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Tag: power

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    Reinstating Natural Rights

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    1–2 minutes

    A coercive government cannot reinstate man’s “natural rights” because natural rights are a by-product of a peaceful industry.

    Granted, war may have been necessary to achieve temporary peace, but war is precisely when natural rights are suspended.

    Also, one cannot appeal to a current, settled state of peace and freedom to have “natural rights” reinstated because large businesses, industries, and machines maintain dominance. In fact, these very systems, devices, and bureaucracies are why we need to reestablish human rights: these dominant systems undermine natural liberty.

    In this conundrum, re-awakening “natural rights” implies a split from both war and managerial industrial systems that maintain servitude. It isn’t easy to imagine how a revolution that could accomplish this may manifest and engender awe in a time that could introduce such notions as “natural rights.”

    ~ from #Accelerate (the accelerationist reader)

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    the appeal of certainty, the inoculation of the bizarre

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    1–2 minutes

    The cybernetic system approach (machine-like control) to shaping your world is predicated upon the appeal of certainty. In cybernetics, influences are cataloged and countered, inefficiencies blocked and reduced. This allows for toggling of controls to better predict and influence the future.

    Raised in controlled systems, we seek more certainty, which does the disservice of softening us to the intrusion of reality: the unexpected conundrum is devastating, and we have no resilience upon which to parry it.

    The ripples of this systematized way of thinking, arguably rejects reality and thus our resilience to unexpected conundrums, converting them to catastrophe.

    The opposite, perhaps the antidote, is a surreal fuel logic; for instance, the Hopi would not plaster a certain spot on the wall, so that the unseen, spiritual Otherworld, the shadow world could also have an unfinished piece of plaster on their house, which they could then plaster over, of course, this plaster would remain unseen, but allow the spirit world to complete the house.

    This ritual introduces a complex nonsense that cannot be controlled and instead is folding the bizarre, the insane, into the every day. In such a manner, it is an inoculation against the odd shock.

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    withholding is controlling

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    1–2 minutes

    You don’t withhold your feelings for the other person out of kindness or care.

    You do it for yourself: to void future abandonment and to cover your ass. That way, no one can ever blame you.

    Withholding is a form of control.
    You present a “fake you,” which is manipulative, and when people discover the deception they leave, robbing you of your stability. Or they stay, and you resent them because you have to keep pretending.

    (From Nick Pollard, mostly)

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    The Secondary power of the symbolic

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    1–2 minutes

    the symbolic slips into artifice, illusion or camouflage.

    These have the power to alter reality, but they cannot generate the reality they are drawn from: they are secondary manifestations.

    Not being worn of reality they can never be it. They cannot be primary or foundational, but only ride upon and take advantage of the real.

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    Patience derives from power

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    Patience is only a virtue if you have power.


    When you are powerless and told to be patient, you must wait on the “powerful” to fulfill your request. Patience is a control mechanism: we will grant you rights and privileges if you behave.

    Being impatient and impulsive threatens the stability of the carefully constructed lives of those with something to lose. The impetuous act is offensive because it is uncontrollable, unmanageable, and undeferential.

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    Succession, rebellion, insurrection

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    1–2 minutes

    Americans (Texans specifically) comment that an invading country (or even our own government) would never be able to subdue us, largely due to the proliferation of firearms, which is ludicrous.

    It is not a matter of being brave or well-armed against an army with drones. Being armed only matters in the ability to dissuade or combat your fellow citizens.

    Revolutions (coups) generally require the populace, but a smaller percentage of it than you would think:

    • 1) It is a matter of having already won an ideological battle.
    • 2) Followed by seeding political choke points and infrastructure with your faction from which you can asymmetrically leverage power.
    • 3) By converting the violent rule-following rebels (the gun-toting patriots) as they will enforce ideology at an inverse proportion to their numbers. (say 150 armed ideologs can control a town of 15,000.)
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    Guilt as power

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    1–2 minutes

    When one party feels guilty, it is healthy to assume that not both are to blame.

    However, there is a relationship between the guilty party attempting to atone, apologize, or acceed to the other they feel they have wronged.

    In this sense, feeling guilty bonds you to another, often in a subservient manner. And as we know, from Hegel’s Master/Slave dynamic the subservient party controls the dominant one.

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    symbolic power: progress as betrayal

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    1–2 minutes

    Real power wanes when people shift into the symbolic.

    For instance, as England ceased to be a global power, the monarchy became even more important, yet the country and monarchy had less power as reverence increased.

    Similarly Japan, after losing World War II, doubles down on the (symbolic) moral imperatives as unique signifiers when real power lead to disaster.

    The danger is when symbolic power becomes reified into privileged national nostalgia it locks down the citizenry so that no real change is possible: to progress is to betray.

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    Influence or power?

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    People don’t want power: they want to be heard.

    Consequently, because people want influence, they often mistakenly take on responsibility as the means to achieve it.

    The resultant power is the misguided attempts to gain influence.

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    Social Policing

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    1–2 minutes

    People see you happy, being yourself, or feeling yourself, and the balancing mechanism is to apply their internalized burdens (“responsibility”) upon you.

    The common way is to offer disingenuous “help” while tripping you.

    The plea for conformity (or moderation) is subconscious leveling, but not-so-well-wishing busybodies often destroy the happiest (unique) person.

    Remember that this concern for social uniformity is crossing a boundary; it is not their responsibility to arbitrate control, unless you cross their boundary.