From: Freespeak (f-prime@activist.com)
Date: Thu Mar 19 1998 - 15:06:29 MST
[Note: Earlier parts of the debate -- including the "peme rules"
-- can be found at <http://www.buildfreedom.com/tl/tl075.htm>,
which will be periodically updated.]
Phobocrat or Terrocrat?
-----------------------
At 11:31 PM 3/18/98 -0500, Daniel Fabulich
<daniel.fabulich@yale.edu> wrote:
>
>Just as a thought, perhaps phobocrat would be
>a better term than terrocrat. When I first read
>that term, I had assumed that it was used in
>reference to UN leaders or other self-proclaimed
>governors of the earth. (That is, a terracrat.)
>Phobocrat is somewhat clearer as the meaning of
>the greek stem "phobos" is fairly well known to
>many english speakers.
>
This could turn out to be a great suggestion!
"Phobocrat" has the advantage that we don't have
to explain it. It has a pleasant ring to it too!
Please send me your feedback. Do you think
"phobocrat" has the potential to catch on and
become a powerful meme?
In any case, I suggest we add "phobocrat" to the
Freespeak lexicon and start using it. We can use
both "terrocrat" and "phobocrat" and see which
becomes the more powerful meme.
"When *I* use a word," Humpty Dumpty said, in a rather scornful tone,
"it means just what I choose it to mean -- neither more nor less."
"The question is," said Alice, "whether you *can* make words mean so
many different things."
"The question is," said Humpty Dumpty, "***which is to be master --
that's all***." [***emphasis added]
-- Lewis Carroll, 'Through the Looking-Glass'
Words, Sticks, and Stones
-------------------------
At 12:32 AM 3/18/98 -0700, dashadonos@yahoo.com wrote:
>
>Words don't hurt people, people hurt people.
>
Consider a world in which people routinely use
sticks to hurt others. Those with the biggest
sticks always win; those with the small sticks
always lose. How would you like to have a big
stick?
Now consider a world in which people routinely
use words as weapons to hurt others. Certain
bullies have powerful words that put their victims
in a weak position and make it easy for the bullies
to run all over the victims.
Have you ever heard of a phobocrat "judge"
pronouncing a "sentence" on a victim, and the
victim getting hurt as a result?
The "Freedom is Indivisible" Peme
---------------------------------
"Language creates spooks that get into our heads and hypnotize us."
-- Robert Anton Wilson , Introduction to 'The Tree of Lies'
(by Christopher S. Hyatt. Ph.D.)
At 09:07 AM 3/17/98 +0200, I-AFD_2@anarch.free.de
(Nico MYOWNA) wrote:
>
<snip>
>
>Our freedom *is* more or less limited to the system(s).
>As long as I have to defence my sovereignity, to think
>about the thinking of politicans and bureaucrats to
>disperse their returns [their "profit" from practicing
>coercion] from me, to find the hole in their system
>to operate outside their systems and to accept their
>capitalistic rules I'm *not* full sovereign. My
>sovereignity is bound to my ability to escape; and
>I have to escape from their systems.
>
<snip>
>
>We have to use our minds to expand in a way that could
>snowballs. We could activate the minds of others into
>becoming more potent freedom weapons. We have to do it
>in this way because we are *only* full sovereign in a
>world of freedom and sovereign individuals.
>
Some freedom lovers say that "freedom is indivisible,"
meaning that for any one of us to be free, everyone has
to be free. The logical extreme is that if there's just
one unfree person on earth, then everyone else is also
unfree. Suppose everyone were free. If I then locked
up just one person, suddently everyone else on earth
would be unfree.
But, what if I'm really free and sovereign *by nature,*
irrespective of the freedom and sovereignty of others?
What if I can discover that I'm free and sovereign by
nature -- and then, develop my knowledge, wits, and
resources to the point that, for most practical purposes,
I can live as a free sovereign -- irrespective of the
"unfree" masses around me (who haven't yet discovered
they're free and sovereign)?
A consequence of being subjected to the "freedom is
indivisible" peme can be that I waste much of my life
and resources trying to "change the system" -- see
Harry Browne's 'How I Found Freedom,' available from
<http://www.bookzone.com/bookzone/10001105.html>.
See also <http://www.buildfreedom.com/tl/ffp05.htm>.
On the other hand, individuals are different and
unique and live in different circumstances. For some,
the most appropriate things to do are "educating others,"
"changing the system," etc. Division of labor. For
many of these people, it may be appropriate to operate
according to the "freedom is indivisible" peme. As
free as am, I certainly would enjoy even more freedom
at less risk, were it not for "the political system."
But for those of us for whom it's more appropriate to
free ourselves, would the "freedom is indivisible" peme
be an example of using our own words to hurt ourselves?
Could it be that if enough of us were to sufficiently
free ourselves so we become, for practical purposes,
"uncoerceable" by the phobocrats, their bogus
"politcal systems" would be widely seen for what
they are and will collapse?
The "Construction of Systematic Thought"
----------------------------------------
At 10:29 AM 3/17/98 -0500, Milton Dawes
<102362.1465@compuserve.com> wrote:
>
>And then we have survival of the fittest? The power
>of the strongest, over the less strong? Or are you
>saying humans will then live in peace and harmony
>with each other according to their gene program?
>The political power of the former Soviet Union is
>now diminished. The political power of the former
>Yugoslavia rulers are now over. What do we find in
their places?
>
According to Robert Pirsig in 'Zen and the Art of
Motorcycle Maintenance': "But to tear down a factory
or to revolt against a government or to avoid repairs
of a motorcycle because it is a system is to attack
effects rather than causes; and as long as the attack
is upon effects only, no change is possible. The true
system, the real system, is our present *construction
of systematic thought* itself, *rationality* itself.
And if a factory is torn down but the rationality which
produced it is left standing, then that rationality will
simply produce another factory. If a revolution destroys
a systematic government, but the systematic patterns of
thought that produced that government are left intact,
then those patterns will repeat themselves in the
succeeding government..." [emphasis added]
What if the basic "construction of systematic thought,"
the basic "rationality," consists of deep pemes? If
so, then in order to induce people to change the most
fundamental beliefs that really count, might it not be
necessary that we persuade them to dump some of their
deep pemes?
It's unlikely that any significant number of people
in the former "Soviet Union" (so-called) dumped any
of their deep pemes. So, with minor differences,
they just recreated their "political systems" as
suggested by Robert Pirsig.
The Twilight of the Phobocrats
------------------------------
At 03:45 PM 3/19/98 EST, Ultrawoman <Ultrawoman@aol.com> wrote:
>
>In a message dated 3/12/98 11:18:53 AM, Frederick Mann wrote:
>
>>As far as I know, there are only about a dozen Deep
>>Anarchists in the world. Most of them are subscribers
>>to the Advanced Freedom Solutions list. To subscribe:
>><mailto:afs-request@maillist.dundee.net> with SUBSCRIBE
>>in the message body. One of the best ways to increase
>>the number of Deep Anarchists might be to publish a
>>series of science-fiction books on the topic.
>
>Have you thought of writing a book on your experiences
>in the "military"? I enjoyed reading about them in the
>Terra Libra reports and hearing about them on the Terra
>Libra Houston seminar tapes. If I enjoyed these stories,
>I am sure a wider audience would enjoy them as well.
What do you think of the "Phobocrat Series?" We probably
have enough material to produce 5 or 10 science-fiction
novels. If we can find a competent novelist, I would
gladly assist. Are you or anyone interested in finding
us a novelist?
(For a taste of my "military" experiences, see
'#TL05B: FREEDOM STEPS' -- Step #2 -- at
-- <http://www.buildfreedom.com/tl/tl05b.htm>.)
Frederick Mann
------------------------------------------------------------------------
"The [one] who knows what freedom is will find a way to be free."
-- Robert LeFevre
"We are free not because we claim freedom, but because we practice it."
-- William Faulkner
"The most potent weapon of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed."
-- Steve Biko
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