Power can never be justified from first principles.
We divide the System into four great organs: in ascending order of power, the Castle, the Factory, the Bureau and the Cathedral. (Later, we will add a fifth: the Show.)
I can get rid of your uncertainty, boredom, & ambiguity — while still engaging those notions. |
The most prestigious tier is the most legitimate; so it is the most powerful; so it attracts the most talented and energetic personnel; so its work is the most impressive; so the world trusts it the most; so it is the most prestigious.
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The Cathedral is information: truth, philosophy, ethics, narrative, art and intelligence.
Its inner circle, the Brain and the Voice, includes all professors, journalists, serious artists, published authors, etc.
Its outer ring, the Conversation, is the whole upper social class.
Its funding division, the Foundation, is the whole upper economic class.
Its teaching division, the School, gets to indoctrinate almost everyone for over a decade.
And its doctrine, the Dream, defines good and evil for all decent people.
The importance of the Cathedral is defined by its monopoly on legitimacy. A school which is not the School is not educating. A voice which is not the Voice is not informing. A brain which is not the Brain is not thinking. There is nothing legitimate about miseducation, disinformation or unreason.
Prestigious information passes from Brain to Voice, and Voice to Conversation.
This process is subtle enough, and its product is of high enough quality, for the Conversation to believe it is actually making up its own mind—from filtered inputs.
The Conversation—all of legitimate public opinion—always admires the System. It thinks of this as a completely voluntary and spontaneous critical assessment.
And the Conversation, which is the discourse of the upper social class, is always the discourse of fashion. For the nobility (rich or broke), fashionable ideas are de rigueur.
Against the middle social class (rich, doing okay or broke), they are political attacks.
Épater la bourgeoisie is the official sport of every nobility. It is the role of the weak to accept these attacks, internalize them, and use them to loyally flagellate themselves.
The arrows of fashion rain down constantly from every direction. The kulaks cannot resist them for long and will surrender to the nobility’s latest definition of cool; not soon enough to be cool themselves; soon enough for this victory over themselves to be expected and taken for granted, and some new demand for further coolness launched.
And hell will freeze helium before the kulaks convince the nobles of anything at all.
Even the truth will have a rough time if the kulaks somehow get hold of it first.
This may seem like a brutal process—but frankly, isn’t the nobility usually right?
Aren’t nobles just cooler, better people?
They certainly have higher IQs.
The best of them are in the Cathedral.
The rest at least hold Cathedral ranks.
Surrender, chuds.
Its inner circle, the Brain and the Voice, includes all professors, journalists, serious artists, published authors, etc.
Its outer ring, the Conversation, is the whole upper social class.
Its funding division, the Foundation, is the whole upper economic class.
Its teaching division, the School, gets to indoctrinate almost everyone for over a decade.
And its doctrine, the Dream, defines good and evil for all decent people.
The importance of the Cathedral is defined by its monopoly on legitimacy. A school which is not the School is not educating. A voice which is not the Voice is not informing. A brain which is not the Brain is not thinking. There is nothing legitimate about miseducation, disinformation or unreason.
Prestigious information passes from Brain to Voice, and Voice to Conversation.
This process is subtle enough, and its product is of high enough quality, for the Conversation to believe it is actually making up its own mind—from filtered inputs.
The Conversation—all of legitimate public opinion—always admires the System. It thinks of this as a completely voluntary and spontaneous critical assessment.
And the Conversation, which is the discourse of the upper social class, is always the discourse of fashion. For the nobility (rich or broke), fashionable ideas are de rigueur.
Against the middle social class (rich, doing okay or broke), they are political attacks.
Épater la bourgeoisie is the official sport of every nobility. It is the role of the weak to accept these attacks, internalize them, and use them to loyally flagellate themselves.
The arrows of fashion rain down constantly from every direction. The kulaks cannot resist them for long and will surrender to the nobility’s latest definition of cool; not soon enough to be cool themselves; soon enough for this victory over themselves to be expected and taken for granted, and some new demand for further coolness launched.
And hell will freeze helium before the kulaks convince the nobles of anything at all.
Even the truth will have a rough time if the kulaks somehow get hold of it first.
This may seem like a brutal process—but frankly, isn’t the nobility usually right?
Aren’t nobles just cooler, better people?
They certainly have higher IQs.
The best of them are in the Cathedral.
The rest at least hold Cathedral ranks.
Surrender, chuds.