Assuming that hearing protection act part of the bill goes through, I could start another side hustle 3D printing suppressors and selling them for cheap. A lot of those high end suppresors are supposedly going to be in demand and out of stock.
But just like you, I'm not entirely optimisitc about it either. They are probably being lax about it because they know Americans won't do anything with firearms other than take them to firing ranges. They aren't even the driving force of military action anymore. Drones and precision strikes seem to be the way forward.
Agreed about surveillance vs troops. Any grassroots movement that truly threatens the structures of power can be quickly infiltrated and quashed. No movement has much of a chance unless it is backed by a faction of the elite. Really most of history is just elite factions in conflict, the idea that βthe peopleβ can rise up is both a distraction and a cover (cf the so-called color revolutions)
I love the way you organized and show your books! Much nicer than the simple way I have mine haha. There are some good ones on your list, some are on my to read list and some I have read as well.
@wizardperspective that would be a good part of that bill, but there are other horrid parts such as the selling of US public lands. Hopefully it fails and we get the hearing protection part another time.
@colexdev Yeah. I can always play the waiting game. Ammo is too expensive anyways to really care personally.
The state (monopoly on violence) creates the conditions necessary for its own existence. Very good post.
It's also funny how you released this around the same time my friend finished his own post against anarchism. I think to us it is a matter of semantics more than anything
Unfortunately I forgot where I read about it, but this concept always stuck with me - A "right" only exists when it's threatened.
Beautifully worded, as always. There may be no solutions, but it is nevertheless important to keep repeating this kind of knowledge.
read some other articles on your site, it's great to meet a fellow david graeber fan and anarchist! looking forward to more writings from you
YES! Whether approached spiritually ( https://youtu.be/o7eIVk0W3S4 ) or scientifically ( https://youtu.be/EQnUFxoFqNY ), "government" in most senses of the term is anathema to human flourishing. However, I feel that serious practical work that would render it completely "irrelevant" is relatively scarce (e.g.: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_confederalism ).
But there is a deeper biohistory at the basis of that ( https://pkl.net/~node/2RCD/2R/index.html#8 ). Ever since you mentioned minarchy, I've been wanting to share ideas for self-sufficient communities interlinked through continual mutual aid/skillsharing/peacemaking/collaboration. Instead of "seizing the means", useful knowledge must be so ubiquitous that everyone knows how to make anything needed to survive.
Most "management" tends to make organizations that are "toxic" (e.g.: rigid hierarchies based on meritocratic concepts, punishment/reward dynamics and purity spirals, the banality of evil/structural violence fostered by bureaucratic accountability sinks, schizmogenesis through zero-sum games, etc.). In contrast, this kind of organization functions like a healthy and sane organism.
Though it can be complex sometimes, it is not "structureless" ( https://www.jofreeman.com/joreen/tyranny.htm ). In practice, it is like a combination of fab cities ( https://books.fablabbcn.org/reflowhandbook/contemporary-city-models-and-urban-governance/fab-cities ) with sociocratic ( https://www.sociocracyforall.org/sociocracy/ ) and restorative circles...
...( https://restorativejustice101.com/restorative-circles-a-guide-for-facilitation/ ) which generally follow Ostrom's design principles ( https://youtu.be/QTQPy9tC5WE ) and that are directed towards maintaining the health of every "bioregion" on Earth in ways that are truly "sustainable" ( https://letslearntogether.neocities.org/scispirit/SysDyn/sustainsys ).
It is possible to diagnose where it is "sick" at any level of scale ( https://letslearntogether.neocities.org/scispirit/LST/subsystems01 ) and fix it before it turns parasitic ( https://letslearntogether.neocities.org/scispirit/Misc/newecology ). I can go on and on about the type of "transition engineering" that would be necessary, but hopefully that gives a general idea of what humanity is evolving into.
I struggle to hold any ideological opinions of the sort, mainly because there's always a disconnect between what we think is ideal and what we think is reasonably achievable.
I think a pretty common consensus (anarchist, various forms of communism, microcap, whatever) is scaling back, staying within Dunbar's number and all. Within each of these tighter communities, I'm not sure if it really matters what they each do.
one of the crazier crypto-anarchists might be peter thiel, who wants to establish a technocracy, bypassing traditional nation-states in favor of a "network-state" as popularized by balaji. don't think it would amount to anything but another dystopia.
An absolutely grounded and accurate take, I agree with you in many ways. Always enjoy reading your thoughts on various topics. -k.w
after a while, I did not need to do anything because I was automatically gaining more than I was losing
it can be "won" in a few minutes... "You have beaten the capital markets from beyond the grave."
The part of you that knows that none of this is how it is supposed to be is the part that will be the conduit for what will replace it. To those who seem to "profit" off the system, its dissolution will be a shock. To everyone else, it will be a welcome respite as it is reconfigured to serve life.
You do not own the fruits of your labor. One must become the mold upon their fruits. This is far from the "end game."
Complex technological systems are inherently anti-human due to their scale. Unfortunately they are more powerful than human-scaled systems and thus subsume them. But they are also more fragile and will one day fall apart. Those most closely linked to the soil are in the best position to survive its collapse
the elites don't actually believe in anything, everything is a tool for power. they control the narratives for racism and anti-racism, and only seemingly choose whichever side is most convenient.
I wasn't refering to ideology, but rather to a bias in AI models. I suspect it has something to do with the way they process statistical data (which leads to them thinking molarly and fallaciously). An AI does not really have the signified, only the signifiers. For it, the representations are the only reality.
deep underground the UN headquarters is the chinese room, where the corpse of the Holy Roman emperor divinates the stock market, regime change, assassinations of high-value targets, with the assistance of LLMs.
I couldn't agree more with your general assessment of the "prison planet". While the consequences are painfully tangible, it is fundamentally a prison of the mind. However, this also means that its capacity to hold us disappears with a change in thought.
"...are convinced that our neighbors are our enemies." What creates such a conviction? That other people are the source of our problems? Therefore, I am not indifferent to the very real possibility of physical extinction, but hold an undying hope that All might come to know Oneness.
[I should specify that "Oneness" here does not mean "everyone should be the same", but that all are equal in "worth" simply by virtue of existing. When such a belief is truly held, then mutual benefit is the only option. "Profit" at another's expense is illusion, for any harm towards another is self-harm...but you already know that.]
"its capacity to hold us disappears with a change in thought" the solution is solipsism, no? one could be rotting away in a jail cell but be more free than the jailors
I suppose it depends on how we define it. If we mean it in the sense of "Ultimately, I can only be responsible for myself", then yes. There is still a multiplicity of wills, each with its own agency. And it is always wrong for one will to be imposed upon another. I cannot control everything, but I can choose my response.
Therefore, I strongly agree that a prisoner can be more free than their captors, but the only way to do so is for that prisoner to take responsibility for how they choose to think and act. Those who can be commanded to act without thought are not free. Likewise, some things control by attempting to make us reactive.
The Law (Dharma) is a reflection of cause-effect (Karma), but the time that it seems to take between "First Cause" and "Final Cause"/"Eschaton" can vary greatly. This hides the fact that All things exist only through interaction (Pratityasamutpada). We *choose* to follow commandments 5 through 10 because we "Agape" our "neighbors" as ourselves and 1 through 4 because we fully realize that "God is ONE".
In other words, if the same singular Consciousness is immanent throughout, then "God is a circle whose center is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere." To attain a lasting and irreversible sense of Oneness (Nirvana) is to cease to identify "self" with specific qualia (Skandha). On the most fundamental level, both you and I are "created in the image of God". Namaste.
Everything always happens
no more happenings, not ever
Nothing ever happens, until something happens.