Hacker News Reader

Comment by taurath | Hacker News Reader

Don’t get caught up in the fantasy that it’s stopped in any appreciable way. The hammer is just starting to fall as vaccination rates go up. This is the start of the first battle, not the second act.

View on HN

Whether we look back at this moment as fantasy or the beginning of something truly changing won't be the result of some deterministic historical process. It's up to us. Call your congressman, your senator. Meet with coworkers and discuss this stuff. Post shit on the internet and challenge yourself and others to think differently. Go out into the world, even if individual actions are tiny or barely perceptible.

The key thing about the world is that someone made it this way. I have to believe that it can be made differently.

I doubt you can say some 'one' made the world this way. The present day is the result of historical, economical, scientific, etc. processes that are only partly known by few people.

Țhere is a short term greed pushing wages down so in that sense I agree.

Yes you're right, no one person made it this way - that was a rhetorical efficiecy on my part. I meant some broader human "we" made it this way. People, us.

It's not just a rhetorical efficiency though. Phrasing it that way makes it feel like it's a lot easier to change, cause we can imagine personally overcoming a single person.

That broader human "we" is the deterministic historical process that is insurmountable for any one person. It can only be contested with a countervailing historical process when people organize and cooperate, and that's a lot harder to get rolling than just calling your congressperson.

I would venture to guess, though, that a very small, single-digit percentage (possibly even sub-one-percent) of all-people-ever made things this way. A vanishingly small number of people have the influence to shape "what work means" to this degree. Yes, people going along with things, or even supporting things (because someone in power told them to) plays a big part; the puppetmasters do need some amount of consent and compliance from the masses. But the drivers of change are few.

It’s a rewording of a Steve Jobs quote (not sure where, if anywhere, he got it from). Essentially it means rather than find reasons to disengage, get out and do something to help promote positive change. If everyone does this, then there’s you’re aggregate.

> It's up to us. [...]

And start interviewing for remote jobs, if you have the luxury to do so. Especially if you are in an industry where talent has the most bargaining power (i.e. tech). Don't tolerate this nonsense: https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/company-news/amazons-covid-...

Reply on news.ycombinator.com