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the concept of totalitarian democracy best reflects the present state of the US and a few other countries within the west. the US has elements of huxley, eleme

the concept of totalitarian democracy best reflects the present state of the US and a few other countries within the west. the US has elements of huxley, elements of orwell, elements of kafka, and increasingly, elements of the phildickian dystopias. there bottom line isn't quite captured by any of the above, though. the modern dystopia is defined by individual paralysis as a result of being overwhelmed the engineered political spectacle. it isn't that people are too happy to want change, nor are they too scared of death, nor are they immersed in paperwork, nor are they lost in cyberspace. they're too addled to envision a better world as anything other than a fantasy. people have been conditioned to think of the world as a stable equilibrium that is managed by their betters. in the mass imagination, the default is that the world runs itself as a result of the actions of power players who are unreachable by any of their individual or group actions-- the powers that be are on another planet, and raging against the machine on the planet that the masses live on doesn't accomplish anything. the gap between the individual and the top is simply too large to bridge in a single lifetime, and most people wouldn't have the first idea about where to start even if they were interested in reaching the "control room". that's what the impression is, anyway. the result of this passivity gives way to a culture of disconnection. politics are compartmentalized as "stuff that someone else does", and then compartmentalized even further into "stuff that happens that we as individuals shouldn't quarrel over because we can't effect it". these nested compartmentalizations within the public mind result in little action despite complaints and low standards of living. it's simply too much cognitive work to tear down the walls that are constantly socially enforced. south korea recently dumped their government via swarming the streets with millions of people until their demands were met. a similar strategy is unlikely to be executed in the US, however. the public is divided between those who still believe that they are politically empowered (the ascending right wing) and those who believe that the power elite are acting against everyone's best interest and there is no political force that can stop them (no political orientation has the monopoly on this group's membership).

KirinDave 10y ago
> there bottom line isn't quite captured by any of the above, though. the modern dystopia is defined by individual paralysis as a result of being overwhelmed the engineered political spectacle. it isn't that people are too happy to want change, nor are they too scared of death, nor are they immersed in paperwork, nor are they lost in cyberspace. they're too addled to envision a better world as anything other than a fantasy. I don't think this is the case at all in most of the west. In the US in particular, the Left's primary limiting factor is "how do we make a transition to better socioeconomic systems without further endangering the people that the current system hurts." This is a challenge that may not have an answer. And as for the Right, well, their principle limitation as we have seen is setting up an environment where they can obtain enough unilateral power to enact policies that benefit the minority they're interested in. And of course, we see elements of less strictly aligned ideology rippling around the US (it is a complicated place). > south korea recently dumped their government via swarming the streets with millions of people until their demands were met. a similar strategy is unlikely to be executed in the US, The last 8 years suggest that large scale protest action is becoming more common, not less. The mistake that big governments have given is allowing unlimited, virtual assembly of the masses as they see fit via the internet. The net result of this is that there's no practical break on internal cultural drift, and it's extremely easy to organize (or passively synchronize) efforts for maximum presence. The interesting feature of all these dystopias is a carefully mandated isolation and compartmentalization of the populace. That's precisely what we do not have. Tech, while contributing to a lot of economic problems around the world, has at least broken every social expectation and put us in a place that doesn't really fit these dystopian predictions. Which means we probably need a new one, but I don't think yours is it.
preordained 10y ago
I think you've got some good insights there...a lot of it rings true for me, anyhow. Not sure why the downvotes. They're just some thoughts, and it's the type of article that invites whimsical musing moreso than rigorous debate.
ivraatiems 10y ago
> south korea recently dumped their government via swarming the streets with millions of people until their demands were met. a similar strategy is unlikely to be executed in the US, however. the public What about the recent Women's Marches in dozens of cities across the country? What about the similar protests against, and efforts to stop the recent governmental overreach against immigrants? Heck, what about the massive anti-establishment grassroots movements (like the Tea Party) that largely contributed to the rise of the current "right" and our current President? I agree they're not as effective as the South Korean protest, but they are also smaller as a percentage of the population. It's inane to suggest that they had no impact, though.
eli_gottlieb 10y ago
>south korea recently dumped their government via swarming the streets with millions of people until their demands were met. a similar strategy is unlikely to be executed in the US, however. the public is divided between those who still believe that they are politically empowered (the ascending right wing) and those who believe that the power elite are acting against everyone's best interest and there is no political force that can stop them (no political orientation has the monopoly on this group's membership). I would have said similar until recently. Then millions of Americans started protesting, and haven't stopped.

KirinDave 10y ago

> there bottom line isn't quite captured by any of the above, though. the modern dystopia is defined by individual paralysis as a result of being overwhelmed the engineered political spectacle. it isn't that people are too happy to want change, nor are they too scared of death, nor are they immersed in paperwork, nor are they lost in cyberspace. they're too addled to envision a better world as anything other than a fantasy. I don't think this is the case at all in most of the west. In the US in particular, the Left's primary limiting factor is "how do we make a transition to better socioeconomic systems without further endangering the people that the current system hurts." This is a challenge that may not have an answer. And as for the Right, well, their principle limitation as we have seen is setting up an environment where they can obtain enough unilateral power to enact policies that benefit the minority they're interested in. And of course, we see elements of less strictly aligned ideology rippling around the US (it is a complicated place). > south korea recently dumped their government via swarming the streets with millions of people until their demands were met. a similar strategy is unlikely to be executed in the US, The last 8 years suggest that large scale protest action is becoming more common, not less. The mistake that big governments have given is allowing unlimited, virtual assembly of the masses as they see fit via the internet. The net result of this is that there's no practical break on internal cultural drift, and it's extremely easy to organize (or passively synchronize) efforts for maximum presence. The interesting feature of all these dystopias is a carefully mandated isolation and compartmentalization of the populace. That's precisely what we do not have. Tech, while contributing to a lot of economic problems around the world, has at least broken every social expectation and put us in a place that doesn't really fit these dystopian predictions. Which means we probably need a new one, but I don't think yours is it.

preordained 10y ago

I think you've got some good insights there...a lot of it rings true for me, anyhow. Not sure why the downvotes. They're just some thoughts, and it's the type of article that invites whimsical musing moreso than rigorous debate.

ivraatiems 10y ago

> south korea recently dumped their government via swarming the streets with millions of people until their demands were met. a similar strategy is unlikely to be executed in the US, however. the public What about the recent Women's Marches in dozens of cities across the country? What about the similar protests against, and efforts to stop the recent governmental overreach against immigrants? Heck, what about the massive anti-establishment grassroots movements (like the Tea Party) that largely contributed to the rise of the current "right" and our current President? I agree they're not as effective as the South Korean protest, but they are also smaller as a percentage of the population. It's inane to suggest that they had no impact, though.

eli_gottlieb 10y ago

>south korea recently dumped their government via swarming the streets with millions of people until their demands were met. a similar strategy is unlikely to be executed in the US, however. the public is divided between those who still believe that they are politically empowered (the ascending right wing) and those who believe that the power elite are acting against everyone's best interest and there is no political force that can stop them (no political orientation has the monopoly on this group's membership). I would have said similar until recently. Then millions of Americans started protesting, and haven't stopped.