Tela Network

This is an interesting idea mentioned recently by Balaji Srinivasan. I'll expand it here. - The shapes of current countries are partially (perhaps mostly) due to the constraints of agriculture. Single contiguous areas, in which people grew similar crops and raised similar animals, were zones in which people could move easily and share useful technologies. This often led to similar customs. - Today, in modern economies, only 1% of the population works in agriculture. Marriage customs, ethnic and cultural boundaries, and political boundaries are much less constrained by the agricultural requirements. - The hot zone of a polity is its information exchange hub. This is where all other activity is organized. - This is constrained by _timezone_. Within a single timezone, potential political / economic / cultural coordination is maximized. - It may now be much easier for a powerful polity to expand _vertically_. Source: https://youtu.be/VSVOQl-vFKk

... This imagining is another important good bestowed by historical reading, for it dispels the illusion that H.G. Wells called the "governess view" of history: They (the bad people) are doing this terrible thing to Us (the good people). The fallacy in it is to suppose that any large group acts as with one mind, clear in purpose and aware of consequences. Such a projection of the single ego upon whole masses is a form of provincialism that is encountered in most political discussions and certainly in all social prejudices: "If the President would only act ... if those people would only see reason...." A reader of history is cured of this simple-mindedness by developing a new sense—the historical sense—of how mankind in the mass behaves, neither free nor fatally pushed, and in its clearest actions mysterious even to itself. ... 'The Point and Pleasure of Reading History' Jacques Barzun

" The temporal coincidence of these two events [the Budapest Gay Pride and the Bezos-Sanchez wedding] suggests that we should mark 28 June 2025 as the day of the cyborgs’ triumph, on both ends of the political spectrum. Now, the true dialectic is - as [Antonio] Negri writes - biopolitical, and the fundamental decision is whether one intervenes to intensify one’s biological determinations or to negate them. More than ever, the political is the personal in the most material sense of the term: buckets of blood; bone shavings; connective, adipose, and epithelial tissue; and tonnes of silicone and Botox undergird both the Mar-a-Lago aesthetic of Venice and the claims of Gay Pride in Budapest. " - Alejandro Zaera-Polo (architect), "Bodas de sangre en Venecia". Published in the 'ABC de Sevilla', 8 July 2025. Translated from the Spanish.

– What is the essential thing one learns from Cervantes? – To live against idealism - a philosophy incompatible with reality. Idealism leads a human being to personal, professional, and political failure. The European Enlightenment is pure idealism. And today, democracy is in love with idealism. - Jesus G Maestro (2025, July 13). https://postimg.cc/F7JRZqqW Original: – ¿Qué es lo nuclear que se aprende de Cervantes? – A vivir contra el idealismo, una filosofía incompatible con la realidad. El idealismo conduce al ser humano al fracaso personal, laboral y político. La Ilustración europea es idealismo puro. Y hoy la democracia está enamorada del idealismo.

It is clear that we are in an era in which political assassinations are not only more common, but also more accepted. The death of Brian Thompson at the hands of Luigi Mangione has attracted a large number of supporters and general acceptance. Donald Trump, Brian Thompson, NFL employees, and Charlie Kirk are all recent victims of assassinations or attempted assassinations. It is worth noting, in this increasingly unstable world, the requirement for a network of individuals to become politically aligned and active is growing. However, this brings the increasing risk of assassination attempts. Charlie Kirk will most likely become a martyr for his network as assassinations have a habit of entrenching the beliefs of one's followers. Worryingly, this may feed into creating an escalating wave of political violence, not only in the USA, but also further abroad. Any politically aligned network must factor in this risk for the future. Political alignment may attract power,but also enemies

Spain operates like an asymmetric confederacy in key areas – some regions manage their own taxes, security, as well as schooling and public media – although it maintains that it’s a state of autonomies. I doubt this will be reversed, even if governments halt further devolution. There isn’t the political capital – or narrative – to recentralise power. Growing regionalism is especially a threat to Spain’s national story. The inequality of treatment and privileges between supposed equals can destroy the narrative of Spain as one people, one state. This doesn’t necessarily mean that Spain will devolve into micro-states, but it’s a reminder that de facto > de jure. Brexit, the Catalan declaration of independence in 2017, and UN resolutions are all WEAK politics attempting to play _de jure_. Navarre’s gradual devolution – see log/25/, Catalonia’s collection of income tax, and Norway and Switzerland’s relationship with the EU are STRONG politics that care about _de facto_ reality.

[1] 1) b: a public meeting place for open discussion [2] The forum was a meeting place in the cities of ancient Rome. ... There were forums spread throughout the Roman world, including in what is now Israel and Lebanon. ... The most important forum was the one in the city of Rome. The Roman Forum was the center of Roman life and the site of meetings, law courts, and battles between gladiators. [3] The forum was a very busy place, used for markets, shopping, political gatherings and as a general meeting place. It was oblong and was surrounded by public buildings such as law courts and temples, which often had tall pillars and imposing entrances which made it a place of great dignity. ... As Rome grew bigger one forum was not enough and several others were made. [1] https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/forum [2] https://kids.britannica.com/kids/article/forum/627206 [3] Children's Britannica 1973

" I have tamed that savage stenographic mystery. I make a respectable income by it. I am in high repute for my accomplishments in all pertaining to the art, and am joined with eleven others in reporting the debates in Parliament for a Morning Newspaper. Night after night, I record predictions that never come to pass, professions that are never fulfilled, explanations that are only meant to mystify. I wallow in words. Britannia, that unfortunate female, is always before me, like a trussed fowl: skewered through and though with office-pens, and bound hand and foot with red tape. I am sufficiently behind the scenes to know the worth of political life. I am quite an Infidel about it, and shall never be converted. " Charles Dickens, 'David Copperfield', Chapter XLIII, first published 1850.

" … The territories of an empire, when the empire collapses, go through a long stage of social and political turmoil, dragged along by all manner of fragmenting tendencies that generate enormous conflict. […] Feudalism is the result of the fall of the Roman Empire - that is, of the failure of _the State_. Feudalism arises automatically whenever such a breakdown of the State occurs, for feudalism is nothing other than the search for personal alliances above the law. The world becomes too insecure to trust strangers. " Translation is my own. - Elvira Roca Barea, 'Imperiofobia y Leyenda Negra. Roma, Rusia, Estados Unidos y El Imperio Español'. Chapter 7. (2016)

" We are now living through the end of another narrative, the one that has dominated all of our lives. The WW2 consensus is ending. ... This consensus has decided not only the answers to the world’s questions but even the questions that we are allowed to ask. This consensus is everything from our political theory to the presuppositions that we carry to the thoughts we are capable of thinking. The WW2 consensus is a meta-narrative through which all westerners have viewed the world and human history for the last 70 years. It is sometimes called the “Boomer truth regime”. Among this meta-narrative’s sacred cows are democracy, the holocaust, the state of Israel’s right to exist, universal suffrage, and equality. Until now, you could be ostracized for questioning any of these. But things are changing. " https://thesaxoncross.substack.com/p/the-axe-is-laid-at-the-foot-of-the

Bitcoin is the first modern monetary system that is outside of the political control of any state. In the pre-modern era (earlier than the French Revolution), gold (and to some extent silver) was above the state. If the state issued too much currency, its value would visibly decrease relative to gold. However, tech advancement caused gold to become too difficult to protect on a small scale. Gold centralized into a few major locations inside states. It became impossible for an individual to escape the effect of money printing. Inflation is effectively another tax. (It also destroys the measuring stick that we use for value, and therefore for business.) For most young people, a house is out of reach. This was one of the only remaining ways to escape (somewhat, and badly) the debasement of inflation. For the next 15-30 years, despite the scams / fear / uncertainty / doubt, I think that Bitcoin will remain the most achievable method available to a young person to save for the future.