Pick a side, a camp, a party to support! Well, don't they all entrap themselves, deteriorate over time, and turn less than trustworthy? Let's agitate everyone.
Oh mate, so much in this. And deftly done, too—you have skirted around the edge of the antimeme, perambulating around the point (and avoiding the evocation of Charged Words) so as to speak Greater Volumes. Oh, so deftly done.
This passage—
“This more cosmic stance would help to respond to the ways of power – and the opportunity costs of war, greed, and manipulation – with somewhat of an open heart, not contempt and bitterness. It might help to sidestep the disempowering emotions that you might feel around these topics – that I experienced myself, and sometimes still do. I see them burning within many that ask these painful questions and confront the scariest of options. After all, bitterness only hurts ourselves and never really those we’re bitter about.”
—reminds me of a thing that the monk Daniel Thorson said on a podcast (with Bonnitta Roy, I believe) about the process of removing the malware of moloch that society installs within us. The way to do this being much as what you have arrived at, too.
And honestly, this whole thing hits hard for me (in a good way). I’ve been in active (non-linear) grief, oscillating betwixt tragic and post-tragic modes, whilst our world sinks deeper into the metacrisis (and whilst all kinds of atrocities only intensify). And these platforms are so profoundly good at pressing my buttons, despite my being wise to their ways. It takes all kinds of temperance to stay with the trouble, not not bypass, and to summon the better parts of myself in response. I don’t often do this well. But I am trying to do this better.
Thanks for the post, Merlin. This now lives in my readwise and obsidian, with many highlights.
Yeah, the Moloch malware had been gearing up within me again. Demoralization is something that i've felt lately, and that I yet agitated as psyop-symptoms in here.
So awareness doesn't preclude effect, as subconscious complexes go.
On a more general note, please keep word like betwixt alive. I see noone else using it and it adds so much. On a more 'strategic' level, it's SUCH a part of your brand.
Honored to have made it into your note-taking cycle. It's just individual pattern recognition and sensemaking, essentially opinion, so I am thrilled that it somehow qualified for that!
Oh mate, so much in this. And deftly done, too—you have skirted around the edge of the antimeme, perambulating around the point (and avoiding the evocation of Charged Words) so as to speak Greater Volumes. Oh, so deftly done.
This passage—
“This more cosmic stance would help to respond to the ways of power – and the opportunity costs of war, greed, and manipulation – with somewhat of an open heart, not contempt and bitterness. It might help to sidestep the disempowering emotions that you might feel around these topics – that I experienced myself, and sometimes still do. I see them burning within many that ask these painful questions and confront the scariest of options. After all, bitterness only hurts ourselves and never really those we’re bitter about.”
—reminds me of a thing that the monk Daniel Thorson said on a podcast (with Bonnitta Roy, I believe) about the process of removing the malware of moloch that society installs within us. The way to do this being much as what you have arrived at, too.
And honestly, this whole thing hits hard for me (in a good way). I’ve been in active (non-linear) grief, oscillating betwixt tragic and post-tragic modes, whilst our world sinks deeper into the metacrisis (and whilst all kinds of atrocities only intensify). And these platforms are so profoundly good at pressing my buttons, despite my being wise to their ways. It takes all kinds of temperance to stay with the trouble, not not bypass, and to summon the better parts of myself in response. I don’t often do this well. But I am trying to do this better.
Thanks for the post, Merlin. This now lives in my readwise and obsidian, with many highlights.
Yeah, the Moloch malware had been gearing up within me again. Demoralization is something that i've felt lately, and that I yet agitated as psyop-symptoms in here.
So awareness doesn't preclude effect, as subconscious complexes go.
On a more general note, please keep word like betwixt alive. I see noone else using it and it adds so much. On a more 'strategic' level, it's SUCH a part of your brand.
Honored to have made it into your note-taking cycle. It's just individual pattern recognition and sensemaking, essentially opinion, so I am thrilled that it somehow qualified for that!
I can relate so much with this! Excellent case articulated with balance and precision.
Beautifully written, Merlin, as always. Nailed it.
Fantastic article.