Cybernetics is better than the Alternatives - Alcyonenews

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Posted May 16, 2025

Cybernetics is better than the Alternatives

The OED defines:

“cybernetics >the science of communications and automatic control systems in both machines and living things. - ORIGIN from Greek kubernetes 'steersman'.”

The OED lexicographers faltered a bit in the etymology of it, the origin is “kyvernitika” which is also the origin of “Governance”. The translation “variations” are traceable partly to the difference between the Greek and the Latin alphabets, but primarily to the need of the Bullies among us to hide their culpability for the mess they have drawn us in.

The Helmsman steers the ship by manipulating the rudder. He “controls” the direction of travel at any given moment. But it is the Captain who sets the destination and the other parameters of the trip. Plato spoke of the “Ship of State” and the parallelism stuck. But we often confuse the Captain with the Helmsman. In a Democratically governed society the Demos (= People) are the Captain, “government” being the Helmsman.

Mutiny is possible and it happens, like it did on the Bounty. Christian Fletcher cast Captain Bligh overboard and the Bounty went where it wasn’t meant to be.

On the international scene “mutiny”, in the sense of denying the people their right to captain their ship of state, has happened everywhere and that is why the Globe has become the great Ship of Fools that it is. But “humans do not like to be told” and those in power hire persuaders to stage fake Democratia shows to keep the people calm and carrying on. They divide and rule the people. The fragments of the torn society they call Political Parties and they train them to fight each other like cockfight masters train their birds.

They then hold elections, like the one we just had in Canada. Elections emulate the games God forever plays with the Devil. This has gone on for so long that we have reached the level of “knowing no better”, and this is bad.

“Cybernetics” is how Norbert Weiner of MIT transcribed the Greek word, correctly I should add. Obviously he did that to protect Science from the Political Pseudo Science, universally used to fool the people into submission and obedience.

What triggered this blurb is what I heard a man telling us that although he owes his great job to the one half of the voters, those who voted for him, he will work equally hard for the other half, those who voted for his adversary. Of course I refer to the old Banker and new PM Mark Carney. Evidently he felt that while more Canadians recognised his superiority over his adversary, the rest were merely misled to oppose him and therefore to de-Canadianise them, to in effect strip them of their right to legislate, for that is not a nice thing to do.

On election night, as soon as the CBC declared him victorious, Mark proclaimed that “he will always do his best to represent everyone who calls Canada home”. He repeated this the next day as he “vowed to govern for all Canadians”.

I believe Mark is a sincere man. Anyway, it does not require an excessive sense of decency to be appalled by the prospect of governing “democratically” one half of us and “dictatorially”, the rest. After all Democratia is “Egalite et Fratenite” in the culture of the Quebecoise, a most important culture in our multiculturialised society.

But it is utterly unreasonable for someone to get the best job in the realm despite the objection of so many as those who voted against him. By now we have learned that elections do not result in people governing themselves as Abe Lincoln said it must be. Mark being a fair chap sought to ameliorate the election consequences by “governing” all of us.

People governing themselves is normal and the Greeks called it “Democratia”. Sad to say, the notion has become a rarity, if it has not totally eclipsed. “Democratia”, the word is universally abused to disguise what Democratia is meant to eliminate. Much like the wolf donned a sheepskin to sneak into the sheepfold. Democratia is the antidote to Dictatoria. In a democratia, the people tell themselves what to do while in a dictatoria, the Dictator dictates what the people must do. Or else ... ! But when someone coerces somebody, it is slavery. It may be mild or severe but the gradation is quantification. Hence the assertion about us electing “our government” is a common oxymoron.

Because on the Earth virtually all governments are dictatorships and because sane people resent “being told”, dictators protect their regimes by “persuading” the people to believe that what the dictators’ dictate is really the will of the people!

Mark Carney brightly illuminates the aforesaid. Immediately upon being elected and seeing his adversary being “crushed” by some 1.25% (yes 1.25%) of the voters deciding who will run Canada for the next four years, in effect “cancels” the election. No, he did not ask Poilievre to come in for them to govern together.

Instead, Carney mounted his soapbox and told us all and sundry that he is going to govern us all, including the one half of the voters who voted against being governed by him. Why not flip a coin instead of holding an election?

What worries me most is that Carney may deem that we elected him to govern us. Worse yet is that Carney will “govern” us all, that we will not be let to govern ourselves. We dream of democratia, we want to elect the Helmsman, we want to be the Captain of the Good Ship Canada. Please Mark, undo the slip of your tongue ... And give us a chance to tell you what we want you to do for us.