5 ms·

Tribe is a fantastic book that goes into this, fundamentally most humans exist best when they have some form of status in their community. This could be as sim

Tribe is a fantastic book that goes into this, fundamentally most humans exist best when they have some form of status in their community. This could be as simple as a small community club where your assigned a role like treasurer or something, my grandmother did this when she was young. People actually know you and care about your problems . For various reasons, these groups just aren't as significant anymore. There's not a really good solution to this. I'm lucky enough to be in a game dev group, and I do have my bar that I go to every now and then, but aside from that I'm not really a part of any small organizations. I haven't been to church in decades, but arguably that's why most people actually go. It's not because you imagine God is taking attendance, but it's the joy of being around other people. Historically most people stayed in the same town from cradle to grave, maybe you would move for work, or marriage, but for the most part you just stayed put.

azemetre 1y ago
I've recently finished Tribe by Sebastian Junger. I highly recommend it as well.
- 999900000999 1y ago
  I have the audiobook. From start to finish it's fantastic. It's not a highly scientific work though, it's more of an observation mixed with some autobiographical touches.
  - azemetre 1y ago
    Gonna sound lame but the passages that really moved me were those in the beginning talking about the Native American interactions with European colonists, how some colonist couldn't stand their lifestyles and found a home with the Native Americans. Also the section on war, how British officials thought the blitz would dissolve the people into barbarism when the opposite happened. Couple this with declining third spaces and a government that increasingly does not care about people's mental health, something has to change and it's not like it would be hard to start public jobs programs again or encourage more civic engagement via workplace democracy.
pessimizer 1y ago
There was an explosion of these little groups in the US after the 1st edition of Robert's Rules of Order was published, which incidentally was also heavily adopted by churches (and women's suffrage groups, who helped him with the Newly Revised.) I'd say this fulmination culminated in FDR and strong unions, aspects of both made illegal afterwards - term limits to limit democracy, striking made into a kabuki ritual by the NLRB, unions being forbidden from offering their members health insurance (they're the ones who started doing this), but employers offering insurance being subsidized. Elites were so terrified that they got close to pulling a coup and installing a dictator with the Business Plot (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Plot https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Plot). They got everything tight again with WWII, McCarthy and the Cold War, though. Lucky, right? I think there has been an intentional effort to isolate people from each other, and to destroy communities, and even make them look suspicious or evil in some way. Isolated, atomized people are more easily controlled. I think the encouragement of labor mobility and the trashing of small towns and small business in favor of the internet has also been an intentional effort in that regard. I also think there has been an intentional effort to consolidate media and merge it with government, which reached a frenzy during the Biden administration. Oracle's nepo baby is going to have Paramount, CBS, Tiktok, and who knows what else. An evil antidemocratic streak has been encouraged among the "left," who now love benevolent dictators, credentialism, and decision by "consent" which immediately devolves into rule by the loudest and the whiniest cluster B personality or sociopath. Votes mean that you don't get your way a lot, but you get stuff done. If you don't get your way too much, you can just leave and join a group that works for you. Monopoly, and rule by anointment take that away from us, and that's what's happening. It's been devastating for black Americans. Our media used to be vibrant and exciting, now it doesn't exist at all. This is the fate of all minorities under cultural consolidation. Alone, getting your directions from a screen, with the screen listening to any conversation you manage to have and reporting it to your rulers. They'll eventually go after the churches, too, or consolidate them. I'm sorry, they'll go after the "christofascists."
- DangitBobby 1y ago
  Now do the right.
- hudon 1y ago

azemetre 1y ago

I've recently finished Tribe by Sebastian Junger. I highly recommend it as well.

999900000999 1y ago
I have the audiobook. From start to finish it's fantastic. It's not a highly scientific work though, it's more of an observation mixed with some autobiographical touches.
- azemetre 1y ago
  Gonna sound lame but the passages that really moved me were those in the beginning talking about the Native American interactions with European colonists, how some colonist couldn't stand their lifestyles and found a home with the Native Americans. Also the section on war, how British officials thought the blitz would dissolve the people into barbarism when the opposite happened. Couple this with declining third spaces and a government that increasingly does not care about people's mental health, something has to change and it's not like it would be hard to start public jobs programs again or encourage more civic engagement via workplace democracy.

pessimizer 1y ago

There was an explosion of these little groups in the US after the 1st edition of Robert's Rules of Order was published, which incidentally was also heavily adopted by churches (and women's suffrage groups, who helped him with the Newly Revised.) I'd say this fulmination culminated in FDR and strong unions, aspects of both made illegal afterwards - term limits to limit democracy, striking made into a kabuki ritual by the NLRB, unions being forbidden from offering their members health insurance (they're the ones who started doing this), but employers offering insurance being subsidized. Elites were so terrified that they got close to pulling a coup and installing a dictator with the Business Plot (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Plot https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Plot). They got everything tight again with WWII, McCarthy and the Cold War, though. Lucky, right? I think there has been an intentional effort to isolate people from each other, and to destroy communities, and even make them look suspicious or evil in some way. Isolated, atomized people are more easily controlled. I think the encouragement of labor mobility and the trashing of small towns and small business in favor of the internet has also been an intentional effort in that regard. I also think there has been an intentional effort to consolidate media and merge it with government, which reached a frenzy during the Biden administration. Oracle's nepo baby is going to have Paramount, CBS, Tiktok, and who knows what else. An evil antidemocratic streak has been encouraged among the "left," who now love benevolent dictators, credentialism, and decision by "consent" which immediately devolves into rule by the loudest and the whiniest cluster B personality or sociopath. Votes mean that you don't get your way a lot, but you get stuff done. If you don't get your way too much, you can just leave and join a group that works for you. Monopoly, and rule by anointment take that away from us, and that's what's happening. It's been devastating for black Americans. Our media used to be vibrant and exciting, now it doesn't exist at all. This is the fate of all minorities under cultural consolidation. Alone, getting your directions from a screen, with the screen listening to any conversation you manage to have and reporting it to your rulers. They'll eventually go after the churches, too, or consolidate them. I'm sorry, they'll go after the "christofascists."

DangitBobby 1y ago
Now do the right.
hudon 1y ago