J.D. Moyer

science fiction author, beatmaker, against fascism

Author: J.D. Moyer Page 20 of 104

J.D. Moyer is a science fiction author and electronic music producer from Oakland, California.

Is the United States Antifragile?

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On December 16

In Culture Rants/Shares, Politics

Author Nassim Taleb coined the term antifragile, which describes an entity or system that becomes stronger in response to stress. Bones are generally antifragile; if exposed to impact stress bones tend to get denser and stronger. Though even antifragile systems have weaknesses and breaking points. Bird bones are particularly resistant to torque stress but weak to impact stress; human bones the converse (as I learned the hard way when I twisted my foot on a curb). But antifragile systems have the capacity to strengthen in response to stress, pressure, volatility, and chaos.

So what about the United States? Our relatively young nation has been subjected to extreme stress multiple times, most notably the Civil War, two World Wars, the Great Depression, and the civil rights movement and cultural changes of the 1960’s. The current pandemic, resulting economic crisis, and Donald Trump’s conspiracy-theory-fueled, GOP-backed attempted coup poses the most serious threat to our national stability and integrity in my own memory.

Is there something about our governmental systems, national character, and/or geography that make us antifragile?

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What Will the Structural Collapse (or Rebirth) of the United States Look Like?

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On November 14

In Culture Rants/Shares, Politics, Utopian Speculations

Let’s start the weekend with some gloom-and-doom, shall we?

First, Chris Hedges, a journalist who has been calling out the moral bankruptcy and pyramid-scheme economy of the United States for some time.

In this short film by Amanda Zackem, Hedges highlights the bread-and-circuses distractions of entertainment, consumerism, and digital media that distract U.S. citizens from the plutocratic consolidation of wealth and plundering of the state.

Next, let’s spend some time with Peter Turchin and his mathematical approach to “megahistory” in this excellent profile by Graeme Wood. Turchin, a Russian zoologist who turned his attention to the study of mathematical patterns in human history, famously predicted the unrest of 2020 back in 2010. Turchin believes he has uncovered iron laws of human societal evolution, cycles of unrest perpetuated by the “overproduction of elites.” In the United States, Turchin asserts that 1920, 1970, and 2020 are all points of major civil unrest on his 50-year historical cycle graph.

Peter Turchin hypothesizes that too many elites competing for too few elite positions leads to the creation of “counter-elites”: troublemakers who rise to power by allying with the non-elite classes. He gives Steve Bannon as an example of a counter-elite. Bannon was raised working-class, attended Harvard Business School, got rich via various investments and a small share of the Seinfeld television show, but only rose to power via his Breitbart race-baiting tactics.

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How to Deal with Your Whiteness

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On November 10

In Culture Rants/Shares, Politics

Trump was elected because of whites. He was almost reelected because of whites.

“Rural” voters supported Trump, as did “working class” voters. But those are codes for white rural voters and white working class voters. African-American rural and working class voters didn’t support Trump. Asian-American rural and working class voters didn’t support the “kung-flu” president either.

Trump ran on whiteness and was nearly reelected on whiteness. His language regarding the “greatness” of America was code for a white-dominated America protecting itself against non-white foreigners. Given multiple opportunities, he consistently refused to denounce white supremacy.

Despite his utter incompetence, open racism, misogyny, and catastrophic mishandling of the pandemic, Trump won the majority of the white vote. Again. Whites, as a group, failed to denounce Trump and all that he stands for.

White people, including white liberals such as myself who didn’t vote for Trump and spoke out against for him for four years, have a problem. And that problem is whiteness itself, and our stubborn, overly sensitive refusal to acknowledge and deal with it.

Triggered

Are you triggered, being referred to as part of the white voting bloc? I know I am. I want to be seen as an individual. I don’t want to take responsibility for the collective actions of my broad cultural category. Why should I? I didn’t vote for Trump. I hate the guy and everything he stands for.

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Remembering to Be Emotionally Non-Reactive (Electric Hot Tub Emergency)

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On October 26

In Mental Health, Metaprogramming

Not our house, not our hot tub.

My wife and daughter really wanted a hot tub. Eventually they convinced me. And with all the money we’ve saved by not traveling or eating out during the pandemic, we could afford it.

There were two dozen things that needed to happen in the back yard before we could put in the hot tub. An old trellis needed removing. Some post holes needed to be filled with concrete. A fence needed repairing.

Eventually we completed all these tasks as a family. The hot tub arrived. Our electrician installed it.

And it didn’t work. It turned on but it didn’t heat up. Instead of a hot tub we just had a tub.

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Mental Health Plan for Wildfires-Pandemic-Trumpocalypse

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On September 10

In Mental Health

Here in Oakland, more people live on the streets than ever, many of them mentally ill. California is on fire. Our president is a narcissist criminal huckster leveraging his office for profit and destroying the best of our institutions and the environment before he goes down in flames himself. Covid-19 is on track to kill at least a million people worldwide, 20% of those deaths in the U.S.

The world is a dumpster fire.

And yet I feel pretty good.

Over the past few years I’ve developed my mental health plan into a smoothly functioning, robust, anti-fragile system that buoys my mood and protects me from the worst symptoms of depression and anxiety. Of course I’m still vulnerable to the stress of unexpected and negative events, but I’ve learned a lot from weathering a few chronic health conditions, illness and death in the family, job insecurity, parenting difficulties, and all the bullshit mentioned in the first paragraph.

Here’s my current plan, for what it’s worth. Maybe it will help you develop your own system to address your crushing anxiety, dread, and depression.

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