[HN Gopher] Afternotes III: The Lonely Crowd Within
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       Afternotes III: The Lonely Crowd Within
        
       Author : thelettere
       Score  : 24 points
       Date   : 2021-07-06 11:09 UTC (1 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (soterion.substack.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (soterion.substack.com)
        
       | wolfspider wrote:
       | Well as much as I can understand the author of this article
       | wanting to get past Riesman's ideas in "The Lonely Crowd" the
       | time period his predictions occur is during the age of "incipient
       | decline" which is definitely right now and hasn't ended yet. I do
       | think Riesman predicted the rise of social media in the context
       | of other-directedness without directly describing social media
       | itself. Riesman's work is still relevant but sure- it's time for
       | new voices to be heard.
        
       | vanderZwan wrote:
       | > _The pendulum has swung too far to the left._
       | 
       | Maybe I'm biased as someone not from the US, but this is sounds
       | so absurd and myopic that it spoils the entire article for me.
       | 
       | The US has never implemented anything remotely close to the
       | "socialist" policies that many European countries have. The
       | latter did so for many decades on top of that and with great
       | success, and most importantly: without causing any of the social
       | issues described in this article during those decades. So if
       | "leftist thinking" is the cause of these issues, then Europe
       | would have had increased anxiety and self-censorship decades
       | ahead of the US.
       | 
       | "But the author is talking about gender politics, not socialism
       | and economic theory" you might say. So? That does not excuse the
       | author from mixing up completely different issues by saying "the
       | pendulum has swung too far to the left" as if social media-fueled
       | internet hate machines have anything to do with things like
       | unionizing, demanding a living minimum wage, affordable housing
       | and a healthcare system that doesn't risk bankrupting people.
        
       | CrazyPyroLinux wrote:
       | I incorrectly confused this with another book: The Crowd: A Study
       | of the Popular Mind By Gustave Le Bon in 1896
       | 
       | [PDF]
       | https://socialsciences.mcmaster.ca/~econ/ugcm/3ll3/lebon/Cro...
        
       | minikites wrote:
       | >The modern market is no longer a meeting place but a mechanism
       | characterized by abstract and impersonal demand. One produces for
       | this market, not for a known circle of customers; its verdict is
       | based on laws of supply and demand; and it determines whether the
       | commodity can be sold and at what price. No matter what the use
       | value of a pair of shoes may be, for instance, if the supply is
       | greater than the demand, some shoes will be sentenced to economic
       | death; they might as well not have been produced at all.
       | 
       | It's no wonder so many people are depressed and anxious. We've
       | replaced communities with commodities, treating people as if
       | they're interchangeable nuts and bolts.
        
       | allturtles wrote:
       | Why 'ancient'? That doesn't appear in the original title, nor is
       | it an appropriate description for a 71 year old book.
        
         | thelettere wrote:
         | It was meant as tongue-in-cheek. Ancient by fast-changing
         | modern standards.
        
         | dang wrote:
         | Submitted title was "The Lonely Crowd Within: Re-examining an
         | Ancient Best Seller". We've changed it to the page title now.
         | 
         | https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
        
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       (page generated 2021-07-07 23:01 UTC)