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I find the discussion in the comments very interesting. Yes, we could restructure society. More than hate, what worries me is the many people that can't find a
by slx26 7y ago
I find the discussion in the comments very interesting.
Yes, we could restructure society. More than hate, what worries me is the many people that can't find a way forward in the current world and the immense amount of wasted human potential.
We live in the world with most opportunities we have ever seen, and yet we are really poor on time and spaces to develop that potential. Maybe in the past we also didn't have that much time, but nowadays the dissonance in "what could be and what is" is definitely at an all time high.
But I believe the current crisis we are facing is a good opportunity to let everyone know how fragile capitalism is. I don't say everything is terrible with capitalism, but its need for an efficient market that needs to keep growing and becoming ever more efficient has some clear downsides. First, the consumism and the general stress it causes to the population with its relentless pace. Keep finding new ways to convince people that you are giving them something valuable. Otherwise you won't be competitive enough and you will fall. The second problem is the inflexibility during times of economic deceleration. So, if we have a pandemic and we must only provide essential services, what? Why does the world need to collapse? What kind of miserable system is this?
I think we could reach a social contract where we all contribute a bit on what we need to satisfy our basic needs, without having to work endless hours in miserable shifts, treated like production machines instead of what we are, which is humans.
But without a doubt, changing society seems extremely hard at this point. It's not like anyone owns the system. The monster has already grown under its own premises, and no one really holds a key or controls it.
From my perspective, the only thing we can do is try to find ways to free more time for people, and create spaces that exist outside the capitalist system, with as little relation to money as possible. You can't really convince everyone with an ideology. We need to slowly change the dynamics under which we live, and with that progressively shift the direction to which we walk. Sadly, this only tends to happen as enough people hit the wall, and that means an astounding and unnacceptable amount of suffering.
Still, I really wonder about people's potential. I'd like to live in a world like this just to see what would we be capable of. Would it be something extraordinary, or wouldn't it be that different from what we have now? I'd really want to see it.
Reducing the problems we currently have and giving everyone more space and time to pursue whatever they feel will fill their hearts is not such a big technological / technical problem as a problem of social organization, communication and consensus.
- luxuryballs 7y agoI’d argue that it’s not capitalism that is fragile, markets are a natural phenomenon, what we are witnessing is government being very powerful and technology enabling people to communicate rapidly and effectively force the market into submission.