He wants to know why society is good. Well, he actually wants me to figure out what I think about the qualities of society and decide 1) why we decided technological advances are good, 2) whether or not these advances have benefited the people that this society is supposed to benefit, and 3) what I want to do with my life based on my findings.
I think the real answer to the first question of why we all decided that technological advances are good is a bit deeper than I will be going with this today. I feel like I haven't reflected enough on the sentience of man, and what it is about us that meant we were to develop such complex psyches (I can't find a plural of 'psyche' so I'll assume my word is correct) and dreams and goals and love, unlike that of any other species on the planet. This path of thought might get me closer to the real truth of this matter, but I also feel like the origin of the sentience of man is a discussion that I will need to have with others, it is not an answer that I alone am capable of discovering.
I think that it would suffice for today's topic of discovery if I go with a more simple answer to the question. I think that after technological applications were discovered, people believed it was a good idea because it could be applied to making resources more plentiful. Is bounty a good thing?
I think yes.
As technology advanced, so did the needs of people. And I think herein lies the first problem with our development of society. We let ourselves believe that we need an excess of things simply because it is available. This is the root of our money troubles as Americans. We let ourselves believe that we need things that logical creatures should be able to deduce that they do not need such as cars, big houses, frappuccinos, manicures, more than three pairs of shoes, newer clothes, and quick food. We pay dearly for all of these things simply because they are available. We need none of them. I need fruit, I need vegetables, I need beans and the occasional steak. I need a clean little home and an occupation that earns my needs. I need a means to have clean clothing and I need a shower, fairly often.
Just about every other thing I spend my money on are things I allow myself to think that I need.
The economic system in which I live is one in which the people with all the money decide what the people without all the money spend their money on. They can put us into their debt, and use our sweat and effort to make themselves richer, by selling us things that make us poorer.
So, is technology a good thing? I think yes. But I think we have exploited our sophistication to a point that it is now being used against us in a systematic process of our own design. So these advances in technology aren't aiding the people who belong to society, it is entangling them. Once we became capable of producing enough food to sustain our society without any fear of famine, those in the food industry discovered that this left them no room to grow their profits. They had reached maximum efficiency. So now agribusiness has spent the past 70 or so years figuring out how to waste our commodities and sell us far more food than we could ever need. This is going on with most of the commerce in the United States. Advertising is used to tell the masses what we have, how we feel about it, and what we still need. It's a system that should flabbergast us humans, but instead of being confused or even outraged, we just buy into it.
Society has given too much shit to too many individuals. So we squander what we have to make the rich richer, and keep the wealth away from the masses.
I have a very idealized image of the 1800's in my head. Just enough technology to make resources plenty and time for reading and politics plenty. But not so much technology that we lose sight of what our needs really are, and how gracious this Earth has been to provide us with them.
So what do I do about it? How do I live in 2010 if I'm trying to manage my resources in a way that makes sense? I have considered finding a commune. Seriously. I love my Facebook account and my blog and my frappuccinos and new cars just as much as the next guy, but they make me feel...unsettled. All of these things in my consumer world that I don't need but desperately want are haunting me. And I'm glad. This problem needs to bother me. If it doesn't make me feel unsettled, then I'm obviously not using my brain at all. But then again, I can't help but feel like all of these luxurious things wouldn't be so bad if we had a system that spread the luxury around a little bit. There are too many people who live in squalor for me to be okay with my economic market just the way it is. And there are too many people who live in absurd luxury while I'm sucking down a Big Train and listening to my iPod and feeling desperate about gas prices.
It's all too much. Society and technology have too much to offer me. I don't need it and I'm trying not to want it. I don't know if I'll be moving to a commune to earn a living by the sweat of my brow and sharing my resources with others who wish to share their resources with me. But it sure does sound refreshing, doesn't it? And if I don't go off to a commune and I decide to stay here with this society, then I will be working out a way to start eating plants again and stop buying into the cheap, synthetic, excessive, and unrealistic shit that they all want to sell me.
Some days I feel good about myself and how conscious I can be about where the wealth goes. And some days I forget myself and lapse into playing an MMO for an entire day while sucking down Code Red and vodka and eating Doritos for lunch and dinner.
I'm getting off of my internal soap box. For the time being.
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