Recent developments have helped me to understand something. And no, not the fact that there are more worlds out there. One happy about what’s going on, one horrified and a few rather indifferent.
Trump being elected for a second term as President of the United States hasn’t changed much in the real world. Not yet, anyway. What it had changed, dramatically, was our image of the world. Of the US, in particular, but also of the world as a whole.
This development has helped me to understand that we don’t deal in realities. We don’t consider things, make decisions, by examining the things themselves. No!
We consider things by examining the images we have in our minds.
We look at things and we get a ‘set of data’. A virtual image. We recollect from our memory whatever other information we have on the subject. Another image. We put two and two together. And we reach a conclusion. Most of the time ignoring the fact that we’ve been dealing with images instead of the real thing.
Until we are forced to acknowledge that our image was incomplete. Inaccurate… Or that, simply, we’ve chosen to see what was more comfortable for us!
By 1917 it seemed to Lenin that the war would never end and that the prospect of revolution was rapidly receding. But in the week of March 8–15, the starving, freezing, war-weary workers and soldiers of Petrograd (until 1914, St. Petersburg) succeeded in deposing the Tsar. Lenin and his closest lieutenants hastened home after the German authorities agreed to permit their passage through Germany to neutral Sweden. Berlin hoped that the return of anti-war Socialists to Russia would undermine the Russian war effort.
Do you remember the story about the early American Colonists “gifting of blankets and linens contaminated with smallpox” to the native inhabitants of the place? It worked, to a degree, because the natives had no prior experience with the disease. Their immune systems had no prior experience with this pathogen. Which had been construed as an opportunity by those who had cooked up the plan, even though – in those times – nobody had any idea about ‘immunity’.
Lenin was also effective towards pulling the Czarist Empire out of WWI. Do we really care whether he was aware of the fact that he had been used as a 5-th column by Kaiser Wilhelm II’s strategists?
Life, in general, is about species evolving in a given set of circumstances. If the circumstances allow it, live will appear. And survive for as long as the circumstances remain livable. We must keep in mind that life changes the environment in which it evolves. Social life, the human kind in particular, is about cultural species evolving in given sets of circumstances. For as long as the circumstances remain livable, cultural species will continue to evolve. To put their culture to work and to build civilizations. Each set of circumstances influencing both the culture which inhabits the circumstances and the civilization being built there.
Currently, there are three main categories of cultures. Imperial, democratic and incomplete.
I will start by noting that those cultures which are ‘incomplete’ have remained so because they didn’t have enough time to make ‘full use’ of the limited resources they had at their disposal. The difference between the imperial and the democratic cultures being the fact that the imperial ones stagnate as soon as they reach a certain level of development while the democratic ones continue to evolve for as long as they manage to remain democratic. To retain their ability to change as soon and as far as they need in order to survive. To maintain their democratic character.
Need proof? Are you familiar with any empire which had lasted for long? The Egyptian? 33 dynasties covering 3 millennia? Is that long enough for you? Well, not so fast. ’33 dynasties’ actually means 33 different empires. It was very seldom that a dynasty ended when/because there was no available successor… Most dynasties were removed from power rather than petered out. And, nevertheless, who cares about why a certain dynasty was replaced by the next one?!? The simple fact that it was replaced is enough for me. The replaced dynasty was no longer able to cope! Hence it had to make place for the next one. Another set of decision makers, naturally following a (however slightly) different mantra.
Don’t believe me? Consider any other empire. Evaluate the duration for which each dynasty had managed to hold the helm. And compare it with the fact that the Roman Republic had survived, as a functional democracy, for almost 5 centuries.
And no, Europe isn’t the only place where democratic forms of self-rule had happened during human history. Kurultai, Loya-Jirga… The mere existence of the concepts is proof enough for the budding democracies which might have developed in those places, given enough time and resources.
Then, if democracy is so much ‘better’ – as in more helpful towards the survival of a certain set of mores/culture – then why is it so ‘scarce’?
Well, for democracy to remain functional, at least some wise men need to remain both strong and focused on the job at hand. Otherwise, the helm will be confiscated by the would be strong but not so wise….
And why is it that good times tend to make weak people? First of all, good times tend to weaken ‘the people’. Not as much to weaken the individuals living a good life as to make them careless. To take the good times for granted. To convince them that ‘times’ will continue to remain good regardless…..
Not having to struggle for their day to day existence tends to make ‘some of the wisest, happiest, and most peaceful men and women to spend much of their time alone at home, steering clear of UNNECESSARY drama, negativity and chaos’.
This being how successful democracies sometimes succumb to tyranny and how empires eventually crumble under their own weight.
And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil:
We live in a world of our own making. We build it by talking ourselves into shaping it one way or another. If not careful, we end up building a lie!
Competition has nothing to do with what’s going on in the jungle!
The jungle is about eat or be eaten! Competition is about rules. Follow the rule or you’re kicked out before you get to the end! The competition stops being true the moment you break the rule and your co-competitors do not throw you out. By not throwing you out, those in attendance have just transformed that particular pitch into a jungle!
“Cooperation is the law of the civilization!“ This part is true. But incomplete! As I explained before, to compete implies to cooperate. Those involved in a competition want to know who amongst them is better in a particular field. And COOPERATE in order to find that answer. By doing that they also build what we currently call ‘civilization’.
Kropotkin might be forgiven for what he had said. He didn’t get to witness the Chinese Cultural Revolution. That was the true pinnacle of ‘cooperation’! Not civilized by any measure…
We really need to be more careful with words. With what we say and with what we end up holding to be true!
Etiquette is a matter of social interaction. A mannerism used to convey ‘we are in sync’. ‘We see eye to eye’ on most matters that count.
In this picture, one of the two men are dressed ‘inappropriately’. According to the ‘normal’ etiquette.
This is ‘posturing’. That choice of attire – in flagrant breach of ‘comme il faut’ – is a constant reminder to the rest of the world that he, and his country, are not ‘normal’. Like the rest of us still are. For now…
We can accept his ‘look’. Demonstrating that we feel with him. And with his country!
We don’t get what we deserve, we get what we put up with.
How did we get here?
Then
What is Truth? Pilate
Well, there are two kinds of truth. The one you feel with your shin when you hit a coffee table. And the one you feel in your heart when those present laugh at you hopping on one leg while caressing the hurt one.
Which two kinds of truth divide us, people, into two categories. Those trying to patch ‘an ever-changing truth’ out of many individual pictures – each of them the consequence of a ‘shin’ happening to connect with a portion of the ‘outside world’. Which people are currently known as ‘scientists’. And those trying to reach ‘the truth’. By thinking, by divination, by… God only knows what any other means… Philosophers, theologians, quacks…
I was trained as an engineer. To notice needs and to design solutions while evaluating the possible consequences of those needs being met by the proposed solutions. Which places me squarely into the first category.
““The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.”So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken.”
Bulgaria is a Balcanic country. Having evolved more or less together, the Balcanic countries share many cultural traits. Nevertheless, individual countries do have their own characteristics. Bulgaria does have a particular one. The name, Bulgaria, comes from a Turkic tribe. Who had conquered the area in the VII-th century and established the first Bulgarian Empire. Yet the Bulgarian people is mainly Slavic. Speaks a Slavic language and has remained Christian Orthodox despite having been ruled directly by the Islamic Ottoman Empire from 1396 to 1878. Hence it is safe to consider that the Bulgarians do know a thing or two about keeping their shit together, don’t you think?
On the other hand, who, in their right mind, would want to find themselves on the other side of the bridge? Alone with the devil?!?
Maybe ‘devil’ has different meanings for different people…
We, in our cozy world, where everything is just about fine, consider the devil to be the absolute evil. We are taught to believe that.
Yet things were not so clearly cut in the good old days.
The Bulgarian experience suggests that when the shit hits the fan, maybe it is wiser to put aside some of the things which made you consider your neighbour was ‘untouchable’ and join forces with them. Until the real danger is gone…
An even older experience, the one shared in the Bible, suggests that the Devil had a defining contribution in us becoming ‘like one of them (Gods)’. After all, it was ‘he’ who had taught Eve to eat the fruit which empowered her to “know good and evil”. It was ‘he’ who prodded Eve, who prodded Adam, to become conscious human beings…
Let me continue this post by sharing a story. Not a funny one but which fits in this context.
I’m not sure about 3. though. Keeping your mouth shut is not always the best option. Not in the longer run… Use your better judgement instead of letting others tell you what to do.
Having just told you to use your own better judgement instead of letting others tell you what to do, I now suggest that you click on the following link. And read Niemoller’s life story: https://hmd.org.uk/resource/pastor-martin-niemoller-hmd-2021/
It’s one thing to be able to see white from black. And a lot more complicated to see black and white…
Being reasonable means listening to what the world has to say about things. Being reasonable means being open minded.
Being rational means balancing your means with your wishes. Being rational means actively identifying resources which might help you attain your goals and the pitfalls you need to avoid.
Being reasonable means choosing goals which ‘do not disturb’. Being rational means transforming things into what they should be. Into what you think they should be…
Being reasonable means getting along. Being rational means going alone.
Being reasonable means trying to get all in. Being rational means being able to get to the bottom of it.
The point being that evolution is about the species, not about the individual. And this point can be made out but individually…
What is the lesson here? That each tyrant believes they can outwit all other tyrants. That tyrants are convinced they can outwit democratic alliances. That, in the end, all authoritarian regimes fail. Abysmally. For the simple reason that inability to accept their own faillings makes all authoritarian leaders incapable of coping with change. Unable to adapt. Unable to evolve. Hence all authoritarian regimes are inherently fragile.
And who suffers the consequences? We do. All of us. “World Wide Wars”, remember?
Nope! Trickle down is an idiocy. It doesn’t work. Just like ‘taxing billionaires out of existence’. It has been experimented, you know… It was called communism by those promoting this brilliant idea. So brilliant that it burnt down every society which had tried it. I lived under communist rule. I know. There isn’t much difference between all money being controlled by the state/government and too much money being controlled by a handful of billionaires! Meaningful decisions are still being made by a too small number of people…
Yes, taxes are useful. Besides gathering money to be used, by the government, for the common good. My point being that taxes are an expression of how a society sees money.
That’s what’s needed. Decision makers who do not put money over everything else! Any attempt to ‘tax billionaires out of existence’ is already an abuse of power. Doing it before the society changes its understanding of the matter would be worse than a crime. It would be a horrible mistake.
High marginal taxes accomplish two things. If no loopholes are allowed. Balance the budget and change the minds of the decision makers. ‘CEO’s’ as well as shareholders. Convince them to reinvest a bigger share of the profit. Which makes it possible for the company to become more efficient. Which makes it possible for the company to increase wages. Balancing the budget with money brought in by taxing the high earners makes it possible for the politicians to lower the taxes paid by the Regular Joes. Which would improve their status, their self esteem and their buying power!
Blaming a section of the society for something which needs to be dealt with in concert, by all the members of a society, is counterproductive. To say the least. It does nothing to solve the real problems and it deepens the already existing rifts.
Blaming the billionaires for what’s going on – for everybody being obsessed with money – is in no way different from blaming the immigrants for most of the people being unsure about tomorrow.
Billionaires, as well as the immigrants, should be ‘exploited’ rather than driven into disappearance. Each of them are very good at what each of them are doing. The difference between them consists in the fact that the billionaires set their own wages.
Wages, all wages, are paid by us. By the consumers. Hence it is us who should determine how much each people should get. We, not some of those getting our hard earned money! How are we going to accomplish that? Making sure that the market remains free. Functionally free as opposed to controlled by a small number of people. No matter where they come from. The Government, as in communism, or a collection of monopolies. As in oligarchic capitalism.
nicichiarasa 