Authenticity's Triumph

Note: Other than for illustrative purposes, no LLMs were used in the creation of this content. All opinions, typos, em dashes, and uses of negative framing in this artisanal, hand-crafted content are my own.There is a battle underway between those of us who produce value by beautifying, improving, and mending our frayed world and those who seek to collect and hoard the fruits of our labor by fueling endless conflict as a means toward endless revenue. More recently, this battle has evolved through the proliferation of large language models (LLMs), which offer a simulacrum of human communication and creativity in the name of economic growth and efficiency.When technology automates the creation of a single product, higher-quality, carefully crafted versions of that product become rare, coveted, and even command a higher price. For example, original paintings are worth more than prints. What happens, though, when a technology emerges that promises to automate the creation of everything? An increased scarcity of creativity and originality emerges. I believe a New Renaissance has already started, built upon the rediscovery and appreciation of human, non-LLM ingenuity.Part 1: Here Be DragonsThere is no more suitable metaphor for those addicted to wealth accumulation than the dragons of fantasy, creatures possessed by a constant need for more, equally feared and worshipped by fools through cartoonish acts of loyalty and exaltation, in earnings calls and cabinet meetings alike.drag'on (dra-gən), noun 1. something or someone formidable or baneful 2. A real "drag on" society. 3. Billionaires/trillionaires/the wealthy.human (hyü-mən), noun 1. of, relating to, or characteristic of humans 2. One possessing humanity. 3. The rest of us.Psychologically mangled, dragons are drawn to seizing and holding power as a means to one end: the acquisition, preservation, and growth of their hoards. Incapable of acts of pure humanity and altruism, they're delighted to borrow against ours, while placating us with a myth: that they're benevolent creatures, divinely chosen to create opportunity, jobs, and capital that would have never existed otherwise.As healthcare and housing costs have ballooned against rising tides of inflation and climate change, the wealthy have enjoyed the high ground, perched upon hundreds of thousands of human lifetimes' worth of riches, grown through the privatization of everything, including government. Our melting pot boiled slowly, but steadily: pensions replaced with 401(k)s to fund their enterprises, and strong unions, built on decades of sacrifice, smeared and eroded in favor of the tagline: "taking advantage of a divided workforce working directly with employees." While private equity funds have grown exponentially, wages have stagnated through a series of "tough economic times" where the idea that "we're all in this together" is repeated ad nauseam. Our offensively convoluted healthcare and immigration systems have been transformed into systemic methods of indentured servitude.Trillions of dollars have been poured into a gradual rebranding of public services as "socialism," and with the extreme privatization that has followed, we have ceded control of society's foundations to the wealthy.They say to us:"Your retirement, if it comes, will be financially stable only if you give us all of your productive years as tribute and risk your retirement capital by investing in companies we own and operate. If you dare even muse about forming alliances with other peasants, your employment prospects will suffer, or perhaps be eliminated. You will not be paid more to sustain the cost of your existence, and if you defy us, you will be abandoned without sustainably affordable healthcare—you and your loved ones, children included, children especially, will endure the challenges of life, because we've privatized your safety net."Cold-blooded, indeed.We're On A Road To NowhereOn October 20, 2024, almost two weeks before a national election, the crack PR team for a self-proclaimed paragon of masculinity we'll call the "McDragon" would conveniently descend upon a swing county in a swing state to pose as a member of the proletariat in an act of political theater. A small, bewitched group of some of our very own cheered the McDragon on as if under a spell that had convinced them it was one of us. Some of them went so far as to participate in the charade, prescreened to obediently and cheerfully fetch their favorite delicacy, overdone red meat, from the swollen grip of the world's premier purveyor of it.There it stood, nestled safely within a cloister of stainless steel provided by an "independent" franchisee (who, in turn, shielded his parent company within a cloister of plausible deniability). It must have been charmed by a button that produces Diet Coke faster than a Navy petty officer on standby, because from the depths of its aging gullet emerged an utterance that sounded vaguely human:"I could do this all day."Its physical limitations defied its words, however, and interacting with humans while standing upon two hind legs for an extended period of time proved untenable: it could only manage to sustain its spell for less than half the duration of an episode of early-2000s reality TV. Nevertheless, the event symbolized the perfect pairing of two corporate-backed behemoths, both lacking any redeemable qualities, both toxic to their most loyal customers, and both notorious for conveniently forgetting to pay their debts.The life of a billionaire is so different than yours or mine that they may as well be aliens visiting from another world, trying to imitate humanity's customs. I could not help but ask myself: What good does a performative stunt like this among peasants serve? Billionaires seem more than willing to ignore and defy logic as a means to justify and maintain their position in the class hierarchy, of which they are ferociously territorial. In this instance, the McDragon could not stomach that its carefully manufactured credibility as a champion of the working class had been trumped when an emergent challenger, who dared to be born both female and a minority, authentically claimed she'd worked at the same establishment earlier in her life.Ever dependent on acts of mockery, the McDragon sought to cheapen that lived experience and, ideally, to frame it as an outright lie in the susceptible minds of its most devout followers. For a political movement built entirely upon a spirit of spite, the lifted shoe fit snugly.Let's be clear: To be both a billionaire and an outsider challenging the mainstream establishment is a logical impossibility in modern America. While they aren't the establishment, their financial influence over it has effectively allowed them to manipulate it by proxy for decades. Taking this a step further and giving a billionaire claiming to be an outsider control over the establishment simply merges power and money into a corrupt singularity, accountable to nobody.Two weeks after this event, despite ominous warning signs and a disgraceful prior act rife with isolation, death, and insurrection, America again chose that dark path.Come On InsideOn January 21, 2025, the McDragon ended Russia's invasion of Ukraine opened the gates of America's so-called "shining city on a hill" for what can best be described as a white-collar crime spree.Its cabinet, as if expressly crafted to flood cable news with controversy, has repeatedly opted to shun the most important issues of our time and instead deployed culture war chaff—bread and circuses, mostly circuses—while supporting overtly nonsensical side quests (in order of trashiness):archesreflecting poolsan oddly symbolic demolition of half of The People's House to make way for a Bacchanalian ballroom and bunkercryptocurrency schemesIndyCar raceslawn fightsnew wars, allowing for the manipulation of global energy market prices and insider tradingfunding, pandering to, and providing blanket support to an army of domestic foot soldiers to secure their ill-gotten gains indefinitelyThe squatters inhabiting America's federal government are behaving like children who just inherited a trust fund and a nuclear cudgel. They wield unearned clout in hand and make demands domestically and internationally without any regard for the future because most of them are so old, they won't be here to experience the fallout from their misadventures. The McKinsey-fication of America (and the world) is at hand. A caravan of grifters has swarmed the federal government in the McDragon's wake, enabling the delusion and being paid handsomely for it, just as they’ve done in corporate boardrooms for decades.Battle Tank of the PlutocracyOne of the McDragon's many gimmicks is to tout that it doesn't accept a salary. This is because it is willing to clear a legal path for the ultrawealthy in exchange for payment, tribute, or both.There's a story here: Though born with a silver spoon in its mouth, the McDragon is notoriously boorish and vulgar. It may have convinced some of the peasantry, but the "serious businessman" image it cultivated never really landed among the wealthy. No amount of wealth could buy it grace and class. It seemed cursed to be an outsider among the wealthy. That is, until the other billionaires realized that its desperation to be respected, loved, or feared, made it a very effective lightning rod, for sale to the highest bidder or the most flattering voice in the room. With a past dirtier than any imagined smear and a track record of capitalizing on the slowness of a bureaucratic judicial system, it shamelessly ignores and absorbs critique that other billionaires cannot. It does this while capitalizing on the populist anger of the working class and posing as their champion to win their affection. They realized they could roll back decades of hard-earned regulation and legislation, and their McDragon would happily capture all the attention, blame, and adoration for it.Every effort to