Social Environments and Ideas
Okay, so I've covered the sources of social pollution, the impacts on you asn an individual, and the impacts on society. Now is the time to change topics to consider the social environments that spawn certain types of ideas. In particular, I want to focus your atention ofn the social environment of elites who control the media, government, publishing, and business in general.
The first thing you should do is bear in mind the fact that the social environment, the ideas, standards of behavior, and such, is not the same as the social environment experienced by people like you and me. So what fo you do with that insight? Bear with me for a minute!
Consider for a few minutes what the social environment might be like for a top executive at a media conglomerate, or for a Congressman. They probably associate only with people who are well-eduacted and well-off financially. They inherited decision-making rules, moral principles, and ideas about why society is the way it is from shareholders, other executives, their superiors in the organization, their peers, and et cetera. You get the picture.
The situation is pretty much the same for people like us, but with different sorts of people and different material circumstances shaping our ideas. In all cases the ideas we inherit are partly good, partly bad but harmless, and partly dangerous. The problem is when the dangerous ideas become popular with regular folks OR with the policial and economic elite.
Our political and economic elites sell social programs (more social welfare), fashion ideas (you need to put togeether a "look"), and lifestyle choices (suburban SUV driving guy) based on the interests of their own group. I use "their own group" to avoid the suggestion of a vast consipracy to make us into shopaholic, politically powerless drones. Perhaps such a phenomenon is really happening, but only coincidentally.
The first thing you should do is bear in mind the fact that the social environment, the ideas, standards of behavior, and such, is not the same as the social environment experienced by people like you and me. So what fo you do with that insight? Bear with me for a minute!
Consider for a few minutes what the social environment might be like for a top executive at a media conglomerate, or for a Congressman. They probably associate only with people who are well-eduacted and well-off financially. They inherited decision-making rules, moral principles, and ideas about why society is the way it is from shareholders, other executives, their superiors in the organization, their peers, and et cetera. You get the picture.
The situation is pretty much the same for people like us, but with different sorts of people and different material circumstances shaping our ideas. In all cases the ideas we inherit are partly good, partly bad but harmless, and partly dangerous. The problem is when the dangerous ideas become popular with regular folks OR with the policial and economic elite.
Our political and economic elites sell social programs (more social welfare), fashion ideas (you need to put togeether a "look"), and lifestyle choices (suburban SUV driving guy) based on the interests of their own group. I use "their own group" to avoid the suggestion of a vast consipracy to make us into shopaholic, politically powerless drones. Perhaps such a phenomenon is really happening, but only coincidentally.
posted by Dr Society at 4:46 AM
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