Society and Abstraction

Doesn't this society we live in feel deeply wrong?

We live in a society that values abstraction over human dignity.

Publicly traded companies are legally required to act with fiduciary duty to its shareholders. The raising of stock prices to increase the return on their investments. This is stock primacy, which conflicts with providing fair, good, and quality services. Extraction becomes the driver of growth.

As someone once said, "The business of business is business."

We have United Healthcare, a health insurance company that is publicly traded. Many people in precarious, vulnerable scenarios reading the denial of coverage letter under crushing weight and anxiety. Algorithms deciding if medical care is "necessary" (https://www.statnews.com/2025/02/13/lawsuit-unitedhealth-artificial-intelligence-care-denials-medicare-advantage-moves-forward/)

Why is extraction against the sick and vulnerable accepted?

Our society just approved the Big Beautiful Bill in the senate, significantly increasing the barriers to access to medicaid. The loss of healthcare for many Americans was described as "minutiae" by our Vice President.

People will die from this decision, but the dignity of our fellow Americans are casted as an irrelevant detail.

Why are we cutting universal social goods to fund ICE?

We live in an era of unprecedented exchange of information. Almost everyone is chronically available.

But we are more alone than ever.

We reduce others to abstract profiles on dating apps to swipe "yes" or "no" against. Isn't that gross?

As a society, we worship abstractions and will do anything to avoid witnessing the humanity of our people.

I go to work each day as a data engineer. All I do is maintain our data infrastructure, create data models, and write data pipelines to connect critical third-party data to our warehouse. I yeet data to the void, and then I forget it and pick up the next ticket. My output is not physical. All it does is enable reporting for some analyst.

There once was a time where I felt such deep passion and love for programming at work. But now I don't. Why would I deeply care if at any moment I can get laid off, even if I put my heart, soul, and passion into my work? Speed of delivery is valued over quality. To be an exceptional engineer, I am expected to "take ownership" and "have a product owner mindset." Why would I deeply care if I never am rewarded for selling my extra time, energy, and craft to my job?

I am buried underneath layers of bureaucratic abstraction.

Just like another team, I could get off the happy hour meeting on Friday, happy and connected, and return to work on Monday to an impersonal layoff email. Security is a lie.

Nothing I do matters existentially. I am completely divorced from reality.

In other words, alienated.

This is by design.

Doesn't it feel wrong that we live in a society where any proposal to fund affordable healthcare programs always faces the same question: "But who will pay for it?"

Why is this even a question? Why do social goods that enable progress and achievement for our people face more scrutiny than military funding?

Simone Weil discussed how modern life worships money as the primary idol. In her eyes, at least kings were real. We now find ourselves even more immersed in the temple of wealth, and systematic dehumanization across policy, technology, and corporate decisions are the pillars.

I wish I could close this fragment with some moral revelation, some insight, or some refusal to enage in these systems. But even in the case where I buy land to live off-grid and homestead, I am still beholden to this society I was born into. Things would be much better, yes. But our country would still descend further each day.

Maybe there is value in recognizing the limits of one's own power. This is not resignation; rather, to radically resist in the greatest capacity as an individual is the highest protest possible.

And I am not suggesting that everyone should do this. All I simply wish is for our humanity.

Doesn't it feel deeply wrong that I live in a society where I must write that down?

All I can do is keep my soul intact. This is rebellion.