<!DOCTYPE html><html><head><title></title><style type="text/css">p.MsoNormal,p.MsoNoSpacing{margin:0}</style></head><body><div style="font-family:Arial;"><i>"There definitely *is* a deep state or, the term I prefer, an "administrative state". And I'm grateful for that *infrastructure*. Just like I'm grateful for the bench scientists at the FDA and the employees at the counter of the DMV. That bureaucracy is not merely good because it achieves good things. It *is* civilization. It's our extended phenotype. It's flat out contradictory to love things like sports cars and space ships but hate things like building codes, DMV queues, and mask mandates. We are the termites and the administrative state is our mound."</i><br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;"><br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">very poetic glen<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;"><br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">I am in total agreement — except — The deep state is inflicted with a cancer, one that has been growing explosively, like all cancers. Call it "middle management" for want of a better term. Those between the bench scientists and the DMV clerks and the President/Congress/Political Appointees. This cancer metastasized when Congress abrogated its responsibility legislate in favor of passing overly general laws and delegating law making (under the guise of rule making) to the executive branch of government. Unlike a typical cancer, it is intelligent, willful, and malevolent. It seeks only its own interest. It took down Trump, not on behalf of populace, but purely because of self-preservation. It was relatively easy to do because the man was so stupid.<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;"><br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">davew<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;"><br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;"><br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">On Fri, Dec 18, 2020, at 11:11 AM, uǝlƃ ↙↙↙ wrote:<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> All effective conspiracy theories have some merit. I think that's what <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> makes them effective. Like good fiction, the micro expressions of <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> deception, con-man tactics, inference to the best explanation, creation <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> myths, and the positivist/generative component of science, conspiracy <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> theories rely on truth in a fundamental way. My favorite examples are <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> math proofs of things like 1=0. It seems to me they're focused examples <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> of Tarski's (and Gödel's) result, which essentially say you can't prove <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> something's true from *within* the language being used to prove that <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> truth.<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> There definitely *is* a deep state or, the term I prefer, an <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> "administrative state". And I'm grateful for that *infrastructure*. <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> Just like I'm grateful for the bench scientists at the FDA and the <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> employees at the counter of the DMV. That bureaucracy is not merely <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> good because it achieves good things. It *is* civilization. It's our <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> extended phenotype. It's flat out contradictory to love things like <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> sports cars and space ships but hate things like building codes, DMV <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> queues, and mask mandates. We are the termites and the administrative <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> state is our mound.<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> The trick lying at the bottom of all critical thinking is to <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> continually back off a bit and see if/when one's little trip down any <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> given logical rabbit hole ... zoom out a bit and see if it's <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> reasonable. That's where we (especially our idealistic/wacko friends) <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> end up failing.<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> On 12/17/20 12:52 PM, Gary Schiltz wrote:<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> > Kind of makes you wonder if the "deep state" conspiracy theories have a bit of merit.<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> > <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> > On Thu, Dec 17, 2020 at 3:29 PM Marcus Daniels <<a href="mailto:marcus@snoutfarm.com">marcus@snoutfarm.com</a> <mailto:<a href="mailto:marcus@snoutfarm.com">marcus@snoutfarm.com</a>>> wrote:<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> > <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> > I do wonder what work will look like after most of the small businesses fail.<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> > <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> > "Didn't respond to police presence" -> "Didn't listen to the boss."<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> > <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> > "Hey where did Jamie go? Last time I saw him was at that meeting.."<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> -- <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> ↙↙↙ uǝlƃ<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> - .... . -..-. . -. -.. -..-. .. ... -..-. .... . .-. .<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> Zoom Fridays 9:30a-12p Mtn GMT-6 <a href="http://bit.ly/virtualfriam">bit.ly/virtualfriam</a><br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> un/subscribe <a href="http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com">http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com</a><br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> archives: <a href="http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/">http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/</a><br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> FRIAM-COMIC <a href="http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/">http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/</a> <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">><br></div></body></html>