The Politics of Neuromania: The Naive User
One of the problems that machine engineers face is deciding when a mechanical product is in a sufficient state of perfection that it is ready to be used by someone outside of the production circle. Most organizations employ a hierarchical process of verification that the machine must be put through before it is made available to the widest population of users. The person who encounters the machine for the first time is called a "naive user" because she is completely unfamiliar with the nature of the beast. The feedback that such a person gives about the machine is extremely valuable in the verification process. A good engineering organization seeks out such feedback and uses it to improve the quality of the machine for subsequent encounters with other naive users.
A social organization has mechanistic qualities. Political machines predate the dawn of "democratic" processes. Some of the pre-democratic political machines continue to function as machines behind the veil of public process. The British Bankers Club can be seen pulling and pushing various levers to maintain its influence in America. Likewise the original cult of Romulus and Remus can be seen preserving its own hide on the stage of global influence.
These machines depend on the naive user in more ways than one. There was a time when the Roman cult banned the publication of its esoteric literature in any language other than Latin. It did this in order to maintain the naivety of its users. Likewise, the British Bankers Club prefers to hide behind super PACs and off-shore currency laundromats. It actively opposes campaign reforms like a squid behind a cloud of ink. It has even gone so far as to promote the idea of a Jewish Bankers Club as a distraction to its own global machinations.
The Roman cult got some very good feedback when it encountered the truly naive users of Peru. The natives of America preferred to die rather than to become Roman. Natives also stood their own ground against the encroachment of British investment. Roman priests tried to alienate the Natives from the British Bankers Club by pointing to the deadly toxicity of British firewater. Nobody ever died of drinking French brandy. Liquor taxation was at the heart of the Hamiltonian machine and liquor debt was at the heart of Jeffersonian land expropriation. The naive users had an inkling of the devastation to come but knew not how to fend off the juggernaut.
What are your experiences as a naive user of Western political machinery?
Links: Pizarro on his conquest of Peru. George Healy on Jesuits and Natives in Canada. Richard Kohn on Hamilton's use of force against the Whiskey Rebellion.
A social organization has mechanistic qualities. Political machines predate the dawn of "democratic" processes. Some of the pre-democratic political machines continue to function as machines behind the veil of public process. The British Bankers Club can be seen pulling and pushing various levers to maintain its influence in America. Likewise the original cult of Romulus and Remus can be seen preserving its own hide on the stage of global influence.
These machines depend on the naive user in more ways than one. There was a time when the Roman cult banned the publication of its esoteric literature in any language other than Latin. It did this in order to maintain the naivety of its users. Likewise, the British Bankers Club prefers to hide behind super PACs and off-shore currency laundromats. It actively opposes campaign reforms like a squid behind a cloud of ink. It has even gone so far as to promote the idea of a Jewish Bankers Club as a distraction to its own global machinations.
The Roman cult got some very good feedback when it encountered the truly naive users of Peru. The natives of America preferred to die rather than to become Roman. Natives also stood their own ground against the encroachment of British investment. Roman priests tried to alienate the Natives from the British Bankers Club by pointing to the deadly toxicity of British firewater. Nobody ever died of drinking French brandy. Liquor taxation was at the heart of the Hamiltonian machine and liquor debt was at the heart of Jeffersonian land expropriation. The naive users had an inkling of the devastation to come but knew not how to fend off the juggernaut.
What are your experiences as a naive user of Western political machinery?
Links: Pizarro on his conquest of Peru. George Healy on Jesuits and Natives in Canada. Richard Kohn on Hamilton's use of force against the Whiskey Rebellion.