@elonmusk style may look tricksterish. That's understandable. He is an innovator, ergo disruptor and disruption may be sometimes undistinguishable from tricksterism. Content-wise though the problem with Musk is that he's creating new stuff. That he is a non-violent entrepreneur🧵
@elonmusk Don't get me wrong. I think that innovators do not get nearly enough credit for what they doing. I even noticed a weird pattern: people tend to shittalk the most about that specific industry their city/state is especially dependent upon. Still, non-violent business has a problem
And the problem with the non-violent business is that it is non-violent. Which means it is *outsourcing* violence and thus security. Indeed, all of Elon Musk's proposals suddenly make sense if you assume they are written by a businessman who is outsourcing security of his empire
There is violence going on? Bad, very bad. Violence is a liability. Let's just stop it. How? By signing a "deal". With whom though? With a *violent* businessman who's doing this violence. Sounds incredible but this is exactly how a non-violent businessman's brains are working
And that is why the non-violent businessmen have been crawling on their knees before the violent ones for the 99% of recorded human history
NB: This is assuming that the violent businessmen would even allow the non-violent ones to exist (which is far from granted)
Still, if @elonmusk exists, that means he has not been selected out. Ergo, his strategy worked out. Why? Because he lived in an artificial, abnormal environment which selected out the *violent* entrepreneurs, allowing the non-violent ones to flourish
A beautiful anomaly
How is the US environment abnormal? That's easy to explain. What shocked me in the US is that so many (real) crypto investors etc are very outspoken about their business activities in social media. They literally write about being crypto holders in Twitter bio. Unbelievable!
Let me get this straight. If you are a crypto guy, then:
1. You prolly hold lots of cash in your wallet 2. Which I could immediately transfer to mine 3. All I need is to force you to disclose your PIN (or whatever) to access your wallet
I mean, that's quite obvious, isn't it?
This thought is not that original. Plenty of people should have come up with this idea. Still, American cryptobros are writing about being cryptobros in social media, posting photos of where they live, etc. And they are still alive. So they are not being selected out. How come?
Hunting for cryptobros sounds like a great hustle for a violent entrepreneur. Still, we don't see it happening: outspoken cryptobros are alive (=not selected out). Ergo, the high end violent entrepreneurs who would select them out are being selected out. Under-appreciated fact
(Off-topic: people r complaining about how dangerous US cities are. Well, that's partially because you guys do not allow proper mafia to emerge. In much of the outer world authorities delegate controlling the street crime to mafia bosses. But you need centralised mafia for that)
In contrast, Russian cryptobros that I know tend to act very, very lowkey. The fewer people know about your activities, the better. Posting about dealing with crypto in social media is absolutely unthinkable. Why? Because that makes you too easy and lucrative prey
Consider this news which made the headlines in 2021. There is an abandoned suburban settlement near St Petersburg. This house is especially remarkable because it stands over a bunker with an underground prison
This underground prison is well-equipped. The entrance is covered by a concrete block which is moved up & down by a hydraulic press located outside. So there is a zero chance you will be able to get out of the prison by yourself
What is interesting about this prison is that it looks like an *exact* copy of a real Russian prison for investigated (СИЗО). Cells, beds, doors everything is super authentic. Even the locks on the cell doors are 100% copys of real locks from the St Petersburg "Кресты" prison
Why would you need everything from the locks to the beds in this underground prison to look 100% like in a real prison? Well, most probably to make the prisoners to *believe* they are in a real prison
Most likely:
1) you think you are in real prison 2) officers demand you to do something 3) you assume if you do it, they'll let you go. That's why you need (1)
It is likely this is prison for cryptobros. Just say your PIN and we'll let you go
Surprise: the underground prison is also equipped with a crematorium. This furnace is just big enough to fit a human body
That's why a prisoner needs to *believe* they are in real prison. You think you give them what they want -> they let you go. Sounds good, doesn't work
The house was probably built around 2010 but never registered. So on paper it never existed. Whom did the land beneath it belong to then? Well, to Renat Alimzanov, a captain of Russian FSIN - Federal Penitentiary Service which manages the *actual* Russian prison. He died in 2018
Most likely explanation:
Russian federal prison officer built an underground prison as an exact copy of a real prison. There he persuaded kidnapped ppl they are in a real prison. They'd give him wants he wanted, then he'd kill & burn them. In 2018 he died, prison was abandoned
I could keep on, but honestly I need to go. So I'll finish this with a brief summary:
1. Non-violent entrepreneurs that are actually creating stuff do not get enough credit for what they are doing. They play huge role in wealth-creation
2. Still, they're an abnormality. They create prosperity, yes, but they may flourish only in the artificial environment where the high-end violent entrepreneurs are being (constantly!) wiped out. They're the hothouse flowers, to put it simply
3. Much of the outer world is destitute because of violent entrepreneurs. Violent entrepreneurs are not wiped out -> they wipe out the non-violent ones -> the country cannot create stuff -> It is destitute
4. Those who advocate for "tougher law enforcement" are clueless. In much of this world, the law enforcement is just another, superior form of violent entrepreneurship. Under normal circumstances, that's an upgrade of mafia, not a solution for the problem
5. That may explain why Russian army and the military equipment are so archaic btw. In order to create something new, e.g. drones you normally need non-violent entrepreneurs who would actually create stuff. In Russia they're being wiped out by the violent ones. Hence, no drones
6. The non-violent entrepreneurs create wealth. But they can flourish only under abnormal circumstances with the violent ones wiped out. Then they tend to perceive their abnormal circumstances as normal and their artificial security as given
6. The non-violent entrepreneurs create wealth (and stuff in general). But they can flourish only under abnormal circumstances with the violent ones wiped out. Then they tend to perceive their abnormal circumstances as normal and their artificial security as given
7. Non-violent entrepreneurs have prospered under artificially secure conditions and having (unknowingly) outsourced their security. If they don't understand it, you'd be much better off ignoring their advice when it comes to security and foreign policy. End of 🧵
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Slavonic = "Russian" religious space used to be really weird until the 16-17th cc. I mean, weird from the Western, Latin standpoint. It was not until second half of the 16th c., when the Jesuit-educated Orthodox monks from Poland-Lithuania started to rationalise & systematise it based on the Latin (Jesuit, mostly) model
One could frame the modern, rationalised Orthodoxy as a response to the Counterreformation. Because it was. The Latin world advanced, Slavonic world retreated. So, in a fuzzy borderland zone roughly encompassing what is now Ukraine-Belarus-Lithuania, the Catholic-educated Orthodox monks re-worked Orthodox institutions modeling them after the Catholic ones
By the mid-17th c. this new, Latin modeled Orthodox culture had already trickled to Muscovy. And, after the annexation of the Left Bank Ukraine in 1654, it all turned into a flood. Eventually, the Muscovite state accepted the new, Latinised Orthodoxy as the established creed, and extirpated the previous faith & the previous culture
1. This book (“What is to be done?”) has been wildly, influential in late 19-20th century Russia. It was a Gospel of the Russian revolutionary left. 2. Chinese Communists succeeded the tradition of the Russian revolutionary left, or at the very least were strongly affected by it.
3. As a red prince, Xi Jinping has apparently been well instructed in the underlying tradition of the revolutionary left and, very plausibly, studied its seminal works. 4. In this context, him having read and studied the revolutionary left gospel makes perfect sense
5. Now the thing is. The central, seminal work of the Russian revolutionary left, the book highly valued by Chairman Xi *does* count as unreadable in modern Russia, having lost its appeal and popularity long, long, long ago. 6. In modern Russia, it is seen as old fashioned and irrelevant. Something out of museum
I have always found this list a bit dubious, not to say self-contradictory:
You know what does this Huntingtonian classification remind to me? A fictional “Chinese Encyclopaedia” by an Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges:
Classification above sounds comical. Now why would that be? That it because it lacks a consistent classification basis. The rules of formal logic prescribe us to choose a principle (e.g. size) and hold to it.
If Jorge Borges breaks this principle, so does Samuel P. Huntington.
Literacy rates in European Russia, 1897. Obviously, the data is imperfect. Still, it represents one crucial pattern for understanding the late Russian Empire. That is the wide gap in human capital between the core of empire and its Western borderland.
The most literate regions of Empire are its Lutheran provinces, including Finland, Estonia & Latvia
Then goes, roughly speaking, Poland-Lithuania
Russia proper has only two clusters of high literacy: Moscow & St Petersburg. Surrounded by the vast ocean of illiterate peasantry
This map shows how thin was the civilisation of Russia proper comparatively speaking. We tend to imagine old Russia, as the world of nobility, palaces, balls, and duels. And that is not wrong, because this world really existed, and produced some great works of art and literature
The OKBM Afrikantova is the principal producer of marine nuclear reactors, including reactors for icebreakers, and for submarines in Russia. Today we will take a brief excursion on their factory floor 🧵
Before I do, let me introduce some basic ideas necessary for the further discussion. First, reactor production is based on precision metalworking. Second, modern precision metalworking is digital. There is simply no other way to do it at scale.
How does the digital workflow work? First, you do a design in the Computer Aided Design (CAD) software. Then, the Computer Aided Manufacturing (CAM) software turns it into the G-code. Then, a Computer Numerical Controller (CNC) reads the code and guides the tool accordingly
Relative popularity of three google search inquiries in the post-USSR. Blue - horoscope. Red - prayer. Green - namaz. Most of Russia is blue, primarily googling horoscopes. Which suggests most of the population being into some kind of spirituality rather than anything "trad".
The primary contiguous red area is not in Russia at all, but in West Ukraine. Which is indeed the only remotely "conservative" (in the American sense) area of the East Slavic world. Coincidentally or not, it had never been ruled by Russia, except for a short period in 1939-1991
In the blue and occasionally red sea, there are two regions that primarily google namaz, the Islamic prayer. That is Moscow & Tatarstan