There is a term for paper degradation due to acid decay – Slow Fire. The fibres, particularly of old and valuable records, literally burn themselves away and there is no cure. More broadly, the concept of the Slow Fire represents the inevitable and immutable reality of entropy. Information, property and concepts will (and do) decay and disappear in time.
Tempus Edax Rerum.
I believe this is fundamentally the motivation behind Asteron. I also believe framing Asteron as a “terrorist organisation” in the mold of The Weather Underground et al is not helpful. While their methods are extreme, jarring, and barely understood at this time, their driving belief system seems to be that the Slow Fire must be stopped, or mitigated, by any means necessary.
Perhaps we are asking the wrong questions – “Who are Asteron?”, “Why do they do what they do?”, “How can we stop them?”. Rather, should we be looking to solve the same problem but with more palatable methods? If we don’t make an effort to align with the group’s core motivations, we will continue to suffer the impacts of their modus operandi – namely, the reset back to 1976.
“OK, cut.”
A microphone is unpinned from a lapel.
“Was that OK?”
“Really good Professor, thank you. We’ll let you know when we’ve done the edit and the broadcast is scheduled. The institute thanks you for your time.”
Shuffling tweed, a closing door.