Benjamin Cain
1 min readMar 13, 2021

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Indeed, this is one of the benefits of a free market, the freedom of thought and of speech. The benefit is at least partially negated, though, by the technological advances and the corporate domination in such markets, which infantilize the consumers, reducing our attention spans so that most of this freely produced speech is like the water that rolls off the duck's back, getting lost in a sea of disposable contents on the internet and in social media.

This is also like the vast array of products that are available at the free market. On the one hand, you're thankful for the variety. On the other, you begin to feel queasy and uneasy, overwhelmed by the choice and unsure there's any deeper meaning in your selection. This is the infamous malaise or ennui of modernity that follows from our individual freedom, and it's one of the downsides of these environments.

So we're free to speak our mind, and we're also free to wonder whether anything we say or do has any deep meaning. As I say in the article below, our freedom is a type of free fall. See also the second one on the anguish of late-modern artists and the high-tech trivialization of content:

https://medium.com/the-apeiron-blog/godless-honour-and-the-free-fall-of-liberty-36e1f5e82dfb?source=friends_link&sk=7f03abcf2e47ba1c9d71c69a0a9655dc

https://medium.com/the-apeiron-blog/modernity-and-the-anguish-of-artists-ef7ab7664313?sk=9a9b25f1c868913648b93b3274a32b00

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Benjamin Cain
Benjamin Cain

Written by Benjamin Cain

Ph.D. in philosophy / Knowledge condemns. Art redeems. / https://benjamincain.substack.com / https://ko-fi.com/benjamincain / benjamincain8@gmailDOTcom

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