Chris, you cited Sal Mercogliano (whom I just discovered after the recent Baltimore disaster). Here’s a video of his from a year ago *specifically* about the Navy’s utter leadership incompetence at putting “the wet stuff on the red stuff.” I don’t think there’s a better illustration of your point in your current post.
"What kind of Empire funds both sides of the same war?"
The kind of Empire that is morally and ethically dead, flailing in the grip of financial death throes - an Empire in which the elite scavengers squabble viciously over the remaining wealth as they retreat to their island bunkers with their sycophants.
The Iron Law of Institutions is this: “the people who control institutions care first and foremost about their power within the institution rather than the power of the institution itself. Thus, they would rather the institution ‘fail’ while they remain in power within the institution than for the institution to “succeed” if that requires them to lose power within the institution.”
it makes perfect sense. if you ask just about any human to choose bw:
A: making a decision that will benefit them in the short term, reward them with cash, promotions and the approval of their peers, but that might have severe consequences somewhere down the road; vs
B: making a hard decision that will turn their peers against them, have immediate negative consequences for their career path (aka status and wealth), but will bring benefits (and even be seen as wise) somewhere down the road...
I would guess 9 out of 10 people would choose A, and that goes double for the kind of anxious careerist who joins these orgs in the first place, esp now that Loyalty to the Tribal Narrative has displaced every other value.
And, sadly, I agree. You're right! We, the collective 'we', have voted with our feet. Since the 1960's. We have deliberately, stupidly, chosen to take the easy way out. We have indeed settled for "the short term, reward them with cash, promotions and the approval of their peers". And allowed the powers-that-be to attempt micro-manage every aspect of our lives.
And in so doing have pretty much relegated our offspring to the hell of socialism. With the inevitable collapse. The one we're living through. Now.
There is still hope. Perhaps not for us. But for our descendants. In Middle America. The Heartland. Where folks have not forgotten where their food comes from. Or how to grow things, build things, and fix things. Where there are still families. And communities. Where people can still work together - for the common good. And where, in spite of the concerted efforts of our would-be lords and masters, most folks can still think for themselves. And teach their children to do the same. We were free. Once. And we WILL remember!
It ain't gonna be easy! When the tens/hundreds of millions of urban sheeple get hungry. When they can no longer feed their families, keep the lights on, the water taps running, or the sewage flowing downhill.
In the immortal words of Hank Williams, Jr, "A Country Boy Can Survive"
Western civilization v2.0 - construct-aware meta-rationality
Historical leftism/Marxism is at its dark heart an ideology of hate of the middle classes that revived the hate of the middle classes by medieval intellectual and artistic elites. (note many of the most fervent leftist haters on social media are "musicians" or "artists", or claim to be.)
The "woke" "left" is at heart an incoherent, totalitarian quasi-religious priesthood (as Kotkin says, a New Clerisy, and as Yarvin says the Brahmins and as McWhorter says The Elect, etc.) that is incapable of meeting the coherence needs of societies stumbling toward and evolving in response to newly emergent postmodern social conditions.
It exists because of techno-economic disruption of legacy sense-making systems that are now failing and causing social disintegration, rot, corruption and dysfunction.
The postmodern "left" has a (relativist) "belief" that "reality is a social construct" (Lasch, 1990s). That "belief" rejects the "absolutisms" of both mythic religious culture and modern scientific-rationalism. But the postmodern "left" rejects the "absolutisms" of religion and scientific rationalism in a way that itself is absolutist!
The postmodern "left" is very vulnerable to criticism, and really can't stand up to being "deconstructed" for its incoherence, dysfunctions and incompetence.
According to some systems theorists/futurists the solution to that problem is to evolve the capacity for thinking and institutional practices that are anti-fragile to such disruption. Western Civilization v2.0 (WC v2.0)
Here is one understanding of what WC v2.0 might look like.
Yep, and that is why a sustainable alternative to postmodernist "woke" "leftism" has to offer real, functional economic and social alternatives, not just "consciousness raising".
"Woke" is fueled by globalist finance and digital capitalism, backed by $billionaire media-tech oligarchs and other sleazy types such as transhumanists.
You left out the Bush's and Cheney's. Traitors who sold our our nation and military for the past century. Set in motion the New World Order since Prescott Bush and John Rockefeller teamed up as Hitler's Bankers during - during - WWII. GHWB turned over our manufacturing dominance to the CCP, including weapons production, GWB built the surveillance state and reconfigured a military built to fight wars with foreign enemies to a military built to put down civilian rebellions, first in the Middle East, for preparation of putting down US citizens rebelling against these weak leaders. Obama/Biden/Austin/Milley couldn't have done it without the Bush's and Cheney's and Rockefeller's and Kissinger's and, and, and... Traitors, all.
“The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. ...We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized. Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate in this manner if they are to live together as a smoothly functioning society. ...In almost every act of our daily lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons...who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind.”
When my dad, a WWII Navy veteran, died in 2017, I was going through old pictures. I came across a group of soldiers posing with aboriginese wielding poison-tipped spears in the Philippines. His tales of hair-raising antics and the desire of every young man his age to enlist and retaliate for the deaths at Pearl Harbor make the climate in our current military look pretty frightening. We have so much work to do to rebuild our structure and confidence. It's been a long time since we carried a big stick.
Has nothing to do with the actual American military , you’re looking at the media image promoted as the officially compliant culture.
You the voters voted for this, so the military gives you and your picked politicians the image it wants to see. If you see a scumbag freak show in DC did you think the military won’t show you what you voted for?
You voted for this, we’re just showing you what you want.
This much is true; our General Officers are despised by all ranks (including other Generals publicly) and even by DOD schoolchildren who Hiss 🐍 at the mention of “General.”
So yes our actual “military culture” is fucking scary, but not fairy.
Not when we were in the military. All I served in were line units. I’m still involved on the board of directors for the 101st ABN Assn. It’s almost nothing like it was in the 80s and 90s.
Just remember frenz. Your 2024 voting choice isn’t between Biden and Trump. Or even Republicans and Democrats. It’s between communism or slightly less communism. Choose wisely!
Read somewhere that the alleged dock is just a fake out to convince Biden voters that the old scumbag really cares about the Palestinians. Smart money says the dock will be finished when the seafront mansions are finished and the new owners need a place to park their yachts.
They might dismantle the ports for parts to build their tunnels or rockets, or line the pockets of the senior Hamas leaders. When Israel abandoned Gaza in 2005, they left behind advanced hothouses thinking that Gaza could use the gift to develop a farming industry. No, the Gazans immediately burned them down.
Gaza has an enviable clarity of purpose. They have a purposeful life. They exist to destroy Israel, and die. Most young people in Gaza their polled ambition?
“A martyr.”
Of course everything’s a weapon,
Gaza is a military camp and everyone supports the Holy War.
That’s it. All that is happening is a death cult called Palestine put their case to the people and this is who rallied. HAMAS put its case to elections and won.
Holy war is nothing new.
We had some of our own from time to time. What do you think happened in the 20th century?
What do you think Bush’s Wars for “Democracy” were but Holy War?
I'm going to misunderstand the point on purpose, just for the sake of it if it's okay.
Peacocks not formidable? You've never gone toe-to-toe with a male peacock who thinks you're too close to his hens? Or tried to stop one from attacking your shiny hubcaps or newly waxed and polished car?
In parks, they usually cut the spurs off them, sometimes the claws too. Park where I used to live years ago didn't. Damn thing had 5" spurs, it used them for kicking at you. While it's doing that, it's pecking at your eyes.
Heck, our local wild capercaillie can weigh up to 10lbs with a 40" wingspan. When they are in mating season, they'll sometimes fight each other in the middle of a road. Drive up to them and honk, they'll both attack your car.
But as stated, I'm missing the point on purpose - all with good intent.
In the animal kingdom, in reality, no animal without significant defenses can exist in a habitat with predators.
Dodo would probably have been a better example, (and I use the term "dodo'd: as in to give up the ability to think to bask in the narrative pleasures of a subservient blue pilled philosophy. "She used to be a very smart, but then she married rich, moved to CA and dodo'd")
The left is Dodoing. it is giving up the ability to do anything productive to "play" some avatar. It could be giving up your reproductive ability to be trans, thinking/freedom to be a covidian, well being to have TDS meltdowns, hands when you glue them to a road during a climate protest, etc.
in the case of government and institutions: our military is giving up its ability to defend the country so a few people can dodo.
When you fan the flames of totalitarianism, you get burned, as does everyone around you.
Dodo, koala, great panda, many more - crippling overspecialisation in nature holds true for human societies as well. While specialists excel in their ever-narrowing field, it is the generalists who rule the roost: rats, flies, fleas and lice of all kinds, and humans - the ultimate generalist among the species, able to live in any habitat, any biotope.
And yet, thanks to worshipping money (while utterly forgetting what money actually is) and living by theories of economy rather than the true meaning of the word "economy", we cripple our societies. Now, instead of being able to machine the needed part at the local machine-shop, a mechanic has to order it shipped from the other side of the planet.
I'll do you one better. How could intelligent leaders put everyone at high risk of perishing if the electricity goes out and computers no longer function?
>They know that they personally will not be negatively affected - they are rich enough to move anywhere in the world, and as upper class they have no loyalty to people or nation, only to wealth.
>They are rich and influential enough to have invested in such a way that they profit from the tearing down, and from the reconstruction, which is a basic unavoidable feature of capitalism.
>They think themselves far cleverer than they actually are, and continously confuse intelligence for emotions, opinions, and moralism.
The above are just rough sketches of course, a bit like noting "add eggs to the mix when making dough" without noting what kind of eggs or how many, or if the whites and yolks are to spearated.
Also, the vast legion of "just following orders"-flunkeys, the "go along to get along"-goons and (especially) the true beliver-footsoldiers all think the same way as outlined above, but do so with the assumption that their masters will care for them, and not abandon them which is always the case; as a human embodying a function, your worth and value is purely instrumental in any system that puts moneymaking before humanity.
If one were to glue feathers on a king snake, it might "succeed" temporarily in "weirding out" it's foes (like roadrunners). But once the subterfuge is discovered, it's dinnertime, with counter camouflage.
But none of that will occur because the feathered snake is trans-species and all participants are afraid of being voted off the island for intolerance and oppression.
The actual issue is that the "woke" "left", which is funded by international finance and media-tech oligarchs has adopted a postmodernist "globalist" ideology of pluralism and relativism to the point that they have started an inverted class war of "virtuals", digital capitalism, the "symbolist" classes, professional-managerials, on the working classes and business owners.
Their "woke", postmodernist-relativist "belief" is mainly the idea that "reality is a social construct" (Christopher Lasch, 1990s).
Since they think that "reality is a social construct", they can make up whatever crazy schnitzel they want and pay off lots of people to broadcast their propaganda. There are few guardrails and little accountability.
A heterodox sociologist put it this way:
Troy [Keith] Preston [said 2023-03-26]
... I think the interpretation of woke offered by some Marxist commentators is partially correct, and some conservatives like Vivek Ramaswamy have offered a similar critique. But I don't think it goes far enough. In fact, a more extensive application of Marxist analysis would actually affirm the wider theoretical framework that I outlined.
[->] Woke is the self-legitimating ideological superstructure of the rising sectors of the ruling class, the digital capitalist class, and the professional-managerial class.
"Woke" is the ideological framework of the ruling class in the same way the Russian Orthodox Church was the ideological superstructure of tsarist Russia (and is making a big comeback under Putin) or the way Wahhabism is the ideological superstructure of the Saudi ruling class.
[->] Woke represents a class revolution,
the eclipsing of the traditional industrial capitalist elite with the rising digital capitalist elite, and the replacement of the traditional manufacturing-based working to middle classes with the professional-managerial class.
Their "woke", postmodernist-relativist "belief" is mainly the idea that "reality is a social construct" (Christopher Lasch, 1990s).
Yes, but what you are seeing is not a heart felt compelling "Reason de existence", (as the right struggles to understand it) but rather the left trying to legitimize their power via subsuming perceived legitimacy of their quarry, a travesty of corrupted institutions.
Globalists don't really believe in Kaynes, but they find it a convenient excuse to legitimize endless government spending.
Biden is an elected official in the most secure election in history in the greatest democracy ever.
He is endlessly lionized in the New York Times, the paper of record.
etc.
The philosophy is power, and a quest to legitimize itself in anything respected by those who are most susceptible to being fooled.
(but I wouldn't rule out satanism, probably the closest thing to a true belief)
OTOH, the enemy gets a vote, and the really bad leaders will get snuffed at a much higher rate than leaders who protect their troops. Who knows, “fragging” might make a comeback.
Not a bad idea - “fragging” might make a comeback".
But I have it on really good authority that it is highly improbable that any of the "really bad leaders" would ever put themselves into a position to be the recipient of that honor. That same authority asserts, emphatically, that the few REMF's he met in his 14 years of active service, had not only never heard a shot fired in anger, they were, very determined to maintain that record.
I was never sure whether REMFs were everyone in rear areas, or just the MFs who interfered with the warriors. My MOS was definitely in the rear area, but as an SP5, I had no influence whatsoever on front line operations.
From 1984-1988 I tried my very best to imitate Jeff Spicoli from Fast Times at Ridgemont High.
Our high school was Fred C Beyer High, with a huge 4' x 12' concrete sign with the letters etched into this sign. My first day of school, someone had painted red: (I'll use caps to simulate the red) fRED c bEYEr HIGH.
For the other public school kids out there--this spelled "RED EYE HIGH". I laughed and laughed and laughed as I entered my first day of high school.
We lived up to our alma matter.
I get an 'F' in 1988 at a junior college. I stopped going to a class and assumed the prof would drop me. My GPA at the time was 'W' for withdrawal. He didn't. He failed me. He woke me up. I left for the Army.
Back in 1989 one would see a combat patch on a Soldier rarely. A very very few old Vietnam guys, one dude was a Grenada vet, but the rest were all slick sleeved non-combat experienced Soldiers.
Then Gulf War 1. Lots of combat vets for the 100 hour war.
Then 9/11 and two decades of war. Nearly everyone was a combat veteran.
Now, we've purged the military of most of our combat experienced veterans for ideological reasons.
This does not bode well.
I was too young to really remember this, but FJB's attempt to open a port in Gaza reminds me of Carter's failed attempt to rescue the embassy hostages.
...all of this incompetence for just under $1 trillion...
"...all of this incompetence for just under $1 trillion.."
Pah! A trillion? 1,000,000,000,000. Petty change.
The goal is to increase the budget to at least a quadrillion, (15 zeros), or a quintillion, (18 zeros). Not satisfied with looting the treasury; their goal is to impoverish our descendants, in an attempt to ensure that they, and their progeny, will never again be threatened by the curse of democracy.
2nd Quib:
"purged the military of most of our combat experienced veterans"
I have a much darker, more ominous take on this. While I don't disagree that the purge has an ideological basis, I consider the Left's decades long war on our civilization. I think about the tens of thousands of interlinked campaigns to destroy all that is just and good - the family, the middle class, the economy, the country. And I look south, where there was once a border. I count the millions of young, military aged men entering the country. Young military aged men with absolutely NO loyalty to the nation they are invading.
And I wonder about recruitment strategies. I wonder when we are going to hear a proposal to offer these invaders a route to citizen ship through enlistment in the armed forces.
Growing up, I always wondered whether Khrushchev’s 1961 statement to JFK “We will bury you” was a simplistic, short-term boast meant to threaten a man 23 yrs his junior, or was something more sinister based on the subversive tactics of the earlier Comintern. Based on the Left’s relentless efforts post-WWII to corrode all structures of Western civilization, the latter seems more likely. Germany sent Lenin to Russia in a sealed train. Perhaps the Soviets sent Marcuse and the Frankfurt School to the U.S. in the same vein.
Marcuse and other Frankfurters came to the USA to translate german military (nazi) communications for the OSS, predecessor of the CIA.
I'm not aware of any credible claims that the "Soviets" had anything to do with it, but the Frankfurters were of course Marxists (same as the Soviets) and/or neo-Marxists.
The goal of old-school Marxists was to destroy capitalism via an international class revolution. When that didn't work out, the neo-Marxists switched strategies to destroying all of western civilization via "cultural revolution" (which Mao also carried out in China in the 1960s, resulting in 20,000,000 deaths).
The "left" is basically a hate cult that loathes middle class success and prosperity, in the same way that the intellectual and artistic elites in the medieval era tended to loath the peasant classes for wanting to become literate and economically independent of those elites. The medieval elites thought that everyone below them in society should consist of earthy but spiritually pure (and illiterate, poor, diseased and starving) peasant classes.
Via Sweden, I'm sad to say. In our defence, (not that I was around at the time) the leadership of the day figured a Russia in chaos unable to wage war on its neighbours was preferable to the state of the tsarist state at the time.
I remember that one. Was published in a collection of his short stories here, under the name of "Gröna fingrar" (Green fingers).
I think the most horrible one was about a doctor (MD/surgeon) stranded on a small deserted and barren island, with only his luggage, including tools and lots of cocaine (smuggling).
Eventually, he resorted to amputating parts of himself using cocaine as painkiller, and then eating the parts raw.
For some reason, the woke revolution made me think of that.
Life as we the over 50 crowd we’re fortunate enough to experience is over. We see & feel the difference because of our experience. Rewatch the movie “It’s a Beautiful Life” & build one as best you can. Phenomenal movie. Worth watching as well is the reaction of the Italian actor when announced he won an Oscar for his outstanding performance.
The "rise and fall of civilizations" has been a theme in history for a long time, along with the idea that techno-economic disruption drives social change/evolution.
Chris, you cited Sal Mercogliano (whom I just discovered after the recent Baltimore disaster). Here’s a video of his from a year ago *specifically* about the Navy’s utter leadership incompetence at putting “the wet stuff on the red stuff.” I don’t think there’s a better illustration of your point in your current post.
https://youtu.be/n7SSdlyW8dQ?si=C6hv8FZ66uxh3VFS
Excellent -- thanks!
"We can have cultural performance, or we can put the wet stuff on the red stuff."
Total money shot. Super great job summing up the ClownWorld(tm) we are living in.
$883 billion!?!? Just so Mr. Magoo can win Michigan?
What kind of Empire funds both sides of the same war?
The kind of Empire still pretending to be a Republic!
"What kind of Empire funds both sides of the same war?"
The kind of Empire that is morally and ethically dead, flailing in the grip of financial death throes - an Empire in which the elite scavengers squabble viciously over the remaining wealth as they retreat to their island bunkers with their sycophants.
But what will their wealth be worth when the $ is no longer the world’s reserve currency?
It would be interesting to know how much Mr. Gates, et al, have invested in Rubles, Rupees, and Riyals. Asking for a friend.
this isn't the perfect fit as a political explanation, but it still explains a lot:
https://medium.com/@jesse.singal/the-iron-law-of-institutions-and-the-left-333c42c246af
excerpt:
The Iron Law of Institutions is this: “the people who control institutions care first and foremost about their power within the institution rather than the power of the institution itself. Thus, they would rather the institution ‘fail’ while they remain in power within the institution than for the institution to “succeed” if that requires them to lose power within the institution.”
it makes perfect sense. if you ask just about any human to choose bw:
A: making a decision that will benefit them in the short term, reward them with cash, promotions and the approval of their peers, but that might have severe consequences somewhere down the road; vs
B: making a hard decision that will turn their peers against them, have immediate negative consequences for their career path (aka status and wealth), but will bring benefits (and even be seen as wise) somewhere down the road...
I would guess 9 out of 10 people would choose A, and that goes double for the kind of anxious careerist who joins these orgs in the first place, esp now that Loyalty to the Tribal Narrative has displaced every other value.
Had to think about this one, CP.
And, sadly, I agree. You're right! We, the collective 'we', have voted with our feet. Since the 1960's. We have deliberately, stupidly, chosen to take the easy way out. We have indeed settled for "the short term, reward them with cash, promotions and the approval of their peers". And allowed the powers-that-be to attempt micro-manage every aspect of our lives.
And in so doing have pretty much relegated our offspring to the hell of socialism. With the inevitable collapse. The one we're living through. Now.
There is still hope. Perhaps not for us. But for our descendants. In Middle America. The Heartland. Where folks have not forgotten where their food comes from. Or how to grow things, build things, and fix things. Where there are still families. And communities. Where people can still work together - for the common good. And where, in spite of the concerted efforts of our would-be lords and masters, most folks can still think for themselves. And teach their children to do the same. We were free. Once. And we WILL remember!
It ain't gonna be easy! When the tens/hundreds of millions of urban sheeple get hungry. When they can no longer feed their families, keep the lights on, the water taps running, or the sewage flowing downhill.
In the immortal words of Hank Williams, Jr, "A Country Boy Can Survive"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cQNkIrg-Tk
Western civilization v2.0 - construct-aware meta-rationality
Historical leftism/Marxism is at its dark heart an ideology of hate of the middle classes that revived the hate of the middle classes by medieval intellectual and artistic elites. (note many of the most fervent leftist haters on social media are "musicians" or "artists", or claim to be.)
The "woke" "left" is at heart an incoherent, totalitarian quasi-religious priesthood (as Kotkin says, a New Clerisy, and as Yarvin says the Brahmins and as McWhorter says The Elect, etc.) that is incapable of meeting the coherence needs of societies stumbling toward and evolving in response to newly emergent postmodern social conditions.
It exists because of techno-economic disruption of legacy sense-making systems that are now failing and causing social disintegration, rot, corruption and dysfunction.
The postmodern "left" has a (relativist) "belief" that "reality is a social construct" (Lasch, 1990s). That "belief" rejects the "absolutisms" of both mythic religious culture and modern scientific-rationalism. But the postmodern "left" rejects the "absolutisms" of religion and scientific rationalism in a way that itself is absolutist!
The postmodern "left" is very vulnerable to criticism, and really can't stand up to being "deconstructed" for its incoherence, dysfunctions and incompetence.
According to some systems theorists/futurists the solution to that problem is to evolve the capacity for thinking and institutional practices that are anti-fragile to such disruption. Western Civilization v2.0 (WC v2.0)
Here is one understanding of what WC v2.0 might look like.
Construct-aware meta-rationality:
https://metarationality.com/stem-fluidity-bridge
metarationality. com /stem-fluidity-bridge
Yep, and that is why a sustainable alternative to postmodernist "woke" "leftism" has to offer real, functional economic and social alternatives, not just "consciousness raising".
"Woke" is fueled by globalist finance and digital capitalism, backed by $billionaire media-tech oligarchs and other sleazy types such as transhumanists.
That’s the entire US Defense Department budget. Not the cost of the aid mission. Not yet, anyway
ahhh thanks
did seem steep!
guess i need more coffee
Damn! Wake up ! 😂
waiting for the espresso machine to finish as we speak!
“What kind of Empire funds both sides of the same war?”
An empire that is indifferent to the outcome, and is happy to hollow out its economy to profit political donors.
also: I didn't see the word "corruption" in any of the comments.
In Eisenhower's speech about the dangers of the military-industrial-complex, 1960, it was implied that the problem was political corruption.
Another classic that goes deeper into the psyche and culture of the military-industrial corruption complex:
https://fabiusmaximus.com/2011/05/02/27207/
When it comes to humiliating, betraying and degrading the military, Obama, Biden, Austin and Milley have set the bar pretty high.
I’ll be interested to watch a new generation try their best to outdo them.
You're assuming there WILL BE a "new generation".
At the rate we're going....
There will be. Too many Americans with too much going for us to vanish.
OTOH don’t contradict the new generation.
You left out the Bush's and Cheney's. Traitors who sold our our nation and military for the past century. Set in motion the New World Order since Prescott Bush and John Rockefeller teamed up as Hitler's Bankers during - during - WWII. GHWB turned over our manufacturing dominance to the CCP, including weapons production, GWB built the surveillance state and reconfigured a military built to fight wars with foreign enemies to a military built to put down civilian rebellions, first in the Middle East, for preparation of putting down US citizens rebelling against these weak leaders. Obama/Biden/Austin/Milley couldn't have done it without the Bush's and Cheney's and Rockefeller's and Kissinger's and, and, and... Traitors, all.
Is it just me or did Covid reveal the incredible number of Kool aid drinkers and crazies amongst us?
That is an odd spelling for "cowards."
web search: "bernays propaganda"
“The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. ...We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized. Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate in this manner if they are to live together as a smoothly functioning society. ...In almost every act of our daily lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons...who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind.”
― Edward Bernays, Propaganda
[1928]
"control the public mind."
Also known as "rape of the mind"
The rape of the mind; the psychology of thought control, menticide, and brainwashing
1956
https://archive.org/details/rapeofmindpsycho0000meer
Sames.
It’s not just you.
That's the silver lining of the Covid fiasco.
When my dad, a WWII Navy veteran, died in 2017, I was going through old pictures. I came across a group of soldiers posing with aboriginese wielding poison-tipped spears in the Philippines. His tales of hair-raising antics and the desire of every young man his age to enlist and retaliate for the deaths at Pearl Harbor make the climate in our current military look pretty frightening. We have so much work to do to rebuild our structure and confidence. It's been a long time since we carried a big stick.
Has nothing to do with the actual American military , you’re looking at the media image promoted as the officially compliant culture.
You the voters voted for this, so the military gives you and your picked politicians the image it wants to see. If you see a scumbag freak show in DC did you think the military won’t show you what you voted for?
You voted for this, we’re just showing you what you want.
This much is true; our General Officers are despised by all ranks (including other Generals publicly) and even by DOD schoolchildren who Hiss 🐍 at the mention of “General.”
So yes our actual “military culture” is fucking scary, but not fairy.
I disagree. They took the warrior out of the culture a long time ago.
Well not the units I was in.
Mind you I wasn’t in The Pentagon.
Not when we were in the military. All I served in were line units. I’m still involved on the board of directors for the 101st ABN Assn. It’s almost nothing like it was in the 80s and 90s.
I was in as late as 2003-2007 and 2015-2022.
They can erode especially the middle, they can harass, undermine, they as it turns out could not conquer our human nature as warriors.
They’d have to kill us.
They may.
By proxy of course.
I never voted for it. Ron Paul said he would shrink the military budget about 50% if he was elected (along with a bunch of other govt waste/fraud).
Unfortunately, the wet stuff this Administration would put on the red stuff is gasoline. Everything they touch becomes a conflagration.
Just remember frenz. Your 2024 voting choice isn’t between Biden and Trump. Or even Republicans and Democrats. It’s between communism or slightly less communism. Choose wisely!
HEY now, look how much of a difference the House Republicans are making! I have to go drink now.
🤡🌎🐂💩🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
"Let Mikey try it, he'll eat anything."
🍻
God help us. Who’s going to protect those docks? Hamas?
If we never get there....
Then it’s one less embarrassing moment.
Probably the WH called and told them turn round lol.
Its not like the media is going to follow up.
Read somewhere that the alleged dock is just a fake out to convince Biden voters that the old scumbag really cares about the Palestinians. Smart money says the dock will be finished when the seafront mansions are finished and the new owners need a place to park their yachts.
They’ll build a Potemkin dock.
That's what I think too.
They might dismantle the ports for parts to build their tunnels or rockets, or line the pockets of the senior Hamas leaders. When Israel abandoned Gaza in 2005, they left behind advanced hothouses thinking that Gaza could use the gift to develop a farming industry. No, the Gazans immediately burned them down.
Gaza has an enviable clarity of purpose. They have a purposeful life. They exist to destroy Israel, and die. Most young people in Gaza their polled ambition?
“A martyr.”
Of course everything’s a weapon,
Gaza is a military camp and everyone supports the Holy War.
That’s it. All that is happening is a death cult called Palestine put their case to the people and this is who rallied. HAMAS put its case to elections and won.
Holy war is nothing new.
We had some of our own from time to time. What do you think happened in the 20th century?
What do you think Bush’s Wars for “Democracy” were but Holy War?
The USA is a monumental shit-show, displaying a massive ego while it circles the drain.
Rome is burning and I can hear the fiddle music coming from the capitol.
We're so screwed.
And not in a fun way either
Dovetailing nicely into your essay yesterday describing mimicry...
There are those who can do, and those who cannot do, so they mimic.
It now seems that the mimics don't even care to mimic that which makes the host formidable.
Example:
A coral snake is formidable because it is venomous, no other reason.
King snakes are mimics, they look and act similar to coral snakes to poach some of their formidably.
Peacocks are not formidable, but they have very pretty feathers.
Our military and government is filled with people who have devolved into those who say "I am a formidable snake, look at my pretty feathers."
(Translation to the left: it is more important to be pretty and fun. In a real emergency the right will always save us.)
I'm going to misunderstand the point on purpose, just for the sake of it if it's okay.
Peacocks not formidable? You've never gone toe-to-toe with a male peacock who thinks you're too close to his hens? Or tried to stop one from attacking your shiny hubcaps or newly waxed and polished car?
In parks, they usually cut the spurs off them, sometimes the claws too. Park where I used to live years ago didn't. Damn thing had 5" spurs, it used them for kicking at you. While it's doing that, it's pecking at your eyes.
Heck, our local wild capercaillie can weigh up to 10lbs with a 40" wingspan. When they are in mating season, they'll sometimes fight each other in the middle of a road. Drive up to them and honk, they'll both attack your car.
But as stated, I'm missing the point on purpose - all with good intent.
Rikard, thanks.
In the animal kingdom, in reality, no animal without significant defenses can exist in a habitat with predators.
Dodo would probably have been a better example, (and I use the term "dodo'd: as in to give up the ability to think to bask in the narrative pleasures of a subservient blue pilled philosophy. "She used to be a very smart, but then she married rich, moved to CA and dodo'd")
The left is Dodoing. it is giving up the ability to do anything productive to "play" some avatar. It could be giving up your reproductive ability to be trans, thinking/freedom to be a covidian, well being to have TDS meltdowns, hands when you glue them to a road during a climate protest, etc.
in the case of government and institutions: our military is giving up its ability to defend the country so a few people can dodo.
When you fan the flames of totalitarianism, you get burned, as does everyone around you.
Dodo, koala, great panda, many more - crippling overspecialisation in nature holds true for human societies as well. While specialists excel in their ever-narrowing field, it is the generalists who rule the roost: rats, flies, fleas and lice of all kinds, and humans - the ultimate generalist among the species, able to live in any habitat, any biotope.
And yet, thanks to worshipping money (while utterly forgetting what money actually is) and living by theories of economy rather than the true meaning of the word "economy", we cripple our societies. Now, instead of being able to machine the needed part at the local machine-shop, a mechanic has to order it shipped from the other side of the planet.
How is that wisdom?
I'll do you one better. How could intelligent leaders put everyone at high risk of perishing if the electricity goes out and computers no longer function?
Because of three not mutually excluding reasons:
>They know that they personally will not be negatively affected - they are rich enough to move anywhere in the world, and as upper class they have no loyalty to people or nation, only to wealth.
>They are rich and influential enough to have invested in such a way that they profit from the tearing down, and from the reconstruction, which is a basic unavoidable feature of capitalism.
>They think themselves far cleverer than they actually are, and continously confuse intelligence for emotions, opinions, and moralism.
The above are just rough sketches of course, a bit like noting "add eggs to the mix when making dough" without noting what kind of eggs or how many, or if the whites and yolks are to spearated.
Also, the vast legion of "just following orders"-flunkeys, the "go along to get along"-goons and (especially) the true beliver-footsoldiers all think the same way as outlined above, but do so with the assumption that their masters will care for them, and not abandon them which is always the case; as a human embodying a function, your worth and value is purely instrumental in any system that puts moneymaking before humanity.
They think electricity comes from the outlet.
Expanding this thought...
If one were to glue feathers on a king snake, it might "succeed" temporarily in "weirding out" it's foes (like roadrunners). But once the subterfuge is discovered, it's dinnertime, with counter camouflage.
But none of that will occur because the feathered snake is trans-species and all participants are afraid of being voted off the island for intolerance and oppression.
The actual issue is that the "woke" "left", which is funded by international finance and media-tech oligarchs has adopted a postmodernist "globalist" ideology of pluralism and relativism to the point that they have started an inverted class war of "virtuals", digital capitalism, the "symbolist" classes, professional-managerials, on the working classes and business owners.
Their "woke", postmodernist-relativist "belief" is mainly the idea that "reality is a social construct" (Christopher Lasch, 1990s).
Since they think that "reality is a social construct", they can make up whatever crazy schnitzel they want and pay off lots of people to broadcast their propaganda. There are few guardrails and little accountability.
A heterodox sociologist put it this way:
Troy [Keith] Preston [said 2023-03-26]
... I think the interpretation of woke offered by some Marxist commentators is partially correct, and some conservatives like Vivek Ramaswamy have offered a similar critique. But I don't think it goes far enough. In fact, a more extensive application of Marxist analysis would actually affirm the wider theoretical framework that I outlined.
[->] Woke is the self-legitimating ideological superstructure of the rising sectors of the ruling class, the digital capitalist class, and the professional-managerial class.
"Woke" is the ideological framework of the ruling class in the same way the Russian Orthodox Church was the ideological superstructure of tsarist Russia (and is making a big comeback under Putin) or the way Wahhabism is the ideological superstructure of the Saudi ruling class.
[->] Woke represents a class revolution,
the eclipsing of the traditional industrial capitalist elite with the rising digital capitalist elite, and the replacement of the traditional manufacturing-based working to middle classes with the professional-managerial class.
...
re:
Their "woke", postmodernist-relativist "belief" is mainly the idea that "reality is a social construct" (Christopher Lasch, 1990s).
Yes, but what you are seeing is not a heart felt compelling "Reason de existence", (as the right struggles to understand it) but rather the left trying to legitimize their power via subsuming perceived legitimacy of their quarry, a travesty of corrupted institutions.
Globalists don't really believe in Kaynes, but they find it a convenient excuse to legitimize endless government spending.
Biden is an elected official in the most secure election in history in the greatest democracy ever.
He is endlessly lionized in the New York Times, the paper of record.
etc.
The philosophy is power, and a quest to legitimize itself in anything respected by those who are most susceptible to being fooled.
(but I wouldn't rule out satanism, probably the closest thing to a true belief)
"Other ships assigned to the mission haven’t caught fire" - YET!
DEI in colleges ... bad.
DEI in hiring for airplane assembly and maintenance ... really bad.
DEI in the military ... we're toast.
OTOH, the enemy gets a vote, and the really bad leaders will get snuffed at a much higher rate than leaders who protect their troops. Who knows, “fragging” might make a comeback.
Not a bad idea - “fragging” might make a comeback".
But I have it on really good authority that it is highly improbable that any of the "really bad leaders" would ever put themselves into a position to be the recipient of that honor. That same authority asserts, emphatically, that the few REMF's he met in his 14 years of active service, had not only never heard a shot fired in anger, they were, very determined to maintain that record.
I was never sure whether REMFs were everyone in rear areas, or just the MFs who interfered with the warriors. My MOS was definitely in the rear area, but as an SP5, I had no influence whatsoever on front line operations.
DEI anywhere…we’re toast.
From 1984-1988 I tried my very best to imitate Jeff Spicoli from Fast Times at Ridgemont High.
Our high school was Fred C Beyer High, with a huge 4' x 12' concrete sign with the letters etched into this sign. My first day of school, someone had painted red: (I'll use caps to simulate the red) fRED c bEYEr HIGH.
For the other public school kids out there--this spelled "RED EYE HIGH". I laughed and laughed and laughed as I entered my first day of high school.
We lived up to our alma matter.
I get an 'F' in 1988 at a junior college. I stopped going to a class and assumed the prof would drop me. My GPA at the time was 'W' for withdrawal. He didn't. He failed me. He woke me up. I left for the Army.
Back in 1989 one would see a combat patch on a Soldier rarely. A very very few old Vietnam guys, one dude was a Grenada vet, but the rest were all slick sleeved non-combat experienced Soldiers.
Then Gulf War 1. Lots of combat vets for the 100 hour war.
Then 9/11 and two decades of war. Nearly everyone was a combat veteran.
Now, we've purged the military of most of our combat experienced veterans for ideological reasons.
This does not bode well.
I was too young to really remember this, but FJB's attempt to open a port in Gaza reminds me of Carter's failed attempt to rescue the embassy hostages.
...all of this incompetence for just under $1 trillion...
bsn
I feel compelled to quibble, BN.
1st Quib:
"...all of this incompetence for just under $1 trillion.."
Pah! A trillion? 1,000,000,000,000. Petty change.
The goal is to increase the budget to at least a quadrillion, (15 zeros), or a quintillion, (18 zeros). Not satisfied with looting the treasury; their goal is to impoverish our descendants, in an attempt to ensure that they, and their progeny, will never again be threatened by the curse of democracy.
2nd Quib:
"purged the military of most of our combat experienced veterans"
I have a much darker, more ominous take on this. While I don't disagree that the purge has an ideological basis, I consider the Left's decades long war on our civilization. I think about the tens of thousands of interlinked campaigns to destroy all that is just and good - the family, the middle class, the economy, the country. And I look south, where there was once a border. I count the millions of young, military aged men entering the country. Young military aged men with absolutely NO loyalty to the nation they are invading.
And I wonder about recruitment strategies. I wonder when we are going to hear a proposal to offer these invaders a route to citizen ship through enlistment in the armed forces.
I wonder. And I fear.
Cannot argue with those well thought out quibbles!
bsn
Growing up, I always wondered whether Khrushchev’s 1961 statement to JFK “We will bury you” was a simplistic, short-term boast meant to threaten a man 23 yrs his junior, or was something more sinister based on the subversive tactics of the earlier Comintern. Based on the Left’s relentless efforts post-WWII to corrode all structures of Western civilization, the latter seems more likely. Germany sent Lenin to Russia in a sealed train. Perhaps the Soviets sent Marcuse and the Frankfurt School to the U.S. in the same vein.
Marcuse and other Frankfurters came to the USA to translate german military (nazi) communications for the OSS, predecessor of the CIA.
I'm not aware of any credible claims that the "Soviets" had anything to do with it, but the Frankfurters were of course Marxists (same as the Soviets) and/or neo-Marxists.
The goal of old-school Marxists was to destroy capitalism via an international class revolution. When that didn't work out, the neo-Marxists switched strategies to destroying all of western civilization via "cultural revolution" (which Mao also carried out in China in the 1960s, resulting in 20,000,000 deaths).
The "left" is basically a hate cult that loathes middle class success and prosperity, in the same way that the intellectual and artistic elites in the medieval era tended to loath the peasant classes for wanting to become literate and economically independent of those elites. The medieval elites thought that everyone below them in society should consist of earthy but spiritually pure (and illiterate, poor, diseased and starving) peasant classes.
"Germany sent Lenin to Russia in a sealed train."
Via Sweden, I'm sad to say. In our defence, (not that I was around at the time) the leadership of the day figured a Russia in chaos unable to wage war on its neighbours was preferable to the state of the tsarist state at the time.
Hindsight is 20/20 and all that.
I had no idea.
There’s a Stephen King short story (“Weeds”) that’s directly applicable to the
western Europeans & Lenin. Here’s a plot summary:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weeds_(short_story)
I remember that one. Was published in a collection of his short stories here, under the name of "Gröna fingrar" (Green fingers).
I think the most horrible one was about a doctor (MD/surgeon) stranded on a small deserted and barren island, with only his luggage, including tools and lots of cocaine (smuggling).
Eventually, he resorted to amputating parts of himself using cocaine as painkiller, and then eating the parts raw.
For some reason, the woke revolution made me think of that.
Yup, an apt metaphor, although it feels like the “cocaine” isn’t working very well.
Better quibbles than niggles.
Your tagline says "Tell me how it ends" but, it's already over and the best we can hope for is something better is built from the ashes
Life as we the over 50 crowd we’re fortunate enough to experience is over. We see & feel the difference because of our experience. Rewatch the movie “It’s a Beautiful Life” & build one as best you can. Phenomenal movie. Worth watching as well is the reaction of the Italian actor when announced he won an Oscar for his outstanding performance.
re: Ronfeldt's TIMN model and social change
The "rise and fall of civilizations" has been a theme in history for a long time, along with the idea that techno-economic disruption drives social change/evolution.
Here is a recent spin on that stuff:
https://twotheories.blogspot.com/2016/05/organizational-forms-compared-my.html