Once, there was a great city that lived under the shadow of a dragon. The dragon coiled around the tallest tower, its smoke drifting through the streets. People walked with lowered heads, learning to live with fear as if it were a season that never changed. One day, a young dragon-slayer rose from among them. He did not lift his sword for himself. The people placed their hopes, their wounds, and their dreams upon his shoulders. They marched behind him — and together, they fought. The dragon f...

Once, there was a great city that lived under the shadow of a dragon. The dragon coiled around the tallest tower, its smoke drifting through the streets. People walked with lowered heads, learning to live with fear as if it were a season that never changed. One day, a young dragon-slayer rose from among them. He did not lift his sword for himself. The people placed their hopes, their wounds, and their dreams upon his shoulders. They marched behind him — and together, they fought. The dragon f...

Why Political Labels Fail to Explain Why Systems CollapseMost political debates today are trapped in a false landscape. Left vs. right. Freedom vs. authority. Democracy vs. authoritarianism. Yet many systems that fit comfortably within these labels still slide into stagnation, repression, or collapse. Others, branded as “illiberal” or “technocratic,” sometimes maintain stability longer than expected—until they suddenly don’t. This suggests a deeper problem:Ideology is no longer sufficient to ...

Why Political Labels Fail to Explain Why Systems CollapseMost political debates today are trapped in a false landscape. Left vs. right. Freedom vs. authority. Democracy vs. authoritarianism. Yet many systems that fit comfortably within these labels still slide into stagnation, repression, or collapse. Others, branded as “illiberal” or “technocratic,” sometimes maintain stability longer than expected—until they suddenly don’t. This suggests a deeper problem:Ideology is no longer sufficient to ...

Let’s begin with an uncomfortable but simple observation. Humanity in the 21st century commands a level of productive capacity that would have been unimaginable in the 19th century: automation, global supply chains, digital coordination, algorithms, artificial intelligence. And yet, the core demands surrounding working time remain strikingly archaic. Eight-hour workdays. Weekends. Basic labor protections. The right not to sacrifice one’s entire waking life merely to secure subsistence. In som...

Let’s begin with an uncomfortable but simple observation. Humanity in the 21st century commands a level of productive capacity that would have been unimaginable in the 19th century: automation, global supply chains, digital coordination, algorithms, artificial intelligence. And yet, the core demands surrounding working time remain strikingly archaic. Eight-hour workdays. Weekends. Basic labor protections. The right not to sacrifice one’s entire waking life merely to secure subsistence. In som...

Politics is not, at its core, the distribution of resources. It is the distribution of meaning.What appears as policy, governance, or public order is, at a deeper level, a struggle over who gets to define reality and who gets to explain it. This is not a metaphor. It is the operational substrate of all large-scale human organization. Before power disciplines bodies, it disciplines language. Before coercion becomes visible, interpretation has already been conquered.I. Politics as a War of Defi...

Politics is not, at its core, the distribution of resources. It is the distribution of meaning.What appears as policy, governance, or public order is, at a deeper level, a struggle over who gets to define reality and who gets to explain it. This is not a metaphor. It is the operational substrate of all large-scale human organization. Before power disciplines bodies, it disciplines language. Before coercion becomes visible, interpretation has already been conquered.I. Politics as a War of Defi...

1. Introduction: Democracy Preserved in Form, Emptied in SubstanceThe model of “Mimetic Liberal Democracy” describes a political system that outwardly preserves the institutional symbols of liberal democracy—elections, free speech, civic participation—while hollowing out their substantive meaning through a complex nexus of economic dependency, behavioral regulation, and psychological conditioning. In this system, power no longer relies primarily on overt coercion or authoritarian repression. ...

1. Introduction: Democracy Preserved in Form, Emptied in SubstanceThe model of “Mimetic Liberal Democracy” describes a political system that outwardly preserves the institutional symbols of liberal democracy—elections, free speech, civic participation—while hollowing out their substantive meaning through a complex nexus of economic dependency, behavioral regulation, and psychological conditioning. In this system, power no longer relies primarily on overt coercion or authoritarian repression. ...

AbstractWhat was once interpreted as a singular moral failure of an individual philosopher has, in contemporary conditions, evolved into a structural condition affecting the knowledge class as a whole. This paper argues that the so-called “Heideggerian predicament”—the coexistence of radical philosophical critique with practical accommodation to oppressive power—has been systemically reproduced through what may be termed structural cynicism. Under such conditions, rationality no longer serves...

AbstractWhat was once interpreted as a singular moral failure of an individual philosopher has, in contemporary conditions, evolved into a structural condition affecting the knowledge class as a whole. This paper argues that the so-called “Heideggerian predicament”—the coexistence of radical philosophical critique with practical accommodation to oppressive power—has been systemically reproduced through what may be termed structural cynicism. Under such conditions, rationality no longer serves...

In the United States, debates about police and federal law enforcement shootings typically narrow quickly to questions of intent, threat perception, and legal justification. Yet when similar outcomes repeat, it is worth asking a broader and harder question:What kind of system allows psychological distress and crisis situations to intersect so frequently with lethal force?Two incidents — one involving a federal agent and another involving local police — show how split-second decisions in high-...

In the United States, debates about police and federal law enforcement shootings typically narrow quickly to questions of intent, threat perception, and legal justification. Yet when similar outcomes repeat, it is worth asking a broader and harder question:What kind of system allows psychological distress and crisis situations to intersect so frequently with lethal force?Two incidents — one involving a federal agent and another involving local police — show how split-second decisions in high-...

In many large-scale governance systems, power does not operate according to a logic of “social welfare maximization.” Instead, it tends to stabilize around a more internally coherent—though socially corrosive—structural pattern: the socialization of costs, the downward displacement of responsibility, and the upward concentration of benefits. Together, these mechanisms produce what may be described as a form of panoramic optimization of rule, in which stability is preserved not by addressing s...

In many large-scale governance systems, power does not operate according to a logic of “social welfare maximization.” Instead, it tends to stabilize around a more internally coherent—though socially corrosive—structural pattern: the socialization of costs, the downward displacement of responsibility, and the upward concentration of benefits. Together, these mechanisms produce what may be described as a form of panoramic optimization of rule, in which stability is preserved not by addressing s...

Why transparency no longer convinces, and control has become the enemy of credibilityIntroduction｜When Belief Itself Becomes IrrationalThe most dangerous crisis facing modern governance is no longer misinformation. It is the moment when belief itself becomes an irrational choice. In such moments, it no longer matters whether authorities speak the truth or lie. Both are received with equal skepticism. Political theory has a name for this condition: the Tacitus Trap— when a government loses cre...

Why transparency no longer convinces, and control has become the enemy of credibilityIntroduction｜When Belief Itself Becomes IrrationalThe most dangerous crisis facing modern governance is no longer misinformation. It is the moment when belief itself becomes an irrational choice. In such moments, it no longer matters whether authorities speak the truth or lie. Both are received with equal skepticism. Political theory has a name for this condition: the Tacitus Trap— when a government loses cre...

In some institutional environments, opacity does not merely appear as an administrative flaw or a technical limitation. Rather, it functions as a deliberate structural feature. By embedding uncertainty into the everyday experience of rule-making and enforcement, such systems preserve the outward stability of formal order while retaining a high degree of elasticity in practice. What emerges is not simply a legal framework, but an interface-based regime of control.I. Institutionalized Uncertain...

In some institutional environments, opacity does not merely appear as an administrative flaw or a technical limitation. Rather, it functions as a deliberate structural feature. By embedding uncertainty into the everyday experience of rule-making and enforcement, such systems preserve the outward stability of formal order while retaining a high degree of elasticity in practice. What emerges is not simply a legal framework, but an interface-based regime of control.I. Institutionalized Uncertain...

In the pre–brain-computer-interface era, algorithms and AI systems function less as neutral tools of computation and more as extensions of existing power structures. They operate as transitional instruments of cognitive regulation — provisional mechanisms that simulate a form of behavioral governance while masking the deeper asymmetry of control embedded in political economy and institutional power. Technology is often described as neutral, capable of enabling emancipation as much as dominati...

In the pre–brain-computer-interface era, algorithms and AI systems function less as neutral tools of computation and more as extensions of existing power structures. They operate as transitional instruments of cognitive regulation — provisional mechanisms that simulate a form of behavioral governance while masking the deeper asymmetry of control embedded in political economy and institutional power. Technology is often described as neutral, capable of enabling emancipation as much as dominati...

I. Introduction — When Words No Longer Describe the WorldThere are societies in which the language of freedom, dignity, and progress fills the air — while the lived reality is shaped by control, exclusion, and quiet forms of coercion. What is unsettling in such contexts is not simply the presence of injustice, but the peculiar sensation that words and reality no longer belong to the same world. The problem is not only oppression. Oppression has existed in every historical age. What feels diff...

I. Introduction — When Words No Longer Describe the WorldThere are societies in which the language of freedom, dignity, and progress fills the air — while the lived reality is shaped by control, exclusion, and quiet forms of coercion. What is unsettling in such contexts is not simply the presence of injustice, but the peculiar sensation that words and reality no longer belong to the same world. The problem is not only oppression. Oppression has existed in every historical age. What feels diff...