1945 is sometimes called Year Zero. Here’s one for our mental health, the frustration we have that…
1945 is sometimes called Year Zero. Here’s one for our mental health, the frustration we have that politicians aren’t doing anything to fix our problems.
A hint: they never really have. It’s actually not their job, to fix anything. /1
https://t.co/KOdFK9Njjw https://t.co/U2nFkXrg3y
In a representative democracy, the role of the elected is to be a community liaison point. The actual running of a nation is carried out by its officials. Thousands of them, with specific expertise.
Populism is the collapse of this distinction. /2
When the elected (delusionally) believe they actually ‘run the country’. They usually have no idea how to run anything, there are no qualifications required for election.
And that’s fine, their role is to represent the community, in governance. Not to run anything. /3
But under populism the elected wage war on the officials, who do the actual running of a nation, leading to social collapse. There’s not a more serious accusation under populism than somebody being ‘unelected’.
That’s when societies collapse. /4
To go back to Year Zero, 1945. If you read the article, you’ll see a description of the process I Tweet about a bit. The total reconstruction of societies, after the catastrophe of two world wars.
Sweeping away social status hierarchies, making space for fundamental change. /5
We lived off the fat of that massive reconstruction effort for decades. The institutions we set up to do it ran our societies to levels of health and wealth unprecedented in all human history.
Then when life got that good, populism came back. /6
Social status hierarchies reasserted themselves. Through attacks on these institutions, called ‘bureaucracies’. ‘Red tape’. Everybody wins elections now attacking our core operating systems.
The apparently progressive 1960s were an all-out assault on institutional life. /7
It’s the common thread to the ‘Left’ and the ‘Right’. We call it anti-trust in economics, but it’s a society-wide anti-trust movement. Smash the institutions, don’t trust them.
Only the elected shall rule. Popularity will be our currency, what’s ‘trending’. /8
So as you wake up to another day of existential threats being completely ignored by the popularly elected, I think it helps to remember they never ran anything, anyway.
It’s pointless waiting for them to do it now. They have no idea where to even start. /9
They’ll create fake pseudo-problems that are really just manageable popularity bombs, to create an illusion of action and change. But they don’t have a clue how to fix anything.
Unfortunately societies only make fundamental changes when they’re at the brink of extinction. /10
At Year Zeros. Like 1945. Tens of millions died before we got to that point, it needed that amount of destruction to existing status hierarchies to make a space for actual change.
The default state of fighting for status is evenly distributed, everywhere. /11
Doesn’t matter what team you are, whether Left or Right or whatever else, if you’re in the team sports, you’re in the social status games. None of that will change the world. No amount of getting things to ‘trend’ will.
Trending is just victory for a given team. /12
Soon forgotten and overwhelmed by other victories. As the sad state of much South American governance shows, we’re all heading towards societies just run by drug gangs.
‘Market’ economies and ‘social connection’ driven societies inevitably lead to that. /13
The total victory of social status games, as a form of governance. Teams become violent gangs. Libertarianism and its freedom schtick is just one more gang, jostling for total dominance.
Sociality can’t run societies. Socialising is not about running anything. /14
It’s about status and identity, not togetherness or action. As we all spend our days on platforms devoted to reinforcing this basic social process, we accelerate the progression to drug gang societies.
Where the strongest and most brutal groups eventually triumph. /15
As Burke saw centuries ago, institutions are all that keep societies running. You can’t elect institutions, elections will destroy them, and are destroying them. Popularity solves no practical problems, except the status of the players. /16
I wish it wasn’t true, but only another Year Zero can save us. I’ve suggested the Chinese industrial juggernaut may be the most peaceful option there, and still believe that.
Give up thinking the elected will fix any thing. It was never their job, and they have no clue. /end