Open Thread - 05-30-25 - Just in Time
Does it feel like time is moving faster? Things happen so quickly that hardly a second goes by and we're off to a new development, a new revelation, a new outrage. There's hardly time to catch our breath and there's a new squirrel to chase up a tree. We're inundated with problem after problem and very few solutions.
There's an old theory in the science of physics that states the faster one goes the more time slows down. For instance, if one could travel in space at the speed of light time would decelerate. One could leave earth and travel many light years away and upon return will have aged very little while everyone that one knew back on earth would have been long dead.
The revelations are coming so fast they're leaving us behind. Is that it?
Or are we just getting old and running out of time?
I find it a bit odd, at this point in time, that so much of great import is being revealed. So many whistle blowers and truth tellers have come forward recently exposing secrets and great unknowns. Secrets and great unknowns that in the not too distant past would have found the whistle blowers and truth tellers neutralized, for good. I have to ask myself, why is that, and why now? And why are they allowed to do it, time after time?
Some of these revelations are quite shocking and revealing, possibly damaging the institutions and persons involved. Yet, the whistle blowers and truth tellers get trotted out in venues and forums touting their wares. How is it that they are allowed to grow in stature rather than being destroyed by the powers affected by the revelations?
A couple of years ago I proposed a theory that modern whistle blowers expose secrets and unknowns to normalize them, to make them mainstream. Then as they get bandied about for a time, the revelations become accepted. There's no longer a need to hide the secrets from the hoi polloi, they become part of the narrative.
But, perhaps there's another reason for the disclosures.
Have you ever felt overwhelmed by the pace of the information dumps? Hardly a minute or an hour goes by and there's something new to ponder on. The indignations are stacking like chord wood in the recesses of the psyche. It's enough to make the mind reel in a whirlwind of information overdrive.
And that, my friends, is the point. It's about wearing you down with endless data points, with conspiracy theories that are ultimately proven true, with deep dark secrets that inculcate a feeling of shock and awe. Total information awareness.
In my humble opinion, these indulgences and disclosures are meant to instill a feeling of hopelessness and despair. To make you give in and give up and accept your station in life since there's nothing you can do about it. To be a good little non wave making citizen. To become a part of the Borg.
The next time you're watching a video or reading an article by your favorite truth teller, one that you trust, one whose "truths" you accept, at least consider there may be an ulterior motive behind their exposé. They may not be what they appear to be no matter how badly you want to believe it.
Accept nothing at face value. Question everything. Especially that which you may consider "the truth".
Comments
Good morning Free Rangers...
Does anybody really know what time it is?
I'm torn between
Howard Beale from "Network", and Roy Batty from "Blade Runner". And I agree- being permanently stuck in that conflict is very much by design.
At the moment, I'm leaning towards Batty. That was a fine bit of improvisation on Rutger Hauer's part...
Twice bitten, permanently shy.
Good clip and good movie...
as much as an old cliche that it is, I lean towards The Matrix. Things seem so contrived it may very well be that we live in a software simulation.
The point of this piece?: There is no spoon.
"We create our own reality"
Commonly attributed to Karl Rove, he denied saying it.
"Just in time" is also term of art in the logistics business. A technique designed to save warehouse costs and inventory losses from oversupply, it leads to supply breaks during economic downturns and employment instability in the transportation industry. The supply breaks occurred during the 2007-2008 market break, and the former covid episode. What the impact will be due to Trump's tariff fiasco and decoupling with China remains to be seen. Some industries relying on Chinese components stocked up in advance of liberation day. I heard from one industry source, that employment instability and a downturn in sales is anticipated due to industry reluctance to absorb the uncertainty created by Trump's moves. I've seen that there is another covid outbreak in SE Asia, it remains to be seen what impact it may have on commerce. Will governments react the same way as before if it is not contained?
Hankyoreh report on the presidential debates:
I saw some of independent conservative "reform party" Lee Jun-seok's interaction with Lee Jae-myung during an earlier debate, in which he repeated accusations against Lee based earlier trial episodes for which he was already acquitted in criminally motivated prosecutions. Junstone was quite disrespectful in demeanor, not following debate rules, rude, etc. Maybe I'm getting old, but this seemed very un-Korean behavior to me in a cultural sense, unless you're in a drunken street brawl. Now his crass sexual references definitely not popular among Korean women and parents in general, have dropped him another notch. Maybe he thought this would appeal to his incel base. He seems to be self destructing.
Thanks for the open thread JtC!
語必忠信 行必正直
Whomever may have said it...
that quote is a great illustrator for this piece and very much makes my point.
Trump's tariffs, a new covid outbreak are just some of the flotsam and jetsam that are part and parcel to the information overdrive that I referenced.
The politics of crassness that's taken over much of the West is spreading to the East. It's a sign of the confusing times.
Thanks, soryang.
Once upon a time in written history,
the printing press was invented and history accelerated, and actual revolutions occurred with kings and czars getting in real trouble losing more than just their thrones.
The development of digital technology is doing it again. The Ruling Class today is just as much a victim of this as the rest of us. Their grab for total control is a product of panic.
I cried when I wrote this song. Sue me if I play too long.
Agreed...
digital technology is proving to be a double edged sword.
It's the perfect surveillance tool made to order for the technocrats and authoritarians that wish to lord over us. But at the same time, it is opening minds all over the world as to the nature of their game.
The Ruling Classes' panic is manifest in their rush to implement the huge data centers that will house the digital ID and digital currency that has the potential to lock the prison door, unless enough people wake up.
Hopefully the digital revolution will have the same effect as the printing press, as you stated:
Good morning Johnny, thanks for the OT. Some things
come to mind, starting with the experiments, as early as the forties, demonstrating that if rats were shocked at random from sources they could not control, they became lethargic. These helped expose the phenomena of learned helplessness - where an individual subjected to repeated exposure to uncontrollable and averse stimuli, becomes unable or unwilling to avoid or escape similar stimuli even when they are controllable. They give up, having learned that nothing can be done.
Something else going on is the whole news churn and memory hole phenomenon. Something slips out and into the news stream that TPTB don't really like the hoi polloi to know, but the endless high speed cycle of ever more and more news on ever more ane more new things and new information about ongoing things essentially drives the thing that slipped out from our minds and consciousness.
This latter effect is amplified by what I can the newsification of drivel. There is an ever expanding circle of pundits, influencers, celebrities, spokespersons places, events and things about which "news" is generated and reported. With proper headlines, one finds oneself more and more at least glancing at this shit to discover or verify the suspicion that it is simply more shit about some Kardashion, rapper cheesy-X, King or princess this and that, etc. etc. Any real news is swamped by this vast fountain not-really-news.
We can be, and really need to be, aware that all this is going on, but it is very hard not to succumb to it to at least some extent every damn day of the year.
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Exactly...
the constant barrage of bullshit is exhausting. We've become the National Enquirer society. Dumbed down and numbed down, present company excepted.
As you presented, not only do the rats give up with sensory overload...:
...But another mental experiment comes to mind, if you put 100 red ants and 100 black ants in a jar, nothing will happen. Shake the jar and they will fight to the death.
Illustrative of the tactic of divide and conquer and then pitting the conquered against one another.
excellent post
This is the challenge -- first to figure out what news is not-really-news and then to find a way to persuade more people to grasp the difference.
Victory will come only when those two dreams become reality. Maybe.
Lots of shit between now and then, if ever.
I cried when I wrote this song. Sue me if I play too long.
When you are not under the influence of AIPAC this
can happen.
One of the very few...
honest politicians. The sad part is he'll probably end up paying a price for his honesty, if he hasn't done so already.
I was just thinking about that this morning
How many times congress critters have spoken out against the genocide and the only name I came up with was Bernie. But he’s only blaming Netanyahu and not addressing how long Israel and the west have planned to do it.
Most those who speak up in Israel’s defense say that the war started on 10/7 when Hamas broke out of the concentration camp. I’d love to see a breakdown of how many civilians Hamas killed vs the number that Israel killed by the Hannibal directive. 40 babies weren’t burned in ovens and the only baby that was killed was killed by Israeli soldiers.
The hostages aren’t innocent civilians. They are actually PoWs which is legal under international law. Hamas released the civilian hostages over a year ago.
But once again the media writes the narrative and too many ignorant people buy the propaganda.
Yasha Levine has a great essay on the killing of the 2 Zionists.
A Letter to My Fellow Jewish Americans
The message echoes from Gaza back to the US. “Starving people is fine.”
I can't find it
but I remember a lawsuit against Fox news, about Fox deliberately reporting something that was blatantly false as something true. The courts said no crime had been committed. So, without truth, what do we have? I guess nothing is "true" anymore. Add to that we have laws, passed on to us by politicians, making actions legal, say like interest rates. 25% interest used to be loansharking, a crime, but with credit cards it's legal, because politicians say so. So, if they say a lie is true, it's true. We're a government of the people, by the people. Too bad we're all masochists, and all we can elect are sadists.
@Snode Actual truth, either
Actual truth, either spoken or written, has a tone/ring/strong sense to it. It's an intangible, but a decent human being gets it. I majored in English, both literary and linguistical analysis. Read and heard more than my share of lies. Good diary and comments. Rec'd!!
Inner and Outer Space: the Final Frontiers.
Wasn’t that about a lawsuit against Rachel?
She was caught spewing propaganda to her audience and Tucker called her out on it?
Then years later Fox was caught doing the same thing and they used the Rachel case in court?
Pulling from a deep memory.
The message echoes from Gaza back to the US. “Starving people is fine.”
Future Shock...
Toffler's book suggests that thing evolve faster than our ability to comprehend what has happened.
...this book tackles the profound impact of rapid industrial and technological change.
Toffler identifies three main forces that create future shock: transience, novelty, and diversity. Transience refers to the increasing temporariness of experiences and relationships. People often find themselves moving for jobs or adapting to superficial social connections that lack depth. Novelty involves the introduction of unfamiliar concepts that challenge existing knowledge and experiences. As people face continuous new technologies, their ability to adapt can falter. Toffler claims we move from permanent to transient lifestyles, ultimately eroding the foundation of stable relationships. Diversity is the third pillar, manifesting as an overwhelming abundance of choices. With options stretching from career paths to consumer goods, decision-making becomes a burden. This over-choice can lead to anxiety, as individuals often feel lost amid the endless options. Toffler argues that navigating this array becomes increasingly complex, sometimes resulting in paralysis where people are unable to make choices at all.
(more here)
...
“Future Shock” remains remarkably relevant decades after its publication. Alvin Toffler’s exploration of change challenges readers to confront their experiences and sentiments regarding contemporary life. With many of his predictions about the effects of rapid technological change proving accurate, his work serves as an important reminder. It urges readers to adapt thoughtfully and navigate the complexities ahead. The book ends by acknowledging the inevitability of change while stressing the urgency of understanding its impact.
Heard an interesting joke this week...
The past, the present, and the future walk into a bar. It was tense.
Thanks for the OT!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”