Park, Reverse, Neutral, Drive, Low (gear). The 5 “standard” positions the standard automatic gearshift levers could be set to. Versus the weird stuff like dials or push-buttons that are incredibly hard to operate by muscle-memory if you aren’t looking right at them.
Similarly, the Great Pyramid of Khafre (the tallest of the 3 greats at Giza) was once clad in a smooth exterior. The outermost cladding was taken by locals needing stone over the years, leaving only its peak still holding the original cladding.
Similar feelings, although for different reasons.
One of the struggles left-wing movements have been having lately is that they struggle to coordinate between different sub-groups, many of whom are often in general agreement but slightly misaligned. When you look back at a lot of historical left-wing movements, there was strong coordination between people who didn’t necessarily see eye-to-eye on everything, but agreed that there are some very important things which they ought to be addressing now.
Modern left-wing movements seem to really struggle with that. Not only do we not have the unifying drive of a single leader, but this ends up leaving the various sub-groups to promote their own leaders - who, because they are originating from representing that narrower sub-interest, also tend towards more exaggerated positions which put them out of alignment with the other movements. This effectively self-sabotages any effort to get a broader consensus going.
I am honestly rather jealous of right wing movements’ ability to get groups which aren’t totally aligned - sometimes even at odds on issues - to nonetheless coalesce around a broader vision.
Wait, so like, do we just play the game forever? Or are we actually going into the game world?
Can we break the boundaries of the game mechanics since we’re now “inside” it? Or are we still limited to what the game lets us do?
“But you just like… screw stuff together, right? Cut the basic materials to make the parts, put it together, box it up, ship it out, right?”
I find that people who’ve never assembled anything more complex than Ikea furniture or something more technical than changed a pipe or switch in their home, tend to think production exists in exactly two levels: Low-tech, hand-tools-at-most labor which can be easily spun up because “anyone can do it”, and ultra-high-tech stuff like computer chips which need highly specialized factories, but where a few factories can mostly satisfy nationwide demand.