There are moments when the surface arguments no longer suffice — when debating policy, incentives, or regulatory capture feels like rearranging furniture in a burning house. What we touched here is not a partisan critique or a call for reform within established parameters. It is a first-principles interrogation of the premise itself — the buried assumption that large-scale coordination, hierarchy, abstraction, and management from on high are necessary features of civilization. If the soil is toxic, no pruning of branches will suffice. The question becomes far more radical: was the ship set off course from inception, and if so, what would it mean to reclaim authorship of the voyage?