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Well, we’ve now got youth and prosperity right up to the end. What follows? Evidently, that we can be independent of God. ‘The religious sentiment will compensate us for all our losses.’ But there aren’t any losses for us to compensate;
Brave New World
Aldous Huxley
We need a compelling account of silence, solitude, attention, disciplined engagement, well-considered restraint, vulnerability, and risk. But not for their own sake or for the sake of nebulously resisting the lure of digital technologies, and much less out of a misguided reactionary impulse. Rather, we must come to see these as the necessary skills and requisite virtues for the pursuit of our well-being and that of our neighbors.
Desire, Dopamine, and the Internet
The Convivial Society
This situation is compounded by yet another social dynamic analyzed by sociologist Hartmut Rosa. “A modern society,” Rosa argued, “is one that can stabilize itself only dynamically, in other words one that requires constant economic growth, technological acceleration, and cultural innovation in order to maintain its institutional status quo.” The ideal subject of such a society is one who is schooled to be a perpetual and indiscriminate consumer, and digital media is uniquely suited to be the everlasting commodity.
Desire, Dopamine, and the Internet
The Convivial Society
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