Tryants, Bullies, Ceremony and Tradition

Hi! Happy Tuesday!


Colin Kaepernick made a minor splash in the slow summer news cycle this week. Colin is the quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers football team.  Quarterback Colin Kaepernick sat during the national anthem to make a statement about racial inequality.

On Friday evening, San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick stayed seated during the singing of the national anthem prior to his team's preseason game against the Green Bay Packers. It became a national story on Saturday after someone tweeted a photo of Kaepernick seated during the anthem.
It became arguably the biggest NFL story of the preseason when Kaepernick explained that he refuses to stand during the anthem because, "I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color. To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder."
Irreni World Scale is about solutions, not punditry. What is the solution here? Is Colin right or wrong? How should people perceive this public display?

The solution is to recognize that all tradition and ceremony are morally reprehensible and morally repugnant. In other words the judgment to be made is not about Colin's single act of tradition or ceremony, no,  but rather the concept of tradition itself as being immoral.

Tradition and ceremony are the first go-to tools of tyrants, bullies, despots and authoritarians. Why? Because tradition and ceremony are first and foremost about unthinking obedience. When tradition and ceremony are elevated as good  and just then solely the mere act of breaking with tradition and ceremony is considered the highest order of wrong. Why? Because by definition unthinking obedience requires no thinking. Violating tradition allows someone to condemn those that violate tradition with the utmost contempt without thought. Condemning Colin Kaepernick with the highest contempt is absolute in its formation and delivery. Colin can be vilified with the wildest abandon because Colin broke with  unthinking obedience, otherwise known as tradition. Would it surprise anyone that  those condemning Colin the loudest would also be those who vote the least and resent paying taxes? Talk is cheap and when talk is all you put into something then violating unthinking tradition is something you can really be sure about.

Unthinking in the scientific era is evil. Unthinking in the scientific era is morally reprehensible. Unthinking obedience is the tool of masters over their slaves and the antithesis of freedom. Unthinking obedience is the most sought after ideal by religions and nations alike.

Religions chafe at  being stereotyped at having similar traits. However, all religions depend heavily on tradition; all religions depend heavily on unthinking obedience; and all religions depend heavily on blind faith. All of three of which practices are equivalent and thus enable stereotyping any and all religions as evil without discrimination. Remove unthinking obedience from any religion and it is no longer a religion.

The U.S. military practices unthinking obedience in a way that is outright cognitive dissonance. Cognitive dissonance is the pain caused by holding two opposing ideas as true at the same time in ones mind. Upon entry into the U.S. military one swears an oath of fealty to uphold the U.S. Constitution. However, once sworn that oath is put aside. Direct orders are the only orders.  Whoa be unto the soldier who challenges direct orders on grounds of fealty to the U.S. Constitution. Any such soldier disobeying orders due to U.S. Constitution challenges would face court martial and be thrown into the brig. This is cognitive dissonance defined: blind obedience to the U.S. constitution versus blind obedience to direct orders.

Today the U.S. military only wants an all volunteer army and not a draft? Why? Because the U.S. military during the Vietnam drafted those who are not so willing to submit to unthinking obedience and the result was devastating to the military's  reputation and capability. The U.S. military requires unthinking obedience.

Religion  and nations alike rely on tradition and ceremony to enforce and reinforce the commitment to unthinking obedience. The actions carried out by those obeying are only decided by the few or the one. Rule by the few or the one is tyranny and authoritarian. Is it any wonder that soldiers conditioned to obey come back into a free society feeling lost due to a lack of someone to obey?

The correct moral argument regarding Colin Kaepernick's position is to hold that all tradition and ceremony are systemic tools of oppression, i.e. bad engineering. Irreni World Scale is about engineering systems. Tradition is a dysfunctional system of unthinking and therefore bad engineering. There is nothing that promotes all of human life about tradition's observance of unthinking obedience; tradition that only promotes the lives of the few or the one with the thinking free-will. There is nothing moral or good to ever come out of tradition or ceremony unless one is willing to enslave ones mind at the alter of unthinking obedience.

Politics as Science!

Demand Irreni World Scale!

Anti-theism is feminism!  

Think disruption!

Empathy for all!

Moral relativity: think it, breath it!

Prove it or lose it!

Conversations equal consensus! 

Welcome to the 21st century!

Scale your empathy, scale the world! 

Find your tribe!

Be sexy people!

The future is coming! 

Innovate at a rapid pace!

Slow speed ahead!

Well come! and well met!















Colin Kaepernick
Colin Kaepernick

Comments

Explore

You Need To Start Making Political Decisions

Love, Hard Work Book Draft: Introduction

No Secret Ballots, Public Voting

How To Scale, 101

Irreni Manages Bad Reasoning

The Amercian Anthem: Drawing Cartoons of Muhammed

Introduction to the book "Irreni World Scale"

High Tech Politics

Love, Hard Work Book Draft: Chapter 1

Kavanaugh Debrief