Mass society and its infinitudes

The door into mass society opened with Sumer and then consciousness transitioned from the sensibility of life being cyclical toward the ideas of linear progress and development. The potential to have much (or, at least, more) eventually subjected us to a domain of experience which is, for all intents and purposes, infinite.

It results in disorientation and anxiety.

Modernity:

If you want to sell widgets, there are about four billion people who have enough in the way of resources to potentially buy a widget from you. Use your imagination: For each hour of production and marketing work you might be able to induce a thousand to buy. Putting in some long hours, hiring some good staff, deploying some robots … you could conceivably eventually reach all four billion. It took about twenty years of focus, effort, and acumen, but Bezos did it. Even if you’re only half as talented, you still might be able to sell to two billion. Mass society’s globalized market effectively has no limits.

And nowadays there’s always an app that manifests the zeitgeist. Tinder enables infinity in the realm of relationships. You might intend to make a commitment, but in the back of your mind is the idea that one of the zillions of other potential matches might conceivably be better for you.

Stimulation! Effectively infinite. So, other than the zen masters among us, the rest tend to suffer from FOMO.

It may seem like a “First World Problem,” but living in an insane social environment is actually a pretty major issue.