Tela Network

Author name and surname(s), ((c.) original date(s)) 'Title of work', in "Container or publication" (commentary by [name]; translation by [name]; Issue; Edition, Year of edition), Book / Chapter / Page numbers / (Timestamp). [link] - - - This citation format addresses: 1. Who said this? 2. When? 3. Where (media)? - Priorities: 1. Authorship. 2. Historical context. 3. Verifiability: Information to access the source or to aid in identifying it if the original became unavailable. - Assumptions: 1. English-speaking audience. 2. Can't use italics. - Examples: Niccolò Machiavelli, (c. 1517), 'Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livius', (translated by Ninian Hill Thomson; 1883), Book I, Chapter IX, 41-45. https://archive.org/details/cu31924030435659 - Note: Not all elements are required. Modify if doing so clarifies authorship, historical context, or verifiability.

" Si uno recorre la línea de pensamiento que va de Maquiavelo a Weber, una línea que no es acumulativa ni carece de momentos de retroceso, observará cómo se atanza un modo de entender la política con una lógica propia que la distingue de otras actividades humanas con las que antes estaba demasiado vinculada e incluso confundida. La política moderna se emancipa de la religión, se diferencia de la moral, reclama una validez distinta de la de la ciencia, pugna porque la economía no la condicione demasiado. La grandeza de estos pensadores, su aportación a la democracia (pese a que algunos eran poco o nada demócratas) consistió en haber liberado a la política de un seno religioso-moral que impedía su afirmación como tal, que la sometía a dictados ajenos en una amalgama de constricciones de diverso tipo. " - Daniel Innerarity, (2025), 'La condición política: un elogio de Maquiavelo', in "Revista de Occidente" (Issue 535, December 2025) p. 127

" [Scott] Adams knew, deep in his bones, that he was cleverer than other people. God always punishes this impulse, especially in nerds. His usual strategy is straightforward enough: let them reach the advanced physics classes, where there will always be someone smarter than them, then beat them on the head with their own intellectual inferiority so many times that they cry uncle and admit they’re nothing special. For Adams, God took a more creative and – dare I say, crueler – route. He created him only-slightly-above-average at everything _except_ for a world-historical, Mozart-tier, absolutely Leonardo-level skill at making silly comics about hating work. ... Every child is hypomanic, convinced of their own specialness. Even most teenagers still suspect that, if everything went right, they could change the world. It's not just nerds. Everyone has to crash into reality. " https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/the-dilbert-afterlife

Chat Excerpt: --- 20th century - mass media, mass gov fiat currency, advantage hard-left. The Nazis count as surprisingly hard-left, economically speaking. 21st century - post drones & blockchain, looking like it will be advantage hard-right. these days, large mass of “the people” == big easy target for deniable remote weapons average man is no longer a threat (as he was in 20th century). Both nazi and marxist rely on gathering together average man to achieve power. Therefore in 21st century neither strategy will work. The flavour might be used for rhetorical purposes. Major issue is: relatively few people will have power, and popular discontent won't have much effect except for stochastic terrorism. So more like blade runner 2049. I mention drones because they would seem in future to be an advantage for the few as opposed to the many. I'm basically betting on a trend line of "average man will matter even less in future than he does now". ---

Borges: Here's Mark Carney's speech from Davos yesterday. He basically lays out what I think the new world order is going to look like (although quite an idealised version of it). https://youtu.be/btqHDhO4h10?si=-Anc4WkOHt66G7_w StJohn: So new world order would be: a handful of hegemons with monopoly structures, and a loose highly layered set of networks among middle-tier countries... Definitely a change in the water. To say "Let us accept the new reality" at the World Economic Forum - that probably annoyed a number of people who would prefer not to think about the change in reality. I view progressive capitalism, so to speak, as the Catholicism of our time. It's the default way of thinking. So Mark Carney struck me as a good Catholic, but one who is facing a great change and has become highly advanced and pragmatic. And as he was describing these multilateral deals, notably not mentioning the US, it reminded me of Richelieu making his alliance with the Muslim Turks.