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There are only so many young people willing to sacrifice everything for fanatic dreams of afterlife fulfillment as payment for promises of improving the here-no
by seiji 11y ago
There are only so many young people willing to sacrifice everything for fanatic dreams of afterlife fulfillment as payment for promises of improving the here-now. Most youth, in other words, aren't that stupid.
Startups seem to be pretty good at convincing a never-ending stream of youth to surrender 500% productivity now in exchange for (usually lies about) riches in the future.
"Yeah, it's linkedfacebox, you know, a super cool startup and everybody there just works through the night because we're all so dedicated to the cause. Gotta keep crushing it so the founders can get a few billion dollars richer otherwise they won't let me cash out my 0.0001% for $3 million."
humans have limited psychological reactions to things. The "believe in a cause" bucket uses the same manipulation tools no matter if you're a startup, a cult, a thousand year old religion, or a radicalized intentional hate group with a persecution complex. You set up an enemy ("the others" / "the adversary", "disruption"), you rally your troops to beat the enemy at all costs (sacrifice yourself/your time/your health for the greater good and you will be rewarded), then perpetuate cycles of wins/losses to reinforce belief and dedication to externalized, and personally abdicated, leadership.
- seren 11y agoLast night, I was reflecting on the common point between people flocking to SV or to Syria to support Isis. I know this is pretty far fetched, but at the end, I feel both have the same kind of appeal : Stay where you are and remain an anonymous cog in the machine, or move to a place, where you will endure hardship, but where in the end you can change the world and you will create a legacy. And in both case, the reality is less rosy. This is a kind of an archetypal "Call to Adventure", but it might have another name.
- pm90 11y agoI would argue that ts the experience and not the result (I'm talking about SV of course, those that go to Syria are probably going to be dead so their experiences won't count for much).
- chongli 11y agoI'd like to think there's a key difference between losing sleep all night making the latest social media fad and raping helpless women and girls after beheading their husbands, fathers, and brothers. Between siphoning off another million with a tweak to your high-frequency-trading algorithm and shooting dozens of people to death in a concert hall.
- prawn 11y agoThat goes without saying. They're saying that the parallel means there is an endless supply of people signing up to the vision. No matter how horrible it is, people are doing it now and in the future.
- CrimsnBlade 11y agoWhat you're saying makes sense, but I think joining a radical group known for brutality and joining a company promising to make you rich are two very different things. I think the chances of youth wanting to be successful in their lifetime is far greater than that of a youth joining a group with a promise of a fantastic afterlife.