It was an odd summer, working summer stock with some friends who found great pleasure in working movie lines into conversations. A description of going to the store may segway into “Eleven hundred men went into the (store) water. The vessel went down in 12 minutes.” or “You can’t handle the Truth“- another favorite. The latter phrase seems to be being brought back to life in the talking points from many companies and even government leaders. Not so much that we can’t handle the truth, but there are many things that we can’t handle and need big business or big government to protect us from. We are met with countless messages that we have nothing to fear from AI even though we are already finding cultural bias built into its outcomes, workers must return to the office in spite of the fact that people working from home had a 13% performance increase versus their office counterparts. Workers are warned of the evils of unions from their businesses however unions can have a positive effect on productivity
It seems more and more what we fear is not the effect of a change but the change itself. The idea of anything being different than what we have had in the past seems unpalatable. In an increasing nostalgia for what never was, we are driving into the future in reverse looking into the rearview mirror for guidance.
The Mc Luhan Galaxy 