I legitimately thought I was about to publish something else today, alas we find ourselves here.
Merely 3 days ago small riots broke out in France after a youngster got shot by the police and died, as things go in our networked (effects) era, the sentiment went viral, faster than an influenza virus of pandemic potential. At this moment this is the superficial tally of the damage.
1900 burning cars
500 burning buildings of state and local institutions
250 police officers injured
900 arrested
40,000 police officers engaged
Special Forces deployed
That list will pale in comparison with the actual number when the dust settles, and both direct and indirect economic damage is calculated. Social media is inundated with copious amounts of videos, this is merely a small selection of the events that transpired the last 3 days, not the point in this substack right now.
A pertinent quote from the second substack here.
A meme is an idea, behavior, or style that spreads by means of imitation from person to person within a culture and often carries symbolic meaning representing a particular phenomenon or theme.[4] A meme acts as a unit for carrying cultural ideas, symbols, or practices, that can be transmitted from one mind to another through writing, speech, gestures, rituals, or other imitable phenomena with a mimicked theme. Supporters of the concept regard memes as cultural analogs to genes in that they self-replicate, mutate, and respond to selective pressures.[5]
Memes as they were originally described are quite literally the genes of culture. Some genes have an evolutionary advantage over others, and some are instrumental in the survival of themselves and the species. Revolt is one of these memes, and it is one of the most contagious memes in human history, easily verifiable and trackable merely by using some search service.
Such a contagious meme, under the powerful effect of networks, spreads far, fast, and easily. At this point, given the current dynamics such as inflation, the potential scarcity of goods, sickness, and everything else, it will โinfectโ and spread with or without effort or disruption.
If you want to understand memes and how they affect you, everyone else, and human behavior, just search for Rene Girard or Mimetic Theory and start reading. Delving into these subjects will help you tremendously, especially your perspective and how you see the world.
Do not participate in any of these events, no matter how much your brain tells you that you need to. I know it seems contradictory, but now is not the time, and this isnโt how we do it. You are free to do whatever you wish, so if you really want, do it.
I rather not be sincerely arrogant, but one of my seminal pieces that I would advise people to read and delve deeper into the subject is my Observations on Hybrid Warfare, it is really pertinent that most people start to understand the new rules of warfare we live in. It is unrestricted, without borders, and sometimes even lacking clear allegiance too.
France is burning, the chaos is uncontrollable, andโฆ that is the entire point. On one hand, you get chaos, on the other you get a portion of your population open to whatever restrictive measure you need to introduce to โput this unrest into placeโ, and as we all witnessed in recent years, a little bit of pressure, amplification of fear, sprinkle emotionally manipulative language and imaging, and you can get away with some horrendous, constitutionally illegal policies. This is precisely what the EU autocrats need, and decisively a longer-term goal.
The political ramifications of these events will reshape France and Europeโs politics for years to come. All sides will exploit these events and what else is coming our way to further their own little or big agendas.
With enough chaos, you can reintroduce many of the emergency powers, since they were covertly retrofitted into many levels of legislation, you can also centralize ID systems and spread your surveillance and reconnaissance systems as far and as wide as โnecessary to maintain peaceโ. This may also benefit adversaries of France or the EU since as I wrote a few times, revolt is one of the most contagious memes in human psychology. You could argue it is hard-coded in our genes (from genes to memes hehe).
A common intellectual indulgence many people adhere to is the analysis of modern media from a semiotics perspective. Meaning finding secondary, tertiary, or hidden meaning in pop culture, predictive programming being the preferred flavor of many. While I donโt adhere to this type of analysis, I do see a degree of validity towards it, literature has that talent of sometimes predicting events. I do not recall the exact piece of popular culture, but I do remember one of these covert CIA recruiting shows, a spy thriller made for TV had a season, or episodes where a rogue spy, using the resources its nation gave him manipulated locals to kill an immigrant adolescent, and using hybrid war tactics destabilized the entire country and almost threw Europe into civil war.
As usually goes with these things, a gray area is absent of existence, the good guys win, the bad (Russian, heh) guy lost, and business returns to its usual.
So what is the point of bringing the event in question, the substacks about memes, resolve, and hybrid war, and writing a few paragraphs exploring these ? The introduction of a concept I have worked on for a few years now, and it was mildly introduced some time ago leaving a lot for interpretation but felt now is the time for people to start understanding and perhaps adopting whichever part you find useful. But as a matter of fact, to understand where the world has been, and where we are going, you need to analyze everything from the Nova Swan lens.
You can easily understand what the Nova Swan is by merely reading the image. It is an event that dwarfs, but most often uses a Black Swan to its own end.
Pay attention the what I wrote in my observations on Hybrid War and pay attention to the visualization of the Nova Swan above. If you take this concept โto heartโ in a metaphorical sense, a lot of events will make a lot more sense. Including the current unrest in France, especially all the chaos and unrest to come. After all, you can escape the natural laws of entropy, and chaos is nothing more than complexity you are not able to understand at that point in time.
I will be writing an entire encompassing substack to properly (formally ?) introduce the concept above, but the image already gives you all the tools you need if you wish to go this path on your own.
If you chose to support this work in any form, thank you !
I have avoided covering certain topics because even though they generate clicks, likes, engagement, can be monetarily rewarding, I feel there is too much negative information around, people need the (mental) tools to address that first, before I ever think of just dumping depressive information "often".
In case you wondered, I am recovering from whatever I had. Out of pocket visits here are absurdly expensive, so it took longer to recover.
Have a great weekend everyone.
It really does feel like the calm of the storm before โsomething wicked this way comes.โ