It's right to stress the importance of Occupy Wall Street, but in terms of defining a catalytic event which tipped the culture into its current zeitgeist, It would have to be Nick Hanauer's August 2014 TED Talk 'Beware, fellow plutocrats, the pitchforks are coming'. Don't get me wrong- Ross Douthat coined the phrase 'Woke Capitalism' in 2015, and yes, the deeply flawed availability heuristic of incredibly rare police brutality cases against unarmed Black men certainly played a role in allowing social media to remove the educational partitions which had rightly kept the Grievance Studies a trendy, yet lunatic fringe set of fields, within Academia- serving as a means of exposition to a phenomenon entirely manufactured by corporate media wishing to impose narratives which were entirely fictional as means of grabbing attention in a fiercely competive market. Black kids shot with toy guns with elevated to the national news. White kids shot in the exact same circumstances barely made the local news. Everybody knows the name of George Floyd, but few know of Tony Timpa- even though his YouTube video is a harrowing 13 minutes long, as opposed to St. George's 8 minutes. Same dog, old trick- the same methods once use to vilify smear and defame an entire generation of young Black men were now being used to the same effect on White men in blue uniforms. Just desserts, some might say, until one considers that it was Left-leaning liberal politicians and lawyers who shafted young Black Male America- not the police officers compelled by policy to follow their draconian legal mandates.
The 'Pitchforks' TED Talk frightened and galvanized establishment, institutional and corporate America in a way that few other purely memetic events have. It's why the 'Pitchforks' TED Talk immediately joined a very short list of popular TED Talks by credible speakers which have ever been banned. Rupert Sheldrake was another (although admittedly *some* of his ideas are pretty fringe). Coleman Hughes would likely also have joined the honour roll, for his talk on the importance of colour-blindness, had TED not long since learned the attention-drawing lessons of outright bans.
'Pitchforks' served a purpose in terms of resourcing and amplification. Suddenly what had been a cynical exercise in PR, a means of liability shielding and corporate branding gained the impetus of necessity, as a means to divert a looming existential crisis. To the surface level viewer, fed on the narrative of private vs. public antagonism and Left-liberal disdain for capitalism, this might seem implausible- but one has to remember that as a class, they all went to the same elite schools. They are friends and intimate acquaintances who protect each others backs. We saw the same thing with the GameStop Revolution, as Left corporate media immediately stood against the movement, going so far as to circulate a scam silver short squeeze as a means of a particular hedge fund to recoup their billion dollar losses, before finally releasing the mass mood was against them, even amongst their own target demo, and quickly changing their tune.
What they never imagined is that their cynical Divide et Impera play to maintain the neo-feudal status quo of the blue collar class, would ultimately backfire and derange an entire generation of the college educated, barring a small minority of dissenters and a larger core of cowards fearful for their jobs and pensions. They gravely underestimated the power of baseless accusation-many a CEO came to fear and dread the authority of their HR director.
They didn't understand the nature of the beast they were unleashing. History could have taught them- the Nazis, Robespierre, the Soviet origins of the word PC, the Cultural Revolution. Weaponizing resentment along arbitrary group lines, unless conceived as an appeal to justice and common humanity, is always a terrible idea. But unity wasn't their aim- instead it was disunity. They wanted to disrupt a growing class interest between blue collar Whites, Blacks and Hispanics- indeed, all the demographics increasingly intent upon voting for Trump later this year...
Personal hang-up: "SS runes"? No such thing. "Runes as used by the SS" was a thing, sadly, and has been exploited by pomos, marxists and such ever since to continue the christians befouling and besmirching of the teutonic/Nordic cultures and their heritage.
That process fits rather well to the idea of psychological war: the soviets and the americans both do this (well, the soviets are past tense) to cement and permanent GBA as an unthinking refelx response. "A rune? Nutzi!" Meanwhile, ignorant "right wing exrremists" (which they aren't, they are psoers through and through) daub themselves with runes as performative ghost dances, thinking "If I look dangerous, I am".
No love, you just look silly. As silly as when an online alt-right praise Fenris or a pinkhaired ptarmigan praise Loke. Culture (kultur) cannot be learned from without, only lived within. When learned from without, that elusive something will always be missing. As with the staff - on its own, it lacks length. It is only long or short relative something else (most Koans are quite trivial and I'll never understand why people think them profound or a sign of intelligent thinking, though they can be very entertaining - 'Ganto's Axe' comes to mind).
Maybe I missed it but to use that title and not a single mention of Blue Öyster Cult's "Veteran of a thousand psychic wars"? (Not "thousand psychic whores" as I misheard it, not alone in that either.)
A thousand psychic whores is however a rather good descriptor of the western surveillance state.
Remember one thing: you don't need to defeat the entire machine; all you have to do is get rid of select individuals and gain control enough to turn the machine to /your/ purpose. 99% of the underlings - the psychic whores - will just keep doing their job.
For someone who worships his home-made idols of "freedoms" or "rights" that may sound horrible. If it does, it just means you don't understand reality and haven't overcome your own resitstance to it. There is The State and it's not going away. It cannot: it is an Apocalyptic supra-human organism made up out of people. We can contrast and compare different states to one another but the state is an evolved entity, not a consciously created one; every little decision made from premises at the time which served to help the state continue and propagate and expand and grow to control its biosphere (rather: psychosphere) was logical and moral when it was made, according to the ones making it.
You must see the Machine, the State, as an organism inside which you live as a part of it, if you are to ever understand it. "The Body Politic" isn't just me being pithy, it's true.
Stepping outside it and denying it as anarcho-sydicalist communes or going Galt (Galt means 'male pig' in swedish) or whatever fantasy one dreams of? Congratulations: you are now as much a challenge to the State as your dandruff is affecting your neurons.
Toxoplasma Gondii, (Ophio)cordyceps, Cymothoa exigua - there are the images for how to suborn, subvert or even take down The State. Not wolves or pine martens or tigers (no, not even in Africa); those all require places to roam beyond the control of their enemies.
How far can you run on a sphere suspended in space?
Wow, phenomenal essay. I first came upon your work a few months ago, and while I haven't read the whole back catalog, I have read many of the essays you referenced here. It's really cool to watch you weave together your various strands of thought - like watching someone painting a verbal masterpiece. Thanks for this and all the other work that contributed to it.
That being said, my main reaction to this read (there will likely be many more) is frustrated sadness. Why is everything the regime does ugly and boring? I was promised bread and circuses, dammit, and all I got was a saltine and the saddest clowns anyone's ever seen.
An essay on war from the Martian posted on March 1. March being the month named in honor of Mars, the god of war. Timing is everything, from comedy to war. Well done.
Most of us are caught up in our private lives and private turmoils that we cannot conceive we are in the midst of new warfare and new battles that technology has evolved into. Frankly, it is unsettling and Congress and permanent government seem more friendly to communist China than to many of their own countrymen. Everything is upside down. We are marching to the ghost in the machine which is oblivion. Technology is a double edged sword. If there is truly no humanity in technology mankind is doomed executing itself. My father knew something about humanity having survived the Turkish genocide of Armenians becoming an urchin after burying his grandmother in the desert by placing her in a ditch because like the other boys that was his job. Before she died she told him to put her in the ditch and escape which he did that night. When he made it to America in 1920 he was so happy and he felt a kinship with people and there was always that human connection based on an unspoken kinship. When technology comes between people or becomes some kind of substitute humanity is diminished and as it diminishes madness begins.
Absolutely and utterly astonishing. No, I'm not saying that because I like to blow smoke up anyone's posterior. It's just that you've woven a thought tapestry creating a picture which speaks a thousand words more than you've written. Your description and definition of the parasitic elite and their regime was evisceratingly crystal. But the victory of the right hemisphere was the home run -- or maybe more precisely, the consciousness integrating both hemispheres in realtime course-correcting balance. Or something like that.
I'm going to print this out, wrap it in heavy-duty plastic, and bury it in the back yard. You know, for 'later', if there is one.
I must think on these things. I must read this again. I must consider going cold turkey on xitter.
Mandatory for our guys. Read it now.
Let me offer a slight challenge. I am today less concerned about Truth than I am Beauty. It is the great uglification that offends me the most. Would not a program of Kalologue be stronger medicine than Atheiologue?
Tremendous essay. Atheiologue is a valuable word, going to follow your links re: right v left hemispheres because I had had a similar but less well-considered idea along similar lines. V good stuff.
In the long term we can expect to see a renewed interest in organic cognitive function/development as an alternative to the mechanistic approach. The emergent counter-elite will develop paedagogies and self-improvement techniques, leaving AI and virtual reality for the drones.
As speciation sets in we will see a bifurcation of the population between those shaped wholly by the regime's culture and those shaped by underground, counter-cultural, neo-Rosicurian currents. Can't help but think of mentats and the Bene Gesserit.
Outstanding. The Regime is stumbling about, looking to start a fight with enemies foreign or domestic, whose ranks are growing with each outrage. Blue satrapies are furiously passing laws making illegal the possession of semiautomatic rifles. The rulers of Charles Haywood's 'Brawndo Tyranny' fear getting Ceasescu'ed when things fall apart. No Israelis will be dancing when that happens, but practically everyone else in the world will go for a twirl on the dance floor when this Regime collapses.
Your analysis reminds me of a line from the movie The Martian: “Every day will be slightly darker than the last, too subtle to notice.” The Leviathan wants its aspirations to be discreet, yet seem inexorable.
An unmentioned theme underpinning your narrative is the role of friction as a braking system on those aspirations. It’s the Leviathan’s most vexing nemesis — the resistive medium that prevents it from achieving its absolute nature. The Leviathan presents itself as the ideal sovereign — infallible, omnipotent, omniscient. But it is subject, as Clausewitz said, to the “impediments to smooth action produced by thousands of individuals” that populate its ranks…to the “numerous chance events which touch everything…” to the “numerous difficulties that inhibit accurate execution of the precise plans that theory tends to formulate.” The more complex its machinations, the denser the friction. The more lubricants (money, venal offices, managerial mechanics) it applies, the more it finds itself intensifying the effects of friction. It aspires to produce Emerald City — but delivers Kensington, Philadelphia. It aspires to wield AI for ultimate control — and creates Gemini. It foregoes merit in hiring university Presidents — and selects serial plagiarists.
Like the wizard in Oz, the Leviathan alternatively costumes itself as a scary giant, a seductive beauty, a terrifying beast, or a cleansing fire. But it is, in fact, an organized anarchy bloated with humbuggery. It is tuned to routinized responses to predictable behavior, so when it faces unfamiliar and unexpected contingencies (civil disobedience by truckers and farmers, flooding of prompts, poisoning of data, mass mockery) friction takes the wheel.
In “War of the Flea,” Robert Taber spoke of the advantages of irregular forces — fleas — over the dog’s (a military opponent’s) disadvantages: “too much to defend, too small, ubiquitous and agile an enemy to come to grips with.” Friction can exhaust even the most formidable dog. Friction by itself won’t rescue a subject population, but it is a stalwart, reliable and exploitable ally. As the Dalai Lama said, “If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito.”
What a marvellous, mind-blowing essay, John. Much food for thought; I’ll be mulling over this for an age (in the nicest possible way). I was particularly struck by the analogy of the Regime’s similarity to the left brain’s functionality & its blindness to the right brain. This rings true & gives us hope when we night feel overwhelmed by the ‘woke’ hive mind that denies reality & insists their chimera is the truth. Can’t say more yet as I have a deal to think about. Many thanks for a wonderful read.
I do not often express personal experiences on substack articles, however, this brilliant essay merits that expression for its aptness.
Approximately 20 years ago, I was startled out of a dream (in which I believed myself to be awake) by a physical, as well as spiritual experience, of a veil or membrane being ripped away from between the two halves of my brain. I was transported to a Universe of such richness and wonder, a realm of infinite knowing that cannot be explained in words.
Perhaps John Keats' poem Ode on a Grecian Urn best describes it:
> We need only loosen the controls, and allow water to find its own level.
And now, for the first time in my entire fucking life, I understand why Liberalism was invented. Recall: it's progenitors were revolting against feudalism. Feudalism couldn't have been much more different that what's described in this essay. And now, I do actually see how and in what way Liberalism isn't only true, but obviously so.
It's right to stress the importance of Occupy Wall Street, but in terms of defining a catalytic event which tipped the culture into its current zeitgeist, It would have to be Nick Hanauer's August 2014 TED Talk 'Beware, fellow plutocrats, the pitchforks are coming'. Don't get me wrong- Ross Douthat coined the phrase 'Woke Capitalism' in 2015, and yes, the deeply flawed availability heuristic of incredibly rare police brutality cases against unarmed Black men certainly played a role in allowing social media to remove the educational partitions which had rightly kept the Grievance Studies a trendy, yet lunatic fringe set of fields, within Academia- serving as a means of exposition to a phenomenon entirely manufactured by corporate media wishing to impose narratives which were entirely fictional as means of grabbing attention in a fiercely competive market. Black kids shot with toy guns with elevated to the national news. White kids shot in the exact same circumstances barely made the local news. Everybody knows the name of George Floyd, but few know of Tony Timpa- even though his YouTube video is a harrowing 13 minutes long, as opposed to St. George's 8 minutes. Same dog, old trick- the same methods once use to vilify smear and defame an entire generation of young Black men were now being used to the same effect on White men in blue uniforms. Just desserts, some might say, until one considers that it was Left-leaning liberal politicians and lawyers who shafted young Black Male America- not the police officers compelled by policy to follow their draconian legal mandates.
The 'Pitchforks' TED Talk frightened and galvanized establishment, institutional and corporate America in a way that few other purely memetic events have. It's why the 'Pitchforks' TED Talk immediately joined a very short list of popular TED Talks by credible speakers which have ever been banned. Rupert Sheldrake was another (although admittedly *some* of his ideas are pretty fringe). Coleman Hughes would likely also have joined the honour roll, for his talk on the importance of colour-blindness, had TED not long since learned the attention-drawing lessons of outright bans.
'Pitchforks' served a purpose in terms of resourcing and amplification. Suddenly what had been a cynical exercise in PR, a means of liability shielding and corporate branding gained the impetus of necessity, as a means to divert a looming existential crisis. To the surface level viewer, fed on the narrative of private vs. public antagonism and Left-liberal disdain for capitalism, this might seem implausible- but one has to remember that as a class, they all went to the same elite schools. They are friends and intimate acquaintances who protect each others backs. We saw the same thing with the GameStop Revolution, as Left corporate media immediately stood against the movement, going so far as to circulate a scam silver short squeeze as a means of a particular hedge fund to recoup their billion dollar losses, before finally releasing the mass mood was against them, even amongst their own target demo, and quickly changing their tune.
What they never imagined is that their cynical Divide et Impera play to maintain the neo-feudal status quo of the blue collar class, would ultimately backfire and derange an entire generation of the college educated, barring a small minority of dissenters and a larger core of cowards fearful for their jobs and pensions. They gravely underestimated the power of baseless accusation-many a CEO came to fear and dread the authority of their HR director.
They didn't understand the nature of the beast they were unleashing. History could have taught them- the Nazis, Robespierre, the Soviet origins of the word PC, the Cultural Revolution. Weaponizing resentment along arbitrary group lines, unless conceived as an appeal to justice and common humanity, is always a terrible idea. But unity wasn't their aim- instead it was disunity. They wanted to disrupt a growing class interest between blue collar Whites, Blacks and Hispanics- indeed, all the demographics increasingly intent upon voting for Trump later this year...
Phew, you said a mouthful and a half there.
Personal hang-up: "SS runes"? No such thing. "Runes as used by the SS" was a thing, sadly, and has been exploited by pomos, marxists and such ever since to continue the christians befouling and besmirching of the teutonic/Nordic cultures and their heritage.
That process fits rather well to the idea of psychological war: the soviets and the americans both do this (well, the soviets are past tense) to cement and permanent GBA as an unthinking refelx response. "A rune? Nutzi!" Meanwhile, ignorant "right wing exrremists" (which they aren't, they are psoers through and through) daub themselves with runes as performative ghost dances, thinking "If I look dangerous, I am".
No love, you just look silly. As silly as when an online alt-right praise Fenris or a pinkhaired ptarmigan praise Loke. Culture (kultur) cannot be learned from without, only lived within. When learned from without, that elusive something will always be missing. As with the staff - on its own, it lacks length. It is only long or short relative something else (most Koans are quite trivial and I'll never understand why people think them profound or a sign of intelligent thinking, though they can be very entertaining - 'Ganto's Axe' comes to mind).
Maybe I missed it but to use that title and not a single mention of Blue Öyster Cult's "Veteran of a thousand psychic wars"? (Not "thousand psychic whores" as I misheard it, not alone in that either.)
A thousand psychic whores is however a rather good descriptor of the western surveillance state.
Remember one thing: you don't need to defeat the entire machine; all you have to do is get rid of select individuals and gain control enough to turn the machine to /your/ purpose. 99% of the underlings - the psychic whores - will just keep doing their job.
For someone who worships his home-made idols of "freedoms" or "rights" that may sound horrible. If it does, it just means you don't understand reality and haven't overcome your own resitstance to it. There is The State and it's not going away. It cannot: it is an Apocalyptic supra-human organism made up out of people. We can contrast and compare different states to one another but the state is an evolved entity, not a consciously created one; every little decision made from premises at the time which served to help the state continue and propagate and expand and grow to control its biosphere (rather: psychosphere) was logical and moral when it was made, according to the ones making it.
You must see the Machine, the State, as an organism inside which you live as a part of it, if you are to ever understand it. "The Body Politic" isn't just me being pithy, it's true.
Stepping outside it and denying it as anarcho-sydicalist communes or going Galt (Galt means 'male pig' in swedish) or whatever fantasy one dreams of? Congratulations: you are now as much a challenge to the State as your dandruff is affecting your neurons.
Toxoplasma Gondii, (Ophio)cordyceps, Cymothoa exigua - there are the images for how to suborn, subvert or even take down The State. Not wolves or pine martens or tigers (no, not even in Africa); those all require places to roam beyond the control of their enemies.
How far can you run on a sphere suspended in space?
Wow, phenomenal essay. I first came upon your work a few months ago, and while I haven't read the whole back catalog, I have read many of the essays you referenced here. It's really cool to watch you weave together your various strands of thought - like watching someone painting a verbal masterpiece. Thanks for this and all the other work that contributed to it.
That being said, my main reaction to this read (there will likely be many more) is frustrated sadness. Why is everything the regime does ugly and boring? I was promised bread and circuses, dammit, and all I got was a saltine and the saddest clowns anyone's ever seen.
An essay on war from the Martian posted on March 1. March being the month named in honor of Mars, the god of war. Timing is everything, from comedy to war. Well done.
Most of us are caught up in our private lives and private turmoils that we cannot conceive we are in the midst of new warfare and new battles that technology has evolved into. Frankly, it is unsettling and Congress and permanent government seem more friendly to communist China than to many of their own countrymen. Everything is upside down. We are marching to the ghost in the machine which is oblivion. Technology is a double edged sword. If there is truly no humanity in technology mankind is doomed executing itself. My father knew something about humanity having survived the Turkish genocide of Armenians becoming an urchin after burying his grandmother in the desert by placing her in a ditch because like the other boys that was his job. Before she died she told him to put her in the ditch and escape which he did that night. When he made it to America in 1920 he was so happy and he felt a kinship with people and there was always that human connection based on an unspoken kinship. When technology comes between people or becomes some kind of substitute humanity is diminished and as it diminishes madness begins.
Absolutely and utterly astonishing. No, I'm not saying that because I like to blow smoke up anyone's posterior. It's just that you've woven a thought tapestry creating a picture which speaks a thousand words more than you've written. Your description and definition of the parasitic elite and their regime was evisceratingly crystal. But the victory of the right hemisphere was the home run -- or maybe more precisely, the consciousness integrating both hemispheres in realtime course-correcting balance. Or something like that.
I'm going to print this out, wrap it in heavy-duty plastic, and bury it in the back yard. You know, for 'later', if there is one.
Tremendous. Inspirational. Challenging. Original.
I must think on these things. I must read this again. I must consider going cold turkey on xitter.
Mandatory for our guys. Read it now.
Let me offer a slight challenge. I am today less concerned about Truth than I am Beauty. It is the great uglification that offends me the most. Would not a program of Kalologue be stronger medicine than Atheiologue?
Tremendous essay. Atheiologue is a valuable word, going to follow your links re: right v left hemispheres because I had had a similar but less well-considered idea along similar lines. V good stuff.
In the long term we can expect to see a renewed interest in organic cognitive function/development as an alternative to the mechanistic approach. The emergent counter-elite will develop paedagogies and self-improvement techniques, leaving AI and virtual reality for the drones.
As speciation sets in we will see a bifurcation of the population between those shaped wholly by the regime's culture and those shaped by underground, counter-cultural, neo-Rosicurian currents. Can't help but think of mentats and the Bene Gesserit.
Outstanding. The Regime is stumbling about, looking to start a fight with enemies foreign or domestic, whose ranks are growing with each outrage. Blue satrapies are furiously passing laws making illegal the possession of semiautomatic rifles. The rulers of Charles Haywood's 'Brawndo Tyranny' fear getting Ceasescu'ed when things fall apart. No Israelis will be dancing when that happens, but practically everyone else in the world will go for a twirl on the dance floor when this Regime collapses.
Your analysis reminds me of a line from the movie The Martian: “Every day will be slightly darker than the last, too subtle to notice.” The Leviathan wants its aspirations to be discreet, yet seem inexorable.
An unmentioned theme underpinning your narrative is the role of friction as a braking system on those aspirations. It’s the Leviathan’s most vexing nemesis — the resistive medium that prevents it from achieving its absolute nature. The Leviathan presents itself as the ideal sovereign — infallible, omnipotent, omniscient. But it is subject, as Clausewitz said, to the “impediments to smooth action produced by thousands of individuals” that populate its ranks…to the “numerous chance events which touch everything…” to the “numerous difficulties that inhibit accurate execution of the precise plans that theory tends to formulate.” The more complex its machinations, the denser the friction. The more lubricants (money, venal offices, managerial mechanics) it applies, the more it finds itself intensifying the effects of friction. It aspires to produce Emerald City — but delivers Kensington, Philadelphia. It aspires to wield AI for ultimate control — and creates Gemini. It foregoes merit in hiring university Presidents — and selects serial plagiarists.
Like the wizard in Oz, the Leviathan alternatively costumes itself as a scary giant, a seductive beauty, a terrifying beast, or a cleansing fire. But it is, in fact, an organized anarchy bloated with humbuggery. It is tuned to routinized responses to predictable behavior, so when it faces unfamiliar and unexpected contingencies (civil disobedience by truckers and farmers, flooding of prompts, poisoning of data, mass mockery) friction takes the wheel.
In “War of the Flea,” Robert Taber spoke of the advantages of irregular forces — fleas — over the dog’s (a military opponent’s) disadvantages: “too much to defend, too small, ubiquitous and agile an enemy to come to grips with.” Friction can exhaust even the most formidable dog. Friction by itself won’t rescue a subject population, but it is a stalwart, reliable and exploitable ally. As the Dalai Lama said, “If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito.”
What a marvellous, mind-blowing essay, John. Much food for thought; I’ll be mulling over this for an age (in the nicest possible way). I was particularly struck by the analogy of the Regime’s similarity to the left brain’s functionality & its blindness to the right brain. This rings true & gives us hope when we night feel overwhelmed by the ‘woke’ hive mind that denies reality & insists their chimera is the truth. Can’t say more yet as I have a deal to think about. Many thanks for a wonderful read.
Can I post this on X for others to read?
John Carter dropping this banger so fast I can't believe he's not John Carter.ai.
*squints suspiciously.*
I do not often express personal experiences on substack articles, however, this brilliant essay merits that expression for its aptness.
Approximately 20 years ago, I was startled out of a dream (in which I believed myself to be awake) by a physical, as well as spiritual experience, of a veil or membrane being ripped away from between the two halves of my brain. I was transported to a Universe of such richness and wonder, a realm of infinite knowing that cannot be explained in words.
Perhaps John Keats' poem Ode on a Grecian Urn best describes it:
"Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know."
"It is purely extractive, providing nothing of value, existing solely for itself."
Yes. Imagine waking up inside that kind of mind every morning.
> We need only loosen the controls, and allow water to find its own level.
And now, for the first time in my entire fucking life, I understand why Liberalism was invented. Recall: it's progenitors were revolting against feudalism. Feudalism couldn't have been much more different that what's described in this essay. And now, I do actually see how and in what way Liberalism isn't only true, but obviously so.
It's own decay into Woke came later.