It took them 4 years to realize that Trump was right. Diplodocus thought faster
Will Windham
2 months ago
The case for care regarding national security and the erosion of agency is well made, the piece raises some valid concerns. Another factor is to how much we encourage and value certain spiritual strengths such as self-reliance, voluntary restraint, and an appreciation of the real Self.
As these lend the essential life skills needed from studying to parenting, and much else between, this may be a more important factor in the long term, not least since it applies to all advances in media and technology by the ability to create market places that would not give such birth to so many poorly conceived and exploitative offerings. By definition it could foster more benign market forces since, as the article well observes, they are demand led. This also appears to have a direct correspondence to activities such as gambling and alcohol & drug abuse. It’s axiomatic that ‘the nature of the demand determines the character of what the market offers.’ For example, empower children with the values and strength of mind to stay out of the bookies and they – and many others – will be thankful!
Spirituality seems to be freeing itself from not only institutions but also from New Age shallowness, and not a few commentators have written on, or personally felt the influence of, a growing rise in the spiritual feeling independent from religious settings, a sense of interconnection or unity with the natural world, an altruistic fraternity with others, a philosophical questioning of first principles, that is being helped – with not a little irony – by AI, which however gifted seems itself incapable of it, for now.
I’d absolutely agree with the spiritual side of both the author’s and your points, well made. I see a danger that young people may not even undergo the development of spirituality which comes with learning, experience and agency. Perhaps many people in previous generations didn’t do so either, caught up in the need to earn a crust while organised religion enabled them to have a foothold in spirituality, but as passive recipients of a handed-down orthodoxy.
As anyone engaged with human cultural issues will appreciate, the process of engagement isn’t easy and has to be “earned” by being an active participant. It’s quite clear that social media is designed specifically to bypass this process altogether, and those in control of such platforms understand all too well how compliance and subservience can be induced among whole swathes of the population.
What’s at stake here is the nature of our civilisation, and i include within that the whole of the developed and developing world, not just the West. I’m not sure there’s anything more important than that, and if a ban on such platforms can be introduced it would at least demonstrate that our legislators and those who influence them have some grasp of the problem.
Alan B
2 months ago
Now if only we could ensure that every president learned philosophy, or that philosophers alone could become president…
It took them 4 years to realize that Trump was right. Diplodocus thought faster
The case for care regarding national security and the erosion of agency is well made, the piece raises some valid concerns. Another factor is to how much we encourage and value certain spiritual strengths such as self-reliance, voluntary restraint, and an appreciation of the real Self.
As these lend the essential life skills needed from studying to parenting, and much else between, this may be a more important factor in the long term, not least since it applies to all advances in media and technology by the ability to create market places that would not give such birth to so many poorly conceived and exploitative offerings. By definition it could foster more benign market forces since, as the article well observes, they are demand led. This also appears to have a direct correspondence to activities such as gambling and alcohol & drug abuse. It’s axiomatic that ‘the nature of the demand determines the character of what the market offers.’ For example, empower children with the values and strength of mind to stay out of the bookies and they – and many others – will be thankful!
Spirituality seems to be freeing itself from not only institutions but also from New Age shallowness, and not a few commentators have written on, or personally felt the influence of, a growing rise in the spiritual feeling independent from religious settings, a sense of interconnection or unity with the natural world, an altruistic fraternity with others, a philosophical questioning of first principles, that is being helped – with not a little irony – by AI, which however gifted seems itself incapable of it, for now.
I’d absolutely agree with the spiritual side of both the author’s and your points, well made. I see a danger that young people may not even undergo the development of spirituality which comes with learning, experience and agency. Perhaps many people in previous generations didn’t do so either, caught up in the need to earn a crust while organised religion enabled them to have a foothold in spirituality, but as passive recipients of a handed-down orthodoxy.
As anyone engaged with human cultural issues will appreciate, the process of engagement isn’t easy and has to be “earned” by being an active participant. It’s quite clear that social media is designed specifically to bypass this process altogether, and those in control of such platforms understand all too well how compliance and subservience can be induced among whole swathes of the population.
What’s at stake here is the nature of our civilisation, and i include within that the whole of the developed and developing world, not just the West. I’m not sure there’s anything more important than that, and if a ban on such platforms can be introduced it would at least demonstrate that our legislators and those who influence them have some grasp of the problem.
Now if only we could ensure that every president learned philosophy, or that philosophers alone could become president…
If you could convince me that current-day philosophers aren’t just as woke as other humanities academics generally are.
Of course we should ban it, followed by Facebook and and the waste of time formally called Twitter:
So the government should be allowed to ban us from using our computers to access content that it believes is bad for our mental health?
https://www.racket.news/p/why-the-tiktok-ban-is-so-dangerous