A societal precipice

It seems like there are a lot of signs that we're on the edge of a precipice. It's something that's said a lot, but it seems like there are quite a few problems that society (in the U.S. specifically) that might be symbolic of very core underlying issues:

• A seeming disregard, at the individual level, for certain morals we've come to assume most hold. The recent mob-looting of stores is quite a blatant example of people being extremely smart about doing crime and seeming to not really feel bad about it. Many people are evidently walking into stores, grabbing merchandise, and walking out in an extremely nonchalant manner. Stores in {San Francisco} are boarding up their windows to prevent mobs from smashing them. * A coworker described an example they witnessed of a man walking into a Walgreens, grabbing stuff from a shelf, and walking out the doors. An employee said "aren't you going to pay for that?" and he said "Nope, merry Christmas!" I'm not the law and order type[1] but when I hear stuff like that I certainly recognize there is a serious societal problem. We need to be able to trust that this sort of thing isn't going to happen into order to operate at a fairly basic level.
• The digital commoditization of our social lives. I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with our social lives being more digital. Where there does seem to be a problem is when those social lives are deeply intertwined with commoditization--social attention being sold. * So social incentives online are pointing in the wrong direction; they're directing us inwards at ourselves. As a society our attention is extremely plastic, and what it is we focus on can now be easily engineered. Unsurprisingly if the goal is engagement, having us attack each other is hugely effective.
• A disregard for the nation as an entity of importance. Many seem to find the nation's existence to be totally arbitrary. If we're going to exist as a nation[2] we all (or most of us anyway) need to agree it's a good idea.

Maybe I, like everyone else, am being deceived into thinking things are worse than they are. And I probably am. But the fact remains that as a society we're going in a direction that's clearly totally unexplored territory. Some say that's progress. It feels to me like the further we get from our true nature[3] the more problems we're going to have.

Last updated Wed Dec 01 2021 in Berkeley, CA

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1: /thought/my-biases.gmi

2: /thought/binding-the-nation.gmi

3: /thought/who-are-we.gmi

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