Yes. Exactly so. People have become philosophically lazy. We expect the meaning of life to be presented to us, to be curated for us by brands and social media campaigns. We expect governments and markets to 'be responsible' while taking no responsibility ourselves (or very little). We have allowed institutions and systems to subsume our free will and choice, primarily because choice and free will is inconvenient to us. We would rather have Amazon or Google recommend something than consider our criteria and search ourselves. We would rather have Facebook present us with ideological positions that we can react to than seek a path independently. We demand more and more information and entertainment, but our ability to parse it and place it in a personal worldview has long ago been overwhelmed. Now we seek distraction from that fact, and reassurance that we are in control through the ability to swipe, when in fact, we know deep down we lost it long ago. We have become lazy.
Conspiracy theorists would say that the new Leviathans encourage this, enforce it even, through social media and public education. To some extent (the extent that TikTok is a tool of the Chinese government) this is probably true. Propaganda and misinformation, distraction and public 'education' is something that Communism, in particular, understood and utilized to great effect.
Regardless, I think the expansion of 'rights' - not just as pragmatic policy tools, but as ideological underpinnings - demonstrates this is true. The UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights shows this: "Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay." Universal Basic Income is another example. I support it, but as a more fiscally responsible alternative than so many of our welfare programs, not as a "right" as many people seem to. People seem to think that being human in and of itself should carry weight, that just by virtue of being born, we are somehow more worthy than the rest of the world and its creatures to find happiness and fulfillment - without having to try and struggle for it. Lazy.
If we do not try and yet we expect it, then it is the Leviathans who will eat us alive, who will engineer our souls. Until they tell us what to want and we dutifully buy it, and they tell us how to feel and we dutifully feel that way. O wait...we are already there. I predict it cannot work, because deep down, I think we all feel that somehow it is fake and we are not happy. The question is just, will we realize too late?
Yes. Exactly so. People have become philosophically lazy. We expect the meaning of life to be presented to us, to be curated for us by brands and social media campaigns. We expect governments and markets to 'be responsible' while taking no responsibility ourselves (or very little). We have allowed institutions and systems to subsume our free will and choice, primarily because choice and free will is inconvenient to us. We would rather have Amazon or Google recommend something than consider our criteria and search ourselves. We would rather have Facebook present us with ideological positions that we can react to than seek a path independently. We demand more and more information and entertainment, but our ability to parse it and place it in a personal worldview has long ago been overwhelmed. Now we seek distraction from that fact, and reassurance that we are in control through the ability to swipe, when in fact, we know deep down we lost it long ago. We have become lazy.
Conspiracy theorists would say that the new Leviathans encourage this, enforce it even, through social media and public education. To some extent (the extent that TikTok is a tool of the Chinese government) this is probably true. Propaganda and misinformation, distraction and public 'education' is something that Communism, in particular, understood and utilized to great effect.
Regardless, I think the expansion of 'rights' - not just as pragmatic policy tools, but as ideological underpinnings - demonstrates this is true. The UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights shows this: "Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay." Universal Basic Income is another example. I support it, but as a more fiscally responsible alternative than so many of our welfare programs, not as a "right" as many people seem to. People seem to think that being human in and of itself should carry weight, that just by virtue of being born, we are somehow more worthy than the rest of the world and its creatures to find happiness and fulfillment - without having to try and struggle for it. Lazy.
If we do not try and yet we expect it, then it is the Leviathans who will eat us alive, who will engineer our souls. Until they tell us what to want and we dutifully buy it, and they tell us how to feel and we dutifully feel that way. O wait...we are already there. I predict it cannot work, because deep down, I think we all feel that somehow it is fake and we are not happy. The question is just, will we realize too late?