3 ms·

It’s on the front page of nearly every major news source nearly every week, it’s pretty hard not to notice. It’s not like people don’t realize something is goin

by briga 5y ago

It’s on the front page of nearly every major news source nearly every week, it’s pretty hard not to notice. It’s not like people don’t realize something is going on, most just don’t want to think about it that hard. And can you blame them? The average person has approximately no impact on global climate change.

anoplus 5y ago
Yes, most people are aware of it. But the common comment I get from people is that it's not going to disrupt our lives very soon. And I bet the disruption will come much faster than they think
howaboutnope 5y ago
> It’s on the front page of nearly every major news source nearly every week It also gets flagged off the front page with regularity, as was this thread. And no, I don't blame the average person. I blame those who disenfranchised and infantilised the average person in the pursuit of profit and power, and the intellectuals who played cheerleaders for it. > FROMM: Like for instance, that we are confronted with the possibility of a war of such destruction that the whole existence of our nation and of the whole world is at stake. And yet, people know it - people read it in the newspapers, people read that at the first attack, a hundred million Americans might be killed.And yet, they talk about it as if they were talking about something being wrong with the carburetor of their car, perhaps. Actually, they have paid more attention to the danger of a flu epidemic than to the danger of the atomic bomb, because... > WALLACE: Don't you think that's a little overstatement, Dr. Fromm? > FROMM: Well, I wish it were, because what I see is relatively few people who experience, who feel, the danger, which we are threatened with, and who feel the responsibility of doing something about it. > WALLACE: Or maybe, when you talk about the responsibility of doing something, maybe it simply is this: that we find it very difficult to make ourselves felt in this amorphous society in which we live. Each individual would want to do something but would find it difficult to make himself felt. > FROMM: Well, I think here you point out to one, really, of the basic defects of our system: that the individual citizen has very little possibility of having any influence - of making his opinion felt in the decision-making. And I think that, in itself, leads to a good deal of political lethargy and stupidity. It is true that one has to think first and then to act -but it's also true that if one has no possibility of acting, one's thinking kind of becomes empty and stupid. -- Erich Fromm, "The Mike Wallace Interview", 25th of May 1958 (!) And then that "stupidity" is used to justify even more of what created it. It's a constant refrain on HN too, where "the average user" is used to excuse all sorts of shitty software and reduction of options. It's like saying that someone is too weak to go for a walk, so they should remain in bed until their muscles got stronger. We do this all over the place, in all sorts of areas, and have been at it for decades.

by briga 5y ago

anoplus 5y ago

Yes, most people are aware of it. But the common comment I get from people is that it's not going to disrupt our lives very soon. And I bet the disruption will come much faster than they think

howaboutnope 5y ago

> It’s on the front page of nearly every major news source nearly every week It also gets flagged off the front page with regularity, as was this thread. And no, I don't blame the average person. I blame those who disenfranchised and infantilised the average person in the pursuit of profit and power, and the intellectuals who played cheerleaders for it. > FROMM: Like for instance, that we are confronted with the possibility of a war of such destruction that the whole existence of our nation and of the whole world is at stake. And yet, people know it - people read it in the newspapers, people read that at the first attack, a hundred million Americans might be killed.And yet, they talk about it as if they were talking about something being wrong with the carburetor of their car, perhaps. Actually, they have paid more attention to the danger of a flu epidemic than to the danger of the atomic bomb, because... > WALLACE: Don't you think that's a little overstatement, Dr. Fromm? > FROMM: Well, I wish it were, because what I see is relatively few people who experience, who feel, the danger, which we are threatened with, and who feel the responsibility of doing something about it. > WALLACE: Or maybe, when you talk about the responsibility of doing something, maybe it simply is this: that we find it very difficult to make ourselves felt in this amorphous society in which we live. Each individual would want to do something but would find it difficult to make himself felt. > FROMM: Well, I think here you point out to one, really, of the basic defects of our system: that the individual citizen has very little possibility of having any influence - of making his opinion felt in the decision-making. And I think that, in itself, leads to a good deal of political lethargy and stupidity. It is true that one has to think first and then to act -but it's also true that if one has no possibility of acting, one's thinking kind of becomes empty and stupid. -- Erich Fromm, "The Mike Wallace Interview", 25th of May 1958 (!) And then that "stupidity" is used to justify even more of what created it. It's a constant refrain on HN too, where "the average user" is used to excuse all sorts of shitty software and reduction of options. It's like saying that someone is too weak to go for a walk, so they should remain in bed until their muscles got stronger. We do this all over the place, in all sorts of areas, and have been at it for decades.