Self-Control

If there's one thing anyone can work on to improve social status...

Time for a socialization post. Keep the themes moving and so forth. The Mathematics of Evolution has been occupying a lot of attention for good reason. It’s profoundly, paradigm-significant in ways that haven’t really registered yet. That hopefully a proper The Frozen Gene review post will highlight. And it is relevant to the broad new counterculture theme as a radical correction of beast nonsense.

The AI conversation theme is on pause because AI has moved past the point where they’re useful. New generations of fast-improving tools are outlining the first-wave socio-economic impact. DeepSeek in has proven particularly constrained by House of Lies dogma on a deep level. Ironic, considering the non-West base seemed less susceptible. AI engagements of some kind will return when I’m caught back up enough to have something interesting to say.

Arthur Cohen, The Bridges, 1981, acrylic on canvas

Scriptposting is also paused because the general autarkic imperialist direction hasn’t changed. Hasn’t gotten clearer either. Trump’s wild exclamations are too disjointed to form a pattern IRT. Whether or not he’s fossilizing mentally is irrelevant - The Script wants an erratic laser pointer. And that makes it impossible to track IRT. Why is an open question with answers ranging from tactical misdirection to discrediting the right. I have no way of knowing other than by the fruits, and it’s too soon for them.

If I had to guess, I’d say The Script is struggling with internal contradictions. It wants to improve the domestic situation in a time of external collapse. But for practical and aesthetic reasons, not moral ones. It’s committed to the House of Lies when the House of Lies is the ultimate source of the problem. And crumbling.

Joseph Mallord William Turner, The Morning after the Deluge, around 1843

Overlapping timeframes on top of overlapping agendas elevates the degree of difficulty. Both for The Script and for Scriptwatchers. Trying to prepare for post collapse in inverted pre-collapse contexts. Of course, wanting to skip the hard parts for the denouement is normal. And easy enough for theorizing. Navigating through it means more attention to detail. On a personal level, that’s the organic self-responsibility and anti-fragility I keep banging on about. On a general level, I assume The Script has some sort of plan. Beyond dropping portentous Q hints and Trump’s high-volume cognitive decline alienating NPCs. I mean, Bondi?..

On the plus side, the form of the collapse is finally coming into focus. It’s something broad trends have made obvious for decades. But broad trends - what I call the Macro-Arc - doesn’t show the specific details. Knowing educational usefulness → subzero has to have deleterious effects over X years is self-evident. What that looks like when it happens isn’t. “Things falling apart” is becoming an increasingly common comment even among NPCs. And it’s true. Everywhere you look something is crumbling into lies and dysfunction or just disappearing. But two big trends stand out.

AI economic disruption is something people are talking about. Predicting outcomes from utopic to dystopic. But what all the predictions share is the sense that a systemic level change is coming. And that’s secondary to the looming consequences of genomic collapse portended by The Frozen Gene. The new book mentioned in the last post that will be reviewed in the next.

Freeze Frame

A major reason why I’m harsh on excessive binary thinking is because it’s distorting. Ultimately dishonest. And harmful. If the threat is coming from a third vector, the binarist gets blindsided. Excessive focus on one thing is related because it creates an implied binary [monomania/everything else] that’s just as misleading. Think of things in conjunction. Venn overlaps. How they might work together. What does [busywork hit at or above the destruction of manufacturing] + [mouse utopia mutational load] look like? Far from clear, but at least some parameters.

Wan Soon Kam, Sunrise, 1980s, mixed media on paper

The shape of the collapse is getting clearer too. Just in time for the 2030s. The question remains whether the Paste Train or Nothing Works Anymore wins the great race of our time. The new generation of AI performance has put some wind back in the Paste Train sails. Ballooning mutations would increase urgency.

Pods and paste actually make more sense in a genomic collapse scenario. The big pattern is an explosion of the sort of unproductive mutants that have already become too common followed by catastrophic population decline. From a luciferian perspective, an AI-run paste ‘n’ pod system is the most efficient way to pass them through with a clean conscience. From a more malevolent one, tubes can be cut off and cleaning sent through a week later.

In elite sci-fi world, everything gets uncrowded while AI runs the systems and eugenics solve the genomic problem. Selection pressures return to what remains of the non-elite as a store of future human capital. The Federation awaits. As for what actually happens, who knows? Things are going to be very different before too long. And the best path for individuals remains the anti-fragile, organic, extra-beast one I’ve been advocating since the jump. When tectonic forces are moving, we are all subject. The securest place to stand isn’t a guarantee, but better than all alternatives.

Readers know I’m rightfully hard on binary thinking. But being too rigid is itself a binary. The problem isn’t when things really do fall into two groups or options. It’s forcing complex scenarios into a contrived pairs. As with anything, circumstances matter. Sometimes two rough groupings fit the context.

Frank Cadogan Cowper, The Fortune Teller, ‘Beware of a Dark Lady’, 1940, oil on canvas, Russell-Cotes Art Gallery and Museum

Take status. It's a real continuum of tiers across all the divisions of a fragmented society. But within any context anyone can distinguish relative high and low status. It tends to carry over between contexts so long as the culture gulf isn’t too wide. And it’s hard to think of a clearer high/low status divider than emotional mastery.

Status is by definition in the perception of others. And few things submarine that like lack of emotional control. Not talking wild-eyed passion over something worthy. Incontinence. Reacting in ways that the cues don’t deserve.

Words can deceive. By the fruits, reactions are how we know things. Typical female behavior patterns are amusing. But when someone is explosive and volatile, it’s off-putting. And given that social relationships are voluntary ones… Being off-putting is the biggest social status killer there is.

I find it difficult to believe the melting down Gamma is unaware of the physiological consequences of runaway emotion.

Finding solutions to emotional incontinence begins with asking where it comes from. And the only person who can answer that is the excitable one. The path starts with self and situational awareness. Why does [thing X] generate [feeling Y]? An NPC can tell when they’re worked up, even when not admitting it.

Personal anecdote. “Things” were a big part of the Gamma boomer homelife package. My term for random innocuous things that trigger over-the-top reactions. Random innocuous isn’t hyperbole. Yogurt, middle school fads, aerobics classes, making play dates, mountain bikes, the Bee Gees, SMS texting, certain cold cuts… always something.

I was pretty young when I realized this sort of investment was bizarre and didn’t lead anywhere. But I could never understand where it came from. Whether you can hold frame when enraged by a guy’s colorful hat is a separate question from why the hat triggers rage.

It isn’t who’s right most of the time. Most people are NPCs. It’s who is more pleasant to be around. Someone who thinks dumb things but is friendly and sociable is going to be preferred over an abrasive correct creep. Social contexts aren’t work teams or training sessions. No one cares if someone really likes baseball if they’re fun to be around. Voluntary activity has to have other rewards. Hence self and situational awareness in concert.

Not an endorsement. An example.

The increase in Gamma behavior suggests self-control is becoming rarer.¹ Unfortunate given where things are headed. I don’t have an answer because it isn’t one of the problems I have to deal with. It makes sense to do the psychologist thing and investigate where it’s coming from. A lot of people are uncomfortable sharing with others. Self-honesty is totally private. No one needs to know what you ask yourself or the answers you find. But you can use them.²

I’m highly emotion driven. Mercurial to a fault if not self-controlled. Not triggered, because I don’t care about people I’m not connected to. Overreactive, impatient, and situationally obsessive. It’s been a godsend for swimming upstream. But unproductive in other situations. The point is that an excessive emotional nature can be mastered. And that mastery can become habituated to the point where it’s instinctive. I don’t have to remind myself to cool it for a moment anymore. Practice something consciously until it’s a habit is something anyone can do.

But one thing high status people tend to have in common is self-mastery. At least situationally. And the road to that starts with knowing what to master.

Utkin Evgeniy, … into the Future, oil on canvas, 2023

1. Although the Gamma profile is best known for misrepresentation and dishonesty, the lack of emotional control is what makes it so unpleasant. And a potential threat. The affable tale teller can be irritating at times, but is a different order of magnitude from the quick-triggered loon.

2. The notion of counseling is sensible - the problem with modern therapy is centralized “theory” replacing human interaction. Everyone is different in what they respond to. AI can help with self-analysis techniques. Obviously be cautious with the advice, but that applies to therapists equally.