Monthly Archives: September 2019

How Democracies Inevitably Redefine Freedom to mean Slavery

Authority, collectivism, collectivist metaphysics, forced compliance, government, individualism vs collectivism, law, Metaphysics, Voluntarism, , , ,

It is about what a person is, not what a person feels, that fundamentally determines the collective mindset of a people. What is felt is subjective…capricious and fluid. What one is, morally defined by society—and by “society” we mean the State; for society is a function of the State, not the other way around, as we often erroneously assume—is that which is implicitly accepted as constant and objective. That is, what one is, according to the metaphysical premises of the State, ultimately determines how one shall think of himself, and thus how one shall act, and this determines the nature and morality of a society on the whole. Further, what one is, according to the metaphysical premises of the State, is often a conflation and confusion of concepts…contradiction presented to look consistent in order to convince both the ruler and the ruled of the legitimacy and morality of the system. In other words, a nation engages in mass cognitive dissonance (one might even categorize it as a form of mass psychosis) where citizens believe themselves to be free, and rulers believe themselves to be dispensers and guardians of freedom, and yet they both act and speak in ways which fundmentally contradict this belief.

I submit that we should get our emotions out of our analysis of our society; demand nothing less than rational consistency from our interpretations of what is going on around us. Ignore the vapid, gauzy distractions of patriotism and tradition and platitude and collective presumption (e.g. “One nation under God”) and judge what we hear and see by reason alone. Demand that it make sense. Don’t judge your nation and your place in it according to how you feel, but rather what you truly are in the cold, hard, logical sense, as a component of the Collective. Judge your society and your nation according to how your rulers interpret your existence metaphysically…that is, fundamentally. Only then will you truly understand your place, purpose, and future in the Collective.

The first thing you should realize is that your individuality has absolutely nothing to do with it. The State has nothing to do with You qua You. And in a nation-state, even a western representative democracy, “freedom” doesn’t mean “for the individual”; and that you must understand as a first principle of collective sociology. A collective, like the nation-state, can only ever consider freedom collectively, never individually, because the metaphysical principles of man (how man is defined as a component of reality, itself) are entirely collectivist. Man is not himself…that’s the whole point. He is utterly a product of a Collective Ideal (e.g. the “People”, as in “We the People”), or he does not and cannot exist at all. The metaphysics which underwrite the State, in other words, entirely contradict the idea that you are a singular Self. There is no You…there is only the group; only the nation on the whole, at root. The individuals who make up the group do not functionally exist except in theory. I know this is a strange thing to process and accept, but take a look around. All law is common law…which means it applies to all people at all times, equally…and this, frankly, is terrifying. The law, by definition, makes no distinctions amongst men, and in the nation-state the law is fundamental. The law considers all men criminals—it is no respecter of persons in this sense, thus. Whether you as an individual will ever rob another man is irrelevant, the law exists as a means to prevent YOU from stealing as much as it exists to prevent the thief; that is, it does not make the distinction between you and the thief in terms of whose behavior it exists to coerce and curtail. The moral man does not need the law, for he does not need to be threatened by an Authority in order for him to forsake theft. But the law is entirely ignorant of this. It doesn’t see you; it only sees humanity collectively, and humanity needs to be governed, which means it needs to be coerced, because it is metaphysically depraved, and thus ALL men are criminals by nature, in general, and thus if one man is found a thief, the other is just as likely.

“Freedom” in the context of western democracies  simply means “political representation’ for the People; and “the People” is, again, a collective Ideal. “Freedom” does not imply an existence for the individual which is empty of coercion, legal obligation, demands for obedience, punishment for rejecting the ruling class, authoritarianism, class conflict, and exploitation. It doesn’t even imply a paucity of such things; it merely implies a reinterpretation of how such things are leveled against the citizenry. And know this: the concept of freedom which follows this reinterpretation does not actually make the citizen more free, but easier for the ruling class to rule. A citizen who thinks he is free buys into a narrative which makes him more compliant. For that which he is convinced is for his own good he will do willingly; he will act as a partner, not a slave, and this makes ruling him much more efficient.

“Freedom” in the western geopolitical sense means that the government allows the citizen (and “allows” and “freedom” are mutually exclusive) to vote for those who shall rule them. And there is a certain logical flaw imbedded in that idea which is pretty obvious..anyone with even a tenuous grasp of logic can see the glaring contradiction. Notice how “representation” means that a citizen (and not even necessarily a citizen these days) may choose between candidates running for political office, but there is never a choice for “no office” and “no candidate”. One may choose between candidate A or B or C, etc. but there is no choice to have none at all. Political office is constant, and thus someone must fill it. There shall be Authority…you get no choice about that. In other words, there is no choice to not have the choice to make in the first place. If the citizens fail to make a choice, then one shall be made for them. There will be government; there will be rulers; you will be ruled. The rejection of that premise can be considered treasonous, we are told. The State itself is not up for a vote, therefore the choice you make with your vote isn’t a choice at all. It is merely a more efficient, less expensive method  of shepherding the livestock.

The reality is that via the vote a political official is being forced upon you at gunpoint, but you don’t see this because it is obscured by the bromide of “free elections”; you think this is freedom because you vote for it. You act as a partner in your own subjugation, and it’s much more fun and relaxing to be a ruler when one can rule implicitly, rather than explicitly. One is free to indulge all the opulence and trappings and fawnings of leadership without being bothered by the messy nuisance of dissent. They say it is better to be feared than respected, but it is better be be thanked and appreciated for oppressing than feared. The citizen who brcomes a partner in his own slavery will thank his master for all the master does for freedom’s sake.

Notice how in a representative democracy the government may change—and it does, and always for the worse—but it never goes away. There is always Authority; always rule; always forced compliance; it is constant. Though most assume that democracy is the essence of freedom, some assume that it is some kind of stepping stone towards true and perfect freedom, with each day bringing the nation just a little bit closer to frolicking in the verdant Eden of completely unfettered bliss. And yet with each passing day even in the “freeist” of societies the State always gets bigger, never smaller. But we accept this as a mere necessity of freedom; for with greater freedom comes greater collective responsibility (another contradiction), and because it is collective that which must be in charge of this responsibility is the State, because collective responsibility is rooted in collective metaphysics, which inexorably implies that the individual must be coerced. And legal (which is implicitly taken to mean “moral”) coercion is the purview of the State.

Collectivist metaphysics presumes that the freer an individual becomes, the less devoted he is to his collective responsibility, and this has to do with his endemic and natural rejection of the truth of collective reality. And so his increasing “freedom” within his “representative democracy” must be manifest through more and more collective obligation. Thus, ironically, with more freedom comes more regulation; and thus a “free society” becomes one where everyone has their education paid for, their healthcare, their education, their children, their housing, their food, their cars, their feelings. The “truly free” are those whose lives are entirely subsidized so that they may run off to the fields and do absolutely nothing except enjoy their freedom, just like children. For even thinking, about anything of any substance at all, is a burden they should not have to bear. And thus “freedom” and “personal responsibitly” are completely mutually exclusive inside the great playground of enlightened western democracy.

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In a free and democratic nation you do not get to vote for no government. The very idea is a contradiction in terms. This is because “government” is a metaphysical premise. Government is not simply a tool: it is not a means to an end…it is the end. It is the apogee and incarnation of the Collective Ideal, Itself, from which all people and all reality is spawned and determined. “The People”, “The Nation”, “The Workers Utopia”, “The Race”, “The Culture”, “The Church”, “The Company”, “The King”…these are metaphysical premises from which all reality is to spring. They are immutable. They are All. The Collective is Reality, you see. The Collective is everything…the root; You, the Individual, are merely an epiphenomenon at best, your very conscious awareness of Self is purely illusory, a lie, and thus irrelevant in the grand scheme of truth and reality and existence. And this individuality thus must be expelled by State force so that you may indulge your “freedom” productively, for the good of the Collective, not yourself…the State, which exists to dictate the terms of existence which you shall obey…so that you can be free, you see.

And thus, no matter how free you may think you are or feel you are, actual freedom is nothing, obedience is everything. Rank obedience to Law, to the ruling class, is your first and only real responsibility and purpose…not choice, not ambition, not personal responsibility. (And it is hilarious that we should believe that “personal responsibility” as a citizen is something to which we should rationally aspire. The entire metaphyscial premise upon which the State is built is the premise which declares that man is entirely insufficient by nature to his own existence. Man must be governed because he cannot govern himself. For if man were to assume such personal responsibility, he must surely degenerate into a churning, blood-filled cauldron of self-destruction. The whole point of the establishment of the State is that man is existentially incapable of “personal responsibility.) So, you can vote all you want, but obedience to Authority, not freedom, is all you are ever voting for, and all you shall ever get through political representation. The only real freedom there is, when all is said and done, is ironically the only freedom you cannot vote for, and thus you shall never have, in any democracy, anywhere, ever, because it is in direct opposition to the very premise of the State, because it is not freedom by the State, but freedom from it. And this is the freedom which says that no vote, ever, anywhere, by anyone, shall be considered a legitimate moral excuse to put a gun to your head, or mine and force us to act. This freedom is the only one that matters, and it is not up for a vote. Because the State is not the vote; not the ballot; not representation. The State is a gun, period, that exists solely and exclusively to compel human action in support of a Collective Ideal that man shall obey or be punished, up to death. And there is no rational definition of “freedom” in the world which is consistent with that scenario, except in the minds of madmen. And though all the rights you may granted by your democratically elected government, you shall never be granted the right to be free of the institutions which claim the sole Authority to interpret your existence and thus define what your “rights” are in the first place.

Yes, in our western representative democracies our cage may be larger and more comfortable than those of overt autocracies, but they are cages nevertheless. So let’s at least be honest with ourselves about it, and cease all this fatuous talk of freedom. Freedom is not what’s going on here.

END

 

The Inherent Subjectivity of Games, and Why They Have Nothing to do With Winning and Losing

Authority, games, law, , , , , , , , , , ,

From the frame of reference of the game, any game, there can be no actual value distinction between winning and losing. In other words, a game is a singular set of given rules, though there may be sub-categories within the set, or allowances made for deviation and/or exception, but these also are a function of the singular set of rules. This singular set of rules direct players to a conclusion which they know as winning and losing…success or failure, or any degree therein. What this means is that the game equally implies both winning and losing. That is, both winning and losing are equal functions of the exact same set of rules. Thus, from the frame of reference of the game, there can be no value distinction between winning and losing. The rules imply both of them, equally. The value distinction of the outcome of the game, and thus the value of the game itself (for there is no game without an eventual outcome) must come from outside of it.

Do you see what this means?

The game, itself, cannot claim that winning is better than losing. The game doesn’t care…the game cannot care…because the rules mean both. A player wins or loses, the game does not. The game does neither. The game provides the conduit to winning or losing…a single hallway with two doors on either side of it.  The hallway contains both doors equally, yet the hallway is not concerned with what lay beyond them. Thus, as far as the game is concerned, winning is indistinguishable from losing…one door is the same as the other. And this means that from the frame of reference of the game, neither winning nor losing exists at all. They are merely arbitrary mathematical distinctions provided by the player, and having meaning only to him, because they have no bearing on the singular set of rules which comprise the game.

The rules that provide a conduit by which a mathematical distinction—a number—is derived do not discriminate against the data which the player inputs into the game from which that number is calculated. Again, the rules are merely a computing system which turns a players input—his skill or luck—into a mathematical sum. And it is the player—or any individual for that matter, player, spectator, or other— who thus determines any practical value/utility from that sum. That practical value/utility is ultimately subjective, however, because it is referenced to the game, and the game itself—the set of rules—is a function of man. In other words, man is why the game exists in the first place…without man, there is no game. So there can be no objective value given to man which is reference to the game…the game which would not exist without him in the first place. In short, human worth cannot be objectively calculated by processes, like games, because they could not and would not exist without him.

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The player’s data (his skill or luck) is fed into the game, the rules process the data according to internally immutable parameters, a mathematical amount (of some form) is calculated and delivered. The game does not and cannot care what that amount is…it does not and cannot tell the difference. And this is because it does not and cannot care about the data which is inputted wholly from outside of it. The same, singular set of rules deliver all amounts; and this means that all amounts are functionally equal as far as the game is concerned. Thus, the game itself never implies value distinction of any kind—mathematical, moral, practical, theoretical, etcetera—between “winning” and “losing”. And because it recognizes no distinction between winning and losing, it doesn’t recognize them at all. The rules (the game) imply an outcome, but they do not not determine the specific value of specific outcomes. The data determines value…or rather, that from which the data is a function—the player; the individual—determines value. The individual—and not necessarily just the player, but any individual, being player or spectator, or other—determines the values of the outcomes, in whatever way “value” happens to be defined, and this is because the individual determines the value of the game itself, because games are functions of individuals, not the other way around. The individual provides the material for the game from his very existence, and thus he grants it relevance and meaning and purpose…he provides the “why” for playing the game, and for creating it at all. The value of the game and its outcomes, just like the value of playing it in the first place, is always thus going to be entirely arbitrary. Subjective. “Winning” and “losing” are fluid concepts, their value being completely subject to a given individual. “Wining” and “losing” are good or bad depending on the perspective of the individual. For example, if I have no disposable income, yet gamble at poker and lose, then losing is bad. But if it’s ten o’clock at night and I just want to go to bed and for my daughter to do the same, then me losing a game of Go Fish to her isn’t any worse than winning because my real goal is simply for the game to end as quickly as possible. Losing brings this end about as equally as winning. So I “win’ either way.

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Problems arise when we attempt to assign objective value to winning, losing, and the playing of games. That is, we allow the game to dictate objective value to the individual rather than derive its own subjective value from him. Dong this gives the game a prerogative that it simply cannot accommodate. Games cannot dictate value to individuals because games have no inherent meaning except as a product of individuals. Another way of looking at it is that a great player is only great within the context of the game. His greatness does not follow him beyond its boundaries. Though his skills may apply to other aspects of his life, these skills are distinct from the rules of the game, thus they have nothing fundametally to do with it. As soon as these skills are removed from the context of the game, they do not necessarily imply greatness. A player’s greatness inside the game is merely a reflection of the context of the rules. It’s not a greatness of himself, but merely a subjective declaration of his value inside the game only. To determine that one has value outside of the game simply because of his value inside of it is to allow games—which could neither exist, nor have meaning, purpose, or value without the individual—to subordinate the existential worth of people to the utterly subjective, arbitrary, and facile worth of games.

It is precisely this reversal of reason which leads to cheating…along with exploitation (of players and fans and others), manipulation, and mendacity, which are all simply degrees of cheating, I submit, as they seek to coerce the value of the game to one’s own favor from beyond the rules. Players crave the (false) honor and approbation of being great as the game dictates greatness, yet they understand, perhaps instinctively, that the rules do not own them…do not replace their own volition, so they violate the rules when no one is watching (or when they think no one is watching) to achieve their desired outcome. Contrary to popular assumption, losing the game, you see, is not in fact more honorable than wining by cheating, because rule-following itself is ultimately meaningless and valueless without victory. Rule-following itself isn’t noble because it is merely obedience, and obedience means nothing but subjugation; but victory has the potential of transferring one from the position of subject to the position of ruler…because value, again, is assumed to be objectively derived from the game. But if this is the case, then no value can come from losing—for losing implies merely that one is capable of obeying to rules; but winning implies that one is capable of turning that obedience into power. And power is what separates the subjects from the rulers. In other words, to accept that there is some kind of inherent nobility and integrity to rule-following is to imply that slavery is a position to which one should aspire. But slavery, by definition, requires no will, thus making aspiration moot. Power belongs to those who accept that the game is the giver of human worth and who understand that to win the game, especially by manipulation of the rules (cheating, or a form thereof), is to become the game, and thus become the Authority who determines the worth of everyone else.

The real truth is that games, rules, laws, processes, computations, equations, strategies, directions, authority, guidelines, paradigms, constructs…all of these are of men, for men, and valued solely by men. To reverse this relationship—to make men the product of these rather than the master—is to turn man into a mindless, collective and collectivist beast, and ensures that the only score left on the board in the end is murder and destruction.

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