Farewell to the Simple Society, Ole Grünbaum
Wednesday, March 30th, 2005This is an attempt of a transcript of Ole Grünbaum’s talk, “Farewell to the Simple Society” adressed to the FDIH general meeting march 30th 2005. I’m blogging it because if think he makes an interesting point - not because i totally belive what he says. As always it’s a simplified narrative to fit a talk or a book. Also it can be said that’s it’s writing to prove your own points 40 years ago and how they we’re right - at least that was the initial reacting by some of the older people hearing his talk. I’m not sure that’s his intention though. My biggest critisism would be that the Danish 60’s movement definately meant a lot, but it was the personal computer movement that grew out of California that ended being the vehicle for the change - i don’t remember a lot of progressives from 1968 starting personal computer companies 
“I want to talk about the individual in the world and the world in the individual. It has been a fascinating story in that area the last decades. I’ve been an IT journalist for 20 years since i got a computer in the beginning of the 80’s, but before that i was a part of the 60’s underground movement - but to me it’s the same - it’s about the individual and it’s freedom. It’s about choices. It’s about getting away from a monoculture.
In Denmark salad in the 60’s we’re three pieces of salad and a sliced tomato - danish monoculture . An one had to go to paris if you wanted to go to a cafe or have a decent salad.
A lot has happened since.
To me it’s all about the individual’s freedom. The balance between the individual and society. Henry my dad is 93 - some amazing changes happened in his first 60 years - the availability of flights, electriticity, radio and tv. Gigantic changes in the first 50-60 years of his life.
What has happened since is digital technology. But it isn’t very visible since it isn’t physical - the changes are happening within people. Some people like to show the youth today are selfish, narcissistic, doesn’t respect others, etc. We get the picture that the world is going in the wrong direction because we’re individualistic and it all was better in the good old days.
A lot of it is piss - it was a terrible time back then. For a starter you couldn’t get decent salad . The youths don’t believe the stories one can tell from the 50’s. An example is that in 1963 i published a high school magazine with Ulla Dallerup who wrote an article stating that young girls from the age 15 should be able to go the school doctor and get prevention. It caused a great prevention debate in the media - the country was divided.
The sixties movement won. Even the Danish Premier Minister has stated to me that “I know that society wouldn’t be as fun today if it hadn’t been for the 60’s uproar”
Not that the 60’s movement hasn’t its faults - an example would be the romanticization of “the people” concept. “The people” would come and change everything. That was when there was “the people” - we’re all the people now - there’s just “us”. “The people” is a one dimensional concept. When denmark went from a monarchy to a democracy it wasn’t a big change - because the people in power was smart - they moved to the inner circle - the political and business society. And so it happened that culture changed, business and politics didn’t.
What’s new in this time is that we can’t find “power” anywhere. Working against the power is difficult, especially when the power is within yourself. Un till the 70’s that was what it was like - you had the physical fences/infrastructure to show the power - then the walls fell.
The national monopolistic capitalism had a network of doctors, rectors, judges and businessmen. It was a closed network around keeping people down - without business or politics changing.
The youths today are growing up in a free space - we’re almost seeing the emergence of “the new individual”. We lived in a society were the model was that the youths couldn’t go to the city and play in a orchestra - we kept people in the villages. It’s that logic which has been abandoned.
I saw it when computers came. The mouse - all it people laughed at the mouse and called it a play thing. What i saw when i started writing was that there was a cultural fight between the personal computer and the mainframe - it’s a constant battle. We talk a lot about decentralization - but the same technology can be used for centralization. One guy in pentagon can control a five person group across the globe. It’s both ways.
The individual is the biggest force in the world today. I don’t salute it, it’s for bad or worse. But that’s the force.
Nobody understands society today. A couple of years i sat down to try and understand the biggest theoreticians to understand what’s happening - and i only realized one thing - nobody knows it. You can’t even read science fiction - just watching CNN is way more sci-fi like. Individualism has been a negative word in intellectual circles even up in the 80’s. The change on a global level is gonna happen from grass roots organizations - like the open source movement - individuals also has societies.
The state has a serious problem. It’s vibrating so quickly now that everyone negotiates meaning with each other all the time. what’s mainstream and underground is impossible to distinguish between. We live in a “cluttered” world - the organic perspective was totally out in the 70’s, now it’s something that everyone can talk about - we take it for granted. The acceptance of gay people didn’t happen in the 60’s - it happened much later.
It’s amazing changes that has happened in the change to respect of the individuals choice. But nobody knows we’re were heading. With computer technology capitalism has reinvented itself - it’s not the power elite keeping people down. We talk about the network society - hierarchies of networks - networks of hierarchies. We have all societies at the same time.
The individuals are expressing themselves like never before whether it’s through business, culture, etc. How is it all gonna end. I don’t know.
But i’ve always seen in my own life that we life in two worlds. From we breathe for the first time we’re a part of society - but just to live is something in itself, which is not a part of society. The greatest reality is that we’re a part of our own life. That’s reality - the world can’t be frustrated or unhappy - the world can’t feel anything - we can’t see it - it’s a context - it’s only individuals who are something. I like the concept of self realization - i like the expression - even though all intellectuals as debunking it as bullshit - but it’s like when we said that babies didn’t smile - even though any parent would be able to prove them otherwise.
We aren’t just empty vessels that society can build upon - we’re built with potential. We all have an aim to realize our own potential - we try and somethings we resonate and stop for a while - but the barrier the to resonate has changed. That’s what i am seeing in business and technology. The internet has succeed not because it had the best technology - it succeeded because it was most effect full at unleashing the individuals potential.
We live in a metropolis - a city where the whole world is present. I believe that diversity is the key to richness. The new project that we need to thrive and to make money is to make the point that we are a metropolis and that we should be it.
There’s no end to this - we’re just at the beginning.”