Lyons absolutely nails a very important aspect of the current socio-political scene, and he casts light on the powerful authoritarian tendencies of the New Left, which Trudeau and the Liberals have adopted enthusiastically.
To push back, the Physicals are going to have to get better organized. Their own unions are staffed with politically correct Wokesters, so they might need to do some housecleaning first.
Thanks for passing this along, Tara!
PS There are PLENTY of Virtuals, myself included, who are appalled by the ugly new eliteism reflected by Trudeau and the Liberals. They need to go.
Loved this, thanks Tara. Kirn’s article “The Anarchy of Fun” hit the nail on the funnybone! How absurd and appalling that the anti-fun squad filled the skateboard park with sand and summoned the surfers in! I count on my relationship with dogs mainly to keep the spirit of fun alive. We romp, sing, dance and play our way through today’s arid and dreary milieu.
I was recently in LA and I had a full reckoning of what Lyon’s speaks of. I was utterly struck by the complete difference in the social skills of people with forward facing jobs vs those who were able to hibernate for two years. Of course this is a gross generalization but I could see a real bifurcation in the body language of the physicals versus the virtuals and it was not pleasant. It will take decades before we really comprehend what Covid was and what it did.
Let me say this very briefly: ..and virtual disengagement further distances us from the environment that we continue to trash, as does being consigned to 850 sq. ft. boxes in the sky far from the smells and chaos of the agora, not to speak of the world of coyotes and octopi.
There's a lot of chatter about various 'fracture points' in society: educated vs non-ed, professional vs non-prof, urban vs rural, generational, etc. I see this as another take on the theme, and there's a lot of truth to it. Media and Academia are 2 large institutions that a) represent the minority, and b) have outsized influence, a sort of captive audience in a sense. They may shape and illuminate 'large' ideas, the nuts and bolts, as it were, of society are the repair guy, the laborer, the order picker, the waiter. The people who produce physical things.
IMO, the term 'populist' is mostly a derogatory name for one group from the other. When the Physicals tell you there's a problem, you'd better listen
Thank you for this. It chimes with a ‘vibe shift’ I’m feeling in my personal life. The difference between learning about the latest twist in the social or environmental crises and the psychological nourishment of, say, getting tired & dirty creating a place filled with wildflowers & insects is inescapable. I want to call this shift by a convenient name. You seem to have nailed what it actually entails à propos of mind pollution with ‘lean out’. Please keep discussing this.
I have a foot in both worlds, and find the unreal world profoundly lacking. It is populated by the impressions of competence; a 5 yr experience programmer is an old hand. In what I do that just starting to be competent. I put together systems that will work for 25 years, software breaks unless intensively maintained in 6 months.
I get why policy makers don't want to listen to me and my ilk; I will tell them that their grandiose ideas will fail catastrophically, and they better get off the a$$ and keep the plumbing working. The illusions of utopia are far more attractive; but they really should get out a bit, maybe try using the software that the government agencies have to fight with to do their jobs.
I'm watching a thunderstorm roll down our valley, black clouds and rumbles. It is awesome. Living each day and experiencing these things is a privilege, a gift.
Tara, thanks so much for this - and for the reference to the Lyons article. There is so much truth here about the conundrum that modernity has caused, and that late modernity accelerates and emphasizes - namely, a terror of being contingent creatures, with the obsessive need to place life (and the natural world) under our total control. Yes, i do think this was/is (at least implicitly) at the heart of the pandemic response, and to the disdain much of the "Virtuals" have for the "Physicals." And it can feel at times excruciating to live in between: i have a life as a "Virtual" - a precarious, part-time university lecturer - but also as a "Physical" - i support something with a cognitive impairment 3-4 times per week. Against what goes for "conventional wisdom" these days, most of the time i feel the only (sustainable, moral, and happy) way forward to is to move closer to the "Physical" world, and to listen more closely to those people (like my friend with a cognitive impairment) who more fully inhabit that world
That quote from Lasch, who I've long liked, is an amazing summary of our current cultural and economic state of affairs. The Virtual/Physical dualism is an old one in philosophy and sociology - it could be argued to go back to Plato's Republic (the artisans, soldiers and philosopher-kings being his three classes in his utopia). It also shows up in The Matrix: the pod people vs. the A.I.s. I've noticed how most academics have an instinctual revulsion for the working class in the age of the net - they only socialize with and marry each other. And with the birth of the pandemic, the Virtuals were encouraged to self-isolate in front of screens. There's a clip from one of Viva Frei's walkabouts during the trucker protest where he passes by and tries to interview a small gaggle of counter-protestors: they have a variety of signs indicating their displeasure about everything from noise to gender activism. They look scared, confused - some of them are clearly bureaucrats or office workers not used to the real world intruding upon their hyperreality. And despite their higher levels of education, they won't talk to Viva, unlike the truckers, who were more than willing to wag their chins.
Further, I think much of the whole apparatus of woke safetyism is designed to further isolate people from each other and from any sort of physical danger, however miniscule - hence lockdowns, DEI committees, rigid control over speech and behaviour in the workplace in the name of avoiding the trinity of woke sin i.e. sexism, racism, and homophobia, even though any well-informed analyst knows these have radically declined since the 70s or 80s. Since the pandemic, the desire to control has significantly increased among those who manage the virtual workforce. But so has the level of mental illness in that class.
Nailed! The new generation (and may be us, over 40s) are trading the Real World by the Virtual Ones. What a pity! There is nothing like go hiking in a beautiful Mountain, to sweat, to feel the wind and sun, to smell the flowers and wood scents, to taste a fresh water from a creek, and even to sleep in a small tent inside a sleeping bag! Come on guys! Let´s do something before We get satisfied with a Virtual Nature! By the way, I bet most of the "teens" have never gone to a real forest to feel the elements of the NAture... how to wave a flag defending something You never met "physically"?
Lyons absolutely nails a very important aspect of the current socio-political scene, and he casts light on the powerful authoritarian tendencies of the New Left, which Trudeau and the Liberals have adopted enthusiastically.
To push back, the Physicals are going to have to get better organized. Their own unions are staffed with politically correct Wokesters, so they might need to do some housecleaning first.
Thanks for passing this along, Tara!
PS There are PLENTY of Virtuals, myself included, who are appalled by the ugly new eliteism reflected by Trudeau and the Liberals. They need to go.
Loved this, thanks Tara. Kirn’s article “The Anarchy of Fun” hit the nail on the funnybone! How absurd and appalling that the anti-fun squad filled the skateboard park with sand and summoned the surfers in! I count on my relationship with dogs mainly to keep the spirit of fun alive. We romp, sing, dance and play our way through today’s arid and dreary milieu.
The Truckers,Tamara Lichs, James Topps of the world are my heroes. And they give me hope.
I was recently in LA and I had a full reckoning of what Lyon’s speaks of. I was utterly struck by the complete difference in the social skills of people with forward facing jobs vs those who were able to hibernate for two years. Of course this is a gross generalization but I could see a real bifurcation in the body language of the physicals versus the virtuals and it was not pleasant. It will take decades before we really comprehend what Covid was and what it did.
Let me say this very briefly: ..and virtual disengagement further distances us from the environment that we continue to trash, as does being consigned to 850 sq. ft. boxes in the sky far from the smells and chaos of the agora, not to speak of the world of coyotes and octopi.
There's a lot of chatter about various 'fracture points' in society: educated vs non-ed, professional vs non-prof, urban vs rural, generational, etc. I see this as another take on the theme, and there's a lot of truth to it. Media and Academia are 2 large institutions that a) represent the minority, and b) have outsized influence, a sort of captive audience in a sense. They may shape and illuminate 'large' ideas, the nuts and bolts, as it were, of society are the repair guy, the laborer, the order picker, the waiter. The people who produce physical things.
IMO, the term 'populist' is mostly a derogatory name for one group from the other. When the Physicals tell you there's a problem, you'd better listen
How far is truth susceptible of embodiment? That is the question, that is the experiment.
Friedrich Nietzsche
Thank you for this. It chimes with a ‘vibe shift’ I’m feeling in my personal life. The difference between learning about the latest twist in the social or environmental crises and the psychological nourishment of, say, getting tired & dirty creating a place filled with wildflowers & insects is inescapable. I want to call this shift by a convenient name. You seem to have nailed what it actually entails à propos of mind pollution with ‘lean out’. Please keep discussing this.
I have a foot in both worlds, and find the unreal world profoundly lacking. It is populated by the impressions of competence; a 5 yr experience programmer is an old hand. In what I do that just starting to be competent. I put together systems that will work for 25 years, software breaks unless intensively maintained in 6 months.
I get why policy makers don't want to listen to me and my ilk; I will tell them that their grandiose ideas will fail catastrophically, and they better get off the a$$ and keep the plumbing working. The illusions of utopia are far more attractive; but they really should get out a bit, maybe try using the software that the government agencies have to fight with to do their jobs.
I'm watching a thunderstorm roll down our valley, black clouds and rumbles. It is awesome. Living each day and experiencing these things is a privilege, a gift.
Tara, thanks so much for this - and for the reference to the Lyons article. There is so much truth here about the conundrum that modernity has caused, and that late modernity accelerates and emphasizes - namely, a terror of being contingent creatures, with the obsessive need to place life (and the natural world) under our total control. Yes, i do think this was/is (at least implicitly) at the heart of the pandemic response, and to the disdain much of the "Virtuals" have for the "Physicals." And it can feel at times excruciating to live in between: i have a life as a "Virtual" - a precarious, part-time university lecturer - but also as a "Physical" - i support something with a cognitive impairment 3-4 times per week. Against what goes for "conventional wisdom" these days, most of the time i feel the only (sustainable, moral, and happy) way forward to is to move closer to the "Physical" world, and to listen more closely to those people (like my friend with a cognitive impairment) who more fully inhabit that world
That quote from Lasch, who I've long liked, is an amazing summary of our current cultural and economic state of affairs. The Virtual/Physical dualism is an old one in philosophy and sociology - it could be argued to go back to Plato's Republic (the artisans, soldiers and philosopher-kings being his three classes in his utopia). It also shows up in The Matrix: the pod people vs. the A.I.s. I've noticed how most academics have an instinctual revulsion for the working class in the age of the net - they only socialize with and marry each other. And with the birth of the pandemic, the Virtuals were encouraged to self-isolate in front of screens. There's a clip from one of Viva Frei's walkabouts during the trucker protest where he passes by and tries to interview a small gaggle of counter-protestors: they have a variety of signs indicating their displeasure about everything from noise to gender activism. They look scared, confused - some of them are clearly bureaucrats or office workers not used to the real world intruding upon their hyperreality. And despite their higher levels of education, they won't talk to Viva, unlike the truckers, who were more than willing to wag their chins.
Further, I think much of the whole apparatus of woke safetyism is designed to further isolate people from each other and from any sort of physical danger, however miniscule - hence lockdowns, DEI committees, rigid control over speech and behaviour in the workplace in the name of avoiding the trinity of woke sin i.e. sexism, racism, and homophobia, even though any well-informed analyst knows these have radically declined since the 70s or 80s. Since the pandemic, the desire to control has significantly increased among those who manage the virtual workforce. But so has the level of mental illness in that class.
Loved this Tara; made me get up from my computer and go into my garden!
Love this!
Yes, yes, and more yes! Many nails were hit on the head in this essay.... Kudos.
Nailed! The new generation (and may be us, over 40s) are trading the Real World by the Virtual Ones. What a pity! There is nothing like go hiking in a beautiful Mountain, to sweat, to feel the wind and sun, to smell the flowers and wood scents, to taste a fresh water from a creek, and even to sleep in a small tent inside a sleeping bag! Come on guys! Let´s do something before We get satisfied with a Virtual Nature! By the way, I bet most of the "teens" have never gone to a real forest to feel the elements of the NAture... how to wave a flag defending something You never met "physically"?