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Musings Report 2020-37 9-12-20 My New Book 'A Hacker's Teleology'
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For those who are new to the Musings reports: they're a glimpse into my notebook, the unfiltered swamp where I organize future themes, sort through the dozens of stories and links submitted by readers, refine my own research and start connecting dots which appear later in the blog or in my books. As always, I hope the Musings spark new appraisals and insights. Thank you for supporting the site and for inviting me into your circle of correspondents.
My New Book 'A Hacker's Teleology'
It's always interesting when a conventional financial analyst discusses the same issues I routinely address, and reaches very similar conclusions. Deutsche Bank's Jim Reid has penned a comprehensive review of the present that reads like a toned-down version of my posts: Why One Bank Thinks The World Is "On The Cusp Of A New Era Characterized By Disorder"
Reid lists eight key dynamics which he sees as self-reinforcing drivers of global disorder. The eight will likely be familiar to you.
What Reid couldn't say (for obvious reasons, given his position) is that the global economic system was unsustainable (i.e. broken) long before the pandemic revealed the fragility of this incredibly destructive and unfair arrangement--an arrangement that the vast majority of participants view as permanent.
This illusion of permanence is collapsing, and what Reid characterizes as an Age of Disorder I would call the Age of Uncertainty, because we really don't know where the disorder and unsustainability will take us, even as we know there is no way to keep the financialization-globalization-growth Titanic from sinking.
As Mark summarized in the title of our recent Salon #21 podcast, We need a fix, but nobody can fix it. All the system can do is shepherd the wealthy and powerful into the few lifeboats and distract the rest of us with a deranging circus of divisiveness and other entertainments.
The Old Normal is gone for good, and the deck is shifting ominously beneath our feet. Now is the moment to ask: what would a fairer, more sustainable system look like? How would it be better for me, humanity and the planet?
Clearly, it's time for a new arrangement that's actually sustainable on our resource-depleted planet that doesn't favor wealthy insiders.
But those gorging on inequality will never accept reforms that strip away their unearned privileges, and so the only practical way forward is a Hacker's Teleology.
What's a Hacker's Teleology? A hack is a workaround in a kludgy, broken system--a new way of connecting the dots. Teleology means the destination we end up reaching because that's where the dots lead.
This is why the title of my new book is A Hacker's Teleology: Sharing the Wealth of Our Shrinking Planet.
In this book I connect the dots of my own life experiences to show how a sustainably fair way of organizing human activity would work. In telling my story, I'm also telling our story, because we all share our limited-resources world and the same aspirations for fairness, belonging, getting ahead and a say in our future.
Those of you who read my 2015 book A Radically Beneficial World are already familiar with my proposed alternative system, one that is voluntary and self-organizing: the community labor integrated money economy (CLIME).
This is an arrangement that would actually work for all of us--and our world--because it treats everyone equally and is designed for DeGrowth, i.e. wise, frugal use of our planet's resources, rather than the current arrangement's insane goal of endless growth of consumption and inequality (and debt to fund the consumption) on a finite planet.
Those of you who've read any of my books know that "me, the writer" rarely makes an appearance. Since humans connect to personal stories far more easily than to abstract analysis, I've given many readers little to engage their interest.
My longtime friend G.F.B. was able, after repeated efforts, to get this through my thick skull, and so in this book, for the first time, my own experiences are the threads weaving the ideas together.
My hesitation was always based on the ordinariness of my life experiences. What could possibly be of interest to readers? But G.F.B. sent me a quote which made a deep impression: "I discovered that I was the world's leading expert in one thing: my experience." (Peter Schjeldahl)
This book connects the dots between the two things I'm an expert on: my experiences and the CLIME system.
The title A Hacker's Teleology came to me two decades ago, and I've been mulling the book I would write for all these years. Once I finally understood what my friend had been trying to get through my stubborn skull, I finally knew how to fulfill the promise of the title.
I've put together excerpts from each of the book's sections in a PDF which you can download for free. These are a tasting menu of the entire banquet.
I'm offering you, the supporters and patrons who have made my work possible, the digital (Kindle) edition for $6, a 33% discount, and the print edition for $15, a 25% discount, through Sunday night. Both editions are available through this link.
On Monday I'll announce the book to the general readership with a more modest public-launch discount.
Humanity desperately needs a fairer, more sustainable way of organizing human activity and my hope is this book is a small step toward that goal.
Thank you, one and all, for your steadfast encouragement and belief in the value of my work.
Highlights of the Blog
Podcasts:
Charles Hugh Smith on Intensifying Financial Repression Risks (45 min) (FRA Roundtable)
AxisOfEasy Salon #21: We need a fix, and nobody can fix it (1 hour)
posts:
Dear Jerry and James: You’re Both Wrong About New York 9/11/20
This Is How It Ends: All That Is Solid Melts Into Air 9/10/20
Inflation Is Stealth Austerity 9/9/20
Intolerance and Authoritarianism Accelerate Disunity and Collapse 9/8/20
In the Footsteps of Rome: Maybe It No Longer Matters Who's Emperor 9/7/20
Best Thing That Happened To Me This Week
Added up the page views logged by oftwominds.com and charleshughsmith.blogspot.com since launching the blog in May 2005: over 116 million. Thank you, supporters! You've made it all possible.
From Left Field
California, We Can't Go On Like This: Virus, heat, fire, blackouts. It's just another summer in the nation's most populous state.
New Insights into How COVID-19 Causes Heart Damage
How to Destroy Surveillance Capitalism (new book by Cory Doctorow)
Subprime Mortgages Fall Massively Delinquent. Taxpayers on Hook. Housing Market Splits in Two
Why Are Americans Such Lousy Writers?
New Yorkers Are Fleeing to the Suburbs: ‘The Demand Is Insane’
The Rent Eats First, Even During a Pandemic
Welcome to real Britain
Today’s Energy Predicament – A Look at Some Charts
Good sense from Gingrich on China (via Kathy G.)
Remote Work Is Killing the Hidden Trillion-Dollar Office Economy: From airlines to Starbucks, a massive part of our economy hinges on white-collar workers returning to the office
A 2-Year Stanford Study Shows the Astonishing Productivity Boost of Working From Home: The jury was out on the productivity effect of working from home. It has returned with a surprising verdict.
Millennials Spend a Large Percent of Income on Rent
Does money equal happiness? It does, but only until you earn this much -- still a substantial sum....
"I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent." Mahatma Gandhi
Thanks for reading--
charles |
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