Then said they unto him, Say now Shibboleth: and he said Sibboleth: for he could not frame to pronounce it right. Then they took him, and slew him at the passages of Jordan. Judges 12: 5-6, KJV
This is an amazing article. It kind of saddens me that this is the kind of thing that could be coming out of academia if the institutions hadn't been captured and ruined by ideologues. One main difference I see is the prevalence of gun ownership and proficiency in the US. When there are people mostly interested in peace around every corner on every street with weapons that can put effective rounds on target at up to 500 meters, I think it puts a kind of ceiling on the extent to which any potential conflict could escalate, in spite of other factors that might otherwise align to produce the types of violence seen on the African continent.
Well said! The "it can't happen here" attitude is so pervasive because people will look for any intellectual excuse to justify laziness. It's much easier to believe that a party or a candidate will fight for us than it is to fight for ourselves.
I don't think we should panic, but we should be aware of history and look for constructive steps to preserve our individual freedom. Voting alone isn't enough. We have to fight back with lifestyle choices.
Oct 21, 2022·edited Oct 21, 2022Liked by Data Humanist
Data Humanist, this is very good and there is much to discuss. Re the tragic condition of people on big Pharma/zombie land, the central means of control in the post-liberal West is the normalization of dysfunction. The established order generates chaos, decay, and both psychic and somatic morbidity as a means of control. I would call this Sado-Malthusian governance. It is about the state and its allies treating much of the domestic population as enemies subject to a regime of malicious dirigisme camouflaged by therapeutic and eudaimonic rhetoric.
The current wave of post-liberal modernity and its curated dysfunction is struggling to contain the breakdown of the post-Cold War social peace that was enabled by consumer credit and cheap imports for the household sector, mass media and the promise of future upward social mobility by education.
The emerging regime requires the management of intensifying austerity and insecurity. Disabling a significant minority of the subaltern population reduces the risk of opposition from below. It is a low intensity civil war waged by deindustrialisation, pauperisation and malefic social policy. Its effects fall hardest on those elements of society most exposed to anomie and atomisation.
Thank you, DH, for writing this opaque dump on the wall of our imagined heritage in order, with depth.
Also appreciate comments citing a group known for its international internecine intrigues which look like civil war, on TV or in print, but up close smell like red tide, or that squishy pile stuck to the sole.
Well I just ordered Uber eats and drinks and drugs while watching reruns of ‘Friends’, and complain curtly into my cell phone connected to the Blink lens/speaker door monitor “Just leave it there. I’ll get at the next HIV commercial; got it covered.”
Rainbow revolution: not with a bang, but wine & whining.
This is an amazing article. It kind of saddens me that this is the kind of thing that could be coming out of academia if the institutions hadn't been captured and ruined by ideologues. One main difference I see is the prevalence of gun ownership and proficiency in the US. When there are people mostly interested in peace around every corner on every street with weapons that can put effective rounds on target at up to 500 meters, I think it puts a kind of ceiling on the extent to which any potential conflict could escalate, in spite of other factors that might otherwise align to produce the types of violence seen on the African continent.
Well said! The "it can't happen here" attitude is so pervasive because people will look for any intellectual excuse to justify laziness. It's much easier to believe that a party or a candidate will fight for us than it is to fight for ourselves.
I don't think we should panic, but we should be aware of history and look for constructive steps to preserve our individual freedom. Voting alone isn't enough. We have to fight back with lifestyle choices.
Data Humanist, this is very good and there is much to discuss. Re the tragic condition of people on big Pharma/zombie land, the central means of control in the post-liberal West is the normalization of dysfunction. The established order generates chaos, decay, and both psychic and somatic morbidity as a means of control. I would call this Sado-Malthusian governance. It is about the state and its allies treating much of the domestic population as enemies subject to a regime of malicious dirigisme camouflaged by therapeutic and eudaimonic rhetoric.
The current wave of post-liberal modernity and its curated dysfunction is struggling to contain the breakdown of the post-Cold War social peace that was enabled by consumer credit and cheap imports for the household sector, mass media and the promise of future upward social mobility by education.
The emerging regime requires the management of intensifying austerity and insecurity. Disabling a significant minority of the subaltern population reduces the risk of opposition from below. It is a low intensity civil war waged by deindustrialisation, pauperisation and malefic social policy. Its effects fall hardest on those elements of society most exposed to anomie and atomisation.
Thank you, DH, for writing this opaque dump on the wall of our imagined heritage in order, with depth.
Also appreciate comments citing a group known for its international internecine intrigues which look like civil war, on TV or in print, but up close smell like red tide, or that squishy pile stuck to the sole.
Well I just ordered Uber eats and drinks and drugs while watching reruns of ‘Friends’, and complain curtly into my cell phone connected to the Blink lens/speaker door monitor “Just leave it there. I’ll get at the next HIV commercial; got it covered.”
Rainbow revolution: not with a bang, but wine & whining.