The Hidden Happenings of a Civilisation in Collapse
So I recently watched the film “The Dissident” and it’s actually a fascinating documentary.
It shows the drama around the Saudis and Jeff Bezos, the immunity in wealth and in many ways reveals the fundamental corruption in our society while pointing out the game theory underlying it.
It shows the complicity of the western world and the powerlessness of those we believe to be in power.
That as much as we like to dress up our system in comfortable wrappings they are built on feudal empires with hidden evils in the woodwork.
We tell ourselves pleasant stories our how this whole ship runs then an Epstein comes along and breaks open a hole for us to peak through the curtain, into the darkness…
But these rips are not coincidences. The ship is not holding.
The fragility of this civilisation is open for all to see and we’re just beginning to learn the extent of our mistakes. Vinay Gupta lays out various observations in his proposal for framing societal redesign.
Just as we hate to accept the bad news of this virus, so too we shy away at looking deep into the flaws of our system and acknowledge that half measures are not going to save us. The truth is this decade may be the most important decade of all those to come before.
It is our true test. And we do not get another go at this.
The operating system needs a rewrite.
Don’t Hate the Player
Today as I write this the US is ushering in a new president, and perhaps the shady forces of the establishment took trump as a warning to go prepare some honest change.
But people voted for trump because he told it like it is. He knew how he got there…how things worked. He lied like no tomorrow and did it openly, showing the rules for what they are and taking the statement to the international stage: “I’ll just play the game to win.”
People can spout endless conspiracies and we’ll dismiss all of them as one, but the corruption is a felt sense. It’s felt across the board and the divides.
You run the simulation and some huge consolidation of power makes sense in a world built on the game of seeking ever increasing control.
How can we confidently deny the existence of underhand powers shaping our world?
The Global Commons
How can we really make sense in a world of exponential complexity while being increasingly conditioned for simplicity?
We rely on these tech platforms like never before. They are what connect our conversation, our sense-making, the relationships we’ve built.
Our global village square.
But clearly they are compromised, unfit for political discussion and debate.
Yet our whole democracy practically relies on their impartiality and for many, as we hunker into new lockdowns, they are the only window to the world.
We can paint these platforms as the root of the problem and though they certainly play their part they’re really just playing out business models for software, designed around advertising.
They didn’t sign up for this and may very well have no idea what happens in the box.
It just does what they ask it to.
We can talk of going elsewhere but to port our social graph is no easy task, and we’re deluding ourselves if we think we have some free market of choice in this domain.
Our free speech is not to be scoffed at. It must be protected vigilantly wherever we see it dismantled. To see ourselves on the other side, or explore the nuance, because these platforms can’t tell the difference between a levelled conversation around vaccines, and a russian bot leading you down a rabbit hole.
And some day you might truly see the value in it and wish you’d paid more attention when it counted.
Nobody would even touch the documentary for distribution. So it’s worth watching for that reason alone.
A New Story Brewing
This time requires bravery and enquiry. A fresh perspective to look at old problems and a lens to see the world from beyond our conditioning.
We must look for the revealing attitudes of those who hold power over us, seek true collective solidarity and question the narratives of command and control. The governments that hide information from you like you’re a child, while giving you coloured posters for instructions.
Look for the propaganda. Around the overton window and through the cracks in the curtain.
For we can hate the players all we like and cheer for the new ones, but it’s the game we need to change.
For the winners of this one already have their escape plan.
And when the world turns to desert they’ll put up their citadels, because they can’t imagine an alternative they’ve hardly ever seen.
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But the alternatives are out there.
Pointing to the transcendent and growing like seedlings in the minds of many, if you know where to look.
Some of us like to call it Game B.
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