Like many I enjoy coming here to discover new things, including the science of infectious disease. But if we…
Like many I enjoy coming here to discover new things, including the science of infectious disease.
But if we want things to change, we have to move away from the idea that facts or information run societies. We have to understand how societies work. /1
Not going to re-hash the basic mechanisms again here (have done a lot of threads on that). But the most difficult point I think for people to grasp is that societies simply don’t gradually improve anything.
Only massive disruption brings significant change. /2
Because without that the mechanisms of social status we all live by are simply too strong. It’s far too easy to blame some baddies, in goodies and baddies narratives.
‘Capitalism’, ‘MSM’, ‘Zionists’, ‘Big Corporations’. etc. etc. We love these cartoon characters. /3
Because they feed our greatest passion. The team sports of group rivalry, fed by our deepest desire to belong to a group, creating an identity for ourselves.
The cartoon baddies are infinite fuel for these group rivalries. So nebulous as to be wells that never run dry. /4
But at the end of the day, it’s always us. All of us. Playing the same social games. Imitating each other, trying to achieve status for ourselves and our chosen groups.
It’s so entrenched in our being. We return every day, salivating, to the team sports. /5
Convinced that this next electoral victory will be the one that finally makes the difference. Or that this or that graph will finally defeat the Covid or climate deniers.
And ultimately (what it’s all about) to bring victory to our group, and affirmation for our identity. /6
A wise old professor friend once told me he despised conferences, because of the team sports of academic life.
He said you should always ‘spit in their soup’, when addressing a conference. Unsurprisingly they stopped inviting him. /7
We miss the social dynamics by calling them cuddly warm names, like ‘networking’ and ‘connection’. Social connection brings nothing but violence. Because sociality is violence.
The clash of desires, of competing groups. We refuse to see it. /8
I shed hundreds of followers when pointing out that social media is intrinsically wreaking violence upon societies. That the medium is the message, and that using it to try to bring about change only entrenches the destruction even further.
I spat in social media’s soup. /9
I honestly don’t care. Turning these platforms off would be both the fastest and easiest way to resolve pretty much every problem we’re currently facing.
To force all of us to return to our institutional sources of expertise, to let them run things again. /10
Connecting the entire global population is utter madness. It sounds great in that warm and cuddly unthinking emotive way. It’s a catastrophe for societies.
Connection is violence. Societies are defined intrinsically by the way they ration connection. /11
The way they choose which beliefs and desires to regulate. Regulation is the only human act that ever brings freedom. Not connection, which only brings violence.
/end