Here is a wild fact that you may not have heard before: in December 1963, a field of Soviet natural gas in what is now Urtabulak, Uzbekistan, was drilled when an unexpected dysfunction has led to an explosion of the spectacular eruption and uncontrollable fire.
Having accidentally created the equivalent of a giant gas burner This would not stop, the Soviets were horrified that more than 12 million cubic meters of natural gas were burned per day, frying all the animal life which was approaching the imposing flame pillar it produced.
After three years of repeated failures to stop the fire, the Soviets found a desperate solution to explode a 30 -kiloton nuclear bomb – twice the power of the Hiroshima bomb – in a nearby well. Theory? Turn off the fire with a larger thermonuclear fire, a hot enough to melt or pinch the closed underground gas cracks. On September 30, 1966, the Soviets exploded the number and managed to stifle the fire.
The thought of a “nuclear war extinguisher” seems absurd because It looks like the logical equivalent to solve a problem with an even greater problem. And yet, we seem to have reached a similar point in local and national politics where we “install” crazy with crazy, angry with angry and bad with the worst.
In 2010, vice-president of the foreign relations council Kay King warned that “the legislators quickly learned that public posture and demagoguery received television coverage at the expense of the debate and the thoughtful compromise. Likewise, the incessant presence of electronic media makes the deliberation obsolete … The Internet also tended to encourage incivility, allowing diatribes and disinformation of spreading without the benefit of a publisher … inaccurate information is practically impossible to Correct and repeat themselves as an escape by those who do and do not know better.
Play with attention
It was then. Four presidential elections, a pandemic and 15 years later, we are in a deeply absolute Kimchee. Social media, with its algorithms optimized for controversy, and corporate media, with its need to draw human butterflies to a fire for advertisers, gave birth to what is called a “attention economy” Where it no longer really matters what we say more, it is simply important that it is a greater weapon of public relations than that which had previous.
This naturally attracts the worst, rather than the best, from society, to reach the launching ramp of advertising, because only people with narcissistic trends and the lack of human empathy can sleep at night by setting fire to the world Just to be visible. It is actually not a question of being ultra-maga or ultra-progressive, awake or conservative, it is “today I will intentionally do something to force you to look at me or to get involved”.
The narcissists do not necessarily fear shame or criticism. On the contrary, they have a disorderly way of thinking that simply requires attention, and a common strategy for attention is crazy behavior.
That’s why I worry about the Put of Time magazine Elon Musk on his cover or liberal activists referring to him as “President Musk” In an attempt to lead a gap between him and President Donald Trump. You play with nuclear weapons of attention and do not make it. Critics might think that in opposing musk and Trump They lock two scorpions in a bottle to fight, but as a person who has several family members who have narcissistic trends, I will tell you that it allows people like Musk to do even more scandalous activities, rather than deter.
As Trump even thinks of throwing him away, Musk has probably disrupted as much America as you will not even recognize the desert as such a pyrrhic victory left in his wake.
We note that similar trends emerge in Hawaiʻi, legislators behaving roughly, then the cycling rage on their behavior to recruit more followers for their cause. I will refrain from named names, because that’s exactly what these people want.
One of this session Opening day speech was reprehensible. The State Senate does not behave On problems as minor as what should be called a vacation. Its leaders Deny being intimate. A senator apologizes for Comparison of a state official in the devilThen doubles his criticism of said official.
Some of our elected officials act as spoiled kids, showing themselves as mavens of the attention economy. And the more you say their names, the more you report on the little things they do, the more they will make it turn in the self-employment of social media to claim that they are victims (or crusaders).
It should stop with you
My God, I miss The late Sam Slom Senator. He had a flair for the grandiosity, he launched votes “no” as keys in the bills on which everyone voted “yes”. He often made fun of his colleagues democrats, but yet, he never made fun of a colleague in public who was not in private his good friend.
One of my friends testified during several hearings of the Senate and told me that it was shocked that many members do not seem to be aware of key developments in the news. I only suggested to him by half of parks: “Of course, they did not see the news, unless the name of a state senator is mentioned there, they do not look at it or read it!” »»
So how do we beat this economy of attention? Like the Rock Star Alice Cooper benefiting from negative advertising on A chicken incident This may or may not have occurred, media threshing and controversy are chargeable.
It is not good that we are always upset towards each other, creating scenes like hundreds of edited liberals who agitate on Beretania Street and a few dozen stuck -up conservatives who keep “F * CK your losers feelings ! ” counter-signs. Some of you can take advantage of this adult Halloween costume theater, but it only fueling a attention economy that does not do us good.
First, we must refuse declarations and individuals who are not perpected in the platform, no matter who they are. There are people who know which buttons to press to go crazy, that seek to inflict trauma. When rhetorical media platforms do not report current events, it provides a launching platform to attract the attention of nuclear weapons.
Second, are you republican? Are you a democrat? GOOD! Then, you must demand that your faction be the nicest, the most diplomatic, the most professional of all. Beat the opponents by being so above the reproach that your criticisms end up looking like thugs. If anything, you must reprimand your faction and keep your opinion leaders at a higher level of quality than your rivals.
Finally, we can all be potentially attracted to the fire in the economy of attention, but a balanced education and vision of the world can isolate you against its pangs.
It stops with me and it should stop with you. Unproductive content is not a “news”. It’s poison for your mind. People who are not satisfied, self-actualized or who want attention must cause a reaction from you. Deny them the reaction. Do not follow them. Do not chat with them. Do not share their ideas. Do not report what they are doing.
