Intro
Saw a lot of homeless people during this trip in Europe, their tents scattered everywhere alongside the riverbank, sidewalk, and parks etc. idk if it’s during the charismas saw a lot kindness giving food or things to them.
One thing I noticed, might be wrong, those are more willing (compared with homeless in US) to use their talents to make living such like dancing, playing music and acrobatics etc. There was a moment walking on a historic street seeing the show surrounded by crowds. It brings me some images overlapped that hundreds or thousands years ago, people are same like that - using own bodies to do labor make self living, acrobats or street entertainer we could call.
But some things changed since industrial revolution, which transform body to capital serving those machine. Further, we don’t even need the body anymore - sitting in front of those screens typing some bullshit and send. That’s better to stay in those factory or building especially during the winter time for sure, but also make our way to sense things aliened.
That’s the most impressive things I felt, during the trip is being there with my body. I don’t know how many times I’ve seen those architectures, paintings and street views via notebook or social media, but it’s totally different to be there, to feel, to embody showing those details and phenomena can’t be represent totally with any kind media we use…
We can’t going back, but what made us to this position.
Educated Rich
Education has long been viewed as a pathway to opportunity, but it has also become a mechanism for reinforcing social stratification. As shown in the chart below, wealth inequality is not only evident between high-wealth and low-wealth groups but also across different levels of educational attainment. The median wealth of families with at least a bachelor’s degree is significantly higher than that of families without one.
Since the 1980s, the skill premium has risen sharply, particularly at the higher end of educational attainment—graduate and professional degrees. Skill-biased technological change has amplified the returns to education and training, benefiting those with advanced skills while leaving others with stagnant or declining wages. This trend was particularly evident during the COVID-19 pandemic, which boosted the fortunes of tech companies and rewarded highly educated workers with relevant skills, while those without such skills faced increasing precarity.
The integration of science and technology into education has further exacerbated inequality. High-income families can afford access to cutting-edge educational tools and institutions, equipping their children with cultural and technological capital that translates into economic advantage. Meanwhile, underfunded schools and limited access to digital resources leave lower-income students at a significant disadvantage, perpetuating cycles of poverty.
Alienation Through Technology
The disconnect extends beyond education and wealth to the very essence of how we experience the world, which I believe is more harmful in the way degrading the human itself. Modern technology has reshaped labor, prioritizing efficiency and intellectual output over embodied, physical engagement. While this has created immense productivity, it has also alienated individuals from their bodies and senses.
Consider the act of walking through a historic city: the uneven cobblestones underfoot, the smell of fresh bread wafting from a bakery, the chill of winter air, and the echoes of street performers. These experiences engage all the senses and create a deep connection to place. Yet, modern technology often reduces these moments to mediated, flattened experiences—photos and videos viewed on a screen. This sensory detachment is emblematic of a broader alienation fostered by technology, where all those labor and body involvement are hidden behind. As someone said, it’s called the intelligence curse - when powerful actors create and implement general intelligence, they will lose their incentives to invest in people.
It recalls Heidegger’s concept of "enframing" that describes how modern technology abstracts and standardizes our relationship with the world, turning it into something to be controlled and optimized, alienating us from being in the world, detaching our organ from body, pleasing them without body, isolating ourself from reality… constructing ourself a fake faith that we know the world better than before.. This abstraction extends to labor, where physical work is increasingly replaced by digital tasks, and even to education, where online learning and standardized testing often fail to capture the richness of embodied understanding.
Educated Wealth and Structural Barriers
In another article I wrote something about character or personality shaped by family in different economic condition, which brought up the concept of habitus explaining how people’s dispositions and ways of thinking are shaped by their social conditions. It highlights how the system operates subtly, shaping individuals’ perceptions and perpetuating inequality. Yet, these systems perpetuate inequality by privileging certain forms of capital—cultural, social, and economic—that are disproportionately accessible to the wealthy.
The more we think of ourselves as self-made and self-sufficient the less likely we are to care about the fate of those less fortunate than us. If I succeeded because I worked hard to achieve it, then the failure of others is the result of their lack of effort. This argument omit we might be the result of a typical social structure reproduction, which we be entitled not by intelligence we owned but someone gave.
As it wrote by Corydon Ireland “If inequality starts anywhere, many scholars agree, it’s with faulty education. Conversely, a strong education can act as the bejeweled key that opens gates through every other aspect of inequality, whether political, economic, racial, judicial, gender- or health-based.” Those benefiting from the system may endorse it consciously or unconsciously. Since they gain wealth and opportunity, they may perceive the system as fair or meritocratic, which could create a disconnect, as it may lead them to overlook structural barriers that prevent others from accessing similar opportunities embodied in their position.
But The only thing people ignore or can’t see is the place we stand is a position.