a well organized country

"the figures given by masse in 1760 on the ascension of george III, suggest some redistribution of wealth, the merchant class having gained at the expense of the landed class. but if we want to find the really rich and powerful people in the kingdom, politically and socially, the experts tell us they belonged to barely 150 families, 600 to 700 individuals. in france at the same period, the old established nobility numbered some 80,000 persons and the nobility as a whole 300,000 or 1 to 1.5% of the french population...by the same token economic decline is said to have closed the doors to promotion, reinforcing the status quo. peter lasset has suggested that downward mobility was more widespread in pre-industrial england...we may conclude with voltaire that in a well organized country, the smaller number 'makes the greater number work for it, fed it, and submit to its government.' " fernand braudel. "civilization & capitalism 15th-18th century volume II the wheels of commerce"

number six isn't exactly happy about where he finds himself in relation to both the collective and to leadership in "the village"...i can empathize...there seems to be a lot of surveillance going on and some subtle...and not so subtle...attempts at persuasion/manipulation...there is nothing new in this...hegemonic culture has always had an interest in divining and controlling what the rabble think and in steering the way they might act..simply it seems more because the technology has improved...per rutger bregman by 2013 six billion people owned cell phones...six billion transponders in pockets giving out locations to whomever might have access to or the ability to sell that information ( oh i have one too...a flip phone...no "smart" phone for me...i may give away my general location as i pass from the coverage of one cell phone tower to another...there is, i believe, no gps that will pinpoint exact location...and i do have a faraday bag in my vehicle if i am being obdurate )...someone might be interested in why you are at jimmy johns so often or who is at that motel...they want "one hundred percent entry" into acceptable lines of thought that equate the interests of the elite with the "national interest" and they get their way entirely too often...there is a lack of struggle in utopia and that may be why they always turn out dystopian...nietzsche may have been on to something...and it may be why we invent struggles when there aren't any...no need for invention when you can struggle against hegemonic indoctrination...i get to go back to work this week and the media, for the most part, and certainly the majority of the punditry is going to try to tell me this is "necessary" ...we will see...it is true the daily number of new cases of covid-19 is falling off...slowly...by tenths and hundredths of percentage points a day ( 20283 new cases yesterday compared to 25612 the day before...down..but still 45454 in two days while 17086 are listed as "recovered" in the same period...per johns hopkins numbers )...probably because people stayed home...we will have a look at the end of the month and see if that holds true or if there is a spike...certainly the hemegons want me to think it's okay to go back...they are deeply biased and, near as i can tell, untrustworthy...they want a bull market and don't much care what the consequences for the polity are and, it seems, linsey graham thinks i have gotten enough free money so back to work for a non living wage i go...at least for the nonce...i am in an "elevated risk" population and if my co-workers begin to fall ill i will be staying home again...i have no interest in dying for retail...or don trump...or the dow...or the 1 to 1.5%...collectives suffer form "group-think"...more liable to manipulation as peer pressure creates a herd mentality..it is why politicians of all stripes love a rally ( think republican national convention or nuremburg ) and denounce individual thought as heresy...number six maintained "i am a free man" as he resisted...we could explore just how "free' any of us is...and might find we do not like the results...i will, however, try to avoid crowds.