{"id":10175,"date":"2019-01-24T10:06:37","date_gmt":"2019-01-24T10:06:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/visakanv.com\/?p=234"},"modified":"2019-01-24T10:06:37","modified_gmt":"2019-01-24T10:06:37","slug":"public","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/2019\/01\/24\/public\/","title":{"rendered":"The public is insufficiently educated on how to be a good public"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The public is insufficiently educated on how to be a good public.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think this is civilisation-specific (ie not an issue for egalitarian hunter-gatherers who live enmeshed lives). And I think appreciating this requires appreciating that civilisation is hierarchical, stratified. The reality of status hierarchies is starker than we articulate<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nobody introduces you to sexism 101, racism 101 or status hierarchies 101 when you\u2019re a child. This is something you have to learn through fumbling experience and unverified hearsay, the way most people learn about sex.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Circling back. The public isn\u2019t educated to be a good public because it isn\u2019t in the interest(s) of the ruling class, not really. The public is educated to obey, to regulate & be regulated, to work. There are lots of shitty smartbro takes on this, but underlying truth remains<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many (most?) people fantasize about being a king<\/a>, queen, prince, princess. Many (most?) people secretly know that the public commons is a dumpster fire, and aspire to have enough power to avoid being trampled by the great herd of humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the short run, for the quarterly report, the public yields the most profits when it is most anxious, fearful, outraged, disgusted. If you advocate for fewer ads, less hyperbole, a better user experience, you\u2019ll probably get replaced by someone else who doesn\u2019t care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the earliest conceptualization of \u201ccivilised<\/a>\u201d humanity, there were the rulers and the serfs. The masters and the slaves. The bougies and the proles. The clever trick of late-stage capitalism is selling gold-plated chains as a substitute for liberty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s tempting at this point to point a finger at a mysterious Man who\u2019s Out To Get Us. And maybe some people bear more responsibility than others for kickstarting the profit-seeking hyperdrive. But correcting it will IMO require a planetary effort that has never been coordinated. (Meditations on Moloch<\/a> feels relevant here.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I changed my mind about something halfway here. I was going to say \u201cwe are all responsible, it\u2019s our collective insecurity\u201d I\u2019m not so sure that\u2019s accurate, apart from in the most superficial sense. The asshole problem is real.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Assholes are the 1% of people that cause 74% of the problems everywhere they go. The challenge is to deal with assholes without becoming an asshole yourself in the process. It\u2019s sadly-funny and true that anti-assholes are some of the worst assholes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

tbc<\/p>\n\n\n\n


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The public is insufficiently educated on how to be a good public. I think this is civilisation-specific (ie not an issue for egalitarian hunter-gatherers who live enmeshed lives). And I think appreciating this requires appreciating that civilisation is hierarchical, stratified. The reality of status hierarchies is starker than we articulate.… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s5gxNz-public","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10175"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10175\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}