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"Ah, in any case, this may sound too cynical. I have tried to, well, of course it sounds too cynical, but it’s sort of hard to feel bad about that, about ending up in a kind of cynical spot. Because, ah, the handlers and the various, ah… the handlers of the systems of mass culture could not possibly be more cynical than they are; both about public taste, about their own complicity with power. I’d love to see a news report that says “Oh by the way, we are speaking for the people who run your life, don’t worry about it”… “This news report is not true”… Then we all go “Oh it’s time to watch the not true news report…” So, I mean, don’t kill the messenger, you get it? I didn’t build that system; I am just trying to describe it to you. The description of it sounds cynical, but on the other side of it there is a possible kind of freedom… on the other side of that… I don’t know how to describe it, or how to even evoke it.
But it’s clear where we can make systems of this complexity, cultural systems, economic systems, machines and so on – this is complexity – surely we can make the world that could first meet those needs that I described everyone should have, and then perhaps meet needs that people have only dreamed of, like the need for some autonomy and freedom. The need for that little space up there, the “I” part, to expand a little bit, just a little. With the full knowledge that you are still going to be a fallible, finite human, it’s still a reasonable thing, to want some parts of your life to be clear and reflected. That’s still reasonable to want. Even in the face of knowing that the full achievement of that is fairly unlikely."
rickroderick.org/category/philosophy-and-human-values/
A culture that meets your need for autonomy and freedom. It rings false in these times, such things can't be said without irony. What do words like autonomy mean when meaning is eroded? We have an idea of freedom, images spring to mind, we can even make sentences about it: Freedom is good. Autonomy means without external influence. Peace is not war. But the words have grown diffuse through virtualization. Freedom is a national identity, a buzz word, pulling emotional strings. The basic assumptions of what it even means to be free are called in to question by suspicions about the validity of our concept of consciousness. The words' meaning eroded by Reason, then co-opted by... culture.
But it’s clear where we can make systems of this complexity, cultural systems, economic systems, machines and so on – this is complexity – surely we can make the world that could first meet those needs that I described everyone should have, and then perhaps meet needs that people have only dreamed of, like the need for some autonomy and freedom. The need for that little space up there, the “I” part, to expand a little bit, just a little. With the full knowledge that you are still going to be a fallible, finite human, it’s still a reasonable thing, to want some parts of your life to be clear and reflected. That’s still reasonable to want. Even in the face of knowing that the full achievement of that is fairly unlikely."
rickroderick.org/category/philosophy-and-human-values/
A culture that meets your need for autonomy and freedom. It rings false in these times, such things can't be said without irony. What do words like autonomy mean when meaning is eroded? We have an idea of freedom, images spring to mind, we can even make sentences about it: Freedom is good. Autonomy means without external influence. Peace is not war. But the words have grown diffuse through virtualization. Freedom is a national identity, a buzz word, pulling emotional strings. The basic assumptions of what it even means to be free are called in to question by suspicions about the validity of our concept of consciousness. The words' meaning eroded by Reason, then co-opted by... culture.