I would like to chime in here. The algorithmic and tweet-sized nature of modern media, I think, perpetuates the issues the author brings up. Everything has to be a sound bite. We have lost a measure of nuance in public discourse and education, and I'm not sure how to get that back. Perhaps we should examine how language has adapted, and will continue to adapt, to focus on the instant, impactful, and reductive nature of modern media. This is why I try to include words in my posts that people might have to look up: it makes people stop and think (at least some people).
The American dream nurtured by hyper-individualism that also has become its export would benefit from the introduction of re-socialisation (not in its academic definition, but bringing a personalized social engagement that might even help its identity crisis, for which it may need to look at those whose dreams and contexts are rather more restricted, but still have a sense of what community and social bonds needs.
This posts makes an urgent plea for education. Couldn’t agree more and that is where it needs to start.
Erosion of identity and the power of the AI as a cognitive agent may just be expressions of that individualism that seems to know no boundaries.
Thank you for sharing this. What is maybe missing to me is regeneration: our ability to repair ecological systems, cultural bonds, and human wholeness.
Within all the hope you present, there’s a good amount of blind privilege. The USA always had great land (fertile, mass, water access, defensible) which attracted high-quality immigrants. World events had only bolstered its pool of intelligence and wealth, directly and relationally, when others suffered heavy losses. The country also continues to be an active aggressor for decades, destabilizing to promote its own economy.
I fully agree with the conclusion as I said the same in my last essay: “America’s most important export remains hyper-individualism.” The cultural effect (aka propaganda) of American Dream has been globally transformational. Invention and distribution of technologies to promote its ideals of heavy materialism and fast-paced risk taking kept it current for a good hundred years.
Today USA has to compete with populations that caught up and do not seek the Dream that has been exported everywhere. America had it easy. Now when the going gets tough it has to make difficult choices about its identity, which it is not cultivated to have. The reset is a long-term approach of generational education, infrastructure and yes socialist approaches, which will mean redefining its core tenants of freedom and liberty.
I would like to chime in here. The algorithmic and tweet-sized nature of modern media, I think, perpetuates the issues the author brings up. Everything has to be a sound bite. We have lost a measure of nuance in public discourse and education, and I'm not sure how to get that back. Perhaps we should examine how language has adapted, and will continue to adapt, to focus on the instant, impactful, and reductive nature of modern media. This is why I try to include words in my posts that people might have to look up: it makes people stop and think (at least some people).
The American dream nurtured by hyper-individualism that also has become its export would benefit from the introduction of re-socialisation (not in its academic definition, but bringing a personalized social engagement that might even help its identity crisis, for which it may need to look at those whose dreams and contexts are rather more restricted, but still have a sense of what community and social bonds needs.
This posts makes an urgent plea for education. Couldn’t agree more and that is where it needs to start.
Erosion of identity and the power of the AI as a cognitive agent may just be expressions of that individualism that seems to know no boundaries.
Thank you for sharing this. What is maybe missing to me is regeneration: our ability to repair ecological systems, cultural bonds, and human wholeness.
Within all the hope you present, there’s a good amount of blind privilege. The USA always had great land (fertile, mass, water access, defensible) which attracted high-quality immigrants. World events had only bolstered its pool of intelligence and wealth, directly and relationally, when others suffered heavy losses. The country also continues to be an active aggressor for decades, destabilizing to promote its own economy.
I fully agree with the conclusion as I said the same in my last essay: “America’s most important export remains hyper-individualism.” The cultural effect (aka propaganda) of American Dream has been globally transformational. Invention and distribution of technologies to promote its ideals of heavy materialism and fast-paced risk taking kept it current for a good hundred years.
Today USA has to compete with populations that caught up and do not seek the Dream that has been exported everywhere. America had it easy. Now when the going gets tough it has to make difficult choices about its identity, which it is not cultivated to have. The reset is a long-term approach of generational education, infrastructure and yes socialist approaches, which will mean redefining its core tenants of freedom and liberty.
My essay if you’d like to read: https://substack.com/home/post/p-172465734