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I'm left wondering who the hell is driving all of this corporate theater? What is this reality distortion field that makes us feel like it is an inevitable fact

I'm left wondering who the hell is driving all of this corporate theater? What is this reality distortion field that makes us feel like it is an inevitable fact of life that these leaders can only communicate in banal, unactionable platitudes? At risk of shilling a bit, Whatifalthist posted an interesting video today "Understanding Modern Civilization" [1]. It's a longer critique of modernity, but I particularly liked the discussion of why the managerial elite came to power. In modernity, the lack of life or death pressure, social mobility, plus the gameability of metrics / systems used to determine who has power (ie. ivy league and big 4 consultancy pedigree vs inherited power back in the day) has made our leadership subject to the same foibles that affected Chinese mandarins historically: corruption and a focus on appearances over the details of actual execution. So yeah, Sundar is one of our modern mandarins. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SjMVJrmhh8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SjMVJrmhh8

esperent 3y ago
Interesting take, I'll watch the video later. One important note is that there's a big difference between our culture and historical Chinese culture - and basically all powerful cultures that have existed before now. That is, the flexibility and rapid change of the system itself. It's not just upward mobility of people, it's upward mobility of companies and rapid systemic change, driven by technology and cultural shifts. Think about the difference between our society, and the 80s, the 50s, the 30s. There's never been a period like this before, so making comparisons to previous cultures is of limited utility and that needs to be noted when making the comparisons. We might think of Google as a never-ending behemoth with incredible power because in our recent lifetimes it's been that way. But the reality is that the company has only existed for ~26 years and if it truly slips up it could be a shadow of itself in another five years. Something else would jump into the power vacuum and our society would barely blink, except for a million articles with titles like "What happened to Google?" being written.
- sifar 3y ago
  I believe bureaucratic structures at scale are the same irrespective of cultures.
redrove 3y ago
>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SjMVJrmhh8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SjMVJrmhh8 I've watched the whole thing with great attention. There's some thoughts about "modernism" drawn from other books that the author cites that are worth exploring if you have an interest in history/anthropology. Somewhere in the middle the author's own theory starts protruding through. I'll save everyone the 66 minutes: at the end of the video the author claims the CIA conclusively proved you can travel to the spirit world. This is really all you need to know. I would rate this as a crock of shit, go read the books if you're interested in the topic, but skip the video.
- cpeterso 3y ago
  For those downvoting, the video really does cite the CIA’s 1980s research into astral projection and the “Gateway Experience”, asserting it is “all correct”. https://www.vice.com/en/article/7k9qag/how-to-escape-the-confines-of-time-and-space-according-to-the-cia https://www.vice.com/en/article/7k9qag/how-to-escape-the-con...

esperent 3y ago

Interesting take, I'll watch the video later. One important note is that there's a big difference between our culture and historical Chinese culture - and basically all powerful cultures that have existed before now. That is, the flexibility and rapid change of the system itself. It's not just upward mobility of people, it's upward mobility of companies and rapid systemic change, driven by technology and cultural shifts. Think about the difference between our society, and the 80s, the 50s, the 30s. There's never been a period like this before, so making comparisons to previous cultures is of limited utility and that needs to be noted when making the comparisons. We might think of Google as a never-ending behemoth with incredible power because in our recent lifetimes it's been that way. But the reality is that the company has only existed for ~26 years and if it truly slips up it could be a shadow of itself in another five years. Something else would jump into the power vacuum and our society would barely blink, except for a million articles with titles like "What happened to Google?" being written.

sifar 3y ago
I believe bureaucratic structures at scale are the same irrespective of cultures.

redrove 3y ago

>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SjMVJrmhh8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SjMVJrmhh8 I've watched the whole thing with great attention. There's some thoughts about "modernism" drawn from other books that the author cites that are worth exploring if you have an interest in history/anthropology. Somewhere in the middle the author's own theory starts protruding through. I'll save everyone the 66 minutes: at the end of the video the author claims the CIA conclusively proved you can travel to the spirit world. This is really all you need to know. I would rate this as a crock of shit, go read the books if you're interested in the topic, but skip the video.

cpeterso 3y ago
For those downvoting, the video really does cite the CIA’s 1980s research into astral projection and the “Gateway Experience”, asserting it is “all correct”. https://www.vice.com/en/article/7k9qag/how-to-escape-the-confines-of-time-and-space-according-to-the-cia https://www.vice.com/en/article/7k9qag/how-to-escape-the-con...