End Of Life
Not mine, but understand things as they are.
I recently had cause to talk to someone I’ve known for years, but we had fallen out of touch after my elections work ended.
“Yeah, this is even stupider than I imagined it would be.”
“I can’t wait for you to …”
Gestures broadly, evoking memories of a time when there was no problem I would not address by organizing a frontal assault.
I shrugged.
“But aren’t you going to …”
“NOPE”.
A bit of further explanation is in order.
Attention Conservation Notice:
Just life on life’s terms. Or the vendor’s product life cycle, which is what the title is intended to convey.
Origin & Current:
Sixteen years ago last March I agreed to help Chet Uber get Project VIGILANT moving, with my specific concern being right wing extremism. I greatly dislike 1) being absolutely right and 2) only able to manage a rear guard delaying operation.
Now we’ve got this:
US excess deaths continue to rise even after the COVID-19 pandemic, study finds
And this:
Senate GOP Ramps Up Attacks On COVID Vaccines Amid FDA Push
I sometimes pause to imagine explaining to my uncles that there’s a U.S. Senator who once preferred to spend the 4th of July in Moscow. That would have been an instant censure and ejection from the party before the fall of the Soviet Union, and it should still be, which is part of why I stopped voting Republican twenty years ago.
Assessment:
This dysfunction is killing people you know and it’ll get you, too, if you’re not careful … or really lucky, as I have been for so long.
The flow of container ships into Long Beach and Oakland, or lack thereof, is public information. The economy you’ve known is going to stumble, and I’m fairly sure it’s not getting back up. China is in terrible condition and we are decades away of being able to stand without them. A little discontinuity in one place will spread like wildfire.
I don’t have much to say about climate change any more. The terrors predicted for 2100 began arriving in force seventy eight years early. North Carolina’s western mountains are being abandoned, and while it’s funny to see Josh Hawley beg for assistance, it’s not good for the people of Missouri.
The pressure to do something … anything, even, has risen to the point that things ARE moving. I can tell by the news … and what’s happening that isn’t getting covered, but I’ve made no effort to learn any of the particulars.
My techonology career involved a lot of seeing trouble before anyone else could, understanding where things were going to break, and making arrangements in advance. As an activist, I was doing the same thing. That being said, I’ll let my inner economist out for a moment here:
The loss has already occurred.
The only preventative thing I’ve seen that makes sense for 2025 is passing on some bits of operational tradecraft to those of you who feel compelled to act.
Conclusion:
I think I first said “Basically, I quit” at the start of February, in Mourning Mankind.
I had earlier allowed that there MIGHT be a solution to one of our most pressing problems, in the form of Humanity’s Hope: Helion. The combination of functionally free electricity and generative AI might let us bypass many of our current problems. But it’ll be you kids who figure that out, if it’s even possible.
Staying out of harm’s way is a duty from which I will never be free. I’m happy to share a portion of that, the stuff that would help protect you, so long as it doesn’t expose me.
But as for me “doing something”?
That service was End Of Sale four years ago.
And let me reiterate - it is now End Of Life.
So you can rummage through the hints I’ve scattered around this site, but there will come a day, I presume not long from now, when you yourself are going to have to select something you think will work, and then go give it a try. Deciding what that is and finding where it happens is entirely up to you.
😞