Part 1 — Bloodshed on Wolf Mountain
Old Power
As the British Empire declined, people were unsure how to move forward. Stories of violence and abuse confused and terrified those at home. Afraid of those they colonized, the British middle class revealed their racism as many began moving to the island. One of these, Michael de Freitas, was surprised at how it differed from his imagination. As a subject of the Empire, he was always told England was his homeland, but he found himself an outsider. British men were also struggling to maintain their powerful status in the home and at work.
China, new power, and individualism
Though China looked like an example of collectivism, some of those at the top suffered from the same paranoia and fear as those in Europe and the US. Curtis looks at the life of Mao’s wife Jiang Qing, who went from a striving actress to having the ear of the Supreme Leader of the CCP. Vengeful and paranoid, she used her power to get revenge on those who she believed wronged her. It’s hard to tell where Curtis is going with her story. She seems like a crazy lady, but there must be more to it.
US, fear of the old world, and patterns
Americans know paranoia well. Immigrants were fearful of being followed by whatever drove them from Europe. The fear of savage Native Americans justified their slaughter. As postwar Americans settled into their new suburban life, they were as unsettled as ever. Isolated from a community that could give their lives shape and meaning, they were susceptible to fearful conspiracies. The John Birch Society spread rumors of Eisenhower being a foreign agent, anticommunism was rampant. Out of this grew a counterculture, just as willing to believe in fantastic tales. Less interested in using the power of reason to understand the world, Americans looked for patterns to confirm suspicions. While the CIA was engaging in real conspiracies like MKUltra, American’s latent paranoia magnified and distorted the dark forces influencing our lives.
Part 2 — Shooting and F**king are the Same Thing
China and Communist Witch Hunts
Jiang Qing leads the youth towards the Cultural Revolution. The Chinese Revolution failed to bring about the new working class. Those resisting needed to be rooted out. The “little devils of youth” were organized into the Red Guard. Excused from school, they were tasked with finding the traitors to the revolution. Teachers, parents, and party administrators were all at risk of imprisonment, execution, and public humiliation if they refused to admit their thought crimes. Curtis asserts that the real sources of power hadn’t changed with the revolution and they were trying to force ideals onto reality (I think that’s what he was saying).
Cops are the Best Organizers
The Black Panthers catalyzed the radicals into fighting for Black Power. Not as disciplined as they seemed from the outside, chapters were easily infiltrated by informants. Alice Faye Williams (later Afeni Shakur) joined the Panthers, but quickly became suspicious of some members. She was not able to convince others of her suspicions. There turned out to be 3 informants in the chapter. Unsurprisingly, it was their work that kept the chapter functioning, the other members off “doing their own thing” most of the time. The informants pushed the hardest for violent actions and were able to get enough evidence to put most of the chapter on trial. After an impressive cross-examination by Shakur, all were acquitted, but the wind in the sails of the Black Power movement had died out.
Failure, Pessimism, and Branding
The failure of those who tried to take power in the 60s often differed in style, but the substance was the same. As much as they tried to locate power, they never seemed to find it. Neither the “propaganda of the deed” nor respectable organization could galvanize the dormant working class. For Europe and America, power was being drained from domestic factories and workplaces and into the hands of international finance. The combination of psychology and economics was growing powerful and confident. Through global trade and clever marketing, the working class could be kept in a dream world, where the market bends to their individuality. The aesthetics of the revolutionaries could be commodified and adopted by the growing managerial classes. The ex-revolutionaries seemed to have a way out of their failures: monetize their own brand :)
Part 3 — Money Changes Everything
Draining Power With Oil
The American working class, for a brief moment, had power. They could halt the factory, stop the coal trains, and bargain for a better life. The shell of a welfare state was built by their power and threat to exercise it. But machines were coming to make humans redundant and they lost power rapidly. And coal began to be replaced with oil from around the world, especially the Middle East. More machines and fewer points of failure. The working class was losing power. Many stayed where they were, becoming poor and hopeless. Others rode the economic wave to the suburbs, into a different form of isolation. The Sacklers capitalized on the resulting fear and anxiety, producing Valium which promised to cure the lurking dread, but often compounded it.
China & USSR, two failed revolutions, two different outcomes
As Mao neared death, a power struggle began. Jiang Qing and the Gang of Four lost out to Deng Xiaoping. She turned out to be a pawn in a struggle for power, not a true holder of it. Xiaoping, recognizing the failure of their economic system, brought market reforms. A state directed capitalism could undercut production and shift the balance of power away from the West. With banks now willing to lend for consumption, the working classes of the West could simultaneously lose economic power and continue to spend. The other red revolution in the Soviet Union was also failing. True believers were betrayed while dissidents were vindicated, though even they had no vision of the future. When the Soviet state broke down, they couldn’t make the same turn as China. Instead, greed and cynicism led them into the 21st century.
Climate Change, Instability, and New Power
While ideology loosened its grip on the world, uncertainty seemed to come from every direction. Climate scientists started to warn of unstable systems and catastrophe. Fossil fuels created wealth and potential destruction. Conspiracies which seemed fringe, began to make sense to more people. The Church Committee validated their existence, and paranoid pattern searchers dreamed up new ones. The power to stop the American in economy, which was held by the working class in the 1940s, had been transferred to the Saudis and banks. The loss of power leads to fear and delusion, and this time, there was a market for it.
Part 4 — But What If the People Are Stupid?
New Bureaucracy and Self Actualization
Radical individualism had no power, but that didn’t stop many from trying. Those with Left ideological allegiances found themselves condemning Vietnamese refugees while radical nonpartisans couldn’t distinguish a Mujahideen from Martin Luther King Jr. Live Aid may have killed as many as it saved, but at least it shot Bono into fame. Deindustrialization and the consumer economy led people on a search for their “true selves” which rarely satisfied. Meanwhile, politicians who once drew their power from the working masses found themselves alone in the rain. Fortunately for them, the financial and managerial classes had umbrellas. This “new bureaucracy” established “non majoritarian institutions”, promising stability.
Tiananmen Square, the Chinese Occupy
Jiang Qing was sentenced to death, but called for those remaining to rebel. Individualism began to seep into China. Deng Xiaoping's short-lived democratic experiment helped give rise to a coherent dissident movement. Led by students of course. After the death of a loved party member, students occupied Tiananmen Square. The students were justly angry, but with no larger story to submit themselves to, how could they hope to challenge the power of Beijing? Though an honorable attempt to ignite a wave of democracy, the students were easily crushed by the military. Many of the Chinese people (it seems), were uninterested in the pretense of democracy, but were perfectly accepting of the power of finance and the rule of “money and connections”.
“Who are you going to believe? This boy you are knowing your whole life? Or this boy you are just meeting, who says ’the world economy’ a thousand times?” - Isabella Parigi
After Russia’s feeble attempts at democracy descended into corruption, oligarchy, and violence, some sought a new grand story. Those left behind by the “new bureaucracy” tried to create new political institutions, but were just as weak as the left radicals. Limonov founded the National Bolsheviks, galvanizing many disaffected youths. This emerging nationalism, however weak, is the source of current conservatism. It may seem laughable to hear someone defend the British Empire as defending against a “tyranny of the majority”, but in the age of global finance, regional capitalists can believably paint themselves the honorable underdog. Tony Blair sells out the working class.
Imperial Fears and Shaping the World With Dreams
As the British Empire continued to disintegrate, England became fearful. Attempts to reckon with the violence and terror committed by their country, led not to reconciliation, but paranoia. Would those they subjugated, like China, come back for revenge? The middle classes were most susceptible. They felt surrounded by alien forces. The working class could be angry and violent, the bourgeois seemed corrupt and lacking loyalty. Out of this, they crafted a new idealized Britain. Drawing from supposed rural traditions, they dreamt of a natural order based in the countryside. Unspoiled by urban life and global capital, but advanced enough to be comfortable. Where democratic solutions were simple and lives were lived undisturbed by the complexities of a global economy (just like the American frontier). This dream also powered America, but with its signature racial character (not that Britain lacked racism). The second KKK represented the return of a harmonious natural order. The middle classes retreated into the suburbs, looking for this mythical and society, and destroying whatever real bucolic life actually remained.
Given the power and reach of their economies and militaries, it’s no surprise that these dreams shaped their imperialism. When dividing the Middle East after the Ottoman Empire, Iraq was given to the Sheikhs, rural tribal leaders who seemed to embody that idealized natural order. Ignoring the complex society of the urban areas, Britain left Iraq with an unstable power structure. The US picked up where Britain left off. Oil and computer materials began to dominate the global economy. The CIA helped overthrow any government which seemed to threaten US dominance. In doing so, the brutal dictators and religious zealots to power: Mobutu in the Congo, Saddam Hussein in Iraq, and let’s not forget about Iran! Believing it could shape the world in its image and ignoring all complexities, the US invaded Iraq and gave power again to the tribal leaders. Whoopsie daisy, they helped form ISIS. Facing the increasing complexity of the world economy and against all evidence both Britain and the US continue to indulge in the fantasy of a simpler natural order. Britain votes to leave the EU and the US elects Donald Trump.
Chinese Fears and Financial Control
Jiang Qing commits suicide in prison, but casts a communist curse on China. They will face unending evils! Deng Xioping died in 1997, casting doubt on the country’s future. What do they believe in besides money? Can nationalistic purpose withstand the growing centrifugal forces of individualism? China fears that the West is plotting to prevent their rise to power. Real fears of the past are magnified and weaponised. Instead of opium, now they fear being controlled by foreign capital. Better go buy all of America’s debt. This increases the value of the dollar, lowers interest rates, and allows more borrowing to buy Chinese goods. The US can’t destroy China without also destroying itself. Genius! Also, China demands Hong Kong from the British. The British claim it will be bad for democracy. But Hong Kong was never a democracy in the first place!
Part 6 — Are We Pigeon? Or Are We Dancer?
Thug Life Jihadis
Tupak was raised by a former Black Panther radical. He wanted to fulfill the vision of Black Power. But with the rise of individualism and failures of previous movements, black idealism and visions of a better world faded out of view. In their place came a “fairy land” which distracted people away from their material problems and solutions with cheap goods and entertainment. This individualism and the post-Black Panther gangster attitude could never build the kind of solidarity needed to fight the sources of power. All attempts to use art to bring awareness to their problems only reinforced the growing cynical attitudes.
At the same time, young men throughout the Middle East, Saudi Arabia in particular, saw the rise of the same fairy land. The Saudi Royal Family and other powerful oil interests exchanged religious tradition and a life of faithful belief for money, extravagance, and cold calculation. Where black radicals turned to cynical individualism, radical Islamists turned to violent religious revolution. Though successful in their organization and strategy, they were not immune from the rise of individualism.
The World is too Complicated for Revolution
Psychologists began to suspect human consciousness was not a singular as previously believed. There was growing evidence that humans had multiple competing consciousnesses. After acting, we retroactively create stories to justify what we did. If this is true, can humans really be trusted with governing the world? Additionally, scientists were beginning to use computers to model world systems like the climate, ecologies, and economies. They found that small changes to variables could have dramatic, unexpected consequences. These findings, on top of those found about the human individual, increased the fears of human directed political change. Instead of idealists trying to change the world, maybe computer systems should stabilize it.
Silicon Valley: Like Butte, But Instead of Copper, They’re Mining Human Behavior
Silicon Valley struggled to find a way to monetize search and social media platforms. Inspired by Ayn Rand individualism, SV entrepreneurs believed they could use the market to bypass current systems of power. It seems Google was the first platform to successfully monetize personalized marketing through data collection. By using models, they could determine which sorts of ads users would be likely to click on based on past search data. This approach seemed to work and billions of dollars started flowing in. As they began mining human behavior, companies realized they could do more than just react to user preferences, with psychological tactics, they could influence human behavior. Though we’ve come to believe these companies can Control our thoughts and behaviors, recent evidence suggests the techniques are not so powerful. Though they can’t easily influence behavior, it’s clear they can induce fear, suspicion, anxiety, and other “high arousal emotions”. Leading us to exhibit a lot of the cognitive distortions defined by CBT. So we got to log off.
Russian LARPing
The Russian National Bolsheviks, led by former USSR dissident Eduard Limonov, escalated their attempts to kickstart a nationalist revolution. But foreshadowing leftist LARPers in the US, they had no real hold on power or influence. I’m sure they felt good breaking into buildings and going to jail though. Meanwhile, Putin rises to power as a blank slate. Knowingly corrupt, but somehow able to combine rural discontent, oligarch influence, and nationalist fear of the approaching west. The Russians even have their own version of Hell’s Angels. They no longer believe in communism or democracy so they just seem really sad and hopeless.
China!
While Silicon Valley builds power through private data collection and the NSA tries to hide itself, China confidently consolidates its digital power and looks to use it to control its population through “algorithmic governance”. Even those who appear to be tackling corruption end up being just as guilty. Reformers struggle with the same dilemma as elsewhere: should they embrace the cultural blank slate of greed and finance capital or try to revive the nationalist story from the grave?
Three Futures
Curtis closes with 3 possible futures:
- China’s brand of authoritarian collectivism, enforced by the soft power of computers and psychology and the hard power of a violent police state.
- A retreat to the past and an embrace of a nationalist state run by old elites (wot if the state guvna had to report to the local barons?).
- Or we can build a new future. Somehow this comes from building confidence (every dude gets unlimited Blue Chew?). Instead of allowing tech companies to use our anxiety as their raw material, we log off and rebuild connections.
In the words of Thelonius from the 2001 film Shrek: “Three! Pick number three, my lord!”