Taxation or Tumbrels
2 hours ago
Thursday, October 15, 2015
Civilization will rip your heart out
The Mayan civilization did it for real. Usually it's just a metaphor.
So what is it that got me thinking of public human sacrifice in service to the state? I don't know. It could be everything from the situation in the Middle East to presidential debates. We do love our circuses, just as the ancient Romans did.
Nothing demonstrates the power of the state like killing. It keeps the people in line. We cheer when our enemies are killed . . . and yet . . . it's also a warning to not become an enemy of the state.
It's all about control. It's been said that civilization rules by force. While that's true in the broadest sense, civilization prefers to rule by the threat of force. When a civilization is reduced to ruling completely by force it fails. There is no way to put a policeman in every home.
Or is there? Tyranny can be automated. At the simplest level we have things like stop lights. A simple electric device replaced the traffic cop waving his hands and blowing his whistle. Now we have organizations like DARPA doing their best to build robot warriors. Can the robot cop be far behind?
We already have spies on our smart phones. They are marvelous tracking and surveillance devices. The best part is that people pay for them themselves. We put up with it because the surveillance is mostly invisible. We rarely see the downside. That does cause a problem for the state. If they begin to overtly use cell phone data on a regular basis to persecute people, we'll reach a point where having a smart phone just isn't worth it.
I suspect that one of the major reasons civilizations die is that they reach a point where it's just not worth it. The Mayan civilization was dying before the Spaniards came. Cities had been abandoned. Maybe it was drought or some other problem, but I suspect at least part of the reason was that the cost of civilization was too high. Too many people were having their hearts cut out on the altars.
Sometimes it's too many young people dying in foreign wars. The cost becomes too high for the benefits. Then people run for the hills or fade into the jungle.
I don't see where having a computerized and automated tyranny will turn out any different. They best be careful or one day we'll all pull the plug. Game over.
-Sixbears
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Maybe the Lord will come back first.
ReplyDeleteMaybe Gorges, but I'm going to assume he's leaving it in our hands for now. Don't want to be caught doing nothing if he does show up.
DeleteI have to admit that during the last few years as smart phones have become to smart with locating you where ever you may be or tracking you in route to where ever you go, even tracking what stores you frequent. Their use has become a privacy invasion and a leash you can never take-off. It’s going to lead us to a lot of civil trouble down the road.
ReplyDeleteIt's entirely possible for them to fall out of fashion. Wouldn't that be interesting?
DeleteThe way the world is now we won't have to 'pull the plug' ourselves. When it happens, the playing field will become even. And another civilization starts all over again.
ReplyDeleteA grid down situation would certainly change things in a hurry.
DeleteIn some cases, its already game over. Because it is so easy to store people's phone numbers, many people do not memorize ANY of them. So when phone has run out of electricity, they couldn't call them anyway.
ReplyDeleteThey sure were smart when they figured the phone was the perfect 'tracking device'. If you were coded in some fashion, some people would destroy it. Give them a phone and the people PAY to have themselves tracked, personal information and contacts all there, easy for the taking.
Genius - evil genius, but still very smart.
Am I the only one who keeps a paper record of all my important phone numbers and addresses?
DeleteNo, but I'm a Luddite, or maybe just an old fart with old established habits that I refuse to let die.
DeleteI resemble that remark . . .
DeleteI still memorize important ones, but I've begun to carry a small book with important numbers and such. I started because working in a secure area, it was a pain going out of the area to look up the not quite memorized numbers, and then going back in through the rigmarole just to make the call.
DeleteMy peers still look at me like I'm crazy though...
It's bad enough trying to memorize account numbers, PINs, and passwords.
DeleteI only have the old fashioned flip phones. They don't know where they are, only what tower they are using. I have tablets and computers, so never saw the need for a smart phone. Anyway, I type, and want a full sized keyboard on my computer.
ReplyDeleteI have a cheap throw away phone too -also a fan of keyboards.
DeleteYou gentlemen are even more advanced than I am. A flip-phone is too technologically advanced for me. A ten-key trac-phone is it. I have even screwed up the kid's lap-top with the finger thingy for a mouse.
DeleteI only have on-line banking, bill paying and such because Hubby liked it. I haven't dismantled it yet because it is handy for when I travel otherwise it would probably be gone.
I must admit that on-line banking sure makes it easier to travel. In the bad old days I remember doing everything by phone.
DeleteI read out on the web somewhere, that the new theory about why the cliff dwellings came into being was because of a Mayan/Aztec type culture had invaded the Southwest. The locals built them for a place to retreat to when the aggressors came through looking for new human sacrifices.
ReplyDeleteMakes sense. They really did head for the hills, cliffs to be exact.
DeleteThe elites really have figured it all out. Get rid of the draft and start pitching the idea of the military as a route for the disadvantaged to take for upward mobility-check. If necessary they can then be used to keep the rest of us in line-check. Take some of the excess hardware used in the incessant wars overseas and equip the police here with it, again to keep the rest of us in line-check. But the icing on the cake, sell everyone on the idea of having their own personal tracking device reporting directly to the state, and to get them to love it- checkmate.
ReplyDeleteGreat plan . . . until the peasants wake up.
Delete