The common wondering we do about why nothing is being done against existential threats. Have Tweeted about…

The common wondering we do about why nothing is being done against existential threats. Have Tweeted about how this is due to the removal of the administrative construct of 'the public', invented in the late-19th to mid-20th century. But there's more to see here. /1 https://t.co/f4um7rl0Kp

Because the absence of that space of 'we', a collective space to address collective problems, is like a vacuum, the thing nature abhors. Societies can't function without it, no matter how much libertarian ideology likes to pretend. So what do people do? /2

They try to create their own public space. Through things like protests, acts of extreme violence (mass shootings for example) and/or violation of accepted norms. The thinking being that 'the people' are unaware, and this will make them aware. /3

To shock 'the people' into a collective attention, on some issue. Except it doesn't work, because 'the people' isn't a thing. It's just a collection of individuals with no necessary connection. /4

The public is not just the eyes and ears of the population. The public is an administrative construct, created by thousands of officials, to manage collective life. The politics of symbolism tends to just create an inflation of symbolism. /5

More and more extreme symbolic acts, to try to force a public back into existence. But you can't turn 'the people' (a nothing) into a public like that. A public is continuous organisation, and analysis. /6 https://t.co/icmESQahGQ

It's what dreaded bureaucrats create and maintain, every day. Continuously assessing our collective life and designing and implementing ways to support and strengthen it. The politics of symbolism is really the arse-end of libertarianism. Its endgame. /7

And the continuous assault on 'red tape' and bureaucracy is why the 'we' has disappeared. All that pesky due process IS the ongoing calculation and tweaking of our collective interest. /end