Quote:
Originally Posted by desertgrandma
Karl Marx, Socialism, the eradication of capitalism.....you must be very happy with our current presidential office holder.
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That comment is a telling one. The leader of the other party of capitalism; who in many instances has deepened the worsening effects of his predecessor.
I think nearing sixty I'm starting to feel overwhelmed by the degradation of the quality of life; by the consumer culture in the heartland of that. Where the richest most powerful nation in the world contributes little to even the production of what gets most often used here.
Obviously I guess, this forum is peripheral to a discussion of values; but, where relatively cutting edge consumer technology aimed at mass consumption is discussed.
Another gadget a person has to have; where in some sense my feelings are that this is also another step removed from a focused culture and society working to deal with some very monstrous and long-standing problems.
But, I'm the sort to go on at length about the evil of paternalistic patriarchy for instance; which perhaps is an un-familiar subject here? I'll probably end up with one of these eReader devices, and as unhappy having one as for instance a television where none of the stations either rabbit ears or cable, have anything of real interest while also heavily laden with inane, frequent commercials.
Where in my life, the roles of actual live people is so frustratingly limited by the prevailing conventions of this consumer society rather than any natural inclination; that these eReaders seem only another great extension of. At least getting paper books I'm out and about doing that. Though then once home again, sharing consciousness with only the sometimes long dead and definitely remote from me authors, and my four walls.
I think that the segments of society most enthused with technological advances and integration of same into their own lives; are probably where there is the most benefit derived from a technological consumer society. Which seems a narrow, numerically small portion of the total population.
Again, probably too narrow a forum of interest to attract others like-minded to myself; but, my ideas are ones shared by others where often the opinions are responsible ones, from considerable thought, study and experiences.
Michael Parenti, the author I'd first mentioned; happens to be particularly useful as a progressive, leftist, radical also quite intelligent. Whose books are often concerned with the media industry and how that gets manipulated and used by a small, very wealthy minority.
Anyway, just the limited means of sharing an electronic source once in my hands, seems discouraging and totally arbitrary; out of the motivations of capitalism. Where a person would feel more natural the ability to instantly share such a thing without further cost, rather than continually enriching people already far too advantaged compared to their worth, every time I want someone else to read what I have.
The time I'm investing in my reading seems so desultorily valued, when in the past even literacy itself had once been so rare that a person who could read was assured some reasonable employment even.
Now material security seems to depend upon granting too large a commitment to making of oneself an adjunct to corporate function; a cog in their wheels and machinery. Even just pushing a broom as I used to do when able to; they'd want you act as if you'd be around the rest of your damned life.
With a paper book I can pass that on, or loan and retrieve when another is finished, to pass on again to someone else for awhile. I think that within the technology as that is evolving for all electronica, is such a vast devotion to a specifically capitalist orientation; which otherwise would yield a much different modality in many things.
Or can anyone explain the fundamental virtue of a television commercial; repeated so frequently they become as if a mantra. Where of nominal if any interest, and usually so insulting to the intelligence they are painful. Yet now many generations have had to endure that of the media, obviously corrosive and particularly so if they actually sell their products, which one guesses they must since so much programming time gets devoted to their use.
Here is an interesting website; concerned with the environment I had to leave almost three years ago, and what happens there to people without adequate means. <http://peopleproject.wordpress.com/> Or another, excellent about more diverse social problems. <http://www.peoplesworld.org/> I used to distribute the paper edition of PEOPLES WORLD, when the PEOPLES WEEKLY WORLD, that as the DAILY WORKER Woody Guthrie wrote his eloquent column for in the nineteen thirties. I'm sure those publishing PEOPLES WORLD are deeply involved with the evolving technology; and also with the general consciousness on the planet.