Is It Just Me, Or Is the World Going Crazy?

Das ist ehjrlich gesagt das Beste, was ich in mindestens den letzten 180 Tagen gelesen habe. Unglaublich. Er bringt es einfach auf den Punkt, beleuchtet verschiedene Facetten, zieht richtige Schlüsse.

Ob zu Beginn nun mit amüsierenden Ausschmückungen…

But then the other night, I dabbled in watching the Republican National Convention the same way a child might dabble with trying out mom’s cigarettes or a college girlfriend might dabble in trying out anal sex — with an innocent curiosity that was quickly overwhelmed by shock, horror, and intense pain.

… über sehr wahre Einsichten …

And this is what disturbs me: the fact that people today, despite living with more safety and wealth and access to information than anyone in human history, feel as though the world is going crazy and something drastic must be changed.

… über die Aufmerksamkeitsökonomie …

Outrageous news and information spread faster and further than any other form of information, dominating our daily attention. This is both good and bad. On the one hand, we become aware of some of the grossest injustices in our society as soon as they happen. On the other hand, all we hear about are the grossest injustices in our society as soon as they happen.

… wie er jetzt damit umgeht (mindestens ein interessanter Ansatz) …

The only way to beat the attention economy is to opt out of it. This is no longer about wasting time on Pokemon Go or refreshing Facebook 12 times a day. It’s no longer about email killing productivity at work or kids not being able to pay attention at school. It’s now creeping into our political system, and I fear there could be irreparable damage done to it.

It’s the only way I can prevent myself from going crazy, to keep myself tethered to reality as it is, not to reality how it feels.

.. über sehr grundlegende Einschätzungen, was eigentlich Freiheit …

But the last couple decades, I fear that people have confused freedom with a lack of discomfort. They have forgotten about that necessary internal struggle.

… und Demokratie bedeuten. Wow!

A free and functioning democracy demands a populace that is able to sustain discomfort, that is able to tolerate dissatisfaction, that is able to be charitable and forgiving of groups whose views stand in contrast to one’s own, and most importantly, that is able to remain unswayed in the face of some violent threat.

But this constant state of mild dissatisfaction — this is what freedom actually tastes like. And if people continue to lose their ability to stomach it, then I fear one day it will be gone.

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