Rob Henderson on the social psychology of egalitarianism; Alfonso Peccatiello on immaculate disinflation; Brian Chau and Malcolm Collins; Damon Linker on Curtis Yarvin
Your three-way distinction fails when the purpose of the institutions to certain constituents is made clear. If the purpose of universal schooling, for example, is not 'an opportunity for all who choose it' but instead 'universal orthodoxy' then 'work around' is the same thing as 'overthrow.' That is, if there is anywhere a path around the system, it has been effectively neutered. Same thing with just about anything else that is 'universal' or 'totalizing.' Even something as seemingly benign as 'indoor air quality' becomes a sledgehammer.
Frankly, the moment any authority must be intermediated in each and every human relationship, for the protection of one of the parties...
Rob Henderson's post is quite good. Many of the themes he discusses are also covered insightfully and entertainingly in the 2013 memoir of the anthropologist Napoleon Chagnon, Noble Savages: My Life Among Two Dangerous Tribes—the Yanomamö and the Anthropologists. When Chagnon began to study them around 1960, the Yanomamö of the Amazon jungle were one of the few tribes left that had had almost no contact with modern world. Chagnon caused great controversy among anthropologists by showing that the life of the Yanomamö was not the peaceful fantasy imagined by critics of modernity, but punctuated by violence, often motivated by men's competition for women. This politically incorrect finding led to a long, intense, shameful attempt to discredit him that he ultimately overcame.
The workaround approach is probably extra valuable right now. Our current cultural/technological moment, with its sense of closeness, attention-based information selection and amplification, etc., has a totalizing effect. But part of the mechanism seems to be an exaggerated sense of that totalization, leading to a self-fulfilling process, where attention builds around points of conflict and the resulting protest/institutional reaction. The space for workarounds, and the resulting leverage for reform, may be underestimated. At least I hope so!
Arnold;
Your three-way distinction fails when the purpose of the institutions to certain constituents is made clear. If the purpose of universal schooling, for example, is not 'an opportunity for all who choose it' but instead 'universal orthodoxy' then 'work around' is the same thing as 'overthrow.' That is, if there is anywhere a path around the system, it has been effectively neutered. Same thing with just about anything else that is 'universal' or 'totalizing.' Even something as seemingly benign as 'indoor air quality' becomes a sledgehammer.
Frankly, the moment any authority must be intermediated in each and every human relationship, for the protection of one of the parties...
As Linker is mischaracterizing Yarvin's views, it may be helpful for people to read his reply:
https://graymirror.substack.com/p/the-boomer-map
Rob Henderson's post is quite good. Many of the themes he discusses are also covered insightfully and entertainingly in the 2013 memoir of the anthropologist Napoleon Chagnon, Noble Savages: My Life Among Two Dangerous Tribes—the Yanomamö and the Anthropologists. When Chagnon began to study them around 1960, the Yanomamö of the Amazon jungle were one of the few tribes left that had had almost no contact with modern world. Chagnon caused great controversy among anthropologists by showing that the life of the Yanomamö was not the peaceful fantasy imagined by critics of modernity, but punctuated by violence, often motivated by men's competition for women. This politically incorrect finding led to a long, intense, shameful attempt to discredit him that he ultimately overcame.
The workaround approach is probably extra valuable right now. Our current cultural/technological moment, with its sense of closeness, attention-based information selection and amplification, etc., has a totalizing effect. But part of the mechanism seems to be an exaggerated sense of that totalization, leading to a self-fulfilling process, where attention builds around points of conflict and the resulting protest/institutional reaction. The space for workarounds, and the resulting leverage for reform, may be underestimated. At least I hope so!