Think Outside the Box: In Life and In Politics
Going beyond the current dialectic
"Think outside the box."
Curious framing. Almost impossible to do.
The First step of thinking outside the box is identifying that there is a "box" to begin with.
That's the hardest step. Almost no one will go beyond it.
When someone shoves words in your mouth that you can use as weapons against your enemies, you feel powerful. Intoxicatingly so…until you realize that the weapon you received has critical flaws. Back in 2016, I was introduced to politics by none other than Dave Rubin and “The Rubin Report.” I have zero regrets about gaining a political lexicon regarding the rise of “identity politics” from watching his discussions on that show as it helped me understand so many things that had arisen in culture; nevertheless, even by 2019, the words in that language were already failing to categorize the systems and patterns that were being unveiled by God’s Providence. From 2019 into 2021, I slid down the right-wing pipeline and discovered NRx (Neo-reaction and The Dark Enlightenment).
New language. New ideas. New ways of expressing the eldritch entities that seemed to be overshadowing the American political realm after November 3rd, 2020. A breath of fresh air in my lungs as I vibed with Moldbug’s concept of “The Cathedral” and Nick Land Accelerationism. Since then I’ve dipped my toes in many communities on the right, and I’ve continuously developed my language to suit what I see and discern happening in the political realm. It’s 2023, and many right-wing influencers have discussed “the vibe shift.” Well, a language for it has yet to catalyze, but it is certainly in the process of forming.
Why “a language”?
Because the boundaries of the box you’re in are predicated on the words that you use to describe patterns. The patterns in culture and society must be given names. The lexicon you use to express ideas invoked by the zeitgeist is critical for personal understanding. Words craft reality after all. Until a way of speaking about the new ideas on the horizon arises, the crest of the wave of the vibe shift will never hit the shores of American political consciousness. To say it differently, nothing will change until the walls of the old box are torn down.
The world of American politics is a box. This box has two sides: liberals and conservatives, Democrats and Republicans, or Left and Right. Thinking INSIDE the box would say that every policy position, law, or right imaginable falls within either of these domains. This is how the common American thinks (not by choice but by media). This is how we have been taught to think. The frame game of American politics only presupposes 2 options: either you're a Democrat or a Republican. The rules of political discourse, in "The Age of Absolute Politics" as one philosopher would say, enforces a strict adherence to a dialectic such that thinking outside the box of that dialectic is almost impossible.
For example, If you exist and are political, you are being oppressed by the authoritarians on the opposite side of the aisle and desire "freedom." Libertarians tried to capitalize on this dialectic by saying "Both sides are bad," but this fails because it is still trapped within the box of American politics. By saying "Both sides are bad," you imply that there are really only 2 sides. The libertarians present themselves as the third option by using language that reveals that there are truly only 2 options. They exclude themselves from the conversation when attempting to insert themselves into the discourse (which is why they'll never gain substantial political power).
Of course, you, an intelligent, politically informed individual are certain that you could never be stuck in a box. After all, you're a conservative (or reactionary or right-wing or traditionalist or…) and know for a fact that Marxism and derivative ideologies (Communism, Socialism, etc.) are truly left-wing because they are authoritarian and totalitarian which is left-wing and like "Hitler." Perhaps a lefty has arrived here and is certain that maximum human flourishing occurs in an environment that maximizes human potential. Environments that do this are communitarian in essence which is why Marxism would work, if only it had ever truly been tried. It's only bigoted authoritarian, racist, sexist, and right-wing oppressors trying to stop progress because they are literally "Hitler."
Of course, it's difficult to know you're trapped when you're trapped. What you'll find is that there are invisible walls constricting the public discourse or even your own personal discourse (within yourself and with those you love) that force you to backtrack over previously marked territory. In fact, you are caught in a labyrinth without escape, but it's almost like everything in your world resists you from breaking out of the maze you're in. What resists you are the walls of the box that you are in, but you have all the power needed to break out of them.
However, how many times have you heard calls to leave this day’s political lexicon behind? Yet no one seems able to escape it. It’s not that people aren’t aware that they are trapped (though many are not); it’s that they don’t know how to escape the trap once ensnared. The instruments needed for escape slip through one’s fingers.
It's like when you're around someone that requires you to have to walk on eggshells. You never know what will set them off next. You do everything in your power not to set them off, and somehow, you still do. Eventually, if you've overcome this trial, you start to realize that anything that you did would have set them off. Nothing you’ve done was ever the cause of their meltdowns. It was just them all along. However, it could take you years to figure this out, endless attempts at being as perfect and exceptional as possible, only to realize that you could never measure up to this person's expectations regardless.
Then suddenly, you are free.
How did it happen? Why do you feel so light, so weightless?
You realized the truth. Your framing was all wrong. Your box was all wrong, its boundaries ajar and off-kilter. You thought you were setting them off, that you did something wrong to trigger them, but in reality, they were the ones always looking for an excuse to take their anger out on you. You escaped the box that you were in by crystallizing a simple truth: you were never the problem.
As someone who has made many revolutionary changes to how I view politics (among other things in life), I am here to present you with a path out of the maze as best I can.
The framing of American politics is all wrong, but you will not see that until you have exhausted all options. What's interesting about this is that the current state of politics has been exhausted, but people are so historically illiterate they don't realize this. History is everything that humanity has tried before. Use it as a tool for gaining wisdom that it was intended to be. Not everyone has time to scour the annals of history and philosophy to understand that the language of politics of today is just the contemporary version of an ancient conversation had across the ages.
Truthfully, I’m not here to convince you that it’s time to disregard the current dialectic. I feel as though that should be self-evident; indeed, this piece is written to those who have that itch, that stirring, that feeling in their gut that something has to change for politics to change. This is for those of you who have “autistic” brains that tell them that the words that you’re using to describe the world are just not fitting the schema of the patterns your intuition and pattern-matching are recognizing. This is written to those who have already arrived at that conclusion.
For those who haven’t, God be with you on your journey…
For the rest of you, if you've felt that it’s time for you to leave the current generation of political discourse but don’t know how to break out of the current paradigm, then what can you do to escape the thought prison that you're trapped in (or test its boundaries)?
An algorithm that I’ve discovered involves banishing the old language of politics from your thoughts. You can use those words to speak to those who have yet to leave the box, but when you consider politics for yourself, leave behind that dusty old terminology that clings to a confining lexicon.
All it requires is giving up the language that you gained from media and other sources (even previous shifts on your side of the aisle) when thinking about politics. If you banish the words below...
Conservative
Liberal
Right
Left
Authoritarian
Totalitarian
Libertarian
Anarchist
Oppression (Oppressed or Oppressor)
Democrat
Republican
Marxism (Communism and Socialism)
"like [Hitler, Stalin, Mao]"
Racist, Bigotry, Homophobic, Transphobic, Misogynist, Misandrist, Hate speech
Gun Control
All language associated with "mental health"
Red State, Blue State, Swing State
Progress
Liberty/Freedom
(More...)
and all other words typically used, you will be forced to construct a fresh view of politics based on a new lexicon that you develop (hopefully with help from friends).
Leaving the box is difficult, but changing your language is the fastest way to escape being stuck in cycles of destruction in the public sphere and in your personal life. Words are the boundaries of your mind. They are the limits of your reality and build the frameworks you need to approximate "being" and act reasonably. To reason anew, you need a new pathway that cannot be formed by the old wineskin language. If you want to see something new arise in political discourse, it’s time to get a new box, a new wineskin.
16 No man putteth a piece of new cloth unto an old garment, for that which is put in to fill it up taketh from the garment, and the rent is made worse.
17 Neither do men put new wine into old bottles: else the bottles break, and the wine runneth out, and the bottles perish: but they put new wine into new bottles, and both are preserved.
Truthfully, you never escape a box because, as a limited human being, you need heuristics to reason through the many situations that you face daily. You NEED a frame, but you CAN leave an old box behind for a new box, even a box much more expansive than what you previously occupied.
Get a new box.
Christian and right-wing success in politics depends on the abdication of the old paradigm, the old framing, the old box, the old wineskin and the birthing of something new.