I won't try and summarise this or select quotes. It's a narrative piece and needs to be read in its entirety or not at all. Well... maybe one. I've still got John Oliver's word replacement Chrome extensions installed and I don't intended to disable it anytime soon. Which made this terrifying snippet slightly more amusing :
In many red states, "Make Donald Drumpf Again" echoes just as strongly as it did 12 months ago. Drumpf has a historically low approval rating of just 35%, but it's 78% among Republicans.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-41826022
My working hypothesis to explain the 21st century is that the Tofflers underestimated how pervasive future shock would be. I think somewhere in the range from 15-30% of our fellow hairless primates are currently in the grip of future shock, to some degree. Symptoms include despair, anxiety, depression, disorientation, paranoia, and a desperate search for certainty in lives that are experiencing unpleasant and uninvited change. It's no surprise that anyone who can offer dogmatic absolute answers is popular, or that the paranoid style is again ascendant in American politics, or that religious certainty is more attractive to many than the nuanced complexities of scientific debate. Climate change is an exceptionally potent trigger for future shock insofar as it promises an unpleasant and unpredictable dose of upcoming instability in the years ahead; denial is an emotionally satisfying response to the threat, if not a sustainable one in the longer term.
ReplyDeleteDeep craziness: we're in it, and there's probably not going to be any reduction in the prevalence of authoritarian escapism until we collectively become accustomed to the pace of change. Which will, at a minimum, not happen until the older generations have died of old age — and maybe not even then.
antipope.org - A working hypothesis - Charlie's Diary
DeeAnn Little
ReplyDeleteWinchell Chung dammit, for once I agree with The Stross.
ReplyDeleteTroy
ReplyDeleteWell, you know the old bromide about the stopped clock, and the one about the blind squirrel.
I have yet to read the article, but I can give you the exact day that the US "stopped being great". All sorts of problems from WWII forward aside, the US stopped being great the day it was announced that GWB won the presidency back in 2000. Reading article now...
ReplyDelete"Although his [Obama's] presidency did much to rescue the economy"
ReplyDeleteUtter BS! The real unemployment rate was 40% in 2016.
David Lazarus
ReplyDeleteCompletely agree the rigged 2000 election was the turning point, When GWB jr. arranged to have the election decided by a Florida Judge, instead of actually recounting the ballots.
Dear United States of America,
ReplyDeleteYou had your failings, some dramatic, others merely infuriating. We blamed you for many things, some of them justified. Your arrogance in thinking your were meant to lead the world was grating at times, and many were angered when it backed ill-thought, at times cynically evil interference that caused more ill than good. Your propension at massive industrial espionage and dishonest protectionism was criticised by many, but let's face it, most would have done (and actually do) the same. Your habit to confuse idiocy and honesty, or your chronic failure at grasping what moderation or subtlety are subjects of mockery (accurate or not), but we all have such peculiarities, after all.
Don't take all of this too much at heart. No-one is perfect, and you still did a better job than most would have. Once you are gone for good, your place at the top a mere memory, we will miss you.
Sincerely,
Much of the world
P.S. Still, you should have gone with a bang, or at least a whimper. Going with a clown fart is rather undignified.