Western present-mindedness drives a reliance on force to solve problems

Evidence

To many of these desperately poor people, it was as if we in the mainstream West were unable to see that often we were the authors of our own misfortunes. They were diagnosing a weird kind of social senility. It was a diagnosis that in many ways resembled Innis’s conclusion that the West, and particularly the United States, was losing its balance and becoming increasingly blinded by its intense present-mindedness. As a result, it was prone to resort to force to solve its problems. — Harold Innis, The Bias of Communication, 24

Categorization

• XREF: This present-mindedness diagnosis prefigures the reader’s concern with how AI infrastructures encode short-term geopolitical bias. — connects to: Intense present-mindedness makes advanced societies blind to their self-inflicted misfortunes.; Modern Western history moved from time-bias toward space-bias — James W. Carey, Communication as Culture- Essays on…, 621; Ideas and practical life mutually influence each other in a reciprocal interaction — Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, 2169 (+1 more)
• SEED: An essay comparing the ‘social senility’ diagnosis with how data-center and chip-fab investment cycles embody present-mindedness.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Harold Innis, The Bias of Communication, 24

Broader Connections

• Ideas and practical life mutually influence each other in a reciprocal interaction #complicates (0.30) — Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, 2169