Bro, I have just seen so much bad shit happen for months and all my girlfriend will say is, “Something’s gonna happen, something is coming, I’m believing and praying and everything is gonna work out and be okay” and inside, I’m screaming like Atreus from God of War (2016), “HOW DO YOU KNOW?!”
The word hypernormalisation was coined by Alexei Yurchak a professor of anthropology who was born in Leningrad. He introduced the word which describes paradoxes of life during the 1970s and 1980s in the USSR. He says everyone in the Soviet Union knew the system was failing, but no one could imagine any alternative to the status quo and politicians and citizens alike were resigned to maintaining the pretense of a functioning society. Over time, the mass delusion became a self-fulfilling prophecy with everyone accepting it as the new norm rather than pretend.
I used to read through history and so frequently I would wonder things like “how did these serfs just put up with this for so long?”
I no longer wonder these things.
there’s also the matter that most of the time, you didn’t have to deal with noble strangers with horses expecting your loyalty (often, not the same nobles and horses as the last ones to come around). There may be the local lord but he had good cause to keep things consistent and open up the grain reserves whenever the winter was bad and crops failed.
But the keen thing that changed in the 20th century is we went from a desperate labor shortage to a labor surplus. There was just tons to do and no giant machines with which to do them. Death was right around the corner: A boar attack here, a bad influenza there, any kind of infection (no antibiotics), so people were dropping dead often enough that every last idiot, hunchback and bastard daughter were celebrated as a strong back that could churn butter or assemble barrels or pitch hay.
In fact, society was so fraught that clergy who knew the deal would look the other way when peasants were rutting like bunnies out of wedlock in springtime. (Stories are told and songs are sung of parish priests who were a bit strict on the sins, and how they had a tendency toward morbid mishap.)
We have crusades and territorial disbutes to thank for higher ranks getting into common business. The Third Crusade (King Richard v. Salah ad-Din) squeezed the peasants hard in England. Then Richard went cooky, disguised himself as a merchant, and was seized for ransom, and a king’s ransom was a lot. So the peasants were squeezed so hard it hurt the earls, and John of England (last of his name to this very day) was already a Trumpian / Neroesque asshole, and the economy was already tanked when Richard died in 1199, and at that point enough people were pissed off at unilateral monarchy they made John sign the Magna Carta at swordpoint. Several times.
And that was the beginning of the end of monarchy.
I was thinking something similar in regards to the amount of time it takes. If dystopia and dictatorship is coming to the “free world” the dictators have learned to land that plane gently. It’s nuts that things haven’t properly broken completely. We just keep putting up with small adjustments. I don’t think the serfs would have gone from, say, 2008 to 2025 without some sort of uproar or downright rebellion. Then again. Not my area of expertise.
“We should boycott Amazon for firing all their workers in my province.”
“Why bother, boycotts do nothing.”
How is that the default response and not “FUCK THIS COMPANY”
…and instead of joining the boycott, proceeds to do nothing.
To me, it’s only because they use their services and the concept of inconveniencing themselves is absurd. “It didn’t happen in MY province, and Prime delivery is next day! I’m sure they’ll all find better jobs.”
They work a job and are probably underpaid, so instead of thinking about someone else, especially when that other person makes more than they do, they view it as the other person just isn’t “surviving” as hard as they are… maybe? There’s tons of possibilities, but that’s my anecdotal take on it.
I felt this feeling as we were finding out we invaded Iraq under false pretenses to make money for blackrock. We never did anything. I figured people would change but after voting in same clown after the shitshow he did last time……
The average American reads at an 8th grade level, with slightly more than half reading at a 6th grade level.
We have been cognitively neutered, by design.
Didn’t that actually happen (not the Blackrock part)? I thought it came out in a Congressional hearing that there was oil which motivated the whole thing. The U.S. went in to find WMDs but after many years could not find evidence of any.
It was just because W wanted to finish what his dad started and remove Saddam. There was no exit plan or grand strategy.
That doesn’t necessarily mean Saddam wasn’t bad, but why not let the citizens of Iraq decide that?
As a dictator he weaponized his ethnic minority to violently oppress the majority. The people in Iraq had no say.
As though Americans are in any position to judge.
I’m just over here hoping we destroy ourselves for the benefit of the universe as a whole. We’re a blight.
over here hoping we destroy ourselves for the benefit of the universe
… and Trump took that literally.
don’t say things such as this, not even as a joke :)
Yeah I’ve been feeling bizarre as the US falls into fascism and ill just be at work like any other day
William Gibson wrote: The future has arrived, it’s just not evenly distributed.
I feel like it’s always been? I read a lot of history and there’s not many instances of peace and prosperity for all. Things considered im happy i live in the modern world, wish I could live in the pre 9/11 sweet spot, shit wasn’t off the deep end as far as it is now, and homes were affordable
pre 9/11 sweet spot
There’s a line in Fight Club about how Jack’s generation has no great war, out no way to prove themselves. It really is a great example of how things felt pre-9/11.
I am Jack’s overwhelming sense of buyer’s remorse.
I recently watched that movie when I turned 40. It hits different when you’re older, when you’re a teen or young person half of it goes over your head. Especially how young people glorify it and the whole fight club thing, not grasping that the movie is about toxic masculinity among other things
No, the current climate change situation is unparalleled in human history.
Humans have been at risk of ending their own species for almost a hundred years now.
Ok but that’s hardly what this post is talking about, and tbh the Roman’s gave us a run for their money with climate change and we’re lucky they didn’t have fossil fuels
Shit wasn’t of the deep end… for some countries.
It’s not possible to have prosperity and peace globally, it’s just not human nature. So even in the most prosperous utopia, war and shit always gonna happen. Reminds me of the bio shock quote “even in an equal utopia someone has to scrub the toilets”
But if you see scrubbing the toilets as a needed and fair work, paid accordingly, scrubbing the toilets stops being a shitty work (pun intended).
I sometimes wonder if I’ll ever be inspired again. Or feel motivated.
Seeing a convict run amok and President really fucks with your mental health.
Seeing the blatantly corrupt and evil people just makes it hard to care about anything anymore.
I sometimes just stare in the dark night wondering why im still here when other people who wanted to do things are not here anymore.
Its cyclical, there is no end or beginning just a chain of actions. Might not be the fun part od the circle but it goes around again, we will see better days.
The eternal pendulum of nihilism and existentialism.
Nihilism, there is no meaning. Existential, there is no meaning, so find meaning.
If you can, find a reason. Find that meaning. And, if nothing else, live and love out of spite. One day, you’ll wake up to the obituaries (naturally caused; no martyrs here please) of the awful people. And you’ll never have to think on them again, ideally.
It’s nearly dissociative. It’s utterly unreal.
It requires a strong will, lots of courage, and a strong stomach to face and accept the state of the world. I’m still working on all that, but I feel like I’m getting closer and closer by the day.
I can face it. I will not accept it.
I didn’t mean provide consent or bow down — most certainly not. I just meant mentally coming to terms with reality and accepting what needs to be changed.
Alexei Yurchak who was a professor of anthropology coined a term for this: Hypernormalisation.
From Wikipedia: “He introduced the word in his book ‘Everything Was Forever, Until It Was No More: The Last Soviet Generation’, which describes paradoxes of Soviet life during the 1970s and 1980s. He says everyone in the Soviet Union knew the system was failing, but no one could imagine any alternative to the status quo, and politicians and citizens alike were resigned to maintaining the pretense of a functioning society. Over time, the mass delusion became a self-fulfilling prophecy, with everyone accepting it as the new norm rather than pretend.”
This is where I feel democratic leadership is at right now. The fact no one is stepping up, rallying a cause, spearheading any sort of movement including “let’s protect what we’ve already got” just absolutely no leadership from the left seems like they just can’t fathom reality being anything other than what it is right now. I’ve been incredibly disappointed by the disappearing act both Harris and Walz have pulled and consider them failures due to this lack of leadership when we need it most, they ran for leadership of the opposition party but clearly have zero interest in actually leading in any form beyond titles/formally and this explains why, although does not excuse their behavior
The weird thing is it’s kind of more bizarre than a dystopian society. In dystopia, you know resources are scarce and that you have to defend yourself with violence. But in this actual dystopia, I can still get up and go play disc golf, pretty much without incident. There could come a day when I’m pulled over by some Nazi cop who decides to make an example of me, which face it, has been the case for some time now, but until then for little things like that, it’s pretty much business as usual despite the plummet into fascism. Very weird.
Scarcity is artificial with our level of technology and our ingenuity.
It’s a myth, we are able to produce more than enough even with many countless individuals in dire straits maintaining the world’s economy/production. We produce so much that we can afford to waste incredible amounts of food and other goods without batting an eye.
What if the individuals slaving were given the ingredients to be happy and healthy, with their human rights and needs respected?
Personally, I believe the world would get even more productive, things would start making sense, people wouldn’t have to work so hard, we’d see forward movement in our societies, and without a doubt we’d see incredible advancements.
I refuse to believe that everybody would laze about, leave the “hard” jobs unattended, and let the world rot.
If we can work this hard while we are forced to survive, forced to live in lack while the landfills pile up to the sky — there’s no way we wouldn’t be incredibly more efficient if people could take a second to breathe and fill their cup. If everybody could take a second and look around and see where things could be even better, where they can make a difference, everything would surely very quickly improve.
There’s no way to convince me that “peak productivity” is everybody emptying their cup and breaking the glass to pay debts and to afford necessities.
Sure but scarcity due to broken supply chains is a real thing. It doesn’t matter how wealthy you are if you physically cannot get your supplies where they are needed there will be scarcity and it will not be artificial
We do need to have more self-sufficient societal development. Shipping critical materials (raw or otherwise) and critical goods across the world doesn’t make a whole lot of sense unless something is an unique good or a very rare resource.
We don’t need to put our eggs all in one basket — global supply lines e.g. should be for specialities and artisan goods, and a appropriation of excess or aid.
The current global trade system relies on exploitation and slavery (even child slavery e.g. with cocoa).
We suck third-world countries of everything they have; their land, their labor, their resources, and their goods — and all the wealth concentrates into the hands of the very few in first-world countries. The result is the stagnation of the exploited region’s development — we trap them into these conditions of servitude.
I say this all the time: we built an economic system based on scarcity, and then manufactured scarcity.
This weekend I built a shed in my back yard, which was a nice bit of father-son bonding, and stockpiled ammo in case civil unrest causes widespread violence to break out in our neighborhood.
Definitely a strange vibe.
plant food trees and gardens…
Even when things aren’t all fascist, we’re still disposable wage slaves for the elite. And somehow that’s what we’re supposed to be working to maintain.
I think we have to start respecting ourselves, respecting others, and teaching those concepts to people who are receptive. To me, it seems like the only way to break the cycle called slavery.
They can dress slavery up with benefits all they want, but they don’t even care to anymore. Everybody knows it’s a raw deal and they are trying to scare us into thinking we have no power.
Let’s not be stuck in fear and hate, in subservience and denigration, and be sovereign and resolute in the change we want to see in the world.
I don’t need an external authority to tell me what I should believe and hope for. I don’t need somebody to curb my expectations and tell me change is impossible, that we actually need to compromise for no real reason, that it is too “costly”, or that it will take an extremely long time. I don’t want to be told ANY of that when change is possible — these people simply gave up before they even started. No more am I going to be gaslit, and I hope others feel similarly.
If you can’t imagine a world where comprehensive solutions manifest imminently to ease suffering, you probably aren’t fit for leadership. We need change now, this is absolute insanity. FUCK the perceived costs — it’s infinitely more costly to continue the current state of affairs while many, many countless individuals suffer and our precious and irreplaceable planet goes up in flames.
It’s that or go full on regular slave. Even if we maintain the old status quo, we’re still losing.
