Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,
What happens when optimization is itself the point of failure?
In today's zeitgeist, everything must be optimized or we'll fail:our time, productivity, fitness, diet, supplements, career, income, wealth--everything must be constantly optimized lest we fall behind or fail.
The grand irony is optimization generates fragility which generates failure which generates denial which eventually generates rage.We've optimized global supply chains for efficiency and cost, rendering them exquisitely vulnerable to disruption and collapse. We've optimized the global economy for "growth" based on expanding consumption of energy and everything that depends on energy, which is everything.
To fund this endless expansion of consumption, everyone must borrow more money to buy more than their income allows. To enable this endless expansion of debt, money must be nearly free to borrow after adjusting for inflation.
The irony here is when money has no cost, it's squandered on excess consumption or speculation.The incentive to borrow and spend / invest wisely is that borrowing money has a high cost. Reduce the cost to boost borrowing / consumption / speculation and you create credit-asset bubbles and households, enterprises and governments one mis-step from insolvency.
Optimization raises expectations to lofty heights.The promise of optimization is endless--there's no limit to optimization, and so there's no limit to technology, profits, health, wealth and prosperity. If we keep optimizing, everything becomes possible. By tweaking technology and finance, we can endlessly expand consumption and wealth.
The mindset this generates is: follow the rules of optimization and you'll enjoy all the benefits of success.Optimize your career by borrowing a small fortune to obtain a university diploma, chase theNext Big Thing, optimize your engagement, visibility, and the buzzword du jour, and all the good things in life will be within reach.
The expectations are as fragile as the system they rely on.We've been taught that "our vote counts," that democracy means we have a say in collective decisions via representatives we elect. We've been taught we haveagency--control of our destiny: work hard, work smart, optimize work flows and innovation, and anyone can be a startup founder who cashes out with millions of dollars--and thehigh agencythat comes fromhigh visibility.
Except all of this that's presented as stable, trustworthy, predictable and real is fragile, unstable and artificial--simulations of stability, trust and predictability. The belief that this vast system of mythologies, beliefs and "the real world" is as it's presented iscivilizational psychosis, a self-reinforcing state of denial in which some new innovation / optimization will "solve" whatever problems arise.
Source: ZeroHedge News
