techstepgenr8tion wrote:
I think everyone agrees that the liberation movement has been mostly one sided but, I think even in this guys first few paragraphs he loads way more on than what's there. I think you can help to explain a lot of broken homes, it can explain a lot of disenfranchised late 20's women wondering where all the men are at, I think it can explain a disproportionate suicide rate increase for men in the last 20 or 30 years if those stats are correct, why so many guys live in their 20's like their teenagers, it can explain confused guys reverting back to thug mentality because without intellect its all they're left to barter with, but communism, socialism, and moral decay? What do you even blame a so-called misandry bubble on? Surely it didn't come of its own volition - dynamics brought it out like every other dynamic had an origin.
Here's where I think he's really making a mistake. We're moving from a Stage I society to a Stage II. Stage I is need-based, Stage II more self-actualizing. The problem is - we're in that hang period between the two, which means we've been bailing out old culture, creating a vacuum, and in a vacuum you get a lot of nasty stuff before it re-compacts into a new form of culture. Marriage was a need-based thing, ie if you didn't marry you likely didn't make it. High infant mortality rate meant women had to pop out kids all day long. The situation of the past was need-driven. When you take the lid off an uncomfortable or less than self-actualizing situation, people naturally take that space to do what they'd rather be doing, and of course there are two sides to us - the self actualizing and the evolutionary/nature's law, both are likely animalistic but self-actualizing in many senses umbrellas more of our desireable traits as a race. With enhanced health care, big drop in infant mortality rate - fewer kids needed. Changing economy meant that children were more of an expense than an investment, also the rustbelt where I live - part GAT/NAFTA, part absolutely terrible politics - we have the great lakes of all things, we should be loaded with chemical companies, fresh water is a great resources, unfortunately our labor situation - Cleveland (my home), Detroit, etc., all suck.
On Marxism - what's happening I think, as technology increases and fewer people are needed, capitalism is stressed by this: a) on one hand people are what they are, less workers needed, essentially more poverty, b) we believe in the preservation of human life, even if we could Gattica ourselves, one too many people born and an extra would just about have to be sent to the pound. Capitalism requires enough jobs with living wages for it to bring out the best in the situation, without that a country is in bad shape no matter what their system is. We know that we're up against a problem - people will get away with doing as little as possible of what they don't want to do, which is why socialism/communism are a nightmare. Capitalism is built around those holes in human nature by maintaining that a certain amount of collective discomfort insures more fairness, yields an easily intuitive system where people have a justified reason to have what they do (they worked for it), without that sense of fairness in competitive results - people get crabby, its the animal in them.
Going forward as technology booms, one of our biggest challenges will also be figuring out reasons to live. Even with the economic question solved we can read and read, vacation ourselves sick, eat dinner in a different corner of the world every night, and we'd still wake up in the morning feeling like we're p***ing in the wind.
Sorry to go off for so long of a thread but - this guy took a huge swath of stuff and pigeonholed it. I can see where he can trace that out a long way but, you can trace many dynamics into every corner of the globe, time, political dynamics, and consider them the route cause of it all if you aren't careful.
No your analysis is much more accurate. We are in a transitional state. Feminism in many ways is a result of self-actualization, not downside of it. Same with civil rights. But transitions are tough for society. Technology moves faster.
I will say the Gattica effect is taking place even without the genetic engineering. The pairing of "power couples", basically men and women with equal educations and intelligence pairing off and having kids is the new norm. Women on the bottom can't trade up to professional men anymore. Both men and women are more selective on the upper 1/3 to 1/4, these are the self actualizers, the ones who are progressing with this first. This is having a genetic effect and a societal effect already. These trends may be completely subconscious, a result of a shift in technology and society. But it will be having very real impacts. This is a phase II society (maybe a phase III in reality). Even with moving into the next phase, the next one will come even quicker. This one took 60 years, the next one may take 30. The industrial revolution took over 100. The enlightenment 200-300 years and so on. These shifts are compressing, but human beings culturally never had to adapt so quickly. But technology is pushing us forward faster.
I think though moving to a another phase of society is positive, in some ways its like technological advancement, but gauging the effects takes longer.
23 Mar 2011, 2:38 pm
