Cancel Yourself

Guest Post by Mike Krieger

At this point we find ourselves confronted by a very disquieting question: Do we really wish to act upon our knowledge? Does a majority of the population think it worthwhile to take a good deal of trouble, in order to halt and, if possible, reverse the current drift toward totalitarian control of everything? If the United States of America is the prophetic image of the rest of the urban-industrial world as it will be a few years from now — recent public opinion polls have revealed that an actual majority of young people in their teens, the voters of tomorrow, have no faith in democratic institutions, see no objection to the censor­ship of unpopular ideas, do not believe that govern­ment of the people by the people is possible and would be perfectly content, if they can continue to live in the style to which the boom has accustomed them, to be ruled, from above, by an oligarchy of assorted experts.

That so many of the well-fed young television-watchers in the world’s most powerful democracy should be so completely indifferent to the idea of self-government, so blankly uninterested in freedom of thought and the right to dissent, is distressing, but not too surprising. “Free as a bird,” we say, and envy the winged creatures for their power of unrestricted movement in all the three dimensions. But, alas, we forget the dodo. Any bird that has learned how to grub up a good living without being compelled to use its wings will soon renounce the privilege of flight and remain forever grounded. Something analogous is true of human beings. If the bread is supplied regularly and copiously three times a day, many of them will be perfectly content to live by bread alone — or at least by bread and circuses alone.

Take the right to vote. In principle it is a great privilege. In practice as recent history has repeatedly shown the right to vote by itself is no guarantee of liberty. Therefore if you wish to avoid dictatorship by referendum break up modern society’s merely func­tional collectives into self-governing voluntarily cooperating groups capable of functioning outside the bureaucratic systems of Big Business and Big Govern­ment.

– Aldous Huxley, Brave New World Revisited, 1958

This isn’t how I intended to return to writing. There was supposed to be a new website and a new focus, but circumstances emerged and laid waste to my plans. So here I am, back again. I’m a bit rusty so bear with me.

There’s no reason to rehash what happened over the last several days, but the gist of it is that significant components of internet infrastructure were weaponized for ideological and political purposes. If we’re being honest with ourselves, we all knew this day was coming. We just didn’t want to admit it or confront it, because it’s not a comforting or easy thing to admit or confront. But the day has arrived and we’re no longer in a position to ignore it. The most concerning aspect isn’t that it happened, but that it could happen at all. The internet is clearly broken, possibly dying, and if we want to digitally associate freely again at some point in the future, we have no choice but to fix it.

Although I have no team in the parochial political fight, I’ve chosen one in the broader ideological battle. The wielding of such concentrated and unaccountable power over human communication has crossed a very serious line and sets us up for a future world I’m uninterested in participating in. As such, we have no choice but to confront the issue head on.

People who think this is about Trump for me are the most ridiculous people. I never voted for him, supported him or took him seriously. While I recognize the role he played in the greater scheme of this massive historical cycle, the best thing that can happen is for him to disappear as a political force and be understood as the spectacle and distraction he was. I’m not here to lecture anyone about who they voted for, but I’m here to connect with people of all political persuasions ready to become serious and admit that a real strategy is needed to address the unaccountable power of the national security state oligarchy. Conventional political avenues are a dead end at this point.

I recognize that tens of millions of frustrated, angry and concerned minds are trying to make sense of it all and reorient themselves. This presents a giant opportunity, but also very real danger. All the emotion being felt currently can be channeled into negative avenues such as violence, aimless spectacles, Trump martyrdom or a futile search for the next political savior guaranteed to disappoint, or it can be channeled in productive ways. That’s why I’m here writing this post at this moment. Enough people are finally motivated to respond, but what really matters is the nature of this response. The dominant aggregate reaction is what will determine the future.

Most of us eagerly, or more likely lazily, embraced the current insipid and dull paradigm in the name of convenience, low prices, and free shipping, but we never stopped to consider the sacrifices made along the way. We swallowed it whole, became comfortable fat and happy, and now the facade’s about to be slowly stripped away unless we bend the knee to an ever narrowing Overton Window of speech and behavior parameters. It begins with social media purges, but it won’t end there. All the special things we sacrificed from the prior era are gone, yet the consequences are here to stay. We can’t run and hide hoping to be the last one hauled off to the abattoir. It’s time to step up.

In this regard, I have a simple suggestion. Cancel Yourself. Unshackle yourself mentally from our suffocating and bland corporate culture while you still have a chance to do it voluntarily. Cancel yourself before they have a chance to cancel you. In this there is power. You’re taking charge and acting proactively as opposed to reacting. We need to play the game on our own terms, because the game’s coming for us either way. If you were a Trump supporter, forget about him. If you held your nose and voted for Biden, don’t expect anything good. If you’re a Sanders supporter, forget it, he’s done. Most importantly, don’t waste time and energy thinking about 2024 and who might run. A lot of really bad stuff can happen between now and then and there may not be much of a country left at that point. Focus on today and focus on what you’re willing to do personally in the near-term.

Once you’ve made the decision to preemptively cancel yourself, start thinking about specific steps you’re willing or able to take from there. Personally, this has been a 10 year+ journey that began when I quit my lucrative Wall Street job and left New York City permanently. It then expanded to public writing, cultivating a social media presence, and developing a passion for gardening. While all these actions brought me to where I am, the biggest realization I had along the way was that I need to focus most of my energy on the things I can control and my own state of consciousness.

The future won’t be determined by whether or not there’s a response, because there’s always some sort of response. What matters most is the specific nature of humanity’s dominant response. Will it be a frothing, violence soaked reptilian reaction, or will it be intelligent, wise, conscious and asymmetric. If we confront the national security state oligarchy by conventional means, we’ll end up with another conventional world, and one that’s potentially worse than this one. If we want something fundamentally distinct and better, we had better respond thoughtfully. Rejecting a tepid paradigm is an important first step, but it does not in itself guarantee a better one. The ends don’t justify the means, the means are everything.

This post has been mostly theoretical and philosophical thus far, so let’s shift gears and get practical. The world we’ve become so dependent on is quickly being turned against anyone who refuses to conform to what amounts to some mangled form of corporate sanctioned, woke imperialism. If you don’t acquiesce fully you’ll be removed eventually. The primary form of leverage being used to bend us into submission are the corporate tools and services we’ve become so dependent on, most explicitly big tech, but increasingly internet infrastructure more broadly. They think they’ve got us trapped via our dependence on these conveniences and addictions, but do they really? What can we do in response?

When thinking about this, it makes sense to look at Bitcoin for some guidance. What first got me involved nearly a decade ago was a keen understanding of how a digital world dominated by centralized digital currencies could be easily weaponized against the entire planet. As such, I and countless others around the world have embraced this revolutionary protocol governed by rules, not rulers. A means of sending value across the planet digitally that’s permissionless, peer-to-peer, decentralized and censorship resistant. There’s no CEO, no one individual human to coerce or pressure in order to change the rules. It’s a politically neutral global money in a world becoming overwhelmed with a willingness to use centralized technological services and hardware for political ends. An oasis in a desert of topdown control. So what can we learn from Bitcoin?

For starters, no one can stop you from sending bitcoin to whoever you want, which is the same sort of principle needed for online communication. Unpopular or even tasteless opinions are not a crime, but we’ve allowed tech oligarchs to act as judge and jury based on their own whims or political calculations. Even worse, they do this after having corralled everyone into their platforms by falsely claiming they served as public squares for free human expression. It’s been a gigantic bait and switch, and the lesson here is to never again rely on individuals to determine something as important as the acceptable parameters of human communication.

Which brings us to the crux of this post. The internet in its current form is dying — it has been for some time, — yet it is far from dead. We all continue to use our Apple, Google, Facebook, Twitter and Amazon products even though we know we shouldn’t. We’ve all become hostages to convenience and now an omnipresent sword of cancel culture hangs over our collective heads. As such, we have some important decisions to make. We can choose to constantly alter our minds and speech to conform to a growing mob of ridiculousness, or we can fix the internet itself.

As someone who’s in the process of preemptively canceling himself, I have little choice in the matter. We’re either going to transition to a decentralized, peer-to-peer internet, aka web 3.0, or the entire thing’s gonna become a sterile Potemkin Village of woke corporate imperialism and national security state talking points. I’m optimistic when it comes to the emergence of web 3.0 for several reasons, but mainly because I don’t think it’s plausible to give humanity freedom of expression via the web for a couple of decades and then just remove it for good and turn it into television. This doesn’t mean the transition will be quick or easy, but I do believe it’s probably inevitable.

If you’re on board with most of what’s been laid out here and are comfortable with canceling yourself, at least symbolically, the next choice you need to make is to determine what you can do to help usher in a different kind of paradigm. Each individual has different skills, temperaments, circumstances and commitments, so what degree of action one takes is a deeply personal decision. All I ask is that you think about how you can contribute to the goal of a more voluntary, decentralized, peaceful, conscious, cooperative, community-centered and networked world and how much time and energy you’re realistically willing to give the effort. Voting isn’t going to do it, we need direct action from millions upon millions of humans around the world.

In addition to the steps I’ve already taken in the past decade, there are several additional actions I’m committing myself to. First, given my determination that web 3.0 is critical to the future of human progress, I’ve committed myself in 2021 to getting up to speed on some of the most promising privacy and peer-to-peer technologies currently in existence, software and hardware alike. Although I don’t have the skillset to add to such projects, I do have the capacity to experiment with them and assess how far along we are and what needs to be done.

From what I know so far, there’s a lot of brainpower working on a multitude of different projects, but it’s unclear how far along and how user friendly they are. The reason this particular avenue is interesting to me is not just because it’s become increasingly necessary, but because we now have a critical mass of people ready to leave the centralized big tech products and services, but this won’t happen until web 3.0 is ready to onboard the average human relatively seamlessly. My objective is to determine how far along we are in this regard.

Beyond that, the recent decisions made by Twitter and big tech generally have once again driven the point home that it’s not wise for me to post all of my thoughts via such platforms, which was a motivating factor for spontaneously writing today’s post. I’ll continue to use Twitter because that’s how I’m able to reach the largest audience for now, but I have one foot out the door.

The next thing on my agenda is to step up efforts to launch a new website that more accurately reflects a new focus, which is not to convince, but to offer inspiration and suggestions about how we move forward as individuals and as a human race. That said, I won’t make any promises about how often I’ll be writing, because I have no idea. It’ll depend on a lot of things, including how well this post is received and how inspired I am to publish at any given moment. When I have something I really want to say I’ll write, and when I don’t, I won’t.

The big final request here for readers wanting to stay abreast of my work is to sign up for the email list (signup box found near the top right of the desktop version, and at the bottom of the mobile site). If I get canceled from Twitter, it’ll be much harder to reach out unless I have your email. Email lists have become very important once again.

As always, if you appreciated this and want to donate to my efforts, here’s how you can contribute: Support Page.

-----------------------------------------------------
It is my sincere desire to provide readers of this site with the best unbiased information available, and a forum where it can be discussed openly, as our Founders intended. But it is not easy nor inexpensive to do so, especially when those who wish to prevent us from making the truth known, attack us without mercy on all fronts on a daily basis. So each time you visit the site, I would ask that you consider the value that you receive and have received from The Burning Platform and the community of which you are a vital part. I can't do it all alone, and I need your help and support to keep it alive. Please consider contributing an amount commensurate to the value that you receive from this site and community, or even by becoming a sustaining supporter through periodic contributions. [Burning Platform LLC - PO Box 1520 Kulpsville, PA 19443] or Paypal

-----------------------------------------------------
To donate via Stripe, click here.
-----------------------------------------------------
Use promo code ILMF2, and save up to 66% on all MyPillow purchases. (The Burning Platform benefits when you use this promo code.)
Click to visit the TBP Store for Great TBP Merchandise

24
Leave a Reply

avatar
  Subscribe  
Notify of
Mygirl....maybe

whole lotta words to say stop using social media.

Stucky

It’s only 2,564 words.

Stucky

From Krieger’s website;

“I attended college at Duke University where I earned a double major in Economics and Spanish.

After completing my studies in 2000, I took a job at Lehman Brothers where I worked with the Oil analyst in the Equity Research Department.

In 2005, I joined Sanford C. Bernstein where I served as the Commodities Analyst on the trading floor.

I traveled extensively providing advice to some of the largest mutual funds, pension funds and hedge funds in the world.”

======

These are the kind of people I need LESS of in my life. So, I’m not reading his schpiel.

falconflight
falconflight

We can’t all be coal miners ;0

BTW; tried to upgrade my Proton mail acct. the past few days, and can’t seem to complete the transaction w/ my Visa credit card. Looked at the Bitcoin web site, and I’m floundering.

theOtherDan
theOtherDan

soon we may all be…..

falconflight
falconflight

I’ve been told (endlessly) coal is a great evil. A fitting destination for all those deplorables and irredeemables. ;0

Ghost

Therefore, “whip it good.”

Ghost
Ghost

What is really funny about this “leap to confusion” about the author is that he probably included all this to impress people and show them he’s not just another conservative kook.

I like the essay, by the way and am going to send Krieger a few dollars and a nice note about his really interesting proposal about web 3.0.

I have been cancelled and lived to talk about it.

TN Patriot
TN Patriot

So do I have to open a bunch of social media accounts so I can get off of them or just keep living without them?

Mygirl....maybe

Just post lots of Stop the Steal articles and meme and they’ll shut you down, no problemo.

TN Patriot
TN Patriot

I do not have any accounts and really do not want to open any.

theOtherDan
theOtherDan

They are rolling out the corporate social credit score world.
it won’t be corporate and it’s already here as I pointed out previously – if only in its nascent form.

https://www.mylife.com/

Your credit score says only one thing about you, your reputation says everything about you. People use your credit score for one thing — whether to lend you money. People use your reputation to decide everything — whether they want do business with you, be friends with you, live with you, date you and much more.

this is mine…..
Reputation Score range: 2.40 — 3.31
ALERT: Court Records Found

see what a great start I have already….. but I think that my score is lower than the last time I checked….
Hmmmm, I have posted here a bit since then….

Auntie Kriest
Auntie Kriest

The Internet, in fact ALL computer systems ARE the problem.

This D.A.R.P.A. creation, the Internet, has always had specific built-in characteristics that lend itself to centralized control (whether you believe it or not.) Hackability, viruses, backdoors, Trojan Horses, the ability to intercept and decode things encrypted among those special features. This is why Bitcoins get stolen, a sovereign nation’s internet-infrastructure can be given a Stuxnet treatment (that can jam a nuclear program) and all your personal private data can be sucked into a corporate storage without your consent or knowledge.

And trying to free oneself by using the very device that was specifically designed to give the Evil Fuckers the global control – economic, communications, military, social – they desire is not going to create a liberated internet. Forget that fantasy.

The only real solution is to return to an analogue mechanical civilization and destroy the “computer” before it destroys Humanity, however the window to smash the demonic Cybernetic monster is closing fast.

Ned Ludd the Second is now required for immediate worldwide action.

yahright
yahright

Computers are cool when they work and help you out. When they become Skynet or a weapon in the hands of tyrants?

Anonymous
Anonymous

It is only a matter of time that they start blocking email accounts. Big tech already reads every email you send or receive. So…. email may not be the answer here.

William L Pierce Incarnate

Already did it.

Gave my burn notice.

ottomatik
ottomatik

Thanks Mike! Its been a minute, ha! Anyhow, hit the nail on the head many times, direct action is the only way forward, in fact it is always the only was forward. Well sometimes backward.
Communications are critical and must be fought for( hat tip Admin, TMWNN) but also as critical, money, which you touched on as well, back in the saddle maybe?
Bitcoin is the battlefield, well one of them, Digital Currency is the war, and it is already going, soon major engagements spanning all theaters will unfold.
Whats it going to be folks? Decentralized peoples digital currency or Centralized digital plantation scrip?
It is this simple, and they are moving fast. Before most even are out of bed.

Anonymous
Anonymous

Okay this is a tough one because while I agree with what Mike says in terms of philosophy, and with no offense meant against him, he is late to his own parade — there’s nothing in his spiel that hasn’t been said for thousands of years, and it took him an awfully long time to realize that and start following his own advice. But more importantly, he still isn’t aware that he overestimates his technical competence, the first point being, his statement about the internet being “dead.” Sure it’s dead in the same way that your major cities are “dead,” you’ve got people on Facebook and Twitter and a lot of blogs (hint hint) whom are the kind of neighbors you’re stuck with in the big city — blowhards, self-absorbed wankers, average nice people who’ll fold like Superman on laundry day at the merest whiff of authority — but [shocker alert] the web sites/big cities aren’t everything. Mike’s perspective aligns with the recognition of cultural narcissism (read everything you can find on narcissism, that’ll help you more than anything else at the moment), but the way to deal with narcissists most effectively, is to learn how to deal with narcissists most effectively. It’s not easy, but it does work. You can look it up. And that’s the thing — I’m not gonna tell you how to deal with narcissists because there are thousands and thousands of books and web pages and people all around you whom you can learn this from. I don’t have to tell you anything. Starting to get it? If you keep following people who tell you you need to keep following them so that you can learn to think for yourself — still don’t get it? And back to the internet — it’s “dead” in the same way that the nation’s roads are dead: You can’t always get there from here, but I’ll bet with a little work and doing a little exploring you could soon find out how to get to someplace, from someplace else. I’m lucky in that I started out as an electrician and mechanic so from an early age I realized that to make something work, you don’t have to listen to the advice of people who don’t make things work — just follow the evidence of what works, and what doesn’t. I can find lots of ways the internet isn’t broken, and do stuff that makes people come begging to pay me money to help them do stuff.

The fact that Mike is begging you for $$$ should make you go hmmm — why can’t you do the same thing he does? Just out of your own free will? Useful heuristic: A person who says “The next thing on my agenda…” is a person who is going to do what’s best for their agenda — not yours.

Discover more from The Burning Platform

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading