The Matrix and Drunk Reporting (Shouty Man, One-Korean Martial Law edition.)

Before the birth of Man, Dragons ruled all of Mundus.

Their Word was the Voice, and they spoke only for True needs.

For the Voice could blot out the sky and flood the land.

~Etched Tablet I, Skyrim.

...

Men were born and spread over the face of Mundus.

The dragons presided over the crawling masses.

Men were weak then, and had no Voice.

~Etched Tablet II, Skyrim.

...

The fledgling spirits of Men were strong in the Old Times.

Unafraid to war with the Dragons and their Voices.

But the Dragons only Shouted them down and broke their hearts.

~Etched Tablet III, Skyrim.

I saw this...sometime last week.

Apparently Elon Musk has immersed himself in Artificial Intelligence and Virtual Reality while on Ketamine and thinks he's...I don't know, some kind of weird Techno-Caesar or some shit, because he found the secret of life was speed-running Diablo IV?

Like, dude was so desperate for a cheering Mob that he made one up himself, and plugged his own ass into the Matrix to get it?

Now, I'm not a psychologist or anything, but this bullshit smacks of stark, ravening mental illness of some sort. Like, If it was me, I'd be calling the VA clinic and asking to talk to my fucking shrink if I'd even thought this bullshit up.

Kyne called on Paarthunax, who pitied Man.

Together they taught Men to use the Voice.

The Dragon War raged, Dragon against Tongue.

~Etched Tablet IV, Skyrim.

...

Man prevailed, Shouting Alduin out of the World.

Proving for all that their voice too, was strong.

Although their sacrifices were many-fold.

~Etched Tablet V, Skyrim.

Off the wall question. you ever played Skyrim?

In that game, the character you play, a select few other people, and Dragons as a species have the ability to "Shout." That is, to create magical effects with power channeled through their voice alone.

Well, that type of shit is exactly what far too many people in this world are trying to do, except there's no magic, and whatever Magic we ever had is the stuff of little more than gaming, legends and myths these days. No matter how much stupid people who don't understand the modern world look at it, and fill in the gaps in their knowledge with belief in conspiracy theories and "Magic" such things will not become real. 

Just because you believe in it doesn't make it right, or true. And the thing about Democracy is everybody's beliefs and opinions factor in.

Such things have only as much "power" as you give them in your mind, you do not have to subject yourself to this horseshit. While understanding it might make it useful to oppose people that do believe in this crap...things like astrology or conspiracy theories are no more real than Orcs, or a person having the ability to launch fireballs from their hands or the power to push things or tear things up with a shouted word.

I'm a lifelong gamer, and I also had such lessons drilled into me in Christian schools by people who were that era's version of conservatives. My Americanism and Christianity were firmly grounded in some version of Enlightenment rationalism, I guess.

Also, belief in hokum and superstition makes people easy to manipulate.

And your religion is supposed to govern your behavior, not society's.

The trouble is, for too many Americans, their actual religion is Petty Narcissism and Selfishness.

With roaring tongues the Sky-Children conquer.

Founding the First Empire with Sword and Voice

While the Dragons withdrew from the world.

~Etched Tablet VI, Skyrim.

...

The Tongues at Red Mountain went away humbled.

Jurgen Windcaller began his Seven-year Meditation.

To understand how strong voices could fail.

~Etched Tablet VII, Skyrim.

I've been seeing this all day, as live-Skeeted by a drunk Korean-American reporter.

Evidently, the president of South Korea attempted to declare Martial Law today. I followed it all on BlueSky, kind of like how I followed the Arab Spring on Facebook and both 1/6 and the initial stages of the war in Ukraine on Twitter.

It's one of the cool things about social media. Yes, We Can.

The government and something like 90% of the people rejected this. Not only did the parliament vote it down and the people protest...I mean this seriously I saw video of middle-aged Korean dudes getting into shoving matches with armed soldiers and the soldiers were the ones who were scared...and force the president to rescind it...but apparently the South Korean parliament is working through the night to draft a bill to impeach the president.

America, if we are to remain a united country, that's about to be our future too, and we're going to have to handle it the same kind of way.

Jurgen Windcaller chose silence and returned.

The 17 disputants could not Shout Him down.

Jurgen the Calm built His home on the Throat of the world.

~Etched Tablet VIII, Skyrim.

Except our fucking problem is, it ain't just Elon Musk that's choosing the Matrix and an AI/VR and/or drug-addled haze, plenty of goddamn people see everything...including events like a coup being put down in South Korea...through a lens of their own cockamamie ideology or politics or religion. Hell, there's way the fuck too many Americans what don't even know the difference between those three words...or that there is one. 

Like I don't know how fucked in the head of a Tankie you'd have to be to support North Korea...but my God, man, what's wrong with you??

Too many people see everything...including Trump...in a way centered on what benefits them, personally. As soon as "Resistance" to Trump became something people were monetizing...which took like five minutes in 2017...I knew something like what happened last month was possible, if not likely. And here's the thing, people like Elon Musk or Vladimir Putin would be just thrilled if we Shouted ourselves apart in some kind of reverse version of what Ulfric Stormcloak did to the High King.

And somewhere between 15 and 20 million Democrats didn't vote.

I can't even understand that kind of solipsistic narcissism.

Some people would rather be entertained than be free, I guess.

Trouble is, freedom isn't free.

It's not our exceptional birthright, people fought for this.

If you want to be free, now you're going to have to fight for it, just like the South Koreans just did.

You either believe in freedom or you don't.

And things are getting to the point where bullshitting or talking just because you have the capability to talk ain't going to cut it.

We're up against people who missed the point, and who never understood the purpose of America.

Remember that, but also remember that a bunch of people who intend to spend their time chasing after conspiracy theories probably aren't even as smart as the South Korean president.

Now I know I asked this before, but especially for all you people who believe so earnestly in some form of Salvation or other...

Who's going to save you from the Shouty Man??

Слава Україна!

For years all silent, the Graybeards spoke one name.

Tiber Septim, stripling then, was summoned to Hrothgar.

They blessed and named him Dohvakiin.

~Etched Tablet IX, Skyrim.

...

The Voice is worship, follow the Inner Path.

Speak only in True need.

Etched Tablet X, Skyrim.

Last Post

If we lose freedom here, there is no place to escape to. This is the last stand on Earth. And this idea that government is beholden to the people, that it has no other source of power except to sovereign people, is still the newest and most unique idea in all the long history of man's relation to man. This is the issue of this election. Whether we believe in our capacity for self-government or whether we abandon the American revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite in a far-distant capital can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves. ~Ronald Reagan

Bonus Content

Cassian Andor: What? To steal from the Empire, what do you need? A uniform, some dirty hands, and an Imperial toolkit. They’re so proud of themselves, they don’t even care. They’re so fat and satisfied, they can’t imagine it…

Luthen Rael: Can’t imagine what?

Andor: That someone like me would ever get inside their house, walk their floors, spit in their food, take their gear.

Seriously? Stop blowing the narcissists, America.