Year Zero

Let us start here. It's year zero. What does that mean to you? What do you want the next generation to want? 

If it was zero, what supernatural event would've occurred? 

What evolution?

What breakthrough? 

What unity? 

What red line? 

Which representative? 

Whose gravestone do you pray at? 

If it were year zero, what would you think had happened?

 

Do we restart the count? What does 2026 mean to you or me? Really, nothing. 

What are we counting up from? Or to? 

What made our predecessors restart the count? What would make us restart the count now? Today?

AI? Climate change? Ignorance of the past? The Populist, Fascist, Democratic firefight? A deep breath and forgiveness to move forward with humanities best interest at heart?..

More questions than answers.. a pathetic circular dilemma. 

I wish I had answers for you... That united. That promoted your values. The panacea. 

---Ignore that---

The easy answers, spoon fed, forever unavailable now. Your problems are too complex and interconnected for any one figure or answer to be anything other than a façade or boldfaced lie. 

See through it. Whatever deeper institution or philosophy you can access to disarm the façade.. please do.. be brave.. don't cave.

Let's say it's zero. I'm relieved. I'm full of forgiveness for the past mistakes. I'm looking to the future, releasing all resources. Can we trust you with the responsibility? It's already all so heavily leveraged... So what's that mean in year zero...?  Disassembling all obstacles to what we've set to accomplish in year one. Our newborn year to be coddled. 

What do you need to be succeed, little year 0 earth society? It's ok, just ask. It's no bother, we'll make it happen. Whatever it takes, we can find the answers, we can find the energy and power. We can sacrifice. We don't want year 0 to be handcuffed or handicapped, we want every opportunity, every future available to you. Go ahead, ask for the world, it's already yours... 

I don't know about you but my linchpin for the progress of time has nothing to do with anything 2000 years ago. What are we counting up from? How about we count up from past ignorance starting now, taking control, no more wayward borrowing from the future, that future is upon us. Ugliness and division behind, beauty and purpose ahead.

Age n' Agency

"Agency refers to the capacity of individuals to act independently and make their own choices..."

If we consider agency a defining aspect of the human condition...

 

Administrative points:

1. The graph is unit-less, for discussion purposes only

2. One may sacrifice in one tier of agency to reach for the next, though influence as tiers are skipped is heavily diminished as foundationally each depends on the next. 

3. This is not a value conversation nor a suggestion that any progression [beyond the black line] is a necessary good.

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Consider the characteristics (and sacrifices inherent) of each levels influence, the people in your circle who fall into each, and where you hope to land.

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First, the black line

Slaves to their own emotions, without capacity to right a wrong or correct the sail on their own ship. Birth until death, blown on whatever winds come their way, without knowledge of the ships workings. Save your pity for the weak.

Second, the green line

Hopefully the starting point for most. Having figured out space-ship-you, self-knowledge can embrace luck or otherwise tack in the face of a head-wind. 

Third, the orange line

Commonly uncommon [depends on your bias and zip code]. Plugged in to the system is the only way profit is realized, and currency accumulated. Not just to maintain position on the treadmill, but enough to inch forward incrementally. Reinvestment, no longer just an option, but a quality of the present, building the train tracks just ahead as the train chugs forward. 

Fourth, the blue line

The first stage where your influence has started to outlive your own mortality. Your grandchildren may not remember your name, but [attribution suspended] they will feel the benefits of your legacy. Perhaps a connecting line should've been drawn up from the blue/yellow/green or black lines. 

With enough gravitas and power, agency is extended into one's relatives - your personal agency empowering and affecting theirs.

Fifth, the purple line

Again, non linearly, most will have agency affecting their community - positively or negatively - independent of their personal agency. A community is a sum of its individual parts. 

However, the grander degree of notable agency demonstrated in personal capacities will reflect on the degree of its blessings imparted to the community downstream. 

Sixth, the red line

Very few will have agency that can affect a global legacy, as it takes a tremendous amount of agency, luck, and [let's face it] generational exploitation to reach such a level. Consider your favorite neighborly technocrat trillionaire [USD].  

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Your mobility and relative agency in each level will wax and wane with a multitude of factors not discussed, notably including age and economic status. 

You don't pick your parents, don't rebel, make the best of your hand dealt as it was.