What would I change about “modern” society?

Are we so sure we’re modern? What does that even mean? Some of us are technologically advanced. Some of us have lots of toys and stuff. Some of us aren’t sure we’ll have food or water today. Some of us will die today because we lack healthcare or clean water. Are we including all that under the banner of “modern?”

Some of us experience abuse daily in our homes because most laws are written in a way that favours the abusers. Most societies remain skewed towards prioritizing men, even in the “developed” world. Four women were murdered by their male partners in the past three weeks in my province, a behaviour that’s become an epidemic, for all that we talk about male loneliness. Is this modern?

Volume and superlatives have replaced the educated opinion. Expertise and intelligence are scorned while money-grubbers and the crass receive accolades and praise. It seems there’s no crime too vile for the world to ignore if you can lay claim to a gold toilet. How modern.

I suppose I’m tired of the hypocrisy. We pat ourselves on the back in the developed world for being all that and a side of cheese while engaging in much lateral movement. We marvel at the newest iPhone, the advancing achievements in AI, and the possibility of settling Mars while we ignore the desperate on our streets and a world that’s increasingly on fire. How modern.

We can know anything and everything now; almost all of us carry incredibly powerful computers in our pockets or bags, but we mostly choose to spend our time watching other people put on makeup or chop wood, rather than pursuing knowledge and enrichment.

I do like Thoren Bradley.

What I would change about modern society – and this question only ever means the developed world, so it omits billions, how modern – is the shift to selfishness, ignorance, and insularity. These are the qualities that a collapsing nation holds, that much of the developed world now embraces. How strange it would be if it all burned to the ground. How modern.

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