it is one thing. But it is unsurprising to me that people like these build a world that is decoupled from many realities. We are a bit like a cancer on the planet-quite far from homeostasis and I cannot see that analogy as extreme or qanon like, though a more conservative person might.
Education should be focused on teaching children that with great power (the use of science and tech) comes great responsibility. The pragmatism of a large number of basically deeply religious people might not necessarily be true pragmatism.
It is too late with older people tied to tradition and religion. But younger people who will deal with the fallout of deregulated capitalism, corruption and the thoughtless plundering of all planetary resources, should at least occasionally be exposed to truly pragmatic ideas, over the shallow swill that is the norm.
I am not sure if that breaks community rules as it is critical of religion. I hope it isn't quite that, so I am leaving it. I think religious beliefs should be attacked some by the non-religious. They are the source of many of our problems-especially when coupled with deregulated capitalism. Magical thinking....
Anyway the next election is 2 years away. I am not sure if there is anything to the Overton Window, but this seems like the time to put this out there. Our problems as a species will multiply with the moronic trajectory we are usually on. I see it as a good sign though that they are teaching stuff like "planetary health" these days.
I wish we could set individual superstitious views aside and reach a consensus on stuff based not in religion but reality.
Along those lines, I think all these conservative nutbags are throwing a red herring out there (as is typical) by painting all calls for regulated capitalism as socialism or communism. There was a post about these definitions last week. Shoshana Zuboff distinguishes between parasitic surveillance capitalism (where the person whose data is extracted) is a mere object and normal capitalism which at its best is a real transaction that benefits both parties. Normal capitalism has its issues with self-regulation but at least, at its best, it offers real goods and services-as long as you have a sane society that implements labor laws, enacts environmental protections, safe-guards human/animal rights and works within a frame-work guided by rational ethics. Surveillance capitalism is pure parasitism, unless there are nutballs who would actually work with it. The problem is the assumption that significant chunk of society (not paranoid luddites but people used to democracy) would not recoil from it in disgust and horror. All the fixes with surveillance capitalism seem aimed solely at protecting the rights of the workers in that industry-not the dehumanized objects with no rights. We are now slowly extending the ethical lapses and blindness that went into our treatment of other life-forms and the environment to a largely unaware global population. I always knew that people who care little about the rights of the most voiceless are not gonna give a shit about human rights.
One reason I post here is that if I am going to have behavioral data surplus extracted anyway, I would prefer to use an outlet that is not Facebook, Google or any other large or any unknown small company. I think permissions still matter.
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, cable news would either straighten up or dry up and blow away.
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