Political Questionnaire: Are You a Joe Kopsick Voter? #2

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Questionnaire created and published on May 12th, 2020

Updated (guns question edited) on August 27th, 2020

Political Questionnaire: Are You a Joe Kopsick Voter? #1

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Designed and Published on May 11th, 2020
Edited on May 13th, 2020

Based on Notes from a March 7th, 2020 post titled

"Trump vs. Biden vs. Bernie Sanders vs. Joe Kopsick on the Issues"

which can be viewed at the following link:

http://aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2020/03/trump-and-biden-vs-bernie-sanders-vs.html

Trump and Biden vs. Bernie Sanders vs. Joe Kopsick on the Issues

This image has been augmented;

the original image showed only Biden and Trump vs. Sanders.

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Links to All Articles Regarding Spiritual Financial Advice

     The articles found below were published in Issues magazine between July 2017 and October 2018. The first ten articles were published in my third book, Time Money Moon Value: Financial Advice for Shamans, under my real name, Joseph W. Kopsick.

     The other five articles have not been published in any book. Topics discussed in those articles include spiritual financial advice, and the election of myself (using the pseudonyms Jack Sampson and A. Non-Imus) to the spiritual and financial leadership of the Order of Celestial Integration, (which was previously headed by the prophet J.C. Meyers).

     These articles are works of satire, but they are also meant to reveal hidden truths about the relationship of superstition and apophenia to the studies of economics and monetary matters.

     Readers feeling left empty-handed after reading the final article in this list, and hoping to look deeper into the topics at hand, should study the "temple economy", as well as the features and characteristics of the rock in the Dome of the Rock, for more information.

     [Caution: The final five articles in this list were written while a cult was trying to brainwash me into being a fictional cult leader named Jack Sampson.]

1. "Yes, That Inanimate Object is Mocking You, and Here's Why:
     a Guide for Schizophrenics Trying to Get into Chaos Magick" (June 2017)
http://aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2017/06/yes-that-inanimate-object-is-mocking.html

2. "Investment Advice for Lunatics:
     Using Sigil Magick to Risk Nothing for Everything" (July 2017)
http://aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2017/07/investment-advice-for-lunatics-using.html

3. "Currency Wars:
     How to Game the System" (August 2017)
http://aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2017/08/currency-wars-how-to-game-system.html

4. "Why Yap Island Stone Coins Tanked on Friday" (September 2017)
http://aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2017/09/why-yap-island-stone-coins-tanked-on.html

5. "Shut Yer Yap:
     How to Starve Yourself Rich" (A Numismatic Exorcism) (October 2017)
http://aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2017/10/shut-yer-yap-how-to-starve-yourself.html

6. "Using Schizophrenia as a Powerful Creative and Introspective Tool" (November 2017)
http://aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2017/11/using-schizophrenia-as-powerful.html

7. "Crafting and Charging Your Sigil-Currency:
     How to Put Your Money to Work for You" (January 2018)
http://aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2018/01/crafting-and-charging-your-sigil.html

8. "Coping with a Faith-Based Currency:
     a Guide for the Uninitiated" (March 2018)
http://aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2018/03/coping-with-faith-based-currency-guide.html

9. "Appreciating Your Possessions:
     Extending Faith Through Extending Credit" (April 2018)
http://aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2018/04/appreciating-your-possessions-extending.html

10. "The Shibbolethic Talisman" (May 2018)
http://aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2018/05/the-shibbolethic-talisman.html

11. "How to Know God Through Investing in Memes", by Jack Sampson (August 2018)
http://aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2018/08/how-to-know-god-through-investing-in.html

12. "Jack for the Order:
     Independence from Meyers", by Jack Sampson (August 2018)
           Abbreviated Version (for publication in print):
http://aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2018/08/jack-for-order-independence-from-meyers_28.html
           Full Version:
http://aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2018/08/jack-for-order-independence-from-meyers.html

13. "I Hereby Retract My Identity", by A. Non-Imus (August 2018)
http://aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2018/08/i-hereby-retract-my-identity-by-non-imus.html

14. "Why I'm Right That the World Wouldn't Have Ended", by Jack Sampson (August 2018)
http://aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2018/08/why-im-right-that-world-wouldnt-have.html

15. "Ascetic Austerity:
     Demurrage is the Demiurge", by Jack Sampson (September 2018)
http://aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2018/09/ascetic-austerity-demurrage-is-demiurge.html

     Copies of Time Money Moon Value can be purchased directly from me for $12 ($10 plus shipping). Please email me at jwkopsick@gmail.com to request your copy! Ten copies are still available.
     My other books - two collections of my best essays from before 2017, titled Libertarian Conspiracy Theories and Soft Communism for 90's Kids - can be purchased by following this link, and clicking the links embedded within the page:
     http://aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2017/05/two-collections-of-essays-now-available.html

Post-Script:
     Articles #11-15 are the only articles I have written, and the only articles I ever will write, under the name of Jack Sampson or A. Non-Imus. Any and all other articles attributed to Jack Sampson, should be assumed to have been written by the staff of Issues magazine.

Links Compiled on November 21st, 2018

Introduction Written on November 21st, 2018

This Blog Entry Originally Published on November 21st, 2018

Post-Script Added on December 13th, 2018

Edited on December 19th, 2018 and February 28th, 2021

Imaged Added on December 20th, 2018

Edited on August 3rd, 2021 and

September 26th, 2021

Why I'm Right That the World Wouldn't Have Ended, by Jack Sampson

               The silent echo of J.C. Meyers says it all. This betrayal is none of her concern, though!

            But have no fear; It Is I, YHWHoever I Am, cum to save the day... with the only things that have ever solved mortal problems: guilt-tripping, shame, and humiliation. And so, en garde; have at you!

            Sure, some will say “we should have seen this coming” - and by “this”, I mean what could only be termed “Meyersgate” - but that is not the Nature of the backrophcy! Remember: Miracle first, prediction afterwards! The Event can only be made sense of after it has come to pass, in Light of the old prophecies which the Event fulfills, and in Light of the symbolism which they reveal.

            So, sure; others will say “we should have seen this coming”, but guess who did not see this coming. Me, Jack Sampson. ...Oh, you don't know Jack? Well, to make a long story short, the world couldn't have ended, because of one simple fact: the world wasn't booked for the 11 o'clock slot. “All the world's a stage”, but a world that isn't booked can't close.

            Therefore, ergo, ipso facto... fuck J.C. Meyers. This pauper of a pastor has led this flock too far, and it's a waka flocka shame.

            Misleading the Order of Celestial Integration, and all its members, into believing that her skills at numerological magickianing surpass those of Emperor Ryan and myself!? I, the author of Time, Money, Moon, Value!: Financial Advice for Shamans, and Ryan, He who loved the number 666 (His only Son) so much that He gave it to us for half-price? Shameful.

            Not only did J.C. Meyers mislead us into believing that God had chosen the wholly manmade construct of Midnight at Eastern Daylight Savings Time, but also that He had chosen Meyers, of all people, to convey this Message! Normally this would be laughable, but alas, here we are.

            Aside from Pastor Meyers's theological and gematriarchal hubris – and the, admittedly, relatively minor side-note that the world did not technically end (at least not yet) – neither Meyers nor her God ever gave us a lick of warning or advice about how to deal with the potential panic that this End Times prophecy, true or untrue, was bound to cause.

            Why, just a moment after Midnight, I myself wondered whether the world had ended, and I'd been transported to Hell. For all around me were the cries and gnashing of teeth that you'd expect to hear in Hades; wails like “Oh man, I'm not gonna die!? Now I have to kill myself!”

            What horror, to think of what would happen had that lowly concertgoer known that the world would continue. How many lamentable moments of suffering could have been avoided, if only he'd have had the information, and could have taken his life all the sooner!

            Take this as hyperbole if you will. But there is no greater suffering than knowing that the religious leader of the apocalyptic doomsday cult – the cult that you trusted with your heart and your soul and your economic units - is just another Alex Jones -type conspiracy theorist who tells people to head for the hills because it's Y2K. Haven't We the People had enough of that crap already?

            And yeah: “What if a panic ensued”. Sure. But think about this: “What if one hadn't!?” I mean, it's one thing if the guests at your festival are demanding their economic units back for the world not ending, but it's another if they're trying to figure out why even a D.I.Y. outsider music fest that failed to bring forth an apocalypse, should lack havoc and bloodshed altogether. I know, it's bullshit!

            Well, by the power of Bill Cooper, I shame Meyers for her misdeeds. I hereby invoke an anarchist grand jury, call for special elections, and challenge Meyers for the title of spiritual leader of the Order. I additionally challenge J.C. Meyers for the title of J.C. Meyers. Shame! Shame! Shame!

            J.C. Meyers is dead; you all saw it with your own eyes. Thus, the avatar of Meyers hangs from the roof of this chapel like a cocoon, or stands at the pulpit like an empty suit: just begging for someone new to come into it, and assume its form. I repeat: J.C. Meyers is dead! Undead, undead, undead.

            Just the same, the Spirit of Jack is bustling in its chalice, overflowing, as it cannot be contained by (nor within) any one person nor persona. Moreover, Sri Meyers has extended an invitation, calling for more prophets. And so, I volunteer. Long live J.C. Meyers!

            My coming will herald a new era of transparency; a new Day in the accountability, and solvency of the Order. I will commit to using crypto-numerological magick to accurately back-tell miraculous and fortuitous events, while prohibiting its use for evil purposes, such as weaponization and accounting.

            Now let's put it all together: J.C. Meyers is dead, long live J.C. Meyers!

            I urge Meyers to step down; in order to end her shame as quickly as possible, and in order to immediately restore dignity to the Order..

            J.C. Meyers will fall; it's not a question of whether, it's a question of when. On this day, we proclaim: “No Masters But Meyers”.

            Ave Order. Ave Self. Ave Nostra.

            It seems I was right all along.

Written between July 16th and 18th, 2018

Originally Published in the August 2018 Issue of Issues Magazine

First Published to This Blog on August 28th, 2018

The Evolution of the Political Spectrum

      The idea that Democrats represent the Left and Republicans represent the Right is even more ridiculous than the idea that the left-vs.-right political spectrum can explain politics. But of course, we all know this. However, what many of us don't know is how the traditional left-vs.-right “political spectrum” or “political compass” got the way it is, and exactly how and when it outlived its usefulness. Understanding the history of the spectrum, and how the modern two-dimensional square political spectrums developed, are vital keys to understanding what the real map of politics and anarchism looks like.

Figure #1: The Left-vs.-Right Model

      The concept of a linear, one-dimensional, left-vs.-right model evidently originated in the late 18^th century in the French National Assembly, during the French Revolution (see Figure #1). It was the press who gave the “left” and “right” labels to the representatives, who were seated on the left or right of the chamber according to their support for either the monarchists and those loyal to the Ancien Régime (on the right), or the Revolution (on the left). This arrangement continued after the body's replacement with a Legislative Assembly, and through a National Convention, to today. In the mid-19^th century, influential economists Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, and Claude Frédéric Bastiat sat on the left of the chamber at the same time.

      Today in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, Democratic Party representatives sit on the left, while Republicans sit on the right. It's similar, but that does not necessarily mean that Republicans are more likely to support monarchy, nor Democrats revolution. And it certainly doesn't mean that the Republican Party is conservative, nor that the Democratic Party is Leftist. Additionally, the existence of totalitarian socialists and libertarian and “anarcho-” capitalists show that the old left-vs.-right paradigm is no longer relevant.

      But that was true back when Proudhon and Bastiat both supported the French Revolution. That's because according to the modern, common perception, Proudhon is regarded as a Mutualist of the left, while Bastiat is considered a classical liberal of the right. Bastiat influenced Belgian economist Gustave de Molinari, the author of The Production of Security, and the first person to articulate what is now called “market-anarchism”. The Molinari Institute bears his name, and many self-described libertarians, anarcho-capitalists, and Agorists are influenced by Molinari, including self-described Aristotelian objectivist Roderick T. Long, who has written on the difficulty of classifying anarchists on the traditional left-vs.-right spectrum.

      After the Paris Communes of 1848 and 1871, and the careers of Marx, Proudhon, Bastiat, and Molinari, the early 20^th century saw the rise of synthesis-anarchism; people like Rudolf Rocker and Voltairine deCleyre wanted individualist anarchists, socialists, and anarcho-communists to work together to fight capitalism and the state. Some modern variants of “Anarchy Without Adjectives” integrate the most anti-capitalists elements of libertarian-leaning anarchism, such as contributions from left-Rothbardianism and left-wing market-anarchism, mutualist anarchists, Geo-anarchists (anarchist students of Henry George), and others.

      In the mid-20^th century, the rise of Hitler, Mussolini, Franco, Japanese imperialism, and the U.S.S.R. gave rise to Horseshoe Theory (see Figure #2). The pre-WWII Molotov-Ribbentropp treaty (to carve-up Poland between Germany and the U.S.S.R.) and the late 20^th century Stasi of East Germany, showed the public that liberalism is a moderate center, while the extreme left of communism and the extreme right of fascism met at an evil authoritarian center. However, Horseshoe Theory only goes so far; it only shows the top half of the political compass, leaving anarchism out of the mix (see Figure #3). Thus, anarchism is considered “fringe” by most Americans, and even as “extreme” as totalitarian systems (partially owing to the widespread perception of anarchism as necessarily chaotic or violent).

 Figure #2: Horseshoe Theory

Figure #3: The Full 2-D Political Spectrum

      It's not entirely accurate to describe Adolf Hitler as a socialist snowflake art student who hated privilege and capitalism, nor Barack Obama as Adolf Hitler. Nor is it accurate to describe Nazism as socialism just because “National Socialism” has “socialism” in the name. It's also inaccurate to describe Gregor and Otto Strasser as Nazis, because although they were the Nazi Party's socialist propaganda arm, they were betrayed and assassinated by the party's leadership. Just as National Socialism was capitalist, today the closest descriptor for Strasserism that we have is “social-nationalism”, which makes it sound more nationalistic than National Socialism. But the Strassers were to the left of the larger segment of the Nazi Party that betrayed them; the Strassers were German socialists who opposed both Jewish and German capitalism, and they were more socialist than the National Socialist German Worker's Party (Nazis).

 

      The work of the Strassers – as well as that of Egoist Max Stirner, Ernst Junger, Charles Maurras, Georges Sorel, Austromarxist Otto Bauer, Nestor Makhno, Enver Hoxha, the National Bolsheviks and national communists, other “proletarian nationalists”, and patriotic socialists - only compound the difficulty of mapping all political philosophies on the traditional left-vs.-right axis (especially authoritarianism and fascism and their variants). This difficulty owes itself to the existence of nationalist-leaning communist and socialist philosophies on one hand, and progressive and Marxist-influenced philosophies oriented towards markets and free enterprise (such as those of Adam Smith, the Physiocrats, and the Chicago School) on the other. The difficulty of mapping all the strange and new philosophies – often bearing such absurd names as “National-Anarchism”, “Anarcho-Fascism”, “Anarcho-Monarchism”, “Anarcho-Statism”, and the bizarre Marxist-Stirnerite philsophy of “EGO DIKism” which perhaps unintentionally synthesizes the post-Left with the alt-Right - prompts us to look at politics in a new way.

      In middle school biology, we were taught to use Punnett squares (named for Reginald Punnett, who devised them). A Punnett square is a variation of the Pournelle chart; it it used to predict the chance that certain dominant or recessive genetic traits would be inhereted by offspring. This is done by displaying two aspects of one parent's genes on the X-axis, against the other parent's genes on the Y-axis (see Figure #4). We can do the exact same thing with anarchism and totalitarianism on one axis, and communism and capitalism on the other. The result is the two-dimensional development of the one-dimensional left-vs.-right axis; the “Nolan chart” (see Figure #5), popularized by Libertarian Party co-founder David Nolan in 1971. In the previous several years, similar political spectrums had been published by Maurice C. Bryson and William R. McDill (in their article “The Political Spectrum: A Bi-Dimensional Approach” in The Rampart Journal of Individualist Thought in 1968), and Stuart Christie and Albert Meltzer (in The Floodgates of Anarchy in 1970).

Figure #4: A Punnett Square

 

Figure #5: The Nolan Chart

 

      However, the two-dimensional map does not fully solve our problem. If we consider that we have communism on the left and capitalism on the right, and totalitarianism on top and diffusion of power and chaos on the bottom, then there's no reason why we can't have a third dimension. Why not moderate compromise vs. radical discord? After all, the goal of anarchism is, more or less, to work together, and if we can't, then for different anarchist schools to leave each other alone. If anarchists can live with only working together when we agree, then not only does that make sure nobody is harmed when people voluntarily cooperate, it also shows that what the anarchists want is the opposite of the goal of politics.

      Of course, what politicians want is compromise by any means necessary. But moderate compromise has not worked for us. That's why the “radical center” has emerged, and so has the “progressive-libertarian alliance” that began ten years ago between Ron Paul, Ralph Nader, Dennis Kucinich, Mike Gravel, and others. With the third dimension of moderate political compromise vs. radical (whose Greek root radix means “root”) centrism, we can now show how where the East German Stasi are in relation to market-tolerant Anarchists Without Adjectives. My 62-sided, color-coded, three-dimensional political spectrum – which my friend Charles Poston named “the Politosphere” (see Figures #6 and #7) - attempts to map these three dimensions onto a globe.

Figure #6: The Politosphere (View from Top)

Figure #7: The Politosphere (View from Bottom)

      Anyone interested in finding out more about political spectrums can visit politicalcompass.org, Jacob Asplund's asplundchart.blogspot.com, or iSideWith.com; Google-search “The World's Smallest Political Quiz”; read the Wikipedia article “Left-right politics”; or go to my blog www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com and type “political spectrum” into the search field on the top-left. You may also wish to look for the three-dimensional cubic political spectrum at NationStates.net, the site of an online video game that allows players to make political decisions to run their own fictional e-nations, complete with flags and mottos.

      The discovery, delineation, and enumeration of economic schools of thought bearing implications in politics as well as anarchism make it possible to expand the number of economic categories which may be shown on any particular spectrum (see Figure #8), for, as anarcho-syndicalist Rudolf Rocker explained, anarchist tendencies are “only different methods of economy”. But the left-vs.-right economic axis aside, tools like those listed in the above paragraph will help make it possible for more people to understand that we live in a three-dimensional political continuum, not a black-and-white, left-vs.-right false dichotomy. Venn diagrams and Euler diagrams are also helpful learning tools (see Figure #9).

 Figure #8: A Political Spectrum with

12 Economic Categories and 5 Power Categories

Figure #9: An Euler Diagram of

Statism, Socialism, and Capitalism

      Not only that, these tools will make it possible for more people to fully understand anarchism and totalitarianism, and it could also enable collaborative efforts to create more detailed political spectrums, perhaps even with radically different axes and shapes from the figures shown here.

Written on March 18^th and 19^th, 2017

Figures #1-#4 and #6-#9 Created by Joseph W. Kopsick
between 2011 and March 19^th, 2017

Figure #5 came from
http://nolan.jimeyer.org/nolan_example.php