The Wine-Soaked Manifesto
As dictated by Tyrion Lannister, Scholar of Dust, Patron of Bastards, and Accidental Prophet of the Garbage-Age,
with liberal astral input from Timothy Leary’s ghost on a contact high
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I. A TOAST TO THE END, WITH LIPSTICK ON THE GLASS
Let it be known: I do not come bearing revolution. Revolutions are noisy, sweaty things led by people with slogans and delusions of symmetry. I bring instead a proposition—sauced in irony, served in a chipped goblet—because what we need is not a new world, but a better way of being lost in this one.
Our kingdoms have crumbled into content feeds. Our heroes are blue-checked husks. The Oracle is a search engine with a gambling addiction.
And yet—I am having a marvelous time.
Let the wise smile at the chaos. Let the bastard philosopher drink with the trash collector and the runaway nun. We are not here to fix the world. We are here to inhabit it beautifully.
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II. LANGUAGE IS DRUNK TELEPATHY AND ALL TELEPATHY IS A RISKY FLIRTATION
Speech, dear friends, is the first drug.
When you speak, you cast a spell.
When you share, you sin a little.
We endorse the illicit, ecstatic spread of everything that wriggles with human heat—from folk tales to foot pics, from banned books to bedroom ballads. Culture is contraband, and we are cheerful smugglers.
Free speech? We prefer feral speech.
Let every alley be a library. Let every device be a torch passed under the table.
And when they build firewalls, we build tunnels—or we write the passwords on bar napkins.
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III. EXISTENTIALISM IN A STOLEN JACKET
You are free, my darling idiot.
Which means it’s all your fault.
You can blame the system. We all do. But at night, when it’s quiet and you’re stoned on existential dread, you know: it’s up to you.
Choose meaning like it’s a thrift store blazer. Mismatched, threadbare, still warm from someone else's dream.
Do something stupid but sacred. Make art that embarrasses your algorithms. Love someone inconvenient. Start a cult with no tithes and excellent playlists.
You were not made to optimize. You were made to burn cheerfully in the void.
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IV. THE HEDONISM OF LOW EXPECTATIONS
Pleasure isn’t a yacht. It’s a riot in the pantry.
We preach the gospel of strategic indulgence:
A well-timed joke.
A book with a broken spine.
A kiss in the dark while sirens pass.
A meal cobbled from desperation that tastes like triumph.
Not numbness, not decadence—pleasure with teeth.
We reject luxury. We accept lemon-scented grit. We believe the finest things are not bought but rescued from oblivion, warmed over with defiance, and shared like contraband communion.
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V. MASLOW’S PYRAMID RECONSIDERED AS A COCKROACH MOTEL
Self-actualization is sold in overpriced journals and vision boards. Meanwhile, the rest of us are just trying to keep the power on and the voices in our heads reasonably polite.
So here’s the pivot: if they’ve booby-trapped the ladder, stop climbing. Build sideways.
Let food be traded, not marketed. Let skill be shared, not certified. Let beauty be pirated.
A distributed dignity. A network of nobodies.
Think less "utopia," more "mutiny with snacks."
We do not wait for permission. We make our own Maslow out of tarps and mixtapes, wifi and whispered stories. And on top of it, maybe, we put a garden. Or a bong. Or a child who laughs like freedom.
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VI. EPILOGUE FROM A MAN WITH RED WINE ON HIS TUNIC AND ASH IN HIS HAIR
We are not heroes. We are salvage artists.
We do not offer salvation. We offer solidarity with a wink.
The world is broken. It always was.
Let us be the ones who find the music in the crackle, the truth in the trash, the divinity in the dishwater.
Raise a glass, misfits. The future is unwritten, and we write crookedly—but in ink that glows in the dark.
Cheers.
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Now that’s a noble question—one that Tyrion and RAW would toast with bitter laughter and still try to answer sincerely. Let’s try to flip the script and imagine a positive evolution of neo-neoliberalism, one that aims not to extract but to elevate.
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1. The Positive Version: Neo-Neoliberalism Reforged
Let’s imagine a system that keeps the dynamism of markets and innovation—but redirects the incentives toward universal flourishing rather than elite hoarding. This system might still use:
Platforms, but designed with open standards and democratic governance.
Data, but controlled by the individuals who produce it.
Automation, but to eliminate drudgery, not to create precarity.
Entrepreneurship, but accessible to everyone, not just Silicon Valley royalty.
The state isn’t abolished—it’s reimagined as an invisible infrastructure of empowerment, ensuring basic security, digital literacy, and access to participation, without smothering innovation or choice.
Self-fulfillment becomes the economic engine—not a side effect.
Art, philosophy, care work, education—once considered luxuries—are treated as core productivity domains, because they generate long-term value, cultural continuity, and human actualization. Sound familiar? That’s your Maslow + Epicurus fusion.
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2. Neoliberalism Without Hollowing Out the Social Contract?
This idea has been quietly percolating in certain circles and could go by several names depending on the flavor:
a. Market Humanism (a term RAW might invent)
Markets are kept, but explicitly engineered toward human developmental goals, not just GDP. Think: UX for public policy.
b. Participatory Capitalism
Capitalism remains, but ownership and participation are decentralized. You own the platform you use (like co-ops or DAOs). Workers are stakeholders, not resources.
c. Post-Neoliberalism (actual academic term)
A broad umbrella for models that maintain global integration and innovation without dismantling safety nets. Often includes universal basic services or data dividends.
d. Radical Marketism (see Glen Weyl)
Markets are used creatively to allocate rights and resources (even spectrum, immigration slots, etc.), but embedded within democratic feedback systems.
e. Commons-Based Peer Production (from Yochai Benkler)
Open-source models applied not just to software, but energy, media, agriculture. Value created cooperatively, often outside of price signals entirely.
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So What Would We Call This?
If we want a term that feels like a real successor to neo-neoliberalism, how about:
“Post-Extractive Capitalism”
A system where economic growth is not measured by what it extracts from humans and nature, but by what it unlocks in human potential and preserves in the world.
Or:
“Civic Neoliberalism” (oxymoronic but catchy)
Where the individual is still central—but empowered by shared tools and guaranteed security. Think of it as neoliberalism that read Rawls, Maslow, and open-source manifestos.
Or in RAW's voice:
> “A capitalism where your nervous system isn’t a revenue stream, but a sovereign signal in a collaborative dance of minds.”
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Would you like a fictional society based on this concept? A political manifesto? A game theory simulation? Or should we slot this directly into your philosophy system as a practical, livable alternative?