Back in the day, sociologist Alvin Toffler wrote a series of books about the coming shift from The Industrial Age to the Digital Era.
“Future Shock” said that a lot of people would feel displaced by the new technologies and social changes. As the world moved forward they were going to try harder and harder to cling to the past.
I mean that’s in there, but the real issues we’re facing right now are the same exact issues that we’ve seen topple democracies across the world for the last couple centuries.
People are being radicalized to support a system that benefits the stakeholders at the very top who are trying to secure a lasting empire of wealth and power by manufacturing hate and culture war with invented enemies. I can point to examples of this happening over and over as a prelude to authoritarian takeover, from Germany and Italy in the 30’s all the way on through recent “strongman” elections in places like the Philippines and Argentina, and a wealth of famous stories in between.
You can certainly talk about the role of society shifting around development and technology, but the heart of the issue is human greed and desire for power, as it has always been, as it will always be. People aren’t out there scared of immigrants and voting their rights away because they understand how AI is going to threaten their jobs, they’re terrified of brown people because FOX news implied that the scary foreigners and trans kids are going to take away everything that makes America feel like a stable home, and that people asking for kindness and empathy are actually literal baby-eating demons.
One poster was complaining about criminal immigrants. Got angry when I pointed out that most of the British and French colonists were indentured servants; the gutter sweepings of the cities thrown into ships. The French even made their men marry prostitutes to populate the New World.
The answer is fifty years old.
Back in the day, sociologist Alvin Toffler wrote a series of books about the coming shift from The Industrial Age to the Digital Era.
“Future Shock” said that a lot of people would feel displaced by the new technologies and social changes. As the world moved forward they were going to try harder and harder to cling to the past.
I mean that’s in there, but the real issues we’re facing right now are the same exact issues that we’ve seen topple democracies across the world for the last couple centuries.
People are being radicalized to support a system that benefits the stakeholders at the very top who are trying to secure a lasting empire of wealth and power by manufacturing hate and culture war with invented enemies. I can point to examples of this happening over and over as a prelude to authoritarian takeover, from Germany and Italy in the 30’s all the way on through recent “strongman” elections in places like the Philippines and Argentina, and a wealth of famous stories in between.
You can certainly talk about the role of society shifting around development and technology, but the heart of the issue is human greed and desire for power, as it has always been, as it will always be. People aren’t out there scared of immigrants and voting their rights away because they understand how AI is going to threaten their jobs, they’re terrified of brown people because FOX news implied that the scary foreigners and trans kids are going to take away everything that makes America feel like a stable home, and that people asking for kindness and empathy are actually literal baby-eating demons.
Excellent summary. The 1% have created this culture war and push the propaganda for it constantly.
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One poster was complaining about criminal immigrants. Got angry when I pointed out that most of the British and French colonists were indentured servants; the gutter sweepings of the cities thrown into ships. The French even made their men marry prostitutes to populate the New World.