The World Is a Mess. We Need Fully Automated Luxury Communism.
By Aaron Bastani
Cogent clear article on the epochal transformations of technology that are already moving forward.
Let's posit two worldwide cultures, reality and myth. The first, the secular applications of the scientific method the later on outgrowth of a mythology that is a byproduct of human visualization, where imagination including the concept of death is a byproduct.
This same brain that has discovered the genome, quantum physics and space travel has also given us cultures that include hatred of the "other" --be them alien tribes or religions. The panic of isolation from one's extended family is every bit as human as our unique intellect.
Over the course of a my own lifetime we have not become more open minded, but shuffled concepts that were taboo among the educated population. As an example, the use of the phase "colored people" for the current "people of color." I can personally attest that using the obsolete world is now cause for banishment from one's liberal tribe, one's community
This is not trivial because the bowdlerization of terminology of earlier eras negates the possibility of understanding social change, of putting our moment of time into the perspective of other eras. The word "negro" becoming taboo, actually now conflated with the actual invidious "N word" This impedes understanding of major landmarks in racial issues of the 20th century.
We are left with a diminished vocabulary, excluding words that had developed during the long growth of enlightenment. The larger population, without these tools of objective analysis, is left with only their gut instincts, also known by the widely used term among candidates of gravitating to "common sense solutions."
By definition, democracy is the will of the majority of citizens. "Literacy test" now refers a method of excluding newly emancipated slaves their voting suffrage provided by the fifteenth amendment. It was a device of the unrepentant southerners requiring only blacks to remember complex arcane elements of law that they would inevitably fail. Yet the concept of a minimum degree of literacy being required for those who choose the representatives is not unreasonable. The current elimination of this requirements means that young person who reads at a third grade level, along with a senior with severe Alzheimers, both of whom can't possibly comprehend the issues get to determine who will make our laws ,and choose our Supreme Court Justices.
A belief in a supernatural being who both created the world and provided rules for living, what we call religion, is widespread in the world. In previous centuries, before the interface of humans with cyber-technology had began, there was little harm in such religious faith (except the vast carnage of wars between sects, some with minor differences)
We are in the midst of a cyber-technological revolution. The evidence that the changes over the last century will pale in comparison with those of the next is evident in numerous reports of even modifying our genome that evolved over eons of time, along with creating simulations of sensations out of semiconductors that had been part of our human sensory system It is not unrealistic that given another century of survival of civilization, that technology will advance at an even faster pace.
Donald J. Trump's election to the presidency should be viewed as welcomed preview of the choices that must be made. It will be seen as an historic tragedy that this opportunity has become a source of ratings for satirists, and endless repetition of missiles of calumny from his opposition. It becomes the chanting of an isolated village asserting the evil of the ogre who must be vanquished. In spite of, or because of his denigration of the process of comprehending complexity such as climate change, or the economic effect ending free trade among countries; he manages to have transfixed the attention of the country on his every action and word.
I own a copy of Liberty Magazine from May 1938 only months before war began. One of the articles is a positive interview with the Fuhrer describing the optimism of his people, and that his antisemitism was only as he stated, "I only want Germany for Germans" The seven years that followed, with the slaughter of hundreds of millions of people would have been dismissed as beyond the realm of rational possibility.
The selection of the Democratic nominee will be a race to the bottom, with the use of buzz words and promises that can never be. This is all wrapped up in a belief, or ostensible belief, in an almighty among candidates, a God of any variety of all , but that is based on a wisdom that is found in ancient books that have become sacred. The Trump-Republican party has captured this segment of our population, yet the only competitor of the two party system is treating this issue as untouchable.
Political Science is no more the philosophical endeavor of understanding how complex entities can organize themselves. It now includes the skills of obfuscation and mass manipulation that is one of the connotations of "politics." It looks like there may have been a master of the art form who has become our President. The most tragic consequence is if the vulnerabilities of our system, most profound being the innate propensity of humans to make choices based on emotional connection rather than complex analysis is ignored.
Will one of the candidates for the nomination for President on the Democratic ticket, define his or her belief that faith in a supernatural being does not give anyone special privileges. Will there be a single candidate who will run on a platform that includes the reversion of the 1956 motto of "In God We Trust" to the previous one, "E Pluribus Unum" This is a possibility, as nine members (out of 387) of the House voted to do just this in 2011
I'm not sure that this approach will win the election for Democrats next year, but if they are not willing to be the "reality party" with all that this means, for me they will have lost something much greater than an election.
