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Don’t Forget The Human Internet
As things slide from bad to worse in the economic sector of human endeavors, I feel as though more and more people are going to living like I have been: on the edge. I literally live on the edge of town, at the bottom of a hill, by the river and the highway, near a sewage treatment facility, plumbing, warehouses and places that fix cars. That suits me fine, but I think a lot of “ordinary” people who are more well-adjusted to living whatever passes for a “normal lifestyle” are going to be in for a big surprise when they are financially forced to leap across the great divide into the sorts of no-man’s lands which I had been inhabiting for quite some time.
One specific thing I see as likely happening is people being unable to pay for things like internet and/or phone service. Both recently went out at my house, and no one has taken steps to restore them. I’m likely moving out in a couple weeks, and my roommate apparently owes lots of money to the company, so we’ve just been making do without. I’ve been lucky enough to be able to hop online here and there at a friend’s house to “make internet” once in a while. But I bet this will start happening to more and more people: which means that information distribution will become slanted even further. People with the money for connectivity will have access to more and probably better information than those without. People who don’t have internet will be forced to go back to horribly retarded mass media like network news and newspaper headlines at 7-11. That’s mostly where I catch up with the rest of reality these days - but usually only in passing.
Having gotten more settled in my neighborhood, I’ve actually gotten fairly plugged into the “word on the street” or the good old-fashioned “human internet”, people standing on street corners, in front of houses, or by cars - just chit-chatting, passing news and gossip and happenings around about. I’ve learned a lot just from doing that, but none of it has been information about things going on in other places. If things get a lot worse, how will bloggers and people who have made a habit and lifestyle out of relaying information adapt to this new pace?
Verbal Supplements, a personalized tape series, has been one of my experimental solutions to these problems. It’s basically real-life reporting of things that are happening in and around my life which I document and then send to people who live in other places. I’ve been enjoying it quite a lot so far and have gotten some great responses from recipients. But I think it’s the kind of thinking which needs to be explored and expanded even more. Lines of communication need to be kept open no matter what between people who value the same things. We’re all in this together, whatever happens.
March 18th, 2008 at 12:46 pm
Some people won’t be able to make this adjustment. Although I’ve always worked full time I’ve never made much money. It’s amazing how that stigmatizes you with some people. I lived without heat as a child but couldn’t do it now due to Asthma but when you tell people that they just stare and change the subject.
You’re right about the coming economic meltdown. While there’s always a way to profit from a crisis not everybody is positioned to do so. People die from this sort of stuff. It’s not just “Ican’t have an Ipod, waahhh”. The drug/alcohol abuse leads to a scarred generation of people.
I think the financial difficulties you’re going through are a way of reassuring you that everything is going to be ok for you if you keep on the right path. It’s like ‘See, your ok with less than zero money.’. Your story is sort of a signal that rough times are ahead. I’ve thought so for a few months but since I’m a doom-and-gloom type economically I thought I was just being myself. But, I know it’s for real.
March 19th, 2008 at 4:27 am
*looks at late Comcast bill and shrugs*
You’ll be alright. We’ll be alright. Our desire for the kind of connectivity we value will always be supplied in one form or another as long as we seek it. Notions of poverty often supply me with more honest, gratifying notions of wealth. This sometimes helps to refocus the sources of acquiring said wealth quite a bit, I’m finding…
Lately it’s felt like the lack of money here has caused me to strip my entire business plan down to the foundation and start building that ‘dream home’ on the newly solid ground, rather than trying to build a cohesive mansion on top of a dated, awkwardly-planned split-level.
Btw, `first time to your site after months of arguably-dramatic personal change and relocation, and I must admit it’s good to know/see that you [still, presumably!] have a face after all these years.
Take care, Tim! I may not be the most consistent of readers, but I do have a sort of loyalty here, still wishing you the best and hoping all is well!
March 19th, 2008 at 9:24 am
Here is what I think: I agree with the gist of what you say. But I think one thing that will come into play is that there will be more competition for resources “on the edge” because There will be less waste and more people living on the edge.
I also think that a lot of Yuppie type people that seem so insulated and sheltered and kind of niave and soft are actually a lot tougher then people give them credit for and most are willing to become quite ruthless to mainatain their status in tumultuous times. Because actually they didn’t get to the top of the food chain by accident.
But there are some who won’t be able to deal, and also some who will increse their status when the shit hits the fan. But one thing I fear is that people like us who follow these trends on the internet are not neccessarily any more prepared than anyone else and that some people who are clueless about what is coming will do really well instinctively with little or no preperation.
March 19th, 2008 at 9:46 am
100% Ted.
I know you disagreed with what I said about 9/11, but this comes maybe closer to saying what I actually meant underneath about the whole thing: you can study bad things that occur, or you can take action. And when those bad things occur, people who have studied them aren’t necessarily better off. In some cases, they may be worse off, because they’ve spent so much time thinking about it all that they miss obvious things in front of their face. Hopefully that makes more coherent sense…
March 19th, 2008 at 10:12 am
Well, I appreciate the fact that it was just kind of an “off the cuff” throw-away kind of a post. But the sentiment is out thee and it really bugs me.
I guess I look at it like this: Say you get mugged. You could interperet the “meaning” of why you got mugged a million different ways a million different “reality tunnels” but that is not to say that one valid interpretation is that “nobody” mugged you. or that it didn’t happen.
That is delusional. But that interpretation can be appealing to some people. Who is responsible for 911? Well its hard to say…so therefore Nobody did it! So then we can be positive instead of negative and not have to be angry or suspicious of anyone hooray! Everyone who harbors negative feelings about it must be a fear monger or conspiracy whacko!
I think its kind of like someone realizing a close friend or relative is a sex abuser or somthing and its so painful, you just don’t want to admit it.
But really that’s not healthy. Its healthy to face painful aspects of reality. Seriously though, I don’t obsess over 911. But I don’t allow myself to get lulled into buying some bullshit story about it or the similar more brainy sounding variation that its “meaningless”
I think “taking action” in light of 911, peak oil, impending currency collapse, global depression etc. and things like that…is to come up with a support system outside of “the system”
I commend you for all the work you have done in that regard, in laying a framework.
I think what it comes down to is kind of like the enneagram. If you are a five and know all this stuff…move to eight and take action. I think in that regard its good to know this stuff. But if you stay at five…maybe not so much.
March 19th, 2008 at 11:24 am
I guess, I am coming across as too angry about this. I don’t mean to. I just like clarity around this stuff. I like to be in touch with reality. Its easy to get lulled into a false view of reality.
Like for example caring about Barak Obama, the election etc. . Like for example, I like Barak and was worrried about the flak with his Pastor and glad that he pulled off a really good speech.
But really what matters more is what has been going on in the stock Market with the Fed’s bail out of Bear Stearns. None of the candidates understand this stuff or if they do won’t talk about it.
So about 100% of the election coverage is pointless. The networks leave out huge chunks of reality and operate from a misleading and false set of assumptions.
But the fact is our economy is a huge bubble, created by smoke and mirror tricks of a group of pirates. The Fed bailed out one of the worst actors to keep the bubble afloat. The bubble is not based on reality. These are the same pirates ultimately responsible for 911.
So this means my view of reality has coherence as well as internal consistency. Its not just my favorite flavor of reality I have picked for my own liking.
March 19th, 2008 at 11:52 am
I hope no one minds that I am writing a book in your comments section:
But just to wrap up what I am saying:
Here is a good example of an article that I believe is in touch with reality:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet...finance19/BNStory/specialComment/home
Now, here is my challenge:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet...finance19/BNStory/specialComment/home
I am enneagram 5. I can actually grasp this article even though I have no background in finance. I am drawn to compex and arcane subjects. Plus, dark subjects.
My challenge is not to keep just reading stuff like this with morbid fascination but to act. enneagram 8. It goes against my grain.
So how do you act? You build a life that doesn’t rely on an illusory reality. I need food and friends, basically, that aren’t dependant on this failing system.
So my plan is to learn to hunt moose and grow rutabagas in Alaska on a little plot of land and hang out with dog mushers and trappers. Sounds far fetched but I think it will be fun.
I think you can be less extreme and do this in the lower 48. But taking out a 30 year mortgage, going to school to be a stock broker, etc. at this point would be foolish.
March 19th, 2008 at 1:10 pm
Hi Ted. The second link is the same as the first one. It’s such a shame that you have to read foreign papers to find out the truth. It’s like living in the old Soviet Union but everyone is brainwashed to avoid the truth instead of oppressed and affraid of the secret police.
March 19th, 2008 at 1:58 pm
Ted, part of me hears you saying “illusory reality is bullshit, this is the way things really are.” This same part of me wants to pounce on your attack of “how things really are” as just another illusory reality — one you happen to buy into.
Whether or not I can “win” that battle with argument isn’t the point, I realized. However much I don’t see the answer as going to live in the wild and trap animals, the fact that it is your “action” makes it fine. The world you (or any of us) leaves behind doesn’t matter — it may as well be illusory reality — because the “moving on” has occured. Being in *action* nullifies you from any ivory tower judgment, sound or unsound, that may be cast upon you.
March 19th, 2008 at 4:10 pm
I just found this passage in a Douglas Rushkoff interview and thought it appropriate for this post:
http://zero.newassignment.net/filed/in...glas_rushkoff_taking_open_source_ever
March 20th, 2008 at 10:04 am
Oh yeah, for sure! It obviously happened and somebody did it, and we live in a society where we try to hold ourselves to a certain standard of morality and justice. But I still stand by the fact that none of that “means” anything beyond what meaning we decide to give it.
Right on!
Seriously, this is a major factor of why I moved away from the New Age/Occult kind of stuff. I learned a hell of a lot out of it about how my nervous system works and how energies and entities operate in ecosystems, but ultimately I have just seen too many people “drifting too far from the shore” so to speak with all of it…
March 20th, 2008 at 10:17 am
Skip,
Part of me would like to be a con artist, and bilk people like you out of all they have, because apparently its really easy.
I am not just being snarky. That is how con artists operate, seriously. They often send out little feelers and share some esoteric bullshit and see how people react. If they react positively then they have found a good mark.
How do you think cult leaders operate?
But anyway, I dropped a few concepts kind of in an offhand way: “coherence” and “internal consistency” in regards to how to evaluate a world view. That wasn’t fluff.
Its a way to test a view of reality. So anyway, my interpretation of the events of 9/11 have allowed me to make predictions. The predictions have been born out.
You may see the diminishing dollar, oil prices, peak oil, the actions of the fed, the invasion of Iraq, derivatives markets, sub prime lending as being totally unrelated to 9/11. Maybe you tie 9/11 in with bigfoot and the assasination of John lennon.
I don’t. I have an elegant explanation for it that has coherence and intenal consistency. I can make predictions. I have a mutally supportive set of hypothesis. I can test it. I have tested it and predictions I have made have come true.
Maybe you prefer not to be “pinned down” to actually knowing what is going on.
March 20th, 2008 at 10:27 am
Big Elk/Tim,
Well, I don’t really have a “psychic” or “occult” explanation of 9/11.
Probably a foreign private security company did most of the dirty work. No magic needed. As to who hired it out, its pretty obvious. Its obvious that there are powerful people in the US. They got too greedy and became too powerful. Exercising power is somthing that is often done for its own sake. It feels good. Most people are weak and ineffectual. So powerful people can basically do whatevetr they want after they reach a certian level. But that doesn’t prevent them from self destructing and making decisions that hurt them in the long run.
That is the case with oil and the dollar. The oil market and the dollar has been manipulated in such a way as to make a small group of people rich and powerful beyond anyones wildest imagination. But eventually the party is over. The long term consequences of those actions come to bear.
9/11 was an attempt to mitigate some of the consequences. But it wasn’t totally successful.
March 20th, 2008 at 10:35 am
The only thing that counters powerful people, I think, are other powerful people. That and fate or God or something, or the Tao.
March 20th, 2008 at 3:03 pm
Besides the ritualistic aspect of 9/11 I think the current econonic situation wound up being a self fulfilling prophesy. I think the main reason we went to war in Iraq (besides to grab a Stargate or two they had laying around:) ) was that Saddam Hussein had proposed to trade oil in other currencies besides the dollar. We attacked so it wouldn’t start a trend but the war was such a drain on our economy that the economic gimmicks you mentioned had to be allowed. That caused the mess were in now and many more nations are thinking dropping their pegs to the dollar because of the sub-prime/inflation/CDO etc. issue than would’ve if we had just cooperated with the idea of oil trading in other currencies.
March 20th, 2008 at 6:54 pm
hmm. a lot of conjecture here…….if i may speak about skip`s position for a moment, i think that if we look at how civilisations operated pre-gutenburg, then we can see that the human element had to be relied upon because of the lack of technologies for mass communication.
with the advent of technologies and personal processing power we have managed to seperate ourselves so completely from eachother that we are terrified to connect.
i have an ongoing conversation daily with a friend in china, one in new york city and one in whistler bc., all via blackberry e-mail.
these devices are now bringing us to the brink of the global village, whereby the entire globe is connected instantly.
so….therefore, the mechanism of seperation it`s self will be initially threatened, then possibly attacked and maybe even destroyed…..
the rest of the world does already live in a much more personally connected way than those in america and so have a different perspective on what is happening.
and ted, i would sincerely like to see some of your recent predictions/outcomes and methodologies….and of course, some fresh ones.
i will make a few here also.
politicians will continue to try to convince everyone that they can do everyone else`s jobs better than they can….as long as they get elected…..and that people will go for it like free money.
economists will continue to get things pretty much dead on 99.999% of the time, and the .001% error rate will flatten major segments of the economy.
and will smith will make another movie.
oh yeah, and the french will make another, even bigger particle accelerator.
March 20th, 2008 at 8:01 pm
This reminds me of something Tom Friedman said in his “World is Flat” book — the dot.com boom may have busted, but the legacy of all that investment is still around: all the fiber-optic cables that make today’s internet what it is. I’d like to think that the past few years of internet connectivity have taught us lessons that can certainly transcend any hit to the infrastructure.
March 22nd, 2008 at 1:04 pm
Well, Alistair,
I guess I like Nietzsche so much because I also like to stare into the abyss. Its kind of a hobby. Nietzsche also warned that if you stare too long into the abyss the abyss starts staring into you. Or somthing like that. But anyway…the point is its somthing that can be self destructive over time. 9/11 is really not hard to figure out for me. I feel like I figured it out pretty early on. Later down the road people coming to similar conclusions as I made these various documentaries. Some people have been convinced by them. To me it was simply a confirmation of what I already knew.
I actually kind of like that fact that most people can’t get their heads around it. I don’t really make an effort to convince anyone of anything. If most people can’t think for themselves or make their own conclusions, without an authority figure telling them what the correct view of reality is…so be it. 9/11 was an eye opener for me. For that reason. It taught me a lot about human nature.
Basically if you think the twin towers “burned down” after being hit by airplanes that were hijacked by Al Queida operatives acting alone…then great. It works for you. If you think its “a mystery” and that all possible interpretations are equally valid…great.
But anyway…being able to stare into the abyss that is often the truth…still has to be better. There has to be some advantage to not always accepting as truth what is most pleasant.
as far as predictions…I follow the train of thought of Alexis de Tocqueville. He predicted that democracy could potentially spawn a powerful “manufacturing aristocracy” that would bring an end to democracy…basically as a consequence of people under democracy being greedy for material comforts and goods.
Predictions along this line of thought, a hundred years later, would include the end of the paradigm of the nation state, being replaced by the “Market State” and private security firms replacing the role of the military.
That is what 911 “means” to me.