Category: Fund Raising Page 2 of 3

I’m going to leave the fundraiser open until the first of January, but we’ve made all the tiers.

THANK YOU.

I am immensely grateful, especially given how hard things were this year.

The final tier, which I didn’t think we’d make, was:

An essay on the effects of computer and telecom technology on humanity. Back in the 1990s, in his book Technopoly, Neil Postman predicted it would be bad for most people. I would argue it has, or will be, but we’ll take a look at the ups and downs, the effects on economics, geopolitics, and daily life. As with the advent of writing, printing, and firearms, the early results may not be the same as those in the longer term, so we’ll try and figure out some of those.

I look forward to writing it. Postman had an interesting, analytical framework for technology use, and how it controls social options which could easily be expanded beyond technology, as well.

The problem we have today is that even when I see things that could be good (if used well), I know that our society will abuse them. For example, there’s now an experimental vaccine which blocks some opiates. Could be useful to help addicts, but of course it will be forced on some people who don’t want it, especially in prisons, and by police and some mental hospitals and doctors. This will both leave people who need pain relief in agony and put some addicts into horrible withdrawals without their consent.

That’s just who we are, it seems: We can’t be trusted with any sort of power, technological or otherwise, because we will horribly abuse it.

Is that a permanent feature of humanity, or something we can overcome?

DONATE OR SUBSCRIBE

A little over 1 week in, and we’ve raised approximately $2,400. The first tier is at $5.000:

A longer article on the collapse of the USSR, putting everything I’m aware of together. In particular I want to discuss the steps Gorbachev took which seem like either gross stupidity or intentional destruction. The fall of the Soviet Union was studied in great detail by the Chinese Communist Party, and has informed their actions since.

Donations this year have been the slowest I remember, probably both because of Covid and doing the fundraiser around Thanksgiving. Of course, if you’re barely scraping by this year, you shouldn’t give, but if you can afford like my writing and can afford to, I’d appreciate it greatly.

DONATE OR SUBSCRIBE

I’m fundraising for 2021. The more I raise, the more I will write.

DONATE OR SUBSCRIBE

I’m going to keep the goals simple this year.

$5000 – A longer article on the collapse of the USSR, putting everything I’m aware of together. In particular I want to discuss the steps Gorbachev took which seem like either gross stupidity or intentional destruction. The fall of the Soviet Union was studied in great detail by the Chinese Communist Party, and has informed their actions since.

$8,000 – A summary of world system analysis as practiced mainly by Immanuel Wallerstein, with a look at what it means for the future. World system analysis takes capitalism as a world system, and looks at how it has re-ordered the entire relationship of nations, subordinating them to its needs, though about 5 centuries. We can see clearly that most countries today are not sovereign, but subject to the system as a whole, this is true to some extent even of the hegemonic power, the US. Wallerstein thinks this world system is played out, and we’ll look at why. (Wallerstein, like Randall Collins predicted the collapse of the USSR in advance, using his model, when almost all specialists in the USSR did not see it coming.)

$10,000 – A longish look at the theory of revolutions: when they happen and why, drawing on people like Randall Collins and Michael Mann. Most of what they have is based on the experience of Agrarian empires, so I’ll try and extend it a bit to industrial nations, and also look at what it means for a world system to collapse. World systems prior to capitalism didn’t include the entire world (and capitalism didn’t till the mid 19 the century), so we can see what happened, for example, when the Roman Empire collapsed.

$11,500 – An essay on the effect of computer and telecom technology on humanity. Neil Postman, in Technopoly, back in the 1990s predicted it would be bad for most people, and I would argue it has or will be, but we’ll take a look at the ups and down, the affects on economics, geopolitics and daily life. As with writing and printing and firearms, the early results may not be the same as those in the longer term, so we’ll try and figure out some of those.

2021 has been a hard year for many. If you’re worried about food or rent or other necessities, please don’t give. If, on the other hand, you can afford to and value my writing, I’d appreciate it. The year has taken a toll.

Subscriptions will count triple compared to donations.

DONATE OR SUBSCRIBE

We did, in the end, raise slightly more than $11,000. I am very grateful, this will make a significant difference. Thank you, all who gave.

I want to thank everyone who’s given. It’s been a bad year for anyone not in the top 1 percent or so, and I appreciate the donations and subscriptions greatly.

We’ve raised approximately (some crypto donations have made the numbers not even) $8,925. That means we’ve passed the second tier:

Three more articles, this set most likely on the conditions that create golden Ages, including one on how to create an ecological Golden Age (what we need next.)

The last tier unlocks at $11,000:

$11,000: two more articles, these on the conditions that create good and bad societies to live in; an introduction and conclusion and some commentary and connecting text as seems necessary.

The fundraiser has been going on for almost a month, so I’m going to draw it to a close as of Friday at midnight, and go back to the little message at the bottom of the posts on Saturday.

Again, I’m thankful to everyone who has given. If you’d like to try and push us to that $11,000 goal and only if you are financially secure (please DON’T give if it would mean any hardship to you) then please subscribe or donate and we’ll see if we make it: $2,075 as of this writing. Even if we don’t, rest assured, the money helps.

DONATE OR SUBSCRIBE