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> Every advocate of Progress I've read or spoken to sees it as managing and extracting value from other people - and not establishing a basic stability from whi
by derevaunseraun 4y ago
> Every advocate of Progress I've read or spoken to sees it as managing and extracting value from other people - and not establishing a basic stability from which others can be free to actualize and thrive. Even basic income is really about putting the managers of such a scheme at the centre of it, and it's to the point where even the very word 'free' is triggering. I'd argue that belief in Progress is not a benevolent, charitable, or altruistic sentiment.
A lot of people talk about progress in this way, but it's really just their own aggression expressed in ideological form
But I do think that progress is an actual thing: just look at what the printing press accomplished, and what the internet is in the process of accomplishing. I think that making more information accessible at a lower cost is the core of progress. Who knows where this will take us, but it's made certain things possible that were not possible before. Life expectancies are also longer than they've been. But this kind of progress isn't a moral imperative like the political kind. It's just something that happens as a result of production
- mantas 4y agoWe got internet and then we got social media. Is progress necessary evil or sometimes a dead end?
- wyre 4y agoThe internet with survive long after social media is dead
- derevaunseraun 4y agoNot all social media is bad. Bad social media is bad
- petra 4y agoSure the internet greatly improved access to information, and definetly helped science and tech. But at what psychological costs? It has greatly reduced: stability, attention spans, empathy, being satisfied in what you have and probably greatly increased depression and anxiety. All those are key to the psychology of happiness and personal growth. And since our material well being is already good, and science and tech would still advance, it does seem that happiness and personal growth are much better indicators for progress.
- scollet 4y agoWe don't have enough people keyed into the graph. Tech is never the problem. You are saying "wow this tree has grown to block my favorite chair from the sun. I am a dumb bitch who doesn't understand how trees work. If only there was sun elsewhere. Let me cut down the tree because I cannot be creative and also I am an idiot." That is you, in my words. :)
- spacemanmatt 4y agoSounds like a pretty depressing POV to me