Universal Basic Income = Paying People to Participate in Society

And the Real Implications of This

I have taken a liking to looking at civilization in the way that Oswald Spengler viewed it. A cyclical process, like any living organism, with a youth, adulthood, and an old age. This is not to say that civilizations are alive or not. However, similar to how I see Artificial Intelligence, “if we can’t tell the difference, then the question doesn’t matter.”

I think I resonate with Spengler’s view so far because in a lot of ways it is a cybernetic, or systems theory view on a societal scale. I haven’t finished reading all his ideas but I think he makes very interesting observations for his time. I would even go so far as to say that he is one of many characters in a new zeighist that will replace our current one.

Anyway, why do I bring this up?

Because I think looking at our society from this meta perspective gives a very unique perspective of the times we are living in.

The talk of Universal Basic Income is increasingly happening not only because the average person is increasingly worse off but because the society we live in itself is increasingly more distant from any meaning. Faustian Civilization the one that currently subsumes the world and its wealth, is dying.

As people become increasingly disenchanted with it and simple desire for it to accept death, those at the apex of the culture, the wealthy and high status, will increasingly desire to ‘buy’ our opt in to society itself.

The thing is that systems always increase in complexity to respond to their environment and as we approach peak complexity in our system and society, things like elections will start to break down. The system essentially is filled with too much complexity to even respond to itself.

In this essay,

I talked about the difference between a Super Hero and a Traveling Hero and I think this relates to this idea. Spider-man, a Super Hero, is a symbol meant to operate in the ever increasing complexity of a New York Metropolis. The need for such a character implies a hidden chaos embedded in the very ‘system’ of NYC itself rather than chaos lurking somewhere far away.

The offer of Universal Basic income is the same as the offer of negative interest rates, or the offer of bread and games. It is paying people to play, not actually providing solutions to the problems underlying the complexity itself. The closer we get to a reality of UBI, the more desperate it means the Elite are to keep everyone INTERESTED in this Social Order.

Here is what that means. Social Orders are built on the backs of our Attention on those Social Orders. It is nothing without the mass investment of Interest that we put into society, intentionally or otherwise.

Every time, we spend or make money, we are giving our attention to this society. What does it mean that the thousands of people refusing to seek out work on the vestiges of our modern empire? Or that we ourselves desire increasingly just to have a basic living?

Every time, we discuss political and warfare events, we are giving attention to this society. What does it mean that the news and its constant barrage of bad news in our politics? Or that our politics increasingly becoming more gamified and polarizing?

Every time, we bring a new person into the social order, we are giving attention to this society. What does it mean that birthrates across the world are dropping like rocks?

It means, that no one wants to play the Faustian Game anymore. We are over it.

And what the elites of this era are most afraid of, like elites in any era, is a large population of people who do not want to play, finding a new game to play. A new context to think about their lives and their purpose. A new view on creativity and purpose.

So they must create ‘torment and toys’ to distracts us as much as possible from putting our Attention on a different perspective.

UBI will be one of many such toys to do this. However, I suspect the long term play, if they really want to have this old social order live forever, is to depopulate the planet to reduce the complexity that would be the ticking time bomb for the old order. Distractions, they must know, don’t work forever.

The question will be, can they depopulate us, faster than we can find a better context for understanding our own existence, better fitting to our human condition? I guess we will see.

Oh you like this article? You’re gonna super like these: