Summary: Every society has rationality tokens. Some have many; some few. In some they are held by people who become leaders of their society; in some they’re held by outcasts. As a nation evolves, its rationality tokens pass into new hands. Here we look at America, seeking to find their new holders.
The disk was made of an undistinguished alloy of common metals, a gray monotone. It looked like a Boston subway token, save for two words inlaid in silver. The words “Rationality Token” flashed against the dull metal background.
{Nathan explained …} “Years ago, a friend of mine noticed an odd thing about meetings with groups of bureaucrats. Only one bureaucrat in the room would have something rational and intelligent to say about the question under discussion; the rest would answer either with a magician’s verbal handwaving, with statements that were internally inconsistent, or with statements that had no apparent connection to the topic.
“Oddly, for each question, a different bureaucrat gave the rational response. It seemed as though a law of nature prevented more than one bureaucrat from being rational at a time. And you could never predict which bureaucrat could answer a particular question rationally. My friend developed a theory: a roomful of bureaucrats shares a single rationality token. Only the one holding the token can act intelligently. The bureaucrats pass the token around secretly during the meeting.”
— from Marc Stiegler’s David’s Sling (1988) — free e-book here
The bad news
We can easily ignore the rapid decay of the American polity, as it will affect most people only when too late for reform. The media make this easier by distracting us with accounts of political class’ gibbering and capering, while in the shadows our leaders erase away our civil liberties. The news media do this because we prefer not to know. We cover our eyes to avoid seeing what we have become.
The good news
The good news: as the news media decays into irrelevance, the rationality token passes to new sources of information and insight. Such as Reason magazine, Tom Engelhardt’s TomDispatch, and Glenn Greenwald’s column at Salon. These become the key places to look for those who seek to understand the new era now evolving. Lately Greenwald and his guest authors have been especially hot, showing us the face of the new America now under construction. Our legacy to our children.
- “The real criminals in the Tarek Mehanna case“, Glenn Greenwald, 13 April 2012 — The government attacks a remaining scrap from the Bill of Rights: freedom of speech. It must go to make them more secure from us.
- “Making politicians look bad: ‘A fireable offense’ “, Charles Davis (journalist, see his website), 13 April 2012 — An expose about the workings of our court stenographers (pretending to be journalists), and their jealousy of actual journalists.
- “Drone activist denied visa“, Murtaza Hussain (Toronto-based writer; see his website), 13 April 2012 — The government defends our borders to keep out anti-government views. The truth wants to be free, but not if President Obama and his officials have their way.
- “Feds ready whistleblower trial“, Jesselyn Radack (director of the Government Accountability Project; author of TRAITOR), 13 April 2012 — President Obama fulfills his promise to change the government, inflicting the full weight of government power on those who dare tell Americans the truth about its deeds — going to extremes that would have embarrassed Nixon.
- “Personalizing civil liberties abuses“, Glenn Greenwald, 16 April 2012 — The human face of our “justice” system’s abuses.
- “Attacks on RT and Assange reveal much about the critics“, Glenn Greenwald, 18 April 2012 — Our cout stenographers mock Assange, his new TV news show, and the new media that broadcast it. In doing so they demonstrate their decayed condition, their role as servile courtiers for our ruling elites, and the necessity of using these new sources.
A warning from the past about Mother Nature’s harsh justice
“Every nation gets the government it deserves.”
— Joseph de Maistre, from letter 76 dated 27 August 1811, published in Lettres et Opuscules
For more information: posts about new news media
- A guide to sources of geopolitical insight on the Internet, 6 December 2008
- The future, always in motion and therefore difficult to see, 18 March 2009 — About Clay Shirkey’s analysis.
- A new news media emerges for our new world, unseen and unexpected, 9 July 2009
- The Raymond Davis incident shows that we’re often ignorant because we rely on the US news media. There is a solution., 18 February 2011