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I've said to my friends that I think America is in a strange place in history, where bread and circuses have become industrialized enough to truly anesthetize p

by acabal 5y ago

I've said to my friends that I think America is in a strange place in history, where bread and circuses have become industrialized enough to truly anesthetize people's political will. People have Netflix, the Internet, and video games all cheap and at the touch of a button; opioids, antidepressants, and illicit drugs are socially acceptable and easily obtained, sometimes even at a government subsidy; and almost nobody is physically starving or lacking rudimentary shelter (even the poor in America are fed, clothed, and housed to an extent almost unimaginable compared to the shattering destitution experienced in most of human history). This was not the case in the past, when so many more people were subject to backbreaking manual farm and industrial labor, the real chance of starvation, malnutrition, or outright poisoning from unregulated industrialized food, cramped conditions in drafty, moldy buildings, grim disease, and worst of all, nothing to distract you from it all. One's free time was spent thinking about how unfair it all was, not watching TV. When people are stuck at the bottom of Maslow's pyramid, they have nothing better to do then get mad and start rioting. But as long as the bread and circuses continue to be effective, the will to riot in the streets is gone. Who cares if a billionaire sneaks in a second yacht on the side? I can just open a bag of Doritos I bought for pennies and switch to the Kardashians. The strange thing is, would we not consider this positive progress?

xtracto 5y ago
And it's not only in the USA. For the last 15 years I have seen my country Mexico fall deep into violence, killings, narco state, blatant corruption and abuse from the people in the government. And nothing happens... Time and time again someone I the "high society " gets killed, there are a couple of marches and everything stays the same. It's as if the actual majority of the population was fine living in this shithole. It's so depressing.
qeternity 5y ago
Brilliant comment, my sentiments exactly. Just to add on: I also believe that this is why we see virtue signaling so strongly today. The impact of one’s actions is quite secondary, for all the reasons you mention. So the illusion of change is just another circus for the mind to pass another hour. I still think we live in the greatest point in time in human history, but this is a super interesting and equally concerning possibility.
fwip 5y ago
A lot of people also have, arguably, less control over their circumstances than ever before. Many Americans are effectively wage-slaves - unable to quit their jobs, because they rely on the income and have nearly no savings. Rent has to be paid. Food has to be bought. Car insurance, taxes, dentist appointments - you can't stop making money, because you can't stop paying money. Moving costs an up-front investment that you don't have. Land is expensive, and even if you had the skills to build your own lodging, it has to be up to code. Pivoting to self-employment might seem easy in the age of Uber, but the reality is that it is incredibly difficult to earn yourself a living without playing by somebody else's rules. In the past, you could decide to earn a living as a fisherman simply by fishing and selling your catch. Handy with a hammer? Supplement your income on an ad-hoc basis by helping out your neighbors. The stress of dealing with everyday life can be so overwhelming that the only thing a person has juice left for at the end of the day is turning on the television, scrolling twitter, and eating those Doritos. And that television (and even twitter) isn't telling you any ways out of the invisible, ubiquitous cycle you're stuck in.
- gen220 5y ago
  I’ve been reading some oral histories from early/mid-20th century, midcoast Maine in the last month. One theme is scarcity (and the ingenuity borne of it). People didn’t have a lot, so they needed to be clever with what they had. They worked incredibly hard, and invented/sought out tools to make their lives physically easier. They toiled for most of their lives, but they saw their known tool get easier as time went on (upgrading from jute to nylon netting, hydraulic winches instead of manual cranks, sonar instead of trial and error). The people who worked (what seemed to me to be) the worst jobs had a common refrain: “the best thing about X is nobody tells me to do <hard thing> at <unreasonable time> in <unreasonable conditions>. I’m my own boss, make my own decisions, and it keeps me happy.” They owned all the highs, lows, and war stories of business ownership. Also, a fun anecdote. They asked one guy “what would you tell somebody young who’s new into fishing?” He thought hard, then said “I would tell them to study hard and become a doctor or a lawyer or something, if they’re interested in money”. Made me chuckle! Anyways, this is to say that it’s always been hard to seek out self employment or total self sufficiency. Generally, you could always trade off comfort for autonomy [1]. Nowadays, we as a society have made inhabiting that material discomfort nearly illegal, as you imply. We raised the floor of material suffering, but the emotional and psychological floor is only elastically attached to that material floor, with an elasticity coefficient that seems to vary widely from person to person. It seems to have been a monotonic transformation so far, but time will tell. [1]: https://www.granolashotgun.com/granolashotguncom/hp5pmb0n95ut9hyeatewotgd2n1ebr https://www.granolashotgun.com/granolashotguncom/hp5pmb0n95u...
roenxi 5y ago
There is a much easier theory. Democracy converges to an acceptable situation really quickly, then sits there. If people are happy with the status quo, and it turns out that they were wrong about the nature of that status quo ... that still isn't necessarily a reason to do anything.

by acabal 5y ago

xtracto 5y ago

And it's not only in the USA. For the last 15 years I have seen my country Mexico fall deep into violence, killings, narco state, blatant corruption and abuse from the people in the government. And nothing happens... Time and time again someone I the "high society " gets killed, there are a couple of marches and everything stays the same. It's as if the actual majority of the population was fine living in this shithole. It's so depressing.

qeternity 5y ago

Brilliant comment, my sentiments exactly. Just to add on: I also believe that this is why we see virtue signaling so strongly today. The impact of one’s actions is quite secondary, for all the reasons you mention. So the illusion of change is just another circus for the mind to pass another hour. I still think we live in the greatest point in time in human history, but this is a super interesting and equally concerning possibility.

fwip 5y ago

A lot of people also have, arguably, less control over their circumstances than ever before. Many Americans are effectively wage-slaves - unable to quit their jobs, because they rely on the income and have nearly no savings. Rent has to be paid. Food has to be bought. Car insurance, taxes, dentist appointments - you can't stop making money, because you can't stop paying money. Moving costs an up-front investment that you don't have. Land is expensive, and even if you had the skills to build your own lodging, it has to be up to code. Pivoting to self-employment might seem easy in the age of Uber, but the reality is that it is incredibly difficult to earn yourself a living without playing by somebody else's rules. In the past, you could decide to earn a living as a fisherman simply by fishing and selling your catch. Handy with a hammer? Supplement your income on an ad-hoc basis by helping out your neighbors. The stress of dealing with everyday life can be so overwhelming that the only thing a person has juice left for at the end of the day is turning on the television, scrolling twitter, and eating those Doritos. And that television (and even twitter) isn't telling you any ways out of the invisible, ubiquitous cycle you're stuck in.

gen220 5y ago
I’ve been reading some oral histories from early/mid-20th century, midcoast Maine in the last month. One theme is scarcity (and the ingenuity borne of it). People didn’t have a lot, so they needed to be clever with what they had. They worked incredibly hard, and invented/sought out tools to make their lives physically easier. They toiled for most of their lives, but they saw their known tool get easier as time went on (upgrading from jute to nylon netting, hydraulic winches instead of manual cranks, sonar instead of trial and error). The people who worked (what seemed to me to be) the worst jobs had a common refrain: “the best thing about X is nobody tells me to do <hard thing> at <unreasonable time> in <unreasonable conditions>. I’m my own boss, make my own decisions, and it keeps me happy.” They owned all the highs, lows, and war stories of business ownership. Also, a fun anecdote. They asked one guy “what would you tell somebody young who’s new into fishing?” He thought hard, then said “I would tell them to study hard and become a doctor or a lawyer or something, if they’re interested in money”. Made me chuckle! Anyways, this is to say that it’s always been hard to seek out self employment or total self sufficiency. Generally, you could always trade off comfort for autonomy [1]. Nowadays, we as a society have made inhabiting that material discomfort nearly illegal, as you imply. We raised the floor of material suffering, but the emotional and psychological floor is only elastically attached to that material floor, with an elasticity coefficient that seems to vary widely from person to person. It seems to have been a monotonic transformation so far, but time will tell. [1]: https://www.granolashotgun.com/granolashotguncom/hp5pmb0n95ut9hyeatewotgd2n1ebr https://www.granolashotgun.com/granolashotguncom/hp5pmb0n95u...

roenxi 5y ago

There is a much easier theory. Democracy converges to an acceptable situation really quickly, then sits there. If people are happy with the status quo, and it turns out that they were wrong about the nature of that status quo ... that still isn't necessarily a reason to do anything.