The Privilege of Collapse

Our species may become extinct, but we will never again be cavemen.

“Tolerance and apathy are the last virtues of a dying society.” —Aristotle

Some ideas are off-limits to most ideological cliques. For democrats, conservatives, neoconservatives, neoliberals, well-informed social democrats, Marxists, young, hip communists, religious fanatics, business people, millionaires and billionaires, etc., overpopulation, degrowth, overshoot, the polycrisis, ecological destruction, climate change, global heating, peak oil, pollution, and “the sixth extinction” are boring, taboo subjects, only a minority of doomers concern themselves with. “Fuck doomers” sums up their attitude towards people who are concerned with existential risks. 

“Idiot! Tree hugger! You have benefited from modern techno-industrial fossil-fueled liberal economics and political philosophy your whole life! Now that you’ve had fun and enjoyed consumer culture, you want to deny what you’ve had to others.” —True Believer

For the true believer, salvation comes from the progress of God. Progress is, of course, the ability to produce and enjoy more stuff.

The world is an illusion, a simulation, a place we enjoy before purgatory, heaven, or hell. If we behave well, we’ll do well enough. It’s best not to ask too many questions. Our Masters will take good care of us.

People who have worked hard to succeed in our modern techno-industrial, competitive, and expansive world will fight to maintain that world. They aren’t about to give it up. They have learned what it takes to succeed and will fight for recognition.

For true believers, the answer is always more growth. India, China, Africa, and South America should be allowed to rise to the standard of living experienced by upper-middle-class and wealthy Americans. (But not if they are too competitive. The American Empire knows best. If we are not competitive with our rivals, we kill them.) The competition for what nation or alliances control resources and economic growth is a serious business. At the very least, the world should remain exploitable so that the affluent West can maintain its standard of living and allow its wealthy elite to become even richer. The West sets the standard and knows what’s best for the world. Get with the program, and the West will take care of you. You’ll be able to shop like a millionaire. You owe all the good things in life to Corporate leaders and shareholders. Be thankful; life is short and full of bread and circuses for those who play along, for the superfans who understand the values the Players advocate.

We are motivated by the belief that if we participate in The Great Game on some level, work hard, and fight, we might become one of the few members of society that controls most of the wealth and resources in the world—thinking this gives us a reason to get out of bed in the morning. Success automatically presupposes that we know what’s best for everyone; it validates us. Buy a lottery ticket, borrow money for an Ivy League education, and fight to get to the top; you can be a winner and an elite Player at the top of The Great Game.

There is ample evidence to support the benefits of our particular ways of achieving economic growth. People have more things. Even people in less affluent countries have smartphones and more consumer goods.

“Read Steven Pinker, and shut the fuck up, Doomer Killjoy!” —True Believer

I get it. I am a white man born in the United States in the 1950s. Although I am not a wealthy Player of The Great Game, I used to provide services to Players and their enterprises and did well enough to live an interesting and exciting life. If a young person says they want to be a Wall Street Banker, I won’t tell them they are evil or crazy. I might suggest some reading. I’m not here to preach, although it can sound that way because I’m convinced that if we managed things differently, people would be much better off. But, you know, we might find ways to avail ourselves of the energy and materials to be a multi-planet consumer culture where keeping score matters most. We can all aspire to be the next Elon Musk. Best of luck, I mean, be a self-made man, a made man—whoops, mixing metaphors.

Like most people, I’m optimistic about some things and pessimistic about others. My optimism depends on the preconditions needed for a desired outcome. If not available, those conditions must be imagined, created, and implemented to initiate a cascade of events and a milieu of thought that can produce something extraordinary. When something radically new emerges, it may not be recognized at first; once it is, it may inspire adverse reactions from people used to the status quo, the customary way of doing things. Familiarity feels safe. Predictability provides us with a sense of security. In the material world, successfully navigating the day’s challenges requires knowing one’s surroundings and how things work. Practicality requires an environment where things fit and function as expected.

The core components of critical thinking, especially those related to evaluating one’s own ideas, thoughts, and feelings, are incredibly challenging to acquire and practice, especially when challenging the status quo. I will discuss this further later on in this post.

Sam is sick and doesn’t know it. His sickness doesn’t let him know he’s got a terminal disease and the world is keeping this knowledge from him. It’s an open secret best ignored.

Americans are proud and privileged people. From the moment Europeans set foot on what we now refer to as Central, North, and South America, it was a race to conquer territory and exploit vast resources. Competition and conquest define The Great Game in the Americas and Eurasia, and it’s been a brutal, rough, and, for some, extremely profitable enterprise. It still is.

America is a privileged nation.

Its Vast and Contiguous Landmass is large and unified, spanning various climates and ecosystems, facilitating internal trade, transportation, and a diverse agricultural base.

The U.S. enjoys a temperate climate suitable for agriculture that supports a dense population. Its abundant, fertile, arable land contributes to food self-sufficiency and export capacity.

Extensive, navigable waterways (e.g., the Mississippi River) have historically facilitated trade, transportation through the Midwest, and economic development. Transcontinental railroads, made possible by fossil fuels, the Industrial Revolution, and global markets, wove the United States into a vast trading network.

America’s geographic isolation from major global conflict zones has shielded the U.S. from the devastation caused by wars that many other nations have experienced. Eurasia gets hammered repeatedly while the U.S. remains protected by oceans and allies, relatively robust and wealthy trading partners with abundant energy resources.

The United States is blessed with vital natural resources and abundant coal, oil, and natural gas reserves that have fueled industrial growth and reduced its reliance on energy imports since it became a republic. Significant deposits of essential minerals like iron ore, copper, and timber underpin manufacturing and infrastructure development.

The U.S. dollar’s dominance in international trade and finance makes it the global reserve currency, granting the U.S. significant economic and political leverage. The global demand for dollar-denominated assets allows the U.S. government to borrow at lower interest rates. The dollar’s centrality in the international financial system enables the U.S. to impose impactful economic sanctions. Countries park their dollars in U.S. markets and treasuries, which help finance U.S. enterprises and defense. It has a central bank. It’s been the wealthiest country in the world for many decades.

The U.S. possesses highly developed, deep, and liquid capital/financial markets that attract global investment and facilitate capital formation. Strong institutions with robust legal frameworks and regulatory bodies foster investor confidence and economic stability. America provides the international legal code of capital that most nations are bound by in one way or another—this is known as “the rules-based order.

Gangs of New York—First Come, First Rule

The U.S. is an innovation hub that promotes a culture of entrepreneurship, which attracts talent and investment and drives technological advancement. It is a nation of immigrants, granting it a constant flow of subservient labor that can be demonized for political purposes despite almost everyone being of immigrant stock.

The concentration of financial institutions and legal expertise creates powerful network effects supporting industries in a self-reinforcing ecosystem.

Despite its flaws, the U.S. boasts a longstanding democratic system with peaceful transitions of power that contribute to stability and investor confidence. A robust legal framework protects property rights, enforces contracts, and promotes a predictable business environment. This gives the U.S. sway and influence over international institutions and alliances, allowing it to shape global norms and policies—“the rules-based order.”

The U.S. hosts many leading universities, attracting global talent and driving research and development. American culture, including music, film, and television, enjoys widespread global popularity, enhancing its soft power.

The U.S. has the world’s most powerful military, which provides security and the ability to project power globally. A network of military bases and alliances worldwide extends U.S. influence and allows for rapid response to crises. Arguably, the U.S. nuclear weapons deterrent is one primary reason we have not experienced another World War until recently, with an ongoing Fifth Generation Warfare simmering and conflicts breaking out in Europe and the Middle East. Many experts in geopolitics and the history of war believe we are already fighting World War III, a war between the Wealthy North and the BRICS.

The above accounting method, which has many advantages for America, is cursory and shallow in assessing its many strengths and privileges. Despite all of its advantages, the U.S. has always been plagued by severe challenges such as income inequality, political polarization, and social issues like racial injustice, healthcare access, and gun violence, to name but a few.

“Economic growth is not a panacea for social problems. In fact, it can often exacerbate them by creating greater inequality and social division.” —Joseph Stiglitz

The U.S. enjoys many privileges contributing to its global standing, but these advantages don’t automatically translate into a problem-free society. I would argue that its “success” has created an ideological and material machine, what Nate Hagens calls The Superorganism, that is omnicidal and threatens the survival of homo sapiens. America is the epitome of a modern, technological, industrial society, a resource and energy-driven beast that grows for the sake of growth like a cancer upon the Earth.

If the United States can’t reform itself, the world is doomed. Much has been written on these subjects, and many organizations and individuals are trying to envision what this transformation might look like.

You must read this classic.

Our way of life, worldview, and thought processes are habits—we take them for granted. Our culture makes sense; our way of doing things has a history and is justified through stories, social structures, institutions, law, religion, and custom. We absorb all of this naturally through our relationships, interactions, and education through the practice of living our lives.

“Tradition is a guide and not a jailer” —W. Somerset Maughamailer

Constraints and limitations allow us to discover and invent new ways of thinking and doing things; they challenge and inspire us to solve puzzles and achieve breakthroughs, transform hopes and dreams into mundane reality, and liberate new potential.

Is it possible to describe limits to imagination? Some are more imaginative than others, but collectively, through the networked interplay of ideas, our imagination may be limitless. And yet, the nature of our consciousness is contained within the limits of our species, and whatever we discover or invent must be but a fraction of what is possible in the grand order of the Universe. Our inherent capacity to think and feel limits whatever powers we imagine God has and our ideas about what the Universe is and how it arose. It is reasonable to believe that our understanding of ourselves, the nature of life on Earth, and our place in the Universe is explainable through science or stories or merely an ephemeral expression of the configuration of constantly evolving and emerging properties of the interplay of energy and matter. Choose a metaphor or turn of phrase. Consolidate your evidence and expound a theory, try to falsify it, and achieve a consensus. Make sense of it all somehow, and rest assured. But still, we don’t know the half of it. We live in a world of limits that will surely end and be transformed into something else.

“To develop a complete mind, study the science of art, study the art of science. Learn how to see. Realize that everything connects to everything else.” —Leonardo da Vinci

I am not a physicist, theoretical mathematician, or mystic. When I contemplate “the void,” time, or infinity, I feel like I’m floating in images and ideas I can’t grasp, buffeted by fleeting feelings of euphoria and terror. I cannot construct models, understand what they would be based on, or comprehend their inherent fragility. Grand ideas are rather vague for me. I feel small and insignificant when I overthink things I can not know, but I am compelled to search for answers anyway.

When an expert physicist describes the work in layperson’s terms, I understand the subject, but my knowledge is still uncomfortably shallow because I still can’t do the math. I could acquire the skills needed if I spent time and energy immersing myself in the culture of science, physics, and maths and perhaps have some confidence in experiencing an original thought. One can say something similar about any domain of expertise that requires time and hard work to comprehend and use. Passionate interests requiring sacrifice and hard work are rewarding in and of themselves—no achievement is necessary.

“The reward for work well done is the opportunity to do more.” —Jonas Salk

Wouldn’t it be fantastic to have one hundred active years to explore various domains of interest and to live in a culture focused on learning? Why focus on education and lifelong learning? It’s crucial to our continued survival and flourishing, and valuing the understanding of Great Nature above all leads to a healthier life for all, including plants and animals. I want to live in a world of loving people devoted to life where everything is sacred.

“A nation's culture resides in the hearts and in the soul of its people.” —Mahatma Gandhi

Imagine a world with a population of a billion people where your basic needs were easily provided for, and your culture was devoted to learning about nature and personal growth.

In our new culture, children are treasured; everything is done to make them feel secure and well-loved and to develop their talents.

Children grow up so fast. In our new world, we cherish spending quality time with our children and revere our relationships with them. Caring for children in our community is a joy, a paramount privilege, and a sacred duty.

Imagine we had a “resource-balanced” economy, and our way of life used far fewer resources than it does now. Could we maintain some form of modern industry like Simon Michaux suggests, with sensible, enlightened environmental and material stewardship without ultimately destroying our habitat?

"The economy is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the environment, not the other way around." —Gaylord Nelson

Limits of the Circular Economy

The Circular Economy (CE) is a proposed model for a sustainable industrial ecosystem. It aims to address the flaws of the current Linear Economy, which relies on the continuous consumption of natural resources and the disposal of waste products. However, the CE in its current form is structurally flawed and faces several limitations.

This is one of many such proposals we’d do well to contemplate.

These limitations include:

• Energy Requirements: The CE fails to fully account for industrialization’s energy requirements. While it advocates for renewable energy sources, it does not adequately consider the energy needed to construct and maintain a renewable energy infrastructure, which relies heavily on fossil fuels.

• Energy Returned on Energy Invested (ERoEI): The ERoEI for renewable energy systems is generally lower than that of fossil fuels, implying that more energy is needed to produce the same amount of usable energy. The CE does not factor in this crucial aspect of energy efficiency, which will affect the overall feasibility of the transition.

• Non-Recyclable Materials: Many materials, such as clay minerals and certain specialty metals, cannot be recycled effectively and are often lost to the environment. The CE does not provide a comprehensive plan for managing these finite resources.

• Limits of Recycling: While some metals can be recycled repeatedly, the quality of recycled materials degrades with each cycle, eventually becoming unusable. The CE does not account for these practical limitations of recycling.

• Role of Mining: The CE downplays the role of mining in supplying the raw materials needed for the transition to renewable energy and other sustainable technologies. The large-scale deployment of renewable energy systems will necessitate an unprecedented increase in mineral extraction, which the CE does not address.

• International Competition: The CE focuses on securing resources for Europe while operating within a globalized raw materials market dominated by China. This approach ignores the geopolitical realities of resource control and international competition, which could undermine the CE’s goals.

• Population Growth: The CE’s closed-loop model, based on recycling waste streams, does not allow for human population growth, which requires a continuous influx of new resources.

• Economic Growth: The CE is incompatible with the current economic paradigm of continuous growth, which inherently requires the consumption of ever-increasing amounts of resources.

• Zero Waste: While desirable, zero waste is impractical in any industrial society. Zero waste is untenable and an impossibility in our material world. The CE’s emphasis on zero waste could lead to unrealistic expectations and hinder the development of pragmatic solutions.

• Logistics of Material Transport: The CE does not adequately consider the logistical challenges of transporting materials between disposal and reuse points, especially as the global energy landscape shifts.

These limitations suggest that the CE, while a good starting point, is not a viable solution in its current form. To achieve sustainability, a more realistic and comprehensive approach is needed. A Resource-Balanced Economy (RBE) is a potential evolution of the CE. There are other models for sustainable technological and industrial societies, and all should be considered. Circumstances may dictate that future generations live hunter-gatherer lifestyles, but for now, we must explore every possible outcome we can. This is not to say that an RBE economy or something like it would be the best of all possible worlds, but a future where humans can explore the limits of the possible seems inherent to our species. We can’t help but learn and explore. Maybe our curiosity will be the death of our species, but we don’t know that yet; there may still be hope that our continued exploration of the Universe is tenable.

“We are facing a global crisis of unsustainable consumption and production patterns that are destroying the environment and exacerbating social inequalities.” —UN Secretary-General António Guterres

Imagine that people didn’t care much about fleeting fashions, status, or competition for power and control. We still enjoyed dynamic recreational activities, competitions, games, and pastimes but earned most of our accolades through our love of learning and ability to live harmoniously together.

In this culture, we mostly play for the first twenty-eight of our lives. We are free to explore under the supervision of loving adults in our community. Every adult is a teacher. We experience childhood in safety and security. Through various activities, we acquire vital skills: discipline, focus, concentration, attention, physical fitness, music, dance, reading, writing, and arithmetic. We also internalize our culture’s core values. We do these things playfully. Play in our culture is serious work.

During this period, we are ostensibly exposed to all critical domains of interest and encouraged to attend to various subjects as much or as little as we like. We also do our chores and help adults with essential work part-time.

Our culture has all the resources needed for lifelong learning. Every child can pursue their interests. Our communities are small enough to be intimate and large enough to exert a powerful network effect. All communities are networked regionally and worldwide, engaging in annual festivals and events. Energy and materials are managed carefully for maximum economy. All populations live within sustainable, natural limits. Consumerism is a relic of the past. We manufacture what we need to live well and grow spiritually, intellectually, and creatively. How this is achieved is not discussed here; let’s give ourselves the freedom to imagine a radically different world inhabited by a new kind of homo sapiens, one worthy of its name.

Our Early Encounter With “The Humanities”

While we play, we learn about the human condition, history, and how to listen and express ourselves.

We are exposed to deep time, ancient history, medieval history, modern history, world history, social history, cultural history, art history, and economic history. We learn from factual data and multiple lines of evidence and are free to view the past from many different perspectives: critically, objectively, and creatively.

We study written and spoken language, including literature, linguistics, and rhetoric. The world has regional languages and one common language everyone understands and speaks. We are exposed to world literature, including classic and contemporary literature. We study literature across time, cultures, and languages. We learn the craft of writing fiction, poetry, and drama. We learn practical writing for nonfiction subjects. We study the science of language, its structure, and meaning. We preserve and rediscover languages of the past.

At the center of every large town is a university with a library in the center of the campus. The library is always the largest and most beautiful municipal building, with many facilities within its walls. It allows for easy access to the world’s knowledge, information packets, and information delivery and storage systems that have been lovely and painstakingly developed over generations, providing the foundation and structure of culture.

Biological and cultural evolution can favor traits that benefit individuals, groups, and healthy, vibrant ecosystems. Intellectual curiosity drives individuals to explore and learn, leading to better problem-solving and adaptation. Cooperative individuals are more likely to survive and thrive in group settings, as collaboration allows for better resource management and maintenance. Empathy fosters strong social bonds and reduces conflict, promoting cohesion and stability. Stewardship, or responsible use of resources, ensures long-term sustainability and benefits future generations. Over time, these traits can become more prevalent within a population through natural selection (in the case of biological evolution) or cultural transmission and learning (in the case of cultural evolution).

What do communities look like in our new world?

Let’s avail ourselves of the work done by Robin Ian MacDonald Dunbar, a British biological anthropologist, evolutionary psychologist, and specialist in primate behavior. Robin Dunbar is professor emeritus of evolutionary psychology of the Social and Evolutionary Neuroscience Research Group in the Department of Experimental Psychology at the University of Oxford. He is best known for formulating Dunbar’s number, a measurement of the “cognitive limit to the number of individuals with whom anyone can maintain stable relationships.” Later, we’ll focus more on limits to growth and ideal population levels of humans when living according to the ethics of our culture and how our population would be maintained.

Dunbar’s Number and its Layers:

• Core: 5 closest relationships (loved ones)

• Close Friends: 15

• Friends: 50

• Meaningful Contacts: 150

Dunbar’s number suggests that 150 is the cognitive limit for maintaining stable social relationships. However, in my somewhat utopian scenario, this doesn’t necessarily equate to an optimal community size for sustainability, harmony, and creativity.

Beyond Dunbar: Optimal Community Size

• 100-150: Sustainability advocate Ben O’Callaghan, based on intentional community experiences, suggests this range. Larger communities risk anonymity and decreased social cohesion, while smaller ones might lack diversity and resilience.

• 45-65 adults: Some research indicates this range fosters effective collaboration and decision-making within a community or enterprise.

• 25-30 families: Historically, successful communities like the Anabaptists thrived with this size, allowing for close bonds and shared responsibilities.

Factors Influencing Optimal Size:

• Purpose and Values: A community focused on shared work or specific goals might function well with a smaller size, while a more diverse community might benefit from a larger population.

• Resource Availability: Access to land, water, and other resources can influence the number of people a community can sustainably support.

• Technology and Infrastructure: Modern communication and transportation can facilitate connections in larger communities, potentially increasing the optimal size.

• Social Organization: Effective governance structures and decision-making processes become increasingly crucial as community size grows.

Considerations for Sustainable Communities:

• Social Cohesion: Maintaining strong social bonds, trust, and a sense of belonging is crucial for community well-being and resilience. This does not necessarily require a “new religion.” People are storytellers and dreamers. Social cohesion in our new world will involve more than myths and beliefs and be intertwined with our understanding of Great Nature.

• Economic Viability: The community should have a diverse and resilient economic base to meet its members’ needs. This requires us to devote a library of books discussing the meaning of economy and economics. In our new world, economics has nothing to do with financial markets, just time manufacturing or shopping malls. If we are not to become cave-dwelling hunter-gatherers in the future, should we survive our weapons of mass destruction, anthropogenic global heating, and the many other existential challenges of the polycrisis, we must reconcile the domain of economics. What we have taken for granted must be left behind and radically transformed. There is little the current school of economics has to offer that will benefit us in the future.

• Environmental Sustainability: Practices should minimize environmental impact and ensure the long-term health of the ecosystem.

• Governance and Decision-Making: Inclusive and effective governance systems are essential for managing resources and resolving conflicts. Great Nature will lead the dance, and something akin to true democracy will emerge.

If we (a critical mass of people) could envision and implement a radical path to a new way of living together, we’d have the opportunity to ultimately discover the “optimum” size for intimate and sustainable communities, balancing social connection, resource management, and effective organization to create thriving, enduring communities. A deep future presupposes continued cultural and species-wide evolution. Great Nature has its way, and it’s our responsibility to be guided by it.

We currently know no strict limit to the optimal size of a larger town or small city. Experts suggest towns ranging from 2,000 to 10,000 could effectively utilize our imagined model. The key lies in maintaining strong links between Dunbar nodes, facilitating communication, collaboration, and a sense of shared identity and purpose across the larger communities and networks of communities worldwide.

Groups that do not conform to strict growth limits and moral and ethical practices would be broken up and absorbed by other communities or destroyed, just as our body’s immune system destroys a pathogen.

The Venus Project and many other organizations have envisioned how communities might be designed and constructed using local, renewable resources and materials that can be easily maintained without layers of extreme complexity. We can redesign and reengineer over coming generations, considering our current predicament's imposed limitations, or give up and accelerate towards collapse. Young people need something beautiful to work towards.

Examples of such communities include ecovillages, co-housing emphasizing common spaces and shared resources, and neighborhood-based planning prioritizing walking, bicycling, and mixed-use developments with shared workshops, gardens, and recreation spaces.

Effective democratic-style governance, shared resources, including coops, enabling a resilient local “economy” that reduces the reliance on external resources, and technological integration are vital to strengthening cohesive connections between Dunbar nodes across larger community structures.

Much has been written about why alternative communities fail. Inexperienced founders, lack of resources (usually financial), and complicated interpersonal relationships can contribute to such failures. Still, by far, the thing holding back alternative communities is the permeant, ubiquitous economic religion that global civilization is based on and adheres to. This is a considerably comprehensive subject worth looking into in depth. Currency, trade, ownership, property rights, the commons, investment, value, and markets must be reimagined and redeveloped into a system of stocks and flows that are not so riddled with adverse externalities and stress.

“Nature does nothing uselessly.” —Aristotle

In our new world culture, a holistic approach, taking into account systems and complexity theory, is central to its development over generations to keep our community’s ecological footprint at the forefront of our concerns, one that minimizes resource consumption, waste production, and environmental impact. Humans should identify with and blend into Great Nature, trying not to interfere with its evolutionary continuance; social equity ensures access to the things one needs to live a high-quality, healthy, secure life with ample opportunities for personal growth. And we must always strive to economize.

"The endless pursuit of economic growth is not only unsustainable but also deeply unsatisfying. It leads to a society that is always striving for more, but never truly content." —Dalai Lama

Let’s get back to our early education.

“The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.” —Socrates

First and foremost, young people are exposed to critical thinking skills throughout their education.

Core Skills for Critical Thinking

Critical thinking is the ability to analyze information objectively and make reasoned judgments. It involves questioning assumptions, considering different perspectives, and forming well-supported conclusions.

During one’s teenage years, we gradually delve more deeply into the following practices:

• Analysis: Breaking down information into its components, identifying patterns and relationships.

• Interpretation: Understanding the meaning and significance of information, including its context.

• Inference: Drawing conclusions based on evidence and reasoning.

• Evaluation: Assessing the credibility of sources, the strength of evidence, and the validity of arguments.

• Explanation: Clearly and effectively communicating one’s reasoning and conclusions.

• Self-Regulation: Reflecting on your thinking process, identifying biases, and correcting errors.

Bayesian Probability and Reasoning

Bayesian reasoning is a powerful tool for critical thinking. It's a method of updating your beliefs based on new evidence. Here's the basic idea:

1. Prior Probability: You start with an initial belief about something (your prior probability).

2. New Evidence: You encounter new information or data.

3. Updating Beliefs: You use Bayes' theorem (a mathematical formula) to update your belief based on the strength and relevance of the new evidence. This results in your posterior probability.

Example:

Imagine you think there's a 30% chance it will rain tomorrow (your prior probability). Then you see a weather forecast predicting a 70% chance of rain. You use this new evidence to update your belief, and now you think there's a higher probability of rain. Bayesian reasoning provides a framework for incorporating new information and refining your judgments.

Cognitive biases and heuristics are explored and understood, as well as common logical fallacies.

Motivated Reasoning, Groupthink, and Other Biases

• Motivated Reasoning: This is the tendency to interpret information in a way that confirms pre-existing beliefs. We're more likely to accept evidence supporting our thoughts and dismiss evidence challenging them, which can be a major obstacle to critical thinking.

• Groupthink occurs when a group's desire for harmony or conformity results in an irrational or dysfunctional decision-making outcome. Group members try to minimize conflict and reach a consensus without critically evaluating alternative viewpoints.

• Confirmation Bias: A tendency to search for or interpret information in a way that confirms one's preconceptions.

• Availability Heuristic: Overestimating the importance of available or easily recalled information, often leading to biased judgments.

• Bandwagon Effect: The tendency to do (or believe) things because many others do (or believe) the same.

Here are some more biases and heuristics that profoundly influence our ability to see things as they are and imagine how things might be different.

Authority Bias: The tendency to attribute greater accuracy to the opinion of an authority figure (unrelated to its content) and be more influenced by that opinion.

• Example: Blindly following the advice of a doctor even when it contradicts your research or the scientific and evidence-based consensus.

Availability Cascade: A self-reinforcing process in which a collective belief gains more and more plausibility through its increasing repetition in public discourse (or "repeat something long enough and it will become true").

• Example: A minor news story about a shark attack gets repeated and amplified, leading to widespread fear of sharks even though statistically, such attacks are sporadic and rare.

Declinism: The predisposition to view the past favorably and the future negatively.

• Example: "Things were so much better in the old days" — often without concrete evidence to support this claim.

Framing Effect: Drawing different conclusions from the same information, depending on how that information is presented.

• Example: People are more likely to buy meat labeled "80% lean" than meat labeled "20% fat," even though they are the same.

False Consensus: The tendency to overestimate the extent to which others share our beliefs and behaviors.

• Example: Believing that most people agree with your political views, even though this might not be true.

Halo Effect: The tendency of an impression created in one area to influence opinion in another.

• Example: Assuming that a physically attractive person is also intelligent and kind.

Dunning-Kruger Effect: A cognitive bias whereby people with low ability at a task overestimate their ability.

• Example: Someone who is a poor public speaker but believes they are very good at it.

Appeal to Emotions: Manipulating an emotional response in place of a valid or compelling argument.

• Example: Using fear or anger to persuade people instead of presenting logical reasons.

Filter Bubbles:  Intellectual isolation that can result from personalized searches when a website algorithm selectively guesses what information a user would like to see based on information about the user, such as location, past click behavior, and search history.

• Example: Social media feeds only show you news and opinions that align with your views.

Ingroup Bias: The tendency to favor members of one's group over outgroup members.

• Example: Showing preferential treatment to people who are fans of the same sports team as you.

Gambler's Fallacy: The belief that past events influence future random events.

• Example: Believing that the next flip is more likely to be tails after a series of coin flips landing on heads.

Post-Purchase Rationalization: Persuading oneself through rational argument that a purchase was good value.

• Example: Convincing yourself that an expensive gadget was worth the money after buying it.

Observational Selection Bias: Noticing something more often after you begin to pay attention to it, leading to the belief that it has increased in frequency.

• Example: Seeing more red cars on the road after buying a red car yourself.

Negativity Bias: The tendency to pay more attention to negative experiences than positive ones.

• Example: Dwelling on a single criticism in a performance review, even if it was overwhelmingly positive.

Projection Bias: Assuming that others share the same feelings, values, and beliefs as you do.

• Example: Believing that your friend will love the same movie that you did.

Anchoring Effect: The tendency to rely too heavily on the first piece of information offered (the "anchor") when making decisions.

• Example: Being influenced by the initial price of an item, even if it's later discounted.

Current Moment Bias: Preferring a smaller immediate reward to a larger later reward.

• Example: Watching TV now instead of studying for an exam a week away. Humans have a tough time imagining ourselves in the future and altering our behaviors and expectations accordingly. Most of us would rather experience pleasure in the current moment while leaving the pain for later. This bias is of particular concern to economists (i.e., our unwillingness not to overspend and save money) and health practitioners. Indeed, a 1998 study showed that, when making food choices for the coming week, 74% of participants chose fruit. However, when the food choice was for the current day, 70% chose chocolate.

It’s impossible to consistently and continually police one’s thoughts to avoid these cognitive traps. Still, the sooner one is aware of how cognitive biases can impair one’s judgment, the sooner one can slow down and think more carefully when making important decisions or choosing critical courses of action. Read Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman.

In our new world, we raise children who can think as clearly as possible.

Why People Conform

Humans are social creatures, and belonging to a group is essential to our well-being. Here's why we try so hard to fit in:

• Survival and Security: Historically, being part of a group increased our chances of survival and protection.

• Social Acceptance: We crave acceptance and belonging. Being excluded can be emotionally painful.

• Validation: Groups reinforce our beliefs and values, making us feel confident in our worldview.

• Status and Resources: Group membership can provide access to resources, opportunities, and social status.

The Challenge of Changing Culture

People invest a lot in their careers, and challenging the status quo is risky. We may fear losing our position, social standing, or sense of identity within that culture.

The Role of Education

Traditional education often emphasizes memorization and compliance rather than critical thinking and questioning. This can perpetuate the status quo by producing individuals who are well-equipped to function within existing systems but less prepared to challenge or change them.

Lippmann and Public Opinion

Walter Lippmann's "Public Opinion" is a classic work exploring how stereotypes, biases, and limited information shape our world perceptions. He argued that people often rely on simplified mental models, or "stereotypes," to make sense of the world, and these stereotypes can lead to flawed judgments and decisions.

Overcoming these Challenges

Developing strong critical thinking skills is essential for navigating these complexities. Here are some strategies:

• Be Aware of Your Biases: Recognize that everyone has biases. Reflect on your thinking, and actively seek out diverse perspectives.

• Question Assumptions: Don't take things for granted. Ask "why?" and challenge the underlying assumptions behind beliefs and practices.

• Seek Evidence: Base your judgments on solid evidence rather than opinions or emotions. Be open to changing your mind when presented with new information.

• Consider Alternatives: Explore different viewpoints and consider alternative explanations. Don't be afraid to challenge the status quo.

• Encourage Open Dialogue: Create spaces where people can safely express different opinions and engage in constructive debate.

By cultivating critical thinking skills and actively challenging biases, we can make more informed decisions, foster more inclusive cultures, and create positive change.

"The modern world's obsession with economic growth is a form of collective insanity. We are sacrificing our planet, our communities, and our very souls on the altar of GDP." —Vandana Shiva

In our new culture, we comprehensively explore world philosophy, which consists of fundamental questions about existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. We delve into metaphysics, which investigates the nature of reality from a subjective perspective. We study epistemology, ethics, logic, political philosophy, and aesthetics.

There is an academy of religion, theology, comparative religion, history of religion, philosophy of religion, contemplative arts (prayer and meditation), paganism, animism, and other spiritual and contemplative ways of living. The best way to avoid the pitfalls of the True Believer is to examine beliefs

We have performing arts facilities for learning, practicing, and presenting music, dance, and drama.

Visual arts academies exist throughout all communities, where people study the craft of various visual arts. These academies have facilities for displaying drawings, paintings, sculptures, photography, motion pictures, computer graphics, animation, special effects design, multimedia, and other arts.

Municipal facilities are shared among several larger communities of Dunbar nodes connected by sustainable transportation systems, including cycling and walking paths. Automobiles are shared, roads and highways are significantly reduced, and only emergency and utilitarian vehicles are permitted in larger communities.

Our culture’s approach to the humanities is integral. The humanities draw on each other to provide a more complete understanding of human experiences. They are constantly evolving, with new areas and inquiry approaches continually emerging.

People gravitate towards sports, games, and activities they like. In addition to the many sports available to engage in and practice, young people are exposed to the interconnected disciplines in sports-related fields.

Sports science, sports medicine, sports psychology, sports coaching, and management are taught, researched, and developed to enhance one’s sporting activities in a pro-social, safe, and healthy way.

We train, study, play, and perform various things or bounce around exploring different activities and groups of people. We have romances, triumphs, failures, and heartbreaks. We rise and fall and learn how to build relationships. We are resilient people who know how to bounce back.

Some are better than others at mastering the skills necessary to understand and excel in a given domain, but all have access and time to establish a high degree of knowledge in each area. Those with more ability would mentor and tutor those with less and develop profound relationships of trust and interdependence. Masters of arts and domains are sought after and given respect and responsibility.

We are not hunter-gatherers or cave dwellers anymore; the genies have been out of the bottle for ages—what makes us different is our ability to tame them and make them humane in the best sense.

Education is the process of developing and enhancing the better angels of our nature.

One Hundred Years of Inquiry Is Primarily Devoted To The Natural Sciences

We can discuss how practical work is done later; we’re interested in experience, inquiry, and education. In our new world culture, it’s not hard to get things done; although some things are more complex and involved, the regular business of life is simple and relatively pleasant, and “dirty jobs” are part of getting on with it. I am giving myself the freedom to imagine what might produce a different focus that could jolt us out of our profit-based, sinful, conquering dualistic delusions that have brought our global civilization to the brink of collapse and possibly extinction. I may be embarrassed by my imaginings in some months or years, but that’s ok; I don’t mind being foolish when I imagine different worlds.

In my world, understanding the nature of things as far as we can in any generation, how nature works, and how we can thrive long-term in harmony with our ecosystems, habitats, and environments is paramount. It is unwise not to know how profoundly connected we are to everything else, to every sacred thing and system, great and small, no matter how complex or incomprehensible.

In our new culture world, people live much longer. Nice, right? Pick a number. 130 years? 150? Or maybe it’s just that the continuity of life from generation to generation is treasured; we feel connected to posterity. Our endeavors are seen as things our communities will never finish or achieve, so we pass on long-term projects to posterity, knowing the work will continue. Why do we need to live longer? I can’t explain the details, but the main reason is that I am a slow learner. Even if everything in our life were optimized for maximum flourishing and personal growth, we’d still have too many things on our bucket list when we passed. All good people need more time to create what’s passed on to future generations. More people in our culture will be able to become wise apes and know what to do with their wisdom.

We still have diseases and accidents, but there are no wars, and the health of people and ecosystems is of paramount concern. We keep learning how to extend human life and remain mindful of what that means to living systems. We become caretakers, not exploiters of life. Things are not commodified; they are cherished.

Remember, all animate and inanimate things are sacred. We deeply love our world and are devoted to living things. We understand the balance of nature and how creatures live and die. Our lives are long, so we carefully plan our population’s growth and care for children personally and collectively. We practice an ethic of quality over quantity. Our possessions are few, and we all feel ownership for our regard and responsibility as stewards of our communities and environment. We have a powerful sense of belonging. Forests, lakes, oceans, mountain ranges, deserts, grasslands, and all interconnected living systems are cherished and cared for like family members. We treat living systems and places with reverence and respect. Our connection with life, things, and places is blissful, sustaining, and energizing.

We all share our living spaces with friends and family and consider the world our home. We have healthy, fresh food and clean water to drink. We have renewable energy systems that can power machines without which we can’t live and learn. Again, we manage our material and energy resources carefully and with posterity in mind.

We hold regular festivals with the seasons and enjoy dancing, making music, singing together, and telling stories. We aren’t best friends with everyone but are friendly, respectful, and thankful for what each individual brings to the group.

The following is a partial outline of our focus of inquiry during the first half of our long lives. The amount of time we spend on each element depends on several factors: our interests, time allocation, practical constraints, aptitudes, and eventually, our decision to become experts in various domains of activity, inquiry, development, industry, and invention. We are all autodidacts supported by communities of teachers with ample resources to share their knowledge.

A primary focus is on the physical sciences. (We can’t help ourselves; we have become genie tamers.)

The study of non-living matter and energy.

• Physics: the study of matter, motion, energy, and their interactions.

  • Classical Mechanics

  • Electromagnetism

  • Thermodynamics

  • Quantum Mechanics

  • Optics

  • Acoustics

  • Astrophysics

  • Nuclear Physics

  • Particle Physics

  • Condensed Matter Physics

• Chemistry: The study of the composition, structure, properties, and reactions of matter.

  • Organic Chemistry: Carbon-containing compounds.

  • Inorganic Chemistry: Compounds not primarily based on carbon.

  • Physical Chemistry: The study of physical principles in chemical systems.

  • Analytical Chemistry: Identifying and quantifying components of substances.

  • Biochemistry: Chemical processes within living organisms.

  • Nuclear Chemistry: The study of radioactive substances.

• Earth Science: The study of the Earth and its systems.

  • Geology

  • Oceanography

  • Meteorology

  • Paleontology

  • Environmental Science: The study of the environment and its interactions.

  • Geophysics

  • Hydrology

  • Glaciology

• Astronomy: The study of celestial objects and phenomena.

  • Planetary Science

  • Cosmology: The study of the origin and evolution of the universe.

  • Astrobiology (also xenology or exobiology): The study of life in the universe.

2. Life Sciences (Biology): The sciences focus on living organisms.

• Ecology: The study of the interactions between organisms and their environment.

• Zoology

• Botany

• Microbiology: The study of microorganisms.

• Genetics: The study of heredity.

• Evolutionary Biology: The study of the changes in organisms over time.

• Cell Biology: The study of cells.

• Molecular Biology: The study of biological molecules.

• Physiology: The study of the functions of organisms.

• Anatomy

• Developmental Biology: The study of how organisms grow and develop.

• Immunology

• Marine Biology

• Biophysics

• Biochemistry

• Geochemistry

• Astrobiology

• Nanotechnology

• Synthetic Biology

• Climate Science

Our new culture prioritizes maintaining healthy and peaceful communities while maintaining biodiversity and healthy, evolving ecosystems. It will take generations—time we don’t have if we are aware of our polycrisis and the stubbornness of belief systems that dictate our behavior—and we can’t do anything well without understanding how nature works.

A Bit About Cultural Anthropology

I can’t cover everything here as I want to get to the point that the title of this article alludes to. I will leave psychology out for now and limit the rest of this piece to a discussion of cultural anthropology and the possibility that our species could create a cultural superstructure within which various unique cultures could thrive and express themselves without shattering all the complex systems our lives and communities depend on.

Again, much has been written. Hopefully, these kinds of resources and references will provide context to guide your inquiry into culture building and radical social change.

How we prosecute such a radical transformation will be left for another time to explore. I am a simple fool imagining a different world. I am exploring a tiny part of the picture without much detail, one of many possible jumping-off points.

Anthropology is the study of humanity, and within that vast field, cultural anthropology takes center stage in exploring the incredible diversity of human societies and the intricate ways we create meaning in our lives.

Culture is learned and shared, not innate. Culture is not something we’re born with; it’s learned throughout our interactions with others and the world around us.

Culture is a system of shared beliefs, values, practices, symbols, and behaviors that give meaning to our lives and allow us to navigate our social world. We are highly social animals. None of us could survive for long or live a high-quality life without the help, cooperation, and collaboration between ourselves and others.

Patterns and norms evolve and take root in our communities, shaping how we think, feel, and act.

Ethnographic fieldwork, in which cultural anthropologists spend extended periods living within a community, participating in daily life, and observing social interactions, helps us understand different expressions of culture.

My parents had a travel agency in the 60s. Before I was ten years old, I had traveled to Africa, Japan, Europe, and Mexico. Between the ages of ten and twenty, I traveled around the world again and repeated this feat every decade until I turned fifty. I spent my childhood and teen years in Ireland and Colorado. I have lived and worked in seven countries. At a stretch, I might be able to claim amateur cultural anthropologist status. I made up a story when I lived in Hong Kong while hiking with friends in an area of Hong Kong Island known as The Peak, where the international uber-wealthy occupy many homes. I talked about a group of anthropologists quietly observing wealthy families doing their daily activities at these homes. I called this story Guailo In The Mist, a riff on Gorillas In The Mist, a movie about the adventures of Dianne Fossey. My musings implied that the uber-wealthy were practically a different species.

But I digress. Let’s explore the field of anthropology some more.

Ethnographic fieldwork is a hallmark of cultural anthropology, where anthropologists spend extended periods living within a community, participating in daily life, and observing social interactions. Immersion is a key aspect of this work, providing anthropologists with an opportunity to participate in and observe the culture and gain firsthand insights from the perspective of its members while building relationships, rapport, and trust.

Key Concepts in Cultural Anthropology:

• Cultural Relativism is a core code that emphasizes the importance of understanding cultures on their terms rather than judging them based on the standards of one's own culture.

• Ethnocentrism is the tendency to view one's culture as superior and judge other cultures based on its norms.9 Cultural anthropologists strive to avoid ethnocentrism in their research.

• Holism: A holistic approach involves considering all aspects of a culture—economy, politics, religion, social organization, art, etc.—to understand how they are interconnected.

• Symbolism: Analyzing how cultures use symbols (objects, words, actions) to create and communicate meaning.

Areas of Focus within Cultural Anthropology:

• Kinship and Family: How different cultures define family structures, roles, and relationships.

• Economic Anthropology: How cultures produce, distribute, and consume goods and services.

• Political Anthropology: How power and authority are organized and exercised within different societies.

• Religion and Ritual: The role of religion and ritual in shaping cultural beliefs and practices.

• Art and Aesthetics: How different cultures express themselves through art, music, and other creative forms.

• Medical Anthropology: How cultures understand and address health and illness.

• Environmental Anthropology: The relationship between cultures and their environment.

The Importance of Cultural Anthropology:

• Understanding Human Diversity: Provides insights into the incredible range of human experiences and cultural expressions.

• Challenging Ethnocentrism: Helps us recognize and appreciate cultural differences.

• Promoting Cross-Cultural Understanding: Essential for navigating an increasingly interconnected world.

• Addressing Social Issues: Can contribute to addressing issues like inequality, poverty, and conflict by providing a deeper understanding of their cultural contexts.

In essence, cultural anthropology provides a rich and nuanced perspective on the human story, helping us appreciate the diversity of ways that people live and make meaning in the world. The way things are now in a given culture is not etched in stone; they are fluid, malleable, and subject to creative influences and choices based on well-considered and digested elements of our human experience.

So what about privilege?

The relentless pursuit of entertainment and material wealth has created a myopic bubble around many in the wealthy West, blinding them to the true scale of the polycrisis engulfing our world. Bombarded with too much indigestible information, fleeting distractions, and consumerist desires, they struggle to grasp the interconnected nature of climate change, ecological collapse, social unrest, inequality, and economic instability. The immediate gratification of a new gadget, social media, pundits and gurus on “The Tubes,” the news, abundant entertainment, global supply chains putting food on the shelves and parts in our smartphones and cars, or a weekend getaway overshadows the long-term consequences of unsustainable lifestyles. This preoccupation with material comfort and fleeting pleasures fosters a dangerous disconnect from the natural world and the urgent need for systemic and structural change. It's a tragic irony that a society so focused on individual advancement may need to face a collective breakdown before recognizing the necessity of living in balance with nature and each other. Perhaps only when the foundations of their consumerist paradise crumble will they awaken to the fragility of their existence and the actual cost of their detachment from life’s well-being.

We won’t contemplate the possibility that our way of life is self-terminating. Do we even care if it is? Every living thing eventually dies.

Supernova. Earth will probably not even exist when the sun dies. The sun is slowly expanding. In about 5 billion years, the sun will enter the red giant phase. During this phase, the sun makes a transition from burning hydrogen in the core to burning hydrogen around the core, which has been converted into helium by hydrogen burning. 

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Life begets life.

The principle that "life begets life" is a cornerstone of biology. It refers to the observation that all living organisms originate from other organisms through reproduction. Countless scientific observations and experiments have supported this principle, and it is one of the key features that distinguishes living things from non-living matter. While abiogenesis, the origin of life from non-living matter, is still an area of active research, it is generally accepted that all life on Earth today originated from a single common ancestor billions of years ago.

Life and Entropy

Life appears to defy the second law of thermodynamics, which states that the entropy (disorder) of a closed system always increases over time. Living organisms are highly ordered systems, and they maintain their complexity by constantly taking in energy and expelling waste products. This process, known as metabolism, allows living things to decrease their entropy temporarily, but it does so at the expense of increasing the entropy of their surroundings. In other words, life is a localized decrease in entropy, made possible by a greater increase in entropy elsewhere.

Life and Thermodynamics

Thermodynamics, the study of energy and its transformations, provides a fundamental framework for understanding life. The first law of thermodynamics, also known as the law of conservation of energy, states that energy cannot be created or destroyed, only transformed from one form to another. Living organisms constantly convert energy from one form to another to power their metabolism, growth, and reproduction. As mentioned earlier, the second law of thermodynamics explains why living things must constantly take in energy and expel waste products to maintain their organization.

Life is dependent on life.

The interconnectedness of life is evident in the fact that all living organisms depend on other living organisms for their survival. This interdependence is manifested in various ways, such as food chains and ecosystems, where organisms rely on each other for nutrients, energy, and other essential resources. Even humans, who may seem to be at the top of the food chain, depend on countless other organisms for food, oxygen, and other necessities. The phrase "life is dependent on life" highlights the delicate balance and interconnectedness of the biosphere.

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Wealthy Westerners squander their immense privilege on frivolous material goods and fleeting status symbols, prioritizing personal gratification over global betterment. Luxury cars, sprawling mansions, and throwaway designer clothing become the trophies of their success while pressing international issues like poverty, global heating due to CO2 emissions, and conflict are relegated to the periphery. Rather than investing their considerable resources in sustainable solutions, quality education for all, diplomacy, peacemaking efforts, and global projects needed to solve problems that affect us all, they perpetuate a cycle of conspicuous consumption, fueling a culture of excess that exacerbates inequality and neglects the urgent needs of a troubled world. This pursuit of fleeting pleasures and social standing represents a profound misuse of their fortunate position, a missed opportunity to leverage their wealth and influence to create a more just and equitable world.

“There is no calamity greater than lavish desires.” —Lao Tzu

Having benefited immensely from a system that often prioritized short-term gains and externalized costs, they seem content to pass the buck for the resulting polycrisis—climate change, economic inequality, social unrest—onto younger generations. This "après moi, le déluge" mentality is reflected in dismissive comments like "It's the kids' problem now." Having mastered the art of manipulating this flawed system, wealthy investors and billionaires actively resist any meaningful change threatening their continued wealth and power accumulation. Their entrenched interests perpetuate a neoliberal, neoconservative paradigm that prioritizes profit over long-term sustainability and social justice. The tragic consequence is a disregard for posterity, with the well-being of future generations sacrificed at the altar of present greed and ego.

“I implore you all in the name of the gods, stop valuing material things! Stop enslaving yourselves, first to mere things, and then, because of them, to the people who are able to procure them for you or deny them to you.” (3.20.8)—Epictetus

The Players of The Great Game desire conquest, power, and control and can never have enough. Their mentality is a social disease that they can’t recognize. Their hubris knows no bounds. They hold Democracy and health in contempt and will sacrifice everything on the altar of their ambition while claiming they’re doing God’s work.

Those who prioritize self-interest and power above empathy and ethical considerations exhibit the dark psychology of human nature that emerged at the dawn of civilization. Machiavellianism was named after the infamous political philosopher Niccolò Machiavelli. Machiavellians are masters of manipulation, cunningly exploiting others to achieve their aims. They are strategic and calculating, prioritizing their advancement with a chilling disregard for morality. These individuals often exhibit a cynical worldview, seeing others as pawns in their game and readily employing deceit and flattery to get what they want. Many of our most popular television series are about Machiavellians.

Narcissism, another key element in dark psychology, centers on an inflated sense of self-importance. Narcissists crave admiration and validation, believing themselves superior and entitled to special treatment. This sense of grandiosity often masks deep insecurities and a fragile ego, making them hypersensitive to criticism. Their relentless pursuit of attention and power can lead to exploitative behaviors, as they lack the empathy to truly understand or care about the impact of their actions on others.

“What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason, how infinite in faculty! In form and moving how express and admirable! In action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god! The beauty of the world, the paragon of animals—and yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust? Man delights not me—no, nor woman neither.” —Hamlet, William Shakespeare

Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of dark psychology is psychopathy. Psychopaths are characterized by a profound emotional detachment and an inability to experience genuine empathy or remorse. This emotional void often manifests in impulsive and irresponsible behavior, including a propensity for aggression and violence. While they may possess superficial charm and charisma, this is merely a facade to mask their manipulative tendencies and exploit vulnerabilities.

Beyond these core traits, dark psychology encompasses a range of other disturbing characteristics, including sadism, a perverse pleasure derived from inflicting pain, and spitefulness, a desire to harm others even at personal cost. It's crucial to remember that these traits exist on a spectrum, and various factors can influence their expression.

Modern techno-industrial civilization is a dark psychology generator. Dark traits produce Players who win.

A truly healthy person radiates positivity from a core of self-love and acceptance. They possess a strong self-awareness and understand their emotions, strengths, and limitations. This self-knowledge fuels their resilience, allowing them to gracefully bounce back from setbacks and navigate life's challenges. They nurture genuine connections with others, built on empathy, compassion, and respect. Their interactions are characterized by kindness, active listening, and a willingness to understand diverse perspectives. A healthy individual finds joy in the simple things, cultivates gratitude for life's blessings, and approaches each day with purpose and optimism. They prioritize their physical and mental well-being, engaging in activities that nourish their body and mind.

A healthy society mirrors the positive traits of its individuals, fostering an environment where everyone can thrive. It values inclusivity and celebrates diversity, recognizing the inherent worth of every single person. Opportunities for growth and development are abundant, with education and resources readily available to all. Collaboration and cooperation are prioritized over competition, creating a strong sense of community and shared responsibility. A healthy society promotes open communication and critical thinking, encouraging members to engage in respectful dialogue and challenge the status quo. It prioritizes sustainability and environmental consciousness, ensuring a healthy biosphere for future generations. Justice and equality prevail, with systems in place to protect the vulnerable and ensure fairness for all.

In a world driven by insatiable consumerism and the relentless pursuit of profit, great powers often demonstrate a chilling willingness to resort to violence to secure control over vital natural resources. These resources, the lifeblood of modern economies, fuel the engines of capital markets and generate immense wealth for a privileged few—oligarchs, plutocrats, and loyal underlings. The tragic consequence is a global landscape marred by conflict, where vulnerable nations and populations become pawns in a ruthless resource acquisition game. Vast swathes of land are laid waste, lives are callously extinguished, and entire societies are destabilized, all to maintain the opulent lifestyles of the powerful and perpetuate a system that prioritizes profit over human life and environmental sustainability. This grim reality underscores the deep-seated connection between militarism, resource extraction, and the concentration of wealth and power in the hands of a select few.

Why do ordinary, good people allow this to happen? Are we so helpless, hopeless, and powerless? Have we been so domesticated by ideology, religion, and belief that we can’t imagine a better world and struggle to achieve it?

It seems that people are so easily manipulated and programmed that we lack the agency to free ourselves from the dark, destructive Great Game that has been playing out for millennia.

What will happen after the Great Collapse of The Great Game? After being reduced to a population of a few thousand people again, will we reboot the game all over again? Are we incapable of doing better?

Steven Pinker wrote three books defending progress and modernity. Why did he need to write The Better Angels Of Our Nature if our better nature runs the world? Why did these arguments need to be made? Is it because it’s advantageous for The Players of The Great Game, who hold all the cards to make us believe our situation isn’t as good as Pinker makes things out to be? That makes no sense. People are concerned about modernity, technology, and progress for good reasons. People recognize that the cycles of civilization are creative and destructive and that our current polycrisis is real and potentially disastrous on a scale never before experienced by the fall of Empires.

Please listen to the latest episode of Citations Needed.

"The Bad Guys Are Winning," wrote Anne Applebaum for The Atlantic in 2021. "The War on History Is a War on Democracy," warned Timothy Snyder in The New York Times, also in 2021. "The GOP has found a Putin-lite to fawn over. That's bad news for democracy," argued Ruth Ben-Ghiat on MSNBC the following year, 2022.

Within the last 10 years or so, and especially since the 2016 election of Trump, these authors — Anne Applebaum, Timothy Snyder, Ruth Ben-Ghiat, in addition to several others — have become liberal-friendly experts on authoritarianism. On a regular basis, they make appearances on cable news and in the pages of legacy newspapers and magazines–in some cases, as staff members–in order to warn of how individual, one-off “strongmen” like Trump, Putin, Orban, and Xi, made up a vague “authoritarian” axis hellbent on destroying Democracy for its own sake.

But what good does this framing do and who does it absolve? Instead of meaningfully contending with US's sprawling imperial power and internal systems of oppression — namely being the largest carceral state in the world — these MSNBC historians reheat decades-old Axis of Evil or Cold War good vs evil rhetoric, pinning the horrors of centuries of political violence on individual "mad men." Meanwhile, they selectively invoke the "authoritarian" label, fretting about the need to save some abstract notion of democracy from geopolitical Bad Guys while remaining silent as the US funds, arms and backs the most authoritarian process imaginable — the immiseration and destruction of an entire people — specifically in Gaza.

Aren’t you tired of the constant gaslighting? Point your finger at someone, and four fingers are pointing back at yourself.

“Do I have a bad neighbor? Bad for himself, but good for me, because he enables me to practice being courteous and fair. Do I have a bad father? Bad for himself, but good for me. Here’s what the magic wand of Hermes promises: ‘Touch what you want and it will turn to gold.’ Well, I can’t promise that exactly, but whatever you present me with, I’ll turn to good account. Bring illness, death, poverty, insults, a trial on a capital charge: at a touch from the magic wand, all these will turn into things that do one good.” (3.20.11–12) —Epictetus

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In the shimmering city of Atheria, nestled amongst the clouds, lived Kael, a renowned inventor blessed with unparalleled genius. He crafted magnificent machines that soared through the heavens and devices that healed the sick with a touch, Yet Kael yearned for more. He craved the power of the gods to command the elements, shape destinies, and transcend mortality itself. After years of relentless pursuit, he forged the Ascendium, a crown said to bestow divine abilities upon its wearer.

Kael Character in Atraeleon

The moment Kael donned the Ascendium, a surge of unimaginable power coursed through him. He could summon storms with a flick of his wrist, bend the earth to his will, and even glimpse the threads of time. But with this newfound power came a chilling detachment. The mortals he once cared for now seemed insignificant, their concerns trivial. He grew isolated, his empathy withering as his godlike abilities amplified.

Kael's loneliness festered into a desperate need for connection, but his power repelled those he sought to engage. Fear and resentment replaced admiration in the eyes of his people. He became a prisoner of his own making, trapped in a gilded cage of his own design. His attempts to manipulate the lives of others, believing he knew best, only led to chaos and suffering. The city of Atheria, once a beacon of harmony, became shrouded in turmoil and despair.

In the end, Kael, the man who sought to become a god, found himself utterly alone, his power a curse rather than a blessing. He learned a devastating truth: true power lies not in control and domination, but in empathy, compassion, and the wisdom to understand that even gods are bound by the delicate balance of existence. He cast aside the Ascendium, its allure replaced by the bitter taste of his hubris, and spent his remaining days trying to mend the wounds he had inflicted, a humbling reminder of the profound responsibility that comes with wielding power, and the inherent humanity that makes us truly powerful.

Combating Our Social Disease and Preparing For A New Culture After The Crash

How do we break the status quo and invent a new culture?

You've been warned—we can do better than this.

Much has been written on the subjects I'll address in this essay that are easily accessible to anyone who wants to read them. I have posted hundreds of articles and books for over a decade, knowing most people will not read them. If people are exposed to high-quality information regularly, they might eventually research topics that interest them and gain greater agency and power in making choices that could lead to a better way of doing things: more peaceful and healthier for all life. Life because life begets life and depends on life. Without all living creatures, great and small, we couldn't exist. We are also dependent on Nature and its "laws" and materials. We must understand Great Nature as well as we can and seek ways to harmonize our complex consciousness within its constraints, aligning our way of doing things with life's long, evolutionary project.

Am I a good curator of information? I don't know, but I've worked at it for many years. I keep educating myself.

Why are we unable to understand and confront the polycrisis? Why is it so hard to believe our way of life is destructive and pathological?

The Pioneers of Persuasion: A Discussion of Public Relations and Propaganda

The Rise of Public Relations

In the early 20th century, a new field of study emerged, focusing on understanding and influencing public opinion. This field, known as public relations, sought to bridge the gap between organizations and the public, shaping perceptions and fostering profitable relationships.

Think of the old blurb on a banker's business card: "Relationships built on trust."

One of the pioneers in the field of persuasion was Edward Bernays, often considered the "father of public relations." We've all heard of him. Bernays, a nephew of Sigmund Freud, drew upon his uncle's theories of psychoanalysis to develop techniques for manipulating public opinion. He believed that by understanding the unconscious desires and motivations of the masses, he could craft messages that resonated on a deep emotional level.

Edward & Sigmund 

Bernays's work was groundbreaking. He orchestrated campaigns that transformed social norms and consumer behavior. In one famous example, he encouraged women to smoke by associating cigarettes with female empowerment. He also worked with the United Fruit Company to promote bananas as a healthy breakfast food. I am reminded of Banana Republics, "War Is A Racket," Iran Contra, Cuba, Chile, Argentina, Haiti, Opioids, Drug Wars, fast fashion, labor arbitrage, the housing crisis, child labor, etc., etc.

Bernays's faith in his almost mystical understanding of the masses' unconscious desires also recalls Friedrich Hayek, another highly influential contemporary of Bernays.

Friedrich Hayek, a prominent Austrian economist and philosopher, is best known for his defense of classical liberalism and free-market capitalism. While he didn't necessarily use mystical language, he did express a sense of awe and wonder at the spontaneous order that emerges from the decentralized interactions of individuals in a market economy. This is particularly evident in his ideas about price discovery and the "market algorithm."

Hayek's View of the Market as an Information Processing System

Hayek saw the market as a complex system aggregating information from countless individuals, each with unique knowledge and preferences. This information is reflected in prices, which act as signals that guide the allocation of resources. (Finite resources.) He believed that this decentralized process of price discovery was far more efficient than any central planning system could ever be.

When I read Project 2025 and similar agendas, I think of Bernays and Hayek. Of course, many others have contributed to the global economy's core ideology: Liberalism and Free Market Capitalism, Capitalism with Chinese Socialist Characteristics, Eurasianism, and BRICS. They are branded as different, but their ideology's core is the same. Grow the economy. Use more energy and resources. Make money and buy more things.

As I always say, much has been written.

The "Mystical" Aspects of Hayek's Ideas

Hayek marveled at how order and coordination could emerge from the seemingly chaotic interactions of millions of individuals in a free market. He saw this as a "spontaneous order," a phenomenon transcending any individual or group's conscious design.

Hayek's ideas echo Adam Smith's concept of the "invisible hand," which guides individuals to promote the overall good of society even when they are only pursuing their own self-interest. This idea suggests an underlying harmony or purpose in the market system.

Hayek emphasized the limitations of human knowledge and the impossibility of any central planner having access to all the information needed to allocate resources efficiently. He saw the market as a solution to this "knowledge problem," as it allows individuals to act on their local knowledge and preferences.

Price Discovery as a "Market Algorithm"

Hayek described the price system as a kind of "algorithm" that constantly processes information and adjusts prices to reflect changes in supply and demand. This algorithm is not designed by any single person but emerges from the interactions of countless individuals. It's a dynamic and self-regulating system that adapts to changing circumstances.

Why Some Might See This as "Mystical"

The idea that complex order can arise from decentralized interactions can seem almost magical or mystical. It's a phenomenon that is difficult to grasp or explain fully and alludes to ideas about emergent complex systems.

The market often produces outcomes that no one intended or could have predicted. This can lead to a sense of wonder and awe at the power of the "System."

Some critics argue that Hayek's belief in the efficiency and self-regulating nature of the market borders on faith. They argue that markets are not always efficient and can lead to adverse outcomes like inequality, environmental degradation, and war.

Hayek was not a mystic, but his ideas about the market do have a certain "mystical" quality. He saw the market as a complex, self-organizing system that transcends the conscious design of any individual. This perspective has been both influential and controversial, shaping debates about the role of markets in society today.

Hayek's ideas have been criticized, particularly in light of market failures and the growing awareness of social and environmental issues. Nonetheless, his work remains essential to economic thought, prompting us to consider the complex interplay of individual actions and structural and systemic outcomes. Which is to say, his perspectives are deeply ingrained in economic thought.

Let's get back to Bernays.

The Power of Propaganda

While Bernays focused on building relationships and shaping perceptions, another figure emerged who explored the darker side of persuasive arts:

Joseph Goebbels, the Minister of Propaganda for Nazi Germany. Goebbels was a master of manipulating public opinion through mass media, censorship, and fear. He created a cult of personality around Adolf Hitler and demonized the regime's enemies.

Bernays published his book "Propaganda" in 1926. Do you think Joseph Goebbels was familiar with it?

Goebbels's propaganda was highly effective in consolidating Nazi power and mobilizing the German people for war. However, it also had devastating consequences, fueling hatred and violence against Jews, Roma, and other minority groups.

The Ethical Dilemmas of Persuasion

Bernays and Goebbels's work highlights the ethical dilemmas inherent in the persuasive arts. While organizations can use public relations to build trust and understanding, they can also use PR to manipulate and deceive. Propaganda can be used for good and ill, for noble causes, or to instill hatred and foment war. Propaganda always serves Power, and Power serves Capital and those who control it.

In a better world, public relations and propaganda practitioners would use their skills responsibly and ethically. But generally speaking, they don't. They must be mindful of the potency of their words and images and strive to promote the public good. Public good? PR firms work for profit to increase the profits of their clients. Unfortunately, almost all public relations practitioners practice their arts for profit or governments and organizations seeking to preserve their power.

The Legacy of the Pioneers

Bernays and Goebbels's legacy continues to shape the field of persuasive arts today. Public relations professionals still draw upon Bernays's insights into human psychology, while governments and organizations worldwide constantly use propaganda techniques today.

One would hope professional propagandists would use their skills to promote a more just, healthy, and equitable world. Very few do.

I'm a positive person addicted to hopium like most folks.

Some Resources:

• "Propaganda" by Edward Bernays (At least read the introduction and the first two chapters. You can find it free online.)

  1. "Crystallizing Public Opinion" by Edward Bernays

  2. "The Engineering of Consent" by Edward Bernays

  3. "The Father of Spin: Edward L. Bernays and the Birth of Public Relations" by Larry Tye

  4. "The Century of the Self," a documentary by Adam Curtis

  5. The Museum of Public Relations: https://www.prmuseum.org/

Let's discuss Joseph Goebblels in more depth. I see parallels with what is happening in the Middle East and how Western Powers treat many parts of the world today.

Building the Cult of Hitler

Goebbels portrayed Hitler as a messianic figure, a savior sent to rescue Germany from its woes. (How do Trump's most fanatic followers portray him?) He orchestrated mass rallies and spectacles, using music, flags, and dramatic lighting to create an atmosphere of awe and worship. Does this seem familiar?

"This is the miracle of the age, that this man exists among us." — Joseph Goebbles

"It was God alone who prevented the unthinkable from happening. We will fear not, but instead, remain resilient in our faith and defiant in the face of wickedness." —Donald J. Trump (You don't actually think Donald Trump wrote those words?)

"I personally believe that God intervened today, not just on behalf of President Trump but on behalf of our country." —Vivek Ramaswamy

The Mass Psychology of Trumpism

In the minds of his most ardent supporters, the ex-president is both more and less than a person.

Many of Trump's supporters perceive Trump the way Trump perceives himself. In their minds, he is a liminal figure, superhuman in some ways but also lacking certain qualities that most people, for better and for worse, possess. A liminal figure who is more than a person, but less than a person, too, may not be subject to the rules and contingencies that pertain to regular people. Conventional norms of rectitude and decency do not apply.

In the eyes of his supporters, Trump possesses extraordinary powers that are wielded for good and against evil. Who cares if he is flawed? So what if he lacks certain distinctively human qualities? What does it matter that he is rude, authoritarian, or even a criminal?

Henry A. Murray's 1962 paper, "The Personality and Career of Satan," examines the figure of Satan throughout Judeo-Christian history and tradition. Murray analyses Satan's evolution from a rebellious angel to a symbol of evil, exploring theological interpretations of his actions and motivations. He then connects the concept of Satan to psychological theories, particularly concerning narcissism and pride, suggesting that Satanic traits manifest in various forms throughout human history. Finally, he questions the role of psychology in perpetuating potentially nihilistic views of humanity, potentially mirroring Satanic tendencies.

ABOUT THE PERSONALITY AND CAREER OF SATAN

The sanctification of Donald Trump

Trump's campaign manager says the president was sent by God to save the country. The White House press secretary thinks God wanted Trump to be president. And the secretary of State believes it's possible that Trump is on a holy mission to protect the Jewish people from the threat of Iran.

Forget the allegations of extramarital affairs, the nonstop Twitter insults and the efforts to close the southern border to migrants. Trump's allies insist that his presidency is divinely inspired.

"There has never been and probably never will be a movement like this again," Brad Parscale, the president's campaign manager, wrote Tuesday morning on Twitter. "Only God could deliver such a savior to our nation, and only God could allow me to help. God bless America!"

Goebbels exerted absolute control over all forms of media, ensuring that only positive portrayals of Hitler and the Nazi party were disseminated. Newspapers, radio, and film were all used to promote the Führer myth.

"It is the absolute right of the State to supervise the formation of public opinion." —Joseph Goebbels

Bannon, Musk, and many media moguls support our new demigod, who serves those, including himself, who desire more profit, power, and control over vital resources.

It becomes more apparent to me by the day that our media is primarily a mouthpiece for The Players of The Great Game, for the status quo and the dominant Neoliberal economic ideology.

Like Bernays, Goebbels understood the power of simple, repetitive slogans and images. He crafted messages that were easy to understand and emotionally charged, appealing to the hopes and fears of the German people.

"The most brilliant propagandist technique will yield no success unless one fundamental principle is borne in mind constantly—it must confine itself to a few points and repeat them over and over." —Joseph Goebbels

"The Democrats don't matter. The real opposition is the media. And the way to deal with them is to flood the zone with shit." —Steve Bannon

I could cite a dozen pages of quotes like these.

Demonizing and Dehumanizing Enemies and Scapegoats

Goebbels relentlessly scapegoated Jews for all of Germany's problems, portraying them as a parasitic race that threatened the purity of the Aryan people. He used anti-Semitic propaganda to incite hatred and violence against Jews.

"The Jew is the enemy of the world." —Joseph Goebbels

Goebbels used dehumanizing language and imagery to portray the enemies of the Nazi regime, including Jews, communists, and the Allies, as subhuman creatures deserving of extermination.

"The English follow the principle that when one lies, one should lie big, and stick to it. They keep up their lies, even at the risk of looking ridiculous." —Joseph Goebbels

"We are fighting human animals, and we are acting accordingly. We will eliminate everything. They will regret it." Yoav Gallant

"You must remember what Amalek has done to you, says our Holy Bible—we do remember." —Benjamin Netanyahu

https://youtu.be/PsT6bE2NcO8?si=mQIRjHmyKi7J_GMl

"There will be no electricity and no water (in Gaza); there will only be destruction. You wanted hell, you will get hell." Maj. Gen. Ghassan Alian

"There is one and only (one) solution, which is to completely destroy Gaza before invading it. I mean destruction like what happened in Dresden and Hiroshima, without nuclear weapons." —Moshe Feiglin, the founder of Israel's right-wing Zehut Party

'Erase Gaza': How genocidal rhetoric became normalized in Israel

In-depth: Incendiary language of extermination, ethnic cleansing, and the wholesale destruction of Gaza, including with nuclear weapons, has become part of mainstream discourse in Israel during the war.

Amit Halevi, meanwhile, a Likud member in parliament, said, “There should be two goals for this victory: One, there is no more Muslim land in the land of Israel … After we make it the land of Israel, Gaza should be left as a monument, like Sodom”.

Some Israeli politicians have outright called for a repeat of the Nakba, or catastrophe in Arabic, when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were expelled and hundreds of villages demolished from 1947 to 1948 as the state of Israel was being established.

“Nakba? Expel them all,” Nissim Vaturi, deputy speaker for Israel’s parliament, said. “If the Egyptians care so much for them - they are welcome to have them wrapped in cellophane tied with a green ribbon.”

Ariel Kallner, a member of Israel’s parliament, said, “Nakba to the enemy now! This day is our Pearl Harbour. We will still learn the lessons. Right now, one goal: Nakba! A Nakba that will overshadow the Nakba of 48. A Nakba in Gaza and a Nakba for anyone who dares to join!”

People in Israel and the Middle East are living in fear and violence created by propaganda.

Again, I could cite pages of quotes even more horrific and hateful than the ones above.

People will say the victims of the Nazis in World War II were innocent, and all of the Arabs in the Middle East are terrorists, and therefore, it's justified to wipe them all out.

Who can believe that children are terrorists without dehumanizing a whole population of innocents?

Goebbels used fear and intimidation to silence opposition and maintain control. He created a vast surveillance network and encouraged citizens to report on each other, fostering an atmosphere of suspicion and paranoia.

Today, if you go against the sanctioned narrative, you are destroyed. There are dozens of examples; one only has to read honest journalism and look for verifiable facts to know this.

"Propaganda works best when those who are being manipulated are confident they are acting on their own free will." —Joseph Goebbels

We live in a global surveillance environment and carry sophisticated tracking and surveillance devices daily. We are constantly producing data with our devices, and governments and corporations use them to manipulate and "nudge" us toward consent.

Most things we do, we think, result from careful, reasoned decision-making motivated and justified by facts. We are mistaken about that.

Goebbels' Techniques

The Big Lie

Goebbels believed that if a lie were repeated often enough and with sufficient conviction, it would eventually be accepted as truth. Think of all the organizations flooding the zone with bull shit, and we don't seem to mind. We click "like" and thank them for the torrent of nonsense we are constantly fed.

Appeal to Emotion

Goebbels understood the power of emotion to sway public opinion. He mobilized the German people using fear, anger, and hatred. Do you think the RNC and the DNC do this? They do.

Censorship

Goebbels suppressed any information that contradicted the Nazi party line, ensuring that the public only heard one side of the story. Is there censorship in the United States, Europe, and other parts of the world? There is.

Goebbels's propaganda effectively achieved its goals but came at a terrible cost. His methods contributed to the rise of one of the most brutal regimes in history, responsible for the deaths of millions of innocent people. His legacy serves as a chilling reminder of the dangers of unchecked propaganda and the importance of critical thinking.

We are engaged in nuclear brinksmanship and genocide, even as innocent bystanders and witnesses. Think of the people in the village next to the concentration and death camps.

History is a process happening now that always rhymes with the past and portends the future.

Goebbels's persuasive techniques are still relevant today, but these comparisons are about the methods, not the morality or goals.

"The most brilliant propagandist technique will yield no success unless one fundamental principle is borne in mind constantly—it must confine itself to a few points and repeat them over and over."

Think of political campaign slogans like "Make America Great Again" or "Hope and Change." These are simple, emotionally resonant phrases repeated constantly across media platforms.

Look at branding campaigns like Nike's "Just Do It." This concise, empowering message is repeated across their advertising, creating a strong association with the brand.

"This is the miracle of the age, that this man exists among us."

The cult of personality is still a powerful tool. Political leaders often cultivate an image of strength, charisma, and even infallibility. Consider the language used to build up CEOs like Steve Jobs ("visionary," "genius") or Elon Musk ("real-life Iron Man"). This type of language creates an aura of exceptionalism around these figures.

"It is the absolute right of the State to supervise the formation of public opinion."

We might believe that most democracies don't have state-controlled media; however, there are concerns about media consolidation, echo chambers, and misinformation online coming from the most powerful platforms. We hear complaints about this all the time. How often have we read and heard about "managing the narrative" and "controlling the message," which reflect a desire to shape public perception?

"The Jew is the enemy of the world."

Scapegoating remains a common tactic. Politicians and commentators may blame specific groups (immigrants, minorities, ethnic groups, indigenous populations, and the "other" party) for societal problems. Reputable PR professionals avoid such blatant hate speech. However, there are instances of negative campaigning and "dog-whistle" tactics used to subtly play on prejudice and fear.

Stories inspiring tomorrow

Learning from the earliest days of our efforts to communicate to the most groundbreaking PR campaigns of our time.

The Museum houses documents pre-dating the official formation of the field, including primary research about the novel campaigns that arose in the early 20th century, shaping the public’s perception of the public relations profession. As the field of public relations continues to evolve and progress, the Museum is continuously collecting new artifacts, expanding and updating the collection while preserving fundamental movements. We proceed to write history while we pave the path to the future of PR.

Edward Bernays, considered the "father of public relations," was a master of manipulating public opinion. He drew heavily on the work of his uncle, Sigmund Freud, applying psychological principles to shape public perception. Here are some of his most frequently used techniques and persuasion heuristics:

1. Appealing to Emotions:

• Emotional Appeals: Bernays understood people are more easily persuaded by emotions than logic. He crafted campaigns that tapped into deep-seated desires, fears, and insecurities.

  • Example: To promote cigarettes to women, he linked smoking to ideas of freedom and rebellion, playing on the desire for empowerment.

2. Leveraging Authority and Social Proof:

• Third-Party Authorities: He frequently used "experts" or authority figures to endorse products or ideas, lending credibility to his campaigns.

  • Example: He famously had doctors promote the benefits of a hearty breakfast, which included bacon, to increase sales for Beech-Nut Packing Company.

• Bandwagon Effect: He created the impression that "everyone" was doing something, making people feel like they were missing out if they didn't conform.

  • Example: He organized "Torches of Freedom" marches, where women publicly smoked cigarettes to symbolize liberation, encouraging others to join the movement.

3. Creating Associations:

• Linking Products to Desirable Concepts: Bernays connected products with positive emotions, values, or lifestyles.

  • Example: He associated Ivory soap with purity and cleanliness, promoting it as a way to achieve a healthy lifestyle.

• Product Placement: He pioneered the use of product placement in movies and other forms of entertainment.

4. Manufacturing "News":

• Creating Events and "Pseudo-Events": Bernays staged events designed to generate media coverage and public interest.

  • Example: He organized elaborate fashion shows and publicity stunts to draw attention to his clients' products.

5. Utilizing "Opinion Leaders":

• Influencer Marketing: He identified and collaborated with influential individuals who could sway the opinions of their followers.

  • Example: He worked with socialites and celebrities to promote products and trends.

Some of Bernays' Favorite Persuasion Heuristics:

• Scarcity: Creating a sense of scarcity or limited availability to increase desire.

• Reciprocity: Offering something of value to create a sense of obligation.

• Commitment and Consistency: Encouraging small commitments that lead to larger ones.

• Liking: Associating a product or idea with someone likable or attractive.

Many of Bernays' core principles have been amplified and refined in today's digital age. Let's look at some specific examples:

1. The Rise of the Influencer:

• Bernays's approach: He recognized the power of "opinion leaders" – individuals who could sway the opinions of their followers. He collaborated with socialites and celebrities to promote products and trends. Now, we leverage the data produced by everyone via their interaction with social media.

• Modern evolution: Today, we have "influencers" on social media platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. These individuals have built large, engaged followings and significantly influence their audience's purchasing decisions. Brands actively partner with them for product placements, endorsements, and sponsored content. [Insert image of Cloud Capital by Yanis.]

2. Engineering Consent Through Storytelling:

• Bernays's approach: He understood the importance of crafting compelling narratives that resonate with the public's emotions and values. He created events and "pseudo-events" to generate media coverage and shape public perception.

• Modern evolution: Brands now focus on creating engaging content that tells a story and emotionally connects with their target audience. This includes using social media, video marketing, native advertising, editorials, sponsored content, and interactive experiences to build brand loyalty and drive sales. Insert Chomsky's Manufacturing Consent.

3. The Power of Third-Party Validation:

• Bernays's approach: He frequently used "experts" or authority figures to lend credibility to his campaigns.

• Modern evolution: Today, we see this in online reviews, podcasts, YouTube channels, testimonials, and expert endorsements. Consumers are more likely to trust a product or service if it has been positively reviewed by others or endorsed by a credible source. Establishing credibility is essential to these forms of persuasion.

4. Manufacturing "News" in the Digital Age:

• Bernays's approach: He staged events to generate media coverage.

• Modern evolution: This has evolved into sophisticated digital marketing strategies involving search engine optimization (SEO), social media marketing, and content marketing to generate "buzz" and drive traffic to websites and online platforms.

5. Exploiting Psychological Biases:

• Bernays's approach: He tapped into psychological biases like scarcity, social proof, and authority to influence behavior.

• Modern evolution: These biases are still heavily exploited in online marketing. Limited-time offers, countdown timers, and "only X items left" messages create a sense of urgency. Customer reviews and testimonials establish social proof.

There is no transparency.

Using these techniques responsibly and ethically is crucial, prioritizing transparency and authenticity. However, despite our awareness of these techniques, we remain vulnerable to them. They work on us, and unless we are diligent, they constantly influence us.

The convergence of science and technology has supercharged persuasive capabilities, leading to an unprecedented barrage of messages vying for our attention.

1. Data Science:

• Personalized Persuasion: Data science provides granular insights into individual preferences, behaviors, and psychological profiles. This enables marketers and propagandists to tailor messages with pinpoint accuracy, increasing their effectiveness. Think of targeted ads on social media or personalized recommendations on streaming services.

• Predictive Analytics: By analyzing vast datasets, algorithms can predict future behavior, allowing for preemptive messaging. This is used in political campaigns to identify undecided voters and tailor messages to sway them or in marketing to anticipate customer needs and offer relevant products.

• A/B Testing and Optimization: Data science allows for continuous testing and refinement of persuasive strategies. A/B testing different versions of ads, website designs, or email subject lines helps identify what resonates most effectively with the target audience.

2. Information Technology:

• Ubiquitous Connectivity: Smartphones and internet access have created constant connectivity, making us reachable anytime, anywhere. This allows for a constant stream of messages through notifications, social media updates, and targeted advertising.

• Immersive Experiences: Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) create immersive experiences that can be highly persuasive. Imagine a VR experience simulating climate change's effects or an AR game promoting a particular brand.

• AI-Powered Content Creation: Artificial intelligence is being used to generate realistic images, videos, and even text, making it easier and cheaper to create persuasive content at scale.

3. Modern Psychology:

• Behavioral Economics: Insights from behavioral economics, which studies the psychological factors influencing decision-making, are used to design "nudges" that encourage specific behaviors. This is used in public health campaigns to promote healthy choices or in marketing to drive sales.

• Neuromarketing: This field uses brain imaging techniques to understand how consumers respond to marketing stimuli. This allows for optimizing ads and product design to trigger specific emotional responses.

4. Research on Consciousness:

• Subliminal Messaging: While the effectiveness of traditional subliminal messaging is debated, consciousness research is exploring new ways to influence behavior below the level of conscious awareness. This raises ethical concerns about manipulation and free will.

The Consequences

• Information Overload: We are bombarded with more messages than ever before, making it challenging to filter out noise and make informed decisions.

• Increased Susceptibility to Manipulation: Sophisticated techniques can exploit our cognitive biases and vulnerabilities, making us more susceptible to manipulation.

• Erosion of Trust: The constant barrage of persuasive messages can lead to cynicism and distrust of information sources. So, it's in vogue today to produce content criticizing the media, science, educational institutions, evidence-based medicine, etc., that feeds the fear and outrage produced by persuasion techniques deployed for profit and control.

What Can We Do?

Developing Critical Thinking Skills is crucial to knowing the techniques used to influence us and critically evaluate information.

Supporting Media Literacy Education on a mass scale is essential to equipping people with the skills to navigate the digital landscape and make informed choices.

Demanding Ethical Practices will hold marketers, politicians, and other persuaders accountable for using ethical and transparent techniques.

I needed a dose of hopium.

The question remains whether enough of us care. Without a critical mass of people demanding change, we will be buffeted by industrial persuasion until civilization dies.

The above is a brief survey of what's being used to manipulate us. If you care to look and learn, there is so much more out there to help you understand where your thoughts, ideas, and emotions come from.

The increasing sophistication of persuasion techniques and information overload makes it incredibly difficult to assess the information we encounter critically.

Gaslighting is a form of psychological manipulation in which a person or group makes someone doubt their own sanity, memory, or perception of reality. Its impact on critical thinking is profound, and it undermines a person's confidence in their judgment, making them more susceptible to manipulation and less likely to question information presented to them.

Today, it is common practice for a company to deny adverse ecological impacts despite the evidence or for a political figure to insist on falsehoods even when confronted with facts.

Greenwashing is misleadingly presenting a company or product as environmentally friendly to capitalize on consumer demand for sustainability. It exploits our desire to make ethical choices, leading us to accept claims without scrutiny. Oil companies are promoting their "green initiatives" while continuing to invest heavily in fossil fuels and unsustainable resource and energy-intensive activities.

We will need fossil fuels to transition towards sustainable local electrification and a culture more aligned with Nature and life. Wasting precious resources is out of the question today.

The Dunning-Kruger Effect is a cognitive bias in which people with low competence in a particular area overestimate their ability, while highly competent individuals tend to underestimate themselves. This effect can lead to unwarranted confidence in one's own understanding, making individuals less likely to seek additional information or consider alternative perspectives. John F. Kenedy Jr. has limited knowledge of vaccines while confidently spreading misinformation about their dangers.

Logical Fallacies are errors in reasoning that invalidate an argument. There are volumes full of examples. Logical fallacies can be persuasive because they often appeal to emotions or biases rather than logic. Recognizing them is crucial for evaluating arguments effectively.

Below are a few common examples:

Ad hominem: Attacking the person making an argument rather than the argument itself.

Straw man: Misrepresenting an opponent's argument makes refuting it easier.

False dilemma: Presenting only two options when more exist.

Cognitive Biases are systematic errors in thinking that affect our judgment and decision-making. Cognitive biases can lead us to favor information confirming our beliefs and ignore contradictory evidence.

Examples:

Confirmation bias: Seeking out information that supports our existing beliefs.

Anchoring bias: Over-relying on the first piece of information received.

Availability heuristic: Overestimating the likelihood of events that are easily recalled.

Heuristics are Mental shortcuts that simplify decision-making. While heuristics can be helpful, they can also lead to errors in judgment when applied inappropriately.

Examples:

Rule of thumb: Relying on a general rule that may not apply in all situations.

Affect heuristic: Making decisions based on emotions rather than rational analysis.

Learning about all the logical fallacies, cognitive biases, and heuristics is an enormous undertaking. Keeping track of them in our thinking seems impossible, but even being aware of them can help us think more clearly.

How can we overcome these challenges?

We must Be aware of our biases, recognize that everyone is susceptible to cognitive biases, and actively try to challenge our assumptions. Don't rely on a single source of information. Expose yourself to different viewpoints and consider alternative explanations. Verify information before sharing it, especially if it seems too good to be true or confirms your biases. Learn to critically analyze media messages, identify persuasive techniques, and evaluate sources. Be present and aware of your thoughts and emotions when consuming information. Disciplined thinking can help you recognize when biases or emotions influence you

By being mindful of these challenges and actively developing critical thinking skills, we can become more discerning information consumers and make more informed decisions in a world saturated with persuasive messages.

Now, let's explore the intersection of psychology, sociology, and environmental issues.

More Examples of Gaslighting:

• In personal relationships, a partner consistently denies their infidelity despite the evidence, leading the other person to question their memory and perception.

• In the workplace, a boss takes credit for an employee's work and then belittles the employee for questioning it, making the employee doubt their own contributions.

• In politics, a political leader dismisses legitimate criticism as "fake news" or conspiracy theories, leading people to distrust reliable sources of information.

Greenbashing: The Backlash Against Environmentalism

Greenbashing involves discrediting and demonizing environmentalism and those advocating for environmental protection. Here are some techniques used:

• Portraying environmentalists as extremists: Labeling them as "tree huggers," "radicals," or "eco-terrorists" to marginalize their concerns.

• Accusing them of hypocrisy: Highlighting instances where environmental advocates don't perfectly adhere to their principles to undermine their credibility.

• Emphasizing economic costs: This approach focuses on the potential job losses or economic disruptions associated with environmental regulations while downplaying the long-term benefits of sustainability.

• Promoting skepticism about climate science: Casting doubt on the overwhelming scientific consensus on climate change by highlighting uncertainties or promoting contrarian views.

• Associating environmentalism with elitism: Framing environmental concerns as something only wealthy, out-of-touch people care about alienating working-class individuals.

Why "Roll Coal"?

"Rolling coal" is the act of modifying diesel trucks to intentionally emit thick black smoke, often targeting pedestrians, cyclists, or hybrid vehicles.

• Anti-environmentalism: A deliberate act of defiance against environmental regulations and rejecting the "green" movement.

• Expression of masculinity and power: The large trucks and excessive smoke are seen as symbols of masculinity and dominance.

• Political statement: For some, it's a way to express conservative political views and opposition to government regulation.

• Rebellion and anti-authoritarianism: A way to rebel against perceived social norms and express dissatisfaction with authority.

Stubborn, Wilful Ignorance and Dogmatic Beliefs

Deeply ingrained psychological and social phenomena:

• Cognitive Dissonance: When confronted with information that contradicts their beliefs, people may experience discomfort (cognitive dissonance) and reject the information to maintain consistency.

• Tribalism: People tend to identify with groups and adopt the beliefs of their in-group, even if those beliefs lack evidence. This leads to rejecting information that challenges the group's consensus (groupthink, motivated reasoning).

• Emotional Reasoning involves making decisions based on emotions rather than logic. This can lead to clinging to beliefs that feel good, even if they are not supported by evidence.

• Fear of the Unknown: Change can be scary, and clinging to familiar beliefs, even if flawed, can provide a sense of security.

Are People Generally Intellectually Lazy and Incurious?

I feel bad when I say people are inherently lazy or incurious. However, several factors contribute to people's lack of critical thinking:

• Information Overload: The sheer volume of information makes it difficult to process everything critically.

• Cognitive Biases: We are all susceptible to biases that distort our thinking.

• Lack of Education: Education systems do not emphasize critical thinking skills enough.

• Social and Cultural Influences: Our social circles and cultural backgrounds can shape our beliefs and make us resistant to new information.

So what can we do?

Addressing these challenges requires a multi-faceted approach:

• Promoting critical thinking skills: Education should focus on developing critical thinking, media literacy, and scientific literacy.

• Encouraging open dialogue means creating spaces for respectful discussion and debate, where people can challenge their own beliefs and consider alternative perspectives.

• Combating misinformation: Addressing the spread of misinformation and promoting reliable sources of information.

• Fostering empathy and understanding: Building bridges between different groups and promoting understanding of diverse perspectives.

Fostering a culture that values critical thinking, open dialogue, and empathy can create a more informed and resilient society.

The complexity of the polycrisis, coupled with the vested interests of powerful actors, presents a formidable challenge to democratic solutions. However, history shows us that seemingly insurmountable power systems can be shifted through collective action. Here are some peaceful ways to organize and push back:

1. Building Awareness and Understanding:

• Education and Knowledge Sharing: Promote education on complex systems, ecological literacy, and critical thinking. Support independent media and investigative journalism that expose corporate malfeasance and challenge dominant narratives.

• Public Forums and Deliberative Democracy: Create spaces for open dialogue and deliberation on the polycrisis, where people can hear diverse perspectives and explore solutions collaboratively.

2. Grassroots Organizing and Mobilization:

• Community Building: Strengthen local communities and build solidarity networks. This can involve community gardens, skill-sharing workshops, and mutual aid initiatives.

• Direct Action and Civil Disobedience: Engage in peaceful protests, boycotts, and civil disobedience to disrupt the status quo and demand change.

• Citizen Science and Participatory Research: Empower citizens to collect data and conduct research that challenges corporate narratives and informs policy decisions.

3. Political Engagement and Advocacy:

• Supporting Progressive Candidates and Policies: Vote for candidates who prioritize social and environmental justice and advocate for policies that address the root causes of the polycrisis. Make sure they are willing to change the system that they work within. If they aren't, let them know you won't support them.

• Lobbying and Advocacy: Pressure elected officials to hold corporations accountable and enact regulations that protect the public interest.

• Building Coalitions: Form alliances with diverse groups and movements to create a broad-based coalition for change.

4. Economic and Social Alternatives:

• Supporting Cooperatives and Social Enterprises: Promote alternative economic models prioritizing social and environmental well-being over profit maximization.

• Localizing Production and Consumption: Support local businesses and reduce reliance on global supply chains.

• Building Resilient Communities: Invest in community-based solutions for food security, energy production, and disaster preparedness.

5. Challenging Dominant Narratives:

• Counter-Messaging and Storytelling: Develop compelling narratives that challenge the dominant narratives of consumerism, individualism, and endless growth.

• Art and Culture: Use art, music, and other forms of cultural expression to raise awareness, inspire action, and envision alternative futures.

Addressing the Specific Challenges:

• Complexity: Break down complex issues into digestible pieces and make them more accessible through visual aids and storytelling.

• Vested Interests: Expose the influence of corporate money in politics and media and support campaign finance reform.

• Anarcho-capitalist and Far-Right Ideologies: Challenge these ideologies by promoting solidarity, cooperation, and social justice values. Highlight the historical failures of unregulated capitalism and the dangers of authoritarianism.

• Neo-reactionary Accelerationism: Emphasize the importance of democratic values and the potential for positive change through collective action. Challenge the nihilistic and destructive aspects of this ideology.

Key Principles:

• Non-violence: Adhere to principles of non-violence and peaceful resistance.

• Inclusivity: Build a broad-based movement that includes diverse voices and perspectives.

• Long-term Vision: Focus on long-term systemic change, not just short-term gains.

• Hope and Resilience: Maintain hope in the face of challenges and cultivate resilience to withstand setbacks.

The struggle against entrenched power structures is always challenging, but it is possible. By organizing, educating, and mobilizing, we can resist those who seek to undermine democracy and exploit the planet for profit. The future depends on our collective action.

The urgency of the climate crisis, the entrenched power of corporations, and the susceptibility of populations to manipulation create a seemingly insurmountable obstacle. But despair is not an option. We need to act strategically and decisively. Here's a breakdown of what needs to happen, focusing on realistic and impactful actions:

1. Target the Pressure Points:

• Disrupt the Flow of Capital: While complete divestment from the status quo might be difficult, strategic boycotts and divestment campaigns targeting key corporations and industries can be impactful. Focus on sectors with the most significant environmental footprint and those actively lobbying against climate action.

• Hit them where it Hurts: their Brand Image. Corporations are highly sensitive to public perception. Organize campaigns that expose greenwashing, highlight unethical practices, and tarnish brand reputations. Use social media, creative protests, and consumer pressure to force them to change.

2. Build Counter-Power:

• Localize and Decentralize: Support local businesses, cooperatives, and community-owned initiatives. This builds resilience and reduces dependence on global corporations. Promote local food systems, renewable energy projects, and sustainable transportation options.

• Strengthen Community Bonds: Foster a sense of community and solidarity by organizing community events, workshops, and mutual aid networks. This creates a support system for individuals and builds collective power.

3. Demand Systemic Change:

• Political Action: Support candidates who champion environmental and social justice. Organize letter-writing campaigns, protests, and lobbying to demand policies addressing the polycrisis. Push for campaign finance reform to reduce the influence of corporate money in politics.

• Legal Challenges: Support legal action against corporations and governments that are failing to act on climate change. Utilize existing legal frameworks to hold them accountable for environmental damage and human rights abuses.

4. Shift the Narrative:

• Counter-Messaging: Challenge the dominant narratives of consumerism and endless growth. Promote alternative visions of a sustainable and equitable future. Use storytelling, art, and cultural events to engage people emotionally and inspire action.

• Education and Awareness: Organize workshops, teach-ins, and public forums to educate people about the polycrisis and empower them to take action. Support independent media and investigative journalism that exposes corporate malfeasance and challenges the status quo.

5. Embrace Radical Change:

• Degrowth and Post-Growth Economics: While degrowth is challenging, it must be part of the conversation. Explore alternative economic models that prioritize well-being and ecological sustainability over GDP growth.

• Reimagine the Good Life: Challenge the consumerist definition of happiness and success. Promote values of community, connection, and meaningful work.

Realistically, What Can People Do in Their Communities?

• Start small, think big: Even small actions can have a ripple effect. Reduce your own consumption, support local businesses, and engage in your community.

• Connect with others: Find like-minded individuals and groups. Join existing organizations or start your own.

• Be persistent: Change takes time and effort. Don't get discouraged by setbacks. Stay focused on the long-term vision.

Can We Refuse to Do Business with Companies and Organizations?

While complete separation from the status quo may be challenging, we can make conscious choices to reduce our dependence on corporations and support alternatives. Every dollar we spend or choose not to spend is a vote for the kind of world we want to create.

Overcoming Reluctance to Change:

• Appeal to Values: Frame the need for change regarding shared values like justice, fairness, and compassion.

• Highlight the Benefits: Emphasize the positive aspects of a more sustainable and equitable society, such as cleaner air, healthier communities, and greater social cohesion.

• Create a Sense of Urgency: Communicate the situation's urgency without fear-mongering. Emphasize that we have a window of opportunity to act, but it is closing rapidly.

Conservative and reactionary groups have power and money and despise everything I've outlined above. Still, there are areas of common interests and concerns we all share, like our love of life, freedom, health, and meaning. Understand that even our enemies are human and connected to us.

The Eight Beatitudes of Jesus - Matthew 5:3-10

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 

Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. 

Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. 

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. 

Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. 

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. 

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. 

Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 

One can find inspiration in any culture. We are all part of the human family.

The challenges are immense, but the stakes are too high to give up. We need to be bold, strategic, and persistent. We can create a future where human communities and life thrive by targeting pressure points, building counter-power, demanding systemic change, and shifting the narrative. It is time to act.

I must indulge in massive doses of hopium if I'm not to become grotesquely cynical and angry.

It's a sobering thought, but a major civilizational collapse is more likely than we want to admit. If such an event occurs, preserving knowledge and wisdom for future generations becomes paramount.

Here's how we can create information packages for posterity, focusing on building a new culture that respects ecological limits and avoids past mistakes:

1. The Medium:

• Durable and Redundant: To safeguard against loss, information should be stored on multiple durable media (etched metal, clay tablets, durable paper) and in various locations.

• Open Source and Accessible: Knowledge should be freely available and easily understandable, avoiding technical jargon or complex language.

• Multi-format: Combine written text with illustrations, diagrams, and potentially audio/video recordings (if technology allows) for greater accessibility.

2. The Message: Core Principles

• Interconnectedness: Emphasize the interconnectedness of all life and the delicate balance of Earth's systems. Explain concepts like ecology, biodiversity, and carrying capacity.

• Sacredness of Life: Instill a reverence for all life forms, not just human life. Promote a worldview that sees humans as part of Nature, not separate from it.

• Humility and Limits: Acknowledge the limitations of human knowledge and the potential for unintended consequences. Encourage caution, humility, and respect for natural limits.

• Long-Term Thinking: Promote a long-term perspective that prioritizes the well-being of future generations over short-term gains.

• Cooperation and Community: Emphasize the importance of cooperation, community, and shared responsibility for the well-being of all.

3. Practical Knowledge:

• Sustainable Living Skills: Provide practical guides on ecological agriculture, permaculture, water conservation, renewable energy, natural building, and other essential skills for living harmoniously with Nature. We are Nature and dependent on Nature. When life dies, we die. When living systems are damaged, we are injured.

• Traditional Knowledge: Preserve Indigenous knowledge systems and traditional ecological practices that have sustained communities for millennia.

• Appropriate Technology: Document low-impact, resilient, and accessible technologies while cautioning against the dangers of unchecked technological advancement.

• Conflict Resolution and Peacebuilding: Include information on conflict resolution, non-violent communication, and peacebuilding strategies to help future societies avoid destructive conflicts.

4. Warnings from the Past:

• Document the Mistakes: Clearly explain the factors that led to the civilizational collapse, including ecological overshoot, social inequality, and the pursuit of endless growth.

• Critique of Consumerism: Analyze the destructive elements of consumer culture and its impact on the environment and human well-being.

• Cautionary Tales: Use historical examples and cautionary tales to illustrate the consequences of unsustainable practices, social injustice, and violence.

5. Inspiring a New Culture:

• Stories and Myths: Create new stories and myths that embody the values of the new culture and inspire future generations to live in harmony with Nature.

• Art and Expression: Encourage artistic expression that celebrates the beauty and interconnectedness of life and promotes ecological awareness.

• Spiritual and Philosophical Reflections: Reflect on the meaning of life, the Nature of consciousness, and our place in the universe.

6. Locations and Guardians:

• Decentralized Network: Establish a network of information repositories in diverse locations, protected from natural disasters and human conflict.

• Guardians of Knowledge: Identify communities or individuals dedicated to preserving and transmitting the knowledge to future generations.

Beyond Information Packages:

• Living Examples: Create intentional communities and ecovillages that embody sustainability principles and serve as living models for future societies.

• Seed Banks and Heritage Sites: Preserve biodiversity and cultural heritage through seed banks, protected areas, and historical sites.

While the future remains uncertain, we must learn from our mistakes and preserve the knowledge necessary to help future generations create a more sustainable and just world. By creating information packages that combine practical knowledge, ethical guidance, and cultural inspiration, we can leave a legacy of wisdom and hope for the future.

Study, read, and learn from Nature, the natural sciences, and honest, wise, loving people. Our species may be headed for extinction, but trying to change that outcome can be a great adventure full of joy and excitement.

Many people disdain this perspective. Sometimes, it feels better to be part of a minority.

The New Nazi Regime by Any Other Name Is Old

Where is Western Civilization headed?

Only the uniforms have changed.

On The Radar—today's notices.

Today, I'll share some videos and one article from Caitlin Johnstone, but don't worry. One of our video creators/teachers has provided us with a long list of references backing up his thesis, which I encourage you to delve into with gusto and intellectual curiosity, improving your worldview and understanding of reality as you go.

I follow people who know their subjects, who they are, and what they want to say. I don't have to agree with them, but I must learn something from them. That's not to say I don't follow people who entertain or amuse me.

Bes D. Marx is worth your attention. He does well-researched videos on important subjects. Please watch this, consider it, and delve into his reference materials. You will learn a lot.

Adenauers Germany and the Nazi Past The Politics of Amnesty and Integration - Norbert Frei (1996) A Paler Shade of Red: Memoirs of a Radical - Gutman (2012) Brown Book (3rd edition) - Albert Norden, (1965) Die Strafverfolgung von NS-Verbrechen - Eichmüller (2008)

I'll list his references at the end of this post.

After watching, I wrote this:

After the Soviet Union broke the back of the German military during WWII, the United States swooped into Europe like its savior. It aided in rebuilding Europe, securing its status as a new global Empire. The World has been largely Americanized, yet we are still having the same problems we've had since the dawn of Modernity—war, starvation, environmental destruction, greed, crime, racism, violence, hostility, etc. Despite our Enlightenment political philosophies, science, engineering, information, information technology, data science, complexity theory, systems theory, critical thinking skills, literacy, science-based/evidence-based medicine, and fantastic creative/destructive techno-industrial civilization, we continue to pollute and destroy our habitat.

Weapons of mass destruction? The Sixth Extinction? Forever Chemicals? Microplastics? Global Heating/Warming/Climate change caused by burning fossil fuels? The constant warmongering? Dehumanization? Gangsterism? Corruption? Messoginism? Pride/Hubris? Greed/Covetousness? Lust/Ilisit Sexual Desire? Envy? Gluttony? Drunkenness? Drug addiction? All manner of addictions? Propaganda? Facile entertainments? What the heck is going on here? Where are the better angels of our nature?

Where does evil come from if not from the stories we tell ourselves?

You should be very alarmed by the use of hypersonic missiles.

I appreciate this interviewer's style. Nima listens carefully to his guests, experts you will probably not see on Anglosphere news and information outlets. Based on my reading, Professor Ted Postol has a lucid understanding of the subjects he's addressing. I am so frustrated that so few people try to learn from primary sources.

Unfortunately, I can’t insert the video here. I am unsure why my website tells me it’s an unsupported link. I have encountered this problem when posting videos on controversial subjects.

Prof. Ted Postol Assessing Russian Attack on Ukraine by Hypersonic Missile @dialogueworks 

Also on Rumble

In the episode above, the military expert commenting on Fox News is typical—biased and reading from the script.

Look up Orientalism. Dehumanization is one of The West's favorite tools. Have you read any books about WWII? Do you know who Heinrich Himmler is? Do you know about the Waffen-SS? They say that history rhymes. The parallels are impossible to ignore unless you are a brainwashed true believer. The West invented this, propagates it to this day, and cheers it on in the most self-righteous way. It's a sad feature of modern Western techno-industrial civilization that we are so easily programmed to support terrible violence. People across the West contort themselves into believing the most unreal narratives with fanatic glee. Will the United States get lucky and achieve another windfall at the end of WWIII? Will the Players of The Great Game swoop in, lending and leasing their way towards profits and control when our energy-blind, materials-blind, science-blind, reality-blind, Big Nature blind fossil-fueled, neoliberal/neocon dark tetrad "leaders" have finally destroyed their own Great Game with wilful ignorance and weapons of mass destruction that they invented? European colonialist/imperialist Empires created hell (Literally); that's where they live (despite their diversions, distractions, and metabolic syndromes), and that's where they are going.

If You Want To Help The World, Focus On Fighting The Empire—Caitlin Johnstone

Caitlin has a very exasperated voice, and I understand why. My slightly sardonic and frustrated pontification comes from my disappointment in our not living up to the exuberant progressive promise we had for a brief moment in the late 90s. Cynical, brainwashed Players of The Great Game continually betray the better angels of our nature. It makes me sad and angry.

My comment on her post on Medium:

Will people sacrifice one hour away from their screens to do the livelihood-threatening work of, call it what you will, revolution? We are too well entertained in the West. It seems to me that Caitlin hasn't watched a TV series since the 1990s. The Wire, Sopranos, Suits, The Mayor of Kingstown, Yellowstone, Breaking Bad, Billions —the list is long—with numerous documentaries and libraries of books, articles, and academic studies for our virtue. We have worshiped stories about evil since the dawn of civilization thousands of years ago; open the Old Testament and pick a random page. We love illusions; we love getting tricked; we love our con men and our gangsters. Homo hubris, Homo storyteller, Homo conquerer, Homo invasive species, Homo modern techno-industrial fossil fueled neoliberal/neocon, financialized, global omnicidal ape loves the idea that its own species is God-like more than life itself. It's easier to imagine the end of the world than a world where the better angels of our nature reign. So we will fight and sacrifice our lives for posterity to create what kind of culture? Let's be clear about that. The world needs to know how we can manage our affairs as champions of life in new days of forgiveness, rife with revelries, sustainably in concert with the ever-evolving fabric of life on Earth. Big Nature trumps Big Business. At the very least, we should be aware of that.

So, where do civilized people’s values come from, and could we appreciate a different set of values?

I love Ronald Hutton and have read many of his books. I wish he were my buddy. I want to live in his village and chat with him while drinking Earl Grey tea.

Where did Modern Paganism start? - Ronald Hutton

The more profound exploration of Paganism begins with its roots in the Victorian and Edwardian eras and the question of how ancient paganism was regarded then. It considers the mainstream views of paganism in that period, which veered between regarding it as a religion of ignorance, tyranny, and bloodshed and one of the outstanding artistic and literary achievements that prepared the way for Christianity. It goes on to show how new ideas developed amongst radicals, preserving the admiration for the accomplishments of ancient paganism while throwing away the caveats. Ronald Hutton recorded this lecture on 30th October 2024, at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.

If Books Could Kill

My bonus share today is another favorite podcast If Books Could Kill. I recently listened to their take on Sam Harris's "The End of Faith." I must admit that I was enamored by The New Atheists long ago and got over it. I used to listen to Sam Harris’s podcast, but it became so irritating that I stopped. I started reading The End of Faith and put the book down after a few chapters. His book offered me no new insights on the subject.

I become interested in things, and then I get over it, bounce back to my default core being, and move on, learning how uninformed I am along the way.

I agree wholeheartedly with Peter and Michael’s assessment. Please listen to the podcast, especially if you love books.

Have a lovely weekend.

Some references:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waffen-SS

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinrich_Himmler

Sources: Adenauers Germany and the Nazi Past The Politics of Amnesty and Integration - Norbert Frei (1996) A Paler Shade of Red: Memoirs of a Radical - Gutman (2012) Brown Book (3rd edition) - Albert Norden, (1965) Die Strafverfolgung von NS-Verbrechen - Eichmüller (2008) https://www.ifz-muenchen.de/heftarchi... Das Braune Netz - Willi Winkler (2019) Das Erbe des Kalten Krieges - Leo Müller (1991) DDR-Justiz und NS-Verbrechen - C. F. Rüter (2010) Die Akte Rosenburg - Görtemaker and Safferling (2016) Die Entstehung des BND - Thomas Wolf (2018) Die Kriegsverbrecherlobby - Felix Bohr (2018) https://www.bpb.de/system/files/dokum... Die zweite Schuld - Ralph Giordano (1987) Entnazifizierung und Personalpolitik in der sowjetischen Besatzungszone - Alexander Sperk (2003) Germany and Israel: Whitewashing and Statebuilding Daniel Marwecki - (2020) Nylon und Napalm - Regula Bochsler (2022) Partners at Creation - James H. Critchfield (2003) Pullach intern. General Gehlen und die Geschichte des Bundesnachrichtendienstes - Höhne und Zolling (1971) Reckonings: Legacies of Nazi Persecution and the Quest for Justice, Mary Fulbrook (2018) Sie warn die Antideutschesten der deutsche Linken: Geschichte, Kritik und Zukunft antideutscher Politik - Hanloser, Gerhard (2004) "The Cape of Last Hope": The Postwar Flight of Nazi War Criminals through South Tyrol/Italy to South America - Steinacher (2006) The Investigation of Nazi Crimes, 1945–1978 - Adalbert Rückerl (1980) The Myth of the Eastern Front: The Nazi-Soviet War in American Popular Culture - Ronald Smelser (2008) Schuld und Schulden. Die Politik der Wiedergutmachung für NS-Verfolgte seit 1945 - Constantin Goschler (2005) Subcontractors of Guilt: Holocaust Memory and Muslim Belonging in Postwar Germany - Esra Özyürek (2023) Verfassungsschutz: Wie der Geheimdienst Politik macht - Ronen Steinke (2023) Zwischen Internationalismus und Staatsräson: Der Streit um den Nahostkonflikt in der Partei DIE LINKE - Leandros Fischer (2016) Online: https://www.albany.edu/jmmh/vol2no1/f... https://ctc.westpoint.edu/the-insider... https://www.deutschlandfunk.de/aufarb... https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/vi... https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSA... https://rp-online.de/panorama/deutsch... https://www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/s... https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016... https://www.uni-heidelberg.de/presse/... https://www1.wdr.de/stichtag/stichtag... https://www.wilsonquarterly.com/quart... www.zeit.de/ns-umfrage https://www.zeit.de/gesellschaft/zeit...

OTR-Unenforceable, Life After Death, Teacher’s Telos

On The Radar—today's notices.

Uncle Sam makes the rules and gives the orders. Let's remember who's boss.

The International Criminal Court has taken a significant step by formally issuing arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. This action, for war crimes and crimes against humanity, underscores the gravity of the situation.

For those who think international law matters, it's important to remember its historical context. International legal structures and institutions were initially designed to facilitate business, not social justice, as evidenced by the activities of East India companies and the colonization of Africa and the New World. It was only after World War II and, to a degree, European guilt over the Holocaust that colonial powers began to create courts for social justice and a homeland for the Jewish people.

The International Court of Justice

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) is the principal judicial organ of the United Nations (UN). It was established in June 1945 by the Charter of the United Nations and began work in April 1946.

The seat of the Court is at the Peace Palace in The Hague (Netherlands). Of the six principal organs of the United Nations, it is the only one not located in New York (United States of America).

The Court's pivotal role is to settle, in accordance with international law, legal disputes submitted to it by States. Additionally, it provides advisory opinions on legal questions referred to it by authorized United Nations organs and specialized agencies.

The International Criminal Court

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) is the principal judicial organ of the United Nations (UN). It was established in June 1945 by the Charter of the United Nations and began work in April 1946. The seat of the Court is at the Peace Palace in The Hague (Netherlands).

Since 1946, the United States has had an uneasy relationship with the International Court of Justice (ICJ or World Court or Court). On the one hand, the United States embraces the rule of law within its own society and, in principle, within the international system of states. The United States has been and remains an active participant in cases before the Court, appearing before it several times, more than any other state, even in recent years. On the other hand, the United States has never been willing to submit itself to the plenary authority of the Court, and has typically reacted negatively to decisions by the Court that are adverse to U.S. interests. As is well known, in reaction to decisions that were reached by the Court, the United States refused to participate in the proceedings on the merits of the case brought by Nicaragua in 1984, withdrew from the Court's compulsory jurisdiction in 1986, and recently terminated its acceptance of the Court's jurisdiction over disputes arising under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations.

Now that we understand something about these institutions, it's crucial to delve into a few sources commenting on recent events in the Middle East that come from outside of the propaganda sphere. Understanding these perspectives is critical to comprehend why we witness blatant crimes against humanity daily in 2024, with seemingly no recourse.

Since the dawn of civilization thousands of years ago, the competition for power among Large Tribes, Kingdoms, Empires, Republics, and States has been fluid. The desire for status, wealth, power, and control is central to large social systems. Motivating a population requires stories that differentiate one’s own culture from those of the barbarians.

A period I’m fascinated by is the so-called Age of Discovery and, in particular, Portugal’s role. When did settler colonialism start? People have been migrating around the globe for tens of thousands of years. For that matter, when did Modernity start? Is there ever a definitive starting point for ongoing processes like these? As things evolve and change, our definitions change.

Magellan died in the Philippines, but one of his ships made it back to Spain in 1522, completing the historic effort to circumnavigate the globe and marking the beginning of the end of Portugal’s dominance of the seas. 

For thousands of years, terrible actions and evil ideologies have plagued civilization. The original "exception" might be Yahweh of Biblical fame. Yahweh can get away with murder and order all manner of violence to be committed by his favored humans. Violence is endemic to human culture, and what we are experiencing today falls well into the realm of social normative behaviors. Even if we have never witnessed such horrors in our own experience, wilfully ignoring them assumes a modicum of complicity.

People are numbed by reports of daily atrocities and tune them out.

Caitlin Johnstone provides her increasingly exasperated voice to discuss Imperial Recklessness and Insanity, which begs the question, what is sanity?

What do we mean by sanity?

sanity

/ˈsanɪti/

noun

1. the ability to think and behave in a normal and rational manner; sound mental health.

   "I began to doubt my own sanity"

2. reasonable and rational behaviour.

   "the next few years saw several appeals for sanity from top scientists"

We often see the lack of sanity in others but rarely in ourselves. Barbarians are dirty, stinky lunatics with bad manners.

Sanity can be defined by "fitting in," "herd behavior," "group think," "motivated reasoning," or simply conforming to the behavior of whatever people you find yourself with. (e.g., a "sane" person living in a vegan community is a vegan; a "sane" person living in Germany in the mid-1900s, was a sane follower of Hitler, etc.)

We might say that sanity is an agreed-on form of insanity, which is an attempt to make life seem rational by legislating ideals and values and imposing them on others.

Where on the sanity spectrum do you fall?

Below is a clinical definition from the DSM-IV, the "Bible" of mainstream psychology:

". . . a clinically significant behavioral or psychological syndrome or pattern that occurs in an individual and that is associated with present distress (e.g., a painful symptom) or disability (i.e., impairment in one or more important areas of functioning) or with a significantly increased risk of suffering death, pain, disability, or an important loss of freedom. In addition, this syndrome or pattern must not be merely an expectable and culturally sanctioned response to a particular event, for example, the death of a loved one. Whatever its original cause, it must currently be considered (by who?) a manifestation of a behavioral, psychological, or biological dysfunction in the individual."

So this "thing of ours" is sane because we can't change our perspectives enough to evaluate sanity from points of view that consider the complexity of Great Nature and challenge us to question our assumptions.

Has our culture conditioned us well or poorly? How would we know?

So who are the criminals?

These two videos offer in-depth discussions of the wars supported by the United States that are supposed to increase The West’s security.

The powers that be are rife with hypocrisy and only make things worse when they invest heavily in war and nothing at all in peacemaking.

Max Blumenthal and Aaron Mate discuss new ICC warrants for Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and the Biden admin's decision to authorize long-range Ukrainian strikes into Russia. They will then be joined live from Beirut by Ambassador Craig Murray to cover Israel's continuing assault on Lebanon.

I've been getting many questions about what the International Criminal Court arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant actually mean.

This discussion on one of my current favorite podcasts, Citations Needed, makes a fine point about the above views of the ongoing slaughter in the Middle East. Please listen to it.

"Salvadoran Ties Bloodshed To a 'Culture of Violence'", reported The New York Times in 1981. "The violence in Lebanon is casual, random, and probably addicting," stated the Honolulu Star-Advertiser in 1985. "Muslim life is cheap, most notably to Muslims," wrote long-time New Republic publisher and editor-in-chief Marty Peretz in 2010.

There’s a recurring theme within media coverage of subjugated people in the US and around the world: they’re mindlessly, inherently savage. Whether the subject is immigrants from Central and South America, Black populations in major American cities, or people in Lebanon or Palestine, we’re repeatedly told that any violence they may be subjected to or carry out themselves is inevitable, purposeless, and baked into their "culture."

The pathologizing of violence in certain racialized communities is one side of the coin. The other side of the coin, which reinforces this notion, is the equally sinister concept of selective empathy. It’s a conditional sense of compassion, reserved for victims who media deem deserving—say, Ukrainian victims of Russia’s invasion—and not for those who media deem undeserving, like Palestinians under siege by Israel in Gaza. What motivates this asymmetry, and how does it shape public understandings of suffering throughout the world? How is empathy as a form of media currency central to getting the public to care about victims of certain violence, while a lack of empathy––and even worse, pathologizing violence in certain communities––conditions the public to not care about those whose deaths those in power would rather not talk about, much less humanize.

In this episode, we look at the concept of selective empathy in media coverage, examining how it continues centuries-old campaigns of dehumanization – particularly against Arab, Black, and Latino people – bifurcates victims of global violence into the deserving and the undeserving, and influences contemporary opinion on everything from pain tolerance to criminal-legal policy.

Our guest is Dr. Muhannad Ayyash.

Considering Big Nature, can we think of our civilization as sane when it seems to be self-terminating?

The Trump Problem

Mike Meyer explains Why Trump is Irrelevant in a post expressing thoughts I've written for over a decade. The Players have changed, but The Great Game hasn't. Lately, I have come to think that radical change will only happen several generations after the catastrophic collapse of our global civilization. And what comes next might rhyme with what came before.

"He now has no goals except power for himself and the ability to create chaos at any time using anyone he can find to do his will."

Mike has included some excellent links to articles he's referenced, which is always much appreciated.

Here’s one that might raise an alarm or two.

The Crisis Report — 52

We are going to have a FAST COLLAPSE.

By 2050, I think the global population will be under 1 Billion.

Richard Crim has found some good data to back that up. It's hard to imagine.

I love Richard’s quote in his bio:

My entire life can be described in one sentence: Things didn’t go as planned, and I’m OK with that.

I don't think enough people are interested in "reality" in terms of facts, good data/information, the scientific method, empiricism, epistemology, technology, and earnest philosophical inquiry.

This brings me to a post from Figs in Winter that asks:

Should academics be political activists?

Navigating the perilous waters of public intellectualism

Okay, so I'm sympathetic to both Chomsky and Haidt. Let's see how this apparently contradictory stance plays in my own classroom.

Allow me to quote a Chomsky quote Massimo quotes in his article. Quote a quoter’s quote. I want to make sure you read it.

"With respect to the responsibility of intellectuals, there are still other, equally disturbing questions. Intellectuals are in a position to expose the lies of governments, to analyze actions according to their causes and motives and often hidden intentions. In the Western world, at least, they have the power that comes from political liberty, from access to information and freedom of expression. For a privileged minority, Western democracy provides the leisure, the facilities, and the training to seek the truth lying hidden behind the veil of distortion and misrepresentation, ideology and class interest, through which the events of current history are presented to us. The responsibilities of intellectuals, then, are much deeper than what Macdonald calls the 'responsibility of people,' given the unique privileges that intellectuals enjoy." — Noam Chomsky

And this is from the conclusion of Massimo's article:

I recognize, however, that this is treacherous territory, and that I can easily slip into a sarcastic or dismissive tone if I don't watch myself. Avoiding such peril is one of the hallmarks of a good teacher. And I flatter myself to think that I belong in that category. It is, therefore, possible to successfully navigate the Scylla and Charybdis outlined by Chomsky and Haidt. But one needs to be careful in doing so: Odysseus famously lost several members of his remaining crew in accomplishing just such a feat. He did get to Ithaca, though…

As long as there are so many well-entertained, well-fed, and well-paid people in "The West," we can look forward to business as usual—whether you see that as a good or bad thing depends on your situation, circumstances, and perspectives. There will be meaningful boycotts and divestments once it becomes absolutely evident to most people in The West that The Great Game is an ongoing disaster. Will that be when our population is under a billion? We are going to find out.

OTR—Tesla, Dollar, Economics, Weimar Courts, Overshoot

On The Radar presents today’s notices.

First up, Common Sense, Skeptic has made a series of videos looking at Elon Musk’s big Hollywood back lot production, highlighting more vaporware and product launches that will never happen.

Just released on YouTube. A month in the making, this review of Musk's 10/10 event is equal parts reaction video and analysis through a historical review of past projects. It examines where these newly unveiled vehicles fit into Musk's vaporware universe.

Musk fans are brain-dead monkeys trained on a steady diet of B.S.

Something is making trained Human monkeys stupendously stupider.

It must be the PFASs, often called 'forever chemicals' as they do not break down in the environment and are found throughout the world, in humans and other animals, as well as in our food supply and microplastics that can get into brain tissue. The tiny scraps of plastic were found in the olfactory bulb, the part of the brain responsible for processing smell. (Human-trained monkeys can't smell bull shit.) Scientists in Brazil found microplastics in the brain tissue of cadavers, according to a new study published Monday in the journal JAMA.

WE DUMB NUTS

Welcome to a poorly executed theatrical production that Disney has been doing for decades.

I can't imagine how cynical Tesla workers are, or are they all simply delusional followers of a very American cult?

Donald and Elon were made for each other; both are dark tetrad con artists looting the United States and catapulting our world toward civilizational collapse. (These are Symptoms of a mass social disease.) This is not an exaggeration.

We spend more time looking at our phone screens than with friends, so imagine a world where ten billion useless robots are walking around, waiting to become junk for landfills. How much energy and materials are required to make these toys? As we wage war with China, who is going to make the microchips needed for these things? And let's not assume Elon will make them or make them better than his competitors.

Groupthink and $$$-motivated reasoning-$$$ run the country. The Managers of the Empire's primary remit is to keep people entertained until the whole shyte show crashes. Good Lord!

Musk likes to tell his followers that an autonomous AI future will lead to a world of abundance, but we have seen this world before - through the eyes of a small bot.

Cyber libertarianism is Accelerationist NRx Mania.

THE STUPID ECONOMY AND THE SUBVERTED US DOLLAR

Next, I implore you to read two posts by indi.ca in the following order. They are too good for me to read and comment on.

While you are at it, visit The Geopolitical Economy Report for more background on China.

US politicians and media outlets complain about China's growing global influence, but offer no alternatives to help countries develop. China has the world's largest economy, produces inexpensive manufactured goods everyone wants, invests trillions in infrastructure, and doesn't interfere in the internal affairs of foreign nations. Ben Norton compares what Washington and Beijing have done in Latin America, especially Peru and Nicaragua.

Also, I have a bonus suggestion. Three Arrows hasn’t posted for a while; he may be busy with other projects. In my humble opinion, all of his content is compelling, so dive in.

"The Fight for the Republic". Dan takes you to the center of power of the American Empire in its death rattle. While the revolution is brewing, old elites struggle to remain in control and ward off disaster. They will not be successful...

Challenge your beliefs, thoughts, and ideas and lead a well examined life while the world keeps rapidly changing. Enjoy!

OTR—Neoliberalism

Today On The Radar explores Neoliberalism. So that you know…

Many scholarly articles, critiques, and apologetics have been written about Neoliberalism; the subject has received extensive attention.

A noteworthy book not discussed here is The Invisible Doctrine: The Secret History of Neoliberalism (and How It Came to Control Your Life) by George Monbiot and Peter Hutchison. I highly recommend you read it.

In my talks and posts, I often mention Neoliberalism and Neoconservatism. As with all "isms," it's essential to understand what they mean and stand for. Where did these ideas come from, how did they take shape, who inspired, developed, and championed them, and to what end?

What is the Neoliberal agenda, and how does it affect ordinary working people?

One's emotional reaction to terms does not increase one's ability to make lucid choices in the interest of one's family, community, or complex, evolving living systems. Life begets life. All hail nature! Big Nature is more important than Big Business in every possible way.

"The economy is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the environment, not the reverse." — Herman Daly

This post focuses on Quinn Slobodian's book Globalists: The End of Empire and the Birth of Neoliberalism, which argues that Neoliberalism emerged not from a singular US-based movement but rather from an intellectual circle in Geneva in the 1930s and 40s known as "the Geneva School." This school, influenced by the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, sought to create a global order dominated by free markets and shielded from the disruptive forces of national politics. The book traces the development of this neoliberal vision through various institutions, including the League of Nations, the International Chamber of Commerce, and the European Economic Community, and argues that it ultimately shaped the current world order, with its emphasis on individual rights, free trade, and the promotion of global capital.

We will explore critical aspects of Slobodian’s thesis by asking several questions. Although this may seem repetitive, each frame expands our understanding.

The Geneva School

The Geneva School played a pivotal role in shaping the trajectory of neoliberal globalization by promoting a globalist vision designed to safeguard capital and its movement worldwide, significantly influencing the current economic landscape.

• The Geneva School envisioned a world divided between imperium and dominium. Imperium represented the world of national politics and the people, while dominium symbolized the global realm of capital and property. This unique perspective is a fascinating aspect of the school's ideology. The Geneva School emerged in the 1930s and 1940s, centered around the Graduate Institute of International Studies (HEI) in Geneva. Ludwig von Mises, Wilhelm Röpke, Gottfried Haberler, and Friedrich Hayek were crucial figures.

• The Geneva School promoted its neoliberal vision through the International Chamber of Commerce, the International Studies Conference, and the Mont Pèlerin Society.

• The Geneva School's globalist project was informed by its experiences in the decaying Austro-Hungarian Empire and its observations of "Red Vienna," which led it to seek an order in which the global market could flourish without interference from national politics.

• The Geneva School actively worked to establish a legalistic regime that favored capital and discouraged economic nationalism. Their efforts are evident in constructing the post-war order, particularly in their advocacy for a global neoliberal project based on moral superiority and utility.

• The Geneva School successfully campaigned against the establishment of an International Trade Organization. Instead, it promoted the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), eventually leading to the formation of the World Trade Organization (WTO). This strategic influence is a testament to the school's power in shaping global market policies. The Geneva School's influence extended to US conservatives, contributing to the rise of two powerful visions of globalization.

• One vision, often labeled neoliberal, envisions nation-states fading into cultural spheres, giving way to global markets' dominance.

• The other vision, perhaps closer to the Geneva School's original vision, proposes a world divided into two spheres: one where capital flows freely and the other where nation-states act as containers of human agency, preventing a global push for equality, democracy and the promotion of human rights—both political and socio-economic.

Therefore, the Geneva School's globalist project significantly shaped the trajectory of neoliberal globalization by promoting a world order that prioritizes the free movement of capital and limits the influence of national politics and democratic demands.

The "Encasement" of Economic Structures

Quinn Slobodian argues that rather than seeking to "free" the market, Neoliberalism aimed to "encase" economic structures, shielding them from democratic demands. This concept is central to Slobodian's analysis of the Geneva School and its role in shaping neoliberal globalization.

• The Geneva School sought to create a world order in which capital could move freely across borders while protected from the potential interference of national democratic policies.

• They believed that national governments, influenced by popular demands, threatened the free functioning of global markets.

• To counter this threat, they advocated for creating international institutions and legal frameworks limiting states' ability to intervene in the economy, essentially "encasing" the market within a protective legal structure.

• Examples of this "encasement" strategy include the Geneva School's successful campaign against an International Trade Organization and its promotion of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), the precursor to the World Trade Organization (WTO).

• These institutions aimed to separate economic and political spheres by institutionalizing global market policies and limiting the scope for national economic intervention.

Slobodian argues that this "encasement" strategy has ultimately led to the current crisis of legitimacy in economic globalization. By isolating economic structures from popular democratic control, neoliberal globalization has fuelled a backlash from those who feel excluded from its benefits and lack the power to shape its rules. This backlash has manifested in the rise of populist movements that challenge the perceived dominance of global institutions and demand greater national sovereignty.

Depicting Barriers and Demands

In their efforts to construct a global economic order, the Geneva School of Neoliberalism, which prioritized the free flow of capital, sought to portray tariff barriers and unionized labor demands negatively. They framed these elements as obstacles to the efficient functioning of the global market.

• The Geneva School actively worked to portray tariff barriers as "walls." This evocative imagery underlined their belief that such barriers hindered the natural flow of goods and capital across national borders.

• Similarly, unionized labor demands were also presented as impediments to the desired economic order. These demands were seen as interfering with the free market's ability to regulate labor conditions. While the sources don't explicitly state how unionized labor demands were depicted, the overall argument suggests that they were likely portrayed as disruptive forces that distorted market mechanisms.

• The broader context of the Geneva School's ideology helps to understand these portrayals. The sources highlight the group's emphasis on dominium, the realm of capital and property, which they sought to protect from the perceived intrusions of imperium, the domain of national politics, and popular demands. This suggests that tariff barriers and unionized labor demands, both products of national political processes, were seen as expressions of imperium encroaching upon the desired global dominium.

• The Geneva School's efforts to shape the narrative surrounding these economic elements were part of their larger project to advance a globalist vision that prioritized the free movement of capital and limited the influence of national politics and democratic demands. By framing tariff barriers and unionized labor demands as "walls" and disruptive forces, they aimed to build support for their vision of a global economic order that would be less susceptible to the perceived whims of national governments and labor movements.

Conceptualizing the Global Economy

The neoliberals, particularly the Geneva School, attempted to conceptualize the global economy to prioritize the free movement of capital and minimize the influence of national governments and popular demands. They saw the global economy as a complex, interconnected system that operated best when shielded from political interference.

• The neoliberals believed in a global free market's inherent moral and practical superiority. They argued for an international economic order that would facilitate the free flow of goods, services, and capital across national borders, envisioning this as the key to prosperity and progress.

• They conceptualized the global economy as "unknowable" and beyond human comprehension. This idea discouraged economic planning and promoted the concept of legalistic frameworks as the only valid tools for regulation. This view sought to limit the role of government intervention in the economy and reinforce the perceived supremacy of market forces.

• The neoliberals' conception of the global economy was deeply rooted in their distinction between imperium and dominium. They viewed the world as divided between national politics, popular sovereignty (imperium), and the global domain of capital and property (dominium).

• They saw imperium as a threat to the free functioning of the global market. They feared that national governments, driven by popular demands for social welfare and economic regulation, would erect barriers to the free movement of capital and disrupt the natural equilibrium of the market.

• The neoliberals aimed to protect dominium from the intrusions of imperium. They sought to create a global economic order where capital would be free to move and accumulate without interference from national governments or labor movements. This was reflected in their efforts to establish international institutions and legal frameworks that would limit the ability of states to intervene in the economy, essentially "encasing" the market within a protective legal structure.

Neoliberals' conceptualization of the global economy had a lasting impact on globalization's trajectory, contributing to the rise of institutions like the WTO and the dominance of free trade ideology. It also laid the groundwork for the backlash against globalization in recent years. By prioritizing the free movement of capital and sidelining concerns about social welfare and economic equality, the neoliberals' vision of the global economy contributed to growing inequality and a sense of disenfranchisement among many, ultimately fuelling the rise of populist movements that challenged the neoliberal consensus.

Comparing Visions: Neoliberalism vs. Social Democracy

• The neoliberal vision, as championed by the Geneva School, prioritized the free movement of capital and the minimization of governmental interference in the market. They saw the global economy as a complex system best left to regulate itself, with legal frameworks (The Capital Code) serving as the primary tools for regulation. They believed in the inherent efficiency and moral superiority of the free market. They sought to create a global order where capital would be shielded from the perceived disruptions of national politics and popular demands.

• The social-democratic vision, in contrast, emphasizes a more significant role for the government in regulating the economy and promoting social welfare. The social-democratic perspective generally advocates for policies that promote social justice, reduce inequality, and protect workers' rights. This often involves government intervention in the market to ensure fair labor practices, provide social safety nets, and redistribute wealth.

• The neoliberals' critique of "Red Vienna" as a site of strikes and social confrontations suggests their opposition to the social-democratic model, often associated with strong labor unions and robust social welfare programs. The neoliberals saw such policies infringing on the free market and hindering economic growth.

• The neoliberals sought to counter social-democratic visions and Keynesian macroeconomic ideas. Keynesian economics, often associated with social democracy, advocates for government spending and intervention to stimulate demand and manage economic cycles. The neoliberals, however, favored limited government intervention and believed that market forces were best equipped to allocate resources and drive economic growth.

Neoliberals' attempts to "encase" economic structures within a protective legal framework further underscore the contrast with social democracy. Social democracy limits the ability of national governments to implement policies that might interfere with the free market, such as capital controls or regulations on labor practices. Social democracy, on the other hand, would likely view such policies as necessary tools to protect workers and ensure a more equitable distribution of wealth.

In essence, the neoliberal vision of the global economy differed from the social-democratic vision in their respective roles for government and their approaches to managing the market. While Neoliberalism championed a hands-off approach, prioritizing the free movement of capital and minimal government intervention, social democracy advocated for a more active role for government in regulating the market and promoting social welfare. This fundamental difference in perspectives continues to shape debates on globalization and economic policy.

Quinn Slobodian's Two Key Theses in "Globalists"

• Firstly, Slobodian traces the genealogy of Neoliberalism, focusing on its European origins. He challenges the US-centric narrative that often centers Neoliberalism around the University of Chicago in the mid-1970s; instead, Slobodian points to Geneva as the "neoliberal hotbed," where critical intellectuals like Ludwig von Mises, Wilhelm Röpke, Gottfried Haberler, and Friedrich Hayek congregated around institutions like the Graduate Institute of International Studies (HEI) in the 1930s and 40s. He calls this group the "Geneva School," highlighting its enduring influence as a social and intellectual circle that promoted a neoliberal vision through institutions like the International Chamber of Commerce, the International Studies Conference, and the Mont Pèlerin Society.

• Secondly, Slobodian presents Neoliberalism as a political ideology with a distinct global agenda. He argues that the Geneva School's vision was shaped by their Central European imperial and post-imperial experiences, particularly their formative years in the Austro-Hungarian Empire and their witnessing of the rise of "Red Vienna," a site of social and political upheaval. Slobodian argues that these experiences led them to seek an order where the global market could operate without interference from national politics. They saw this as a global political project, not merely a national economic one. Citing Carl Schmitt's distinction between imperium (the world of national politics and popular demands) and dominium (the global realm of capital and property), Slobodian argues that the neoliberals aimed to protect dominium from imperium. They sought to establish an institutional order safeguarding capital and its global movement. This globalist project aimed to "solve the riddle of the post-imperial order" by ensuring the unimpeded operation of the global market.

These two theses provide the framework for Slobodian's exploration of the origins and development of Neoliberalism. He examines how the Geneva School constructed a powerful narrative and employed specific strategies to advance its globalist vision. This includes their depiction of tariff barriers and unionized labor demands as "walls" obstructing the free flow of capital and their efforts to conceptualize the global economy as something "unknowable" that should be governed by legal frameworks rather than political intervention.

Redefining Neoliberalism: Origins and Nature

• Unveiling the Role of Ideas and Narratives: Slobodian emphasizes the significance of ideas and narratives in the rise of Neoliberalism. He shows how the Geneva School meticulously crafted arguments, employed evocative imagery and developed a specific language to advance their vision. For instance, they portrayed tariff barriers and unionized labor demands as "walls" obstructing the natural flow of capital, effectively framing them as impediments to global economic prosperity. They also conceptualized the global economy as something "unknowable," arguing against economic planning and promoting legal frameworks as the primary tools for regulation. This strategic use of language and imagery reveals the sophisticated efforts undertaken by the Geneva School to shape public perception and promote its globalist agenda.

• Connecting the Past to the Present: Slobodian demonstrates the lasting impact of the Geneva School's ideas on the trajectory of globalization. He traces the influence of their thought on the development of institutions like the World Trade Organization (WTO), arguing that these institutions reflect the neoliberal vision of a global order where capital enjoys significant freedom of movement, often at the expense of national sovereignty and democratic control. By connecting the intellectual history of the Geneva School to the contemporary world order, Slobodian sheds light on the historical roots of present-day debates about globalization, free trade, and the power of international institutions. His work reveals how the ideas of a relatively small group of intellectuals operating in a specific historical context could have such a profound and enduring impact on the global political and economic landscape.

In summary, Slobodian's "Globalists" redefines Neoliberalism by:

• Shifting the focus from a US-centric narrative to highlight the crucial role of the "Geneva School" in shaping neoliberal thought.

• Presenting Neoliberalism as a political project with a globalist agenda aimed at protecting "dominium" from "imperium."

• Unveiling the strategic use of ideas, narratives, and language by the Geneva School to advance their vision.

• Tracing the enduring influence of the Geneva School's ideas on the development of global institutions and the trajectory of globalization.

Presenting a Morally Superior Project: The Geneva School's Arguments

• Championing Individual Liberty and Limiting State Power

• Promoting a Global Order Based on Law and Rules (The Code of Capital / The Rules-Based Order)

• Highlighting the Efficiency and Impartiality of the Market

• Constructing a Powerful Narrative of "Walls" and "Signals"

Slobodian offers a nuanced and comprehensive account of neoliberalism's rise to global prominence and its enduring influence on the world order.

We should also examine concepts of currency, markets, commodification, and governance through the lens of ecological, material, and energy overshoot. The On The Radar project explores the depth or shallowness of our understanding of ideas that shape our worldview to understand better the challenges we face and what we must do to meet them.

“Many of the social and environmental failures of the global economy trace to the flawed and outdated maps of the egoʹ-nomics currently taught in our most prestigious universities as scientific truth and echoed daily in the media. Those failures are so significant that they pose an existential threat to the survival of the human species. Recognizing that ego-nomics shields economic predators from moral responsibility, private financial interests use their financial power to relentlessly promote the maps of ego-nomics through media, education, government, and even religion.” — David Korten

Collapse of the USSR & Impending Collapse—EU/USA

ON THE RADAR examines the Empire’s collapse.

Let's examine the collapse of Empires, drawing parallels between the Soviet Union's demise and the potential for similar outcomes in the United States and the European Union. A Russian émigré, Dmitry Orlov, argues that these states face similar challenges, including dwindling resources, economic instability, and bureaucratic inefficiency. He suggests that the US, like the Soviet Union, is vulnerable to a decline driven by these factors. Ugo Bardi elaborates on this theme, examining the European Union's complex structure and its susceptibility to what he calls the "Seneca collapse," a phenomenon where complexity ultimately leads to instability. Bardi further argues that the EU's reliance on imports and lack of military power leave it particularly vulnerable to economic decline. Both authors highlight the importance of understanding and preparing for potential collapse by focusing on individual resilience and resourcefulness.

Collapse of Superpowers – A Comparative Analysis

Main Themes:

The US is exhibiting similar vulnerabilities to those that precipitated the Soviet collapse, focusing on economic and social factors.

Key Ideas and Facts:

1. Ingredients for Superpower Collapse:

• Dmitry Orlov, in his book Reinventing Collapse, identifies key ingredients for superpower collapse:

  • Dwindling domestic oil production

  • Worsening foreign trade deficit

  • Uncontrolled military spending

  • Mushrooming foreign debt

  • A humiliating military defeat (e.g., Afghanistan for the USSR, Iraq for the US)

  • Fear of impending catastrophe (e.g., Chernobyl for the USSR, climate change for the US)

• Orlov contends that these factors, present in the USSR and the US, create conditions ripe for collapse.

2. USSR's Unexpected Advantage:

• Despite its totalitarian nature, the USSR possessed certain advantages over the US in terms of collapse preparedness:

  • Lower dependence on automobiles

  • State-provided safety net for basic needs (housing, healthcare)

  • Emergence of informal economies (e.g., "chelnoki" - itinerant merchants)

3. The US's Vulnerability:

• The US, according to Orlov, is particularly vulnerable due to its:

  • Car-centric culture

  • Lack of a robust social safety net

  • Dependence on a volatile global economy

  • Potential for social unrest and crime in the face of economic hardship

  • Unsustainable levels of debt potentially lead to hyperinflation and a worthless currency.

4. Tainter's Law and the EU:

• Ugo Bardi, in his article on the EU's potential collapse, highlights Tainter's law of diminishing returns to complexity:

  • Larger, more complex systems require increasingly more resources and energy to maintain, eventually reaching a point of unsustainability.

  • The EU's bureaucratic structure, particularly its multilingualism, exemplifies this law.

  • As energy resources become scarcer and complexity costs rise, the EU's structure risks collapse.

5. Similarities Between Superpowers:

• Both Orlov and Bardi emphasize the striking similarities between seemingly different superpowers:

  • All are susceptible to corruption, bureaucracy, inequality, and resource depletion.

  • Citizens in these systems share similar daily routines and concerns.

• This suggests that large, complex systems face similar challenges and vulnerabilities despite ideological differences.

6. Strategies for Survival:

• Orlov suggests reducing reliance on money and anticipating potential hyperinflation.

  1. Stockpile essential resources for bartering.

  2. Develop skills and relationships for a resource-based economy.

  3. Consider adopting a more nomadic lifestyle.

  4. Avoid entanglement with the potentially oppressive justice system.

  5. Bardi suggests that the EU could simplify its structure by reducing bureaucracy and language barriers.

  6. Transitioning to a hierarchical empire model could increase efficiency, although it is unlikely for the EU. [We don't have leaders like Napoleon anymore.]

  7. Recognizing the inevitability of collapse and taking proactive steps to adapt.

Important Quotes:

• Orlov: "Make no mistake about it: this soup will be served, and it will not be tasty!"

• Orlov: "You or me trying to do something about it would have the same effect as you or me wiggling our toes at a tsunami."

• Bardi: "The impending collapse of the EU illustrates how all large structures are subjected to Tainter's law of diminishing returns on complexity."

• Bardi: "Growth is slow, but ruin is rapid. It is one of the laws of the universe. If there were no collapses, nothing would ever change."

We are confronted with a sobering perspective on the potential collapse of superpowers, highlighting the interconnectedness of economic, social, and political factors. While predicting the exact timing and nature of such events is impossible, understanding the underlying vulnerabilities and potential consequences is crucial for individuals and societies to prepare for an uncertain future.

Professor Joseph Tainter is an American anthropologist and historian who studied anthropology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and Northwestern University, where he received his Ph.D. in 1975. As of 2012, he holds a professorship in the Department of Environment and Society at Utah State University. In this interview, Professor Tainter discusses the thesis of his widely acclaimed work “The Collapse of Complex Societies,” 25 years after its publication in 1988. His book is among the great classics of the study of collapse. In my view a work whose quality and relevance is comparable to Limits to Growth.

OTR—The Seneca Effect

Hi folks, today, On The Radar presents Ugo Bardi’s book that explores the science and engineering behind societal collapse. Bardi argues that collapse is a natural feature of complex systems like the Earth and that we must learn to accept and exploit it for a better future. The author draws upon philosophies like Zen Buddhism and existentialism to highlight our responsibility in choosing how to respond to our limited time on Earth and the challenges of resource depletion and environmental degradation. He further posits that the current global trends of nationalism, anti-globalization, and populism could hasten this collapse, highlighting the need for a more responsible approach to global resources. Ultimately, Bardi encourages us to embrace a rational, objective approach to the inevitability of collapse, viewing it as a catalyst for positive change and innovation.

Consequences of Current Resource Use and Globalisation

If left unchecked, our current resource use and globalization approach could have dire consequences for future generations.

Critical issues:

• Resource Depletion: Our current consumption patterns are rapidly depleting the planet's natural resources, raising concerns about the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. We must shift towards sustainable practices prioritizing intergenerational equity, ensuring that resources are preserved for future generations.

• Systemic Risks: The interconnectedness of modern techno-industrial global systems creates systemic risks. Adverse shocks, like economic crises or environmental disasters, can cascade through the system, causing widespread disruption. The rise of nationalism and anti-globalization sentiments further complicates the situation. These trends could hinder coordinated efforts to address global challenges such as pollution, global heating due to fossil fuel burning, and resource depletion.

• Existential Questions: We should reflect more deeply on our relationship with Big Nature/Life and our responsibilities towards future generations. Acknowledging the inevitability of collapse and decline can lead to a more sustainable and fulfilling way of life. This perspective encourages individual choices contributing to a healthier planet and a more equitable society.

The sources present a stark warning about the potential consequences of our current trajectory. They call for a shift in mindset, urging us to recognize the interconnectedness of our actions and the need for responsible resource management and global cooperation.

Facing Collapse: Thrownness, Satori, and Choice

The concepts of "thrownness" and "Satori," as presented in The Seneca Effect, offer a framework for understanding our choices in the face of societal or ecological collapse.

• Thrownness: This existentialist concept refers to the circumstances of our birth and upbringing that we have no control over. We are "thrown" into a world with pre-existing social structures, economic systems, and environmental conditions. In the context of collapse, we are born into a world facing various interconnected crises, such as resource depletion and climate change, essentially a product of past generations' choices.

• Satori: This Zen Buddhist concept refers to a sudden awakening or enlightenment, where we gain a deeper understanding of our true nature and impermanence. This realization arises when we confront our mortality and the limitations of our existence.

Achieving "Satori" allows us to accept our "thrownness" and the reality of collapse without succumbing to despair. It empowers us to make meaningful choices within the constraints of our circumstances.

The sources highlight two contrasting approaches to resource use and intergenerational responsibility:

• Exploitation: This approach prioritizes immediate gratification and individual gain, disregarding the needs of future generations. It views resources as something to be exploited for personal benefit, even if it leads to depletion and long-term consequences.

• Intergenerational Equity: This approach emphasizes the moral obligation to preserve resources and protect the planet for future generations. It advocates for sustainable practices and responsible consumption, ensuring that future generations have the opportunity to live fulfilling lives.

The sources suggest that achieving "Satori" allows us to see the interconnectedness of all beings and the long-term consequences of our actions. This realization encourages us to act responsibly and make choices that contribute to a sustainable future, aligning with the principles of intergenerational equity.

By accepting our "thrownness" and embracing "Satori," we can move beyond feelings of helplessness and make pragmatic and compassionate choices. This approach allows us to navigate the challenges of collapse with a sense of agency and purpose, striving to create a more equitable and sustainable world for ourselves and future generations.

While we focus on the philosophical and ethical dimensions of collapse, we will be more able to discover specific examples of how these choices might manifest practically.

A Post-War "Seneca Effect"?

John Rogers uses the "Seneca effect" concept to frame the potential collapse of the post-World War II order as a rapid decline following a period of peak prosperity and growth.

The post-World War II order, characterized by globalization and interconnectedness, may be reaching a tipping point. The downsides of globalization, such as migration, economic dislocations, and slow, consensus-based decision-making, are contributing to a sense of discontent and a resurgence of nationalism, anti-globalization sentiments, xenophobia, and populism. These trends could indicate an impending "Seneca effect," where the very systems that facilitated growth and prosperity begin to unravel rapidly.

The impending collapse is connected to the "tragedy of the commons," where shared resources are overexploited due to individual self-interest, ultimately depleting them. The benefits of globalism may have become "so familiar as to become an object of contempt," leading to a rejection of the system and a rise in more tribalistic and fragmented worldviews. This shift towards a more fractured world raises concerns about how global challenges such as pollution, resource depletion, disease, and ethnic tensions will be addressed without a unified and cooperative international order.

By invoking the "Seneca effect," we can encourage a deeper examination of the potential risks associated with the current trajectory of the post-World War II order. Leaders must consider the systemic risks inherent in the political and economic ecosystems and acknowledge the potential for rapid and disruptive change. A greater understanding of concepts from various fields, including materials engineering, game theory, chaos theory, and complexity theory, can provide valuable insights into the potential consequences of individual and collective choices.

Two Perspectives on Responsibility to Future Generations

Among others, there are two profound yet contrasting perspectives on our responsibility to future generations regarding the use of natural resources:

• The "Divine Right of Kings" Approach: This perspective suggests that individuals have the right to exploit available resources during their lifetime without significant regard for future consequences. This viewpoint prioritizes immediate gratification and individual benefit over long-term sustainability or intergenerational equity. Proponents of this stance might argue that technological advancements will emerge to address resource scarcity in the future, placing the burden of problem-solving on future generations. They might also believe that attempting to predict or control the needs of future generations is futile or impractical.

• Intergenerational Equity: This perspective emphasizes a moral obligation to preserve the planet and its resources for the well-being of future generations. It promotes responsible resource management and sustainable practices to ensure that future generations inherit a world that supports their needs and aspirations. This viewpoint often underscores the interconnectedness of humanity across generations, framing our actions as having lasting consequences that extend far beyond our lifespans. It advocates for considering the long-term impacts of resource consumption and prioritizing conservation efforts to safeguard the planet's health for future generations.

Linking the "Seneca Effect" to Current Political Trends

Ugo Bardi's work offers a framework for understanding how the "Seneca effect," a concept focused on the rapid decline following a peak, can be applied to analyze current political trends. The "Seneca effect" highlights its relevance to understanding potential societal collapse and the forces that can contribute to rapid shifts in complex systems.

The "Seneca effect" with contemporary political developments:

• The Rise and Potential Fall of Globalism: The Rules-Based Order, what I often refer to as The Great Game, is characterized by increasing globalization and interconnectedness and may be experiencing a "Seneca effect." This period, marked by fossil fuel consumption, unprecedented economic growth, and technological advancement, could be reaching a peak, with the potential for rapid decline due to various factors. This interpretation implies that the very successes of globalization might sow the seeds for its downfall, as highlighted through the "tragedy of the commons" and “Multipolar Traps” analogies where overconsumption and competition for resources can ultimately lead to depletion and collapse.

• Resurgence of Nationalism and Fragmentation: A resurgence of nationalism, anti-globalization sentiment, xenophobia, and populism are potential indicators of a shift away from the established global order. These trends, characterized by a retreat from international cooperation and a focus on national interests, could be interpreted as signs of a "Seneca effect" unfolding, leading to a more fragmented and potentially unstable world.

• Systemic Risks and Societal Shocks: Much has been written about historical events that triggered profound societal shifts and the potential for current political trends to create similar systemic shocks. Events like the sack of Rome, the arrival of the Conquistadores in the Americas, the use of atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the 9/11 terrorist attacks serve as stark reminders of the vulnerability of complex systems to sudden and often unpredictable disruptions. The implication is that the current political climate, marked by rising tensions and uncertainty, could heighten the risk of such shocks, potentially leading to rapid and unforeseen changes in the global order.

• Navigating Complexity and Uncertainty: We need a more nuanced and scientifically informed approach to navigating the complexities and uncertainties of the current political landscape. Drawing on concepts from fields like game theory, chaos theory, and complexity theory suggests that a deeper understanding of the interrelationships between social, economic, and environmental systems is crucial for anticipating and mitigating potential risks. This analytical lens, grounded in scientific principles, aims to provide a more robust framework for decision-making in a world characterized by increasing volatility and interconnectedness.

Scientific Concepts and Societal Collapse

Bardi's work draws upon various scientific concepts to illuminate the potential for societal collapse and the interconnectedness of our actions with the complex systems that govern life on Earth. While originating from diverse scientific disciplines, these concepts converge to provide a framework for understanding the vulnerabilities and potential tipping points inherent in our current trajectory.

• Materials Engineering: We must examine materials engineering to conceptualize the potential safety of a complex system. This analogy suggests that similar to how engineers meticulously design structures to withstand stress and avoid catastrophic failures, understanding the materials and forces shaping our planet's systems is crucial for ensuring its long-term stability. This approach encourages viewing the Earth as a resource provider and a complex entity with inherent limitations and thresholds that must be respected.

• Game Theory: This branch of mathematics, concerned with strategic decision-making in competitive situations, can be applied to understand the dynamics of resource allocation and consumption within societies. The concept of the "Tragedy of the Commons," where individuals acting in their self-interest ultimately deplete a shared resource, exemplifies a game theory scenario relevant to the discussion of sustainability and potential societal collapse. Bardi hints that the current global order may be succumbing to this tragedy as the benefits of globalization become "an object of contempt" and competition for resources intensifies. A significant figure in debunking the myth of the “tragedy of the commons” was political scientist and political economist Elinor Ostrom. She was the first woman to win the Nobel Prize in economics. Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action.

• Chaos Theory: This field focuses on complex systems that exhibit seemingly random behavior due to their sensitivity to initial conditions. Chaos theory suggests that even small changes can lead to unpredictable and often dramatic consequences, challenging the notion of linear cause and effect. Applying this concept to societal collapse, the sources imply that seemingly minor events or decisions could trigger cascading failures with significant and unforeseen consequences for the global system.

• Complexity Theory: This interdisciplinary field examines the behavior of complex systems characterized by interconnectedness, feedback loops, and emergent properties arising from the interactions of their components. Complexity theory helps us to understand the Earth as a dynamic system composed of interconnected social, economic, and environmental subsystems. This perspective emphasizes that actions within one subsystem inevitably ripple through others, potentially leading to unforeseen consequences and system-wide instability. Bardi's work suggests that a deeper understanding of these complex interrelationships is crucial for navigating the challenges of resource depletion, pollution, and societal stability.

Benefits of Accepting the Inevitability of Collapse

Accepting the inevitability of collapse, while seemingly pessimistic, can lead to a more positive and proactive approach to life and decision-making:

• Existential Awakening: Embracing the concept of impermanence, much like the Zen Buddhist concept of "satori," can be a catalyst for personal growth. Recognizing our mortality and the transient nature of societal structures allows us to focus on making meaningful choices in the present. This understanding can lead to a greater appreciation for life and a deeper connection with the natural world.

• Sustainable Choices: Accepting the limitations of resources and the cyclical nature of systems can foster a more responsible approach to resource use and environmental stewardship. Understanding the interconnectedness of our actions and the potential consequences of unsustainable practices can motivate us to make choices that promote intergenerational equity. This could involve advocating for policies prioritizing sustainability, adopting less resource-intensive lifestyles, and supporting initiatives protecting the environment.

• Adaptability and Resilience: Acknowledging the potential for collapse allows for better preparation and adaptation to changing circumstances. By anticipating potential disruptions and developing strategies to mitigate their impact, societies, and individuals can become more resilient in the face of challenges. This proactive approach can help to minimize the negative consequences of collapse and facilitate a smoother transition to new ways of living.

• Exploiting Collapse for Positive Change: While disruptive, collapse also presents opportunities for positive change. By learning from past collapses and understanding the dynamics of complex systems, we can potentially harness the forces of change to create more sustainable and equitable systems. This may involve re-evaluating societal priorities, exploring alternative economic models, and promoting greater social cohesion.

We should expand our perspective, challenging us to move beyond fear and denial and embrace the inevitability of collapse as a natural part of life's cycle. This shift in mindset can empower us to make more informed choices, fostering a more sustainable and resilient future.

OTR—Back To The Land Review

On The Radar explores Alice Friedemann’s review of “Back from the Land: how young Americans went to nature in the 1970s, and why they came back.”

Please read, listen, learn, and enjoy putting Alice’s work on your radar. Upgrade your imagination, prepare for the future, and give the future hope and a plan.

The author examines the back-to-the-land movement of the 1970s, highlighting its failures and suggesting that a similar movement is necessary in light of impending energy shortages. The article explores the reasons for the 1970s movement's demise, including unrealistic expectations, financial challenges, and social difficulties within communes. The author argues that the movement failed because individuals could not separate themselves from the capitalist system and its economic demands. The article concludes by emphasizing the importance of a new, more realistic, government-supported back-to-the-land movement focusing on sustainable agriculture and community-based initiatives.

My book review of: Eleanor Agnew.  July 21, 2005. Back from the Land: How Young Americans Went to Nature in the 1970s, and Why They Came Back. Ivan R. Dee.

As oil and natural gas decline, many of us will have to go back to the land. There is something to learn from those who have tried this in the past. Although much has been said about why communes and Utopian communities failed, little has been written about the fate of individual homesteaders.

CSA’s and homesteads should be forming now, with a government agency acting as the central agent for connecting people who want to farm, providing agricultural scholarships, training, outreach, buying land and loaning money to farmers, and so on.

It will not be simple to make the transition. The easiest path is to ration the remaining oil to essential services like agriculture and continuing on as usual, not only to maintain social order, but to have food to export in exchange for oil and natural gas based fertilizers. Land will continue to be concentrated in a few hands, pushing society towards feudalism and fascism as people work for minimal wages to survive. Business as usual, until energy shortages cause sudden dislocations, leads to civil wars and collapse.

If the U-turn can start now, there’s a better chance of remaining a strong democratic nation, and to finally do what we always should have done: live within our means — what the ecosystem can provide sustainably.

There’s no point trying to prepare for energy descent and climate change if the current levels of immigration, birth rate, and loss of prime farm land continues.

Everyone needs to get involved, because we’re a social, cooperative species, utterly dependent on each other as much as bees or ants are. Peter Corning’s brilliant book, “Nature’s Magic”, shows that synergy and cooperation at group levels were far more important in the emergence of homo sapiens than competition between individuals. We must all pull together and work towards the best possible future we can imagine, because we’re all in this together.

It would be better if people chose an agricultural future with hope and courage. Farming can be an immensely satisfying and rewarding way of life. It would be best for democracy and preserving our remaining resources if Americans could embrace reality and take appropriate back-to-the-land action.

OTR—Navigating The Polycrisis

On The Radar—short posts bringing crucial ideas to your attention.

Navigating the Polycrisis—Mapping the Futures of Capitalism and the Earth

The Polycrisis is the breakdown of our future.

It represents the end of established narratives and understandings, stretching from geopolitical rules to the biophysical basis of the planet itself. With old trajectories seemingly out of reach, speculation about the future has enjoyed a Renaissance — predicting everything from an AI utopia to a climate apocalypse.

Into this setting emerges Navigating the Polycrisis by Michael J. Albert. His new work proposes multiple pathways upon which the Polycrisis may take us — from utopia to apocalypse, socialism to capitalism, and the many winding possibilities in between. But beyond these scenarios, it also shows us how change occurs in tumultuous times, where new futures can emerge out of the breakdown of old ones.

Through interlocking explorations of climate change, existential crisis, class conflict, mass extinction, and granular insights into energy and resource availability, this book lives up to its name. It is not just an explication of potential futures but a guide to how we might navigate them.

An innovative work of realism and utopianism that analyzes the possible futures of the world-system and helps us imagine how we might transition beyond capitalism.

The world-system of which we are all a part faces multiple calamities: climate change and mass extinction, the economic and existential threat of AI, the chilling rise of far-right populism, and the invasion of Ukraine, to name only a few. In Navigating the Polycrisis, Michael Albert seeks to illuminate how the “planetary polycrisis” will disrupt the global community in the coming decades and how we can best meet these challenges. Albert argues that we must devote more attention to the study of possible futures and adopt transdisciplinary approaches to do so. To provide a new form of critical futures analysis, he offers a theoretical framework—planetary systems thinking—that is informed by complexity theory, world-systems theory, and ecological Marxism.

Navigating the Polycrisis builds on existing work on climate futures and the futures of capitalism and makes three main contributions. First, the book brings together modeling projections with critical social theory in a more systematic way than has been done so far. Second, the book shows that in order to grasp the complexity of the planetary polycrisis, we must analyze the convergence of crises encompassing the climate emergency, the structural crisis of global capitalism, net energy decline, food system disruption, pandemic risk, far-right populism, and emerging technological risks (e.g. in the domains of artificial intelligence, biotechnology, and nuclear weapons). And third, the book contributes to existing work on postcapitalist futures by analyzing the processes and mechanisms through which egalitarian transitions beyond capitalism might occur.

A much-needed work of global futures studies, Navigating the Polycrisis brings together the rigor of the natural and social sciences and speculative imagination informed by science fiction to forge pathways to our possible global future.

Can we have an alternative system to Capitalism that enhances global sustainability? Is it possible to have capitalism that is not built on never ending capital growth? Michael J. Albert is a lecturer at SOAS university where he is an expert in the field of International Relations. His work is at the intersection of International Relations, Political Theory, and Sustainability Studies. In this episode Hussain Ayed explores with Michael the alternative system to capitalism that can enhance global sustainability.

The Post-Modern Great Game And Its Players—Background and Dynamics

The First Great Game

Hulton Archive 1880

The Great Game refers to the intense rivalry and strategic conflict between the British and Russian Empires during the 19th and early 20th centuries, primarily focused on Central Asia. This "game" was characterized by espionage, political intrigue, and proxy wars as both empires sought to expand their influence and secure their borders.

The Great Game is full of inspiring and entertaining stories, from novels to Netflix. Regardless of what country we were born in, we are on a steady diet of Great Game stories from birth. The ideologies and belief systems (cultural algorithms) we are programmed with are aspects and iterations of The Great Game's operating system—human, all too human.

The following are books I've read on the subject. My deep-time TV drama series features a section concerning Francis Younghusband and a fictional character in my story.

BOOKS:

"The Great Game: The Struggle for Empire in Central Asia" by Peter Hopkirk: This is considered the definitive work on the subject. Hopkirk masterfully weaves historical accounts, personal narratives, and thrilling adventures to vividly picture the rivalry between Britain and Russia.

"Kim" by Rudyard Kipling: A classic novel that captures the atmosphere of espionage and intrigue in British India during the Great Game. You'll follow the adventures of Kim, a young boy who becomes entangled in the world of spies and secret agents.

"Tournament of Shadows: The Great Game and the Race for Empire in Central Asia" by Karl E. Meyer and Shareen Blair Brysac: This book offers a more nuanced perspective, exploring the human drama and cultural impact of the Great Game through the stories of individuals caught up in the conflict.

"Trespassers on the Roof of the World: The Secret Exploration of Tibet" by Peter Hopkirk: If you're particularly interested in the British involvement in Tibet, this book delves into the fascinating and often dangerous expeditions undertaken by explorers and spies in this remote and forbidden land.

"The Return of a King: The Battle for Afghanistan" by William Dalrymple focuses on the First Anglo-Afghan War (1839-42), a key event in the Great Game. It provides a gripping account of the conflict and its devastating consequences.

"Flashman in the Great Game" by George MacDonald Fraser: This humorous historical novel follows the exploits of Harry Flashman, a cowardly British officer who stumbles through various adventures in Central Asia during the Great Game.

Critical Aspects of the Great Game:

Geographic Focus:

Central Asia, including regions like Afghanistan, Tibet, and Persia (modern-day Iran), formed the primary battleground for this rivalry. These areas were strategically crucial due to their proximity to both empires and their potential as trade routes and buffers against expansion.

Motivations:

British Empire: The British aimed to protect their valuable colony of India, the "jewel in the crown," from Russian encroachment. They feared Russia's southward expansion would threaten India's security and stability.

Russian Empire: Russia sought to expand its territory and influence in Asia, driven by a desire for warm-water ports and access to resources. They also saw the British presence in India as a potential threat.

Key Events:

Anglo-Afghan Wars: Three wars were fought between the British and Afghanistan (1839-42, 1878-80, 1919) as the British tried to assert control over the country and prevent Russian influence.

The "Great Game" in popular culture: Rudyard Kipling's novel Kim (1901) popularized the term "Great Game" and captured the atmosphere of espionage and adventure associated with this era.

End of the Great Game: The Anglo-Russian Convention of 1907 officially ended the rivalry, establishing spheres of influence in Persia, Afghanistan, and Tibet. However, the Great Game's legacy shaped the region's political landscape for decades.

Francis Younghusband and the Tibetan Massacre

Francis Younghusband (1863-1942) was a British soldier, explorer, and spiritualist who played a controversial role in the Great Game. He is best known for leading the British expedition to Tibet in 1903-1904, which resulted in the Tibetan massacre.

Brief Biography:

Early Life and Career: Younghusband was born in India and educated in England. He joined the British Army and served in India and Burma. He was also an avid explorer, undertaking several journeys through Central Asia.

Tibet Expedition: 1903 Younghusband was appointed to lead a British expedition to Tibet. The expedition's official goal was to negotiate trade agreements and address concerns about Russian influence in the region. However, the mission quickly turned into a military invasion.

Tibetan Massacre: As the British force advanced towards Lhasa, the Tibetan army attempted to resist. However, they were poorly equipped and outnumbered. In a series of clashes, including the Battle of Guru, the British inflicted heavy casualties on the Tibetans, with estimates ranging from 600 to 700 Tibetan soldiers killed. This event is known as the Tibetan massacre.

Later Life and Spiritual Conversion: Younghusband's experiences in Tibet, particularly the violence he witnessed and participated in, had a profound impact on him. He developed a deep interest in Eastern religions and philosophy, becoming a prominent spiritualist and advocate for world peace. In 1936, he founded the World Congress of Faiths, promoting interfaith dialogue and understanding.

Younghusband's Actions in Tibet and Spiritual Conversion

Controversial Legacy: Younghusband's actions in Tibet remain highly contentious. While some view him as a skilled explorer and administrator, others criticize him for his role in the invasion and the subsequent massacre.

Spiritual Awakening: The violence he witnessed in Tibet led Younghusband to question his own beliefs and values. He became disillusioned with imperialism and sought answers in Eastern spirituality.

Advocate for Peace: Younghusband later dedicated himself to promoting peace and understanding between different cultures and religions. He believed that spiritual values could help to overcome the conflicts and divisions that plagued the world.

Francis Younghusband's life and career were deeply intertwined with the Great Game and its impact on Central Asia. Though controversial, his actions in Tibet ultimately led him on a path of spiritual growth and a commitment to world peace. His story serves as a reminder of the complex and often contradictory nature of human experience, particularly in times of conflict and change.

At our current phase of Modern Technological and Industrial global civilization, with its neoliberal, financialized, fossil-fueled coded capitalism, the game's stakes couldn't be higher, and its consequences more dire.

The competition for resources among the world's great powers is a complex and ever-evolving set of concerns driven by economic needs, technological advancements, and geopolitical strategies.

Modern technology increases the scope and impact of existential risks.

Control of resources is critical to maintaining leadership in The Great Game today.

1. Energy Resources:

• Oil and Natural Gas Remain crucial for transportation, industry, and power generation. Control over oil and gas reserves and supply routes is a primary source of geopolitical leverage.

• Uranium: Essential for nuclear power, a significant source of energy in many countries, and a key component in nuclear weapons.

• Coal: While facing environmental concerns, coal still plays a significant role in electricity generation, especially in rapidly developing economies.

• Alternative energy sources like wind and solar provide a trivial quantity that can't compete with fossil fuels in providing the energy necessary for modern techno-industrial global civilization.

• Too cheap to meter energy technology remains out of reach and can't be expected to replace our need for fossil fuels anytime soon.

2. Critical Minerals:

These minerals are essential for various industries, especially high-tech manufacturing and renewable energy technologies. Their scarcity and uneven distribution make them a focal point of competition. All of these resources are finite. Without vast energy resources, we can not expect to acquire them in difficult-to-reach regions such as the center of the Earth, the bottom of the oceans, or on asteroids or other planets.

• Rare Earth Elements: Used in magnets, batteries, electronics, and defense applications. China currently dominates the production and processing of rare earths.

• Lithium: Crucial for lithium-ion batteries, used in electric vehicles, consumer electronics, and grid-scale energy storage. (Is anyone watching season two of The Old Man?)

• Cobalt is another critical component of lithium-ion batteries used in aerospace and defense industries.

• Nickel: Used in stainless steel, batteries, and other alloys.

• Copper: Essential for electrical wiring, electronics, and construction.

• Graphite: Used in batteries, lubricants, and steelmaking.

• Platinum Group Metals: Used in catalytic converters, electronics, and jewelry.

3. Water Resources:

• Freshwater: Due to population growth, urbanization, and climate change, access to clean freshwater is becoming increasingly critical. Water scarcity will lead to conflicts and instability.

• Strategic Waterways: Control over major waterways like straits and canals is crucial for trade and naval power projection. Water transportation has always been incredibly efficient and will be even more necessary as global heating continues.

4. Agricultural Resources:

• Arable Land: Land suitable for farming is essential for food security. Competition for arable land can arise due to population growth, urbanization, and land degradation.

• Fertilizers: Essential for agricultural productivity, fertilizers are derived from minerals like phosphate, potash, and petrochemicals. They can be subject to supply disruptions, entail negative externalities, and reference The Great Game.

5. Other Resources:

• Timber: Used in construction, paper production, and other industries. Sustainable forestry practices and competition for timber resources are important considerations.

• Fish Stocks: Overfishing and competition for dwindling fish stocks are a growing concern, leading to disputes over fishing rights and marine conservation.

*These are partial lists.

Factors Driving Competition:

• Economic Growth: Rapidly developing economies and expanding populations require vast resources to fuel industrialization and urbanization.

• Technological Advancements: New technologies create demand for new materials and resources, intensifying competition.

• Geopolitical Considerations: Control over strategic resources can provide economic and political leverage, not to mention obscene profits for those who control these commodities and the added-value products derived from them.

• Environmental Concerns: Climate change and resource depletion are adding new dimensions to resource competition.

Implications:

• Resource Nationalism: Countries may prioritize securing their own resource needs, leading to protectionist policies and trade disputes.

• Supply Chain Vulnerabilities: Reliance on a few suppliers for critical minerals can create vulnerabilities and geopolitical risks.

• Conflict and Instability: Competition for scarce resources can exacerbate tensions and lead to conflicts and war. All wars are fought to acquire, control, and protect resources vital to The Great Game. Owners of capital benefit from these conflicts regardless of the damage they cause to life systems.

• Innovation and Technological Development: The need to secure resources can drive innovation in resource extraction, processing, and recycling.

The competition for resources is a defining feature of the 21st century. Understanding the dynamics of this competition is crucial for navigating the complex geopolitical landscape and ensuring a sustainable future.

The Great Game today is being conducted by the United States through "The Rules-Based Order" (America makes the rules and gives the orders), and any nation that won't conform to the U.S. neoliberal/neoconservative agenda is brought to heal through violence and economic coercion.

'War is nothing but the continuation of policy with other means' — On War, Carl von Clausewitz

The U.S. is fighting and seeks to fight proxy wars across the globe to maintain its hegemony and control of vital resources needed to maintain The Great Game and its crypto-religious social and economic ideology (The Great Game's operating system.)

Regardless of which party controls the United States, foreign policy maintains the continuity of the "rules-based" (coded capital) Great Game.

The Great Game primarily serves big business interests and shareholders (owners of capital.)

Capitalists need people and workers only as long as they provide forms of utility. Anarco-capitalist accelerationists would be perfectly happy in a less populated world with artificially intelligent robots doing most of the work. This does not imply a "conspiracy story." It only emphasizes the utilitarian and libertarian facets of The Great Game's operating system.

When the Trump administration speaks of allowing the immigration of highly educated people with specific skills, they are talking about people who can assist in creating the components for AI and robots or engineers involved in energy, etc.

Technology, robotics, energy, etc., are multidisciplinary endeavors requiring diverse skill sets.

American citizens not involved in high-tech industries and professional services supporting the Players of The Great Game will be limited to less lucrative and less skilled service work.

And, of course, the military-industrial complex is secure.

If you want status and wealth, acquire these kinds of skills.

1. Artificial Intelligence (AI)

• Programming Languages: Proficiency in Python, Java, C++, and R is essential for developing AI algorithms and applications. (New languages are constantly being developed, so keep up.)

• Machine Learning (ML): Understanding ML algorithms, deep learning, natural language processing (NLP), and computer vision is crucial for building intelligent systems.

• Data Science: Data mining, data analysis, and statistical modeling skills are needed to work with the large datasets used to train AI models.

• Mathematics and Statistics: A strong foundation in linear algebra, calculus, probability, and statistics is essential for understanding and developing AI algorithms.

2. Robotics

• Mechanical Engineering: Designing and building the physical structure of robots, including mechanisms, actuators, and sensors.

• Electrical Engineering: Developing the electrical systems that power and control robots, including circuits, motors, and power electronics.

• Computer Science: Programming robots to perform tasks, integrating sensors and actuators, and developing control algorithms.

• Control Systems: Understanding control theory and designing control systems to ensure robots operate accurately and reliably.

3. Common to Both AI and Robotics

• Software Engineering: Strong software development skills are crucial for building and maintaining complex AI and robotic systems.

• Embedded Systems: Knowledge of embedded systems is essential for developing the hardware and software that run on robots and other AI-powered devices.

• Problem-Solving and Critical Thinking: The ability to analyze problems, identify solutions, and be creative are crucial for developing innovative AI and robotic systems.

• Communication and Teamwork: AI and robotics projects often involve large teams with diverse expertise. Effective communication and collaboration skills are essential.

Additional Skills

• Cloud Computing: Familiarity with cloud platforms like AWS, Azure, and GCP is becoming increasingly crucial for deploying and scaling AI and robotic systems.

• Cybersecurity: Understanding cybersecurity principles is crucial for protecting AI and robotic systems from attacks and ensuring data privacy.

• Ethics and Responsible AI: As AI and robotics become more prevalent, it's essential to consider their ethical implications and develop systems that are responsible and beneficial to society (read, The Great Game.)

Where to Develop These Skills

• Formal Education: Universities offer degrees in computer science, engineering, and related fields that provide a strong foundation in AI and robotics.

• Online Courses and Certifications: Platforms like Coursera, edX, and Udacity offer online courses and certifications in specific AI and robotics skills.

• Self-Learning: Numerous online resources, tutorials, and open-source projects are available for self-directed learning.

• Practical Experience: Hands-on experience through internships, research projects, and personal projects is invaluable for developing practical skills.

By combining these technical skills with strong problem-solving abilities and a collaborative mindset, individuals can contribute to supporting The Great Game and Modern Technological Industrial civilization. If you work in these domains over the next few decades, you will make more money and acquire a modicum of status and security.

When civilization inevitably crashes, you will need primitive survival skills. Plan to establish residence in a less vulnerable region to global warming and habitat loss, with a stable, tolerant, and open culture. Good luck.

As the border closes and immigration restrictions exclude various classes of immigrants, U.S. workers will have to pick peaches, make shoes and socks, and perform low-skilled work in factories to maintain consumer goods supplies.

The U.S. will need to invest large amounts of money in reindustrialization to compensate for arbitrage value lost due to increasing restrictions on the global economy. The rapidly changing global economy requires the U.S. to control foreign governments that are sitting on the resources necessary to maintain its hegemony.

HOW TO BE A PLAYER

To varying degrees, Players who survive and win at The Great Game have these personality traits and operate in domains that offer access to high levels of income, status, and power.

Dark Tetrad

The Dark Tetrad expands upon the Dark Triad and is a group of four personality traits:

• Narcissism: Characterized by grandiosity, a sense of entitlement, and a need for admiration.

• Machiavellianism: Marked by manipulation, exploitation, and a cynical disregard for morality.

• Psychopathy: Involves impulsivity, thrill-seeking, low empathy, and a lack of remorse.

• Sadism: Deriving pleasure from inflicting pain, suffering, or humiliation on others.

Characteristics of the Dark Tetrad:

Individuals high in Dark Tetrad traits tend to:

• Be manipulative and exploitative.

• Lack empathy and remorse.

• Engage in aggressive and antisocial behavior.

• Seek power and control over others.

• Show a disregard for social norms and rules.

Implications:

The Dark Tetrad is linked to various adverse outcomes, including:

• Increased risk of criminal behavior, particularly crimes involving violence and cruelty.

• Difficulties in interpersonal relationships: Due to their manipulative and exploitative tendencies.

• Workplace problems: May engage in bullying, sabotage, and other counterproductive work behaviors.

Everyone may exhibit some of these traits to a degree, but those scoring high on the Dark Tetrad exhibit these tendencies more frequently and intensely.

Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD)

Psychopathy

• Superficial Charm: Often charismatic and engaging, able to manipulate and deceive others easily.

• Grandiose Sense of Self: Inflated self-esteem, believing they are superior to others.

• Pathological Lying: Compulsive lying, often without any apparent purpose.

• Lack of Empathy and Remorse: Unable to understand or share the feelings of others and show no guilt or remorse for their actions.

• Manipulative and Exploitative: Skilled at using others for their gain, often without regard for the consequences.

• Impulsivity and Irresponsibility: Act without thinking, often engage in risky behavior, and fail to fulfill obligations or commitments.

• Shallow Emotions: Limited range of emotions, may appear cold and unemotional.

• Proneness to Boredom: Easily bored and constantly seeking stimulation, leading to reckless behavior.

• Early Behavioral Problems: Children often exhibit conduct disorders in childhood, such as aggression, cruelty to animals, and rule-breaking.

Sociopathy

• Disregard for Social Norms and Rules: Frequently violate social norms and laws, showing little respect for authority.

• Deceitfulness and Manipulation: Lie, cheat, and manipulate others to get what they want.

• Impulsivity and Aggressiveness: Act without thinking, often reacting angrily or violently.

• Irritability and Hostility: Easily frustrated and prone to outbursts of anger.

• Reckless Disregard for Safety: Engage in risky behavior without considering the consequences for themselves or others.

• Irresponsibility: Fail to meet obligations, such as work or financial commitments.

• Lack of Remorse: They may feel guilt or remorse, but it's often limited and doesn't prevent them from repeating harmful behaviors.

• Difficulty Forming Attachments: Struggle to form genuine emotional connections with others.

• Often Linked to Trauma or Adverse Childhood Experiences: While not always the case, sociopathy is usually associated with a history of abuse, neglect, or instability in childhood. (Gabor Mate's work.)

Key Differences:

• Origins: Psychopathy is often considered to have a stronger biological basis, while sociopathy is believed to be more influenced by environmental factors.

• Emotional Range: Psychopaths tend to have a more limited range of emotions and may be better at mimicking emotions to manipulate others. Sociopaths may experience a broader range of emotions, including anger and frustration.

• Behavioral Control: Psychopaths are often more calculated and controlled in their behavior, while sociopaths may be more impulsive and erratic.

• Conscience: Psychopaths are generally considered to have little to no conscience, while sociopaths may have a weak conscience but struggle to act on it consistently.

Important Considerations:

• Overlap: There is a significant overlap between the traits of psychopathy and sociopathy, and it can be difficult to distinguish between the two.

• Spectrum: Both psychopathy and sociopathy exist on a spectrum, with individuals exhibiting varying degrees of these traits.

• Not All Harmful: Not all individuals with psychopathic or sociopathic traits engage in criminal or harmful behavior. Some may be able to function relatively well in society, although their relationships may be strained.

• Professional Diagnosis: If you are concerned about your mental health or the mental health of someone you know, it's essential to seek a professional evaluation from a qualified mental health professional.

If you can honestly evaluate our current culture, you will see that these traits are rife within our leadership community.

To be a Player, pursue these professions.

Players must acquire and control wealth, resources, and power.

1. Business and Finance:

• Chief Executive Officer (CEO): Leading and managing a company brings significant power and financial rewards.

• Investment Banker: Facilitating large financial transactions and managing investments can generate substantial wealth.

• Hedge Fund Manager: Investing large sums of money on behalf of clients can lead to significant profits and influence.

• Entrepreneur: Founding and running a successful business offers potential for both wealth and autonomy.

2. Law:

• Corporate Lawyer: Advising and representing large corporations often involves high stakes and substantial compensation.

• Judge: Holding a position of authority in the legal system commands respect and influence.

• Litigator: Successfully arguing cases in court can bring recognition and financial success.

3. Medicine:

• Surgeon: Performing complex and life-saving procedures carries high status and earning potential.

• Specialized Physician: Doctors in specialized fields like cardiology or neurology often command high fees and respect.

4. Technology:

• Tech Entrepreneur: Founding and leading a successful tech company can bring immense wealth and influence.

• Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning Specialist: Developing cutting-edge AI technologies is a highly sought-after and lucrative skill.

• Data Scientist: Analyzing and interpreting complex data is crucial for many industries and can command high salaries.

5. Politics and Government:

• Politician: Elected officials hold significant power to shape policies and influence society.

• High-Ranking Government Official: Leading government agencies or advising on policy can bring power and status.

6. Academia:

• Tenured Professor at a Prestigious University: Achieving a top academic position brings intellectual recognition and influence.

7. Entertainment and Media:

• A-list Actor/Actress: Achieving fame and recognition in the entertainment industry can lead to significant wealth and influence.

• Film Director: Creating successful and critically acclaimed films can bring status and financial rewards.

• TV Show Host: Donald J. Trump is a good example.

• TV News Personality/Entertainer: The President Elect’s cabinet is rapidly being filled by FOX News personalities and alternative media influencers

Factors to Consider:

• Hard Work and Dedication: Success in any field requires dedication, perseverance, and continuous learning. It is good to have inherited wealth.

• Networking and Connections: Building solid relationships and networking within your chosen field can open doors to opportunities.

• Luck and Timing: Being in the right place at the right time helps.

***Learn to mimic or adopt the belief systems of Neoliberalism, Neoconservatism, Neocolonialism, Zionism, and Libertarianism. Being involved in some sect of Christianity helps, even if you are only a “Cultural Christian.” Constantly talk about Western Civilization, Freedom, and Democracy. Anyone outside or denigrating the U.S. rules-based order is the enemy and the cause of all domestic problems in the United States. It must be easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of the U.S. Empire.

Learn to rationalize your ambition (will to power) with solid logic and stories that align with your passions and allow you to portray your efforts as making a meaningful contribution to the world, regardless of the level of power, status, or wealth it may bring. Wear a white hat, adopt a do-no-harm ethic, appeal to facts or pseudo-facts if they support the primary agenda, evidence or fake evidence, and science or pseudo-science when it supports the primary agenda, and invoke God's grace. Cover all your bases, making it easy for your propaganda, public relations, and marketing staff to tell stories that ordinary people will find compelling, appealing, and inspirational.

***Fear is persuasive.

WHAT KIND OF SPECIES EVOLVES TO CREATE THE GREAT GAME—AN OMNICIDAL WAY OF LIFE THAT CAUSES EXTINCTION AND EVEN, PROBABLY, ITS OWN?

A Brief History of What Makes Our Species Special

Homo sapiens is the last surviving species of hominid, a successful expansive invasive apex species with evolved advanced consciousness (theory of mind) and evolving, advanced technology, including language and complex group cooperation resulting in a high-tech, financialized, fossil-fueled global capitalist economy.

"r" and "K"

The terms "r" and "K" species describe two ends of a spectrum of reproductive strategies used by organisms. Environmental factors and evolutionary pressures influence these strategies. Here's a breakdown of the key differences:

r-selected species:

• Reproductive Strategy: Focus on producing many offspring with little parental investment.

• Life Span: Typically short.

• Maturation Rate: Reach sexual maturity quickly.

• Mortality Rate: High mortality rate among offspring.

• Environment: Thrive in unstable or unpredictable environments where resources may be fleeting.

• Examples: Dandelions, bacteria, insects, rodents.

K-selected species:

• Reproductive Strategy: Produce fewer offspring but invest heavily in their care and survival.

• Life Span: Typically longer.

• Maturation Rate: Slow maturation rate.

• Mortality Rate: Low mortality rate among offspring.

• Environment: Thrive in stable or predictable environments with more consistent resources and higher competition.

• Examples: Elephants, whales, humans, primates.

Important Notes:

• Continuum: Most species fall along the r-K spectrum, not strictly at one extreme.

• Environmental Influence: A species' position on the spectrum can shift in response to environmental changes.

• Evolutionary Trade-offs: Each strategy has advantages and disadvantages, depending on the environmental/ecological context.

Understanding the differences between r and K selection helps ecologists predict population dynamics, explain species distribution patterns, and understand how organisms adapt to their environments.

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What makes Homo sapiens unique?

While we share many traits with other mammals and especially our close relatives the great apes, several vital characteristics make Homo sapiens unique:

1. Complex Language and Communication:

• Syntax and Grammar: Our complex language system includes syntax and grammar, which allow us to construct intricate sentences and convey abstract ideas. 

• Symbolic Thought: Our language is deeply intertwined with symbolic thought, enabling us to represent concepts, tell stories, and transmit knowledge across generations. 

2. Advanced Cognitive Abilities:

• Abstract Reasoning: We excel at abstract reasoning, problem-solving, and planning for the future, which allows us to develop complex technologies, social structures, and belief systems. 

• Theory of Mind: We have a well-developed "theory of mind," meaning we can understand that others have thoughts, beliefs, and intentions that may differ from ours. Theory of mind is crucial for social interaction and cooperation. 

3. Culture and Technology:

• Cumulative Culture: We have a unique ability to accumulate and transmit knowledge and skills across generations, developing complex cultures and technologies. 

• Technological Innovation: We constantly develop new tools and technologies, from simple handaxes to sophisticated computers and spacecraft.

4. Bipedalism and Physical Adaptations:

• Upright Posture: Our fully upright posture frees our hands for tool use and carrying objects. 

• Endurance Running: We have evolved adaptations for endurance running, such as sweat glands and long legs, which may have been crucial for hunting and scavenging. 

5. Social Complexity and Cooperation:

• Large Social Groups: We live in large and complex social groups with intricate hierarchies and relationships. 

• Cooperation and Altruism: We exhibit high levels of cooperation and altruism, even towards non-kin, which may be linked to our complex social structures and moral reasoning. 

6. Art and Symbolic Expression:

• Creative Impulse: We have a strong drive to create art, music, and other forms of symbolic expression. This may be linked to our cognitive abilities and social needs. 

• Self-Awareness: Our capacity for self-awareness and introspection may contribute to our artistic endeavors and our search for meaning and purpose. 

These unique characteristics have allowed Homo sapiens to become the dominant species on Earth, capable of radically transforming our environment and potentially destroying Earth's capacity to support life.

While other animals possess some of these traits to a lesser degree, the combination of all these factors in Homo sapiens is what truly sets us apart. We are hubristic God Apes practicing the seven deadly sins while justifying our destructive habits through stories, culture, and social structures.

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The Evolution of Technology

As Homo sapiens ventured out of Africa and dispersed across the globe, they relied on a suite of increasingly sophisticated technologies to survive and thrive in diverse environments. We are masters of technology, which makes us think we are Great Nature's master.

1. Stone Tools:

The Oldowan Industry (2.6—1.7 million years ago): the earliest stone tool technology,  flintknapping, striking a rock in a particular way, causes flakes/chips to come off to create sharp edges for cutting and chopping. Though primarily associated with Homo habilis, early Homo sapiens also utilized these tools.

The Acheulean Industry (1.7 million—100,000 years ago): We refined tool making, characterized by handaxes—teardrop-shaped tools with bifacial flaking. These versatile tools were used for various tasks, from butchering animals to digging. 

During the Middle Stone Age (300,000—50,000 years ago), We developed more specialized tools, like points, scrapers, and blades, often using prepared-core techniques for greater control and efficiency. This era also saw the emergence of hafting, attaching stone points to handles for spears and other weapons. 

2. Fire Control:

• Early Control (1 million years ago—400,000 years ago): Evidence suggests early hominins, including Homo erectus, were using fire opportunistically. However, consistent control and creation of fire became more widespread with Homo sapiens.

• Hearths and Cooking (400,000 years ago—present): Building hearths for controlled fires provided warmth, light, protection from predators, and a means to cook food. Cooking increases food's digestibility and nutritional value, contributing to brain development and overall health. 

3. Symbolic Expression:

• Ochre Use (285,000 years ago—present): Using ochre pigments for body painting and decoration suggests early forms of symbolic communication and social interaction.

• Personal Adornment (100,000 years ago—present): Shell beads and other personal adornments indicate increasing social complexity and self-awareness.

• Cave Art (40,000 years ago—present): Cave paintings in Europe and other regions demonstrate advanced cognitive abilities and a desire to express ideas and experiences.

4. Shelter and Clothing:

• Simple Shelters (400,000 years ago): Early humans utilized natural shelters like caves and rock overhangs. They also began constructing simple shelters using branches and animal hides. 

• Clothing (170,000 years ago): Evidence suggests early humans used animal hides for clothing, which protected people from the elements. Bone needles indicate the development of more sophisticated sewing techniques. 

Significance of these Technologies:

These early technologies played a crucial role in the survival and success of Homo sapiens. They allowed our ancestors to:

• Adapt to diverse environments: From Eurasia's cold steppes to Africa's tropical rainforests, technology has enabled humans to survive in various climates and terrains. 

• Improve hunting and gathering: Tools and weapons increased the efficiency of hunting and gathering, providing more reliable access to food.

• Develop social bonds: Symbolic expression and personal adornment facilitated communication and social cohesion. 

• Expand their cognitive abilities: The challenges of toolmaking, fire control, and artistic expression stimulated brain development and innovation.

These technological advancements laid the foundation for the complex societies and civilizations that would emerge later in human history. Our continued expansion and domination of Earth's resources are likely to lead to our extinction and may even end life itself.

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WE CAN CHANGE, BUT IT WON'T BE EASY

Due to our nature, it is doubtful that we will develop a global culture to end the existential risks incurred by our modern techno-industrial way of managing things. However, we do have choices we could make that would give us a chance to evolve into the deep recesses of the future or mitigate the more horrible consequences of the inevitable rapid, uncontrolled simplification of our way of life.

***More on this in future posts and videos.

The Economics of the Coming Spaceship Earth—Kenneth E. Boulding

No matter how many wise voices over time express that nature has all the answers, we will continue to follow the empty promises of greedy, needy men who have never listened to nature and never will. We see ourselves in these childish men rather than ourselves in nature. —sc

The Economics of the Coming Spaceship Earth Kenneth E. Boulding In H. Jarrett (ed.) 1966. Environmental Quality in a Growing Economy, pp. 3-14. Baltimore, MD: Resources for the Future/Johns Hopkins University Press. First presented by Kenneth Ewart Boulding at the Sixth Resources for the Future Forum on Environmental Quality in a Growing Economy in Washington, D.C. on March 8, 1966.

Listen to a deep dive audio podcast about the text.

We are now in the middle of a long process of transition in the nature of the image which man has of himself and his environment. Primitive men, and to a large extent also men of the early civilizations, imagined themselves to be living on a virtually illimitable plane. There was almost always somewhere beyond the known limits of human habitation, and over a very large part of the time that man has been on earth, there has been something like a frontier. That is, there was always some place else to go when things got too difficult, either by reason of the deterioration of the natural environment or a deterioration of the social structure in places where people happened to live. The image of the frontier is probably one of the oldest images of mankind, and it is not surprising that we find it hard to get rid of.

Gradually, however, man has been accustoming himself to the notion of the spherical earth and a closed sphere of human activity. A few unusual spirits among the ancient Greeks perceived that the earth was a sphere. It was only with the circumnavigations and the geographical explorations of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, however, that the fact that the earth was a sphere became at all widely known and accepted. Even in the nineteenth century, the commonest map was Mercator's projection, which visualizes the earth as an illimitable cylinder, essentially a plane wrapped around the globe, and it was not until the Second World War and the development of the air age that the global nature of the planet really entered the popular imagination. Even now we are very far from having made the moral, political, and psychological adjustments which are implied in this transition from the 2 illimitable plane to the closed sphere.

Economists in particular, for the most part, have failed to come to grips with the ultimate consequences of the transition from the open to the closed earth. One hesitates to use the terms "open" and "closed" in this connection, as they have been used with so many different shades of meaning. Nevertheless, it is hard to find equivalents. The open system, indeed, has some similarities to the open system of von Bertalanffy, in that it implies that some kind of a structure is maintained in the midst of a throughput from inputs to outputs.[1] In a closed system, the outputs of all parts of the system are linked to the inputs of other parts. There are no inputs from outside and no outputs to the outside; indeed, there is no outside at all. Closed systems, in fact, are very rare in human experience, in fact almost by definition unknowable, for if there are genuinely closed systems around us, we have no way of getting information into them or out of them; and hence if they are really closed, we would be quite unaware of their existence. We can only find out about a closed system if we participate in it. Some isolated primitive societies may have approximated to this, but even these had to take inputs from the environment and give outputs to it. All living organisms, including man himself, are open systems. They have to receive inputs in the shape of air, food, water, and give off outputs in the form of effluvia and excrement. Deprivation of input of air, even for a few minutes, is fatal. Deprivation of the ability to obtain any input or to dispose of any output is fatal in a relatively short time. All human societies have likewise been open systems. They receive inputs from the earth, the atmosphere, and the waters, and they give outputs into these reservoirs; they also produce inputs internally in the shape of babies and outputs in the shape of corpses. Given a capacity to draw upon inputs and to get rid of outputs, an open system of this kind can persist indefinitely.

There are some systems - such as the biological phenotype, for instance the human body - which cannot maintain themselves indefinitely by inputs and outputs because of the phenomenon of aging. This process is very little understood. It occurs, evidently, because there are some outputs which cannot be replaced by any known input. There is not the same necessity for aging in organizations and in societies, although an analogous phenomenon may take place. The structure and composition of an organization or society, however, can be maintained by inputs of fresh personnel from birth and education as the existing personnel ages and eventually dies. Here we have an interesting example of a system which seems to maintain itself by the self-generation of inputs, and in this sense is moving towards closure. The input of people (that is, babies) is also an output of people (that is, parents).

Systems may be open or closed in respect to a number of classes of inputs and outputs. Three important classes are matter, energy, and information. The present world economy is open in regard to all three. We can think of the world economy or "econosphere" as a subset of the "world set," which is the set of all objects of possible discourse in the world. We then think of the state of the econosphere at anyone moment as being the total capital stock, that is, the set of all objects, people, organizations, and so on, which are interesting from the point of view of the system of exchange. This total stock of capital is clearly an open system in the sense that it has inputs and outputs, inputs being production which adds to the capital stock, outputs being consumption which subtracts from it. From a material point of view, we see objects passing from the noneconomic into the economic set in the process of production, and we similarly see products passing out of the economic set as their value becomes zero. Thus we see the econosphere as a material process involving the discovery and mining of fossil fuels, ores, etc., and at the other end a process by which the effluents of the system are passed out into noneconomic reservoirs - for instance, the atmosphere and the oceans - which are not appropriated and do not enter into the exchange system.

From the point of view of the energy system, the econosphere involves inputs of available energy in the form, say, of water power, fossil fuels, or sunlight, which are necessary in order to create the material throughput and to move matter from the noneconomic set into the economic set or even out of it again; and energy itself is given off by the system in a less available form, mostly in the form of heat. These inputs of available energy must come either from the sun (the energy supplied by other stars being assumed to be negligible) or it may come from the earth itself, either through its internal heat or through its energy of rotation or other motions, which generate, for instance, the energy of the tides. Agriculture, a few solar machines, and water power use the current available energy income. In advanced societies this is supplemented very extensively by the use of fossil fuels, which represent as it were a capital stock of stored-up sunshine. Because of this capital stock of energy, we have been able to maintain an energy input into the system, particularly over the last two centuries, much larger than we would have been able to do with existing techniques if we had had to rely on the current input of available energy from the sun or the earth itself. This supplementary input, however, is by its very nature exhaustible. The inputs and outputs of information are more subtle and harder to trace, but also represent an open system, related to, but not wholly dependent on, the transformations of matter and energy. By far the larger amount of information and knowledge is self-generated by the human society, though a certain amount of information comes into the sociosphere in the form of light from the universe outside. The information that comes from the universe has certainly affected man's image of himself and of his environment, as we can easily visualize if we suppose that we lived on a planet with a total cloud-cover that kept out all information from the exterior universe. It is only in very recent times, of course, that the information coming in from the universe has been captured and coded into the form of a complex image of what the universe is like outside the earth; but even in primitive times, man's perception of the heavenly bodies has always profoundly affected his image of earth and of himself. It is the information generated within the planet, however, and particularly that generated by man himself, which forms by far the larger part of the information system. We can think of the stock of knowledge, or as Teilhard de Chardin called it, the "noosphere," and consider this as an open system, losing knowledge through aging and death and gaining it through birth and education and the ordinary experience of life.

From the human point of view, knowledge or information is by far the most important of the three systems. Matter only acquires significance and only enters the sociosphere or the econosphere insofar as it becomes an object of human knowledge. We can think of capital, indeed, as frozen knowledge or knowledge imposed on the material world in the form of improbable arrangements. A machine, for instance, originated in the mind of man, and both its construction and its use involve information processes imposed on the material world by man himself. The cumulation of knowledge, that is, the excess of its production over its consumption, is the key to human development of all kinds, especially to economic development. We can see this pre-eminence of knowledge very clearly in the experiences of countries where the material capital has been destroyed by a war, as in Japan and Germany. The knowledge of the people was not destroyed, and it did not take long, therefore, certainly not more than ten years, for most of the material capital to be reestablished again. In a country such as Indonesia, however, where the knowledge did not exist, the material capital did not come into being either. By "knowledge" here I mean, of course, the whole cognitive structure, which includes valuations and motivations as well as images of the factual world.

The concept of entropy, used in a somewhat loose sense, can be applied to all three of these open systems. In the case of material systems, we can distinguish between entropic processes, which take concentrated materials and diffuse them through the oceans or over the earth's surface or into the atmosphere, and anti-entropic processes, which take diffuse materials and concentrate them. Material entropy can be taken as a measure of the uniformity of the distribution of elements and, more uncertainly, compounds and other structures on the earth's surface. There is, fortunately, no law of increasing material entropy, as there is in the corresponding case of energy, as it is quite possible to concentrate diffused materials if energy inputs are allowed. Thus the processes for fixation of nitrogen from the air, processes for the extraction of magnesium or other elements from the sea, and processes for the desalinization of sea water are anti-entropic in the material sense, though the reduction of material entropy has to be paid for by inputs of energy and also inputs of information, or at least a stock of information in the system. In regard to matter, therefore, a closed system is conceivable, that is, a system in which there is neither increase nor decrease in material entropy. In such a system all outputs from consumption would constantly be recycled to become inputs for production, as for instance, nitrogen in the nitrogen cycle of the natural ecosystem.

In regard to the energy system there is, unfortunately, no escape from the grim Second Law of Thermodynamics; and if there were no energy inputs into the earth, any evolutionary or developmental process would be impossible. The large energy inputs which we have obtained from fossil fuels are strictly temporary. Even the most optimistic predictions would expect the easily available supply of fossil fuels to be exhausted in a mere matter of centuries at present rates of use. If the rest of the world were to rise to American standards of power consumption, and still more if world population continues to increase, the exhaustion of fossil fuels would be even more rapid. The development of nuclear energy has improved this picture, but has not fundamentally altered it, at least in present technologies, for fissionable material is still relatively scarce. If we should achieve the economic use of energy through fusion, of course, a much larger source of energy materials would be available, which would expand the time horizons of supplementary energy input into an open social system by perhaps tens to hundreds of thousands of years. Failing this, however, the time is not very far distant, historically speaking, when man will once more have to retreat to his current energy input from the sun, even though this could be used much more effectively than in the past with increased knowledge. Up to now, certainly, we have not got very far with the technology of using current solar energy, but the possibility of substantial improvements in the future is certainly high. It may be, indeed, that the biological revolution which is just beginning will produce a solution to this problem, as we develop artificial organisms which are capable of much more efficient transformation of solar energy into easily available forms than any that we now have. As Richard Meier has suggested, we may run our machines in the future with methane-producing algae.

The question of whether there is anything corresponding to entropy in the information system is a puzzling one, though of great interest. There are certainly many examples of social systems and cultures which have lost knowledge, especially in transition from one generation to the next, and in which the culture has therefore degenerated. One only has to look at the folk culture of Appalachian migrants to American cities to see a culture which started out as a fairly rich European folk culture 7 in Elizabethan times and which seems to have lost both skills, adaptability, folk tales, songs, and almost everything that goes up to make richness and complexity in a culture, in the course of about ten generations. The American Indians on reservations provide another example of such degradation of the information and knowledge system. On the other hand, over a great part of human history, the growth of knowledge in the earth as a whole seems to have been almost continuous, even though there have been times of relatively slow growth and times of rapid growth. As it is knowledge of certain kinds that produces the growth of knowledge in general, we have here a very subtle and complicated system, and it is hard to put one's finger on the particular elements in a culture which make knowledge grow more or less rapidly, or even which make it decline. One of the great puzzles in this connection, for instance, is why the take-off into science, which represents an "acceleration," or an increase in the rate of growth of knowledge in European society in the sixteenth century, did not take place in China, which at that time (about 1600) was unquestionably ahead of Europe, and one would think even more ready for the breakthrough. This is perhaps the most crucial question in the theory of social development, yet we must confess that it is very little understood. Perhaps the most significant factor in this connection is the existence of "slack" in the culture, which permits a divergence from established patterns and activity which is not merely devoted to reproducing the existing society but is devoted to changing it. China was perhaps too well-organized and had too little slack in its society to produce the kind of acceleration which we find in the somewhat poorer and less well-organized but more diverse societies of Europe.

The closed earth of the future requires economic principles which are somewhat different from those of the open earth of the past. For the sake of picturesqueness, I am tempted to call the open economy the "cowboy economy," the cowboy being symbolic of the illimitable plains and also associated with reckless, exploitative, romantic, and violent behavior, which is characteristic of open societies. The closed economy of the future might similarly be called the "spaceman" economy, in which the earth has become a single spaceship, without unlimited reservoirs of anything, either for extraction or for pollution, and in which, therefore, man must find his place in a 8 cyclical ecological system which is capable of continuous reproduction of material form even though it cannot escape having inputs of energy. The difference between the two types of economy becomes most apparent in the attitude towards consumption. In the cowboy economy, consumption is regarded as a good thing and production likewise; and the success of the economy is measured by the amount of the throughput from the "factors of production," a part of which, at any rate, is extracted from the reservoirs of raw materials and noneconomic objects, and another part of which is output into the reservoirs of pollution. If there are infinite reservoirs from which material can be obtained and into which effluvia can be deposited, then the throughput is at least a plausible measure of the success of the economy. The gross national product is a rough measure of this total throughput. It should be possible, however, to distinguish that part of the GNP which is derived from exhaustible and that which is derived from reproducible resources, as well as that part of consumption which represents effluvia and that which represents input into the productive system again. Nobody, as far as I know, has ever attempted to break down the GNP in this way, although it would be an interesting and extremely important exercise, which is unfortunately beyond the scope of this paper.

By contrast, in the spaceman economy, throughput is by no means a desideratum, and is indeed to be regarded as something to be minimized rather than maximized. The essential measure of the success of the economy is not production and consumption at all, but the nature, extent, quality, and complexity of the total capital stock, including in this the state of the human bodies and minds included in the system. In the spaceman economy, what we are primarily concerned with is stock maintenance, and any technological change which results in the maintenance of a given total stock with a lessened throughput (that is, less production and consumption) is clearly a gain. This idea that both production and consumption are bad things rather than good things is very strange to economists, who have been obsessed with the income-flow concepts to the exclusion, almost, of capital-stock concepts.

There are actually some very tricky and unsolved problems involved in the questions as to whether human welfare or well-being is to be regarded as a stock or a flow. Something of both these elements seems actually to be involved in it, and as far as I know there have been practically no studies directed towards identifying these two dimensions of human satisfaction. Is it, for instance, eating that is a good thing, or is it being well fed? Does economic welfare involve having nice clothes, fine houses, good equipment, and so on, or is it to be measured by the depreciation and the wearing out of these things? I am inclined myself to regard the stock concept as most fundamental, that is, to think of being well fed as more important than eating, and to think even of so-called services as essentially involving the restoration of a depleting psychic capital. Thus I have argued that we go to a concert in order to restore a psychic condition which might be called "just having gone to a concert," which, once established, tends to depreciate. When it depreciates beyond a certain point, we go to another concert in order to restore it. If it depreciates rapidly, we go to a lot of concerts; if it depreciates slowly, we go to few. On this view, similarly, we eat primarily to restore bodily homeostasis, that is, to maintain a condition of being well fed, and so on. On this view, there is nothing desirable in consumption at all. The less consumption we can maintain a given state with, the better off we are. If we had clothes that did not wear out, houses that did not depreciate, and even if we could maintain our bodily condition without eating, we would clearly be much better off.

It is this last consideration, perhaps, which makes one pause. Would we, for instance, really want an operation that would enable us to restore all our bodily tissues by intravenous feeding while we slept? Is there not, that is to say, a certain virtue in throughput itself, in activity itself, in production and consumption itself, in raising food and in eating it? It would certainly be rash to exclude this possibility. Further interesting problems are raised by the demand for variety. We certainly do not want a constant state to be maintained; we want fluctuations in the state. Otherwise there would be no demand for variety in food, for variety in scene, as in travel, for variety in social contact, and so on. The demand for variety can, of course, be costly, and sometimes it seems to be too costly to be tolerated or at least legitimated, as in the case of marital partners, where the maintenance of a homeostatic state in the family is usually regarded as much more desirable than the variety and excessive throughput of the libertine. There are 10 problems here which the economics profession has neglected with astonishing singlemindedness. My own attempts to call attention to some of them, for instance, in two articles, as far as I can judge, produced no response whatever; and economists continue to think and act as if production, consumption, throughput, and the GNP were the sufficient and adequate measure of economic success.

It may be said, of course, why worry about all this when the spaceman economy is still a good way off (at least beyond the lifetimes of any now living), so let us eat, drink, spend, extract and pollute, and be as merry as we can, and let posterity worry about the spaceship earth. It is always a little hard to find a convincing answer to the man who says, "What has posterity ever done for me?" and the conservationist has always had to fall back on rather vague ethical principles postulating identity of the individual with some human community or society which extends not only back into the past but forward into the future. Unless the individual identifies with some community of this kind, conservation is obviously "irrational." Why should we not maximize the welfare of this generation at the cost of posterity? "Après nous, le deluge" has been the motto of not insignificant numbers of human societies. The only answer to this, as far as I can see, is to point out that the welfare of the individual depends on the extent to which he can identify himself with others, and that the most satisfactory individual identity is that which identifies not only with a community in space but also with a community extending over time from the past into the future. If this kind of identity is recognized as desirable, then posterity has a voice, even if it does not have a vote; and in a sense, if its voice can influence votes, it has votes too. This whole problem is linked up with the much larger one of the determinants of the morale, legitimacy, and "nerve" of a society, and there is a great deal of historical evidence to suggest that a society which loses its identity with posterity and which loses its positive image of the future loses also its capacity to deal with present problems, and soon falls apart. Even if we concede that posterity is relevant to our present problems, we still face the question of time-discounting and the closely related question of uncertainty-discounting. It is a wellknown phenomenon that individuals discount the future, even in their own lives. The very existence of a positive rate of interest may be taken as at least strong supporting evidence of 11 this hypothesis. If we discount our own future, it is certainly not unreasonable to discount posterity's future even more, even if we do give posterity a vote. If we discount this at 5 per cent per annum, posterity's vote or dollar halves every fourteen years as we look into the future, and after even a mere hundred years it is pretty small - only about 1 and 1/2 cents on the dollar. If we add another 5 per cent for uncertainty, even the vote of our grandchildren reduces almost to insignificance. We can argue, of course, that the ethical thing to do is not to discount the future at all, that time-discounting is mainly the result of myopia and perspective, and hence is an illusion which the moral man should not tolerate. It is a very popular illusion, however, and one that must certainly be taken into consideration in the formulation of policies. It explains, perhaps, why conservationist policies almost have to be sold under some other excuse which seems more urgent, and why, indeed, necessities which are visualized as urgent, such as defense, always seem to hold priority over those which involve the future.

All these considerations add some credence to the point of view which says that we should not worry about the spaceman economy at all, and that we should just go on increasing the GNP and indeed the gross world product, or GWP, in the expectation that the problems of the future can be left to the future, that when scarcities arise, whether this is of raw materials or of pollutable reservoirs, the needs of the then present will determine the solutions of the then present, and there is no use giving ourselves ulcers by worrying about problems that we really do not have to solve. There is even high ethical authority for this point of view in the New Testament, which advocates that we should take no thought for tomorrow and let the dead bury their dead. There has always been something rather refreshing in the view that we should live like the birds, and perhaps posterity is for the birds in more senses than one; so perhaps we should all call it a day and go out and pollute something cheerfully. As an old taker of thought for the morrow, however, I cannot quite accept this solution; and I would argue, furthermore, that tomorrow is not only very close, but in many respects it is already here. The shadow of the future spaceship, indeed, is already falling over our spendthrift merriment. Oddly enough, it seems to be in pollution rather than in exhaustion that the problem is first becoming salient. 12 Los Angeles has run out of air, Lake Erie has become a cesspool, the oceans are getting full of lead and DDT, and the atmosphere may become man's major problem in another generation, at the rate at which we are filling it up with gunk. It is, of course, true that at least on a microscale, things have been worse at times in the past. The cities of today, with all their foul air and polluted waterways, are probably not as bad as the filthy cities of the pretechnical age. Nevertheless, that fouling of the nest which has been typical of man's activity in the past on a local scale now seems to be extending to the whole world society; and one certainly cannot view with equanimity the present rate of pollution of any of the natural reservoirs, whether the atmosphere, the lakes, or even the oceans.

I would argue strongly also that our obsession with production and consumption to the exclusion of the "state" aspects of human welfare distorts the process of technological change in a most undesirable way. We are all familiar, of course, with the wastes involved in planned obsolescence, in competitive advertising, and in poor quality of consumer goods. These problems may not be so important as the "view with alarm" school indicates, and indeed the evidence at many points is conflicting. New materials especially seem to edge towards the side of improved durability, such as, for instance, neolite soles for footwear, nylon socks, wash and wear shirts, and so on. The case of household equipment and automobiles is a little less clear. Housing and building construction generally almost certainly has declined in durability since the Middle Ages, but this decline also reflects a change in tastes towards flexibility and fashion and a need for novelty, so that it is not easy to assess. What is clear is that no serious attempt has been made to assess the impact over the whole of economic life of changes in durability, that is, in the ratio of capital in the widest possible sense to income. I suspect that we have underestimated, even in our spendthrift society, the gains from increased durability, and that this might very well be one of the places where the price system needs correction through government-sponsored research and development. The problems which the spaceship earth is going to present, therefore, are not all in the future by any means, and a strong case can be made for paying much more attention to them in the present than we now do.

It may be complained that the considerations I have been putting forth relate only to the very long run, and they do not much concern our immediate problems. There may be some justice in this criticism, and my main excuse is that other writers have dealt adequately with the more immediate problems of deterioration in the quality of the environment. It is true, for instance, that many of the immediate problems of pollution of the atmosphere or of bodies of water arise because of the failure of the price system, and many of them could be solved by corrective taxation. If people had to pay the losses due to the nuisances which they create, a good deal more resources would go into the prevention of nuisances. These arguments involving external economies and diseconomies are familiar to economists, and there is no teed to recapitulate them. The law of torts is quite inadequate to provide for the correction of the price system which is required, simply because where damages are widespread and their incidence on any particular person is small, the ordinary remedies of the civil law are quite inadequate and inappropriate. There needs, therefore, to be special legislation to cover these cases, and though such legislation seems hard to get in practice, mainly because of the widespread and small personal incidence of the injuries, the technical problems involved are not insuperable. If we were to adopt in principle a law for tax penalties for social damages, with an apparatus for making assessments under it, a very large proportion of current pollution and deterioration of the environment would be prevented. There are tricky problems of equity involved, particularly where old established nuisances create a kind of "right by purchase" to perpetuate themselves, but these are problems again which a few rather arbitrary decisions can bring to some kind of solution. The problems which I have been raising in this paper are of larger scale and perhaps much harder to solve than the more practical and immediate problems of the above paragraph. Our success in dealing with the larger problems, however, is not unrelated to the development of skill in the solution of the more immediate and perhaps less difficult problems. One can hope, therefore, that as a succession of mounting crises, especially in pollution, arouse public opinion and mobilize support for the solution of the immediate problems, a learning process will be set in motion which will eventually lead to an appreciation of and perhaps solutions for the larger ones. My neglect of the immediate problems, therefore, is in no way 14 intended to deny their importance, for unless we at least make a beginning on a process for solving the immediate problems we will not have much chance of solving the larger ones. On the other hand, it may also be true that a long-run vision, as it were, of the deep crisis which faces mankind may predispose people to taking more interest in the immediate problems and to devote more effort for their solution. This may sound like a rather modest optimism, but perhaps a modest optimism is better than no optimism at all.

Notes 1. Ludwig von Bertalanffy, Problems of Life (New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1952). 2. Richard L. Meier, Science and Economic Development (New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1956). 3. "The Consumption Concept in Economic Theory," American Economic Review, 35:2 (May 1945), pp. 1-14; and "Income or Welfare?," Review of Economic Studies, 17 (1949-50), pp. 77-86. 4. Fred L. Polak, The Image of the Future, Vols. I and II, translated by Elise Boulding (New York: Sythoff, Leyden and Oceana, 1961. NCSE Boston University All text is available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike license. | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use | Neutrality Policy Supported by the Environmental Information Coalition and the National Council for Science and the Environment

Satan is Ignorance — Eat An Apple A Day

Where is our Prince of Peace?

You don’t want peace and won’t work to engender it. I understand. You need enemies to give your life meaning and distract you from the true causes of your predicament, the human condition. Since we could make tools and fire, domesticate animals, plants, and ourselves, and settle in large-scale communities, also known as civilizations, empires, nation-states, and ultimately global economic alliances designed to funnel power and resources to the lucky few at the top of the pyramid, we have known only war.

Fossil fuels and technology have only given us the illusion of peace. Modern Techno Industrial civilization is omnicidal; it’s violent as hell, but we find violence entertaining and lucrative, so it’s acceptable.

You follow the leader who makes you feel secure in the face of those competing with your leader’s position as you think your leader sticks up for your luck. You are a believer. That’s nice. It feels good to believe.

You think your enemies are not like you. You think they are inhuman, irrational, and barbaric. If your enemies disappear, the world will be perfect, and you can do whatever you want. It feels good to believe your leaders have a way to make your enemies disappear. Your leaders ravage the Earth to engineer and create machines that make killing more efficient and less personal. Soldiers don’t have to fight in face-to-face pitched battles much anymore. Our leaders can send hypersonic missiles to kill civilians, believing that this will make the leaders of the warriors and their people give up fighting for what they want and need.

We have studied this kind of warfare in great detail since World War Two, and we know it never settles anything.

Regarding the bombing of civilian targets:

• Among the Dead Cities: Is the Targeting of Civilians in War Ever Justified? by A.C. Grayling delves into the morality and effectiveness of bombing civilian targets during World War II, examining the consequences and ethical dilemmas involved.

• Bombing Civilians: A Twentieth-Century History by Yuki Tanaka and Marilyn B. Young analyzes the 20th-century shift in military strategy toward targeting civilian populations.

Books on Curtis LeMay:

• LeMay: The Life and Wars of General Curtis LeMay by Warren Kozak. This biography offers a comprehensive look at LeMay’s life, career, and controversial decisions, including his role in the bombing campaigns of World War II and the Cold War.

• Iron Eagle: The Turbulent Life of General Curtis LeMay by Thomas M. Coffey. This is another biography of LeMay, focusing on his personality and his significant contributions to the development of the United States Air Force.

• Superfortress: The Boeing B-29 and American Airpower in World War II by Curtis Emerson LeMay and Bill Yenne. LeMay co-authored this book, which details the development and deployment of the B-29 Superfortress, the aircraft instrumental in the bombing of Japan.

• Black Snow: Curtis LeMay, the Firebombing of Tokyo, and the Road to the Atomic Bomb by James M. Scott focuses on LeMay’s role in the firebombing of Tokyo, a devastating event that killed over 100,000 civilians.

The bombing of civilian targets remains a highly controversial topic, with ongoing debates about its morality, effectiveness, and long-term consequences. Controversial? Go figure. We are indeed unwell.

We have become death, the destroyer of our life on Earth. We sit and watch cities become rubble on our screens and think it’s justifiable. If not them, then us. Bull Shit! We are doing “wet work,” not “good works.”

Ecclesiastes 12:14

For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.

Matthew 25:40

And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’

Western Civilization claims it’s Christian, no?

Believing in our kind of civilization and the utility of war has a problem — these things are false Gods. The enemy is within. It grows from false beliefs and blindness to Big Nature’s actual laws. The enemy is in you, your country, mind, system of government, and ideological beliefs. It lurks inside, waiting to destroy any possibility of security and posterity.

Consider the wisdom of the ages and the teachings of the great minds. Love your enemy? Treat others as you wish to be treated. It may seem absurd, but these truths have been given to us for millennia. For now, the good books are instantly available to WEIRD lucky people on your miraculous, super-smart electronic device. There’s no excuse not to immerse yourself in their perspectives on life.

So that’s nice; we spend time each day with the wise ones. We don’t have to believe them because we know what they say makes sense and is grounded in Earth Life.

Now, let’s study Entropy and Thermaldynamics; you need to know about this subject so you won’t think that The Government controls the weather.

Thermaldynamics is a fascinating subject with applications everywhere, from your refrigerator to the engine in your car. The Earth is a living heat engine; without life, it would be more like Mars or Venus. Living on Earth is extraordinary and requires all kinds of life forms to allow for Homo sapiens to exist.

Here are some excellent resources for studying and learning about thermodynamics geared toward laypeople with varying levels of depth.

Beginner-friendly:

• Paul Sen’s “Einstein’s Fridge: How the Difference Between Hot and Cold Explains the Universe” explores the history of thermodynamics and explains key concepts in an engaging and accessible way.

• “Understanding Thermodynamics” by H.C. Van Ness: A classic introductory text known for its clear explanations and focus on fundamental concepts.

• Videos: Crash Course Physics: Their thermodynamics episodes offer a fun and fast-paced introduction to the basics. [Search “Crash Course Thermodynamics” on YouTube.]

• TED-Ed: Search for thermodynamics on TED-Ed’s website for engaging animated lessons.

Intermediate level:

• Daniel V. Schroeder’s “An Introduction to Thermal Physics” provides a more in-depth look at thermodynamics while still accessible to those without a strong physics background.

• “Thermodynamics: An Engineering Approach” by Yunus A. Cengel and Michael A. Boles is a widely used textbook that covers a broad range of topics with clear explanations and examples. (May require some math comfort)

• Online Courses: Khan Academy offers a comprehensive course on thermodynamics with interactive exercises and videos.

More advanced (but still accessible):

• “The Feynman Lectures on Physics, Vol. I” by Richard Feynman. Feynman was a master at explaining complex topics clearly and intuitively. This volume includes his lectures on thermodynamics.

• Website: Hyperphysics offers a wealth of information on physics, including a detailed section on thermodynamics with interactive diagrams and clear explanations.

Tips for Learning:

• Start with the basics: Understand fundamental concepts like energy, heat, temperature, and entropy before moving on to more complex topics.

• Use visual aids: Diagrams and animations can be incredibly helpful in understanding thermodynamic processes.

• Relate to real-world examples: Think about how thermodynamics applies to everyday things like cooking, refrigeration, and weather patterns.

• Be bold and ask questions: If you’re struggling with a concept, seek help from online forums, tutors, or friends with a science background.

Please trust me when I say that studying thermodynamics for fifteen minutes a day until you have a decent understanding of it is time better spent than listening to your politicians lie.

Our leaders lie to manipulate you emotionally so you won’t think of fundamental challenges and their complex causes that make you feel vulnerable.

Our leaders could quickly eliminate threats to a peaceful, sustainable way of life if they bothered to practice diplomatic communication with people and understood that everyone has basic needs that must be fulfilled. To be peaceful neighbors with time to educate ourselves about intricate life systems on Earth, we must first fulfill people’s needs through compassionate work, emotional intelligence, and a profound understanding of our limitations—the limits Great Nature imposes that allow for life.

Understanding life on Earth is a loving activity.

Do you think I am hopelessly naive? Are you a true believer in the never-ending utility of war?

THINK NUKES!

Think again. Learn how to behave as part and parcel of BIG NATURE.

True believers in our current form of civilization will bring an end to many more species of life, including our own. In the meantime, the descent of Homo hubris will be a painful one.

Speaking of Thermodynamics

Nature lives and has conspired to evolve into a conscious animal with fantastic potential, and we still have time to hear what it’s telling us.

Listen to your heart.

Be loving.

Perusing the Modern Techo-Industrial Pathologies of Intelligent Men

Intellectual influencers are irksome to little old me.

In many ways, Jim and Cliff have a warped perspective of Reality.

“Reality” is an extensive set and hard to get one’s educated mind around.

An infinite geometric series is the sum of an infinite geometric sequence.

Complex Systems Theory involves the systematic, scientific and mathematical study of complexity itself, as it is found throughout the natural world. With a view to dealing with complexity, this approach looks at the nature of complexity rather than trying to simplify a situation in order to process it.

The problems with their thinking have to do with:

1. Being mindful of the framing of a thing
   2. A misunderstanding or ignorance of context
   3. Causality errors
   4. System thinking errors (stocks & flows, feedback loops)
   5. Hubristic assumptions
   6. Basic assumptions
   7. Stubborn ideological adherence (My beliefs are better than yours.)
   8. Beliefs (the true believer syndrome)
   9. Ignoring the forest for the trees (not listening to or being mindful of BIG NATURE, the Natural Sciences. Of course, all intelligent men believe they do this. Naturally.)
   10. Succumbing to the illusion of control
   11. A blindness to seeing the contradictions in their mental models
   12. Audience capture
   13. Bad incentives
   14. Groupthink & motivated reasoning
   15. Posturing to maintain status

One could go on.

They each have passionate beliefs without an accurate, best guess at the moment, understanding of complex reality. Even though they claim to be sincerely interested in systems and complexity science, they are clumsy in applying such methods of inquiry to sociological and economic domains, much less environmental and ecological impacts. (Of course, they both think they are experts in all of the above.) They both come from a worldview that is assumed to represent reality when, in fact, it describes recent models of a particular approach to socioeconomic controls over natural resources (including hard questions like the uncanny valley of human consciousness) meant to be exploited by a specific ideological tribe that thinks it has all the answers.

“He broke a norm.” Without exploring the reasons why one would want to do something so costly. Why is “the norm” the norm? Groups of people usually have good reasons for doing things. It’s a fatal flaw not to explore those reasons carefully and open-mindedly.

Spending resources on war in the twentieth century is insane. We need new “norms” to help us transcend our obsession with war.

“They started it!” Almost always, all parties to a conflict “start it” through mutually influential and consequential actions. People are compelled to act due to conscious, unconscious, and subconscious factors. What signals were there that you refused to examine?

The smart-asses in public view are terrible at game theory despite pretending they are good strategic thinkers.

Homo hubris is accelerating towards extinction. On that journey, there will be more and more pain and suffering that could have been significantly mitigated if we had paid attention to the things in the list above.

Americans, in particular, are so twisted and myopically arrogant in their assumptions that I think, at this point, the minority of thoughtful, evidence-based, reality-heeding, well-meaning, and considerate experts and kind human participants in social discourse will never have their understanding of our world’s essential challenges gain traction.

The mysteries of the black box hypnotize members of the masses who seek only those emphatic opinions that tell them what to believe.

“Okay then, make me a believer.”

These gentlemen are enamored by their opinions despite merely being nodes in a pathological ideological operating system accelerating toward the abyss.

The labels they fling about so effortlessly are cardboard cutouts and hardly helpful at describing anything that matters.

“Don’t bother your pretty little heads with things you can’t control. Meditate, read the Stoics, Nietzsche, become a neo-platonist philosopher, an orthodox or cultural Christian, a militant atheist, or a science enthusiast — join a clique now. We all need friends and community. Start a new religion. Become a meaning maker…”

If you are WIERD and privileged (lucky), have fun and watch civilization crumble as if it’s a Netflix series. Above all, stay entertained.

“Horray! To the last Ukrainian! To the last Palestinian! To the last Homo sapiens standing! It’s been a wild ride, and I was always right. Death and taxes!”

Guard your ignorance like a family heirloom. Go with the flow. Stick to your clique. Enjoy the emotional roller coaster. Enjoy the super stimuli. Life is short, but not as short as those other poor assholes!
_____________________________

Jim talks with Cliff Maloney about the November election and his get-out-the-vote campaign, The Pennsylvania Chase. They discuss Cliff’s libertarian background, why Pennsylvania is a crucial state, a Republican return to grassroots, the structure of the operation, the effectiveness of door-knocking, choosing the highest-impact doors to knock on, why Cliff is helping the Republicans, Jim’s political trajectory, oikophobia, why Jim finds Trump intolerable, Cliff’s political background, working for Ron Paul, the loss of the anti-war left, Trump’s gut instinct, Trump’s deficit record, comparing the foreign policy of Nikki Haley & John McCain, hurricane relief & Ukraine relief, whether support for Ukraine is a good investment, the drug war, returning abortion rights to the states, transgender surgeries for kids, luxury beliefs, Christian nationalism in the Republican Party, woke ideology vs the nuclear family, the unsustainability of American public education, teacher’s unions, politics as the adjudication of power, the importance of open disagreements, Thomas Massie, and much more. Episode Transcript Get Out the Vote, by Donald Green and Alan Gerber “Dividend Money: An Alternative to Central Banker Managed Fractional Reserve Banking Money,” by Jim Rutt (YouTube) Cliff Maloney is a United States political strategist and commentator. He is nationally known for launching the grassroots program “Operation Win at the Door,” which has now knocked on over 3 million doors and elected 300+ state legislators. His life’s mission is to create a liberty state by targeting the 5,413 state legislative seats in America to elect principled citizen legislators.

I’m listening to The Jim Rutt Show | EP 262 Cliff Maloney on a Libertarian’s Case for Trump. Check it out!

Do Our Political Candidates Credentials Matter?

“There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”  — William Shakespeare, Hamlet

Understanding the backgrounds, educational experiences, credentials, and professional histories of political figures like Kamala Harris and Donald J. Trump is crucial. It equips us with the knowledge to comprehend their roles as serious, professional support players in the system I refer to as The Great Game.

In my opinion, former President Donald J. Trump is an entitled con artist and entertainer whose performances are revered and appreciated by many Americans who believe he represents their interests.

Former President Trump's credentials are far from as grand as Vice President Harris's.

I don't think former President Trump has any particular political ideology or agenda. He works for the applause. He's already wealthy, famous, and influential. He's a man who has everything and is mainly concerned with staying center stage and bathing in his admirers' attention.

One can find their political campaign platforms here and here.

All politicians in 'The West' work for the same special interests, such as private interests, national interests, and corporate persons. These groups often influence policy decisions, creating conflicts of interest between what the demos want (the populous of a country as a political unit) and what powerful, profit-seeking, globally engaged organizations want. Recognizing this difference in quality and kind of power is crucial for an informed and engaged citizenry.

One example of an immensely influential special interests organization is The Israel Lobby, also known as AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee.)

AIPAC is a prominent pro-Israel lobbying group in the United States. It advocates for policies that strengthen the U.S./Israel relationship and support Israel's security and interests. I will not go into the history of Israel's creation, but it is an important topic worth understanding in depth, as are the creations of many modern nation-states.

AIPAC's activities include:

• Lobbying Congress and the Executive Branch: AIPAC engages with lawmakers and officials to influence legislation and policy decisions related to Israel.

• Educating the Public: The group organizes conferences, events, and publications to inform and mobilize public support for its agenda.

• Campaigning for Candidates: Although AIPAC itself is bipartisan, it supports candidates who align with its pro-Israel stance through its affiliated political action committees.

AIPAC is considered one of the most influential lobbying groups in Washington, D.C., and its impact on U.S. foreign policy regarding Israel is significant. However, it also faces criticism for its perceived role in promoting policies that some view as detrimental to Palestinian rights and regional peace efforts.

Another powerful corporate interest group is the conglomeration of corporations and their related supply chain businesses, often called The Military Industrial Complex.

The military-industrial complex is a well-established concept with significant historical and contemporary relevance.

The military-industrial complex (MIC) refers to the interconnected network of relationships between a nation's armed forces, the government, and the defense industry that supplies it. This network significantly influences public policy, particularly defense spending and foreign intervention.

The MIC's dynamics can lead to a self-perpetuating cycle. Defense contractors lobby for increased military spending, which fuels their growth and profits. This relationship can incentivize policymakers to prioritize military solutions even when diplomatic or other approaches might be more appropriate.

Some notable quotes that capture different perspectives on the MIC:

• President Dwight D. Eisenhower (1961 Farewell Address): "We must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist."  

• C. Wright Mills (The Power Elite, 1956): "The military-industrial complex is not a conspiracy, it's a coalition... and it's up to us to make sure that coalition serves the interests of the people, not just the interests of the powerful."

• Noam Chomsky (Understanding Power, 2002): "The military-industrial complex is a major driving force in the economy and a major factor in setting social policy and foreign policy."

The concept of the MIC has been subject to extensive debate and analysis. Critics argue that it can lead to excessive militarization, wasteful spending, and a focus on war over peace. Proponents contend that it is necessary for national security and provides economic benefits through job creation and technological innovation.

The influence of the Military-Industrial Complex (MIC) remains a significant factor in contemporary politics and international relations. Engaging in informed discussions about defense policy, military spending, and the defense industry's role in society is essential and a responsibility for all citizens.

Candidates are all indoctrinated in basically the same suite of ideological algorithms. This is uncontroversial; Americans, like people in other countries, come from a culture with values and stories that support it. These 'ideological algorithms' refer to the set of beliefs, values, and narratives that shape our political and economic systems. Global, legally coded, and rules-based business has its tenants, dogmas, and ideological belief systems. Power and control over socioeconomic conditions and resources is a core concern of our leaders within the modern techno-industrial market system.

Studying influential economists of the twentieth century, among other domains related to society and social systems, can help one learn how these belief systems arose. For example, one can read books like Quin Slobodian's Globalists, The End of Empire, and The Birth of Neoliberalism.

There are hundreds of books, papers, and articles about our global socioeconomic structures and belief systems, so if one wants to know about critical aspects of one's thinking, it's easy to find information on the relevant subjects.

However, sociology and economics are only two facets of our world we can explore. There are many more.

Interrogating our thought processes and beliefs is crucial to understanding how the world works and our place in it.

One could, for example, analyze socioeconomics from a thermodynamic frame, a perspective that considers the dynamic and complex energy flows/cascades unique to life. This approach views economic systems as energy systems, where resources and wealth are constantly in flux, and can provide a new context for understanding socioeconomic structures.  

Thermodynamics in a Nutshell:

Thermodynamics is the branch of physics that deals with the relationships between heat and other forms of energy. It describes how thermal energy is converted to and from other forms of energy and how thermal energy affects matter.  

Key Concepts:

1. Energy: The capacity to do work or cause change. It exists in various forms like heat, light, mechanical, chemical, etc.

2. Heat is a form of energy transferred between objects or systems due to a temperature difference. Heat always flows from a hotter object to a colder one.

3. Work: The transfer of energy that causes a change in the motion or configuration of a system.

4. System: The specific part of the universe being studied. It can be as simple as a container of gas or as complex as a power plant.

5. Surroundings: Everything outside the system.

The Laws of Thermodynamics:

These are fundamental principles governing how energy behaves in systems:

• Zeroth Law: If two systems are each in thermal equilibrium with a third system, they are in thermal equilibrium with each other. (Basically, it establishes the concept of temperature.)  

• First Law: Energy cannot be created or destroyed; it can only be transferred or transformed. This is also known as the law of conservation of energy.

• Second Law: The entropy (disorder) of an isolated system tends to increase over time. It explains why some processes are irreversible and why heat naturally flows from hot to cold.

• Third Law: The entropy of a system approaches a constant value as the temperature approaches absolute zero. It's impossible to reach a temperature of absolute zero.

Before we continue with applications of thermodynamics, let's explore how modern techno-industrial market economies' critical energy source came to be. Without it, our current world and way of doing things could not exist.

Fossil Fuels

The transformation of organic matter into oil is a complex process that spans millions of years and involves a combination of geological and chemical factors:  

1. Accumulation of Organic Matter:

• Primarily, marine organisms like plankton and algae die and sink to the ocean floor.  

• They accumulate along with other organic debris, forming layers of sediment rich in organic material.  

• This process occurs in low-oxygen environments, preventing the complete decomposition of the organic matter.

2. Burial and Compaction:

• Over vast periods, additional layers of sediment bury the organic-rich layers deeper into the Earth's crust.  

• The increasing weight and pressure compact the sediment, squeezing out water and other fluids.  

3. Heat and Pressure Transformation:

• As the buried organic matter descends further into the Earth's crust, it is subjected to increasing temperatures and pressures.  

• This intense heat and pressure initiates chemical reactions that break down the complex organic molecules into simpler hydrocarbons.  

• This process, known as catagenesis, transforms the organic matter into a waxy substance called kerogen.

4. Formation of Oil and Gas:

• Continued heat and pressure (between 60°C and 150°C) over millions of years further break down the kerogen, generating liquid hydrocarbons (oil) and gaseous hydrocarbons (natural gas).  

• The type of hydrocarbon formed depends on the temperature and duration of the process. Higher temperatures and longer durations tend to produce more gas than oil.  

5. Migration and Trapping:

• The newly formed oil and gas are less dense than the surrounding rock and tend to migrate upwards through porous and permeable rock layers.

• They continue to migrate until they encounter an impermeable layer (cap rock) that traps them, forming an oil or gas reservoir.  

Important Considerations:

• The entire process of oil formation takes millions of years, making it a non-renewable resource.  

• The quality and type of oil formed depend on the original organic matter, the temperature and pressure conditions, and the duration of the process.

• The presence of suitable geological structures, such as traps, is essential for the accumulation and preservation of oil and gas deposits.  

The transformation of organic matter into oil is a remarkable geological process that showcases the power of time, pressure, and heat to transform the remains of ancient organisms into a vital energy source for modern society.  

Back to thermodynamics.

The biosphere is a dynamic heat pump.

Everyday Applications:

Thermodynamics is all around us! It helps us understand:

• How engines work (converting heat into mechanical work)

• Refrigerators and air conditioners (transferring heat from a cold space to a warmer one)

• Weather patterns (driven by heat transfer in the atmosphere)

• Chemical reactions (involving energy changes)

• Even the behavior of the universe as a whole!

In a nutshell, Thermodynamics is about understanding how energy, especially heat, moves and changes things. It provides a framework for explaining many natural phenomena and technological processes.

Here are some excellent books on thermodynamics for the layperson, balancing accessibility and depth:

1. "Four Laws That Drive the Universe" by Peter Atkins

• A clear and engaging introduction to the fundamental laws of thermodynamics, emphasizing their conceptual beauty and universal significance.

1. "An Introduction to Thermal Physics" by Daniel V. Schroeder

• A well-written textbook with a focus on conceptual understanding and real-world examples. It starts from the basics and gradually introduces more advanced topics.

1. "The Second Law" by P.W. Atkins

• A fascinating exploration of the Second Law of Thermodynamics, its implications for the universe, and its role in shaping our understanding of time and change.

1. "A Student's Guide to Entropy" by Don S. Lemons

• An approachable guide to the often-misunderstood concept of entropy, demystifying its connection to disorder, information, and the arrow of time.

1. "Thermodynamics: A Very Short Introduction" by Peter Atkins

• A concise and accessible overview of thermodynamics, ideal for those seeking a quick introduction to the key concepts and their implications.

The biosphere, governed by the laws of BIG NATURE, is the most vital energy system. Most politicians never consider this fact.

It's essential to define what we mean by energy. I am not discussing unsubstantial, supernatural, mythical, or magical energy concepts.

In the realm of science, energy is a fundamental concept that encompasses various forms and manifestations. Here are some prominent definitions that capture its essence:

Physics:

• The capacity to do work: This is the most widely accepted and general definition of energy. It highlights the functional aspect of energy, emphasizing its ability to cause changes or bring about effects.

• The ability to cause change: This definition expands on the concept of work, acknowledging that energy can also transform matter or systems, such as changes in temperature, phase, or chemical composition.

• A conserved quantity underscores a fundamental principle in physics—the law of conservation of energy. It states that energy can be transformed from one form to another, but it cannot be created or destroyed.

Living systems, ecosystems and our biosphere are energy systems that our species is part of and dependent on. We cannot separate our species from BIG NATURE's energy flows.

Quotes from influential scientists:

• Richard Feynman: "It is important to realize that in physics today, we have no knowledge of what energy is." This quote emphasizes the elusive nature of energy, even as we understand its manifestations and laws governing its behavior.

• Albert Einstein: "Energy and matter are interchangeable; they are different forms of the same thing." This profound statement encapsulates Einstein's famous equation E=mc², demonstrating the equivalence of mass and energy.

• James Prescott Joule: "I shall lose no time in repeating and extending these experiments, being satisfied that the grand agents of nature are, by the Creator's fiat, indestructible; and that whatever mechanical force is expended, an exact equivalent heat is always obtained." This quote reflects Joule's contribution to establishing the conservation of energy, particularly the relationship between mechanical work and heat.

Additional scientific perspectives concerning energy:

• Chemistry: Energy is often viewed in terms of its storage and release in chemical bonds. Reactions involve changes in energy levels, with energy being absorbed (endothermic) or released (exothermic).

• Biology: Energy is crucial for sustaining life. Organisms acquire and utilize energy through various processes, such as photosynthesis and cellular respiration.

• Thermodynamics: This field focuses on the relationships between heat, work, and energy, including the concept of entropy, which describes the tendency for energy to disperse and systems to become more disordered.

A single, all-encompassing definition of energy remains elusive, but its significance in various scientific domains is undeniable. It is the driving force behind change, the fuel for life, and the foundation of our understanding of the universe.

Here are examples of energy flows within the biosphere from various scientific domains:

Ecology:

• Food webs: Energy flows through ecosystems as organisms consume one another. Producers like plants capture sunlight and convert it into chemical energy through photosynthesis. This energy is transferred to consumers like herbivores when they eat plants and further transferred to carnivores when they eat herbivores. Decomposers break down dead organisms, releasing energy back into the ecosystem.  

• Nutrient cycling: Energy is involved in the movement and transformation of nutrients within ecosystems. For example, energy is required for plants to absorb nutrients from the soil and for bacteria to decompose organic matter and release nutrients back into the environment.  

Physics:

• Solar radiation: The sun is the primary source of energy for the biosphere. Sunlight reaches Earth and is absorbed by plants, water, and land. This energy drives many processes, including photosynthesis, weather patterns, and ocean currents.  

• Heat transfer: Energy is transferred within the biosphere through various mechanisms, including conduction (direct contact), convection (movement of fluids), and radiation (electromagnetic waves). These processes play a crucial role in regulating the temperature of the Earth and its various ecosystems.

Chemistry:

• Photosynthesis: During photosynthesis, plants use sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide to create glucose (a sugar) and oxygen. This process converts solar energy into chemical energy stored in the bonds of glucose.  

• Cellular respiration: Organisms break down glucose and other molecules during cellular respiration to release energy for their activities. This process converts chemical energy into usable forms like ATP (adenosine triphosphate).  

Geology:

• Geothermal energy: Heat from the EarEarth'sterior is released through volcanic activity, hot springs, and geysers. This energy can support unique ecosystems like those found around deep-sea hydrothermal vents.  

• Fossil fuels: The energy stored in fossil fuels (coal, oil, and natural gas) originated from ancient organisms that captured solar energy millions of years ago. When these fuels are burned, that stored energy is released.

Other domains:

• Meteorology: Energy flows are crucial in understanding weather patterns. Solar radiation drives atmospheric circulation, evaporation, and cloud formation.  

• Oceanography: Ocean currents are driven by differences in temperature and salinity, which are influenced by energy flows from the sun and the Earth's interior.

These examples showcase the interconnectedness of energy flows within the biosphere across different scientific domains. Understanding these processes helps us appreciate life's complexity and delicate balance.

I included these examples to emphasize that we are part of a complex, emergent, evolving, dynamic living energy system that exists above our ideological belief systems, which have been constructed and developed over time by communities of people to exercise the expansion of our power over people and the domination of every aspect of nature.

The Players of The Great Game, in particular, are not wise to BIG NATURE.

For tens of thousands of years, our species has expanded across the Earth. For over ten thousand years, organized human societies at larger and larger scales have competed for control over vital resources needed to maintain their power and "win" The Great Game. The Great Game game never ends, so there can be no winners, only temporary victors in an ongoing, often violent, and tragic saga.

Our politicians work for the BIG PLAYERS of The Great Game. These people with immense ambition have learned from their education, environment, and circumstances how to play The Great Game and care foremost about being dominant players. Money and things and control over resources are their way of keeping score.

The Players of The Great Game feign concern for ordinary people; their primary concern is being recognized as important Players. Players want to be seen as winners.

The Great Game is fundamentally energy-blind and posterity-blind; it is blind to the workings of Big Nature, and because of this, it is doomed.

The Great Game is in its most dangerous period, and technology, energy, and ambition are important factors.

1. Fossil Fuels are a limited resource.

2. Technology is a double-edged sword used for The Great Game, not for developing a sustainable future in harmony with the laws of nature.

3. Modernity is omnicidal.

4. Modern techno-industrial market-based civilization depends on limited material resources.

5. People are programmed to eschew knowledge and wisdom in favor of simplistic belief systems that feel good.

6. People are easily conditioned and programmed by stories that support feel-good belief systems.

A global revolution is the only way out of "The Polycrisis," our unique and dangerous predicament. Unfortunately, The Great Game does not produce a population of enlightened revolutionaries committed to the stewardship of BIG NATURE in favor of our precious living systems upon which we all depend.

Our leader's primary commitment is to The Great Game.

BIG NATURE operates under its own set of laws and is not concerned; it can not, in fact, care about one invasive species that has been the apex predator for the past seventy-five thousand years.

It does not help us to anthropomorphize BIG NATURE.

There is a high probability that The Great Game will only end when our species is extinct.

It's easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of The Great Game.

But life will likely go on and thrive without our species.

The things I referred to above do not begin to address all of the qualitative aspects of human communities and the many possible ways of life yet unimagined and experienced.

In the face of a long and gruesome fate, I can only imagine and hope for people to organize and create a more peaceful, equitable, healthy, sustainable, and loving way of life.

I can not live without hope.

We can not share this miraculous system of life without sacrifice.

Go vote, but don't expect our leaders to make the changes we need to create a better world. Expecting The Players to do that is the definition of insanity.

Why The Thirty Years War Never Ended

“The real enemies of our life are the ‘oughts’ and the ‘ifs.’ They pull us backward into the unalterable past and forward into the unpredictable future. But real life takes place in the here and now.” — Henri Nouwen”

— https://henrinouwen.org/

Most preachers are probably sincere, true believers who have faith in the stories they have been given. Sociopathic preachers are not deluded; in most cases, they are very clever con artists. They claim to know what God thinks because it's lucrative to make such claims, and their flock believes what they preach because it feels good.

The Thirty Years War: Europe's Tragedy by Peter H. Wilson 

People who don't think God wants you to take hormones are Satanic.

The Baffler, Maud Newton August 21, 2024

True Believer Syndrome is not limited to Religious people—secular people suffer/benefit from the same disorder.

Learning is hard work requiring deep commitment over time, but we all want to know, so people spin stories to believe in. Having heard a narrative that feels right, they think they know everything they need to know without learning anything.

Culture is a complex emergent system, and how our brains and minds work is part and parcel of that complex emergent system. It's surprising and amazing that we can learn as much as we can about the Nature of complex emergent systems and how they work.

Our species has special powers: creative/imaginative consciousness, reason, logic, language, and the ability to make all kinds of tools. We can use these extraordinary talents and tools to understand how we became so powerfully unique, an animal that seems to transcend all other animals.

I don't know what I don't know, but learning is a good thing, and I know we have some reliable tools that can help us learn about reality as far as our species is capable.

We have ways of discovering how things work that are more reliable than blind faith.

Still, believing a story feels much better than doubting it. Doubting leaves us in a precarious situation, requiring us to work hard to learn about difficult subjects.

We are still punishing each other for not believing what we believe. The primary motivation for making people punish "other" people is profit. Today, we really have nothing to fear and no true enemies but manufactured ones. Those who covet power create enemies for profit-making purposes.

It's easier than it seems to understand each other.

Who gets rich telling people what to believe? Who benefits from telling people who to punish for "aberrant" beliefs? Who punishes people for telling the truth about how things work or the true Nature of things as far as we can know at any given time?

I call the people who manufacture contempt The Players. These are people programmed by stories to play The Great Game. Many of them are sociopaths and psychopaths.

We keep killing the "good news."

People in the context of their immediate family are mostly lovely folks, but once organized into a mob, whether in church, on the streets, or online, they lose their minds.

"Listen to me, Brotherin, Families are lovely. Does that make sense? But remember, only this kind of family is good." Those other types are sick, satanic, evil, against freedom and democracy, or whatever.

Stories are passed along and can be good for keeping us out of danger. They can also be entertaining, edifying, and enlightening. Stories are an essential aspect of our being. However, stories can also be dangerous and lead to destruction. Read the story of The Sword of Damocles. We should respect the power of stories and not abuse them.

We benefit by going along to get along (motivated reasoning/group think) because we are social animals, and belief feels good because we are "Homo storyteller" "Homo hubris," "Homo follower," and "Homo true believer." Our species has many mysterious and evolved facets.

If you studied the great apes for a while, you'd know more about what kind of creature we are.

Clever sociopaths and psychopaths know how to take advantage of "human nature," allowing them to hoard power and gain more control over mechanisms that determine what and how we do things.

Today, we have the energy resources, technology, and industry to torture and kill with Cheetos, carbonated sugar drinks, petrochemical products, machines, recreational drugs that numb the pain of alienation, carbon emissions, pharmaceuticals that medicate manufactured diseases, and all manner of weapons and omnicidal poisons, runoff from modern fossil-fueled financialized industrial civilization. All these we do for profit, power, and control.

We envy the powers and attributes we imagine God has.

In the end, Nature dictates our circumstances. God created the thing; it is what it is and will act according to its Nature. God (or evolution) made birds fly, but people can only fly in their machines. We're special.

We are an invasive, hyper, super predator and not inclined to listen to Jesus, Buddha, Mohamed, Gaia, and the Sages. We are much more inclined to listen to hucksters, con artists, and psychopaths who can invent all kinds of reasons to believe their stories.

Throw a dart at a historical timeline at any global location and interrogate its circumstances and way of doing things: its ontology, empiricism, metaphysics, technology, stories, etc. At a large scale, when we become conquerors, expansive, and organized into civilizations, we become brutal and creative/destructive.

You may have read the Old Testament, if not the Bhagavad Gita, Norse or Greek mythology. You may have paid some attention to Anarchism, Communism, Conservatism, Neoliberalism, Environmentalism, Fascism, Feminism, Identity Politics, etc., but have you honestly interrogated what you believe?

We rationalize what we believe because we want to feel good.

It's nice that we have come to depend on petrochemical slaves rather than human slaves to do our work. It's freed us up to serve our beliefs better. We are slaves to fashion, habit, and belief. We pray to God or revere technology and progress while working in the fields, factories, cubicles, or on Zoom calls on computers. We take our worldview for granted.

Meanwhile, we are living through a crisis in our living systems. We have become death, the destroyer of habitats and ecosystems.

If we listened to Nature, we'd be better off, but we won't; we will listen to the sociopaths and believe what they have to say because it feels good. And we'll continue to shoot the messenger who wants us to understand the limits Nature imposes on life forms on Earth.

Joshua’s Love Is Hard As Hell

Recently, I shared an article with a dear friend: "Whitehead and Evolution" by John B. Cobb, Jr.

Below are his thoughtful and well-considered comments, which are much appreciated.

Thanks for the article. Open Horizons looks like a great website, and the particular article you sent is quite interesting. I pretty much agree with all of it except the point made at the outset that "If one supposes that the Bible is inerrant, then we must affirm the biblical account quite literally, difficult as that is." I disagree. Why, if I suppose the Bible is inerrant, must I also take it literally? The Bible is often highly allegorical (i.e., NOT to be taken literally) but still "inerrant" in the lessons it teaches us. This is just a misstatement by the author of the article, Cobb, not Whitehead. But I've seen this before in other articles. It's true that many fundamentalist Christians take (or try to take) the Bible literally, but in my experience, most Christians understand that it's packed with symbolism. There are all sorts of Christians, as there are scientists. One size does not fit all.

Our shared understanding of the symbolism in religious texts is truly profound. Language, like the Bible, is symbolic, and mathematics is a form of symbolism.

In mathematics, a symbolic language is a language that uses characters or symbols to represent concepts, such as mathematical operations, expressions, and statements, and the entities or operands on which the operations are performed.

Christians interpret the Bible literally because it is, at its core, literature. This shared understanding unites us, even as we acknowledge the diversity of interpretations among Christians. We are extraordinary creatures, and our shared exploration of these texts is a testament to our shared curiosity and understanding.

We may never know what it's like to be a whale or a crow.

"Godly" below is used in the Christian sense stemming from Western Civilization. My comments are limited to "White Empire" belief systems that were coopted and converted to Christianity AD. Joshua was not a Christian, and Buddha was not a Buddhist.

Why would Christians take the Bible literally when they know people created the stories? How could a creature/person know anything about what God thinks, wills, or is? I take the lessons as accounts of the Godliness of people's sentiments. People are not Gods; we are complex, conscious animals that evolved on Earth, and we may have a "soul" (whatever that means to someone). There may be a heaven, but how would you know? It's easy to believe in heaven; why wouldn't it be? We don’t want to die, and we don’t want to be separated from our loved ones.

Homo hubris has an epistemic problem, a puzzle filled with belief. My mystic musings are perfectly natural to me and my species. I am Homo true believer.

Science is a suite of tools and activities we use to understand how Nature works (imperfect and inadequate as it is). Theology is a suite of tools that explain religious dogma. Religion doesn't tell us a darn thing about God (a Human construct). But we all fuck around, and we all will find out eventually what it means to "know" God.

The curtain will fall.

When a man tells you he knows what God thinks, he is a con man, not a Godly man. When a man loves like Joshua, he maintains patterns of behavior that we feel are profoundly Godly (not the Punisher God, but the Fatherly, Motherly Loving God). Learning to Love is hard, knowing Love can be even harder, and living Lovingly is sadly not as prevalent as we want. So we keep trying, and the brutes keep shooting the messenger, but Nature is the most consistent Marksman and always hits its target. Nature is one thing none of us can avoid. We are part and parcel of Nature and one with God whether we believe it or not. We are the storytellers. We are creators.

Joshua was an antidote for Civilization, a social disease that may eventually drive our species to extinction. I'm not sure that if, after the collapse, with five thousand people left and nothing but time to get LOVE right, we wouldn't make all the same mistakes again despite the many talents of Homo storyteller.

Belief releases all the comfy endorphins. But LOVE, my friend, can be hard as hell.

Angels vs. Aliens, it sounds reasonable to me.

I am a fan of Eric Lee’s train of thought, and I like the work he references. There is wisdom in it. Eric’s recent post on Medium, “Is Human Rationality a Myth? inspired the musings below.

There are many ways of viewing a predicament; these perspectives don’t all smell like elephants. (Please excuse my synesthesia.)

"When you argue with reality, you lose, but only 100% of the time." ― Byron Katie

Stories can lead to questions that lead to constructing telescopes, and Kuhnsian paradigm shifts lead to new stories that, in part, reflect reality as it is.

I'm not LESSWRONG, but I can infer the presence of water from living green things. How do the extraterrestrial machines we've constructed do it on Mars? How will sentient humanoid, generally artificially intelligent, construct their reality? We didn't have Nash Equilibriums before Nash, but Homo Storyteller still played the game. We are what we are and part and parcel of Nature and willy-nilly and willfully.

When we fall to the graceful tribal number 150 and stand on our clothes like little children, where fruit is sweet and edible, will we forget where we've been? Perhaps. Hopefully? Will ALEXA be a myth, like ancient giants and Atlantis? Will the data we generate be meaningful? Will there even be data anymore? What "technology" did Plato imagine Atlantis had? We are talking about Angels vs. Aliens. Now, that would be a fun movie franchise.

We don't need Bayesian reasoning to know those mushrooms are deadly or that we don't want to get in the lion's way and become its prey. But we feel safer when the nuclear warheads are on hypersonic missiles pointed at a Marvel supervillain. And CO2, can you smell it, can you see it, well can you, punk?

We can be Homo storytellers, Homo hubris, Homo firestarters, and Homo dypshyte and be taken in by what we are motivated to believe by our group's thinkers. Homo Kant, Homo Zarathustra, Homo scientist, Homo true believer, Homo flea-market-demockassie-fossil-fueled-neoliberal-global-financialized-capitalist-deus are the originators of the predicament and therefore want to own it, more precisely wish to control it. The scale of the predicament is an outgrowth of the imagination and will to power inherent to this animal. 'The Greatest Story Ever Bold' has its imagined teleology stochastically going nowhere in particular, always arriving while trying to explain away the destination we cannot comprehend.

And if the clown is lucky, the prince will make good use of him, and he will rise up the ranks.

"I fight for the status quo for the people! I support business as usual because I just want to fit in. I am good for something. I belong."

Our epistemic arrogance reflects what we create and our baked-in empiricism. Would we be cats and dogs and not to blame for the destruction of our habitat, pigs, chickens, and cows, innocent prey haplessly playing our role in stasis and unapologetic for being liked by Homo hubris for our companionship and tasty dishes—sometimes that's all it takes to survive and rise to the status of abundant mammalian biomass.

But goodness gracious, we evolved to be something different from Bonobos and Chimps and come what may, panic or grace, we will conform to reality as we must until, in this part of the Universe, all the stories stop and storytellers and their audience is no more.

There is nothing to believe in without true believers.

The frog doesn't hate the scorpion, and the scorpion doesn't hate itself.

The deaf, dumb, and blind Players will continue their destructive games, and the plebs and proles will do what they are trained to do and buy into The Great Game and place their bets if they can afford to, and it will all be so stimulating.

It is what it is, was what it was, and shall be what it shall be by virtue of having been.

Still, some look for stories that motivate reasoning in the group's thinkers that might produce a healthier, happier, and peaceful world where life gets on with it and thrives.

I don't have to believe it because, in my experience, it seems to be true. Still, extinction is the rule, and there will probably be life after humans.

A Kinder, Polite, Establishment Type

Underneath the stylized bluster of the current Republican zeitgeist, it’s business as usual, and if their guy gets reelected, things will carry on much as they are now.

Rinse and repeat at the Democratic National Convention.

Apparently, this is what political focus groups, when asked if they would vote for someone other than Joe Biden, said they wanted:

1. A Centrist
2. A stabilizing, non-chaotic force
3. A decent and civil person

In other words, a firmly “establishment” candidate who supports the agenda of the usual corporate power players and their “agency” protectors who run the country. How does this solve any of the problems that persist administration after administration? 

Some of us refer to the disastrous circumstances we have been in for decades as the metacrisis, characterized by war, anthropogenic climate change or earth ecosystems destruction, growing economic inequality, the powerlessness of people, a potentially catastrophic artificial general intelligence arms race, energy crisis, limited material resources, looming world war three, a new global nuclear arms race, mental health and on and on.

We are far from the best of all possible worlds. Oh, and too many of us believe aliens or God Almighty are waiting in the wings to save us at the last minute after decades, no, thousands of years of horrific trials and tribulations. Modernity’s tortures are simply more addictive and entertaining and make us feel more comfortable and self-righteous—if we are lucky, i.e., born in the right place, time, and circumstances to take advantage of all the bells and whistles.

Has there not been enough horror, and is there not enough atrociousness now?

The problems we are facing are structural and systemic. We are living in a crisis in education and our worldview. We have lost our connection with GREAT NATURE.

Groupthink and motivated reasoning characterize The Players and their Professional Clerks and Minions. To The Players, the Plebs and Proles are simply a nuisance to be toyed with.

And let me be clear, The Players know not what they do anymore than you do, they are only “Lucky” as stated above. They were born with opportunities and eventually encountered pathways to Club membership.

The Uber Wealthy want Transhumanism, “The Singularity,” Accelerationism, and a rewilded “Country Club Earth” without so many deplorable, useless consumers. Their ethics and philosophies require them to gamble the fate of solar systems and not merely terrestrial material resources, cannon fodder, and ecosystems while playing the geopolitical Great Game Reboot. The war, disease, and distraction economy is just a means to an end.

They want to replace biological life with machines. How ironic that people in the Age of Discovery and The Enlightenment thought all life save human life was “mechanical,” that humans were endowed by their creator with a soul, and that all the living systems we depend on were only sustenance to be exploited by elites endowed with divine rights. 

And the LORD God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden, but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it, you will certainly die.”

Ultimately, the arrogant fools who purport to lead us desire immortality and the opportunity to compete among themselves in a luxurious, well-mannered Greater Game where they still risk little as they measure their elite status—the only quantity that matters.

I would be happier with a benevolent and civil leader willing to take the world in entirely new directions. 

Our way of life no longer produces courageous leaders who understand deeply how the world works.

Our culture has so poorly conditioned people that they no longer have the consciousness to recognize what they need. People don’t understand how pathological business as usual is.

We need to suck it up and find the courage to change some of the ways we do things, or the future is going to be unfathomably painful.

Unfortunately, the kinds of leaders we need now are not allowed to play in our current political system; they would never be admitted to the club.

We need a new culture, the development of which is the most challenging endeavor imaginable.

We have all the tools to reengage with Great Nature and create a new world with a culture subservient to and in harmony with it. However, in all its glory, Great Nature is a complex emergent system that few are willing to comprehend.

No one listens anymore.

Turn away from the clown show and its audience of addicts and embrace a new, exciting, and life-affirming adventure of building a healthy new culture everyone can participate in and be proud of.

Somehow, we must show the establishment that we are doing something else.

I have a dream.

I Know You Are But What Am I?

What we really should be concerned about is that one of them is going to win.

Do you remember when CNN and MSNBC had psychiatrists on 24/7 talking about Trump having Narcissistic Personality Disorder?

I dislike Trump. He should not be running for anything; he could not manage his way out of a paper bag, but he was their guy for some reason. What does that tell you about tens of millions of Americans?

What are the myriad of systemic and structural preconditions that have led the United States to this point? (We ask this question every four years during each histrionic “constitutional crisis.”)

If everything is "cool" and wonderful in "The City on the Hill," then why not relax and vote for your guy? #Winner! Things will be grand. We don't have a care in the world. Your candidate can beat the other candidate in a boxing match or a round of golf. Domestic and World issues “be gone!” your candidate demands it.

Of course, DJT is a con man, a criminal, a cad, a fool, and an ignorant jackass; check the lineup on your streaming services; Americans are obsessed with gangsters and petty criminals. Where is Dirty Harry when you need him?

Joe and Donald are both corrupt, but for whatever reasons, the DNC and the RNC have decided that that's what the American people need and want, so a certain percentage of Americans are going to the polls to vote for one or the other. Apparently, most people believe that's okay.

If you have the time, just for fun, review U.S. politics after WWII—heck, since after the Revolution. Was it not always, to some extent, a bloody shyte show? America has been making war since the armistice. People have been fighting in the streets for one thing or another for the past eighty years.

It's easier to imagine the end of The United States than the end of rapacious neoliberal capitalism.

So relax, enjoy the dance, or rearrange the furniture. Crack open a bottle, pop a pill, delve into your favorite addiction, and let sleeping dogs lie.

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The Twenty-fifth Amendment

The Twenty-fifth Amendment (Amendment XXV) to the United States Constitution says that if the President becomes unable to do his or her job, the Vice President becomes the President (Section 1) or Acting President (Sections 3 or 4). This can happen for a short time if the President is just sick or disabled for a short time. It could also occur until the end of the President's term (the President's time in office) if the President dies, resigns, or is "unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office[1]".

The Twenty-fifth Amendment also says what should happen if there is a "vacancy" in the Vice President's office (meaning there is no Vice President).

The Amendment, a pivotal moment in U.S. constitutional history, was ratified by the states and became part of the U.S. Constitution on February 10, 1967.

The Twenty-fifth Amendment has been invoked (used) six times since it was added to the Constitution. Section 1 has been used once; Section 2 has been used twice; and Section 3 has been used three times. Only Section 4, which involves the Vice President and a majority of the Cabinet declaring the President unfit for office, has never been used, though it was considered twice.

---

Look, I know DJT is an evil man (or God’s instrument). I don't like him, but that doesn't mean Joe hasn't been corrupt his whole life. His son has some problems, so what? His son is a Democrat, and DJT Jr. is a Republican, so depending on which team you identify with, one is worse (or better) than the other.

It's more than tragic that Americans can't find better leaders to rely on. Why is that?

If Americans demand illicit drugs and the free market provides them, then the politicians declare a War on Drugs, and the money keeps flowing, and everybody wins. I'm amazed that big business (not for lack of trying) hasn't found a way to cash in on addiction treatments and, instead, left the business of fixing people's addictions to vitamin pill pushers and complementary and alternative medicine. Whether pharmaceuticals (many of which were invented to solve preventable medical conditions) or proxy wars, what's good for corporate profits is good for the world—only the pathologies remain, jeopardizing the health of all living creatures.

US AGAINST US—Like A National Version of Kramer vs. Kramer

Indictments against Joe go back decades. Politicians and major Players of The Grate Game rarely get more than a slap on the wrist and as much shame as a deluded narcissist can feel.

From The Comitty of Oversight and Accountability

Summary

Chairman James Comer and Oversight Committee Republicans are investigating the Biden family's domestic and international business dealings to determine whether these activities compromise U.S. national security and President Biden's ability to lead with impartiality. Members of the Biden family have a pattern of peddling access to the highest levels of government to enrich themselves, often to the detriment of U.S. interests. We are committed to following the Biden family and associates' money trail—consisting of many complex, international transactions worth millions of dollars—and providing answers to the American people. The American people deserve to know whether the President's connections to his family's business deals occurred at the expense of American interests and whether they represent a national security threat.

Evidence obtained by Committee Republicans reveals Joe Biden lied to the American people about his involvement in his family's business schemes. The Biden family business model is built on Joe Biden's political career and connections with Joe Biden as the 'chairman of the board.' Biden family members sold access for profit around the world to the detriment of American interests. If President Biden is compromised by deals with foreign adversaries and they are impacting his decision making, this is a threat to national security. The American people deserve transparency and accountability about the Biden family's influence peddling. With the new Republican majority, Oversight Committee Republicans will continue pressing for answers to inform legislative solutions to prevent this abuse of power.

—CHAIRMAN JAMES COMER

Since taking the gavel in January, the Committee on Oversight and Accountability has accelerated its investigation of the Biden family's domestic and international business practices to determine whether the Biden family has been targeted by foreign actors, President Biden is compromised, and our national security is threatened. Records obtained through the Committee's subpoenas to date reveal that the Bidens and their associates have received over $20 million in payments from foreign entities.

Below is a timeline that details key dates in our investigation.

The main points of interest are:

1) Romania: On September 28, 2015, Vice President Biden welcomed Romanian President Klaus Iohannis to the White House. Within five weeks of this meeting, a Romanian businessman involved with a high-profile corruption prosecution in Romania, Gabriel Popoviciu, began depositing a Biden associate's bank account, which ultimately made their way into Biden family accounts. Popoviciu made sixteen of the seventeen payments, totaling over $3 million, to the Biden associate account while Joe Biden was Vice President.  Biden family accounts ultimately received approximately $1.038 million.  The total amount from Romania to the Biden family and their associates is over $3 million.

2) China- CEFC: On March 1, 2017—less than two months after Vice President Joe Biden left public office—State Energy HK Limited, a Chinese company, wired $3 million to a Biden associate's account. This is the same bank account used in the above "Romania" section. After the Chinese company wired the Biden associate account the $3 million, the Biden family received approximately $1,065,692 over a three-month period in different bank accounts. Additionally, the CEFC Chairman gives Hunter Biden a diamond worth $80,000. Lastly, CEFC creates a joint venture with the Bidens in the summer of 2017.  The timeline lays out the "WhatsApp" messages and subsequent wires from the Chinese to the Bidens of $100,000 and $5 million. The total amount from China, specifically with CEFC and their related entities, to the Biden family and their associates is over $8 million.

3) China- Bohai Harvest RST Equity Investment Fund Management Co., Ltd. (BHR): More information will be provided in our upcoming Fourth Bank Memorandum.

4) Kazakhstan: On April 22, 2014, Kenes Rakishev, a Kazakhstani oligarch used his Singaporean entity, Novatus Holdings, to wire one of Hunter Biden's Rosemont Seneca entities $142,300. The very next day—April 23, 2014—the Rosemont Seneca entity transferred the exact same amount of money to a car dealership for a car for Hunter Biden. Hunter Biden and Devon Archer would represent Burisma in Kazakhstan in May/June of 2014 as the company attempted to broker a three-way deal among Burisma, the Kazakhstan government, and a Chinese state-owned energy company.

5) Ukraine: Devon Archer joined the Burisma board of directors in spring of 2014 and was joined by Hunter Biden shortly thereafter.  Hunter Biden joined the company as counsel, but after a meeting with Burisma owner Mykola Zlochevsky in Lake Como, Italy, was elevated to the board of directors in the spring of 2014.  Both Biden and Archer were each paid $1 million per year for their positions on the board of directors.  In December 2015, after a Burisma board of directors meeting, Zlochevsky and Hunter Biden "called D.C." in the wake of mounting pressures the company was facing.  Zlochevsky was later charged with bribing Ukrainian officials with $6 million in an attempt to delay or drop the investigation into his company.  The total amount from Ukraine to the Biden family and their associates is $6.5 million.

6) Russia: On February 14, 2014, a Russian oligarch and Russia's richest woman, Yelena Baturina, wired a Rosemont Seneca entity $3.5 million.  On March 11, 2014, the wire was split up: $750,000 was transferred to Devon Archer, and the remainder was sent to Rosemont Seneca Bohai, a company Devon Archer and Hunter Biden split equally.  In spring of 2014, Yelena Baturina joined Hunter Biden and Devon Archer to share a meal with then-Vice President Biden at a restaurant in Washington, D.C.  The total amount from Russia to the Biden family and their associates is $3.5 million.

Beyond this timeline, here are links to our First, Second, Third, and Fourth Bank Memorandums that provide detailed descriptions and show actual bank records and wires.

The above references are not even close to a comprehensive list of legal grievances logged against that side over the past fifty years.

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I Am Not Affiliate With A Political Party

I don't care which side you are on. We need significant changes if we are going to meet the challenges of the 21st Century. Finger-pointing is not going to cut it.

Let me suggest you read this to understand better where I am coming from.

On the Abolition of All Political Parties

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If you are a citizen of "The West" and you think you live in a democracy, then take responsibility and make sure your leaders understand what you want. Of course, this assumes you are well-grounded in civics and know what you want.

Reactionaries and other ideological groups that support limited "democracy" by the elite (who are the ones that know what's best for people. Right?) will tell you to sit tight and let them fight it out, and you will all soon see who rules you. Do your duty as workers, clerks, service providers, data generators, consumers, taxpayers, and cannon fodder and be happy with your big box stores and your addictions and monster truck payments; you're damn lucky to live in "The West" where people are civilized. "The West" will eventually civilize the rest of the world; it has been working at it since The Age of Discovery—good things take time. Eventually, every city on earth will have a Burger King and a Ford dealership. Every town will have a woke, neo-Marxist university to fret about and an evangelical mega-church to save the world from those damn universities and their progressive educations.

For goodness sake, forget about mainstream and alternative media, books, and education—what good will any of that do? Grab a beer, a “joint,” a super-food shake, or whatever makes your day; turn on the game or your favorite streaming channel, or “navigate” to your favorite social media platform and enjoy the action. Or get yee to the mega-church and get yourself right with The End of Days. It’s all good.

All the best.