Fending off Severance and Other Things

“They say that patriotism is the last refuge

To which a scoundrel clings

Steal a little and they throw you in jail

Steal a lot and they make you king”

― Bob Dylan

I have this need - lets call it a compulsion - to wildly dig into whatever I can find for the ultimate goal of finding out where, be it in the long arc of humanity, personally/spiritually, or, more presently, an ongoing coup, where the fuck I am time. The source of this pressure, I think, is half curiosity (maybe it would give me some bigger answers to questions about humanity) and half security or direction about where, if there is a where, to go next. This last one is especially important because I remember when I was an actor back in Chicago, drowning in student debt, poor as a boot, and eating tin of cans of tuna praying for my mother’s monthly stipend to hit so I could pay rent (and drink beer), the only thing that would have maybe made that time better is some kind of mentor for stage direction. That though, is on me. I should have done that. Mentors don’t just fall out of the fucking sky.

Yes, yes, I know your true art and voice are found in the days of being lost (so you can find yourself…puke) but shit man, it would have been helpful to have a hand. But maybe, the lack of direction, the lack of “a hand,” was the answer I didn’t want to hear at the time, that I should - stop acting and get the hell out.

Which is exactly what I did and, as they say, the rest is history. Now, to bring it all back to today, I’m sure some of you have been hearing about the tragic plane crash, President Trump’s plans to sign an executive order to get ride of the Department of Education (he can’t…it’s…illegal), Musk’s ketamine induced mania over at the Treasury, President Trump’s comments on Gaza and sending US troops to establish the Riviera of the Middle East, and lastly (but definitely not least-ly) the immigrants being shipped off to Guantanmo Bay. ICE, according to CBS News, has “…ramped up immigration operations across the country under Mr. Trump, averaging between 800 and 1,000 daily arrests in the past week — up from the 312 average in former President Joe Biden's final year in office.” That’s a lot of news…like, a lot a lot and I’m sure I’m missing many, many other things. But the point of listing all that out is to quickly touch on a term/concept that gave me some insight and context about where we may be as society teeters and the country appears to be hanging onto freaking life. And that term is—Anakyklosis.

This newsletter includes:

Analyzing the Political Concept of ANACYCLOSIS

AI Slush in Libraries (and why it’s a very bad thing)

How Do You Sever?

Analyzing the Political Concept of Anakyklosis

Anacyclosis, an ancient Greek socio-political theory that explains how governments evolve through predictable cycles of regime types, is a "unified theory" written and theorized way back when by the historian Polybius (lived from around 208 BC to 118 BC). Plato and Aristotle also described its aspects. Polybius laid out the six stages of government almost like a script (see above), and unfortunately, it very much feels like we have been dancing the fine line of Democracy/Oligarchy and heading, quite hastily, towards Ochlokratia (Mob Rule – Corrupt). Ochlokratia is generally laid out as the stage after Democracy descends into chaos, manipulated by demagogues and misinformation (eerily familiar, no?), leading to collapse and the rise of a new monarchy. Polybius's goal, in my view, was to essentially show the public what had happened before and how it happened, hopefully (though it feels like he felt it was ultimately inevitable) preventing it from happening again. Polybius also refers to this cyclical theory of political evolution and decay in an almost a natural way, like a flower growing from a seed, budding into something beautiful, only to die and wither so to return to the earth and be born again.

I want to say that just because these cycles happened in the past this way, does not 100% mean they will happen the same way in the future. Feeling that way, living that way - for me at least - makes it impossible (?) to exist in a world that has no agency, no freedom, which is exactly what the present powers at be want: submission. The path of least resistance is what they strive for. Why? It is the easiest way for them to seize total control to then direct where they believe the world should go, exactly what hundreds, thousands, and millions have done before. And yes, seeing an image like the one above, is scary but it also tells the viewer what happens when one doesn’t resist and fight at the stage I believe we are headed towards. Every time and its people, especially now, have the ability to become aware, see what is happening in front of them, and change strive to change their present reality for a better future.

And there is no question what we are seeing from President Trump and the Republican Party is an unrelenting storm of appeals to fears, prejudices, and emotions. There is no doubt that what Elon Musk is doing (with the support of Joe Rogan, etc.) is illegal. There is no debate about the panic we are feeling as the Senate on Thursday confirmed Russell Vought, a key architect of Project 2025, to now lead the White House Office of Management and Budget (the largest component of the Executive Office of the President, serving to implement the President's vision across the Executive Branch) and its implications. And there is no question hopelessness, exhaustion, and a desire to turn to a monarchy (the stage after Mob Rule ends up killing each other off for the top stop) will arise. These things are happening. They are very real, and they are, at least right now, all of our lives now whether we choose to believe it or not. But as I said before, what was, does not have to be if the many wills it.

AI Slush in Libraries (and why it’s a very bad thing)

There was a great piece in 404 media I came across the other day about AI-generated ebooks in public libraries which, being a creative writer and dabbling in poetry but not yet lucky enough to have any work in a public library, I got a little freaked out. They are already trying to replace people writers in there? I wondered. Even before I get in there??? Libraries, since forever have always always always been filled with the works of human beings (as far as I know at least) so to share universal stories, information, etc. for anybody and everybody to find, view, take home, read, and become better than they were before. So, reading that Ai-generated content was sneaking its way into the shelves felt almost blasphemous…dare I say, criminal? Reading and absorbing a book in solitude, focused and away from your phone, social media, and other harvesting sites for your information is an art. But it should also be noted reading itself is in transition (55% of Gen Z read at least once a week, with 40% reading every day), so on the other hand, it sadly made sense to me that this technology, like every technology that has come before it, would make its way into the library someday.

Yet, not in this way, right?

Not in a text that has no lived experience or frame of reference or something new to say (I know, I know, every story has already been told already, relax). Reading, to me, is a holy activity, and a metaphor for life itself. It’s how you can gain knowledge (or unearth depending on how you look at it), but with most AI-generated work, it’s not necessarily creating anything new, as it operates by analyzing and recombining existing information rather than creating truly original content. Why? It’s not conscious…yet. The “work” is like a re-packaged “literary” tin of Spam. Emanuel Maiberg, the other of the piece, writes in his opening:

Low quality books that appear to be AI generated are making their way into public libraries via their digital catalogs, forcing librarians who are already understaffed to either sort through a functionally infinite number of books to determine what is written by humans and what is generated by AI, or to spend taxpayer dollars to provide patrons with information they don’t realize is AI-generated.

Insane, truly, which then made me realize I have no idea how libraries work. These AI-generated slop books, written, I assume, by a human being, are doing this for…money. I would never in a million years think of doing this, but it seems like it's becoming more of an issue with much broader implications. Consider the origins of these models' data, keep in mind who is responsible for their training (Big Tech companies), and, finally, ask yourself: what is their primary objective or ultimate aim? It's subtle, but the whole process can get very nefarious very quickly, especially when you consider how social media platforms like X lately feel and look like it's gone off the rails yet are considered - for some - "the truth."

How Do You Sever?

Severance, an American science fiction psychological thriller television series created by American television screenwriter, show runner, and producer Dan Erickson, and executive produced and primarily directed by Ben Stiller, is one of those shows that you can’t help but watch because it shows you aspects of yourself that you didn’t know existed or at least, weren’t entirely aware. At its core, Severance is about the myriad of ways humans manage their very workable consciousness, perhaps kaleidoscopic or not-so kaleidoscopic identities, and wrestle with the necessary relationship between work and personal life to exist in the modern world. It's quite a lot, and the show, expertly supported by the large and versatile cast of Adam Scott, Zach Cherry, Britt Lower, Tramell Tillman, Jen Tullock, Dichen Lachman, Michael Chernus, John Turturro, Christopher Walken, and Patricia Arquette navigates the show's tonal shifts like a true, in this case blue and green ensemble, moving effortlessly between surrealism, comedy, and drama. All this, naturally, made me look at my own life and examine all the ways that I sever from reality which can be pretty tough sometimes. I don’t want to point out all the ways I disassociate (there is a lot) but more so the fact that it’s done at all and, to circle back at the top of this post, how dangerous that can be. Mind you, this isn’t to point the finger at anyone for “not doing enough” because goddamn, everyone is just trying to live their lives. This is really an effort to connect the spotty dots and reveal that many seemingly "positive" advancements in technology, social media, and "fun" tech tools designed and pitched to optimize and simplify life are actually drawing us further into systems that most Americans are entirely unaware of; systems that, in every sense of the word, are creating a "severance" without us even knowing it.

This, my friends, is in itself why I think the show Severance, which by definition is “a noun that means the act of ending a connection or relationship, or the state of being separated from someone or something” hit so many people so freaking hard. Really, all this is a plea to remember that human progress and life's foundation are based on the desire for knowledge and curiosity to grow and make the world better for the next one's up. It feels, right now, we've lost that plot but if we can un-sever ourselves, throw some cold water on our faces, and wake up to the present, I think achieving this, if it's in the end truly achievable at all, first requires an understanding of one's surroundings to discover and connect to one's aspirations to move forward unified, rather than splintered.

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