(Up to: Society And Control )

I believe that we - the majority of Western civilisation, although I aim my remarks mostly at the attitudes presented of the US and the UK - are in the process of becoming a "lazy population", or "pandered state". By this, I mean that large portions of people are losing control of their own environment, but so long as they are kept comfortable, then they are happy with it. In my opinion, this is wrong as it:

1. creates a society of individuals with no responsibility, and that expect others to take care of things that they could otherwise handle
2. moves the domain of control, i.e. who has power over society, to those that provide services
3. puts an emphasis on those providing the services to fulfil everyone's needs
4. restricts overall enhancement and progress of society by keeping everything at a base level that needs to be accomplished

This, I think, comes down to several causes, all of which are (naturally) intertwined, and interdependent. A rough outline of these:

• A common perception that services, commodities, and improvements can be bought at any price, either now or in the near future
• An attitude that "things just work" in the favour of the consumer, i.e. they don't break down and they do what the consumer expects
• Those that provide services et al actually imposing their products on consumers, thus a one-directional exchange of expectation - companies want to sell goods to consumers, so they have to sell the illusion that everything is exactly that which is wanted
• A furthering of marketing into the realm of desire, experience and stakes, i.e. as products are tuned in more with lifestyles and emotions, their contrariness to this when they either break, or just don't live up to it, shatters this "illusion" that has been sold to consumers.

All of this results in a place in which the consumer expects to be able to buy perfection, and thus blames those who should be providing it when it does not happen.

To emerge from this environment of expectation, we need to focus more and more on decentralisation, participation, and people actually doing something and contributing, rather than waiting for somebody else to do it. I don't think we should clamour for or expect a return to pre-expectation days, before globalisation and mass production, but I think that we should aim for a 'compromise' that builds on a combination of both large scale organisation, and decentralised action.

There are some examples of this in play already:

• The open source movement
• Simple-to-use publishing technology such as blogs and wikis

(See also: Language To Control Fears )