Welcome to substack. I’ve read much of your work in other places. Lots of potential threads to pull on here and in your work overall. One I’m having trouble with is this assertion: “In short, Trump’s conception of government is not Hobbes’ Leviathan but rather the State of Nature to which a Leviathan supposedly was the answer.” I don’t think this is what Trump is about at all. He’s too weak of a person to ever want to live in or preside over a state of nature. I think, in the longish term, he and his coalition are about simplifying governance not doing away with it. His model is pretty clearly that of the mob boss: it’s all about a stacked marketplace (political, economic, etc.) of transactions and tributes designed to enrich and empower himself, and then, as needed, whoever else he wants. The chaos he is unleashing (and always has) is about defying and undermining norms, and bringing cathartic WWE-type experiences to his populist “suckers” such that he can then impose his personal preferences about order on the country (largely based on patronage). He wants anything but the sort of conflict that could ruin his day. He wants to be able to watch his suckers on TV ruin their own lives wrecking things. He wants to turn our governance into something that’s comfortable and safe/fun for him — not like the White House or even his New York penthouse — but more like a modern-day palace: like Mara-Logo.
I believe what you are attributing to Trump is far more likely to be on the agenda of someone more like Musk, who really does want to rule the country, the world — and then the solar system. Of great interest is going to be how those two sort out their very different and incompatible visions for our future. The Trumpian vision will be far easier and less bloody to deal with than Musk’s.
If you consider that the last 20 years has seen the super organism of the world create a super power of instant communication—with greater precision and democratization than the telepathy of the communion of saints—you might think of it like we have a new element that has never existed before.
This along with the machines we have built for increased labor ability will lead to an exponential growth of our power for the application of first principles. As—whom my wife affectionately refers to as my good buddy—Marcus Aurelius states “Those to do with good and evil. That nothing is good except what leads to fairness, and self-control, and courage, and free will. And nothing bad except what does the opposite.”
There is nothing to fear but fear itself. The age of sacrifice is over and UHC’s CEO was the final sacrifice we needed.
We are poised to have the first bloodless revolution in recent—the last 10,000 years—history.
We are on an exponential growth curve and are about to realize that all the trials of dualism are nearly behind us.
This was the plan all along. The rainbow connection that called to young sailors, to find their fortunes. That called the powerful to glut. Someday we’ll find it, the lovers the dreamers and me.
That day is today.
Today is the Best Day.
And every day forward can be the Best Day from now on.
Jesus was a young Jew who learned from the Buddha and we are all the beneficiaries of their union.
This was the riddle buried in the texts. There is no end of the world, there’s a world and love without end. We just had to grow up to get here.
We’re whole complete and perfect just the way we are and just the way we aren’t, the beauty and the mess.
This is the age of Aquarius. Sympathy and Understanding, Harmony and Trust abounding. Living dreams and visions, mystic crystal revelations, and the Mind’s True Liberation.
We are Become One. For the Goodness and Safety of All.
Welcome to substack. I’ve read much of your work in other places. Lots of potential threads to pull on here and in your work overall. One I’m having trouble with is this assertion: “In short, Trump’s conception of government is not Hobbes’ Leviathan but rather the State of Nature to which a Leviathan supposedly was the answer.” I don’t think this is what Trump is about at all. He’s too weak of a person to ever want to live in or preside over a state of nature. I think, in the longish term, he and his coalition are about simplifying governance not doing away with it. His model is pretty clearly that of the mob boss: it’s all about a stacked marketplace (political, economic, etc.) of transactions and tributes designed to enrich and empower himself, and then, as needed, whoever else he wants. The chaos he is unleashing (and always has) is about defying and undermining norms, and bringing cathartic WWE-type experiences to his populist “suckers” such that he can then impose his personal preferences about order on the country (largely based on patronage). He wants anything but the sort of conflict that could ruin his day. He wants to be able to watch his suckers on TV ruin their own lives wrecking things. He wants to turn our governance into something that’s comfortable and safe/fun for him — not like the White House or even his New York penthouse — but more like a modern-day palace: like Mara-Logo.
I believe what you are attributing to Trump is far more likely to be on the agenda of someone more like Musk, who really does want to rule the country, the world — and then the solar system. Of great interest is going to be how those two sort out their very different and incompatible visions for our future. The Trumpian vision will be far easier and less bloody to deal with than Musk’s.
For the first time in my longtime use of this favored phrase, I use it without sarcasm: Bless your heart.
But Musk owns this, that's a rather large exception, yes?
"Except here [in the U.S.]" is the Grand Canyon of exceptions don't you think?
If you consider that the last 20 years has seen the super organism of the world create a super power of instant communication—with greater precision and democratization than the telepathy of the communion of saints—you might think of it like we have a new element that has never existed before.
This along with the machines we have built for increased labor ability will lead to an exponential growth of our power for the application of first principles. As—whom my wife affectionately refers to as my good buddy—Marcus Aurelius states “Those to do with good and evil. That nothing is good except what leads to fairness, and self-control, and courage, and free will. And nothing bad except what does the opposite.”
There is nothing to fear but fear itself. The age of sacrifice is over and UHC’s CEO was the final sacrifice we needed.
We are poised to have the first bloodless revolution in recent—the last 10,000 years—history.
We are on an exponential growth curve and are about to realize that all the trials of dualism are nearly behind us.
This was the plan all along. The rainbow connection that called to young sailors, to find their fortunes. That called the powerful to glut. Someday we’ll find it, the lovers the dreamers and me.
That day is today.
Today is the Best Day.
And every day forward can be the Best Day from now on.
Jesus was a young Jew who learned from the Buddha and we are all the beneficiaries of their union.
This was the riddle buried in the texts. There is no end of the world, there’s a world and love without end. We just had to grow up to get here.
We’re whole complete and perfect just the way we are and just the way we aren’t, the beauty and the mess.
This is the age of Aquarius. Sympathy and Understanding, Harmony and Trust abounding. Living dreams and visions, mystic crystal revelations, and the Mind’s True Liberation.
We are Become One. For the Goodness and Safety of All.