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Musings Report 2017:17 4-29-17 Mourning, Loss, Technology and Accelerating Change
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For those who are new to the Musings reports: they are basically a glimpse into my notebook, the unfiltered swamp where I organize future themes, sort through the dozens of stories and links submitted by readers, refine my own research and start connecting dots which appear later in the blog or in my books. As always, I hope the Musings spark new appraisals and insights. Thank you for supporting the site and for inviting me into your circle of correspondents.
Welcome to April's MUS (Margins of the Unfiltered Swamp)
The last Musings of the month is a free-form exploration of the reaches of the fecund swamp that is the source of the blog, Musings and my books.
Mourning, Loss, Technology and Accelerating Change
Last week I asked: Are We (Collectively) Depressed? as an exploration of the possibility that a widespread anger with our powerlessness, rising insecurity and thwarted ambitions is finding outlets not just in street confrontations between political groups but in depression, which is fed by anger turned inward.
It now seems to me that some of our collective anxiety, depression and anger is the result of two other forces:
1) Our society has no language, narrative or space for mourning everything that is lost to accelerating technological change: secure employment, a sense of place, collective memory, financial security and relationships that aren't transient.
Maybe this sounds odd, but it seems that psychology, technology and economics don't really talk to each other. Economics thrills to the accelerating pace of technological change, as this accelerating technological change drives the economic narratives of "creative destruction" and improving productivity.
Technology is deaf and blind to the carnage it leaves in its wake; it's viewed as a force of Nature much like a giant, never-ending tornado that roams the planet, tearing up economies, societies and cultures and leaving the survivors to sort through the wreckage.
Conventional psychology is equally blind to the tremendous losses inflicted on individuals by this structural acceleration of disruptive change--what Marx described as "everything solid melts into air."
For Marx, modern capitalism melted everything into air by its very nature. It wasn't a feature of capitalism that could be eliminated or even limited. As the mode of production changed, it upended everything from work to family to the built environment around us.
Psychology and psychiatry tend to respond to individual anxiety and depression in isolation: here are coping mechanisms you can learn, here are medications you can take.
The fields that are tasked with maintaining our mental health seem blind to the systemic cause of so much of our anxiety, depression and sense of loss.
The notion that we need time and space to mourn what we've lost in all this accelerating insecurity and disorienting change is alien to our culture; there's no process or cultural space for mourning lost careers, lost jobs, lost communities, lost friends, lost relationships; these are considered individual losses rather than the inevitable output of the system we inhabit.
Three counseling sessions paid by insurance, a prescription for anti-anxiety meds and anti-depressants and a list of URLs on coping mechanisms, and you're good to go. Go get 'em, TIger!
Mourning is verboten, because the act of recognizing our losses calls into question the insecurity and sanity-draining stresses of our way of life. No mourning is allowed for the disruption of everything we cherished most.
The American ideal is an optimism that is dismissive of losses and any mourning for what has been sacrificed or lost. "It is what it is" is now our only balm; resignation, a frozen grin of conjured optimism and a numbing of all the pain with medication or self-medication.
I wonder if we're terrified of recognizing our losses to accelerating change--a disorienting disintegration that never seems to increase our security or connectedness with others.
The breathless cheerleaders of these changes hype social media and Universal Basic Income (UBI) as the substitutes for the loss of a sense of belonging, of work that gave us pride and satisfaction, of a sense of place that included a collective memory of how a community functions, and relationships that aren't transient and contingent on the next round of layoffs or the next transient flurry of new neighbors.
Futurist pioneer Alvin Toffler was one of the first to popularize the consequences of the widening gap between technological and cultural changes and the institutions of society. He wrote the influential 1970 book Future Shock.
Toffler's shortest definition of future shock is a personal perception of "too much change in too short a period of time."
Toffler argues that society is undergoing an enormous structural change, a revolution from an industrial society to a "super-industrial society". This change will overwhelm people, the accelerated rate of technological and social change leaving them disconnected and suffering from "shattering stress and disorientation" – future shocked. Toffler stated that the majority of social problems were symptoms of the future shock. In his discussion of the components of such shock, he also coined the term information overload."
Why are our expectations so often dashed? One part of the answer might be Effort Shock (David Wong):
"You know what I'm talking about; the main character is very bad at something, then there is a sequence in the middle of the film set to upbeat music that shows him practicing. When it's done, he's an expert.
It seems so obvious that it actually feels insulting to point it out. But it's not obvious. Every adult I know--or at least the ones who are depressed--continually suffers from something like sticker shock (that is, when you go shopping for something for the first time and are shocked to find it costs way, way more than you thought).
Only it's with effort. It's Effort Shock.
We have a vague idea in our head of the 'price' of certain accomplishments, how difficult it should be to get a degree, or succeed at a job, or stay in shape, or raise a kid, or build a house. And that vague idea is almost always catastrophically wrong."
It seems to me that the price of keeping one step ahead of the tornado is far higher than advertised.
One possible step in the right direction: opt out by stepping off the marketing/media impossible-expectations treadmill. Re-orient one's context, goals and focus to the real world rather than the media-political-financial world.
Another possible step in the right direction: recognize that all these transformations, regardless of whatever improvements to productivity they might eventually bear, have triggered multiple losses within everyone whose life has been disrupted by accelerating change.
Perhaps recognizing the losses and the need for some respite to mourn those losses is part of the process of dealing positively with disorientation, overload, stress and the anger that arises from feeling powerless, adrift and alienated from our own experience.
It's difficult to watch programs like this and not think of the mourning for what's lost that is not acknowledged, much less allowed. American Epidemic: The Nation’s Struggle With Opioid Addiction (34:26 min)
From Left Field
Entrepreneurship in the Social and Solidarity Economy -- co-ops...
Japan's middle-aged 'parasite singles' fear uncertain future-- Mom and Dad tried to marry you off, but failed...
Steve Ballmer Serves Up a Fascinating Data Trove--a worthy effort...
A New McCarthyism--stating the obvious...
The evidence is piling up — Silicon Valley is being destroyed (by monopolies)
How Western Civilisation Could Collapse (via Cheryl A.)
The one word that explains why your pay is so low (via LaserLefty)
Graphene sieve turns seawater into drinking water (via Steve K.)
Desperate Malls Turn to Concerts and Food Trucks (via Joel M.)
American students lose interest in China studies (via Maoxian)
Concerns about pollution, work opportunities take toll on enrollment
The Real World of Oil Has a Warning for Financial Markets (via Joel M.)
We know this sounds crazy, but GE could help fix our unfair tax code-- man bites dog...
American Epidemic: The Nation’s Struggle With Opioid Addiction (34:26 min)
"Knowledge is the most democratic source of power." Alvin Toffler
Thanks for reading--
charles |
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