Yinko
Well-known member
From about the 1860's to the 1920's all the ideologies we fight over today were founded.
What does this say about us? One possibility is that it says that the same underlying appeal that originally made them popular is as true today as it was then, or perhaps these all tap into some unspoken universal truth of the universe and it only took us ten thousand years of human civilization to finally uncover it. These are possible, but extremely depressing. Another option is that a hundred years ago we suddenly became too lazy to come up with anything better.
My own opinion, at the moment, is rather that radio first became a common household item at around the time of the Great War. Mass media for the first time in history, not just a tool of propaganda but also a tool of marketing. What will draw listeners better than finding something people feel passionately about? How do you find something people are passionate about? Just look at existing ideologies and talk about them, spread them.
Historically, movements died out over time because their adherents grew old and couldn't recruit new members by word of mouth anymore. With radio doing so much work for people, spreading ideas far and wide, recruitment became multi-generational, extending long past the idea's natural lifetime. With new members the free-market of ideas monopolized thinkers and fire-brands, stifling creative new ideas to problems in favor of rehashing old ideas that had already proven to be problematic.
I got to thinking on this issue yesterday, so I haven't had a lot of time to flesh it out yet. If I've made a point that is mistaken, please correct me.
What would I do to fix things? No idea. What can you do to come up with ideas that gets around this centennial writer's block?
- Das Kapital was published 1867.
- The Fascist Manifesto was published in 1919.
- The Economic Consequences of Peace was published in 1919 (by John Maynard Keynes and was where he first consolidated his ideas which shaped modern free-market Capitalism).
- Anarchist literature is a bit hard to pin down a good start for, a bit anarchic if you will, but The World's First Anarchist Manifesto was published in 1850.
What does this say about us? One possibility is that it says that the same underlying appeal that originally made them popular is as true today as it was then, or perhaps these all tap into some unspoken universal truth of the universe and it only took us ten thousand years of human civilization to finally uncover it. These are possible, but extremely depressing. Another option is that a hundred years ago we suddenly became too lazy to come up with anything better.
My own opinion, at the moment, is rather that radio first became a common household item at around the time of the Great War. Mass media for the first time in history, not just a tool of propaganda but also a tool of marketing. What will draw listeners better than finding something people feel passionately about? How do you find something people are passionate about? Just look at existing ideologies and talk about them, spread them.
Historically, movements died out over time because their adherents grew old and couldn't recruit new members by word of mouth anymore. With radio doing so much work for people, spreading ideas far and wide, recruitment became multi-generational, extending long past the idea's natural lifetime. With new members the free-market of ideas monopolized thinkers and fire-brands, stifling creative new ideas to problems in favor of rehashing old ideas that had already proven to be problematic.
I got to thinking on this issue yesterday, so I haven't had a lot of time to flesh it out yet. If I've made a point that is mistaken, please correct me.
What would I do to fix things? No idea. What can you do to come up with ideas that gets around this centennial writer's block?
- Define the problem.
- Place it in an unbiased context.
- Game your solution.
- Wealth inequality. This causes unrest but also motivates the workers to succeed. How do you minimize unrest while retaining the drivers of success? (Hint: defining the problem this way inclines the answer towards specific kinds results)
- The workers in Proxima Centary are only given enough for one transit to the nebula, their bosses are given enough for five and their bosses for 47. To solve the problem, the high-geneticist altered all new births to have extremely high motivation and low materialism.
- This means that they are fundementally changing their nature as a species. It would be very easy to take over the species that way and institute any changes to their natures you wanted. If you were already in a position of authority, you could also potentially exempt your own family and friends from that move, thus effectively making yourself the defacto rulers of a functional slave society.