THE 5th WAVE: THE ‘FLOW OF CHANGES’ - HUMANITY STUMBLES UP THE STEEP CURVE OF THE EXPONENTIAL AGE

The Perched Eye blog is 15 years old,  from 2009 with President Obama's election. Our focus has been eclectic ...  the styles and directions of American politics and culture, with an occasional comment on the impact of new technologies. Our observations sometimes attract a critical eye, but the 'pen' remains unblunted.

We are now experiencing an exponentially turbulent ‘FLOW OF CHANGES' that arguably began when human science entered the cusp of exponential technological evolution with the Quantum Science discussions and debates of Bohr, Einstein, Heisenberg, Dirac...at 1927's Solvay Conference.) Classical Newtonian Rationalism began to blur and fade after this...supplanted by 'Uncertainty' and debate about what is real, or not, or both. 

And humanity began to understand that something 'more' was coming through that opened door... things unknown and unexpected, and things came rapidly after this, and increasingly more rapidly. 

We had entered a new world of CHANGE...Dynamic Change...Exponentially Dynamic Change. (Changes change, too.) 

But, our (unassisted) brains are not equipped with neuronic speeds fast enough to cope with exponential change. The result is damaging to the individual and our societies. Humanity will have to learn how to navigate the new Age of Exponential Change.

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We are exiting the linear, gentler progression of human development that began with the Enlightenment, led us through the Industrial Revolution, and are now even exiting the cusp that leads radically upward (change-wise, if not for the better) to a near-vertical exponential-change curve where 'change' will be so rapid as to seem a day-to-day mental crisis.

Humanity is finding the post-Cusp, upward climb too steep, too rapidly changing, and increasingly confusing. Our brains are not equipped with neuronic speeds fast enough to cope with exponential change. The result is damaging to the individual and our societies.

 We are now on a difficult path...in almost all aspects of human culture, ethnicity relations, physical health, personal and social mental stability,...and especially politics.  

‘Exponential’ change has become a perceptible determinant of our lives.

America currently leads in this too-rapidly-changing race to…where? And we seem lost and near-overwhelmed by it all - mass shootings in our schools, political shibboleths that operate against the Common Good (but are phrased in clever rhyme and meter to sound comforting, group inclusive, and other ego-appealing ways attractive to the uneducated and desperate...despite being factually against their best interests (a perception Perched Eye noted in 2009.)

CAN HUMANITY NAVIGATE THESE TIMES? (Can we gain control, or at least a working perspective on our Technology and our Future…as we think we want it to be? Or should we choose to continue in our self-driven state of chaos? Or should we try something new? 

Do we have Choices?  For the new? Are there any choices as the race gets faster to keep pace on the upward curve in this new Exponential Age?

The Age of Exponentialism is the 5th Wave that builds upon the shocks to the human psyche and society by modern change since the Industrial Revolution ... notably as written about in books such as Future Shock, Alvin Tofflfer, 1960), followed by Toffler’s “3rd Wave”(1980).  

The Third Wave was followed by the ‘4th Wave's’ writings and thouhts following along after Toffler, and characterized by literary musings in Sci-Fi (e.g., "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968, Philip K Dick), analyses of psychoses, and predictions based on perceived changes and expectations resulting from the 3rd wave. 

IMO, the Fourth Wave emphasized ...technologically resultant discontinuities (Futurism, Singularity and Transhumanism (Kurzweil)); existential angst (RD Laing); and reactions to technological dominance, e.g., Expanionist Sentientcy & ‘Uber-sentiency’ (Nick Bostrom, David Pearce)

The Exponential Age difference is that changes are coming too quick to muse about one, or even one phase in particular. 

We must quickly learn to disregard momentary analyses, and simply give ourselves over to the ‘Flow of Change”. 

There will come a time when humanity will have a moment to rest (or rely on ‘Advanced Integrative Ai) and gain a perspective on our ‘state of being.’ Then, we may be able to consolidate our experience into moralities and ethics for the next steps up the Exponential Curve.

‘Change’ is now more a mental acknowledgment than an understanding.  Close-focusing is useless. Our brains are not equipped with neuronic speeds fast enough to cope with exponential change. Attempting close-focusing one minute loses sight od what is unflolding a minute later. The result is mind-bending, socially dissociating disaffect on the individual...all of which is socially disruptive.

Accelerating change is what mathematicians call 2nd (and higher order) differential change…i.e., changes in heretofore steady (linear straight line) change…with some key interspersed discontinuities (Age Defining Historicies.) 

We’ll just call Exponential Change:

CONFLUENCES, INFLUENCES, CHANGING-CHANGE, & CHAOS: THE TIDES OF EXPONENTIAL CULTURAL EVOLUTION (The Global 5th Wave…)

The Age of Exponentialism is a non-linear, upward-accelerating curve of socio-technological change characterizing an increasingly more rapid evolution of human culture driven by technological advances that feed upon themselves (‘exponential change’)…resulting in such rapid changes that we humans have little time to learn new ‘stuff’and adjust.

Exponentialism originates from, is fed by, and supported with a mix of factors:

• ET CONTACT (& DISCLOSURE). This event (or DOD release), accompanied by potential, open-source technology transfer will blow away every expectation and prediction — further advancement upward along the now vertical exponential curve will potentially (!) be hyper-radical. Humanity’s public reaction will be either a ‘Hollywood 6-month fascination’, or a major, permanent shift in human ‘ways’ (religion especially, racism, ethics, Ai progress and codes, …)…or, will ET have it’s own xenophobic response to trusting humans, and then..either we will be resentful that treasures and secrets are withheld, or we will remain ignorant of what ET doesn’t reveal to us…until we discover things for ourselves (ET policy might be to ‘give humans just enought to advance them a bit, but…watch and monitor);
• ABSENT ET DISCLOSURE: Humanity will plot its own course up the Exponential curve.
• Accelerating Information exchange… speed and formats;
• Quantum Technologies (eg, the promise of quantum computing, (hyper-’parallelism’);
• the soon-to-come-on-the-exponential curve‘ of applied QuantumEntanglement with ‘instantaneous’ transmission of messages and physical objects (prototypes already reported);
• Artificial Intelligence — doing human ‘work’ faster and error free;
• Neuro-science & technology, Genetics and Physiology — e.g., organ and limb regeneration, brain enhancement, artificial eyes…;
• Virtual Living — as humans are freed from work, what do we do to occupy ourselves? Or, will this question become irrelevant…as we increasingly turn to virtual escapism?;
• Cultural Reductionism of ‘culture’ to the essentials, the ‘irreducibles’(e.g., food, water, sanitation, air (!)…?). BUt will even these eventually become irrelevant as humanity goes full virtual?;
• HUMANITY EXPANDS (by its own efforts): FTL space-time travel becomes a technical thing (warp drive, M-Drive, etc….and other DARPA projects currently underway, and soon to come, and completed but held secret for the ‘standard’ DARPA vault release (20–50 years).) ET Contact falls into this category.

But for humanity to survive, as it must (!), we humans have to adapt to accelerating change…hard…as we are stumblingly starting to do. (Afterall, we built this system and we can’t let it get away from us…at least not let it get away easily, without a battle (a battle for our survival.)

Humanity are like the ‘60s wave riders of North Shore’s Makaha in my second home, Hawaii, who over the years learned to surf its cross-currents, barrels and random waves…’hanging ten’ and looking good…despite it all.

The human brain, unassisted, seems inadequate for the Age of Exponentialism; and natural human evolution seems to slow to keep up. The answer seems inevitable that humanity must be assisted in the technological manner(s) listed above…which we are doing.

The big conundrum in this Age of Exponentialism is:

CAN HUMANITY HOLD ON! (To Itself, Its Technology, Its Future…as we think we know, or want it to be?)

The GOP Is Drifting Anchorless ...But That's The Way They Like It

 

The Perched Eye blog is 14 years old,  from 2009 with President Obama's election. Our focus has been eclectic ...  the styles and directions of American politics and culture, with an occasional comment on the impact of new technologies. Our observations sometimes attract a critical eye, but the 'pen' remains unblunted.

To me, the following thoughts help to explain the current GOP. One can write extensively about these and other GOP foci, but primarily, America's GOPERs have put themselves out to Sea…but they like it (a scary thing.)

The GOP has become a marginal voting bloc that espouses radical, extremist, societally negative, marginal views that are often just nonsensical. Even worse, GOP'ers seem to recognize their aberrancy yet revel in their mud, reek, and wallow. Leaving the rest of America to clean up their slop (Orwell is cringing, ‘I warned you’…’ ”1984".)

Visibly (check out any GOP gathering), the GOP is an anomalous, societally harmful “phenomenon” — a politico-socio ‘glitch’ that is destructive and does not add real value to America except to provide a (fragile) outlet to a homogeneous minority of dissatisfied citizens…who if they didn’t have the GOP would actively engage in terrorism, insurrection (proven) and other acts to upset civil peace and destroy democratic government.

Why is the GOP so recalcitrant, risible, and apparently living on a knife edge of committing acts of mayhem…even self-harm, or at least operating against their best interests? Here are three principal reasons:

First, GOPERS themselves don't seem to know the real cause of their dissatisfaction…but the main root appears to be “Change” or “Different-from-us”…of any kind..as long as it gives them an apparent cause to ‘Vent.’ GOPER ‘Venting’ is so satisfying…the 21st century version of lynching,..Y’all.’

Second, GOPERS have found anchor posts to fixate on as destroying their concept of ‘Normalcy’ — these anchor posts seem chiefly to be :

1/ Racial integration (legally begun in 1954 and 1964, but operating in reality (the so-called “Color Line” being a VERY POROUS but one-way street… since the 1600s with white male sexual exploitation of Black slave women…and even tacitly existing today;

2/ Ascendancy of even white women (the 1920 vote);

3/ Legitimization of the LGBTQ communities and their rights (“Closet Life” for those biological realities is close to ending for most of America.)

One can go on and on, and write many theses about these and more reasons that possibly explain the current GOP, but as stated in the beginning of this post, the current GOP is a crazy bunch...but they seem to like living in that world...SCARY.

The Montgomery RiverFront Brawl (2): Real or Cinematic, The Chair's New Symbolism, Marvel's Memes, African Gods & Ancestors

  The Perched Eye blog is 14 years old,  from 2009 with President Obama's election. Our focus has been eclectic ...  the styles and directions of American politics and culture, with an occasional comment on the impact of new technologies. Our observations sometimes attract a critical eye, but the 'pen' remains unblunted.

Original Title:        "The ‘Montgomery Brawl’ Revisited: Was it Real, or Cinema Realite’, (& The New Symbolism of the Chair - the 2 Hour Prior Orisha Ceremony (Homage to and Blessings Asked for the African Ancestors from the African Gods, the Orishas (Oshun, the River Goddess; Ogun, the Warrior; and Shango, Bringer of Thunder and Masculine Strength)"

As the (original, above) lengthy title suggests, things about The Brawl keep coming out. Now we learn that 2 hours prior to The Brawl, a group of African-American ladies ‘went to the River’ at the same dock to offer flowers to their enslaved African ancestors who were brought to Montgomery and sold at the slave market a few blocks from the dock. The ladies aksed blessings from the African River Goddess (the ORISHA, Osun). The awakened Goddess Oshun then invoked the chief God Ogun, the Warrior God, who sits on his sacred chair and provides mighty weapons such as The Chair (but who leaves their use to the recipient), and then Ogun was joined by the also awakened, mighty Shango, the God of thunder and power, AND MASCULINE STRENGTH.

Yoruba (West Africa) Sacred Chair:

In other words, The Brawl is contexted both by American pop media memes (e.g., Marvel’s ‘Aquamayne’), and by ancient African deities who had been awakened 2 hours earlier with offerings of flowers thrown into the river by African-American ladies, which consequently led to OGUN’s gifting of the Folding Chair to be used by the victims of The Brawl (and specifically by Ogun's hero, Mr. Ray)

(The Brawl’s confluence of ancient African and contemporary pop-media cultures (themes and memes) is astounding! And the synchronicity of it all makes one 'ponder'.)

— — — — — — — -

It’s 10 days after the peak internet exposure of/to the Aug 5, ’23, ‘Montgomery RiverFront Brawl’, and I am still digesting the many resulting internet pieces that message reactions, opinions, viewing angles, …about The Brawl.

All Americans, Black and White had the chance to empathize with the same clearly defined good guys…which they did (Did The Brawl give a new insight on ‘Southern Ways’, …that the Good Ole Boys (1) appreciate the good brawl, and (2) a good brawl doesn’t distinguish according to race if the morality is clear?)

Was the Montgomery Brawl real, or was it a great studio production — perfectly-cast, superbly-acted, Greek-chorused, even cinematic ‘theater-in-the-round’?’ (Keeping with the ‘uber-theme’ of hilarity, I prefer to ‘mentalize’ The Brawl’ as a neo-Greek Classical, Marvel Studio ‘joint’…same themes, almost verbatim memes or Marvel memes easily seen in The Brawl’s actions. (There, I said it…I think Marvel Studios is doing a great job of messaging positive, morally constructive, socially redemptive principles to America’s youth.)

The ‘Set’! Audience immersion…200+ viewers entrapped on a historically-replicated (ante bellum) tour boat stranded in an alligator-infested river, offshore the stage that was (really) the exact spot where slaves were sold 2 centuries ago. (This had to be a studio creation.)

The audience was out of earshot of the spoken dialect, but the entire, multi-segmented action was visible ….as the tour boat’s ‘Greek Chorus’ repeatedly chanted in unison, “Hey B..tch, Get out the Way’, (directly from a popular ’20s rap hit.)…at the private skiff owners parked at the dock space reserved for the tour boat…preventing the tour boat from docking more that 30 minutes. (What a perfect morality-play setting.)

And the script! Roles that connected with an audience already familiar with the script’s memes? And a clearly identified, and identifiable, victim (a descendent of slaves who had been sold in a market exactly on the tour boat dock.) Perfect setting, perfect ‘good-guy, bad-guy’ roles…all perfectly acted.

90% or more of internet reactions I’ve seen are a kind of amused veneer that is shattered to pieces by outbursts of natural, uncontrollable hillarity.

Though, for myself and apparently for many, many others, after each outburst, as I settle down between laughing spells, I am in wonderment why is The Brawl so amusing. What is so amusing about an assault on a elderly man just doing his job (or trying to do) to move a private skiff 3 feat along a city dock space reserved for a 200-passenger riverboat that had been delayed from docking more than 30 minutes by the skiff’s drunken, recalitrant, White crew and owners?

The answer, as much as I can figure, is the relief that no one was shot (this afterall is in the Deep South where guns are king), and no one was knifed — one White observer said if the White skiff crew had shown a gun, he would quickly have been “sliced catfish bait at the bottom of the river.”

‘Relief’ that everyone lived through The Brawl helped explain the amusement, but maybe, as I sensed and still do, there was more…that The Brawl was a rare occurence of unambiguous ‘Right and Wrong,’ and for once, African Americans were not only ‘Right’ but being right was acknowledged and protected, rather than being punished for being the victim.

(The elderly man-victim was incidentally African-American, a salient feature of the whole incident,…. but at the same time The Brawl was not just a racial ‘thing’, because a young White teen (15/16 yo) who came to the victom’s aid was also beaten and driven away.)

Maybe The Brawl was elementally amusing because even though racial-faces were predominant, it was not a race riot. The Brawl was more a Falstaffian morality play whose classic character roles, including the Fool, go back 4000 years or more! And the roles were ‘acted’ by real Black and White people…who incidentally performed ther roles superbly, including the Fool,…and according to a excellently written, wonderfully entertaining script with that must have come from senior writers at Marvel Studios (e.g., ‘AquaMAYNE!’)

The August 5, 2023 Montgomery (Alabama, ) RiverFront Brawl: 'Murika's Strangeness Peeks Out …No Shots, No Knives, Everybody Lived to Laugh …White and Black Laughing…at White Buffoons. Did This Happen in America? In Alabama? In Montgomery!? (1816 vs. 2023! The Harriet Tubman Riverboat! Black AquaMAYNE! The Spirit of Dr King! 'Kunta'! The Same Dock Where the Slaves were Unloaded!! No, Not Too Much..MUCH More Can be Said!)

 The Perched Eye blog is 14 years old,  from 2009 with President Obama's election. Our focus has been eclectic ...  the styles and directions of American politics and culture, with an occasional comment on the impact of new technologies. Our observations sometimes attract a critical eye, but the 'pen' remains unblunted.

Murika. ‘Marvel Speak’, today’s ‘Lingua Universalis Murikana’ (eg, Black AquaMAYNE.) ‘Mollywhoppin.’ Murika is getting stranger by the day…but that could be good thing. 

(An example is the August 5, 2023, ‘Montgomery (Alabama) Riverfront ‘Brawl’ ). 

Was the ‘Montgomery RiverFront Brawl” a kind of post-post-modern American opera in the round, public invited, choose your role (strongly influenced by, or even perhaps scripted from Marvel Comics memes.)

By some miracle, the August 5, 2023, ‘Montgomery RiverFront Brawl’ was a potential tragedy that didn’t happen…as if the Fates were up there enjoying their game of cards, and said:

 “Not today Montgomery, you fools just go ahead and do your foolishness…and don’t you dare bother us with real tragedy like bloodshed, broken limbs and stuff like that…just embarass yourself, you skiff owners, … and embarass the State of Alabama…Alabama is used to being embarassed by its throwback racism.”

The Montgomery RiverFront Brawl now one of the strongest answers to the critics of Critical Race Theory (CRT) and “Wokeness”…the moral lines are sharp, clear and undeniably reflect the remnants of White, racist self-entitlement in a racist American region (Alabama)…where on August 5, 2023, an elderly Black riverboat co-captain(!) was assaulted (and video’d) for doing his assigned task which was to move an abandoned private skiff from the city dock space reserved for a tour boat (delayed from dockng for more than 40 minutes)…but he was angrily attacked by the returning skiff owners…more to punish him for touching their boat than carrying out his officially instructed duty. And the assault occurred on the very docks where more than 200 years ago (1823, and earlier) Negro slaves were taken off riverboats and marched in ankle chains to ‘holding pens’ only 2 blocks away, there to be sold at the slave market in center-city just a few more blocks away. It was as if the slave ancestors of the 2023 riverboat co-captain (assaulted by White drunken boaters) endowed the co-captain and his defenders who rushed to his aid, with physical and emotional strength to say, “No More, This Will No Longer Stand.”

Of the several well-voiced perspectives about that incident, this writer takes a positive view that one of the incident’s broader significance is that it examples America’s unique ‘growing up’ process…what better way to unite across histric racial animosity than a performance by ‘Opera Buffa’ actors at center stage so that everyone can laugh at clearly understood stupidity. Specifically, even White people can laugh at the White (redneck) attack on an elderly Black (and uniformed) staffer doing his job to clear dock space for a tour Riverboat (“The Harriet Tubman II”). One of the best reactions begins at minute 1:50 in the Youtube video:

“YTE PEOPLE HAVE FINALLY SPOKEN ON THE MONTGOMERY BOAT B.RAWL‼️”.

But there is also a chapter 2 made by the same video-maker. Check out the ‘White’ lady who speaks her perspective at minute 9:20:

“YT MAN TRIES TO BRING IN “FLIP SCRIPT” ON THE MONTGOMERY ALABAMA B-RAWL‼️HE’S OWN R.O.A.S.T.ED HIM!

America has found a path to self-understanding through a new and uniquely American hybridized language that enables a common immediacy and understanding across (and erasing) America’s race-class boundaries. This new language is the set of memes from American mass media …,

and specifically in the context of the recent Montgomery incident, the memes of the Hollywood movie adaptations from Marvel Comics (e.g., “[Black] AquaMAYNE”, emphasis on Southern dialect spelling as heard at the Riverfront Brawl.)

The “Montgomery RFB” can also be framed as a Falstaffian opera-in-the-round with old and new elements, roles,, themes, memes, outcomes and even a ‘Greek Chorus’ (the Riverboat railing-line of teen Black girls in-unison sing-songing facing the dock (located at stage center):

“Hey [you], move your dam boat.”

Murika. ‘Marvel Speak’ (Black AquaMAYNE.) ‘Mollywhoppin.’

Yes, ‘Murika’ is getting stranger by the day…but maybe that could be good thing. (And, overall, we see that, true to their pacific African cultural roots, African- Americans are not inclined to lynch, mass murder, mass hate…but instead are ready to find humor in human frailties, and forgive…African Americans tend to see human bufoons as one chapter in God’s book ..and life is too short.)
— — — — — — — — 

(‘What the f…k is going on, America, are we regressing to a final end, a stinky, immoral finale to ‘America’s Original Sin’ (Slavery) ?) 

Or, have we progressed to a social media-meme-driven, post-modern neo-Capitalist-racist implosion? (Or, has America become to a ‘post, post-modern’ state yet to have a name?)

Facts about the August 5, 2023, Montgomery Brawl still roll in: … first, there had been a Trump rally that day, or day before, in Montgomery (the good ole boys were excited, and feeling extra-entitled); second, the riverboat docking was delayed at least 30 minutes by the private boat; third, the Black ‘dock worker’ is actually a “co-Captain (the media automatically assumed the assaulted co-captain was a ‘menial’ rather than a ‘second-in-command (First Mate)…a misassumption which in itself signifies racist re-labeling and re-framing of facts.

By some miracle, the Montgomery Brawl was a potential tragedy that didn’t escalate to deadly proportions. The only wounds that were incurred were wounded egos of the self-entitled egos of the redneck skiff owners.

The skiff owners set in motion their own fate (a general Mollywhoppin’.) The miracle was that no shot was fired, though I am 100% certain the there were deadly weapons (guns and knives) on that private skiff.

The whole thing revealed a ‘strangely wonderful’, or ‘wonderfully strange’ shift/seachange in American ‘kultur’…

America somehow ended up the confrontation with no deaths, no racial rioting…but instead wih plenty of laughs…at the skiff owners. 

Was the ‘Montgomery RF Brawl’a sign of racial co-recognition of ‘reasonable boundaries’ — yes, rebellion to officials and offical rules, and response in kind from Black Americans, but the knives, razors and guns didn’t come out…though they were certainly around, somewhere ‘handy’ but kept in place.

Was the ‘Montgomery Brawl” a kind of post modern American opera in the round, public invited, choose your role (strongly influenced by memes linked to Marvel Comics templates.)

This just might be a new American South’s holiday every August where Black and White southerners can choose roles according to their mood and participate in a good ole “Mollywhoppin Time.” Already there is a Youtube video of a multi-racal pool party where Black and White partiers share roles and mime the whole incident while beering down and falling over laughing at the good ole boy boaters who showed their asses and got Mollywhopped.

Murika is getting stranger by the day…maybe that’s a good thing.

And after the Molywhoppin celebration…everybody, too tired to hate, might’ve gathered together to share beer, barbecue, baked beans and fried chicken. ‘Murika’ finally finds a way to solve one of its major problems…race relations.

Most internet reactions are jolly, finger-pointing at the foolish, Falstaffian absurdity of the private boaters who were drunk, clumsy, made fun of and obviously headed for a righteous, good ole ‘woodshed’ “Mollywhoppin”…well-deserved just because they commically showed their asses in front of a huge crowd of African Americans watching one of their uniformed, official “uncles” get clearly ‘jumped on’ in full public view…and watching “Black AquaMAYNE” swim across the river (dodging “gators”, cottonmouths, and sundry other river monsters in that murky water) to arrive “to your left (Marvel meme)” to assist ‘Unc.’

Falstaffian. Murika. Black AquaMAYNE. Mollywhoppin. Mongomery Alabama…America’s new clown show.

Murika is getting stranger by the day…that could be good thing.

The Insurance Industry Forces Florida to Face the Reality of Climate Change, Finally

The Perched Eye blog is 14 years old,  from 2009 with President Obama's election. Our focus has been eclectic ...  the styles and directions of American politics and culture, with an occasional comment on the impact of new technologies. Our observations sometimes attract a critical eye, but the 'pen' remains unblunted.

Florida just doesn’t ‘Get it!’…the voice of ‘good business’ sense from the Florida insurance market is finally telling Florida like it is about climate change, by increasingly discontinuing insuring the properties of Floridians who stubbornly stay put in the paths of annual Gulf storms and refuse to move to higher grounds (probably out of south Florida, completely.) 

Climate Change is real, it has been real for a while, and in the name of ‘good business’, insurers should have ‘pulled the plug’ on insuring the annual flooding and storm damage to Florida real estate maybe a decade ago.

IN THE NAME OF ‘GOOD BUSINESS”…and to save Florida homes and business property, Florida’s conservative GOP contingent in Washington should stop denying climate change and encourage government studies and actions to stop or reverse climate change. (Comment to The Washington Post article: “How Florida let a top insurer abandon homeowners in their time of greatest need”, by Brianna Sacks, August 4, 2023)

MI6, Western Intelligence, Ukraine, and The Russian People

The Perched Eye blog is 14 years old,  from 2009 with President Obama's election. Our focus has been eclectic ...  the styles and directions of American politics and culture, with an occasional comment on the impact of new technologies. Our observations sometimes attract a critical eye, but the 'pen' remains unblunted.

Today, I watched a Youtube interview with the English intelligence chief (MI6, Sir Richard Moore,…the ghost thusly spake) who commented on "his" service's view about the current Russian invasion of Ukraine…and on the resultant backfires in Russia itself…and on Sir Richard’s ‘faith’ in an eventual Russian people's public non-support of Putin and his invasion of Ukraine. 

But, IMO, the Russian people are not the yet-to-arise heroes the West (and their intel groups, MI6 prominently) put hope in.  Rather, the Russian ‘people though perhaps ‘heroic’ inside, are in day-to-day reality totally and ruthlessly controlled to a state of numb paralysis. That is the reality the West must constantly keep in mind and deal with, and never let Russia’s siren song to seduce our people.

I’ve written about the Russian people before and stated my perspective on the Russian ‘State’ (a history of total state control), and on the Russian people (nihilistic, born to the yoke of servitude, number one globally alcoholic,…but yet human underneath.)

One can only hope about the Russian peoples' desire for a better government, but theirs is a terribly high hill to climb. (For the Russian people to be heard, many hundreds of thousands might have to die by their own ‘leaders’ hands.)

Trump Is Probably Not Afraid After His August 1 ('23) Indictment. (Fear’s a Different World to a Shark Driven by Bad Instincts)

 The Perched Eye blog is 14 years old,  from 2009 with President Obama's election. Our focus has been eclectic ...  the styles and directions of American politics and culture, with an occasional comment on the impact of new technologies. Our observations sometimes attract a critical eye, but the 'pen' remains unblunted.

American ‘democracy’ can’t handle a ‘Trump’…because we are trying to put on trial a 21st century political megalomaniac according to 18th century codes for ‘gentleman’-class-behavior…our Trump is not a gentleman and this is definitely not the 18th century (regardless of what SCOTUS Justice Alito says.) America needs to grow up, shape up, get educated. 

Further -America found out that Trump is not a leader, and not a good business manager…Trump is just a larger version of the corner ‘Mom-and-Pop general store operator operating on a an ad hoc budget and struggling to stay alive day-by-day…but in Trump’s case, grifting and living large with gold faucets, by any and all means, legal and illegal. America discovered that “Grift” is Trump’s pathway.

 — — — — 

I have a repeating mantra running in my brain about Donald Trump and America’s continual surprise and shock at his dodges and twists that catch us off guard every time he acts out… even though we should know by now to expect the unexpected. The reason, IMO, is that Trump is not human-normal, but is a ‘Force’ which America, as an immature, uneducated, unsophisticated culture, can’t handle.

A significant question, after August 1’s indictment of Trump for his inciting the ‘Jan6(‘21)’ attempt to overthrow the 2020 presidential election, is…’is Donald Trump now afraid?’ (In other words, ‘is Donald Trump experiencing remorse?’ Most likely not, or at best fleetingly because he is too busy planning chortling over how he is going to gum up the works of America’s naive and corrupt legal works.)

So, I say ‘No!’ Trump is not afraid…Trump has no time for ’fear’. Trump is like a shark constantly swimming to ‘breathe’, i.e., to make money to sustain his errors and extravagant lifestyle (*which he can’t afford.)

Trump’s life awash in real or self-manufactured crises and tension. While he has largely mastered keeping totally focus on money, which IMO, Trump seems very good at (i.e., being 100% focused on money.) But Trump is not actually earning big money — Trump is not actually (net assets-wise) worth the billions that he claims. Rather, Trump, if not owning billions, at least ‘controls’ billions... and lives large off the ‘vig’ like a billionaire (like a real mob-boss, the gold faucets and hookers, etc are apparently all that matters …to him.)

Trump, the ‘Force’, doesn’t feel fear, only heightened aggression….like cornered animal. We thought Trump was a true ‘businessman’ (who nearly half of Americans either wanted, or wanted to try out as President.) But instead, America learned the difference between a corporate leader and an entrepeneur. America found out that Trump is not a leader, and not a good business manager…Trump is just a larger version of the corner ‘Mom-and-Pop general store operator operating on a an ad hoc budget and struggling to stay alive day by day.

The corporate leader knows how to work with a board (governance), but the enrepeneur is a wild-card cowboy who has learned to survive at on the open range, unfettered by fences and rules… except for rules of survival.

The entrepeneur champions ‘laissez-faire’ capitalism; …not of any scholarly, philosophical enlightenment…but because the entrepeneur can only be free to operate in an environment that is unbounded from all behavior chains — ‘ethics’, honesty, fair practcies, consumer safety (meaningless in that fishpond,…etc.

The entrepeneur is not someone who belongs as President. And Trump is an entrepeneur…whether he knows it or not!

Indict, Try and even convict Trump…then ban Trump from ever-again(!) standing for, being elected to, and occupying any future office of any kind — — America’s cultural-democratic structures can’t handle a ‘Trump’…because America asks its leaders to operate by the unwritten rules of 18th century class-based behavior. (America needs to grow up.)

Should Donald Trump Be Seen (And Legally Investigated, and Potentially Punished), As a ‘Force’ (a Psych-Spectrum Case)? Does America Have Precedent in It’s Laws

 The Perched Eye blog is 14 years old,  from 2009 with President Obama's election. Our focus has been eclectic ...  the styles and directions of American politics and culture, with an occasional comment on the impact of new technologies. Our observations sometimes attract a critical eye, but the 'pen' remains unblunted.

Donald Trump might (/should) be viewed as a ‘force’ (a psych-spectrum case), not simply as just a person. But how can an unembodied ‘something’ be punished by a legal system whose underlying origin, purpose, and intent are focused on organic, living things? Can America’s legal system put a ‘force’ on trial? It seems difficult to do …as America is experiencing.

It seems we’re just now realizing that Trump and Trumpism are forces — the former a psych-spectrum ‘case,’ and the latter ‘-ism’ a belief movement intent (by real past actions) on destroying American democratic operations. 

Therefore, at the least to deter future ‘Jan 6’s (2021)’, the punishment for the ‘Jan6’ attempted overthrow of the American government is left with increasing the legal weight of the crime, i’e’, the sentence term. Hence, the DOJ's move to increase sentences for sedition appears logical and perhaps the only recourse to handling cases like Donald Trump’s seditious actions and planning to lead to Jan 6 (and obstructions thereafter.)

One can get lost in legalese ‘entanglements’, but lengthier sentences can serve to prevent future seditious acts, as well as punish the current conspirators whose intent was to overthrow the elected American government. 

(Remember Germany’s experience with Hitler, who was convicted of conspiracy and sedition to overthrow Germany’s 1920s Weimar Republic, but only served 9 months of a 5-year term, then went on to gain total power…with the aid of MAGA-like ultra-right wing thugs and para-military elements, Hitler’s Brown Shirt supporters.) Don’t doubt that America saw the same elements (pro-Hitler thugs and legitimate congresspersons) assembled here to forcibly gain total power for Trump, who openly stated his intentions to serve as many terms as he wanted, and destroy his enemies. Trump’s plans for regaining the ‘throne’ were (are/should be) scary. 

Let’s trust in the American legal process — the simplest route to prevent future ‘Jan6’s is to increase the incarceration terms for sedition. (Otherwise, we will have to wait maybe 4–5 years, or more, for the current Supreme Court to even hear the Jan6 case against Trump-the-person.

BORN TO FOLLOW?: CURRENT MAGA GOP'ers - AMERICA'S LOST, WANDERING AND FLOUNDERING, OTHER-DIRECTED PERSONA

 The Perched Eye blog is 14 years old,  from 2009 with President Obama's election. Our focus has been eclectic ...  the styles and directions of American politics and culture, with an occasional comment on the impact of new technologies. Our observations sometimes attract a critical eye, but the 'pen' remains unblunted.

Classical sociological psychology has a descriptor for a personality type that seems to characterize Donald Trump’s MAGA wildly, often destructive, anti-democratic supporters (as was Hitler’s Nazi Germany adepts).

This ‘’type’ is the “Other Directed Persona” (ODP, aka “Outer-Directed”), (The Lonely Crowd: A Study of the Changing American Character, 1950, Riesman, Denny, and Glazer. (A portion of every population is from birth, Other Directed, now an acknowledged psychological type (APA) …and propensity.)

The Other Directed Person seeks life direction from an external, especially a charismatic source, as contrasted to the Inner Directed Persona (IDP), who has an inner, independent core of ethics and guiding principles.

In the words of David Brooks (The Crowd Pleaser, NYTimes, Feb 9, 2012):

“The other-directed person is attuned to what other people want him to be. The other-directed person is …pliable and yearns for acceptance. [In other words, vulnerable perhaps to a fault of being too easily influenced…so desperate is the need to feel less lonely]

The other-directed personality type emerges in a service or information age economy. In this sort of economy, most workers are not working with physical things; they are manipulating people. The other-directed person becomes adept at pleasing others, at selling him or herself. The other-directed personality type emerges in a service or information age economy. In this sort of economy, most workers are not working with physical things; they are manipulating people. The other-directed person becomes adept at pleasing others, at selling him or herself."

Trumpists are, deep down, easily manipulated, easily led…even to purposes not in their real interests, and eager to follow…even to self-harm and disaster for them and theirs. For these reasons, the ODP represents an immense danger to their object of worship as well as to themselves.

The Other Directed Persona is a problem for society, especially for a society that claims it is democratic…because the Other Directed lacks independent thought, preferring to have a pre-packaged path of thinking to be followed without having to go through the effort of figuring out ones own truth.

America’s respecters of democracy need to carefully watch Donald Trump and his Other Directed minions, the MAGAs!

Trump’s followers did not spring up spontaneously with his arrival on the political scene. Nor did they appear just in the past 50 years. ‘Trumpists’ are of a ‘type’ who have existed probably since humans climbed down from the trees.

The ODP seems to have been born just to wait in the wings for a leader to appear who is willing, and able, to hoist a flag and wave a carrot in front of them, the Other Directed horde.

The Other Directed Persona is like a dumb Mule blindly trudging after the proverbial ‘dangling carrot.’

The MAGA supporters of Donald Trump are ODP ‘mules’, and Trump is aptly both the orange carrot and the false leader.

The pre-packaged ‘carrot’ is usually, and most effectively, an appeal to the base emotions of the ODP in the form of a set of slogans anchored by a written ‘screed’, often a book or a set of written down recollections of a leaders declarations during an afterward sacredly-held pilgrimage (‘jihad’).

Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” (1925–26, Munich, Bavaria, Germany) is perhaps the most notorious such ODP Carrot, ‘mule captivating’, screed in the past several centuries.

Earlier examples of such mass-movement tomes are the “Qur’an” (‘Koran’, eng.), the sayings of the Prophet Muhammad (610–632 CE, Mecca and Medina, West Arabian Penninsula).

And, of equal significance to the Qur-an are the much earlier Christian and Gnostic“Gospels” attributed to Jesus of Nazareth by his disciples (Holy Bible, 1st-3rd c. CE Gospels, Greek-Hebrew origin canonical and apocryphal texts;) and then as later translated, the 1610–1617 King James Bible. (Also meriting mention are the recovered Dead Sea Scrolls and the Nag Hammadi texts containing both canonical and apocryphal content.)

In the last millennium, the Christian Bible has guided perhaps the most influential and militarily powerful mass movement in history — but it has been both a positive and often a not-so-positive factor…as it has also provided rationales for political oppression, wars of aggression, and punitive atrocities.

Notably, the Trumpist mass movement currently claims the Christian Bible as its guiding light to ‘make America great again’ (MAGA)’. (As it was claimed by Adolph Hitler for Nazi Germany’s right to expansion.)

Seemingly, a percentage of every randomly selected population group is from birth, Other Directed…America, be watchful!