08-27-2019, 09:18 PM
(08-27-2019, 09:09 AM)beechnut79 Wrote:(08-27-2019, 01:31 AM)pbrower2a Wrote: Does this sound like 3T economic culture, complete with an everybody-for-himself ethos and mindless consumerism as vogue?This video describes the whole malaise perfectly. Reminds me of a story I read not long ago about all of these folks living paycheck to paycheck with little hope for being able to improve their lot save for a huge stroke of luck such as a big lottery win. They were described as Generation Limbo because of their stuck status, and from the information given was able to come up with the perfect acronym. Lower Income Mostly Beyond Overhaul.
People will be more rational in their consumer choices -- and for that they will better like what they get. Selling stuff will be more personal, as people will be less likely to buy junk.
Everybody for himself culminates in everyone getting hurt -- and practically nobody liking the result. We may be approaching a new economic reality in which the production of consumer schlock loses all credibility as a means of creating human happiness. I remember seeing one science-fiction writer suggest (I forget which one -- it was several decades ago) suggesting that the mark of poverty was that one settled for such stuff. Being free of it would be the evidence of real wealth.
The every-man-for-himself ethos is ideal for maximal exploitation, short of slavery and fascism, in a modern society. It culminates in a society in which nearly everyone cares about each other as if they were loan-sharks collecting debts. That sort of society invariably fails.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.
