Alan: While searching for a recent NPR report about "every event in our universe generating a similar, but radically different, outcome in another universe... I came across a similar proposal made last decade: https://www.livescience.com/truth-behind-nasa-mirror...
I also stumbled on this fascinating world view. https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php...
One of my growing disillusionments with much science fiction is its frequent (if not routine) reinforcement of the standard "paranoid view of an essentially hostile universe" in which a few heroes manage to "go against the grain," snatching "good guy victory" from the bloody maw of one (or another) Satanic Force.
We are always told the promises of "heroicism," but heroics are essentially exceptional and therefore distract us from the quotidian activities of "Everyman" that are needed for workable "normalcy."
(While Malignant Messiah was still "president," I created this meme: https://i.imgflip.com/48pt8p.jpg )
I understand that in the absence of conflict, there is no drama.
And so, I'm not evangelical about my core misgiving.
That said, I am losing interest in Manichaeism and its commonplace "Christian" heresy.
Reality gets played out in our "mythic frame tales," and those who "control" the frame tale, control/limit the scope of possible outcomes.
Over half a century ago, McLuhan noted that "The medium is the message." (In related vein, McLuhan also observed that warfare had become obsolete following the sea change in which it was no longer possible to "project" the stupid, poisonous outcomes of war "over there, far away.""
Instead, humankind (especially its military-industrialist protagonists) were "suddenly" subject to immediate "blowback."
From the vantage of our "shrinking" world, the evident truth of war had suddenly become: "To the spoils belongs the victor."
Iraq.
Afghanistan.
And this "new group" would have included Vietnam as well, except that Uncle Sam -- to his own (and the world's) astonishment - got thrashed.
Now, every Tom, Dick and Osama with a stash of IEDs could take on the American Empire... and win.
After all, "they" live there.
"We" have to go home.
Ultimately, the "game" we're playing is about "context," not "content."
And whosoever controls the context, wins.
The content itself -- all this heroic, "black and white" Manichaen heresy and indulgence -- is mostly distraction... decoy.
Remember: "The 1% is smart enough to know we're stupid enough to applaud our own oppression."
At this historical moment, the context is winner-take-all capitalism - an autonomous system that is currently consuming the biosphere.
And what better rationale for winner-take-all capitalism than: "It" will "save us" from the next... and the next... and the next monstrously mortal threat.
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