"On top of all of this was government surveillance and censorship, using police and drones to monitor everyone’s movements and even applying pressure to social media companies to squash discussion which may be disadvantageous to their project. Speculation on the origin of the virus was highly discouraged. Even though there was a viral research lab (which notably had been receiving grants from the United States federal government) very close to the first recorded area of infection in Wuhan, the “experts” all seemed unanimous in decrying any accusation of foul play or mismanagement on the part of the scientists as “harmful conspiracy theories.”"
As you highlight in volume 2, once you have the means- its inevitable that said means will be used. Its just a matter of "losing once" and really time. Would comment, was working for bytedance at the time, and it wasnt just covid which was regulated, but anything which worked against the regime.
I can remember logging in to my shift, and within the early morning- before any actual investigation or all the facts had come out, Rittenhouse was already jointly labelled a "white nationalist terrorist" who had committed a terror attack by the big social media companies, and thus all talk of him or support of him was castigated away in the same way that any dissent on covid was.
Was never a fan of liberal democracy, but if there was a crisis of legitimacy, it was in the notion of democracy and the people being more logical than emotional, but instead we were a feckless mob. It challenged much of my faith.
Interesting. It seems that whenever I hear stories about that period of time, the conclusion is inevitably that the façade of modern society had been peeled back in some way. Very rare to hear of anyone having their faith in American Liberal Democracy restored by the COVID-era (although I'm sure they exist somewhere. Maybe they're on BlueSky or something).
I would say that Koreans (I work with many) hadn't necessarily lost their faith on government competence, but that they were largely rewarded by their governments actions and capabilities during the pandemic and many seem to have thought that things were handled well.
What, of course, went so well in Korea? Its largely already a technologically driven nation (something Im still musing over in part II), but these people were already "hooked in" to apps, to doing their banking over kakao, etc- that the logical leap into a tracking app was rather nothing to them. Even when I talk about CCTV with clients of mine in Seoul, how its heavily monitored, they cheer this on in a lot of ways due to the supposed safety.
Are they the perfect embodiment of homo-algorithimus? Maybe, maybe not, that fighting spirit is perhaps still there in many, but its morphed into something else.
There are ways this system did work though. When there were outbreaks, instead of shutting down the entire nation due to hysteria, they pinpointed them to lock down apartment blocks, families, entire cities (but only for a short period of time), etc.
Its a true success of the system and state, which could perhaps bring a rekindling of faith in the government, if it only lost legitimacy due to being "inefficient".
Of note, I should say, many Gen Xers no longer use the term Hell Joseon there, or at least its prevalence is less (something one of my more conspiracy minded clients told me was that he suspects that this is because the right people have been in power, so to say).
Maybe this is a rekindling of the mandate of heaven, though Korea is mixed because for every government competancy, theres a myriad of other issues its failing on- from the fires in the south, to gender relations, etc. I suspect the only people who might have cheered on the state from a previous state of disillusionment are those who "materially benefitted" from the lockdown. Certainly the tech companies would, and perhaps a few others had their lives actively improved amid the monitoring. For those people, I fear a bit for them. They like the leash.
When the pandemic hit about a year and a half, I had moved to Europe (and Spain in particular). You, of course, have the neoliberal zealots who always loved the regime, but were there those who regained faith in part. The EU response differed from country to country, of course, but it was generally more practical, I would say. The rent moratorium in Italy, for example, helped. Spain helped some of its small businesses, though not all. In Portugal, there was a tourism boom of the interior, etc.
Like you say, lots of people probably on bluesky, but if your faith was restored, or better to say bribed, by a temporary improvement in material conditions,
maybe thats the right thing, maybe not; but I genuinely think that as with the Romans, there are some who make better slaves than free men. To them, I wish the best of luck, but thats the path I see for them and I am less interested in their fate ultimately if they cannot grasp it within their own hands.
»Besides, it could be said that “doing nothing” actually is the “will of the people.” Consider: would the public even want the measures required to combat the harm we’ve inflicted on our environment to be undertaken? I implore you to ponder this inquiry deeply. It seems highly probable that any severe contraction of the economy, even in the pursuit of objectively noble goals like “saving the planet,” would be deeply unpopular with the nation’s constituents, and would thus result in a devastating democratic defeat. Even more unpopular would be the rollback of any technological and/or societal progress made in reaching our current state of affairs. It may be easier for people to deal with the loss of lives than it would the loss of perceived “progress.”
Love this btw, but its something I often bring up with people and fair trade. While Im always for it to a degree;
what people ask for, versus the actual reality is so starkly at the opposite side of the material spectrum. In part, we do exist at the behest of the developing world, cobalt mines in the congo, cheap sweatshop labor in Vietnamese and Indian ghettos, Mexican agriculture where they are paid cents a day, etc.
Perhaps this may not matter much as now the third world is at our doorstep with the Indians reviving the old cooley system once more;
but to peel back the luxuries the West has grown rather accustomed to, to live as people in Spain, Portugal, the 2nd world, etc live-
its laughable. The drop in quality of life, increase in food prices, cheap chinese textiles that wal mart uses (let alone Shein), etc
"On top of all of this was government surveillance and censorship, using police and drones to monitor everyone’s movements and even applying pressure to social media companies to squash discussion which may be disadvantageous to their project. Speculation on the origin of the virus was highly discouraged. Even though there was a viral research lab (which notably had been receiving grants from the United States federal government) very close to the first recorded area of infection in Wuhan, the “experts” all seemed unanimous in decrying any accusation of foul play or mismanagement on the part of the scientists as “harmful conspiracy theories.”"
As you highlight in volume 2, once you have the means- its inevitable that said means will be used. Its just a matter of "losing once" and really time. Would comment, was working for bytedance at the time, and it wasnt just covid which was regulated, but anything which worked against the regime.
I can remember logging in to my shift, and within the early morning- before any actual investigation or all the facts had come out, Rittenhouse was already jointly labelled a "white nationalist terrorist" who had committed a terror attack by the big social media companies, and thus all talk of him or support of him was castigated away in the same way that any dissent on covid was.
Was never a fan of liberal democracy, but if there was a crisis of legitimacy, it was in the notion of democracy and the people being more logical than emotional, but instead we were a feckless mob. It challenged much of my faith.
Interesting. It seems that whenever I hear stories about that period of time, the conclusion is inevitably that the façade of modern society had been peeled back in some way. Very rare to hear of anyone having their faith in American Liberal Democracy restored by the COVID-era (although I'm sure they exist somewhere. Maybe they're on BlueSky or something).
Other societies are more interesting.
I would say that Koreans (I work with many) hadn't necessarily lost their faith on government competence, but that they were largely rewarded by their governments actions and capabilities during the pandemic and many seem to have thought that things were handled well.
What, of course, went so well in Korea? Its largely already a technologically driven nation (something Im still musing over in part II), but these people were already "hooked in" to apps, to doing their banking over kakao, etc- that the logical leap into a tracking app was rather nothing to them. Even when I talk about CCTV with clients of mine in Seoul, how its heavily monitored, they cheer this on in a lot of ways due to the supposed safety.
Are they the perfect embodiment of homo-algorithimus? Maybe, maybe not, that fighting spirit is perhaps still there in many, but its morphed into something else.
There are ways this system did work though. When there were outbreaks, instead of shutting down the entire nation due to hysteria, they pinpointed them to lock down apartment blocks, families, entire cities (but only for a short period of time), etc.
Its a true success of the system and state, which could perhaps bring a rekindling of faith in the government, if it only lost legitimacy due to being "inefficient".
Of note, I should say, many Gen Xers no longer use the term Hell Joseon there, or at least its prevalence is less (something one of my more conspiracy minded clients told me was that he suspects that this is because the right people have been in power, so to say).
Maybe this is a rekindling of the mandate of heaven, though Korea is mixed because for every government competancy, theres a myriad of other issues its failing on- from the fires in the south, to gender relations, etc. I suspect the only people who might have cheered on the state from a previous state of disillusionment are those who "materially benefitted" from the lockdown. Certainly the tech companies would, and perhaps a few others had their lives actively improved amid the monitoring. For those people, I fear a bit for them. They like the leash.
When the pandemic hit about a year and a half, I had moved to Europe (and Spain in particular). You, of course, have the neoliberal zealots who always loved the regime, but were there those who regained faith in part. The EU response differed from country to country, of course, but it was generally more practical, I would say. The rent moratorium in Italy, for example, helped. Spain helped some of its small businesses, though not all. In Portugal, there was a tourism boom of the interior, etc.
Like you say, lots of people probably on bluesky, but if your faith was restored, or better to say bribed, by a temporary improvement in material conditions,
maybe thats the right thing, maybe not; but I genuinely think that as with the Romans, there are some who make better slaves than free men. To them, I wish the best of luck, but thats the path I see for them and I am less interested in their fate ultimately if they cannot grasp it within their own hands.
»Besides, it could be said that “doing nothing” actually is the “will of the people.” Consider: would the public even want the measures required to combat the harm we’ve inflicted on our environment to be undertaken? I implore you to ponder this inquiry deeply. It seems highly probable that any severe contraction of the economy, even in the pursuit of objectively noble goals like “saving the planet,” would be deeply unpopular with the nation’s constituents, and would thus result in a devastating democratic defeat. Even more unpopular would be the rollback of any technological and/or societal progress made in reaching our current state of affairs. It may be easier for people to deal with the loss of lives than it would the loss of perceived “progress.”
Love this btw, but its something I often bring up with people and fair trade. While Im always for it to a degree;
what people ask for, versus the actual reality is so starkly at the opposite side of the material spectrum. In part, we do exist at the behest of the developing world, cobalt mines in the congo, cheap sweatshop labor in Vietnamese and Indian ghettos, Mexican agriculture where they are paid cents a day, etc.
Perhaps this may not matter much as now the third world is at our doorstep with the Indians reviving the old cooley system once more;
but to peel back the luxuries the West has grown rather accustomed to, to live as people in Spain, Portugal, the 2nd world, etc live-
its laughable. The drop in quality of life, increase in food prices, cheap chinese textiles that wal mart uses (let alone Shein), etc
It aint happening.