Getting sick and tired of the New Dark Ages everywhere I turn.

[daredtowork]

79. Real Problems Just Become Part of the Noise

Nothing has changed since Malcolm Gladwell's Small Change:

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2010/10/04/small-change-3

The problem is that in real offline communities, real power hierarchies and reputation/dignity/shame systems come into effect - the anonymity and leveling effects of the the Internet offered weaker people a way to deal with that. Stronger people (Gladwell included) might scoff at that as "low risk", but it has always been the privilege of the strong to scoff when the weak try to dodge from the place of danger.

The bottom line is that we as citizens need ways to get problems in our everyday lives solved: ways that don't involve going to lawyers, newspapers, government agencies, or even raising a fuss on social media. The noise is directly proportional to the inability of people to get basic stuff done in their lives: complete their education, get work, maintain their homes, maintain the infrastructure of their communities, address health problems, resolve minor conflicts with people, deal when some bureaucratic hassle is inflicted upon them. Just basics of life.

The "New Dark Ages" is tribalism: everyone trying to identify as the super-majority so their party will be empowered to put in some system to solve *their* problems. States' Rights hyper-competitiveness is also a symptom of this: each State trying to empower itself at the expensive others, while offloading the poor and the burdensome.

Reducing the noise begins at home, by making sure the people in your community have a way to solve the basic problems of life and don't have to go appealing to some super-majority tribe as their only hope.