God's spies at the End of History

I am grateful to Pharmakon for expounding a policy position that has at least sparked a great deal of debate and raises a whole host of interconnected questions (and I hope my criticisms were not too robustly expressed – I always worry about that). I don't suppose I could personally ever reconcile myself to the notion of drugs and surgeries for healthy kids. I recoil instinctively from this as I do from all cutting of healthy bodies. (I see that the Circumcision party in America, after decades of slow retreat, is now rallying, and are keen to spread their gospel of male genital mutilation, suitably backed by the latest pseudoscientific garbage that America is so adroit at churning out. Anything for a fast buck.) Anyway, whatever we think of Pharmakon's proposals, I do think it is a possible trajectory for the US. Trust is eroded by the cash nexus. Arota, with whom I do not always agree, earlier expressed very eloquently the ideal relationship between a doctor and patient that is based on the patient's trust that the doctor will use his expertise solely in the interest of the patient. By turning the patient into a consumer, this trust is no longer justified (except insofar as a personal relationship still exists, as when a private doctor in a community knows everyone in the community, and is known by them. The same is true of business generally. The small grocer knew his customers, the family owned firm knew the community they served. Profit could be balanced with other considerations. The growth of vast corporations, however, has put an end to these sorts of relationships.). Now, when relations are not mediated by trust, there is no basis for the solidarity and sense of shared values that could form the basis for resistance to authority (such as, for example, was shown by the British Miners in the great strike of the mid-80s). This essentially freezes the historical process. The upshot of all this is that I want to make a prediction: when the US is finally drugged up and becomes a completely unadulterated 'marketplace', the historical dialectic in America will go to sleep. The shopping mall will be eternalised, and there will be no possibility whatever of any further social development. This, then, will be the real End of History – at least for America. Maybe this was always fated to be so; maybe, indeed, a drugged and conformist population is the best that can be hoped for given America's cultural trajectory. But America is only 4 per cent of the human population. In the rest of the world, history may still be possible. And, as the Empire crumbles into dust, so somewhere or other, perhaps even before century's end, there will be places where pederasty will be tolerated. Maybe in parts of south and east Asia; maybe in parts of Latin America. These are real possibilities, because the historical dialectic in these countries won't have come to an end. But there shall be no significant social change in America. And ultimately? Well, assuming that we don't destroy ourselves (which is a real possibility) the current phase of human history is clearly ending. ASI is coming, and absolutely nothing in Heaven or Earth can stop it. Technology is not something that we control; it is something that has befallen the human race. Like a child running down a steep hill, we have built up so much momentum, that we can't now stop ourselves. And at the bottom? What happens when ASI takes over? (As it undoubtedly will – Toby Ord in The Precipice has shown how even if the AI didn't have robotic bodies with which to properly interact with the world it could still take over everything.) The answer is that what happens beyond this point is completely hidden from us. My advice to young Americans would be simple: learn languages; emigrate. The same applies to Britons. I myself, however, am too old to follow this advice. There is less at stake for me, for I have fewer years left. For those who remain in the Anglosphere, then, what are we to do? Americans live in a prison. It can be a quite well furnished prison if you are economically fortunate. If you can salve your consciences over the kids who are killed for the cause of empire, it can even be congenial. So long as you can keep your head down, suppress your deepest emotional needs, you can live a decent life, I think. My prison, on the other side of the pond, is rather more shabbily furnished. It does, however, have the advantage of a certain warmth (a result of the great Attlee government of 45) that your prison lacks. So I shall keep my little cell, if you don't mind. In any case, I'm rather used to it. We should not have too many hopes for the future. In fact, it is advisable to have none at all, and concentrate on making the best of the here and now. Physically, we are forced to live out our lives in the mad present. Mentally, we can dwell in all the past epochs of human history, we can seek to understand, and we can contemplate all of existence. Such a life will, I believe, be a meaningful one. The best advice was given by Lear: Come, let's away to prison. We two alone will sing like birds i' th' cage. When thou dost ask me blessing, I'll kneel down And ask of thee forgiveness. So we'll live, And pray, and sing, and tell old tales, and laugh At gilded butterflies, and hear poor rogues Talk of court news; and we'll talk with them too – Who loses and who wins; who's in, who's out – And take upon's the mystery of things As if we were God's spies (V, iii, 8-17)