The dao is real. In fact, the dao is realer than we are, and that's our real problem in explaining it.
Why less anti-social media? Simple: more living, less arguing.
". . . in narcissism believing something is preferable to doing something because the former is about you and the latter is about everyone else." from The Last Psychiatrist
"When we work at the sugar-canes, and the mill snatches hold of a finger, they cut off the hand; and when we attempt to run away, they cut off the leg; both cases have happened to me. This is the price at which you eat sugar in Europe." In Candide. (1759)
Complaining is one thing, if it is done under a set of fairly consistent principles. (Keep in mind also that people don't have to have a stated opinion on everything). Instead, I call the way most people complain mowbs (magic one-way bats). Well, bats can crack both ways.
People with problematic views at least (also sometimes at most) show they care about the issue. One of the best ways to avoid having a currently problematic view is not care about anything and therefore agree with everything in your social circle. Too bad the person who agrees with the current group-think will one day have problematic views on record when the consensus changes.
Detroit is already here; it's just not evenly distributed yet.
If your nation's pandemic plan requires everyone to be galaxy-brain level economic mentants, AND simultaneously altruistic, then you have a bad pandemic plan.
Links and Research
As I use the radio functionality on my dumb phone more and more, I keep having fun finds like the Retro Cocktail Hour.
Here in 2020, I have been making a study of weirdos. One such term I used was "eccentrics." This chapter from the autobiography of Edith Sitwell contains some comments bound to amuse, if not instruct. The quote most pulled from the chapter and spread on the internet:
Eccentricity is not, as some would believe, a form of madness. It is often a kind of innocent pride, and the man of genius and the aristocrat are frequently regarded as eccentrics because genius and aristocrat are entirely unafraid of and uninfluenced by the opinions and vagaries of the crowd.You may also be interested in the life of Stanley Clifford Weyman (New Yorker piece)
Canada's Technocracy, Inc from the 30s and 40s is fascinating (see also Wikipedia). I learned about it because I read Elon Musk's grandfather on his mother's side was involved in it.
And another case of where I don't need to do doomer writing because the work has already been done. I present this review of Four Futures.
Speaking of doom, here is a twitter thread of cognitive mistakes people make around nature, because they translate it into a relationship. Yet another set of reasons you can't get people to coordinate to do the right thing.
While we have computation, though, might as well have mandelbulbs. . . Like the Mandelbrot set brought into 3D.
I'm really glad I started the sub-Reddit r/weirdcollapse. It has brought some websites my way such as Rustic Outcast and Zero Input Agriculture.
A friendly reminder: the founding fathers did not want you to vote.
