Blame This Guy for My Lite Blogging: Mencius Moldbug of Unqualified Reservations – Darn You To Heck, Moldbug, Darn You to Heck!

I can’t really blog much when I have some 200 pages from his archive printed-out and stacked on my couch.

Worse, I found that the few days while I drive around and listen to public radio talk shows, I would laugh and yell out to voices of the guests…”Ha your a cryptocalvinist…so are you ! Hahahahahah!”.

What is cryptocalvinism? Unqualified Reservations says it four ideals are:

• Equality (the universal brotherhood of man)
• Peace (the futility of violence)
• Social Justice (the fair distribution of goods)
• Community (the leadership of benevolent public servants).

He also says that:

The “cryptocalvinist ultracalvinist hypothesis” is the proposition that the present-day belief system commonly called “progressive,” “multiculturalist,” “universalist,” “liberal,” “politically correct,” etc, is actually best considered as a sect of Christianity.

Note: I changed the above quote from ultracalvinist to cryptocalvinist to reflect that author’s later change in terminology.

I think you can think of cryptocalvinism as a set of memes (or memeplex) that has found out how to use 5GW techniques (e.g. secrecy, manipulation) to survive and flourish. How cool is that!

Anyways, go check out the site and enjoy it. There are also related discussions at TDAXP, Econlog and Dreaming 5GW.

“Positioning” by Al Ries and Jack Trout: Anything for 4GW or 5GW?

I recently read Positioning by Al Ries and Jack Trout.

This is really mostly a marketing/business book, but I am looking for ideas I can swipe from elsewhere fro 4gw/5gw.

I love the subtitle: The Battle for Your Mind. I am going to crib and re-use that soon.

The authors define positioning as what you do to the mind of the prospective customer of your product. Finding a position for product in the prospects mind is the key. This is difficult because all prospects are over communication- they got to much coming at them…and they is only so much room in their mind.

The authors also suggest that successful positioning will not involve the introduction of something new and different into the prospects mind, but will instead try to tie into something else already in the prospect mind.

That sort of sounds like the “embrace and extend” idea to me.

The authors write:

…the average person cannot tolerate being he or she is wrong. Mind-changing is the road to advertising disaster.

The authors suggest since people are over-communicated to, that they try to keep things simple to cope (optimizing the OODA…hmm). Therefore, if you are going to target a person’s mind, keep the message super simple and focused. They write:

You have to sharpen your message to cut into the mind. You have to jettison the ambiguities, simplify the message, and then you simplify it some more if you want to make a long lasting impression.

Here is example I came up with for simplifying a message:

Instead of PNM, Gap-shrinking, DoEE, SysAdmin, A-Z…think
“doing right by bringing liberty and justice to all”. BTW, the “justice
for all” as a substitute message comes from a commentator on Barnett’s
site. If I find the link I will add it.

Anyways, the book has some useful ideas for 4GW as information warfare/strategic communications/political theater/ message-sending. It has some application to the memetic engineering aspects of 5GW.

Lastly, I want to mention briefly a positioning exercise they mention that they performed for the Catholic Church (I think for some lay leaders)that I found interesting.

They started with:

What is the the role of the Catholic Church in the Modern World?

…and worked there way to:

[…]the role of the Church as that of keeping Christ alive in the minds of each new generation and relating his word to the problems of their time.

Wow. Simple. Direct. Focused.

[Cross-posted to Dreaming 5GW] 

4GW as Information Warfare Example

Quoted From LGF:

The Islamic Republic News Agency is pleased to report that the neutering of the Western Satans from within is proceeding apace: Muslim network launched to boost anti-war movement in UK.

Go ahead and read it.

Here is the biggest failure of the US and Western Leaders: Not educating the public (and maybe not educating themselves) on the changing face of war and on what 4GW is.

LGF Link: “Al-Qaeda As Brand Name”

Here is the link.

Branding is coupled to marketing. The whole thing seems very meme-ish.

I haven’t had time or desire to blog much recently, but it might be interesting to do a post inter-relating branding, marketing, memetic engineering, information warfare, and then with 4GW and/or 5GW.

I Just Saw Tonights’ Simpsons Epidsode

They should have have just called this Episode “Fuck the US Army – Happy Veterans Days from the Simpsons!”

What crap this once great, funny show has become.

Update: Hot Air covers this too with a video clip.

Essays I am Too Lazy to Write: Media Warfare, 4GW, Meme Wars

Thoughts:

• The west is loosing
• Must integrate media warfare into all operations (strategic, Operational, and Tactical)
• Three targets: ones supports, the fence sitters (leaning either way), ones enemies
• We Need Grunts with Blogs and Digital Cameras
• 1get better at positive media warfare…getting sound and eye bytes out there for dissemination and re-packaging at all levels
• counter-media warfare must be set up…the staging and media warfare of “them” must be exposed and ridiculed
• Is there a possibility of 5GW Media Warfare? Not sure. I can’t visualize it yet.
• Blah, Blah, Blah, etc.

Maybe I will write it someday.

References:

Meme: Wussification of America

Read about it at TV Squad.

Islamofascists/Jihadist are Adopting the Language of The Left

NPR’s Morning Edition (9/13 wed) had a story about Muslim converts in UK. One of them said something like (I was driving and scribbling into my notebook at red lights only):

The greatest Jihad is speaking truth to a great tyrant.

The great tyrant the listener was left to assume is Bush and perhaps his poodle Blair.

It very much sounded to my ears like the American Left’s “speaking truth to power” catchphrase.

It seems that Islamofascists supporters are using NPR (perhaps not unwillingly or unknowingly) to signal the islamofascist common cause with American Left.

LGF has an exclusive trip report from Khatami’s CAIR Dinner

LGF has a trip report from former Iranian President Khatami’s CAIR Dinner that you can read.

One interesting observation from the writer:

But one thing above all stood out when Khatami was speaking (I don’t know if it was Arabic or Persian). Apparently his language has no equivalent for the English word because he always said the word in English. Democracy.

Actually is that true? Is there a Farsi/Persian or Arabic word for Democracy? I go to think the Greeks left something to the ancient Persian language. How about a Kurdish word for democracy (it too comes from old Persian)?

Anyways, it was a good LGF post, well worth reading.

Update: “Guy” in the comments suggests an equivalent Farsi word for democracy.

Bush Uses the “F” Word: Well, if it Walks Like a Duck, and Quacks Like a Duck…

Via LGF:

Right on cue, the Council on American Islamic Relations pegs the Seethe-O-Meter over President Bush’s use of the words “Islamic fascism:” US Muslims bristle at Bush term ‘Islamic fascists’.

Personally, I think it is about time that the enemy gets named correctly.

Update: There is a related discussion at ZenPundit (which I submitted to DIGG and REDDIT).

Know Your Enemy Video: Islam in Its Own Words

Via Reddit:

Ideas with Swords

The Belmont club uses the phrase “ideas with a Sword” in article re a Phillip Bobbit article:

To those who think groups like al-Qaeda are myth, Bobbitt replies that on the contrary, they are the new challenge of the 21st century: ideas with a sword.

This sounds Meme-ish doesn’t it?

I think this –> Ideas-with-Swords = Armed Meme-Based-Networks (MBN)

Freedom Spreading (aka Gap Shrinking) via the Promotion of Entrepreneurial Capitalism

Via the PSD Blog, Carl Schramm writes in USA Today, starting with:

Smith‘s great revelation was that political freedom would most likely emerge and persist under conditions of economic freedom, what we now call capitalism. Our democratic system as defined in our Constitution incorporated respect for this economic system. Like Smith’s invisible hand in the market, the Framers saw an invisible hand in our politics. They believed that, if allowed to work freely,
these hands together would shape America into the land where invention, creativity and entrepreneurial activity would flourish.

and then the money quote:

More than the export of democracy, it is the export of entrepreneurial capitalism that can produce a new birth of peace and freedom around our globe. Entrepreneurial capitalism is based on individual invention, and because wealth comes from one’s own initiative, it advances human dignity.

And here is the good news. Virtually every country, whatever its
political system, wants to embrace it. They have seen the success of
the American economy.

The benefits of PNM Theory‘s Globalization flows from the above. It is analogous to the Democratic Peace Theory, sort of an Entrepreneurial Peace Theory.

I have not written much on PNM Theory yet (I have been putting off a series of post on it). One thing that always bothered me was the avoidance of idea promotion especially democratic ideas. I did not see how the gap could shrink if it didn’t introduce new memes to replace long existing bad memes.

Entrepreneurial Peace Theory (aka PNM Globalization) is sort of a backdoor (think 3GW or 4GW) to the same result as Democratic Peace Theory (think 1GW or 2GW). Entrepreneurial Capitalism promotion might be more subtle/indirect then Democracy Promotion and therefore have a greater chance of success. The best results will come from promoting both as there is much overlap and re-enforcement between the two. Considering the above and PNM Theory, the effort on behalf of Entrepreneurial Capitalism promotion should be at least twice that of directed toward Democracy Promotion.

4GW, Nation-Building as Soft-Colonization,Time Ranges in War/Conflict, and Meme Wars

Blogs Tdaxp and ZenPundit have linked to an interesting post on Amendment X regarding PNM Theory, 4GW, and war/conflict in general. There are some real gems in the comments (pay no attention to any nastiness or sniping to get to the good stuff).

I especially found the following comments interesting by "J Smith" interesting.

"J Smith" comments:

From what I can tell, 4GW has been used since about the beginning of time. Analyze any historic period where native populations are being subdued or where they are becoming restless again. You'll see right there almost every single tactic which these so called military theorists insist amount to 4GW being used by the natives.

and

But that just makes it all the more plain don't it? The only way to when a "4GW" war or a 5GW war or whatever the fuck they are calling it these days, the only way to win a war against an insurgent native population is, here's the punch line, to colonize them!

And this country just doesn't have the stomach for the grueling and vicious nature of colonization. We aren't an empire because our people don't want to be one. So let's stop it with the warfare evolution mumbo jumbo and just be honest and acknowledge that fact. Certainly would make my life a lot easier. What we are witnessing is not 4GW. It is a failed "soft" colonization policy which over and over again throughout history has been shown to be completely worthless.

I am leaning toward the idea of 1GW thru 5GW have always existed (and dropping the Pre-Modern war idea, or re-characterizing it as 0GW). The way to think about them is not historical time periods or types of technologies, but general methods and the part of the OODA they center on.

Is nation-building Soft Colonization? I had never thought of it that way. Machiavelli in The Prince would suggest that Soft Colonization would be more likely prone to failure. He suggests the Prince should make the tough decisions and get any harsh measures that need to be taken over with a soon as possible. For Iraq, the idea would be to have the US rule-top down harshly from the beginning, while building up Democratic practices from the bottom up (and then slowly turning over responsibilities to democratic local units – federalism from the ground up).

Later "J SMith" writes:

Let it look like this then. The first world has been in a war with the third world since the industrial revolution. All "wars" fought since that time which include parties in the first and third world respectively are merely battles in this war.

The issue of when a war/conflict begins and end has always frustrated me as I try to study. Where WW1 and WW2 different wars? Or at a higher level where they the same conflict? Many examples of the can be given. TDAXP has explained the rise of Christianity as a non-violent 4GW of the small christian social network against Roman Empire.

Movements (e.g. Christianity, Rome-as-Civilization, Mexica-as-Reconquista) are meme/people based and ebb and flow over generations (over time). These Meme-Based networks (MBN) compete and therefore might grow, shrink, mutate, or die over-time. Perhaps is is best to think of the wars/conflicts in the context of the greater movements. Maybe abstract MBN vs MBN is 6GW? Do MBN make use of states and non-state actors over big units of time to fight for advantages in the MBN vs. MBN conflict? This is abstract war/conflict or perhaps unconscious war/conflict, and maybe leaderless war/conflict (over long units of time). More to come on this…

Annex Mexico? The Meme Spreads!

Instapundit links to himself and spreads the TDAXP meme of USA+Mexico=USA (which I call USAv3):

So maybe we've been thinking about this the wrong way. Instead of worrying about Mexicans invading America, maybe what we need is for the United States to annex Mexico.

He is not suggesting that it happens right away, but that at least the paving of the path should begin:

Oh, we don't need to turn Mexico into a state, or several. At least not right away. But as part of any immigration deal, the United States needs to demand reform in Mexico. Serious political reform, and serious economic reform.

And reciprocity. If we're going to make it easy for Mexicans to come to the United States to live, work, hold property, and get public benefits without too much paperwork trouble, we need to make it easy for Americans to do the same in Mexico. Right now, as several people have noticed, the environment there is considerably less friendly to foreigners than America's is.

My own thoughts were mostly concerned with what should be done on the USAv2 side as a prelude to USAv3, but work would need to be done on the Mexico side to prepare as well. This might make for an interesting application of near-domestic PNM theory, but I will have to think on that for awhile.

Intro to Memes

Via REDDIT is a nice introduction to the Meme / Memetics concept entitled: The Lifecycle of Memes.

The article defines Meme as "A meme is a (cognitive) information-structure able to replicate using human hosts and to influence their behaviour to promote replication", and notes that this is a stricter definition then is usually used. The author also tries do distinguish meme got more general thoughts or ideas.

I find this construct concept very interesting in that it gives possibilities for modelling with network theory (which I'd like to explore a little bit in the future) and use with 5GW.