A Lesson from Covid19 and Why Trumpies like Trump

A Scary Future ... Maybe 

Fans of science fiction and futuristic writing may have noted that in that genre of fiction, there won’t be much of a working class around, or even needed, when these now-not-so-distant times come around.   

Starship Enterprise

Those who remember “Star Trek” recall that things usually went pretty well on “Starship Enterprise” but there didn’t seem to be the kind of human support for Captain Kirk and his crew that one would assume would be necessary to keep an operation of that magnitude running smoothly.  Where were the armies of mechanics, the cooks, the cleaning personnel and maintenance people to fix things that break, to prepare and serve meals, to keep supplies of everything where they should be, to sweep the floors and make the beds?   Nowhere to be seen!  In the future, as in “Star Trek,” armies of people will not be necessary for these chores.  They all will be automated to a technological degree that we, in the year 2020, cannot begin to understand.  Everyone’s needs will be met and the only human involvement would be that of the very few in charge of the technology and the linkage to artificial intelligence which will have replaced human intelligence by then.  That day will come. 

When it is reached, all of the needs of the former working class, or that part of  which might survive, now with unlimited time available for leisure and educational activities, will be fully provided for by the labor-free system which will keep everything else running, just as it did on the fictional Star Trek’s “Starship Enterprise.” The big challenge of the Twenty-Second century will be developing a global economic system to provide for all of this, without destroying the freedoms to which we have become accustomed.

Which brings us to the changes in our lives, today, brought about by the Covid19 Pandemic.

We are learning that “going to work” can easily be replaced by “working from home” and that fewer people will be needed to do what has to be done.  Factories that employed thousands can be, and are being, run by hundreds of robots.  And the technology that develops them eventually will not require human labor.  Brick and mortar stores are being replaced by online retailers, and drones are beginning to make the deliveries.  Food and drink can be prepared, served and delivered automatically too, to guests sitting at tables or at home.  Banking and finance do not require people either.  Money can be moved with the click of a key.  And human decision-makers will be replaced by artificial intelligence.  Justice will be dispensed by automated courts and medicine will provided automated cures.

Now, this won’t happen all at once.  It may take a century or two for most of it to come to pass.  But it will happen.  Meanwhile, we are learning from the unemployment caused by the Covid19 pandemic that unemployment for many, and ultimately perhaps everyone, might be the normal state of affairs.  That is a lesson we may be learning from the pandemic.   If this makes you uncomfortable, that may be because you suspect there is a grain of truth in these words.

JL

                                                        

Why Trumpies Like Him, an Exercise in Hatred

Here’s a quote from a recent Thomas Friedman column that hits the nail on the head about why the incompetent, lying occupant of the White House, despite his obvious shortcomings, has so many supporters.  

 “It has been obvious since Trump first ran for president that many of his core supporters actually hate the people who hate Trump more than they care about Trump or any particular action he takes.  The media feed Trump’s supporters a daily diet of how outrageous this or that Trump action is – but none of it diminishes their support.  Because many Trump supporters are not attracted to his policies.  They’re attracted to his attitude – his willingness and evident delight in skewering the people they hate and who they feel look down on them.”

We should start thinking why these people hate the people they hate so much!  (Possibly including you!) There’s more to it than just resenting elite liberals, new immigrants and foreigners in general that Friedman paints as the basis of this hatred.  

It is like that quote about his shooting a person in the middle of Fifth Avenue and getting away with it, only this time magnified by 190,000 Covid19 deaths, not just one person being shot.   Accepting these numbers as (to quote the President) “it is what it is" demands a high level of hatred.  It is hard to believe that level exists in the United States but it does.  

And remember, the truth is not hidden.  Books and articles exposing the fraud in the White House are all over the place, the latest being Bob Woodward's "Rage."  But to those whose hatred is fueled by Donald J. Trump, they make no difference.  Even if he is defeated in November, he and his hateful supporters will not go away.  

JL