Technology Breaking Down the Social Imagination...

Yes, you read that right... technology makes us lazy, it makes us expect less from each other. We expect less from mother, from father, from grandparents, from neighbors, the community and so on... We don't expect women to be women (mothers/wives included) and we don't expect men to be men (fathers/husbands included)...we just don't expect much these days from people.  

We don't expect much from our family, our neighbors, our children our municipal workers, our representatives etc... after all, they are giving it their best. But what is that anymore? 

Because of that, we don't dress to impress, we don't live to aspire or inspire, we don't work to achieve, we don't learn more than we have to, and we for sure don't do anything that causes us too much time, effort, pain, stress, or demands anything more than taping a screen.

Don't believe me? Look around folks! Go to Walmart and take a gander. Read the newspapers, watch television, see a movie, or have dinner out... the writing is on the wall!Men used to dress to impress, wear a suit and hat to work. Women used to dress up for a date... to impress. 

Now, they all dress down... no one needs to impress anyone because no one is inspired to do so... Sure, other things can feed into the dumbing down of America, but technology as lowered our expectations. Numerous historical events mark this out... So, anyone can observe how technology has caused people to become dumb slobs. Hence, we recruit workers from other countries who can still think for themselves. 

You can blame corporate America who made the technology, or the universities who did the research and produced the experts. But its the technology itself in the hands of the masses that has become a trip- to-fan (tryptophan) event... We have taken a trip that has no destiny... we sleep most of the way peeking to see if any notifications have popped up. 

Think I am mistaken... think again as you read this:  Is Smart Technology Making Us Dumb? Yes and no: there are reasonable arguments on both sides of the question : Article By Brett Frischmann on December 27, 2018

  I believe we may be making ourselves dumber when we outsource thinking and rely on supposedly smart tech to micromanage our daily lives for the sake of cheap convenience.

    The internet provides us with seemingly limitless data, prose, images, video and other raw materials that could in theory enhance our intelligence and enable us to become more knowledgeable, to be more

    skillful or to otherwise use actionable intelligence. Maybe we could improve our decision-making, reflect on our beliefs, interrogate our own biases, and so on. 

    But do we? Who does? Who exactly is made smarter? And how? And with respect to what? Are you and I, and our siblings and children, engaging with the seemingly limitless raw materials in a manner that makes us more capable, more intelligent? Or do we find ourselves outsourcing more and more? Do we find ourselves mindlessly following scripts written or designed by others?

    We’re easily led to believe that we’re extending our minds and becoming more intelligent with a little help from the digital tech tools, when in reality, those are often just illusions, sales pitches optimized to pave the path of least resistance. Every time someone suggests they’ve extended their mind with their smartphone, that they are thinking through and with their phones, I respond by asking them about who’s doing what thinking.

    Are they extending their mind or extending the reach of others into their mind? When you rely on GPS, who’s doing the route planning? Who is really gaining what intelligence? Are you smarter...because of GPS?

    What impact does outsourcing navigation and awareness of your surroundings have on your capabilities? Certainly, Waze or Google gain intelligence about you, your surroundings and even others around you. That could be good or bad, but it’s not really extending your mind or expanding your intelligence. 

My comment to this author's observation is that its true... oh so true! Even more because of the radical drop in the level of expectation between people; and, its made less and less daily. This ever so important aspect 'expectation' in the social imagination is what primes us to become thinkers, and gets us to stand on our own two feet and its disappearing at an alarming rate. 

So, we will continue to expect less and less from each other here at home and on a global level... other than the latest phone  and service upgrade... Well, then what do you or could you expect? NOTHING !!!

Onlinie Source ~ https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/is-smart-technology-making-us-dumb/

  

The Threats to Democracy in the American Social Imagination...

 

 

In 1984, John Brigham wrote a book called, "Civil Liberties and American Democracy." In chapter 7, Brigham writes about threats to American democracy. He states that threats to democracy in America appear to be from three sectors: the elites, the people and the experts. It is so worthwhile to read that instead of completely summarizing, short excerpts will be used.

The first threat comes from the top - elites. Who are they? They are the power elite as C.Wright Mills wrote in 1956. They are people who occupy the higher tiers of society because they have either money or power or prestige or they have all three.  Brigham points to them first as they are truly the ones who hold the balance of economic and military power. Among themselves they compete for more money, power and prestige which effect everyone else.

There is no open competition in this scenario (names and places at the top may change but the game remains) and because of that there is an ever constant threat to democracy as they feel that their established order is under threat. Thus, Brigham asserts that we should always be alert to the usurpation of state power, whether it is by unaccountable private interest or under the justification of military emergency.

The second threat comes from the people. Really? Yes, really. Largely because, there is no truth in the masses as Kierkegaard noted. Such a threat comes from those who have no share in the top and what goes on up there. They lack information from the top and form groups of like mindedness because of that. Hence, there is no truth in the masses... for they are a mixed batch these days.

This kind of threat from the bottom should be taken seriously. It is out of alienation from the top, a feeling of hopeless and helplessness. This feeling creates the illusion (real or not) that there is something bigger and menacing that is out to get the little guy, something that wants to take his job, his family, his faith and his life; and unless he/she goes along to get along he/she is doomed.

The third threat comes from experts. Who are they? In America, Brigham firstly points out lawyers and even judges mostly influenced by elites and politicians and or including other kinds of experts: university administrators, think tank groups, foundation/association/org lobbyists, and even today- journalists that are paid to pull strings for the all the others just named.  Experts can be 'made people'; made by the elites who want to keep their status and or position of power and thus control the people with their so called 'expertise'.

Today, we can observe these three threats underway, undermining American democracy. And, a kind of internal shaking is being felt nationwide and worldwide. Is America a democracy for the people and by the people? It should never be doubted lest America decays and disappears into the history pages. That rhetoric is being used but with a new twist. The experts and elites who control politicians and lets include the military industrial who is in bed with all three. They are revising the United States of America. They are changing who/what (USA) America is, who the people really are. They use political rhetoric (fighting words) to reshape what life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness means... what it means to them.

I think we can safely say... that's what is before us in the theater of the social imagination.

 

A Techno-Military Takeover in the Social Imagination...

 

Its enough to remember both world wars to get a stark glimpse of what everyday life was like when there was...a military takeover. Did machine technology have a major role then? Yes. And, isn't' it very interesting that media today produces scenarios with plots mimicking exactly that but with newer machines. You may or may not have seen the USA Network series, "Colony" (2016-18). 

As a 'show' it was meant to entertain of course but perhaps to warn; after all, it had an eerie historical element (Nazi occupation of France i.e.). The series was cancelled when it seemed to be riding high in viewership. In fact, it has had petitions since created to bring it back but sadly to no avail. Why? Maybe it was too close to a planned coming scenario to be implemented in your everyday life.

Let's look at the plot for Colony. 

In a dystopian near-future Los Angeles, residents live under a regime of military occupation by an organization known as the Transitional Authority. The Authority serves an extraterrestrial group referred to as the "Hosts", about whom little is known until later in the series (an alien robotic race finds itself hunted, who came to Earth to use humans as allies and labor in their own battle). 

The symbol of the collaborating forces features stylized birds of prey, or raptors, which gives rise to their nickname, the "Raps". The Authority enforces Host policy via militarized police called Homeland Security and nicknamed the "Redhats" for the red helmet cover of their otherwise black tactical attire.

The Hosts took control on a day known simply as the "Arrival". That day began with massive worldwide communication interference and jamming, which came after a weeklong hunt for relevant key figures around the world. Late that day, massive rectangular blocks descended from the sky, linking together to build walls dividing the city. One of these walls, 20 to 30 stories tall, many meters thick and many miles in length, surrounds the central part of Los Angeles, where the series is set. 

Other similar walls have been constructed around neighboring urban areas, called "blocs", with the whole referred to as a "colony". Traffic passes through the walls at heavily secured checkpoints, called "gateways", which allow the Authority to strictly control the movement of people and the distribution of consumables, such as food and fuel, which are rationed. The geographical extent of the alien invasion is unclear, but later scenes in the series shows Authority members from all over the world - hence making the invasion scale worldwide.

A privileged class of elites, drawn by the Hosts from the local population, are denigrated by some bloc residents as collaborators. The ruling forces maintain control through the separation of family members, shoot-on-sight curfews, forced disappearances, random checkpoints, frequent electronic identity checks, limitation of motor vehicle usage (most people walk or ride bicycles), pervasive visual propaganda, slave labor in a place called the "Factory" (later revealed to be located on the Earth's moon to mine radioactive materials), and massive continuous electronic surveillance with both hidden cameras as well as host-provided drone aircraft that launch from hangar bays inside the wall and capable of killing humans by extremely lethal high energy weaponry. 

Some medical problems, such as diabetes, have been "deemed unworthy for treatment" by the Hosts, to cull the population. A resistance movement is referred to as both the "Resistance" and the "Insurgency". An informal barter-based black market has also sprung up, trading in surplus materials and home-produced goods.

In a May 21, 2015, interview with Collider, executive producer Carlton Cuse stated that the show was "conceived as a metaphor for France during the Nazi occupation"^.   

In a separate interview with Entertainment Weekly, co-creator Ryan Condal detailed that the original concept behind Colony was that they "were actually inspired by Nazi-occupied Paris during WWII, where people went on living their lives, having coffee in street-side cafes while Nazi officers marched along the roads". 

Today, we don't need officers to march along roads or walk around towns... just machine technology called drones as we saw in the film Oblivion. 

ONLINE SOURCE:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colony_(TV_series)