Tag: consumerism
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One-dimensional man
I recently came across an article which discusses the philosophy of Herbert Marcuse, a German philosopher of the Frankfurt school. Marcuse is surprisingly still very relevant today. In his book The One-Dimensional Man, he argues that modern, industrialized, democratic nations are actually totalitarian in nature. What struck me was the link I saw to the…
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Black Friday
Black Friday is the term mostly used in the United States for the Friday following Thanksgiving. It’s the day that marks the beginning of the holiday shopping season. It’s known for retailers offering massive discounts and in a way it is a perfect summary of our empty, consumption oriented society.
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Are we happier?
A friend triggered me with a question the other day. He was wondering: are we happier today in our modern society than people in the past? That’s a very complex question with many facets to consider. Who are we comparing? How are we going to make that comparison? To what period in history are we…
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Virus
In the iconic 1999 film “The Matrix” there is a scene where Agent Smith, while interrogating Morpheus, compares humanity to a virus. Consuming all resources in an area and then moving on to another area and then another again. There is definitely some truth to this analogy. I had a stark reminder of that last…
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We are no longer human
It is said that evolution always moves forward and that it can not move backward. An amphibian, once it is an amphibian, can not go back to being a fish. Man can not return to being an ape. Species go from one form to another but always more complex, always more specialized. While this isn’t…