Industrial society once allowed to run its full course leaves behind many casualties: pollution, typhoons, unemployment and crime.
Kids with early exposure to the I pad and I phone, turn near-sighted if not bi-focal.
Adults with easy access to porn (free or paid) found real organic relationship something of a burden if not boredom.
Back in the early 70’s the US and its think tank already realized the limits to growth, disposable society, fail-safe situation…..
The resulting strategies were to outsource, M&A and mass production to shave off some costs. Every attempt has been either to cope with the irreversible growth of the chip speed (Moore’s Law) or to increase subscriber base by capitalizing on the Network Effect (Facebook and Ebay), economy of scale (Wal-Mart) and logistics (Amazon).
People and diapers are disposable.
BPO now talks about Social Mobil Access Cloud. What can be outsourced will be, first offshoring, then full automation.
First, cut down on the amount of pollution. Second, on operational costs. Third, mass production process has been much easier, thriving on the 24/7 economy to deeper penetrate foreign markets where the new smokestacks are located.
For the first time in their 200-year history, N America and Europe face a crisis loom large: the people are disposable economically, while constitutionally, they have more human rights than any other time.
There lies the tension, the frustration and lock-jam. To keep up with population and information explosion, we will get to the point, like alcoholic or chemical-dependency people, who start selling everything to feed the habit. The irony of all is when color folks finally get to be heard, their social and economical platforms get shipped online or overseas, first to Mexico and S America, the so-called 2nd world, where Paulo Freire used to call “the oppressed”, then onto frontier and emerging markets of South East Asia.
Yes, the poverty level has been decreased in countries where BPO is in full steam. But the industrial waste and social ills have also increased. You may call this a new form of colonization, or selective recolonization. The new bosses are the go-between, facilitating the flow of fund and the hunt for local talent. This is also a problem deserving a separate blog.
Meanwhile, poverty level is up in the West, especially Portugal, Spain and Greece, where young people are disposable.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/28/opinion/kristof-where-is-the-love.html?hp&rref=opinion&_r=0
Go East young men. Travel the world in 80 years. Take a bullet train, or bite a bullet. I have seen EFL “teachers” smoke pot in Vung Tau (VN) and God knows where (Thailand, Malaysia). They are the new Missing- in- Action, unable and unwilling to be reintegrated back into western society. Their voices are unheard and aspirations unfulfilled.
While primitive society disposed people of no or little economic values, in present day there are people who also by choice drop out of main stream. Call them the misfits, outsiders, the beats etc… But if their ideas can be monetized, then suddenly, they are one of ours. Charlie Chaplin first got exiled, then knighted. Sir Chaplin ably made fun of the social and psychological consequences of over-industrialization. His warning had barely been heeded when Foxconn‘s workers jumped from company dormitory. How many more suicides before we realize something is wrong with the way we conduct our lives and business, given all the machinery and software application. We dispose the diaper because it smells. Will we do the same with people once they are deemed undesirable and under-productive? Business leaders are paid to deliver results. At what cost? Empathy deficit disorder? obsessive compulsive disorder? Attention deficit disorder?
When a business runs afoul, it’s the leader’s inside that is eaten up. Imploded. And of late, there have been a few (JP Morgan 13 B fine, or Obama’s no-show at the Trans Pacific Pact due to government shut-down). Have you had the time to follow-up and see where those “reparation” billions go to? Food stamps? Perhaps not. Dreams crushed, career derailed and families torn apart.
And the house of cards got rebuilt, bigger than ever (having pac-manned Washington Mutual and a bunch of tier-3 banks).
It’s like asking Germany to pay for WWII damage done to France, but 2 million lives were somehow eliminated without a small echo from the mass graves. When in grade school, I kept hearing it on the radio that this president got assassinated, and that the one who gave the order himself got whacked. Then the “I have a dream” orator also got shot. Then finally John Lennon “was not the only one” He was hoping someday we would join in. Then he got a bullet by Mark Chapman whose musical talent was almost nil, but whose name forever got associated with someone whose band once self-pronounced that “we are more famous than Jesus”.
There has never been a better time to live in terms of comfort e.g. electricity and emerging technology. Yet there has never been a worst time to live as far as managing one’s expectations i.e. we want more but enjoy less, got treated less humanly (try to get in line at a Wal-Mart in Long Island this Black Friday, be sure to bring some pepper spray), breathe worse air and have fewer or no friends over during the holidays.
Having said that, I wish you Happy Holidays with your loved ones, those kids whose constant companion has been the I pad and I phone. And be sure to have their eyes checked out. Who knows they already need glasses, like, yesterday. Just don’t buy them disposable.
Thang Nguyen 555 