11-17-2024, 12:18 PM
This post was last modified 11-17-2024, 12:23 PM by UltraBudgie.
Dear No One,
Never before in history has no one craved no thing so deeply. If we present you a post-scarcity society, could you accept it? The thirst for spectacle and projection has existed in human veins for millennia, the past you describe is not so different as you may think. What has changed, exponentially, is the distance and reach of that desire. No longer content with village gossip about the local manor lord, today's technology-enabled peasant treats the world as stage for them to judge the drama they require. They demand a larger theatre and continuous showings to whet their never-slacking jaded appetites. New characters to deconstruct, new plots to unravel. Who is it who makes this a clown show?
What would you have? Representation? You have it. Perhaps you think you want faceless efficient bureaucrats, neutrally tasking themselves to the business of the public. Where would you look then to judge their actions? From results? Please. I think you can see that the general public only ever measure that from their own lives and couch-seats. Rare is the individual who looks wider with their own eyes, and not through any of the myriad-coloured lenses they demand be provided for them. Give the public bread, and they will complain about the circus. Give them more and better circuses, and they will complain about those, too. Give them reality, and they choose demagogues instead, or go insane in the isolation of their rejection.
So we play a role, often thanklessly, as we always have. As do our peers in industry, media, and all the institutions of your "culture". If we are too responsive to your needs, we are called puppets, if we are not, we are called subverted. You may think we've won, but we can't win. There is no winning with you; we know that. Each day is just another time-slot in your agenda, another projected evil and outrage to embody response to. It depressing, and often we don't even try any more. Trying to keep up with you would drive anyone crazy. We've constructed polling apparatuses, focus groups, institutes of policy analysis, forecasting, coherent messaging because frankly the job is too big for any one person. We respond to them, they respond to you. It is what it is.
Yet you want it different? Okay, go ahead. Live your life differently. No one is stopping you, except from tearing each other apart. You claim to fear totalitarianism, coercion, eroding liberty, but where do those fears manifest in your actual life? In options for personal responsibility that you will not shoulder. Avoiding autonomy has become an art form. Can't handle the mind control and brainwashing? Well, control your mind. Wash your brain, don't depend on us to do so. Grow up. Or enjoy the show! You're paying for it, after all.
Sincerely, and with love,
No One
(ETA: "My dearest Wormwood...")
Never before in history has no one craved no thing so deeply. If we present you a post-scarcity society, could you accept it? The thirst for spectacle and projection has existed in human veins for millennia, the past you describe is not so different as you may think. What has changed, exponentially, is the distance and reach of that desire. No longer content with village gossip about the local manor lord, today's technology-enabled peasant treats the world as stage for them to judge the drama they require. They demand a larger theatre and continuous showings to whet their never-slacking jaded appetites. New characters to deconstruct, new plots to unravel. Who is it who makes this a clown show?
What would you have? Representation? You have it. Perhaps you think you want faceless efficient bureaucrats, neutrally tasking themselves to the business of the public. Where would you look then to judge their actions? From results? Please. I think you can see that the general public only ever measure that from their own lives and couch-seats. Rare is the individual who looks wider with their own eyes, and not through any of the myriad-coloured lenses they demand be provided for them. Give the public bread, and they will complain about the circus. Give them more and better circuses, and they will complain about those, too. Give them reality, and they choose demagogues instead, or go insane in the isolation of their rejection.
So we play a role, often thanklessly, as we always have. As do our peers in industry, media, and all the institutions of your "culture". If we are too responsive to your needs, we are called puppets, if we are not, we are called subverted. You may think we've won, but we can't win. There is no winning with you; we know that. Each day is just another time-slot in your agenda, another projected evil and outrage to embody response to. It depressing, and often we don't even try any more. Trying to keep up with you would drive anyone crazy. We've constructed polling apparatuses, focus groups, institutes of policy analysis, forecasting, coherent messaging because frankly the job is too big for any one person. We respond to them, they respond to you. It is what it is.
Yet you want it different? Okay, go ahead. Live your life differently. No one is stopping you, except from tearing each other apart. You claim to fear totalitarianism, coercion, eroding liberty, but where do those fears manifest in your actual life? In options for personal responsibility that you will not shoulder. Avoiding autonomy has become an art form. Can't handle the mind control and brainwashing? Well, control your mind. Wash your brain, don't depend on us to do so. Grow up. Or enjoy the show! You're paying for it, after all.
Sincerely, and with love,
No One
(ETA: "My dearest Wormwood...")
