Technology's Unintended Consequences

[From book review]

Philosophers from the ancient Greeks onward have worried that technological innovation would suborn the pursuit of truth and wisdom through ease, superficiality, and distraction. In Plato’s Phaedrus, no less a figure than Socrates lamented the invention of writing for its deleterious effects on memory, argument, and knowledge. Socrates imagined the Thamus, king of the Egyptian gods, chastising Teuth, inventor of the alphabet: This discovery of yours will create forgetfulness in the learner’s souls, because they will not use their memories … [Y]ou give your disciples not truth, but only the semblance of truth; they will be hearers of many things and will have learned nothing; they will appear to be omniscient and will generally know nothing; they will be tiresome company, having the show of wisdom without the reality. Late in the 18th century, Immanuel Kant identified excessive distraction as the enemy of an Enlightened mind. 

[. . .] 

Crawford’s greatest service is to spur our thought, to enjoin his readers to pay attention to the struggle of paying attention. 

[. . .] 

Attention, this is to say, isn’t ours to direct freely. It is, in his words, erotic; it pulls us out of our heads into the world around us. Giving in to attention’s pull can be an exhilarating experience. 

[. . .]

Thinking about the cook’s feeling of success after a difficult service or the racer’s excitement at entering “the zone” during a race gives credence to Crawford’s description of attention’s erotic quality. It’s also important to remember, he urges, that this erotic quality is born out of constraint. 

[. . .] 

analyzes video gambling as sites of the thanatotic self-negation created by a world devoid of true agency. 

[. . .] 

Take, for instance, Crawford’s analysis of video slots and virtual poker. He argues that gambling’s malevolence lies not in the misplaced hope for the once-in-a-lifetime jackpot it inspires, but in the illusory sensation of skillful development each wager fosters. Playing a machine that comes closer and closer to a winning combination with each pull, the gambler feels that he’s gaining the upper hand on the one-armed bandit. But the odds are rigged in more ways than one: the exercise of the will is, at best, a “pseudo-action;” a simulation of autonomy, experience, and mastery in a carefully managed environment. Gambling alternately fosters and frustrates autonomous agency, sending the modern ego into fits of directionless anger and self-loathing that spiral into destruction. It is the antithesis of real skill and the gambler is the inverted craftsman: endlessly feeds quarter after quarter into the slot, he is searching for some dark nirvana, for the total sublimation of the active, thinking self in the emptiness of automatic routines. 

[. . .] 

When it comes to justifying its existence, Crawford rightly argues, the gambling industry has no problem turning to the very same discourse of individualism that its operations so clearly unmask as hollow. Such arguments bear some resemblance to the Western-Marxist tradition of critical theory. Theodor Adorno saw fascism reflected in slippers and capitalism embodied in automatic doors; Crawford sees liberal individualism instantiated in slot machines. Both unite cultural and philosophical critique in analyses of the strange collusion between industry and entertainment in the creation of a fragile modern subjectivity. 

[. . .]

Crawford would have done well to direct his efforts to the real confrontations that bear directly on his anthropology of attention and theory of tradition. Consider, for instance, the varied arguments for a physically embedded, socially embodied human condition put forward by, inter alia, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Michael Polanyi, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Charles Taylor, and, perhaps most radically, Derek Parfit. These philosophers deserve more than the cursory treatment they receive or total neglect they suffer in The World Beyond Your Head. Crawford, it seems, subscribes to a narrowly circumscribed philosophical canon. Certainly the most striking omission from this canon is Martin Heidegger. Crawford’s belief that we encounter our world as laden with pre-given meanings and significances, his claim that we act in the world through the pragmatic use of skill in the pursuit of projects, and, above all, his argument that true individuality consists in both the rejection of the dominant opinion of an anonymous public and the authentic embrace of tradition — in short, the entire scope of the book’s argument — relies heavily on the recondite philosophical anthropology the young Heidegger developed in Being and Time. Moreover, Crawford’s dim evaluation of the dominant philosophy of the subject — as a sovereign self at once isolated from the world yet imperiously demanding authority over it —resonates deeply with the later Heidegger’s trenchant critique of Western metaphysical thought and its concomitant humanistic worldview. Modern technology, Heidegger argued, encapsulated this view of man as an all-powerful subjectum, a tyrant who orders, manipulates, and controls the things of the world. Heidegger urged a clearer thinking that would abandon this position in favor of a humble view of man — of human being — as subordinate to the larger sway of Being. 

https://lareviewofbooks.org/review/are-you-out-of-your-mind

Are You Out of Your Mind?
By Charles Clavey

October 5, 2015

Unvetted Immigration Allows Human Trafficking Of Unaccompanied Children

[From article]
The government agency responsible for settling the children with sponsors and groups failed to adequately vet them. The result is that an unknown number of illegal alien children were placed with human traffickers.
Washington Post:
The Obama administration failed to protect thousands of Central American children who have flooded across the U.S. border since 2011, leaving them vulnerable to traffickers and to abuses at the hands of government-approved caretakers, a Senate investigation has found.
The Office of Refugee Resettlement, an agency of the Department of Health and Human Services, failed to do proper background checks of adults who claimed the children, allowed sponsors to take custody of multiple unrelated children, and regularly placed children in homes without visiting the locations, according to a 56-page investigative report released Thursday.
[. . .]
several Guatemalan teens were found in a dilapidated trailer park near Marion, Ohio, where they were being held captive by traffickers and forced to work at a local egg farm. The boys were among more than 125,000 unaccompanied minors who have surged into the United States since 2011, fleeing violence and unrest in
[. . .]
The report concluded that administration “policies and procedures were inadequate to protect the children in the agency’s care.”
[. . .]
It detailed nearly 30 cases where unaccompanied children had been trafficked after federal officials released them to sponsors or where there were “serious trafficking indicators.”
“HHS places children with individuals about whom it knows relatively little and without verifying the limited information provided by sponsors about their alleged relationship with the child,” the report said.
It goes without saying that no one will be fired because of this report. Apparently, deliberately handing kids over to people the government knows nothing about who then turn out to be human traffickers is just business as usual for the Obama administration.
Meanwhile, children are suffering unspeakable degradation. How many children are similarly trapped is unknown. But given the slap-dash efforts to vet sponsors to make sure they are who they say they are, it's possible that thousands of kids are being sold into virtual slavery.
The administration was so intent on moving the kids out of detention centers, that it became the overriding goal rather than finding decent homes of the children. But it also raises questions about the vetting of refugees coming from the Middle East. If the government can't keep kids out of the hands of human traffickers, how are they going to keep terrorists out of the country?

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2016/01/outrage_administration_may_have_handed_thousands_of_illegal_alien_kids_over_to_human_traffickers_.html

January 29, 2016
Outrage: Administration may have handed thousands of illegal alien kids over to human traffickers
By Rick Moran

Criminal Background Checks, Loopholes, Unintended Consequences

[From article]
It’s a truism that any law with more than 15 words contains at least one loophole. This is a lesson liberals seem incapable of learning. They doggedly pass laws intended to benefit favored constituencies but which in practice accomplish the polar opposite.
Unlike sheep, people have free will. They change their behavior to adapt to changed circumstances. Thus, when tax increases or new mandates affect their pocketbooks, they find workarounds. This often means that the intended beneficiaries of liberals’ largesse are worse off than at the status quo ante.
[. . .]
The Ordinance prohibits City agencies and private employers with at least one employee from inquiring about criminal background and arrests on the application for a position. The employer may perform a background check following a conditional offer of employment.
Should a background check reveal a criminal conviction within the last seven years (excluding periods of incarceration), the employer must consider the nature of the crime, the time that has passed since the offense and the duties of the job when determining whether to offer a job.
To a skeptic, the Ordinance might alternatively be called the Philadelphia Anti-discrimination Lawyers’ Full Employment and Early Retirement Ordinance.
However, because the Ordinance contains more than 15 words, there is at least one loophole.
[. . .]



Visitors, residents, and City employees alike, especially women, can rest easy in knowing that the City of Brotherly Love is giving violent criminals and substance abusers a second chance to work and play in their midst.

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2016/01/banning_criminal_background_checks_and_the_law_of_unintended_consequences.html

January 10, 2016
Banning Criminal Background Checks and the Law of Unintended Consequences
By Gerald K. McOscar

Boston Gang Member Charged With Homicide Of Bystander Who Died After Fleeing Shooting

Kelvin Rowell, 40, Died After Fleeing Nearby Shooting


[From article]
A Boston gunman who fired a into a crowd while targeting a rival faces murder charges after a bystander fleeing the shooting suffered an asthma attack and later died in hospital
Michael ‘Fresh’ Stallings, 26, faces trial for first-degree murder after he allegedly triggered the death of Kelvin Rowell in 2012 .
Rowell, 40, ran one block from the shooting on Blue Hill Avenue before he suffered the asthma attack, according to prosecutors.
[. . .]
A defendant can be prosecuted for murder if they began a chain of events that led to death.


Michael "Fresh" Stallings, Hides His Face  

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3086059/Shooter-faces-murder-charges-didn-t-hit-anybody-bystander-fleeing-scene-dies-asthma-attack.html

Boston gang member on trial for first-degree murder after innocent bystander dies from asthma attack fleeing shootout between rival crews
Michael ‘Fresh’ Stallings, 26, faces trial after allegedly triggering the death
Kelvin Rowell, 40, had asthma attack and died after running from shooting
Rowell was not connected to the feud and was just an innocent bystander
Prosecutors seeking life for Stallings stretch boundaries of legal culpability
By CALLUM PATON FOR MAILONLINE
PUBLISHED: 03:33 EST, 18 May 2015 | UPDATED: 13:56 EST, 18 May 2015

Unintended Consequences Of Social Justice

[From article]
And today, a primarily black community is suffering a very real negative consequence of the most recent social justice project these black “leaders” and sympathetic white liberal and socialist activists took upon themselves. Fusion.net has posted an article reporting that home values in Ferguson, Missouri have dropped drastically since the demonstrations and rioting that occurred last summer following the police shooting death of Michael Brown.
An article entitled “Ferguson home values are plummeting, and residents are feeling the pain” reports that prior to Brown’s death, the average 2014 selling price of a home was $66,764. For the last quarter of the same year, that average selling price dropped 46% to $36,168. And the trend downward is even more dramatic so far in 2015, where the average selling price is now down to $22,951. Consider the impact such a dramatic reduction in the value of your home would have on your life.
[. . .]
That is a real estate disaster, folks, and it is directly attributable to the fact that so-called black leaders including Eric Holder, and Barack Obama, decided to insert themselves into a tragic but fairly routine black community shooting death and turn it into a national incident by claiming that it was both unjustified and racially motivated. As we all now know, both of those claims have since been disproved and the police exonerated.
[. . .]
How do you suppose those homeowners in Ferguson who had no part in the demonstrations may feel about social justice at this moment? Like most Americans, their homes are the bedrock of their personal wealth.
[. . .]
There’s an old saying that you should never foul your own nest. Critics of black rioting have pointed out the truth of that old folk wisdom for years. Sadly, too many black communities like Ferguson have learned that the hard way. I suspect that the so-called black leaders and the liberal socialist do-gooders know it quite well.
They just don’t give a damn, because it’s not their nest.

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2015/03/those_unintended_liberal_consequences_continue.html

March 17, 2015
Those unintended liberal consequences continue...
By Russ Vaughn

Negative Effects of New Health Care Law Worse Than Benefits

[From article]
The economy wouldn’t be nearly as stable as reported if not for this massive injection of government steroids. Liberal, or Keynesian, economists think that’s a positive feature of the new health law. But it’s actually a drawback.
Over time, higher taxes and spending act as a drag on the economy, crowding out private investment. Almost 90 percent of ObamaCare users get federal aid. As a result, a new CBO report projects ObamaCare subsidies will balloon to nearly $2 trillion over the next decade, only partially paid for by more than $640 billion in ObamaCare taxes and fines, which means more government borrowing and more upward pressure on interest rates.
A government-funded flood of new patients, many of them forced into mandatory spending on services they didn’t previously want or need, may be good for the health care sector, but it drains revenue from other sectors of the economy. That means GDP won’t reach its full potential. University of Chicago economist Casey Mulligan estimates that the Affordable Care Act will reduce GDP by 5 percent in the long run, thanks to all of its offsetting negative provisions.
[. . .]



“ObamaCare has caused millions of full-time jobs to become part-time,” Andy Puzder, the CEO of Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s, recently asserted.
As of January, more than 450 employers have made cuts to work hours or staffing levels as a result of ObamaCare, according to a database compiled by Investor’s Business Daily.
[. . .]
“Firms and individuals appear to be more risk adverse — businesses are hanging on to cash, fewer people are launching firms,” the Brookings Institution noted in a recent study of “business dynamism” in America.
ObamaCare may be helping some uninsured, but it’s killing entrepreneurs — the jobs engine of the American economy.

http://nypost.com/2015/02/08/pay-no-attention-to-the-real-economy-behind-the-curtain/

ObamaCare is creating an illusion economy
By Paul Sperry
February 8, 2015 | 6:00am

New York Post

Being Cool Trumps All Rational Arguments

[From article]
Gutfeld finds that cool warps everything. In 2012, for instance, Zuckerberg’s Facebook not only didn’t pay any net federal income tax but was actually due a refund of about $430 million. Why? Because the company (lawfully) deducted the stock options it issues to Facebook employees, many of them now deliriously wealthy because of those options. If Exxon or Koch Industries had managed that, someone might have noticed.
[. . .]
A 1950s study that tried to measure coolness of jobs identified five factors that gave a career prestige: importance of the task performed, level of authority you have, the know-how required, the dignity of the tasks required and pay.
Scoring highest were jobs like bankers, executives, ministers and professors.
[. . .]
The end result of eco-minded hipster thinking is, for example, the San Francisco ban on plastic shopping bags. This well-intentioned move in favor of all that is green and natural actually wound up killing people. Why? Because when you use bags to transport food, bacteria collects in them.
[. . .]
Reusing that Earth-friendly tote gradually turns it into a chemical weapon. The ban, declared a University of Pennsylvania study, “is associated with a 46% increase in death from food-borne illnesses. That implies an increase of 5.5 annual deaths for the county.” (The researchers added that this was a conservative estimate.)

http://nypost.com/2014/03/22/the-hipster-war-on-you-how-liberals-use-cool-as-a-weapon/

The hipster war on you: How liberals use cool as a weapon
By Kyle Smith
New York Post
March 22, 2014 | 10:06am