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Culture War Roundup for the week of March 11, 2024

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There's definitely something to this. It's just hard to pin down what exactly went wrong. It feels to me like one of those "seeing like a state" things, where the traditional local system gets regulated into something that almost works, but it's a disaster.

Take the cake example. We never really needed cake. If it's really such a burden to bake a cake, you could simply... not bake it, and be fine (or even healthier, if you're eating too many sweets).

What we do need though, is social ties with our community. And one way to do that is to have a party, where you invite all the neighbors over to have cake with you, because a cake was this big special treat and you have to eat it when it's fresh. Maybe you also borrow a cup of sugar or something from them to help make it. And then maybe they reciprocate by inviting you over for cake next week, or something. This might look completely frivolus, like it's just housewives wasting time gossiping and eating sweets (and uh, sometimes it is just that...) but it also means you've got people to help with something more serious. Or just, you know, real people to socialize with on an equal basis, instead of passively consuming content from famous people. Apparently this kind of banqueting the yields has been a common part of human society since forever. And now, by making everyone more self-sufficient, we've lost that kind of social capital. Nobody is going to come over for a cake party if they can buy themselves a betty crocker cake for cheap and make it while they watch TV, or door-dash themselves a fancy bakery cake.