Psychological critiques of modernity are in my opinion the strongest criticisms of modern life (relative to sociological/philosophical/religious objections) and have quite a history, starting with Freud's "Civilization and its Discontents". But one frustrating commonality among these analyses is the difficulty of turning any of the insights into practical policy proposals.
I like this quote:
>A better (empirically more accurate and psychologically healthier) model of self-determination is, I think, akin to our understanding of human linguistic abilities. The capacity to use language is perhaps the single most liberating characteristic of human beings. It frees people in significant ways from the temporal and material limitations that afflict other organisms. People can say anything about anything, at any time, or in any place--even things, times, and places that have never existed--and they can be understood. Therefore, language is probably as vivid an embodiment of human freedom and self-determination as anything. But what decades of re- search on language ability have made clear is that the thing that makes the liberating features of language possible is that language is heavily constrained by rules. The reason people can say anything and be understood is that they can't say everything. It is linguistic constraint, in the form of these rules, that makes linguistic freedom possible.
I like this quote:
>A better (empirically more accurate and psychologically healthier) model of self-determination is, I think, akin to our understanding of human linguistic abilities. The capacity to use language is perhaps the single most liberating characteristic of human beings. It frees people in significant ways from the temporal and material limitations that afflict other organisms. People can say anything about anything, at any time, or in any place--even things, times, and places that have never existed--and they can be understood. Therefore, language is probably as vivid an embodiment of human freedom and self-determination as anything. But what decades of re- search on language ability have made clear is that the thing that makes the liberating features of language possible is that language is heavily constrained by rules. The reason people can say anything and be understood is that they can't say everything. It is linguistic constraint, in the form of these rules, that makes linguistic freedom possible.