Butler Nails My Distrust of Institutions

Understanding Mr. Shaffer's brilliant thesis, I hope correctly, I would liken not just the state, but all such forms, to Arsenic poisoning and the diagnosis and treating thereof...Namely, as I understand Arsenic poisoning, it looks like a number of other ailments, and only if one is specifically searching for Arsenic (for which one would need suspicion of such) can one find it. Is David Hardy's observation that the United States, as a culture, is becoming more narcissistic merely another piece of that same puzzle? Is that very narcissism, unrealism and grandiosity perhaps the apotheosis of the state as a central element of human existence?

I have much more to say, but for now; this was a wonderful piece, and I'm glad you linked to it or else I may have missed it. Thank you very much.

Brilliant piece. I haven't read Shaffer's book yet, but this piece makes me want to check it out.

Hi Sunni -
Shaffer has another direct hit, and it follows his theory of chaos appropriately. The time has come to question authority and to ask about what reality we are living in. There is much that we beleive that just is not true - but embedded into our belief system. Far be it for us to criticize Newton's theory of gravity, yet Darwin's theory of evolution is fair game. Crick and Watson published a neat, compact DNA structure - it just doesn't go far enough. Einstein was accurate up to the resolution of his instruments - but not entirely correct, as we can see from quantum theory. Nobody seems to be looking at the holes, or at the wholes - just at pieces of the puzzle - a billion piece jigsaw puzzle at that.

The ideas here also apply to consumerism - it is based completely on urging individuals to identify with 'things' external to themselves, and to then communicate to others 'who they are' from what they 'own' (or go into much debt to possess). Why do consumers look outside of themselves for a sense of worth? Because their self-esteem has been pounded down whilst living in the fishbowl - unless you wipe your ass with this, smell like that, and are seen with these sports shoes, well, you're just not good enough...ugh. This also makes them very afraid to leave the fishbowl...stick them on a desert island without the externalities (i.e., such as the correct toilet paper), and suddenly they don't know who they are...

Here is an interview with Jon Robb, author of Brave New War*

http://www.tcsdaily.com/article.aspx?id=062107B

The book largely deal with the bleak future for nation-states in a world where technology empowers the so-called "Global Guerillas" (GG's) to cause billions in damage for a fraction of that in investment. This could be mixed news at least for the proto-survivialists.

He also mentions the need for "resilient communities" and "fundamental loyalties" to survive the future of terrorism. While I doubt Robb is a friend of the anarcho-capitlist ideal, if he is right then the near future may owe a larger debt to folks like Sunni and Schaeffer than they'll probably want to admit.

Future bumper sticker, "Next time you need a meal, call a hippie!"

*Reviewed at:

http://www.examiner.com/a-743254%7EJames_Joyner___Brave_New_War__offers_grim_view_of_future.html

I am digesting the two quoted paragraphs, and will continue. I too have found that my own identifying with abstractions is leading to identifying with, if not groups, at least a platform or even perhaps a body of doctrine. More to the point, I have made a campaign over several decades to self-identify simultaneously with anti-institutionalism and anti-anti-collectivism. Perhaps I have been co-opted by some kind of anti-anti-collectivist institution. What might this institution be called, or what might it consist of?

Is there an alternative alternative, save being a rebel without a cause?

I like the term "group totem" (thankx to RAW) for flags, mouth shibboleths, and decorating our cars with bumper-stickers. I have a "single A" bumper sticker constructed from a "triple A" bumper sticker (intended as an insurance advertisement) and a pair of scissors. I always thought of them more as memes than institutions, although the latter have been known to crystallize around the former. Can memetic success take another form? Perhaps pissing in the wind is all there is.

Mouth shibboleths are especially troublesome. Somehow my head acquired a reflex arc running from "fractional reserve" to "John Birch." This of course leads to subject area taboos and generalized paranoia, let alone rank bigotry. Perhaps the problem is not in institutions wrapped around abstractions but in the structure of our heads.

The imagined disapproval of others may be at work. Whenever I hear someone dissing what they term 'collectives,' the temptation is to imagine them as being the sort of person who would think of me (I'm just a temp) as an underachiever or something.

Then there are the lost opportunities for coalitions and alliances (or are those just institutions or collectives by another name?) caused by a tendency to suspicion of people having 'the right stands for the wrong reasons.' The classic example is feminists and religious authoritarians concerning pornography. Intellectually, it's fairly obvious that 'institution' and 'collective' are largely synonymous. My constructed image of my own personality as being on a sort of 'left hand path' means I culturally identify with people who complain of feeling institutionalized, while I want to distance my precious self-image and perhaps reputation from people in the habit of collective-bashing.

It should also be noted that my agenda has been to use 'institution' as a catch-all term to expand the concept of authority to include (at least parts of) the private sector. The author (of the quoted text) seems to be using it to expand the concept of collective to include self-identification of individuals with group agendas.

Hail Eris.