3 Human Behaviors You Lost Due to Industrialization
Rediscovering the Power of Thinking, Gathering, and Acting
In my book, “An Unorthodox Truth,” I explore how humanity, especially in America, has been transformed by the shift from pre-industrialization to post-industrialization.
This work uniquely highlights how the human condition has been negatively impacted by industrialization, a perspective that hasn’t been thoroughly examined before.
To my knowledge, no other work or research has shown such a comprehensive view of how industrialization has affected the core of human existence.
Industrialization marked the era when corporations took over America, effectively replacing individual American leadership. This shift wasn’t just economic; it fundamentally changed the fabric of our society.
To illustrate this point, below is a video demonstrating how the introduction of appliances into everyday American life, while seemingly convenient, created a chain binding Americans to these corporations.
In essence, people traded their security for conveniences, often without realizing the long-term implications of this exchange.
While my book delves into the political and spiritual ramifications of industrialization, there are other aspects of human behavior that have changed due to this shift and our current technology-driven society.
In this article, we’ll explore three things that humans no longer do as much, largely due to the effects of industrialization and our modern, tech-centric world.
The hope and goal of this discussion is that by becoming aware of these three diminishing human behaviors, we can challenge ourselves to reintegrate them into our lives, both individually and collectively.
This awareness can help us reconnect with our pre-industrial humanity and address some of the issues arising from our modern lifestyle.
1. Think
Before industrialization, humans had time to think and be bored. However, with the advent of technology and entertainment, the modern human is always amused. In the 21st century, we simply don’t think as we used to.
The average American now has an attention span of just eight seconds, comparable to that of a goldfish. This startling comparison underscores how dramatically our cognitive habits have changed. This reduction in thinking time is due to the constant pull on our attention from devices and other distractions.
Our thoughts no longer stay in our heads; they are consistently externalized, leaving us with no time for internal reflection. We have no attention to give because it’s pulled everywhere. We no longer have boredom, but we need boredom because boredom is what allows us to think.
By reclaiming our ability to think and embracing occasional boredom, we can join the ranks of history’s great thinkers in the practice of simply thinking. This practice is not just about idle daydreaming but about deep, focused contemplation that can lead to innovative ideas and solutions to complex problems.
2. Gather
Modern humans — especially since the COVID-19 pandemic — have become less inclined to gather in large groups. The modern human never doesn’t gather around anymore. And especially since COVID, they will never get into mass volumes as they did prior to COVID.
This shift is not just temporary; it represents a fundamental change in how we interact as a society. We’ve become content with sitting in our homes, allowing life to happen within our four walls.
This trend is reflected in various dystopian novels and movies, such as “Wall-E,” yet it persists without significant change. The comfort of isolation has become a new norm, with profound implications for our social fabric.
In the past, people would gather in bars, town squares, and lively city streets. This constant movement and interaction fostered civic responsibility as people were regularly outside, observing and engaging with their communities.
Civic responsibility was alive because people were outside, consistently working and seeing what was happening in their cities. The physical presence in shared spaces created a sense of collective ownership and responsibility for our communities.
To bring this back, we need to be mindful of the importance of gathering. When people start to gather, when people are bored, and when they have attention, they can see what’s happening in our society. This awareness is crucial for addressing problems and fostering community engagement.
By coming together physically, we create opportunities for spontaneous interactions and collective problem-solving that can’t be replicated in digital spaces.
3. Take Action
In earlier times, when a problem arose, it was often met with direct action. Examples include if taxes were raised, we’re going to war, and others include other revolutions just due to real action. These historical examples demonstrate how tangible issues were met with equally tangible responses.
Today, however, our concept of “action” has changed dramatically. Nowadays, we don’t take real action, period. Nowadays we tweet, nowadays we repost, restack or we comment — but no physical action. The digital age has created an illusion of engagement that often fails to translate into real-world change.
In the modern world, we often mistake digital engagement for real action. While these digital actions may create an illusion of involvement, they often fail to move the needle against real-world injustices. There’s no real world action being taken.
The manipulation of action such as ‘I did something’ is taken, but no real action to move the needle against injustice.
To effect genuine change, we need to combine the elements of thinking, gathering, and acting. By allowing ourselves time for boredom and reflection, coming together to discuss solutions, and then taking concrete steps to implement those solutions, we can begin to address the injustices in our society more effectively.
Real action requires more than just digital engagement; it demands physical presence, personal investment, and tangible efforts toward change.
Conclusion
These three practices - thinking, gathering, and taking action - were common among our ancestors but have diminished in our modern, industrialized society. The pursuit of convenience and pleasure over hard work and engagement has led to a docile society, submitting to corporate interests rather than human needs.
When society began chasing pleasure over pain, when we began to trade hard work over convenience, we gave away our livelihood over to a fake imitation known as the corporation.
This concept is further explored in works like “Brave New World,” which examines how society’s shift towards prioritizing pleasure over pain and convenience over hard work has resulted in the surrender of our livelihood to corporations.
These entities, driven by profit rather than human values, have reshaped our societal structure. This phenomenon is further illustrated in a clip from the movie “The Network,” which emphasizes that there are no people, there are no nations, it’s only corporations.
We’ve allowed a life-void entity, which has one goal — to serve this energy of greed known as profits — to dictate the terms of our existence.
By recognizing these changes, we can begin to break free from the chain of convenience. We can reclaim our human imagination through boredom, thoughtful reflection, and gathering with others to share ideas.
By setting real goals, initiating projects, and taking concrete actions, we can begin to join our ancient humans in the spiritual quest of prior. This movement is not just about changing our daily habits; it’s about reclaiming our fundamental humanity.
As we become more aware of how industrialization and modern technology have shaped our behaviors, we can make conscious efforts to reintegrate thinking, gathering, and taking action into our lives. This awareness and subsequent change can help us address the challenges of our modern world while reconnecting with the essential aspects of our humanity.
By being bored, by relying on our human imagination, by thinking about the world, by gathering with others to share our thoughts, and by making real goals, projects, and actions that yield results, we can begin to break free from the constraints of our industrialized society and rediscover our true potential as human beings.
Thank you for the time and attention in reading this.
Ashe,
Franklin O’Kanu
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A world without boredom is a world without innovation and creativity, one needs time to ponder in order to do either. I look at people these days and they all have their heads buried in their phones/tablets like a group of tech addicted ostriches, only knowing the cure to boredom is to pull their gadgets out for that sweet dopamine hit. I love downtime that allows me the peace and quiet needed for true introspection, without regular thinking time I grow annoyed and frustrated, as it recharges my batteries. You're right on with this being a lost art Franklin, I go hiking with a couple of my friends on a regular basis and being out in a vast prairie with no humans around for miles makes you realize what we've lost for the sake of "convenience", knowing we are a part of nature and to think were somehow above nature will be our downfall. Modern technology has robbed us of our birthright, along with our ability to think and know our true selves without going through a gauntlet of unconditioning (not a word but making it one) our minds to the modern world.
Great article! You are right about the things that technology is robbing from our society. I have noticed a few other things related to the “think” category. No one wonders anymore. Since Google came around and gave us instant answers to our questions there isn’t any more wondering what something is. Most no longer try to figure out how to do something but look for instructions online. Gone is intuition because most become dependent on their gadgets telling them how to do, think, and react. Imagination is also becoming a lost art.