[FRIAM] capitalism vs. individualism

[uǝlƃ ☣]

Interesting article.

I wonder, though, if what's "wrong" is not so much what's there, the thing being looked at, but more that/how we're looking at it. Because we're trying to unify this huge geographical region (and all the animals in it, all the microclimates in it, all the soil types, etc.) into a singular governing system, we're going to *see* things we've never seen before. Just like in that article where the claim is that consciousness comprises communication between parts of the brain, our awareness of how fundamentally different some parts of "rural America" are from some parts of the "coastal elites" depends on the fact that a) "rural America" has a, however erroneous, conception of "coastal elites" and vice versa. That the parts communicate and that b) we can measure such communication, is what's "wrong".

Imagine trying to unify all the native tribes like the Hopi and the Comanche, who seem very different (to me) from an ethical/behavioral point of view.

Perhaps rural America is obsolete and that's what's wrong? If so, infrastructure projects would be the fastest way to eliminate it, not to move the people out, but to move the city in ... make the entire 9.8 million km^2 into an urban, managed, space. Of course, I can't even get good broadband just outside of Portland... So, *that* ain't gonna happen.

On 11/11/19 11:41 AM, Marcus Daniels wrote:
> I read this article <https://aeon.co/essays/the-hard-problem-of-consciousness-is-a-distraction-from-the-real-one> yesterday, and I noticed the author was from the Sackler Centre for Consciousness Science.   They’ve suspended charitable giving because, yeah, it is that <https://www.statnews.com/2019/10/03/top-colleges-took-in-at-least-60-million-from-family-that-owns-purdue-pharma-as-opioid-lawsuits-piled-up/> one.   There is something clearly wrong <https://www.drugabuse.gov/drugs-abuse/opioids/opioid-summaries-by-state> in middle America.   Opioids haven’t provided the fix but it seems clear there is a hunger for something.    Maybe it is a simple as a job with some dignity, or perhaps another intervention like easy access to antidepressants could help.    It seems clear there is no possibility of persuasion.   One idea would be large, needed <https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2019/10/california-fires-and-pge-toxic-debt/600979/> infrastructure investments that
> would move workers to other parts of the country, increase their relative wealth (adjusting for cost of living), and break them out of their provincial habits.   On the other side are various forms of boycott.  For example, city workers in San Francisco can’t attend meetings in some states due to their stance on various civil rights issues.   If it ever got Republic of Gilead bad, then nothing is off the table.


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