Have you ever thought that the world is against you? You should because it is.
Over the festive period I was watching some football on the telly. My team (Manchester City) had no home game across the time which, as a match going supporter, was frustrating in itself. We did have a game in Sunderland at 8pm on new years day (good luck travelling to that). We also had a home game the following Sunday at 5.30pm. There is one single train I can catch on a Sunday evening. To say it was rammed does not quite do justice to the number of people that squeezed into those carriages that night. There was a time when the festive football fixtures were arranged in such a way that your team would play a local rival at home on Christmas day and then away on Boxing day to facilitate the supporters of both teams. More recently, when games were no longer played on the 25th, there would still be a nod to the fan’s ability to attend by pitting local rivals together. There was a recognition that the game was for the supporters so lets make it as easy as possible for them to attend. This is no longer the case. The games are now arranged specifically so that the TV broadcasts will draw the largest number of viewers. Of course they want the atmosphere a crowd generates but they make absolutely no concession to make it easier for them to be there.
Oh woe is me, I hear you say, quit bleating it’s your choice to go to the game, you could just as easily watch it at home like the rest of us. I quite agree but it did make me think, in a broader sense, is there anything about modern life that is configured in the interests of you and me, i.e. ordinary people that use stuff? Is social, cultural and political life structured to favour (in no particular order) corporations, wealth and privilege over everything and everyone else?
Think for a minute of the innovations (particularly technological) in the past 20 or 30 years and try to come up with one where the balance of benefits doesn’t tilt heavily toward the organisation behind them. On-line anything, convenient sure but ultimately saves the bank/shop/government a small fortune in operating costs. Social media – free!!! Makes staying in touch with friends so much easier but all that data we have gifted to the likes of Meta (Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp) or Google (YouTube, Android, Fitbit) is the alchemic base metal in the way they can monetise it. It’s fair to say that in the capitalist economic system, in which we all play a part, if there isn’t a profit somewhere down the line then it won’t happen. Amazon famously went years without making a dime whilst furnishing us with anything and everything ‘next day’. Now the owner, Jeff Bezos, sits on top of one of the largest fortunes ever held by anyone in history. Same goes for Musk and Zuckerberg and all the tech-bros from silicon valley.
Is your life any easier as a result of all this? Probably, though I think it is marginal. Is life better? I plan to write further on this but I will mention it here. There was an article in the paper the other day that attempted to explain how talking to a stranger might feel difficult to begin with but will ultimately be a rewarding experience. How is this news? For virtually the whole of the last century chatting to someone has been one of the most natural and potentially rewarding things to do in almost any given situation but is now such a rare occurrence we rely on article writers for the Guardian to offer encouragement for us to try it.
Perhaps people would prefer to talk to an AI bot? Artificial Intelligence has to be the pinnacle, in terms of the way modern life is robbing us of our basic humanity, of my hypothesis. Can’t be arsed writing an email? Just get AI to do it. Got no friends to talk to? AI again can step into the breach. Photo looks too real/shit/dark/wrong people etc. Yep, you guessed it, AI can save the day. In fact you don’t even need to take the photo, just describe it to AI and hey presto! Are we really so stupid that we can’t see what is going on here? We are training the machines that will ultimately make us redundant. Given how the people behind AI (and all the technological innovations of the past 30 years) have repeatedly exploited us for their personal gain, how can we view this latest development as anything other than yet another scam? How can letting machines, controlled by a bunch of sociopathic nerds, do the things humans ordinarily do be good for us in the long term? Wake the fuck up.
I can’t end on such a bleak note though and while I was ‘researching’ this I did come up with one thing that has been introduced where I live that genuinely makes life easier and better for us. Andy Burnham, mayor of Greater Manchester, has taken the bus service back into the control of the ‘council’ (the actual organisation is Transport for Greater Manchester – TfGM) and implemented a flat £2 fare for any single bus journey anywhere in the region. This is the start of a plan to create a fully integrated transport system in the style of the one the people of Greater London has enjoyed for decades. The thing is though, he didn’t have to do it and we would have carried on, being ripped off by the private operators who took over during the Thatcher years of deregulation and privatisation, none the wiser. But he did and I, for one, and most grateful. Oh, and the buses have real human drivers that you can talk to if you care to. They will probably respond with a grunt (or not at all) but they won’t ask if there’s anything else they can help you with today.