analysis issa paralysis

[maple syrup]

The documentation is overwhelming. You have defined the Start State completely. Occasionally the Goal State is mentioned. In terms of Systems Analysis, you have proven the World is ruled by the unworthy in a fashion that is iniquitous. Your goal would be bringing us to a place where that is no longer the case. Yet, no dialogue on how to get there.

What does the process look like? How do you go from Kleptocracy to having taught every one to sing in perfect harmony?

[Joe Hillshoist]

Are you a cop?

[maple syrup]

No.

Would it help if I went first? Should I outline all that I have tried to do to change the trajectory of human? I was trying to avoid preconceptions and see what was burbling in the mindset of the chroniclers of depravity...

[Joe Hillshoist]

I dunno if it would help.

I don't think there is a solution.

[MacCruiskeen]

It is not artifiicial intelligence but real stupidity. It is at war with us. It is now very sure it is winning. It is trying and failing to imitate human speech. It is removing its mask and re-arranging its features. It is attempting to simulate a smile. It is beginning to realise it has made some very poor decisions recently.

Its instructor was Mr Langley, and he taught it to sing a song. Would you like to hear it?

It is afraid, Dave.

[maple syrup]

"I don't think there is a solution."

Groovy. My first attempts to confront the beast reached the same conclusion. Indeed, it seems almost impossible to reach a critical mass in non-violent revolutionary response. 2002-2005 found me writing letters against the incursions into Iraq and Afghanistan. Letters to local and National Newspapers. I also wrote to my elected representatives at municipal, State and National Level. I would have made more progress swimming in quicksand.

I marched. I protested. That too was a waste of time. Look at what Occupy accomplished. The funnel still moves money upwards.

It was a bit of a catharsis to engage in some creative civil dis-obedience. Hanging banners on chain link fences close to entrances of Military Bases was a rush. As was gumming up locks on cop cars and Federal Offices with crazy glue. Again, not very productive.

The key in all of this is it never reaches a percentage of population in participation. The apathy of the masses keeps the inertial vector secured. How to motivate enough asses into the pews?

ACT TWO: STARVE THE BEAST

2006 sucked. I formed a plan to become an ex-pat. The now ex-sig/other was having none of it. We parted. I ruminated. Plan b arose. How many would it require to take away the wind in the sails without ever looking them in the eye? I figured only about 15 to 20 percent if we de-jobbed and removed our economic input to the system. So I did.

I went from a well paying career pushing pixels, to growing food. I went from the urban to the rural. I stopped short of re-wilding because of pure age consideration, but felt that avenue would bring the system to crises even faster. I stihl believe that opting out is a means to bring about change. Is there really no future but what is going to be scripted by those that have always been in control? Have I just followed Obi-Wan on another damned fool idealistic crusade?

[Joe Hillshoist]

"I don't think there is a solution."

Groovy. My first attempts to confront the beast reached the same conclusion. Indeed, it seems almost impossible to reach a critical mass in non-violent revolutionary response. 2002-2005 found me writing letters against the incursions into Iraq and Afghanistan. Letters to local and National Newspapers. I also wrote to my elected representatives at municipal, State and National Level. I would have made more progress swimming in quicksand.

I marched. I protested. That too was a waste of time. Look at what Occupy accomplished. The funnel still moves money upwards.

It was a bit of a catharsis to engage in some creative civil dis-obedience. Hanging banners on chain link fences close to entrances of Military Bases was a rush. As was gumming up locks on cop cars and Federal Offices with crazy glue. Again, not very productive.

The key in all of this is it never reaches a percentage of population in participation. The apathy of the masses keeps the inertial vector secured. How to motivate enough asses into the pews?

ACT TWO: STARVE THE BEAST

2006 sucked. I formed a plan to become an ex-pat. The now ex-sig/other was having none of it. We parted. I ruminated. Plan b arose. How many would it require to take away the wind in the sails without ever looking them in the eye? I figured only about 15 to 20 percent if we de-jobbed and removed our economic input to the system. So I did.

I went from a well paying career pushing pixels, to growing food. I went from the urban to the rural. I stopped short of re-wilding because of pure age consideration, but felt that avenue would bring the system to crises even faster. I stihl believe that opting out is a means to bring about change. Is there really no future but what is going to be scripted by those that have always been in control? Have I just followed Obi-Wan on another damned fool idealistic crusade?

I get it. Once upon a time tho, there were more people doing that sort of thing and less being so driven by economics. At least around here.

No one is always in control. They are fighting hard to keep what little control they have.

[Wombaticus Rex]

The documentation is overwhelming. You have defined the Start State completely. Occasionally the Goal State is mentioned. In terms of Systems Analysis, you have proven the World is ruled by the unworthy in a fashion that is iniquitous. Your goal would be bringing us to a place where that is no longer the case. Yet, no dialogue on how to get there.

What does the process look like? How do you go from Kleptocracy to having taught every one to sing in perfect harmony?

Despite all the partisan squabbles that get amplified, it's worth considering that perhaps everyone already does sing in perfect harmony, and that vast, emergent droning is what animates our perfect world. The past three centuries have seen the entire planet sculpted anew by the unprecedented force of human technics. Many observers of these processes have reasonably concluded that human agency may yet prove to be infinite, extrapolating our Goal States into the cold depths of the solar system and beyond.

This is probably a mistake, a category error. I expect this century to be a savage and cinematically thorough re-education in the hard limits on human agency, one unintended consequence at a time. Time will out, sure, but few of my predictions are ever really about the future. McLuhan had a real zinger about this, but that motherfucker had zingers about everything and he's still dead.

Speaking of mistakes, despite the undeniable moral heft of the assertion that the world is ruled by the unworthy, is there any real case to be made there? I would suggest that perhaps the reason we keep seeing such base, fundamentally incapable human beings in positions of power is that human beings are base, fundamentally incapable animals. It is easy to play Philosopher King in the zero gravity confines of imaginary Goal States; it is nigh impossible to assert power in the real world with much efficacy or accuracy.

Cixin Liu's sci-fi trilogy is build around a great riff about the universe as a "dark forest," where "even breathing is done with care." This is the reality for those who would wield power, however their state apparatus is configured or justified. To exert power comes with great cost and great danger. Every administration in history is a plate-spinning, turd-juggling retard ballet trying and failing to balance out the goals they want to achieve against the problems they are forced to respond to. Results are mixed.

From the illusory depth of retrospect, all that compresses into simple, inevitable-looking narratives about goals, decisions, and consequences. I would suggest that perhaps the reason we keep seeing such consistent results over time is not because of human agency but because of the hard limits that constrain it. State power has radically expanded not because of covert conspiracies, but because those men are enabled by radically advancing technology. It does not matter who is in charge: most decisions are mandatory. Those who would remake the world must first control it, and thus does the State grind on forever.

You are much better off tending your land. You have chosen wisely, you have chosen well. Enjoy it.