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everything is evil
June 01st, 2019
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There's a link on tilde.news [0] to a blog post by Nolan Lawson on
"Tech Veganism" [1]. It is, in his summary:
- a preference for open-source software over proprietary software
- a suspicion of big tech companies
- a high bar for privacy and security
(HTM) [0] tilde.news
(HTM) [1] Tech Veganism
My initial reaction was a visceral gagging at the name. I readied
my angriest typing fingers and opened up the lobste.rs style
comments ready to dive in as soon as I consumed this article.
I opened it up, clicked on my Stutter [2] icon and binged it in
a minute.
(HTM) [2] Stutter
What came out deflated me. He argues some good points early on in
the ways that the behavior of open source purists, security
experts, and digital conspiracy theorists comes across to others
in the same ways as veganism (or crossfit). And, while the article
loses some focus toward the end, it did a decent job of what it
set out to do.
It got me thinking about the whole situation from a different
perspective. For a moment I was running in place like Fred
Flinstone [3] trying to snap an argument into place so I could
fill in that comment box, but eventually I gave up.
(HTM) [3] Flinstones Running
Instead, I imagined the mid-century world with its post-war
optimism and renewed sense of manifest destiny in the United
States. In place of a territorial expansion it was an expansion of
the confidence of indifatigable America and its moral democracy
and powerful innovation. You can feel it in the pride of the
newsreels. The awe capped off with a man standing on the moon.
Progress is perfect. Capitalism and the democratic republic,
combined with the "cowboy" ideal and puritan ethics is the
ultimate way forward. Every child will have a better life than
their parent and the world will grow in all things exponentially.
And so with the invincible self-confidence of a teenage boy on
a half-pipe, America jumped head first. Its power on the world
stage was unequaled militarily and in terms of media. Regulation
and timidity took a back seat and we all went barrelling down the
ramp.
But the mid-century sci-fi authors taught us something else. It
lingered in their messages, only to hit main stream pop culture
years later. We saw the danger of machines, of a runaway state, of
unchecked power, of the masses deciding for all. Literature,
comics, art, they put a spotlight on all aspects of life, not just
the "big dream" of a nation. They help us see the cracks. Even
post-war, things were not perfect by any means, as those who
suffered outrageous oppression (and still do) can attest. They
were not part of that narrative. Unchecked capitalism devours
everything it touches, and so it did to the American economy in
the 70s. The counter-culture of disco, an attempt at glamour in
the squalid realities of life, is art screaming for help.
Here we are three quarters of a century on from that ridiculous
vision of a country who can do no wrong. We see those ideals
spread far, far beyond the US boundaries. The ideas themselves are
an identity for many, disconnected from their birthplace. Even now
we hear the same tripe of trickle-down economics cross the lips of
idiots. Even now we have those who believe in their hearts that
technology will save us from ourselves, as if innovation could
ever outpace hubris.
That was the daydream of thoughts that overtook me from this
little article on tech veganism. And with that lense I look again
and see something different. I don't see angry white men sitting
at their computers bitching about Google spying on them. I see
people who are walking with the rest of the world across
a landscape of ease and luxury, but have stumbled and looked down
and realized what we're crushing under our feet with each step.
Progress isn't perfect.
Everything we do has the infinite consequences that come from
being a part of this insane system of reality, a piece of humanity
as a whole, and a spec of unique life in the midst of a biosphere
hugging an oblique spheriod tumbling through the vacuum of space
like mildew around a shower handle. Everything about us is messy,
gross, and complex. It's hard enough to change something
intentionally for the good without unintended consequences
crushing your idea of progress. And it is so much easier to do
immesurable damage to our world and ourselves with the reckless
abandon of innovation for its own sake (or worse, for money).
I think back to the optimism of the space age and the pulp view of
"good" that it represents. It is not an objective reality, but it
had a presence and an effect at the time. In that way it was
"real". Today our tech advancements promise us pleasure and ease
and luxury at the cost of data, access, information, exposure, and
all the other little things that seem intangible and "no big deal"
in marketing-speak. Many, many people will take that deal. Why
not? Why pay for TV when you can sit through ads and let the
company know what you like. You'll just get better targeted ads.
Where's the harm? Right?
Where the dewey-eyed comic view of the 40s and 50s had eyes on
shiny rockets and travels to the moon, these days we know the
ineffible terror of an all-powerful algorithm, a machine
intelligence, churning numbers about each of us and uncovering
secrets we didn't know we had. We know governments use these for
their own aims, often against the individual. We know hackers can
exploit this. We know that advertisers care about money, not what
we want to see. We know that consumerism will push us toward
a place where we spend every dollar and borrow more to spend
ourselves into debt. We know that the world will enslave us in
a thousand ways to keep power with those in power.
We know, in effect, that the whole world is driven by evil
intentions. Evil in selfishness and in dehumanization and in the
lack of concern for future generations, environment, and the world
in general.
Everything is evil.
It might not be objective reality, but it has a presence and
effect on everything. In that way it is our "reality". It's almost
enough to make me accept the vegan label without cringing. Almost.