FRIED CHICKEN AND MODERN TECHNOLOGY

I awoke yesterday at 4am and realized it's been too long since I last had fried chicken. Living in the US has made me a borderline vegetarian these past few years, following the continual revelations of horrifying meat factory conditions here. Widespread unethical business practices in the US also extends to halal distributors, which makes eating more fruit and salads and the occasional salmon the more desirable option for me now. Can't complain, since I've always consumed a lot of fruit and veg anyway.

So I went over to the Northeastern campus where the closest Popeye's to me is, and ordered six pieces of their chicken tenders. I figured that six is a reasonable amount for anything you're not eating consistently, and on a scale of ascetic and piggish, six falls right in the middle. Glancing over, I observed the older Hispanic lady absently sweep with her tongs pieces of chicken from the display warmer thing into a box so that they tumbled into it in rapid succession. It was only when I reached home that I saw that the box contained twelve pieces of fried chicken. My first fried chicken in about five months and I get rewarded with a mound of the stuff! I hope it's not contaminated.

In other news :

Facebook turns out to be a dangerous, exploitative technological tool and people are shocked, despite brilliant minds going to great lengths to spell it out for the masses, from George Orwell to Aldous Huxley to Ray Bradbury to Ted Kaczynski, who is currently serving eight life sentences in federal prison for crimes fueled by his extreme opposition to modern technology. 

Sean Parker, co-founder of Facebook came out back in November to acknowledge that the "site was made to exploit human vulnerability" and "God only knows what it's doing to our children's brains." A month later, spurred by his guilty conscience, former Facebook Vice President, Chamath Palihapitiya echoed Parker's "regret" in being involved in a self and socially destructive social network, admitting that he rarely used Facebook and doesn't let his children use "that shit." He  also stressed that it's not an American problem, but a global problem. 

Yet these major tech companies, including Uber, who is on a determined mission to win the award for Most Unethical Company of all Unethical Companies, and Tinder are all founded in the US, growing unimpeded by any real restrictions or moral obligation due to the absence of wisdom. Regrets might come later and after they've made their millions for those who get the entire world excited and eager to buy more into the emptiness that those riding the technology wave are selling, with disastrous consequences. The compliant masses are part of the problem as well if they lap up everything that's marketed to them and allow their emotional state to be so easily influenced. But responsibility starts with entrepreneurs and innovators who think every idea should be pursued so they can have their moment, instead of recognizing a dangerous idea and burying it.

Here is what extreme individualism and disdain for any real guidance looks like, because the need to do whatever I want is of the utmost importance. All those great thinkers who felt an obligation to society and warned them of a bleak future are just useful for quoting in useless reflective news op-eds now. This is the way it is done in the US, and perhaps the rest of the world follows suit. Be "free" now, and complain later after the damage is done and irreversible.