On Mon, Dec 22, 2014 at 10:03 PM, LizR <lizj...@gmail.com> wrote: > > On 23 December 2014 at 00:07, Telmo Menezes <te...@telmomenezes.com> > wrote: > >> Modern societies provide more potential freedom, for sure. I could >> theoretically travel to almost any part of the world I desire and be there >> having breakfast before Christmas. >> >> Do modern societies provide more real freedom? Consider the life of the >> peasants under european medieval feudalism. The modern view on this part of >> history is that peasants had much more free time to use as they pleased in >> comparison to modern middle class workers. >> >> Consider even kids. They are less free than they ever were. These days, >> their entire lives consist of structured activities (which is necessary to >> accommodate their parents also highly structured lives). >> > > I absolutely agree with you on this. I always pooh-pooh anyone who harks > back to some mythical "golden age" of rustic simplicity and new age-ness, > but I also agree that THIS isn't a golden age either. >
Yup, I agree with pooh-poohing the "golden age" myths, past and present like you say. > The awful thing is that this actually could be, > Yes. Technology places amazing things within our grasp, but it turns out that improving the economic system is a harder problem than building the holodeck. > but of course the system has been hijacked by a few ultra rich people ... > "because they're worth it" ... while everyone else is stuck in the > shoulders-to-the-wheel noses-to-the-grindstone to support them. > I agree that the system has been hijacked by a few ultra rich people, but I think the mechanism is a bit more insane than what you describe. I don't think they need or even want western labour so much. I suspect a good chunk of it is a pure loss to them. Most modern middle class jobs are bullshit jobs. I think they arise as a compromise between the crony capitalists and the bureaucrats who run the public side of things, because they know of no better way to distribute some residual wealth so that the world does not turn into a zombie movie. > So on that basis it's just medievalism wearing suits rather than crowns. > Why is Apple Inc worth more than Sweden? Because the Swedes don't employ > enough Third World slavery... > This is not entirely fair. If we're going to pick on crony capitalism, Apple is by far not the worst offender. They mostly became mega-rich by creating things that people really want. This is what real capitalism is supposed to work like. The same is true of Swedish IKEA (who used GDR slave labour 30 years ago, btw). Third world slavery is a real disgrace and Apple is profiting from it like all other hardware companies. This is part of the denial of reality that the entire western population lives in (not just the oligarchy). Apple is in fact one of the companies that seems to be using their trading strength to force changes on the Chinese side. They demand certain standards for factories in China to work for them. Is this just PR? I don't know. I do believe that strong trade and shared economic goals have more potential to generate peace and respect for other humans than political babbling. > And yet 50 years ago some of us were hoping for a technological utopia. > Turns out it wasn't for everyone, just the lucky few. The rest of us (the > "99%") get "bread and circuses". > Well, 15 years ago I was dreaming of a technological utopia bootstrapped by the Internet. Meanwhile, governments through agencies like the NSA silently turned utopia into dystopia. Telmo. > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Everything List" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to everything-list+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > To post to this group, send email to everything-list@googlegroups.com. > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to everything-list+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to everything-list@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
