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Techvolution: A New Philosophy - Midpoint
Internet Age vs. Industrial Age
Stargazer, before we return to the battle with Darth Blockbuster, let's learn from another battle in the war to upgrade to the Internet Age. Let's talk about how we used modern technology to better record and access knowledge.
Humanity is always asking questions. Some of those today might be, why are the movies so expensive, are candy applies real apples, or, more importantly, what are proven techniques to stop the coronavirus. Humanity deals with all these questions by creating a reference tool.
Our first reference tool was the wisdom of our elders. We eventually upgraded when inventing papyrus scrolls and ink (around 2300 BC) and books (about 300 BC), which turned some elders into experts like Hippocrates and Aristotle. When wood-pulp paper (1200) and the printing press (1456) were invented, humanity unleashed mass-produced books. Now experts could share knowledge between themselves and educate the masses.
We called the reference books encyclopedias.
Encyclopedias were a massive hit. Up until a generation ago, many households proudly included a physical encyclopedia collection in their library. The Encyclopedia Britannica (1878) was the standard. In 1933 it started to be re-published every year to keep people updated to the latest facts. When the Internet Age hit in the 1970s, home computers, digital printers, and telecommunications meant encyclopedias were written and stored digitally.
But they remained a set of printed books and CD's controlled by experts.
Then came the world wide web (1991), a new technology that brought the internet and the Internet Age, directly to the middle-class homes. The web lets ordinary people send and receive information like anyone in Big Business or Big Government.
This new technology unlocked many new tools like websites, forums, blogs, and something called "wikis." Wiki software lets anyone write or edit a webpage by pressing "edit now." All changes are saved, so anyone can erase errors or vandalism by pressing "undo now." For years programmers used wikis to write technical manuals collaboratively.
As the web boomed in the late '90s, protagonist Jimmy Wales wondered if the internet could upgrade encyclopedias. Today, most of us curious about things like the movies or candy apples know this story ends with a free online encyclopedia anyone can edit called Wikipedia. Indeed the online encyclopedia anyone can edit is the poster child for the era of mass-collaboration.
But Wikipedia didn't start out as the favorite kid.
Wikipedia started as Nupedia (2000), a free online copycat of Encyclopedia Britannica. Nupedia followed the Industrial Age rationale of making gates. It said only "expert" professors were qualified to write articles. Wikipedia (2001) was a side project. Only the programmers, designers, innovators of the Internet Age knew mass-collaboration was the way of the future.
Everyone else didn't realize that a new technological age brings a modern philosophy as well. The first sign of a problem with Nupedia was that the professors didn't like to share their knowledge. In its first year, Nupedia had 12 articles.
Wikipedia had 40,000.
And here rose Wikipedia's antagonists. Professors loved to belittle the public's articles as rubbish. They even used the Death Star and disallowed students from referencing Wikipedia's materials in their school work. Yet professors refused to improve, or to assign students to improve, Wikipedia.
Instead of stepping up, the professors performed some dark majic. Despite exceptional referencing abilities and wide-spread adoption, our society's official (and very knowledgeable) experts still tried to convince people Wikipedia was garbage.
The professors felt the lever of power over society's knowledge was theirs by right.
The professors' problem was it turned out "expert" answers, and "regular" answers are the same. The movies are expensive because of the 1948 Paramount Decrees banning studios working with theatres. Candy apples are real apples. While washing hands and social distancing are so far the best defense against COVID-19.
We can all look up these facts because Wikipedia puts the levers of power into our hands! A massive community voluntarily shares their knowledge one "edit now" at a time and fiercely protects their common knowledge with "undo now."
Nobody tells them, pays them, or forces them to.
Because writing or reading a Wikipedia article, is Nature's majic, and thus it's own reward. It's not perfect, there's still room for improvement, but Wikipedia is far better than buying an encyclopedia set every few years. Heck, while writing this book, I've used YouTube, Project Gutenberg, and Wikipedia dozens of times and never checked my university lecture notes or course readers once. Not out of malice, digital tools are simply faster to search through.
That's the story of Wikipedia. Invented by protagonists, upgraded to society's reference tool by player gods. Few believed it was possible because even professional educators can't admit new tools are supposed to unpower the few, to empower the rest.
Interestingly, after I finally conceded temporary defeat to my personal Darth Blockbuster, I uploaded a few pages to Wikipedia instead. Not as helpful as my app, but it took just a few weeks of work, and one "edit now" button, to make it real.
My Wikipedia pages make car insurance policy rules and accident fault regulations a little easier to understand. And by opening up society's rulebook, I constructed a tiny piece of the Internet Age rulebook, i.e., the Life Star.
That's why it felt so majical to press "edit now." With every piece of open and easy to read rules, the Death Star gets a little smaller.
Doing that definitely put a big smile on my face.
Death Star Goes KaBoom
Stargazer, let's take a second to appreciate the irony of pain. Every lifeform hates it, but without feeling hunger, thirst, or cold, we wouldn't exist. Evolution is a series of adaptions to pain. A caged polar bear can't adapt to the Artic's changing environment. Only the hungry bears on the frontline can save the species.
The middle-class flocked to Wikipedia, internet music, and online movies. We didn't need marches or protests. To evolve humanity, we only needed to use the tool that made our lives easier.
And we're right to be very selfish because we're the ones feeling frontline pain.
Of course, the antagonists will disagree. But they have a distorted perspective. After all, in just a few decades, the formal education industry has given American college students 1.5 trillion in student debt. Hollywood is hardly thinking of the big-picture. They get billions in subsidies despite having empty theatres, bad movies, off-shored production, and many splendid banquets and balls. Not to mention a culture of "creative accounting" and sexual predators.
The middle-class is the beacon of evolution because we have no ulterior motives.
We are rational beings simply because we feel the pain of everyday life. We rightfully rejected the dark majic of Blu-ray and HD-DVD and endured the Death Star attacks when using BitTorrents.
And if you still doubt that Main Street is inherently just, realize this.
Once Jedi Reed Hastings gave the public internet streaming at a fair price with Netflix (2008), the middle-class proved the frontline's superior morality.
Look at the graph below. You'll see the Industrial Age evolving into the Internet Age. This is the power of an empowered middle-class practicing good politics and grabbing the levers of power.
Evolution is always right in Nature, and Techvolution is always right in the game of civilization.
Main Street flocked to Netflix because it was a fair deal and a much better product then either DVDs or torrents. Because we acted like player gods and upgraded our tools, we evolved our society to the Internet Age.
Before this transformation, I was buying DVDs when I could afford them. Like most of Main Street, I got dozens collecting dust somewhere. Darth Blockbuster never said he was wrong about DVDs being the better choice.
I wonder, do you think he'll buy them all back? I'll talk half-price.
We've Blown Up One Death Star, Now Here's How We Win the War
So Stargazer, we did well with Wikipedia and Netflix. Despite great antagonism, we upgraded two sectors of our society to the Internet Age. To keep the momentum going, we have to keep making you happy.
You must realize by now, there's no reason to antagonize. The Internet Age has only just started. The Space Exploration Age is still a dream. Darth Blockbuster can change his ways and earn true glory by helping mankind prosper to new heights in our never-ending game of civilization.
Sadly, regardless of the opportunity to be a true hero, some people choose to hold humanity back. Today, there is an entire class of middlemen, consultants, administrators, managers, and executives who don't know the skills of their industry like nursing, teaching, and (definitely not) cleaning. Their power comes from guarding the gates of an Industrial Age technology.
Together, protagonists and player gods can overcome these committed antagonists and bring on the full might of the Internet Age. I know this is possible because we've done it before. Our struggle to upgrade civilization was fought generations ago with Darth Blockbuster's master: Darth King.
Darth King ruled atop a vast hierarchy. He lived inside gated palaces, using society's money to host splendid banquets and balls. His absolute control over society's levers of power was hidden by the Medieval Age's ruling philosophy of the "noble's divine right to rule."
Inevitably, protagonists invented new tools such as scientific instruments, books, and guns in the Age of Science, and the Age of Enlightenment. These new tools promoted individuality, freedom of speech, and universal equality. When the people grab these new levers of power, they fought for these rights as player gods in the American and French Revolutions.
These revolutionaries were inspired by the new philosophy of Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
Freeing Cinderella
"Player gods are born free, and everywhere they are tricked into being extras," Rousseau said that in 1762. Actually, he didn't. He said, "people are born free, and everywhere they are in chains." But the idea is the same. Rousseau was the son of a Swiss watchmaker who grew up to be a famous (or infamous) writer. Infamy didn't pay much, so the philosopher often had to copy sheets of music to make his rent.
In return for infamy and near poverty, Rousseau is considered a hero in the pages of history. Because more than 300 years after his death, he is recognized as being a great philosopher, a political visionary, and a protagonist who helped free the world with his new philosophy.
Rousseau lived when kings and queens, dukes, and duchesses ruled civilization. A time when Mozart played inside exquisite palaces during the nobility's many banquets and balls. This was the opulence Cinderella dreamed about while cleaning a dirty chateau. Sadly, unlike the fairy tale, the people didn't have a Fairy Godmother to make their dreams come true. Instead, the commoners cleaned the nobles' vast libraries, used guns while dying in their wars, and were told to ignore what scientific instruments revealed.
The people were distracted from the power of new tools by dark majic. As extras, they truly believed their beloved Holy Bible said only Darth King had the right to rule. The commoners even accepted paying all the taxes.
Rousseau called bullshit. In truth, Jesus was a carpenter, a commoner just like any other person. So, why can't everyone live up to their potential and become heroes of their own lives? Rousseau made the people understand that books, guns, and scientific instruments should liberate extras, who were only in chains for the happiness of con artists.
The self-proclaimed "divine nobility" didn't like hearing that, they especially disliked the idea of paying taxes. The nobles declared Rousseau a banquet-pooper, a rule-breaker, and chased him out of Switzerland, France, and England. Maybe that's why the genius philosopher rented instead of owned.
Chasing Rousseau around Europe didn't stop history. Society was well inside the Age of Enlightenment. Thus the nobility was in the dying days of their Medieval Age ruling philosophy.
In 1776, during Rousseau's lifetime, Darth King faced the music when the American people started a revolution. One year after Rousseau died, the French had their own uprising in 1789. And on it went from country to country because Rousseau, and others like him, made extras realize they should become player gods in a country "of the people, for the people, by the people."
Cinderella soon forgot about the fancy ball, and instead sung the music of freedom in a choir of equals, that went something like this:
Revolution spread people's liberty, equality, and fraternity throughout the world. In a few years, the Medieval Age was finally gone. The dark majic of fake holiness was exposed, and the royal Death Star rulebook was destroyed.
In the Age of Enlightenment, everyone paid taxes and was answerable to the same laws. Church and State were separate. The government had checks and balances. Holding the levers of power let Main Street put presidents and senators, judges, and sheriffs in power, who ruled at the people's request because the people were player gods.
Rousseau died never having found a home. After they won their revolutions, the people put him to rest inside the glorious Panthéon. The wandering philosopher was heralded as a renowned breaker of chains, a revealer of dark majic, destroyer of corrupted rulebooks, and liberator of player gods with his new philosophy.
Such was the reward ordinary people gave to the person who said any guy can be the prince, and any girl can be Cinderella.
The question for us is, how did Rousseau help an entire people embrace a new age, become player gods, and change their ruling philosophy? I'd especially like to know how we do it better because I'd really like to skip horrible civil wars and revolutions as we venture into the Internet Age.
Old Philosophy vs. New Philosophy
Techvolution is a philosophy book, but I don't directly reference past philosophies. Like any topic, it takes some practice to read. However, I thought it might help to study the subject a little. Below are snippets from two influential philosophers.
One who hated Rousseau's ideas, and another who loved them:
SINCE the time that learning began to flourish there has been a common opinion maintained which affirms: "Mankind is naturally endowed and born with freedom, and at liberty to choose what form of government it please, and that the power which any one man has over others was at first bestowed according to the discretion of the people."
But how this vulgar opinion has of late obtained a great reputation is unknown to me. It is not to be found in the ancient fathers and doctors of the true Church. It contradicts the doctrine and history of the Holy Scriptures, the practice of all ancient monarchies, and the very principles of the law of Nature. It is hard to say whether it is more erroneous in divinity or dangerous in policy.
This desperate assertion whereby kings are made subject to the judgements and deprivations of their subjects follows as a necessary consequence of foolhardy position of the supposed natural equality and freedom of mankind. The people do not have the liberty to choose what form of government they please.
Patricia, Or the Natural Power of Kings by Robert Filmer 1680 (I made small edits for readability's sake)
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. —That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, —That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
Declaration of Independence by Thomas Jefferson July 4, 1776
There are always many philosophies to believe in. Only when the people become player gods do we get to declare which should be our ruling philosophy.
Let's see how our ancestors on Main Street won their battle against noble kings, so we can honor their legacy and upgrade society today.
Society's Three Stories Tell Us If We're Watching the Story of Civilization, or Playing the Game of Civilization
Entering a new age doesn't require war, peace treaties, and funny unfinished portraits. Unfortunately, conflict usually tears down the old age and rings in the new. To avoid it while entering the Internet Age, we have to see our society better than Rousseau did. We can do that because we can learn from him.
The French philosopher never said there shouldn't be leaders. He said leaders should deserve their spot in charge of the player god's general will. George Washington is good, King George is bad because the people were free to find out who should operate their government.
He didn't phrase it like this, of course, but that's what Rousseau basically said. He understood every new age needs a modern philosophy that unites the people into thinking of the big picture and making a new player god.
So how did Rousseau turn extras into player gods? How did he reveal dark majic and expose the Death Star?
Rousseau used stories.
With all the talk of heroes and villains, extras, and player gods, it shouldn't be a surprise that the troublemaking philosopher was also a great novelist.
So let's explain the three different stories that Rousseau used to change the world.
Classic stories: A protagonist in a classic story leaves her typical day and builds up the courage to think of the big picture. Either she acts to overcome a newfound problem or no one else will.
"The ice-caps are melting!" says the heroic polar bear, and "I'm going to make the humans use renewable energy!"
If only it was that simple.
But that's the point. To a protagonist, solutions are simple. The hero willing takes the first plunge because it's the leader's job to save the community from disaster.
This unrelenting drive attracts supporters, and together the good guys move forward and force the antagonists to try and stop them.
Both sides fight to create or control levers of power like magic books, love potions, or the secret lesson to make humans use renewable energy.
It all comes to the climax when both sides risk it all to win.
If the protagonist wins, a problem is solved, and the leader returns to being an equal member of the community. If she fails, their leadership expires, and someone else can take a crack at the problem.
There's no way to know which stories will resonate with audiences. Still, only classic stories can resonate with audiences and become archetypes like Cinderella, Romeo and Juliette, The Matrix, Harry Potter, and Star Wars.
Selfish stories: also called art films, these stories are not about any specific problem. The main character doesn't challenge themselves or rise to the occasion. They think the big picture is doing whatever they feel like doing.
The main character is thus egotistical, selfish, and a con-artist. Not because he doesn't help others. But because he wants it both ways. He wants to be the leader without also taking the responsibility to overcome a problem.
The selfish hero wants something for nothing. With nothing to gain, the selfish hero's followers, if any, aren't happy.
The selfish hero is a polar bear who marches with their friends holding climate change signs. Instead of venturing in the blackness to actually solve the problem.
Selfish stories thus have no levers of power. Instead, art stories showcase the main characters' idiosyncratic behavior and fashion sense. Selfish stories are surprising to the point of being weird, and can't improve the world because the main character didn't even try to. Film festivals like Cannes, Sundance, and Toronto mainly show selfish films using the dark majic of celebrity to attract attention.
Spectacle stories: also called blockbusters, these stories are about an obvious problem, i.e., Godzilla is here, so run like hell and keep running until the movie is over. Spectacle movies are straightforward because the problem is straightforward; survive or die. However, since the action is so instinctual, there's no time for the protagonist to think of new ideas. The result is logical but unsurprising stories.
In a spectacle movie, the polar bears may fight off Arctic oil drilling. Still, these spectacular victories do not create a new lever of power. After the story ends, the world still uses oil, and thus climate change continues to kill all the polar bears.
To stay relevant, blockbusters reuse old stories and characters. However, each replicated story gets less attractive, forcing its producers to look for new customers with hype-filled, dark majic, marketing campaigns. Most franchise movies, sequels, and remakes are blockbuster stories.
These are the three-story categories. In a nutshell, classic stories tackle real-life problems. Selfish stories are self-obsessed. Spectacle stories are a distraction. This is why selfish/spectacle stories don't have "spoilers," while we want to "go in fresh" for classic stories.
Society transitions from classic too selfish/spectacle inside ages. You can see the change in your favorite sitcom, such as The Office, Friends, HIMYM, The Big Bang Theory. They start off as classic stories, with characters who deal with relatable problems. For example, not liking their jobs or being tired of dating.
We watch episode after episode because we see ourselves in these characters. We laugh and cry in recognition because we're living the same life on Main Street.
However, in later seasons, to keep their now popular characters alive, the sitcom characters stop evolving.
Kramer never gets a job, Raj can't get a girl, Dwight doesn't get self-aware. Here sitcoms become selfish and spectacle stories. Selfish, because the main characters don't overcome problems anymore. And, spectacle, because we in the audience keep re-watching our favorite actors, characters, sets, catch-phrases, instead of looking for a new story. The turning point between a classic story and a selfish/spectacle story is often called "jumping the shark."
Rousseau explained how society goes through classic, selfish, and spectacle stories as we develop through ages. When we start a new era, it's like watching the first years of the sitcom. Everyone in the cast is solving everyday problems. The main characters have earned their spot by taking risks to solve community problems. The followers are happy being part of a classic story.
At the end of the age, the leaders are self-important. And the people are unhappy and only loyal out of habit.
Thus, in short, Rousseau noticed how the classic story works to advance and help society, and the other two work to enrich the selfish artists and distract the masses.
With this in mind, Darth Blockbuster isn't only named after the company and the DVD. He's also named after the spectacle antagonists use to mask their unfair leadership that's keeping us in the Industrial Age forever.
At that's the problem Techvolution has to solve with a click of a new philosophy.
Clicking
We've already seen ordinary people click a new philosophy. When the unhappy people on Paris Main Street clicked "upgrade" and happily sung, "do you hear the people sing."
You can also see this click in the movie called The Matrix. This classic story is about a dystopian Earth in the not too distant future.
Our planet became a dark place. Humanity lost the war to control modern levers of power to "the machines." Now mankind is unknowingly trapped inside a virtual reality called the Matrix. The dream world is created by the machines to distract humans while using our bodies as an energy source.
The Matrix looks and feels like 1990s America. It's a wonderfully believable world of dark majic. A never-ending spectacle story to keep the selfish machines in power. Since it's fake, it's rules are also made up by the machines.
The story's protagonist is a regular person named Neo. He's unhappy with his life. He finds solace by asking an innocent question, "what is the Matrix?"
Neo must work hard to see that truth for himself. Neo's willingness to question reality eventually gets him recruited by the few untapped humans already rebelling their minds against the machines.
Neo joins them. Soon he learns how to see through the dark majic of the Matrix's illusions. Even better, Neo is taught the supposed unbreakable rules of the Matrix can, in fact, be broken.
Anyone can break them if one learns to ignore rules written by the machines. Neo does and soon learns many new majical abilities to expand his cyborgology like martial arts, jumping high, and even how to dodge bullets.
Neo soon gets noticed by the enforcers of the Matrix. These "Agents" seek out rule-breakers and punish them with their mastery of the Matrix's rulebook. Their powers are inhuman strength, speed, and the loyalty of the extras still plugged in.
Neo counters by mastering more levers of power such as guns, explosions, and helicopters.
Neo wins. Because while mastering the rulebook makes the Agents powerful, the enforcers are limited by the limits of their fake rules.
Since Neo is creating a new way of life, he is free to expand his mind to endless horizons. In fact, Neo's mind becomes so open, he can fully "decode the Matrix". With this skill, Neo's power grows so much, he stops bullets in mid-air, fights, and defeats the Agents.
Neo discovers, as Frederick Douglass would undoubtedly agree, freedom of thought is the most significant lever of power.
After Neo defeats the antagonist agents, he calls the machine's bosses and says:
I know you're out there. I can feel you now. I know you're afraid. You're afraid of us. You're afraid of change. I don't know the future. I didn't come here to tell you how this is going to end. I came here to tell you how this is going to begin. I'm going to hang up this phone. And then I'm going to show these people what you don't want them to see. I'm going to show them a world without you. A world without rules and controls, without borders or boundaries. A world where anything is possible. Where we go from there, is a choice I leave to you.
Rousseau would have been proud.
As for our real-life. We start seeing the Matrix when we begin judging our society's performance instead of assuming that whatever culture, rules, and traditions exist must be good.
Of course, we "judge" or ruling philosophy by merely asking, "am I happy?"
Neo wasn't, and so he ventured to see through dark majic, learned how to ignore the corrupted rulebook, and thus started to see a better way of life for everyone. Neo is a hero because he created an updated philosophy, so the extras of the Matrix could follow him, and become player gods again.
That's what the Matrix is. The combination of dark majic and old rulebook of a bygone age used to prevent humanity from evolving to the next technological age.
So, let's build on Neo's lesson and see how our ancestors evolved and clicked Rousseau's new philosophy to defeat Darth King.
Protagonist Kings
The first thing you must know is that not all kings were con artists.
There's a good reason we tell ourselves stories of gallant knights and dreamy princesses. The first divine leaders were, in fact, great heroes of a classic tale. Indeed, these kings and their noble families defeated monsters to create a peaceful country for ordinary people to live in.
The people needed peace badly. As aforementioned, when a civilization falls no one wins. And after western Rome fell in 476, western Europe entered the Early Medieval Ages (500-1000). Often called the Dark Ages because there were few books, ink, or even literate people to write anything down. When Rome was no more, advanced civilization was gone, most infrastructure like sanitation, roads, and farms was left to rot. Anarchy ruled where Rome's Caesars once did.
People like Clovis I, Charles Martel, and Alfred the Great took charge. They said, "follow me, recognize my political rights, and I'll rebuild civilization."
These leaders were the ones for the job. They were master warriors who used swords, bows, armor, and cavalry to expand their kingdoms, keep away vandals, and fight off invading Vikings and Arabs. Even better, they headed large families who kept a growing peace. Soon, the king's sons, nephews, and cousins were busily rebuilding roads, bridges, castles, cities, markets, and hospitals throughout their family's kingdom.
The Early Medieval Ages was a classic story because heroes solved real-life problems with tools, buildings, infrastructure, and other levers of power.
It wasn't long before the early Middle Ages European society formed a hierarchy called Feudalism. You've probably seen it in stories like Robin Hood or Game of Thrones. Feudalism cemented the personal rule of the first leaders with a rigid ranking of kings, bishops, dukes, sheriffs, knights, priests, tradesmen, and peasants. In return for loyalty, the people at the bottom got what was called the "King's Peace."
It was a good deal. The growing peace returned civilization to western Europe. Soon the people had new and better shovels, oxen, wood houses, buckets, sickles, and other tools to expand their cyborgology. Since the kings did such a good job, society happily recognized them as heroes, or "Protagonist Kings."
This was the start of the "noble divine right to rule." And, the divine kings took their job seriously. They had many battle scars to prove it.
Under the rule of Protagonist Kings, Western Civilization rebuilt political institutions, court systems, town councils, sanitation departments. Peace, let the player god save up the money to start pressing upgrade again.
But it was slow going. By the time Western Europe had a fully functioning civilization again at the Renaissance (1400-1600), nobody could remember why the story of divine nobility had started. Who could blame them, the story was already 1000 years old. Do you remember what happened 1000 years ago?
As Europe went through the Renaissance, the Age of Science (1543-1687), the Age of Enlightenment (1715 to 1789), the invaders were increasingly gone. As a result, fresh water was available, the roads were clean, the markets were busy. The once Protagoinst Kings were now merely born at the head of civilized governments.
The only thing that didn't change was the culture of royalty. The leaders had the title of king but were no longer protagonists. Instead, they lived lavishly and outright refused to let society grow out of the "nobles divine right to rule" philosophy.
Society's leaders thus became Antagonist Kings.
Antagonist Kings
By the time Europe entered the Renaissance, the system had done its job. The nobles were no longer protagonists, but merely ordinary people who happened to be born with "noble blood." For the most part, they only waged war against each other, and usually only for personal glory, or "gloire" as they called it.
Otherwise, nobles sat atop a hierarchy who paid no taxes, did not work, and answered to no one. These antagonist nobles used peace and prosperity to replace armor with dresses, churches with cathedrals, and castles with palaces.
Loving life, and without opposition, these nobles conned the people, and themselves, with art and spectacle. They lived inside a self-important culture, where weird behavior, childish gossip, and useless titles were the norm.
And they diverted the people with spectacle.
Brilliant cathedrals, royal palaces, and terrible and meaningless conflicts like the Thirty Years War, all helped to keep the masses occupied. Like blockbuster movies, all these spectacles got more intense, to keep the people noticing how old the story of "noble divinity" really was.
Antagonists Kings had no personal achievements. They took no risks but took credit for the accomplishments of civilization as if they were the player god responsible for it all.
Antagonist Kings spent society's money on themselves and didn't reinvest it to help win the game of civilization. Main Street became increasingly unhappy as frontline problems piled up. Their houses were still thatched, food was still scarce, and they did manual labor all day. The people paid all the taxes but were still banned from advancing in official society.
Antagonist Kings turned society into a near dystopia.
The leaders fought against distributing the benefits of an advancing civilization to the people doing the work on the frontline. We thus rightfully call Antagonist Kings, Darth King. The nobles lost the plot of their own stories. They turned their people from player gods into extras and put them inside the Matrix.
Trying to keep society in the Medieval Age sent Darth King's civilizations into revolutions, and cost him his head.
Angels and Demons On Our Shoulders
I'm not sure if you know this Stargazer, but the Devil was once the Angel Lucifer. He fell from God's grace after succumbing to vanity and greed. Likewise, Lord's Sauron, Vader, Voldemort were all once heroes of a classic tale. As the saying goes, "power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."
The switch over from a classic to a selfish/spectacle story is never easy to see. In fact, Darth King thought he was a good guy, an angel, in fact. As philosophers like Rousseau were saying humanity needed more tolerance, equality, and compassion, the nobility actually agreed with many of these values.
After all, the leaders believed they were protectors of their flock. That's why monarchs such as Frederick I, Emperor Joseph II, and Catherine II, called themselves "enlighten monarchs." The trending royal mentality was, "Everything for the people, nothing by the people."
We can see how self-serving this mentality is. Why couldn't the nobles pay taxes? Why couldn't the people have a fair judicial system? Why couldn't merit decide who gets the job? Enlightened monarchs preached one thing and did another.
The point is Darth King wasn't evil for being born into nobility. He was evil for holding his unhappy people back from enjoying the majic of playing the game of civilization.
The nobles thus became fallen heroes. They lived inside a selfish story. And sadly, this story of fallen kings is repeating itself in our modern times.
Our antagonists are also heroes fallen from grace.
Fallen Heroes
It's important to note, while Rousseau's followers were politically free, they were economically desperate. Hunger, disease, unemployment, illiteracy were frequent after the American, French, and following revolutions. Rousseau's time was basically one of "economic anarchy." As we've already seen, this was when Left/Right philosophies were born. Their writers like Adam Smith, Edmund Burke, and John Stuart Mill definitely wanted liberty from kings.
But they were also obsessed with economic growth to bring the people up from poverty.
Society loved the original kings for winning the "King's Peace." Likewise, the initial economic kings were heroes of the mass-production era for winning the "Executive's Prosperity." These heroes said follow me, recognize my property rights, work (hard as hell) for my company, and we'll all be better off.
The people did. The executives were correct, and society upgraded its technology very fast because of their leadership. As a result, everyone, even the factory workers, could buy new tools like lightbulbs, stoves, and telephones.
The original leaders of the Industrial Age told a good story, and the people were happy player gods inside society's new factories, warehouses, and offices. Of course they had to fight, strike, and vote to get more of the pie. But most people wanted to work for protagonists like Andrew Carnegie, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Louis B. Mayer. These leaders were the ones leading the way.
But, the Industrial Age eventually ended.
Within a few generations, lightbulbs, stoves, and telephones were no longer new. Like we saw in the Mad Men clip about marketing tobacco, the descendants of the Protagonist Executives didn't earn their spots as society's leaders. They couldn't invent anything to help their community prosper in the Internet Age.
Starting in 1970, society thus began to be lead by antagonists again. These leaders often fight for personal glory and profit, or "greed is good" as they call it. Being lead by antagonists should both worry and make you happy, Stargazer.
First, the worrying part. Darth Blockbuster defends the Industrial Age because it makes him powerful. He surrounds himself with a story of self-importance (like award shows) and funds ways to distracts the people (like spectacle movies).
That's why, since entering the Internet Age, dark majic has skyrocketed in our society. The once humble American Dream to own a home, and make an honest living, became a lifestyle of spectacle.
Small homes became McMansions with luxury baths and kitchens. Cars aren't one for a family, but one per person and still got far too big, with too much chrome and horsepower. Televisions increased in size to ludicrous proportions. Food got supersized while sugar was added to everything we eat. Being a sports fan went from being a fun distraction to a full-time occupation. Movies became franchise stories filled with special effects, gore, and celebrities that were retold over and over.
New technology was used to make a Matrix instead of making the Internet Age. Dark majic and a massive rulebook were made to keep the Industrial Age alive.
After 1969, a nation of protagonists and player gods became a society of antagonists and extras.
In return, the people got fancier stuff, with the added benefit of diabetes, traffic, and climate change. All because Darth Oil, Telephone, Suburbs, Sugar, Blockbuster needed to distract the people from upgrading to the Internet Age and digital mass-collaboration.
The good news is, where not at a "let's burn down society" point yet. We can transition to the Internet Age ourselves before the frontline gets so bad and so unhappy we start a bloody revolution.
We can click a new philosophy, we can usher in the era of mass-collaboration, all by ourselves today.