Quote of the day—Quinn Norton

Facebook and Google seem very powerful, but they live about a week from total ruin all the time. They know the cost of leaving social networks individually is high, but en masse, becomes next to nothing. Windows could be replaced with something better written. The US government would fall to a general revolt in a matter of days. It wouldn’t take a total defection or a general revolt to change everything, because corporations and governments would rather bend to demands than die. These entities do everything they can get away with — but we’ve forgotten that we’re the ones that are letting them get away with things.

Quinn Norton
May 20, 2014
Everything Is Broken
[This appears to be true. I suspect part of it is because most people want to belong to a social group. They want to be “normal” and liked and “supported”. If you take someone out of their social support group they loose their confidence. Making someone an outcast, for many people, is a terrible punishment. “Public opinion” matters because we evolved in an environment where shared values and group support gave us an advantage. Those shared values could contain some great falsities—a rain dance doesn’t change the weather, sacrificing a young girl to a “volcano god” doesn’t appease it, and the Final Solution to the “Jewish problem” didn’t make the world a better place. But a common belief that they could change the unchangeable and improve society by murdering millions probably improved morale, gave them a sense of accomplishment, and increased the productivity of the group.

Belonging to “the tribe” is important at a very deep level. This knowledge gives us power to take down powerful forces. But to be effective you can’t just make large numbers of people outcasts. You have to replace their existing “tribe” with another tribe. Religious cults recruit social outcasts and fulfill this basic need and they will believe the craziest things. Democrats recruit groups of people that believe such crazy things as a people can tax their way to prosperity, the government can control prices with no ill effects, or people and even states cannot afford health insurance but taxing people and filtering the money through the federal government will result in plenty of money. This coalition works and is powerful despite the crazy beliefs for the same reason the rain dancing and sacrificing to the volcano gods work. We can’t just mock them and make them outcasts. They will further insolate themselves from the truth.

I appears to me that all political parties have their share of crazy beliefs and do their share of rain dancing, appeasing non-existent gods, and murdering innocent people. Don’t align yourself with political parties and leaders any more than you have to. Align yourself with the truth and work to make social outcasts of those who promote falsity. Yes, I know truth is very hard to discern but as long as you don’t get emotionally involved with the answers you find along the way you can work your way closer with very little backsliding.—Joe]

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2 thoughts on “Quote of the day—Quinn Norton

  1. “But to be effective you can’t just make large numbers of people outcasts.”

    True. Or rather, I should say; true? People often make themselves outcasts, then look for other outcasts to align themselves with. It’s happening constantly.

    But there are very different levels of the meaning of “outcast”. One can person can make the the rest of the entire world into “outcasts” simply by turning away from the world and not participating.

    But with this next bit I think you’re zeroing in the point;

    “You have to replace their existing “tribe” with another tribe.”

    Here comes that distinction between taking over a persons’s programming verses finding ways to help people become de-programmed.

    It is said; “When in Rome, do as the Romans do” but I say that when you find yourself in Rome you should get out of Rome before you fall into the wrath of her iniquities.

    It’s very peculiar, and yet very common, that we become so programmed, so mesmerized, that our brains shut down to certain perceptions. When examining a state Capitol building the other day, of course everyone there was mesmerized at the splendor of the place. I was rather horrified by the blatant show of the power to waste the resources of the people, and so I asked aloud;
    “What possesses people do build such things?”

    A perfectly appropriate, relevant and pertinent question, I thought, and yet, even in the small group of family that I asked, there was no response whatever.

    They weren’t there to ask any such question. They were there to be mesmerized, and to feel the glory of the splendor, and so, despite my words being perfectly clear and loud enough to register intelligibly in their ears, they simply chose to not hear it.

    We’re I to persist, which is tantamount to waking someone up, violently, out of a deep sleep from which they do NOT want awakened, they would have gotten irritated and probably hostile. That’s what happens when you wake someone up who would much rather sleep. At that moment I was not willing to allow them to become hostile toward me, and right there I believe is our primary failing.

    On the other hand, the simple little question “What possesses people to build such things?” standing in such stark contrast to “My, oh my; isn’t it all so WONDERFUL?” did reach their brains on some level (it had to, surely?), so maybe I planted a little mustard seed, and maybe in some cases it will grow.

    In a world that’s mostly insane, corrupt, debaucherous and treacherous (Rome) such as we live in, the first step is to make “outcasts” of ourselves. In so doing we are immediately seen as transgressors, but how can we preach against the evils of Rome if we’re partaking of them ourselves? How can we point fingers at others and say, “Wake up” if all we’re really doing is trying to take control of their mesmerized condition? That’s the mote their eye verses the beam in the ours, surely.

    Actually, this explains the situation to perfection, I believe. It’s Morpheus describing the workings the Matrix and peril which comes from opposing it;
    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SF2iImTqaTs

    “[These are] the very minds of the people we’re trying to save, but until we do, these people are still a part of that system, and that makes them our enemy…”

    Right there, I think, is where the command, “Love thy enemy” comes into play. How do you wake up that sleeping man when the building he’s in is on fire, in such a manner that he doesn’t kill you, go back to sleep, and then die in the fire?

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