a planet of whales and dolphins, weaving hemp fiber and practicing sustainable agriculture, led by women or hermaphrodites, without language for "ownership" or "possession", and practicing seasonal ecstatic dances in worship to their elders.
You can change little things. You can pay attention to the things you hate and try to phase them out of your life as much as you can. For some people that means not eating meat, for others not having babies, not participating in what you feel is SUPER WRONG.
Then, once in a while, be a little bolder. Vote for the candidate that doesn't seem electable but represents what you believe in the best, confront a racist or a global warming denier in your family or community, turn down an invitation to work for a fucked up corporation. These gestures don't necessarily fix things but they are worth it because they keep the conversation going, they make it known that not everyone is on the exact same page.
I sometimes feel like I could do a lot more for the world. And recently in Canada a weird thing happened where many electoral districts in Québec voted in members of the NDP (Canada's most popular left-wing party), some of the candidates were in their early twenties with zero experience, totally unknown, one of them was on holiday, none of them expected to win. But they did. People were so fed up with having to choose between the same shitty two options that they tried something new. At that moment I was like "Maybe I should run for the NDP someday...". All of a sudden change felt within my reach.
The truth is that I'd be a pretty flaky politician, but I liked being able to recognize that the situation had gotten so dire feeling entire neighborhoods were willing to vote random newbies into power.
It's a little bit the same in Anacortes. My sister-in-law graduated with like, three members of city council. If you want to be part of city politics here, you can. Unfortunately at the moment there is a lot of "let's listen to both sides" which confuses everyone and leads us nowhere out of the mess we've made. But you get the idea, if you want it, then you can get involved and changed things, or at least affect change. It's just that many of us would rather not commit to weekly meetings and giving up whatever exciting thing we've got going on in our life to work for the common good.
But I still think that doesn't grant one permission to just play and enjoy it and then complain about the system being fucked.
It's not like you can isolate capitalism and say "It's not working!" without also damning other parts of society. It's all interwoven. Media, politics, religion... They are all equally fucked up.
I think it's true that it's important to remember that everything is interwoven, but at a certain point you need to start fixing SOME THINGS. It's too easy to walk by what you know is wrong and think "Well, I'm not fixing that, that's too hard." and then walk into Starbucks or whatever and get a Pumpkin Spice Latte because heck, you deserve it.
***
I totally indulge. I indulge in ways which I recognize are either wrong, or debatable. But overall I try to remain conscious of my choices and also curious and open enough to realize that some of the options I have chosen are no longer viable or that something better has come along.
I think the stereotype of the very rich person who's at it trying to make even more money is still a huge part of how humans act. I know people who are that way, I have friends who do this. And the more money they make, the more protective they are of it and the more they use "It's a way to pay the bills." as a way to justify their sometimes fucked up behavior. And they feel judged because they know something is off.
I think we could benefit from a little more judgement from our peers sometimes. I know that sounds like a fucked up thing to say, but I feel that "selling out" and "being vain and self-centered" are both a lot more acceptable than ever before. That could be a great place to start the fixing. Sensitizing people to how their great quest for achievements is draining and depleating ressources (human energy and attention being a form of ressources in my book).
The oil in the ground thing is big for me, both as a symbol of a dystopic market, and as an actual physical problem.
More money is being made pulling carbon out of the ground (and facilitating its distribution into the atmosphere) than any other endeavor in history. link
This is happening at the moment we as a global society have realized that this is one of the most disastrous activities we could be doing.
Ironic times, no doubt.
If a system gives the highest rewards to the most destructive activities there would seem to be a problem with the system.
In such a situation it seems reasonable to look to other metrics for determining value.
My sympathies are in line Dale's implied preference to play versus fight (play fight?).
Fortunately, Capitalism is only a puny, absurd and brutal nook in the vast field of human experience and natural phenomena. It could never 'win' except by total exhaustion of all resources. Seems like an imprudent path.
[Brainspace hyperhop]
Maybe we need a league of sexy YouTube funded anti-carbon guerrillas to advance practice in joyful lasting post-Capitalism...?
A. I think I like Dominoes pizza the best of the huge chain pizza places now which is an opinion that I never thought I would hold because I totally had the worst food poisoning of my life from them 10 years ago.
B. Soon we will probably just get to the point where there is actual AI and EVERYTHING can and probably will become automated except the stuff we just want to do. From there I think there is about a 50/50 chance that either we reach Star Trek future or robots just wipe us out.
We each gave different personality-strengths and networks. A single person can change the course of history. Optimism, and the right-left/intuition merge is a powerful tool. Get in the world changing zone!
Creating and reinforcing optimism in the people around us is a strong and easy tool. Capitalism at its best does.
Don't overlook your networks/make new ones in world changing.
That optimism is a necessary survival mechanism in the face of destructive economic forces.
Of course in my experience, YMMV.
(A friend is writing a robot-human relations book. I'm more concerned about baby-machine interactions. There was just an article somewhere about the lack of optimism in science fiction.)
I don't get how optimism is going to save or help anything. Just seems like it will ignore/marginalize half of existence just like pessimism. Empathy and patience are where it's at.
I pretty much hate Paul. I watched the George Harrison documentary recently and it made me realize that I might hate all of the Beatles except for Ringo, it seems like with Ringo what you see is what you get (a fun guy who smokes and wears many rings and is not involved in much).
Boomers want to baby all of us into our forties, this is one of their tricks to hold on to all power and prestige: baby the younger generations and never let us take over anything.
B. Soon we will probably just get to the point where there is actual AI and EVERYTHING can and probably will become automated except the stuff we just want to do.
"The report notes that contractors trained in “enhanced interrogation techniques” were paid $1,800 a day, four times as much as interrogators who didn’t use those techniques."
I think optimism is bullshit for all the Barbara Ehrenreich reasons and all the funny David Rakoff reasons. I am not an optimist (ask my husband who has to put up with my worrying that our house is going to fall down all the time).
But I don't think that choosing to believe we can change stuff, that our path as a species isn't pre-ordained is "optimism."
I think of the socially/environmentally conscious trends which have happened in my lifetime. They do not make me hopeful in the sense that stuff often moves SOOO SLOOOWLY in the "right" direction and SO FAST in the shitty direction.
I mourn how as an eighties child everything around me seemed to scream "Save the planet! Save the animals! Save our oceans!". Maybe it was just the TV shows I was watching and the vibe in my neighborhood, but Greenpeace and David Suzuki were huge.
I mourn being a teenager in the nineties when selling out wasn't cool and few people I admired did it. Now the punks are in credit card commercials.
I am happy about the way things have gone now, with causes like marriage equality and the general population becoming more aware of race privilege and misoginy. Still I get pretty infuriated at how slowly we are evolving... Because meanwhile too much is still fucked out there and what is on TV most of the time reminds me that we are pretty imbecilic as a species.
Here's what I just sent to Uber, asking them to delete my account because I set up an account a year or two ago but never used it. Also there's no way to delete your account from their website or app, you have to email customer service!
"Thanks for your prompt reply, Philip.
Please delete my account permanently. I'm never going to use your service, as I bike pretty much everywhere.
And nothing personal here, but I also really dislike Uber's libertarian ideologies, disregard for local regulations, and various other nefarious deeds. Your CEO Travis comes across as one of the most libertarian, arrogant, bro-ey people in tech. At this point, Uber's a mustache-twirling capitalist villain.
In the very rare occasion that I do need a taxi, I'd rather support my local driver-owned company than a huge VC-funded company like Uber.
Thanks again for your friendly response, and I look forward to having my account deleted!"
I wrote similar messages when I stopped drawing for Vice magazine (when I was very very young) and when I cancelled my Audible membership (because they are an Amazon company).
Do you feel a bit scared that your words will inspire them to be sneakier in the way to represent themselves as "friendly to the community"? I feel like so many shitty corporations have a short window of being perceived as nefarious by the population, and then manage to pull out of it looking totally cool and legit after a while.
I think of Spotify and how so many people turned against Taylor Swift for standing up to them. Then that fancy profile of the CEO in the New Yorker made it all even more ridiculous.
such a great example of how capitalism ultimately is amoral the system justifies itself, needs no external justification from realm of "ethics" or "society"
like if uber made a billion dollars from doing that, then their decision to do it would be proven "right" because that is what the system demands
oh my god. I can't believe this world!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
capitalism and science, man! Never ask SHOULD something be done, only IF it CAN be done
“Jeff Bezos says, “Your margin is my opportunity.” That’s probably what Lyft and Uber were saying to each other as they slashed their commissions to 0. How do you beat a company that doesn’t need to make money? The 8 hours you need to sleep each night, are my opportunity. The time you spend with your family and friends, is my opportunity. If you’re not maxed out, if there’s still a shred of humanity left in you, then you’re just leaving your lunch on the table.”
I hung out with a guy who wears sandals and we talked about how to make a game that doesn't involve capitalism. Ultimately we decided to make a game that vilifies greed by highlighting what a dick greedy people are (Uber), but I think it's impossible to avoid capitalism. Sorry.
The Uber Sydney thing is not that big of a deal, they haven't made a secret of surge pricing and it's a (somewhat) clever idea for managing capacity. When there is a active shooter situation that will of course cut down on the number of drivers in the area which triggers a surge. Not that evil.
Though their business practices can be aggressive they don't act any more strong arm than what Microsoft or Apple or Amazon have in the past. I can't sell computers that boot O/S other than Windows? My app is yanked from the AppStore because it now competes with Apple? My book's pre-order page disappears while contracts are negotiated? Dirty pool.
Disclaimer: I don't think Uber should ignore local laws it hurts their brand and risks long term growth, and they are run by one of those classic white dude Libertarians that think free markets can fart unicorns and rainbows and poor people are just lazy. But other than that, Uber feels a lot like the internet in the 90s. Decentralized, revolutionary, disruptive, scary, unregulated and full of potential. It is very possible that in 5 years if we need anything "now" we will Uber it.
it's just that, your average ordinary individual human person would, if she found herself driving around the scene of a calamity, most likely VOLUNTEER her car/time/phone/whatever, in the moment, to be helpful to her fellow humans. However a BUSINESS MODEL, not being a human, is not able to make a choice like this, and can only see such a calamity is an "opportunity," which is disgusting on a human level but perfectly reasonable at the systemic level.
the problem with capitalism is that it slowly traps us all into a system in which we can only think of other humans transactionally.
it's not evil in the sense that this is what capitalism is, this is what business do. They are money-making machines, they aren't human beings. We can't expect them to be moral. HOWEVER, I do think it is disturbing and wrong for us to just shrug and act like the SYSTEM is somehow naturally-occurring and out of our control. "That's just how business works, what are you gonna do!" I think we need to say, of Uber and Apple and everything else, that the way business works SUCKS
> it's just that, your average ordinary individual human person would, if she found > herself driving around the scene of a calamity, most likely VOLUNTEER her > car/time/phone/whatever, in the moment
Your average ordinary person won't be an Uber driver and will still be free to do this. Even the Uber driver can ignore his phone and just pick someone up to help, right? I don't see the connection here unless everyone in the vicinity is mind-controlled by Uber. When terrorism happens, the price of oil goes up too they just don't call it a Surge.
Comments
The way I see it:
You can change little things. You can pay attention to the things you hate and try to phase them out of your life as much as you can. For some people that means not eating meat, for others not having babies, not participating in what you feel is SUPER WRONG.
Then, once in a while, be a little bolder. Vote for the candidate that doesn't seem electable but represents what you believe in the best, confront a racist or a global warming denier in your family or community, turn down an invitation to work for a fucked up corporation. These gestures don't necessarily fix things but they are worth it because they keep the conversation going, they make it known that not everyone is on the exact same page.
I sometimes feel like I could do a lot more for the world. And recently in Canada a weird thing happened where many electoral districts in Québec voted in members of the NDP (Canada's most popular left-wing party), some of the candidates were in their early twenties with zero experience, totally unknown, one of them was on holiday, none of them expected to win. But they did. People were so fed up with having to choose between the same shitty two options that they tried something new. At that moment I was like "Maybe I should run for the NDP someday...". All of a sudden change felt within my reach.
The truth is that I'd be a pretty flaky politician, but I liked being able to recognize that the situation had gotten so dire feeling entire neighborhoods were willing to vote random newbies into power.
It's a little bit the same in Anacortes. My sister-in-law graduated with like, three members of city council. If you want to be part of city politics here, you can. Unfortunately at the moment there is a lot of "let's listen to both sides" which confuses everyone and leads us nowhere out of the mess we've made. But you get the idea, if you want it, then you can get involved and changed things, or at least affect change. It's just that many of us would rather not commit to weekly meetings and giving up whatever exciting thing we've got going on in our life to work for the common good.
But I still think that doesn't grant one permission to just play and enjoy it and then complain about the system being fucked.
I don't know...
I think it's true that it's important to remember that everything is interwoven, but at a certain point you need to start fixing SOME THINGS. It's too easy to walk by what you know is wrong and think "Well, I'm not fixing that, that's too hard." and then walk into Starbucks or whatever and get a Pumpkin Spice Latte because heck, you deserve it.
***
I totally indulge. I indulge in ways which I recognize are either wrong, or debatable. But overall I try to remain conscious of my choices and also curious and open enough to realize that some of the options I have chosen are no longer viable or that something better has come along.
I think the stereotype of the very rich person who's at it trying to make even more money is still a huge part of how humans act. I know people who are that way, I have friends who do this. And the more money they make, the more protective they are of it and the more they use "It's a way to pay the bills." as a way to justify their sometimes fucked up behavior. And they feel judged because they know something is off.
I think we could benefit from a little more judgement from our peers sometimes. I know that sounds like a fucked up thing to say, but I feel that "selling out" and "being vain and self-centered" are both a lot more acceptable than ever before. That could be a great place to start the fixing. Sensitizing people to how their great quest for achievements is draining and depleating ressources (human energy and attention being a form of ressources in my book).
@diane
I personally do not live in hope, at all. I just refuse to not try at least a little bit as I watch the world go off in flames.
Also, I'm up for being judged by my peers. I ordered Domino's pizza last night. That was dark.
More money is being made pulling carbon out of the ground (and facilitating its distribution into the atmosphere) than any other endeavor in history. link
This is happening at the moment we as a global society have realized that this is one of the most disastrous activities we could be doing.
Ironic times, no doubt.
If a system gives the highest rewards to the most destructive activities there would seem to be a problem with the system.
In such a situation it seems reasonable to look to other metrics for determining value.
My sympathies are in line Dale's implied preference to play versus fight (play fight?).
Fortunately, Capitalism is only a puny, absurd and brutal nook in the vast field of human experience and natural phenomena. It could never 'win' except by total exhaustion of all resources. Seems like an imprudent path.
[Brainspace hyperhop]
Maybe we need a league of sexy YouTube funded anti-carbon guerrillas to advance practice in joyful lasting post-Capitalism...?
[Thinking]
B. Soon we will probably just get to the point where there is actual AI and EVERYTHING can and probably will become automated except the stuff we just want to do. From there I think there is about a 50/50 chance that either we reach Star Trek future or robots just wipe us out.
Creating and reinforcing optimism in the people around us is a strong and easy tool. Capitalism at its best does.
Don't overlook your networks/make new ones in world changing.
That optimism is a necessary survival mechanism in the face of destructive economic forces.
Of course in my experience, YMMV.
(A friend is writing a robot-human relations book. I'm more concerned about baby-machine interactions. There was just an article somewhere about the lack of optimism in science fiction.)
easy to be hopeful when you're a 70 year old millionaire!!!
AND A BOOMER
Jesus christ, the hopefulness of Boomers is so repellent to me
You just can't trust a Boomer's vision of the world.
"Why don't you go to college and have babies and have a wonderful life, and end all wars just by growing your hair out? That's what we did!" omg
I watched the George Harrison documentary recently and it made me realize that I might hate all of the Beatles except for Ringo, it seems like with Ringo what you see is what you get (a fun guy who smokes and wears many rings and is not involved in much).
Boomers want to baby all of us into our forties, this is one of their tricks to hold on to all power and prestige: baby the younger generations and never let us take over anything.
Ever read this Bruce Sterling short story?
Reading the Wikipedia pages on Circular and Sharing Economies is giving me a bit of hope.
Having tech-savvy boomer parents = constant smh moments
under god
indivisible
with liberty and justice for ALL
But I don't think that choosing to believe we can change stuff, that our path as a species isn't pre-ordained is "optimism."
I think of the socially/environmentally conscious trends which have happened in my lifetime. They do not make me hopeful in the sense that stuff often moves SOOO SLOOOWLY in the "right" direction and SO FAST in the shitty direction.
I mourn how as an eighties child everything around me seemed to scream "Save the planet! Save the animals! Save our oceans!". Maybe it was just the TV shows I was watching and the vibe in my neighborhood, but Greenpeace and David Suzuki were huge.
I mourn being a teenager in the nineties when selling out wasn't cool and few people I admired did it. Now the punks are in credit card commercials.
I am happy about the way things have gone now, with causes like marriage equality and the general population becoming more aware of race privilege and misoginy. Still I get pretty infuriated at how slowly we are evolving... Because meanwhile too much is still fucked out there and what is on TV most of the time reminds me that we are pretty imbecilic as a species.
"Thanks for your prompt reply, Philip.
Please delete my account permanently. I'm never going to use your service, as I bike pretty much everywhere.
And nothing personal here, but I also really dislike Uber's libertarian ideologies, disregard for local regulations, and various other nefarious deeds. Your CEO Travis comes across as one of the most libertarian, arrogant, bro-ey people in tech. At this point, Uber's a mustache-twirling capitalist villain.
In the very rare occasion that I do need a taxi, I'd rather support my local driver-owned company than a huge VC-funded company like Uber.
Thanks again for your friendly response, and I look forward to having my account deleted!"
Good on you!
I wrote similar messages when I stopped drawing for Vice magazine (when I was very very young) and when I cancelled my Audible membership (because they are an Amazon company).
Do you feel a bit scared that your words will inspire them to be sneakier in the way to represent themselves as "friendly to the community"? I feel like so many shitty corporations have a short window of being perceived as nefarious by the population, and then manage to pull out of it looking totally cool and legit after a while.
I think of Spotify and how so many people turned against Taylor Swift for standing up to them. Then that fancy profile of the CEO in the New Yorker made it all even more ridiculous.
That is a bomb-ass email
the system justifies itself, needs no external justification from realm of "ethics" or "society"
like if uber made a billion dollars from doing that, then their decision to do it would be proven "right" because that is what the system demands
oh my god. I can't believe this world!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
capitalism and science, man! Never ask SHOULD something be done, only IF it CAN be done
https://elaineou.wordpress.com/2014/04/27/your-margin-is-my-opportunity/
Though their business practices can be aggressive they don't act any more strong arm than what Microsoft or Apple or Amazon have in the past. I can't sell computers that boot O/S other than Windows? My app is yanked from the AppStore because it now competes with Apple? My book's pre-order page disappears while contracts are negotiated? Dirty pool.
Disclaimer: I don't think Uber should ignore local laws it hurts their brand and risks long term growth, and they are run by one of those classic white dude Libertarians that think free markets can fart unicorns and rainbows and poor people are just lazy. But other than that, Uber feels a lot like the internet in the 90s. Decentralized, revolutionary, disruptive, scary, unregulated and full of potential. It is very possible that in 5 years if we need anything "now" we will Uber it.
the problem with capitalism is that it slowly traps us all into a system in which we can only think of other humans transactionally.
it's not evil in the sense that this is what capitalism is, this is what business do. They are money-making machines, they aren't human beings. We can't expect them to be moral. HOWEVER, I do think it is disturbing and wrong for us to just shrug and act like the SYSTEM is somehow naturally-occurring and out of our control. "That's just how business works, what are you gonna do!" I think we need to say, of Uber and Apple and everything else, that the way business works SUCKS
> herself driving around the scene of a calamity, most likely VOLUNTEER her
> car/time/phone/whatever, in the moment
Your average ordinary person won't be an Uber driver and will still be free to do this. Even the Uber driver can ignore his phone and just pick someone up to help, right? I don't see the connection here unless everyone in the vicinity is mind-controlled by Uber. When terrorism happens, the price of oil goes up too they just don't call it a Surge.