Two comments I wanted to make about recent posts.
a) In my opinion, the popularity of the Lord of the Rings movies has to with 1) the quality of the cinematic craft (surface reason) and 2) the clear cut differentiation between good and bad characters (deeper reason). This binary is very reassuring in present times. People can also see corollaries between this notion and the world they inhabit now (of course aligning themselves with the "good" characters).
b) The merits of technology and technological change really depend on the ethical ends one is trying to achieve. Technology is neutral. It is the purpose that it is being put to use thaty counts. To me is the goal is fisrt, equitable distribution of and access to technology. Secondly, one has to insure that the technology is then used in a compassionate and not destructive way. Advancement untethered to ethics (which is the general state of the world today) is what causes the deepest problems.
Brian Dauth Queer Buddhist Resister