Imagine a wheel. At the top, collectives — at the bottom, individuals.
That wheel must be made to revolve. Why?
For all who value exploration, curiosity, imagination, wonder, venture, challenge, integrity.
There are many of us. We will turn the wheel. Here’s how:
We will tell stories of a new world, listen for adventures, share them, invest in the best of them, and from each we will draw power to turn the wheel.
We will weave patterns of thought and action inspiring networks that change expectations.
We will design for emergence, limit control, manifest strengths, live in freeorder.
This is what is to be done.
31 thoughts on “What is to be done? a quiet, fast, revolution”
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“… tell stories of a new world …”
“For income growth to occur in a society, a large fraction of people must experience changes in the possible lives they imagine for themselves and their children, and these new visions of possible futures must have enough force to lead them to change the way they behave … and the hopes they invest in these children: the way they allocate their time. In the words of [V.S. Naipaul] economic development requires “a million mutinies.””
A Million Mutinies: The key to economic development, from “Lectures on Economic Growth” by Robert E. Lucas, Jr.
Lucas is right. Major change, political as well as economic, requires a change in peoples’ vision of the future, and requires that “a million mutinies” break out against the status quo. Before the mutinies can happen, people have to have told stories about what will happen after the mutiny succeeds.
Right, Mike. Expectations drive action. That’s why the Great U-Turn chapter of America 3.0 is important – it provides an easy to imagine kinetic image of a better future. We can imagine falling, coming to a place where we know something new must happen, and then rising into 3.0. Easier imagined than done :-) But we’ll keep at it!
‘Whatever travails may beset us in the years ahead, we believe that an attempt to “double-down” on the Progressive vision will ultimately fail, if only because it cannot possibly be paid for. This failure may provoke the crisis that will complete the Great U-Turn. However contemporary events play out, we anticipate a new, third era in the history of the Republic, re-synthesized on the original vision and principles of the Founders.’ ””Bennett & Lotus, America 3.0: rebooting American prosperity in the 21st century””why America’s greatest days are yet to come, pg. 185, in chapter 7, “The Great U-Turn”
There are no such things as bloodless political revolutions. The Progressive cultists are not going to go away in a peaceful manner, absent generations seeing the hypocrisy in their actions and conduct. That’s why the Soviets folded their tents and went home, rather than starting a war–The general public inside the Soviet Union had basically had enough of their bullshit, and lost faith in the Revolution. That has not happened here, and absent that loss of faith in the Progressive religion, they’re not going home quietly.
We’re either going to succumb, or we’re going to have to resist violently and then extirpate the ideology with violence. They’re not going to accept anything else; if you believe otherwise, note the self-congratulatory tone to all their excesses. They are proud of what they do; they will not stop doing it. There’s too much pleasure in their actions; they want the rest of us silent and dead. There will be pogroms and counter-pogroms, at the rate we are going, because the “authorities” are not doing a damn thing to put a stop to the violence. It is spiraling out of control, and most of us aren’t even aware of it. Portland is releasing arrested “protesters” as we speak; if you think that’s not “sending a signal”, just wait until they’re taking violence to the streets of your hometown. The deluge is coming, and the “authorities” are out there doing rain-dances over your future mass graves.
We are in for some rough times, and mostly because the people running this country right now are complete and utter cretinous fools. Whether Trump wins or not in November is immaterial; they’re gearing up to make much of the country entirely ungovernable, with what I believe is malice aforethought.
The general public inside the Soviet Union had basically had enough of their bullshit, and lost faith in the Revolution. That has not happened here, and absent that loss of faith in the Progressive religion, they’re not going home quietly.
I think the real numbers of these anarchists and black demonstrators is grossly exaggerated. They make a lot of noise and the Trump haters in media have given them a big megaphone. The election will tell us. If Trump loses, I think unlikely, we may have a serious revolution. If we have 1972 or something like it, much may subside. The left will be hysterical but the violence in cities will cause an exodus and some serious thinking about priorities.
“The general public inside the Soviet Union had basically had enough of their bullshit, and lost faith in the Revolution.”
Where do you see any evidence for this statement? I suspect its just what you would like to think. ;) America is tired, and your not particularly inclusive society, has a lot of left behinds. You are talking about America, not Russia when you talk about loss of faith.
I have no idea what this post is supposed to mean.
Tell stories? One of our two political parties won’t even defend George Washington, for goodness sakes. Telling stories ain’t what’s called for right now.
It’s not too hard to predict what will happen–if Trump wins, the powers that be in DC will continue to undermine him every chance they get. He’ll be impeached again. The GOPe will probably go along this time and remove him from office.
Biden is basically an American Chernenko, a pitiful shell shoved to the front of a dying system.
If he wins, and the Dems get the Senate, they will within weeks make all illegals citizens. Who knows how long they’ll be able to keep him functioning. Then you’ll have a system viewed as broadly illegitimate and headed by someone who no one voted for.
Not a recipe for peace and stability.
the key element was the soviets collapsed when they conceded, gorbachev and perestroika, the bourbons and the estates general, the czar was weak because of the famine and the horrendous losses on the battlefields, one might argue that was the exception, solzhenitsyn suggests in the second volume of the red wheel, it was the okrana who sabotaged any reform plan, by enabling the assasination of stolypin,
Where do you see any evidence for this statement? I suspect its just what you would like to think. ;) America is tired, and your not particularly inclusive society, has a lot of left behinds. You are talking about America, not Russia when you talk about loss of faith.
PenGun is here!! Woot!!!
Your appalling ignorance is wonderful to behold. It’s a true shining star compared to the more typical merely dim ignorance of people who just don’t know. You’ve presented us with brilliant artistry- and I salute you.
If you don’t think the people of the Soviet Union had lost faith in the endless lies their regime bestowed upon them, I can’t really help. You have literally missed the entire history of the Cold War, somehow. But Canaduh– and I am in no way surprised.
If you think America is not particularly inclusive, then you’ve missed the wide assortment of foreigners who not only vote in the US but win elective office. No surprise, again.
And those “left behinds” as you call them, are on average more wealthy than the typical Canuckistani of your homeland. If I recall, Ontario- the wealthiest province- had an average income of about the same as Mississippi- the poorest US state.
But that was before Obama was preezy, so maybe it’s different now. But I doubt it. We’ve had Trump around to undo some the damage, while you folks still have a hapless idiot as PM.
Good luck with that. Or, actually, not. He’s what you deserve.
Not a recipe for peace and stability.
True statement- but I think everything to come was baked into the cake a long time ago. If Trump loses, it’s the end of the regime, one way or another. If he wins, the left will go even more bonkers- and having won re-election Trump will have no particular reason to hold back.
This is The Fourth Turning in action- and peace and stability aren’t in the cards anytime soon, I think.
BTW, that was me at 6:57.
PenGun, I was born in Canada. I heard enough of the nasty anti-American sentiment endemic to your country to understand that Canada is no more a friend of the United States than Mexico, or more likely, Cuba.
I make sure to tell that to other Americans, so they will know.
“Your appalling ignorance is wonderful to behold.” I thought you were talking about this century, you know what’s happening now. Certainly the fall of the Soviet Union was as much a failure of spirit, as as an economic one.
Today Russia is pretty well united behind Putin who saved their country from you lot basically. Clinton almost did the deal. ;)
For the large part of your population that has few services, pitiful health care coverage, and very few prospects, America needs to change fundamentally. Your country was created by rich land, and slave owners, and built to preserve their power.
For me, a Canadian born in England, I have no problem with Americans, its your military and deep state, that visits so much pain, on so much of the world that I hate. I want your teeth pulled because you use them so much. ;)
I thought you were talking about this century, you know what’s happening now. Certainly the fall of the Soviet Union was as much a failure of spirit, as as an economic one.
This stuff is why you’re so awesome, PenGun.
The general public inside the Soviet Union had basically had enough of their bullshit, and lost faith in the Revolution.
Quoting the comment by Mike K., quoting Kirk, that you responded to. I really don’t think I should need to spell this out for you. Soviet Yoonyun. It fell. Look it up. They weren’t talking about Russia today.
For the large part of your population that has few services, pitiful health care coverage, and very few prospects, America needs to change fundamentally. Your country was created by rich land, and slave owners, and built to preserve their power.
Once again that incandescent ignorance is illuminating. You know nothing about the actual United States and it shows. The present ruling ruling class maintains it grip upon power by lavishing wealth and privilege upon the supposed downtrodden, who for one thing have better health care than I do as a wage slave. I presume that’s what you meant by few services etc. Myriad anecdotes redacted.
I have no problem with Americans, its your military and deep state, that visits so much pain, on so much of the world that I hate. I want your teeth pulled because you use them so much. ;)
Then we agree, because I very much want the American people to stop being forced to defend so many foreign countries that hate us or are full of people who can’t find the United States on a map, either because don’t care about us at all or their societies haven’t progressed far enough to understand what a map is and why it might useful.
If you really believe what you wrote, then you should also believe Canada should depart NATO promptly- I actually hope you do- and you should also be a supporter of Donald Trump.
Are you?
If not, you’re a promoter of the traveling slaughterhouse that you believe the US military to be, because Trump is the first US president in my lifetime to question the endless globalism of the present regime and suggest it should change.
Joe Biden certainly wouldn’t, even if he wasn’t senile.
> America needs to change fundamentally.<
You're right. We need fewer stupid people. Time to nuke Big EDU!
PenGun should explain to us the wonderful medical care received by Natasha Richardson.
It is not worth the time to debate with trolls like PenGun. All you see is envy and bitterness. It is no surprise that he misses the Soviet Union.
The troops in Afghanistan agree It’s time to leave. I would add it is time to leave Pakistan.
I have told my friend, a retired British Army colonel, that the US should have stayed out of WWI. I added that they should have, too. They have never recovered. The pitiful state of PenGun’s Canada is evidence.
There are no such things as bloodless political revolutions.
I think we had one in 1912 and the consequences have taken a century but they are here.
>pitiful health care coverage
I lived a year in Canada, making ~$60k Canadian. The government took about 42% of that away before it entered my banks account. Everything I bought had a 15% excise tax. Gas was double the US price. For what? I couldn’t get a GP because no one was accepting new patients. When I got a nasty flu, I had to go to the equivalent of a free clinic here in the US and wait for hours. That’s the vast health care coverage? No thanks, even post Obama care, employer provided is much better than that.
I can tell stories of people waiting over a year for surgery in Canada. Where do they go if frustrated? South of the border.
Alexis de Tocqueville in his book on the French Revolution The Old Regime and the Revolution observed that revolutions often occur not when people are in the pit of despair, but after liberalizing forces have already opened up society a bit to where citizens’ lives have improved enough to see what they had been missing all along. That would’ve been the case with the Soviet Union after Glastnost and Perestroika
Revolutions don’t happen due to people in despair. That’s a complete myth. They are led by lawyers, academics, and bureaucrats who get a little bit of power when things start to “liberalize” and want more.
I think Brian has a good point. The momentum of this current unrest is likely financed and promoted by progressives in the legal, media and educational fields whose recent growing influence and affluence provides them the means. Their ideological lust is their motivation and provides the general strategy.
As Mike noted, the actual hard core revolutionaries are small in number, but largely annomyous and accompanied by useful idiot young and restless leftist street groupies. In the face of lack of any dominant opposition, the mob runs wild and a test of will presents. If we wait too long to forcefully push back, it can be too late to prevent serious collapse and fragmentation of foundational social structures and consensus.
Death6
“If you really believe what you wrote, then you should also believe Canada should depart NATO promptly- I actually hope you do- and you should also be a supporter of Donald Trump.”
I was so pleased when Trump beat Hillary. Now Trump is an ignoramus and a buffoon but Hillary is the deep state’s poster child. So I was pleased. As well Trump is doing more to make America how I wopuld like it to be, than any other possible candidate. I think he will lose this year, but not because I want him too. ;)
I would like Canada out of NATO and out of the agreements we have with America as well. I would like Meng freed, and a much better relationship with China established.
someone who proudly voted for zoolander twice, well he might be ndp the delusion might be that severe, the new trade deal is better than nafta, freeland almost missed the boat, because she is the prototypical dumb blond, well gives campbell the run for her money,
Trump is a consolidationist, in terms of expeditionary forces, the first wave in the Americas had a brief blip in nicarague but was over by 33, the second wave in east asia, didn’t end that well, the third in the middle east has yet to be resolved,
Freeland is a vampire. ;)
It is not worth the time to debate with trolls like PenGun.
You’re probably right, and I apologize to you and anyone else who has concluded that responding to PenGun is a worthless endeavor.
However, I’ve always thought that sooner or later the left will have to be confronted. They need to be told that they’re wrong and why, even if they don’t want to hear it, and even if they do their best to stop others from speaking. I recall a bunch years ago Steven Den Beste wrote something to the effect that open and fair elections are a society’s error correction mechanism.
Stop that- as the lefts works very hard to do, in a myriad of ways- and you stop something terribly important. That’s one big honkin’ reason why I’ve grown to loath the jee ohh peee so much- the party as a whole never seems willing to push back against the insanity of the left.
Again, I regret if pushing back at him lowers the tone of the site- it has a swarm of great authors and great commenters- but he just keeps coming back for more, like a raccoon that just won’t stop trying to get into the garbage can for a quick meal.
The first few times it’s just a small useless animal doing something mildly annoying. Cute, even.
After the 400th time, it’s pretty tiresome.
Now Trump is an ignoramus and a buffoon…
PenGun, I’m glad you support Trump- but as usual you have no idea what’s going on. The United States is a foreign country, full of people you don’t know, and you certainly aren’t getting a good picture of events from a media that actively hates Donald Trump and most Americans. You are befuddled about his actual talents, which I suspect is partly by his design. But if he was the ignorant buffoon you imagine he’d be in prison by now.
I would like Canada out of NATO and out of the agreements we have with America as well. I would like Meng freed, and a much better relationship with China established.
I’ll try to keep this brief, because I suspect I’m annoying people I respect by attempting to enlighten you. But if you get that “much better” relationship with China, you will accomplish several things.
You will very likely end the “pretty good” relationship you have right now with the much more populous and powerful country also much nearer to you than China. Forget about that open access to the US market and the undefended border. You will very likely end up as nothing more than a Chinese puppet state- if you aren’t already. You will also very likely receive many millions more Chinese colonists than you already have- and those fine folks have reportedly already organized occasional rallies to praise the Tiananmen Square massacres.
In short, the country you live in would effectively cease to exist. Maybe that please you, so good luck with all that.
PenGun
Your country was created by rich land, and slave owners, and built to preserve their power.
If you are going to talk about the United States, perhaps it would behoove you to actually LEARN something about the United States.
Frederick Law Olmsted is best known as the landscape architect who designed Manhattan’s Central Park and San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. He also worked as a journalist. His books about his travels in the South in the 1850s gave a vivid description of the effect of slavery on the South. His conclusion was that the South was decidedly poorer than the North. Slavery didn’t improve the Southern economy, but drug it down.
He wrote three books about his travels in the South.
A Journey in the Seaboard Slave States (1856)
A Journey through Texas: Or a Saddle-Trip on the Southwestern Frontier (1857)
A Journey in the Back Country in the Winter of 1853-4 (1860)
A 2-volume abridgement, Journeys and Explorations in the Cotton Kingdom. Vol 1-2, was subsequently published.
You can download them at no cost from Google Books, or pay a dollar apiece for spruced-up ebook version at Amazon.
Canada out of NATO and a much closer relationship to China. Be careful what you wish for and you might ask your new guests from Hong Kong how that “close relationship” is working out. Canada’s armed forces probably couldn’t stop a determined assault by a troop of Cub Scouts. When your west coast fishing grounds are fished out by the Chinese factory ships, you might want to revisit that.
The power of stories should never by underestimated, especially if they are backed by real capital investment. It may be true that the better the stories the less must be spent in blood.
Consider Solzhenitsyn’s “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich”, and the great ad by Steve Jobs, “Here’s to the Crazy Ones”.
Also this: “It is good for us to confront steadily the ugliness in our world, to follow the histories of anti-heroes, to explore the caverns of meaninglessness, and to be confined within the secular city. But eyes that are fully dark-adapted will be blinded by sunlight, and the imagination and intellect that can discern every subtle variation among evils may not be able to discriminate at all between evil and good.” ””from “Inklings of Another World”, by Mary McDermott Shideler: The significance of J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. More at https://explorersfoundation.org/glyphery/1.html
Jobs talked a good game. Did IBM at its most regimented even approach the almost inhuman conformity of Apple? They’re the grey proles from the 1984 commercial with a livelier color scheme.
At IBM you could think anything as long as you dressed “right”. Now you can dress any way you want but don’t dare to think outside the ever evolving tight-jacket of current dogma.
“The power of stories should never by underestimated”
We had a great story, that anyone born before 1980 or so going back to the birth of the republic would have recognized.
And somehow it’s completely gone now.
“When your west coast fishing grounds are fished out by the Chinese factory ships, you might want to revisit that.”
Not a problem, we already took care of that. To do the truly Canadian stupid thing, we also allowed fish farms in the main fish travel areas, and pretty much destroyed what was left with disease. ;(
Not a problem, we already took care of that. To do the truly Canadian stupid thing, we also allowed fish farms in the main fish travel areas, and pretty much destroyed what was left with disease. ;(
Pengun is as usual moronically wrong. What happened was that the Canuckistani political establishment didn’t care that EU fish factory ships- and before that, Soviet ships- were vacuuming up everything in the sea and slowly exterminating the fishery. By chance, a politician from the most affected province became fisheries minister.
He made the Canuckistani coast guard do its job- for once- and inspect one of those ships, discovering what everyone already knew.
A scandal ensued, because how dare the Canadian fisheries minister involve himself with the affairs of the Canadian fishery!!
It didn’t last long. As usual, the lava flow of bovine excrement from the left buried the actual reality and allowed leftists like PenGun to keep wallowing in comfortable ignorance.
Just another day ending in Y.
And, by the way, PenGun, when China destroys your west coast fishery in the exact same manner as other foreigners wrecked that of the east, you’ll once again blame the hated white devils for disrespecting Gaia, somehow, because noticing actual reality is a job you just won’t do.
Wow It took a few minutes. The East Coast fisheries, fished by all kinds of people for maybe a thousand years, have little to do with our Salmon fishery, that we were talking about. Give your head a shake it needs it. ;)
Oh Canada! Here is what the rest of the world learns about Canada.
Two Canadian police officers follow a 73 year old Canadian man home and shoot him dead.
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/canadas-first-mask-murder-ontario-police-kill-73-year-old-man-after-he-refused-comply
Well, it is Canada so they were probably all “White”. No Certain Black Lives Matter riots to worry about, eh!
Take-away from this is that we should always be careful about building our impression of another country from the “man bites dog” stories that the media love to push. Canada is far from perfect, but I have happy memories of the country and its people.