Anti Wage-Slavery Pro-Freedom Quotations Of The Week 1871-1873

We live in a frantic, goal-obsessed, myopic time. Everything undertaken has to have a purpose, outcome or a destination, or it’s invalid. But art doesn’t care a noodle about your Apple watch, your fitness goals, active lifestyle, right swipes, career and surrender on black pudding.
... Art exists on its own terms and untidy timeline.
Anakana Schofield
the Guardian

In the realm of ends everything has either a price or dignity. Whatever has a price can be replaced by something else which is equivalent; whatever is above all price, and therefore has no equivalent, has dignity....
...Autonomy lies at the root of the dignity of human and of every other rational nature.
Immanuel Kant,
Metaphysical Foundations Of Morals

What gets me is that so many anti-UBI arguments posit that there'll be a class of useless parasites, hanging on to the bottom of society, that we'll have to feed. The evidence suggests that very few people will take that route.
Meanwhile, a society of forced subordination to rich people tends to accrue power to the buyers and sellers of people– corporate executives– and therefore we end up with useless parasites at the top of society.
If we're going to have a few moochers, I'd rather have them at the bottom not bothering anyone than the current arrangement, where they're at the top and run everything.
Michaelochurch

Anti Wage-Slavery Pro-Freedom Quotations Of The Week 1868-1870

Because we’ve been taught this is so important, we feel enormous pressure to succeed, whether it’s through training obsessively, taking a soul-sucking job because it pays well, or sleeping with a random girl to feel validated and to have a good story for our buddies.

Society’s game is set up in such a way that it’s very easy to sacrifice our integrity and wellbeing in the name of achievement and approval.
...
This is mission-critical. The moment you change this line of code, everything will get better in your life.

Interestingly enough, several men are afraid that by taking on this new line of code, they’ll get lazy, stop working hard and start failing in their job.

In my personal experience (and from guiding several high-level clients through this process), I’ve found that it’s actually the opposite: you’ll feel more relaxed and have deeper confidence in yourself, which will allow you to achieve more…with a fraction of the effort.
3 Lies You Were Told as a Boy That are Now Crushing You as a Man
goodmenproject
Phil Drolet
[emphasis JS]

It’s an emergency that the average American has maybe $500 in emergency savings. It’s an emergency 80% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck. It’s an emergency that having a child costs half of annual median income. It’s an emergency that college costs more than a house. It’s an emergency that people can’t retire after a lifetime of hard work — but hedge funds can “raid” their pensions.
The (Real) Emergency is Us
umair haque
[emphasis JS]






...it should be obligatory that all living spaces come with built-in bookshelves. (And a hammock.)

Anakana Schofield

Anti Wage-Slavery Pro-Freedom Quotations Of The Week 1865-1867

MARTIN FORD: Let’s talk about the potential risks of AI. One particular challenge that I’ve written about is the potential impact on the job market and the economy. Do you think that all of this could cause a new Industrial Revolution and completely transform the job market? If so, is that something we need to worry about, or is that another thing that’s perhaps overhyped?

GEOFFREY HINTON: If you can dramatically increase productivity and make more goodies to go around, that should be a good thing. Whether or not it turns out to be a good thing depends entirely on the social system, and doesn’t depend at all on the technology. People are looking at the technology as if the technological advances are a problem. The problem is in the social systems, and whether we’re going to have a social system that shares fairly, or one that focuses all the improvement on the 1% and treats the rest of the people like dirt. That’s nothing to do with technology.

MARTIN FORD: That problem comes about, though, because a lot of jobs could be eliminated—in particular, jobs that are predictable and easily automated. One social response to that is a basic income. Is that something that you agree with?

GEOFFREY HINTON: Yes, I think a basic income is a very sensible idea.
The 'Godfather of Deep Learning' on Why We Need to Ensure AI Doesn't Just Benefit the Rich
Martin Ford
Gizmodo

The danger to liberty lies in the subordination of belief to the needs of the industrial system.

John Kenneth Galbraith

Man has created such sources of mechanical energy that he has freed himself from the task of putting all his human energy into work in order to produce the material conditions for living. He could spend considerable part of his energy on the task of living itself.
Eric Fromm