A Lazy Weekend & A Rabbit Hole

THE EFFECTS OF THE INFORMATION AGE HAVE BEGUN

Hey there,

I hope your weekend has been as relaxing as mine. I've been taking weekends off these days just to recharge and and regroup so I can really crush the week. This weekend has been a mixed bag, weather-wise here in London. We've had mostly cloudy conditions with a lot of wind and rain. Now and again the sun broke through, but nothing too exciting to unnecessarily entice me outdoors.

I actually had a film camera loaded and was going to go shooting today, which itself is a "chilled" activity for me, but decided against it because of the poor light quality we had today. Besides, it was just the perfect day to chill and watch low-info YouTube videos while sipping on cups of coffee/tea.

It was at the point of watching YouTube that I came across an interesting one talking about how the über rich in the Unites States are all purchasing passports/citizenships to other countries. They are doing this en masse apparently. It seems they are gearing up for such a time as to when the country becomes "inhospitable" to them and they would have to activate their Plan B, C or even D. I can only imagine the ultra-rich in the UK are doing the same thing.

Ironically, most of the countries of choice are in South America. Armed with the new citizenships and private jets, they're only a few hours away from a new life, or a getaway, away from the "fascism" (from the point of view of the political left), or communism (from the point of view of the political right). It seems the rich on both sides of the political divide are doing the same thing. I found that interesting too.

I ended up in a bit of a rabbit hole of videos, as happens sometimes on social media platforms like YouTube, about this whole phenomenon. On the lower end of the social ladder, there are the "passport bros", who are also getting out of the United States, and the West generally, to find more "traditional" female partners in "developing countries" like Kenya, Thailand, The Philippines, Brazil and the Dominican Republic. It would appear as though society is collapsing fast, and those interested in the traditional family structure are flocking out to be with those whom western modernism is yet to touch.

It reminded me of a book I read recently called Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow by Yuval Noah Harari. In the book Harari described such a time when we start to move into the "Information Age". One of the effects of this age is the continuing redundancy of the state. We, as humans, starting with the wealthy, will become increasingly self-governing and sovereign. We will also no longer be limited by geography since a lot of the arbitrage that has maintained the geography based social hierarchy from the beginning of the Industrial Age will be dissolved by universal access to information. That is starting to happen.

One by one, the advantages of life in "The West" is being chipped away by technological advancements and, as aforementioned, access to information. This has been demonstrated beautifully this year by the advent of AI tools like ChatGPT. Already the advantage of being a native English speaker on the Internet has been eroded as people living in parts of the world with lower costs/standards of living continue to take advantage of this tool.

Apart from the "3rd World" developing at neck-breaking speed, with countries like Nigeria, Ethiopia, Rwanda, South Sudan and Dominica having the fastest growing economies this decade so far, "1st World" countries appear to be in a trajectory to self-destruct. Many people found out the hard way, perhaps for the first time in their lives, that things like pineapples and bananas don't grow (naturally) in the UK. We have only been able to obtain such cheap fruits in such large quantities, and regularly waste them, due to unfair systems that were set up long ago. That pipeline has ruptured, however, and the consequences are there for all to see.

When some poor countries realise they can just eat the food they grow, rather than exchange it for worthless paper that we here can devalue at will, we're screwed!

There is no doubt that things are levelling out around the world. For most of the planet, it represents a move upwards. For us here, it's a reduction in conveniences and the standards we are used to. I'm afraid a lot of people are not going to cope well. I only hope the powers that be think of a way to make the shift as pain-free as possible. But, why wait for the powers that be? One had better start making the required changes one's self.

Peace & Love,

Adé