Yesterday we looked at Manuel Beltran’s Institute for Human Obsolescence and the Uber driverless crash.

Greening of America

Straight afterwards I came across the Greening of America by Charles Reich. It was a number one bestseller in the United States back in 1970.

Reich’s frustration at the state’s inability to implement recommendations in response to 1960s urban riots led him to wonder: Could it be that the American Crisis results from a structure that is obsolete?

Reich is persuasive that the principles of obsolescence are all pervasive.

Realising the American agenda is shaped by an obsolete structure leads Reich to explore the workings of the First Amendment – Freedom of Speech.

Reich says the age of mass media brought an end to the predominance of the discourse of small villages, town meetings and face to face discussions.

News is “cut into a commodity by the mass media, a staccato piece of show business, and no one who only watches television and reads a typical newspaper could possibly know enough to be an intelligent voter. ”

Assuming he’s right should we not vote, like in China, or reform the media to better report on what we as a society are actually doing?