In humble opinion it is rooted in the way people think, which is to say, most people don't really think.
They "re-act", or make easy assumptions, and jump to conclusions, rather than think something through.
We're a culture of "assumptions," not critical thinking.
No one actually thinks about the fact, that binary logic can only handle so much before it breaks down under the strain of cognitive dissonance.
Record levels of homelessness, yet at the same time, no one ever thinks about the fact, capitalism has never, and will never, solve unemployment, poverty and homelessness, as long as we do not have a right to a job or economic rights at all.
The private sector and government sector [from local, up through national level] can't not create enough demand to ever reach anything near full employment.
It's much "easier" to think, "it's the individual’s fault." But they have no right to a job, and employers control the entire labor market. You can apply anywhere, but it is the employers choice, who gets a job or not.
The "laws of economics" is all based on flawed assumptions, but no one ever mentions this fact. They talk about GDP like it's a description of the state of our society, but it is not.
People just accept it as truth because they don't think it through, simply because they don't know how.
THANK YOU! UGH! I travel all the time for work and everywhere I go there's that same little suburban mall area pretending to be a neighborhood that has an Apple store in an Ann Taylor Loft store, and I often end up there because it's the only walkable place in the entire metropolis. I am forever desperately seeking small walkable neighborhoods with local mom and pop stores and actually unique and interesting restaurants and perhaps even a place that you can sit without having to pay a lot of money. UGH UGH UGH.
And all of this because the financial models for "difference" have been destroyed.
Yes - Han's "The Agony of Eros" & "The Expulsion of the Other" immediately came to mind for me, as well. Toward the end of "The Agony of Eros", he explains how the rampant use of data to predict human behavior in virtually all fields supplants the need for theory with its inherent risk & vulnerability. But few are willing to count the homogenizing costs of capitalism.
Now it seems that homogenization has been harnessed and crystallized and snuffed as if the purest sacred powder into the nose of society, it's called AI
What do you actually think that would solve? Violent revolutions almost always cause more issues than they fix, why would this one be different, what would we do differently after?
The American Revolution liberated this country from British tyranny, and the Bolshevik Revolution uplifted the peasants from serfdom and near destitution
Before I moved to America I wasn't a huge fan of American comedy. It is too rooted in catchphrases, repetition, familiarity; the breaking rather than building of tension. Moving here showed that it's an expression of the yearning for familiarity shared by millions of disconnected faces in a society that has few firm roots, or rather precious few cracks in the market for genuine roots to grow through and bloom. Every flower is cut and presented alone in its vase. Between these distances are holes that nuance falls into, never to be seen again. So things get more heavily drawn, more simplistic, more literal, more superficial. Social media has supercharged this, and also engorged that vacant society to the point that there isn't even any space left in which to experience the fact that there *is* space between us -- instead of this bright semaphor of previous generations of American entertainment, it's all now crushed into an extruded meat product, homogeneous and relentless and devoid of nutrition, with no room to breathe.
i believe value is something that exist between people, not inside them. Likewise, interesting stuff lies in what happens between people, not in separate individuals. If stuff feel boring now, it might be because spaces between people have been colonized and corrupted to serve third interests.
This article is one more push for me to make that neocities website, and also, i'm trying to make social happenings happen from time to time even though I kinda live as a shut-in
Thanks for the thoughtful article/read. Two aspects contributing to this are the “whataboutism” I see across social media and the rise of cancel culture.
For the former, if I see a post about a specific thing, there’s invariably people in the comments saying “well what about [this other thing that wasn’t mentioned that I like and now I feel left out of the conversation]?” There’s a general push by the masses to make all things, even niche content, feel relevant to everyone—resulting in a boring sludge of generic material for the sake of trying to make everyone feel included.
For the latter, I worry that so many people, brands, creators are afraid of getting called out, cancelled, protested against that forces them to align to this safe and stale sense of sameness. To risk doing otherwise is to risk negative consequences.
The age of mediocrity! America has sold its soul, quite willingly, to the bland, the banal and the ubiquitous. Why seek out quality when we can get 3 times more stuff from Walmart? How many fast-food chains live in America? Even when we know how bad they are for us! Why stretch our minds and imaginations with new stories/concept when we can simply read/watch/listen to the same thing over and over?
Throughout its history, America has given much to the world, but this necessity for mediocrity is exclusively American. So few question it - another (ugly) big box store! Who decided Big Box stores should be ugly? And why is that acceptable? It's just as easy to build something architecturally pleasing as it is ugly or square.
This MOR (middle of the road) approach has seeped through every aspect of the American society. Although many talk about making America "great again", it would appear that most people in leadership roles have adopted the "America, good enough" attitude.
I’ve been making an effort to go to my local coffee shops instead of sticking with my expectations from Starbucks. I love hitting new parts of my town and seeing what interesting flavors they have to offer. Highly recommend as a small step to combat this hegemony to anyone looking for a place to start. Great post.
This is fascinating and a well-written piece. It is interesting how, seeing ourselves surrounded and affected by more grey gruel than we used to see, we jump to the opposite end of things and see only discomfort and exploration as good. I see myself strongly in that. I think this society promises people that if we live the way it prescribes, we won’t have to worry, and as there is a lot of suffering inherent in living society’s way, many are making full use of society and culture’s follow-thru on that promise: consume, enjoy, be comfortable the rest of the time. but there is entropy there and comfort leads to stagnancy leads to suffering. i think those of us who have already felt the betrayal of society’s promise, maybe we didn’t fit in in some ways or it was harder to succeed or the atrocities in the world seem to cancel out anything good, have the benefit of greater awareness, getting sick of the gruel faster, and being more oriented toward truth over comfort. the way i see things going naturally as society continues the way is, is: comfort will not be sustainable and there will be a LOT of extremely painful reckonings people will be going through, to move thru emotions and become more aware of themselves and who they are/what they REALLY want. my take is to let these people go down their own paths and release control, but also what i’ve found to help a lot is FUN and PLAY. that is hands down the easiest way to knock us out of the grey gruel place, helps us connect with people in real life, and even address tough concepts/go thru tough transitions like what i just mentioned. it makes it all stomachable. but it requires having total compassion for people who have chosen the other way from us til now. many of us who are more aware get stuck in the painful feelings of anger, disappointment—everything these grey gruel people are successfully avoiding—for real reasons, they’re not just stupid. but there is a step beyond all of it. being able to hold awareness of everything, to feel, AND having access to our own full selves enough to live a truly aligned life that has balanced the joy with the pain.
I mostly agree with your conclusions, but a good chunk of the reason you'll see the same comment reposted and upvoted is because the majority of content & likes on the internet today come from bots, and on almost all the platforms, all content is pre-filtered by algorithms.
There's plenty of interesting stuff out there, it just has 7 likes and will never get boosted.
on the one hand, yes, the social media algorithm rewards and pushes sameness because it's what people keep engaging with (same problem is happening in music with Spotify/apps). companies contribute to this with their products as the likes of Apple who push the same phone to everyone and build features meant to ostracize anyone without a blue bubble, reinforcing people to be like everyone else if they want to remain in the group chat.
on the other hand, the phrases and cliches were once unique, individual, and interesting (still are in the origin groups). language is one way for people to find others like them for solidarity and community—this is less about conforming and more about finding your people. (perfect example is that most of the phrases out there come from drag culture, so now one can't tell whether the person saying "yass, queen" is an ally or some influencer parroting for likes). one minute, language is being used a way to identify who is in community with you and the next it's being co-opted by everyone else as they try to include themselves in the group or use it to feed the algorithm. i think of it less as blending in and more of wanting to be part of a culture/group (or use it for personal gains, but i don't think this is always done consciously).
ultimately, this is largely relative. as someone who lives in the suburbs, i'll say that a lot of these harmless repeated phrases are still a way to stand out in suburban mono-culture where blending in and conformity IS a form of safety. i've also been in a few different work cultures where i've either stood out for being the Reader and the Nerd and saying things like 'grok', and others where I've actually blended in and been the same as everyone else for those exact same things.
so while i think people should work on being themselves and create their own phrases, cliches, and the such, i don't believe saying "a sweet treat" or "committing to the bit" are signs that someone doesn't know themselves. sometimes someone just wants a sweet treat! why yuk someone's yum ;)
In humble opinion it is rooted in the way people think, which is to say, most people don't really think.
They "re-act", or make easy assumptions, and jump to conclusions, rather than think something through.
We're a culture of "assumptions," not critical thinking.
No one actually thinks about the fact, that binary logic can only handle so much before it breaks down under the strain of cognitive dissonance.
Record levels of homelessness, yet at the same time, no one ever thinks about the fact, capitalism has never, and will never, solve unemployment, poverty and homelessness, as long as we do not have a right to a job or economic rights at all.
The private sector and government sector [from local, up through national level] can't not create enough demand to ever reach anything near full employment.
It's much "easier" to think, "it's the individual’s fault." But they have no right to a job, and employers control the entire labor market. You can apply anywhere, but it is the employers choice, who gets a job or not.
The "laws of economics" is all based on flawed assumptions, but no one ever mentions this fact. They talk about GDP like it's a description of the state of our society, but it is not.
People just accept it as truth because they don't think it through, simply because they don't know how.
THANK YOU! UGH! I travel all the time for work and everywhere I go there's that same little suburban mall area pretending to be a neighborhood that has an Apple store in an Ann Taylor Loft store, and I often end up there because it's the only walkable place in the entire metropolis. I am forever desperately seeking small walkable neighborhoods with local mom and pop stores and actually unique and interesting restaurants and perhaps even a place that you can sit without having to pay a lot of money. UGH UGH UGH.
And all of this because the financial models for "difference" have been destroyed.
The IWW framed an approach to a better society: build a new society in the shell of the old. It seems obvious but you gotta start someplace.
Weren’t the wobblies mostly hobos?
Not boring i guess
I am definitely boring these days. And also bored.
It's nice to see a bit of honesty now and then. Thanks.
Reminds me of Byung-Chul Han's work and also the Pete Seeger song, "Little Boxes".
Yes - Han's "The Agony of Eros" & "The Expulsion of the Other" immediately came to mind for me, as well. Toward the end of "The Agony of Eros", he explains how the rampant use of data to predict human behavior in virtually all fields supplants the need for theory with its inherent risk & vulnerability. But few are willing to count the homogenizing costs of capitalism.
Now it seems that homogenization has been harnessed and crystallized and snuffed as if the purest sacred powder into the nose of society, it's called AI
And this is why it’s time for a violent revolution yall
You can stick your violence. I'd prefer a peaceful revolution.
Then go be subjugated and lost to the boring vapidity of it all
What do you actually think that would solve? Violent revolutions almost always cause more issues than they fix, why would this one be different, what would we do differently after?
The American Revolution liberated this country from British tyranny, and the Bolshevik Revolution uplifted the peasants from serfdom and near destitution
I went to paris recently and it was all yuppies with laptop bags.
Didn’t use to be like that
Before I moved to America I wasn't a huge fan of American comedy. It is too rooted in catchphrases, repetition, familiarity; the breaking rather than building of tension. Moving here showed that it's an expression of the yearning for familiarity shared by millions of disconnected faces in a society that has few firm roots, or rather precious few cracks in the market for genuine roots to grow through and bloom. Every flower is cut and presented alone in its vase. Between these distances are holes that nuance falls into, never to be seen again. So things get more heavily drawn, more simplistic, more literal, more superficial. Social media has supercharged this, and also engorged that vacant society to the point that there isn't even any space left in which to experience the fact that there *is* space between us -- instead of this bright semaphor of previous generations of American entertainment, it's all now crushed into an extruded meat product, homogeneous and relentless and devoid of nutrition, with no room to breathe.
i believe value is something that exist between people, not inside them. Likewise, interesting stuff lies in what happens between people, not in separate individuals. If stuff feel boring now, it might be because spaces between people have been colonized and corrupted to serve third interests.
This article is one more push for me to make that neocities website, and also, i'm trying to make social happenings happen from time to time even though I kinda live as a shut-in
Thanks for the thoughtful article/read. Two aspects contributing to this are the “whataboutism” I see across social media and the rise of cancel culture.
For the former, if I see a post about a specific thing, there’s invariably people in the comments saying “well what about [this other thing that wasn’t mentioned that I like and now I feel left out of the conversation]?” There’s a general push by the masses to make all things, even niche content, feel relevant to everyone—resulting in a boring sludge of generic material for the sake of trying to make everyone feel included.
For the latter, I worry that so many people, brands, creators are afraid of getting called out, cancelled, protested against that forces them to align to this safe and stale sense of sameness. To risk doing otherwise is to risk negative consequences.
The age of mediocrity! America has sold its soul, quite willingly, to the bland, the banal and the ubiquitous. Why seek out quality when we can get 3 times more stuff from Walmart? How many fast-food chains live in America? Even when we know how bad they are for us! Why stretch our minds and imaginations with new stories/concept when we can simply read/watch/listen to the same thing over and over?
Throughout its history, America has given much to the world, but this necessity for mediocrity is exclusively American. So few question it - another (ugly) big box store! Who decided Big Box stores should be ugly? And why is that acceptable? It's just as easy to build something architecturally pleasing as it is ugly or square.
This MOR (middle of the road) approach has seeped through every aspect of the American society. Although many talk about making America "great again", it would appear that most people in leadership roles have adopted the "America, good enough" attitude.
I’ve been making an effort to go to my local coffee shops instead of sticking with my expectations from Starbucks. I love hitting new parts of my town and seeing what interesting flavors they have to offer. Highly recommend as a small step to combat this hegemony to anyone looking for a place to start. Great post.
This is fascinating and a well-written piece. It is interesting how, seeing ourselves surrounded and affected by more grey gruel than we used to see, we jump to the opposite end of things and see only discomfort and exploration as good. I see myself strongly in that. I think this society promises people that if we live the way it prescribes, we won’t have to worry, and as there is a lot of suffering inherent in living society’s way, many are making full use of society and culture’s follow-thru on that promise: consume, enjoy, be comfortable the rest of the time. but there is entropy there and comfort leads to stagnancy leads to suffering. i think those of us who have already felt the betrayal of society’s promise, maybe we didn’t fit in in some ways or it was harder to succeed or the atrocities in the world seem to cancel out anything good, have the benefit of greater awareness, getting sick of the gruel faster, and being more oriented toward truth over comfort. the way i see things going naturally as society continues the way is, is: comfort will not be sustainable and there will be a LOT of extremely painful reckonings people will be going through, to move thru emotions and become more aware of themselves and who they are/what they REALLY want. my take is to let these people go down their own paths and release control, but also what i’ve found to help a lot is FUN and PLAY. that is hands down the easiest way to knock us out of the grey gruel place, helps us connect with people in real life, and even address tough concepts/go thru tough transitions like what i just mentioned. it makes it all stomachable. but it requires having total compassion for people who have chosen the other way from us til now. many of us who are more aware get stuck in the painful feelings of anger, disappointment—everything these grey gruel people are successfully avoiding—for real reasons, they’re not just stupid. but there is a step beyond all of it. being able to hold awareness of everything, to feel, AND having access to our own full selves enough to live a truly aligned life that has balanced the joy with the pain.
I mostly agree with your conclusions, but a good chunk of the reason you'll see the same comment reposted and upvoted is because the majority of content & likes on the internet today come from bots, and on almost all the platforms, all content is pre-filtered by algorithms.
There's plenty of interesting stuff out there, it just has 7 likes and will never get boosted.
on the one hand, yes, the social media algorithm rewards and pushes sameness because it's what people keep engaging with (same problem is happening in music with Spotify/apps). companies contribute to this with their products as the likes of Apple who push the same phone to everyone and build features meant to ostracize anyone without a blue bubble, reinforcing people to be like everyone else if they want to remain in the group chat.
on the other hand, the phrases and cliches were once unique, individual, and interesting (still are in the origin groups). language is one way for people to find others like them for solidarity and community—this is less about conforming and more about finding your people. (perfect example is that most of the phrases out there come from drag culture, so now one can't tell whether the person saying "yass, queen" is an ally or some influencer parroting for likes). one minute, language is being used a way to identify who is in community with you and the next it's being co-opted by everyone else as they try to include themselves in the group or use it to feed the algorithm. i think of it less as blending in and more of wanting to be part of a culture/group (or use it for personal gains, but i don't think this is always done consciously).
ultimately, this is largely relative. as someone who lives in the suburbs, i'll say that a lot of these harmless repeated phrases are still a way to stand out in suburban mono-culture where blending in and conformity IS a form of safety. i've also been in a few different work cultures where i've either stood out for being the Reader and the Nerd and saying things like 'grok', and others where I've actually blended in and been the same as everyone else for those exact same things.
so while i think people should work on being themselves and create their own phrases, cliches, and the such, i don't believe saying "a sweet treat" or "committing to the bit" are signs that someone doesn't know themselves. sometimes someone just wants a sweet treat! why yuk someone's yum ;)