the 3 R's

[tyrannosaurus vex]

warning: this is more dense than the shit i usually come up with.  it's kind of boring but whatever.

Once in a while, I'll get a flash of insight.  Usually, it's after a few beers and I can't really tell whether it's real insight or just what those nasty last few drops at the bottom of a bottle do to my mind, but sometimes it's pretty clear.  Alcohol lends itself to a whole lot of bullshit, which is what Insight usually is anyway, so by my watch it's fair enough to call this reliable.

Last night, it was during a conversation with a HAM radio operator (HAM radio nuts are second to Discordians only in their generally narrow scope of humor and lack of facial hair maintenance).  We got on the subject of technology, the hand of the "market," the coming Police State, and other things that people talk about when they're drunk and there aren't too many women around to whistle at lewdly.

Anyway, the flash of insight I had began with my realization that the police state that's coming next is a different breed of police state than has been shoved down the throats of whiny pigsheep throughout the past 300 years or so.  This one isn't the premeditated brainchild of a covert political conspiracy or a natural reaction of a people under attack from threats to the integrity of their culture.  This is more far-reaching than any totalitarian serfdom to date.  What we're facing is the result of a gradual decline in the will of individuals to be individuals.  I'm sure you can think of at least 10 things that contribute to this, so I'm not going to bother with that now.

One key thing that separates what's coming from what's come and gone is the fact that this time around, you can't point your finger at anybody and blame them.  There are key players in the scenario, of course, but if you look closely you'll notice that they're not even playing the same sport, much less for the same team.  But the final sum of all these agents adds up to one motherfuck of a living, breathing totalitarian state so iron-clad that it will actually feed on every weapon used against it.

So, that realization led to the realization that I've been thinking about my response to the new system all wrong.

Obviously, Revolution isn't an option.  Westerners have no revolution left in them.  They're too content being "free" within the confines of what they're supposed to be, to care about the freedom to be what they want to be.  It's hard enough to get them to hold a picket sign, just imagine trying to arm them or train them, not to mention retain their services for a protracted war for abstract ideals.  Won't happen, give up.

The first step down from Revolution is Resistance.  That's what I thought I was aiming for.  Holy shit, was I wrong.  It sounds noble, but the concept of a Resistance requires a hope for Things to Change.  It's a stop-gap, half-ass Revolution that promises itself that it'll hold out Until the Tables Turn.  Guess what?  These tables aren't going to turn.  If a Revolution is hopeless, then a Resistance is futile*.

That leaves us with the last option: Recourse.  This has nothing to do with the Big Picture.  It has nothing to do with overthrowing the system, breaking the Machine, or sabotage.  The best that we as sovereign individuals can hope to maintain in the face of a monolithic, global system of terror and stifling dogmatic homogeny is an alternative.  Not the guarantee of freedom, because we can easily see what that goal has led to, but the guarantee of the opportunity to be free.  We can't hope to compete with anything that's been bought out and marketed by the unwitting producers of Freedom(tm) to the unwitting consumers of slavery.  That means no promise of security, no hope for a utopian future, and probably most unsettling for the potentially free -- very, very little convenience.

We're not going to convert the masses.  We can't so much as wake up a single sleeping person.  All we can really do is build and maintain some kind of network where there can be free trade in the necessities of a free people: information, communication, innovation, and ideas.

Maybe, someday there will be grounds for a Resistance.  Until then, we've got to learn how to draw the line between motivating people to be free and securing our own freedom.

* not a star trek reference, i promise.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Obviously, Revolution isn't an option.  Westerners have no revolution left in them.  They're too content being "free" within the confines of what they're supposed to be, to care about the freedom to be what they want to be. 

Har har!  Besides, it's been DONE, and it's what got us where we are today.

Something different is in order.

[tyrannosaurus vex]

stone age II, anyone?

[The Good Reverend Roger]

stone age II, anyone?

Hell, no.  I was thinking more along the lines of Huxley.

TGRR,
PROUD to be a Delta.

[Triple Zero]

> This is more far-reaching than any totalitarian serfdom to date.  What we're facing is
> the result of a gradual decline in the will of individuals to be individuals.

this seems to be suggesting that people used to have more will to be individuals than they do these days.

are you sure about this?

when i look at history (about which i admit, don't know shit), i see people falling for the same traps, just wearing different clothes.

> One key thing that separates what's coming from what's come and gone is the fact that this time around,
> you can't point your finger at anybody and blame them.  There are key players in the scenario, of course,
> but if you look closely you'll notice that they're not even playing the same sport, much less for the
> same team.  But the final sum of all these agents adds up to one motherfuck of a living, breathing
> totalitarian state so iron-clad that it will actually feed on every weapon used against it.

because this is a different issue IMO. interesting though.

it's not that people have less will to be free than they used to, but i can agree that it's harder to
point a finger at any ruler/king/lord to "blame" them.

i would guess that this is the direct result of having Democracy, by having the whole mass vote for something
you get "what the people wanted", even if "what the people wanted" is controlled by some convoluted media
system.
i think that Democracy is a really sucky idea anyway, cause when a group gets large enough, you just know
the majority choice is going to be the wrong one. and due to its mediocrity not even benefiting the majority!

(and no i don't know any good + realistic alternative)

i ask a question: is it actually such a bad thing to be not able to point a finger at anyone anymore? was it really better hundreds of years ago when people could just point a finger and say "we're not free but that's the King's fault", while now people only have themselves to blame? (maybe it's just the removal of one bar of our prison, it doesn't immediately look like progress because outside that one cell is another cell, so you're no step further, or are you?)

by now, we know one thing, that King couldn't have made those people free even if he wanted to.

now, we know that only yourself can make you free.

now this of course comes as a harsh realization and unwanted responsibility on a lot of individuals. the problem is that, they actually have a choice to be free, and they (at least some) still have a tiny voice in the back of their heads realizing this. this makes them very frustrated, because the big semiconscious part of their mind doesn't want this responsibility, and at the same time it hates the fact that nobody except itself can be blamed for this lack of freedom! poor monkey brain ..

rest of your rant is interesting (the conclusion as it were), but i got not much thoughts to share on it because these things came to mind, and my inspiration is dry for the moment

[The Good Reverend Roger]

> This is more far-reaching than any totalitarian serfdom to date.  What we're facing is
> the result of a gradual decline in the will of individuals to be individuals.

this seems to be suggesting that people used to have more will to be individuals than they do these days.

are you sure about this?

Absolutely positive.  169%.  Hell, if you watch carefully, you can SEE the individualism leak out of people.  There is a measurable difference between, say, 1979 and today.

[Triple Zero]

hey, he started talking about how we're facing a decline

i just wanted to know why he thinks that.

because i think it's not really a decline, but more of a sort of things are just different, you know?

(also, you seem to be equating individualism with "the will of individuals to be individuals", but i don't really think this is the same thing--but that's just semantics--also i'm not sure)

[tyrannosaurus vex]

I do think there's a decline.  What I mean by 'the will of individuals to be individuals' isn't simple individualism, you're right.  It's true that throughout history, people have mostly been sheep and have taken comfort in hiding among their peers.  It's a herd survival instinct.  Blend in and you won't be a target.

The Enlightenment sent shock waves through Western culture.  Suddenly, it was okay to want rights, it was even preferable demand individual identity.  That's where we came close to tipping the balance of power away from the "Elite" and into the hands of the masses.  The masses being the stupids that they are, though, are now gobbling up everything the Enlightenment taught us.  They're packaging it in cellophane, stamping brand names on it and selling it to each other like so much potted meat product.

But what I'm seeing now isn't just the continuation of a herd's natural instinct to keep its members blending in with one another.  It's now to the point where we are marketing the idea of "individualism," one of the most sacred achievements of the Enlightenment, as just another Product.  Instead of defining ourselves as what we are, we're defining ourselves as what somebody else is.

It's just that this betrayal is slipped in there so that nobody seems to even notice it.  It used to be that an individual would set himself apart from his peers by his excellence in his profession or his creativity, but now we're trying to set ourselves apart from our peers by being even more like them then they are.  Sure, it's a logical clusterfuck.  But that's what we're doing.

The point of all this in my original rant was that this new(ish) tendency among the general public to compete with each other, not for resources, or even for recognition, but for the privilege of being even more mediocre than the next guy, is at the same time constructing a base for a totalitarian regime that has no choice but to exist and take power.

[Triple Zero]

yee-e-es.. okay.

that makes sense.

not sure what to make of it though, except another tagline "PD.com: you just can't buy individuality like this!"

otoh, it was a rant. rant says "things are fukt up, and they're fukt up GOOD and like THIS". so it's a good rant!

[P3nT4gR4m]

Yeah! Rant's have no business offering up solutions other than final. They wouldn't be rants if they was constructive.

[tyrannosaurus vex]

constructive solutions?

you act like this is a problem.

[LHX]

mediocre never looked this good

[P3nT4gR4m]

constructive solutions?

you act like this is a problem.

Was thinking of rants in general.

[Jenne]

stone age II, anyone?

Hell, no.  I was thinking more along the lines of Huxley.

TGRR,
PROUD to be a Delta.

YOU of all people are NOT a Delta, my friend.

You're an Alpha in Delta's clothing.  Nice try, though.

And ITA--no Stone Age...just a return to The Extreme Regime(tm)...

[Jenne]

The point of all this in my original rant was that this new(ish) tendency among the general public to compete with each other, not for resources, or even for recognition, but for the privilege of being even more mediocre than the next guy, is at the same time constructing a base for a totalitarian regime that has no choice but to exist and take power.

This is really only a statement on the cohesive abilities of the powers that be, imho.  Truly, man has always sought to try to blend in and not be noticed if he's not up to the challenges being noticed brings about.  It's just what he's hiding from that changes through the ages.