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I do expect this to be the case. 🤓 https://t.co/bixNHfDY3V
In fact I think it's odd that there's nobody we can point to who are *obviously* the modern equivalents of Gandhi, Mandela, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr and so on. A substantial part of it is posthumous mythologizing for sure, but I don't think that explains the whole picture
I think bigger-picture circumstances are a likelier explanation – just as how you need a Renaissance Florence to precipitate Da Vinci and so on, you kinda need big conflicts to precipitate great leaders. World has been pretty uncommonly peaceful past 20-30 years
I do not expect the next 20-30 years to be as peaceful as the last. I hope that doesn't sound too ominous. If we manage it well, the cultural clashes and conflicts can produce great art and so on. Poorly, things will get very ugly. But ugly can also lead to good. Who's to say.
my instinct says it might be something like the transition from 2D to 3D in video games – there's a sorta "valley of fail" that has to be navigated from the late-stage refined art of A to the early-stage clunky fuckery of B before B climbs the new gradient https://t.co/2V6zhpfa6U
in this case "2D" is centralized mass media and "3D" is decentralized media – initially youtubers etc tried to imitate the old ways, but have since come to understand the unique values of the new medium, are learning to monetize better, better acquire and deploy resources, etc
one of my core theses is that people still don't actually realize what is truly possible re: social media, because our imaginations and intuitions are always lagging by decades, shaped by what we have seen so far https://t.co/Y7MvmcYrvo
the analogy I've used so far to talk about this is how people used to treat the electric guitar like an acoustic guitar for almost 30 years before jimi hendrix came along & demonstrated how you could push it to its limit not a perfect analogy bc guitar is (mostly) single-player
“I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo. “So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.” https://t.co/mAxcMKJuIU
"If there is a future wave of wellness on this planet... of mutual understanding, I don't expect it will come from a government, a military force or a corporation. [...] I expect it will come from the artists, because that's what we do." – Karl Paulnack https://t.co/WMe0auymg4
"You want to get artists from different nations, races, religions, creeds to find common ground in our shared humanity? In an age of escalating conflict and despair? In this economy? This media environment? In these incentive structures? It's impossible!" "No. It's necessary." https://t.co/md3iQlDx2d
