The devastation of American trade policy regarding the American social landscape is impossible to ignore if you are a blue collar worker. Trump is part of the old guard who was smart enough to care for the geese who could lay golden eggs. Clintons represent a group that don't need geese that lay golden eggs, they have made robots that they think will do the same thing.
I can't figure out who will buy all the stuff robots make if no one has the funds to buy anything. Maybe the consumer society is being phased out? Managing poverty, debt, illness, war, suffering in general seems to be the big money makers right now.
Regarding slavery.
The idea of private prisons was greeted with enthusiasm ing the Reagan and Bush Administrations... The Clinton Administration, however, has done far more than its Republican predecessors to legitimize private prisons.
... The prison-industrial complex now includes some of the nation's largest architecture and construction firms, Wall Street investment banks that handle prison bond issues and invest in private prisons, plumbing-supply companies, food-service companies, healthcare companies, companies that sell everything from bullet-resistant security cameras to padded cells available in a 'vast color selection'.
Atlantic Monthly "The Prison-Industrial Complex," December 1998
i think that's why we should be worried. we were more useful to the elite when they needed raw manpower to create anything of significantly large/elaborate/etc. soon robots will probably be able to replace us at almost any task...so most of us will just be more people contributing to declining resources (space, food, energy, etc.), and increasing costs (pollution, probability of being exposed/overthrown, etc.)
it makes sense to get rid of us as soon as robots can replace us. another aspect of time is at play. it's much harder to get humans to eliminate other humans, compared to killer robots (not joking). once they have finished creating and programming robots to effectively kill people, it'll be easy for them to choose who will live or die. i strongly suspect this is already in progress (not with robots--visible ones anyway--but with "soft-kill" techniques, vaccines that target specific populations, genetically-engineered diseases, geo-specific chemtrails, etc.), probably with a eugenics-driven agenda in the background. so it's a race between enough people waking up and stopping them and the creation of a robot army capable of beating any human army.
I've read about all the scenerios played out in scifi books from the classics, Heinlein was one of my favorites, along with Asimov. However the reductionists, (A priori drives them insane..haha) have several big flaws in their coding which is, inbreeding, hubris, and greed. The elite make fun of rednecks and their limited gene pool, we got nothing on the stupidity of their breeding too close to the line.
Additionally the power addicts are human and what they do to us they do to themselves, however because of their gross mindset and reductionist philosohophy we will transcend their breakaway society. They cannot phase into the subtler mindstates because of their will to power and attachment to the material/desire realms. They cannot catch our spirit! They cannot create the spark of life and are limited by the worship their own feet of clay.
i wish i were as optimistic as you -___-
i definitely wonder about their inbred genetics too...especially in light of their bad decisions and bizarre behavior recently. a mistake that highlights this, i think, is their attempt to push incest on masses (if you follow any popculture/tv shows/porn, you've probably noticed already). terrific miscalculation on their part (god i really really hope it was a miscalculation).
i agree that they hold themselves back--and ultimately all of humanity--with their extremely narrow and linear (and twisted) perspective...but i'd prefer that we all transcend them while we all still have our physical forms intact (and alive) (and healthy/free/happy).
unfortunately, you sound like you're intelligent, and surrounded by intelligent people. which is a good thing! but very, very unrepresentative of the population. even when you think you've taken this into account, you're probably underestimating the problem. i suspect i am too, even as pessimistic as i am. anyway, i hope you're right, goodluck :)
I am a Pacific Northwest redneck from farmer and small business lineage. We know about the hardness of life and how fragile hubris is because we are from peasant and warrior stock...I just happen to like Sophia Perennis philosophy.....haha :p
i skimmed a bit about perennis' philosophy--will definitely read more later. reminds me of what i've heard of india's historical attitude towards religions. i mean in that they embrace diversity and tolerance of different religions and adapted very well (at least historically). anyway, would be interested to hear your take on reality, like at the most fundamental level. just been on my mind a lot lately, and i like hearing other people's ideas :)
@hyperbolicist, I will write a little article about vipassana meditation, my primary training and retreat work was with SN Goenka from Burma. His training was developed for lay folk like you and me. Vipassana in the past was only taught to monastics so SN was a pioneer in the Buddhist mindfulness movement. Way befor all this bling-bling mindfulne$$ action now. Www.dhamma.org ...warning, this is not for everyone, it's dangerous cause the mind is the most powerful thing in the universe, it has things hidden that one may not be ready to face and see it is as empty as a soap bubble.
Sophia Perennis philosophy is my husbands favorite mind candy, it soothes the troubled heart.
My training is in Buddhism, the three markets of existence, birth, illness, and death are a little bit of suffering compared to our ignorant reaction to the three marks. All that's happening has happened every day to someone or some culture. So what can I do to help? I'm nobody...I stay aware/alert, try not to leave a mess when I do help, keep a balanced mind and life. My training in vipassana meditation and studies have left me feeling alone but not lonely ;-) (hugs)
i dunno how vipassana meditation differs from normal meditation (i guess they're calling it transcendental mediation now? where you just try to blank your mind), so i'm just assuming there's that kind of meditation involved. i've tried that spontaneously and was skeptical. do you do transcendental meditation regularly, and if so, have you noticed any benefits?
Ive been meditating and studying since 94....I am an old student. I meditate an hour in the morning and an hour in the evening. Vipassana is the art of seeing reality as it is not as we are conditioned or wish to see...focus is on insight and equanimity towards sensation. Breath is used to develop a steady pin point focus which is turned towards body/mind-sensations...laser point focus that burns away conditioning, like fire hits water Boom! Metta meditation, wise kindness is applied to the heart as a healing balm after laser surgery removes all the fat...... It's impossible to blank the mind...hahaha