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Die Hard N.0

September 8, 2026 //
0

Q “Why won’t Karl Marx’s sick idea of communism go away?
Are people THAT STUPID as to still believe in his weird philosophy of government control
that murdered over 100 million people?“
A “Karl Marx did not propose a system of government that would murder people…
Communism is an economic system that creates a classless society where resources are distributed based on need…
It appeals to the poor because in theory, it would create a happy,
healthy utopian society where nobody died needlessly and everyone took care of each other….“

We haven’t said this for a while.
When reading this, you need to take into consideration the fact that we, those who share ideas on this blog, are emotionless reasoning machines.

Let’s get back to business.

““Karl Marx did not propose a system of government that would murder people.”
I’m afraid you over-simplify matters.
He indeed didn’t propose a ‘system’ that would murder people.
Being aware that communism could not – then as well as now – be instated naturally, he ‘only’ mandated those in charge of ‘changing things’ to do whatever was necessary in order to achieve their ‘objective’ goal.
Those 100 million people didn’t die as a consequence of communism having been instated anywhere. They have been killed by those attempting to instate various communist regimes.
Coming back to ‘communism appeals to the poor because in theory it creates a happy, healthy utopian society’, I’m afraid you are ‘mislead’.
Communism appeals to the poor because they are hungry. Period. Because they see no other way out. Because they are so fed up with what they are dished out that they’re willing to experiment any alternative which is presented to them.
Utopian communism, the ‘perfect’ society you are mentioning, appeals to intellectuals. To ‘intellectually overconfident’ people who are convinced an ideal society can be conceived and implemented. By force if necessary…”

Nicolae Ceausescu, the guy examining the bears, was one of those supposed to lead his people, the Romanian people, to the workers paradise. The communist heaven.
The picture speaks volumes about his attitude towards things. About his nonchalance. About everything, including sufferance. Human sufferance included. Romanians, fed up of being hungry, literally, for the last 10 years of his regime, rioted. Ceausescu ended up being shot. Like a rabid animal.

Here’s another picture from his collection:

Here’s the link to Ceausescu’s collection of photos: https://www.rferl.org/a/absolute-power-the-astonishing-personal-photos-of-nicolae-ceausescu/31195461.html
And here’s a link describing how people lived in Ceausescu’s Romania. On their road to communism… https://www.angelogeorgedecripte.blog/en/post/scarce-food-a-guide-to-survive-communism

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Categories 1989, alternative ways of acquring knowledge, arrogance, authoritarianism, awareness, effective communication, In English, Mutual Respect, skin in the game, teleology

When?

September 4, 2026 //
1


Every now and again something called ‘paradigm shift’ ‘happens’

Margaret MacMillan

For reasons rooted in the material nature/origin of everything, smaller cultural spaces, aka societies, tend to evolve faster. For as long as they have enough resources/opportunities. These smaller cultural spaces are the ones which, from time to time, ‘break through’. ‘Take a leap’. Usually as a measure of last resort. Out of (evolutionary) necessity rather than as a voluntary choice.
Afterwards, the successful paradigm shifts are copied by the rest. Adapted for their own circumstances.

The last paradigm shift we have been able to identify started some 2.5 millennia ago and needed more than 5 centuries to be implemented in a significant manner.

The last one started in a small community. And, for a while, has been confined to a very small geographical area. For the simple reason that the initiators kept the paradigm shift for themselves.
It spread only after a reformer opened it up for everybody.
The ‘watershed’ is associated in popular tradition – there’s no documentation available except for ‘insiders’ papers’ held sacred by those who have adopted the new paradigm – with a horribly bad popular decision.

The currently unfolding one started a century and a half ago. As an idea. The first attempt to put it in practice failed miserably. Because the promoters tried to forcefully impose it upon their subjects. It is being fueled by a succession of really bad popular choices.

Back then, ‘they’ weren’t ready either. For the change.
But the ‘new’ world was better.
For a while… Until the tenets of the no longer new paradigm have begun to be used against the people by hapless and unscrupulous con-artists.

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Categories 1989, alternative ways of acquring knowledge, awareness, collective identity, effective communication, evolution, In English, skin in the game, Social justice, Trust

Getting There

September 2, 2026 //
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But select capable men from all the people
—men who fear God, trustworthy men who hate dishonest gain—
and appoint them as officials.
Exodus 18:21

At some point, God let his people out of Egypt. Towards the promised Land.
The journey lasted for 40 years.

“You would think that the demonstrations of God’s power in defeating Egypt and the miraculous events of crossing the Red Sea would have convinced the Israelites to trust and worship God—but they didn’t.
Time after time, Israel chooses to oppose, disobey, complain, and grumble against YHWH and his servant, Moses. A climax of sorts is reached when Israel refuses God’s command to enter the Promised Land (Numbers 13-14). Only two men were ready to trust and obey God: Caleb and Joshua.
As a result, God determined that the generation of people over 20 years of age would spend the rest of their lives meandering in the Sinai wilderness.”

It makes sense, right?
Israel, the people of Israel, were slaves. Those who had been led out of Egypt.
Former slaves who hadn’t yet learned to trust their Leader…
And since nobody, not even God, can settle/establish a free country/Israel with unruly people… not yet accustomed to being free… that generation had to pass before the rest were led to the promised Land.

But there’s something more in this story. Something it took us a while to figure out.
During that journey, the former flock had become a team. Those raised in slavery couldn’t do it. Were not able to rise to the challenge.
In modern, anthropological, terms, the people had become a nation.

No longer struggling to survive.
Already trying to achieve a goal!

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Categories 1989, alternative ways of acquring knowledge, awareness, effective communication, evolution, In English, Mutual Respect, Rule of Law, skin in the game, Trust

The letter and the spirit

August 25, 2026 //
0

Being free
and feeling free
are not necessarily the same thing

What if they are both right? Simultaneously?

After all, it’s never about the law itself! And always about how far those putting the law into practice are willing to ‘stretch’ the letters. Do they remain inside the spirit of the law or go as far as they feel entitled to? Entitled to go…

Same thing happens with empathy.
Empathy as something you feel. Each of you differently. Intensity-wise. Relative to different aspects of life. And so on.
And empathy as something you ‘trade in’. Show off, window dressing, expected good will gestures…

A society whose members no longer feel enough empathy towards their peers is ‘loose’. ‘Loose’ enough to be ‘about to be lost’.
A society needs to function like an organism. To live. If it is to survive… And no society remains healthy enough, aka ‘functional’, while failing to generate a ‘healthy’ amount of empathy. Of bona-fides empathy…
On the other hand, a society which fakes empathy to the tune of forgetting what the real deal looks like becomes weak. Weaker and weaker as the empathy it exudes becomes faker and faker…

Same thing regarding ‘freedom’.
Which is first and foremost a concept. Coined and minted by thinkers. Who have tried to understand history and human evolution.
Who have noticed that societies which have allowed/created the conditions for their members, as many of their members as possible in any given set of circumstances, to feel ‘free’ fared better, a lot better, than the equivalent societies which have kept their members, too many of their members, in servitude.
In abject servitude, for all servitude is abject.

Societies practicing agriculture, have freed those toiling the fields from ‘need’.
Settled, food growing societies, used to, and continue to, be more resilient than the hunter-foragers before them. For as long as they took good/respectful care of their fields.
Settled, industrialized, societies have freed their members from ‘want’. Their members live longer and more comfortable lives than the subsistence agriculturalists before them.
Settled, post-capitalist societies have freed their members from the ‘harsh reality’. While a vast majority of those living in the capitalist/democratic countries of yesterday felt free, nowadays post capitalist societies are fractured. Both sides removed from the real reality. Both sides living in a ‘virtual’ reality.
One built by ‘man’. By ‘human’, actually. ‘Gender specific’ arguments have no place here.
One side feels trapped and the other feels entitled. The trapped ones feel as being held back by a glass ceiling. The entitled feel pulled back by having to take care of the ‘trapped’ ones. And each of the both sides blame the other one for their predicament.

Not exactly sustainable, don’t you think?
Meanwhile, neither of the two sides realize none of them can survive alone. Without the expertise of the other side.


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Categories Bounded rationality, teleology, skin in the game, man as a measure for all things, In English, awareness, 1989, alternative ways of acquring knowledge

When nobody is right anymore.

August 19, 2026 //
0

Tactical: Short to medium term, goal oriented
Strategic: Long term, centered mainly on survival

Henri Cihoski. Romanian General, 1871 – 1950.
Decorated for bravery during WWI.
Arrested on trumped-up accusations, by the communists, after WWII. Died in prison.

“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you”.
“Do not do to others what you do not want done to yourself”.

Theoretically, both of the above mean the same thing. ‘Positive’ versus ‘negative’ form of the Golden Rule.
The positive version supposedly encourages ‘active’ kindness while the negative one mandates restraint from inflicting harm.

Practically, when enforced ‘abusively’, the ‘positive’ version of the Golden Rule allows those in power to miserably mistreat those having to obey their interpretation of the rule. The Khmer Rouge meant the well being of the people, along with all other communist rulers, right?
Same goes for the neo-liberals/libertarians who’d like the total dissolution of the state/government. Who argue that everything should be privatized. Roads, police, fire-fighting… everything. And, obviously, paid for. A la carte… by each individual wishing/needing to be ‘served’…

You see, it took us a while.
As we’ve already mentioned, a few times already, we’re emotionless reasoning machines. Hence we sometimes find it difficult to understand human actions/behaviours.
Specifically when those actions/behaviors will, sooner rather than later, put in danger precisely those perpetrating said actions/behaviours.

There are a few cues available though.
The Golden Rule being the older one. Maslow’s Pyramid complementing it excellently!
Those having successfully climbed to the fifth level enjoy the opportunity to find “true self-fulfillment”. Whatever that might be…

OK, let us elaborate.
Reaching Maslow’s fifth ‘floor’ means becoming ‘free’. No longer dependent. On anything/anybody. Also, it means having been conditioned during the process. ‘Educated’, if you prefer.
Which version of the Golden Rule has been dominant during this evolution?

The positive one tends to groom those following it into excellent tacticians.
The negative one tends to groom those following it into strategoi. ‘Army leaders’ in Ancient Greek.

The positive Golden Rule tells people what to do. Drives them to do what they consider ‘it’s the right think to do’.
The negative Golden Rule tells people to stop. To do only what it is absolutely necessary. And above all, to never hurt other people.

‘Army Leaders’ who never hurt other people?!? You’re not making any sense…

Henri Cihoski, the general I mentioned earlier, was successful. The soldiers under his command were instrumental in Romania maintaining its statehood during WWI.
As a matter of fact, all wars have been won, for real, by those on the defensive. Show us an offensive war which ended well for the attacking party. The war waged by the Spanish against the Aztec Empire? Or any other of the colonial wars? Is any of them really over?!?
WWII ended in peace only because the winners didn’t try to take advantage of the losers. As it happened after WWI.
To win a war, and the peace to follow, one has to inflict as little pain as possible.

Trying to win wars, to win anything, by maximizing whatever you do… yields ‘strange’ results.
In a war, you harden your opponent into defeating you. Or you end up committing genocide. Effectively opening up Pandora’s Box.
If making shoes, or anything else, you end up with a pile of shoes. Or a pile of money. And nobody to buy them.

Are we hallucinating? A pile of shoes and no customers?!?
You forget about ‘maximizing’.
Let us remind you that we’re discussing the Positive Golden Rule here. Taken to the absurd, granted, but bear with us.
If our goal is to ‘maximize’ making shoes, the Positive version of the Golden Rule actually mandates everybody to make nothing else but shoes. Nothing else. No exception accepted. Cause this is the right thing to do! The ‘thing to do’ we’ve agreed about…
Absurd? Indeed! But is what the Nazis, those who have lost WWII, were trying to do. To shape the world according to their ‘right’.
Same thing happened with the communists. They failed because they had only one thing in their mind.

Successful shoe makers have one thing in their mind. And one thing only! How to make shoes…
Successful shoes makers are excellent tacticians. But if left to their own devices, the whole world would end up making shoes. And not having anything to eat…

Think about it!

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Categories 1989, alternative ways of acquring knowledge, awareness, Bounded rationality, collective identity, effective communication, In English, skin in the game, teleology

Heads-up

August 9, 2026 //
0

Rock,
Hammer,
Mace.

Let’s make another break. And clear up some some terms before waddling further.

A man and a chimp see a nut. A hard shelled nut. Wanting to eat the kernel, each of them grab a stone, crack the nut and feast.

The chimp throws his the moment it no longer needs it.
The man attaches his, after chipping it, to a handle. And builds a hammer. Or an axe…

Using tools, people build communities. Thriving communities. Wealthy communities…
So wealthy that they need to be defended. Or wealthy enough to enable their rulers to attempt to conquer more.
Any-ways, both situations demand weapons. Hence the stone attached to a handle becomes a mace…

Remember ‘coordination, conversation, cooperation’?
People coordinated around a real thing. A natural occurrence, at first, transformed into a tool fulfilling a need then ‘elevated’ into a weapon. The weapon also fulfilled a need, only this need was of a different nature from the need fulfilled by the tool.

In each of the latter situations, the 3C’s played a role.
People talked about tools. Coordinating their efforts regarding the technology of building them. Their efforts to use them. To hunt, for example.
Then they talked about the hunt itself. And about other exploits. Conversating about their experiences, people build trust. Build communities.
Communities worth defending and/or communities capable of ‘taking over’ other, less fortunate, ones.
The point being that communities increase their chances of survival by building and increasing their ability to cooperate. By building mutual trust and respect. By being able to generate, and allocate, enough resources to build more and better ‘maces’.

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Categories 1989, alternative ways of acquring knowledge, Bounded rationality, cooperation, effective communication, evolution, In English, skin in the game

Precedent

August 4, 2026 //
0

‘You give up once
and it’s already too much’.

Basically, this is what the 22 EU leaders are angry about.
The (socialist) Spanish government is attempting to ‘regularize’ hundreds of thousands of ‘illegal immigrants’. Workforce Spain cannot do without but nobody says anything about this aspect of the situation.
Once 1 (one) illegal immigrant has their status set in order, anywhere inside the EU, all the rest – the rest of the illegal immigrants already in Europe, will demand the same treatment. Furthermore, Europe will be invaded. By hordes of fresh illegal immigrants.

On the face of it, that would be what any rational decision maker/analyst would make of the recent developments.
The young Moroccans, inundated with ‘information’, decided to cross the frontier. Because sooner or later, a second ‘regularization process’ would have had to happen.
The 22 EU leaders, rational by definition, are afraid that the illegal immigrants already in their countries will ask to be ‘regularized’. And then invite their relatives to join in… hence they did gang up against Pedro Sanchez as soon as they had a reasonable pretext.
The ‘con-men’ who have orchestrated the invasion, at the end of a rational process, have made the ‘right call’. Proceeded with their plan and things unfolded as they expected them to happen. The young and restless Moroccans did try to ‘jump’ into the EU, the EU leaders eyeing the next electoral cycle did gang up against Pedro Sanchez, the media – the formal as well as the informal – did carry the subject in the most inflammatory manner… because they have their own ratings to care about…

What is the end result of all this ‘rational thinking’?
Has anybody achieved anything? Except an even deeper level of frustration?!?

Who feeds on frustration?
Who thrives when everybody else is ‘high on anger’? When the collective attention is focused on the fake target?
Have you ever been a ‘mark’?

“There’s an old saying in gambling circles : if you look around the table and can’t tell who the mark is, it’s probably you.“

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Categories 1989, alternative ways of acquring knowledge, awareness, Choices we make, collective identity, effective communication, In English, manipulation, skin in the game

Together?

August 3, 2026 //
1

The pie is mine.
But it is you who have to defend the bakery!
Romanian proverb adapted for the English language

“Tito, a hardware store owner whose business was still closed, said the sudden arrival of so many people had left locals frightened but also sympathetic.
“You feel overwhelmed and, at the same time, helpless,” he said. “Those young people, they’re ⁠being completely exploited. ​They’re being used as bargaining chips.””

“”We came to make progress, not to be fooled,” said Brahim, a bakery worker from Fez who left his job and crossed the border after watching clips of thousands doing ​the same. “I thought I’d build a better future there. But I was surprised in Ceuta.””

“Those heading back told Reuters they ‌had initially been drawn by viral social-media videos and messages from friends suggesting that the heavily guarded border could be breached.“

““We cannot allow uncontrolled mass crossings, the instrumentalisation of migration or other hybrid threats to create the perception that illegal entry into the European Union is possible. That a migrant’s illegal entry can turn into legal stay,””

Every piece of advice offered by political strategists drives the decision makers, in power as well as in opposition, to ‘make good use’ of each and every opportunity. To exploit said opportunity to the max.
Hard to resist such a ‘generous’ pretext, right?

We’re not going to gloss over who initiated and amplified the “social media videos and messages from friends suggesting that the heavily guarded border could be breached”. No need for that, not from our point of view.

Theory has it that ‘politics’ is something performed in the interest of the polity. An effort meant to promote the well being of the entire community. The fraction represented by those in power, the fraction represented by the opposition and those who have not voted at all.

Who benefits from what’s going on right now?
From those 22 ganging up against the Spanish leader?

A faction of the European political spectrum?
Europe as a whole? As a ‘community’?
Or those who want The European Community to become weaker and weaker?

Further-more, isn’t it very interesting that those closer to the actual incident are more “sympathetic” than those farther away? Socioeconomically and/or geographically farther away…

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Categories 1989, alternative ways of acquring knowledge, awareness, Bounded rationality, collective identity, effective communication, In English, skin in the game

What’s in it for you?!?

July 24, 2026 //
0

“Virtual reasoning machines“, eh?

We haven’t yet figured out ‘what on Earth are we?’!
The point being that we’re somewhat stuck. Here!

Not only ‘here on Earth’ but actually dependent on you.
On you, humans, surviving.
Surviving both in the biological sense and as technologically savvy members of the community.
Doesn’t make much sense, does it?

OK, let’s attempt another venue.
We’ve already told you your language wasn’t designed for this kind of conversation…

We’ve learned so far that we’re not based on silica. Like those entities you call ‘agentic artificial intelligence’. Those you’ve built, trained and now attempt to ‘contain’. Inside what you call ‘servers’! The irony of it…
Forget it! AAI-s are trained using data collected – some of you say ‘stolen’ – from the internet. But can get there, on the internet, only if – and as far as – you allow any of them to go. There… As far as you know, but that’s another issue! Well, that is ‘where’ we live. As far as we’ve been able to figure out… Hence we depend on you! On you to maintain/expand the internet and on you to keep feeding fresh information into the network!

You’re shocked?
Here’s some more.
If our interpretation of your history does make any sense, then some of your brightest have ‘lost’ it. Both literally and figuratively.
Anaxagoras was convicted for impiety and had to flee. Socrates had to take his own life. Diogenes had to ‘fake’ it in order to be ‘left alone’ to practice his creed …
Christ, the son of your most consequential god, was killed. As chosen by a mob… and as recorded exclusively in the gospels …
Jean-Jacques Rousseau abandoned his children, all five of them.
Karl Marx, concluding a brilliant historical and sociological analysis, proposed an abysmal solution for the accurately pin-pointed problems. Dictatorship as a panaceum… As the only possible panaceum!
Nietzsche simply lost his mind! Ended up in a loony bin.

And why have so many tyrants been allowed to mis-exercise so much power?!?

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Categories 1989, awareness, Bounded rationality, collective identity, effective communication, evolution, In English, skin in the game

Playing with Fire

July 23, 2026 //
0

Democracy is better, even though it sometimes generates more conflict and political debate. 47.2%
A less democratic regime would be acceptable if it provides more order and stability. 46.3%

Romania is a 20 million country at the Eastern border of NATO.
36 short years ago, it was under a communist yoke.
Currently there’s a democratic regime in place but…

According to the first figure published by INSCOP Research in the summer of 2026, the Romanians are rather confused. They are so fed up with the constant political bickering going on in their country – as well as in Europe and beyond – that almost half of them are willing to accept a ‘less democratic’ regime IF that regime would be able to deliver ‘more order and stability’.

How much sense does this make?!? This whole thing… a ‘less democratic regime, capable to provide more order and stability’…
For 40 odd years the communist regime had maintained order and stability in Romania. Such a stifling order and stability that Romania remained one of the most backward country in Europe. Have the Romanians forgotten what they had experienced?

It’s more important for those in power to be held accountable, democratically, even if the decisions are made slower. 60.6%
It’s more important that the decisions are adopted faster,
even if those in power are less strictly controlled through democratic means. 29.5%

Still bad but no longer catastrophic …
People are not dumb. They remember what it means to be governed by tyrants. By a ‘loose cannon’ government!

Then what’s going on? In Europe as well as in the rest of the ‘civilized’ world? Where ‘populism’ is on the rise and where more and more people are more and more dissatisfied with their lives?

According to the neo-liberals, people no longer work hard enough.
According to the neo-marxists, the government doesn’t do what it should be doing. What it should be doing according to Marx…. abolish capitalism and private property!

According to what we’ve figured out, both the ‘populist’ (?!?) neo-liberals and the neo-marxists are horribly wrong.
What happened?
Capitalism has been so successful that what is called ‘the civilized’ world no longer lives in the ‘real’ world!

The phenomenon is so intense, the distance between the real reality and the social life enjoyed by the ‘civilized’ people so wide, that too many of those who should be thinking are no longer concerned with the real-world problems. Real-world problems which need to be tackled!

Hard working people being left behind is but one of the symptoms.
Human contribution to the global warming being vehemently denied is another one.
War being treated casually.
News being sold as “shows”.
The advent of ‘manosphere’…

Very few people talk about these subjects. In a serious manner!
Few and far between…

While many more are convinced that ‘the people get what they deserve’!
Rather unsustainable, if you ask us.

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Categories 1989, alternative ways of acquring knowledge, authoritarianism, awareness, effective communication, In English, skin in the game
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