Note: There is a new post up on both Substack and SubscribeStar. It appears there are lots of people on Substack who would never sign up for SubscibeStar and plenty of people on SubscribeStar who have no interest in moving to Substack. Green door content will be posted on both so pick your poison.
In the classic comedy, The Jerk, there is a scene in which the main character, played by Steve Martin, is in court. He is being sued because the invention that made him rich is supposedly causing everyone to go cross-eyed. He invented a thing to go on the bridge of glasses that prevents them from falling forward when you look down. In the scene, Martin looks around and sees that everyone in the court, including the judge and the jury, are cross-eyed like the people suing him.
This is what Elon Musk is going to face in the Delaware Court of Chancery Chancellor when his case against Twitter goes to trial. That assumes it ever gets to a trial, as there is a good chance his lawyers see the writing on the wall long before that point and there is some sort of settlement. The Twitter legal team features a former chief judge from the Delaware Court of Chancery Chancellor. No doubt there are others with connections to the small club that is the Delaware bench.
Like the Steve Martin character in that movie, Musk is about to learn that the laws and procedures do not matter. What matters is who decides. Every judge on the Delaware Court of Chancery Chancellor was put there by a politician. Those politicians were selected for their loyalty to a system that many deny exists. That system is the managerial system that governs America. You do not get into office with a chance to wield real power unless you are trusted by the system.
System is probably not the best word for what we are seeing. It is more like a mindset, a set of shared beliefs. The judge in the Twitter case, Kathaleen McCormick, will look out at the players and see that Musk is not her sort. He is not the type of person she thinks should be a winner in this world. She thinks this because everyone she knows thinks this about Musk. She may not be able to say why she thinks Musk is a threat to our democracy, but she is sure of it.
It was not always this way for Musk. He was once the darling of the managerial class, celebrated in popular culture as a modern day Thomas Edison. He was serving Gaia with his electric cars and hyper loops. His battery plants would magically allow us to stop raping Mother Earth for fossil fuels. His reward would be to one day travel the stars in his rocket ships. Musk was the way to the glorious future. When he spoke out against Twitter, he suddenly transformed into the terrible past.
This is what stumps people about managerialism. There was no official pronouncement from the leader of the managers. The supreme leader of managerialism did not read out a fatwa against Elon Musk. There is not even an anonymous memo circulating that says Musk is now on the proscribed list. It is a thing that just happened. One day, people with power were showering Musk with your money. Then all of a sudden, they all agreed that Musk was a threat to our democracy.
Another example of the managerial mindset is in this story about the law firm that won the recent gun case in the Supreme Court. The two lawyers who won the case were met with a termination letter after their victory. The law firm, Kirkland & Ellis, represents the most important people in the most important matters. There is a revolving door between Kirkland & Ellis and the Department of Justice. Former AG Bill Bar was a Kirkland man, as were many on his team.
Why is Kirkland & Ellis dropping second amendment cases? No one has made an official announcement on the issue. The attorneys who won the gun case stated that they were told the firm was dropping their gun clients. No one came to the partners of Kirkland & Ellis and made them an offer they could not refuse. They simply decided that their conscience could no longer allow them to handle these cases. Then they were celebrated for it by their friends down at the club.
This is the first domino. All of the other big forms will drop second amendment litigation because they will all be struck by the same crisis of conscience. Much the same has happened in the insurance industry. Insurers refused to do business with the National Rifle Association. Many banks have also joined the boycott. Again, there was no memo sent out from the secret lair in the hollowed out volcano. No one is forcing these big players to do this. They just think it is right.
It is one of things the paleos got wrong about managerialism. Perhaps wrong is too strong a word for it. More like they did not anticipate it. Burnham, a former communist, focused on the material aspects. He never addressed the culture of managerialism that was evolving along with the managerial system. Later paleos started to approach this topic, but they never fully embraced the idea that this class that rules over American society has reached class consciousness.
That class consciousness is not simply an awareness of their position with regards to economic and cultural relations. It is a moral community now. To be in the managerial class requires accepting a set of beliefs about what is right and wrong. Good people accept climate change. Bad people are deniers. Good people think guns are bad, while the bad people talk about their second amendment rights. The good people saw Trump as a threat to our democracy. The bad people voted for him.
This is what Musk faces in the Delaware Court of Chancery Chancellor. He may have the facts on his side with regards to the fake accounts. He may have the law on his side with regards to the terms of the deal. He has all the money in the world, which should count for a lot. None of that may matter as the people making the decision have all decided that he is a bad guy. Like every issue for the managerial class, Musk is now a moral signifier. Where you stand on him is where you stand on everything.
If you like my work and wish to kick in a few bucks, you can buy me a beer. You can sign up for a SubscribeStar subscription and get some extra content. You can donate via PayPal. My crypto addresses are here for those who prefer that option. You can send gold bars to: Z Media LLC P.O. Box 432 Cockeysville, MD 21030-0432. Thank you for your support!
Promotions: We have a new addition to the list. Havamal Soap Works is the maker of natural, handmade soap and bath products. If you are looking to reduce the volume of man-made chemicals in your life, all-natural personal products are a good start. If you use this link you get 15% off of your purchase.
The good folks at Alaska Chaga are offering a ten percent discount to readers of this site. You just click on the this link and they take care of the rest. About a year ago they sent me some of their stuff. Up until that point, I had never heard of chaga, but I gave a try and it is very good. It is a tea, but it has a mild flavor. It’s autumn here in Lagos, so it is my daily beverage now.
Minter & Richter Designs makes high-quality, hand-made by one guy in Boston, titanium wedding rings for men and women and they are now offering readers a fifteen percent discount on purchases if you use this link. If you are headed to Boston, they are also offering my readers 20% off their 5-star rated Airbnb. Just email them directly to book at sales@minterandrichterdesigns.com.
TheZMan is confusing emergent behaviour with strong emergence in this essay. Strong emergence is still a contentious issue in philosophy, let alone the thesis the TheZMan is putting forward here.
I think it is the wrong debate. I think it is a religion. This means that the believers can function as a herd. But somebody has to set the tone, to produce the ideas. Let’s review the Elon Musk case. When Elon Musk tried to buy Twitter, he was universally rejected by the managerial herd. Why? Well, no wonder. Twitter is the treasure of the managerial herd. Why? Because Twitter can impose the “right” opinions according to the progressive religion and ban everybody else. It makes sure that heretical opinions don’t thrive. So, until now, there is no mystery: Musk… Read more »
Good analysis, but in the Catholic system, it is not Pope at the top – it is the Magisterium. The Pope is constrained by Scripture and Tradition. On the secular side, I don’t really see a constraint – other than periodic revolution and civilizational collapse.
Masterful explanation of what is observable when ascending the chain of mass control. Completing the chain with the final links at the top is an exercise in speculation, however allow me to say that I don’t think people – oligarchs – controlling the Foundations are the sparks that set all the woke machinery in motion. Instead I think Soros executes orders as well because he is a new rich. He didn’t oust an older power structure to get where he is currently at, he was simply allowed in. The guys at the top are the Old Money that make up… Read more »
@ZMan – re “Emergent behaviour” I daresay I went-into the theories of emergence – bottom-up simulations of ‘teleology’ – at least as thoroughly as you have; and was once a believer e.g. the appendix to: https://www.hedweb.com/bgcharlton/modernization-imperative.html But *eventually* I realized emergence is just metaphysical assumptions of its own validity, analogies and models masquerading as ‘explanation’ – i.e. hand-waving: https://thewinnower.com/papers/3497-a-teleological-metaphysics-for-biology-hierarchical-purposive-conscious-governing-entities-direct-evolutionary-processes At root, metaphysical emergence is built on the denial of teleology in reality, and the mere-assertion that “therefore” there “must be” an explanation for complex and directional phenomena *without* any direction, purpose or cohesive-tendencies (negentropy) – i.e. there *must be* meaning… Read more »
This is not emergent behavior. Emergent behavior simply means properties of a system that are not present in the individual members of the system. This is a well observed phenomenon in nature and science.
you can argue about whether some particular phenomena is ’emergent’, but not that emergent behavior exists. of course it does; you see it anytime a large crowd of people forms.
@ZMan – I’m afraid you are mistaken.
If you are to pin your entire world view on the belief that ’emergent behaviour’ is an alternative (and non-top-down) form of long-term system formation/ coherence/ growth through changing conditions; you will need to be much clearer about what you mean at a fundamental causal level. Or else you will simply be denying (what ought to be) the obvious.
Nobody else can do this for you.
I am getting a strong whiff of intelligent design. Regardless, you cannot get passed linear relations and simple casual relationships, which is why you cannot grasp the concept emergent behavior.
I will note that you were on the right track originally. You need to think of human society as a garden, rather than a watch. That means thinking in at least four dimensions.
Just a stray point: In that artificial newsform you linked about the New York gun case from June the actual name of the matter (NY State Rifle & Pistol Assn. v. Bruen) is never given in the text, whether by choice of “Josh Gerstein” or “POLITICO” handlers. It is mostly in the vein of a source-servicing, look-at-these-people-I-quoted c.v. item (Mickey Kaus labeled these “beat-sweeteners”). Time was, the name of the relevant case had to be one of the top 2 or 3 most important things to put in an article about the Supreme Court. I clicked the link within the… Read more »
The twatter deal gave him an excuse to unload 10 million shares of tsla while at a pe of about 120.
I’d disagree with the idea that the managerial class all turned on Elon instantly over the twitter thing. It was more of a steady process where he kept engaging in minor heresies that raised eyebrows of the beautiful ones until they finally identified him as an enemy. Anyone here who started out as a liberal and turned to the right probably experienced the same thing with their friends. Initially you get some milquetoast red pills and bring them up in conversation “You know, I think affirmative action should just apply to poor people in general and not be race-based…” and… Read more »
Say goodnight to the bad guy.
https://youtu.be/Yky4QtRX_DI
Elon Musk is best viewed as the Howard Huges of space. He’s largely untouchable because the Department of Defencse understands that the post-Obama NASA can no longer perform it’s primary function of reliably delivering objects into space. Tesla may be the main source of Elon’s wealth, but he’s wealthy because DoD needs him. Hence all the finger wagging from the SEC against Musk, but no meaningful action. My read of the Twitter deal is that the DoD wants to wrestle control of Twitter from the lefties who control it now so it can manage the information landscape as we stumble… Read more »
Always interesting and out of the box thinking and ideas in the comment thread.
Exactly what I thought. I gave Guest an upvote just for being original and interesting, qualities suffering great scarcity.
As for whether he’s right, who knows. Will keep an eye on things with this in mind.
Naaah! Guest reads Jim’b Blog. This view is shared by almost all the commentators in Jim’s Blog. The idea is that all battles/protests in democracies are essentially between factions in the government
Bezos would love to get on the DOD/NASA grift train, and they would love to decouple from SpaceX/Musk, but his team just can’t do it.
Apparently rock science truly is difficult.
Just check out how quickly Musk was able to reconfigure his low earth orbit satellites to provide internet access to the Ukranian army. NASA can’t do anything like this, for reasons we all know.
https://redstate.com/nick-arama/2022/07/19/pranksters-trick-stephen-king-into-thinking-hes-talking-to-zelensky-then-he-shows-how-twisted-leftists-are-in-ukraine-cult-n598014
Particular hiver in action. Granted, King is a libtard of the highest order, but damn, the level of “nuance” in that man. Such a shame we can’t resurrect the SS, I’d love to see him excuse Heinrich Himmler.
shame if he got run down again 😛
1. The NRA has served all the purpose it can, we have the guns. As they are presently useless in American hands is not the fault of the NRA. The potential remains for good or ill. 2. The NRA is an insurance company which is germane, more significant is if it survives. It’s survival means defectors. 3. Musk has killed Twitter as a business and this is significant, it’s replaced on every side. Its Iconoclasm not business. 4. More significant will be if he DOESN’T get totally but only partially wronged in Delaware Chancery – because that would mean undoubtedly… Read more »
Only thing I can think of that might make Delaware courts at least be somewhat fair is the reputation for being a corporate haven. If Elon gets too overtly screwed there, it will cause a lot of businesses to think twice before incorporating there, or adding forum selection clauses to avoid it. Business is big business in Delaware.
[…] ZMan reads the tea leaves. […]
Z gets a lot right in this piece, and the most important of the truths he illuminates is that ideology is more important than structure. We can call the structure that controls AINO–and the West–the Managerial State, the Deep State, the Power Structure, etc., but regardless of what you call it, adherence to a specific ideology either qualifies or disqualifies one from sharing in the power. And this is why I believe the DR braintrust should focus more of its efforts on analyzing ideology and less on describing organizational forms. As an aside, it sounds to me as though Musk… Read more »
as you know, Elon is not eligible for POTUS.
Next thing you know, you’ll cite Muh Constitution.
Rules are for dirt people.
Didn’t you learn anything from Barry?
Agreed. If Musk were a Hutu and an AWR in fine standing, a loophole would be created to allow him to become prez. As is, I suppose they have a natural impediment to prevent Musk from gaining the Anti-White House. They shouldn’t have to do anything extraordinary.
Right?
At one point there was a fair amount of noise being made about dropping the native-born requirement so Schwarzenegger could run for President.
The scenario is zerObama was a nobody so they could create a fake birth certificate without anybody figuring it out. A single white woman having an illegitimate child with a black African in 1963 in Hawaii? … supposedly? As if anybody would pay attention to anything about that birth? Musk was born to a relatively wealthy family in South Africa which was a first world country at that time. Impossible to fake the birth data They did not Bend the rules for zero. They lied about where he was born. Musk didn’t even have the contacts to come to America… Read more »
Bahahaha. The constitution…. Bahahahaha.
Totally agree that the constitution stuff is BS for the lefties but they have to “use” it it for their purposes.
They did not bend the rules for ZerObama. They faked the certificate to pretend that muH constitution was being faithfully followed.
“All of the other big firms will drop second amendment litigation because they will all be struck by the same crisis of conscience.” – Not a big loss. It’s amazing what you don’t get with these firms. Bled dry on a six minute billing cycle. Only the big clients matter, etc. The only thing they’re good for is needing the nepotism juice to get past a very expensive regulation at a government agency, where they can call the Administrator personally for resolution. That’s where the magic happens at these firms. As far as Musk goes, the facts aren’t on his… Read more »
Depends. You can have a due diligence period after the signing, and adjustments based upon activities between signing and closing, etc. It just depends on what is in the agreement. Whether the judge in this case goes by that or not is a different matter.
have you read the actual contract?
“System is probably not the best word for what we are seeing. It is more like a mindset, a set of shared beliefs.”
The word you are looking for is “religion”
“That class consciousness is not simply an awareness of their position with regards to economic and cultural relations. It is a moral community now. To be in the managerial class requires accepting a set of beliefs about what is right and wrong.”
The word you are looking for is “religion”
I disagree. Religion requires worship of a deity or deities. What’s more, unless you’re talking about a very primitive religion, it requires an ur-tex such as the Bible or the Q’uran. What we see from the Left resembles a religion in many respects–the zealotry certainly mimics the behavior of most religious belief in its formative stages–but without the diety and the ur-text, what we’re seeing is just another ideology. Perhaps these desiderata will be added later. If so, we’ll have to think again.
The voluminous code of federal regulation and the federal tax code are their holy scriptures. George Floyd, Emmitt Till, Rosa Parks, Rupaul, etc. are their deities.
They’re worshiped as victims of whitey, not deities. And I doubt anybody can quote chapter and verse from the federal tax code.
let me introduce you to Gaia.
Yes, Gaia probably qualifies as something approximating a deity for the New Agey types among them.
“I disagree. Religion requires worship of a deity or deities.
Not true. Confucianisn, Taoism and some branches of Buddhism don’t worship deities
Many religions have no texts. Bur the progressive religion has texts, such as the Declaration of Human rights. In America, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.
A religion is an ideology that defines what is good and what is evil. Tha American State is founded on the progressive religion, of which wokeism is the last mutation
Confucianism and Taoism are not religions; they are philosophies of how to conduct one’s life, much like Stoicism.
The texts you mention are hardly specific to progressivism, and, unlike true religious texts (Bible, Q’uran), you won’t find copies on the shelf of every progressive. Where are the churches in which the preacher sermonizes from the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence? Unlike the houses of worship for true religions, they don’t exist.
It is odd that some members of the managerial state never spoke out about Musk. The regulatory regime that benefited solely Tesla came at the expense of the entire auto industry. The future-dated, regional outlawing of the ICE basically means your entire investment is worthless. Then, between now and that date you have to make this one company profitable by buying carbon credits – some, all or most of your profits are confiscated while you must ditch your entire current infrastructure investment and then invest in an entirely new infrastructure. Where was the managerial class from investors, pension funds, the… Read more »
“I suspect this Twitter thing was NOT well thought through …”
When Trump got elected, one of the major media companies put out a “style sheet” that journalists would consult for how to handle Trump in their stories. Near overnight, all of the stories about Trump followed the formula. Indeed, I think you are right and that it is both top down and organic depending on the particular topic.
It is odd that some members of the managerial state never spoke out about Musk.
Everything is odd about Felon Musk. He launches one preposterous, techno-illiterate scam after the other, all of which, for inexplicable reasons are hailed as civilization-changing breakthroughs by the usual suspects.
By traditional market evaluation methods, Tesla is 50-100 times over-valued; I figure the big investors are deliberately involving themselves in naked gambling with Tesla, banking on being the first to know when it’s time to head for the exit.
Musk will make more out of Starlink than Tesla
From what I can tell, Starlink is headed to bankruptcy. Who will be responsible for cleaning up all the space junk if it does go bankrupt?
No clean up required, the Sats de-orbit over time
Starlink’s business model is hopelessly broke from conception. I figure Starlink is really an alphabet agency project, or military.
500K subscribers paying $100 a month right now, I figure they need 1 million subs to break even every $ after that is profit. It will take time but so far so good
Stop watching thunderf00t videos on YouTube
So you figure $1.2 billion/year will pay to launch seven thousand birds and leave room for wages and interest and the landline connection you need on top of the uplink?
A Falcon 9 launch costs $60-80 mil.
Just to be clear here, the 35,000 satellites required for Starlink, need to be replaced every five years.
There are currently about 8,500 satellites in LEO.
@FK
We don’t know the cost of a Falcon 9 launch, we only know what NASA, DoD, or the private sector pay, the SpaceX cost is far lower than 60-80 million, also keep in mind that Starship will launch 400 Satellites at a time, for far less than a Falcon 9
There are millions of people all over the world who want faster internet, some of them are willing to pay $100 a month, also keep in mind Musk will start putting hardware in his cars too, and I’d bet he wants to sell phones at some point
We don’t know the cost of a Falcon 9 launch Yes we do, because we have internet and SpaceX sells launches – they sort of have to reveal their price to the customers. $60-80 mils is lowballing it, the sticker price is more like $85 mils. Incidentally, 85% of SpaceX’s “private” launches is really Elon himself using the Starlink Ponzi scheme to pad his books. There are millions of people all over the world who want faster internet, But most of them either already live where you can get a much cheaper and much faster landline, or they’re third-worlders to… Read more »
Geostationary satellite internet is pretty much useless for making internet phone calls. The latency is too high.
Yes. That’s why Musk has any customers at all. His market is in the gab between no landline access and Viasat being too slow.
But that gab is shrinking as fiber is being rolled further and further into rural areas.
The key to understanding Musk is not what he will make out of a given venture but what all of society will lose out of his ventures and how the losses will accrue as his ventures, particularly Tesla, succeed. According to Musk’s own estimates, having enough batteries to back up the grid would cost $400 Trillion. I repeat, $400 Trillion. That would give a country like the US about one day of backup power. Then in approximately 10 years, you would need another $400 Trillion to replace the dead batteries. Of course, there are the volumes of materials needed as… Read more »
What is puzzling is how and why Musk and his engineers are so innumerate when it comes to making one of the most important assessments any engineer must make
Because all his businesses depend on it.
If we were to take Musk at face value, he couldn’t count to eleven without unzipping his fly.
Well, apparently he has been asked to count to 11 quite a few times. And every time he has whipped it out, he seems to have decided to use it for its reproductive uses judging by the number of his byblows with whichever biddable woman is nearby.
Wonder if the legalities of this have been thought through, or if the prevailing logic is, “Apres moi, le deluge”.
Felix Krull is just another retarded midwit academic with a fake air of intelligence.
He actually thinks Viasat with its data caps and high latency is better than Starlink, LOL.
I said Viasat was cheaper.
And Starlink will get data too caps if Musk manages to grow his customer base.
Your implicit assumption (?) that the EV will supplant the internal combustion engine is based upon sand. Perhaps quicksand. Absent truly Draconian government banning of the ICE and lavish support for the alternative technology, there is likely no rational economic case where they’d be superior to the ICE*. I’m not impressed by California or some other jurisdiction outlawing the ICE in the distant future. That’s been done purely for virtue signalling the leftist whackos. As the deadline draws nearer and the true economic costs of an all-EV economy loom larger, I surmise there will be a “deferral” of those laws,… Read more »
Dicey; from my hasty notes,
“EU proposal to classify three lithium compounds as Category 1A reprotoxic, including those critical for electric vehicle batteries.”
Ben: Your sentiments echo my own.
I can see no way that EVs – and in general ‘renewables’ – can supplant the ICE and the ‘fossil fuels’ based systems that we have.
But I suspect it is more likely that they are not intended to supplant, but just to virtue signal, permit The Clouds to score ‘green points’, and force the every-man to get rid of his conveniences.
Basically: Get us accustomed to a materially poorer life than we’re used to, whilst telling us how great it all is.
This is just what I see each day here in Covid County. The venue where most local events take place requires that you bring your vax card to show that you’ve been vaxxed and have had at least one booster. The committee that runs the place acknowledges that the vax and boosters don’t prevent getting or transmitting covid but maintain this requirement anyway. I’ve attributed this apparent contradiction to cognitive dissonance and to our passion for virtue signaling. The consolidation of class consciousness, in this case covid consciousness, sounds right. We also like high gas prices at the pump and… Read more »
Unlike Christianity, where good and evil coexist in each soul (original sin), the new religion is Manichean, that is, there are good people and evil people. Good people can do no evil. They can be wrong but it is only a human mistake. There are sinless, like angels. Bad people can do no good. They can do something right but they do it because it is only a means to do evil. Bringing your vax card is not about health. It is about proving you belong to the set of good people. You are not one of these evil Trump… Read more »
After a few white pills sprinkled here and they’re big fat anvil of a black kill dropped on us in the middle of the week by the Z man.
Yup. I’m standing on the big red X he painted so he could drop a piano on my head.
It’s only a black pill if you let it be.
Continue to develop your own, preferably parallel life/society.
Start with your family. (Duh!)
And stay off the radar.
If you want a good summary of the legal issues involved in the Musk/Twitter lawsuit read this blog. There are a couple of entries pro Musk and a couple pro Twitter.
https://www.professorbainbridge.com/
The legal issues shouldn’t be very complicated..The acquisition agreement between Musk and the Twitter Board provided that Twitter would turn over certain information about revenue to Musk, but Twitter refused to do so…Hence Twitter is in default, and Musk has the right to terminate it…In discovery, Musk will demand that information again, and the Deep State, which heavily subsidizes the company, will once again force Twitter to refuse..At that point, Twitter should be defaulted by the Court…It will be interesting to see what lame excuses this judge makes up for refusing to do so…
i also think there is an issue with twitter’s source of revenue; i.e. from intelligence agencies. if that is disclosed it will most likely be just the first “domino” to fall. not a lawyer so have no idea how likely a change of venue is, but if delaware is known to be so chummy, that might come into play too.
One of many rabbit holes to explore! I thought it was Facebook that had close links to Intel. Also, the CIA has its own retirement fund that invests in private corporations. This per (I think) RFK JR.’s “The Real Anthony Fauci.”
Interesting read. I will assume that the lawyers read the merger agreement and the filings. I am shocked that Twitter did not demand language in the merger agreement to address this issue. Twitter management is now at risk of a share holder lawsuit for having bungled the merger and the merger agreement. Even if Musk is forced to pay the billion, he could end up party to a shareholder lawsuit against Twitter management. That would be hilarious. All that said, I would assume there is a settlement to be had. Musk knows Twitter needs the deal. Twitter knows they need… Read more »
Funny how folks are debating about the “legal issues”.
Has anyone been paying attention?
I’m pretty sure we aren’t a country of laws anymore.
Flynn case?
Jan 6 political prisoners
Non prosecution of a certain cheese sniffer?
Dear Lord, I hope Musk prevails, but I’m not counting on the legal system.
What are you talking about? We have the best legal system money can buy!
and it’s kosher!
What goes around, comes around. Live by the sword, die by the sword. Amorphous consensus is not confined solely to the managerial class. It can arise anywhere. For example, post-collapse many people will come to realize that the disease cells must go. We can no longer afford to carry the deadweight of corruption and incompetence, and therefore the disease cells must go. Will there be a John Galt sounding the clarion call to rally the antibodies into action? No, that won’t be necessary. First there will be one novel antibody that stands up to dance. Then another, and then another.… Read more »
“Amorphous consensus”
That’s good, similar to Frip’s Class Correctness.
What makes this interesting is that whatever social mechanism this is, it’s hard to define, yet unmistakeable once pointed out. And darned powerful too.
I want my own air cuffs!
Who’s with me?!
every time Tom A posts, a cactus in Mexico gets distilled….
Not sure exactly what that means, but it cracked me up nonetheless.
Tequila is made from a very specific cactus species that only grows in one place in Mexico.
Yes. The blue agave of Jalisco. What what does that have to do with TomA’s posts? Are you suggesting he gets likker’d up on tequila before making a post?
@ZMan – “This is what stumps people about managerialism. There was no official pronouncement from the leader of the managers. The supreme leader of managerialism did not read out a fatwa against Elon Musk. There is not even an anonymous memo circulating that says Musk is now on the proscribed list. “It is a thing that just happened.” It is beginning to sound absurd to read so many posts describing that – at the top-level, where the issues really matter to the top people – we have a managerial system – but then to hear you assert some variation on… Read more »
I have explained emergent behavior a million times. Either you get it or not.
You can explain it 2 million times and you still won’t be right. You go for days dropping hints that you “get it” and then you fall back on academic wankerism to try and explain good vs. evil. You, and fellow academic wankers, twist yourself into academic pretzels trying to explain reality as chance and controlled by forces of nature that somehow just “happen”. Nothing that happens, at least in human relations (politics, corporations, covenants, etc.) occurs by anything other than a deliberate attempt to achieve a desired outcome.
Well then, enjoy mute.
Now hold on lads!
think z-man is just channeling his inner Omar:
“some people did something”
I agree to an extent with both of you.
His characterization of things just happening of their own accord is ridiculous. But it is also not a command and control system with one person calling the shots. It is a consensus system with multiple poles of influence. That come together on some occasions and oppose each other on other occasions.
Subtlety is lost on some people. When I wrote “It is a thing that just happened” it was followed by “One day, people with power were showering Musk with your money. Then all of a sudden, they all agreed that Musk was a threat to our democracy.” Context is important. From our perspective, this is what we see. Some people want to imagine an invisible hand at work, but there is no evidence of this. Instead, opinions in the managerial elite form up and take on a life of their own. People who have worked in large organizations have experienced… Read more »
I can agree with that for the most part. However, that does not preclude some things coming from a high-level cabal. I suppose the ubiquitous one eye symbol is emergent, following your logic. I can agree that many mimic it solely as a form of class consciousness, but I am speaking of its inception and initial proliferation. This compounds with the seeming invisibility of some hugely influential people. It would seem to me that, in the era of everyone’s privacy being violated, the conspicuous invisibility of a few seems a demonstration, paradoxically, of this power. And, no, I am not… Read more »
Agreed. I have never said we are just corks bobbing along the tides. That is the problem with some people. They think it must all be design or all chance, with no other option. I would bet Anonymous White Male is an ID’er as they are known for that affliction.
The fact is, there are people trying to inject their ideas into the culture stream. Lots of people. Just because they succeed sometimes does not mean that everything is the product of such methods. Most things evolve well beyond what any designer could imagine.
Sobran’s metaphor of the hive is still the best illustration of emergent behavior
I have used it often. I also like the metaphor of the murmuration of starlings and a school of fish. I think people who grew up in the country get these analogies. If you have spent time in nature, you end up learning a lot about human nature as a result.
you can see when a new “direction” is attempted, but fails to take hold across the disparate ‘nodes’. you even occasionally see something clearly at odds with prevailing dogma, get accepted (e.g. when feminists bent themselves into pretzels to excuse clinton’s rapery).
to a large extent it looks like the virus model, where random mutations try and take hold, and most fail.
“Instead, opinions in the managerial elite form up and take on a life of their own. People who have worked in large organizations have experienced this.” I can attest. There is also a lot of institutional memory from prior opinions of people long gone, that support the existing players and their new perceptions and opinions. I work at a spin-off from a large corporation, and I am the only one left who worked at the former parent company. I watch with amusement as old decisions, opinions and cultural artifacts continue on from the former parent, despite no one knowing why… Read more »
DLS, what a great description of organic “emergent behavoir.”
In other words, you can see the bones, but things take on a life of their own.
Fatwas were issued by the media journos or social media blue checks. However, there was no central command for people to lose their minds and declare Musk to be a filthy heretic. There is no liberal papacy, and indeed they are more similar to Muslims in terms of religious structure. If you look at the Islamic world you may see imams, mullahs, muftis (and Grand Muftis), but the closest analogy to a Pope is in Iran with the Supreme Leader (which is a revolutionary novelty and not entirely accepted among Shia muslims) or now-defunct khalif among the Sunni. Among managerials… Read more »
Too notch. Absolutely top notch. Arshad Ali level thinking going on here.
Forgive me my foreigner’s ignorance, but I don’t get the reference. Could you elaborate on that Arshad Ali individual?
Forgive me my friend, I meant to compliment both you and Arshad.
Mr. Ali’s remark yesterday about physics moved me greatly.
Please hang around. The commenters here are of an order of intelligence, integrity and experience of which i will never grasp.
I’m but a janitor here, and most grateful for the chance to eavesdrop.
Arshad Ali comments here.
@alzaebo
No harm done, thank You for that kind compliment. I’m pretty much a foreign tourist here so I only recognize a handful of regulars.
That being said, the Zblog’s comment section is one of the liveliest I’ve seen in the American Dissident Sphere.
Take care, friend.
I ‘m not so sure that Musk should be counted out yet. There is no doubt that he is one of the Cloud People, based upon his statements extolling socialism for you and I, but not him and his fellow Cloud Dwellers. Basically he is another insider pig who has people fooled. This has happened before. Consider Donald Trump, and now the next darling of the “let vote harder next time! people, DeSantis, as prime evidence of that mind set. Has anyone considered that there may be various factions and subdivisions on top of that Cloud that we will never… Read more »
Coalclinker
Thank you for that last paragraph.
It paints such a lovely picture.
Ahh….a boy can dream.
I am unaware there ever existed any ‘good old-fashion hanging party on Sunday after Church lets out, bedecked with fried chicken and all the other fixings’ confab, however, I might be interested – depending on what the ‘fixings’ might be.
They used to have that in Greenup, Kentucky, an old river town. They always had public hangings on Sunday, after the Churches let out, and the people did picnic while being entertained by death.
They had so many hangings that place was called hang town, and the hanging tree was a thousand year old American Elm. The biggest hanging they ever had was for 6 who were all co-conspirators in the murder of an elderly couple. The last one weighed over 500 lbs., and they broke several ropes before they finally executed him.
Probably a grain of truth to that. Haven’t you ever seen the postcard of smiling white folk around the corpse hanging from a tree? This trope even opens Dylan’s “Desolation Row”.
Burnings at the Stake in Europe were often held after Mass, so that the townsfolk could attend. While I doubt they were all scheduled for Sundays, public executions were a “thing” in Europe well into the 20th century. Seems like they fell out of favor by mid-century. Given the cultural rot since then, mayhap it’s time to bring them back.
Eastern Kentucky was well known for its proper treatment of murderers. The Porter Lynching that took place in Carter County, Kentucky, was lead and organized by my Great great grandfather himself, old “Pap” Kazee. Pap was one tough evil character, and when he got old he came to live with my maternal grandmother’s parents. My grandmother didn’t care for him at all. One day he had a sore come out on his head, and he let it go for months. When he finally went to a doctor, he was told he had incurable skin cancer and that soon he would… Read more »
There’s a well known bluegrass song written in Greenup County, Kentucky about some boy getting executed in one of their Sunday after Church hangings.
The song is “Pretty Polly.”
“What we will see is a family fight amongst the Cloud People who control our country.” We may be seeing this now. There seems to be quite a division among the Clouds over “Russia,” which actually is an ironic euphemism for “China.” Some want to keep the grift going with Chinese trade and bribe-taking, and others want to go full bore to destroy Russia regardless of how badly it impacts US/China relations, especially economic ones. I want to break that into financiers vs. neocons but it probably isn’t anywhere near that simple. The madness surrounding Ukraine, and what certainly seems… Read more »
While I agree with the theme of the article and am particularly worried about all the end-arounds of the Second Amendment being tried by the Managerial Class, I’m not too worried about Elon. His lawyers are going to have a field-day during the discovery phase of this trial. I suspect that’s when the Twitter side will cry “uncle” and make him an attractive offer.
System is probably not the best word for what we are seeing. It is more like a mindset, a set of shared beliefs. Like Catholicism in the 16th century a Reformation is taking place among the Levites that supervise American life, the legal profession. For them, the US Constitution is an anachronistic document that no longer reflects the wants and needs of modern society, just as the infallible papacy failed. Since significantly changing the constitution or creating a new one is, at least at this time, simply too difficult and messy, it must be bypassed in the court system. An… Read more »
“It is a sad fact that the Congress has allowed this encroachment on their place in government…”
In this our times *do* resemble Ancient Rome—just before the reversion from Senate to Emperor leadership. The “empire” is too large to be controlled by committee. It will only take a change in the SCOTUS to allow Presidential “orders” become unchallengeable diktats.
“He never addressed the culture of managerialism …”
I suggest that culture is a set of behaviors.
“… this class that rules over American society has reached class consciousness.”
This class has a set of malevolent dyscivilizational behaviors that the other classes do not have which make them uniquely unfit to govern or rule.
Howabout this for a headline:
Road accidents to stop Putin
Augsburg to switch off traffic lights
https://freewestmedia.com/2022/07/09/road-accidents-to-stop-putin-augsburg-to-switch-off-traffic-lights/
As with every other action by every government in the West we are now clearly past the insanity mark.
some buildings will be left completely cold through “effective room management”
—
Ah so that’s what the frontline prunes are gearing up for: the thermostat Gestapo. I’m imagining an army of minders going out to check the temperature of every habitation in lieu of mask and fagcine inspections.
It’s going to be a bad winter for them. As an aside, anyone who’s ever lived in Germany knows the following is true (and probably true for nearby nations.) I was there in the early 80s. Even 40+ years ago, Germans taxed the heck out of energy to encourage economy. And they succeeded. Cars were smaller. Private homes typically did NOT heat except the main living areas. And so forth. And recall that the USA was pretty much still the new kid on the block regarding energy conservation (e.g. our first hard lesson beginning in 1973). By the early 80s… Read more »
Priceless.
Instead of correcting bad decisions, double down on stupidity. I thought the Germans were wiser than that. What the hell happened to them?
The Musk/Twitter thing is pretty curious. Do they want him to buy it or not? They’re suing him to try to force him to buy Twitter, after all! Meanwhile, I don’t think the Delaware judge can re-write Civil Procedure completely. Musk will have some discovery rights. Twitter won’t be happy with discovery in open court, when everyone will see how many Bots run Twitter and all the fake accounts etc. I expect a settlement pre-trial. Of course, I agree with Zman about the increasingly arbitrary nature of the judicial system and the managerial-class hive mind. One way or another, Musk… Read more »
Do any of the advertisers have the courage to sue Twitter for fraud based on the number of bots? That would have to be a slam dunk case. Reporting the number of bots should crush the stock price, but I doubt the elite would allow that to happen.
No. I suspect Twitter is a .gov operation and what we’ve learned in the past 20 years is that economics as you’ve learned it and understand it does not matter. Neither really does your consumption of various company “products”. If economics mattered many of the largest firms you know would have been tits up in 2008 and again in 2020. .gov bails them out not out of the kindness of their hearts (they don’t want an insurrection and when you give money you gain control). Cheap money aka 0% interest rates for the past 12 years keeps the tech sector… Read more »
None of the things most of us here despise the most will change until the US dollar loses reserve status. All of the make believe, the stupid ideas, the bad policy is due to endless printed money.
“Liquidate labor, liquidate stocks, liquidate the farmers, liquidate real estate. It will purge the rottenness out of the system. High costs of living and high living will come down. People will work harder, live a more moral life. Values will be adjusted, and enterprising people will pick up from less competent people.”
If they really wanted to keep the information out of the public eye, there would have been an arbitration clause.
Please cite a major M&A dispute that’s gone to arbitration as opposed to court.
The Judge may deny discovery if the Bots were not in the contract to buy. Musk will probably claim that all the SEC filing with User numbers constituted fraudulent filings and were the basis of his offer.
Agreed. But I’m guessing it’s in the contract.
“Musk will probably claim that all the SEC filing with User numbers constituted fraudulent filings and were the basis of his offer.”
yes.this.
Musk is the good cop of dehumanizing technocracy, whereas Gates, Zuckerberg, and Bezos are the bad cops representing the same force. Musk may be affable and say some things that satisfy people on “our side of the great divide” (love that classic Zman phrase!), yet he nonetheless stands for the AI-driven attempt to render the vast majority of human beings obsolete. He claims that such an abysmal fate is “inevitable.” If that is so, it’s because of fellows like him.
IMO Musk is the front man for one faction of the deep state and the social media organizations are directed by another faction(s).
This is not some heroic struggle of an individual agains t the machine. It is one faction fighting another. Why and to what end is unknowable to us dirts at this point. They may be a white hat from our pov – or they may not be.
So, its best bot to become emotionally invested in Musks success. Hope that the fight damages both sides. And some opportunity opens up from unintended consequences.
If there is a Musk faction it’s just him and Thiel and the people they pay, a tiny and goofy remnant of “techno”-libertarianism plus a few of the least awful shitlibs—who still want you dead and your descendants enslaved forever in the “like” mines.
It exists solely at the pleasure of the dominant faction, who really can SHUT IT DOWN (anything in the West) whenever they want. They’re pretty crappy at it, but they can do it.
Years ago I taught business law at the college level. I remember thinking that if I ever teach it again (unlikely for personal reasons) I would begin the class with a caveat that it is likely that future legal decisions will be based more on the sociology of the people on the bench than by the traditional means of deciding cases in the common law system. In other words, don’t learn the law, learn the judges. But I wouldn’t know how to teach business law that way, nor, I suspect, would very many other instructors.
A good lawyer knows the law. A great lawyer knows the judge.
‘No memo was sent out from the secret lair in the hollowed out volcano”.
This is literally true, but also a strawman.
The coordination requires communication from “thought leaders” which is repeated and amplified by drones.
A whole new career has been created. The twenty something oddball loner friend of my son, now living in Japan is doing very well as an “Influencer”. She spots something early picks it up and spins it and passes it on to some tens of thousands.
Influencer
You know, I think In a past life, those creatures were called rabelrousers, or troublemakers.
Gossipers?
(
Reverend, parson, minister, etc.
Per my father: yardbirds
The word you struggled and fail to find is:
Cult
The elites are a type of cult that shares a world view, mythos and social coordination.
The late twentieth century cults of mentally ill people following a charismatic leader are only one form that cults can take. The globohomo elites are an older form, that was mostly displaced by Christianity a millenia and half ago, and then various permutation of new christian sects.
The energy in DC and Brussels used to be the energy that ran the People’s Temple.
Maybe this is ultimately how the 2nd amendment “dies” or is done away with. Gun/ammo/accoutrement companies can’t bank anywhere. Gun/ammo manufacturers can be sued to oblivion by the fambly of a jogger who gets blasted by another jogger. Average guys can’t buy guns/ammo/accoutrements via credit card, assuming one can find a company who sells them. I guess the bottom line is we’d all better stock the hell up while stocking is still to be had.
That’s the obvious strategy, however it seems our new marijuana dispensaries found workarounds pretty quick. We will as well.
Banks have people who work in them who are easily touchable. Court cases that bankrupt firearms business have lawyers that argued the case, and judges who heard it. Managerial class is made up of people, who have home addresses. The key with them is picking individuals out of the faceless army. The managerial class will find out very quickly that implementing their cult group think at the local level will have local level blow back, particularly when people get desperate. To be frank, I am surprised it hasn’t happened yet. I suppose people have not gotten desperate enough after de-platforming… Read more »
‘No memo was sent out from the secret lair in the hollowed out volcano”.
Beautiful.
the managerial state is a failed state. their support in the populace (white or otherwise) is dropping precipitously. just look at military recruiting. they can’t keep food on the shelves, or fuel in the car/truck. afghanistan revealed the depths of their ineptness; ukraine the sequel. only a very small percentage of the populace benefits from their reign; covid is going to be the final nail in their coffins. no one wants them, no one supports them, no one will miss them. let’s just see how “powerful” delaware really is…
All of that may be true, but have you seen anyone step up to the plate to really challenge them? When you’re at a BBQ or in the office, does anyone dare speak out against the acceptable truth? Until there is a tidal wave of cultural force, the managerial state will continue to win. People need to start getting the balls to speak out in defiance of the acceptable truth. Zman has mentioned this a few times in his posts – it’s when people start realizing that they’re not the only ones with these same thoughts start speaking them aloud… Read more »
there will not be a slave revolt. but TPTB are busy destroying those parts of society they depend on to remain in power. they will pull the temple down upon themselves…
I only downvoted you because of your comment “only a small percent of the populace benefits from their reign.” The 130,000 illegals per month coming over the border would disagree. And don’t forget the massive number of unemployed (and mostly unemployable) people on the government dole. Your statement should read, “only a small percentage of the white populace benefits from their rule.”
there is validity to your point, but Biden’s fall in the polls with “hispanics” supports the notion that people are not economic animals.
Taking away their food and fuel supplies will be the most effective response when they try to point the military at the patriots.
Brilliant analogy!
I am amused by the number of people driving Tesla’s who now I hate Elon Musk and everything he stands for. So so funny
I’d tell those Musk haters “welcome to our world”
Let’s tell them that a $300,000 John Deere combine shows solidarity with gay farmworkers of color
What better example of how our ruling class and their minions can turn on one of the heroes than Julian Assange. A hatred and lust for revenge so strong it usually is reserved for traitors. To them , that’s what they are.
There is a mighty cause, vaguely construed, that must be advanced at any cost. Trotsky and thousand of others found out the hard way. Of course like you say, a lot of this is just institutional and the mid-level administrators are just doing their job.
Assange was a useful idiot that lost sight of his place.
When you let them occupy your minds for free, you’re playing right into their hands. Don’t hate them, just evict them. The battle is for the minds of those mid-level admins.
Hatred is underrated as a motivator.