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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.

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.

Doesn't that depend on where, in the world, your table is located?

You and I will never see eye-to-eye on technology. You see it as a savior, I see it as a tool. ANd, no, I see no way for that to put food on your table.

I don't see it as a savior.  Printing press technology enabled literacy.  Medical technology enables many people to live who would otherwise die.  It's a tool which enables things.  There is no line between old (good) technology and new (bad) technology.

It's all how we choose to use the tools that are given to us.

Take a look at this.  There is a growing resurgence in young folk learning how to make things for themselves.  It may not be all practical, but it is inventive, it is keeping those skills you talk about alive.  Furthermore, it is a revolution which has been enabled by technology - geeks compete in their basements to make ever more interesting things.  The internet enables them to swap skills and techniques

Why are video games getting a bad rap all of a sudden?  Some of the bestselling video games of the past decade have been immersive, brilliantly written and well executed stories which beat the shit out of anything that has come out of Hollywood in the same period.  Given the choice between watching the Saw series or playing something written by David Gaider, the latter wins hands down, every time.

Heh. I would faint into a coma if Hollywood came up with something original.

If book and film technologies have had much more influence on our civilization - don't they deserve more blame than video games?

Doesn't that depend on where, in the world, your table is located?

Don't blame the robots... all the stats I look at show a MASSIVE decline in industrial fatalities over time.  How much of this is due to compliance and regulation, I have no clue, but the less squishy meatbags you have in direct contact with heavy/poisonous/pointy things, the better.

Greed may have caused it, but the results are not altogether terrible.  That is, if you prefer to be unemployed than dead.

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.

So.. if it had always been cheaper and feasible to outsource jobs and production, then this "we consumed what we made ourselves" golden age would never have existed?  That's kicking nostalgia in the teeth.

Corporations exist solely to increase share values.  This is why they need to be regulated.

Such talk makes investors nervous.

I'm so nervous I'm going to crap my pants all over this italian leather upholstery.
Damn, then I'll have to buy a new jet.            
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I kind of liked your levels, but they were too hard and I gave up.

[creeping socialism]

Trickle down...Trickle down...

Why is trickle down deemed more efficient than directly paying people a fair wage?

Because Laffer Curves, efficient market hypothesis, creeping socialism and stfu Commie.

Huh, I never considered that as a possible justification.  Interesting.  Of course - purging the middle class and creating a flat and inescapable poor class, ruled by tzars, looks nothing like socialism.

I guess the premise in my question is flawed.

I used to work with a guy who said that when he started with IBM in the 60s the unofficial motto was: "Don't sweat it if you can't be part of the solution -- there's plenty of money to be made being part of the problem."

This has probably been going on ever since those in power started ignoring the advice of the subject-matter experts they hired.  While Pharaoh couldn't understand that doubling the size of the base would more than double the time and expense of the project, I'm guessing that the slave and quarry industries did not lobby against the construction of the pyramids.

Trickle down...Trickle down...

Why is trickle down deemed more efficient than directly paying people a fair wage?

Also, dictators who aren't as well entrenched probably aren't sleeping very well tonight.

I am  critical of myself.

This is easy to say, and easier to think.  But there's no end to the process.

Remember - an asshole is simply when someone has stopped being self-critical.

The real victory is that of the narrative.  I see this as a rinse/repeat issue.  It seems less important whether the new guard will emulate the old guard, but that you've got a set of people who believe that they can make a difference, and who will be pissed off with anyone who stands in their way.

Edit - that's why I'm excited about this, at least.

While I certainly don't mean to belittle your situation, isn't throwing a golden apple into office politics/bureaucracy, one thing we have some experience with?  If she's getting in the way of kids receiving help, isn't a little deviousness justified?  I'm not talking about getting her fired or whatever.. maybe it could be something as simple as finding some mandatory requirement/exercise that all counselors have to complete that she would be reluctant to do, and well, some invented term - auxiliary counselors would be exempt from?

[libertarianism]

I'm pretty informal in my requirement for such proof.  I just imagine every basement dweller who drones on about how magic/fairies/libertarianism will turn your life around in spectacular ways.  The only people whose lives are turned around by such revelations, are those lucky enough to dupe enough people to get themselves on a tour circuit and sell enough books.

Fucker.

I think Friedrich Engels summed it up best:

/ "The Invisible Hand of the free market.. will like totally solve all your problems!  Now, all you need to do is to.. keep doing what you're already doing, but MORESO.. and your capital will attract new capital!  Wallow - you DESERVE it.  If you think too much about the poor, it just makes things worse for them.  SO DON'T DO IT OR THE INVISIBLE HAND WILL SLAP YOU.  Besides, you don't need to worry about poor people because, everything will work itself out.  It is a merciful hand.  Love the hand.  It loves you.  Now go forth and tell all your friends to buy my books."

I'm pretty informal in my requirement for such proof.  I just imagine every basement dweller who drones on about how magic/fairies/libertarianism will turn your life around in spectacular ways.  The only people whose lives are turned around by such revelations, are those lucky enough to dupe enough people to get themselves on a tour circuit and sell enough books.