Marina
Gorbis -The Nature of the Future: Dispatches from the Socialstructed World
What I like about the
Book – It’s Definitely Thought Provoking
Ms Gorbis provides readers insights into how people with
limited means can survive in a socioeconomic environment without having access
to high monetary income, social status, institutional backing or education.
Gorbis begins the book citing her own childhood while living in the former
Soviet Union. Gorbis came from a family of limited means. Her mother was a
widow and without much of an income. However, her mother successfully developed
unconventional logistics and social networks to acquire products, goods,
services and education most often enjoyed by middle class
families in her former country.
Gorbis identifies a number of unconventional means normal people can leverage to navigate challenging economic, social and educational barriers to achieve goals.
families in her former country.
Gorbis identifies a number of unconventional means normal people can leverage to navigate challenging economic, social and educational barriers to achieve goals.
I also like how she identifies other economic systems I’ve
seldom given thought too outside the normal transactional or bartering systems,
such as sharing and gifting economic systems.
What Bothers Me About
the Book
I’ve questions I hope to eventually submit to Ms Gorbis at
some point. While the purpose of her book and observations is to
document and reveal how people can adapt to survive in challenging
circumstances, Gorbis appears to highlight the negative impacts of technology
that are forcing people to have to resort to unconventional means to survive…not
become wealthy...but just to survive. I have to ask myself, is the American
Dream is gone?
She describes how technology is leading to a loss of jobs and
people’s ability to survive in ways many of us may consider conventional…such
as having a steady job, saving for retirement, etc. Instead, Gorbis makes many
references to how TRIBEs survive…when I think of tribes I think of the word primitive…just
getting by and surviving. I underscore my understanding of this because her
frequent references to primitive cultures throughout the first three chapters.
I definitely recommend reading this book. I don’t think the
number of Amazon comments do Ms Gorbis justice. What she identifies is very
much worth understanding because of what I see are huge implications for
American society and our way of life, as we know it- a mixed blessing. One may
feel hopeful because it shows how humans can adapt and survive. It seems also
comes across as depressing to me as it seems our technological world is
actually leading to a degeneration of American society towards socialism.
I close this post with mixed feelings and let you judge her findings
yourself. You can find out more about MsGorbis’s book on Amazon.
Cheers 
updated: 17Feb16
updated: 17Feb16
