The perpetual motion machine
Much has been written about the vastly increased movement of people in a globalised world, with modern transport effectively shrinking the world into managable chunks of between-time. The discussion generally falls into two camps - glowing reviews of the lives of 'global citizens', nomads with money, the ever-moving creatives and jet-commuting businessmen, contrasted with the unwanted side-effects of movement - 'illegal' immigrants. With a global media increasing its reach across the globe, images of the rich are ever more available to the poor. Is it any surprise that economic migration is skyrocketing? That millions of Mexicans slip over the border to the US? Or that thousands try to find freedom and relative wealth in Australia. The poor are increasingly aware of their poverty - and of the possibility of a better life in a wealthy country. It seems to me that the life of the late modern - in both rich and poor countries - is characterised by a restless opportunism. A job is a temporary place to rest until you move on upwards; with the decline of religion and family as social motivators and constraints, career is the major measuring stick of men, and now women. Opportunism is a refined restlessness, a fixation on choice for rich moderns and an awakening to richer ways of living for the desperate billion scratching out a life under the yoke of corruption, third-world debt and wars, often Western-sponsored (If you haven't read Confessions of an Economic Hitman, please do). In the West, you can see this in the way the word 'settle' is slowly shifting to a negative connotation - to 'settle' for something now means taking an opportunity - a house, a job - as a temporary measure. Settling down, for many, is anathema and instead a neo-nomadism catches us. A million Australians are out of Australia at any one time, a full five percent of our population, and the proportion is far higher for New Zealanders. The job for life era is ending, even in Japan; the relationship for life is passing as divorce rates creep up, travel in all its forms has been democratised for global citizens, and the clamour for fame and recognition has never been greater. I wonder if this is the modern dilemma - seeking is never finding. The American dream of working up in a classless society has been globalised and exported. There's no end point.
-----
At a net cafe on the weekend, the young guy sitting next to me was shamelessly using Myspace as a dating tool - flicking through lists of eligible-looking girls and sending tentative messages out into the yonder. He was playing the numbers game confidently, messaging at least thirty girls while I watched. It was like personalised spam - sending out questing little messages which could be safely ignored, or at times nibbled at. I wonder if the numbers of relationships have gone up overall as a result of dating sites. The increasing numbers of singles might indicate not, but in that case, what do the massive rise in dating sites signify? Perhaps it's part of this overall restlessness, this fixation on more choice in partners, this awareness of the need for upwards movement in partners.
Much has been written about the vastly increased movement of people in a globalised world, with modern transport effectively shrinking the world into managable chunks of between-time. The discussion generally falls into two camps - glowing reviews of the lives of 'global citizens', nomads with money, the ever-moving creatives and jet-commuting businessmen, contrasted with the unwanted side-effects of movement - 'illegal' immigrants. With a global media increasing its reach across the globe, images of the rich are ever more available to the poor. Is it any surprise that economic migration is skyrocketing? That millions of Mexicans slip over the border to the US? Or that thousands try to find freedom and relative wealth in Australia. The poor are increasingly aware of their poverty - and of the possibility of a better life in a wealthy country. It seems to me that the life of the late modern - in both rich and poor countries - is characterised by a restless opportunism. A job is a temporary place to rest until you move on upwards; with the decline of religion and family as social motivators and constraints, career is the major measuring stick of men, and now women. Opportunism is a refined restlessness, a fixation on choice for rich moderns and an awakening to richer ways of living for the desperate billion scratching out a life under the yoke of corruption, third-world debt and wars, often Western-sponsored (If you haven't read Confessions of an Economic Hitman, please do). In the West, you can see this in the way the word 'settle' is slowly shifting to a negative connotation - to 'settle' for something now means taking an opportunity - a house, a job - as a temporary measure. Settling down, for many, is anathema and instead a neo-nomadism catches us. A million Australians are out of Australia at any one time, a full five percent of our population, and the proportion is far higher for New Zealanders. The job for life era is ending, even in Japan; the relationship for life is passing as divorce rates creep up, travel in all its forms has been democratised for global citizens, and the clamour for fame and recognition has never been greater. I wonder if this is the modern dilemma - seeking is never finding. The American dream of working up in a classless society has been globalised and exported. There's no end point.
-----
At a net cafe on the weekend, the young guy sitting next to me was shamelessly using Myspace as a dating tool - flicking through lists of eligible-looking girls and sending tentative messages out into the yonder. He was playing the numbers game confidently, messaging at least thirty girls while I watched. It was like personalised spam - sending out questing little messages which could be safely ignored, or at times nibbled at. I wonder if the numbers of relationships have gone up overall as a result of dating sites. The increasing numbers of singles might indicate not, but in that case, what do the massive rise in dating sites signify? Perhaps it's part of this overall restlessness, this fixation on more choice in partners, this awareness of the need for upwards movement in partners.
posted by Doug @ 6/21/2006 01:36:00 pm
<< Home