Losing control of the narrative

SAFE and similar tech has the potential to wrest control of the core narrative. The current internet if it were to remain healthy could provide the same result but its being made into cable TV to help prevent this. Post cold war the narrative has been society for the sake of business. Its a pretty common theme and it shows up in the main stream media with all the popular shows about zombies and vampires. Its the idea that we have to work 60hrs a week so our so-called boss can work 3hrs a week. Or that we can’t retire so the boss can retire at 35. Or that we must rent so the boss can have 3 houses. Its the idea that our lives aren’t volitional.

Enough un-sponsored communication could quickly lead to people aiming higher than neo-feudalism and dreaming of more than having their children become employees or employers. Its already happening to an extent in Germany where they seem to have 27 hrs work weeks (even as Germany may benefit from austerity nonsense.) We will know the narrative has changed when work in the developed world is optional and on average less than 20hrs a week with full benefits and largely matched to people’s preferences. That’s what we are wired for and returning to it will return the sense of volition to our lives and end symptoms of collective dreaming about the real vampirism and unnecessary parasitism we live with.

Its been at the core of the typical WTO type stuff. In a sense its an anti technology message as well as it presumes people can continue to fake it in the face of technology. But people don’t want no security occupations where they show up to be baby sat and people in the employment role also don’t feel very necessary or secure where they do pay roll for unnecessary baby sitting all of it usually involving huge waste with no sense of true cost or positive contribution.

My understanding is France and Germany have less of a sponsored media so the message has been persuasive hence a partial reason for the shorter work weeks etc. But in France there is all this nonsense talk from politicians about how lower hour work weeks are a bad thing and didn’t work and the age of retirement must be raised. Its amazing politicians anywhere can publicly voice such nonsense. With truly unfettered communication that kind of destructive meaning creation or narrative may well cease.

Some may say that this new more open medium (more open than the current net) will have to compete with a converted internet. But part of the message of the current net is increasingly about accepting enclosure and lack of options which is a downer. Its about the fear mongering of more war etc., to keep people scared and divided. But this will begin to bypass sponsored news and other such elements in real time (as twitter already does to a slight and very imperfect extent.) There will be shills of course but they stand to be weeded out. Imagine absolutely unfettered wiki leaks and Ed Snowden and enclosed entertainment media trying to compete with the public domain price. Also imagine media un-compromised by sponsorship and the publishing industry. This will accelerate and strengthen the work of the blogs.

Hopefully this isn’t a non sequitur but I’d like to tie in enclosure, network paradigms and more elephant in the room on work. Tesla when he was trying to do wi-power or wireless electricity was interestingly enough creating openness and it lost out to Edison’s wired power or closed system possibly for many a reason. Still he was trying to create open where as Edison was creating closed. Its much easier to meter closed. It reminds me of Fullers idea about “they will meter the wind.”

This is where I like universal open access where the customer pays only after-the-fact and only if they want to and only exactly what they can afford or think its worth if at all- really probably ultimately just a micro contribution for a future work or just enough to prime the pump. A retort might that this would not be enough to keep the resources flowing and x,y,z. But in a virtual space where we don’t really have scarcity, it is enough. One more time in a virtual space the tragedy of the commons is nonsense if you do open the right way and actually the virtual space should be the heart of the total economy (I know its bits not food etc., still) and as technology more and more resembles magic all the rest of the economy will fold into the virtual for lack of scarcity and all of the rest of the economy will look like it too. It is the right basis where everything is unlocked and open. Its a way to break the supply side conflicts of interest.

Its funny. Its like they think we are hound dogs or something. You know you have a coon dogs and you go hunting coons one day and you came back to the truck and the dogs have an ear half torn off and an eye dangling out and their faces all cut up- and this was 6 dogs on one coon. Then next day as you walk to the truck they are screaming and crying and howling when you won’t let them go hunt coon again its ridiculous. And this is how they think about employees. There is no idea that quality of work life drives quality of life in general. This is like the idea of the design driven firm. All they currently have is power for power’s sake where its up to some CEO or someone to decide how everything should be. Its ridiculous whereas if it were design driven and not by cost cutting and stuff like that it might accommodate a wider accounting of things.

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