Flying across the stars

A million miles you went

Across vast seas,

Where I can't yet go,

Anchored as I am,

to children and grand children.

Pioneer you are,

Ranging 

across vast skies,

Planets and stars.

You navigate them unbound by earthly bonds

In perfect freedom

To go where you would go.

Except to return to my arms,

Where I could hold you again.

How I miss you, 

Sailing far from me.

Sometimes I seem to feel you

Surprisingly close.

One day,

My soul will be as free as you.

I hope, i pray,

will come at the end of this long night,

Such a glorious day.

And we can navigate the stars.

The Dictators Playbook

DRAFT

Dictators around the world follow the same playbook because of both the nature of dictators & their followers.  

Dictators are almost always power hungry con artists.  Their followers are either Social Dominators or RW Authoritarians. 

For more on this see:

Authoritarian Nightmare, John W Dean & Robert Altemeyer

The playbook is always the same.

Phase One: Authoritarian Assault

Modern Fascism is best given a new name that describes its attributes. It should be called the "Mafia State", because ideology is secondary to the purpose of the authoritarian dominators who seek to create these autocracies. Power and wealth are first. A fellow named Bálint Magyar described this kind of movement and resulting government in his writings. He was observing what was happening in his own country, the former Soviet Union, and around the world. He also described how the transformation of countries occurred. The first phase is “Authoritarian Assault.” Masha Gessen refers to him in her most recent book.

STEP ONE

They generally recruit leaders from people who are both power hungry "Power-mad" and ruthless.  Typical power mad people exhibit pathological, narcissistic traits.

The people who create dictatorships are

Exploitive

Manipulative

Amoral

Dishonest.

Without followers such people go nowhere. But birds of a feather flock together and power mad people consciously form hierarchies that recruit or suborn each other. So the wannabe dictator recruits rivals with blackmail and appeals to ambition and greed.

Authoritarian followers.

The bulk of a dictators followers however are  people who are fearful.

Rightwing Authoritarians

 

STEP TWO

Step Three

STEP FOUR

STEP FIVE:

STEP SIX:

STEP SEVEN

STEP EIGHT

STEP NINE:

STEP TEN:

Falling into Traps

The best defense, ordinarily, against being targeted by law enforcement is to obey the law.  All that goes out the window in an authoritarian regime.  I never understood this last century.

When we visited Argentina around 2001, I said "hi" to an Argentine cop and the family about had a heart attack. In authoritarian or corrupt country interacting with police can be fatal. That was the beginning of my education.

We went to many major events in DC & Baltimore together. Once, soon after, we were in Baltimore and there were mounted police. I was able to pet the horses nose, but my wife was frightened. Police were always civil to me. But that was about the time I started learning about the two systems. Anyway, how to survive...

Extra legal lawlessness under color of law

When the system is on its way to lawlessness, authoritarian cops start to use color of law for arbitrary purposes. Ironically the most lawless authoritarians are in authoritarian countries where law and order protects privilege against the people. 

Reading my "Origins of Totalitarianism again" I realized that:

What we do in colonies, we wind up doing in the homeland. It starts with unfavored groups; gays, minority ethnicities, women and spreads to include political enemies. Political enemies usually means people disrupting the authorities self aggrandizement.

Extralegal crimes [police, authorities] become;

1. You annoyed them.

2. You witnessed them doing crime.

3. You protested their behavior.

4. They don't like you.

Surviving extra legal law

We aren't completely. For now we can rely on facts as a defense. When tangling with authorities prone to breaking the law to go after you, under color of law. There are things you can do to protect yourself.

Always assume that if you are tangling with authorities they are looking for excuses to arrest you. The best defense there is recording devices, the buddy system & you have to be super lawful.

The buddy system is to keep a recording device armed friend with you as much as possible and record any suspicious encounters. Bad cops do things like planting drugs or weapons. Undercover cops often are also bad cops.

And we have to be aware, that as rw police infiltrate law enforcement and courts, these steps eventually won't be enough.

In these times, and for at least 55 years now. Anyone trying to preserve and improve our system has to behave super lawfully except where breaking the law by challenging lawless laws is necessary, such as demonstrating or voting. 

We are in a fight. But we have to arm ourselves with facts and evidence not rocks and bricks. If you are at a demonstration and someone put a molotov cocktail or bricks in the street. Don't pick it up fool. You are likely on candid camera.

Entertaining hypothesis vs Belief

Saw a study on "education reduces belief in conspiracy theories." The trouble with the study is that like many recent studies it was an exercise in confirmation bias. It is like doing a study announcing "education reduces ignorance on the subject studied." Well "duh", isn't that what it is supposed to do? 

That they have to present it as statistics speaks to flaws in our education system. Besides I don't see much anaecdotal evidence that smart people are less susceptible to the rabbit warrens of conspiracy theories and paranoia. There are "beautiful minds" everywhere. And drugs are no help when rumors abound presenting alternative narratives about life. The logic always comes with purported evidence and emotional triggers.

What helps with conspiracy theories is scientific method. The problem is not with entertaining the notions. For example, the premise that hacked autopilots were used to attack the targets of 911, is after all a premise based on a few facts. The planes did have autopilots. It was a plausible hypothesis. 

What leads one to reject that hypothesis is a preponderance of evidence.  But you have to verify and validate facts to get there. If you start rejecting facts as facts because you are attached to your first hypothesis that is the rabbit hole. Educated people fall down it too.

There are alternative explanations for facts. Those are called hypothesii. There are facts that are a priori and facts that are testable.  A testable fact can be falsified or verified.  The material world is best governed by testable facts. 

 

For example,  A commandment like "thou shalt not kill" can be an a priori statement of principle. But the margins require verification. Does the passage prohibit all killing all the time? Or does it refer solely to murdering fellow humans. When is killing permissable? When is it immoral and how much?. Is killing an annoying fly as big a sin as killing a chicken for dinner? Is killing a chicken for dinner the same as killing Uncle Joe? 

We learn [usually have to teach ourselves] Law and logic as a tool to try to establish nuance on life. The better educated one is, the more one understands the nuances.

 One is going to go down rabbit holes of conflicting stories. One is going to have to evaluate competing narratives. The trap is our emotions will tell us to reject some facts, either for the sake of the argument or because accepting them hurts. Not a good idea. Truth hurts the way a minor injury does. Lies feel good til the poison hits, or ones fall reaches bottom. Then the pain can be so bad, one goes numb to it. People die, fanatics, clinging to falsified beliefs that way.

 

Tended vs Untended

Years ago, before internet, I remember reading the article that described what came to be known as "broken glass theory." I went back to that subject in 2014. 

Tended vs untended behavior

The Atlantic article had been about tended, versus untended behavior. It had argued for the necessity of tending neighborhoods and the consequences of untended behavior. The article recommended replacing broken glass and improving neighborhoods.

ZERO TOLERANCE = Racism

Unfortunately Rudy Giuliani and others, interpreted "broken glass theory" to mean the proposition that unless you arrest people breaking windows and lock them up a long time, they commit worse crimes. It led to zero tolerance, 3 strikes and other laws that punished minor crimes. These policies targetted low status neighborhoods. People were arrested and murdered by police for selling cigarettes,  one at a time. But no windows were fixed.

Tended behavior as antidote

Anyone who has raised children, been in a loving relation or grown a garden, knows that creating happiness takes work. A garden has to be tended. It has to be worked, sewn, weeded, trimmed, taken care of.  Same with children and relationship. An untended garden quickly gets overgrown with weeds and the crops infected.

The analogy is so powerful its one of the first allegories in the bible. Tending others, neighborhoods, laws, whole countries, gives joy. Untended people kill their brother and carry around the mark of Cain.

My Sermon for the day.....

More on this

http://holtesthoughts.blogspot.com/2014/11/why-broken-windows-theory-was-corrupted.html

http://holtesthoughts.blogspot.com/2014/11/the-neighborhood-and-city-village-and.html

cruelty is not strong

Marco Rubio you are wrong.

For the authoritarian:

“Cruelty is strength”

“Truth is what the cruel fabricate.”

But calling a lie truth doesn't make the lie true.

Cruelty fails, leaving behind only rue.

 

Cruelty begets cruelty,

An eye for an eye, and all are blind.

They may claim it for legal,

...but all it is is crime.

And in the end all the cruel have left is hate.

 

Castro, Pinochet, Duvalier,

Hate looks strong,

Strongly wrong is an offkey song.

Dictators puff themselves up with their own fear.

They frighten allies more than enemies.

 

Look at the expression on the brutes they send.

Their only joy is violence,

they quail in fear.

They stand jaw set squarely,

to hide a cowardly racing heart.

 

But like all puffed up things

A single truth pricks.

A single tear wilts their con

And the weak pretending to be strong,

Deflate

Conservatives, Edmund Burke & despite of workers.

Edmund Burke:

Posted several blog entries on Edmund Burke and his revolt against John Locke. Ostensibly he wrote "Reflections on the Revolution" responding to the De-evolution of the French Revolution into the terror. But in truth he rebelled at the notion that "hair dressers and tallow-chandlers" should participate in government. To him it was visceral. He found common folks revolting 🤢 🤮 🤮.

He's the spiritual founder of the conservative movement.  That despite for barbers, butchers, bakers [add in electricians], continues. It also doesn't sell very well. Hence "conservatives" always turn to alliance with bigots, warmongering, white nationalism, etc.... trying to con the rest of us into keeping them in power & wealth.

When the white nationalists take over, conservatives pearl clutch. But the root of the problem is that conservatism & mostvconservatives mostly want to conserve power and influence, and really loathe being held to account by the rest of us. Principles are are for day laborers & butchers.

Chris Holte.