This podcast (published originally in an appendix to A Lodging of Wayfaring Men) was composed twenty years ago, while working in a difficult and even dangerous cypherpunk project. It expresses the things that were on our minds as we stepped away from the status quo and dared to build afresh outside of it.
“Men,” wrote Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., “are idolaters, and want something to look at and kiss and hug, or throw themselves down before; they always did, they always will; and if you don’t make it of wood, you must make it of words.”
“Men,” wrote Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., “are idolaters, and want something to look at and kiss and hug, or throw themselves down before; they always did, they always will; and if you don’t make it of wood, you must make it of words.”
Idolatry is a frame of mind. We’ve all experienced it, though we haven’t been clear on what it was. But once you do recognize it, you’ll be at least half immunized against it, and probably for life.
Imagine that some combination of circumstances end with you walking into a so-so bar, then accidentally causing some gigantic brute to spill his drink. Imagine also that this brute just learned that his girlfriend moved out, taking his bank account with her.
I rather hate to do this, but these first two paragraphs seem the best way to make this very important point. Apologies.
Imagine that some combination of circumstances end with you walking into a so-so bar, then accidentally causing some gigantic brute to spill his drink. Imagine also that this brute just learned that his girlfriend moved out, taking his bank account with her. Continue reading “Fear, Shame And Intimidation Are Chemical Weapons”
It’s up to us to improve the world. If obediently waiting for someone or something else could work, the dominating structures of the world would have improved long, long ago. But they haven’t, leaving the job to us.
To do this, however, we must first change the way we look at ourselves and experience ourselves.
Martin continued talking for a while, but mainly about his childhood and early career. Then, he moved back to the problem that America posed to elite rulers. “In America, at least in the early days, people believed they were the primary factors; that they created rulership structures for their own sake… that the structures had no validity, except to serve them.”
Martin continued talking for a while, but mainly about his childhood and early career. Then, he moved back to the problem that America posed to rulers.
“In America, at least in the early days, people believed they were the primary factors; that they created rulership structures for their own sake… that the structures had no validity, except to serve them.” Continue reading “A Full Confession, Part Two”
You can’t write about this till I’m gone,” he said, “but that won’t be long.”
I hadn’t been to Jay’s Bar in a while, but I was invited by my old friend Martin. He was a basically nice guy who ended up working for an elite group. Continue reading “A Full Confession, Part One”
This episode of the Parallel Society podcast explains something that’s tremendously simple and is great news for us, but is at the same time deeply radical, going against the structure of the world we live in. And that’s a simple phrase: We are structured for magnificence.
This episode of the Parallel Society podcast explains something that’s tremendously simple and is great news for us, but is at the same time deeply radical, going against the structure of the world we live in. And that’s a simple phrase: We are structured for magnificence.
This concept offends people, of course, but however off-putting this little phrase may seem, it is true. And it opens a door to a magnificent future.
And we can demonstrate that mankind is structured for morality.
Production Versus Plunder, Paul’s highly regarded history book, came together in a fascinating and almost amazing way. He’s never told the story before, but in this podcast, he does.
(I’m writing this article for the benefit of the many decent and hard-working people who still believe in the necessity of rulership. While I no longer hold to that belief, I love and respect very many who do.)