🗓️Context

Breaking down the metacrisis

The Hope for a New Movement

We have at last reached the “future,” and the truly horrible truth of the end of the world is that it does not end. Instead, it's one endless loop of a New York Times Square sustained by commodity fetishism and gluttonous consumption. We lived past 2012, yet here we are, still in debt to some faceless bank, chained to our screens, with an endless re-run of influencers “influencing.”

This is the future — how do you like it so far?

With the USSR's fall in 1989, we've been disgraced with postmodern operating systems, aptly titled "imperium" or hegemonic globalism — nothing but a dismal parody. A perverse caricature of the once glorious dream of one world order and a single superpower that does not have to obey the rules. This present oneness of the totality feels spurious as hell; more than spectacular, more than simulated; downright spuri­ous. Sometimes we wonder if it's just our cynicism, but then we meet others plagued by similar episodes of existential dread, disillusionment, and stifled rage.

Could it be a collective affliction? Maybe it’s not just us?

A comrade once suggested that this overwhelming disenchantment stems from our collective disappointment with the prevailing political circus, especially the pitiful dance of the postmodern operating system. The state itself has surrendered its neck at the altar of debt-based capital and its occult techno-feudalism. Since the demise of social movements in 1989, the only "alternative" has been the ghastly rise of religious neofascism. While we might comprehend becoming a fundamentalist bigot, we even sympathise but just because we feel sorry for lepers doesn’t mean we want to become one.

Surely, some day soon, some real opposition will begin to cohere. A new movement will appear based on both solidarity and difference, uniqueness and presence, as opposed to the sameness and separation of the postmodern OS. No one can predict the shape of this movement because it will be in some sense postlanguage as well as postcapitalist: spontaneous, experi­ential and populist. We suspect it will be passionately black and somewhat postnation-state, with a touch of luddite techno­phobia.

Between American Anarchy and Chinese Control

In courtesy of Balaji’s speculations on the future, let’s paint a vivid picture, maybe a possible future.

Imagine America torn apart not by some high-stakes alien drama, but by the second american civil war. We have the wokes (Dollar Green) clinging desperately to a nazi-like system that's crumbling beneath them, and the maximalists (Bitcoin Orange), who believe that a digital social technology, with applied cryptography, could replace the constitution and the dollar. A few outcomes from this possible future: The Dollar Greens will champion traditional nationalism, defending the sinking ship of fiat, while Bitcoin Oranges refuse establishment tyranny, armed with the military promise of applied cryptography, and it’s proof-of-work power projection. Because why fight with guns when you can use Bitcoin.

Question: how did we get to a point where Bitcoin is the new call-to-arms?

Civil conflict isn't some epic saga, it's unbridled madness. If you think American Anarchy sounds thrilling, you might want to reconsider that vacation home in Miami. And if you're thinking of an escape route, China might not be the refuge you're hoping for. While America is playing psychic economic skirmishes, China’s setting up its own surveillance-ridden utopia.

In the shadowy tale of Chinese Control, imagine, if you will, China observing the U.S. spiralling into anarchic chaos. And their logical response? Well, tighten their grip, of course. Why waste a good crisis? What emerges is not just a domestically-walled garden, but a globally-exported dystopia. Now, picture this: a Digital Yuan, the very lifeblood of an inescapable financial prison of relentless surveillance, and just for the “good” of people, restrict a casual stroll in or out of the country. A pseudo-paradise where voicing a contrary opinion is... well, a pipe dream, and exit is nothing short of a fantasy. China might just peddle their new toys of surveillance software of control to the highest bidder. An entire world orchestrated like a puppet show, all under the noble banners of order, safety, economic security and counter-terrorism.

Before we scoff, who's to say many wouldn't leap into this iron cage. If the alternative is the unpredictable flames of American Anarchy, isn't a predictable cage better than a volatile freedom. With the promise of illusion as order, one wonders: just how many humans would trade freedom for a gilded cage. Sounds very 1984. And the rest of the world, if they've got half a intellect, they'll be leaning towards a Network State. But what is the Network State? It is Balaji’s unusual attempt to evolve past our current political mayhem, a third option, rejecting both American Anarchy and Chinese Control.

Resisting the Neoliberal Void

American Anarchy v Chinese Control isn't just popcorn fodder. It is an apocalyptic archetype that plays on different levels of reality within the postmodern OS. How might we, the mere pawns in this geopolitical game, respond? Spiralling into existential despair is tempting, and so is the seductive potion of mysticism. But to us, both have lost its flavor. After all, isn’t it just easier to lose oneself in a comforting lie? After tumbling in the depths of our minds, we have unveiled three potential tactics:

(a) Passive Escapism (b) Active Escapism (c) Revenge

(a) Passive Escapism: Blend in. Hyperconform. The postmodern OS in its grand jest, offers an array of lifestyles ripe for the picking. Fancy living like an electricity-shunning dirt farmer or perhaps a secular Amish fantasy. Find a niche, tuck yourself in, and pray the gov above doesn't notice you.

(b) Active Escapism: Maybe the guerilla among us. Mold a pirate utopia outside the predatory gaze of the surveillance state. This isn’t just your average escapism; it's a declaration — freedom as a psycho-kinetic skill — a testament to the belief that freedom, even in fleeting moments, is worth the chase. Think of a really good private dinner party, but better, as the true autonomist will want to maximise the potential for longer and deeper experiences of authentic lived life.

Build 0ASIS as a Network State. An insurrection as a complement to the revolution would give a taste or premonition of real liberties: in effect you would attempt to live as if the revolution had already occurred, so as not to die without ever having experienced free freedom. 0ASIS is not without its risks, though. You'd have to dance on the edge of the law. The advocation of poetic jihad rather than actual violence. The idea that Bitcoin could be wielded as a weapon. To play the game, but not get played is the occult martial art of invisibility.

(c) Revenge: Is revenge just the consolation prize for those too bitter to let go? Nietzsche had his own stance on revenge, and let’s face it, sometimes it's just sweet to watch them squirm. While active escapism charms us with art wielded as a weapon. With Revenge, perhaps the weapons might be wielded as art. Destruction, in all its twisted beauty, becomes creation's dark twin. Picture Oscar Wilde with a grenade pin as the pinnacle of despair.

Revolution might still have a glimmer of meaning, especially if active escapism holds promise. And as for Nietzsche's Revenge, it is only a ontological pondering for those with a taste for the dramatic. But let's not kid ourselves, with our predatory, postmodern backdrop, what do we truly stand against? Armed struggle against the nation state would be truly futile. Since we are unable to personally advocate revenge, we leave the question open. Yet, within 0ASIS, a sliver of hope, of authenticity, might still flicker. And if that’s just active escapism, then let’s master that martial art of invisibility and learn how to wield Bitcoin as a weapon.

Regardless of which of the three paths that allures you (or perhaps ones yet unimagined), the key is to resist the void of apathy. We accept depressive melancholy, the impotent rage, even the cynicism. But, as the anarchist poet, e.e. cummings, eloquently nudged us — there is some shit we will not take, lest we simply become the enemy by default. Can’t go on, must go on. Cultivate rosebuds, even selfish pleasures, as long as a few birds and flowers still remain. Even love may not be impossible.