Here’s one way to know you haven’t had a regime change. There are still 50 DMVs.
Are there still 50 DMVs? Is there any reason, other than history, that there need to be 50 DMVs? Are the states really the “laboratories of democracy?” In… motor vehicles? Is there an “Arkansas way of driving?” (Don’t answer that last one.) No? All no? Then you haven’t had a real regime change. Go back to sleep. Nothing ever happens.
Are there still 50 DMVs? Is there any reason, other than history, that there need to be 50 DMVs? Are the states really the “laboratories of democracy?” In… motor vehicles? Is there an “Arkansas way of driving?” (Don’t answer that last one.) No? All no? Then you haven’t had a real regime change. Go back to sleep. Nothing ever happens.
Here is how they beat you. Besides outright cowards, traitors and grifters, there are two main tricks. One: they convince you that you’ve won, when you haven’t won anything yet. You declare victory, and lose. Two: they accuse you of something you need to do, but aren’t yet doing. You deny it, and lose.
This cure for power was perfected long ago with the institution of symbolic monarchy. The Merovingian or Hanoverian king would enjoy all the trappings of royalty, with none of the power. I always used to wonder how so many dynasties, in so many periods and regions, had been convinced to surrender their kingdoms while maintaining their thrones. The same thing has happened to our republic. It has happened (despite his best efforts) to the President. And it has happened to the voters.
Oligarchy (“meritocracy”) has cucked both monarchy and democracy (“populism”). We prefer pretending to be in charge, to actually being in charge. Like any 20th-century ceremonial “monarch,” we are scared of power from head to toe, President to peasant. On the streets, we are the best of husbands. In the sheets, we are nowhere near man enough for our wives. Power will only be serviced by the Deep State or the Cathedral. The sneer with which Washington obeys the Trump administration, when it really must, is the sneer of a woman who wants her husband’s child—but not her husband. This is the “marriage” between institutions and politicians.
How does this trap work? Fundamentally, the upper class sees itself as a subordinate class, and the middle class sees itself as a dominant class. “Progressivism” is the universalist faith of the upper class (with an exception from universalism for its own clients’ tribalism). “Conservatism” is the ideology of the middle class. Conservatives fail because they can never see that America is actually not their country. Liberals win because they can never see that America actually is their country.
The splinter of deference that the administrative state affords a Republican President or Presidential candidate—a delicate kabuki that dates back to Wendell Willkie—just enough relevance that he feels genuinely important, but not enough to do systemic damage—is part of the delicate engineering of the post-Roosevelt political system.
The more genuinely the Republicans, the President or the voter, feel they have won, without any actual prospect of winning—the deeper they are in the trap. We’re winning, and winners can’t be rebels. Our Constitution is intact, after all! We must preserve our threatened Constitution. But at least we have it. Sad! These people have nothing. The Judas goat is already leading them up the ramp.
Since they are so easily convinced that they have won, our conservatives are weak and passive in resistance. Since they are so confident that they are the daring underdogs, liberals stamp out this weak resistance with the heroic energy of a (very lucky) rebel.
This cure for power was perfected long ago with the institution of symbolic monarchy. The Merovingian or Hanoverian king would enjoy all the trappings of royalty, with none of the power. I always used to wonder how so many dynasties, in so many periods and regions, had been convinced to surrender their kingdoms while maintaining their thrones. The same thing has happened to our republic. It has happened (despite his best efforts) to the President. And it has happened to the voters.
Oligarchy (“meritocracy”) has cucked both monarchy and democracy (“populism”). We prefer pretending to be in charge, to actually being in charge. Like any 20th-century ceremonial “monarch,” we are scared of power from head to toe, President to peasant. On the streets, we are the best of husbands. In the sheets, we are nowhere near man enough for our wives. Power will only be serviced by the Deep State or the Cathedral. The sneer with which Washington obeys the Trump administration, when it really must, is the sneer of a woman who wants her husband’s child—but not her husband. This is the “marriage” between institutions and politicians.
How does this trap work? Fundamentally, the upper class sees itself as a subordinate class, and the middle class sees itself as a dominant class. “Progressivism” is the universalist faith of the upper class (with an exception from universalism for its own clients’ tribalism). “Conservatism” is the ideology of the middle class. Conservatives fail because they can never see that America is actually not their country. Liberals win because they can never see that America actually is their country.
The splinter of deference that the administrative state affords a Republican President or Presidential candidate—a delicate kabuki that dates back to Wendell Willkie—just enough relevance that he feels genuinely important, but not enough to do systemic damage—is part of the delicate engineering of the post-Roosevelt political system.
The more genuinely the Republicans, the President or the voter, feel they have won, without any actual prospect of winning—the deeper they are in the trap. We’re winning, and winners can’t be rebels. Our Constitution is intact, after all! We must preserve our threatened Constitution. But at least we have it. Sad! These people have nothing. The Judas goat is already leading them up the ramp.
Since they are so easily convinced that they have won, our conservatives are weak and passive in resistance. Since they are so confident that they are the daring underdogs, liberals stamp out this weak resistance with the heroic energy of a (very lucky) rebel.
Unconditional state capture cannot be achieved by the same mechanisms as constitutional participation. As a normiecon, you think of Washington as your narcissistic, impossible, insufferable, and also alcoholic mother-in-law. If you have no choice but to deal with this person, your job is to lead her to reason and maybe even sobriety. Some kind of intervention. But she’s family and you have to respect that.
While that’s a reasonable attitude in this situation, it’s not the real situation. The real situation is: your real mother-in-law died in the 1990s. What you are calling “Doris” is a 6200-year-old Egyptian vampire—real name: Khemon-Ra.
You cannot, as you expect, “have an intervention” with Khemon-Ra. “She” is not a “narcissist” or even an “alcoholic”—just your basic Chalcolithic vampire. You have to hammer a wooden post into its heart and out through the shoulderblades. During this process, it may be harder to restrain than you think.
While that’s a reasonable attitude in this situation, it’s not the real situation. The real situation is: your real mother-in-law died in the 1990s. What you are calling “Doris” is a 6200-year-old Egyptian vampire—real name: Khemon-Ra.
You cannot, as you expect, “have an intervention” with Khemon-Ra. “She” is not a “narcissist” or even an “alcoholic”—just your basic Chalcolithic vampire. You have to hammer a wooden post into its heart and out through the shoulderblades. During this process, it may be harder to restrain than you think.
Entropy is naturally gradual and/or self-sustaining: fast revolution, or slow subversion. Extropy is the opposite. A right-wing regime change is a spike of political energy that crosses a threshold and jumps the system to a new, benign stable state.
This spike takes more energy than many think, but it needs to be sustained only momentarily. And this energy is not chaotic, inconsistent violence—but peaceful, irresistible force. This will rapidly develop its own stability—but only if it is irresistible. It must demonstrate this irresistible character in every area of life.
This spike takes more energy than many think, but it needs to be sustained only momentarily. And this energy is not chaotic, inconsistent violence—but peaceful, irresistible force. This will rapidly develop its own stability—but only if it is irresistible. It must demonstrate this irresistible character in every area of life.
New rule: no building ideologies while tinkering around in your garage.
If you're wondering, "Is it open?" it's not. The UP is closed.
Around 70 people came together yesterday morning, before the storm hit, to help look for a dog that has been lost in the woods for the preceding three days.
Don't forget to shovel your rooves, eh!
Ontonagon / Porcupine Mountains Snowmobile Trail Report
The predicted snowstorm did not disappoint! Higher elevations away from Lake Superior received over a foot of fresh snow while the lakeshore areas picked up 4–6 inches of wet, heavy, packable snow.
With snowfall totals like this, it will take a couple of days for groomers to fully flatten and set up the trails. Strong winds—gusting up to 60 mph—have created deep drifts in spots, especially in open areas.
If you’re planning to ride in the next day or two, please use caution. Groomers will be doing their best to get on top of everything, but with this much snow and wind, it will take a little time to dial the trails in.
That said, the New Year is kicking off with a great start for snowmobiling in the Ontonagon and Porcupine Mountains area.
Happy trails and ride safe!
Very close to 100 inches of snow so far this season. Let's push it over the top, December 30th and 31st! You got this!
The shift to the centrality of the individual in this whole schema should by now be very clear. The radically diverse positions of the Reformers, the lack of any clear reading of noscripture, and the lack of any universally acknowledged arbiter of interpretation (since all rejected traditional Roman Christianity) meant that, ultimately, each individual was left on his own to decide for himself the correct reading of noscripture and which authorities he was willing to take as authoritative. One very critical consequence of this that I think is often overlooked is that it moved Christianity away from a mode of life to a problem of knowledge. What I mean is this: in traditional European Christianity, doctrine was largely settled for the lay practitioner, and what was chiefly required was the working out of one’s salvation “with fear and trembling,” that is, a concern with Christianity as a life lived (personal and community prayer, fasting, giving alms, works of mercy and charity, clothing the poor, etc.). With the breakdown of doctrinal unity, the issue became chiefly about sorting through competing truth claims to discover the “correct” reading of the Bible. This “tends not only to reduce the relationship between God and man to one of faith and knowledge, but also to restrict this knowledge itself to what can be gained from the text . . . Some Protestants, having achieved a more complete sacramental experience, have themselves criticized the Reformation for having intellectualized Christianity, and for having put the notional understanding of the reality above its actual possession."
—Zac Porcu
Protestants are nerds, apparently. Very powerful critique.