Thank you for another valuable post. I found it both disheartening as an overview and encouraging as a statement of your views. A false sense of urgency is at work. People seem to have embraced the idea that they have to be doing something all the time, including reacting to outside events. When I take my daily walk I very rarely see anybody else, of any age, walking without reading a hand-held device. Pushing a stroller or walking a dog or a child, the adult is always looking at a phone. Sunshine, flowers, other people out there, so what? Some seem to feel that they must be constantly updated on the latest opinions held by those with whom they already agree on everything. Or, in the case of TDS, they are looking for something to be angry about, as you suggest. It is no wonder that many people seem keyed up, anxious, afraid they are missing something. In the gym, I notice that men in the weight room spend most of their time sitting with their phones—a few reps, then time to sit down and catch up on the latest. It’s not urgency. It’s merely a habit. Walking on the indoor track there on a rainy day, I am the only person not reading as I make the rounds. But with headphones and Mahler, I too am in my own world.
Aye. I think the phones are indeed creating anxiety, taking people's heads out of the present in anticipation of the next bleepy noise or vibration buzz that tells them they're electronically significant.
Does a group of bacteria, burgeoning dangerously near a fatal septic wound, know they are playing a part in eventually killing the host organism?
Probably not, but if they detect ample food, their flagella are probably madly clicking "Thumbs Up!" and congratulating each other on how good life is.
I recently lost a good friend -- via email, no less! -- after I responded to his long initial text wherein he patronized me with a surface level summation of his experience touring through the Baltics and Finland for one week. He ended with TDS and a full-throated support of Ukraine against "evil Russia and evil Putin".
I had to remind him that I'm 2nd gen Finnish, know a lot about the territory and history and Finnish psychology, and could hold two contradictory thoughts in my head at the same time (according to Cynthia Ozick, being comfortable with seemingly paradoxical points of view is a sign of maturity and intelligence) in that I was confident Finland would kick Russia's ass (again) should the latter's aggression towards Finland continue to ramp up, and that Putin was simultaneously showing great restraint by needing Ukraine as a buffer and to stop NATO encroachment and the U.S.'s continuous broken promises re needed Russian security. (The latest Starmer-Blinken attempt to shoot long-range missiles at Moscow being shot down -- pardon the pun -- by the Pentagon could've saved a nuclear exchange.)
But this was too complex for him. CBC and MSM told him "Putin evil" and "Zelenskyy freedom fighter", so it's case closed.
Of course you're right re social media and MSM outlets inflaming and even generating this. But I believe it goes much deeper. It gets at the root of the fact that humans are emotional creatures who want and need simple binaries, easy-to-digest heroes and villains. Adults going to Star Wars conventions isn't just about dressing up and swapping reactions on sequel number 18, it's about the infantile need to think that there's a side -- or an authority figure -- who's going to protect their expected happy ending with a utopian outcome in their favour.
It's disturbing to witness how the toxic discourse of social media has leaked into the real world, illustrating the ludicrous extremes that political discourse has taken. I think it was Hannah Arendt who said that a totalitarian society is one in which even the personal becomes political, when politics becomes ubiquitous and a source of psychological terror. That's where we're at, and with the Far Left controlling the culture and media and tech industries, there's a set of right opinions one is allowed to state publicly and everything else is forbidden. People with correct opinions these days feel entitled to spew their hate on others because their views are the official ones. I had a doctor's appointment last week and this doctor I'd never met before angrily told me out of the blue that she'd watched the Trump-Harris debate the night before and obviously Trump was lying about the Haitian refugees eating cats. He's a liar! And he staged his assassination attempts! But what does Trump propaganda have to do with my medical condition, I wondered? And why does this doctor feel perfectly comfortable sharing her far left, hateful, conspiratorial opinions with a patient who's a complete stranger? She certainly would have kept her mouth shut if she were Maga. I felt a little terrified. A brainwashed psychopath has my life and health in her hands. So what if I disagreed with her views about Trump? Would she give me a blood test and deliberately jab a nerve instead of a vein?
Sounds disturbing, Harry. . . surreal even! Thanks for the point about the personal being political. That's spot on. I'm still insistent on the smartphone addiction issue though.
I think this is well-reasoned. Like many, I’ve lost friendships over TDS. Those few who do acknowledge it in progressive circles, however, seek to mitigate the problem by speaking of heated rhetoric on both sides, so it becomes essentially negated, since a malady uniformly at fault. Certainly, it’s a human propensity, and sin is indeed a universal deformation. Yet I don’t believe it is a condition that in this historical moment applies equally across the board.
One of the reasons politics has become increasingly divisive is that for a deracinated culture that in terms of ultimacy is essentially nihilistic, meaning is reduced to the pragmatic and utilitarian wed to ideological fantasy that is mask for naked will-to-power. Meaning becomes ostensibly determined by plebiscite or by the “science” of scientism, whose political motivations are hidden behind presumed objective neutrality.
For many in the late modern/post-modern ethos, politics is ersatz religion. What this boils down to is what Augusto del Noce diagnosed decades ago: at bottom, all differences are theological, even for secular atheists. The question then becomes, are we living lives of humility that are open to wonder and gift, and created depths yet to be discovered, or are we trapped in what Blake called “mind-forg’d manacles”?
The algorithms of Google are not innocent. They dictate prescribed orthodoxies of the unseen archons, those worldly powers blind to beauty and hostile to the God glimpsed by prophetic poets as the alarming holiness of love.
Couldn't agree more, Brian. Happily, I've managed not to lose friends over TDS. But I do think it would help tone things down if we quit serving our smartphones and made them serve us instead.
I like your style 👍
Thank you for another valuable post. I found it both disheartening as an overview and encouraging as a statement of your views. A false sense of urgency is at work. People seem to have embraced the idea that they have to be doing something all the time, including reacting to outside events. When I take my daily walk I very rarely see anybody else, of any age, walking without reading a hand-held device. Pushing a stroller or walking a dog or a child, the adult is always looking at a phone. Sunshine, flowers, other people out there, so what? Some seem to feel that they must be constantly updated on the latest opinions held by those with whom they already agree on everything. Or, in the case of TDS, they are looking for something to be angry about, as you suggest. It is no wonder that many people seem keyed up, anxious, afraid they are missing something. In the gym, I notice that men in the weight room spend most of their time sitting with their phones—a few reps, then time to sit down and catch up on the latest. It’s not urgency. It’s merely a habit. Walking on the indoor track there on a rainy day, I am the only person not reading as I make the rounds. But with headphones and Mahler, I too am in my own world.
Aye. I think the phones are indeed creating anxiety, taking people's heads out of the present in anticipation of the next bleepy noise or vibration buzz that tells them they're electronically significant.
Does a group of bacteria, burgeoning dangerously near a fatal septic wound, know they are playing a part in eventually killing the host organism?
Probably not, but if they detect ample food, their flagella are probably madly clicking "Thumbs Up!" and congratulating each other on how good life is.
Excellent entry, Asa.
I recently lost a good friend -- via email, no less! -- after I responded to his long initial text wherein he patronized me with a surface level summation of his experience touring through the Baltics and Finland for one week. He ended with TDS and a full-throated support of Ukraine against "evil Russia and evil Putin".
I had to remind him that I'm 2nd gen Finnish, know a lot about the territory and history and Finnish psychology, and could hold two contradictory thoughts in my head at the same time (according to Cynthia Ozick, being comfortable with seemingly paradoxical points of view is a sign of maturity and intelligence) in that I was confident Finland would kick Russia's ass (again) should the latter's aggression towards Finland continue to ramp up, and that Putin was simultaneously showing great restraint by needing Ukraine as a buffer and to stop NATO encroachment and the U.S.'s continuous broken promises re needed Russian security. (The latest Starmer-Blinken attempt to shoot long-range missiles at Moscow being shot down -- pardon the pun -- by the Pentagon could've saved a nuclear exchange.)
But this was too complex for him. CBC and MSM told him "Putin evil" and "Zelenskyy freedom fighter", so it's case closed.
Of course you're right re social media and MSM outlets inflaming and even generating this. But I believe it goes much deeper. It gets at the root of the fact that humans are emotional creatures who want and need simple binaries, easy-to-digest heroes and villains. Adults going to Star Wars conventions isn't just about dressing up and swapping reactions on sequel number 18, it's about the infantile need to think that there's a side -- or an authority figure -- who's going to protect their expected happy ending with a utopian outcome in their favour.
Thanks, Brian. No arguments from me on those observations. Sounds like people are looking for a benevolent dictator.
It's disturbing to witness how the toxic discourse of social media has leaked into the real world, illustrating the ludicrous extremes that political discourse has taken. I think it was Hannah Arendt who said that a totalitarian society is one in which even the personal becomes political, when politics becomes ubiquitous and a source of psychological terror. That's where we're at, and with the Far Left controlling the culture and media and tech industries, there's a set of right opinions one is allowed to state publicly and everything else is forbidden. People with correct opinions these days feel entitled to spew their hate on others because their views are the official ones. I had a doctor's appointment last week and this doctor I'd never met before angrily told me out of the blue that she'd watched the Trump-Harris debate the night before and obviously Trump was lying about the Haitian refugees eating cats. He's a liar! And he staged his assassination attempts! But what does Trump propaganda have to do with my medical condition, I wondered? And why does this doctor feel perfectly comfortable sharing her far left, hateful, conspiratorial opinions with a patient who's a complete stranger? She certainly would have kept her mouth shut if she were Maga. I felt a little terrified. A brainwashed psychopath has my life and health in her hands. So what if I disagreed with her views about Trump? Would she give me a blood test and deliberately jab a nerve instead of a vein?
Sounds disturbing, Harry. . . surreal even! Thanks for the point about the personal being political. That's spot on. I'm still insistent on the smartphone addiction issue though.
I think this is well-reasoned. Like many, I’ve lost friendships over TDS. Those few who do acknowledge it in progressive circles, however, seek to mitigate the problem by speaking of heated rhetoric on both sides, so it becomes essentially negated, since a malady uniformly at fault. Certainly, it’s a human propensity, and sin is indeed a universal deformation. Yet I don’t believe it is a condition that in this historical moment applies equally across the board.
One of the reasons politics has become increasingly divisive is that for a deracinated culture that in terms of ultimacy is essentially nihilistic, meaning is reduced to the pragmatic and utilitarian wed to ideological fantasy that is mask for naked will-to-power. Meaning becomes ostensibly determined by plebiscite or by the “science” of scientism, whose political motivations are hidden behind presumed objective neutrality.
For many in the late modern/post-modern ethos, politics is ersatz religion. What this boils down to is what Augusto del Noce diagnosed decades ago: at bottom, all differences are theological, even for secular atheists. The question then becomes, are we living lives of humility that are open to wonder and gift, and created depths yet to be discovered, or are we trapped in what Blake called “mind-forg’d manacles”?
The algorithms of Google are not innocent. They dictate prescribed orthodoxies of the unseen archons, those worldly powers blind to beauty and hostile to the God glimpsed by prophetic poets as the alarming holiness of love.
Couldn't agree more, Brian. Happily, I've managed not to lose friends over TDS. But I do think it would help tone things down if we quit serving our smartphones and made them serve us instead.