Every day the value of being human recedes further into a sentimental past.
I’m really surprised how so few seem to have understood that about the digital revolution. Yes, on a superficial level it has brought us new toys once unimagined, but just as truly it has brought about a widening of class distinctions and the inescapable truth that for those of our tribe not gifted with technologically inclined minds, we are being driven inexorably into a second-class citizenship far different to the old one, where such social divisions were largely defined/dependent on class and educational opportunity. The new second-class citizenship is more corrosive yet, and its resulting exclusions perhaps deeper, if only because those newly affected are bright enough to understand that, for them, it is a matter of losing a standing that they once had, whereas for the older sub-class there was no something they once had - unless, of course, you want to include the opportunity of holding down lowly jobs nobody else wanted. I wonder who, in Trump’s brave new America, will take on the jobs that the poorer of the immigrants were so happy to accept? I suppose they will later be presented as ingrates, who quit America because of its new political colour… and millions will buy into that belief, expulsions forgotten.
Am I alone in seeing that increasing automation in production has led to huge losses of factory jobs, jobs perhaps not glamorous, but skilled, nonetheless, and with skills comes personal pride and satisfaction; if people lose that, end up serving fries for a pittance, technically they are employed, but hey, there is employment and then there is employment that brings satisfaction and self-esteem. As all current indications seem to agree, the rich are getting richer and the poor poorer. The problem there lies in the fact that employment figures are seen as good: yes, more people may have jobs than ever before, but the wealth figures surely indicate that full employment does certainly not signify people are better off than ever before.
