Do you think the modern era is hostile to novelty?

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Victorian England was very much taken by mechanical and electrical inventions.

ruveyn

China is doing the smart thing, a long term investment in the US which is bound to net them quite a bit of a return in the future. It's a shame that the US isn't as smart.

Yeah, I can't stand hardcore cynical douchebags. I'm pretty cynical myself and I can't help it because of all I've been though, but they need to get a grip. They're the type to think that moping over petty crap is edgy. Like they'll mention that fish f**k in water when you point out what a beautiful view of the ocean it is from here. Grow out of your teenage angst and go do something with your life, because you clearly haven't "been there and done that" if you're pathetic enough to mope about the fact that fish f**k in water.

Your movement(s) will come to nought.

They are a bunch of naive, entitled Gen. Y who are going to get themselves killed or worse. They ought to grow up and accept their fate. Those who resist will be destroyed. Save yourself Donnie.

People need to have a much longer perspective than they usually do. I suspect that the reason why the theory of evolution runs into problems in certain groups is that they are unable to comprehend a time-span longer than a few hundred or maybe thousand years.

But the Victorians hated Charles Darwin, rioted when Cezanne displayed his artwork, and were scandalized that Mark Twain would write a novel glorifying a runaway juvenile delinquent. And the OP said that "BESIDES technology nothing is changing"
. So we are not even talking about technology per se.

The world today is not anymore hostile to innovations than it ever was. Maybe less so. Whether there actually is less innovation than there used to be I dont know. Dont see any solid evidence for that. But if that is indeed the case then there maybe other reasons for that than American hedgemony.

Its a conundrum.
Pericles, the elected head of state of ancient Athens said that "Athens dominates all of Greece, Athens obeys me, I obey my wife, and my wife obeys our baby son, so my baby son rules all of Greece!"

America dominates, dare I say bullies, the whole World. But were in hock to the Chinese. We run the world, but they own us. So by owning us they already rule the world in the way that Pericles's toddler ruled Greece. The reason for our financial dependency on China is that we spend so much on the military, and they dont.

So should we encourage the Chinese to take up some of the burden in our "war on terrorism"?
Obviously not. We dont want to encourage China to use its military in adventurous ways even if it were to drain their economy.

The crazy bit is that the US military is the biggest jobs program in the world, so cutting the US military will ultimately require something to replace all the jobs that are lost both in terms of soldiers and other military personnel, but also in terms of the military industrial complex. Currently the result would be devastating since there isn't any jobs for the newly fired personnel to get. The war on terror should be shut down, the war on drugs should be shut down, the military funding directing into future research, to help drive the US economy ahead.

The reason China is doing so well is that the US aren't innovating as quickly as they used to, in addition to China having become better at making itself look good for businesses. Good access to land, labor, efficient government, less red tape and so on. The way forward is new technology, hence why the tech sector is the one that tends to stay in the US.

Actually, China has an activist government not take over by the Starve the Beast fanatics who see any public investment as a millstone around the highly productive folks running those speed trading programmes and carrying out other casino activities including successful bets on failures and crashes.

It's not that there is anything suppressing innovation. It's more that the low hanging fruit has already been eaten.

Also, as for culture it seems there's less optimism. People no longer believe that technology will save us. There are no lofty sci-fi notions of space exploration and colonizing other planets. Even the idea that the earth will one day be a better place with the end of poverty seems dead. People no longer seem to believe that "progress" will continue. Instead we're sitting around wringing our hands over budgets and deficits and how the whole world is going to go to hell, and we just need to buckle down and cling tightly to what we have and not let the animals come and steal any crumbs. In short, idealism is for losers. Politicians exist only to be despised. Everyone is an idiot (except ourselves ) and nobody is to be trusted. We are all bound by forces beyond our control (whether its "Evil Big Government", "Evil Big Business", or "Selfish Human Nature" ) and to think anything can change is to be mocked and ridiculed.

Last edited by marshall on 20 May 2012, 10:54 am, edited 1 time in total.

Exhibit A.

And I don't really get how "fish f*** in the water" supposedly tarnishes the ocean of it's beauty. And of all the ugly, grotesque, and detestable things in the world, "fish f***ing" is WAY down on the list. Being inordinately grossed out by organisms participating in reproductive activities actually comes off as a bit prudish and old-fashioned, hardly edgy.

This
I agree with the OP that there have been no new music genres invented since 1990, but thats because theres nothn left to invent, not because of McWorld domination.

Actually actual musicians take it back even further: both my Jazz professor and Sting say that in music "everything since 1970 is rehash".

I don't exactly agree with that. A lot of it is but certainly not everything.

Also, as far as music goes the low hanging fruit are the formulas that have broad appeal. I still think there's a lot of room for new styles of expression in music. It's just that it's become more of a niche thing. The age of novel iconic popular anthems is pretty much over.

Rapidly changing up to about 1980 yes. But since then? It's slowed a lot.