Complexity that overwhelms? I still think that Aristotle's framework on polities still stands, after almost 2,500 since its formulation: tyranny/monarchy, oligarchy/aristocracy, polity/democracy...
What we have unleashed, once again, is the psychopatic greed, with the golden calf of private property, extractive rentierism from any possible resource, and if possible forever, and total control, now more and more coupled/linked with fear. This is the main driver, and the west and the US pushes hard for that such that the whole world would pay tribute. That is th strategy, the "complexities" are driven by local conditions.
A theory that explains everything is more likely to be true, according Occam's Razor. Your theory that there is no one behind the mess, it is just like a lot of chemicals in a reaction chamber, fails to look for the purpose of it all, the control of money and resources, the protection of the dollar. Here's a suggestion. Investigate the upbringing and origin from birth of the key players. Start with the European commission. Did they spend time in the USA when young and then mysteriously become important European players? Try Landsbergis for example. How did all these controllable idiots end up at the controls.
No need to quote Hitler's speeches. You can take any article about Russia from the Times newspaper. Published in London. There will be so many lies that everyone in Moscow has already stopped responding. And if you take an English tabloid... But it's better not to do that. I still remember the fake that the British came up with during the World Cup in Russia. The weather in Moscow was wonderful, and the festive atmosphere was amazing. The British wrote that Russian and Argentine fans conspired to beat the British together. It was creative to the point of disgust. The Argentine fans, by the way, turned out to be very funny and groovy guys.
"Back in the Spring, the Market was convulsed by the idea that nuclear war with Russia was inevitable because, um, the Ukrainians had launched a drone attack against an airfield whose name no-one can now remember, where the Russians based some nuclear-capable aircraft."
I dunno, pretend that Russia, China, or anyone else had tried a similar stunt with the United States. The response would be immediate and brutal, and we would not have to hear AltMedia commentators come up with mewling excuses for any indecision.
You're downplaying Russia's resolve. Russia is already fighting the united West alone. What other country in the world would be able to do this? What else do you need?
You don't specify what exactly the response is to, but it doesn't matter. If I don't specify the exact number of B-52s that would be dispatched, that doesn't mean that no response happens.
Everyone knows that the American response would be swift, brutal, and unmistakable. Most likely launch on warning. Which is why nobody tests the Americans.
Would the US launch a nuclear attack you think? Let's look at the past. During the Vietnam War, or the Korean War, when Russian or Chinese troops (pilots or ground troops) fought directly with the Americans. Did the US launch any attack or started any war against China or USSR? They were already enmeshed in a war. So it is with Russia now. And Russia and Putin have declared clearly their goals and that they will not bend and that they will win. Whereas look at the American past. Even for the common denominator, check the American retreat from Afghanistan, with the government immediately collapsing and check the Soviet retreat, which was dignified and which left a more or less stable government that overlasted the Soviet Union.
Probably. And I guess this is exactly the kind of answer those who did that expected from Russia and which ultimately would have forced direct US involvement in the conflict. But obviously, Russia didn't fall for it...
I decided to switch to a paid subscription because as an above poster said, "I look forward to Wednesday and reading your posts."
You are just about the only person I read online anymore, the internet had such wonderful potential, but like everything else it was "enshitified", and it's just not worth wading through waste deep bs trying to find an occasional gem.
I would put you in the same class as Dmitri Orlov, your are both intelligent, coherent, and logical world class writers, too bad my country blocks my card when I try to read his stuff on the Russian platform where he posts. (For giggles google "the enshitification of everything", interesting and entertaining read).
As far as my comment on this article, Kouros said it before I could, I agree completely with what he posted.
Thank you for such well written pieces throughout the year. I don't always agree with everything you write, but its always stimulating and intellectually interesting.
Have a relaxing Christmas and hopefully we all can enjoy the New Year, all of it.
I lived through the same period and began adulthood with a deep skepicism of the mainstream media because of the lies about Vietnam and race.
I followed instead the dissidents, especially in alternative media . I even was involved with those media.
Today I ignore most of the phoney media drama that you rightly describe. I spend my time on those independent news sites that have proved to be trustworthy. It is much easier to find worthwhile expert opinion than it used to be.
I see the problem as powerful groups dominating the media - corporations, elites, demagogues, virulently nationalistic interests (e.g. Israel).
As strange as it may be in this era, the one thing I look forward to every Wednesday are your essays, Aurelien. So, for the last time of 2025, thank you for your insight and playfulness at trying to understand the world.
Ps. The part about how Youtube would have found in Hitler a great influencer is scary - REALLY scary.
Aurelien asks: “How did we get from a rational world to a screaming, fragmented mess?”
He answers: “Deregulation of the media market.”
The following hypothesis adds the biological consequences:
• Deregulation created Hyper-Competition.
• Hyper-Competition necessitated Super-Normal Stimuli (Turning it to 11).
• Super-Normal Stimuli shattered the Dopaminergic Tone of the population.
• Shattered Dopamine resulted in a population incapable of Deep Work, Nuance, or Patience
There is a physiological counterpart to the sociological deregulation you describe. I call it the 'Acquired Executive Dysfunction' of the modern West.
Your observation that media and politicians must now 'shout at volume 11' identifies the external symptom of an internal biological collapse. The deregulation of the 1980s created an environment of infinite, high-intensity stimuli (Phasic Dopamine). To survive this, the human brain has downregulated its sensitivity, effectively raising the threshold for what constitutes a 'signal.'
This explains the death of nuance. Nuance is low-stimulation. To a dopamine-downregulated brain, a complex explanation of Syria feels like 'silence,' whereas a screaming conspiracy theory registers as 'signal.'
We aren't just 'misinformed' or 'lazy'; we are cognitively exhausted. The modern information environment imposes a massive metabolic tax on attention. The 'Big Lie' thrives not because it is believable, but because it is cognitively cheap. It offers a total explanation for zero executive effort.
We are watching a population—and a leadership class—suffering from chronic Executive Exhaustion, attempting to run a civilization that requires the deep-work endurance we lost since the year 2000 (1980?)
At the end of the 20th century, something unexpected happened in the West: its four-century gestalt was successfully completed. With the discovery of the first steam engines, the West was obsessed with the idea that machines would provide personal comfort: the gestalt was revealed. And now this goal has finally been achieved: you don't even need to think—the computer does everything, not to mention physical labor. Fukuyama captured this state in his book "The End of History."
You would have remained in this stable mental state, but to your misfortune, a century ago in the East, we saw our dream machine—a large gas turbine. We realized that we could stuff all the world's coal and gas into it and, with it, build a new super-empire. In other words, the East began its own process of gestalt completion—the path to future great social reforms.
You are concerned about this dynamic. Apparently, this movement in the East is overloading your thinking with the complexity of its understanding. One day, we'll close our gestalt and find ourselves in the same crisis. You, on the other hand, will emerge from it: you'll reopen yours. And everything will repeat itself. It's an endless cycle.
Grande lucidez na tentativa de conhecer o que nos rodeia. Poderemos esperar que as novas e imparáveis tecnologia beneficiem as pessoas comuns? Pena que o pequeno tempo dos humanos esteja muito aquém do tempo histórico, onde um velho mundo morre a destruir e o novo demora a nascer, a prevalecer.
You like to inform on the systemics, that is what is needed. Always almost above the fray, you have the belly to be relegating, but you stop at the danger line. No behind the scenes peeps and peaks, but analyzing the puppet actors/authors on it(the theatre's scene). I for one would think you might dissert on the "souffleurs", beyond the ones on the soap-box. But then ...danger zone ahead. You are not willing to take the risk of tackling the issue of agency and go dark. Still that is what we need you for.
Members of the von der Leyen Commission. Nice big group photo. All centre-right and then some. Get used to endless mystery drone wars on the Eastern Front, tripping the light fantastic over the remaining environmental tipping points, pulverizing unworthy non EU victims and GMO Cheerios. No irony intended.
Complexity that overwhelms? I still think that Aristotle's framework on polities still stands, after almost 2,500 since its formulation: tyranny/monarchy, oligarchy/aristocracy, polity/democracy...
What we have unleashed, once again, is the psychopatic greed, with the golden calf of private property, extractive rentierism from any possible resource, and if possible forever, and total control, now more and more coupled/linked with fear. This is the main driver, and the west and the US pushes hard for that such that the whole world would pay tribute. That is th strategy, the "complexities" are driven by local conditions.
A theory that explains everything is more likely to be true, according Occam's Razor. Your theory that there is no one behind the mess, it is just like a lot of chemicals in a reaction chamber, fails to look for the purpose of it all, the control of money and resources, the protection of the dollar. Here's a suggestion. Investigate the upbringing and origin from birth of the key players. Start with the European commission. Did they spend time in the USA when young and then mysteriously become important European players? Try Landsbergis for example. How did all these controllable idiots end up at the controls.
No need to quote Hitler's speeches. You can take any article about Russia from the Times newspaper. Published in London. There will be so many lies that everyone in Moscow has already stopped responding. And if you take an English tabloid... But it's better not to do that. I still remember the fake that the British came up with during the World Cup in Russia. The weather in Moscow was wonderful, and the festive atmosphere was amazing. The British wrote that Russian and Argentine fans conspired to beat the British together. It was creative to the point of disgust. The Argentine fans, by the way, turned out to be very funny and groovy guys.
"Back in the Spring, the Market was convulsed by the idea that nuclear war with Russia was inevitable because, um, the Ukrainians had launched a drone attack against an airfield whose name no-one can now remember, where the Russians based some nuclear-capable aircraft."
I dunno, pretend that Russia, China, or anyone else had tried a similar stunt with the United States. The response would be immediate and brutal, and we would not have to hear AltMedia commentators come up with mewling excuses for any indecision.
You're downplaying Russia's resolve. Russia is already fighting the united West alone. What other country in the world would be able to do this? What else do you need?
So tell us about the Russian response. What's to stop the West from further escalations?
I already explained how the US would have responded - which is why nobody would try.
What would the United States do? Write only about specific actions.
You don't specify what exactly the response is to, but it doesn't matter. If I don't specify the exact number of B-52s that would be dispatched, that doesn't mean that no response happens.
Everyone knows that the American response would be swift, brutal, and unmistakable. Most likely launch on warning. Which is why nobody tests the Americans.
Russia sends bombers and missiles every day. And a lot of them
They're hitting the United States? And the United States has stopped?
Would the US launch a nuclear attack you think? Let's look at the past. During the Vietnam War, or the Korean War, when Russian or Chinese troops (pilots or ground troops) fought directly with the Americans. Did the US launch any attack or started any war against China or USSR? They were already enmeshed in a war. So it is with Russia now. And Russia and Putin have declared clearly their goals and that they will not bend and that they will win. Whereas look at the American past. Even for the common denominator, check the American retreat from Afghanistan, with the government immediately collapsing and check the Soviet retreat, which was dignified and which left a more or less stable government that overlasted the Soviet Union.
Let us know when the US homeland was hit by Russian or Chinese missiles.
Probably. And I guess this is exactly the kind of answer those who did that expected from Russia and which ultimately would have forced direct US involvement in the conflict. But obviously, Russia didn't fall for it...
In other words, the West has lost all fear of Russia and sees no reason not to continue.
I decided to switch to a paid subscription because as an above poster said, "I look forward to Wednesday and reading your posts."
You are just about the only person I read online anymore, the internet had such wonderful potential, but like everything else it was "enshitified", and it's just not worth wading through waste deep bs trying to find an occasional gem.
I would put you in the same class as Dmitri Orlov, your are both intelligent, coherent, and logical world class writers, too bad my country blocks my card when I try to read his stuff on the Russian platform where he posts. (For giggles google "the enshitification of everything", interesting and entertaining read).
As far as my comment on this article, Kouros said it before I could, I agree completely with what he posted.
Happy holidays! I look forward to your next post.
Thank you for such well written pieces throughout the year. I don't always agree with everything you write, but its always stimulating and intellectually interesting.
Have a relaxing Christmas and hopefully we all can enjoy the New Year, all of it.
Look forward to your next offering in January.
I lived through the same period and began adulthood with a deep skepicism of the mainstream media because of the lies about Vietnam and race.
I followed instead the dissidents, especially in alternative media . I even was involved with those media.
Today I ignore most of the phoney media drama that you rightly describe. I spend my time on those independent news sites that have proved to be trustworthy. It is much easier to find worthwhile expert opinion than it used to be.
I see the problem as powerful groups dominating the media - corporations, elites, demagogues, virulently nationalistic interests (e.g. Israel).
As strange as it may be in this era, the one thing I look forward to every Wednesday are your essays, Aurelien. So, for the last time of 2025, thank you for your insight and playfulness at trying to understand the world.
Ps. The part about how Youtube would have found in Hitler a great influencer is scary - REALLY scary.
Aurelien asks: “How did we get from a rational world to a screaming, fragmented mess?”
He answers: “Deregulation of the media market.”
The following hypothesis adds the biological consequences:
• Deregulation created Hyper-Competition.
• Hyper-Competition necessitated Super-Normal Stimuli (Turning it to 11).
• Super-Normal Stimuli shattered the Dopaminergic Tone of the population.
• Shattered Dopamine resulted in a population incapable of Deep Work, Nuance, or Patience
There is a physiological counterpart to the sociological deregulation you describe. I call it the 'Acquired Executive Dysfunction' of the modern West.
Your observation that media and politicians must now 'shout at volume 11' identifies the external symptom of an internal biological collapse. The deregulation of the 1980s created an environment of infinite, high-intensity stimuli (Phasic Dopamine). To survive this, the human brain has downregulated its sensitivity, effectively raising the threshold for what constitutes a 'signal.'
This explains the death of nuance. Nuance is low-stimulation. To a dopamine-downregulated brain, a complex explanation of Syria feels like 'silence,' whereas a screaming conspiracy theory registers as 'signal.'
We aren't just 'misinformed' or 'lazy'; we are cognitively exhausted. The modern information environment imposes a massive metabolic tax on attention. The 'Big Lie' thrives not because it is believable, but because it is cognitively cheap. It offers a total explanation for zero executive effort.
We are watching a population—and a leadership class—suffering from chronic Executive Exhaustion, attempting to run a civilization that requires the deep-work endurance we lost since the year 2000 (1980?)
At the end of the 20th century, something unexpected happened in the West: its four-century gestalt was successfully completed. With the discovery of the first steam engines, the West was obsessed with the idea that machines would provide personal comfort: the gestalt was revealed. And now this goal has finally been achieved: you don't even need to think—the computer does everything, not to mention physical labor. Fukuyama captured this state in his book "The End of History."
You would have remained in this stable mental state, but to your misfortune, a century ago in the East, we saw our dream machine—a large gas turbine. We realized that we could stuff all the world's coal and gas into it and, with it, build a new super-empire. In other words, the East began its own process of gestalt completion—the path to future great social reforms.
You are concerned about this dynamic. Apparently, this movement in the East is overloading your thinking with the complexity of its understanding. One day, we'll close our gestalt and find ourselves in the same crisis. You, on the other hand, will emerge from it: you'll reopen yours. And everything will repeat itself. It's an endless cycle.
Grande lucidez na tentativa de conhecer o que nos rodeia. Poderemos esperar que as novas e imparáveis tecnologia beneficiem as pessoas comuns? Pena que o pequeno tempo dos humanos esteja muito aquém do tempo histórico, onde um velho mundo morre a destruir e o novo demora a nascer, a prevalecer.
Except, of course, in China, whose official media are the most trusted on earth and where public lying by officials earns dismissal.
And yet, here we are, being out-competed.
You speak for many of us.
You like to inform on the systemics, that is what is needed. Always almost above the fray, you have the belly to be relegating, but you stop at the danger line. No behind the scenes peeps and peaks, but analyzing the puppet actors/authors on it(the theatre's scene). I for one would think you might dissert on the "souffleurs", beyond the ones on the soap-box. But then ...danger zone ahead. You are not willing to take the risk of tackling the issue of agency and go dark. Still that is what we need you for.
So check out valdis dombrivskis. Right. University of Maryland. Walking distance from Langley. Where? Oh, right, that Langley. Etc,etc. Guten Morgen.
Oh, I forgot about this guy. Not that any of them warrants so much as a blip on the evening “news”. https://commission.europa.eu/about/organisation/college-commissioners/valdis-dombrovskis_en
Members of the von der Leyen Commission. Nice big group photo. All centre-right and then some. Get used to endless mystery drone wars on the Eastern Front, tripping the light fantastic over the remaining environmental tipping points, pulverizing unworthy non EU victims and GMO Cheerios. No irony intended.
https://commission.europa.eu/about/organisation/college-commissioners_en
Nice tribute to Rob Reiner via Spinal Tap.
All I can do is thank you again for being one of the few sane voices left.