The thief of cope 678
Do people enjoy zero-sum games? I think they very much do. Most deny it because it beckons to more primitive days where life was the ultimate battle-royal: Grog beat enemy, Grog take everything. There's plenty of illustration of this more primitive state in fiction. If you've watched the Walking Dead, you may have noticed how that characters very quickly regress from their civilized selves to pro zero-sum gamers. Even though there's a whole planet to loot, the imminent scarcity they are faced with makes factions go to war against each other. In a post apocalyptic world, there's no place for collaborative value creation. But we don't need the apocalypse to reveal our natural proclivity towards zero-sum games. Talk to a historian and you will know that empires have always seen the world as a big zero-sum game, even when a whole continent had yet to be discovered. Talk to a marxist and he'll show you that the bourgeoisie is much more adept at playing the game than the proletariat. Talk to an economist however, and he'll throw sand into your eyes to distract you from an uncomfortable truth : "Trust me bro, we just need to make the cake bigger". Just make the cake the bigger... as if somehow, starting the renaissance, we magically figured out an economic system that allows us to grow economies like no other before. In tech-bro speak, it was all just "skill issue". But then, you remember the exponential leaps in technological progress and the new forms of energy harnessed. You point this out, and the economist scrambles with an indian accent "let me tell you something, let me me tell you something, it was the new economic paradigm and its countless jewish monetary tricks". Sound silly right ? That's what everyone believes nowadays. After all, isn't everybody trying to get rich ? Everyone dreams of a Bugatti, just in case they are suddenly asked to prove that they are not brokies. But how many can harness the sociopathic behavior that's necessary to grow your business? I'd argue that those are the minority. Or maybe I am being naive. Just like we are fast to revert to zero-sum thinking, we are also fast in discarding empathy for others when money starts flowing. The fact remains though, being rich is not about creating the most value, it's about maximizing your side of the zero-sum equation. Put yourself in the shoes of the capital holder. Every cent he gives you for your work is a missing one from his big scrooge mcduck like pile of pennies. The capitalist's essence is to make his side of the equation go as far away from 0 as he can possibly get away with. He only gives away when he is promised a bigger return, or when he wants to avoid a bigger loss. These are the rules of the game. Rules the masses have such a hard time coping with, Sociology was invented to study its effect on their confused plebeian brains.
Among the sea of copes, one held some truth for a couple of decades. Let us refer to this idea as the "meritocratic cope", which goes something like this : Even if you don't physically own the means of production, you can have a cozy life if you can develop some skills that require an above average-intellect. How much above average depends on too many factors to cite. But over time, the overall trend has been that the more advanced technology got, the farther away from the middle of the bell curve you needed to be. For those with lesser intellects but loads of money, you could also coast through life with a series of bullshit jobs. You just need a pay-to-win diploma from a fancy school made by the rich for their less genetically fortunate off-springs. Both paths are not equal. The former genocides your hair follicles, nukes your skin, empties your eyes and gives you a vague air of "this guy has been through some shit". The latter is rife with opportunities to enjoy life, expand your horizons with equally narrow minded peers, and you end up walking out feeling competent to tard-wrangle the unorganized entropy of the labour force into higher quarterly earnings. You're not just an idea guy, you're a visionary. You don't know how to do anything yourself, but it's okay. You are a visionary.
But this is coming to an end. I'm not quite sure about the second path, but I can quite confidently assert that it's over for the former. The culprit? Artificial intelligence. If you were wondering where this rigmarole was leading to, it was all necessary exposition to understand where all the hate I have towards AI is coming from. In my next article, we will examine why the latest AI progress is the ultimate "checkmate, atheist" move to whomever has hope for a brighter future. No more hope, no more cope, no more peace, just problems.
