Interesting title "The fundamental tension of this moment is that there is no organizing thesis for society anymore".
I might suggest a minor adjustment: "The fundamental tension of this moment is that there are no organizing theses for society anymore." We might ask, is it a "tension" or is it an absence of tension?
We need to look more closely at The Wisdom of Crowds by James Surowiecki, and notice that it is actually about the wisdom of communities. A random group of people (a crowd in his terminology) when asked the first problem "the dressed weight of a bull" would give answers bordering on ridiculous. But if a group of "interested people" a community that has interest in the dressed weight of cattle, the answers are remarkably good and the average is almost exact. He does use the word community on occasion - but 28 instances, over half are the "intelligence community" as if it were one entity. There are dozens of intelligence communities - and each one is a community of communities of communities. In the book, the word community appears 45 times, 28 of which are the "Intelligence community." The word "crowd" appears 137 times. The word group, which might be used to define a group of people who have a mole on their left shoulder, appears 458 times. Yes the book is excellent, however it largely misses the point, the reality that "communities" matter, not "groups" not "crowds."
Despite Surowjecki's title is simply wrong. It's not about "crowd" wisdom, it's not a "group" wisdom, it's community wisdom. Surowiecki makes this simple error throughout the book, mislabeling "communities" as groups or crowds.
Unfortunately, our modern sciences, even sociologies, focus on individuals and the state. Communities are largely ignored. We have no science of community. At the same time, all life requires community to exist. Healthy communities require cooperation and competition inside and outside. Without cooperation, there is no community. Cooperation defines community. But without competition, there is no forward movement. Communities (and societies) that emphasize only cooperation stagnate until they are eaten by more effective communities.
What has happened to our communities? If we ask people, "what communities do you identify with and how strong are your ties to these communities" the answer might be a vacant stare. We used to believe in our communities. Now we are urged to "respect every individual" and to parrot simplistic statements like "black lives matter."
Communities matter. We need the freedom form strong communities.
The internet, Facebook for example, destroys communities - because communities threaten Facebook. Twitter? Individuals striving for attention. How can we build communities not "a society" on twitter?
A society is not one entity, it is a group of communities of communities of communities. Communities are individuals, cooperating and competing like individuals in any community.
But.. How many of your communities were decimated by the "pandemic?" How many of them still have "pandemic fractures" keeping them from functioning as they did before the pandemic? I can name several that, in my case, have disappeared. I don't know of any of my communities that functions as they did before the pandemic? Pandemic fear does not just divide people, it divides communities - and communities are what makes a real society. I suspect this is by design. When communities are fractured or destroyed, "society" disappears and individuals become easier to control. Our bureaucracies are communities that fear and hate the concept of communities.
The Spirits of Life are the spirits community. "Society" is what emerges when communities are free, when communities have and foster freedom of speech, of action, and of inaction or refusal to act as required. But today? What medical community (we hold our doctors up very high), conventional or alternative, dares allow any individual physician, or any community of physicians to speak their mind, or to recommend what they believe in?
a whileback i wrote you about my friend who lives with pain and uses gabapentin, which you said you tried. she now say sshe has relaced it with lyrica, feewer pills per day and working better, good luck.
No, I think it is regulatory capture with simultaneous elimination of pluralistic competition at the commanding heights via Central Banking. The Administrative State and representative bodies are also captured. The Central Banks are all one now, co-ordinated from the Bank of International Settlements in Switzerland.
The true wisdom of crowds is the wisdom of communities. Unfortunately, our military industrial and medical complex hates "other communities." And the wisdom of powerful communities is without morals. Communities can be A-souls.
OK, looking back; if Liberal economics led to unhealthy and unproductive outcomes (except for the elite few) and Progressive economics worked until all the regulators (and legislators) in charge of keeping the would be New Robber Barons were bribed and assimilated into the current Big Tech augmented Fascist System -- then reversing and revealing the scope of all the corruption, deception, larceny and theft becomes a communications problem. How did the original progressives first enter into their fight with the Monopoly Capitol Cartels?
Muckraking Journalism and Socialist community organizing. We don't need to reinvent our whole economic system right away but we do need to recruit, diffuse divisive hyperpolarized rhetoric and communicate ideas that can get past the surveillance and suppression algorithms to unite and rally around independent ideas and themes that restore a vision of the common good.
If we could find a way to greatly weaken the federal government and return most, but probably not all, governing power to the states, perhaps that would help restore the Constitution which in my view is what needs to happen. That document should be able to withstand almost any assault, unless of course citizens reject it out of hand.
How about DECENTRALIZATION as our society's new organizing thesis, Dr. Rogers? The simple logic behind this is that, if power is decentralized, no one can amass too much of it.
What if the globalists have had their tyranny? The eco-grift has had its green Marshall Plan? The corporate-genocide complex has committed undeniable crimes? They say it wasn't enough and they want to have at it again. They've already had it, though. It's come and gone.
Capitalism is not the problem, globalism and the government colluding with big businesses to continue their globalist agenda is the problem. Free trade policies have to be in the best interest of the people for BOTH countries and not simply the corporations. Otherwise you end up with what we have now: mass immigration brought to you by careless free trade policies which exploited cheap labor and simeotaneously monopolized economies of the third world rendering them stagnant or worse. In addition, let's all stop conflating an Ivy League education with a superior ability to make decisions for 365million citizens and all the other countries in the world. Our credentialist society that places education above actual inteligence and more importantly: a sound moral character and an unwavering dedication to the people who you are elected to serve. Nearly every member in congress has an advanced degee—yet look where we are. These highly credentialed individuals with glowing resumes on both sides of the political spectrum have only proven that education has little impact on one's ability to lead and act in the best interests of others.
I tried to dm you here but it said I had to pay to do so :( Care to extend a paid membership to your old friend tara? tara is poor but would love to talk to toby more! ;)
Key to any new paradigm is decentralizing everything, resulting in no way to amass control of wealth and power for as we know power corrupts. So I suggest disaggregating— no more big government or big corporations small is beautiful. Not sure how we get to that end point.
Perhaps there was a clear-toned, unifying message emerging from the murkiness when RFK Jr urged us to rally around this thought: that we act based on our love for our children more than the orchestrated division and hatred we find ourselves in. Last Friday, he said, “Ultimately, the only thing that will save our country and our children is if we choose to love our kids more than we hate each other.”
I trust his instincts and integrity, as well as his agility in responding to the ever-changing current situation. I think this is pertinent to this discussion, because what may appear as a confusing blurring of the conventional lines might be leading to a welcome and healthy paradigm shift. With that in mind, I'd like to share what I see are the reasons RFK is doing what he's doing, in order to keep his most fervently-held goals alive, the foremost of which is saving children.
There's another long-game goal involved – please read on.
I encourage everyone to listen to this interview he did with Dr Phil for context:
As readers here know, the mainstream media is mistakenly saying RFK Jr gave up and is not in the race. But RFK hasn't pulled out of the election, he has just suspended his campaign and will still be on most state ballots. He explains the reasons in various places, such as the interview above.
This interview also reveals that after relentless legal warfare attacks by the DNC to try to keep him off the ballot in state after state, draining his funds and keeping him in the courtroom instead of campaigning, and numerous other dastardly, un-democratic DNC tactics, he and his team analyzed the situation and discovered that he could inadvertently be helping to elect Harris, who has no interest in RFK Jr's causes or those of the majority of Americans. Trump, on the other hand, is aligned on the most existential issues: ending the endless wars of choice, stopping the government-run censorship and surveillance regime, and reversing the chronic disease epidemic of children and adults which is now costing us five times the military budget and causing untold disability and death, especially concerning American children who are the sickest children on Earth.
So, RFK was forced to switch gears, but he hasn't given up.
It's clear that he wants to achieve what his uncle and father set out to do and unify the country to tackle the existential issues. It's clear that the current Democratic party has abandoned its former values and now promotes war, surveillance, censorship, industrial monopolies, mandates, and authoritarianism, and a Harris administration would be more of the same in all these ways.
Here's what RFK Jr is suggesting:
In battleground swing states, a vote for Trump is needed to keep RFK on the path to achieving his vitally important goals regarding children's health, war and censorship. So, vote for Trump in battleground swing states. In all-blue or all-red states, where your vote won't make a difference in the outcome, VOTE KENNEDY. This will help achieve many things if Kennedy gets 5% of the popular vote nationwide, including a viable independent party, in the next election and future elections, and this will bring much-needed public funding, recognition, visibility, debate access, etc.
This is the other long-game prospect. If he gets 5% of the popular vote, there will be a seismic shift away from the two-party, Uniparty duopoly. This would be a major milestone for independent politics, and a critical step toward sustaining this movement for years to come. Such funding would be transformative, clearing many of the organizational and financial obstacles designed to suppress independent campaigns and sustain the stranglehold of Washington insiders. Furthermore, if Harris or Trump fail to get 270 electoral votes, Kennedy could still be in the running and end up in the White House.
I'm choosing to keep the faith and trust his wisdom and judgement in striving for the best possible outcome in this difficult situation, in the decade he feels he has left to be effective.
UPDATE: NEW INFO FROM RFK Jr – he emphasized this week that rapidly increasing censorship and totalitarianism, which is suddenly sweeping the globe, represents the biggest threat, for if we lose free speech, all other goals evaporate. (See Jenna McCarthy's latest post for a list of examples of this rapidly-increasing menace to humanity and life as we know it. https://jennasside.rocks/p/rfk-jr-wants-everyone-to-vote-for)
RFK Jr released a statement Sep 5 urging EVERYONE TO VOTE FOR TRUMP as the best and only way now to advance RFK's goals and their shared goals of restoring our children's and nation's health and ending the forever wars and censorship. Trump needs a landslide victory in both the popular vote AND the Electoral College in order for it to not be contested and challenged. A close vote would be disastrous.
Please trust RFK Jr's instincts, integrity, and ability to see the big, big picture, as well as his agility in responding to the ever-changing current situation. We must be agile as well and let go of our initial hopes for how this campaign should go.
Keep in mind that the mainstream media has been biased for a long time, manipulating our opinions and thoughts and suppressing important truths. If we realize that this bias was strong regarding the pandemic, we ought to also realize it's been biased regarding President Trump during his first administration. Let's ask ourselves how much of our opinion about him has been shaped by media manipulation.
The DNC and its masters sabotaged RFK and his campaign at every turn, but we must unify and show that we are stronger. A wholly new, unprecedented alliance has emerged with three former democrats – Trump, Kennedy, Gabbard – and we'd better join them en masse to save us from going over a totalitarian cliff. They need our active support, before it's too late. As RFK has said, no-one ever complied their way out of totalitarianism, and throughout history, those who censored were never the good guys. Do what you can to spread the word to vote Trump.
Just so long as the LOVE is a strong form of just love. As haters have being doing a large amount of damaged to people who essentially love them already.
Interesting title "The fundamental tension of this moment is that there is no organizing thesis for society anymore".
I might suggest a minor adjustment: "The fundamental tension of this moment is that there are no organizing theses for society anymore." We might ask, is it a "tension" or is it an absence of tension?
We need to look more closely at The Wisdom of Crowds by James Surowiecki, and notice that it is actually about the wisdom of communities. A random group of people (a crowd in his terminology) when asked the first problem "the dressed weight of a bull" would give answers bordering on ridiculous. But if a group of "interested people" a community that has interest in the dressed weight of cattle, the answers are remarkably good and the average is almost exact. He does use the word community on occasion - but 28 instances, over half are the "intelligence community" as if it were one entity. There are dozens of intelligence communities - and each one is a community of communities of communities. In the book, the word community appears 45 times, 28 of which are the "Intelligence community." The word "crowd" appears 137 times. The word group, which might be used to define a group of people who have a mole on their left shoulder, appears 458 times. Yes the book is excellent, however it largely misses the point, the reality that "communities" matter, not "groups" not "crowds."
Despite Surowjecki's title is simply wrong. It's not about "crowd" wisdom, it's not a "group" wisdom, it's community wisdom. Surowiecki makes this simple error throughout the book, mislabeling "communities" as groups or crowds.
Unfortunately, our modern sciences, even sociologies, focus on individuals and the state. Communities are largely ignored. We have no science of community. At the same time, all life requires community to exist. Healthy communities require cooperation and competition inside and outside. Without cooperation, there is no community. Cooperation defines community. But without competition, there is no forward movement. Communities (and societies) that emphasize only cooperation stagnate until they are eaten by more effective communities.
What has happened to our communities? If we ask people, "what communities do you identify with and how strong are your ties to these communities" the answer might be a vacant stare. We used to believe in our communities. Now we are urged to "respect every individual" and to parrot simplistic statements like "black lives matter."
Communities matter. We need the freedom form strong communities.
The internet, Facebook for example, destroys communities - because communities threaten Facebook. Twitter? Individuals striving for attention. How can we build communities not "a society" on twitter?
A society is not one entity, it is a group of communities of communities of communities. Communities are individuals, cooperating and competing like individuals in any community.
But.. How many of your communities were decimated by the "pandemic?" How many of them still have "pandemic fractures" keeping them from functioning as they did before the pandemic? I can name several that, in my case, have disappeared. I don't know of any of my communities that functions as they did before the pandemic? Pandemic fear does not just divide people, it divides communities - and communities are what makes a real society. I suspect this is by design. When communities are fractured or destroyed, "society" disappears and individuals become easier to control. Our bureaucracies are communities that fear and hate the concept of communities.
to your health, tracy
https://spiritsoflife.substack.com/
The Spirits of Life are the spirits community. "Society" is what emerges when communities are free, when communities have and foster freedom of speech, of action, and of inaction or refusal to act as required. But today? What medical community (we hold our doctors up very high), conventional or alternative, dares allow any individual physician, or any community of physicians to speak their mind, or to recommend what they believe in?
a whileback i wrote you about my friend who lives with pain and uses gabapentin, which you said you tried. she now say sshe has relaced it with lyrica, feewer pills per day and working better, good luck.
No, I think it is regulatory capture with simultaneous elimination of pluralistic competition at the commanding heights via Central Banking. The Administrative State and representative bodies are also captured. The Central Banks are all one now, co-ordinated from the Bank of International Settlements in Switzerland.
The true wisdom of crowds is the wisdom of communities. Unfortunately, our military industrial and medical complex hates "other communities." And the wisdom of powerful communities is without morals. Communities can be A-souls.
OK, looking back; if Liberal economics led to unhealthy and unproductive outcomes (except for the elite few) and Progressive economics worked until all the regulators (and legislators) in charge of keeping the would be New Robber Barons were bribed and assimilated into the current Big Tech augmented Fascist System -- then reversing and revealing the scope of all the corruption, deception, larceny and theft becomes a communications problem. How did the original progressives first enter into their fight with the Monopoly Capitol Cartels?
Muckraking Journalism and Socialist community organizing. We don't need to reinvent our whole economic system right away but we do need to recruit, diffuse divisive hyperpolarized rhetoric and communicate ideas that can get past the surveillance and suppression algorithms to unite and rally around independent ideas and themes that restore a vision of the common good.
If we could find a way to greatly weaken the federal government and return most, but probably not all, governing power to the states, perhaps that would help restore the Constitution which in my view is what needs to happen. That document should be able to withstand almost any assault, unless of course citizens reject it out of hand.
The all day everyday part is true, yet I can't find anyone offline who can handle talking about anything of importance beyond 5 minutes.
https://victoriaarand.substack.com/p/petition-to-stop-atlas-shrugging-092?r=25xhde
How about DECENTRALIZATION as our society's new organizing thesis, Dr. Rogers? The simple logic behind this is that, if power is decentralized, no one can amass too much of it.
What if the globalists have had their tyranny? The eco-grift has had its green Marshall Plan? The corporate-genocide complex has committed undeniable crimes? They say it wasn't enough and they want to have at it again. They've already had it, though. It's come and gone.
You believed the Robber Baron shtick but not the Branch Covidian schtick? That's a new one.
Absolutely love your analysis and perspective. Thank you.
Capitalism is not the problem, globalism and the government colluding with big businesses to continue their globalist agenda is the problem. Free trade policies have to be in the best interest of the people for BOTH countries and not simply the corporations. Otherwise you end up with what we have now: mass immigration brought to you by careless free trade policies which exploited cheap labor and simeotaneously monopolized economies of the third world rendering them stagnant or worse. In addition, let's all stop conflating an Ivy League education with a superior ability to make decisions for 365million citizens and all the other countries in the world. Our credentialist society that places education above actual inteligence and more importantly: a sound moral character and an unwavering dedication to the people who you are elected to serve. Nearly every member in congress has an advanced degee—yet look where we are. These highly credentialed individuals with glowing resumes on both sides of the political spectrum have only proven that education has little impact on one's ability to lead and act in the best interests of others.
I tried to dm you here but it said I had to pay to do so :( Care to extend a paid membership to your old friend tara? tara is poor but would love to talk to toby more! ;)
Key to any new paradigm is decentralizing everything, resulting in no way to amass control of wealth and power for as we know power corrupts. So I suggest disaggregating— no more big government or big corporations small is beautiful. Not sure how we get to that end point.
Completely agree with you Tom! Please see my comment above. Please also see the following:
https://victoriaarand.substack.com/p/petition-to-stop-atlas-shrugging-092?r=25xhde
I intend to post about decentralization in the near future.
~ ~ ~ SEE UPDATE BELOW THIS COMMENT ~ ~ ~
Perhaps there was a clear-toned, unifying message emerging from the murkiness when RFK Jr urged us to rally around this thought: that we act based on our love for our children more than the orchestrated division and hatred we find ourselves in. Last Friday, he said, “Ultimately, the only thing that will save our country and our children is if we choose to love our kids more than we hate each other.”
I trust his instincts and integrity, as well as his agility in responding to the ever-changing current situation. I think this is pertinent to this discussion, because what may appear as a confusing blurring of the conventional lines might be leading to a welcome and healthy paradigm shift. With that in mind, I'd like to share what I see are the reasons RFK is doing what he's doing, in order to keep his most fervently-held goals alive, the foremost of which is saving children.
There's another long-game goal involved – please read on.
I encourage everyone to listen to this interview he did with Dr Phil for context:
https://x.com/DrPhil/status/1828848142713766099
As readers here know, the mainstream media is mistakenly saying RFK Jr gave up and is not in the race. But RFK hasn't pulled out of the election, he has just suspended his campaign and will still be on most state ballots. He explains the reasons in various places, such as the interview above.
This interview also reveals that after relentless legal warfare attacks by the DNC to try to keep him off the ballot in state after state, draining his funds and keeping him in the courtroom instead of campaigning, and numerous other dastardly, un-democratic DNC tactics, he and his team analyzed the situation and discovered that he could inadvertently be helping to elect Harris, who has no interest in RFK Jr's causes or those of the majority of Americans. Trump, on the other hand, is aligned on the most existential issues: ending the endless wars of choice, stopping the government-run censorship and surveillance regime, and reversing the chronic disease epidemic of children and adults which is now costing us five times the military budget and causing untold disability and death, especially concerning American children who are the sickest children on Earth.
So, RFK was forced to switch gears, but he hasn't given up.
It's clear that he wants to achieve what his uncle and father set out to do and unify the country to tackle the existential issues. It's clear that the current Democratic party has abandoned its former values and now promotes war, surveillance, censorship, industrial monopolies, mandates, and authoritarianism, and a Harris administration would be more of the same in all these ways.
Here's what RFK Jr is suggesting:
In battleground swing states, a vote for Trump is needed to keep RFK on the path to achieving his vitally important goals regarding children's health, war and censorship. So, vote for Trump in battleground swing states. In all-blue or all-red states, where your vote won't make a difference in the outcome, VOTE KENNEDY. This will help achieve many things if Kennedy gets 5% of the popular vote nationwide, including a viable independent party, in the next election and future elections, and this will bring much-needed public funding, recognition, visibility, debate access, etc.
This is the other long-game prospect. If he gets 5% of the popular vote, there will be a seismic shift away from the two-party, Uniparty duopoly. This would be a major milestone for independent politics, and a critical step toward sustaining this movement for years to come. Such funding would be transformative, clearing many of the organizational and financial obstacles designed to suppress independent campaigns and sustain the stranglehold of Washington insiders. Furthermore, if Harris or Trump fail to get 270 electoral votes, Kennedy could still be in the running and end up in the White House.
I'm choosing to keep the faith and trust his wisdom and judgement in striving for the best possible outcome in this difficult situation, in the decade he feels he has left to be effective.
UPDATE: NEW INFO FROM RFK Jr – he emphasized this week that rapidly increasing censorship and totalitarianism, which is suddenly sweeping the globe, represents the biggest threat, for if we lose free speech, all other goals evaporate. (See Jenna McCarthy's latest post for a list of examples of this rapidly-increasing menace to humanity and life as we know it. https://jennasside.rocks/p/rfk-jr-wants-everyone-to-vote-for)
RFK Jr released a statement Sep 5 urging EVERYONE TO VOTE FOR TRUMP as the best and only way now to advance RFK's goals and their shared goals of restoring our children's and nation's health and ending the forever wars and censorship. Trump needs a landslide victory in both the popular vote AND the Electoral College in order for it to not be contested and challenged. A close vote would be disastrous.
Please trust RFK Jr's instincts, integrity, and ability to see the big, big picture, as well as his agility in responding to the ever-changing current situation. We must be agile as well and let go of our initial hopes for how this campaign should go.
Keep in mind that the mainstream media has been biased for a long time, manipulating our opinions and thoughts and suppressing important truths. If we realize that this bias was strong regarding the pandemic, we ought to also realize it's been biased regarding President Trump during his first administration. Let's ask ourselves how much of our opinion about him has been shaped by media manipulation.
The DNC and its masters sabotaged RFK and his campaign at every turn, but we must unify and show that we are stronger. A wholly new, unprecedented alliance has emerged with three former democrats – Trump, Kennedy, Gabbard – and we'd better join them en masse to save us from going over a totalitarian cliff. They need our active support, before it's too late. As RFK has said, no-one ever complied their way out of totalitarianism, and throughout history, those who censored were never the good guys. Do what you can to spread the word to vote Trump.
Just so long as the LOVE is a strong form of just love. As haters have being doing a large amount of damaged to people who essentially love them already.