Missed Opportunity, the Failed Legacy of John Boyd

I’ve recently had reason to look back at John Boyd‘s work. This has led me to review his “legacy.” Even today his writings are only available through a network of self-styled acolytes and has been enshrined as the rationale behind a lot of very dangerous and very silly thinking that’s “informed” U. S. military adventures

So much that is irrelevant…

How do we move beyond rebellion? Implicit in this question – if it is to be anything but futile – is another, How do we keep from cycling back around? Only to end up that much further down the same barren path?

It’s not your/their urgency…, it’s mine…

That is the problem. We don’t know what works. We DO know what doesn’t. The whole chasing-after-control-by-wielding-power-thing. Call it civilization. Call it whatever you want. From this abstraction; taken from a moment of survival when wielding strength brings us another chance: to eat, to be left in peace, to protect someone we care about; we

Coherence is Provisional

Ideology works through the process of consensus. Someone’s ideas gain followers and a movement is born to support these ideals and find ways to garner wider support; either through negotiated agreement or through some form of overt or covert coercion. Some movements gain broad support. Others limp along, held in high regard by a few

Rivers of Blood

Listening to much of the conversation between Paul Kingsnorth, Leire Keith, and David Abram in this podcast from Orion Magazine, I am left with a snippet, I’ve used as a title for this post. Rivers of Blood. I must admit, I can only intuit the context. After listening to most of the first half, I

The Blessings of Clarity

The ever mysterious Dwight Towers sent me this link a few days ago. The Feral Scholar has been consistently interesting, I only wish he made it easier to “follow” his blog. I’m spoiled by the WordPress.com follow button!

The Trouble with “Uncivilization”

There is a tremendous lurking flaw in any initiative that frames itself as a negative. We know that, yet we struggle with finding a framework, and a simple title for it, that denotes the activities around weening our attention from the grip of civilization without resorting to this awkward and negative term, Uncivilization. This may

The Reductivist Empire

The weaker we are, the harder it is to hope. The weaker we are, the easier it is to settle for wishing. When we’re strong, we understand life is fragile, contingent, and ultimately tragic; and that hope is the form of our desire to make something of our circumstances, to give life meaning. In weakness, we settle for wishing that things were easier, wishing that someone, somehow will alleviate our burdens. We enter into bargains, looking for saviors, heroes, or just an end to our suffering, suffering that leaves us feeling that life is nothing but a burden.

“You first!” “No, After You!” From optimism to resolve…

By demanding optimism, the universal sweetener, before we will engage, and then faltering as soon as we detect the hard reality welling up from below, we ensure that we remain firmly in the realm of futility, and the process feeds on itself.

Mastery, Not Control

I put this presentation together last April. I’ve been “sitting” on it, waiting to see how it held up before releasing it. Now seems to be the right time. This was originally written out as an essay, but after experimenting with different formats, I think it is best suited to the slide show. I use

The Grand Kachinka Game

Complex systems evolve to deal with entropy. The why for this is unclear, but all great complex systems slow down the effects of entropy within them and this provides the opportunity for Life and the only stage on which life can be lived. In a simple system, or the part of a simple system that

Self-Identical and Repeating at Every Scale, an Epiphany

Trust is like a column, a stone column. It is tremendously strong in compression. If you are willing to carefully place weight on top of it, it will support. This image is so clear.