I helped a guy remodel his entire house in the city for 2 years. I did a few side jobs during that time. I had been working in remodeling for many years, but I did not have a license. Then I got a call from an investigator with the MN dept of labor. They fined me $4000, reduced to $1000, but I had to get a license and if I didn't and continued to remodel, I would have to pay the whole fine, and then be exiled from the licensing regime for 5 years. Even with the license I am not legally allowed to do elec, plumbing or HVAC, much of which I am perfectly, professionally capable of.
So the Dept of Labor won't let me use my full expertise to make a living, and extorted $1000 from me - for not following their rules. No one complained, no client had reason to complain. All my work came on referral because I did such good work and my clients very much appreciated me. I offended the managerial state. The managerial state is a parasite on the body economic.
Now I no longer do remodeling, in large part because the new inspection regime is run by people who have never worked in the field, who could not work in the field, who learned the rules in a school out of a book. They treated me as a criminal, working on my own, as if the only reason I could be in the business is to defraud people. Such a regime draws petty tyrant types, who facilitate consolidation and monopoly.
"In 2013, Mats Järlström was living in Beaverton, OR and his wife got a ticket based on a red-light camera. Mats' education was as an electrical engineer in Sweden. He measured the length of time the yellow light was on, and did some research, and he found that the formula used for setting the length of yellow was not correct. He sent a polite email to the Oregon State Board of Examiners for Engineering and Land Surveying (which regulates traffic lights in Oregon) regarding the matter, and explained his background in electrical engineering and his evidence for the yellow being too short. He didn't even ask for his wife's money back.
"As a result, the Oregon State Board of Examiners for Engineering and Land Surveying fined Mats $500, for engineering without a license."
I wouldn't call the parasites the "managerial class". I would just call them government regulators. My theory is simple: The government regulators have too much power and there are too many of them. End of story.
Sounds like Oregon, or at least the central corridor. As for government regulators/bureaucrats, if I could I would fire 90% of them and make them get a real job or start their own business.
Even more infuriating is the people who need the kind of service you provide don't give a rats ass about licenses, blah blah blah. If your work comes recommended by word of mouth references, that's what the consumer wants, and it's not that easy to find.
Moldbug made essentially the same argument in Unqualified Reservations a while back: subverting the system from the inside is ineffective at best, and one is completely coopted at worst. Can't find the exact post, though
Did I say subvert? I'm really trying to say improve. I don't think we know for sure it can't be ineffective. Trouble is the system is everywhere now, any professional or credentialed job is infected, so we'd better hope resistance from within can be effective. Maybe with an awareness of the perverse incentives it is possible to resist. At least this is what I tell myself.
Resistance to corruption is important to an individual’s conscience, but you can’t square that circle round, there must be a choice and consequences.
Resistance is the most overrated concept in terms of change. Romantic nonsense (and I’m ☘️).
Example; The French resistance was helpful and inspiring, the Free French Army at large fought well enough to gain France’s sovereignty (from the Americans who were going to treat it as occupied enemy else-wise) but it was the allies who freed France, especially the Soviets by destroying the German army.
The German resistance to Hitler made no positive gains at all.
But do cheer up!! We don’t face Hitler or Stalin (they’d be a step up !). We face an unraveling, we are entering The Anarchy. Our precious Team Elite is simply doing to us what they did to Iraq, Syria, Libya.... etc.
Also what they started to do in Russia in the 90s and want to finish very badly; this is why Ukraine war is so important.
You see it’s what they do.
They’re actually good at this part!
They’ve been at it since the 1960s, they’re very good at it!
Unraveling society is their area of expertise.
At least if the American Army is guarding their Green Zone.
About which- here’s where one “resists” - like DOD on Jan 6, just put them on hold.
Now the next time the National Guard is asked to man the DC Green Zone it shouldn’t, and is less likely to do so - this is effective resistance.
So while you shan’t reform them, you can abandon them to their choices.
I don't mind managers if they manage properly. In my time in teaching I saw the bureaucracy change from a supportive adjunct to the classroom teacher, to a technocratic, authoritarian system of policing. Same happened with the union.
What he is describing happened in law enforcement as well, and to an extent the military. That’s Uvalde BTW.
BTW in combat this sort of “management” translates to soldiers including elite ones either freezing or even shirking.
I have seen the freeze, and death resulted. I don’t even blame them.
In peer combat well trained and equipped units may break as they can’t trust their leadership. The entire war with Russia or China is a really bad idea.
I am a man precisely because I refused to take my place among the managerial class out of college, instead learning how to build a house, grow, hunt and gather more food than I can eat, brew homebrew, etc skills.
You’re waiting for him to give the nod, his name is “natural law.”
He’s gone.
I think some Officers may be the same as the Prussian Lutheran Officers who could not act until Bonhoeffer said yes, tyrannicide is moral (too late).
They could not clear the hurdle on their own until a man of their cloth sanctioned it.
(It’s very difficult for many now to understand how important religion used to be to men, especially men of action or station in the old system).
We don’t have that situation.
What we have is degeneration into anarchy. We don’t have to worry about the Fuhrer (Leader) because we have no leaders. Any leaders get clipped, the young with potential are deliberately stunted, schools for example excel at poppy cropping and mental castration, as all attend same schools by whatever name same results.
I don’t at all think you’re Bonhoeffer, I think you’re waiting for orders that aren’t coming, there’s no one left to give the order. It’s not even Moscow is Silent*. Moscow is...gone.
There’s no sanction coming, and no one left to give it. Is there one Flag Officer in your entire chain who would even understand the question, Sir?
*When the DDR collapsed in 1989 the KGB frantically asked Moscow for orders; “Moscow is Silent” a formative phrase for young Vladimir Putin.
The previous America is what the managerial revolution has sought to overturn, hence my other article about counter-revolution. If I don't specify that this only really took off at the beginning of the 20th century then that's my bad, my conception of how this all unfolded mirrors the NS Lyons China Convergence article very closely.
As for the NAP, I think we've had this disagreement before which I attribute to a verbal dispute. We understand the NAP differently. Aggression to confront predators is always appropriate, what defines them as predators is their transgression against the NAP in spirit and action. The challenge is holding predators accountable for what they are, and towards this one of the best tools comes from American jurisprudence: impartial juries.
In the military we are the jury and we shoot, this is the process due from us and what people expect, and what situations demand.
On pre PMC I am glad you do not despair of all our history!
Should you get the chance read Francis Jennings on The Iroquois Confederation and the first centuries, the poor Indians are done the most horrible injustice being painted as hapless victims, when they were brilliant Diplomats and businessmen, not to mention warriors. I mention in context of Free Markets... so they were!
I helped a guy remodel his entire house in the city for 2 years. I did a few side jobs during that time. I had been working in remodeling for many years, but I did not have a license. Then I got a call from an investigator with the MN dept of labor. They fined me $4000, reduced to $1000, but I had to get a license and if I didn't and continued to remodel, I would have to pay the whole fine, and then be exiled from the licensing regime for 5 years. Even with the license I am not legally allowed to do elec, plumbing or HVAC, much of which I am perfectly, professionally capable of.
So the Dept of Labor won't let me use my full expertise to make a living, and extorted $1000 from me - for not following their rules. No one complained, no client had reason to complain. All my work came on referral because I did such good work and my clients very much appreciated me. I offended the managerial state. The managerial state is a parasite on the body economic.
Now I no longer do remodeling, in large part because the new inspection regime is run by people who have never worked in the field, who could not work in the field, who learned the rules in a school out of a book. They treated me as a criminal, working on my own, as if the only reason I could be in the business is to defraud people. Such a regime draws petty tyrant types, who facilitate consolidation and monopoly.
Here's a story you may, or may not, enjoy:
"In 2013, Mats Järlström was living in Beaverton, OR and his wife got a ticket based on a red-light camera. Mats' education was as an electrical engineer in Sweden. He measured the length of time the yellow light was on, and did some research, and he found that the formula used for setting the length of yellow was not correct. He sent a polite email to the Oregon State Board of Examiners for Engineering and Land Surveying (which regulates traffic lights in Oregon) regarding the matter, and explained his background in electrical engineering and his evidence for the yellow being too short. He didn't even ask for his wife's money back.
"As a result, the Oregon State Board of Examiners for Engineering and Land Surveying fined Mats $500, for engineering without a license."
I wouldn't call the parasites the "managerial class". I would just call them government regulators. My theory is simple: The government regulators have too much power and there are too many of them. End of story.
Sounds like Oregon, or at least the central corridor. As for government regulators/bureaucrats, if I could I would fire 90% of them and make them get a real job or start their own business.
I would go for 99%, at least.
Fine with me. Subscribed btw
Thanks!
Even more infuriating is the people who need the kind of service you provide don't give a rats ass about licenses, blah blah blah. If your work comes recommended by word of mouth references, that's what the consumer wants, and it's not that easy to find.
I would often tell clients, we can pull permits, but the cost of the job will go up 25-40%, and it will take twice as long to finish.
No one ever said "pull a permit."
And you probably wouldn't want to do a job for someone who did need that kind of nonsense.
>working from the inside
Moldbug made essentially the same argument in Unqualified Reservations a while back: subverting the system from the inside is ineffective at best, and one is completely coopted at worst. Can't find the exact post, though
Did I say subvert? I'm really trying to say improve. I don't think we know for sure it can't be ineffective. Trouble is the system is everywhere now, any professional or credentialed job is infected, so we'd better hope resistance from within can be effective. Maybe with an awareness of the perverse incentives it is possible to resist. At least this is what I tell myself.
Resistance to corruption is important to an individual’s conscience, but you can’t square that circle round, there must be a choice and consequences.
Resistance is the most overrated concept in terms of change. Romantic nonsense (and I’m ☘️).
Example; The French resistance was helpful and inspiring, the Free French Army at large fought well enough to gain France’s sovereignty (from the Americans who were going to treat it as occupied enemy else-wise) but it was the allies who freed France, especially the Soviets by destroying the German army.
The German resistance to Hitler made no positive gains at all.
But do cheer up!! We don’t face Hitler or Stalin (they’d be a step up !). We face an unraveling, we are entering The Anarchy. Our precious Team Elite is simply doing to us what they did to Iraq, Syria, Libya.... etc.
Also what they started to do in Russia in the 90s and want to finish very badly; this is why Ukraine war is so important.
You see it’s what they do.
They’re actually good at this part!
They’ve been at it since the 1960s, they’re very good at it!
Unraveling society is their area of expertise.
At least if the American Army is guarding their Green Zone.
About which- here’s where one “resists” - like DOD on Jan 6, just put them on hold.
Now the next time the National Guard is asked to man the DC Green Zone it shouldn’t, and is less likely to do so - this is effective resistance.
So while you shan’t reform them, you can abandon them to their choices.
Here is The Resistance.
I don't mind managers if they manage properly. In my time in teaching I saw the bureaucracy change from a supportive adjunct to the classroom teacher, to a technocratic, authoritarian system of policing. Same happened with the union.
For that they need skin in the game!
Its our skin.
Not theirs.
What he is describing happened in law enforcement as well, and to an extent the military. That’s Uvalde BTW.
BTW in combat this sort of “management” translates to soldiers including elite ones either freezing or even shirking.
I have seen the freeze, and death resulted. I don’t even blame them.
In peer combat well trained and equipped units may break as they can’t trust their leadership. The entire war with Russia or China is a really bad idea.
When the strange AI kid comes to you remember there’s only one right answer:
Blow that shit to kingdom come.
Don't get me started on that horseshit ending. I blame it on Bioware going woke.
Hahaha.
I always thought they chickened out on the “indoctrination” idea.
In any case, enjoyed your piece! I’ve long thought that series is an excellent metaphor for many things.
Nature is savage and cruel, but its an improvement over this -
I prefer to think of it as wondrous, magical and beautiful.
The current system of Managerial Liberalism does not allow men, it does allow monsters.
Do adapt accordingly.
I am a man precisely because I refused to take my place among the managerial class out of college, instead learning how to build a house, grow, hunt and gather more food than I can eat, brew homebrew, etc skills.
Carl Friedrich Goerdeler
Bonhoeffer
Canaris
Von Stauffenberg
By the time the latter had convinced the former it was too late. I know how they felt.
Wait, am I Bonhoeffer here?
No.
You aren’t.
You’re waiting for him to give the nod, his name is “natural law.”
He’s gone.
I think some Officers may be the same as the Prussian Lutheran Officers who could not act until Bonhoeffer said yes, tyrannicide is moral (too late).
They could not clear the hurdle on their own until a man of their cloth sanctioned it.
(It’s very difficult for many now to understand how important religion used to be to men, especially men of action or station in the old system).
We don’t have that situation.
What we have is degeneration into anarchy. We don’t have to worry about the Fuhrer (Leader) because we have no leaders. Any leaders get clipped, the young with potential are deliberately stunted, schools for example excel at poppy cropping and mental castration, as all attend same schools by whatever name same results.
I don’t at all think you’re Bonhoeffer, I think you’re waiting for orders that aren’t coming, there’s no one left to give the order. It’s not even Moscow is Silent*. Moscow is...gone.
There’s no sanction coming, and no one left to give it. Is there one Flag Officer in your entire chain who would even understand the question, Sir?
*When the DDR collapsed in 1989 the KGB frantically asked Moscow for orders; “Moscow is Silent” a formative phrase for young Vladimir Putin.
Are you Bonhoeffer? NO.
You’re looking for him perhaps.
He’s not there.
Sorry!
You’ll have to decide.
Good luck.
On the counter managerial revolution; The current system of Managerial Liberalism does not allow men, it does allow monsters.
Do adapt accordingly.
God Bless America and our Labors on this day!
You’re conflating the present and the 20th century with the previous America and time , perhaps unintentionally.
Everything you see now is not how it always was, and this can pass - if we do our duty.
Nothing makes this automatically go away, look at China. They have 2500 years of Mandarin management Hive Life.
Our sworn duty is not NAP.
There has NOT always been a Managerial Class, there’s been plenty of free markets, there’s also usually under any government laws and regulation.
NAP protects nothing, it’s inhuman and a suicide pact.
We protect, or the Predators Prey.
The previous America is what the managerial revolution has sought to overturn, hence my other article about counter-revolution. If I don't specify that this only really took off at the beginning of the 20th century then that's my bad, my conception of how this all unfolded mirrors the NS Lyons China Convergence article very closely.
As for the NAP, I think we've had this disagreement before which I attribute to a verbal dispute. We understand the NAP differently. Aggression to confront predators is always appropriate, what defines them as predators is their transgression against the NAP in spirit and action. The challenge is holding predators accountable for what they are, and towards this one of the best tools comes from American jurisprudence: impartial juries.
Ok on NAP then-
Juries;
In the military we are the jury and we shoot, this is the process due from us and what people expect, and what situations demand.
On pre PMC I am glad you do not despair of all our history!
Should you get the chance read Francis Jennings on The Iroquois Confederation and the first centuries, the poor Indians are done the most horrible injustice being painted as hapless victims, when they were brilliant Diplomats and businessmen, not to mention warriors. I mention in context of Free Markets... so they were!