alt Hacker NewsI don’t see anyone mentioning it, so: I was disappointed that an otherwise interesting post was turned political.
> This is why even the well-off feel anxious and restless. We may have democracy by name, but if the systems we interact with, be it the state or private companies, surrender accountability to the desiccated, inhuman processes and give us no recourse, then the democracy is just a hollow concept with no inner meaning.
> You can't steer your own life anymore. The pursuit of happiness is dead. Even your past achievements can be taken away from you by some faceless process. And when that happens, there’s no recourse. The future, in this light, begins to feel less hopeful and more ominous.
> It’s eerie how much of today’s political unrest begins to make sense through this lens.
No, your past achievements aren’t taken away from you. When you’re wronged, you almost always have recourse, up to and including making a big stink on social media. Private companies aren’t meant to be political democracies. They’re in fact almost explicitly designed to be authoritarian, because it works well. You don’t suddenly live in a not-democracy just because the companies have a CEO and middle managers that set up processes.
I wish the rest of the post wasn’t called into question by this hyperbole, but it is. It makes some interesting points, but ultimately it feeds into a natural desire to be pessimistic. Which means it’s entertainment rather than an analysis.
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In the ideal world, each private company is authoritarian, but there are many competing for your money, and so you get to choose - which effectively approximates something like a democracy.
In the world we actually live in, you often have at most 2-3 companies to choose from, with exact same policies. And if this is something that you actually need, then you're effectively forced into their bullshit.
There's also the nice sidestepping of the whole issue of human judgement comes with the baggage of ignorance and prejudice. Yes, the article acknowledges that processes can be largely beneficial, but it focuses on the horrors of the processes, while glossing over the horrors of NOT having the processes.