5 ms·

"Bubbles of comfort" are not unique to Western countries, that is true. Every country on the planet offers a subset of their population a great life style, the

by qqtt 5y ago

"Bubbles of comfort" are not unique to Western countries, that is true. Every country on the planet offers a subset of their population a great life style, the only variable is how much of the country actually gets a) to partake in that lifestyle b) has the tools to reach that lifestyle when starting outside of it Doesn't matter if you are talking about North Korea or the United States. And yes, you can find abject generational poverty in the United States as well. The fact you could post your comment puts you in the top 40% of the world (roughly 60% don't have internet access). If you have internet from a mobile phone, you are roughly in the top 50%. Are you really looking outside your bubble of comfort?

peterlk 5y ago
I similarly think that you are applying a techno-utopian lens to your analysis. My family and I have spent time with many people who did not have internet or other modern amenities (Mongolia, Mali, Burkina Faso, Kazakhstan, and several others), and your statement does not hold. It is not _entirely_ untrue, because a bacterial infection can kill you, however, the dynamics of life are just... different. People are still capable of all the emotion and fulfillment that you and I are, but life is slower, simpler, and more well-defined, so it is often easier to feel happy and fulfilled.
ryloric 5y ago
I think you missed what the parent poster might be saying, it's not about "Bubbles of Comfort". I too live in one of those countries like you put it, and while I live in the bubble to some extent, I know people who've never used internet or a smartphone/computer in their entire lives and live a decently happy stress-free life. Their lives are not nasty or brutish, they're not leading less-fulfilling lives as a result. On the contrary, I think most of them are happier, more content and wiser than me. What you might be doing I think... is making the assumption that technology, 'things' like gadgets or better cars and modern medical health is central to human life. Yes, life would objectively improve if you have those, but if I have to work 60 hours a week doing something I don't really care about, then is that really a good trade-off? I think the answer is not the same as yours for everyone.
- qqtt 5y ago
  If you want to live a nomadic disconnected lifestyle (with limited access to "technocratic" things like health care and education), you can do that almost anywhere, including Western countries. Again, the central aspect of this topic is agency. Do people choose to live that way, where they live it? And how many would choose a different lifestyle if given the same opportunities as everybody else? Yes, you can live a happy life as a nomad without any access to technology. That isn't the topic of this conversation.
  - curtainsforus 5y ago
    Not without people to do it with. And the people that the parent poster is talking about aren't nomads.
hungryforcodes 5y ago
> The fact you could post your comment puts you in the top 40% of the world (roughly 60% don't have internet access). I have by now traveled pretty much to all the continents and at this point smartphones and internet are ubiquitous. They are litterly now throwing away working second hand ones in developing nations.
- unishark 5y ago
  Doesn't that still put them within the western bubble of comfort in a sense though? It isn't much of a defense of an alternate way of life if that way of life required westerners to work hard in a different (i.e., consumer-product-based, highly-skilled, high-stress) way of life as a prerequisite.
  - hungryforcodes 5y ago
    I'm not sure what you are talking about. My original point is that the OP is wrong about internet access. Most of the world has it by now.
JKCalhoun 5y ago
> The fact you could post your comment puts you in the top 40% of the world (roughly 60% don't have internet access). Interesting: internet-access > no-internet-access

by qqtt 5y ago

peterlk 5y ago

I similarly think that you are applying a techno-utopian lens to your analysis. My family and I have spent time with many people who did not have internet or other modern amenities (Mongolia, Mali, Burkina Faso, Kazakhstan, and several others), and your statement does not hold. It is not _entirely_ untrue, because a bacterial infection can kill you, however, the dynamics of life are just... different. People are still capable of all the emotion and fulfillment that you and I are, but life is slower, simpler, and more well-defined, so it is often easier to feel happy and fulfilled.

ryloric 5y ago

I think you missed what the parent poster might be saying, it's not about "Bubbles of Comfort". I too live in one of those countries like you put it, and while I live in the bubble to some extent, I know people who've never used internet or a smartphone/computer in their entire lives and live a decently happy stress-free life. Their lives are not nasty or brutish, they're not leading less-fulfilling lives as a result. On the contrary, I think most of them are happier, more content and wiser than me. What you might be doing I think... is making the assumption that technology, 'things' like gadgets or better cars and modern medical health is central to human life. Yes, life would objectively improve if you have those, but if I have to work 60 hours a week doing something I don't really care about, then is that really a good trade-off? I think the answer is not the same as yours for everyone.

qqtt 5y ago
If you want to live a nomadic disconnected lifestyle (with limited access to "technocratic" things like health care and education), you can do that almost anywhere, including Western countries. Again, the central aspect of this topic is agency. Do people choose to live that way, where they live it? And how many would choose a different lifestyle if given the same opportunities as everybody else? Yes, you can live a happy life as a nomad without any access to technology. That isn't the topic of this conversation.
- curtainsforus 5y ago
  Not without people to do it with. And the people that the parent poster is talking about aren't nomads.

hungryforcodes 5y ago

> The fact you could post your comment puts you in the top 40% of the world (roughly 60% don't have internet access). I have by now traveled pretty much to all the continents and at this point smartphones and internet are ubiquitous. They are litterly now throwing away working second hand ones in developing nations.

unishark 5y ago
Doesn't that still put them within the western bubble of comfort in a sense though? It isn't much of a defense of an alternate way of life if that way of life required westerners to work hard in a different (i.e., consumer-product-based, highly-skilled, high-stress) way of life as a prerequisite.
- hungryforcodes 5y ago
  I'm not sure what you are talking about. My original point is that the OP is wrong about internet access. Most of the world has it by now.

JKCalhoun 5y ago

> The fact you could post your comment puts you in the top 40% of the world (roughly 60% don't have internet access). Interesting: internet-access > no-internet-access