I am in my junior year and am trying to see how my resume stands up and what to add, change, or potentially drop for my applications to some selective colleges as well as my chances of success. May have forgotten some things but this should be everything. ED EA RD advice for colleges would be great too.
Should be done by application time: *** (Key)
Demographics:
Gender: Male
Race: Asian (Indian)
Region: Midwest, fairly competitive area
Type of school: Public
hooks (URM, first generation, legacy, athlete, etc.): N/A
Intended Major(s): International Relations/Law/Finance?
ACT/SAT/SAT II: 1530 SAT, 36 ACT*** (Still have to do the act but I am getting 36's on the practice tests. If I do get a 36, should I submit my SAT score too?)
UW/W GPA and Rank: UW: 3.950, (4.0 without A-'s, don't know if that matters). The school does not rank.
Coursework: 14 APs, 5 Honors, 1 CIS (College in School)
Senior Year Courses: AP Macroeconomics, AP Microeconomics, AP Lit, AP Psych, AP Stats, AP Physics C, CIS Spanish 5
Awards:

• Ranked 5th nationally for Business competition related to business law
• Ranked 8th nationally for a geography contest in a history competition
• State Finalist and National Qualifier for Presentation Team (Analyze a controversial business topic and determine a solution)
• State Finalist for a different business competition's Business Services Marketing
• Regional awards for Quiz Bowl/Knowledge Bowl, Debate, the two business competitions above
• Eastern United States Online Finalist in the history competition (There were like 15 people there and it was a qualifier for states that did not have the competition in-state)
• Soccer tournament finalist and champion regionally
• Some awards from Elementary/Middle school days in Math/Media/Inventions at state/regional level. Shouldn't be too relevant aside from maybe the application essays.
• School-Offered Awards -
  • Graduate with Highest Honors - Honors program, 98% or better on ACT, SAT, PSAT
  • National Advanced Placement Scholar - Average score of 4 or higher on AP exams, 4 or higher on 8+ exams
  • President's Education Award - 3.5 or better, 85% or better on ACT, SAT, PSAT
• AP Scholar with Distinction

Extracurriculars (Not Ranked in Order):

1. Secretary General (President) and cofounder of a Model UN club with 60+ signed-up members. Hosted simulations within the school already and planning to attend a real conference in the fall.
   
2. Two research papers are currently being written, one is aimed at the future evolution of marketing in AI and I am interning with a Healthcare services company to write a research paper under the guidance of a mentor. The paper is being written to advise said healthcare company. Not sure if I can publish/enter into competitions.*** The other is by myself regarding an international policy topic that I plan to have published or admitted into competitions. ***
   
3. Interned over 9 weeks in a reelection campaign for a National Senator where I will be responsible for campaign finances. Will facilitate thousands of dollars of cash flow in campaign funds and will receive experience in electoral organizing tactics. (Haven't done this yet so I don't know too much of the general information)***
   
4. Volunteered 100+ hours, plan to volunteer at least 50 hours this summer and more in the fall. Various locations but focused on a few quality spots. (STEM Camp, Religious site, Food Scarcity organization)
   
5. Varsity soccer for school
   
6. Took collegiate-level coursework in International Relations***.
   
7. Leaders Invested in Community - Acclimatized incoming high schoolers and helped develop decision-making abilities. Each year I lead my group of ten students in preparatory activities alongside other mentors.
   
8. Teen leadership organization across regions of 2 states where teens determine initiatives to rectify issues in the community. Examples include Vape testing kits manufacturing to park cleanup. I plan to apply for Co-President***
   
9. National Honors Society, Investment Club, Recreational Piano
   

Some things I am looking into, less concrete:

1. Internship in the fall geared around international relations or law
2. Regional leadership position for Business competitions
3. Writer for an alternate-history mod for a video game I play
4. More Awards

Schools: List of selective colleges, I am also applying to my state school which I will get into
Georgetown
UPenn
Cornell
UMichigan
Berkeley
UCLA
Northwestern
Brown
UCSD
Johns Hopkins
Duke
Columbia

https://archive.ph/ZsRie
“‘Liberation’ is an historical and not a mental act, and it is brought about by historical conditions, the development of industry, commerce, agriculture, the conditions of intercourse.”
—Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, The German Ideology (1846)
Today, millions of women even in the advanced capitalist “democracies” endure nasty and brutish lives of misery and drudgery. In the United States, to name just two instances of anti-woman bigotry, abortion rights are under increasing attack and quality childcare is scarce and too costly for most working women. Conditions for women in the Third World are worse by orders of magnitude. But even 15 years ago women in the Soviet Union enjoyed many advantages, such as state-supported childcare institutions, full abortion rights, access to a wide range of trades and professions, and a large degree of economic equality with their male co-workers—in short, a status in some ways far in advance of capitalist societies today.
The 1917 Bolshevik Revolution made these gains possible. No mere cosmetic gloss on the surface, the Russian Revolution was, in the words of historian Richard Stites, a
“classical social revolution—a process not an event, a phenomenon that cannot be fused, triggered, or set off by a mere turnover of power which confines itself to the center and confines its efforts to decrees and laws enunciating the principles of equality. True social revolution in an underdeveloped society does not end with the reshuffling of property any more than it does with the reshuffling of portfolios; it is the result of social mobilization. Put in plain terms, it means bodies moving out among the people with well-laid plans, skills, and revolutionary euphoria; it means teaching, pushing, prodding, cajoling the stubborn, the ignorant, and the backward by means of the supreme component of all radical propaganda: the message and the conviction that revolution is relevant to everyday life.”
—Stites, The Women’s Liberation Movement in Russia: Feminism, Nihilism, and Bolshevism, 1860-1930 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1978)
This thoroughgoing effort to remake society was made possible by the smashing of tsarist/capitalist rule and the Bolshevik-led seizure of power by the soviets—workers and peasants councils—in October 1917. The estates of the landed nobility were abolished and the land nationalized; industry was soon collectivized. The new workers state took the first steps toward planning the economy in the interests of the toilers. This brought enormous gains to working women. The Russian Revolution sought to bring women into full participation in economic, social and political life.
Since the counterrevolution that restored capitalism in 1991-92, women in the ex-Soviet Union face vastly worse conditions somewhat akin to the Third World. Massive unemployment, a plummeting life expectancy, and a resurgence of religious backwardness—both Russian Orthodox and Muslim—are just three examples. From 1991 to 1997 gross domestic product fell by over 80 percent; according to official (understated) statistics, capital investment dropped over 90 percent. By the middle of the decade, 40 percent of the population of the Russian Federation was living below the official poverty line and a further 36 percent only a little above it. Millions were starving.
Women’s Liberation and World Socialist Revolution
The Bolsheviks recognized that without qualitative economic development, the liberation of women was a utopian fantasy. Working to maximize the resources at hand, the early Bolshevik regime did all it could to implement the promise of women’s emancipation, including the formation of a party department that addressed women’s needs, the Zhenotdel. But at every step their efforts were confronted with the fact that short of a massive infusion of resources, the results were limited on all sides. Leon Trotsky, the leader together with V.I. Lenin of the Russian Revolution, explained that from the beginning the Bolsheviks recognized that
“The real resources of the state did not correspond to the plans and intentions of the Communist Party. You cannot ‘abolish’ the family; you have to replace it. The actual liberation of women is unrealizable on a basis of ‘generalized want.’ Experience soon proved this austere truth which Marx had formulated eighty years before.”
—The Revolution Betrayed (1936)
The grim poverty of the world’s first workers state began with the economic and social backwardness inherited from the old tsarist empire. Foreign investment had built modern factories in the major cities, creating a compact, powerful proletariat that was able to make the revolution in a majority-peasant country. The revolutionary workers were, in most cases, only one or two generations removed from the peasantry. The workers supported their cousins in the countryside when they seized the landed estates and divided up the land among those who worked it. The alliance (smychka) between the workers and peasants was key to the success of the revolution. But the mass of peasant smallholders was also a reservoir of social and economic backwardness. The devastation wrought by World War I was compounded by the bloody Civil War (1918-1920) that the Bolshevik government had to fight against the armies of counterrevolution and imperialist intervention, throwing the country’s economy back decades. The imperialists also instituted an economic blockade, isolating the Soviet Union from the world economy and world division of labor.
Marxists have always understood that the material abundance necessary to uproot class society and its attendant oppressions can only come from the highest level of technology and science based on an internationally planned economy. The economic devastation and isolation of the Soviet workers state led to strong material pressures toward bureaucratization. In the last years of his life, Lenin, often in alliance with Trotsky, waged a series of battles in the party against the political manifestations of the bureaucratic pressures. The Bolsheviks knew that socialism could only be built on a worldwide basis, and they fought to extend the revolution internationally, especially to the advanced capitalist economies of Europe; the idea that socialism could be built in a single country was a later perversion introduced as part of the justification for the bureaucratic degeneration of the revolution.
In early 1924 a bureaucratic caste under Stalin came to dominate the Soviet Communist Party and state. Thus, the equality of women as envisioned by the Bolsheviks never fully came about. The Stalinist bureaucracy abandoned the fight for international revolution and so besmirched the great ideals of communism with bureaucratic distortions and lies that, in the end in 1991-92, the working class did not fight against the revolution’s undoing and the restoration of capitalism under Boris Yeltsin.
The Russian Revolution marked the beginning of a great wave of revolutionary struggle that swept the world in opposition to the carnage of WWI. The October Revolution was a powerful inspiration to the working class internationally. Germany, the most powerful and most advanced capitalist country in Europe, was thrown into a revolutionary situation in 1918-19; much of the rest of the continent was in turmoil. The Bolsheviks threw a good deal of the Soviet state’s resources into the fight for world socialist revolution, creating the Communist International (CI) for this purpose. But the young parties of the CI in Europe had only recently broken from the reformist leadership of the mass workers organizations that had supported their own bourgeois governments in WWI and were not able to act as revolutionary vanguard parties comparable to the Bolsheviks. The reformist, pro-capitalist and deeply chauvinist leadership of the German Social Democratic Party (SPD) was able to suppress the proletarian revolutionary opportunity in Germany in 1918-19, with the active collaboration of the military/police forces.
Social-democratic parties like the German SPD and the British Labour Party bear central historical responsibility for the degeneration of the Russian Revolution. Yet they howl along with their capitalist masters that the early Bolshevik regime under Lenin inevitably led to Stalinist despotism, that communism has failed and that capitalist “democracy” is infinitely preferable to communism. They are echoed by many of today’s leftist-minded youth, who equate communism with the Stalinist degeneration of the Soviet workers state. Anarchist-influenced youth hold that hierarchy is inherently oppressive, that small-scale production, decentralization and “living liberated” on an individual basis offer a way forward. This is a dead end.

Hey everyone,
As we gear up for Sep’24, I thought it would be a great idea to gather some collective wisdom on the top General Management Leadership Development Programs (LDPs) out there.
Here’s what I’m hoping we can discuss:

1. Top General Management LDPs: Which companies or organizations offer the most sought-after LDPs for MBA graduates? 2. Compensation Packages: What kind of salary and benefits can we expect from these programs? If you have any specific figures or ranges, that would be incredibly helpful. 3. Career Pathways: For those who have participated in or know people who have been through these LDPs, what are the typical career trajectories? 4. Application Tips: Any advice on the application process? What do these companies look for in candidates, and how can we make our applications stand out? 5. Personal Experiences: If you or anyone you know has been through an LDP, what was the experience like? (Work life balance and general career satisfaction) 

Example Companies/Programs:

• General Electric (GE) • Johnson & Johnson • Amazon • PepsiCo • Samsung • Siemens • Mars • Danaher 

Additional Insights:
Any additional insights or resources you can share would be greatly appreciated. Whether it’s links to useful articles, youtube links, or personal anecdotes, everything is welcome!

For the Christians out there like myself who are looking towards marriage, I believe it is extremely important to first consider the Biblical callings of both husbands and wives. This way, we may be able to recognize true marital love required for Biblical marriages over lesser forms of love, and know for certain that we are (or not) truly meant to be with another person.

The Biblical Responsibilities of the Husband:

• Love Sacrificially:
• Husbands are called to love their wives as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her.
  • Ephesians 5:25-28: "Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself."
• Honor and Respect:
• Treat wives with honor, recognizing them as co-heirs of the grace of life.
  • 1 Peter 3:7: "Husbands, in the same way be considerate as you live with your wives, and treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life, so that nothing will hinder your prayers."
• Lead with Love:
• Husbands are to lead their families in a godly manner, setting an example in faith, integrity, and love. This leadership involves making decisions that honor God and benefit the family as a whole.
  • Ephesians 5:23: "For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior."

The Biblical Responsibilities of the Wife:

• Respect and Submit:
• Wives are called to submit to their husbands as the church submits to Christ as long as he continues to act according to God's commandments and will.
  • Ephesians 5:22-24: "Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything."
• Love and Support:
• Wives are to love their husbands and support them in their roles.
  • Titus 2:4-5: "Then they can urge the younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God."
• Be a Partner:
• Wives are to be partners with their husbands, sharing in the responsibilities of the household and family.
  • Proverbs 31:10-12: "A wife of noble character who can find? She is worth far more than rubies. Her husband has full confidence in her and lacks nothing of value. She brings him good, not harm, all the days of her life."

The Biblical Responsibilities of Both Husband & Wife:

• Exclusive Commitment:
• Marriage requires forsaking all other romantic and sexual relationships, dedicating oneself entirely to one's spouse.
  • Genesis 2:24: "That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh."
  • Proverbs 5:18-19: "May your fountain be blessed, and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth. A loving doe, a graceful deer—may her breasts satisfy you always, may you ever be intoxicated with her love."
  • Song of Solomon 6:8-9: "Sixty queens there may be, and eighty concubines, and virgins beyond number; but my dove, my perfect one, is unique, the only daughter of her mother, the favorite of the one who bore her. The young women saw her and called her blessed; the queens and concubines praised her."
• Maintain Purity and Faithfulness:
• Monogamy in a Christian marriage in non-negotiable; including ensuring that your inner intentions and desires are only for your spouse.
  • Hebrews 13:4: "Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral."
  • Exodus 20:14: Y"ou shall not commit adultery."
  • Matthew 5:27-28: “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart."
• Sexual Fulfillment:
• Husbands and wives are both called to regularly fulfill each other sexually; only allowing for limited exceptions to this commandment.
  • 1 Corinthians 7:3-4: "The husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights, and likewise the wife to her husband. For the wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. Likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. Do not deprive one another, except perhaps by agreement for a limited time, that you may devote yourselves to prayer; but then come together again, so that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self-control."
  • Song of Solomon 8:6-7: "Place me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm; for love is as strong as death, its jealousy unyielding as the grave. It burns like blazing fire, like a mighty flame. Many waters cannot quench love; rivers cannot sweep it away. If one were to give all the wealth of one’s house for love, it would be utterly scorned."
• Provide and Protect:
• Ensure the physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being of everyone within your household and for your family.
  • 1 Timothy 5:8: "Anyone who does not provide for their relatives, and especially for their own household, has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever."
  • Proverbs 31:13-31: "She selects wool and flax and works with eager hands. She is like the merchant ships, bringing her food from afar. She gets up while it is still night; she provides food for her family and portions for her female servants. She considers a field and buys it; out of her earnings she plants a vineyard. She sets about her work vigorously; her arms are strong for her tasks. She sees that her trading is profitable, and her lamp does not go out at night. In her hand she holds the distaff and grasps the spindle with her fingers. She opens her arms to the poor and extends her hands to the needy. When it snows, she has no fear for her household; for all of them are clothed in scarlet. She makes coverings for her bed; she is clothed in fine linen and purple. Her husband is respected at the city gate, where he takes his seat among the elders of the land. She makes linen garments and sells them, and supplies the merchants with sashes. She is clothed with strength and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come. She speaks with wisdom, and faithful instruction is on her tongue. She watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness. Her children arise and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her: 'Many women do noble things, but you surpass them all.'"
• (Potentially) Raise Future Generations:
• Through marriage, many couples have the opportunity to raise children who know and love God, continuing the legacy of faith.
  • Deuteronomy 6:6-7: "These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up."

As can be seen in these passages, the Christian marriage is one that provides many blessings for both the husband and wife at the price of many responsibilities.
Husbands are called to be willing to sacrifice even their own lives to ensure the safety and protection of their wives just as Jesus did for the Church. Wives are called to submit to and follow the leading of their husbands as their husbands continue to follow the commandments and will of God.
These commandments also take place within a monogamous and sexually fulfilling union where all other lovers are forsaken as long as both partners shall live. And to find someone to do all of this willingly with you, and for you to do all of this willingly for them, is not an easy thing to find.
Yet such things are not meant to deter us from having fulfilling marriages and lives, or to keep us chronically single, but as the solution to living the lives God intends for us. Because such marriages are also designed by God to edify ourselves, our families, and even our communities around us as they reflect the love of God and His relationship with the Church.
And through this Godly marriage, many can grow closer to God and even come to faith in Him through Christ. And this is the ultimate objective of everything God does; for as many as willingly possible to return to Him so that none may perish but have everlasting life.
I hope that with these passages, you can come to fully understand the Biblical duties and callings of both the husband and the wife, and understand their greatest importances. And if it is God's will, I hope that you can one day be in a marriage that fulfills these marital callings, and becomes a beacon of God's love in our world.

it's often said that democracy is the best system of government that there is, at least when compared to other government systems. well, as someone who lives in a country that practices democracy, i can safely say that anyone who says that democracy is a good thing has their head in the god damn sand. in a democracies, people get to vote on things. this may seem like a great thing except that you remember that this applies to electing people into leadership position. this means that people vote based on their own prejudices. they vote for blatant racists and homophobes in spite of, and occasionally because of, their bigoted beliefs. the election of trump in 2016 is a prime example of the damage that democracy is capable of doing when unchecked. and with trump running for reelection this year, there is a very high likelihood that history will repeat itself. it's ironic. democracy's biggest selling point is also it's biggest problem. it's going to become even worse with donald trump possibly getting reelected this year which will pave the way for project 2025.
as such, the time has come for us to acknowledge that democracy is a threat to national security. joe biden should formally declare it a threat to national security and, should be get reelected, spend his second term combatting it. what system should replace it? i don't know but, at this point, i'll take anything over democracy.

We all know just how bad our public schools have become, just look at all the recent teacher adjacent posts that often end up on our subreddit 1,2,3,4.
Educators, teachers, parents, researchers, and students accurately point out to a number of variables contributing to the deterioration of the quality of public education. Major ones include:

• Systemic defunding of the public education system
• Push to privatize the public system via charter schools
• Low salaries for teachers, and teacher shortages
• Overcrowed class sizes
• Decreasing parental involvement with at-home education
• Coroding influence of smartphones and social media
• Over-emphasis on standardized testing
• Funding inequities

But I argue that even if we found a way to address all the above we would still be left with an education system that is wholly un-equipped to impart the next generation with the skills, the knowledge, and the vision of the future needed for our civilization to successfully overcome the challenges that will be thrown its way as the great unraveling takes place.

Historical background on the origins of mass-schooling systems

Before i get into what i think are the root problems with our education system, I think it's important to have a look back at history and understand where our current education system came from. Without turning this into an askhistory thread, the education system that dominates america and the vast majority of the world is based on the prussian education system. Basically, the Prussian model was the first serious attempt at creating an educational system that was compulsory for everyone within a nation, which stood in contrast to the mainly religious and village-based education systems that existed prior that, where education was more decentralized and tailored to the needs of local population.
The motivating reasons for creating this compulsory national schooling system are diverse. Part of it came from the enlightenment-era humanist figures within the prussian state who believed in the moral good that came with making education, especially liberal education, more accessible to the masses, but a larger part of the motivation came from the ruling elites and their desire to maintain control over the population by instilling a nationalist sense of obedience and a deference to authority figures. This isn't just speculation, there's lots of historical records showing that this was an explicit goal of the Prussian state. For example, Johann Felbiger, a prussian goverment minister who was heavily involved in advising Frederick II on the new compulsory national education system argued that the main goal of the education system should be to foster "loyalty, obedience, and devotion to the King" (Melton 2002, page 186). According to Melton, the peasant rebellions of the 1740s–1750s were the primary reason that motivated the king’s interest in creating this national compulsory education.
The point i'm making is that contrary to popular belief the function of the education system as we know it today isnt to create a well-educated, creative, citizenry capable of critical thinking like was imagined by enlightenment humanists such as Humboldt. Instead, the primary function of national compulsory education systems is to serve the goals of those in governing positions, whether that be kings, dictators, autocrats, corporate CEOs, prime ministers, ect, to prevent the population from developing the cultural toolset to criticize and challenge dominant institutions of power.
Things like the pledge of allegiance, and signing the national anthem are quite explicit attempts at promoting loyalty to the state, but the prussian system excels at fostering a sense of obedience to authority through all the implicit messages it sends to students. For example, the huge emphasis on testing + grading ends up signaling to students that what's important isn't to think critically and independently about things, but rather what's important is to follow directives from authority figures and to do as you are told, because when you do this you receive the best grades. The more time you spend doing rote memorization of what your teachers tell you to study, the more you succeed in the system, and the more time you spend thinking deeply/creatively about the subject matter content the worse you do on tests.
Having gone through grad school, I always found it hilarious that all the top research universities are deeply aware of just how terrible the public educational system is at fostering a productive environment for real learning. All the best universities structure their programs in complete opposition to the prussian model, they intentionally create a culture where challenging your professors is actively encouraged, learning occurs mainly via roundtable style seminars (instead of predominately via the lecture model), learning occurs via doing instead of testing, learning outside the classroom is heavily encouraged, involving the greater community in your learning is encouraged, even the literal physical design of the best universities are done in ways to maximize spontaneous social interactions by creating lots of 3rd spaces where people are free to be "moved by external leisure or internal pressures toward learning and research.”, as Humbolt said about what education should be about. I'm sure the others here who have gone through grad school know what im talking about. I'd even say that a feature shared by productive and successful grad students is the ability to unlearn all the implicit ways of knowing taught to you throughout high school and even in the first half of an undergrad degree.

Our education system can't keep afloat if people start questioning the validity of the progress narrative

As I've established above, public education systems worldwide are modeled after the prussian education system, which aimed to instill in citizens a sense of obedience to authority. This approach was designed to minimize the risk of popular uprisings that could challenge the power of those in governance positions.
For the last 200 years this education model has had its issues but for the most part it managed to survive thanks to the carbon pulse and the age of constant economic growth that accompanied it. With the huge influx in public funding coming in from the massive energy surplus that fossil fuels introduced, lots of the core issues intrinsic to the prussian model where basically kept at bay by throwing trillions of dollars at the educational system (and even then only achieving very marginal improvements). The issues with the education system were also kept at bay because for the most part, the cultural zeitgeist around the myth of progress was true (atleast in the developing world). What I mean is that the dominant narrative about future expectations that you were told in school mostly turned out to be true. This shouldn't be overlooked when it comes to understanding the crisis unfolding in our schools today. Psychologically people need to be able to ground themselves in a narrative that affords them a certain level of stability. It's easy to overlook the issues with the prussian education system when at the end of the day most people irrespective of how well they do in school can expect a rising quality of life, affordable housing, and good paying jobs. People can tolerate a certain amount of authoritarianism and come to respect it if they know that at the end of the day if you do what you are told you will be rewarded for it.
Young people today know that the school system and the adults are lying to them about what the future holds. The buffer that the progress narrative once provided to grease the wheels of the whole system is quickly evaporating. Kids are now constantly put in a position that maximizes cognitive dissonance between the values they are taught in school and the reality they know to be true around them. This type of generalized sociological crisis, is precisely what is captured by the term "metacrisis".
This is why i think the solutions to fix our education system run much deeper than simply a discussion about teacher salary, class size, or funding inequities. The issues run to the spiritual core of what education means, what it's for, and who is meant to benefit from it? As long as we avoid trying to answer those questions when thinking about reforming our education system we will keep failing future generations.

No Child Left Behind shows just how far off the deep end we are

Here's a concrete example that illustrates just how far off the deep end we are when it comes to not only reforming our education system but also just being able to accurately assess the problems in the first place. Take the now infamous "No Child Left Behind Act", one of the most significant educational reforms in the US since the G.I bill. No child left behind? sounds good right? So what did the bill aim to reform? What did the goverment identify as being the most pressing educational issue in deep need of reform?... The major concern was the that America's economic security would be threatened if nothing was done to boost school performance (this meant increasing grades) in the face of increasing international competition....
As most educators know, in practice what happened is that this "reform" just ended up doubling down on all the worst aspects of the prussian system. It increased the emphasis on testing, leaving even less time for teachers to foster creative learning environments, and instead incentivized teachers to become mere tutors to help students learn the best tricks to achieve high scores on standardized test so that they can get a good college placement. This is the type of outcome you would expect of an education system that prioritizes valuing technical capacities (scoring high on your ability to memorize the periodic table) over capacities like being able to make sense of the world, or being able to find meaning and purpose in life.

The last domino to fall: Genuine teacherly authority

The worst part of all this is that apart form the carbon pulse, and the credible trust people had in the progress narrative, we are now losing the only other thing that held up our modern education system together: which is the value that truly exceptional teachers brought to the table. These amazing teachers were the only vehicles that allowed for those rare moments where meaning, life-purpose, and sense-making were informally introduced to the curriculum despite the fundemental logic of the prussian system working agaisnt it. We all know just how important these teachers were in the education system. Just ask people what their best memories of high school were. You are likely to hear many stories about that one teacher who changed their lives, that one teacher who was able to truly connect with them on a deep level and gain their trust. That one teacher who taught them invaluable life skills that motivated them to keep going despite all the forces working agaisnt them.
Those teachers are mostly all gone from the public school system, even the most dedicated and hard working teacher can only take in so much abuse, they can only be devalued for so long before they give up and move on to greener pastures. This is where we are. This is the situation teachers have been warning us about in recent years. Today millions of kids are going through an educational system where even the teachers are abandoning them. The social fabric won't be able to handle this for much longer. Civilizations that abandon their youth will collapse.
People who look at the situation honestly really shouldn't be surprised by the increasing lawlessness in classrooms, the decrease in literacy, and the mental health crisis in youth. Someone who looks at the situation superficially might conclude that we need to go down the strongmen route and force students to respect teachers. But again, those magical moments where students and teachers form a genuine bond that allows for deep learning can only be fostered in an environment where students have a reason to value the knowledge that the teacher possesses. When students realize that the way to succeed through the education system is by learning how to memorize information and how to cheat without getting caught, students no longer have the incentive to value the teacher for the knowledge they have related to their domain of expertise. As soon as schools lose the capacity to produce a relationship between students and teachers built on genuine respect and trust, where deeper, more vulnerable, and more meaningful conversations can be had, you lose the capacity to impart the knowledge required to not only maintain industrial civilizational structures, but more critically you lose all hopes of being able to teach future generations the skills and knowledge they will need throughout the great unraveling.

Nothing hurts more than being abandonned

Just try to place yourself in the shoes of a 14-year-old entering high school. You've been told repeatedly that your generation is suffering from a mental health crisis with suicide rates up almost 200%. You are repeatedly told that this is most likely caused by social media corporations having free-reign to design apps that directly abuse your under-developed limbic system to more easily hijack your reward system and create unwanted addictions that make you depressed. Despite this you notice that the adults of the world who are supposed to be protecting you from harm are not only failing to regulate these social media corporations but even your school administration can't even be bothered to enforce their own policies that prohibit smartphones from being used in class. Even worse, you come home after school and you notice that even your parents dont even bother imposing restrictions on phone use at home. This is the type of day-to-day environement that a majority of kids experience. Obviously, they are gonna start to internalize that the crucial institutions responsible for their wellbeing are actively abdicating on their responsibily to care for them and to prepare them for the future. In this environement it is quite logical to expect students to reciprocate with the same lack of respect shown to them by the institutions. You can make the same argument for a bunch of other issues our society is completely failing to adress, like the climate crisis. The kids aren't stupid they know we are failing them. And this is what hurts them. Nothing hurts more than knowing that those who are meant to care for your well-being end up abandoning you.
And so all this begs the question, how will our education system be able to cope in the age of the great unraveling? What happens when the ecological, economic, geopolitical, and energy crises become so severe that teachers are no longer able to imbue a sense of legitamacy to their authority when the curriculum they are forced to teach becomes so detached from the reality that encompasses the expectations students have about their future? Will those in positions of power allow radical reforms to the educational system to take place in order to ensure that future generations are equipped with the knowledge and skill sets required to thrive in a low-energy, simplified, and de-globalized civilization? Or will elite panic lead them to double down and further cement efforts to preserve the system as it is, with it's focus on piting students agaisnt each other via mass testing, prioritizing a cirriculum that instills dangerous expectations about the future, and a system that increasingly abandons millions of it's youth in a deep crisis of meaning and loneliness. I think i know the direction we are going, but hopefully i'm proven wrong.

We could help GameStop with their sales actually. I’ve been a big fan of GameStop since I was a kid. Even now as an adult gamer, I choose to get my consoles, games, accessories, and whatever else from GameStop. Their prices are actually great. It’s not like they overcharge, and you are only saving money by buying used games from them.
I recently compared prices of used games I bought in store one day to their prices on monster company websites like Amazon and it turned out GameStop prices were way better. On Amazon they are price gouging and pretending like they are refurbishing the game disc properly, when in reality GameStop is the most qualified to refurbish a game because their equipment they use to refurbish is the most official best in class for exactly that.
We can also help them with their sales by signing up as affiliates on their website and promoting their products for them. We make a commission, and they get more sales revenue. It doesn’t matter what your profession is, anyone is allowed to sign up as an affiliate. It’s free to sign up. They give you different unique links to promote each product that are unique to your personal account you created. So if someone clicks on a link for a product you shared to social media for example and the item ends up selling because of the link you posted to Pinterest for example, then you get a commission payment + they get more sales.
We all loved GameStop growing up. Many of us still do as adult gamers. All my video game console, game disc, game accessories, PC/laptops, pc accessory, action figure purchases and more. Go to them.
GME Diamond Hands Community, this is a call to action: Sign up as a gamestop affiliate here and promote their products to social media like Pinterest, FB, twitter, etc. It’s free to sign up. And you get paid for helping them if you successfully help them get a sale. All you have to do is share a link to any social platform. You can post the link to social platforms you feel most comfortable sharing. It can be one platform or it can be all your social media profiles. The more platforms you share to, the more likely it will sell and you’ll get paid 10% of the sale. Take it at your own speed. Sign up here:
https://www.gamestop.com/affiliate.html
Help them thrive. Beat the hedges.
To GameStop Leadership I say this, I really suggest you start expanding into game streaming subscriptions. Just like Twitch or Amazon Luna online game streaming subscription services. If you need more sales, then do the needful and keep expanding outward. Keep up with the times. Do not let the hedges win or the monopolistic monsters like Amazon win. Fight to survive because the big monsters are attempting to swallow you whole. We Diamond Hands 💎 🙌 and your loyal customers have got your back. Also please stop with the halts. Whoever may be doing it. Forget the hedge funds, they aren’t helping your business, they are betting you will fail. We your loyal customers are here to support you and we WILL succeed. Best believe it. You aren’t failing on our watch.
To the hedges: Prepare to lose. This company is going to not only survive but THRIVE! The losses you are about to incur will demonstrate that…

Is there an example in the bible of a leader who sinned, and then came with a repentant heart, but God still removed them from power, at least for a period of time?
Discussing repentance and it's consequences. I know sin still has consequences even if you are repentant - but I am trying to think of impact on leadership. I feel like if a pastor steals money, has an affair, etc, they should step down for even a period of time to get right with God even if they are repentant. But I was wondering if this is biblical? Or if you are truly repentant, and have a change of heart, you can continue being in leadership as normal?

Hey
I was wondering based off this info what type do I seem to be.
INFO
• What kinds of activities do you prefer? Do you like, and are you good at sports? Do you enjoy any other outdoor or indoor activities?
DnD, Magic the Gathering(Blue my favorite color to play and represents my personality in my opinion) Gaming mainly Rpgs. This has always been my hobby. I like to read and write(horror, Sci fi, fantasy). Like to watch and discuss movies.
As for sports I Used to? I used to Skateboard a lot. I did it into my late 20s. I was put into sports(baseball,track) at a young age by my parents but didn't care for it.
I do weightlift/workout 6 days a week and I love to do that. I like to hike.
• Would you enjoy taking on a leadership position? Do you think you would be good at it? What would your leadership style be?
No, I dont like being bothered by people. The only leadership I want is leading myself.
• Are you coordinated?
Yes
• Are you artistic? If yes, describe your art? If you are not particular artistic but can appreciate art please likewise describe what forums of art you enjoy. Please explain your answer.
I appreciate art but I'm not great at it. I play bass and I like to write.
• How do you act when others request your help to do something (anything)? If you would decide to help them, why would you do so?
I don't like being bothered. If it's someone I consider close though I'll help.
• Do you need logical consistency in your life?
Yes.
• Do you control others, even if indirectly? How and why do you do that?
No
• What are your aspirations in life, professionally and personally?
Write a book
Have a job I don't hate and make money that can support my wife, kids, and myself.
• What are your fears? What makes you uncomfortable? What do you hate? Why?
Being controlled
• How attached are you to reality? Do you daydream often, or do you pay attention to what's around you? If you do daydream, are you aware of your surroundings while you do so?
I'm in my head a lot. Absent minded professor
• How long do you take to make an important decision? And do you change your mind once you've made it?
If its an important decision I'll take all tbe time I think is necessary.
• How long do you take to process your emotions? How important are emotions in your life?
I suck dealing with them
• Do you ever catch yourself agreeing with others just to appease them and keep the conversation going? How often? Why?
No. I'm very Blunt and don't beat around the bush
• I'm logical and analytical
• When It comes to making decisions I try to go with what is most logical and makes the most sense
• I try to see multiple viewpoints as to understand more and also play Devils advocate
• I'm Impatient and get irritated easily
• Competitive
• Determined
• Open minded
• I will plan things but I am adaptable
• I'm more talkative and im naturally goofy and like joking around around those I'm close with. ( My wife, my kids, immediate family and close friends)
• I'm interested in the concept of the status quo for instance and more so how to break the status quo/question/ change it. I don't just follow things but I'm okay with following authority figures (bosses, leaders, etc) provided they are legit in their earning of said authority. I don’t follow blindly simply because they’re labeled an “authority figure” I follow because I believe they deserve and earned their titles of authority through actual work and logic.
• I ask "why" a lot
• I overanalyze
• I'm a massive nerd and I weightlift almost every day. I read and watch a lot of fantasy, sci-fi, and Horror. I write stories. I collect Star Trek and fantasy collectibles. I watch a lot of YouTube videos about Star Trek, Game of Thrones, Dungeons and Dragons lore.(There's more these are just some). You wouldn't know any of this just based off how I look though. I'm told I come off intimidating atleast until you get to me if I let you in.
• I'm opionated and frequently speak up at work for example when people aren't being fair or they are being hypocritical.
• I do believe in rules and regulations if they make sense especially safety ones
• Confident
• Practical
• Objective
• I'm relentless/Determined when i need to be
• Im not tradtional in the generic sense, I have my own tradtions ive made up for my family
• Atheist
• Always looking for inconsistencies
• I want to be the one in who decides if I'm going to have a schedule or not. I don't like when people set plans and routines for me.
• As I've gotten older I usually work first before relaxing. So I'll get everything out of the way as soon as I can so I'm free to do what I want
• Consider myself Introverted
• If there's something I need to fix or a puzzle that captures my attention I get tunnel vision and must complete it
• I like to read and learn trivia about movies. Watch how there made. Find meanings if there are any
• Listen to a lot metal/goth music. Heavily in that scene along with the tattoo scene
• Knowledge is important and I believe everyone should have opportunities to learn
• Pragmatic
• I'm not super rebellious(I can be when I need to be)
• I tend to be a talker and a listener
• I can be picky with some things. I can be OCD about certain things.
• If I have a particular type of “day” in mind, I don’t usually like straying from it. But it depends on what things happen. If the deviation is suddenly going to a Halloween store(I love Halloween time and horror movies) then I’m sure I'll enjoy it
• I can be easy going or “go with the flow” provided that “the flow” is going in a direction I'm happy with

Quick background: my workplace is in a bit of turmoil at the moment. In our region we’re a small team of around 15, and the leadership team (including me) have only been with the business for about year. The VP of Sales quit and left 1 month ago, and the MD has just resigned. Senior Leadership are flying in last minute from the US next week, to try and keep things from completely falling apart. This couldn’t come at a worse time for me: I’ve just completed a failed IVF cycle last week, my 40th birthday is tomorrow (and this upcoming visit is overshadowing it in my mind) and we’re moving house and suburb next weekend.
Another bit of background: my partner (romantic) works in recruitment as a director of a newly formed division for a small agency.
This evening I was telling my partner how overwhelmed I’m feeling and how stressed I feel about the meetings coming up next week. He gave me some (considerate) advice, but then somehow got onto the topic of him planning to reach out to my US EVP (who is here next week), to let him know he could help him to fill the vacant roles.
When I was with my previous employer he reached out to the CEO (my then boss) as a prospective new business lead without first mentioning it to me. I was unhappy when I found out (through my boss) as I’d rather he did not approach the organization I work for and particularly my manager.
When it came up again tonight, I told him again that I do not want him prospecting with my employer. He can speak to any of the previous companies I’ve worked for, and the thousands of other companies out there available to prospect with. My employer is the one single organization I do not want him approaching.
He immediately got angry and told me that he takes this as me insinuating that I don’t think he’s good at his job, or will do a good job in filling these vacancies. I explained this has nothing to do with my beliefs about his capabilities, instead I just do not want my personal life mixing with my work life. For example, if my employer was to engage his services and things went sour, I’d worry it might reflect badly on me.
Again, he took this as me not believing he would do a good job. He told me how hard it is to win new business and was upset and angry that I would try and prevent him from securing this deal.
This resulted in a HUGE fight - one of our largest. On the eve of this special birthday. This upset me even more than it would have done on an “ordinary” night, as I don’t understand why he used this particular evening to engage in this discussion. To me it felt inconsiderate and selfish.
Was it?! Or AITA and being over sensitive?

This serene Saturday brings us a perfect opportunity to discuss a critical yet often neglected aspect of leadership: setting effective boundaries. Whether you're at the helm of a small team or a large organization, the way you manage boundaries can significantly impact your mental health, job satisfaction, and overall effectiveness as a leader. Let's delve deeper into this topic!
Why Boundaries Matter
Boundaries in leadership help protect your time, energy, and mental well-being, allowing you to perform at your best while avoiding burnout. They foster a culture of respect and clear expectations, which can lead to improved productivity and team morale.
Key Strategies for Setting Boundaries
Clear Communication: The cornerstone of boundary-setting is clear communication. It's essential to be transparent about your availability, priorities, and the expectations you set for your team. This clarity helps prevent misunderstandings and ensures everyone is on the same page.
Prioritize Self-Care: As leaders, we often put our own needs last, but self-care should be a non-negotiable part of your routine. Whether it’s meditating, exercising, or simply taking a few minutes to breathe, make sure to schedule time for yourself just as you would any critical business appointment.
Digital Detox: In our always-connected world, it’s vital to establish times when you are completely offline. Set specific hours where you are not available for work-related communications. This not only helps you unwind but also sets a healthy example for your team about the importance of work-life balance.
Delegate Effectively: Delegation is not just about offloading tasks; it's about empowering your team. By delegating responsibilities, you allow others to grow while also managing your own workload more effectively.
Learn to Say No: One of the most challenging aspects of boundary-setting is learning to say no. It's crucial for maintaining focus on your priorities and commitments without overextending yourself.
Reflection and Adjustment
It’s important to periodically reflect on the boundaries you’ve set and adjust them as needed. Ask yourself: Are these boundaries serving my well-being and leadership effectively? If not, what changes should I make?
Engage and Share Your Thoughts
I’d love to hear from you! What strategies have you found effective in setting and maintaining boundaries? Have you faced challenges in this area? Let’s start a conversation and build a supportive community where we can share insights and solutions.
Looking forward to your thoughts and stories!

Daily Dose of Integrity
New podcast out today!

Show notes:

Introduction

• Integrity definition
• The formula for integrity is core values
• By the end, you should know a draft of your values, how to live by them, and what behaviour change you could make today to become a bit more confident

What are core values and why are they important?

• Integrity diamond
• Start with what they’re not
• So what is a core value
• Thoughts and feelings don’t count

Core Values Exercise: The Integrity Formula

• Integrity builds confidence, integrity is a formula
• Values is the ingredients
• Value questions
• values criteria
• Practical definition
• Exercise

Core Values List for Confident Integrity: Examples and Definitions
Core Values for Business and Career Development
7 Core Values for Personal Relationships
Core Values for Leadership That Inspires Loyalty
Watch video version here:
https://theinspirationallifestyle.com/finding-your-integrity-core-values-to-live-by/
Listen to audio version here:
https://theinspirationallifestyle.com/podcast/finding-your-integrity-core-values-to-live-by/

https://www.finanzen.net/nachricht/aktien/strategie-wechsel-wird-gamestop-unter-der-fuehrung-von-ryan-cohen-zum-naechsten-berkshire-hathaway-13180517

Here is Chats translation

The power struggle between professional short sellers and organized retail investors in January 2021 is likely still fresh in the minds of most investors. During this short-selling war, many retail investors mobilized via Reddit and other internet forums, driving up the prices of heavily shorted stocks, such as the U.S. video game retailer GameStop, through concerted buying. This caused significant losses, up to near-ruin, for some hedge funds that had bet on falling prices and were caught off guard.
Crisis at GameStop It was not surprising that short sellers targeted GameStop, as the company had been in crisis for some time due to changing gamer behaviors, which the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated. For about two years, GameStop has been working to move away from the outdated and struggling business model of a traditional retail chain for computer game needs and transform into a modern technology provider for online gamers. This transformation from a retail chain to a technology company focused on e-commerce was initiated by activist investor Ryan Cohen, who had invested in the struggling company long before retail investors on Reddit forums discovered the stock.
Strategy Change Ryan Cohen acquired a significant portion of GameStop shares in mid-2020, before the "meme" hype, and steadily increased this stake until he became the largest individual shareholder of the video game retailer through his venture capital firm RC Ventures. As such, he actively supported GameStop's restructuring and even took on the role of CEO in September 2023. Under his leadership, GameStop is now taking another step forward and changing its investment policy. Cohen and his management team are now allowed to invest in stocks and a wide range of other on-exchange or off-exchange financial instruments, whereas previously they were restricted to short-term, fixed-income securities with investment-grade ratings, such as U.S. Treasuries or certificates of deposit. According to "TheStreet," it is very likely that in 2024 Cohen will use GameStop's considerable cash reserves of nearly one billion U.S. dollars to invest in stocks of other companies, as he already does with RC Ventures.
Cohen is also allowed to invest in the same companies as GameStop, either personally or through affiliated investment vehicles such as RC Ventures. The alignment of interests between GameStop and Ryan Cohen as its main shareholder was emphasized.
Warren Buffett as a Role Model This change in investment policy could signal that GameStop will use its cash reserves for equity investments rather than its core business of video games and collectibles. "TheStreet" believes that GameStop will move away from retail and considers this strategic shift wise, given the tough competition brick-and-mortar retailers face from the digitization of physical media and e-commerce giants. Cohen could be following the example of his role model Warren Buffett. After taking over Berkshire Hathaway, Buffett transformed the company from a textile manufacturer into a holding company with investments in various segments and is now considered one of the most successful investors of all time.

We often see posts on here querying the role of the Arbites within the Imperial Internal Security/Law Enforcement apparatus, and I feel (entirely without being able to substantiate this with any form of quantitative analysis...) that the Arbites are often used as a speed-bump (slightly larger than the PDF one though...) for a novel's table-top-represented villain faction so that the true protagonists can show their unique skills etc. This affects the wider community's view of the Arbites, because they are often all dead or cowering from something unmentionable by the time the reader's perspective reaches them.
As someone who loves the Arbites I find this a crying shame; so without further ado, and with a title inspired by a very relevant, facetious maxim from Game of Thrones, here is an excellent illustration of the vast gulf of power between true Officers of the Imperium and mere local notables.
Unredacted Spoilers below, from the 3rd Act of Jon Beer's The King of The Spoil**:** you have been warned.
(Recap: by this point in the novel, the street-wise Protagonist has spent much of her time bemoaning her enforced fealty to a shady cartel, whose senior members are so far removed from her in authoritythat they might as well be autocratic kings of yore. Sadly for all, the plotof the novel has just blown up in everyone's faces...)

...
'The Arbites are here.'
Now he turned. Even Vasimov, the austere and redoubtable Tomillian Vasimov, paled at the name of the Emperor's law-bearers. As Melita edged away, she saw the securitor step forward to request the attention of the assembled civic leaders so that he could relay the news.
They had less than a minute to wait.
A figure swept from one of the level's lift-units like an avenging deity. An ink-black cloak flared from his shoulders, draped over immaculate charcoal carapce armour. A silver icon - a clenched fist holding the scales of justice, mounted within the Imperial 'I' - hung on a thin chain from the collar of his armour. He was bare-headed, allowing piercing, slate-grey eyes to take in the room with a single intense glare. His black hair and beard were both clipped short and scattered with grey. The touch of age to his face only heightened the aura of overwhelming authority that seemed to roll ahead of him, like the bow-wave of an ocean-fording liner.
A pair of arbitrators, similarly armoured but with their faces concealed behind imposing helmets, followed a few steps behind. They each held a double-barrelled shot-cannon tight against their chests, with brutally flanged shock mails hanging from their waists, while their leader carried an eagle-headed baton of office.
No one moved. Every person in the room was stilled instantly by the sudden presence of a man whose word could condemn them all to immediate execution.
The figure stopped at the chamber's entrance, and raised a gauntleted hand in a gesture of benediction. His voice was a rich baritone, suited to that of an operatic singer or a Defence Corps drill instructor.
'Please. Continue.'
The room's activity immediately returned. Beneath that adamantine gaze no one wished to be seen to give anything less than their complete effort.
Tomic and Vasimov recovered themselves first, and both men stepped down from the dias to greet their unexpected visitor. Melita made every effort to inconspicuously retire. Her natural curiosity was silent, curbed by the incarnation of Imperial Jjustice that had stepped into their midst.
Hierarchy suffused everything in the Imperium. Every citizen knew their place, knew whom they could abuse and to whom they must yield. That hierarchy was not limited to the vulgar masses. Whilst the vladars and burgraves administered the collection of the tithe, and the...enforcers applied the Lex Alecto with shock mauls and excruciation, the Adeptus Arbites answered to a far greater authority. The men and women despatched from Fort Gunlysk, the great citadel at the heart of Alecto's Praesidium Quarter, were charged to enforce the God-Emperor's own laws.
'I am Arbitrator Hakon Karadiz.' Each syllable fell into place with the weight and irresistable energy of continental motion. 'Who is responsible for this situation?'
'I am.'
Melita's regard for Kriskoff Tomic increased substantially. His voice had not wavered at all. Karadiz's stare swept steadily over each of the figures around the hololith, which included a district vladar, three enforcer Castellans, the most senior officiant of the Imperial Faith in Setomir, and the directors of four merchant-combines whose contributions to the planetary tithe could be individually discerned. Finally, his gaze settled on Tomic, who had planeted himself in the arbitrator's line of advance, Vasimov loyally at his shoulder. Tomic was a slender man, resembling nothing so much as a fluted amasec glass. While he might have stood eye-to-eye with Karadiz, it was impossible to match the man's physical presence.
'You are?'
Watching Tomic summon his full reserve of dignity was like seeing a thunderstorm gather. 'Kriskoff Tomic, Director of the Aspiry-Tomic Trading House.
'And you speak for the association known as the Valteri?'
Tomic paused momentarily before responding, in a way that seemed calculated to tread the line between modesty and authority. 'In this matter, yes.'
'I see.'
The assembled worthies waited in silence. Karadiz' every movement projected absolute, unquestioned supremacy. It wasn't simply the effect of the armour he wore, or the sigil her bore. The man himself exuded an air of unyielding judgement. In the brief moment his stare passed over Melita, she felt a tremor start in her core. Her contrarian nature, which would usually rankle at such assumed dominance, completely failed.
'The Praesidium Council has formally requested that I assess whether this situation can be contained and resolved by local forces.'
In that voice, everything sounded like a threat, but there was no mistaking the danger inherent in his words. The figures gathered together on the dais held almost unquestioned authority within their own spheres, but Karadiz could unmake any of them with a word.
'Does that mean you will be deploying your Arbites to the Line?' squeaked Castellan Hauf, a representative of Bastion-D who was nominally in command of the enforces seconded to their neighbouring district. The man had been sweating producely throughout the night, but now he looked as though he misht soon expire of heart failure before dehydration did him in.
Karadiz' head turned slowly. 'Do you feel you require our involvement?'
'No.' said Tomic smoothly, as Hauf wilted beneath the arbitrator's gaze. 'I am grateful for your presence, arbitrator, but we' - he gestured at the assembled power behind him - 'will bring this matter to its assured conclusion.' His gesture turned into a deft inclination of his hand, as though magnanimously giving Karadiz permission to join them. 'We would, of course, welcome any observations you feel might hasten that end.'
Karadiz nodded, and tucked his baton under one arm. 'What is the disposition of the enemy force?'
Vasimov stepped back, inviting him to approach the hololith.
Melita took that moment to leave. She headed for the lift-unit that had brought in Karadiz, her escort in tow. She had to step between the two arbitrators, both at least a head taller than her, to access the elevator. The slight creak of a leather gauntlet tightening around a shot-cannon's grip made her almost leap through the open doors.
As the doors closed and the lift-unit rumbled into motion, Melita was certain she heard the Reisiger man exhale in relief.

To me, this section illustrates well the immense gulf between the authority and reputation of the Arbites versus that of local government. I find it a little akin to the scene in Brothers of the Snake wherein a Noblewoman suddenly realises she is interfering with the business of the Inquisition.
In fact, this book features several excellent examples of the Arbites getting to flex on something that is not an incomprehensible interstellar threat, so I might pull some more excerpts out going forward...

LOGIC:

1. Do you find that truth and understanding of systems in life are an important aspect that should be highly valued? How do you usually go about learning and forming an understanding of a concept?
Yes, and I find it extremely troubling how overlooked these things are for the majority of people. I try my best to surround myself with curious and intelligent individuals who share the same knack for understanding the “systems” which govern our life, and developing frameworks (both logical and moral) to grapple with this understanding. It bothers me, though, that the vast majority of people have little to no zeal in dismantling the world around them–events, institutions, bodies of hierarchy etc. Learning is quick but tiring, I find that the vat of information to gather is endless and separating understanding from opinion is excruciatingly difficult. I’m guilty of sometimes approaching topics with the goal of developing an opinion, and often have to shake myself from that mindset.
2. How easily do you find yourself changing opinions or viewpoints? What sorts of things can influence your views the most/least?
Quite easily, though it rarely happens. As soon as I see that there is a mistake in my logic, perhaps I’ve made a fallacy or misconstrued a source, I will correct my framework. And in doing so, the output of my framework changes. I think generally accumulating more information helps me to change or form my opinion, and discourse / debates with others are the least effective methods as I can become defensive and prioritize proving my accuracy instead of acknowledging merit in the other party’s viewpoint. But that is not to say I don’t full-heartedly enjoy debating.
3. Are you more likely to assume that you’re right or wrong about an issue? Is it important for you to always be right? How easy is it for you to admit it when you’re wrong?
Oooh boy. I definitely have a problem admitting I’m wrong, and that’s something I’ve been working on all my life (thanks mom and dad). Being that I’m pretty impartial most of the time (as I feel like I’m constantly dissecting so much information it’s hard for me to take a side), when I do form a more black-and-white view on something, it’s after a lot of thinking, research, and analysis. Hence, yes, I will believe I’m right and die on my hill.
4. How do you react when someone disagrees with you during a logical debate? How do you go about defending your beliefs, if at all? Do these types of situations make you doubt your views easily?
It, like, flips a red switch in me. I’ve done six years of competitive debating with multiple championships under my belt, so it’s hard for me to get rid of that instinct, where my first reaction to everything is to argue. I know my way around debates and I can easily pick apart someone’s argument, point out contradictions, logical fallacies, redundancies, and prove them wrong. And no, these types of situations don’t make me doubt my own logic, again, they just make me arrogant and bloodthirsty.
5. How do you feel about debating logical chains and evidence? (Can discussions and debates help you sort your thoughts out, or are you more likely to see them as unnecessary? Do you find debates more stressful or fun?)
I don’t know, I spent six years of my life doing it, it gets to a point where you become fed up with people trying to rile an argument out of you in bad faith.
6. Do you feel the need to explain your own logical understanding to others? Do you feel the need to have others explain their understanding to you?
If it’s asked of me, if I’m questioned or countered, yes, sure. And when I’m presented with a statement that contradicts my logic, or confuses me, yes, I will need you to break down your logic.

VOLITION:

1. Do you consider yourself to be a naturally motivated person? What helps motivate you? Do you need others to motivate you and/or provide incentives for you to work?
Uh pffff no not really. I spent the first 18 years of my life being motivated by consequences. My incentive was always to not get punished by my parents.
2. Are you someone who has a clear sense of direction and purpose? Is this something that matters to you? What do you gain a sense of meaning from?
In general, yes, there’s consistently something broad I’m working towards. How I get there is less important, I enjoy going with the flow. For example, since I was really little, I’ve wanted to become an author and publish books. That ambition hasn’t changed a bit, and I know it’s something I must accomplish in my life, and it gives my life meaning. It’s probably the most important thing to me. But it’s less of a motivating factor and more of a I-know-this-will-happen-eventually.
3. How is your relationship with goals? Do you often share them with others (or help others with their goals)? Are you self-assured in what you set out to do, or are you more indecisive and/or easily persuaded by what others around you want?
I set goals and rarely accomplish them. But I find that it’s not a bad thing, because in trying to accomplish a goal, I’ve worked hard and made progress and just because I didn’t reach a specific benchmark doesn’t mean my progress was in vain. I like sharing my goals with my friends, especially when they’re in a place to help me with them. Like going to the gym, for example, I have a few friends who are bodybuilders and trainers, and they’ll encourage me to go with them, and give me custom workout routines, and make me protein shakes.
I’m a self-assured person when it comes to my own life goals. In most other things, like making decisions, I am impartial and therefore indecisive.
4. Are you bothered by failures and setbacks? How do you deal with them when they come up?
Not really, I don’t linger on these things. We make mistakes and life moves on.
5. Are you someone who easily competes for things you truly desire? How do you feel about others telling you what to do, or trying to insert their desires into yours?
Like, again, I’m impartial when it comes to most things. I rarely have strong desires, so most of the time I don’t mind going along with other people. But, coming from someone who was raised by an over-controlling immigrant family, I struggled so much with feeling trapped growing up and was given all my life direction by my parents. Now that I’ve moved out, autonomy is less of a worry for me. I do as I please. And I’d rather die before I give an inch away from my independence and go back to the life I had with my family.
6. How do you tend to act when you are part of a team? Are you more of a leader or a follower (or neither)? Do you have an easy time working cooperatively with others?
In a smaller team, I naturally fall into a leadership role just because I’m more outspoken and I engage with people more. Any team upwards of like six or seven people I just follow along, offer up ideas when I can, and support everyone else.
7. Do you consider yourself to be someone with a firm sense of identity? How do you feel when other people assert their ideas about who you are?
Yes. And as a natural disagreer, I probably end up disagreeing.

PHYSICS:

1. How important are factors such as clothing, hygiene, and appearance to your everyday life? Do you feel confident in your body and tastes? Are you often swayed by trends and the opinions of others in terms of fashion and aesthetics?
Now, incredibly important. I’m an artist and architecture student so I have a very carefully curated sense of style and aesthetics. My self-presentation, in clothes, hair, makeup, etc. is like an art of expression, and I will always want to appear appealing / beautiful in the eyes of others. I was also in the modeling industry for a bit, which is probably worth mentioning. I didn’t really care about any of this until I was fifteen or sixteen, because that’s when I was most insecure about myself. I disliked my body and the way I looked, I thought of myself as ugly, so I would hyperfixate on my appearance. I began using makeup and developing a fashion style, and though I’ve lost most of my insecurities, I remain living with my artistic vanity.
2. How do you handle your senses being disturbed? Are you sensitive to problems like discomfort, sickness, and pain? (Or are you unaware/able to push past them/etc..)
Not really. I tough it through. The only thing that’s ever kept me in bed is depression.
3. How is your relationship with physical activity? Are you someone who naturally desires a more comfortable and inert lifestyle, or do you have a hard time staying still? Do you find external encouragement and incentives for taking care of your body useful?
I have to force myself to maintain a level of physical activity. It’s so so easy for me to stay in my room all day and read books and watch movies and play video games, but I love being outside doing stuff, I’m just lazy. I was a competitive swimmer for almost nine years in grade school, I was on my high school rugby team, I did track and cross-country and fencing, but after I graduated high school I lost all of these opportunities to stay active and got out of shape. These days I try my best to go to the gym, go on hikes (I love backpacking and camping), or do a morning jog.
4. Do you enjoy pushing yourself to try new foods, activities, or styles? How picky are you regarding these things, and what helps you decide what you want to explore?
Yeah, sure, I’m a fiend for new experiences. I’m not picky at all, and some of my best memories were made through trying new things, so I like to explore anything and everything without hesitation.
5. How is your relationship with your physical environment? Are you usually attuned to your surroundings? Is being organized something that matters to you and/or comes naturally? How do you feel when another person enters your space and tries to help you with it? (e.g. by cleaning)
I’m kind of the most physically obtuse person I know. I get lost in my thoughts a lot, and I spend almost every second of my day inside my head, so I’m just constantly unaware of my surroundings. I’m terrible at making physical observations, and I have 0 sense of direction, and will get disoriented in a physical space that I’ve been to multiple times. My personal space can get disorganized pretty often and I’ll lose things now and then, but I just clean up maybe once a week. I’ve never had anybody do this (entering my space and cleaning it??) but I’d probably hate it. Don’t touch my stuff.
6. How do you handle your finances and possessions? Is this an area of ease in your life, or do you find yourself becoming overly reckless or stingy? Do you consider yourself to be a materialistic person?
Fine, I think. I’m financially literate enough to get by. I am a bit of a maximalist (I’m sentimental and a clutterbug) so I will constantly acquire things and never throw anything away. But I’ve never had a problem with overspending. I know when to quell my impulses. To a degree I am materialistic, but probably not in the way most people think of materialism. I have no desire for luxury goods or high-end consumer products–I like books, antiques, musical instruments, second-hand vintage clothes, trinkets, kitschy knick-knacks, pottery, etc, and I love to fill my space with them.
7. How do you react to criticism or advice regarding how you handle any of the above things?
I am super sensitive to criticism about the way I spend money and the things I buy. Advice I am always open to but will most likely not heed.

EMOTIONS:

1. Does self-expression come naturally to you? What emotions do you find easier or harder to express? What goals do you have when dealing with your levels of emotional expression, if any?
Yes, it’s quite hard for me to hide or ignore my emotions. Um, there isn’t really a difference of difficulty in emotional expression. It comes as it is. I’m a pretty chilled out person for the most part, if I’m experiencing something really intensely, it’ll just show.
2. Are you someone who is in touch with their inner emotional world? Are you good at understanding how you feel about something and why? Do you find others’ insight into how you are/should be feeling beneficial?
Yes, my emotional world is at the core of my being, a sum of my experiences and the way I explore the world. I always know why I feel the way I do, but often, after experiencing intense emotion, I will think about it and try to analyze it to understand the intricacies and how to best move forward. No, I think it’s useless, nobody can truly understand how I think or feel except for me. The subjective consciousness is the most isolating of all.
3. How good are you at balancing your focus between your own emotions and the emotions of others? Are you more naturally attuned to others’ feelings and reactions, or your own?
Mine, naturally, as I can feel them. I’m not a narcissistic person, though, I care a lot about the feelings of others and even though I can unintentionally hurt somebody’s feelings, I will always fix my misstep and learn from it.
4. How do you normally react when someone shares their emotions with you? Do you enjoy handling situations like these?
With negative emotions, anxious, because emotions are difficult, and not problems you can solve with reasoning and logic. I’m constantly thinking about what best to say or do to ease the person’s suffering where my reaction becomes disingenuous. I just really don’t want to say the wrong thing.
5. When others are speaking on topics regarding emotion, are you more inclined to express, engage, or pull away? Do you adjust to emotional atmospheres, or do you feel more separate from them? How comfortable are you with conversations focused on emotional vulnerability?
Probably listen, and offer my support. I always want to be warm towards people and make them feel comfortable. I’m pretty easily affected by emotional atmospheres, but I always recognize that it’s a condition of my environment and separate from my authentic emotions. I think emotionally vulnerable conversations do wonders for intimacy. I wouldn’t entertain them with anyone who I didn’t deeply care about, or want to get extremely close with. And I’ll always listen when somebody else is opening up. But for me to open up in that way, it has to be with someone I trust completely. Then, I find it to be healing. One of my favorite things to do with my boyfriend, especially after I’ve been crying, is to sit on the floor cross-legged and talk about our emotions and problems. Because to be vulnerable like this isn’t just saying “I feel this way” as you would do with anyone, it’s being honest about why you feel the way you do, and being unafraid to dig through the melancholy, hopelessness, and frustration to find how it’s taken root in you, to admit the things you’ve been driven to do not of your own volition but of these inadmissible emotions, and finally, have somebody understand you, just a little.

I need to preface this by saying that I am not interested in having a back-and-forth in the comment section. If you are interested in speaking with me, kindly message me in DMs.
I'm told women want a man who knows what he wants, so here's the whole nine yards. If there is anything here that you are not willing to accept, then don't. You will not change me now or years down the line. Obviously I intend to grow and mature (as one ought to), but I have decided who I am and what I want out of a relationship.
I am looking for a woman that I can make a permanent covenant bond with; I have no interest in flings or "long-term relationships."
I don't intend to come across as bitter or angry with any of this, just clear and up-front. It makes things easier for both of us.
Age gap is not mandatory. Don't be put off contacting me if you are closer to my age.
A bit about me:
My faith in Christ is paramount in my life. I would not be where I am without him. In taking interests in various things, I've learned a lot about God's character and design. Each new thing I learn fills me with more worship of him and wonder at his works. It is very important to me that you share this admiration of God.
I have a full-time job that I am very satisfied with, but what I feel truly passionate about is art and storytelling. To be honest, I've hit a bit of a block lately as far as my output. But I've been trying to find my feet so I can make something valuable to share with the world. I think that art and stories are a fundamental part of being human, not just a luxury. So pretty much any kind of art will spark passion in me, be it music, cinema, video games, literature, video essay, sculpture, etc. I could go back and forth for hours on a lot of things. My hope is that you and I will be able to enjoy art together and create some of our own.
I frequently spend time with another gentleman from my Church and we enjoy conversations about personal projects and contemporary issues, along with walks along beaches and park trails. He is a very important friend in my life, and I am lucky to know such a kind soul. Things aren't well with my family, so I really need that kind of presence.
While I rely on my bicycle for transport (no car), it's not a problem for me. I've been riding bikes since I was in elementary school (maybe even before). It would be really nice to ride down some trails with you.
What I expect from you:
-You need to be a follower of Jesus Christ. God needs to be an active part of your life because I intend to raise our children under Biblical values.
-You need hobbies and interests apart from me. I'm fine with helping you find things you like.
-You need to be a virgin.
-You must be humble and respectful. "Boss babe" attitudes are not attractive to me.
-You cannot have any tattoos or piercings, or have undergone any kind of surgery that affects your reproductive organs (reassignment, colpocleisis, FGM, tubal ligation, etc). I am not a doctor, so I don't know every situation that could require surgery. If you've had to undergo surgery or medication because of circumstances beyond your control, please let me know; I'm willing to hear your side of things.
-No cosmetic products. It's not good for your body and I am attracted women, not makeup. This includes fake nails and fake eyelashes. I don't need you to look "pretty." You character is more important to me.
-Related to the previous, no use of image filters in photos. I do not like the type of people who are vain and vapid enough to feel the need to use filters on their photos.
-Again related to the previous, you need to have a limited social media presence. If you have a business or post something of value (like art, for example), then I have no problem. What I'm talking about is having an Instagram or Facebook account where you make random posts to nobody in particular to "update" the internet on your life or post tons of pictures of yourself online. Basing your self-worth on the comments and likes from strangers on the internet is unhealthy, and I find people's obsessive need to take pictures of themselves very unattractive and vain.
-If we marry, I expect you treat me as the head of the house. There can't be two leaders in a household because one will have to defer to the other.
-I expect you to view marriage as something that you put work into. Marriages are a team effort, so I expect you to be a help meet.
-You need to treat me like a partner, not an adversary. Getting into arguments and nagging me helps neither of us. You must have conflict-resolution skills and a solution mindset.
-You need excellent communication skills. This means understanding yourself, putting your thoughts into words other people can understand, and verbalizing things rather than expecting me to read your thoughts.
-You cannot play games with me. Telling me about other guys to make me jealous or planning dates for specific days to pressure me into committing to you are wicked and manipulative.
-While we are dating, you cannot have a "backup plan." I expect you to not be splitting your attention between me and other men. This includes spending time outside of work with other men (family excluded).
-You must be in shape. Don't be dishonest with yourself about your weight; check your BMI. This includes being underweight, anorexic, and bulimic.
-You cannot have taken any COVID-19 vaccinations from any provider.
-No smoking, drugs, or drunkenness.
-I expect you to completely renounce fast food if we date or marry. We will never feed our children McDonald's.
What you can expect from me:
-While we are dating, I will not be speaking to other women.
-I cannot meet your height, money, or attractiveness expectations. I am simply an average dude. I am critical, abstract, and imaginative in my thinking though.
-I will not ask you to do something that is unreasonable or demeaning. I will only ask of you what I expect from myself. No relationship is going to be 50/50 100% of the time, but I will put forth the effort I am able to. I expect the same out of you.
-I will not raise my hand against you. My hands will be a safe place for you.
-I will be available to listen to your troubles and help you bear through them.
-I will not demean you or humiliate you, whether or not you are in the room.
-I will show leadership in our house and exercise restraint with a mild temper.
-I will cherish you and treat you as my own body.
-I will devote myself to displaying my love for you in a language you understand, even if I am feeling distant from you because of troubles we face. I expect the same from you.
-I will not turn to another woman and betray you.
-I intend to keep every promise that I make with you.
-I will treat our children with patience and kindness, but diligently discipline them and instruct them appropriately.
Please tell me a bit about yourself and what you expect out of a relationship, but be practical and clear. A list of platitudes like "loyal, honest, etc" does not help me understand what you're looking for. Think about what your expectations look like in a tangible, everyday way.

I'm told women want a man who knows what he wants, so here's the whole nine yards. If there is anything here that you are not willing to accept, then don't. You will not change me now or years down the line. Obviously I intend to grow and mature (as one ought to), but I have decided who I am and what I want out of a relationship.
I am looking for a woman that I can make a permanent covenant bond with; I have no interest in flings or "long-term relationships."
I don't intend to come across as bitter or angry with any of this, just clear and up-front. It makes things easier for both of us.
A bit about me:
My faith in Christ is paramount in my life. I would not be where I am without him. In taking interests in various things, I've learned a lot about God's character and design. Each new thing I learn fills me with more worship of him and wonder at his works. It is very important to me that you share this admiration of God.
I have a full-time job that I am very satisfied with, but what I feel truly passionate about is art and storytelling. To be honest, I've hit a bit of a block lately as far as my output. But I've been trying to find my feet so I can make something valuable to share with the world. I think that art and stories are a fundamental part of being human, not just a luxury. So pretty much any kind of art will spark passion in me, be it music, cinema, video games, literature, video essay, sculpture, etc. I could go back and forth for hours on a lot of things. My hope is that you and I will be able to enjoy art together and create some of our own.
I frequently spend time with another gentleman from my Church and we enjoy conversations about personal projects and contemporary issues, along with walks along beaches and park trails. He is a very important friend in my life, and I am lucky to know such a kind soul. Things aren't well with my family, so I really need that kind of presence.
While I rely on my bicycle for transport (no car), it's not a problem for me. I've been riding bikes since I was in elementary school (maybe even before). It would be really nice to ride down some trails with you.
What I expect from you:
-You need to be a follower of Jesus Christ. God needs to be an active part of your life because I intend to raise our children under Biblical values.
-You need hobbies and interests apart from me. I'm fine with helping you find things you like.
-You need to have no mileage.
-You must be humble and respectful. "Boss babe" attitudes are not attractive to me.
-You cannot have any tattoos or piercings.
-No cosmetic products. It's not good for your body and I am attracted women, not makeup. This includes fake nails and fake eyelashes. I don't need you to look "pretty." You character is more important to me.
-Related to the previous, no use of image filters in photos. I do not like the type of people who are vain and vapid enough to feel the need to use filters on their photos.
-Again related to the previous, you need to have a limited social media presence. If you have a business or post something of value (like art, for example), then I have no problem. What I'm talking about is having an Instagram or Facebook account where you make random posts to nobody in particular to "update" the internet on your life or post tons of pictures of yourself online. Basing your self-worth on the comments and likes from strangers on the internet is unhealthy, and I find people's obsessive need to take pictures of themselves very unattractive and vain.
-If we marry, I expect you treat me as the head of the house. There can't be two leaders in a household because one will have to submit to the other.
-I expect you to view marriage as something that you put work into. Marriages are a team effort, so I expect you to be a help meet.
-You need to treat me like a partner, not an adversary. Getting into arguments and nagging me helps neither of us. You must have conflict-resolution skills and a solution mindset.
-You need excellent communication skills. This means understanding yourself, putting your thoughts into words other people can understand, and verbalizing things rather than expecting me to read your thoughts.
-You cannot play games with me. Telling me about other guys to make me jealous or planning dates for specific days to pressure me into committing to you are wicked and manipulative.
-While we are dating, you cannot have a "backup plan." I expect you to not be splitting your attention between me and other men. This includes spending time outside of work with other men (family excluded).
-You must be in shape. Don't be dishonest with yourself about your weight; check your BMI. This includes being underweight, anorexic, and bulimic.
-You cannot have taken any COVID-19 vaccinations from any provider.
-No smoking, drugs, or drunkenness.
-I expect you to completely renounce fast food if we date or marry. We will never feed our children McDonald's.
What you can expect from me:
-While we are dating, I will not be speaking to other women.
-I cannot meet your height, money, or attractiveness expectations. I am simply an average dude. I am critical, abstract, and imaginative in my thinking though.
-I will not ask you to do something that is unreasonable or demeaning. I will only ask of you what I expect from myself. No relationship is going to be 50/50 100% of the time, but I will put forth the effort I am able to. I expect the same out of you.
-I will not raise my hand against you. My hands will be a safe place for you.
-I will be available to listen to your troubles and help you bear through them.
-I will not demean you or humiliate you, whether or not you are in the room.
-I will show leadership in our house and exercise restraint with a mild temper.
-I will cherish you and treat you as my own body.
-I will devote myself to displaying my love for you in a language you understand, even if I am feeling distant from you because of troubles we face. I expect the same from you.
-I will not turn to another woman and betray you.
-I intend to keep every promise that I make with you.
-I will treat our children with patience and kindness, but diligently discipline them and instruct them appropriately.
Please tell me a bit about yourself and what you expect out of a relationship, but be practical and clear. A list of platitudes like "loyal, honest, etc" does not help me understand what you're looking for. Think about what your expectations look like in a tangible, everyday way.

Statement of the International Committee of the Fourth International

1. The International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI) condemns the latest escalation of the US-NATO war against Russia, which is rapidly spiraling into full-scale war between nuclear-armed states. This is the most reckless decision ever taken by any American government. As for its European allies, their collaboration in this escalation is rivaled in its recklessness only by their catastrophic launching of World War I in 1914 and World War II in 1939. There are no “red lines” that the US ruling class and its imperialist allies will not cross. Even as they politically support and provide weaponry for the Israeli state’s genocide of more than 35,000 Gazans, they are taking actions in Ukraine that could result in a nuclear catastrophe that could destroy all life on the planet. The global capitalist system, whose insoluble global crisis is the underlying cause of genocide and war, is descending into barbarism.
   
2. On Friday, US President Joe Biden secretly authorized Ukraine, without even a public statement explaining the reasons for his actions, to carry out strikes using American long-range weapons on Russian territory near the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv. This was followed immediately by the announcement by Germany that it will do the same. Within 24 hours, Ukraine has already launched strikes on Russia using US-provided weapons. The decision has been taken in response to the military collapse of its Ukrainian proxy force, including in and around Kharkiv.
   
3. The United States, Germany and the United Kingdom have provided Ukraine with cruise and ballistic missiles with ranges of more than 300 miles. When fired from Ukrainian territory, these weapons are capable of hitting some of the largest cities in Russia, including Kursk, Belgorod, Voronezh, Rostov and Volgograd.
   
4. Not since the Nazis’ “War of Annihilation” against the Soviet Union during the Second World War and, in the case of the US, the post-1917 Revolution Civil War, have the imperialist powers directly targeted Russian territory. Such actions were not taken even at the height of the Cold War, as it was assumed that they would trigger full-scale nuclear war.
   
5. The US media is full of declarations that Russia’s publicly stated, official military doctrine of using nuclear weapons to respond to attacks on its territory is a bluff. The argument is that since Russia has not responded to US provocations in the past, NATO can keep crossing Russia’s “red lines” without consequences. “Time to call Putin’s bluff,” declared former Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger in an article in CNN last week. Retired General Philip Breedlove, former Ambassador Michael McFaul, Stanford Professor Francis Fukuyama and dozens of former US officials wrote in a letter to the White House, “Russia’s demonstrably empty threats are successfully deterring the United States.”
   
6. The claim that Russia’s military doctrine is a “bluff” does not stand up to the most basic scrutiny. Just because the Russian government has not responded to NATO provocations in the past does not mean that it will not do so in the future. Could anyone doubt, for example, that if Russia or China decided to launch attacks on US territory and assert that the American government “wouldn’t dare” to respond, it would be inevitable that the US would counterattack with overwhelming force?
   
7. There are very real reasons, from a military standpoint, why the Russian military would feel compelled to respond in kind to NATO attacks on its territory. Moreover, who is to say that Putin, in the midst of the crisis triggered by the NATO escalation, would not be replaced by a faction that is even more prepared to use military measures to retaliate against NATO?
   
8. Assertions by US officials that the Russian military will not retaliate if attacked are so flimsy that it is likely that these claims are not believed by those making them, and the actual goal is to provoke some form of drastic military action by the Russian government, which will in turn be used to justify a nuclear retaliation by the US.
   
9. In his 2021 book, The Strategy of Denial, Elbridge Colby, author of the 2018 US National Security Strategy, explains how vital it is for US propaganda to force the targets of the US military to “fire the first shot” and thereby be seen as the aggressors:
   

Perhaps the clearest and sometimes the most important way of making sure [an adversary] is seen this way is simply by ensuring that it is the one to strike first. Few human moral intuitions are more deeply rooted than that the one who started it is the aggressor and accordingly the one who presumptively owns a greater share of moral responsibility.

1. The Biden administration has taken this action without even bothering to make a public statement announcing it. The New York Times wrote on May 29: “Officials concede [Biden] most likely will never announce [the move]: Instead, American artillery shells and missiles will just start landing on Russian military targets.” An earlier article in the Times stated that the US had not allowed the strikes because of “Mr. Biden’s mandate to ‘avoid World War III.’ But the consensus around that policy is fraying.” At no point has the Biden administration explained why what is involved in Ukraine is of such monumental significance that it is prepared to risk a potentially civilization-ending nuclear war.
   
2. The NATO powers are playing Russian roulette with nuclear weapons. They are plunging headlong into war, without even suggesting the possibility of a negotiated settlement or an “off-ramp” to their brinkmanship.
   
3. The latest actions follow a definite pattern. Again and again, the Biden administration has crossed every “red line” it set out to limit US involvement in the war. In March 2022, Biden asserted, “The idea that we’re going to send in offensive equipment and have planes and tanks and trains going in with American pilots and American crews” would mean “World War Three.” In May 2022, Biden stated in an op-ed in the New York Times, “We are not encouraging or enabling Ukraine to strike beyond its borders.” In June 2022, French President Emmanuel Macron declared, “We will not go to war with Russia, therefore it was agreed not to supply certain weapons—in particular, attack aircraft or tanks.”
   
4. All of these “red lines” have been crossed by NATO. First, NATO sent armored vehicles, then main battle tanks, and then long-range missiles. NATO members then secretly deployed hundreds of troops inside Ukraine, all without informing their own citizens. After having declared that direct US involvement in the war in Ukraine would lead to “World War III” and “Armageddon,” Biden appears to have changed his mind, without ever having explained what led him to do so.
   
5. There is no question that the next step in the intensification of the war against Russia will be the introduction of tens of thousands of NATO forces into Ukraine. This further escalation will certainly be the subject of secret discussions at the upcoming NATO summit in Washington, D.C. in July. Snap elections in the UK have been called for July 4, in advance of the summit, to preempt growing opposition to war and create the political framework for a new stage in a European-wide war.
   
6. The escalation of the war in Ukraine, spearheaded by the Biden administration, is the most extreme manifestation of the decades-long global eruption of US imperialism in the aftermath of the dissolution of the Soviet Union. In pursuit of their interests, the ruling elites are prepared to accept death and destruction on a massive scale. The same governments are funding, arming and politically supporting the Gaza genocide, which has already killed tens of thousands and is subjecting an entire population of over 2 million to starvation.
   
7. The subjugation of Russia is part of a broader global agenda aiming for not only the carve-up and subjugation of the former Soviet Union but ultimately China. The punitive sanctions that were meant to cripple Russia economically have failed to bring it to its knees largely because of large increases in trade with China and to a lesser extent arms from Iran and North Korea. The escalation against Russia therefore will entail a morphing of the conflict in Ukraine into a truly global war.
   
8. In addition to the geopolitical imperatives of imperialism, the Biden administration is driven by a far-reaching social, economic and political crisis for which the American ruling class has no answer. The US economy is sustained through rampant government spending on military rearmament and continuous bailouts of major corporations. The federal debt is doubling every decade and is being financed through currency debasement and debt monetization.
   
9. This is taking place in the context of a staggering political crisis and factional warfare in advance of the 2024 presidential elections. Donald Trump, the presumptive candidate for the Republican Party who is currently leading in polls, attempted to overturn the election in a fascistic coup three and a half years ago. There is broad popular opposition to both capitalist parties, amidst a deep social crisis and growing anger and outrage over the US-backing of Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
   
10. Similar conditions prevail in all the major capitalist countries. The ruling elites hope that war abroad will create conditions for the suppression of democratic rights in the name of war-time “national unity”. This atmosphere of crisis is breeding the resurgence of vile militarism and a type of internal violence that was previously associated only with fascistic regimes and military-police dictatorships.
    
11. For its part, the Putin regime has made miscalculation after miscalculation. There has never been anything remotely progressive in the “Special Military Operation” launched by the Kremlin in the interests of the venal Russian capitalist oligarchs who rose to power on the basis of the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the privatization and plundering of the state assets nationalized in the aftermath of the 1917 October Revolution.
    
12. Putin launched the reactionary invasion of Ukraine in 2022 hoping to negotiate with his Western “partners” from a position of strength. But NATO has shown that it is completely uninterested in negotiation: The only outcome of the war acceptable to NATO is the military defeat of Russia and the carve-up of the Russian landmass in the manner of Yugoslavia. Based on its bankrupt nationalist perspective, the Putin government and the faction of the Russian oligarchy it represents are driven to ever more reckless and provocative military escalation of its own.
    
13. The global escalation of imperialist war is coupled with mass repression. In the United States, the government has criminalized protests against the Gaza genocide and carried out mass arrests of thousands of students and young people. The violence inflicted on the protests reflects the fear of the ruling elites of a broader movement in the working class, which will be forced to pay for the war in lives and the destruction of social programs.
    
14. In Ukraine, amid mounting opposition to the war and resistance to the draft, the Zelensky government has arrested the Ukrainian socialist Bogdan Syrotiuk on fraudulent charges of serving the interests of Russia. In fact, Bogdan is an intransigent opponent of the capitalist Putin regime and its invasion of Ukraine. The arrest of Bogdan reveals the extreme nervousness within the Zelensky regime and its NATO allies that opposition to the war is finding a growing response within the Ukrainian working class.
    
15. Ten years ago, in its statement, “Socialism and the Fight Against Imperialist War,” the ICFI warned:
    

1. The past decade has confirmed this warning. Amidst the escalating open US-NATO war against Russia and the developing conflict with China, it is impossible to see world war as an exceptional event, but rather the expression of the basic driving forces of capitalism.
   
2. The same contradictions driving imperialism to the brink of nuclear war provide the objective basis for social revolution. The international working class is a massive social force, whose interests collide with capitalist exploitation and imperialist barbarism. The conspiratorial character of imperialist war planning reflects the fact that the ruling class itself is well aware that its policies do not have mass support.
   
3. Despite mass protests against the Gaza genocide, broader sections of the population are unaware of the rapidly escalating war with Russia. The ruling elites and their political affiliates, including the apparatus of the trade unions, are engaged in a systematic effort to prevent workers from understanding the gravity of the danger while subordinating the working class to imperialist war policy.
   
4. There is only one way that the spiral toward disaster can be avoided, and that is through the intervention of the working class to force an end to this war. This demand must be combined with a struggle to end Israel’s genocidal onslaught against Gaza. Workers must demand the immediate withdrawal of all US and NATO forces and weapons from Ukraine. It must likewise refuse all support for the reactionary nationalist policies of the Putin regime, which in no way represents a progressive alternative to the war policies of the imperialist powers.
   
5. The working class must use its power to stop this war, which is plummeting toward disaster. The mobilization of this power requires overcoming the gap between the advanced stage of the global political crisis and the present level of mass political consciousness. This solving of this historic problem requires the development of a Marxist-Trotskyist leadership and the revolutionary renewal of the international workers’ movement on the basis of socialist policies.
   
6. The International Committee of the Fourth International calls for the unity of workers in Russia, Ukraine, and all of the former Soviet Union with their brothers and sisters in Europe, Asia, and America in opposition to the capitalist system that is the root cause of war. The only way out of the unfolding disaster is though the struggle against capitalism and the victory of world socialist revolution.
   

A group of traveling college students were leading a Renaissance Fair in Central Park right when the Vanishing happened. They wanted an elaborate event to shock the audience with medieval fun. Numbering around 120, most were just regular actors who liked to perform. After the Vanishing, however, the most dedicated of the theater nerds vowed to bring their thespian skills to the entire world.
Why did they want this? Well, the Vanishing severely damaged the existing religious institutions. None of them had perfectly accurate reasons for the Vanishing. So, more esoteric and specific beliefs were created after the fact. One belief was created by these theater students; they took the phrase “all the world’s a stage” as literally as possible. They believed that there was a supernatural “director” who wrote the Vanishing to happen, and to satisfy the director’s wishes, they needed to act.
The theater students pretended to be the characters they acted out in their play. Soon, the rest of the actors, the workers, and even a large number of guests began to blend acting and reality. This led to some shenanigans in the first few months, when everything was still chaotic.. For example, a guy and a girl who played a couple in the play fell in love with each other in real life… which made the guy’s actual boyfriend extremely mad. Nevertheless, after they regrouped, the group, led by lead actor Tobias Swilie (better known as Prince Vespitan of Sylvania) marched for 4 days to form a community near the former Scranton, Pennsylvania. According to legends, Tobias chose the location because of geographic reasons, with him saying that “it was close to New York City and had valuable resources”.
They called it the Royal Shire of Sylvania, named after the fictional setting in the fair. The community would eventually become a burgeoning town by the leadership of Vespitan. Thanks to its abundant natural resources, convenient location, and calm weather, Sylvania wasn’t a terrible place to live. They were one of the first groups to use Vanishing calendar (simply the years since the Vanishing happened) instead of the existing Anno Domini calendar.
In Year 2 of the Vanishing Age (2030 AD), US Provisional Government forces made yet another bargain, this time with the people of Sylvania. Somehow, Hugh Desmond’s strange strategy was working out. Sylvania’s borders would be heavily restricted and not allowed to expand west, and they would receive a large bundle of food, seeds, and livestock. Vespitan took it, knowing that the non-domesticated crops were not helping his people.
Vespitan died in Year 21 (2049 AD). His son, Wespitan, was only a teenager at this point, but the citizens looked to him for his charismatic acting. They had fully ‘committed to the bit’, as Sylvania was home to traditional fantasy architecture. There was a loremaster who made sure new buildings and laws abided to the setting. “This place seems nothing more than a strange cult, but it’s a nice community and a shining example of the new people’s hardiness,” said a New York passerby.
Sylvania was formally neutral in the clash between the USPG and Minutemen, which frustrated the former, as they liked the strategic position of the town. Finally, in year 42 of the Vanishing Age (2070 AD), the USPG had enough and marched to the town, claiming it for itself. The Sylvanians had no formal military force, so they had no choice but to leave. Here is a short transcript of the dialogue between USPG forces and Vespitan.
“We have heard about this ‘Minutemen’ force, but we do not care about your conflicts. The story of Sylvania will not end here!”
The brave Wespitan led thousands of Sylvanians on a weeks long journey back to Lake Erie, where they boarded a boat and traveled across the Great Lakes. They planned to settle on the former Duluth, but a nuclear engineer named Vincente Bernard (better known as the reliable mentor Bernthos) informed Wespitan of a nuclear power plant on Prairie Island. Supposedly, the nuclear engineers had fully shut it down right after the Vanishing happened. The power plant was just sitting there dormant for years. Wespitan agreed, and after some difficulties, the Prairie Island Nuclear Plant became operational. Bernthos would not see it though. Like all mentors, they would die soon after.
Many small lake islands had survived. The further they explored, the more they realized the strange extent of the Vanishing. Around half a dozen stragglers were left, but most had died or abandoned the region. Even still, by the year 100 of the Vanishing Age (2128 AD), Sylva-City is a beacon of hope and energy along the dark, isolated Midwest. The people still play personas and act, just in a more futuristic and sci-fi setting. The government system is similar to a democracy, where the people elect a Captain; the most recent one is Captain Yuri. There’s also rumors of a secret fantasy school in the underground parts of Sylva-City that teaches people electrical science.
There were many neighboring settlements founded along the Great Lakes, especially Lake Michigan. These so-called ‘Tribes of Lake Michigan’ were often viewed as cultish, with fringe movements accompanying them. This included Christian environmentalists, Black Israelites, Scientologists, the Nation of Islam, Latter-Day Saints, Wiccans, and another group that will be covered later.
Eventually, the successor state to the US Provisional Government knocked on the door of Lake Michigan again. It was inevitable; the government was still trying to follow Hugh Desmond’s ideology of restoring the image of the old United States. It would affect Sylva-City in a unique way, but that will be discussed in a later time.