Built off a response to this post.
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I)
Has anyone here dropped out without any regrets? Did anyone drop out, then later drop back in?
I went out, in, out, in, and am back out again. I was trying to get back in, even had done one interview (not the job I wanted, but I thought I'd get practice) and then the world shut down. It might be better to call what I do "mini retirement" with occasional goldbricking. I think that doing "out" well is a skill. I'm a lot better at it here on the third try than I was the first one.
Being "in" and happy AND true to my ethics is the harder skill for me. I haven't gotten the balances right since my times of grief which started my first sabbatical. It's not just that the creature comforts are better out than in -- god, I love a nap in the middle of the day or having a large uninterrupted time to read, write, or just think, and I love these things much, much more than paying for entertainment or traveling -- the real problem is one of meaning. I think better when I'm out. More pages added to the journal, more reading gets done.
II)
Western civilization is not just some kind of toxic prison that destroys the world to make rich people even richer. It's my home.
I guess it just depends on what you mean by "Western civilization." To quote some anonymous writer
I live on the margins of society, but that is a voluntary choice, because that is where the interesting things happen.
The things I like after the post world war II cultural suicide are those things on the margins, always while they stay on the cutting-edge of creation rather than the moment they become co-opted within branding and consumption (also see). I would characterize the dominate thrust of Western civilization here in 2020 precisely as a toxic prison to make rich people even richer. I can't emphasis enough that people should check out Gerbner's work on cultivation theory. Very little of this was first-order malice from 1945-2008; instead we saw the emergent properties of a culture focused on growth, over-optimization, and debt -- frankly a culture of greed. Only when the myths that made system go were exposed around 2008 did open malice begin to gain traction. Enter the alt-right.
My home is harvesting the good out of the shards of culture and community:
- I love old, beautiful things from a time when it was possible to make for a community, before the times of distrust (no really, look into cultivation theory and mean world syndrome).
- I love my weirdos, but at some distance. They often lack social skills.
- Bougie people with social skills have their place. I like a face-to-face interaction with someone who is pleasant. Heck, I married one.
Is that really western civilization at this point? In terms of time spent, western civilization is mostly netflix and social media feeds. In terms of politics and economics, it is whatever 0.1% of the wealthiest people want it to be. In terms of research, it is bogged down in a replication crisis (my opinion being that this has something to do with the distortions of needing to serve the 0.1%).
