Battles never end, they just get hushed up. Dystopian tactics; throw a blanket over it and pretend it doesn’t exist because society is perfect for the rich and the powerful.
But that’s where complacency and escapism becomes a large tool against the numbers. Its much too hard to get up and revolt when their favorite show is going to be on at 8 or X streaming service got a new movie. Only a fraction get up to protest when the rest sit back back and mumble under their breaths to their screens.
We need a major fuckup to get them off their couches, you know, something like policing the internet, or crashing the market and causing disgusting inflation rates. Oh wait. Its a shame that we’ve waited until things got this bad.
– George Santayana,
The Life of Reason, 1905. From the series Great Ideas of Western Man.
History doesn’t repeat but it sure as shit rhymes.
Battles never end, they just get hushed up. Dystopian tactics; throw a blanket over it and pretend it doesn’t exist because society is perfect for the rich and the powerful.
And they continue to forget it’s all a numbers game and we outnumber them by a magnitude. Tl’dr they’re fucked.
But that’s where complacency and escapism becomes a large tool against the numbers. Its much too hard to get up and revolt when their favorite show is going to be on at 8 or X streaming service got a new movie. Only a fraction get up to protest when the rest sit back back and mumble under their breaths to their screens.
We need a major fuckup to get them off their couches, you know, something like policing the internet, or crashing the market and causing disgusting inflation rates. Oh wait. Its a shame that we’ve waited until things got this bad.
Agree. People were so concerned about 1984 that they didn’t see Brave New World creeping up on us.
How you crack the complacency is beyond me.
Cracking the code is:
if (complacency > annoyances) { sleep(); } else { riot(); }People are the worst. Agriculture was a mistake. If I have a time machine I’d go back and kick that fucker tiktaalik back into the ocean.
I’m sure you’re joking, but actually I’m reading a very interesting book about this topic called “The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity.”
It’s really concerned with freedom, and disputes the idea that the lack thereof is inherently tied to agriculture.
Agriculture made more humans. More humans is always trouble.
(But it is a really incredible book, as are all of Graeber’s work. If you like it you should read Debt: The First 5,000 Years)
“This is not good! Worlds are colliding! George is getting upset!”
-George Costanza
Seinfeld “The Pool Guy” - Season 7, Episode 8 (1995)