[[interval:2.3]] [[factor:2.35]] 2021-02-02
- related posts + events
- on neutrality and future of trust and The Revolt of the Public and The True Believer and Psychopolitics
- gamestop short squeeze, ^eIoTMPz4U
- this is something that everyone is going to be writing about. What smaller spark events can intro into it?
- obviously capitol riot 01-21, maybe the case of the election fraud movement 11-21, or how about There has been a wave of institutional distrust that has started as early as the 1900s. Back in that day, people didn’t really trust government and felt betrayed but convinced themselves otherwise because it didn’t seem like there was any way out — they were disconnected from comrades (when the steel meels shut down, it was the quietest revolution[*](the city became an icon of deindustrialization, a song title, a cliché. “It was one of the quietest revolutions we’ve ever had,” Russo said. “If a plague had taken away this many people in the Midwest, it would be considered a huge historical event.” But because it was caused by the loss of blue-collar jobs, not a bacterial infection, Youngstown’s demise was regarded as almost normal. (Location 858) ^FOTfn-xFA), overturn of normal)
- this is something that everyone is going to be writing about. What smaller spark events can intro into it?
- institutions propagate a system of norms that that is designed to keep people in line so that the institutions will have longevity (people in line = stability). This is done inherently regardless of whether the people in charge are intending to, although very outsider figures (see The Border) can infiltrate and cause massive amounts of damage to the system of bureaucracy that holds it up (trump Barack Obama)
- These norms are viewed as innocuous, even positive things designed “for our own good” and as the guardrails for society to function. A common media trope is the devolution of order when there are no rules for people to follow (think machete-wielding clowns and ski-masked vigilantes from the purge movie series). These all come out of a base assumption and understanding that the institutions are what ultimately hold us together—that without them, us humans, us animals are doomed to bicker, fight, and destroy each other. Believing in institutions is also a method of abdication of responsibility. When voter fraud happens (or doesn’t happen) or trading fraud happens (or doesnt happen), we say the institution of democracy or of capitalism has failed us. We say the faces of that institution have failed us, that the banks and the fintech companies pretending not to be bank operators and the bank regulators pretending not to be bank affiliates are colluding against us. We have an easy scapegoat—a very large, broad, non-fungible scapegoat for mass groups to unite against. We can shape it into whatever form we want to attack. Yet, paradoxically, even as we rebel against it, we are trapped in that institutional norm. It’s designed to counteract these acts of rebellion against the status quo, regardless of how extreme the response needs to be. In these times of extreme movements against the institutions, it’s easy to see these norms working as they were intended to as malicious, as a collusion of the rich against the poor. Yet, this is no one-off collusion designed to quell an uprising. The issues is that this is just the norm. It’s the way the system has always been, has been designed and honed to do, to keep society in check, keep society in order.
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Where freedom is real, equality is the passion of the masses.
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Where equality is real, freedom is the passion of a small minority.
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Equality without freedom creates a more stable social pattern than freedom without equality. ^wRhObK6lw from The True Believer
- We yearn to be equal while we are free, yet we are only free in as much as the system allows us to view ourselves as free — most are trapped in a cycle of auto-exploitation
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- These norms are viewed as innocuous, even positive things designed “for our own good” and as the guardrails for society to function. A common media trope is the devolution of order when there are no rules for people to follow (think machete-wielding clowns and ski-masked vigilantes from the purge movie series). These all come out of a base assumption and understanding that the institutions are what ultimately hold us together—that without them, us humans, us animals are doomed to bicker, fight, and destroy each other. Believing in institutions is also a method of abdication of responsibility. When voter fraud happens (or doesn’t happen) or trading fraud happens (or doesnt happen), we say the institution of democracy or of capitalism has failed us. We say the faces of that institution have failed us, that the banks and the fintech companies pretending not to be bank operators and the bank regulators pretending not to be bank affiliates are colluding against us. We have an easy scapegoat—a very large, broad, non-fungible scapegoat for mass groups to unite against. We can shape it into whatever form we want to attack. Yet, paradoxically, even as we rebel against it, we are trapped in that institutional norm. It’s designed to counteract these acts of rebellion against the status quo, regardless of how extreme the response needs to be. In these times of extreme movements against the institutions, it’s easy to see these norms working as they were intended to as malicious, as a collusion of the rich against the poor. Yet, this is no one-off collusion designed to quell an uprising. The issues is that this is just the norm. It’s the way the system has always been, has been designed and honed to do, to keep society in check, keep society in order.
- With the powers of the internet, bringing together disparate groups of people united in cause, increasing the amount of insight normal public has into the elite class, and the ability for information to spread like wildfire, the public has the basic tools to not only understand how they are being exploited but also fight back
- this power can be used for desutrction or construction, negative or positive[*](AOC: channeling power and frustration into destruction or construction ^0xvqzh395). Traditionally, [it’s been destruction](with trump it was destruction ^tSBpFo-kv), but there is an overwhelming movement towards something, negative or positive
- the negative, destructive movement is characterized by Martin Gurri in The Revolt of the Public as political nihilism. In fact, he would contend all of the public is nihilist by nature and we can’t do the constructive part of this scenario
- The movement forms around some end goal, positive or negative, and people give up their identities for the identity of the group, finding comfort in the anonymity[*](((Mass movements are forces of nature that sweep up individuals who want to escape their sense of self for a divine-like, zealous group and have given up hope in a normal progression to the change they want to see. ^fo-x-ClMe) questions problems How do we reorient these groups towards constructive, positive ends rather than destructive, negative political nihilism ends? I also wonder on a different note if institutions are inherently centralized and whether or not decentralized / mass action vs institution is the right dichotomy to look at this through. Ex: social norms in the US like shaking hands, saying please / thank you, etc. those are an institution in my mind - a decentralized one that is organic and changes over time with society. Institution is also a hard word to define for me haha, it’s a little like ‘culture’ in it’s variable usage ^8zwO7E2VT
- this power can be used for desutrction or construction, negative or positive[*](AOC: channeling power and frustration into destruction or construction ^0xvqzh395). Traditionally, [it’s been destruction](with trump it was destruction ^tSBpFo-kv), but there is an overwhelming movement towards something, negative or positive
- reminded of screamers which reminds me of [[unabomber manifesto]] because he would see himself as a screamer ,as part of the enlightened few
- how do we harness these outsiders with new perspectives and ideas for solutions to effect change int he world that we want to see?
- can we create an institution that supports people first and institutions later? a flexible sort of ideology-less institution?how does it happen that all institutions fight naturally for their survival? resources:
- The Unwinding
- institutions person 1: colin powell who was the first black secretary of defense and 4 star general, was beloved by american people because was very middle of the aisle, idealistic and hopeful. was pressured to lead the public and the world astray during term as sec of def for bush to make the iraq war possible
- When the war began, the president said that he was sleeping like a baby. “I’m sleeping like a baby, too,” the secretary said. “Every two hours, I wake up screaming.” (Location 2646) ^qMJGuXDTJ
- institutions person 2: robert rubin who became the head of goldman sachs who became treasury secretary and indirectly influenced things against regulation, thinks that he knows it all and that everyone who is against him is wrong, even with the face of humility ^wvYRoeSsx
- insert quote about him avoiding responsibility
- people person 1: tammy
- institutions person 1: colin powell who was the first black secretary of defense and 4 star general, was beloved by american people because was very middle of the aisle, idealistic and hopeful. was pressured to lead the public and the world astray during term as sec of def for bush to make the iraq war possible