The Dissonance of Jones
A Cautionary Tale of Unstable Systems
Figure (1): Graph representing the development of Jones' psychology over the years
Disclaimer: This is a true story. At the request of those involved, the names have been changed. The rest has been told exactly as it occurred
Brothers and sisters had he none, yet that man's father was his grandfather's son
Prelude
I've always wanted to do a deeper dive into the mind of Jones, a strong personality with even stronger flaws. I have known Jones since 2014, we met in the 4chan DotA 2 inhouse league along, same with all our other friends, barring the Turk of course.
The 19 year old Jones I met was still a student (before he dropped out) - still learning not only computer science, but also learning about life and people, he had a lot of potential and I could see that in him, which is why I personally invited him to my private Teamspeak (this is a true story, i hand-picked him out of the inhouse players). He quickly fit in and became part of the community - the rest is history.
Jones' mind has always been at a conflict - crumbling under the social pressure to get a job, he has resorted to a hermit-like lifestyle of constantly trying to "learn" math and programming; seemingly to prove to himself (and more importantly the people around him, namely his father) that dropping out of high-school and then college was a good idea.
History aside, we skip to current day Jones, self absorbed and delusional - someone who has gone, in all ways feasible, "off the deep end". Impressionable as he is, taken over by narcissism (as a result of terrible up-bringing), he's reached a state of anger and hatred towards the world - to the point where he will go through all logical hoops to justify his himself.
The system gradually drifts off, but it always goes down before going up again, and vice versa. Believe your own lies, jokes with no punchlines - this, my dear readers, is Ethan Jones.
1. The Two Sides of Ethan Jones
When we look at the philosophy of modern day Jones; he is heavily inspired by Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra and Ted Kaczynski's Technological Slavery (links lead to short excerpts/summaries, recommended reading).
Now this might come as a surprise to you, a man in his late twenties in a Neitzsche phase? It's true, Jones has always been stuck in a sort of intellectual purgatory. The concept of the Last Man vs the Ubermensch (superior man) is something that valued quite a lot. In full pursuit of not becoming a "Last Man", Jones has put himself on the artificial track to becoming an Ubermensch.
This doesn't involve much more than reading the internet and programming toys on the computer. He has become a great man, very shortly after reading about it. He is, in all essence of the word, the Ubermensch. Standing tall and proud, this latched immediately onto his deep rooted narcissism.
It is indeed a very thin line that separates men in his world. That line is further muddied by personal interests - it doesn't take much to be dismissed as a Last Man in Jones' eyes, of course we have already discussed Video Games and Media in our last essay - no need to get into that again, but it even extends to programming interests, hobbies and art, even sexual preferences!
Jones has taken it upon himself to categorize men, and he has taken that job very seriously. Avoiding everything that could possibly reduce his status, he has reduced his lifestyle to a very simple loop. Sleep, eat, computer.
Of course he must be very careful about his computer activities too; Definitely no Video Games, TV, or Movies, only twitter, 4chan, youtube, and programming.
Wait a second... Twitter? 4chan? Youtube? Now you can start to see the titular dissonance in this man.
Bringing us to our next point: Ted Kaczynski's writings resonated with the other side of Ethan Jones - politics.
It would be disingenuous of me as the writer to not admit I think that Kaczynski makes many good observations on our society, but his words are more often than not warped to fit the readers' predispositions, and unfortunately this is what happens here. To set the stage, the Unabomber's "The System's Neatest Trick" puts forth the following, paraphrasing: The System co-opts the natural rebellion of its populous into rebelling against the old values that are harmful to The System's survival and adaptation to technological progress. For example: Feminism is good for the system, because more women working harder the better.
Of course, this obviously falls under "Conspiracy Theory". What really piques interest here is the cognitive dissonance of this argument when applied to 2022 America. He claims that the System is suppressing his nature.
I quote: "Racism and saying ■■■■■■ is the natural state of things, they're trying to change that"
In my opinion, Jones fails to see that if such System existed, his and his likes' rebellion is already being co-opted into the Systems benefit. The most standout example of that is the "Manosphere" culture, with figures like Sam Hyde and Bronze Age Baptist pushing for hard work and making money (While they themselves are nothing but grifters, siphoning money out of impressionable youth such as our poor friend Jones) - this is only a net positive for the System, as it creates no risk or disturbance.
And to make things worse, the conflict between the American Red and Blue would in turn be entirely in benefit for this greater system, as both sides will only get more and more productive and organized to "defeat" the other, evolving and growing. It's a mutualistic relationship - much like Flowers and Bees. Completely against all of Kaczynski's original ideals. But alas, Jones thrives by playing the victim - a very telltale sign of narcissism.
Now that we established how Jones feels about the world around him, as one of the few remaining Great Men; nothing would be more fitting than the divine irony of God surrounding him by so called Last Men, or so he says...
2. Living and Laughing with Ethan Jones
It takes a lot of effort being around a narcissist. It takes ten times as much being around a enabled narcissist, and it takes the effort and patience of a thousand men to maintain a friendship with one.
Jones does not like people. He never did - he seeks adversity wherever he goes, and while we always treated him with respect - gave him the attention he wanted, it was always with a safe distance. But putting others down around every corner is a novelty that wears off quite quickly, believe it or not.
Narcissists are insecure by nature - any push-back was always faced with great aggression, this is quite evident from his reactions on this forum. But that aggression always blew over, we all recognized the narcissistic behavior, and never supported it. But it doesn't take much to tip an unstable system over...
Figure (2): Example of an Unstable System, almost any external force will result in collapse
In our curious case we have to turn our focus to a different person for a moment: The Turk, Toprak. It's no surprise that the two have become inseparable over the last year, it was Jones that invited him to the Teamspeak in the first place after all. While he was welcomed at first (after a probation period) as a party member for Dota, Rust, even a brief period where we played WoW, Toprak was willing to do whatever it took to become a member, and more importantly: Prove himself in front of who he admired most.
You can imagine how the combination of a new impressionable member and a manipulative narcissist would result in. This was compounded by the fact that Jones had already planted his seeds through the forums. It did not take long for the "bond" to form, and with a wave of the hand it was written. It was free reign for Jones to manifest his visions to reality.
For the first time in 8 years, someone had begun to accept the warped reality of Jones. Only person with such little dignity and self respect, that he would go actually allow Jones to emotionally abuse him, then tell him that he's right, supporting him unquestionably; just to befriend someone who couldn't care less about him.
It's sad to think about, honestly - how such insecurities and personality disorders feed on each other, creating this positive feedback loop (Shown in figure 1) that only ends up hurting everyone involved.
Jones is undoubtedly stupid, but he is not dumb, much like a politician. His manipulation was optimized in such a way that it suppressed opposing thoughts. Instead of advocating for people to become "great" like him, he wanted to maintain his position as a "great man among last men", such is the nature of a narcissist.
With his witty rhetoric and a foul mouth; Jones encouraged the ignorance of his audience, and disparaged anyone who dared to think analytically or critically regarding any of his beliefs. Belittled anyone who dared stand up to his constant abuse, and of course this was all parroted by his mini-me.
As a community we tolerated this, accommodated Jones as much as we could, but it never got better. He isolated himself from all activities, blocked several members (briefly even me, someone he always held in highest regard), and ironically, much like how he reduces everything else, reduced himself to a flowchart of responses - a husk of his former self, as he got all his needs of validation and attention from only one very generous source.
But we could only tolerate it for so long, dissatisfaction with Jones' attitude resulted in more and more pushback from many of our members, even to the point of actually blocking Jones (albeit only temporarily, we still love him after all), or joining the Teamspeak far less often and keeping contact through other channels!
Our pushback only made things worse, and as he dug himself deeper, Toprak instinctively, like a pet dog, followed him down that hole...
Interlude
Big Benny Presents: Tactical analysis of the gears behind reputations in digital spheres: jones
Etymology of Ethan I received reputational words of the presence before even meeting him (text or otherwise) from nmagane, From there I could base his value system to a contrived intellectual hierarchy that was stapled to some sort of online. While post euclidiean in nature, the analysis of all forms of online representation from that point forward were increasingly surreal. He clearly took pride in a accomplished image engineered by himself. Though reputations and digital spheres are a different matter, I always had a great regard of respect for Jones and felt glad to call him a friend. What jurisdiction was given to man to accuse another over act of character, not I for the purpose of the thread ( I was messaged on discord to wrte this) but I get where Nma is coming from. There are several scrupancies when you investigate the fine lines with the jones timeline.
Figure (3): Big Benny
3. To jones, or not to jones, that is the question.
We will always welcome Jones with open arms, be it to the teamspeak or to this forum; Is this a case of Stockholm Syndrome? Or is he our prodigal son? That is still up for debate, but one thing is for sure not:
Ethan Jones is a late stage narcissist, and he needs help - he needs Our help, as a community - no, as TWO communities together. NAMafiA and /int/ Minecraft (It was never called "Jones Goy Club", that is just another manifestation of his narcissism) must join hands and work together for one shared goal, saving Jones from his own spiraling.
There are many ways to approach this, the first would be to wait for the system to reach a neutral state once again. We are his friends and family, his only friends and family - he always comes back around. This frankly can be seen as abusive from us towards him, ironically enough. The cycle will eventually repeat itself, but maybe with incremental changes and age, he can grow into a more self aware man, and we'll be there to catch him whenever he falls - which he inevitably, and stubbornly will; time and time again.
Alas the second method is a lot colder, we can cut him off for good. As long as he has no access to his enabler(s), as long as he has no access to the support he always fell back on, maybe he will feel the need to change from within himself - and fit in a different form of community. This would require a permanent ban; from this forum AND the Teamspeak. No interaction whatsoever, forever. Life will teach him the hard way.
The third, and hardest way of helping our dear friend, is to talk to him. It is no surprise that this is the most difficult approach; Jones does not allow communication, he does not allow questioning or criticism. The best way of getting to him would be through the one he trusts the most, and that is nearly impossible. Narcissist enablers are generally a lost cause, they are too emotionally invested, plus they have alienated everyone else to facilitate this one pseudo-relationship/friendship. Toprak is no exception, he is a blockade when it comes to reaching Jones, and I cannot recommend giving this method much consideration. I have tried and failed at this for years.
All being said and done, the future of Jones is uncertain, there is no light at the end of this tunnel - and no gold at the end of this rainbow; only suffering and distress, but such is the price we pay for the people we care about the most. It is not our choice who we are, or who God puts in our lives. It is our responsibility. None of us would be who we are today if not for the people we met along the way, and the same applies to them. We owe everyone around us - friend or foe, that is the human condition.
We put ourselves through all this because we are more than just friends; We are a family, a sports team, a crew of sailors, a platoon of soldiers - always on the same side, selfless, against all odds, united, under one Teamspeak server.
