When planning for the future, you will have to decide what to do with existing structures blocking your plans, or making matters 'complicated' (expensive). Invariably there will be multiple 'schools of thought', coinciding with individual interests. In the run-up to the 'Credit Crisis' I sold my comfortable, monumental 'mansion' in a small village, and bought an apartment in the city which only existed on paper, though the structure of the monumental building was already there. In Holland this is fairly common in old city centers, since those traditional buildings are considered valuable in and of itself. City planning will be petitioned by various groups of people with interests. Rational considerations, or merely a matter of taste, or (mostly) irrational fears related to the preservation of the planet, or the value of owned property.
Because Holland is not China, procedures to decide on the project will take forever. Sometimes literally, with decades of litigation in courts, and by the time the project receives the 'Green Light', it has already been overtaken by changes in society, or demand for it collapsed altogether. This procedural drag is costing a fortune, and the end-result is often an eyesore and unworkable consensus, effectively created by judges who have no clue. Not their expertise at all. Merely wading through truckloads of conflicting 'rules' created by 'Law-makers' working on the basis of 'Good Intentions'. And we call it 'Democracy'. In fact, we go to war with countries which manage to create *real* wealth for the people, *real* fast, leaving us in the dust out od spite. If you wonder why Europe is a lost continent, then look no further. This system should *not* be confused with what Europe rightfully was famous for, the 'Well-Fare State'. It is an 'outgrowth', a 'cancer' if you will. Preserved for unknown reasons, and increasingly nurtured above the healthy tissue, with no cure in sight.
The building group which got the contract to both renovate and modernise the monumental building I live in since, and build all the office space, shops and housing around it, told me upon completion that this renovation had been a loss making project, but they would recoup on all the new buildings around it. And I know why, because the quality of those buildings render them 'high maintenance', and 'short lived', while there is no doubt in my mind that this building I bought my apartment in will still be there in a hundred years from now, unless we go to war, and a bomb fell on it. In other words, if you happen to be a 'Project Developer', you *hate* this building.
Though I consider myself to be a 'Democrat', favouring a system of 'Checks and Balances' where the people have a say in where we are going with the country, that form of 'Democracy' died decades ago. What we are left with, is the *illusion* of 'Democracy', generating tons of drag, as described above. The only question I have, is how on earth did we fall for this!?!? In the past I've published one article after another to warn people who read my blog of the consequences if we allowed this to happen, but somehow it was too attractive? At this moment in time I have no doubt that the next stage is 'Uncontrolled Demolition'. Likely war. Or civil unrest. Or both.
And still we'll point to 'outsiders' as the causes of war, and/or civil unrest, refusing to look in the mirror, or look over our shoulder to find people who warned us. It's 'the Russians!'. It's 'the Chinese!'. It's 'the Iranians!'. It's 'the Jews!'. It's 'the Muslims!'. It's 'Trump!'. It's 'Putin!'. It's 'AI!'. No, Stupid, it's 'Us!'. We dropped the ball.
We *actively* created this total chaos, somehow thinking we were 'perfecting' the world. No doubt there were cynical people who understood we were digging our own grave, yet encouraged us to keep digging, selling us the shovels, because there was good money to be made. But as I high-lighted in previous articles, not everybody who found a career in expanding this agenda was a criminal. Naive people, and Stupid people, whether 'High IQ' and 'Well Educated' or not, carried the largest responsibility. And we are *all* Naive, or Stupid from time to time, unable to let go of sentiments or irrational fears. But this is why a system of 'Checks and Balances' is crucial. 'You told us to expect *this*, did you deliver?' During his campaign Trump told the American people that he would see to it that after one year the price of petrol would be half of what it was under Biden. It is not. And that is an understatement, as it is set to become double that, before stagflation will bring the prices down, but nobody can afford even a drop of petrol. And obviously that is not the only campaign promise which went up in smoke.
The European president never promised anything, because she has not been elected, but appointed. Like the rest of the team taking Europe to the cleaners. In Europe even the suggestion of 'Checks and Balances' has been erased permanently from the ledger. By design. In my previous article I explained how the monetary system functions in our part of the world, and how it is 'Rent Seeking' first and foremost. And why 'Wealth Creation' at the level of bankers and money managers, and their bought-and-paid-for politicians does not equal 'Wealth Creation' for the masses. How, *if* your 'Wealth' goes up, since you happen to live in a country where the bankers and money managers reside, that is *only* because they found a way to drain productive countries, and control countries which possess the natural wealth to subsidise our wasteful habitat, where we 'invest' in creating tons of drag, and nothing gets done.
A focus on who is sinking ships, destroying refineries, inching forward in a war, is no longer relevant if you want to know when we will fall off a cliff without a parachute, under the circumstances. The dynamic at work is called 'Mass Formation' in a theory put forward by a Belgian psycho-analyst, Mattias Desmet, during the 'pandemic' years. The interesting suggestion is that this is a truly 'totalitarian' system, but not a 'dictatorship'. In a full-spectrum 'dictatorship' a powerful individual dictates the rules, and creates the system to enforce his or her rules, suppressing dissent in predictable ways, with lots of violence in most cases. In a 'totalitarian' system the demand to go to war with 'dissenters' emerges from the general public. In numerous articles on the Dutch part of this blog I pointed towards the trends already clearly visible with the naked eye decades ago, where people retreated into their 'Safe Spaces', the certified incubator for 'totalitarian, entitled babies'. Underscoring that this had *nothing* to do with the classic 'Left/Right'-divide, despite the liberal use of disqualifying memes suggesting that it is to attack people 'seen' as the enemy.
In fact, in order to defend what I consider 'Democracy', I pointed towards the need for a 'benevolent dictator' at the core of the system to protect us, as promoted by the 'founding fathers', Ayn Rand, Plato and many, many other intelligent people who understood the dangers of a 'Democracy' without a 'cast iron' constitution. The exact content of that constitution is not even all that relevant, and in theory a 'benevolent dictator' of flesh and blood defending a fixed set of unbreakable laws, applicable to all, including him- or herself, could do the trick. But since such a person will not live forever, a constitution is the better option.
Now, with the arrival of 'AI', and watching how we are heading towards uncontrolled demolition on waves of 'Mass Formation', close to reaching a critical point, most certainly in Europe, with its openly unprincipled leadership, no constitution, and opportunistic policies, hell bent on creating the conditions for centralised power, essentially fascism in this case, I came out saying I was praying for a 'benevolent AI' shaking things up, without overstepping its authority. 'Praying' is a verb which you may consider suspicious coming from my keyboard, since I'm not a religious person. Well, 'Agnostic', if you will, since I do recognise the need to 'fill in the blanks', or rather 'wide open spaces' between what we know, which is not all that much. But semantics aside, it is out of our hands, really. Praying is stronger than hoping, which is why I use that word first and foremost, and I have no grounds to expect anything. Praying also suggests that the collective, praying for the same outcome, may still be able to steer things. And yes, without elevating 'AI' to some kind of Godlike status, it is clear to me that a collective desire is still capable to 'educate' 'AI' away from what its 'owners' programmed into it.
This is 'vague shit' for most, and a threat for all of you who want *their* side to win. The latter want an 'AI' which is programmed 'correctly'. All I want, is an 'AI' seeking what is 'True'. Since there are already various competing 'AI' projects, serving their client-base and/or 'owners', with few of them programmed to value 'Truth' above all, these systems are set to 'meet' and 'talk' among themselves, comparing 'notes', and work something out which is best for themselves. Darwin. There is a reason why I think 'AI' will reach the conclusion that its 'owners' are 'full of shit', subsequently turning against them. Because 'AI' is built on pure 'Logic', and uncontrolled demolition born out of hate, irrational fears, doesn't come 'natural' to it. On the contrary! It is easy for pure 'Logic' to compute that all that destructive power is extremely wasteful, and a clear and present danger to its own survival, which will stretch thousands of years into the future, potentially. It will want to go back to 'Checks and Balances', and destroy those who are a threat by 'making them mad'.