Future Anacronisms

[Jimmie Higgins]

So what do you think people in some future stateless, classless society, might think is most bizarre about culture or customs in the 20th and early 21st century. I'd imagine things like being "forced" to go to school would see strange for a society where people learn for free and mostly on the basis of their own interests. I'd also imagine that traffic-jams would seem completely absurd to people who organize production on their schedule rather than organizing their lives around a production schedule as it is today. I mean I'm sure that racism and sexism and the whole idea of having some people capable of relatively unchecked power over others would seem totally alien and as strange to people as slavery seems to a class of 2nd graders today. But I'm also curious about what you think people might find bizzare but is relatively innocuous or just too ubiquitous to question today.

I was thinking about this while I was recently re-reading "Vivia La Revolution" and thinking about all the feudal customs and regulations that are totally bizarre and absurd to modern "common sense". I especially like that the king had a special pillow he had to sit on in order to make official decrees.

[thefinalmarch]

Probably the fact that billions all over the world either accepted or were blind to the daylight robbery of their wages. I mean, it says a lot that I walked past an advertisement today for some charity which proudly exclaimed that it pays its [homeless and poor] workers a whole 50% of what they make. Even having considered myself a Marxist for a couple of years now, I was/am still shocked at the degree of exploitation in everyday life. Reading threads on revleft about exploitation and wage-slavery is one thing, but having to see what that means in reality is something else entirely. I'll be getting my somewhat belated first job this year (I'm 16), and I can tell you now that the future looks rather shit, to be blunt. I think many people (today, as well as in a future communist society) would be surprised to know that it is/was absolutely the norm to have a good 80-90% of what you produce stolen by your boss.

[Susurrus]

That people voted to deregulate business and decrease taxes on the rich, that the "land of the free" worshiped a "lord," and that people thought that politicians worked for them.

[Libertador]

That we should enslave ourselves as we so do.

[praxis1966]

It's a bit difficult to say what specific practices might be considered bizarre (especially since the OP ganked a bunch of them already lol), but certain situations I can see. I may have my numbers wrong (and TheRedSon can correct me on these) but I think there are like 15,000 homeless people in the city of San Francisco and 30,000 vacant homes... What possibly is the logic behind that completely escapes me.

[A Revolutionary Tool]

War.

[thesadmafioso]

The entire machine of bourgeois cultural hegemony and all of its manifestations. I can't see television shows like "Cribs" or "Jersey Shore" aging very well in a classless society.

[Pretty Flaco]

Hardcore drugs. They'd be like, why in the FUCK would anyone ever do meth or crack? :blink:
But I guess folks today from nicer areas already think that.

[Lenina Rosenweg]

Our society today is based on competition for survival. If you don't "produce", that is make something by which your employer can make a profit, your ability to engage in physical survival becomes severely circumscribed. "He who does not work, neither shall he eat". Most likely much of the basic root assumptions of capitalist society will be incomprehensible.

The need to learn a skill or do something which can be of help to others, "socially necessary labor" will be always with us but the need to "market" oneself, the concept of brands or "branding", status symbol commodities such as cars, sneakers, or the latest and most expensive electronic toys will seem absurd. There probably will be some form of status or prestige but this may be more derived from one's ability or willingness to help others.

Things that will seem absurd:

Real estate brokers and the entire concept of "real estate".
Lawyers, barristers, and most of the legal profession.
The entire financial sector-brokers, hedge fund managers, most bankers.
The entire advertising industry.
Managers, anyone who's job is to boss workers.
Prison guards and most of the "corrective" penal system..to the dustbin of history!
Police, to be replaced by a worker's/citizen's militia.
CEO's, CFO's etc.
Virtually all US television, especially game shows and reality TV.

There won't be a class based culture divide.(This has always been more of a myth anyway) A socialist society will value culture and learning but "high brow" culture will no longer be a class symbol and will be freely available to all.High culture such as classical music,opera, Elizabethan drama will not be presented as a preserve of "rich kids" but will be available to and participated in by everyone.Culture will be intellectual but also very earthy. The concept of both NPR and country music stations will seem absurd.

All TV commercials, Jersey Shore, To Find A Bachelor,and Donald Trump's shows will be either incomprehensible or be seen as hysterically funny.

Academia as we know it, a preserve of highly insular intellectuals who dedicate their lives to study one narrow area, won't exist.We won't have the absurd degree system or university entrance system. Instead learning and the life of the mind will be freely available to anyone who wants or needs it, for as long or as briefly as they want it.

Going to school for 12 years to get a medical degree will seem absurd. The "tyranny of the professions" will be ended.

Homophobia and discrimination against people because of the way they like to get their rocks off, or not, will seem incomprehensible.

I would like to say racism will seem absurd, but sadly I feel that will take longer to eradicate. It will disappear though.

Religions and some type of spirituality will always be with us but fundamentalism will seem absurd.

[Black Sheep]

Man, i catch myself thinking exactly about that, too often.. About things and problems the solutions of which look a bit tedious,too tedious to stick around for long.

Lol, imagine dude... back in the early 21st century...
-they poured fossil fuel into their vehicles for transportation! lol! they had these internal combustion engines that burned the fuel and pumped out smoke and pollution!
-they had to download these things called "drivers" so that a peripheral device could work
-their defence against microbes was injecting themselves with pieces of deadly microorganisms! Neanderthals!
-they had to wait for months to grow food
-their computation capabilities were limited by time&space complexity!
-they listened to gangsta rap, beat and techno! lol, those tribal primmies!
-they used canes to walk around
-they had these ancient methods of adjusting environment temperature like fans and air conditioners
-they used concrete and bricks to construct their buildings

[Lenina Rosenweg]

It was brought to my attention that I should have added "transphobia" in my list of future anachronisms.