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   Warner Crocker (warnercrocker@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 16-Jan-2025 00:52:32 JST Warner Crocker

   We’re a bunch of cowards. Mostly. And we take cover behind rituals, ceremonies, and traditions. Congress is only one example.

   The Farce of Ritual
   #politics #culture
   https://warnercrocker.com/2025/01/15/the-farce-of-ritual/

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     Warner Crocker (warnercrocker@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 16-Jan-2025 12:56:02 JST Warner Crocker

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     • Beardy Star Stuff

     @dennyhenke Thanks, my friend. Not disagreeing with your comment re: capitalism, but it extends further back than that label suggests. Having spent some time in Russia pre-Soviet collapse and post, I learned first hand the myths of the communism/socialist model was it evolved there. If you had access and power you won the game. Until someone knocked you down. Same game as capitalism, just with a different mythology to drag the masses along and down./more

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     Beardy Star Stuff (dennyhenke@social.coop)'s status on Thursday, 16-Jan-2025 12:56:04 JST Beardy Star Stuff

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     @WarnerCrocker Great post Warner. I would only add that the whole process, the whole system is a farce long ago corrupted by capitalism. In fact, though few have the stomach for it any honest reckoning, the truth is to be found in the historical foundations and design. Generations since have just gone along for the ride. We've only ever attempted to paper over the deep problems. Not just the mess of electoral politics and legislation, but the foundational violence of genocide and slavery.

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     Warner Crocker (warnercrocker@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 16-Jan-2025 12:58:50 JST Warner Crocker

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     • Beardy Star Stuff

     @dennyhenke You can track it back through the history of monarchies, feudalism, republics ancient and more recent. Hell, even Gengis Kahn had it figured out. Capitalism is the current label, and it works as well as most and will ultimately fail as most do too. Not in my lifetime, I'm afraid, but it will fail.

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     Warner Crocker (warnercrocker@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 16-Jan-2025 21:51:30 JST Warner Crocker

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     • Beardy Star Stuff

     @dennyhenke When you live long enough you recognize patterns and recognize how small a place on the repetitive timeline you actually occupy. My interest (the book and author does sound interesting) stems from my work and life in the theatre. Doesn't take long to realize there are a limited number of human motivations and the only thing possibly new is how they're tossed and mixed together in a story. There are a limited number of stories also.
     /more

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     Beardy Star Stuff (dennyhenke@social.coop)'s status on Thursday, 16-Jan-2025 21:51:31 JST Beardy Star Stuff

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     @WarnerCrocker It actually fits very well with the title of your blog post in that he suggested the earliest forms of human hierarchies were based in age and the emergence of shamanism which he proposed was a kind of defense used by the oldest in a tribe during times of scarcity. Simply stated, accumulated knowledge used as leverage, expressed as power over others. From there a myriad forms of social power-over other develop and become institutional systems from religion to nation states.

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     Beardy Star Stuff (dennyhenke@social.coop)'s status on Thursday, 16-Jan-2025 21:51:33 JST Beardy Star Stuff

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     @WarnerCrocker I'm glad you opened that door. I usually don't go there with folks because I'm not sure they're interested! Agreed with you completely! Too many years ago I majored in anthropology and sociology and around 1990 discovered Murray Bookchin's Social Ecology. In particular his book "The Ecology of Freedom" which goes deep into the origin of human hierarchies, the earliest, most basic forms of domination, which he proposed were the foundation of our social ecological problems.

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     Warner Crocker (warnercrocker@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 16-Jan-2025 21:57:15 JST Warner Crocker

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     • Beardy Star Stuff

     @dennyhenke The religion angle always fascinates me. Seeking explanations for the unexplainable. It's easy to transition from the power above/around us to the power within me when you can't explain a mystery but come up with a story that quiets or comforts your kid or your tribe.