Thanks again for producing something that is thought provoking and somehow reassuring. After reading your stuff I always feel more grounded. Please continue.
Oh thank you Gary. The point I hope to make is that reality is real, and that your life has value beyond these consolations - which foster dependence and do not console.
I think one of the effects of collapse is the imposition of reality. It is the cure to it all. Men are not in fact women. Mass immigration has an effect on culture. The easy virtues of a consumerist society, including the sale of identities, are too easy and therefore not vitruous.
Got people stocked in every shade, must be doing well with trade.
Stamped, addressed, in odd fatality, that evens out their personality.
With profit potential marked by a sign, I can recognize some of the production line,
No bite at all in labor bondage, just wrinkled wrappers or human bandage...
The Grand Parade of Lifeless Packaging
When all this revolution is over, he sits down on a highly polished floor while his dizziness fades away. It is an empty modern hallway and the dreamdoll saleslady sits at the reception desk. Without prompting she goes into her rap: "This is the Grand Parade of Lifeless Packaging, those you are about to see are all in for servicing, except for a small quantity of our new product, in the second gallery. It is all the stock required to cover the existing arrangements of the enterprise. Different batches are distributed to area operators, and there are plenty of opportunities for the large investor. They stretch from the costly care-conditioned to the most reasonable mal-nutritioned. We find here that everyone's looks become them. Except for the low market mal-nutritioned, each is provided with a guarantee for a successful birth and trouble free infancy. There is however only a small amount of variable choice potential - not too far from the mean differential. You see, the roof has predetermined the limits of action of any group of packages, but individuals may move off the path if their diversions are counter-balanced by others."
"It's the last great adventure left to mankind"
- Screams a drooping lady
offering her dream dolls at less than extortionate prices,
and as the notes and coins are taken out
I'm taken in, to the factory floor.
for the Grand Parade of Lifeless Packaging
- All ready to use
the Grand Parade of Lifeless Packaging
- I just need a fuse.
Got people stocked in every shade,
Must be doing well with trade.
Stamped, addressed, in odd fatality.
That evens out their personality.
With profit potential marked by a sign,
I can recognize some of the production line,
No bite at all in labor bondage,
Just wrinkled wrappers or human bandage.
Grand Parade of Lifeless Packaging
- All ready to use
it's the Grand Parade of Lifeless Packaging
- I just need a fuse.
As he wanders along the line of packages, Rael notices a familiarity in some of their faces. He finally comes upon some of the members of his old gang and worries about his own safety. Running out through the factory floor, he catches sight of his brother John with a number 9 stamped on his forehead.
The hall runs like clockwork
Their hands mark out the time;
Empty in their fullness
Like a frozen pantomime.
Everyone's a sales representative
Wearing slogans in their shrine.
Dishing out fail safe superlative,
Brother John is No. 9.
it's the Grand Parade of Lifeless Packaging
- All ready to use
it's the Grand Parade of Lifeless Packaging
- I just need a fuse.
The decor on the ceiling
has planned out their future day
I see no sign of free will,
so I guess I have to pay,
pay my way,
for the Grand Parade
it's the Grand Parade of Lifeless Packaging
- All ready to use
it's the Grand Parade of Lifeless Packaging
- I just need a fuse.
Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: Anthony Banks / Michael Rutherford / Peter Gabriel / Phil Collins / Steve Hackett
It would be an interesting exercise to look at history through your synthetic identities lens. Reading commentary from earlier periods typically shows nothing is really new, human nature is pretty constant, and I suspect we would find analogous synthetic identities regardless of era.
I hope our author is right and reality is set to make a comeback, but, school is indoctrinating our children in the ways of the liberal Utopianism. I worry that as long as they - it, the regime- control the means of cultural production, being school, MSM, television and the like, they have the high ground.
This is not a period of expansion, but (I think) a chaos built on an idea of ever growing prosperity and power which has vanished. The system is built on a reality that no longer exists. It could fund and pursue these projects in relative quiet in a time of plenty, but that is replaced by a scrabble for what remains by factions within society and those who direct it.
Though it will take time to change, I think it certainly will. The trans wave has peaked, the retreat from total indulgence of this pinnacle of the mad cult of the self has begun. No one has to make the argument that normalised crime benefits only criminals, at the expense of everyone else.
The resentment agenda of critical theory is simply a means of dissolving society into antagonistic factions, which is also one function of mass immigration. Whilst I do not expect a popular awakening on this issue, the downstream effects are indistinguishable from insanity.
It is becoming impossible to justify the politics of national suicide and not seem deranged. If the power of public belief were not important, our liberal elite would not have begun with a system to shape and direct it. I think this whole informational system of control is suffering a crisis which is terminal, and which killed the Soviet Union. It is haemorrhaging belief, and it is defended by shrieks and voodoo curses.
My view is that it is important to ask seriously what should replace it. That time is not now but it may be nearer than I think, because the pace of change may exceed that of information in some unpredictable inflection point. It's happening all right, but what "it" is, no one can say. For now.
Hemorrhaging belief: you are suggesting that my worry , indoctrination of the schools, will loose out to people’s simple observations of decay and the practical consequences of economic decline. Ya, ok, running parallel to the jingoistic indoctrination is a stark contrast of chaos. That was the case in Soviet times: a laughable contrast between the rhetoric and reality was the core of culture.
Immigration is a particular bugaboo of mine. I am in close contact with scads of new Canadians, international students working on student visas and they are increasingly aware of the rip-off Canada has sold them. Our post secondary school hustle is an expensive extortion scheme, pay to play in exchange for citizenship. The competition for jobs is fierce so many people are let in and the natives are just realizing that these newbies are going to get the best jobs, they are highly motivated and educated.
You ask what will replace the phantasm , hum, goodness me, I would guess a war of all against all, not between countries but within countries.
One aspect, the trans cult, is rapidly losing ground. This matters, as it was the spearhead of fantasy projected as personal and political power.
It is important to note that the factions of power and those of identity to dissipate organised opposition are fighting among themselves. The general purpose and direction has been lost. It is a moment of chaos which will intensify, and the most important thing to do is not to go mad as well.
The insane policy platform has given preference to anyone but the natives. This is akin to an inverse apartheid. Normal people notice this, too. It is ruining their lives.
I think political power in liberal government is an intentionally coordinated performance. This spectacle was maintained to substitute for the overt use of force.
When overt force follows legal prohibition of liberties, as it will, there will be no residual legitimacy left in the system of government. What that means is open tyranny. Yet with years of diversity policies, and a population at least doubtful over lockdown and rapid decline in the standard of living, the state will simply make obvious the argument that it is the enemy of the people. How long can it maintain that position? The police and militaries are not those of the 90s. It has been a dramatic decline since then, when people took rising prosperity for granted.
I do not think the liberal states have the technical expertise nor the personnel to police a total authoritarianism. This is not a plan, it is panic.
Panic not a plan. I think your insights are fantastic. I am learning much.
I think you’re right that the illiberal left will turn to tyranny and soon. Families will be divided, friends will turn against each other, dissent will be outlawed. It will become kinetic.
I own a security guard company in Toronto. (Yes rentier class incarnate.) The police are in fact, neutered. We do the security at all the big malls in Toronto, gang activity is rampant and police take hours to arrive. Really policing is defunct.
I don’t think this chaos is on purpose It is a byproduct. The throne is empty.
The Net Zero movement is losing traction too. Climate change cannot be halted by human action. Geoengineering can only make things worse. The green new deal is a scam, and the actions of its true believers in Germany are destroying it. Most people don't know that yet, but you cannot hide the vertiginous decline of the former industrial powerhouse of Europe.
A further point about the Good Guys is that the destruction and humiliation of Germany has been a central plank of UK/US policy for over a century. It seems likely that it was the UK or the US who destroyed their Nordstream pipelines. Shocking to many who think of the West as a unitary alliance with a common purpose, but simply another example of the destructive endgame of imperial-factional power.
Thanks again for producing something that is thought provoking and somehow reassuring. After reading your stuff I always feel more grounded. Please continue.
Oh thank you Gary. The point I hope to make is that reality is real, and that your life has value beyond these consolations - which foster dependence and do not console.
I think one of the effects of collapse is the imposition of reality. It is the cure to it all. Men are not in fact women. Mass immigration has an effect on culture. The easy virtues of a consumerist society, including the sale of identities, are too easy and therefore not vitruous.
Real life is the ultimate cleanser.
Got people stocked in every shade, must be doing well with trade.
Stamped, addressed, in odd fatality, that evens out their personality.
With profit potential marked by a sign, I can recognize some of the production line,
No bite at all in labor bondage, just wrinkled wrappers or human bandage...
The Grand Parade of Lifeless Packaging
When all this revolution is over, he sits down on a highly polished floor while his dizziness fades away. It is an empty modern hallway and the dreamdoll saleslady sits at the reception desk. Without prompting she goes into her rap: "This is the Grand Parade of Lifeless Packaging, those you are about to see are all in for servicing, except for a small quantity of our new product, in the second gallery. It is all the stock required to cover the existing arrangements of the enterprise. Different batches are distributed to area operators, and there are plenty of opportunities for the large investor. They stretch from the costly care-conditioned to the most reasonable mal-nutritioned. We find here that everyone's looks become them. Except for the low market mal-nutritioned, each is provided with a guarantee for a successful birth and trouble free infancy. There is however only a small amount of variable choice potential - not too far from the mean differential. You see, the roof has predetermined the limits of action of any group of packages, but individuals may move off the path if their diversions are counter-balanced by others."
"It's the last great adventure left to mankind"
- Screams a drooping lady
offering her dream dolls at less than extortionate prices,
and as the notes and coins are taken out
I'm taken in, to the factory floor.
for the Grand Parade of Lifeless Packaging
- All ready to use
the Grand Parade of Lifeless Packaging
- I just need a fuse.
Got people stocked in every shade,
Must be doing well with trade.
Stamped, addressed, in odd fatality.
That evens out their personality.
With profit potential marked by a sign,
I can recognize some of the production line,
No bite at all in labor bondage,
Just wrinkled wrappers or human bandage.
Grand Parade of Lifeless Packaging
- All ready to use
it's the Grand Parade of Lifeless Packaging
- I just need a fuse.
As he wanders along the line of packages, Rael notices a familiarity in some of their faces. He finally comes upon some of the members of his old gang and worries about his own safety. Running out through the factory floor, he catches sight of his brother John with a number 9 stamped on his forehead.
The hall runs like clockwork
Their hands mark out the time;
Empty in their fullness
Like a frozen pantomime.
Everyone's a sales representative
Wearing slogans in their shrine.
Dishing out fail safe superlative,
Brother John is No. 9.
it's the Grand Parade of Lifeless Packaging
- All ready to use
it's the Grand Parade of Lifeless Packaging
- I just need a fuse.
The decor on the ceiling
has planned out their future day
I see no sign of free will,
so I guess I have to pay,
pay my way,
for the Grand Parade
it's the Grand Parade of Lifeless Packaging
- All ready to use
it's the Grand Parade of Lifeless Packaging
- I just need a fuse.
Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: Anthony Banks / Michael Rutherford / Peter Gabriel / Phil Collins / Steve Hackett
The Grand Parade Of Lifeless Packaging lyrics © Concord Music Publishing LLC, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
The Grand Parade of Lifeless Packaging from the 1974 album, The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway by Genesis
Thanks for a Point of View. Do you hail from the Midlands?
https://blakearchive.org/images/esxiii.1.1.sp.100.jpg
It would be an interesting exercise to look at history through your synthetic identities lens. Reading commentary from earlier periods typically shows nothing is really new, human nature is pretty constant, and I suspect we would find analogous synthetic identities regardless of era.
The big deal here is the impact of mass communication. Much of this was just impossible beforehand - certainly at scale.
Of course there have been “copefakes” before smartphones, but the difference in degree is notable I’d say.
The medium is the massage.
Lole well played sir
Great read.
More to chew on.
Glad I could help BG!
Wonderful. No doubt Leopold Kohr would have enjoyed your paragraph on Conservatism.
Thoroughly enjoyed this, Frank. Full of the true true. Those Restoration Bureau guys are all over shit.
I love the Restoration Bureau stuff. Tomorrow’s memes, today.
A Banger. Keep on trucking.
You might like https://ukresponse.substack.com/p/fight-club, or even https://ukresponse.substack.com/p/reservoirs-of-meaning
I hope our author is right and reality is set to make a comeback, but, school is indoctrinating our children in the ways of the liberal Utopianism. I worry that as long as they - it, the regime- control the means of cultural production, being school, MSM, television and the like, they have the high ground.
This is not a period of expansion, but (I think) a chaos built on an idea of ever growing prosperity and power which has vanished. The system is built on a reality that no longer exists. It could fund and pursue these projects in relative quiet in a time of plenty, but that is replaced by a scrabble for what remains by factions within society and those who direct it.
Though it will take time to change, I think it certainly will. The trans wave has peaked, the retreat from total indulgence of this pinnacle of the mad cult of the self has begun. No one has to make the argument that normalised crime benefits only criminals, at the expense of everyone else.
The resentment agenda of critical theory is simply a means of dissolving society into antagonistic factions, which is also one function of mass immigration. Whilst I do not expect a popular awakening on this issue, the downstream effects are indistinguishable from insanity.
It is becoming impossible to justify the politics of national suicide and not seem deranged. If the power of public belief were not important, our liberal elite would not have begun with a system to shape and direct it. I think this whole informational system of control is suffering a crisis which is terminal, and which killed the Soviet Union. It is haemorrhaging belief, and it is defended by shrieks and voodoo curses.
My view is that it is important to ask seriously what should replace it. That time is not now but it may be nearer than I think, because the pace of change may exceed that of information in some unpredictable inflection point. It's happening all right, but what "it" is, no one can say. For now.
Thank you for that.
Hemorrhaging belief: you are suggesting that my worry , indoctrination of the schools, will loose out to people’s simple observations of decay and the practical consequences of economic decline. Ya, ok, running parallel to the jingoistic indoctrination is a stark contrast of chaos. That was the case in Soviet times: a laughable contrast between the rhetoric and reality was the core of culture.
Immigration is a particular bugaboo of mine. I am in close contact with scads of new Canadians, international students working on student visas and they are increasingly aware of the rip-off Canada has sold them. Our post secondary school hustle is an expensive extortion scheme, pay to play in exchange for citizenship. The competition for jobs is fierce so many people are let in and the natives are just realizing that these newbies are going to get the best jobs, they are highly motivated and educated.
You ask what will replace the phantasm , hum, goodness me, I would guess a war of all against all, not between countries but within countries.
One aspect, the trans cult, is rapidly losing ground. This matters, as it was the spearhead of fantasy projected as personal and political power.
It is important to note that the factions of power and those of identity to dissipate organised opposition are fighting among themselves. The general purpose and direction has been lost. It is a moment of chaos which will intensify, and the most important thing to do is not to go mad as well.
The insane policy platform has given preference to anyone but the natives. This is akin to an inverse apartheid. Normal people notice this, too. It is ruining their lives.
I think political power in liberal government is an intentionally coordinated performance. This spectacle was maintained to substitute for the overt use of force.
When overt force follows legal prohibition of liberties, as it will, there will be no residual legitimacy left in the system of government. What that means is open tyranny. Yet with years of diversity policies, and a population at least doubtful over lockdown and rapid decline in the standard of living, the state will simply make obvious the argument that it is the enemy of the people. How long can it maintain that position? The police and militaries are not those of the 90s. It has been a dramatic decline since then, when people took rising prosperity for granted.
I do not think the liberal states have the technical expertise nor the personnel to police a total authoritarianism. This is not a plan, it is panic.
Panic not a plan. I think your insights are fantastic. I am learning much.
I think you’re right that the illiberal left will turn to tyranny and soon. Families will be divided, friends will turn against each other, dissent will be outlawed. It will become kinetic.
I own a security guard company in Toronto. (Yes rentier class incarnate.) The police are in fact, neutered. We do the security at all the big malls in Toronto, gang activity is rampant and police take hours to arrive. Really policing is defunct.
I don’t think this chaos is on purpose It is a byproduct. The throne is empty.
The future: A Hard scrabble competition based on greed, Toronto is already there or thereabouts.
The Net Zero movement is losing traction too. Climate change cannot be halted by human action. Geoengineering can only make things worse. The green new deal is a scam, and the actions of its true believers in Germany are destroying it. Most people don't know that yet, but you cannot hide the vertiginous decline of the former industrial powerhouse of Europe.
A further point about the Good Guys is that the destruction and humiliation of Germany has been a central plank of UK/US policy for over a century. It seems likely that it was the UK or the US who destroyed their Nordstream pipelines. Shocking to many who think of the West as a unitary alliance with a common purpose, but simply another example of the destructive endgame of imperial-factional power.
Thank you for taking the time on these replies. Much to learn.