Technological and Cultural Contamination
I believe now that technical and cultural contamination are real things; though I only heard those words put together very recently.
Background
I’m reading a science fiction novel, well actually I’m listening to it, and actually it is a series of novels; the Freehold series was recommended by Bill Buppert in a recent post; Ep 037 "Storming America: Another War Will Come Home." In particular, it was the fourth book in the series, Contact With Chaos.
The short story is that humans have developed the ability to travel in space faster than the speed of light, and are seeking uninhabited planetoids rich in minerals for extraction. In the course of this work they come across a planet that is inhabited, and for the first time, it is inhabited by a truly alien species, not human. The planet is though, rich in minerals.
As you might imagine, there are competing interests on the human side of the equation; business interests, governments, et cetera, and one man is responsible and accountable for managing contact with the aliens. A chief aim is to avoid, at nearly all costs, the disruptive and destructive impact of alien exposure to newer human technologies and culture. And I connected a couple of more dots…
All things are poison, and nothing is without poison; the dosage alone makes it so a thing is not a poison.
It seems to me that the quote from Paracelsus is as applicable to technology and culture as it is to chemical and biological agents. What does that look like in the United States?
Technological Contamination
I don’t know what could be more obvious than the overdose of technology willing consumed by the citizenry. Here are some statistics in support of that assertion:
“Estimates suggest that in 2023 U.S. adults will spend an average of nearly three hours watching TV <or other digital video> each day.” — Statista
“On average, people (in North America) spend 2 hours and 6 minutes on social media daily. — Broadband Search
“The average adult spends 23 hours a week texting.” — Vermont State Highway Safety Office
I’ll just stop there, I mean gee whiz, just three of the many technological distractions account for 8.4 hours per day, or an entire 40 hour work week every 4.76 days. Think that might be a problem? Think of what could be done, productively, physically, relationally, or spiritually with that time!? The dose is well beyond poisonous in my opinion.
Cultural (or Societal) Contamination
Where do I even begin. Let’s start with the evidence of overdose; for that I will refer to posts I have already written.
And that’s just for starters. Our culture, if there is such a thing as ā culture in the United States, and/or our society, needs to be sent to rehab, or perhaps euthanasia would be a better option. We are a complete mess.
And yet, in spite of the disastrous outcomes, we are determined to shove our culture down the throats of other peoples and nations. We use our military power and our economic power, on the backs of our citizenry, to subdue, then we export our education system to indoctrinate and reprogram the indigenous people we have conquered, as documented in Schooling the World.
If you wanted to change an ancient culture in a generation, how would you do it? You would change the way it educates its children.
The U.S. Government knew this in the 19th century when it forced Native American children into government boarding schools. Today, volunteers build schools in traditional societies around the world, convinced that school is the only way to a 'better' life for indigenous children. But is this true? What really happens when we replace a traditional culture's way of learning and understanding the world with our own? SCHOOLING THE WORLD takes a challenging, sometimes funny, ultimately deeply disturbing look at the effects of modern education on the world's last sustainable indigenous cultures.
And I will argue that since the 1960’s we have used our education system to indoctrinate and reprogram our own; it is no coincidence that that is when the Amish “opted out” of public schools in the United States. The Amish saw what was coming and resisted, effectively; the rest of us are now suffering through the consequences of having stayed silent.
Closing
Our hubris as a nation-state is without peer. But what can be done? I’ll point you to another post, The Amish, and What We "English" Can Learn: Technology, Education and Work. If you want the United States to survive with “liberty and justice for all,” resistance is required.
And as an addition to my post on the Amish, here is some recent evidence that their approach has benefit; Amish Officially Declared ‘World’s Healthiest Children’ After Rejecting Big Pharma Vaccines.
The first duty of power is to perpetuate itself. The first duty of free men is to resist it.
— Mike Resnick, Santiago: a Myth of the Far Future (1986), by Robert A. Heinlein
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