The great decoupling: How we became the Eloi
Interesting re-examination of 'The Time Machine' in the light of the Information Revolution. Maybe a stretching of the metaphor, maybe not.
https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/the-great-decoupling-how-we-became-the-eloi,21100Open linkView original on slrpnk.net
Particularly compelling.
Decades of lowering educational standards using excuses like 'job readiness', targeted destruction of attention span, ramping up the work week hours (including commute times, especially for those with multiple jobs and 'gigs') to destroy free time and make workers too exhausted for anything more than doom scrolling, like, say, organizing.
Not so much 'disuse' but a depressingly effective campaign hidden within economic 'science'. Again, the metaphor strains, it's certainly not what Wells had in mind, but the re-interpretation is chewy.
It is an odd interpretation. But as you say pertinent, but the defeatism has to stop. I think people are waking up. Educate others, hold debate on how we have been conditioned.
Rich nations with affluence can be quite a passive places, we need to get people back to being comfortable with dissent and the status quo delivered from it's challenge.
That's a thing worth making mainstream. So much has been lost.
... lost in recent like 20 years, in my childhood dissent was far more normal than now. I think it's social media, but also the commonly pursued concept of what's socially respectable, solid and real.
And dissent is, by normalization, what allows peace in society.
Truly, but also by extension, tolerance makes for a more civilized society. Especially for the different.