Recently I've fantasised about a series of ad campaigns that would epitomise contemporary culture. One slogan that came to me was "Free Cancer!" (because anything that's free must be great). Another was, "Help keep thievery alive!"
This is Jaron Lanier on what he calls 'Digital Maoism':
… the way the Wikipedia has come to be regarded and used … is part of the larger pattern of the appeal of a new online collectivism that is nothing less than a resurgence of the idea that the collective is all-wise, that it is desirable to have influence concentrated in a bottleneck that can channel the collective with the most verity and force. This is different from representative democracy, or meritocracy. This idea has had dreadful consequences when thrust upon us from the extreme Right or the extreme Left in various historical periods. The fact that it's now being re-introduced today by prominent technologists and futurists, people who in many cases I know and like, doesn't make it any less dangerous.
I'm also put in mind of what I believe is Lawrence Miles' prescription, that people should not have any say in what they don't care about. My impression is that this is precisely what contemporary culture is at the moment – the dictatorship of the masses who do not care. I can illustrate exactly what I mean with the story of the Judgement of Solomon. Two women come to King Solomon (whose wisdom is proverbial, etc.) both claiming the same child as their own. Solomon proposes a Swiftian solution – cutting the child in half and sharing it between the two women. One of the women objects to this measure, the other agrees. Solomon awards the child to the one who objects, since she is the one who cares. What, then, are the motives of the one who wants her equal share, no matter whether it's good for the child or not? Resentment, greed, egotism.
But in contemporary culture, that is the loudest voice, and it is as if all our King Solomons waver and think, "Oh, I'd better cut this baby in two, then, since that's clearly the liberal thing to do."
