I’ve recently re-read Lou Keep’s Uruk series, and a lot more ideas have clicked together. I’m going to briefly summarize each post (hopefully will tie things together if you have read them, might not make sense if you haven’t). This is also a mini-experiment in using comments to make a twitter-esque idea thread.
This post tracks ideas in The True Believer, by Hoeffer.
There is a fundamental difference between the appeal of a mass movement and the appeal of a practical organization. The practical organization offers opportunities for self-advancement, and its appeal is mainly to self-interest. On the other hand, a mass movement, particularly in its active, revivalist phase, appeals not to those intent on bolstering and advancing a cherished self, but to those who crave to be rid of an unwanted self. A mass movement attracts and holds a following not because it can satisfy the desire for self-advancement, but because it can satisfy the passion for self-renunciation.
The main MO of a MM is to replace action with identity. This is the general phenomena of which narcissism (TLP and samzdat brand) is a specific form of.
Moloch like forces conspire such that the most successful MM will be the one’s that do the best job of keeping their members very frustrated. Hate is often used to keep fire burning.
One sentence: Metis is the belief, the ritual, and the world view, and they are way less separable than you think.
Explores the recent history of gri-gri, witch doctor magic used in Africa to make people invulnerable to bullets to fight against local warlords (it also can involve some nasty sacrifice and cannibalism rituals). Lou emphasizes the point that it’s not enough to go “ah, gri-gri is a useful lie that helps motivates everyone to fight as a unified force, and fighting as a unified force is what actually has a huge impact on fighting of warlords...”
The State’s response is likely going to be “Ahhh, so gri-gri doesn’t do anything, let’s ban it and just tell people to fight in groups”. This will fail, because this has no theory of individual adoption (i.e, the only reason people fought as one was because they literally thought they were invulnerable).
This is all to hammer in the point that for any given piece of illegible metis, it’s very hard to find a actual working replacement, and Very hard (possibly beyond the states pay grade) to find a legible replacement.
One sentence: People care about the social aspects of life, and the social is now embedded in market structures in a way that allows Moloch-esque forces to destroy the good social stuff.
It starts my addressing the “weirdness” of everyone being angry, even though people are richer than ever. This post tracks the book The Great Transformation by Polanyi.
Claim: (quote from Polanyi)
He [man] does not act so as to safeguard his individual interest in the possession of material goods; he acts so as to safeguard his social standing, his social claims, his social assets. He values material goods only insofar as they serve this end.
Capitalism is differentiated from markets. Reason being is that markets have always been around (they were mediated and controlled through social relationships), the new/recent thing is building society around a market.
Claim: Once you treat labor and land like common market goods and subject them to the flows of the market, you open up a pathway for Moloch to gnaw away at your soul. Now “incentives” can apply pressure such that you slowly sacrifice more and more of the social/relational aspects of life that people actually care about.
The concept of legibility is introduced (I like Ribbon Farm’s explanation of the concept). The state only talks in terms of legibility, and thus can’t understand and illegible claims, ideas, practices. The powerless (i.e the illegible who can’t speak in the terms of the state) tend to get crushed. (now adays an illegible group would be Christians)
Lou points to the current process/trajectory of the state slowly legibilizing the world, and destroying all that is illegible in its path. Besides noting this process, Lou also claims that some of those illegible practices are valuable, and because the state does not truly understand the illegible practices it destroys, the state does not provide adequate replacements.
Extra claim: a lot of the illegible metis being destroyed has to do with happiness, fulfillment, and other essential components of human experience.
I’ve recently re-read Lou Keep’s Uruk series, and a lot more ideas have clicked together. I’m going to briefly summarize each post (hopefully will tie things together if you have read them, might not make sense if you haven’t). This is also a mini-experiment in using comments to make a twitter-esque idea thread.
#4 Without belief in a god, never without belief in the devil
This post tracks ideas in The True Believer, by Hoeffer.
The main MO of a MM is to replace action with identity. This is the general phenomena of which narcissism (TLP and samzdat brand) is a specific form of.
Moloch like forces conspire such that the most successful MM will be the one’s that do the best job of keeping their members very frustrated. Hate is often used to keep fire burning.
#3 Use and Abuse of Witchdoctors
One sentence: Metis is the belief, the ritual, and the world view, and they are way less separable than you think.
Explores the recent history of gri-gri, witch doctor magic used in Africa to make people invulnerable to bullets to fight against local warlords (it also can involve some nasty sacrifice and cannibalism rituals). Lou emphasizes the point that it’s not enough to go “ah, gri-gri is a useful lie that helps motivates everyone to fight as a unified force, and fighting as a unified force is what actually has a huge impact on fighting of warlords...”
The State’s response is likely going to be “Ahhh, so gri-gri doesn’t do anything, let’s ban it and just tell people to fight in groups”. This will fail, because this has no theory of individual adoption (i.e, the only reason people fought as one was because they literally thought they were invulnerable).
This is all to hammer in the point that for any given piece of illegible metis, it’s very hard to find a actual working replacement, and Very hard (possibly beyond the states pay grade) to find a legible replacement.
#2 The Meridian of Her Greatness:
One sentence: People care about the social aspects of life, and the social is now embedded in market structures in a way that allows Moloch-esque forces to destroy the good social stuff.
It starts my addressing the “weirdness” of everyone being angry, even though people are richer than ever. This post tracks the book The Great Transformation by Polanyi.
Claim: (quote from Polanyi)
Capitalism is differentiated from markets. Reason being is that markets have always been around (they were mediated and controlled through social relationships), the new/recent thing is building society around a market.
Claim: Once you treat labor and land like common market goods and subject them to the flows of the market, you open up a pathway for Moloch to gnaw away at your soul. Now “incentives” can apply pressure such that you slowly sacrifice more and more of the social/relational aspects of life that people actually care about.
#1 Man as a rational animal
The concept of legibility is introduced (I like Ribbon Farm’s explanation of the concept). The state only talks in terms of legibility, and thus can’t understand and illegible claims, ideas, practices. The powerless (i.e the illegible who can’t speak in the terms of the state) tend to get crushed. (now adays an illegible group would be Christians)
Lou points to the current process/trajectory of the state slowly legibilizing the world, and destroying all that is illegible in its path. Besides noting this process, Lou also claims that some of those illegible practices are valuable, and because the state does not truly understand the illegible practices it destroys, the state does not provide adequate replacements.
Extra claim: a lot of the illegible metis being destroyed has to do with happiness, fulfillment, and other essential components of human experience.
I really like that you’re doing this! I’ve tried to get into the series, but I haven’t done so in a while. Thanks for the summaries!
(Also, maybe it’d be good for future comments about what you’re doing to be children of this post, so it doesn’t break the flow of summaries.)