Who´s going to win WWIII? (I´m taking bets!)
On demographic considerations in political strategy.
Soon, Nevermore Media will turn two years old!
Lately, a bunch of us have been reflecting on the past few couple of years, and discussing what the role for Nevermore will be once everyone catches up to the fact that we´ve right about absolutely everything for two years straight.
(Correct me if I´m wrong. Maybe something has slipped my memory. Can anyone think of a time that Nevermore was wrong about something? If you catch a factual error, please let us know and we will print a correction.)
Anyway, during the course of these reflections, Rozali Teblis, the newest member of the Nevermore team, wrote that:
a) Nevermore resists the current trend of atomized media and incorporates traditional media tactics into the digital age.
She goes on to note:
Most voices today work completely independently - they are atomized and insular and stuck in their own bubble. We were sold this idea that if we went independent, we would have more control over our work (whether it is writing, art, etc) - this is true(!) - but I think we are really feeling the impact of this now. Now you have thousands and thousands of isolated critically minded voices who are struggling to get noticed and find like minded people.
I´m glad that someone gets it! Someone I think people think I haven´t thought what I´m doing through, or that I´m doing this because I like pissing people off or something.
What Rozali describes is something I have also noticed, and from what I can tell there don´t seem enough effort towards building the type of movement that I think is necessary. I suppose that Derrick Broze and his wife Miriam Gomez are leading the way in terms of actually organizing people through the Freedom Cells network. But it´s not enough.
But how can we do more? Well, I think it´s for every person to ask themselves that question. The answer will be different for each person. For one thing, we need to consider personality. I suspect that most researchers are introverted. And the skill of being good at figuring things out does not necessarily mean that one is adept in the art of organizing human beings in the real world.
People are different. I know myself, and my strengths and weaknesses. I bring something to the table. If you want to understand my mind better, I recommend watching the following videos about the ENTP personality type.
Last year, Nevermore co-founder Dave Amis (a.k.a. Captain Sensible) noted that the anti-lockdown protests in the U.K. didn´t seem to be leading to something that could truly be described as a movement. Although hundreds of thousands of people were strongly opposed to lockdowns, there wasn´t really a sufficient basis of unity for a political movement. This goes beyond the problem of controlled opposition or the culture war or blind loyalty to political parties.
The brutal truth is that at this stage of the game, most people in First World countries lack basic political literacy.
Furthermore, it´s worth nothing that many of them suffer from various types of addictions and mental illnesses, and are generally weak-minded.
I personally think that we should be focused more on organizing with the people who really are committed to revolutionary struggle, meaning people who are prepared to die or face prison time in order to fight for their beliefs. Without a core constituency of committed rebels ready to lay it all on the line, I don´t think that there´s a lot that can be accomplished.
I don´t think this is pessimistic. I think I´m being a realist here.
Politics is about power, and state power relies on violence. I, for one, don´t think that the Powers That Shouldn´t Be would have any qualms about murdering millions upon millions of people. It´s not like they haven´t done it before.
Yet the fact of the matter is that most Canadians basically believe in the myth that their government is benevolent.
I´m absolutely floored that this is possible after the insane medical tyranny of the past few years, but the good news is that the tyrants blew their load too early. WWIII will be a marathon, not a sprint.
That said, it´s not hard to fathom why Canadians are so culturally obedient if you know the history of the Prussian model of education (also known as the factory model).
If you want a simple answer to the question: What in the hell went wrong with Western Civilization? Let me break it down for you. It´s because of school.
You heard me right. School is the problem.
What happened is that after Napoleon invaded Prussia and made them his vassals, the very proud Prussian aristocracy developed a surreptitious plan to retake their homeland. Realizing that it might take one than one generation to succeed, they poured their energies into a developing a surefire way of producing good, obedient citizens ready to slave away in factories or go die in stupid wars for ¨Blood and Soil¨.
They probably pretended their plan was to get rich producing well-trained automatons for the industrial age, which probably sounded great to capitalists of all nationalities.
The Prussian model of education involved indoctrinating children with nationalist propaganda, for obvious reasons. The Prussian model of schooling is directly responsible for the Third Reich, but that´s a topic for anyone day.
The fact is that the Prussian model proved extremely effective at producing compliant workforces that could serve as human appendanges of the ever-rapacious industrial mega-machine. For that reason, it was taken up by capitalist countries around the world, including throughout the Anglo-American world empire.
Basically, children are brainwashed with statist propaganda from a young age. I really do believe that statism is a cult, way more insane than Mormonism and way more evil than Scientology.
The problem, almost everyone nowadays in raised in that cult, so it´s rare for people to be see it for what it is.
As the great Errico Malatesta famously put it:
“A man whose limbs had been bound from birth, but who had nevertheless found out how to hobble about, might attribute to the very bands that bound him his ability to move, while, on the contrary, they would diminish and paralyze the muscular energy of his limbs… Suppose a doctor brought forward a complete theory, with a thousand ably invented illustrations, to persuade the man with bound limbs that, if his limbs were freed, he could not walk, or even live. The man would defend his bands furiously and consider anyone his enemy who tried to tear them off.”
There´s a Jesuit saying which goes:
Give me a child till he is seven years old, and I will show you the man.
Clearly, the Jesuits understand psychology, because the critical faculty of the mind only emerges around the age of seven. So basically, they are unable to reject suggestions given to them by trusted authority figures. They don´t know, and don´t pretend to know, what is real, because they lack the abstracted model of reality that renders objectivity possible. As Jon Lajoie has astutely remarked:
A dearth of empirical knowledge can be a huge obstacle.
Maybe I´m over-simplifying a bit here, but my main point stands. The fact of the matter is that early experiences in life matter a great deal.
What´s my point? Well, things aren´t exactly looking peachy-keen for the future of residents of the countries watched over by the Five Eyes.
(Anyone else think this phrase sounds ominous, by the way? Correct me if I´m wrong, but I don´t think that God made anything with five eyes).
I have thought about this a lot and reached the conclusion that we as a movement need to think long and hard about what exactly we aim to accomplish.
Or not. Maybe it doesn´t matter.
The fact of the matter is that most Canadians are cowards. That´s why I moved to Mexico. If not enough men love their country enough to die for it, that culture is already dead.
Furthermore, the Canadian invasion of sovereign Wet´suwet´en territory prove that Canada is no longer a sovereign nation-state, since FIPPA now apparently overrides the Crown.
Can you believe that Harper sold the country for a mere 15 billion dollars? That takes the cake. From now on, the Louisiana Purchase and the sale of Alaska will look like masterclasses in salesmanship by comparison.
If you ask me, Canada died on January 7th, 2019.
Not that I care about the law, but Stephen Harper is guilty of treason.
But I digress. Let´s get back to the topic at hand.
There´s a reason why the people of Chamula (and Cheran, for that matter!) are free. It´s because enough people are willing to die out of love for their community. But there´s more to it than that. They´re also crazy.
In Chamula, if you want to ride a bull, you have to contend with a line-up of men jostling for their chance to jump on. Yep, there´s line-up of men waiting their chance to jump on top of a raging bull. And they honour the sacred clown.
It should be noted that the Chamula Carnival is a religious festival. The Chumula religion has a prominent place for drunken clowns, called Mashes.
It should be noted that the Hero Twins of the Popul Vuh, Hunanpuh and Xchbalanque, were jugglers, in the sense of magicians who do tricks to entertain audiences.
So arguably the Maya of yore worshipped jugglers. And keep in mind that they were by far the most advanced civilization that we know of. The astronomy speaks for itself.
The Mashes, by the way, are legally allowed to do anything they want, regardless of the law. If they were in their regalia and it was the day of the carnival, they are immune from all prosecution. In the past, it was not unheard-of for Mashes to carry women off to have their way with them. Yes, you read that correctly. In the past, in Chamula, drunken clowns were legally allowed to rape people on carnival days. Now, according to my girlfriend, whose family is from Chamula, this hasn´t happened in recent years, and obviously, rape is obviously not something that either of us would ever condone. It´s also worth noting that things are changing in the Maya world, and have been moving in the direction of more gender egalitarianism since the uprising in 1994.
What would happen today if a gang of drunken Mashes carried off a girl? Who knows? It´s not like the constitution of Chamula has been revised.
Most people don´t know this, but article 2 of the Mexican constitution protects the ¨usos y costumbres¨ of indigenous peoples, including traditional forms of ¨justice¨, including mob violence against people accused of a major crime.
You read that right. Lynch mobs are constitutionally protected in Mexico. And lynching definitely do still happen in Chiapas, although they´re more likely to burn you alive than to lynch you.
I myself was almost burned alive by an angry mob last May, just for going down the wrong road on my motorcycle.
(I´ll like to note here that I still would much rather the Mayan form of ¨justice¨ than the Canadian equivalent.)
So pardon me if it´s not politically correct to call them crazy, but I believe that it is a precise use of the word. Don´t worry, the Maya haven´t gone woke. I´m pretty sure they´ll be more flattered by this article than offended. The Maya value honesty highly, and they aren´t ashamed of their culture. Quite the opposite.
It should be obvious that I´m way more down with the moral code of the Zapatistas than that of the Chamulas. But I can´t help myself from having a deep respect for the Chamulas as well.
The Chamulas are also one of the most fiercely independent indigenous nations in this entire hemisphere. Are they machista? Hell, yes. They´re also free, because guess what? Toxic masculinity really comes in handy when you´ve got your back up against the wall.
Make no mistake - the Chamula carnival is a sacred ceremony. Far from being a pointless dick-measuring contest, the running of the bulls is a cultural affirmation of the importance of courage. The medium is the message. The Chamulas understand very well that their freedom comes from their courage, and they have cultural mechanisms to ensure that they keep affirming the masculine virtues, and producing brave men.
If the Chamulas allied with the Zapatistas, they could take control of Chiapas. All they need is a common enemy.
Enter the Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion, which according to Ed Calderon, works closely with the CCP, who intend to use the CJNG to wage a proxy war against the Sinaloa cartel, which at this point is presumably compromised by U.S. intelligence (that´s what happens when a government takes a drug lord captive, by the way).
So thanks, China! I love the whole ¨fund-some-drug-dealers¨ school of doing geopolitics. Worked great for the U.S. in Afghanistan! I love how the Chinese probably think that Jalisco cartel is going to be able to take over Chiapas from the Chamulas. Yeah, fucking right. Someone show them this video please.
Anyway, call me crazy, but I think there´s a decent chance that after WWIII, the Chamulas could well be become some of the richest people in the world. And they honour the clown. And that´s why the CCP is going to have big, big problems if they think they´re going to take over Latin America.
Chinese state ¨communists¨ think believing in God is silly and that Christianity is a collection of fairy tales for gullible children. How could Chinese military strategists possibly understand the psychology of people who revere drunken clowns?
I´m sorry, China, but if you want to take over the world, you´re going to need a religion. You might want to go back to the drawing board if you´re planning to conquer the world without one. You´re not off to a good start if you´re betting on the Jalisco cartel taking over Chipas for more than about a week.
C´mon, guys, you can do better than this! Who´s your top person on Mayan cultural competency? You might want to call her into the office and ask her if she thinks that there´s any chance that the EZLN and the Chamulas could make an alliance. It could really fuck up your plans if they do.
Or not. Maybe it could work to your advantage. But just admit it - you´re out of your element here.
Whatever predictions your top analysts might make are wild stabs in the dark. What you guys need is someone who understands Mao-style realpolitik and also understands a culture where drunken clowns are above the law.
So anyway, if you need a cultural interpreter, hit me up. I need some money. I don´t work for chump change, though, so don´t come to me with the insultingly low pay that Cynthia Chung has been stoically enduring.
Here´s the thing, though, it might be a little tricky for us to come to some sort of an agreement. Anarchists are crazy and believe in a gift economy, so they don´t tend to take kindly to be offered money in exchange for work. As any anarchist will tell you, life´s not about work.
Maybe if you guys had a religion, you´d know that.
So, let´s get one thing out of the way. So if you want to give me money, that´s great, but I don´t do contracts. Contracts mean lawyers, and lawyers are the traditional enemies of anarchists (and all decent people, really).* So if you want me to agree to do something for you in exchange for money, this won´t work. It would be more appropriate and respectful for you to give me money without asking anything in return.
If you´re wondering how much to give me, just think of what the competition might offer me, then double it. Don´t worry, I won´t act insulted if it´s not enough. Our custom is to graciously accept any gift, so long as it is given in a good way. But it´s important to give a good speech. So start thinking of some nice things to say to me while giving me money, okay? I´ve got a massive ego and no one likes my poetry. Just saying.
Maybe you could translate my poetry into your language and totally change its meaning in the process. That´s your style, right?
Jokes aside, the Maya culture is in its ascendancy, and both the Chamulas and EZLN are truly forces to be to reckoned with. I´ve said some tongue-in-cheek things in this post, but keep in mind that many a true word is said is jest.
Due to its geography and cultural factors, Chiapas is the Afghanistan of the Americas. It is geopolitically important - quite possibly one of the most optimal land bases to wage a guerrilla war from in the entire world. There´s a reason that Subcommandante Marcos based his revolutionary strategy on an alliance with the Maya, and there´s a reason that AMLO is so conciliatory towards the Zapatistas and Mayan sovereigntists.
It´s not in the interests of the Mexican state to have an unwinnable insurgency on their hands. And no one chances a chance against the Maya in Chiapas. And they honour the clown.
I, for one, think that the Maya will win WWIII. I´m taking bets, by the way, if anyone wants to propose any.
Which brings me to an important point. I´m looking for a new business partner, because I want to get into the booky business. The green rush is over.
Think about it. Obviously, Nevermore has an incredible track record of making accurate predictions. If we´d been betting on things every step of the way, we´d be mega-rich, instead of embarassing ourselves by publicly begging for scraps from the table.
So, yeah, if someone wants to make shit-tons of money, hit me up. I´m a business genius, if you didn´t already know, and I bring a lot of primo contacts to the table. Nor am I opposed to putting in work. Just don´t expect me to do math or look at a screen.
Just to be clear, I don´t sign contracts, I don´t talk to lawyers, I don´t keep regular hours, and I don´t make confidentiality agreements. I do what I want, when I want, however I want, with whomever I want. But everyone who does business with me prospers.
Any questions?