I have faith. As more and more people adopt the viewpoint expressed here, we will see that the recent technological advances will be adapted to as the earlier ones were. I live in a part of the Last Free State in America, Florida, where 90% of people haven't heard of Twitter and of the 10% who have, maybe 25% of them use it. It's crucial to remember that the online echo chamber is NOT America.
As a test, last week I asked 20 of my neighbors if they knew who "Don Lemon" was. Two said they'd heard the name, but when pressed, both said "Baseball player? Football?"
People adapt, albeit often more slowly than some of us would prefer. Even my Manhattan Democrat friends have come to admit begrudgingly that it's maybe kinda possible that the Lamestream Media spouts nothing but lies on occasion. It's a step.
Lamestream media, I like that name. I usually call it the Cartoon Network, but same idea. I think we've all seen the polls that trust in MSM is cratering, which is probably healthy even if it is destabilizing.
I love Florida, I went to the Keys a lot as a teenager. If I didn't already have family in the northeast I would move to Florida or Texas when I come back from Asia.
That is cool to note that nobody has heard of Don Lemming and they don't use Twitter. Maybe there is hope after all...
Nice piece. Our evolving information landscape now precludes propagation of "uniting and cohesive" but fundamentally false narratives. The budding paradigm, implicitly endorsed by this platform and your writing in it, is that narratives must be authentic, honest and robust enough to survive the scrutiny of our best sensemakers in the hive mind. 70-80% may still gravitate to a narrative that is essentially unexamined and uncritically accepted, but truth is like gravity- its a bitch when you walk off the cliff in the dark.
If 20-30% worldwide can coalesce around authentic truth (which I would argue is occurring in small one to one connections, and larger internet facilitated connections, both of which you are plugged in to) then truth searching and sensemaking will displace prior "narrative generators" so long as ongoing and unfettered access to legit platforms continues. This "righting moment" (sailing analogy to the force that tends to keep a sailboat upright) can make all the difference keeping the ship of civilized humanity afloat.
I have seen that 70/30 ratio tossed around a lot lately. 70% of people will happily go along with the current thing, and 30% will question it. That seems to make sense to me.
In writing this article I was questioning whether we will ever again have a cohesive narrative that everyone believes in. I'm rather inclined to think not, but who knows. Maybe some grand project like going to Mars or unlimited energy with nuclear fusion could be enough to bind people together again?
I like that analogy of a righting moment. It is indeed important to keep some kind of alternative system going once the prevailing narrative starts to break down, even in the minds of the most hardened adherents.
Interesting to think about the nuclear fusion ramifications. Arguably access to cheap energy has helped raise the human standard of living immensely. Would fusion allow us to continue in this trend? If so, it would probably be a uniting narrative until the population becomes complacent and taking it for granted again. I think we need more durable, "eternal," and less transient narratives around truths that unite from generation to generation. Hard to promote when there is so much incentive and profit from seeking to divide us.
Ah, but I don't know how durable and eternal a narrative can be. The more I look at history the more I see cycles. It's like we must learn things for ourselves and a narrative full of meaning and deeper truth for one generation might right hallow in 50 or 100 years.
I think access to nearly unlimited energy at ultra low prices would completely transform society. For example, it would make desalination viable. What impact would that have? Or smelting and other industrial activities that require lots of energy. Electric vehicles of course would make actual sense, as opposed to questionable sense now. So many possibilities.
No doubt, eternal hard to do. Heck, durable seems undoable currently. Sounds excessively religious for many. We always think we are smarter than our parochial and primitive forebears. Then they humble us that we are not, just doomed to relearn some humilty.
I think America is uniquely susceptible to it not because of its superpower status but because it's a remarkably diverse and large country. What does the Boston yuppie have in common with the Texas rancher?
I am *not* an expert on Europe, but I am confident saying that some countries like Norway and Sweden are more homogeneous which I would expect makes them less susceptible to hating each other. Although even in Europe there is more polarization. France looks pretty wild at the moment.
Haha yeah... I love the fact that the French are so keen to protest government policies, but in this case raising the retirement age by one year doesn't seem like a totally reasonable reason to torch the country.
I have faith. As more and more people adopt the viewpoint expressed here, we will see that the recent technological advances will be adapted to as the earlier ones were. I live in a part of the Last Free State in America, Florida, where 90% of people haven't heard of Twitter and of the 10% who have, maybe 25% of them use it. It's crucial to remember that the online echo chamber is NOT America.
As a test, last week I asked 20 of my neighbors if they knew who "Don Lemon" was. Two said they'd heard the name, but when pressed, both said "Baseball player? Football?"
People adapt, albeit often more slowly than some of us would prefer. Even my Manhattan Democrat friends have come to admit begrudgingly that it's maybe kinda possible that the Lamestream Media spouts nothing but lies on occasion. It's a step.
Lamestream media, I like that name. I usually call it the Cartoon Network, but same idea. I think we've all seen the polls that trust in MSM is cratering, which is probably healthy even if it is destabilizing.
I love Florida, I went to the Keys a lot as a teenager. If I didn't already have family in the northeast I would move to Florida or Texas when I come back from Asia.
That is cool to note that nobody has heard of Don Lemming and they don't use Twitter. Maybe there is hope after all...
Brilliant !
Thank you Suz 🙏
Nice piece. Our evolving information landscape now precludes propagation of "uniting and cohesive" but fundamentally false narratives. The budding paradigm, implicitly endorsed by this platform and your writing in it, is that narratives must be authentic, honest and robust enough to survive the scrutiny of our best sensemakers in the hive mind. 70-80% may still gravitate to a narrative that is essentially unexamined and uncritically accepted, but truth is like gravity- its a bitch when you walk off the cliff in the dark.
If 20-30% worldwide can coalesce around authentic truth (which I would argue is occurring in small one to one connections, and larger internet facilitated connections, both of which you are plugged in to) then truth searching and sensemaking will displace prior "narrative generators" so long as ongoing and unfettered access to legit platforms continues. This "righting moment" (sailing analogy to the force that tends to keep a sailboat upright) can make all the difference keeping the ship of civilized humanity afloat.
I have seen that 70/30 ratio tossed around a lot lately. 70% of people will happily go along with the current thing, and 30% will question it. That seems to make sense to me.
In writing this article I was questioning whether we will ever again have a cohesive narrative that everyone believes in. I'm rather inclined to think not, but who knows. Maybe some grand project like going to Mars or unlimited energy with nuclear fusion could be enough to bind people together again?
I like that analogy of a righting moment. It is indeed important to keep some kind of alternative system going once the prevailing narrative starts to break down, even in the minds of the most hardened adherents.
Interesting to think about the nuclear fusion ramifications. Arguably access to cheap energy has helped raise the human standard of living immensely. Would fusion allow us to continue in this trend? If so, it would probably be a uniting narrative until the population becomes complacent and taking it for granted again. I think we need more durable, "eternal," and less transient narratives around truths that unite from generation to generation. Hard to promote when there is so much incentive and profit from seeking to divide us.
Ah, but I don't know how durable and eternal a narrative can be. The more I look at history the more I see cycles. It's like we must learn things for ourselves and a narrative full of meaning and deeper truth for one generation might right hallow in 50 or 100 years.
I think access to nearly unlimited energy at ultra low prices would completely transform society. For example, it would make desalination viable. What impact would that have? Or smelting and other industrial activities that require lots of energy. Electric vehicles of course would make actual sense, as opposed to questionable sense now. So many possibilities.
No doubt, eternal hard to do. Heck, durable seems undoable currently. Sounds excessively religious for many. We always think we are smarter than our parochial and primitive forebears. Then they humble us that we are not, just doomed to relearn some humilty.
This post gives me hope. Thank you!
Thanks Dee! I believe hope is warranted. Society is strange now, but I don't think it can continue indefinitely.
Do you think this polarization is an American thing? Is it just a super power thing?
Are folks this polarized in Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and the test of inner Europe?
I think America is uniquely susceptible to it not because of its superpower status but because it's a remarkably diverse and large country. What does the Boston yuppie have in common with the Texas rancher?
I am *not* an expert on Europe, but I am confident saying that some countries like Norway and Sweden are more homogeneous which I would expect makes them less susceptible to hating each other. Although even in Europe there is more polarization. France looks pretty wild at the moment.
Sacre bleu! Raise the retirement age by one year? I must take my seven weeks of annual vacation from the job I cannot get fired from to protest!
Haha yeah... I love the fact that the French are so keen to protest government policies, but in this case raising the retirement age by one year doesn't seem like a totally reasonable reason to torch the country.