Has the credit crunch finally forced us to question where we’re going?
Yesterday I listened to some financial experts discussing the pros and cons of the proposed Loyds/TSB aquisition of HBOS.
What occurred to me were two things. First, that I don’t understand how any of this financial machine really works. Second, was a realisation that behind all those words, nor do they.
If they – or anyone – did, we wouldn’t be in this situation.
If you look at the results we’ve created so far (a planet on the edge of catastrophe, global economic chaos, religious and ideological intolerance fuelled by technological and chemical addiction) you’d be forgiven for believing this machine ain’t working.
For many, this picture is work – that part of the machine designed to turn the world and people into stuff we can use to fill the holes we carry around with us.
For others, this picture is human evolution; humanity consuming itself in a frenzy of uncontrollable hunger.
Like our hitherto esteemed financial institutions.
No Comments »
The mindless pull of technology
I don’t care about whether whether technology is considered good or bad. What matters to me is how I feel about it.
Leaving the wonders and the horrors of technology aside (and there are infinite examples of both) there’s one feeling that’s everpresent for me and that’s being pulled by the current of technology faster and further than I want.
It’s like drowning in paradise. The water’s cool, clear and the palm-fronded beach is idyllic but you’re still being dragged further from safety, growing weaker by the minute.
This picture is how I feel when I find that the version of Wordpress I’ve learned to use to build sites like this has been upgraded (with no appreciable benefit or motivation other than it must be upgraded!) with the result that it doesn’t actually work properly.
What was wrong with the previous version? Nothing. What’s wrong with this one? The image uploader doesn’t work, forcing me to resort to a time-consuming work-around.
Technology, with its every-five-minutes upgrade that we didn’t want or need, destroys any possibility of being with the tools we use. How can we develop deep expertise and true craft with techonology when the tools in our hands morph every three weeks?
And for me, there’s nothing more depressing than the great ‘technology-will-fix-the-environment’ cheese towards which our cultures are heading.
No Comments »
Entries (RSS)