Gregg: Dividing the population into "identities" (which then need to be "federated" to march against injustice) -- as is typical of today's "left" (against which Jordan Peterson fights, from the "right") -- is an internalization of TELEVISION marketing techniques. In order to maximize sales and consumption, people have to be chopped up into "niches" that can then be "targeted." It began as demographics, which then expanded to psycho-graphics. In the 90s, television marketers designed the one-to-one techniques that are the basis for Google, Facebook, Twitter &c business models today. Ultimately, the goal was a market-of-one, whose "desires" could then be individually tracked and exploited. At a recent conference at the Wharton School, a group of "leftists" -- who were previously wildly enthusiastic about how digital technology would "decentralize" the world (i.e. reduce us all to "singularities") -- met to discuss their essays for an upcoming volume titled "After the Digital Tornado" (so-named by its editor/organizer who had previously written "The Digital Tornado" praising the Internet, when he worked for the FCC.) Now that Trump has been elected, they are really pissed off. https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__digitaltornado.net_&d=DwIBaQ&c=eLbWYnpnzycBCgmb7vCI4uqNEB9RSjOdn_5nBEmmeq0&r=HPo1IXYDhKClogP-UOpybo6Cfxxz-jIYBgjO2gOz4-A&m=jD23beoLVi6GfVPsSZTqXdvEcfAa2ctOi1mHVAo5kpg&s=ejt_90mMnMEG1VBCEfYpod5Z4CwFVbU7czRwanXvlME&e= When I suggested that the origin of these problems was the approach that treated humans as-if they are computers -- Cybernetics, Systems Theory, Cognitive and Complexity Sciences -- the response was that "we don't care about that, what bothers us is that we are being tracked, categorized and targeted -- treated like we are just data to be exploited." As Marshall McLuhan put it in a 1935 letter to his mother, "You may know a thing by its fruits if you are silly enough or ignorant enough to wait that long." Indeed. And those sufficiently handicapped will only notice the "fruits" once they appear and never bother to notice the tree on which they are growing. Any description of "What Makes Us Humans Different?" would, it seems, require us to notice that we aren't like computers at all and that, in fact, those who have promoted such schemes are intending to "program" us. One of these goals is to get us to buy things we don't need. Another is to get us to only say-and-do what is "authorized." With the recent round of attacks on the "platforms," the *televisioning* of social media is well on its way. If only JP could step away from his Carl Jung "frame" and notice what has *formally* caused all this derangement (instead of just attracting crowds to regale them about the malign "fruits.") . . . <g> Mark Quoting "Henriques, Gregg - henriqgx" <[log in to unmask]>: > Hi List, > I am going to be replying to the "What Makes Us Humans Different" > soon (later today), but I saw this in the NY Times and thought of > the discussion about JP and identity politics. It exemplifies the > kind of concern I have (and I know JP would have) about the > movement. > https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.nytimes.com_2018_08_14_style_white-2Dguilt-2Dprivilege.html&d=DwIBaQ&c=eLbWYnpnzycBCgmb7vCI4uqNEB9RSjOdn_5nBEmmeq0&r=HPo1IXYDhKClogP-UOpybo6Cfxxz-jIYBgjO2gOz4-A&m=jD23beoLVi6GfVPsSZTqXdvEcfAa2ctOi1mHVAo5kpg&s=pOiELX7LUx2y9-V9N4btBAgqxJ5AW3BC-s4odG8g4C4&e= > I recommend Shelby Steele's analysis of White > Guilt<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.amazon.com_White-2DGuilt-2DTogether-2DDestroyed-2DPromise_dp_0060578637&d=DwIBaQ&c=eLbWYnpnzycBCgmb7vCI4uqNEB9RSjOdn_5nBEmmeq0&r=HPo1IXYDhKClogP-UOpybo6Cfxxz-jIYBgjO2gOz4-A&m=jD23beoLVi6GfVPsSZTqXdvEcfAa2ctOi1mHVAo5kpg&s=Oqkb_A672JK74p2GT0dPtYN5MaoapGo8Otg6YUBuQ4Q&e=>, and the damage that it can do to both Blacks and > Whites. > > G > > ############################ > > To unsubscribe from the TOK-SOCIETY-L list: > write to: mailto:[log in to unmask] > or click the following link: > http://listserv.jmu.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=TOK-SOCIETY-L&A=1 ############################ To unsubscribe from the TOK-SOCIETY-L list: write to: mailto:[log in to unmask] or click the following link: http://listserv.jmu.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=TOK-SOCIETY-L&A=1