The System is broken. It's FUBAR in a big, big way. As I write this, I'm wondering which of several government agency thugs will be showing up to give me a hard time. And what is it that I've done, exactly, to merit this unwanted attention? I've refused to reinforce the status quo of the System. I've refused to connect myself to the grid so that I can offer my availability to make money for the power companies. I've refused the directive to pay a well-connected group of people money for nothing. I've refused to go wildly deep in debt (a.k.a. get a mortgage), and spend the rest of my life giving my earnings to self-centered distant bankers. The System is furious with me for having committed these atrocities. The System was alerted to my presence by my neighbors, who are wildly deep in debt, who are effectively squatters, living a life they can ill afford. The System protects them. The System has no problem with them. The System is tickled pink with them.
The System, however, is mad-as-hell at me. It cannot abide my insubordination. It cannot tolerate my insistence that there are more efficient, more sustainable, more robust, more reliable ways of creating a habitat in which to live a simple life.
To argue that the System is not broken is an untenable position. To claim that the System "is for the best" or that it is merely "protecting" me is ludicrous. The System cares only that it continues to exist. Its primary concern is that it not be questioned, and that it be fed by all souls willing and unwilling. The System runs all the way from the United Nations, to the Federal government, and all the way down to the local housing association. These are all elements of the System, and their Primary Directive is to ensure its survival.
I was speaking with an attorney yesterday. He was acting as a mouthpiece for the System, one of many. He told me to just "do what was right." My reply was that the avenue he was describing was not right. The System supports the idea of a Neo-Feudal Age. It is, in fact, giddy at the prospect. A Neo-Feudal Age empowers a handful of True Believers with the ability to make the Rest of Us miserable. It creates mile-high walls and codifies the status quo. The System reigns supreme in the Neo-Feudal Age, unconcerned with innovation, nauseated by new technology -- or old technology refashioned.
The System, in following its prime directive -- maintaining it's survival -- will ultimately destroy us all. This is not an exaggeration. The System has destroyed civilizations throughout history. It has murdered millions. It has caused the extinction of countless species. It has visited brutality, cruelty, torture and misfortune on anything and everything threatening its survival. Every dominant species, every civilization has fallen prey to this singular vision.
The System protects the grifters. It rushes to defend the liars, cheats and swindlers, and chastises the honest. It despises those who speak truth to power. It loathes the trail-blazers and visionaries. It has no tolerance for anyone who questions this blatant hypocrisy.
In the end, the System will collapse under its own weight, and all that will be left is the worst of the worst. Ironically, it's moving toward this ultimate destination that we call "progress."
There's a common stream-of-thought that says humanity will eventually evolve out of this destructive pattern. 50,000 years later, however, nothing has changed. We sow the seeds of our demise daily, and the Angry Ghost in the Machine laughs like hell.
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