Self & System
The Sensemaking Crisis
part twp
TBD
Pt. 2 | The Self-Reinforcing System
When amplified by the power of modern technology, our competitive way of life produces a culture where we are all consciously or subconsciously competing.
When we acknowledge the power of our awareness within the system, we see that what we give our attention to matters.
The challenge is that the system is very good at keeping our awareness and moving it where it wishes. And not only that, the system figures out how to re-constitute itself in new mediums. For example, the broadcast television model used to be where the vast majority of advertising to
Reclaim our awareness from the systems and consciously re-direct them. As the Attention Economy proves, what we give our awareness to matters and has real value for sustaining the system.
BUT, if we consciously direct our attention and become incredibly intentional about the way we use modern technology to engage the world, we can cause the system to adapt.
It's important understand that the system itself is not evil, it's simply unconscious. The big tech companies that pull the strings of the attention economy, the big financial institutions seeking higher profits, and the ad agencies and brands crafting messages to stimulate consumption--none of these actors are "evil".
and the Those who came before that created it, did not seek to entrap us. They were, like the generations before them, doing their best to put the world they found into some kind of order. Every generation gets the opportunity to re-imagine the world, and that's where we are right.
The competitive mindset is incentivized to "beat" the other. As such, it mobilizes its forces against what it perceives to be
this creates a bad information ecology where everyone is competing and distracting
Consumer-Capitalism
- demands rivalrous competition
- glamorizes wealth accumulation
- encourages overconsumption & materialism
- estranges us from environmental consequences
Attention Economy
hijacks awareness for profit
flattens human connection
endangers well being of the whole
Sense-Making Crisis
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For now, let's focus on four major dimensions that define modern life. They are the capitalist system, consumer culture, the digital world, and the sensemaking crisis. Each of which builds on the one before.
confuses citizenry
polarizes for profit
encourages tribalism
American Dream
PT II - ATTENTION ECONOMY
DISTRACTION, OVERWHELM,
Interconnected ISMS manifesting as BLM, METO, MAGA, American Dream
While we understand how the system "works". and understand how these pieces reinforce. Later we'll move into how this system conditions us into a mindset that reinforces the system even as the system threatens our well-being, and then finally we'll explore what every self can do to decondition themselves of that mindset and help reset the system.