Interpersonal Relations

"It is important to understand that the structure of capitalism itself is caught up in this process of distancing us from production and from producers. Marx saw this as a problem of human relations becoming more 'thing-like,' with attendant negative effects in the social realm..."

It's funny to me that people try to distract us from the real issue at hand. People in government and elsewhere point fingers at the internet and other technology as the cause of "more 'thing-like'" relations. Yet, think about a time before the internet, computers, and phones. People couldn't travel far very often; they had letter correspondences. Isn't this type of relation just as equally distanced as the type we have today? Today, people use the internet or telephones to communicate with people nearby, yes, but they also see those people on a daily or weekly basis. (For example, I make dinner plans or movie plans through cell phones, email, AIM, or Facebook.) But people are also communicating with people who they would never see normally because they live extremely far away. This is just the same as using snail mail to communicate at long distances, right? I mean, a long time ago, people were limited by modes of travel like cars and planes, so what has become "nearby" has probably expanded, but, overall, have our interpersonal relations changed that much? I would argue, in fact, that various forms of technology have allowed us to keep in contact with greater quantities of people than ever before.

Yet, people still try to point fingers at technology as being a detriment to society. And why do you think that is? Perhaps so that they can distract from the real social detriment--capitalism? Imagine if we knew that our shirt was made by child labor or that nonhuman animals were tortured so that we could eat eggs. We might be moved to protest, boycott, or change the system. Capitalism removes us from all of that. We are unable to have compassion for processes we do not see; we cannot walk in another being's shoes if we cannot see that being. And, as a result, we have lost our being-ity (my non-speciesist word for humanity). Isn't it funny, then, that the forces that argue that technology is hurting us are the very forces that benefit from a capitalist society?