Point of order regarding Sheldon Adelson: the correct term for someone who spent his whole life being an asshole and then died is "dead asshole", not "philanthropist". ❖ The Capitol riot wasn't the worst thing a US president has done. It's not even the worst thing this current president has done.
Some very interesting points and needed perspectives thank you. I suspect empire or no, egoically dysfunctional humans need to compartmentalize to not completely break down. Not just current society, our own egoic madness produces cognitive dissonance. We are wired for domination and rigid hierarchy and also for sharing and compassion and cooperation. We hold contradictory perspectives because we experience both sides of our nature .... the dominator separator side wins out too often because it is engaged when we feel unsafe.
Compulsive thinking with which we identify makes us dysfunctional and this is interpreted as ‘exposed to danger’ thus the primitive survival brain and it’s biases and instinctive behaviours is engaged, suppressing often our sense of compassion and collaboration and love.
And yes this means too that our ‘tribal leaders’ which act out in the extreme their dominator traits are also victims of egoic madness.
Their departure brings relief to many who suffered at the hands of their madness. But we also know that they suffered from the same root madness as everyone else.
As elaborate and sustained their plans and behaviours were, they too were a product of unconsciousness—lack of self awareness. Ultimately they did not know what they were doing, though they themselves might argue against this point. To really know what you are doing requires you to viscerally know who you are. This comes with great self awareness.
Points out that fighting for narrative control, bitching and whining are the only outlet for people who are completely dispossessed of the material means of support of their lives (i.e., article doesn't say this, but that would be our system of government, laws and property rights).
[Snippet]
"When I said “Democrat narrative du jour,” I mean DU JOUR. As in, it changes by the day, and one day’s narrative will very often directly contradict the previous day’s. This is how all cops are bastards and we should abolish all policing but also we need to give police more resources and leverage to brutalize the people who we don’t like. This is how gender is both a meaningless social construct and an innate facet of one’s being that is so inimical to their identity it should determine whether or not they receive access to basic social decency. This is why empowered women are every bit as tough and competent as their male counterparts and also they are delicate waifs who should never be exposed to scrutiny or criticism. This is how downplaying race amounts to a racist facade of “colorblindness” and also acknowledging race is a hateful act of dehumanization. This is how a cop can find himself getting beaten to death by a crowd bedecked in Blue Lives Matter regalia.
You can’t simply adhere to the rules, because there are no rules to follow. In order to avoid censure, one must stay connected.
"What are the implications here? To ask an obvious question: how can the Democrats continue to blame the dispossessed working class for their own immiseration if they can no longer tell these people to learn to code, since learning to code necessarily entails enmeshing oneself into the massive electronic surveillance and control mechanism we’re now declaring off-limits to anyone whose beliefs fall an inch to the left or the right of the Democrat narrative du jour? And what are the implications for everyone else? Ours is a flimsy society built upon layers and layers of obvious contradictions, sure, but what will things look like when those contradictions are enforced with the viciousness of our carceral state, even as they shift as rapidly as social media demands our perceptions to change?
"When I said “Democrat narrative du jour,” I mean DU JOUR. As in, it changes by the day, and one day’s narrative will very often directly contradict the previous day’s. This is how all cops are bastards and we should abolish all policing but also we need to give police more resources and leverage to brutalize the people who we don’t like. This is how gender is both a meaningless social construct and an innate facet of one’s being that is so inimical to their identity it should determine whether or not they receive access to basic social decency. This is why empowered women are every bit as tough and competent as their male counterparts and also they are delicate waifs who should never be exposed to scrutiny or criticism. This is how downplaying race amounts to a racist facade of “colorblindness” and also acknowledging race is a hateful act of dehumanization. This is how a cop can find himself getting beaten to death by a crowd bedecked in Blue Lives Matter regalia.
"You can’t simply adhere to the rules, because there are no rules to follow. In order to avoid censure, one must stay connected. "
Note that last line: we are moving down the road fast to the end point where your standing as a human being or at the least a citizen depends on you parroting, "liking" and elaborating on the approved narratives of the day, every day, on a social media platform.
The article ends on a defeatist note which may, however, be accurate, but the obvious countermove is for people to disconnect from and terminate EVERY social media account they participate in, NOT to form new ones that are "more open."
Yes, Caitlin. It's maddening how narcissistic Western society it. We're the only ones that matter, because we're exceptional, indispensable. "We are the champions."
i just found out about Adelson here - it lifted my spirits so much that I *almost* feel guilty for delighting in it. Wait.. what am I talking about? Good riddance. I feel great :-)
"If you take all the machinery in the world and dump it in the ocean, within months more than half of all humanity will die and within another six months they’d almost all be gone; if you took all the politicians in the world, put them in a rocket, and sent them to the moon, everyone would get along fine. " ~~~ Buckminster Fuller
~~~ The moon is too close. Let's Launch all on the Interplanetary Highway to Jupiter and beyond
Some very interesting points and needed perspectives thank you. I suspect empire or no, egoically dysfunctional humans need to compartmentalize to not completely break down. Not just current society, our own egoic madness produces cognitive dissonance. We are wired for domination and rigid hierarchy and also for sharing and compassion and cooperation. We hold contradictory perspectives because we experience both sides of our nature .... the dominator separator side wins out too often because it is engaged when we feel unsafe.
Compulsive thinking with which we identify makes us dysfunctional and this is interpreted as ‘exposed to danger’ thus the primitive survival brain and it’s biases and instinctive behaviours is engaged, suppressing often our sense of compassion and collaboration and love.
And yes this means too that our ‘tribal leaders’ which act out in the extreme their dominator traits are also victims of egoic madness.
Their departure brings relief to many who suffered at the hands of their madness. But we also know that they suffered from the same root madness as everyone else.
As elaborate and sustained their plans and behaviours were, they too were a product of unconsciousness—lack of self awareness. Ultimately they did not know what they were doing, though they themselves might argue against this point. To really know what you are doing requires you to viscerally know who you are. This comes with great self awareness.
I had a similar reaction to Adelson's death. Thanks for putting it into simple words for me.
Imagine a world where all countries would just mind their own business.
Just start a war with Iran, all the present strife will *magically* end.
Off topic, but a good post today over at WhiteHotHarlots, titled "Vicious Impotence."
https://whitehotharlots.tumblr.com/post/640124262934626304/vicious-impotence
Points out that fighting for narrative control, bitching and whining are the only outlet for people who are completely dispossessed of the material means of support of their lives (i.e., article doesn't say this, but that would be our system of government, laws and property rights).
[Snippet]
"When I said “Democrat narrative du jour,” I mean DU JOUR. As in, it changes by the day, and one day’s narrative will very often directly contradict the previous day’s. This is how all cops are bastards and we should abolish all policing but also we need to give police more resources and leverage to brutalize the people who we don’t like. This is how gender is both a meaningless social construct and an innate facet of one’s being that is so inimical to their identity it should determine whether or not they receive access to basic social decency. This is why empowered women are every bit as tough and competent as their male counterparts and also they are delicate waifs who should never be exposed to scrutiny or criticism. This is how downplaying race amounts to a racist facade of “colorblindness” and also acknowledging race is a hateful act of dehumanization. This is how a cop can find himself getting beaten to death by a crowd bedecked in Blue Lives Matter regalia.
You can’t simply adhere to the rules, because there are no rules to follow. In order to avoid censure, one must stay connected.
"What are the implications here? To ask an obvious question: how can the Democrats continue to blame the dispossessed working class for their own immiseration if they can no longer tell these people to learn to code, since learning to code necessarily entails enmeshing oneself into the massive electronic surveillance and control mechanism we’re now declaring off-limits to anyone whose beliefs fall an inch to the left or the right of the Democrat narrative du jour? And what are the implications for everyone else? Ours is a flimsy society built upon layers and layers of obvious contradictions, sure, but what will things look like when those contradictions are enforced with the viciousness of our carceral state, even as they shift as rapidly as social media demands our perceptions to change?
"When I said “Democrat narrative du jour,” I mean DU JOUR. As in, it changes by the day, and one day’s narrative will very often directly contradict the previous day’s. This is how all cops are bastards and we should abolish all policing but also we need to give police more resources and leverage to brutalize the people who we don’t like. This is how gender is both a meaningless social construct and an innate facet of one’s being that is so inimical to their identity it should determine whether or not they receive access to basic social decency. This is why empowered women are every bit as tough and competent as their male counterparts and also they are delicate waifs who should never be exposed to scrutiny or criticism. This is how downplaying race amounts to a racist facade of “colorblindness” and also acknowledging race is a hateful act of dehumanization. This is how a cop can find himself getting beaten to death by a crowd bedecked in Blue Lives Matter regalia.
"You can’t simply adhere to the rules, because there are no rules to follow. In order to avoid censure, one must stay connected. "
Note that last line: we are moving down the road fast to the end point where your standing as a human being or at the least a citizen depends on you parroting, "liking" and elaborating on the approved narratives of the day, every day, on a social media platform.
The article ends on a defeatist note which may, however, be accurate, but the obvious countermove is for people to disconnect from and terminate EVERY social media account they participate in, NOT to form new ones that are "more open."
Yes, Caitlin. It's maddening how narcissistic Western society it. We're the only ones that matter, because we're exceptional, indispensable. "We are the champions."
i just found out about Adelson here - it lifted my spirits so much that I *almost* feel guilty for delighting in it. Wait.. what am I talking about? Good riddance. I feel great :-)
Thank you Caitlin.
"If you take all the machinery in the world and dump it in the ocean, within months more than half of all humanity will die and within another six months they’d almost all be gone; if you took all the politicians in the world, put them in a rocket, and sent them to the moon, everyone would get along fine. " ~~~ Buckminster Fuller
~~~ The moon is too close. Let's Launch all on the Interplanetary Highway to Jupiter and beyond
there's also 'The Koch Brother'