Revolt in a normal human society is made easier by the fact that everyone knows who is in charge and the institutions they control. In a despotism, the name of the despot and his supporters is known. The institutions they control and their relative power is also well known. The same is true of a republic when it degrades into oligarchy. Picking sides comes naturally. In the synopticon, this is not so clear, because everyone is an agent of the system, a potential threat to anyone resisting the system.
That is the first thing a political dissident living within the modern liberal democracy must accept about their condition. Since everyone operates within a lattice work of interconnected data collection nodes, the sides are not clear. The people at the top, ostensibly running the system, rarely act directly. They often appear to be carried along by the system itself. Groups that form up to reform some aspect of the system are easily coopted by the system to defend the system from change.
This is the hardest thing to grasp about any human relations. Half the population will also seek to assign blame to an individual or group of individuals. They simply lack the capacity to understand how events, ideas, and the system in which they operate can come together within a society. They insist the problem is someone holding office or a group of people running an institution or party. While not entirely wrong, it is an antiquated view of the world that make resistance self-defeating.
The simplest way of thinking of this is the modern prison. The guards rely on cameras, listening devices and other detection systems. They also rely on snitches in the prison population to tip them off to trouble. Ideally, the prison system wants every prisoner distrusting every other prisoner. If they are unable and unwilling to cooperate, then they are just a collection of rebellious individuals. No matter how clever one may be, the rest are there to undermine the effort due to misplaced self-interest.
In a society in which everyone watches everyone, knowingly or otherwise, and inanimate objects like ATM’s and mobile phones can be turned into snitches for the system, the people are isolated individuals suspended in the system. The unaware are happily holding up their mobile devices, snitching for the system at every event, while the aware are doing the same, thinking they are fighting the man. This is why the most powerful people think they are the resistance, fighting populism.
This is the first rule of revolution within the synopticon. The war is not against people, but against the system itself. The people involved may be bad actors, but even the people who appear to be good actors, can be bad actors, because they fail to grasp that they are part of the system. This is something the cleverer inmates figure out about the prison system. In order to have any sense of freedom, they continually throw sand in the gears of the system and encourages others to do the same.
As a practical matter, this first means disconnecting as much as possible from the information grid. This is not easy, as it so much of it is convenient. That mobile device feels necessary, because it is convenient. Using Apple Pay or a credit card for all purchases is easy. It is also easy for the authorities to track you down if you show up at the wrong political event or hang around the wrong people. The people at the Capitol on January 6 are learning this lesson the hard way.
This is the first step for any political actor. Politics and the normal aspects of life must be separate spheres, physically and mentally. This means political events are mobile device free. Communication is through the densest channel possible. Reading texts is simple for the system. Reading e-mail is hard. Reading lips through CCTV cameras is impossible, despite what the movies claim. Never write when you can speak, never speak when you can nod. That is the way of dissent in the synopticon.
There is another lesson from the criminal world that applies here. The reformer in the synopticon is always policing his area for nodes of the system. In the criminal sphere, this means listening devices and snitches. The smart actor is always testing the people and environment for security risks. For reformers, this means imposing rules on others about their interaction with the system. It means developing codes of conduct to enforce discipline about communications and interaction with the system.
As a practical matter, this means political resistance starts with community. Entrance into the community requires increasing levels of commitment. At the periphery are people who always being evaluated to see if they can be an asset to the political community and perhaps one day join it. As they demonstrate their worth and commitment, they are required to make greater sacrifices for the whole in order to go deeper into the heart of the community.
In other words, organizing in the synopticon must operate within the blind spots of the system, which in the digital age means the analog space. While the system can detect and predict community formation, it needs the inputs through the compound eye of the system to form the data set. The invisible rules of a community operating face to face are outside the vision of the system. The most dangerous thing to the synopticon is small groups of people meeting in person to form bonds.
Finally, the reformer in the synopticon must embrace the Gerasimov Doctrine. This is the Russian approach to modern war and politics. The days of nations facing off across a field in a well-define set-piece battle are long gone. War and politics have converged in the information age. Those color revolutions sponsored by American intelligence are good examples of modern war. The appearance of “little green men” in Crimea during the American overthrow of the Ukrainian government is another.
Domestically, this means something like systemic sabotage. The more bad data fed into the system, the less valuable the information it creates. The less valuable the information to the people relying on it, the less likely they are to trust it. In the information age, war is an information war. Jamming the system with bogus data is one front on that war. Similarly, causing unnecessary responses from the system wastes resources that could be used elsewhere.
This is why leafletting, for example, is a powerful weapon. It is cheap for the one side, but expensive for the system. Police departments running around looking for the person behind a leafletting campaign is a drain on the system. It also erodes the trust between the people reliant on the system and the system itself. The same would be true of sit-ins and candlelight vigils outside the green zone in Washington. It would turn one weapon of the color revolution against the people wielding it.
Another example of how a multifront war against the compound eye of the synopticon is the short squeeze ushered in by retail investors. The people reliant on the system assumed the other side was operating from predictable motives. When it turned out to be otherwise, they had no rational response. Suddenly, the financial class has a new front in their war on the middle-class. Do this a dozen times and the system is a giant swatting at flies.
This is the essence of the Gerasimov Doctrine. War in the information age is multidimensional and, irregular and ad-hoc. It is not about locating the enemy and engaging him in battle. The enemy is all around in the form of the system. This is particularly true for the reformer. Revolt in the synopticon is about hacking that system so it becomes unpredictable and unreliable. This means jamming it with bad data, depriving it of useful data and overloading it at its weak points.
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Happy Mardi Gras.
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Yes, and while our current problems are serious, we would all do well to remember the big picture. St Ambrose, Doctor of the Church:
Sweet is this present life, but it passes away; terrible, O Christ, is thy judgment, and it endures forever. Let us, therefore, cease to love what is unstable, and fix our thoughts on the fear of what is eternal; saying; Christ, have mercy upon us!
From the Ambrosian liturgy, 5th century
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War of the Flea: Information Age edition
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A solid post, with some good ideas. It is very important going forward that more people become aware of the criminal mindset and have the will to use it in small – but effective ways. I support the notion of forming real life bonds fully, both by starting a family and spreading the good word. In my personal experience, there is a huge amount of resentment currently in many people – but they are still in ‘deer in the headlights mode’. No action do they take.
This year I have convinced my parents to move away from their declining neighbourhood. I have began planning for the homeschooling of my son (when he comes of age – good to be prepared), although my wife will be undertaking the homeschooling herself as I work… an excellent division of labour if ever there were one. Furthermore, we have looked at removing ourselves from Londonistan, which should really be any able families first step. Reviewing the curricula of schools in my area has been ample evidence to present to friends of the dangers of public schools, too. I have had encouraging feedback.
However, the preaching is one thing. Getting people to act on it is a slow and painful process. But I don’t want to give up. I do not want to despair, although sometimes it is hard not too. Everyday brings more information of publicly funded lunacy spreading through once decent institutions. Quite honestly, now that I have accepted the war against The System, I can bring my focus to bear on it. One must try at least. Keep preaching.
Another thing to consider, and I suppose it was alluded to in this piece as well as your last: just as The System has weapons to torment the people, so to do the people have (most of) the same weapons to torment the system. The biggest first step is the real life organization, and this must come first. Presumably, such organization could come about either as a totally new grouping centered around a core ethos (an environment that was safe for families) or be built from the crumbling ruins of another organization. In any case, it all starts with a meeting of two or three. I am not sure how many UK based readers there are here, but it’d be an interesting thing to meet up in real life, that’s for sure.
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A comment meriting a hearty: Amen!
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Network effects are real, and the fact you are taking the plunge and getting the ball rolling means it is going to be easier for others to join you.
For example, a professor I know homeschooled his kids twenty or so years ago when it was extremely rare, learned what works, and created a co-op that is now run by one of his daughters that helps educate upwards of fifty children a year.
This works as both putting sands in the gear of the system by creating a viable alternative, and creating a community that isn’t resisting the system as much as actively ignoring it. When the system isn’t something to be resisted, but something just ignored in a person’s day to day life, you’re accelerating the collapse exponentially without a shot fired.
sabotaging the system is indeed a better idea than revolting against oligarchs cause oligarchs like to hide in the shadowsa and they need the system to implement their evil ideas.
imo the best way to sabotage the corpo-state is through laziness, apathy and going off-the-grid, don’t how many are willing to do so. There’s also the possibility of forced labor if things get out of hand.
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Straight forward plan:
1. Form your own high-trust groups.
2. Throw sand in the gears of the overall system – a system that will degrade on its own due to a number of internal issues – to increase the cost of occupation.
3. When the system starts to become unable to carry out various functions required for a society to run, step into the void.
4. Eventually create semi-autonomous areas/societies.
5. Full break away. Our own ethno-states.
I suspect that I could see steps one, two and even some of three. The remaining steps – the good ones – will be past my time. Oh well, time to plant some trees.
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In “To Build a Castle,’ the 1970s Soviet dissident Vladimir Bukovsky explained how he exploited the Soviet Constitution, which actually guaranteed freedom of speech, etc., although the regime routinely violated those guarantees. He would challenge every action against him, appealing to the highest court. In Stalin times, that would have been pointless, getting a quick bullet to the head. But after the Khrushchev thaw in the late 1950s, there was a relaxation of severity, and some opening to the West, if only to get technology, grain and credits. He used it. That’s why I recently appealed a dumb, revenue-raising traffic ticked as far as I could. It clogged the system, as Z said. The cop had to make an appearance in court, meaning he wasn’t harassing citizens for half a day. The system had to pay for the judge, bailif, courtroom, etc. I lost, but it as worth it. Waiting my turn and watching other victims, I also learned this: at least where I live, half the cops don’t show up for traffic tickets, meaning an automatic dismissal. Use it.
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“The system had to pay for the judge, bailif, courtroom, etc. I lost, but it as worth it.”
This is the mindset that more of us need to internalize. Its not necessarily about the short gains, of “winning” in an immediate competition. Like Z and yourself have pointed out, its about clogging the system, overburdening its resources. Its about the long-gains, the competition over time.
I admit, this was the last obstacle for me to overcome. I was raised to be a humble, good Catholic boy. Don’t overburden anyone, go the extra mile, hard work is a value in itself so work work work! Always lend a helping hand, even to those who would stab you in the back etc.
While this is stoic in itself, it needs to be reigned in with clear standards and sharp rationality. I dole out my effort, my work, my devotion in a much more limited and strict capacity now. If everyone else around you is an oblivious and selfish moron adding to the immorality and corruption which will eventually destroy you, you aren’t helping anyone by “working hard” and “making sacrifices” for them. Reserve that for the few– the peaceful, the wise and humble ones.
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> I admit, this was the last obstacle for me to overcome. I was raised to be a humble, good Catholic boy. Don’t overburden anyone, go the extra mile, hard work is a value in itself so work work work! Always lend a helping hand, even to those who would stab you in the back etc.
In this age, we must take to heart Jesus’ message of being as shrewd as serpents and simple as doves. the passage about pearls before swine comes to mind also.
What does. This mean practically for something like American Renaissance conference?
” which in the digital age means the analog space. ”
CB radio for comms?
The conspirators in the FBI scandal suddenly got interested in ham radio. Probably just a coincidence.
What is wrong with the system, Z? Be specific, show your work. Also recommend changes to correct it, that are fair and allow everyone the right to make a living and work toward health and happiness. Present that in a legally sound and enforceable format…because at some point, if you tear down the present system, that is exactly what you will have to do.
If you tear down “the system” without addressing the perps, you will end up with the same people doing the same shit in a different pile, if you would allow me to mangle a metaphor.
Tell ya what. Arrest the presidential crime families. Do a JFK on Biden or Kamala. String up Mitt Romney. Stretch the necks of the higher profile abusers. The rest of those cowards would either run like chickens or toe the line. Do that before they do it to us. They are already ginning themselves up for it. It’s time to accept that this won’t end well… so it has to end worse for the guys that started it.
Sorry for the fedpoasting… but I heard that the governor of Florida just told Joe Biden to go fuck himself, and has threatened to call up state troops to make him do it if he gets stupid about it. That is the message those guys need to hear, and that is the way to deal with them.
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As far as the reality of information and what we call warfare goes, I understand this latest Zpost, and its very insignful.
But theres the techno/political/info system, and then there are the philosophies behind it. I just opened vdare and saw the article linked below. The first few sentences tell us exactly what the philosophy being run through the system is: an Indian immigrant has more say in our lives than we do!
I’m assuming we are talking about destroying this philosophy USING or at least accepting, the current system used to perpetrate and uphold the current philosophy of anti-white/Christian/male etc….
https://vdare.com/articles/biden-s-immigration-plans-crazy-but-jayapal-demands-more-swing-state-democrats-worried
The Road Back (cont)
Harden your shell.
Don’t let the absence of bullets fool you. A memetic war is raging and it aims to kill you nonetheless. There are real psyops in progress that bombard us every minute of every day with repetitive insidious messaging designed to sow doubt, despair, and defeatism among the sane. It works largely because it’s a one-way street of relentless attack with no tangible means of fighting back. But you can fight back. First, block as much of it as feasible. Second, routinely reaffirm to yourself that the memetic programming did not work & you didn’t succumb. Third, visualize the message purveyor and mentally imprint their image on your targets when at range practice. It will improve both your aim and your state of mind.
In the panopticon, we’re all the Vietcong now. And just like the Vietcong, we should focus on the countryside, first.
Create small zones of de facto autonomous areas – unofficially – and stop the state machine’s ability to tyrannize.
If enough of us do this, it all comes crashing down.
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Similar to the guys who did the Gamestop short squeeze, perhaps a run on Bank of America to punish them for turning credit card data over to the feds. I am not sure how this would be done but if every Trump supporter with a BoA account took their money out on the same day it would probably get their attention. It would shake the whole system.
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