We live in epidemic social systems. We’ve replaced a public sphere of institutions focused on…

We live in epidemic social systems. We’ve replaced a public sphere of institutions focused on multi-generational, often invisible action on collective problems, with a daily, even hourly, ‘viral’ spread of faddish ideas and enthusiasms. /1 https://t.co/Z16wVSJWyZ

Society has been replaced by ‘trending’ enthusiasms. Of course we’ve always had fashions and fads, but never before have we transformed the basic operating system of society into repeated, viral epidemic waves. Now whether we do a basic thing like control spread…/2

…of a virus comes down to whether that idea trends. And it will never trend for long, because other enthusiasms will take over. There’s no hierarchy in the enthusiasms, any distraction will do. A movement towards virus control is easily supplanted by a celebrity’s dog video. /3

Maybe ‘living with’ an epidemic pathogen doesn’t seem ridiculous to more of us, because that’s how we already live. In daily, hourly waves of epidemic enthusiasm. They’re over there —-> on the RHS of your feed. Trending. /end (Image courtesy Fleishmanhillard)