HackMD
Techvolution: A New Philosophy - Preface
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This Pandemic
"People are angry, man! Most people's lives suck…Even if like the economy is doing better, the vast majority of people aren't doing what they want to do with their lives." Joe Rogan, November 2019.
This book was going to deal with your levels of anger and happiness in life. It was going to begin with analyzing your take on the economy, nation, and life at large.
Now we've hit the Great 2020 Pandemic. I don't need to inquire about your happiness anymore. If you're like most Americans and Canadians, you're likely downright terrified about getting sick, and perhaps more frightening, wondering what's going to happen next in the economy or international relations.
For years, North Americans suffered under troubling trends: micro-management at work, antisocial behavior at home, political hatred in government. We got by because superficially we're "doing great": we have full employment, luxurious homes, and stable politics. Whenever things got too bad, and we got too unhappy, we visited the shopping mall for therapy. If we were still angry, we'd install a new political party. Over the years, Canadians and Americans gave Left and Right control of our government again and again.
Yet, no matter which we choose, Main Street wasn't happy with the results.
That's because there is something fundamentally wrong with North American society. For decades we've been working to keep the Industrial Age alive. It's finally time we step up, as our ancestors did so many times before, and rethink our way of life. The hardest part isn't explaining our problems or coming up with solutions. It involves the realization that you, me, and every ordinary Canadian and American should be happy with our jobs, government, and life.
It's our right to enjoy happy lives.
Because individual happiness is the ultimate sign of a healthy society. Interesting to note, our ancestors were often happier then we are. Even though they were hard-up in comparison. Our grandparents or great-grandparents weren't "simpler." Nor did they have lower standards. They were content because they saw their society improve every year.
In contrast, North American culture is going backward. The trends that make us unhappy like horrible commutes, expensive education, and mindless bureaucracies keep getting worse. A significant reason is that as employees and consumers of big bureaucracies and corporations, we're powerless to demand better.
But the more significant cause for our society's decline is our belief in Left and Right political ideologies.
We keep alternating which "side" controls our governments. But nothing changes with either because the truth is the middle-class gives Conservative and Progressive doctrines far too much credit. Regular people on Main Street following one (or hating another) is never going to solve our problems.
I began writing this book in September 2019. I was wanted to (somehow) convince the North American middle-class to stop putting so much faith in Left and Right writers, commentators, and pollsters. Not only do these pundits avoid living on Main Street and thus never feel the pain of our everyday problems. But, their beloved ideologies were invented during the Industrial Age, before humanity even had electricity. The simple truth is, Left and Right are simply too outdated to give us happiness in modern civilization.
It's okay to change our ideologies. Most people don't realize that. But we're free to pick and choose whichever one we want. There's nothing special about any belief system, be it democratic socialism, hereditary monarchy, or Left/Right. Every political doctrine was created by a human being to help society prosper.
So, if ordinary people are not happy with their life, we're supposed to change the philosophy that rules our nation.
And now we should. Because this one virus is highlighting just how shaky our foundations really are.
There have been hundreds of pandemics throughout history—and yet today, we were caught with our pants down. Why? Why was President Trump impeached? What was the reason? Even if you agreed with the trial in November, was that really what our government and political energy should have been obsessed with only a few months ago?
Both partisan "sides" are the faces of the exact same coin. When President Obama tried to overhaul the healthcare system, was any pundit or strategist talking about pandemic plans? We have fire drills throughout our society; why don't we have pandemic plans?
City fires plagued humanity for thousands of years. Until we, with our government, used technology to overcome and prevent them. Credit: Wikimedia Commons, Library of Congress, and Unsplash. Video.
Here's why. Instead of governing our society, our political system is hogtied by extremist Left/Right reporters, commentators, and pundits.
I used to be one of their followers. I understand their appeal. By signing up to a side, any person has a pre-made set of policies to rally around. Or more likely, a ready-made group of people to blame for any and all problems. Happily, I think the majority of Main Street has learned what I eventually did, professional partisans aren't heroes fighting for the average person. Each side only cares about forcing their ideological purity on our communities.
Yet because too many of us still listen to Left/Right idealogues on blogs, books, and TV, our elected leaders are forced to satisfy the extremes. Campaign fundraising alone requires politicians to talk with echo chambers nearly every single day. Speaking to choirs in media junkets, dinner fundraisers, and talk-show interviews is why our elected representatives can sound like foreigners to "non-believers" on Main Street.
The funny thing is, despite being so emotional, neither Left or Right has any idea, or cares to discover, how Internet Age technology even works. Which sadly makes sense. After all, since they're not heroes, they don't need to reach for the power of new technology. That's why if (or when) you ignore an election, it's hard to notice who won.
I mean, in either Canada or America, does road traffic disappear and reappear every four years? Do carbon levels in the air stop or start rising on election nights? Do our workdays become more or less productive after the first Tuesday in November?
Of course not.
We're struggling during this pandemic because our political ideologies make us think middle-class life will get better once "the other side" is defeated. It's just not true. It's proven itself not to be true for the past several decades because, like in any story, problems aren't solved with emotions and yelling matches, but by mastering a new and better tool. And if Left/Right ideologues don't understand modern technology, what contemporary real-life problem can they solve?
I happened to be writing this book long before the coronavirus. Suddenly history has given us all a sad reality check. Our society, and our political ideologies, are outdated.
To upgrade our civilization and re-attain stability, health, and happiness, ordinary people need to revamp a lot of things. Techvolution, a new philosophy that empowers the middle-class with custom-made tools that solve our everyday problems, will help us get there.
Our Levers of Power
Do me a favor. Open up Skype or FaceTime. Now check your Instagram feed. Then get Google Maps up and running.
I'm serious, open these apps up. Come back when you're done.
Isn't it cool that within a few seconds, you can chat with friends, get live video, and receive pin-point directions? Even as society is under quarantine, you have these very formidable levers of power at your disposal. I mean, can you even imagine writing driving directions on a napkin? What about going back and forth to Blockbuster (twice) every time your family watches a single movie?
Of course not, because it's not 1990.
Okay, so now get your medical records ready. Next up, get your health metrics like fitness levels, antibodies, and blood type. Excellent, now let's evaluate your risk factor to COVID-19 by comparing your statistics to the records of those unlucky people who got sick, especially the ones who are seriously ill. What characteristics is this new disease targeting?
I pray your risk factor is small. But, if you're in trouble, what does your nurse or doctor say to do? Don't tell me, but I hope it was at least calming to hear specialized medical advice.
Hey, don't forget, there's a possible drug shortage. So, what is your pharmacist recommending? Do you have enough prescriptions? What should you start doing now to plan for the worse?
After you've collaborated with these health professionals, quickly find out what your health insurance company will, and more importantly, won't pay for. Just in case the worse happens, it's good to know before disaster strikes.
Phew, that was educational. Isn't it good to know all this stuff! Apps and gadgets are cool, but I personally think knowledge is the ultimate lever of power.
Problems
Wait, wait, wait. FaceTime worked, so did Google Maps and Netflix (thank God). But is the medical records "lever" stuck? What will the ER doctor assess you by in case of a flood of patients?
Did I hear that right, you're not in contact with your doctor? What about your pharmacist? You're waiting on hold with your insurance company! Insurance is basically a bank-account for disasters, and now during a pandemic, you have no idea how much money you have?
This all sounds like I'm talking to someone living through the 1918 Spanish Flu Pandemic. It's like science-fiction in reverse. Because, if someone in 1918 was teleported to 2020, they'd fit in just fine.
Well, at least many of our students, teachers, and workers can keep on learning, working, and collaborating from home in these tough times.
WHAT! You're still driving to work! Or worse, your work or school is closed!
What the heck is wrong with your laptop and the internet at home? Wasn't there a plan to keep things moving in case of earthquakes (San Francisco 1989), riots (Vancouver 2011), hurricanes (New Orleans 2005), city fires (Fort McMurray 2016), floods (New Jersey 2012), pandemics (H1N1 2009) and blizzards/seasonal flu (every winter in North America)?
Responding to this pandemic should have been a small modification of dealing with a severe rainstorm or blizzard. But it wasn't. I wonder what we were all doing before March 2020.
Credit: The Office._
People in High Places
Left and Right can't help upgrade our society. But they also don't operate our businesses, bureaucracies, and daily lives.
Upon reflection, it's no surprise our businesses and bureaucracies didn't have a plan for this COVID-19 outbreak. Because we don't have procedures for any disaster. Because our way of life is controlled by a select group of people looking to protect their high-paying positions.
I was an insurance claims adjuster for seven years. The person with the checkbook you talk to after horrible events like car accidents and house fires. Despite promoting a low-risk lifestyle, the insurance industry still didn't prepare for disasters. One example, we adjusters were forced to drive into an office during heat-waves, blizzards, and ice-storms.
It's quite surreal to speak with people who had a tragic car crash on the exact same roads your boss is demanding you drive. You can have a debate about telecommuting versus offices. But not when the streets have three feet of snow.
This speaks to our society's fundamental problem. Regular people aren't ready for bad times because we aren't free to decide what's best for ourselves in good times.
It's our own fault.
We gave the levers of power in our schools, hospitals, companies, and bureaucracies to the same managerial positions that were giving us unhappy lives as customers and workers. Now our society has to make impromptu plans to deal with this coronavirus pandemic.
Should we really have expected better?
Credit: Office Space. Video.
Unhappiness Means We Have an Unhealthy Society
Our workplaces are riddled with too many bureaucrats, managers, and consultants. This way of life made us very unhappy. I wrote a book to try to convince you, it also made us dangerously complacent too. And now, sadly, it's obvious for everyone to see and feel every time we hear "the virus is getting closer."
Our society is fragile because while our Left vs. Right politics is singing to choirs, our "eight different bosses" have antagonized upgrading our economy for generations.
As a result, when using our education system, making a claim, signing a mortgage, it's like we're still renting DVDs from Blockbuster. As in, we're stuck with the hours of operation, DVD selection, and corporate policies of the rich and powerful with no ability to have our say.
Having our say makes all the difference in the world. It's the difference between being lost at sea with a radio hearing the search parties. And holding a two-way radio so you can tell the rescuers where you are.
But, the eight different bosses of the Industrial Age will never use Internet Age technology to empower you with a "two-way radio". Blockbuster didn't want internet streaming. Newspapers didn't adopt online classifieds. Universities didn't institute web-based education.
Why would Industrial Age institutions and businesses upgrade you? It just means they'd downgrade themselves.
This is why regular people have super-advanced apps like Skype, Instagram, and Google Maps in our private lives. But, we're rushing to figure out how to educate our kids online, checking mailboxes for insurance checks, and wondering how we'll earn a living. All while a killer disease searches the globe for human hosts.
Being so powerless is needless bullshit, to say the least.
When nagging about TPS reports made us unhappy, we bought bigger TVs, cars, and houses. When the middle-class got too angry, we'd turn to Left and Right politics. We thought marching in a Tea Party parade, or watching a Bernie Sanders political speech, was doing our part to solve our society's problems.
It wasn't. The truth is Big Government, and Big Business came together to make a philosophy of Big Problems for Main Street.
And, we're feeling these problems right now. Because everyone in the middle-class is depending on our weakened manufacturing base, old insurance processes, overburdened healthcare system, and in general, our dated economy to provide for us during and after this great pandemic.
And we're justifiably frightened, wondering what's going to happen next in the economy, international relations, and in general, what the future holds.
Keeping the Industrial Age work culture alive means our jobs get more bullshit every year. BS jobs are a needless waste because we've only started the Internet Age. There is so much more work to do, profit to be earned, and glory to be won by upgrading our society with modern technology. Credit: Wisecrack. Video.
Our Aged Health Care System
Doctors study really hard. It takes years to learn how to keep the human body and mind healthy. That's why a medical degree is respected in every society on Earth.
Despite all the hard work and worldwide esteem, in this TED talk from 2015 Dr. Alieta Eck discusses how much of a let-down her job is. You see, when she started medical school in the early '80s, she thought practicing medicine would mean making deep connections with patients. She pictured detailed examinations, home visits, and being there when needed most.
Instead, Dr. Eck got something far different. To her sadness, the Main Street economy, where customers directly dealt with specialists like carpenters, tailors, and doctors, was long gone.
True to the trend ravaging our economy, what Dr. Eck got was ever-more bureaucrats. Since 1970, the valuable administration of clinics and hospitals was taken over by government and corporate middlemen. These "eight different bosses" created ever-more paperwork to put themselves in between doctors and their patients.
Notice I said paperwork, because actual paper forms, regulations, and fax machines help delay processing and justify more bureaucratic positions. Although sometimes these are digitally entered in things like PDF's, they're still based on paper. That's why our society doesn't have wide-spread use of "Medical FaceTime" or "InstaInsuranceHealth" apps connecting patients directly with their therapists, nurses, pharmacists, nutritionists, and doctors.
If our society did use digital technology to its full potential, it would put many micro-managing middlemen out of a job.
"Hello, Peter," memos, and eight different bosses multiplied by 3500%, and trending up no matter which political party we elected into power. Credit: PNHP.
Is it a surprise the Internet Age started in 1970? As computers got better, it made typing and printing increasingly easy. A small group of administrators turned into almost countless regulators, managers, executives, and lawyers who used computers to keep making more memos, rules, and regulations.
Using new technology for themselves, and keeping it away from customers, is how the Industrial Age middlemen kept growing. Now they hold potent Internet Age levers of power in their hands while customers wait on hold with a call-center or spend 30 minutes filling out claim forms.
Some middlemen are, in fact, needed. Many, however, are not. All of them have been sucking our healthcare system dry for generations while holding back new technologies from reaching the hands of the middle-class.
Unfortunately, Main Street doesn't yet notice how screwed we're getting.
The rise of the middlemen. Credit: Wisecrack. Video.
Controlling Modern Tools Will Upgrade the Middle-Class
A lab inspector from the state came and wanted to know who was running this (lab) machine. And she wanted to be sure they all have high-school diplomas. Well, we had RN degrees, MD degrees. That didn't suffice. She wanted to see high-school diplomas. That's an example of mindless bureaucracy. Dr. Alieta Eck.
Talk to anyone on the frontline of today's pandemic and ask them if they feel ready. Face masks and disinfectants are running low. More ventilators are needed, but no one knows where to get them. Patients show up, and no one knows where their medical records are. Even with so many government and corporate middlemen, and historical examples, no one was planning for a disaster.
I can sympathize. Whenever there is a bad storm, our car and property insurance claim departments scramble to keep up. Even though there's a big storm every few months.
As a result, long-time and loyal insurance customers can wait hours to speak with somebody and months to get their claim checks. During my time, I'd have to (somehow) explain to why the insurance company takes customer's money digitally but insists on paying claims with paper checks sent via snail mail.
It sucked trying to explain the nonsense. These customers paid their bills, and their claim was approved. Yet, they were like a ship-wrecked man on a beach, desperately waving at passing boats because he doesn't control a lever of power. In this case, a digital claim check, or a two-way radio.
Credit: Cast Away.
There was no technical reason why my customers couldn't be sent their money instantly. But like I said above, why would powerful managers and executives give regular people a fair deal if they don't have to.
To get a better deal, ordinary people must stop believing Right or Left is our savior. Neither Big Government or Big Business has any reason to make you more self-sufficient. The fact is, to live a happier, more stable life, the middle-class needs to control our own "two-way" radios, our own levers of power.
We need to do things like install solar panels on our roofs, keep stores of food in our cellars, and insist on a robust local supply chain. Even better would be wide-spread recognition of online education, having seamless communication with medical professionals, and the ability to still make a living during a disaster.
And, regular people can have all of this with modern technology.
That's the hidden truth of today's society. We aren't waiting for any technical development. There's no scientific research that needs to be unlocked. Thousands of content creators and billions of dollars worth of free and open-source software are waiting to give the middle-class the levers of power right now.
Two-way radio's for everyone!
In a nutshell, if someone from 1918 were to see us today, they'd marvel at FaceTime and Youtube, but then say we have the tools of science fiction, but not the way of life.
By getting us to custom-make our own apps, electronics, and other levers of power, Techvolution will give Main Street the society of the future. It's a place worth fighting for.
Because it's a place built to make you smile.
I'm going to guess these aren't bureaucrats or "eight different bosses". Photo by Tedward Quinn.
Segway
A crisis should teach us to evolve. But, the many in recent memory, from the loss of American manufacturing, the Savings and Loan Crisis, the Dot Com Crash, rising cost of formal education, and the Great Recession our society borrowed more money instead. We subsidized and bailed out the "too big to fail" manufacturers, insurance companies, colleges, and banks who caused the problem in the first place.
Many of these big institutions are holdovers from the Industrial Age. They're filled with too many bosses, layers of middlemen, and Industrial Age power brokers. These positions all have a good reason to antagonize our society's technological evolution. But it's a losing battle because all the money in the world won't make the Internet Age disappear.
As the saying goes, we all either evolve or perish.
Sadly until now, we've chosen to perish. Instead of admitting we needed to fundamentally rework our society to modern technology, we used money to sweep our problems under the rug. We the people decided to believe Big Business and Big Government we're looking out for our best interest. We paid for bailouts and suffered through bullshitization of work to prevent evolving a new way of life.
But now we can't sweep anything, anywhere. This pandemic is something different.
Printing more money can't kill a virus. Regular people literally can't go shopping or watch professional sports to distract themselves from the bad news. After so many crises were ignored, this one is actually shutting our society down.
The public scare, economic fall, and makeshift plans caused by this pandemic is not a surprise. Our society has been getting more in debt, surrounded by red-tape, dependent on foreign manufacturing, and micro-managed for years.
The coronavirus is only exposing problems we've ignored for far too long.
Happily, there is no reason to despair. Internet Age technology is truly wondrous. There is a golden meadow waiting for us once we decide to upgrade our culture. The middle-class could easily make a long-list of our problems, and within a few years, create a custom tool to overcome each of them.
Renting DVDsWatching broadcast televisionCalling a taxi-cabWriting directions on napkins- Rising insurance rates.
- Confusing mortgage contracts.
- Shaky supply chain.
But, to get to this new world, Main Street needs to believe in a new philosophy.
You're already reading it. Techvolution's big lesson is this. The middle-class must solve our problems with digital technology now. If we don't, we'll soon be suffering something much worse than unhappiness and scary pandemics. There's only so much longer we can keep running our civilization on the fumes of Left and Right ideology. Soon our debts will explode, or bureaucracies will implode, our bullshit jobs won't be worth working anymore, and Left and Right will stop yelling and start fighting.
We can save ourselves from all this grief and enter the amazing Internet Age now.
All we have to do is change what you think is politics.
Like Communism, Left/Right are Industrial Age philosophies. In fact, Progressives and Conservatives together beat communism to win the Industrial Age. However, Left/Right based societies are stagnating because we're not in the Industrial Age anymore. To get back on track, and make use of modern technology, we need to evolve a new culture. That means you have to step up. Credit: Wisecrack. Video.
