[Main Blog Post] How the Cost of Freight Has Shaped the World

[jprussell]

Short post this week where I barely scratch the surface of what I suspect will be a big, deep topic - how cheap transportation has been the less obvious, but maybe just as important, side of the industrial revolution next to mass production.

Comments

[thinking_turtle]

As a factoid, Europe now has fairly stiff import taxes for individuals. When I order anything from outside the EU, it gets a 10 euro administrative charge, and a 20% surcharge. These are considerable expenses.

One of the goals of technocracy is to create a standardized worker. I'm just reading Dmitry Orlov's "Shrinking the Technosphere", and he writes:

The technosphere defined It demands homogeneity THAT THIS IS so is clearly visible in spite of all the talk about “diversity” and “multiculturalism” in the overdeveloped Western nations. When people say “diversity,” what they really mean is homogeneity: a common, simplified, commercialized mass culture organized around nationalist/globalist concepts and symbols. In the pursuit of total homogeneity, “diversity” turns out to be quite useful. This is not a paradox but mere misdirection. Over time tight-knit communities tend to develop their own unique local cultures, traditions, languages and dialects, and these allow them to withstand the onslaught of outside influence. People who share a common local culture recognize and automatically trust one another. This is true diversity: the diversity of distinct, separate cultures with unique traditions of mutual aid, cooperation and solidarity. And it is this that makes them hard for the technosphere to dominate and to control.

The goal of equalizing every worker provides an alternative explanation for the dwindling of our sundry clubs, lodges, and groups. The powers that be are destroying mutual trust, transactions outside the system, and small enterprise. It affects the family, clubs, but also unions and parties, which have degraded to one-size-fits-all blandness.

[jprussell]

Thanks for this, and I think you and Orlov are not wrong that that's part of the picture. Mass production and cheap shipping would contribute to this, of course, as you can't force homogeneity if you have to handle things locally. Which is more in the driver seat, though (i.e. do technocrats push global products to make people more homogenous, or does homogeneity just happen when everyone buys the same crap?) is harder to say, I think.

[thinking_turtle]

Interesting. There's also the question of scale. Many more people consume many more goods than even 10 or 20 years ago. The urge of people to consume more may be the ultimate driver.