πŸ“• Node [[2021 10 10 pp liminal]]
πŸ“„ 2021-10-10-pp-liminal.md by @forshaper

For the last part of the Proper Propaganda series, Liminal Warmth gave me Industrial Society and Its Future by Theodore Kaczynski as the article and the values and ideology of Confucianism as the view to appeal to.


Some time ago we started to work very hard to make many things the same way, so there are more things that are almost the same as each other, and to make lots and lots of those things again and again. This made a world full of boxes. We made many boxes of things until we filled the land and our minds with boxes. We found these things nice because they gave us more food and things than ever before, but it also changed some things for good. When this happened we became very many, and very big. Big things are slower, and when one part of a big thing talks to another part of a big thing, it is slower and more confusing than when one part of a small thing talks to another part of a small thing.

It used to be that you could sort of know how things worked, and how things fit together. Since you could know this, if things got very bad and many people died you could figure out how to put it all back together again. Now that we’ve made ourselves into lots and lots of boxes that are not together, no one can know how it all works any more. So we need each other to live but we do not know how and why we need each other. So we are confused.

It is very hard for many people to learn from one person, so hard that it is easier to pretend to try to learn from them than to learn from them. So when we started making lots of boxes, we started learning in the same way we make lots of boxes, too. One plan for everyone. One look for everyone. One way for everyone. So it became hard to learn, so we started to learn how to look good at trying to learn rather than learning.

So words do not mean what they used to mean, because we didn’t learn what they meant. We learned how to look smart. As we get farther and farther a part, it is easier to forget what words used to mean, since the line between who first said the word and who is using the word now is so long. It used to be that ‘peace’ meant to be together. Now it means something like pretending we don’t hit each other from time to time and that we don’t want to hurt each other from time to time.

Since we got so good at pretending, we also forgot what it means to pretend. We forgot that to pretend is to make, and that pretending only makes sense if you are going to use the pretending to make, like when you’re playing. We got stuck in the pretending, so we don’t let ourselves do what we want to do. We became so afraid of seeming like we are not what we pretend to be that we started to stop ourselves from doing anything that did not fit with what we were pretending to be.

Now more and more people live with this fear every day. Since they live with this fear, they get very angry or sad any time someone does anything that makes them realize they are pretending. They use this fear to pretend to be weak, because they have learned that being weak is an easy way to control people, and they need to control people to make sure that those people don’t stop them from being stuck in their pretending. Since we like to be together, we like to help people who need help. By pretending to need help, people get everyone else to do what they think they want.

People like this hate themselves. And because they hate themselves in the name of being together (since wanting to be together is one of the biggest wants for all of us), they try to get everyone else to hate themselves. So they take control by saying other people don’t want to help people, and because those other people do want to help people, they feel bad, and because they feel bad, they get angry, and soon the hate is moving from one person to the next.

Everyone wants to be with people, and they want to do what they want. However, because people who hate themselves use doing what you want as a sign of a bad person, they do not do what they want. Since they do not do what they want, and they do not show themselves because they are stuck pretending without making, they are stuck in a box, like all the boxes that we make. Since they are stuck in a box, they feel bad. They are in pain, but it would be even more pain to say that they are pretending, to accept that they put themselves in a box, so they say others put them in a box and try to put the pain on others that way. This happens again and again because no matter what they do, as long as they keep themselves in a box, they will never be full of life. So they end up fighting against each other in the name of being together.

Since people have forgotten what words mean, they get confused. Since they get confused, families are against each other. Since families are against each other, many people are against each other. Since many people are against each other, nations are against each other. The important thing is to be together, but people forgot this. So we need to help them be together so they know what it feels like. However, since everyone’s in their boxes, it is very hard to get them to be together. So we need to break the boxes.

We’ve tried many other ways to get people together, but the more you help them, the more they make the boxes stronger. This is why we must destroy the boxing- by destroying our way of boxing things, we will destroy the boxes that keep us a part. There is no other way to get people to remember what words mean until they can remember what it is like to be together, and because they forget what words mean, they will stay in their boxes. There is no way to get families and lots and lots of people to be together when they stay in their boxes.

So we must destroy the boxes.

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