Reaction and Critique: Why We Started This Project
Alright, here's an attempt to organize my thoughts about this project.
Whatever it may be.
Is it a prepper channel?
What is a metamodern republic, anyhow?
How do we know what a republic is?
This sets the tone for our overall philosophical foundation, firmly grounded in the classical western intellectual tradition.
Athens and Jerusalem.
Aristotle, Socrates, Plato. Marcus Aurelius. Aquinas. Machiavelli. Descartes. Hume. Smith. Burke. Kant. Hobbes. Locke. Comte. Hegel. Schopenhauer. Marx. Kierkegaard. Nietzsche. Freud. Husserl. Gadamer. Heidegger. Wittgenstein. The Frankfurt School. Levi-Strauss. Foucault. Barthes. Sartre.
We highly recommend Dr. MIchael Sugrue and his YouTube channel for a free, world-class lectures on these thinkers and a well-rounded sense of the historic arch of western civilizational thought.
Pre-modern to modern to post-modern.
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So, what's with the metamodern part?
What does that mean?
From Psychology Today:
At its broadest contours, the metamodern view can be considered a kind of higher-order synthesis that includes and transcends both the modernist thesis about rationality and science and the postmodern antithetical critique. In addition, metamodernists tend to view the current state of our knowledge to be overly chaotic and fragmented and advocate for a more integrated pluralism that allows for positive, constructive work on what some have called a "post-postmodern grand meta-narrative."
I hope you got all that...
So, then, we arrive at our name: Metamodern Republic.
What are we trying to say?
What are we trying to point out?
Well, modernity is at the center of the question.
Let's take a look around and talk about modernity.
What has the modern world brought us?
Well, it's brought us technological advance and "progress."
And where does the idea of "progress" come from?
Well, philosophically we can derive a concept of progress from Hegel.
From the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy:
The 19th-century writers on progress took up and elaborated the notion that conflict is an essential part of a progressive narrative.[...]According to Hegel, the world as a whole is in the process of development through conflict. Part of the world's development is the self-realization of its spiritual aspect, known simply as Geist, or Spirit. The freedom of Spirit is achieved through the achievement of free social institutions and free human beings. So, we look to human history to understand the realization of Spirit. Conversely we recognize that the self-realization of Spirit, an entity not reducible to humanity, is the true meaning of human history.
In essence, a Metamodern Republic is what we find ourselves in under today's circumstances given the events heretofore unfolded to us as history.
A world in conflict, convinced it is progressing towards something, facing the contradiction of rejecting grand narratives as its own grand narrative.
The metamodern moment.
We want - no, need - people to see and understand our moment in time as distinct and separate from, although a consequence of, modern and post-modern paradigms.
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OK pull us back from the philosophical edge...
...let's talk about the project from a different angle.
What is our purpose?
Well, this project is itself a reaction to the type of content on social media as it relates to prepping.
More specifically, the prevalence of military doctrine on the pepper-sphere.
You see, 80% of the population lives in urban or sub-urban areas.
So, that means 80% of the people consuming this content will never be able to bug out in the woods because they don't live anywhere near close to the woods.
Furthermore, only 1.4 million of the 330 million plus U.S. population is active duty in the military.
This means 99% of the population will spend their entire lives as civilians.
So 80% of the population operates as civilians in urban territory.
Then what the heck good is it doing to keep watching prepper channels where everyone's talking about their bug out bags and going into the woods and building a tent?
Let's be clear: it will better serve urban citizen to talk about preparation in terms of an evacuation than it will in terms of bugging out and never coming home.
Here's my issue: bugging out is too vague and does not provide the best conceptual basis for putting together and actual kit and preparedness plan.
Like in Hurricane Katrina, for example: 80% of New Orleans was underwater.
Natural disasters are the types of emergencies and scenarios that urban populations would benefit way more from when planning and prepping.
Worse, so much of the content labeled "urban" features someone in the woods with a molle backpack full of fire starters and cordage.
Modern urban living is its own distinct culture.
The modern urban lifestyle involves a completely different set of customs, codes of conduct, unspoken rules, and sets of laws.
This informs so many aspects of an urban dweller's life.
Especially when it comes to clothes, accessories, gear, equipment, bags, and vehicles.
Yet the majority of content is coming from rural preppers in military surplus gear.
So, there are huge amounts of people living in an urban environment consuming content that they actually can't relate to.
Even though prepping, as it is presented in most of the content, appeals to a romantic sense of adventure, exploration, and the frontier of nature and civilization...it is not the reality for 80% of the population.
For 80% of the population, these people are trying to survive everyday life in the modern metropolis.
Therefore, what we need is a voice that specifically addresses and speaks to the circumstances and concerns of prepping for modern urban everyday living.
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We will establish the main four pillars of this channel:
Modern. Urban. Everyday. Prepping.
We've established modern.
So let's establish urban.
Urban is 80% of the U.S. population.
And 80% of the population is living in relative peace.
However, that peace is fragile and being tested every day by "progress."
But the fact remains that modern urban everyday life is overwhelmingly mundane, humdrum, and repetitive.
In other words, stable.
Not to say it isn't subject to disasters, emergencies, or disruptions.
Quite the opposite, in fact.
It is subject to constant stress.
It truly is a miracle the whole darn thing works as it does to begin with.
But the statistical probability of an EMP, invasion, or civil war is way smaller than the likelihood of a car accident, power outage, or severe weather.
So we're trying to create something different.
We're creating content that speaks to the 80% of the population that lives in urban areas, where having a bunch of military surplus gear is just not going to do them any good.
What good is it for you to have a get-home bag with an E-tool and a tarp and cordage and fire starters in the middle of the city?
Evacuation events aside (for now), prepping for statistically rare events like grid down, an EMP, or hot conflict in the streets on a massive scale is coming at the expense of creating and living a prosperous life in the present.
It's not just giving people the wrong idea, but giving them the idea to go out and buy a whole bunch of gear that, quite frankly, is not going to help them out.
They're wasting their time and money on the wrong things.
An assault pack is going to get you a prison sentence.
What are you assaulting?
Assault is a felony.
What kind of reconnaissance are you doing on a regular basis that requires night vision goggles?
What kind of patrolling do you think you'll actually do with a rifle and a chest rig in the city?
The truth is, this militarized way of living is so out of touch with the urban civilian lifestyle that both of these example would end up alienating any hypothetical prepper among their neighbors.
So we have to move beyond the predominance of the military or law enforcement training mindset.
Because the predominance of this influence on the pepper-sphere is giving 80% of the viewership the wrong idea and direction.
But let's be clear: it is not because military and law enforcement training is not valuable nor necessary to the defense of the republic.
It is because the skillset needed to survive modern urban everyday life is different than military or law enforcement training.
***
Why is it important?
Well because with metamodernism we recognize is that what we are fighting in is a civil war played out through culture.
And so how does one win that war?
By changing the culture
And how do you change the culture?
By changing the philosophy or meta-narrative of that culture.
How do we create and spread influence?
Well, through the same medium, I suppose: social media.
And so, what's our goal?
I think our goal is to then create what is known as a stay-behind force, meaning those of us who do not flee civilization and return to the woods.
Yes, why should we?
I mean, what about attempting to stay behind and change and fight that from the inside? Right?
If that's an answer to how we're going to defeat it.
And so, that's the main goal of this challenge: to change hearts and minds of those in 80% of the population areas.
We have to change it.
How else are we going to change the rules and the laws and the direction of our society if no one is left in those societies to commandeer them?
Well, this brings up the concept of accelerationism, I suppose.
What is accelerationism?
Well, it's a line of thinking that proposes the sooner the society collapses, the better.
So that once the smoke clears, whatever is left, whoever is left on the outside can come in to pick up the pieces.
But what guarantee is there'll be anything left to pick up?
How do you, or anyone left on the outside, wants the thing after it collapses?
Besides, you don't think the main hubs of commerce and food and goods, the production of those goods, collapsing is going to affect the outer areas?
I mean, how much population will be left? 20%?
And what technological skills and knowledge will they have?
How do we know the people that will return to some type of post -collapse scenario would even know what or how to do, what would even know what to do with what's left?
Would even know how to run the machines, how to build them, how to fix them, how to get things back to normal, how to recreate commerce?
That would be, we're talking about, a new dark age.
I think that the Dark Ages was regressive.
What do you think postmodern collapse is going to be?
I mean we know what it looks like from the sense of a post-war Europe.
But I think what acceleration is calling for is a much broader widespread.
We're already at a point, a tipping point where people are waking up.
The Great Awakening is happening.
It's fighting directly against the Great Reset.
Yet the odds still seem to be insurmountable.
The W -E -F are still the thing.
Agenda 2030 is on the move.
I mean there may be some battles that indicate a strong counter-revolution.
What is emerging is a coherent and effective opposition.
While I think it's also pretty clear that that's true, we are also a long way from the end.
And so the scale of the battles is only going to grow. Right?
I mean Bud Light is barely a blip on the radar.
This counter, this oppositional force of society, I don't think you can even call it conservative.
But if metamodernism is inherently conservative. then it makes sense that the conservatives, quote unquote, are affirming that.
That's what this oppositional force would be labeled.
The left wing, anything to its right...anything that's not left wing revolutionary is going to be conservative.
Anything that attempts to defend or maintain any part of the status quo is inherently conservative.
For isn't our republic worth conserving and preserving?
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So, what kind of topics are we going to cover?
Well, what are the four pillars of the channel?
Modern, urban, everyday preparedness.
Right, so what else do we mean by modern?
Well modern is going to be technological.
Modern is going to be tech, gadgets, gear, but gear, tech and gadgets for the urban population.
And I'm sorry, but military surplus chest rigs...and even I hate to admit it, but my Rhodesian recon vest is going to do me very little good in the city on a daily basis and in 99 out of 100 possible disaster or emergency scenarios.
No, what we need people to do is learn how to survive modern urban life first.
Forget warfare, we're just talking about everyday battles.
How much money is in your bank account?
How much debt do you have?
What's the condition of your car?
How about your home or your apartment?
What kind of mobility and freedom do you have?
What's preventing you from growing?
Even if you had to bug out, if some kind of mass evacuation was ordered, how would you fare?
Okay, so before we even get to that subject, before we even get to those topics, before we even get to that scenario, we want to focus on everyday scenarios that people go through.
What if your car breaks down on the other side of town?
What if your car catches on fire?
What if your car gets stolen?
What are you going to do if your car gets stolen and you had your get-home bag in there with all your magazines and your rifle and everything?
Forget grand theft auto- what if your car just gets broken into and your truck bag or gun get stolen?
What are you gonna do then?
Do you have insurance?
Do you have that money in your bank account to meet the deductible?
How easy is it gonna be for you to replace those stolen items?
How is it gonna easy is getting for you to carry on your normal life, if your car gets stolen?
What about if your apartment building catches on fire or your home gets flooded?
How are you prepared for the battles of everyday life?
How do you expect to fight an invading force when you can't even pay off your credit card?
How do you expect to defend against an invading force when you can't even replace your get home bag if it got stolen from your car?
How do you expect to bug out if you can't even fix your brakes?
And so when these questions are proposed, what comes into focus in the terms of surviving everyday becomes your insurance, your income, your cash flow, your debt, and your mobility.
And so, that's what we're going to focus on first.
How do you make more money to survive the demands of everyday urban life?
That's where we're going to begin.