Quote from: The Good Reverend Roger on February 14, 2011, 05:42:08 PMQuote from: Captain Utopia on February 14, 2011, 05:24:35 PM
Youth may or may not be more superficial than before. But they are also getting involved in global concepts and events in an unprecedented scale. I'm happy with that trade-off.
They're hitting "like" on "Egyptian Revolution". This accomplishes precisely Jack and Shit, and Jack is too broke to show up.
If anything, instant communication has made people more shallow, not more involved.
I disagree. Yes, there are more people who have a shallow understanding of world events than before. But there are also more subject-matter experts - and all degrees in-between. It's a network, an informational eco-system, and as such you can't just single out one element as being worthless when they all feed into and support each other.
Quote from: The Good Reverend Roger on February 14, 2011, 05:42:08 PM
But this has nothing to do with unemployment. The masses have always had their diversions...500 years ago it consisted of nailing a cat to a post and head-butting it to death (no shit), and today it consists of playing Fallout 3, and pretending to be a participant in "Twitter revolutions". The problem today is based more on NO FUCKING JOBS, and if that having trustafarians gush about Iran or Egypt on Facebook is a "happy trade off", then kill me right fucking now.
We can look at an under-developed nation and understand that if the people want change enough, they can get it if they're willing to get killed trying and strap sandwiches to their heads. They have clear rules imposed upon them and having the courage to break them undermines the control imposed upon them.
Our rules are in our own minds. The spiders who tell us to buy things which make us feel more comfortable and relaxed.
Our image of democracy is convincing enough to prevent mass demonstrations. So how do we change our shithole situation? A thousand "likes" does nothing. Do we coordinate purchases to punish/reward corporations based on their employment practices? How? We can't even see through the consumerist smokescreen for long enough to agree on a collective will in the first place. Simply put - I don't think we yet have a technological solution to our problems, though it is currently sufficient to topple unsuspecting dictatorships.
So yeah, seeing more people get involved - even if it's in a superficial way for now, re-tweeting the latest false rumour - is moving in the right direction.