In the air, at the moment, seems to be a counter-revolutionary sentiment against the managerial class, the administrative state, and institutions of mass monitoring and the like. There have been several events (, forces, ) intruding themselves into the lives the masses: covid, ai, adtech -- which are making-visible the "exorbitant privilege" of being a rent seeker on top of people's mass communication.
Impositions like this, of course, put the rent-seeking in people's faces -- but privilege always remains, pending a court order or an executive demand. It feels that there's mass loss of patience with this, a kind of "lay anarchism" that is presently across the popular internet. Many are exhausted at the power which accrues to AI companies from the non-consensual theft of the online social commons. Others, at political censorship. Others, at the secruity state. And so on. But it's all directed towards the same privilege made possible by internet centralisation.
Who will channel this politically, where it will go -- of course -- isn't clear at the moment. The anger at this seems febrile, and its more than some fussy libertarians. The economic conditions of egregious rent-seeking and the political conditions of mass control are visible to the people. It all seems a little mid-19th C.
I personally agree fully with your sentiment, but I don’t see any place in today’s American polity where this spark could catch fire, because there’s no donor class that would ultimately benefit. It would have to be like the French Revolution.
Well each of these institutions are targeting people in power, it may only be a matter of "one more wrong move" and there's a critical mass of the political elite willing to tear it down. I think DOGE was never actually a cost saving exercise, that was just a disguise for an attempt to destroy the counter-political power of the administrative state -- it isnt so hard to imagine a political party trying again, this time, competently. And so on with each of these instituions. There's quite a lot of bipartisan support now for breaking up monopolies, dramatic restricts on the power of executive police forces, and the like. For different reasons, either side, but the targets are the same.
> DOGE was never actually a cost saving exercise, that was just a disguise for an attempt to destroy the counter-political power of the administrative state
It was a distraction from tax policy. Raising regressive taxes on imports, cutting services to the poor and cutting taxes on the rich.
The elites after the French Revolution were not only mostly the same as before, they escaped with so much money and wealth that it’s actually debated if they increased their wealth share through the chaos [1].
If America started teetering towards a meltdown-type revolution, the first folks to move in would be foreign powers.
I used to find the popular fascination with the myth of the French Revolution having been terrible for the rich and empowering for the poor bemusing. But I’m wondering, now, if it’s dangerous.
Impositions like this, of course, put the rent-seeking in people's faces -- but privilege always remains, pending a court order or an executive demand. It feels that there's mass loss of patience with this, a kind of "lay anarchism" that is presently across the popular internet. Many are exhausted at the power which accrues to AI companies from the non-consensual theft of the online social commons. Others, at political censorship. Others, at the secruity state. And so on. But it's all directed towards the same privilege made possible by internet centralisation.
Who will channel this politically, where it will go -- of course -- isn't clear at the moment. The anger at this seems febrile, and its more than some fussy libertarians. The economic conditions of egregious rent-seeking and the political conditions of mass control are visible to the people. It all seems a little mid-19th C.