We seem to forget this choosing as we let ourselves be lulled into drifting along. More and more, faster and faster, we give away our humanity and our place in the natural world. We forget that we are inspired bodies, meant to dig and gather to satisfy our hunger, meant to meet face to face voicing sounds that travel directly to ears, mediated only by air, or even better meeting by touch, skin to skin.

Instead we pretend that devices are real, that they deserve to exist. The logic of The Almighty Market must rule, and we are its minions. We assume if it can be imagined it must be made, damn whomever it destroys.

 

Can’t we imagine better, more human, more natural possibilities? .

But so many warnings seem to go unheeded. We ignore the films and books that show how alienated and disconnected we’re becoming, as if art were merely the distraction by which we amuse ourselves as we continue to sell our birthright cheap.

There may be billions of us, but together we’re creating our future. And God, please, I don’t want it to look like Wall Street or Shanghai or factory farms or garbage dumps sorted by children.

Let’s not stand for it when we see assumptions that a grotesque future is inevitable. Let’s dream up real choices that move in another direction. Practice them. Share them. Challenge each other. Build up some different kind of momentum, together.

[This rant brought to you by a seemingly innocuous article on “the job market in 2034” that stated, apparently without concern, the inevitable prediction that half of all present jobs will be gone in twenty years thanks to automated everything. There were no hints of alternatives to this future, only advice on how to compete for the surviving jobs. If that weren’t
depressing enough, shortly after this I watched this clip on how we’re producing “food” these days.

But if you read/watch these, I want to leave you inspired not depressed. So if you have the time, consider watching this documentary – I Am, by Tom Shadyac, the director of some of the Jim Carey comedies. It’s not perfect, but it’s a lot better than assumptions of our powerlessness about the future.]