Let's extend this metaphor. If society is a human body, then the state is the brain. Humans are unaware of their motives. If asked "why do you eat?" you might say "bc food tastes good" and not "bc I need food to survive." What might a state's food be? (hint: are pills food?)https://twitter.com/Aella_Girl/status/993212066801516544 …
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then who or what decides which actions the body that is society performs?
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nobody. the metaphor breaks down if you try too hard to force chordate physiology on it. mycelial network super-organisms is a better model.
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this is a shocking thing and basically intolerable to most people so there is a performance art aspect of government that is meant to sincerely convince people that someone is in control. they aren't though.
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you mean there's no governmental cabal making foreign policy decisions? when acting voluntarily/with agency, humans mostly don't choose to modify themselves: they go for other humans or something else in the world
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not saying your metaphor is wrong, but all metaphors are wrong and I'm trying to point this one in a particular direction :P
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have at it then. i think if you insist on central state authority as brain you'll talk yourself into tinfoil hat level conspiratardism though
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If the state is the brain I feel like it would have to be a narrow subset, like just the prefrontal cortex maybe. It’s more like the extra-weaponized self-concept...? I find the metaphor works better in reverse: a lot of ppl conflate themselves with The Central Govt of the Self
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the state as an entity being "concerned with" these tasks strikes me as demonstrating the state/govt is the brain, and it instructs other entities such as the military, the fbi, the safety net bureaucracy, etc to carry out those tasks, via a nervous system/communication channel
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what is "the state" if not those organs? do you mean congress? the president? those are decision making organs, and maybe can be considered something brainlike, but the state is much more than just that
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yeah, isn't "the deep state" the sum of decision-making entities operating within the US governmental apparatus? obviously it's not localized in space as a brain might be, but neither is society.
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right! the "deep state" idea points to this really effectively. decision making is not nearly as high level, executive, or centralized as it seems to be. it really happens at the periphery, not the center.
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