The Long Now, Pt. 2 - Make, Protect, Teach
September 11, 2019·Politics
Political institutions are no longer contests of ideas but machines for accumulating power itself. Both major parties have already surrendered to this logic, and anyone who engages with national politics on its terms risks becoming what they claim to oppose. The question is not how to stop this transformation but how to stay human while it happens.
• The widening gyre is not new. History shows this exact pattern repeating every few generations. The 1930s Romanian fascists didn't seize power in a coup; they slowly normalized themselves through elections while both establishment parties scrambled for control. The machinery looks different today but follows the identical template.
• Intelligent people rationalize it the fastest. The real danger isn't thugs; it's educated people who know better but convince themselves the stakes are so urgent that principles don't matter. They choose to become rhinoceroses not from stupidity but from a conscious decision that power matters more than truth.
• Refusal at the personal level is the only leverage you have. National politics is already lost. Top-down resistance feeds the very system it opposes. The only thing you can actually control is whether you accept the terms of the game: refusing ridiculous candidates, refusing ridiculous debts, refusing to sacrifice your autonomy of mind.
• Real participation happens at a human scale. Families, neighborhoods, communities. This is where the political (how we live as social animals) diverges from politics (the game of power). Building something concrete here is not retreat; it's the only place where small-l liberal principles actually survive.
• What if citizenship required making, protecting, or teaching instead of money? The current system rewards extraction and management. The alternative asks: what would change if only people doing real work, protecting others, or transmitting knowledge held political power? This frames an entirely different future.
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Comments
This is so cogent and powerful that it will take some time to digest but the importance cannot be understated. I really appreciate it.
Jack: Did you know there’s a Fight Club up in Delaware City?
Tyler: Yeah, I heard.
[Car Alarm]
Jack: There’s one in Penn’s Grove, too. Bob even found one up in Newcastle.
Tyler: Yeah. Did you start that one?
Jack: No. I thought you did.
Tyler: Nah.
Together: Pff!
[Car Alarm]
Just perfect. Left with chills, again…
If your readers have not read “Shop Class as Soul Craft,” I commend it to them. Those with a religious inclination should look at “The Benedict Option” by Rod Dreher who discusses a lot of the same concerns and points about creating small, local cultures that can withstand the tides of disintegration that are rolling in.
This article resonated with me all the way to the statement about empowering teachers as political and civic leaders. They may be engaged in a noble profession, and individually heroic, but as a group they’re impossibly corrupt, politically ideological (rhinoceroses?), and advocate for things that are directly contrary to the welfare of children. In a sense, they should act like fiduciaries, but they have large conflicts of interest and engage in self-dealing.
“For anyone who believes that [ Julian] Assange is a ‘rapist’ who is ‘evading justice’ and is ‘holed up at the embassy’ because he is a ‘coward’; indeed, anyone who focuses on the actions and personality of Assange instead of the content of the leaks published by his organization…for you the message is this: You will not realize it (yet) but you have been successfully co-opted into the propaganda efforts to deflect attention from the numerous, horrific, documented crimes of imperial interests and the deep corruption of major institutions and their top officials.
The people responsible for disseminating this propaganda will laugh at how they have successfully transformed you into a pack of animals baying for the blood of one man whose ‘crime’ has been to shine a spotlight on the corruption they are paid well to obscure.
They will chortle with delight at your almost complete lack of interest in the decades upon decades of mass murder, torture, rapes, oppression and illegal coups that have been carried out in your name with your taxes and with the help of officials you have voted for, while you focus your ire instead on one of the most obvious set-ups (that of Assange) ever…along with all the other tried-and-tested distractions.
The only thing that may astound even them is how easy it has been to manipulate you. In the internet age, ignorance really is a choice – the choice between being a manipulated dupe and a free thinker. Quite literally, millions of lives depend on it. What will it be?” ~ Simon Wood
While your notes have always been thoughtful and intellectually stimulating, this is the first one to my memory that feels empowering. Thank you
Thanks, Ben!
Thanks Ben. There is always ‘weather’ … it can often be understood/interpreted (more or less) by season … it amazes me that a huge percentage of the global population doesn’t seem to understand that this is true in culture, politics and economics … Thanks for pointing it out.
sorry, i dont think i have ever actually commented on an internet post before.
Just re-read and I really hope that this goes down as a pivotal document in our country’s history.
Really ties together the loose ends that I (we) have been trying to work through for years.
Its a powerful call to action that is going to really stick in my craw as someone firmly but uncomfortably outside the Maker-Teacher -Protector realm. Some tough choices to make.
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