The Laws of Time
Friday, January 24th, 2025 11:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
snoozefestaudio |
21F going down to 19F tonight, and clear.
The cold remained an issue at work through to tonight, but we managed to keep things under control.
Trump's started his deportation raids, but so far it been no different from what Biden or any other President has done in the past... just going after the actual undocumented criminals, for the moment.
Trump's actual policy is a lot more draconian, but... it lacks funding.
Officially they still say they intend to deport 15 bazillion people, and the rules have been changed so that any undocumented resident accused of even a petty crime, like shoplifting can be deported.
And ICE now has the authority to raid schools, churches, and other sensitive locations, hunting for illegal aliens.
But that shit costs money!.. and it's not clear they'll ever get it!
Plus, the sanctuary states, such as my own, Illinois, are determined not to cooperate with ICE in their ridiculous raids, so... that makes the pricetag for enforcement go up even higher!
Because a ton of extra resources have to be expended trying to make examples of sanctuary states.
And of course, there's tons of legal challenges to the whole policy.
So, to repeat... nothing's actually any different!.. but everybody on both sides is acting like everything is suddenly hugely different... because, Trump.
And, I've decided to simply rely on the AP for my news, from here on out... and I'm hearing that PBS news hour streams live on YouTube every night of the week.
So, this time around, I'm not entertaining any hype, rumors, propaganda, or conspiracy theories about what's going on in the world.
On the TikTok front... it's not actually saved, and Trump's executive order to hold off on enforcement of the ban doesn't really mean anything.
That's because the app stores don't care whether the law's being enforced or not!.. To play it safe, they both removed TikTok on the 19th, as prescribed by the law, and will not be bringing it back.
However, TikTok will still work for any American who has it currently installed on their phone!
This was always going to be true.
TikTok voluntarily made the app go dark on the 19th... just for the sake of drama, I guess... or to make it look like Trump's executive order actually did something?.. for some reason?
But if nothing changes, TikTok will simply, whither on the vine, as they say... meaning that for Americans, it'll start to get glitchy, for lack of updates, and will slowly fall out of use, as people slowly buy new phones on which it cannot be installed.
That's the theory, at least.
A lot of people uninstalled TikTok from their phones on the 19th, when it went dark... convinced beyond doubt, that it was gone forever!
And these poor souls are now VERY sad, because it's back and they can't reinstall it!
The market for old phones with TikTok still installed, is now hot as fuck!.. people are auctioning them for thousands!
So... the first lesson there, is... NEVER rashly trash something you love in a fit of emotion!
But the second lesson there, is... TikTok's not whithering on the vine the way the government thinks it will!
Hardcore users are going to hang on to their TikTok phones, even after they buy new phones... and continue to use the app until it's absolutely impossible to run... which could take YEARS!
So, not only is it already a private party, for Americans, but it's on track now to become the most prized & coveted underground app in the history of ever!
You simply will NOT be cool, unless you have it!
So, instead of doing away with the competition that was making them look lame... Zuck and Elon have accidentally elevated TikTok into a realm of mythic legend forever beyond their reach!
They'll never get that market share... ever!
And it will be their apps... that whither on the vine!
This ban is also gonna hurt Apple and Android now in phone sales, to a painful degree!
Because with 270 million users, even if one percent of them, or 2.7 million TikTokers, hold off on buying a new phone this year... that's billions in lost revenue!
On TikTok itself, this past week, there's been a lot of paranoia surrounding it's death and resurrection!
There are conspiracy theories that it was secretly sold to Zuckerberg, and is now secretly an extension of Facebook... or that the American government somehow altered the app over the dark period... in some nefarious way.
People swear that the algorithm has changed... and that certain content has mysteriously vanished from the, For You, page.
People are prescribing little rituals you can do, to dispell this voodoo, like going to Facebook's TikTok account, and blocking it!.. which supposedly puts everything back to rights.
Meanwhile, every expert out there has a theory about what the day-long shut down was really all about!
And what's it's really about is... whatever the field of expertise is of the person making the video!
So if they're political junkies, then the shut down was part of some propaganda conspiracy.
But if they're computer nerds, then it was part of some computer tech conspiracy.
And if they're entertainers... it was a plot to punish entertainers.
Etcetera!..
And even the most rational and well meaning people were sucked into this trend... plainly unable to see themselves, in that moment.
What I took away from all that was... nobody really understands anything that happens in the world!.. or can distinguish between what is just random, or awkward, and what is planned, and intentional!
Everybody just sees the events they can see... through the lens that they have... and interprets the world, according to that!
It actually lead me to a second and third law about time!
For years, I've had this law about the future... that the future is unreasonably unpredictable!
Whatever anybody can possibly imagine... the future is never THAT!
But these past few days on Tiktok have made me realize that the present, is also unknowable... because the present is always in freefall!
In other words, so many things are happening in the present... that it's impossible to be aware of them all!
And many of the things happening in the present are just chaotic!.. just not at all related to the other things, and totally random!
I saw an example of this on Thursday moring, heading to work... where I turned the corner onto Benton, and found myself at the scene of a car accident that had JUST happened!.. but I couldn't grasp it!
The light was green, but nobody was moving, and I was like...
Why is that truck up on the sidewalk?
Why are there people standing around in the street?
Why is that woman missing a shoe?
What's going on?
And Then a cop car arrived, and... I began to realize that, from my vantage point, I just could not see the second car that was involved, because it was occulted by the cars directly in front of me.
And the damage to the truck on the sidewalk, was also... all on the side facing away from me.
So, before the cops could even start sorting out the situation, I doubled around to Water Street, right behind me, and took it to Clark, a block away... to get back on my way to work.
But several blocks later, now into the neighborhoods, I saw some people outside their house bringing groceries in from their car and I thought, They have no idea about the car accident!.. and they probably never will!
Like... we can never know everything that's happening in the present!.. or how those things we're unaware of, are affecting what we do see!
But every little thing, seen or unseen, has it's effect on what your present is like!
And thus the present is always in free fall!
Just a bunch of simultaneous events, with different causes, on different trajectories... all falling into the frame of the present, and making it what it is!
The other law, that occured to me was about the past... and that the past is unreliably recorded.
"unreliably," is probably not the optimal word, but what I mean is that the past is recorded in many ways... through natural processes, and through memory, story, writing, and technology...
But all those different records have their different lifespans, or vulnerabilities, and some are less reiliable than others, from the start.
The geologic record is pretty accurate, and super long lived.
Tree rings are a great natural record of the past as well.
And you can see where I'm going with this... that stories change, writings burn, tech becomes obsolete.
So our access to the past is not comprehensive... it doesn't include every detail about everything... and it's also perishable!
Some records vanish faster than others, but the upshot is that we can never have a fully reliable understanding of the past.
So... taken together, these three laws;
- Unreliable Past
- Freefall of the Present
- Unpredictable Future
Do kind of bear out the old mystic trope, that time is an illusion?
But I'd say, time is real!.. but we as humans can never truly know what was, is, or will be.
All we can do is; learn, react, and plan, based on what we think we know!
But the whole purpose of civilization and society is to create a safe space, for a very large group of people, where we can make some solid plans, and follow some basic rules, to get to a desired future.
Get good grades in school to get a good job.
Work your job to make money.
Save your money to buy a house.
Have babies, and get a dog.
Obey the law, and mow your lawn.
The simple path to happiness, for generations to come!
But that has always been a lie!
The vast majority of human beings ever to live, have either struggled and sacrificed to create such a stable society... or struggled and suffered as the one created, fell down around them!
It's only a tiny, lucky fraction of humanity, who ever get to live an entire lifetime, right in the sweet spot, where their civilization actually functions as designed!
And a lot of civilizations never really have that moment, either!
Many have gone through war the whole time, with other civilizations!
Many have crashed and burned before they could get off the ground!
But this isn't supposed to be about civilization, it's about time, and the myths we make about it!
We want to belive history is accurate.
We want to believe we understand our present moment, and how to manage it.
And we want to believe the future is predictable.
But all three of those things are just wishes!
They're just little prayers we trust in, as we cross our fingers, and go out into the unknowable world every morning!
But I'm not gonna leave you hanging out to dry with all that, here at the end of the blog entry.
The whole dilemma is that we can not rationally or factually understand... what's happened, what's happening, or what will happen next.
And while the rational mind, and critical thinking are very useful and important tools to have at your disposal... they're not enough!
Intuition!.. flexibility!.. inspiration... imagination... and the humility to admit that you can't intellectually understand the universe... are the higher tier skills you need to cultivate, in order to survive, and find happiness in this world.
And I will add this last thing, before signing off tonight... that the worst thing you can do to yourself is subscribe to a narrative!
Nobody can tell YOU, what the narrative of your life is!
And nobody can impose upon YOU, what the genre of that narrative should be!
But you also, should not pin your hopes on any self-styled narrative, or genre for your life!
The story of your life is the result of a negotiation between you and the cosmos!
And that negotiation happens in the freefall of the present... and goes best if you are using the higher tier tools of inspiration, flexibility, etc.
Okay, those are my thoughts, from the past three days.
G'night!
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