Ours is a technocratic culture with a short attention span, and so problems and solutions are understood to be 1) technocratic and 2) instant. The problem is something that can be distilled down to a spreadsheet, formula, algorithm or legalistic policy, and the solution is some modification of spreadsheet, formula, algorithm or legalistic policy: all our problems will go away if we just end the Fed, switch to cryptocurrency, tweak some laws, get rid of the bankers, eliminate an agency, and so on.
These solutions will offer immediate relief. The problems will start melting away the minute we modify the spreadsheet, algorithm, financial settings or legal code.
But what if the problem is the collapse of integrity and honor, a moral rot that has consumed the foundations of our social order? If this is the root problem, then technocratic-financial solutions are the equivalent of excising a wart from the big toe and declaring that as a result of this procedure, the brain cancer has been cured.
What if the problem is that everything we're cheering as Progress is actually the opposite--it's Anti-Progress? What if all the technocratic "advances" that are constantly being hyped as wondrous are actually harming our physical and mental health?
So a product labeled as a "veggie snack" that's nothing more than fat-soaked, sugary potato starch is lauded because it's immensely profitable, a virtue gained by deceiving parents into thinking a "veggie snack" is a healthy snack.
That this is a culture in moral collapse is obvious, but we dare not admit it. That integrity and honor have decayed to the point of parody is equally obvious, but that too doesn't register in a culture attuned to novelty, profit, gadgets, legalese, techno-fantasies and technocratic "solutions" to problems that aren't even visible to technocrats.
Integrity and honor have, along with everything else, been commoditized into something we sell as a "product" or "enhancement." Virtue-signaling has replaced actual integrity, and as the host of my latest podcast observed, the job of corporate CEOs is not to make quality products; their job is to elevate the corporation's stock price by whatever means are available--including hollowing out quality, reliability and durability.
Seeking a Culture of Honor and Integrity with Emerson Fersch and Amy LeNoble (59 min)
In this state of moral collapse, we look to centralized authorities to solve all our problems. But the collapse of integrity and honor does not have a legal, financial or technocratic solution. We have to reverse that collapse ourselves rather than rely on centralized diktats from on high to fix what's broken.
Before we get to the hope, let's first review reality. Here is loneliness--soaring.
Let's say we want a lifestyle stripped of denial, moral rot, techno-fantasies and technocratic delusions, a lifestyle of responsibility, accountability, integrity and honor. Oops, sorry, that lifestyle is out of stock and we don't anticipate any reordering.
We need a new way of living, not more gadgets and financial "innovations." A restoration of basic integrity and honor cannot be achieved by technocratic "solutions"--policies, crypto, apps, algos, AI--for the belief that these are solutions has blinded us to the decay and collapse of the foundations of the social order.
Yes, it's understandable that we all want a solution to the collapse of integrity and honor to be done for us by some new app or a new law, but that's like thinking the wart on the big toe is the source of the brain cancer. Real social change comes from the ground up, not the top down. I explore these themes in my new book The Mythology of Progress, Anti-Progress and a Mythology for the 21st Century. (free sample chapter)
New podcast: Seeking a Culture of Honor and Integrity with Emerson Fersch and Amy LeNoble (59 min)
Reader Comments
Several days ago I made a comment here about how the anonymity of a computer/internet connection is a great thing - for people who want to sound big without showing themselves to the world.
I suppose it comes down to the idea of a small town vs. big city. In a small town you operate like everybody knows your name. In a big city you operate like nobody knows your name and probably never will, so you say and do things that you don't believe that you will need to take responsibility for.
I am a strong proponent of small towns and open carry because it's harder for evil to manifest.
Did you see Trudeau government announcement banning via another order in counsel 324 more firearms, and Bill Blair in a video press release then says the guns confiscated will be sent to Ukraine so that they can win the war against Russia? What kinda Koolaid are they drinking in Ottawa? Timed politically to coincide with the 35th anniversary of the Quebec college massacres. 67 million taxpayer dollars spent since the May 2020 original order in counsel to ban / confiscate firearms, and not 1 firearm has been confiscated. The RCMP flat out refuse to engage in confiscation, same with Canada Post and others they tried to recruit.
I also see the federal Online Harms Bill now got split into to bills...hopefully it completely collapses. I saw Jordan Peterson and his daughter etc have all moved to the USA, because if it passes, he will be a top target he said.
Hopefully as in the past the Conservatives will repeal all this bs....
Merry Christmas to you my friends !
Canada is a wide expanse - it ought be its own place - and not subsumed by the UK or any european interest, nor the interest out of folks from Asia for that matter - it ought be its own place.
As said Canada becoming the 51st would be great in my opinion. Likely cause a huge flight out of Canada of all the fuckin communists woke fools residing in the cities here, which would also be great.
However, seems to me there is no reason why local entities can't make arrangements with local trading partners. The provinces in Canada are sort of equal to about 5 states each - don't you think? And then, typing out loud here, various provinces and various state assemblies independent self-governing could make some trade arrangements - so really - don't "undersell" yourself Canada - and you got a lot of territory - I reckon there are some serious mineral on that land and within it and underneath it! Just like in North Carolina - we know we got an assembly of interesting mineral combinations here and we take pride in that - North Carolina style pride - pride of the hills - Proud to be the proprietor of this land we call ourselves in North Carolina!
How many police officers already own one or more of the banned weapons? Be a bit hypocritical of them to go around taking from others. I know the military crowd are keeping their mouths shut for the same reason.
Canada seems to be in the hands of some truly despotic people [Link] who know they will be able to hold on to their power because Canadians are being stripped of their ability to fight back.
A good quote: "The only reason your government wants to take your guns away, is because they plan on doing something to you and your family that you would shoot them for."
Isn't that right, Australia?
ALL else is valueless rhetoric.
The U.S. has an agreement with Canada that U.S. forces (police, military) have 'jurisdiction' up to 60 miles inside Canada. Most Canadians live within fifty or sixty miles of the U.S. border and you could put all of them into 3-1/2 New York Cities.
The U.S. already have controlling interest in Canada's railways, energy infrastructure, communications, food supply, manufacturing, armouring and just about everything else, so I'm thinking we are already a U.S. 'state' to a great degree.
If the move to 'statehood' means we get rid of the current Canadian political system, and its politicians, then I am all for it. It's not like our foreign policies differ very much, so I can't see the change being very disruptive in that respect.
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Meanwhile, I'll kick Uncle Sam in the balls, and then lets talk about setting up some regional entities that make way more sense.
You may or may not know this. But the resource rich provinces send what is called transfer payments to the likes of Ontario/Quebec because they have minimal, and its in the many billions, and a source of a lot of friction, when you get Ottawa trying to kill all resource exploration & extraction.
We are a 'Commonwealth' country which means we are still attached to the British Royals at the pocket book.
As a resource-rich place it makes little business sense for Canada to impose the insane restrictions on resource recovery and industrial growth which the Trudeau government has now enacted - unless the Trudeau government has been created by the Crown according to their WEF/UN/Green belief system.
I'd rather hear ' Drill baby, drill ' than ' You can't have an economy because the King says so. ..'
" Ohhh say can you see ..."
I remember now - it was Estevan. Estevan is in Saskatchewan and they got some of their own rules there but we also had a place in Edmonton - Oil Service business - that is in Alberta.....I remember we had a place out in the fields there.....let me see if I can find that place....
[Link] - I snuck this in....
I can't remember the name of that place with some tanks out there where there was some oil business going on....but I remember driving down a lonely road there in Canada in Saskatchewan or was it Alberta....seemed sort of endless wide open space......sort of like - there is plenty to go around. So Canada really - get your kahunas why don't ya....
I've been across Canada too many times to count but being in the Estevan area is like being out in the middle of the ocean. Dead flat. No landmarks. Spooky.
I suspect true to no doe's days are numbered.
This article is gobbeldy-gook.
LOL!!! I've spent time in P.A. and live amongst 3rd generation Uke farmers here in Eastern Alberta.
So I believe that you are either the bravest man I know, or the craziest...
But "we all want a solution to the collapse of integrity and honor to be done for us by some new app or a new law" is not true for all of us. Having never been a techie, I do not understand the pull that technology has. I simply surround myself with people who like personal interaction rather than technology. They are harder to find, but they are out there.
More dangerous are those who sit around all day typing / talking about misinfo & trash & perpetuate their own manipulations & suppositions into BLACK MAGIK for all of us.
What a woke MESS!!
Call me an "old fart" happily throw away these smart devices - just give me some good company in the local community and I'll be happy assuming there are some baby dolls in town!
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Cause I'll tell ya - I've met many on the wide, wide, web of the internet - from all walks of life - from all over the planet - but I'd just assume meet a sweet baby doll face-to-face. I believe in local commerce.....I think local transactions make the most sense, and I am a supporter of barter transactions!
That 'oldfart' common sense keeps us alive my brother ! Pretty sure those blue haired woke folks will never outlive us.
The erosion of the values came with time, more people, more diversity, more demands, more complexity, more of everything.
People see behind the Wizards curtain now more than ever. It promotes the "Everybody is getting all the good stuff" now its my turn.
Then stir in the "special sauce"... no punishment for crime.
And here we are.
If you want to see the degree of degradation, watch Car 54 or Andy of Mayberry for a stark contrast.
Things have changed and there is no going back without the world having less ants, on the anthill.
Manipulators!
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Twilight of the Race Hustle "There is nothing more fake than when the libs pretend to have an emotional outpouring over some dead loser they didn’t give a f**k about while they were living." — Aimee Terese
James Howard Kunstler Dec 09, 2024 [Link]
"Were you thinking of Daniel Penny this weekend? A year and a half ago, the US marine veteran, age 26, subdued one Jordan Neely, 30, a homeless schizophrenic with a record of 42 arrests who was menacing riders on a New York City subway car. Neely was, at the time, a fugitive on an arrest warrant for felony assault on a sixty-seven-year-old woman. Penny applied a choke hold after Neely declared he was of a mind to kill somebody on the train. Neely was still alive when the cops came, but they declined to give him CPR because he was filthy and an apparent drug-user, and they feared getting AIDS or hepatitis from giving him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. . . so Neely died there in the subway.
Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg indicted Penny for manslaughter in the second degree and secondarily for criminally negligent homicide. His trial has been going on all month. On Friday, the jury reported its inability to reach a verdict on the manslaughter charge. Instead of declaring a mistrial, Judge Maxwell T. Wiley dismissed the primary charge and directed the jury to continue deliberations this week on the secondary negligent homicide charge, a procedurally dubious action.
Everybody knows that the trial is an absurd injustice, but that has been the temper of our society for many years now in the age of the Woke Jacobins. Unlike the original Jacobins of 1794 in Paris, who were ultra-extreme idealists, our Woke Jacobins are extreme cynics, imagining only the worst about the project of civilization. Hence, their alt-project to de-civilize the rest of us..."