WHERE IS OUR JETSONS FUTURE?

Had a thought after encountering this amusing video on facebook:



Here's the comment I left:

While funny, I think this guy's got it totally wrong on tech and happiness. I remember a Jetsons episode from the 1960s when George was sitting at work just pushing a few buttons exclaiming, "Man, these three hour work weeks are killing me!" Nice vision of the future, but it didn't happen. Instead, high tech has been aimed at getting us to take our work home and on the road with us, herding us into highly competitive, highly consumptive lifestyles which increasingly isolate us from one another, all the while ramming offensive mass media product down our throats that encourage vanity, narcissism, and petty vengeful behavior. In short, technology is neutral; what matters is how it is used. In reality, it's being used to destroy our humanity. And that's why we're unhappy.

I mean, Louis CK is right to observe the contradiction between the scientific marvels of the era in which we live and everybody's seeming lack of a meaningful existence, but really, when you think about it, has all this tech done anything to actually make us happy? It's made a few aspects of existence a bit easier, to be sure, but it's also made other aspects of our lives more complicated and difficult at the same time. That's because the people who own the tech aren't really concerned with improving our lives as much as they're concerned with making money while at the same time perpetuating and expanding the exploitative capitalist social context in which they make their money. I, for one, am not nearly so excited about my flat screen TV as I am worried about the fact that I don't have health insurance. I'm not as blown away by my cell phone as I am creeped out by the fact that anyone who has my number can suddenly swoop down into my life and command my attention with no heads-up at all, or that my movement can be tracked by phone companies and police just because I've got a hand-held device in my pocket. I'm not as wowed by supersonic air travel as I'm scared shitless that global warming will destroy civilization. And on and on and on.

The really infuriating thing is that, if the powers-that-be wanted it, we really could be living in a futuristic society akin to the Jetsons. But that's not how capitalism works.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$