Interestingly, James Williams points out in his book Stand Out of Our Light that the technology of the "attention economy" doesn't does distract us from our immediate goals and into internet holes, but over time diverts us from wanting what is good for us.
Exactly. And they get away with it precisely because we believe in this wrong notion of freedom.
We’re still stuck at the 2nd stage of the three transformations that Nietzsche outlined back in the 1980s. Which is essentially to think we’re free only because we get to reject people who outright tell us what to do.
He said, “Free though callest thyself? Free of what - what do I care about it. But free to do what? That is what thy gleaming eyes shall tell me!”
It also helps that no one is paying any attention to BF Skinner anymore. It’s not the people who tell you what to do that you should fear. It’s those who know how to make you do it voluntarily.
