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i'm wondering if the tighter control of information (i.e. the firewall) makes this alternate modality uniquely resilient to some types of failure. it may not h
by disantlor 10y ago
i'm wondering if the tighter control of information (i.e. the firewall) makes this alternate modality uniquely resilient to some types of failure.
it may not have the same upside potential but perhaps it can lumber along under its own momentum. maybe even create enough illusion of momentum to weather dips that might otherwise be more detrimental.
to the extent it might need to evolve to be more democratic it could do so in a way to give the illusion of choice but the freedom to choose between false options isn't much of a choice.
clearly i'm feeling a bit cynical after this election cycle. yikes.
anyway i thought your comment was interesting and it got me thinking.
- warcher 10y agoI'm old enough to remember when Japan was gonna take over the whole world. They did great, by the by, but hit some real cultural problems and stalled. Still doing fine, but definitely plateaued. I'd expect China to do something like that, although I question whether their totalitarian state is going to be able to hold together if growth peters out. When a bad year is 4% growth, people are remarkably tolerant of the government doing whatever. In lean years, not so much. And honestly, as bitchy and entitled as the American middle class is, they're the folks that demand progress and reform. Lacking a group of people with that level on initiative I think would be self-limiting in terms of what you could get out of your economy. They need to move up the value chain to keep going, and the kinds of people that do that are kind of pushy as a rule.