The world is changing, and institutions are working frantically to ensure that nothing fundamental changes. The result is a self-reinforcing cycle in which the machinery of (i.e. self-)preservation becomes an engine of destruction.
We have built a civilisation capable of transforming an entire planet, yet incapable of managing the consequences.
The internet promised to make life easier. Instead, we increasingly organise our lives around its demands, adapting to systems that profit from the dependencies, distractions and frustrations they perpetuate.
The absence of violence is not necessarily peace. From personal relationships to international affairs, insecurity persists when attempts to resolve conflict reproduce the conditions that generate it.
War, wealth and political insecurity reproduce the problems they ostensibly intend to resolve, sustaining destructive relationships whose continuity subsequently appears necessary.
Things do not exist first and then form relationships. They emerge through relationships that sustain them. Identity, time and existence arise from differences that can never be completely resolved.
Institutions do not merely resist criticism. They regulate the conditions under which criticism can become intelligible, credible and consequential.
We have built institutions that teach people how to think, then reward them for knowing when not to.
Language is more than a means of exchanging information. Beneath meaning and communication lie physical dynamics of rhythm, resonance and persistence that shape collective behaviour, social reality and the patterns through which we understand the world.
We mistake the brain for the seat of intelligence and the individual for its owner. Both depend upon a much larger system.
Over coffee, Captain Fractal considers a civilisation whose communication systems increasingly reward the behaviours that undermine its survival. The machinery isn’t broken. That’s the problem.
When humanity finally runs out of idiots to put in charge, it turns to Captain Fractal. Armed with decades of systems thinking, a ridiculous hat and a dangerous understanding of consequences, he sets about un-fucking civilisation.
Have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
