/lit/ - Literature

GRRM understands how it is. the true elites who run the world are more like Littlefinger than anyone; they're the true political Ubermenschen, but they're not beholden to anything like a polis or a state either. in Martin's world, two things are actually required to give the sense of an ending that satisfies: first, the presence of an actual magic, which prevents players like Littlefinger or Cersei Lannister from actually winning the War of the Five Kings; and second, a genuinely existential threat, in the form of the White Walkers, which is actually made worse by the damage caused by all the intruiging. the fact that Martin doesn't actually seem to know how to end his own novel also indicates how much the mind can wrestle with these questions.

politics in the end just becomes a kind of a game, maybe the ultimate game. but nobody really wins, and even the very real presence of the Gods doesn't make things any better. prophets can be wrong, and even when they do get things right, it's not necessarily a given that a Lord of Light actually has the material or human resources left to stop the White Walkers. assuming, of course, that there is a Lord of Light. Beric seems to think there is, i guess that's enough.

also, there's a guy on twitter i follow who occasionally writes pretty good content for Medium. he likes Peterson and Wilber and cryptocurrency too. good if you're looking for more on the kind of themes that get talked about in these threads.

https://hackernoon.com/crypto-beyond-capitalism-part-5-ff7386c09095
https://medium.com/@matthewpirkowski

>>12451285
sounds pretty good to me anon