Why I'm Doing This
Cancellation as the Ur-Problem
In the previous two entries, I framed the purpose of this endeavor as “Saving the West”. I sincerely apologize for my lack of ambition and reticence in revealing the true scope of its mission right away, which I will rectify now: it’s to save the species. More precisely, it’s to save those that can save the species. Go ahead, laugh- I don’t enjoy inviting ridicule upon myself, but despite how ridiculous it may sound, reality exists regardless of how silly my description of it strikes you. One of the goals of this entry is to convince you why Cancellation will end human life, another goal is to describe how insidiously it damages life as it is (if you’re reading this you hate it too, but not nearly as much as you should).
For those who prefer the abridged version, it’s really quite straightforward: all of the institutions responsible for solving problems are not good at it. Perhaps you’ve noticed. With such keen powers of observation, perhaps you’ve also noticed that they’re actually getting worse at it. Which always sucks at any time, but happens to be occurring when the problems are getting harder to solve independent of our ability to solve them. Decreasing capacity to solve increasingly complex problems means we all die. Many of my objective superiors have made this point in far better detail than I could, so I’ll summarize in a less intelligent way: if the people in charge- whether in official institutional capacity, or ideological zombies wielding new tech-derived power to destroy more talented people’s status for their relative gain- allow our society to continue on its current trajectory, we are ngmi. Let me put our predicament in a slightly flashier way:
Wooley Mammoths & Trans MMA
Now that I have your attention, do you think a civilization with the power to bring extinct species back from the dead within the decade that also allows things like this to take place is long for this world?
Of course not. You can’t possess the incomprehensibly complex scientific wizardry to manipulate organisms at the genetic level while convincing the society responsible for that ability that there is no biological difference between men and women simultaneously. You can’t be that smart and that retarded at the same time, it doesn’t work. While it’s outside of the scope of this post to detail just how everyone in charge attained a species-endangering degree of incompetence, the point is they no longer have the capacity to solve the problems we need to solve in order to survive. Our leaders can’t keep food on the shelves, how in the fuck are they going to navigate the Singularity? Furthermore, incompetence aside- the moral corrosion of these institutions means the primary function they are geared toward is maintaining their hold on power. Afghanistan, China, Debt, Population, Inflation, Supply lines? Stop pestering your superiors with irrelevant concerns when they have real problems to deal with, like Joe Rogan.
Old Story With a New Twist
It sounds stupid to you because you’re a normal person who wants to enjoy life and others to enjoy it as well, but this really strikes at the heart of the issue: Compare any of your favorite internet personalities to their Establishment counterparts- Rogan vs Brian Stelter, Bret Weinstein and Heather Heying vs Anthony Fauci and Rochelle P. Walensky, Curtis Yarvin vs Jason Stanley, Tim Dillon vs Every Late-Night Host Combined- it’s the same thing every time, it’s not even close. They can’t let their competitors exist because deep down, they know they shouldn’t be in charge.
“Cancel Culture” might be a new term, but ruling classes directing commoners rage against their most valuable citizens to suit their own interests is anything but. Socrates was put to death for corrupting the youth; if he were born in Nazi Germany, he would be called a Jewish sympathizer, in the Soviet Union he’d be called a capitalist, if he were born in America he’d be called a racist sexist homophobic transphobic anti-vaxxer. We really do have to do everything to excess.
When times are good and the stability of ruling classes are secure, they integrate these types of people into the system, harness their talents, and society thrives from the fruits of their labor. When times are bad and their stability is uncertain, they demonize them and cast themselves as the protagonists in their duplicitous narrative; manipulating the weakest, dumbest, most gullible, conformist, cowardly members of their population into doing their bidding. Like people who let a bad flu rob them of their humanity, for example. They have no capacity to generate ideas of their own; their very urge to censor is simply projection of their own vacuity, assuming others can be instantly zombified by an idea simply from exposure alone just like they are, swallowing whatever they’re fed on a day-to-day basis and lashing out against anyone with the temerity to challenge what the good people on the screen say, potential blood relation to those people be damned.
My disgust towards those who have voluntarily relinquished their moral agency aside, the point is that those with interests in the previous model are incentivized to sabotage emerging players operating within competing models. The issue is that while emerging models are unproven and have their growing pains and other drawbacks, we know that the previous model is insufficient for solving future existential issues. As we all know, they’re insufficient for solving current non-existential issues. If they could go back in time, I’m sure the present iterations of our institutions would fuck up issues past iterations solved with an expediency the present iterations still point to as evidence that they should still be in charge (what else are they going to point to?). And regardless of how much we hate what we’ve become, we can’t go back either- transporting competent organizations in the past to take their place would also fail miserably- the point is we need something completely different.
We’re undergoing a fundamental reorganization of how to operate our societies. Not as in the oft-discussed 4th Turning as the Post-WW2 Bretton Woods international order all of us have only ever known crumbles before our eyes; as in the greatest technological disruption since the invention of agriculture. A frightening yet useful exercise is to consider the consequences of the Gutenberg Revolution then raise it by an order of magnitude. It is for this reason that those who let their interests in the previous model dominate their decision-making are fundamentally at odds with the interests of the species. Although evil and malice are absolutely present (I never liked Hanlon’s razor) they are not required for this to take place. Simply wishing to provide for one’s descendants like all loving parents do is sufficient to doom the species. But yes, there’s stupidity, greed, and malice on top of that.
This is why Cancellation is indeed the Ur-Problem: because our inability to solve it precludes our ability to solve every other problem. You need Problem Solvers to solve problems and as long as Power Havers possess the ability to destroy them, they’ll continue to do so. If you want to live to see the changes we all wish to see, the ability to provide sufficient security against Cancellation is an unavoidable prerequisite- after all, people can’t take daring risks against the existing order when that order can take food out of their children’s mouths the second they try it.
It may be useful to wonder how many solutions to our present problems might have been contained in some of the 6 million minds that perished in the Holocaust. Or any of the other 100 million others that were destroyed because other minds addled by ancient vices like envy and pride amplified by their ideological mecha suits of communism and Nazism decided their removal from society was necessary in order for them to feel “safe”. Well, the cost of our ruling class's safety has been the universal imperilment of the species. (Obligatory note for people who shouldn’t be reading this in the first place: I am not drawing a moral equivalence between the current iteration of Cancel Culture and the Holocaust. If you assumed that I was, please close this tab and go back to your finger paints.)
We have to invert and counter the incentive structure ruining our institutions and society. They have a top-down system that punishes noble behavior for the sake of preserving the institutions at the expense of the civilization; we must make a bottom-up system that neutralizes those punishments and rewards noble behavior for the sake of preserving civilization at the expense of the institutions. Hyper-novelty requires hyper-adaptation, and we’re choosing stasis and degeneration instead of taking the unbearable risk of actually trying. It’s worth taking that in for a second. We are barely treading water with three broken limbs and are determined to cut off our remaining hand because we don’t like the shape of some of the fingers.
This isn’t exactly a new observation so I won’t spend much time on it but the freaks, the outsiders, the misfits, the troublemakers have always been the ones to propel society forward. The number of geniuses still enriching our lives that irritated everyone around them is too long to list, and the people they pissed off can’t be listed because no one remembers their names. You shouldn’t just be angry at the principle of people being punished who don’t deserve it, or your political enemies punishing your political allies- you should be enraged at the fact this is robbing you of the talent the rest of humanity has to offer. Which brings me to my supervillain origin story.
My Supervillain Origin Story
I’ve always hated this as much as you have, but the real line was crossed for me on 11/10/2017, the day Louis CK got canceled. I still have my screenshot CNN homepage saved from that day.
After printing the picture out, I promptly ran outside during a midnight thunderstorm into the barn where we keep my father’s old samurai armor, unsheathed the family sword, and cut my hand above the picture as I swore a blood oath before the old gods and the new that I would have my vengeance on those who have wronged me and I will taste justice before I fall.
You don’t have to like Louis as much as I do, but the fact they knocked off the top comic in the world like it was nothing should strike enough of a cord with you. So not only are the elites and their soulless, braindead henchmen (Henchwomen? Henchmxn?) making everyone’s lives shittier, they’re taking away the outlet people go to deal with how shitty they made our lives. Dude- fuck that shit. The snide dismissals of people’s concern were about how he’d be fine compared to the womxn, completely ignoring the millions of people that also suffered the consequences. Enjoying the gifts that others possess and sharing the gifts that you possess with others is a foundational aspect of what makes life meaningful. You’re nothing without everyone else’s talents, and your talents are wasted if you have no one to share them with.
Taking away someone’s gift that nature has imparted to them, whether it’s preventing them from sharing it or hindering the development of it is a fundamentally satanic action. I choose this term carefully because it spits in the face of everything that is Good. How else do you describe taking away gifted programs in schools? You wanted to raise the outcome of people at the bottom to bring them in line with the average- it can be argued how feasible that was and how much effort should have been spent on it- but the desire came from a fundamentally noble impulse. That didn’t happen, and now you handicap gifted students’ opportunity to fully utilize their gifts to bring them down to the average? Listen to me you miserable fucks, they’re called gifts because they’re not yours to take. But that’s really Liberalisms transition into Wokism in a nutshell, isn’t it? Your quest to become God failed, so you became the Devil.
Harrison Bergeron
I always get emotional reading Harrison Bergeron (yes, hence the pseudonym) about the concept of having devices implanted into intellectually gifted people to stop them from thinking. It is the most invasive, cruel, violating, and spiritually crippling punishment I can imagine. I’d rather lose a limb. And a ballerina would happily take my place as long as she kept hers. People are willing to sacrifice almost anything else in their lives to preserve the attributes that others value in them and they derive meaning from sharing. But instead, they’re asked to sacrifice what makes them who they are. Listen to stories of boxers whose lives fell apart after winning the title or athletes after they retire because they can no longer partake in what gave their life meaning. Now take that away from them before they even get a chance to play. So next time someone describes Cancel Culture as if it’s a rich guy becoming slightly less rich, politely remind them that it’s spiritual murder on a massive scale. No one has the right to attempt this, let alone get away with it, and you possess every right to remove them from being in a position to be able to do so. But you rarely think this- why?
Because this is the reality we live in. We don’t need metal contraptions strapped to our heads to give us signals that prevent thought, we already have the electrical guardrails hardwired into our neural circuitry themselves through years of social conditioning. When you have thoughts powerful people don’t want you to think, you don’t hear a beep, you feel an unpleasant emotional surge that signals danger and you step away from the guardrails to resume enjoying your day. The kicker is you don’t even get to get angry at the people responsible because you think you’re patrolling those mental borders of your own accord. The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.
You only have 80-90 years to subjectively experience the universe, and someone is dictating where that consciousness can go without your consent. Consent! This whole sexless, sterile, miserable culture is obsessed with consent, yet the ones embracing it the most have invaded and altered hundreds of millions of people’s minds without their permission. Like my bio says: You are under no obligation to remain in a prison that has been assigned to you for someone else's benefit.
And this is all occurring in a context that openly threatens everything you hold dear- yet you can’t even think your way out of the situation without getting the permission of the people who put you there. The ones holding a boot on your neck won’t let you consider how to get it off because it runs the unacceptable risk of them twisting their ankle. (Fact-checkers: “This is misinformation. There is no boot on your neck, experts say it’s just a thick sneaker”)
As The Storm Clouds Gather
“War is a trial of moral and physical forces by means of the latter. . . In the last analysis it is at moral, not physical strength that all military action is directed … Moral factors, then, are the ultimate determinants in war.” - Carl von Clausewitz
Now just replace physical with digital. People are itching to go to war; you see it with Covid, which went from noble to cringey to Kafkaesque tyranny in short order because those war impulses were driven from the top down. War from the bottom up should be much more enjoyable. So in which direction should we channel this warlike impulse? China is popular, but no good… even without nukes, full-blown superpower conflict is too destructive to consider (if you’re picturing WW2 but shinier and faster, you’re doing it wrong). Hmmmmm…. How about the ones who took away your future, demonize your past, and tyrannize your present. Work for you?
Note: In case any of them eventually read this and feel giddy they could get me in trouble, calm down. 1. I distinctly said “digital” 2. Recall the previous post, “Everyone knows this rage is going to go somewhere, so we might as well channel people’s desire to destroy their enemies into something productive like supporting their friends” 3. You’re welcome for the heads up.
Anyway, we’ve established how much better our people are than their people. The only reason dying institutions and the agents representing them haven’t already been swiftly replaced by their superior emerging competitors is because they have the legacy institutional and financial infrastructure to keep them on artificial life support to remain on the field as zombies while using their remaining power to cut the lifelines of these competitors and remove them from the field. Banks get bailed out by the government, think tanks never get their funding cut off regardless of their decades-long losing streak, MSM always has advertisers… the general public must be able to bail out their representatives when they’re in trouble too. If we can successfully replicate that “lifeblood” dynamic, our non-zombified, non-corrupt, non-miserable & incompetent team wins.
Is this potentially dangerous? Sure. But we know the costs of doing nothing. We are in the Endgame without even getting a chance to prepare in the Beginning or Middle. In fact, our predecessors’ choices during the Middle are why the Endgame arrived so prematurely. Leave it to the most selfish generation in human history to bypass their responsibility to transfer their stewardship of the planet to better-equipped descendants in favor of blocking them at every opportunity all the way to the grave. So be it. We are going to drag our predecessors kicking and screaming into the future, or our successors won’t have one. There is a pernicious belief that our culture has run out of stories. I say the stories that haven’t been told yet are more interesting than the ones that have. We just need to protect the people capable of telling them.
Wow! My experience and prescription too.