“The Long Now is the Fiat World of reality by declaration, where we are TOLD that inflation does not exist, where we are TOLD that wealth inequality and meager productivity and negative savings rates just “happen”, where we are TOLD that we must vote for ridiculous candidates to be a good Republican or a good Democrat, where we are TOLD that we must buy ridiculous securities to be a good investor, and where we are TOLD that we must borrow ridiculous sums to be a good parent or a good citizen.
And the most terrifying thing is that you start to think they might be right.“
The Long Now series is worth remembering. There are four parts. Here, I’ll collect some thoughts about part 4 and the series altogether, as best I know how.
I don’t fully understand Ben’s framework but what I can say is I am very drawn to what he’s saying and the way he frames it up.
To be a bit more rigorous than that: Mostly, what I hear him saying in this series, and in others of his notes, is that there is the seen world and the presented world. The presented world is politics-as-sport, the spending-machine, and wool-over-your-eyes. It outsources your thinking to the government or the party or the cultural state. The one that does not know you, but uses you.
The Long Now pushes down beauty. It removes discomfort by discouraging your thinking. It dresses up complex things for you in memetic doings.
It is to be fought against.
As Wendell Berry says:
“As soon as the generals and the politicos
can predict the motions of your mind,
lose it.”
A few other pieces from part 4 that are worth remembering:
“In truth there is ZERO relationship between social security taxes and social security benefits today, other than sharing the words “social security”. In truth they are two entirely separate government programs, the former a regressive tax on workers that goes into the big pot of the annual budget and the latter a wealth transfer program to old people that comes out of that budget.”
“Management levered up our country and used the proceeds to provide a windfall gain for corporations and the rich. You know … “returning capital to job creators”. In exactly the same way that Management might lever up a company and use the proceeds for a big stock buyback. You know … “returning capital to shareholders”.
Both of these narratives – “returning capital to job creators” and “returning capital to shareholders” – had a truth to them, an important truth. I believed in the important truth of both of these narratives for most of my adult life! And yes, I’m using the past tense.
Because in the Long Now, the meaning of both narratives has been perverted beyond all recognition.
Both are now part and parcel of the Trickle-Down Lie, that the crumbs that fall off massa’s table are crumbs that you wouldn’t get otherwise, so let’s celebrate all those extra crumbs. Yay, crumbs!“
“You know, in one of my twitter fights with Angry-Billionaires-and-their-Renfields™, I was called “a bizarre combo of Zerohedge and self-help guru”. It was meant as an insult, of course, but for me … man, I wear it like a badge. Because I DO believe, in Zerohedge-esque fashion, that “the system” is designed by and for a Team Elite that, in the immortal words of The Outlaw Josey Wales, pisses down our backs and tells us it’s raining. And I DO believe, in self-help guru-esque fashion, that the only effective resistance to the Nudging State and the Nudging Oligarchy is through a bottom-up grassroots social movement that is driven by one thing and one thing only: each individual’s courage and determination to maintain their autonomy of mind … the courage and determination to believe that 2 + 2 = 4.
The revolution will not be televised. The revolution will not be in the streets.
The revolution will be in our hearts.
It’s the hardest thing you’ll ever do, precisely because no one will be watching.
But you won’t be alone.“
I’ve been thinking a lot about the political structure (or lack of it) lately. It’s unsettling me. Particularly, I think, because it feels sad. It’s not a “rising tide lifts all boats” environment. Maybe it hasn’t been, outside of wartime, ever. But right now it seems that it’s not just not that, but that it is instead one group of people in the boats while the other group is on the shore shooting heavy artillery at the boats.
Or, maybe the president sends all the boats he doesn’t like to a foreign prison in El Salvador in a full on attack on the constitution.
There’s no time to fully understand what’s happening. The zone has already been flooded. I cannot keep up.
Left is right. War is peace. Ignorance is strength. Freedom is slavery. Republicans are communist.
I think that’s what Ben’s getting at: “Listen. We know you’re busy. And we know what’s best for you. We know we’re asking for a bit more than is normal, but this is an emergency! Terrorists are at the door. The President is the only one who can save you. Let us take it from here. We can save the country.”
The Long Now keeps you from remembering the past and protecting the future by resisting these things right now. It might even deny the past exists or that the future will happen. Stay right here. Let us handle this today.
“He gazed up at the enormous face. Forty years it had taken him to learn what kind of smile was hidden beneath the dark moustache. O cruel, needless misunderstanding! O stubborn, self-willed exile from the loving breast! Two gin-scented tears trickled down the sides of his nose. But it was all right, everything was all right, the struggle was finished. He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother.”
George Orwell, 1984
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