"The masses have never thirsted after truth. They turn aside from evidence that is not to their taste, preferring to deify error. Whoever can supply them with illusions is easily their master; whoever attempts to destroy their illusions is always their victim."
- Gustave Le Bon, The Crowd: Study of the Popular Mind
Of all the challenges facing our culture, the fact that humans use social sorting mechanisms to solve physical world problems looms as perhaps the greatest. This Frankly is a reflection on the possibility of sharing a socially unpalatable message to a large percentage of citizens and leaders. Our vertical and horizontal social infrastructure isn’t built to process, share and address challenges of this magnitude - but instead to ignore, water down, and mitigate. Will the quiet part be spread out loud to large amounts of humans as The Great Simplification becomes more obvious? Or will the quiet part be socially squashed a la George Orwell? Of course I have particular interest in this question, and its resolution. Time is moving very fast…
Nate, please expand further upon your substack pieces. I know you concentrate on videos and podcasts, and they are excellent, but the written word goes far ..
to your own point and endeavor.
Nate- Have you ever read A Canticle for Leibowitz? The term Great Simplification plays a role. I think it is a very good novel but a profound book. It gets at the dynamics of our civilization and its seemingly inevitable drive to a technological will to power in illuminating ways. I also believe it offers in its odd ending a hint of a way forward. Anyway, thank you for your work. -Jack