Listen to a reading of this article: The human species is at an adapt-or-perish juncture in its history on this planet; we will either drastically change the way we operate, or we will wipe ourselves out by nuclear war or environmental cataclysm. Because we've been brought to this point by our
In reality, as Solon—one of the Seven Sages of Ancient Greece—did when he cancelled the usurious debt that had destroyed Greek society, causing many to be sold into servitude to pay their debts, fake and illegitimate debts can be cancelled with the stroke of a pen.
As Alexander Hamilton made the point, a national debt can only be created if the means to extinguish it are also created ie the state invests on power projects, transport, or agriculture projects that increase the productivity and connectivity of society.
There is also a precedent for what Solon did in ancient Athens, which was named after Athena, the goddess of wisdom. It’s called Glass-Steagall and it was used to break up the private merchant banking houses from the commercial banking system, which is supposed to be in service of the real economy. Breaking up the banks again today would lead to the cancellation of all the fictitious Wall Street City of London funny money and casino economy.
It could be great if this were true. What we are seeing is that the belief in our ability to radically reshape morality and "society" in the same way we have reshaped nature is unjustified. All our advances in chemistry, physics, rocketry, etc. have occurred without any similar advancement in either politics or morality.
Instead, we get people who believe, essentially, that we can just do whatever we want. They say: want to be a sodomite? Have at it! Don't like the idea of marriage? Just get a divorce! Don't want kids? Just kill them in the womb!
But do you really think these are new ideas? Basically a form of hedonism with a word salad on top to create an appearance of ethics or deep thinking? Of course not. "Do whatever you want" is the default impulse of mankind. It has been tried repeatedly by both individuals and "societies" for at least thousands of years. Over time, our ancestors learned that things just don't work that way, and they came upon a collection of rules to follow that make it more likely for you to live a good life and for civilization to flourish. They considered this so fortuitous that it has to be divine. I agree with them, but agreement with that metaphysical claim is not necessary.
This modern flirtation with degeneracy (i.e. the standardless existence) is no different from sodom or any other ancient example. It is a mistake to think the only qualifications of our ancestors was that they got here first. Plenty of others did, too, and they believed that the right way was for "men to do what is good in their own eyes", and they were eventually wiped out one way or another, with most of them being totally erased from history except for an occasional story of warning for the future.
You think you are raging against superstition, but what you are actually fighting is evolution...while also serving the evil American (really occupied American government, but whatever) empire, which is spreading the same message you are in this article. Please stick to helping us destroy this evil entity rather than feeding it with stuff like this.
What's "fluid" about gender? There are only two sexes. Currently, in the West, we see old religions being replaced by a new, equally reality-denying one: transgender ideology
It's called growing up and realizing that not only must we face reality, but that we create it and the narratives around it as well: it should be something beautiful to start with, and the old myths were ugly. It's about having faith in the right things, in ourselves, the majority "us", and in the basic goodness of the universe. And that doesn't translate into expensive cars all around, and luxury items generally. We are naturally creative and whimsical: even animals like to play, and our intellect and adaptable bodies give us wider scope for play and creativity. The biggest sin isn't sex without government permit, but lack of appreciation and care for the amazing riches we were all given, and lack of the mindset to share fairly with other human beings, other living entities, and the planet itself.
It seems that Putin is hated for denying the CIA it’s regime change tool. “Presidential term limits.” This 22nd amendment was introduced in 1947, along with the CIA. It was designed to cripple the presidency, and allow the CIA to become the 800,000 strong clandestine organisation its become today. Putin realised, that if Russia was going to become a real democracy, it would need to follow a doctrine, either a Marxist one as China and the late Soviet Union did. Or the church as in times of yore. Whatever he did, required continuity and consistency. The CIA has its decades old Fascist doctrine, whereby it rules the world for American industries, and a pseudo democracy to appease the masses. This wasn’t possible for Putin. He couldn’t leave Russia in the hands of a corrupt KGB, anymore than he could hand it over to the CIA, so he opted for the church and a tenuous presidential continuity whereby he was able to keep his hand on the helm, to guide the Russian ship of state, through the myriad of minefields laid before it by those who would break it up and plunder it. My greatest fear is that this well intentioned man will die, and Russia fall into the hands of unscrupulous scoundrels.
Very good read about the provisional nature of our social constructs. Correct me (or not) about some of the assumptions that you (Caitlin) and I seem to have in common:
We more or less subscribe to the 'hard' version of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis (linguistic relativity), that logic and language determine our reality as much as describe it. Mathematical models or literary metaphors, I tend to think of it as a necessary lens through which we observe the world and self. Both the world and self, to some degree, are social constructs determined by that lens.
All language and logic is fundamentally metaphorical in origin, and 'real' only in provisional situations. Linear logic has its ceiling … as pointed to through Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem, Wittgenstein's Ladder, the 'mystic epiphanies' found in traditional religion (Satori, Nirvana, Born Again) or extremes of the aesthetic experience. Narratives are necessary for the practicalities of the social primate and sustainable communities, but when it comes down to it, we never ask whether a particular melody is ’true’ or ‘false’. It either moves us, or it doesn’t. Similarly, narratives either sustain us, or they don’t … depending on who is included among ‘us’.
Pyschoactives have been of a help since the dawn of man, but more useful in the hands of he witch-doctors, priestesses, and artists (as therapists) who spend years learning the discipline of their role in the community ... not some random kid dropping acid or taking ecstasy without the background to put that experience into a context of any use to the community ... particularly to help the marginalized.
We all have the potential to catch a glimpse of what lies beneath our narratives, but varying degrees of capacity to bring that experience back up to a communicable level to express it. Even then, we run across Nietzsche's question of what would someone hear if we had experienced something the listener hadn't, and tried to express it? All they would hear is a cognitive vacuum.
Once we go beyond the immediately practical and provisional, even the 'hard' sciences have their logical limits. Without Einstein, we would not be able to make the fine adjustments necessary for practical GPS tracking, much less make a nuclear device. But when we push a paradigm's envelope, we have more questions and only proposed models for the 'beyond' ... what was 'before' the big bang? Does it make sense to even ask if anything can be smaller than a planck unit? What’s ‘inside’ a black hole? And through ‘spooky action at a distance’, even the most fundamental assumption of science, cause-effect, breaks down. Bertrand Russell’s mocking rebuke of the religious metaphysical metaphor of ’Turtles, all the way down.’ turns out to be just as true for science.
There may be a point where we might differ, and only say ‘might’ because there are only so many hours in a day to explain ourselves … Can we collectively progress as a species? Maybe. If historically, our Tower-of-Babble’ (pun intended) empires periodically collapse under the weight of their own corruption, there may be a counterpart in an equal number of ‘enlightenments’ … or perhaps parallel, local communal responses to the empire. Ha. That Lucas-Joseph Campbell collaboration of ‘Star Wars’.
I don’t know if we can collectively ‘awaken’ because there is at least one level of our mandelbrot set that grounds us. We are social primates. We are born, not as angels, but as ‘little monkeys’, fully dependent on parents. Another less pleasant way to put it, is before the social maturation process begins, we share the same traits as dark-triad personality types … the pathological narcissists, machiavellian opportunists, and morphologically defined psychopaths among us. It is through the natural growth process, good parenting, education as fostering that growth process, and the luck of the genetic draw through which we may become fully mature social primates (collaborative, critical-thinking, empathy-driven problem solvers) as opposed to remaining a dark-triad type (Susan Sontag’s ‘cruel 10% of any population’). Interestingly, if large groups of people can be thought of as having a collective personality, that large group is also more likely to resemble a dark-triad personality type rather than an altruist.
I am not a scientific-quant reductionist, but I do believe we have some biological constraints and capabilities as social primates. It is when we become herded/herding primates that I think we both agree all hell, periodically and predictably, breaks loose.
At the moment, I think some of the more salient variables include those high in dark-triad traits mentioned earlier, the majority who fall too easily into the camp of Francis Bacon’s ‘Four Idols of the Mind’ (common errors of thinking), the few altruists at the other end of a bell-curve for morality, and the limits of scale and empathy … particularly the moral implications of exceeding Dunbar’s number. JMHO.
Thanks for the great post Caitlin!
It is a tribute to your post that a lot of readers' comments are good reads in themselves.
I love the Matrix and see other allegories. The narratives you write about are not that old and apply mostly to the west. We now know the AMH (anatomically modern human) has been around for 200,000 years. Civilizations have risen and fallen. We know so little of our past. Certainly the questioning and critical mind are so important. Question everything.
Your second paragraph illustrates just how you have been manipulated by the climate narrative BS; that, or you’re just another piece of the establishment’s machine. And, I’m growing more and more convinced it’s the latter.
We just got done watching Dark Waters. I have to laugh. Or cry. All these folks taking such a strong stand against the vaccines and yet nary a peep from any of them about the forever chemicals like PFOA (C-8) and PFAS that are shortening many lives. We're being poisoned on so many levels and in so many ways, but to criticize that is supposedly pushing a "green" agenda somehow.
biological evolution doesn't mean linear progress or advance in social thinking. the final stage of capitalism is no better than a feudal form of exploitation. religion is but one of many tools for narrative / vision control.
human beings, however, have innate capability to think or feel critically though it's not always fully developed and demonstrated as it's always suppressed and discouraged by the establishment.
modern technologies, from printing press to internet, certainly can help popularize alternative ideas faster and easier, and empower the dominated population. discovering that you're not alone or small minority in thinking / feeling critically is absolutely inspiring.
We are indeed at an adapt or perish juncture. The old system is burning under the weight of its own corruption. We who are the new sprigs rising from the ashes are yet to find our power on the world stage, but the process is on. We are rising up...
Support and stand with Russia which is fighting for all of us against corrupt and criminal US “elite” War party.
In reality, as Solon—one of the Seven Sages of Ancient Greece—did when he cancelled the usurious debt that had destroyed Greek society, causing many to be sold into servitude to pay their debts, fake and illegitimate debts can be cancelled with the stroke of a pen.
As Alexander Hamilton made the point, a national debt can only be created if the means to extinguish it are also created ie the state invests on power projects, transport, or agriculture projects that increase the productivity and connectivity of society.
There is also a precedent for what Solon did in ancient Athens, which was named after Athena, the goddess of wisdom. It’s called Glass-Steagall and it was used to break up the private merchant banking houses from the commercial banking system, which is supposed to be in service of the real economy. Breaking up the banks again today would lead to the cancellation of all the fictitious Wall Street City of London funny money and casino economy.
It could be great if this were true. What we are seeing is that the belief in our ability to radically reshape morality and "society" in the same way we have reshaped nature is unjustified. All our advances in chemistry, physics, rocketry, etc. have occurred without any similar advancement in either politics or morality.
Instead, we get people who believe, essentially, that we can just do whatever we want. They say: want to be a sodomite? Have at it! Don't like the idea of marriage? Just get a divorce! Don't want kids? Just kill them in the womb!
But do you really think these are new ideas? Basically a form of hedonism with a word salad on top to create an appearance of ethics or deep thinking? Of course not. "Do whatever you want" is the default impulse of mankind. It has been tried repeatedly by both individuals and "societies" for at least thousands of years. Over time, our ancestors learned that things just don't work that way, and they came upon a collection of rules to follow that make it more likely for you to live a good life and for civilization to flourish. They considered this so fortuitous that it has to be divine. I agree with them, but agreement with that metaphysical claim is not necessary.
This modern flirtation with degeneracy (i.e. the standardless existence) is no different from sodom or any other ancient example. It is a mistake to think the only qualifications of our ancestors was that they got here first. Plenty of others did, too, and they believed that the right way was for "men to do what is good in their own eyes", and they were eventually wiped out one way or another, with most of them being totally erased from history except for an occasional story of warning for the future.
You think you are raging against superstition, but what you are actually fighting is evolution...while also serving the evil American (really occupied American government, but whatever) empire, which is spreading the same message you are in this article. Please stick to helping us destroy this evil entity rather than feeding it with stuff like this.
What's "fluid" about gender? There are only two sexes. Currently, in the West, we see old religions being replaced by a new, equally reality-denying one: transgender ideology
No, not ALL the rules are made up. There actually are rules or constraints that are independent of what is popular or what people believe.
It's called growing up and realizing that not only must we face reality, but that we create it and the narratives around it as well: it should be something beautiful to start with, and the old myths were ugly. It's about having faith in the right things, in ourselves, the majority "us", and in the basic goodness of the universe. And that doesn't translate into expensive cars all around, and luxury items generally. We are naturally creative and whimsical: even animals like to play, and our intellect and adaptable bodies give us wider scope for play and creativity. The biggest sin isn't sex without government permit, but lack of appreciation and care for the amazing riches we were all given, and lack of the mindset to share fairly with other human beings, other living entities, and the planet itself.
Excellent work.
It seems that Putin is hated for denying the CIA it’s regime change tool. “Presidential term limits.” This 22nd amendment was introduced in 1947, along with the CIA. It was designed to cripple the presidency, and allow the CIA to become the 800,000 strong clandestine organisation its become today. Putin realised, that if Russia was going to become a real democracy, it would need to follow a doctrine, either a Marxist one as China and the late Soviet Union did. Or the church as in times of yore. Whatever he did, required continuity and consistency. The CIA has its decades old Fascist doctrine, whereby it rules the world for American industries, and a pseudo democracy to appease the masses. This wasn’t possible for Putin. He couldn’t leave Russia in the hands of a corrupt KGB, anymore than he could hand it over to the CIA, so he opted for the church and a tenuous presidential continuity whereby he was able to keep his hand on the helm, to guide the Russian ship of state, through the myriad of minefields laid before it by those who would break it up and plunder it. My greatest fear is that this well intentioned man will die, and Russia fall into the hands of unscrupulous scoundrels.
Very good read about the provisional nature of our social constructs. Correct me (or not) about some of the assumptions that you (Caitlin) and I seem to have in common:
We more or less subscribe to the 'hard' version of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis (linguistic relativity), that logic and language determine our reality as much as describe it. Mathematical models or literary metaphors, I tend to think of it as a necessary lens through which we observe the world and self. Both the world and self, to some degree, are social constructs determined by that lens.
All language and logic is fundamentally metaphorical in origin, and 'real' only in provisional situations. Linear logic has its ceiling … as pointed to through Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem, Wittgenstein's Ladder, the 'mystic epiphanies' found in traditional religion (Satori, Nirvana, Born Again) or extremes of the aesthetic experience. Narratives are necessary for the practicalities of the social primate and sustainable communities, but when it comes down to it, we never ask whether a particular melody is ’true’ or ‘false’. It either moves us, or it doesn’t. Similarly, narratives either sustain us, or they don’t … depending on who is included among ‘us’.
Pyschoactives have been of a help since the dawn of man, but more useful in the hands of he witch-doctors, priestesses, and artists (as therapists) who spend years learning the discipline of their role in the community ... not some random kid dropping acid or taking ecstasy without the background to put that experience into a context of any use to the community ... particularly to help the marginalized.
We all have the potential to catch a glimpse of what lies beneath our narratives, but varying degrees of capacity to bring that experience back up to a communicable level to express it. Even then, we run across Nietzsche's question of what would someone hear if we had experienced something the listener hadn't, and tried to express it? All they would hear is a cognitive vacuum.
Once we go beyond the immediately practical and provisional, even the 'hard' sciences have their logical limits. Without Einstein, we would not be able to make the fine adjustments necessary for practical GPS tracking, much less make a nuclear device. But when we push a paradigm's envelope, we have more questions and only proposed models for the 'beyond' ... what was 'before' the big bang? Does it make sense to even ask if anything can be smaller than a planck unit? What’s ‘inside’ a black hole? And through ‘spooky action at a distance’, even the most fundamental assumption of science, cause-effect, breaks down. Bertrand Russell’s mocking rebuke of the religious metaphysical metaphor of ’Turtles, all the way down.’ turns out to be just as true for science.
There may be a point where we might differ, and only say ‘might’ because there are only so many hours in a day to explain ourselves … Can we collectively progress as a species? Maybe. If historically, our Tower-of-Babble’ (pun intended) empires periodically collapse under the weight of their own corruption, there may be a counterpart in an equal number of ‘enlightenments’ … or perhaps parallel, local communal responses to the empire. Ha. That Lucas-Joseph Campbell collaboration of ‘Star Wars’.
I don’t know if we can collectively ‘awaken’ because there is at least one level of our mandelbrot set that grounds us. We are social primates. We are born, not as angels, but as ‘little monkeys’, fully dependent on parents. Another less pleasant way to put it, is before the social maturation process begins, we share the same traits as dark-triad personality types … the pathological narcissists, machiavellian opportunists, and morphologically defined psychopaths among us. It is through the natural growth process, good parenting, education as fostering that growth process, and the luck of the genetic draw through which we may become fully mature social primates (collaborative, critical-thinking, empathy-driven problem solvers) as opposed to remaining a dark-triad type (Susan Sontag’s ‘cruel 10% of any population’). Interestingly, if large groups of people can be thought of as having a collective personality, that large group is also more likely to resemble a dark-triad personality type rather than an altruist.
I am not a scientific-quant reductionist, but I do believe we have some biological constraints and capabilities as social primates. It is when we become herded/herding primates that I think we both agree all hell, periodically and predictably, breaks loose.
At the moment, I think some of the more salient variables include those high in dark-triad traits mentioned earlier, the majority who fall too easily into the camp of Francis Bacon’s ‘Four Idols of the Mind’ (common errors of thinking), the few altruists at the other end of a bell-curve for morality, and the limits of scale and empathy … particularly the moral implications of exceeding Dunbar’s number. JMHO.
Thanks for the great post Caitlin!
It is a tribute to your post that a lot of readers' comments are good reads in themselves.
Cheers from Japan
I love the Matrix and see other allegories. The narratives you write about are not that old and apply mostly to the west. We now know the AMH (anatomically modern human) has been around for 200,000 years. Civilizations have risen and fallen. We know so little of our past. Certainly the questioning and critical mind are so important. Question everything.
Your second paragraph illustrates just how you have been manipulated by the climate narrative BS; that, or you’re just another piece of the establishment’s machine. And, I’m growing more and more convinced it’s the latter.
We just got done watching Dark Waters. I have to laugh. Or cry. All these folks taking such a strong stand against the vaccines and yet nary a peep from any of them about the forever chemicals like PFOA (C-8) and PFAS that are shortening many lives. We're being poisoned on so many levels and in so many ways, but to criticize that is supposedly pushing a "green" agenda somehow.
biological evolution doesn't mean linear progress or advance in social thinking. the final stage of capitalism is no better than a feudal form of exploitation. religion is but one of many tools for narrative / vision control.
human beings, however, have innate capability to think or feel critically though it's not always fully developed and demonstrated as it's always suppressed and discouraged by the establishment.
modern technologies, from printing press to internet, certainly can help popularize alternative ideas faster and easier, and empower the dominated population. discovering that you're not alone or small minority in thinking / feeling critically is absolutely inspiring.
We are indeed at an adapt or perish juncture. The old system is burning under the weight of its own corruption. We who are the new sprigs rising from the ashes are yet to find our power on the world stage, but the process is on. We are rising up...
Russia has the right to protect herself !
It starts with me, changing my worldview.