Thread by @Sanilac_J

ROOT ROT

Society, like an orchard, can sicken for different reasons. The cure depends on what those reasons are. Sometimes it just needs a little pruning, fertilizer, or spray. But what if our society is afflicted by the worst of the worst? What if it has root rot?

I define root rot as a disease where the fundamental virtues necessary for a society to self-correct are corrupted or destroyed, such that cultural criticism can no longer improve its health. Let's think about whether our society might be suffering from this disease.

You wouldn't (intentionally) send your kid to a school that taught him lies and trained him in bad habits, because you'd expect it to harm his character. However, this is exactly what our society has been doing for years.

Root rot.

Not only at school. Our entertainment and advertisements and politics are all full of lies and pandering. And a lifetime of exposure to lies and pandering affects beliefs, habits, and character. Eventually all this has an effect.

Root rot.

This isn't just a list of grumpy complaints about the modern world. To determine the cure you have to identify the disease. Otherwise you'll waste time and energy with fixes that simply can't have any impact.

(Here's a pretty tree to remind you how good things COULD be.)

Sometimes you drive past an orchard that looked perfectly fine a few weeks ago. Yet suddenly most of the trees are dead, and a while later the farmer tears them all out. Why didn't he just prune them and spray off the bugs? Because it wouldn't work. Root rot.

If people are deluded by a few surface-level lies and illusions, it's possible to dispel them by talking them through and presenting the facts. But if people have bad mental and emotional habits on the most basic level, this stops working.

Root rot.

Today's information economy has corrupted the public's sensibilities and virtues to the point that they no longer have the capacity for honest self-reflection. And this makes cultural engagement at the level of flowers and branches a waste of time.

Today surface fixes that made sense in the past just don't land. And the right diagnosis is the most unpopular of all. Who wants to hear that their basic habits have sickened? Nobody. They'll send you packing and go back to the panderers.

Root rot. Usually, it's terminal.