Quote of the day—John Robb @johnrobb

21st Century planned scarcity.

As in, “let’s not expand into space for energy and resource acquisition, or take the actions on earth necessary in the short term (nuclear power), because scarcity induced totalitarianism is much safer, just, and deserved.”

John Robb @johnrobb
Tweeted on August 28, 2022
[It’s the ongoing conflict between centrally planned and free markets.Or the zero-sum versus non zero-sum mindset. There exist people who crave and even insist on control. These people believe there MUST be someone, organization, or something in control. They are certain they and the world are a better place if control is exerted over a wide set of peoples action.

Some people believe the world would be a better place if most property and (possibly “or” instead of “and”, but this would be rare when you get down to the details) economic decisions are controlled by some supposedly superior being. This superior being is typically a government controlled by a committee and/or a dictator. These people fall in a spectrum that can generally be considered socialist to communist.

Some people believe the world would be a better place if social position and activity decisions (particularly sexual behaviors) are controlled by some supposedly superior being. This superior being is typically a government controlled or at least guided by a set of religious leaders. These people fall in a spectrum that can generally be considered democratic theists, many monarchists, to theocrats.

In the more general case people can be classified as being on a scale from anarchist to authoritarian. Here I am referring to the somewhat less common definition of anarchist as the organization of society on the basis of voluntary cooperation, without political institutions or hierarchical government rather than a state of disorder and chaos.

All social organizations have tradeoff. And under various situations some organizational types are vastly superior to others. For example an anarchist society does not do well against a communist society in search of hosts to satisfy their parasitic requirements. Yet, not too far up the spectrum from anarchist a society with government formed for the protection can economically and technologically, hence militarily defeat a similarly sized society near the authoritarian end of the spectrum.

I find our current political climate annoying because, as Robb indirectly points out above, a frightening number of people are demanding “progress” toward authoritarian government. There is actually a “sweet spot”, by many measures of societal “health”, which lies far closer to the anarchist end of the scale. This is an old, and mostly ignored, observation. History appears to be nearing another catastrophic rhyme.—Joe]

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9 thoughts on “Quote of the day—John Robb @johnrobb

  1. “History appears to be nearing another catastrophic rhyme”

    Yep. Peak energy and plentiful affordable goods, including out of season produce, are in our rear view mirror. Natural gas prices this winter in Europe will be past the breaking point (multiple orders of magnitude) and ours inconvenient (just doubling).

    Winter coming. And Neither Rain, Nor Sleet, Nor gloom of night will deter our officials. This is a deliberate man made catastrophic justified by what-if models to save the planet.

    Even if, and a very big if, our officials change course or are replaced, options will be limited by real world engineering. So winter is coming. And even if you are warm, will the shelves still be stocked and for how long?

  2. Someone said I can’t remember where; “Whom the gods would destroy, first they make mad.” (Still trying to figure out if that’s why I’m pissed all the time. But I digress.)
    There is a reason we so easily forget that we live in a world-wide monarchy? As those whom God does not want in his kingdom, he gives power on earth to.
    Why? Because you prove just how insane and un-worthy you are. In a place where they can’t actually do any harm in his real kingdom.
    Have we noticed that those in control have every resource at their fingertips to do good and right. And yet chose insanity and lies to gain things so temporal?
    Power, money, control for 60-70 years? Then off to a hole with you. All to no avail? Vanity, vanity, all is vanity.
    Until we introduce God into this human mensural cycle. It will remain just that. Vain.
    With God we find scarcity bringing about invention and many times the best of humanity. Cooperation, mercy, a sense of duty, sacrifice, a willingness to defend. The things that make societies great.
    “Sweet spots” are just breathers. In advanced ranger school training. Get use to the pain boys and girls. Learn to spot evil and engage only when it can be overcome, defeated.
    When it’s all said and done. You’ll be able to avoid evil like the plague, forever. Or be rolling in it forever.
    And satan’s job is to weed out all non-hackers from our fathers beloved corp.
    Chose this day whom you will serve. Every morning.
    It matters not where were at in society, or where society is at in the big picture.

  3. “It’s to late to work within the system and to early to start killing the bastards.” I don’t know who said that several years ago but it stuck in my mind. It was true then. It grows less true as time passes and our home grown Leviathan increasingly encroaches upon our God given, Constitutionally guaranteed liberty. The nation was founded as a minarchist republic with the central government responsible for defense from invasion and foreign policy and little else. Our Constitution tightly bound the Federal government to very few tasks most of which had extremely little impact on the daily lives of 99% of its citizens. We must return to something similar to what we had at the founding. Anything more and it will eventually slip into socialism and rapidly declining liberty for nearly all citizens.

    • “rapidly declining liberty for nearly all citizens”

      And that is where we are – split right down the middle. Yet the pressures favor socialism. Sadly, the only path that I see to get back to a government based on the mindset of our founding fathers is for our society to collapse under the mismanagement of the socialists and then, just perhaps. Otherwise, we will continue towards socialism with a declining liberty along with a declining standard of living. The odds favor the latter.

      • Shouldn’t be long now. As you say “winters coming”. And the most brilliant minds in power are pushing hard for that very collapse.
        Humanity is about to find out once again that real terrorists run government.
        If we survive, and most of us won’t.

  4. It’s funny that the narrative remains socialism versus capitalism, when most of these malthusians are in fact arch-capitalists. Bezos, Fink, Gates, et al. And if anything, given the rate at which these creatures cycle through regulatory agencies, private industry, and elected office, viewing it as a either a government or private sector matter also seems to miss the mark. Perhaps instead insight might be found in looking into the ethnicity of Biden’s cabinet.

    • Perhaps we should be discussing “it’s our way or the highway”. After
      all they are the ‘smartest’ people in the room. At least that’s what I heard about Bill when he was running Microsoft. For them, the form of government is not relevant so long as they can use it to score points and get their way.

  5. “Because scarcity induced totalitarianism is much safer, just, and deserved.”
    And I just read where 22,000 Xcel Energy customers in Denver had their thermostats locked at high temps because of the “energy crisis”.
    That’s what happens when one signs up for the “rewards program”.

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