Hey dude, where's our future?
citizen428.net
Hey dude, where's our future?
1–10 of 28 posts
Re: Hey dude, where's our future?
#2I wonder what Francis Fukuyama is up to these days:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_End_of_History_and_the_Last...
Re: Hey dude, where's our future?
#3As far as I can tell, the 'problem' is the huge gap between reality and what is generally accepted as 'true.'
I feel very much like the author of the post, as I imagine a lot of others do. I sometimes try and hold it all in my head; the government censorship, the people hating the censorship, the ever rising power of the hacker, the large sums of money spent on designer clothing, etc.
The only way I have been able to resolve this apparent paradox (how can everyone I know be so good when the world is so bad), is to recognize explicit, intentional, and calculated 'misinformation campaigns' are fully integrated into US society.
A strong, self-reinforcing (if everyone believes, it must be true) network of truth and lies is pushed as a zeitgeist; and some probably-genetic tribal mechanism gets the dissidents ostracized from the community when they are like, "no seriously.. just look at WTC7"
Having been "off" the boob-tube and most forms of "popular entertainment" for almost a third of my life now; I have noticed my world view splitting farther and farther from that of the average uninformed, top-model watching citizen.
I would expect a very strong correlation between consumption of popular media and totally-naive world views, including any world view that gives our regime the benefit-of-the-doubt.
Re: Hey dude, where's our future?
#4The future as fallen prey of the hand-wavy notion that things will be taken care of somehow by someone. Problem is, taking action can involve hard work, spending time in jail or other unpleasant activities so when there's abuses people just let it slide.
Maybe it's cynicism, maybe cowardice or just plain laziness. Anyway, gotta get back to watch Seinfeld reruns and stuff my face.
Re: Hey dude, where's our future?
#5World peace is a pretty unrealistic goal at this point. The population of the world has grown too large, concentrated and different (ie, between cultures) for fair apportionment of the resources available to it. Therefor, there will always be competition and strife. The Internet isn't going to change that...
Re: Hey dude, where's our future?
#6World peace is a pretty unrealistic goal at this point. The population of the world has grown too large, concentrated and different (ie, between cultures) for fair apportionment of the resources available to it. Therefor, there will always be competition and strife. The Internet isn't going to change that...
I am not convinced. There is a rising trend of altruism and people just generally identifying beyond their families or countries.
Not to say it's bound to happen, but I think our chance of having a reasonably fair and acceptably peaceful world in which some/many of us alive now will experience is far from zero.
Barring a catastrophic event (nuclear or otherwise), with information spreading at the rate it is, I would put our chances about 80% of having unprecedented peace and fairness in this century.
Re: Hey dude, where's our future?
#7Hey dude, here's my past:
First grade, 1961-1962:
We had to learn "duck and cover", in case of surprise nuclear attack by the Soviets.
For field trips, we toured our neighbors' underground bomb shelters, which were about as common as home theaters are now.
We had to say the Lord's Prayer, whether we wanted to or not.
Some of my classmates wore braces, because the polio vaccine didn't quite make it in time for them.
We played with the African American kids in our neighborhood, but they wen't to a different school. Even though Brown vs. Board of Education had been decided by the Supreme Court in 1954, integration was still years away.
We didn't realize it at the time (no one did), but the Cuban Missile Crisis brought us perilously close to WWIII.
We only saw my dad on weekends because he got home from work after our bedtime.
No one I knew had ever flown on an airplane; it would be 20 years before I would.
I had never been to a restaurant or a movie.
We had no computers, internet, cell phones, cable TV, or air conditioning.
Our hopes and dreams were simple: to be happy (we were), go to college (we did), get jobs as good as our father's (we didn't), and to have wonderful families of our own (some of us did, some of us didn't).
We made a lot of progress since then but not nearly enough. We never imagined the opportunites we now have, not the threats. OP is sure right about one thing; our work is never done.
Re: Hey dude, where's our future?
#8World peace is a pretty unrealistic goal at this point. The population of the world has grown too large, concentrated and different (ie, between cultures) for fair apportionment of the resources available to it. Therefor, there will always be competition and strife. The Internet isn't going to change that...
I am not convinced. There is a rising trend of altruism and people just generally identifying beyond their families or countries. Not to say it's bound to happen, but I think our chance of having a reasonably fair and acceptably peaceful world in which some/many of us alive now will experience is far from zero. Barring a catastrophic event (nuclear or otherwise), with information spreading at the rate it is, I would…
That may be true in some portions of the developed world (where I assume you are probably located), but I assure you that areas where resources are tight and there's a high degree of stratification in society, that's just not the case. Look at Africa. Furthermore, the altruism of the first world is not always beneficial for goals of peace. Intruding into other people's wars in the name of peace may in fact worsen them. Again, look at Africa.
Re: Hey dude, where's our future?
#9[deleted]
Re: Hey dude, where's our future?
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
I am not convinced. There is a rising trend of altruism and people just generally identifying beyond their families or countries. Not to say it's bound to happen, but I think our chance of having a reasonably fair and acceptably peaceful world in which some/many of us alive now will experience is far from zero. Barring a catastrophic event (nuclear or otherwise), with information spreading at the rate it is, I would…
That may be true in some portions of the developed world (where I assume you are probably located), but I assure you that areas where resources are tight and there's a high degree of stratification in society, that's just not the case. Look at Africa. Furthermore, the altruism of the first world is not always beneficial for goals of peace. Intruding into other people's wars in the name of peace may in fact worsen the…
Right; I am in the developed world and I do recognize to some degree what is going on in Africa and rural parts of Asia and South America.
I think most of the first world's 'intruding into other peoples wars in the name of peace' are generally flat-out lies. We are invading their countries for resources, political gain, or strategically place military bases. So I am with you on that one, I think.
However, the rise of information sharing in the lower rungs of society, of which we are going to see all but the opt-outs being a part of by the end of this century, is going to breed (in my estimation) a feeling of camaraderie trans boarder.
It's really a matter of class consciousness. As people come to realize the similarity of their situation with others, those people will naturally ally with each other; and the shrinking middle class will see the direction it's heading and ally with the lower class as well.
The fact is, 98%~ of people on earth would greatly benefit from an fair world, its only the very very top that stand to lose something; and as people come to realize this (which they will as cheap information sharing gets to every corner of the globe in the next 15-20 years) the power will inevitably move away from those who keep their power by misinforming their constituency.