The Quiet Danger Of The Mastodon Bubble





Ihad a thought recently, something that hadn’t initially occurred to me. This new Stepford village we are all enjoying — devoid of confrontation, disagreement, or anything remotely offensive, and currently being presented as something close to nirvana, might not actually be the utopia we think it is. Don’t get me wrong, I like it here. Smart, compassionate people, working together in collaborative teams, made an earnest attempt to create something that solved all the problems of the previous incarnations. They didn’t do it for profit or fame, but as a public service, and it might be as close as one can get to true altruism. But if human nature and historical record have taught us anything, it’s that utopia doesn’t exist no matter how hard we try. There is always an X-factor, which in this case, is the predictably unpredictable nature of human beings. Our avarice, lust, fear, and overconfidence in our own abilities combine to undermine the best of intentions. Hubris has always been our original sin, after all. I’m just not so sure that being able to create your own impenetrable bubble, with even less diversity of opinion than we had previously, is such a good idea. I’m not saying it’s all bad, but just that it’s not hard to see the dangers that lurk just beneath the surface. Incestuous communities have a tendency to produce deformity and stunted intellectual capacity. It’s essentially why it’s a bad idea to marry your sister.It ought to be obvious that there is real danger in isolating yourself in a ghetto of your own design. Once you rid yourself of all competing ideas, and surround yourself…