Emperor Narrow Serenades the Needy

(thanks for the picture, Zac)
Well, Hello.
My name is Steve Lupo, and I read radio news at a community radio station in Charlottesville Va. WNRN. My views are what I call 'Post National.'



Oct 4 email to Raed of ‘Raed in the Middle’ Blog. http://raedinthemiddle.blogspot.com//
Title: Hang in there

I don't understand it. People everywhere know how to live in peace. After all, we do it every day, in the places we live, with all the practical hassles and insufferable neighbors we all have. What makes people travel thousands of miles to kill strangers? Clearly those who do so on any side expect the approval of their elders, maybe their country, their deities, and many expect to get paid, or have their families paid.

Personally, I try to embrace what I call a 'post-nationalist' ethic. I don't believe in countries or churches as mechanisms to legitimize violence. Responsibility rests and remains with the individual, and to say 'I was under orders' is just a lame excuse. In my book, violence is just violence, and those who do it are in the wrong, and if they are doing violence blindly under orders, then that is even worse. For this reason, in any war, I tend to support the 'home team,' the side which is defending against outside aggression. Sadly, I have never been able to 'cheer for' the USA side in any war in my lifetime. (I had to settle for helping to pay for it.) If I had my way, any armed man anywhere in the world who was more than 50 miles from home would be assumed to be a criminal and arrested. (By a gang of local citizen soldiers, I suppose.) Clearly he's up to no good. -30-

Post Nationalism
What comes after the nation-state?
Two possible answers come immediately to mind: the Corporation, and the Tribe. In all likelihood the future will continue to be both more corporate and more tribal, leaving less of the ‘pie’ for the Nation-state, church, nuclear family, or any other institutions.
Corporate, because the corporation has become the institution of choice for the aristocrats of our age. The corporation creates a shell from within which money and power can be, indeed must be, pursued with dedication, discipline, and utter disregard for the consequences. From within that shell, individuals can behave in ways they would never do as their ‘actual’ selves, which is to say, ways they never would if they were not at work.* Huge resources can be wielded from within the shell, by any number of hired people, in any number of countries, above-board and below. Why would ambitious people bother with government, then? For the most part, they don’t. They pay politicians because it costs less than the taxes would if they did not pay politicians. But they do not Become politicians, unless they are lunatics.
Tribal, because in a broad sense, our affinities and identities will be with those we know and perceive to be like us. Corporate people will have a tribe-like feeling for one another, and corporations will strive to social-engineer just the right group self-image. But other tribes will emerge. Some will be based in part on geographic nearness, and or ‘blood’ like traditional tribes. Others will be based on some similar interest (motorcyclists come to mind.) Many new tribes we can now only imagine will emerge based on computer networks, electric mafia-cults, strange drugs, waking gods, people whose common bond is some disaster, like the recent one-two hurricanes, or one of the interesting new diseases, networked hordes of bargain-hunters and figurine collectors... Fundementalist movements, of all stripes all over the world, are deeply tribal in nature. They are tribes that systematically recruit and indoctrinate individuals (to recruit and indoctrinate...)

I need to watch that, writing with confidence about the future, or the fundies. I don't really know. As Robert Anton Wilson says, all perception is a gamble. On the other hand, I feel like saying things will be more corporate and more tribal is a pretty safe bet, (especially given the flexibility of the terms) and we are seeing the growing irrelevence of, say, institutions of government.

What this means is that the things we used to count on the government for, like education, transportation, protection, basic services, social safety net, we now need to do for ourselves. We need to find new ways to make these functions happen without Santa Claus, Jesus, or Big Brother. (FDR, either) We need to discover new competencies in ourselves, and new ways to network those competencies to get things done within the 'alternative community.'