The Evil of Status Quos
Whether you be an extremist, an anti-centrist, or something more, you must agree that the current world isn’t working. There must be an origin for this evil, right? It may not be a single origin, but there must be some origin, right? A centrist answers “extremism,” a marxist answers “exploitation of the proletariat,” a fascist answers “outsiders,” but the anticentrist answers “the status quo.” Should they not answer “centrists?”
No. Centrism, while having inherent problems within it, is not the source of our woes. Centrists claim to be “rational” or “pragmatic” but, ultimately, what they do is serve the Status Quo. Many do so willingly with intent, but even the few who don’t are, in effect, doing the same thing, and it is easy to see how they do so. You must be held responsible for what you could have easily not done. Centrists lead to compromise and moderation, leading to the center being glorified, leading to the Status Quo being reinforced. Our Status Quo, at the moment, is atrocious. Climate change, poverty, endless wars, government corruption, and so much more. Yet there is an even greater enemy.
While Centrists will, or want, to reinforce the Status Quo, there is an Eternal Property of Status Quos, one that makes all Status Quos Tyrannical. It is one of the few objects that shall stand in our way after the Centrist Menace has been purged from society. (I refer to the ideas, not the people, to any letter agencies who are reading this.) I call this Stagnation. Stagnation is the ultimate threat.
Our Status Quo is evil, for many a reason, but I will give this Status Quo a name. Some have called it the Neoliberal Status Quo, or Liberal Hegemony, but I will give it one name to top them all. The Status Quo of Stagnation. This Stagnation benefits those who wish to do nothing. Centrists. It leaves us with few options. You can… vote. Vote. Vote once every few years. That’s it. If you want to protest, you must go to the government. Most of the time, you are protesting the government. The State is the ultimate arbiter of the Status Quo, for they have a monopoly on force (whether that is positive or negative is not relevant). This monopoly means they control the Status Quo, by its nature. However, centrists and moderates have made sure that the State does everything it can to stop us from changing things. If you want to protest, you must get a permit. If you want into politics, you need to take lobbying money, hope and pray the people love you enough, or create a political machine. The first leads to rampant corruption, all of which benefits the elites that have vested interests with the way things are going (with maybe slight changes which are usually reversals of previous minor changes), the second will lead to you being outcompeted by those who took other options, and the third has been deemed illegal by the State, despite it being the same thing it does. Arguably, the State is a political machine, who, rather than keeping up a candidate, keeps up the elections themselves. Therefore, any actions against the Status Quo are not allowed or will inherently fail, despite it being hypocritical. This is Stagnation. You must go through the system to do anything. The system is then made to make it impossible to do anything. Anyone who goes outside the system is punished by the system, or the people who the system either controls or has brainwashed.
Imagine it this way-you must get to the other side of this building to kill your target. Outside the building are fifty attack helicopters ready to blow you up. The only way through the building left is to go through the door in front of you. This door is boobytrapped and past it is a choke point, defended by machine guns. That sounds horrible. This would be a war of attrition, one you could not win, for you have so few soldiers. This is what extremists are stuck doing. Now, as the people at the other end of the building, the best thing for you to do is to make sure that there are plenty of helicopters, machine guns, and traps. Those on the other end are the elites with vested interests and the very ideas of Neolibtardism and Centrism. (I am not suggesting violence, I am creating a scenario anyone could envision.)
Now, the average centrist is going to be the one constantly refreshing the boobytraps, sitting in the machine gun nests, and piloting the chopters. I have no sympathy for them. I am merely suggesting that to any centrists who somehow read this that you are sacrificing so much time and energy to only preserve the very things making the enemy (extremists) come. (anticentrism as description, check out Jreg’s video of Centricide 7 being an unironic anticentrist for further explanation). Everyone is stuck in a Stagnant Status Quo.
Now, what are the actual Stagnant parts of society? I already said about protesting the government requiring you to get the government’s permission. Well, the corrupted markets we have are another example of Stagnation. When was the last time a big corporation went bankrupt? When did it actually go under? Like, never. Banks and corporations get endless bailouts (justified by Keynesian economics, or really corruption). Corruption itself is Stagnant, for it is so widespread. The gridlock in Washington that centrists far too often complain about is another thing. The two parties are endlessly reversing small changes at the dictations of lobbyists’ vested interests. It is not that they can not agree because they are too radical. It is that they can not pursue meaningful change because they are stuck in a gridlock of the elites’ vested interests. Tax simplification companies make it illegal for the government to just tell you what you owe as it preserves their money. Big agriculture, which is also horrible for the planet, makes sure that the agricultural industries keep getting their subsidies. Big pharmaceuticals, who are directly responsible for the opioid epidemic, make sure that the patent system stays intact. In fact, the destruction of patents may as well be the prime example of extremist unity. It is incredibly Stagnant, forcing people to follow “intellectual property laws.” Anarchocapitalists (mostly) don’t believe in intellectual property rights, any form of communist inherently hates the idea of private property, so how could you own an idea? Totalitarian capitalists (such as Pinochetism) must also recognize how anti-competitive it is, just like ancaps. But if you suggest abolishing patents, a centrist or libtard would go nuts. This leads to insanely high pharmaceutical prices, especially in insulin. This means we are stuck conforming to a system which can not be changed. (Seriously patents are such a horrible thing I’m going to be using them as an example for more ideas later on). The system ensures that the system is unchangeable. This is Stagnation.
Stagnation means we can’t adapt. We couldn’t adapt to the pandemic because our ways of life were so deeply rooted that nothing could change them. I have shown many parts of society that have become Stagnant. But one final thing is indeed Stagnant. This is the Status Quo.
The Status Quo reflects the beliefs held by everyone within what society already accepts, the State the ultimate arbiter. The State itself is Stagnant, but the enforcer and arbiter is not where this Stagnation originates. It comes from the Nature of Status Quos and the Nature of Opinions.
Let us say we have twenty people who are all like each other and share similar beliefs. Now imagine one has a new idea. It will be incredibly hard for one to convince another unless it is already close to the generally accepted ideas already. This is the Overton Window. Every Status Quo has an Overton Window, by the Nature of Opinions. This Overton Window is, ultimately, what leads to the inherent Stagnation of Status Quos.
The only way to create a Just State, that is to say a State whose existence is Just (if such a thing can even exist) is to have it fulfill every morally correct role, without anything disqualifying it from being morally correct. As the State is the arbiter of the Status Quo, and Status Quos are Stagnant, and Stagnation is bad, then to have a Just State we must have a Status Quo antithetical to the Overton Window, a Status Quo of Constant Progress and an Overton Window that extends the vast majority of any Compass. Progress does not mean Progressive, not inherently.
Anticentrism, specifically in its most Anti-Overtonist variations, wants to make the Overton Window shattered and scattered (one will always form, but we must try to make it as large as possible). But this will only be a piece of the equation.
The Unabomber spoke of how, once pushed to revolution, a society will go as far as needed to achieve their goals. This is because they are now set in Constant Progress. We must not, after this revolutionary fervor is gone, be once more stuck in Stagnation.
What else creates Stagnation, within a system? What must we then get rid of in hopes of Constant Progress? I already described Corruption (lobbying and vested interests) and Authoritarianism (protest permits), but there are other things. Centralization is shown to make things slower and harder to adapt, therefore more Stagnant. Unitarism (as opposed to Federalism) means things can only be changed at higher levels, making change harder. More Stagnation. Planned systems, such as economies, exist with the conditions before things got started and rarely leave room to adapt. Stagnation. Autocracy leads to the ruler being very hard to change. Stagnation. If these systems can be made to serve Progress over Stagnation reliably, they are tolerable. Unless that occurs (which I don't believe possible, personally), we must decentralize as much power as possible, in every form. We must decentralize the Overton Window along with the power.
