I grew up immersed in the hacker ethos. It's hard for me to see myself clearly, with respect to the rest of society. As a geek, I was bullied and beat up a lot

I grew up immersed in the hacker ethos. It's hard for me to see myself clearly, with respect to the rest of society. As a geek, I was bullied and beat up a lot. It's so weird to me that the geeks won. I can barely grasp it. -- Historian Jill Lepore also has a very interesting take on Stewart Brand. How the counter culture technotopian's views came to dominate our society. Lepore's insights compliment the views of Neil Postman (Technopoly), Ullman, Mara, and so many others. This article has a fair roundup as a starting point. https://lithub.com/understanding-the-pervasive-influence-of-silicon-valley-on-peter-thiel-and-the-sprawling-history-of-the-tech-industry/ https://lithub.com/understanding-the-pervasive-influence-of-... -- Most interesting to me is when disconnected trends (cycles) overlap. Especially from 1980 thru 2010, the stretch where I became politically aware and activated. There's always more to the story. The rejection of bureaucracy, experts, technocrats. How the middle class parted from the working class. How polling broke machine politics. How anxiety due to technological progress and "infoglut" (1980's term) begat a backlash. The economic transition from production to services, especially financialization and explosion of consumer debt. How "disintermediation" actually just replaced one set of gatekeepers with another. How "rebel" cultures are always coopted by entrenched interests. Etc, ad nauseum. -- Despite everything, I'm actually more optimistic every day. Society will continue to convulse and spasm for some time. The rate of technological progress, so therefore the disruption to established power relationships, isn't slowing down any time soon. But with every cycle, the cultural transmission of information improves. So humanity's capacity for self reflection, to learn from experience and each other, continues to improve. Of course, the inevitable backlash and reactionary spaz attacks will suck. Yet somehow our children and grandchildren will pull thru.