Michael Huemer - The Irrationality of Politics

[KillerGremlin]

Originally Posted by Professor S

In order to overcome this reduction on personal identity, people search out a new identity in the masses. They find small groups of like-minded people and then isolate themselves in the group, afraid to move from it because to do so would leave them alone again in a sea of interconnected billions. This is true of modern politics, "progressives" and "tea parties", but also truein any setting where people are unnaturally thrown to together in large numbers ("cliques" in schools, for example).

I would agree with this. I'll check out that video series. The problem is that there is no good way to convince people to question their beliefs....I think this is a difficult thing to fix, if not completely impossible.

[Professor S]

Originally Posted by KillerGremlin

I would agree with this. I'll check out that video series. The problem is that there is no good way to convince people to question their beliefs....I think this is a difficult thing to fix, if not completely impossible.

McLuhan's predictions are dire. He believes that the media we consume changes us in ways we don't realize until after the effects irrevocable. In the end he believes that the loss of individual identity and growth of tribalism will inevitably end is violence as we lash out at one another and utterly lose the ability to view the world from a perspective outside of the tribe.

Think of it this way: When there is a dearth of media outlets you are basically forced to consume the ideas and messages that everyone else consumes. Now we have an infinite number of media outlets and more content than we could ever consume in multiple lifetimes (according to one paper I read: to we create in 48 hours as much content as was created from the beginning of time - 2003). This allows us to find content we identify with and interact with those that we like and agree with... and there is so much content in this limited bubble we never have to leave it... yet we are constantly aware of what those who we don't agree with are doing and lash out because they speak a language we do not understand. Their ideas threaten our identity because their ideas challenge the tribe.

"We shape our tools, and thereafter our tools shape us."

More on topic: "Politics will eventually be replaced by imagery. The politician will be only too happy to abdicate in favor of his image, because the image will be much more powerful than he could ever be."

[Bond]

Originally Posted by Professor S

McLuhan's predictions are dire. He believes that the media we consume changes us in ways we don't realize until after the effects irrevocable. In the end he believes that the loss of individual identity and growth of tribalism will inevitably end is violence as we lash out at one another and utterly lose the ability to view the world from a perspective outside of the tribe.

Is this expanded upon in text anywhere, or is it in those videos? That's quite the mind bender (in a good way).

Don't you feel like we've grown more toward individualism than tribalism, though? I suppose they're quite relative terms.

[Professor S]

Originally Posted by Bond

Is this expanded upon in text anywhere, or is it in those videos? That's quite the mind bender (in a good way).

Don't you feel like we've grown more toward individualism than tribalism, though? I suppose they're quite relative terms.

It was in a video somewhere. It was later in his life, and I did add some translation... he can be... quixotic.

THIS is AWESOMELY brain scrambling. You must view in 240p, purposefully I'm sure.




On tribalism and violence:


As for individualism? I think we have seen the growth in the tribe of individualists.