What The F**k is going on?
Is the world going crazy? No, but the people are, at least the people in the ‘first-world countries’ (a highly debatable term).
It seems that problems arise when there is less and less trust in traditional politicians and political parties, it is then that we start electing politicians to office who claim to be against conventional politics and ‘the ruling elite’ (the fact that they are usually wealthy and have been sitting in the shadows of traditional politics for years doesn’t seem to deter us from voting for them).
So it seems we live in times when we have become increasingly childlike. Despite all our education and knowledge, we want the people in charge to ‘get on with it!’ without bothering us with their checks and balances and ‘painful facts’. “Do your job! “Solve MY immediate problems and get it done whatever way you think best. “This becomes the shortcut for ‘oligarchs’, ‘strongmen’, and ‘petty dictators’.
Is it too much democracy that has brought us to this point? What an irony that would be.
We are trapped in a system where a large part of society are trapped in boring jobs, burning themselves out to make ends meet, filling their few moments of ‘free time’ scrolling their phones, drinking the poison of social media, watching screens- be it phones or laptops, for large parts of the day. We freely allow our brain to be manipulated in whatever ‘meme bubble’ we become entangled in. Our ideas and thoughts (or what remains of them) are formed by actual ‘brainwashing’ through social media. Whatever side of the argument we have latched on to, the algorithms make sure we get more daily memes, videos and or arguments that give us a dopamine hit that keeps us scrolling- or dopamine mining (as I call it). The chance that we can formulate an original thought or argument about anything gets smaller and smaller.
This world of online non-reality leaves us without a feeling of nuance and less and less empathy. Empathy, what Elon Musk laughingly calls ‘the weakness of society’, is what our Democratic societies have been built on. We pay taxes so that the old, the sick, the people who are unable to care for themselves, the weakest in society are taken care of, as a democratic society we aim to go forward together. Once we lose empathy, society becomes ‘to each his/her own, eat or be eaten’. This is the scenario where all our billionaire oligarchs dream of, ‘let the people fight among themselves’ while they plunder more and more of the riches.
This is the madness that has taken over. We have become tired of politics, so we' outsource' it to Oligarchs, tyrants, or even media figures. We hope that they sort out our problems. We don’t ‘waste our time’ with politics. There is dopamine to be mined (scrolled) on our phones, social media, etc. Meanwhile, the social fabric of society is falling apart.
Here’s a quote from Simon Gottschalk, professor of sociology at the University of Nevada.
‘Democratic policymaking requires debate, demands compromise and involves critical thinking. It entails considering different viewpoints, anticipating the future, and composing thoughtful legislation.
What’s a fast, easy and simple alternative to this political process? It’s not difficult to imagine an infantile society being attracted to authoritarian rule.
Unfortunately, our social institutions and technological devices seem to erode hallmarks of maturity: patience, empathy, solidarity, humility and commitment to a project greater than oneself.
All are qualities that have traditionally been considered essential for both healthy adulthood and for the proper functioning of democracy’.
The infantilization of Western culture | Salon.com. https://www.salon.com/2018/08/08/the-infantilization-of-western-culture_partner/
So, the more we surrender our critical thought process to social media, the more we develop a childlike approach to politics, the more we abandon empathy, the easier it gets for authoritarians to come to power.
Or what I call society ‘fu**ing itself up’… enter Trump, Musk and co.
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