Good morning good morning. Just back from the grocery store, where the machines accused me of shoplifting my grapes.

Lot going through my head this morning, and last night, mind doing the racing thing. It did not keep me awake, though. I think that the recent insomniac nights of manic thinking have been a product of the edibles, which I have now completely stopped for a couple weeks now. Kind of a shame, those manic episodes have been pretty productive, but I suppose I don’t need my mind to race any more than it already does. And my god. I need my sleep.

Long, fraught, interesting conversation with Emma last night that started with talking about neurodivergence, the term, the application of the term, the scientific ramifications, the practical ones. As I struggled to explain my beliefs and concerns about certain aspects of it, it kinda spiraled into a wider conversation about science.

What is it about science. How is it that sometimes science comes along and rebels against us, turns against us, turns evil, practically: nuclear bombs, chemical warfare, plastics, eugenics, lead, thalidomide. But other sciences that seemed like they were going to bite us in the ass have not, like cloning. And then there are the unmitigated wins, the miracles: sanitation, vaccines, PrEP, solar energy, catalytic convertors, modern Brussels sprouts.

Are there commonalities between the members of each group? These days, I kinda think a science is good if the assholes ignore it and stay out of it, and a science is dangerous if the assholes get excited about it. But perhaps that’s tautological.

We were talking about the mind, and my fear of scientists unpacking the mind, and how there is unbridled good to come out of unpacking the mind, but there is a line, a line where once we cross it, the science of the mind is a science of enslavement. And I have zero confidence that we will manage to respect that line. And that our minds will be ultimately turned against us by capitalism and evil.

I by no means denigrate the amazing strides we’ve made in mental health, but also… it’s true? They will turn our own minds against us if they could.

To be clear: it’s not like I sit here thinking about this all the time or anything. It’s not like this is a 100% solid belief, a dogma, a thing I obsess over. But when I am explaining all this to Emma is sounds like I am a lunatic.

Lotta talk in Silicon Valley these days about “whether $500k a year is enough to avoid being part of the permanent underclass” that Silicon Valley is assiduously and enthusiastically endeavoring to build. The people discussing this are, of course, the Vichy, the Judenrat, the useful fools. $500k is not enough to avoid being part of the permanent underclass the plutocrats are building, five hundred million is not enough to avoid being part of this permanent underclass. They mean to enslave everyone, the middle class is no safe harbor, it is a division they are nurturing and encouraging to further their goals.

I am reminded of Veblen’s second-most-famous book, Engineers and the Price System, wherein Veblen endeavors to figure out the phenomenon of non-management labor all not making the same amount of money. So at first we had capital and labor, then we threw management in their (those traitors). Now herein Veblen is proposing a fourth category, the engineer. Engineers are brilliant, skilled, rare, and you gotta pay them a lot more money than other labor. But they are still labor, they do not control capital.

For a long time I’ve thought of Veblen’s Engineers as the defining basis of Silicon Valley: lie to the engineers and convince them it is a bona fide path to be part of the ruling class in order to exploit their talent. Pluck a small percentage of them to join capital’s (lower) ranks, as evidence there is a path, and continue your exploitation of everyone else.

But it occurred to me while I was buying grapes this morning that a unique characteristic of Silicon Valley is also the utter, profound lack of respect of other types of skilled labor. Back when I first read Engineers, I applied the term liberally, convinced myself operators or marketers or salespeople or account people etc could be part of that class. At Coca Cola? Kelloggs? GE? Maybe. In Silicon Valley these days? Nah. Engineers and nothing else.

Of course we look at Altman or Musk and want to point out that the true ruling class are not engineers and no, they’re not. They’re the capital. They’re the oppressors. Yay to America for letting oppressors rise from all walks of life neat system.

(Coming soon, author Rick Webb’s new tome, Useful College-Educated Idiots and the Price System).

For a while when I was a VC, I had as my bio on Twitter “I am well-paid by the capital class to handle a sliver of their money while they lie to me that I might become one of them” or something like that. That is still, 100% exactly my day job. God I’m such a sellout.

Speaking of Musk and Altman their dumb-ass trial is over. Elon was never going to win, even though — and no one wants to say this because Elon sucks — he was spiritually right. Of course it is fucking insane that you can donate anything — a penny, ten billion dollars — to a non-profit that will take that money and turn it into a profit machine in which you can take no part. Of course. It’s not often I root for someone like Elon but Sam sucks too and it woulda been far more chaotic and hilarious and a giant pain-in-the-ass for the tech world had he won.

Alas.

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We are listening to the Jesus and Mary Chain this morning. Damage and Joy. I was thinking yesterday about how disappointed I was in their last album, Glasgow Eyes (great name, though), and I was wondering why I was surprised. I was surprised because the one before that, Damage and Joy was one of their best albums ever. How many bands make one of their best albums 32 years into their career. Then I wondered if it was really that good or if I was remembering wrong? And no. It is really that good. This album rules. Double album, too. God. What a feat.

Everyone’s talking about the population these days, and there’s a nice new multi-party push for us all to worry about declining populations. There are lunatic republicans, reputable non-partisans and leftist weirdos all going on about how we need to stop the planet’s declining populations.

This is, of course, not a coincidence. Someone, somewhere is funding that. Probably for lunatic idealistic reasons but also possibly for banal capitalistic ones. Maybe even misguided charitable ones.

You do not have to give in.

I do not particularly buy declining population alarmism, but even were that not the case, I am coming to believe — I have not convinced myself yet, but I’m getting there — that unbridled, all-fronts resistance to anything that is foisted upon us by “viral,” cultural, zeigesty currents is really the only correct path.

If they are talking about it, if everyone is talking about it, resist it. Ignore it. Don’t even talk about it. Talking about it is giving it life. God, imagine if our stupid-ass media did this how nice would it be.

As an early proprietor and pusher of viral goods, I for one would like to apologize, once again, for my role in this.

For a long time I have been fighthing my Gen X cynicism. It’s okay to be sensitive, it’s okay to be kind, to help people, to believe in things, and have hope. I still believe all of those things.

But there was another facet of my Gen X cynicism that I think maybe is worth revisiting; the absolute rejection of modern, popular culture. Back when I was “cool,” I did not own a TV. I did not spend money on anything but art and sustenance. I did not give a single fuck what everyone was talking about.

There is a lot to be said for this.

I have slowly gone soft. Honestly it probably started with the fucking Spice Girls. Irony. That’s how they getcha.

Been thinking of some sort of rubric like MAPS: Mutual Aid, Passions, Sustenance. The only things we should spend a penny on. Everything else should be shit-canned. Shouldn’t give them a god-damned penny.

I am, of course, personally completely incapable of this. I am paying banks a god-awful amount of interest, I’m paying tech companies and entertainment conglomerates way too much. Probably would be best to stop all of this. But of course, I am a member of a family so not all of that is up to me.

But I think, really, a lot of us would be happier and better off if we didn’t spend any money on anything other than keeping a (small) roof over our head, feeding our family, feeding our passions and hobbies, and using the rest to help other people and be done.

We’ll never be able to actually fight or leave them completely but we should stress and debate every single penny we give all these bastards.

Boy I’m sounding like a lunatic today huh. Fine line between genius and madness I swear this is not a manifesto, this is a documentation of idle thoughts in the produce section.

People keep signing me up to insane Substacks and I got one that looks properly newsy and so may be some amazing, progressive underground outlet or full-on propaganda who can tell. But there seems to be some sort of mini-scandal brewing where a bunch of recordings confirm Trump’s bonkers masterplan in Honduras (that’s a Wikipedia link! You can trust it! For now, until Elon kills that too) and South America in general, undermining any socialist or leftist governments. This might be, like, confirming my prior and biases here but: color me unsurprised.

So, I mean, if they’re gonna return to the 90’s and start destabilizing socialist governments in South Africa again, I guess I’m gonna kill your television again.

My god this record is so good.

Jane Jane Jane I love you so much. You are developing friendships and drama and passions and you watched 30 minutes of video about Lagrange points last night and oh shit did you dress as a twin this morning you were supposed to dress as a twin and I forgot to check. Although I guess how would I check without seeing the other twin. I didn’t get to spend enough time with you this weekend, and last night I had a day job meeting and then a night job meeting and I didn’t get to spend any time with you in the evening either and I miss you. I am sorry your shoes were hard to put on this morning and I beat you putting our shoes on I really did try to stall. Thank you for brushing your teeth with no fuss that is so nice.

I’m still writing a letter to her every month on her birthday. I wonder what that reads like after eight years. I’ve not gone back and read it. Does it work? Does it… offer something? I don’t know. Will I ever read it before it’s done? I don’t know. It’s 277 pages today which means it’ll be about 600 pages when she’s 18. That is a little too long. Could probably use an edit. But also an edit might kill it. Editors kill don’t trust them.

I am kidding I love editors.

Nothing really to listen to except Damage and Joy today, so I would be remiss if I did not just post that for you here. So, here you go. You can probably skip “Black and Blue” toward the end. Only weak track on here.

Okay love you byeeeeeee.