Perhaps the song that began my descent into madness; the madness of logic, reason, and rational understanding of my love of freedom, 2112 is an ode to decentralization.
The basic story in the song, which I will spoil for you noobs unfamiliar with it (and you should be familiar with it. Rush was awarded the Canadian Medal of Honor, or something akin to that for leafs, largely because of the incredible superlativity of 2112), is that a Theocracy has imposed a global communist tyranny that censors forbidden knowledge and indoctrinates it's subject peoples in what it believes is the best possible society (assuming actual good intentions, which Rush does, to credit their personal morals, but is absolutely insuperable in view of the rank despotic personal aggrandizement the scum that floats to the top of Communist ponds inevitably undertakes).
Some prole discovers a guitar in a cave and teaches himself how to play it (suspend disbelief that the strings would make anything approaching melodic sounds after nearly a century in a cave). Thrilled and amazed, and knowing his fellow plebs will be just as haply entranced with guitars as is he, he joyfully informs the Priests of the Temple of Syrinx (interestingly, the syrinx is an organ (in birds. In humans the equivalent organ is called the larynx, a word apparently inadequate lyrically) essential to human speech, and the author here (the late and oft lamented Neil Peart) seems to be communicating a belief that speech is a sacred thing. I agree), and is shocked at their curt dismissal of his discovery as the frivolous relic of a dark age that destroyed society with similar individual expressions and devices for that purpose.
Utterly driven to despair by the disappointment and cognitive dissonance (after a dream sequence that should have better insulated someone reasonable; literally prophecy) he chews his arm off and bleeds out intentionally (well, the song doesn't say how he causes the leak that kills him, but given the UK is already banning pointy sticks, it seems unlikely he used a knife) just before the return of the space-faring Conquistadors of humanity that had undertaken a forgotten exodus prior to the ascension of the Theocrats on Earth.
The joy of the caver at how people will love to make their own music, and how that individual expression is critical to the happy prosecution of society, is the critical truth of decentralization. Today I hear many responses to my advocacy of decentralized manufacturing that disparage the potential of people to actually undertake that personal expression, mirroring the lamentations of the Priests castigating the prophet of freedom.
We aren't actually very suitable to be domestic animals. We're too clever. I've kept a few creatures in barns, tanks, and pens, and those least able to be profitably raised for slaughter were those best at escaping. They didn't even have to be doing the escaping on purpose, as long as they were good at getting out of confinement.
None of them, however fractious and unprofitable, were nearly as good at escape as people. Again, it doesn't even matter if people are intentionally trying to escape confinement, but only if they actually do, and people are so fractious and obstreperous they will accidentally escape by just being disagreeable. I oughta know. Few people are as disagreeable as am I, and I have accidentally escaped many clutches and fell circumstances because of it.
Communism will fail. Freedom is all humanity is good for. Save your fever dreams of utopia for your own household, if you think you can impose such on your brood. Ha! Good luck with that.
Anyway here's 2112 to illustrate my discussion.
Take a bong hit, crack open a bottle and sip good booze as you listen. It's over 20 minutes long, and incomparable in rock music to any competitors. A paean to personal liberty. A discourse on decentralization, and a condemnation of Communism. Revel in it's excesses and take it home to meet Mom. Enjoy!
