Camilo Moreno-Salamanca

A esta manera de concebir el mundo, a la avaricia ilimitada que es el eje sobre el que gira esta forma de vivir, hay que oponerle una ética y, por ende, una estética polarmente distinta. Hay que apelar y construir un sentido común comprometido, solidario y transparente. Ese finalmente es el gran reto que enfrentamos en este tiempo, poder darle... See more

The media theorist Marshall McLuhan once said of technology that every augmentation is also an amputation. We chose our digitally enhanced world. We did not realize the significance of what was being amputated.

For many socially isolated men in particular, for whom reality consists primarily of glowing screens in empty rooms, a vote for destruction is a politics of last resort—a way to leave one’s mark on a world where collective progress, or collective support of any kind, feels impossible.

Like a murder in Clue, the death of social connections in America had any number of suspects. But in the end, I believe the likeliest culprit is obvious. It was Mr. Farnsworth, in the living room, with the tube.

This neededness can come in several forms: social, economic, or communitarian. Our children and partners can depend on us for care or income. Our colleagues can rely on us to finish a project, or to commiserate about an annoying boss. Our religious congregations and weekend poker parties can count on us to fill a pew or bring the dip.

But one source of Trump’s success may be that he is an avatar of the all-tribe, no-village style of performative confrontation. He stokes out-group animosity, and speaks to voters who are furiously intolerant of political difference.

Diego Saez Gil: The Zen Tree Hugger - Piece profiling the CEO of Pachama, Diego Saez Gil

“In his own variation of Eat, Pray, Love, Diego went to the Amazon and spent time in a Buddhist Monastery in Thailand. It was in the Amazon that Diego observed deforestation first hand; the scene left an indelible impression. 

The pieces of a dreadful puzzle

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The real problem here, the nature of America’s social crisis, is that most Americans don’t seem to be reacting to the biological cue to spend more time with other people.