US elites’ imperial corruption compares to Opium War – Asia Times
Social media are the opium of the 21st century, and the young tech wizards who infest Silicon Valley are the moral successors of the young Etonians who forced India to grow the drug and forced China to buy it.
The tech elite displays an arrogance that puts to shame Rudyard Kipling s idea of a white man s burden. It believes that it can change human nature by melding man and machine through artificial intelligence, and that its success in spellbinding young Americans through entertainment portends a new sort of humanity brought about by social engineering.
Many of its doyens believe that human consciousness can be downloaded onto computer chips, achieving a sort of silicon-based immortality. Its arrogance and pretensions exceed those of Alexander and Caesar. It has contempt for the homely values of family and nation that knit the lives of ordinary Americans.
That is why China is likely to emerge as the dominant force in the world during the 21st century. It isn t that the Chinese are smarter or more innovative. America s virtual empire has become a sinkhole for the country s enterprise and talent, and its spectacular profitability derives from activity that enervates and corrupts the American character.
via asiatimes.com
Lots of jolly thought food from Spengler.