Recently I started a podcast, “The Julien McBain Show”, where I use the motto “We’re navigating the Cyberpunk Dystopia.” There are many reasons to dive into why I believe we live in one, which I have gone into at length in my various Entropia Universe videos, and will expand upon in the new podcast; that is not the purpose of this article. Instead, I want to talk about why I am doing the podcast, and why I believe it is so important to establish the “Lawless subculture” that has been the staple of the Cyberpunk Genre since its birth in the book Neuromancer. We have to be able to push back against the Establishment Elite that our system, formed in good faith and adapted to the changing times, was unable to prevent. With COVID-19 still a global issue, and the people starting to rail against the increasingly arbitrary and authoritarian lockdowns, where the mere act of having a family gathering is now an act of defiance, while the Aristocracy continue living their lives as if nothing is happening, we have to be ready to face whatever those in power will do to retain that power that was handed to them in fear. So what will this counterculture look like? That remains to be seen. In all likelihood, it will have to consist of many different people with varying political and cultural backgrounds and beliefs; a Coalition that seeks to return us to something resembling the normal we had prior to COVID-19, and in direct opposition to the Great Reset, and its motto of “Build Back Better.”
I just saw several of my American readers blink at that. “Build Back Better” was not invented by the Biden Campaign, but rather adopted by it. The motto, along with its atrocious grammar, is actually German in origin, and is a common theme in Europe as the World Economic Forum pushes for the Great Reset to fundamentally alter how we live our lives. It calls for powerful governments, with some strict control over markets, and implies heavy-handed central planning. Don’t believe me? You can read about it here. This isn’t some conspiracy theory, nor a tin-foil hat trick; they’re telling us what they’re planning. Part of that plan includes the lockdowns themselves, since it’s the lockdowns that are demolishing the world economies. With the wealth extracted from the people and put into the hands of a few large Corporations, we can be directed through public-private partnerships on how we will live our lives from now on.
Included in the rhetoric are things like “You won’t own anything, and you’ll be happy. Everything you have, you will rent, and will be delivered by drone.” Ignoring the fact that this would be a fundamental violation of the Right to Property, it also implies that we won’t have the ability to own anything; while not explicit in my research, it seems to contend that we are unhappy through the simple act of having property. Thus we should not be permitted such property, but rather pay our fees for use of the possessions we need and when we are done with them, faceless drones will carry them away. Without property, there will be no wealth; thus we will all be equal in our social standing…except for those that rule.
This is the part that is often glossed over, as it puts it in a very positive light, despite the despotic undertones. World leaders will determine how the economy will operate, form a single, global economy, and somehow manage it at scale. Experts will give us programs to accomplish the goals of the Reset without the input of the People; we are not to be trusted. After all, it was us, acting in our personal best interests, that created the largest and most successful economy in history before the Virus came out; an economy that could not be controlled. The downside of a more laissez-faire system is that it’s prone to bubbles; we find something that we like, it trends, the prices balloon, then as the house of cards is discovered, summarily collapses. This happened with the Dot-Com bubble, and later the housing bubble. However, this very system has, in the last hundred years, brought more people out of absolute poverty than any other system ever created before it. This doesn’t mean it’s perfect, but it does mean it’s worth defending.
Thus we must push back. In the Cyberpunk tabletop game, the people of the Counterculture were known as Cyberpunks, or Edge Runners. We must be willing to become those Edge Runners, willing to defy the mandates of our government when they violate our fundamental rights of Life, Liberty, and Property, and remind our government that they are there to serve us. This does not mean we should act violently; quite the contrary, violence often leads to a loss of the message, corruption of those that use force, and a net detriment to all. Instead, we must show the Aristocracy and Technocracy that we see what they are doing, we understand it, and we will act using whatever means we have available to ensure that we retain our rights. I encourage you to read the US Declaration of Independence and US Constitution, and internalize what they really mean. Then, if you are a US Citizen, read the Constitution of your state, or if you aren’t, the equivalent of your nation. Be the educated rebel; the one that pushes back on the Establishment and states that you will not accept the propaganda they’re feeding you.
Most of all, realize that the majority of people don’t pay attention; they are low-information. This isn’t an attempt to cast shade; often times their lives are inundated with the nuances of what they need to do and contend with to live. After all, life itself isn’t easy; and when you’re on the grind trying to get beyond surviving, you often ignore the stresses of how the people in power regard you. Especially since they don’t regard you well. They are a club, and we aren’t in it. Thus we need to form our own, become the very Cyberpunks that were conceived of in fiction, and do what we can to succeed in an ever-more authoritarian world. I look forward to seeing you out there.
McBain Manor 