The ZMan's Theory of Everything

Part I - Lays the groundwork for everything that follows.

Part II

"The great innovation Americans brought to war fighting is the prioritization of training over discipline. Put another way, the prioritization of what gets done over how it gets done. Soldiers and officers are encouraged to be creative in their problem solving and be mission focused."  

That innovation permeates most areas of American life, giving America the reputation of being a country of creative individuals. Which some are, but, for many, it's an artifact of a country whose systems are constructed to maximize individual's improvisational gifts.

Part III

"The American domestic conflicts of the current age are unique in human history in that they are entirely caused by social reformers. In prior ages, reformers sprung up when there was a need for actual reform. Social conditions demanded changes so that the people could attain a higher degree of peace and prosperity. Today, peace and prosperity are the default, so reformers sow discord and mayhem, like firemen who set fires so they have something to do."

Part IV

"In times of plenty, the weeds find life easy. The trouble is weeds flourish at the expense of everything else so the times of plenty are self-limiting. This is especially true in human society. In good times the soft and sneaky can be tolerated so they flourish, corrupting society over time until either some crisis requires reform or that crisis overwhelms the society." 

In some ways, this is the most important part - it describes the power structure that continues, in evolved form, today.

Part V 

"After The Yankee North destroyed the South in the Civil War and assumed the dominant position in America, the first President following Lincoln was a Southerner named Andrew Johnson. He was born in the Tidewater, but raised in Appalachia so you could say he was not really from the Deep South, but he was certainly not a Yankee.

Regardless, the ruling majority hated him and never trusted him so they did everything to scuttle his presidency, even trying to remove him from office. When you hear Progressives talk about the worst presidents, they always include Johnson on the list, either by the transitive property through Nixon (Impeachment) or as a benchmark."

The distrust the Ruling Class has for the South is massive and unending. They promote that distrust by making the Civil War, and its modern extension, the Civil Rights Movement, pretty much the ONLY history kids are taught in school.

Part VI - Don't skip the stuff about rooms, grids, and boxes. It's vitally important to your understanding what follows about decision-making.

Part VII - To a programmer, it's all about the underlying code. It's a metaphor that resonates with many in this society, as many - if not most - have SOME experience with software codes.

"Everything around us, the political institutions, the laws, the customs, etc., all evolved to address the immediate needs of society and the desires of the people in charge of society. There’s not a single punctuation mark in the legal code that is not there for a reason. Every jot and tittle in the regulatory code has a constituency behind it that wanted it in the code to fix a problem for them."

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