tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28621701315214358942024-02-07T18:01:47.531-08:00Post-Modern EnlightenmentHere be EnlightenmentUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger269125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2862170131521435894.post-56814824060861270822020-01-25T22:39:00.000-08:002020-01-25T22:40:27.311-08:00Does Socialism Always Fail?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
If you've interacted with enough right-wingers on social media, there's invariably one point that you've probably heard before:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"X always fails!"</blockquote>
<br />
Where 'x' is something they disagree with. It could be anything, but the context that it usually sees use is with socialism; as in, "socialism always fails!"<br />
<br />
But does it? And is that really the question we need to be asking?<br />
<br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Defining Words</h3>
It can seem like we live in dramatically different worlds, the left and right, and that we use dramatically different terms. And that's because, more often than not, <i>we are</i>. The right-wing likes to Humpty-Dumpty words to mean whatever is fitting for the current topic at hand, and that's why it's vitally important to nail down definitions before you even think about that debate. Otherwise, you end up like me, citing numerous examples of functional healthcare systems only to be told that Singapore, Taiwan, and South Korea are "failing nations."<br />
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<span style="font-size: 12.8px;">And "state's rights" is a buzzword for</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12.8px;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">"segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever."</span></div>
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And most of the time, this is where your conversation will end. When you ask how someone is defining a word, they run into a brick wall, because they oftentimes don't think about how they're using the word, just that the world feels natural in that context to them. And since "feels natural" is entirely subjective, it's why you get folks who define "socialism" as "government attempts to help black people." Well, that and racism, but let's face it: racism feels natural to these people, too, as the picture to the left demonstrates.<br />
<br />
But it's incredibly important, and it's probably one of the reasons why Socrates insists on defining terms in Plato's dialogs. It's not just Socrates being a gadfly; if we're approaching words and concepts from different angles, we're never going to be able to communicate at all, leave off efficiently.<br />
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So it's only natural to try and ask them how they're defining socialism, but there's just one problem: socialism does not have one single definition. There are a whole lot of different types of socialism, from market socialism to non-market socialism. Liberal socialism is a thing that actually exists, and what Germany practiced with the Rhineland model is technically socialism, while what the Nordic countries have is better called "social Democracy" or a welfare state. So "socialism" can mean a constellation of vastly different ideologies.<br />
<br />
But there's an even deeper question here, and that's the question of what "fail" means. That verb is more important than the noun because the verb carries more weight in the sentence. The verb is describing an action, but it's an ambiguous action. What does it mean to "fail?"<br />
<br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Too Big to Fail?</h3>
When we start talking about what failure is, we have to define what a fail-state is. For instance, in most classes, a fail-state is "getting the answer wrong." Now, leaving aside the problem of an objective answer outside of anything other than mathematics (and even there, you can get some real mind-warping solutions that aren't always objective), one person's "failure" is another person's "success." For instance, you might see a C+ on a paper as a failure, but if it gave me the credit I need to pass the class, I'd consider that a success.<br />
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This implies that failure and success are entirely subjective, and I'm inclined to agree. And this is where we run into problems; the vast majority of people are not mentally equipped to handle subjectivity. They want one absolute, objective, "too big to fail" worldview that allows them to unambiguously declare whether something was a "success" or a "failure" without having to understand or grasp what those two words might mean and that their use might be situational. This situational, subjective nature is why defining the words is so important; at least then I can understand what you mean when you use the word and react accordingly.<br />
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Nowhere is this subjectivity better seen than in the statement "socialism always fails," and that's in part because the people who use it never stop to think about what "fails" means, and that using "always" as a qualifier is bad since all it takes to prove them wrong is one example to the contrary. But so long as they never have to define what it means to "fail," any counterexample can be dismissed as a "failure" without having to confront the reality of their "objective" statement. In effect, they are insulated from any challenge to their position at all.<br />
<br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Dialogues Are Important When We Can Have Them</h3>
Dialogues are complicated, messy things, and we need to have them. We need contrarian viewpoints and folks who look for flaws in plans to point out weaknesses, so we can shore those plans, or at least prepare potential preventative countermeasures.<br />
<br />
Consider a universal healthcare system. That's a huge undertaking, and we absolutely need folks with a critical eye to pick it apart and point out potential problems with it. We need people to be technical. We need to be ready to receive that criticism, not as a personal attack as coming from a place of concern. In effect, we need conservatives who can argue in good faith and are intelligent.<br />
<br />
And instead, we have screeching shit-monkeys who throw a temper tantrum anytime they don't get their way, will never consider the possibility they might be wrong (and rather than use that sentence as a chance for introspection and self-reflection, will respond with "but liberals do it, too!" as if that absolves them), and who deny things that are politically inconvenient for them, because they've come to treat politics as less running a country and more rooting for your favorite football club, come hell or high water. Rather than intelligent people, we have fools who think the proper retort to the fact that the number of uninsured Americans has gone <i>up </i>for the first time in several years, and the overall life-expectancy has <i>fallen</i> for the second or third year in a row, is "socialism always fails!"<br />
<br />
And the sad part is, we've <i>always</i> had these people. It's just now they have a much larger platform and can reach more people.<br />
<br />
These are not people who can contribute meaningfully to any conversation. They simply can't. You don't go to your dog expecting advice on finance and you can't go to these people for political opinions; you get toxic bile instead. And what's worse, this toxic bile is always in response to a warped self-fulfilling prophecy: they see themselves as unliked, so they behave in a way suggestive that they don't care if they're unliked, and in the process of behaving that way, they <i>make themselves</i> unliked. And when they respond to all criticisms with personal invectives and disingenuous factoids dressed up as statements of truth and then proceed to ignore attempts to inform them that they're wrong because they can't bear the thought of <i>being</i> wrong, they invite the personal attacks they're so sensitive towards. Then they treat all criticisms as personal attacks, resulting in people getting fed up with them and personally attacking them.<br />
<br />
So the real question isn't "does socialism always fail?" It's not even if socialism can succeed. Socialism is irrelevant to this conversation because the problem of "socialism always fails" has nothing to do with socialism or fail states.<br />
<br />
It's whether or not we're capable of having a reasonable dialogue, and so long as people insist that something always fails because confronting evidence inconvenient to them is far too taxing an intellectual task, that answer is a resounding, "no." </div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2862170131521435894.post-17730216966464890082019-12-30T19:48:00.000-08:002019-12-30T20:06:10.960-08:00Critically Examining a Pro-Trump Meme<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Back when I was growing up, Facebook had a word limit on posts; you couldn't go over 60 words. Once they removed that, however, folks (myself included) started posting novel-length entries on the social media page, with whatever was on our minds at the time. And that's fine, since sharing whatever you're thinking, no matter how detrimental or stupid it might be, is what social media is for. Well, that and FOMO -- fear of missing out -- but applying a critical eye to marketing tools will come later. Today, I want to take a look at a pro-Trump novella that circles around the right-wing noise-o-sphere and examine it.<br />
<br />
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
How I Feel About Trump</h4>
I'm pretty sure most folks can grok how I feel about Pumpkin Spice Berlusconi, but just in case you can't: I don't like him. And it's not just policies, although I differ there too. One day, I'm going to do an economic break down on just how much of a disaster his tax plan has been, and how your tax dollars as an American citizen are literally subsidizing corporate welfare (via a <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/04/03/why-amazon-paid-no-federal-income-tax.html" target="_blank">negative income tax</a>), but that's for a different post as well. No, I <i>personally</i> dislike him, and I always have. I didn't like him when he was a Democrat in the 90s and I really don't like him now that he's a Republican in the 2010s. The current Evangelical messiah <i>du jour</i> is a Big Mac-powered bully; he's a narcissistic, incurious, malignant buffoon. If a student ever acted like him in any of my classes I'd throw them out and not think twice.<br />
<br />
But this isn't about how I feel about him; this is a post about how right-wingers feel about him. And, well, let's put it diplomatically and say here's an awful lot of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antiprocess" target="_blank">antiprocess</a> and <i>post hoc </i>justification happening here.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
You've been on vacation for two weeks, you come home, and your basement is infested with raccoons.. Hundreds of rabid, messy, mean raccoons have overtaken your basement. You want them gone immediately!.. You call the city and 4 different exterminators, but nobody can handle the job.. But there is this one guy, and he guarantees to get rid of them, so you hire him.. You don't care if the guy smells, you don't care if the guy swears, you don't care if he's an alcoholic, you don't care how many times he's been married, you don't care if he has a plumber's crack, you simply want those raccoons gone!.. You want your problem fixed!.. He's the guy.. He's the best!<br />
<br />
Here's why we want Trump: Yes, he's a bit of a jerk; Yes, he's an egomaniac; but we don't care!.. The country is a mess because politicians suck, the Republicans and Democrats can be two-faced and gutless, and illegals are everywhere.. We want it all fixed!.. We don't care that Trump is crude, we don't care that he insults people, we don't care that he has changed positions, we don't care that he's been married 3 times, we don't care that he fights with Megyn Kelly and Rosie O'Donnell, we don't care that he doesn't know the name of some Muslim terrorist.. This country became weak and bankrupt, our enemies were making fun of us, we are being invaded by illegals, we are becoming a nation of victims where every Tom, Ricardo, and Hasid is a special group with special rights to a point where we don't even recognize the country we were born and raised in; "AND WE JUST WANT IT FIXED”.. And Trump is the only guy who seems to understand what the people want..<br />
<br />
We're sick of politicians, sick of the Democratic Party, sick of the Republican Party, and sick of illegals!.. We just want this thing fixed.. Trump may not be a Saint, but we didn’t vote for a Pope.. We voted for a man who doesn't have lobbyist money holding him back, a man who doesn't have political correctness restraining him.. We all know that he has been very successful, he’s a good negotiator, he has built a lot of things, and he's also NOT a politician, NOT a cowardly politician.!.. And he says he'll fix it.. And we believe him because he is too much of an egotist to be proven wrong, or looked at and called a liar.. Also, we don't care if the guy has bad hair.. We just want those raccoons gone, out of our house, NOW!!!</blockquote>
The abuse of ellipses there makes me want to cringe so hard I'll eat my own teeth. The style is terrible; I'd flunk anyone who turned this in as a final project in my class on all the stylistic errors alone.<br />
<br />
The very first thing that stands out to me is the comparison between undocumented immigrants and, quote, "rabid raccoon." During the Rwandan Genocide, the Hutu compared the Tutsi to "cockroaches." During the Holocaust, the Jews were compared to rats. Comparisons with vermin and animals is a popular dehumanizing technique. This piece continues the trend, using the word "illegal" as a short-hand of "illegal alien," the use of which gets justified as "legal terminology" despite the fact that these same people never use legal terminology at any other point in political discussions.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">But the it's that comparison to "rabid raccoons" that would make the organizers of </span><i>Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines</i> proud.<br />
<br />
Having wasted all those pixels, let's dive into the, *ahem* "substance."<br />
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<h4 style="text-align: left;">
Raccoons and Right-Wingers </h4>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Hundreds of rabid, messy, mean raccoons have overtaken your basement.</blockquote>
Except that <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_impact_of_illegal_immigrants_in_the_United_States" target="_blank">undocumented migrants produce a great deal for the economy</a>. Their impact on the economy is tremendous; dismissing that impact shows how little the poster actually understands modern economics. Which, to be fair, he's in good company (I'm assuming he. It might be a she. But it's probably a he): I've yet to find a right-winger on Facebook who <i>does</i> understand economics. Oh, they'll insist they do. But they don't, and will never admit they don't.<br />
<br />
Interesting sidebar: Notice the use of possession there --<i> your</i> basement. The raccoons were here first. <i>You</i> took land that had been theirs for years to build your basement. If anything <i>you're</i> the invader. Given that most of the people sharing this are white Europeans, I guess it isn't as inaccurate as I originally gave it credit for being.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
You call the city and 4 different exterminators</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: left;">
I can't be the only person unsettled by this comparison of a national leader to an exterminator, can I? The last time we had an exterminator as a national leader was in the 1970s and Cambodia is still reeling from the effects of the Khmer Rouge/CPK. </div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
You don't care if the guy smells, you don't care if the guy swears, you don't care if he's an alcoholic, you don't care how many times he's been married, you don't care if he has a plumber's crack</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: left;">
I find this amusing. It mattered a lot when the individuals last name was Clinton, didn't it? Why I was just a wee lad in the 90s, but I seem to recall an impeachment scandal blowing up over the perceived lack of morals and the fact that the President lied about an affair. </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
It also mattered when the guy's last name was Obama, too. But Obama was just a superior human in every way to Trump that the comparison feels wrong and offensive (at least Bill Clinton was also a sexual predator, just like Donald Trump is). </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
By the way, you'll notice this is a running theme with this post: yes, we know this guy sucks. He's just the worst human being in the world. But that ain't gonna stop us from supporting him, now will it?</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
illegals are everywhere</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: left;">
And here we see more of that dehumanization.</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
We don't care that Trump is crude, we don't care that he insults people, we don't care that he has changed positions, we don't care that he's been married 3 times, we don't care that he fights with Megyn Kelly and Rosie O'Donnell, we don't care that he doesn't know the name of some Muslim terrorist</blockquote>
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Once again, you don't care now because he's your guy. But these would really have mattered if, say, his last name was Obama or Clinton. </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Also, this is a hell of sale's pitch; there's something to be said for "professionalism," and if your guy comes over and he doesn't bathe, and he smells like roadkill warmed over, and that he insults people and is crude, then maybe you need to find a different guy. Because that behavior would get me fired from every single job I've ever had regardless of how "good" I might have been at it. </div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
AND WE JUST WANT IT FIXED</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: left;">
I'm skeptical. I don't think they want it fixed, because if they wanted it fixed, there are more efficient ways to do it. For instance, you could build-up Latin American states and stop supporting right-wing dictators that turn those countries into genocidal war zones and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/dec/19/central-america-migrants-us-foreign-policy" target="_blank">the companies that enforce income inequality people are currently fleeing from</a>. You could <a href="https://www.cato.org/publications/policy-analysis/four-decades-counting-continued-failure-war-drugs" target="_blank">end the War on Drugs</a>, since <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/12/11/in-honduras-the-u-s-war-on-drugs-is-empowering-corrupt-elites/" target="_blank">the illegal nature of drugs powers these violent cartels and gangs</a>. </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
No, there are thousands of ways to stop immigrantion, and all of them begin with "improving people's conditions." They aren't interested in fixing it, though, because that'd require work, and change, and possibly improving the world for people who aren't white. And we can't have that. </div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
And Trump is the only guy who seems to understand what the people want</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Trump is a verbal Rorschach test; he makes vague self-aggrandizing statements between racist dog-whistle word salad and people are left to draw their own meaning from what he says. Just because your alphabet soup spells out your name doesn't mean that it was intentional. The same is true with Trump; perhaps even more so. </div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
a man who doesn't have political correctness restraining him</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Like "socialism," most of the people who use this term can't define it. At most there's a vague bellyfeel definition that ultimately manifests as "whatever I disagree with," which is also how they define communism, progressivism, liberalism, feminism, and whatever other -ism they have their sights on. </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
If you ever want to end a debate with these people but don't want the impression you're backing out, ask them to define their terms and what they mean by certain words. Nine times out of ten, my request has been met with deafening silence and yours probably will, too. </div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
We all know that he has been very successful, he’s a good negotiator, he has built a lot of things,</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Trump is very good at one thing: projecting the image of success. Just like Newt Gringrich is described as the idiot's idea of intelligence, Trump is the middle-class white guy's idea of wealth and success. As the ensuing four years have shown, Trump is <i>none</i> of those things; he's a terrible negotiator who's been taken advantage of by the likes of Putin, Jinping, Kim, al-Assad, Erdogan, and others. He's thrown our allies under the bus, destroyed our relationship with the Kurds, severely weakened NATO, and has let the world know loud and clear that you can't trust the United States anymore. He's destroyed institutions, undermined the very notion of professionalism, and wrecked our reputation abroad. </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Of course, when they say "we know X" what they mean is "we've already decided X and nothing will convince us otherwise" -- go back up that word I used earlier, <i>bellyfeel. </i>Or perhaps <i>duckspeak</i> is a more appropriate word from <i>Nineteen-Eighty-Four</i> to use here. </div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
and he's also NOT a politician, NOT a cowardly politician.</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Politicians are specialists, like lawyers. And like lawyers, they are absolutely necessary to ensuring society runs since their fields are incredibly complex and archaic, with a lot of specialized jargon and rules that take years to learn. Go back to what I said about professionalism, above. Relatedly, you wouldn't call a roofer who had no idea what they were doing to repair your roof, now would you? No, you look for experience. Someone who knows what they're doing. Politics is the only area where experience is actively frowned upon by the voting public, and it makes me want to beat my head against a wall. </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
A lot of this comes from a need to compromise weighted against a reluctance to do so. To quote the <i>Expanse</i>, a good compromise "pisses everyone off." And while that doesn't always have to be the case, we're dealing with people who see compromise as cowardice and are no longer interested in sharing society with the rest of us -- see also the possessive pronoun use when referring to the theoretical house in this metaphor. That sure as hell ain't a "royal we" that we're looking at here; the very tone of the piece is exclusionary from start to finish. They aren't interesting in sharing this house with anyone different from them anymore, and they outright say as later in the post. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
I do think that a lot of campaign rules and such need to be reformed, and lobbying needs to be more transparent with laws that shut down the "Congress-Lobbying Division" revolving door, but childish expectations and broad, sweeping generalizations anchored in ignorance like this make having adult conversations damn near impossible. And until we can have adult conversations, we're stuck at the kiddie table with uneducated meandering platitudinous know-nothing chucklefucks who think expertise in the area of one's employment is somehow a <i>bad thing</i>. </div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
And we believe him because he is too much of an egotist to be proven wrong</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: left;">
It doesn't need to be said, but <i>this is not a good personality trait</i>. </div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
or looked at and called a liar</blockquote>
This statement has not aged well.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
We just want those raccoons gone, out of our house</blockquote>
Once again, there were better, more thorough ways to do it. But because we don't want to put in the actual effort, we'll settle for a clown-shoes jackhole who just makes every problem that much worse.<br />
<br />
Also, we couldn't not end without more of that dehumanization, now could we?<br />
<br />
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
So What Does This Accomplish?</h4>
The short answer? It's just more insight into what makes these folks tick. The truly insightful thing here is the extent to which they're willing to go to justify their choice; I hope psychologists are taking note because this is a perfect demonstration of the Sunk-Cost Fallacy in action, and that's me being generous.<br />
<br />
The long answer? Not a whole lot; the people who post these pro-Trump comments won't read all the way through to the end, and so I won't be changing any minds. Hopefully, you found it at least entertaining; I figured something lightweight following my piece on Hauntology last week was in order and I wanted to get at least one more post out before the New Year when I plan to truly overhaul this blog and start experimenting with new things.<br />
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Anyway, enjoy your New Year, and here's to a 2020 that doesn't absolutely suck. </div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2862170131521435894.post-63150340606835452752019-12-24T16:08:00.000-08:002019-12-24T16:14:33.774-08:00GOP and the Politics of Hauntology <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Most people know the plot outline of <i>A</i> <i>Christmas Carol; </i>in it, a greedy businessman is visited by three ghosts and taught the error of his ways so he can change himself and make amends. It's an understatement to say it's a popular story, and one enjoyed by generations. So on this Christmas Eve, I figured it would be fitting to talk about ghosts since ghosts are a central conceit of <i>A Christmas Carol. </i>However, this isn't the story of the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present or Future. Rather, this is a story about the Ghost of Christmas-That-Never-Was, and how despite never existing, they affect the modern world anyway.<br />
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<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Hauntology</h3>
<div>
Let's start by defining terms. <i>Hauntology</i> is a neologism that combines two words: <i>haunting</i> and <i>ontology. </i>Jacques Derrida coined it in his 1993 book, <i>Specters of Marx</i>. In that book, Derrida offers up a slippery definition but it can generally be defined as: </div>
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<span style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><i>"The concept of an idea projected from a past that never existed</i>."</span></blockquote>
<div style="text-align: center;">
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<div style="text-align: left;">
More specifically, it's when there's a disjunction between temporal and ontological concepts of presence and the metaphysics of presence winds up replaced with a differed non-origin. If you read that and thought "yep, those are words alright," don't worry. A detailed understanding of the concept as Derrida intended requires understanding deconstruction theory, and that won't be necessary here, I promise. We aren't going to be looking at the ontology so much as we are the effects of these concepts of ideas from a "Past-That-Never-Was" and exactly what this "Past-That-Never-Was" is. </div>
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<div>
There's some clever wordplay at work, for those who are curious. In French, <i>hantologie </i>[ɑ̃tɔlɔʒi] <i> </i>and <i>ontologie</i> [ɔ̃tɔlɔʒi] are near-homophones. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
This term, <i>hauntology</i>, is employed mostly in cultural critique. There's an entire genre of music called vaporwave that's often invoked in these discussions; vaporwave samples older and employes retro-style instruments like synthesizers and the like. The result is a 1980s-style aesthetic, but the 1980s that it references isn't the real 1980s. </div>
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To illustrate how it is <i>the concept of an idea</i> rather than a simple <i>reflection </i>of the past, let's keep focused on music genres. Sure, synthesizers were popular in the 1980s, but they were far from the only genre of music and they didn't even feature prominently. Rap music was coming into its own in the 1980s, and no other decade save for the 1990s could ever match the 1980s in terms of pop music output. Not only that, heavy metal and hair-metal were also popular as well: Metallica released the Black album at the tail end of that period (1990), and that was the culmination of all their earlier work throughout the 1980s and 1970s. Guns N' Roses was formed in 1985; Bon Jovi in 1983; Motley Crue in 1981; and some bands from the 1970s dominated the charts, including Queen, AC/DC, Van Halen, Def Leopard, Aerosmith, REO Speedwagon, and many others. And while we often associate disco with the 1970s, it was widespread early in the 1980s, as well. </div>
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So the use of analog synthesizers, library music, and recording surface noise to highlight the decaying nature of the medium itself is part of the nostalgia for a future that never came to past, fed by the concept of a past that never existed. </div>
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And that's our segue into our main point.<br />
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GOP: Ghosts of the Past(-That-Never-Was)</h3>
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During my extended 6 year hiatus, a lot happened in the United States. One of those things was the election of Donald Trump to the presidency.</div>
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What's particularly interesting within the context of this conversation about hauntology is his motto: "Make America Great Again." A lot has been made of this, and most people are at least vaguely aware that Reagan used this motto during his 1980s bid against Jimmy Carter. And has been pointed out before, there was never a time when America was great; the best time to be American is today (well, maybe not today; <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/09/us-life-expectancy-has-been-declining-heres-why.html" target="_blank">life expectancy is falling nationwide</a>, <a href="https://www.kff.org/uninsured/issue-brief/key-facts-about-the-uninsured-population/" target="_blank">the number of uninsured has increased for the first time in several years</a>, <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/2018-taxes-some-of-americas-biggest-companies-paid-little-to-no-federal-income-tax-last-year/" target="_blank">corporations that make literal billions have negative income tax rates thanks to Trump's plan</a> while <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/12/21/trump-food-stamps-cut-snap-benefits-more-hungry-americans/2710146001/" target="_blank">Trump's administration is cutting food stamps to hundreds of thousands of needy people</a>, <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/us-women-more-likely-to-die-during-pregnancy-than-other-high-income-nations/" target="_blank">our maternal mortality rate is one of the highest among the developed world</a>, <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2019/03/drinking-water-safety-in-united-sates-can-be-fixed/" target="_blank">20% of Americans drink water that isn't safe</a>, and <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/07/29/500-000-kids-could-lose-free-school-lunch-trump-plan/1863720001/" target="_blank">500,000 kids could needlessly lose free lunch at school because "pro-lifers" care more about judge appointments than actual morality</a>. And let's not even talk about <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/23122019/greenland-ice-sheet-climate-tipping-point-temperature-duration-sea-level-rise-pnas-study" target="_blank">global warming and Greenlandic ice melt</a>; <a href="https://www.sciencealert.com/even-if-the-world-warms-2-degrees-it-could-get-even-hotter-for-most-humans" target="_blank">that's going to be a problem for later, mark my words</a>). And yet, despite this, right now is still the best time to ever be alive. </div>
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So what, precisely is there to "make great <b>again</b>," if right now is the best that human history has ever been? And even if things suck in the United States because a significant amount of population decided to roll the dice on Pumpkin Spice Berlusconi, things are objectively the best they've ever been at a global level. </div>
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There's a specter haunting the United States, and it's the specter of a future that never manifested projected by a past that never existed, stalking the fevered dreams and palingenetic ultranationalist mythmaking grandeurisms that shape the rhetoric of modern right-wing politics. One thing to remember about Reagan is that Reagan wasn't just offering the promise of a past, his revolution was the promise of a future, too; a Mephistophelian bargain that by joining his revolution, you could have the future, the American dream, promised to you, present in an idealized past that never existed. Reagan's promise of a better future that never manifested is enhanced by his appropriation of a past that never existed, and in appropriating his 1980s promise and image, we're also appropriating his projected image of the 1950s and 1960s, and the future that failed to manifest, as a result[1]. </div>
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Really, the "better" (for this crowd, anyway) was a time when blacks and women knew their place when white Christian men were at the top of the social food chain, and when they didn't have to share power with anyone other than other white Christian men who they could assume agreed with them (or, at least, wouldn't disagree with them). And if you think about it, their projected image of the past betrays this, since their concept of the past is often one free from minorities or women in power, which they then justify with historiography that can be considered specious at best. It's no coincidence that this movement found its footing in the shadow of a moderately right-of-center black president they paint as a "socialist" for using the Republican healthcare plan as his centerpiece legislation. There's a reason why their image of the 1980s and 1960s doesn't discuss the race politics that shaped those two decades as deeply as they did, and it's because they're on the opposite side of those politics from men like Dr. Martin Lurther King Jr. and Malcolm X; the latter not being as extreme as they pretend him to be, and the former being more. Why when they discuss the South, they avoid talking about slavery or attempt to whitewash it. Why they can pretend to be the party of Teddy Roosevelt, despite Roosevelt being the first president in US history to suggest a universal healthcare plan and an 8-hour day, among other things that would be derided as "socialist" today by the very same people.</div>
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But then, a past that never was being viewed as extant is what shapes the very idea of hauntology. Without it, we wouldn't even be having this conversation.<br />
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The Past That Isn't</h3>
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Now, a lot of this is anchored in nostalgia. That's just natural as far as humans go; we've always pined for a simpler time when we were children before we had adult responsibilities. Especially when society seems to go out of its way to make fulfilling those responsibilities difficult at times and outright impossible at others. But we're sitting at the junction of projecting idealized pasts that never were and their futures that failed to manifest into a strong nostalgia for a time when things were "better", and on one side of this juncture are reactionary dominionist Christian nationalists who want to usurp the United States with their own twisted idea of Gilead, and on the other are white nationalists and fascists who admire Donald Trump for refusing to hide behind dog whistles anymore. And the only way out is forward. And if we fight hard we might make things "better than they were", as opposed to "better again," then I think killing the Past-That-Never-Was is a worthwhile sacrifice to make for the Future-That-Might-Still-Be.<br />
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">"Science is more than a body of knowledge; it is a way of thinking. I have a foreboding of an America in my children's or grandchildren's time—when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the key manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what's true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness."</span></blockquote>
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- Carl Sagan, <i>A Demon-Haunted World</i></h4>
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Post Script </h3>
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Hard to believe it's been more than 6 years since I last posted. Not very professional on my part, but life is that thing that gets in the way when you have plans. That said, I do have plans to post more, if not regularly. Things are going to undergo a bit of an overhaul now that I'm back, but I don't really have a direction in mind, so it'll be a wait and see approach. </div>
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Anyway, it feels good to be back. </div>
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[1] as an interesting sidebar, I wonder if this is why right-wingers insist violent crime rates haven't fallen <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_drop" target="_blank">when they clearly have</a>; it's part of that specter of the 1980s, a decade shaped by violent crime.</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2862170131521435894.post-85510481652179372152013-11-24T11:44:00.001-08:002013-11-24T11:44:09.046-08:00In A Just World (Fallacy) <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
So, it's another day, and another Facebook meme to undermine. <br /><br />One thing that gets under my skin like you wouldn't believe are appeals to "common sense." What I've found about "common sense" is that "common sense" is little more than thought-terminating cliche. Who defines what's "common?" I consider it "common sense" to acknowledge the world isn't 10,000 years old. Clearly, I'm an outlier in the United States. Despite my "common sense" having plenty of scientific evidence to back it up, it's not exactly "common."<br />
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Today, I plan to tackle one of those "common sense" memes that seems so popular on Facebook - 10 quotes, often attributed to Bill Gates, that you may have seen before. This stuff seems so elementary - but it's also wrongheaded and assbackwards.<br />
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This is 10 rules that Bill Gates supposedly enumerated. The text says that he nailed it on the head - but if these are indeed his quotes, this is just another example of wealthy privilege. In fact, almost the entire thing is privilege blind. Allow me to show you exactly how, starting backwards:<br /><br /><b>Rule 11: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one. </b><br />
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Yes and no. This is supposedly a power fantasy all nerds have; to lord over the jock that tormented them in high school. But let's take a step back for a second and show just how dated this actually is: nerd culture and geek culture has become mainstream culture. Computers, gaming, science fiction and fantasy - these things have traditionally been the hallmarks of nerd culture and have since integrated themselves into mainstream culture. They're part of the culture that everyone takes a role in. True, things like cosplay and Pen & Paper RPGs aren't as widespread as, say, MMORPGs and computer games, but the line between who is and isn't a nerd isn't so clear anymore. So while yes, you may end up working for someone who has nerd-like hobbies, chances are, they're probably not a nerd themselves. Likewise, just because you immerse yourself in that culture doesn't guarantee you'll wind up at the top anymore - it takes a lot more than knowledge to get to the top of anything (which I'll discuss shortly). <br /><br />In the short of it, you should be nice to everyone, not just nerds or geeks. But chances are, you'll end up working for some CEO who doesn't give a damn about your personal health or well-being, caged in a corporate structure everyone could make run better but nobody at the top is willing to change. <br /><br /><b>Rule 10: Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and get jobs. <br /></b>I'm not sure I've ever met anyone who even thought that. Most teens have jobs now by the time they're in their late teens; when I was doing my student teaching, about a quarter of my seniors all had jobs working at McDonald's or some other soulless corporation. The rest of them were working at school, which is a job in and of itself. I suppose I could see some middle class kid thinking this, but you know what? Not everyone is middle class. Not everyone has a television. Not everyone has the money to sit around in coffee shops. Most people, most <i>teens</i>, <b>are</b> working. <br /><br /><b>Rule 9: Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time. </b><br />
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It's nice to know we expect teenagers to automatically know who they are and what they want out of life. By a show of hands, how many of you superpeople out there knew what you wanted to do when you were 15 or 14 and pursued it? For the people rushing to the comments to prove me wrong, remember that I know we can be anything we want to on the Internet: in short, I don't believe you. So do we automatically expect students to know? Most adults still don't know who they are, and die without knowing what they want out of a life they never got to live. <br /><br />Also, I thought professional development was intended to try and help you learn more about yourself. That seems to be what a lot of the professional development I attend is for, anyway. Learn about yourself so you can learn more about others. Empathy, sympathy, and other positive emotions require understanding who you are first, and without those, you end up with crappy employees since they can't relate to the customers. Maybe employers would benefit, huh?<br /><br />No, life isn't divided into semesters. It's divided into financial quarters, instead. And there's no difference. And just to show how dated and cultural-centric this is, I'm curious how the person quoted feels about year-round school, since there's a few in my area. And I support year-round school. You know who doesn't? Big businesses. There's another feature of you life that you'll need to get used to: big businesses writing the rules for you and controlling everything you do.<br /><br /><b>Rule 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers but life has NOT. In some schools, they have abolished failing grades and give you as many times as you want in order to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to anything in real life. <br /></b>It doesn't? What about the big banks? What about the golden parachutes and the CEOs, wealthy and powerful as they are, who fuck things up and move from one company to another grinding it into the dirt? This sound be amended: it doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to anything in real life <b>if you're poor</b>. Because if you're rich, you can buy extra lives. And don't even get me started on famous people, who get as many times as they need to kick that drug habit because they're wealthy. <br /><br />Also, where the hell does this meme come from, anyway? I've been in multiple schools and I've never seen them abolish winners and losers. I've seen them give certificates to everyone who participated, but kids aren't stupid. They know there's a difference. They know that it's not the same thing. I've also never heard of schools abolishing failing grades. I know that they'll inflate grades and pass students who probably shouldn't be passed, but that's got nothing to do with the student and everything to do with NCLB and the way our idiot Federal Government treats school funding (the more students who pass, the more money your school gets. The fewer that pass, the less money your school gets, so you have even <i>less</i> to help them with. Combine that with the fact that schools are typically financed by local property taxes, it leads to a nasty situation where in poorer districts schools can't get money and in wealthier ones they can. Money is the difference here, good on the author of the quote for noticing that and pointing it out like a boss). Finally, students are learning new concepts. Sometimes, concepts have to be explained to them in different ways. Nice to know we automatically expect them to get it the first time around when it's explained in exactly one way. <br /><br />Life doesn't work that way, jackass.<br /><br /><b>Rule 7: Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying bills, cleaning your clothes, and listening to you talk about how cool you were. So before you save the rainforests from the parasites of your parents generation, delouse your own closet first.<br /></b>This pisses me off beyond words. This is just another downward strike at the Millennial generation; another excuse made by Baby Boomers to justify the fact that they're leaving a broken world to us. And they had it to us with this smug ass look on their motherfucking faces saying that we need to delouse our own closet before we blame them (rightly) for fucking up the world, and try to stop them from doing it even further with this fracking nonsense, the Keystone XL pipeline, and blocking the implementation of green energy resources. It ain't Millennials in government doing this, folks. They're all baby boomers or Gen-Xers. <br /><br />I have <i>never</i> heard a student talk about how cool they were. That flies in face of what I know about child psychology; teenagers are extremely self conscious and they're confused about who they are and what they want to be. They'll talk about how cool some of their <i>friends</i> might be, and how cool some new <i>subculture</i> might be, but I have <b>never, <i>ever</i></b> heard a <b>single one</b> talk about how cool they are. Does this mean that they don't exist? No. We deal with egomaniacs all the time in society - the person who wrote these quotes is a good example of an egomaniac. But you know what? That's a beautiful strawman of the Millennial generation. Way to fuck up the world, destroy the economy, instigate trickle-down Reagan voodoo-economics bullshit and then blame the people who had no role in it because they can't do what you did, when you already destroyed what was there. You pulled the ladder up. This is your fucking fault. <br /><br />Oh, but there's a rule against this later, so we'll save the rest of this for that particular rule.<br /><br /><b>Rule 6: If you mess up, <u>it is not your parent's fault</u>, so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them. <br /></b>After reading Rule 7, which effectively blamed the Millennials for the current state that we're in, this is a slap in the face. Most adults, Millennial and otherwise, take responsibility for their own actions. Unless, you know, they're CEOs. Or senators. Or preachers. Or wealthy people. Or politicians. Then they can whine about their mistakes and they'll be forgiven, or they blame their mistakes on other people. Do you know what that group has in common? Hmm? <br /><br />*Bzzt* Time's up. They're usually Baby Boomers.<br /><br /> And you <i>can</i> blame your parents for your lot in life. If your parents were abusive, if you parents didn't bother to help you, if your parents weren't there for you for some reason or another (for instance, they abandoned you, they kicked you out because you were gay, they were quiverfull cultists who had you raised by your older siblings, etc), you <i>can</i> blame them. Their job is to help you. Being a parent is not an easy job. Especially if your parents are financially abusive. <br /><br />Maybe jackass making the quote has confused "my mistake" with "my lot in life." Because whoever is making these quotes is likely White, Wealthy, Cissexual, Heterosexual, and Male, and probably Christians (some Protestant), it wouldn't surprise me. It's always nice when society hands you everything on a silver platter. It makes it that much easier to spit on those less fortunate than you. <br /><br /><b>Rule 5: Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: they called it an opportunity. </b><br />Recall I said above most teens I knew when I was doing my student teaching had a job of some kind. I knew two or three who <i>explicitly</i> told me they worked at McDonald's. Clearly, this is aimed at a different population than the students I knew. <br /><br />Oh, but let's take another look at his toxic little rule. See, while it may not be "beneath your dignity", it doesn't pay a living wage. And when you have a family to raise, and when you have those bills to pay, and when you have medical issues you have to treat, it's a ridiculously poor job choice - it means you have to work two or three other jobs in order to make ends meet. They may have called it an opportunity, but an opportunity for what? Not advancement. You aren't advancing anywhere without a college degree.<br /><br />Oh, and yes, let's talk about that college degree for a second. If you already <b>have</b> a degree, there's no <b>reason</b> to be working at a fast food restaurant. You went to school to get a degree so you wouldn't <b>have to</b>. And yet, here you are, working here. This isn't "opportunity." It's a slap in the fucking face. I have students loans I have to pay off, because I got a degree thinking I could avoid this and yet, here I am, trapped here. Shove your corporate-sponsored optimism; I'm not even making enough to pay off my loans, I'm not making enough to survive, and then the very same type of asshole who reads this quote and believes it comes back around and tells me I'm a deadbeat and I have no ambition in life, because all you need are Bootstraps(tm) in order to pull yourself up. <br /><br />Fast food is not an opportunity. It's a dead end. And there are thousands of adults, with families, working at this dead end. Burger flippoing is a soulless, thankless job that pays shit. This isn't an opportunity. The type of person who says this is an opportunity looks at McDonald's infamous minimum wage budget and thinks that's a reflection of reality.<br /><br /><b>Rule 4: If you think your teacher is tough, wait until you get a boss.<br /></b>Yes and no again. You have to bust your ass to get your teacher fired for unfair behavior. It's a lot easier to report an abusive boss to HR and get them removed (usually; not always. In fact, "easy" here is relative). What's more, you have protections against your boss - Unionization is <b>designed</b> for that purpose. Students can't unionize against abusive teachers, they have to rely on the administration and their parents, and if neither cares, your life is going to be hell for a good long time. <br /><br />Of course, the kind of person who said this quote is probably the kind of person who is against unions and unionization. Likely for that reason - because they're so fucking delusional they believe that tough boss is a good thing.<br /><br /><b>Rule 3: You will NOT make $60,000 right out of high school. You won't be a vice president with a phone and a car until you earn both.<br /></b>Uh, I knew students who had both a phone and a car, because they worked, and because they paid for both. So fuck you.<br /><br />This needs an addendum: not only will you NOT make $60,000 right out of high school, if you pick the wrong degree program going into college, you'll never see that salary in your entire life. If you were born in the wrong area, if you were born to the wrong people, if you were born the wrong color, the wrong race, your chances of improving your conditions are hideously small. People born in poverty tend to stay there. My generation is the first generation that hasn't done better than their parents. And I wonder if that has something to do with so many of us coming of age during the middle of a economic recession - caused, I might add, by Baby Boomers who learned all of <b>jack shit</b> from their parent's experience during the Great Depression. <br /><br />If you're poor, you might as well not even try. For every one person you show me who success I can show you a hundred more who didn't. When your odds are 100:1, it's time to rethink how you do things, right?<br /><br />I also want to note how toxic this is: you're wealthy if you have a phone and a car. Think about that metric of wealth for a second. I have both. I don't own my own home, I live with my parents, and I make $15,000 dollars a year, give or take. And I can't find a different job. I. Am. Poor. but I have both a phone and a car. And I have a computer (which is paid off) and a laptop (paid off) and an iPod (paid off). All these electronics are over three years old. I. Am. Poor. And you're a fucking moron if you're going to argue with me about that; I could sell those things, but then I'd be poor AND I wouldn't have anything to communicate to the outside world with. What am I supposed to be, living on the street, totally removed from society, so you never have to see me or hear my voice?<br />
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<br />Fuck you. <br /><br />And I'm well off compared to others. Let's not use owning a phone and owning a car as metric of wealth, shall we? Because simply having these these things does not make you wealthy or well off. How about ownership of a private jet, or a yacht, or your very own United States senator. Those are better metrics of wealth. And I bet the person who wrote this has all of those things - a private jet, a yacht, their own United States Senator, and yes, even a phone and car.<br /><br /><b>Rule 2: The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something before you feel good about yourself. <br /></b>That's right, you're dog shit before you accomplish anything. I can safely vouch that this is exactly how it is. In fact, you're dog shit even if you do accomplish something. I can read and write three languages (English, Old English, Portuguese, French), with modicum of self-taught fluency. I can put quantum theory into laymens terms. That's pretty impressive. I can explain things like trans-Planckian space to you without confusing you. That's pretty impressive. I'm still dog shit. And I'm dog shit since because it's not what you know or what you can do that get you anywhere in life. Accomplishing something doesn't make the world treat you better, since it's not what you can do, and its not what you know, but who you know and who gets you into the proper places with the proper contacts.<br /><br />I also take issue with this notion that schools coddle their students. Gay students know all too well that their self-esteem doesn't matter. Intersex and Trans* students will know all to well that their very <i>existence</i> doesn't matter, and that the world not only doesn't care, it'd rather <i>they not exist at all</i>. No matter <i>what</i> they accomplish, it will <i>still</i> treat them like dog shit, because of <b>who they are.</b> Students and children who are raped - especially teenage girls - are often blamed for their attack. The schools don't care about their self-esteem. The school doesn't even care they're victims. But you know who the school does coddle, and does care about?<br /><br />The athletes. The football players, the sports stars. The school cares about them. And so does the rest of society. That's why they can rape girls and post pictures online and the media bemoans these poor boys losing their future. <br /><br />Oh, wait. I guess the world <b>does</b> care. So long as you're the <b>right type of person</b>, that is.<br /><br /><b>Rule 1: Life is not fair - get used to it!<br /></b>Why?<br /><br />Why is life not fair?<br /><br />I'll tell you something. If everyone just accepted this, there would be no Women's liberation. There'd be no Civil Rights movement. There'd be no movement for marriage equality. There'd be no equality movements <i>at all</i>. <br /><br />Humans are the only ape - literally, we are the <i>only ape</i> - that justifies continued unfairness perpetuated by society. Chimpanzees? They quite games if they see their fellows aren't being treated equally. Bonobos? Same thing. Baboons, the lesser apes, and monkeys? Yep, them too. Only humans will justify the Just World Fallacy by beating people down, telling them that the world isn't fair and they should just get used to it the way that it is, rather than saying "the world's not fair - let's try to change it so it is more fair."<br /><br />Do you want me to tell you why life isn't fair?<br /><br />Because there are bullies at the top; sociopathic bullies with a vested interest in making sure they stay there, and nobody else can get up there to meet them. So they do everything they can to make sure that everyone understands that "this is just how it's supposed to be."<br /><br />No. No, fuck that bullshit, no. <br /><br />The world can never be absolutely fair. Life will never be absolutely fair. But that doesn't mean you have to accept it. That doesn't mean you have to sit here and say, "Oh, well, I have to accept all these other rules as truth because some rich bastard told me the world isn't fair."<br /><br />That's what this <b>entire list amounts to</b>, by the way. It's nothing more than extended rant, an attack a poor and underprivileged people by someone utterly blind to the fact that society has handed them everything. It's a sad attempt to justify the Just World Fallacy. <br /><br />And there's a reason that's a fallacy. <br /><br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2862170131521435894.post-76563011110104392812013-11-11T14:58:00.002-08:002013-11-11T15:01:08.402-08:00Nightmare Scenario <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I've posted this particular scenario before on a couple of different comment threads, but I want to post it here. I was doing some extra thinking about this today; I woke up today with a sore throat and while I was out for my walk (a short one because I didn't feel good and it's been a miserable day), I was thinking more at length at what would happen if I wound up sick.<br />
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I shell out, on average, 139 dollars a month for health insurance. I'm going to be visiting Healthcare.gov in the near future to see if I can't possibly get a better deal than what I have, but I've got fairly decent health insurance - that I still have to pay for, and there's still a rather substantial deductible - that is, the amount of money you have to pay out-of-pocket before your insurance, that you pay $139.00 or more for a month decides you've paid enough and steps in to cover the rest (usually to the tune of several thousand dollars - more than I've got right now). Even a thousand dollar deductible is enough to destroy me financially right now; if I need emergency surgery for something, I won't be getting it. I'll likely end up dying, even with the new ACA, simply because nothing was done about deductibles. Or I'd owe several thousand dollars, and I'd have that debt piled on the debt that I already have (and if your response to this is "get a better job," go fuck yourself with a cyanide-laced cactus. What the hell do you think I'm doing, you dumb piece of self-centered garbage?)<br />
<br />
I know I can't be the only person in this situation. The ACA is a lot of much needed reform, but it didn't nearly go far enough. As a matter of a fact, it falls drastically short of what's required for basic national security.<br />
<br />
How is a lack of easy access healthcare a threat to national security? Well, I hope you weren't planning on sleeping tonight...<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
(aside) Random words: - Terrorism - Bombing - Airplanes - IED - Plot - Support - Al Qaeda - Shooting - do I have your attention yet, NSA? FBI? Anyone out there? Good. Sit down. Maybe you'll learn something so you can do your damn job instead of spying on exes and spouses. (/aside)<br />
<br />
If I got sick, I would have no choice but to go into work. None. I have no PTO (paid time off - this thing apparently exists), being part-time, and I'm not capable of making any hours that I lose up. Thus, if I get sick, I have no other choice if I want to get paid but to go into work feeling ill. Because getting paid is the only way that I can get myself treated. If I get really sick, I still don't have a choice. And I'm not the only one.<br />
<br />
Now figure this: the situation I've just described? It applies to just about everyone who's part-time. My company does not care if I get sick; so I don't care if I go in sick. That's my basic philosophy; I will feel like shit, but I will still go into work, because to not go in means I won't get paid and I need that money if I hope to be able to treat want's making me ill. <br />
<br />
How many Americans, do you think, eat at fast food joints like Arby's, or Taco Bell, or McDonald's, or Burger King, a year? Do you care to guess? I'd say a lot, wouldn't you? Think about the number of times that you stop off at one of these places; I'd say I eat out maybe five or six times a month, but it depends on the month in question; some months are just harder than others and in addition to being disgusting, McDonald's is expensive as hell.<br />
<br />
Most of the people working at these joints? They're part-time.<br />
<br />
Which means that if they want to be able to cover their medical bills for getting sick, they can't afford to miss work. Which means they come in, sick, and make your food, sick. And you'd never know, especially if they don't say anything to their manager or their manager simply does not care. McDonald's has proven before that it doesn't care about worker safety; like every other company in existence, loyalty is unidirectional and personal responsibility and ownership for mistakes roll down the pay-grade; values like team work and working hard are things management wants you to learn so they don't have to.<br />
<br />
So you've got people who work in the food sector that are willing to come in sick, and make your food, sick, because they have no other option. Isn't that a pleasant thought?<br />
<br />
Now hold that thought, because it gets a lot worse from here.<br />
<br />
How much do you know about viruses? Viruses are complicated machines, right? I mean, on the surface they seem simple enough - strands of RNA that are carried in a capsid injected into the cytoplasm of the cell (or nucleus, depending upon type).<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.accessexcellence.org/WN/NM/images/Ebola.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="251" src="http://www.accessexcellence.org/WN/NM/images/Ebola.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Say "hi" to one of the most lethal viruses on the planet</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
To the right of here is the <i>ebolavirus</i>. <i>Ebola </i>is a very famous pathogen; it's noted for being so incredibly <i>lethal</i> that it kills its host usually before the host has a chance to spread the virus. Most viruses give it time before; there's a period where you're infected but you don't know it (called the <i>incubation period</i>; when we're talking about cells specifically, this is called a <i>eclipse phase</i> - the cell's infected, but it doesn't show any signs of being infected yet). <i>Ebola</i> has an incubation period of around 12 days; one day you get infected, anywhere from 8 to 25 days later, you get hit with the symptoms and usually die pretty quickly after that. One particular strain that broke out in Zaire had a fatality rate of 90%. That means, infect 10 people that you know - your parents, your loved ones, your teachers, your friends - out of every 10 you infect, only 1 survives. What's more, every single instance of non-accidental infection since the 1970s (when it first appeared) has resulted in a fatality rate of over 50%. Go back to our model; select 10 people you love. Only 5 of them can survive. Who lives and who dies? What's worse? There's no only one vaccine and that's not been really tested. Even worse? They proved it spreads through the air, like Influenza (which I'm going to be talking about in a minute, since influenza is a marvelously wicked little piece of natural engineering, and proof that if there is a God, he's an utter bastard). <br />
<br />
Okay, okay, so we knew <i>Ebola</i> was scary. Everyone does; that's why it's a level 4 biohazard. It's also been relatively contained to Africa; there was only one outbreak in Renton, Virgina.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.stanford.edu/group/virus/filo/replication.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="225" src="http://www.stanford.edu/group/virus/filo/replication.gif" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Ebola'</i>s lifecycle</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<i>Ebola</i> is a specific type of virus; it's a gram-negative virus (-) that uses its vRNA to copied to an mRNA, and the virus also brings along a particular enzyme that allows it achieve this, called a RNA-polymerase. This is what allowed it to copy over from an (-)RNA to a (+)RNA, which is then used to produce more (-)RNA (vRNA); meanwhile, that (+)RNA is also used to produce proteins by hijacking the cell's natural machinery; the end result of this is an assembly line that produces the RNA necessary, and the capsid necessary, for more viruses that then go out and infect other cells. As far as I know, <i>Ebola</i> and its variants are not lysic; they don't destroy the cell when they're hatched.<br />
<br />
I mentioned another virus above; <i>influenza</i>. Let's take a look at <i>influenza</i>, shall we? <i>Ebola</i>, for all we care, is a world away. It doesn't affect us and our little world. <i>Influenza</i> is different. <i>Influenza</i> happens everywhere. We're all familiar with it - it's often shortened to "the flu" and we see requests for yearly vaccinations (which, mind you, I didn't get this year; I know one of the side effects of vaccination is flu-like symptoms for a few days and hey, guess what? I can't afford to miss work because of those symptoms). The flu is interesting; see, the flu and <i>Ebola</i> are close cousins; both of them are gram-negative viruses. But <i>Influenza </i>is different.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a4/EM_of_influenza_virus.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a4/EM_of_influenza_virus.jpg" width="301" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Take a look at nature's self-assembling jigsaw puzzle</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
As far as I know, <i>Ebola's</i> genome comes whole; you get the whole RNA strain injected in one shot. This means that any mutation that happens to the virus happens because of an error when the polymerase makes a mistake. Polymerases are not capable of fixing these mistakes; these mistakes stick with the genome and are copied over with each consecutive replication. Enough of these errors add up overtime and you get a new virus species.<br />
<br />
<i>Influenza'</i>s genome isn't like that.<br />
<br />
See, when an <i>Influenza</i> virion latches onto your cell, it <i>file dumps</i>. The <i>Influenza</i> genome doesn't come in one piece; it comes in <i>eight</i>. And one inside of the cell, these eight pieces can recombine to form a complete genome (a process called reassortment). This is all done in the cytoplasm of the host cell; once the genome is restructured, the process of replicating the restructured genome begins. And it doesn't come with instructions; the eight pieces fit themselves together however they see fit at the time. Usually it's in the same manner that existed inside of the parent virion. But not always. It doesn't take an idiot to see how this can lead to enormous genetic variation, but I'm not done yet. <i>Influenza</i> is more than just a self-assembling jigsaw puzzle that comes in one box.<br />
<br />
To create an <i>Influenza </i>virus, all you need is eight pieces of genome. Those eight do <i>not</i> have to be from the same virion So if you're infected with multiple types of the flu, some of which might be harmless, all of them are preforming this file dump into your cells. For sake of reasoning let's call them Strain A and Strain B. Strain A has 8 parts - A1 through A8. Strain B has 8 parts, too; B1 through B8.<br />
<br />
Strain A is marginally infectious to humans; it'll make you sick, it'll make you miserable, but it's nothing that really runs the risk of killing you if you take good care of yourself. Strain B, on the other hand, is completely harmless. This strain is only lethal to, say birds. But boy is it lethal; nearly 80% lethality rate. Somehow, you get infected with both. Strain A latches onto your cell and file dumps all eight pieces of its genome in that cell. Strain B does the same thing.<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://danielandbonita.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/puzzle_pieces_istock_000005653019small.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="263" src="http://danielandbonita.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/puzzle_pieces_istock_000005653019small.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Influenza works sort of like this</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Remember to get a complete <i>Influenza</i> virus, all you need is eight - count 'em, eight - genome pieces. You've got 16 floating around inside of your cell right now; some parts from Strain A mix with parts from Strain B; now you've got Strain C, which consists of A1, A2, B3, B4, A5, B6, A7, and A8. This is an entirely new strain. And guess what?<br />
<br />
This strain is <i>lethal</i>. It's <i>highly</i> lethal.<br />
<br />
You went from having something that was bad enough to laying you up for a few days and something that was only lethal to birds to having something with a 80% lethality rating humans. And hey, guess what? I understated the danger here, since the polymerase that's been copying Strain A could've been making mistakes along the way, resulting in Strain A merging with mutated Strain A, resulting in Strain C.<br />
<br />
When virologists say these viruses have a lot of variation, kids, they're not joking.<br />
<br />
So why am I wasting your time with this? I mean, now you know why it's important to get your flu shot, but that's it, right?<br />
<br />
Well, no, that's not it. See, <i>Influenza</i> is dangerous. We don't think of the flu as dangerous, but it was the flu that killed 3-5% of the world's population in 1918 - anywhere from 50 to 100,000,000 people. Don't you think that could happen again? <br />
<br />
So, let's get back to practicality here. You have our fast food workers, forced to come into work sick and make your food sick because they can't afford to miss a day; no paid time off, no way to make up hours, none of that, and you need money to get better, and to get money, you need to work, so you need to work while sick to get better. Basic logic. We'd like to think that people wouldn't come into work sick, but not everyone can afford to be that Middle Class White, folks. So we have our fast food staff, who basically feed this nation, and they're very vulnerable to a virus.<br />
<br />
Take one determined ideologue, add a chemistry kit, and give them a couple strains of <i>Influenza</i> to play around with. Since <i>Influenza</i> is self-assembling and delightfully infectious, it's the perfect virus for any committed bioterrorist. How hard can it possibly be to get a sample of one of the most common viruses in the world to play with? Hell, it might not even require that much work. It might just happen by accident, since the best things happen on accident; but however you do it, you walk away from it with a very contagious and highly lethal variant of <i>Influenza</i>.<br />
<br />
Now let's say you've put two-and-two together and realized there's a massive underclass of people, who aren't protected at all from any sort of virus outbreak, responsible for feeding the nation. The entire nation - or all major urban areas, anyway. Influenza is extremely contagious and very easy to spread; what's more, people (such as myself) can't or won't get vaccinated, either because they can't (like myself) afford to lose days off work owing to flu-like symptoms or because of some vacuous, airheaded ideological reason (really, neither is a good excuse; I've told my doctor I'll go back in December, when I have time off, to get the vaccination, but it'll seriously depend on what else I have going on; I did, however, get the Tetanus and Pertussis vaccinations, though).<br />
<br />
All it'd take is one group of committed ideologues to infect themselves and then expose themselves to as many people as possible. Americans, by in large, don't seek out preventative care because they <a href="http://www.pbs.org/healthcarecrisis/uninsured.html" target="_blank">can't afford it</a>. <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">About
44 million people in this country have no health insurance, and
another 38 million have inadequate health insurance. This means
that nearly one-third of Americans face each day without the security
of knowing that, if and when they need it, medical care is available
to them and their families.</span><br />Having
no health insurance also often means that people will postpone necessary
care and forego preventive care - such as childhood immunizations
and routine check-ups-completely. Because the uninsured usually
have no regular doctor and limited access to prescription medications,
they are more likely to be hospitalized for health conditions that
could have been avoided</span></blockquote>
Take a look at that number. Around 44 million people, at the time of that interview. And they completely forego preventive care - <i>like immunizations</i>. That is a <i>huge</i> underclass of people that's just <i>begging</i> to get popped with a nasty flu-like bug that can replicate the cytokine storms of the 1918 flu virus. So our committed ideologues, who have basically sealed their own death warrant, begin to expose as many of these people, including ones in the food service industry, with this new flu virus. Since people won't visit the doctor until it's too late, what you end up with is a mass of bodies that suddenly start turning in emergency rooms with congestive heart failure, inability to breath, drowning in your own fluids, whatever pleasant fate this virus bestows on its victim -<i> and there's no vaccination</i>. <br />
<br />
Oh, but because they hit the food service industry, it spreads <i>even faster</i>. If you take your virus and give it an incubation period of about 25 days - during which the infected is still contagious but they aren't showing symptoms yet themselves - how many additional people do you think they can infect? How many people do you think will get infected by the ones they infected? If one person infects even 10 other people per day (not an outrageous assumption, assuming that you made your virus very contagious - as the flu tends to be), that's nearly 70 infected people by the time the week is over. Now, 70 does not a pandemic make; but you've to figure how many people those 70 are going to infect; if you're good a figuring exponential increases, you can probably figure this easier than I can., but it comes out to a lot of people infected in just that first week. Just because you're infected doesn't mean you'll show symptoms, mind you, and it doesn't mean your immune system won't just beat the virus back - unless, of course, you're looking at the type of influenza that triggers a cytokine storm. A cytokine storm is when your immune system <i>attacks itself</i>; and the stronger your immune system, the healthier you are, the more likely it is to kill you.<br />
<br />
By the time this blows up, our ideologues are already dead. The people in the food service industry, the people in the service sector in general, are helping to spread it because hey, it's just the flu, and you can't afford to take that time off work. It's spreading like wildfire. People are finally rushing to get the care they need - or maybe not, since a hospital bill is still really expensive when your deductible is a couple thousand more than your total personal worth and your co-pay is the difference between your kid eating lunch that week and not.<br />
<br />
So, you tell me - how many people do you think will die as a result of this attack?<br />
<br />
Will <i>you</i> be one of them?<br />
<br />
I brought up bioterrorism because everyone flips their shit about terrorism in general; we're a nation of fucking cowards who shove our heads in our collective asses at the first sign of danger. A much more likely scenario? <i>This all happens on accident.</i>It doesn't take a lot to get a new influenza virus. We're generally good about catching it and isolating it before it can spread, but all it takes is one with an incubation period that's a little longer than average, with twice or more the lethality, and you're looking at a Pandemic.<br />
<br />
By relying on the private market for insurance, and forcing people to ration insurance, we're begging, practically begging, for a pandemic - natural or man made.<br />
<br />
So how do you prevent this from becoming a reality? Well, if you're an American, this is done one of two ways:<br />
<br />
1. Shove your head in your ass and pretend it's not a real threat. What's on TV tonight? Odds are, you may be right. We might never see a dangerous pandemic. <br />
<br />
But then, knowing what you know about <i>Influenza</i> now, do you really want to take that chance? It takes a lot of copies of the new viron RNA to generate a new species, but it happens easier with <i>Influenza</i> than it does with other (-)RNA viruses simply because of the packaging. <br />
<br />
Know also that the United States is very good at ignoring pandemics. Gonorrhea - which, mind you, is verging on <a href="http://www.ibtimes.com/antibiotic-resistant-strain-gonorrhea-can-cause-pandemic-297473" target="_blank">superbug status and doesn't have many antibiotics left you can treat it with</a> - may be an epidemic. But when was the last time you heard of that? <br />
<br />
2. Do what Jesus would do: fire people who come into work sick and refuse to leave work because they need money. At least they don't infect the rest of us as they slowly die in the streets, right?<br />
<br />
Do note that I only talked about viruses. I could've instead talked about how we're <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/09/cdc-amr-rpt1/" target="_blank">running out of antibiotics</a> <a href="http://www.takepart.com/article/2013/10/25/post-antibiotic-era" target="_blank">that can be used </a><a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/health-science-technology/hunting-the-nightmare-bacteria/dr-arjun-srinivasan-weve-reached-the-end-of-antibiotics-period/" target="_blank">to treat bacterial infections</a> - and the great and glorious Free Market God won't be offering a solution any time soon because it's more profitable to turn out Viagra and Cialis than it is a functional antibiotic to treat a superbug (bolding mine):<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
…Infections are not that common compared to other types of conditions
like high blood pressure or high cholesterol. It’s a reality that many
of the drug companies left this market [antibiotic research] because of financial realities
that are placed on them. These are companies that are for-profit
companies, and like you said, they have to answer to people. <b>They have
to develop drugs that will make money, and that’s not an antibiotic</b>.</blockquote>
So there's that little bit to think about. <br />
<br />
So what's the take away, then? <br />
<br />
Well, for starters, anyone who opposes a socialized healthcare system, or any kind of system that offers free care for all its citizens based on tax income, has no room to be talking about national security, since this is a huge national security risk. To hear them babble on about the border is a fucking joke; they don't care, really, they only want to insult brown people and act racist without being called it. They're weak on national security, because they're more interested in themselves and their pocket books. Kids, you can't take your money with you when you die. Viruses don't care whether you're rich or poor, but if you're rich, you're likely to have access to better care than if you're poor.<br />
<br />
Second, this situation we're in right now - a large population, mostly poor, supporting a small upper class while working our asses off - is roughly analogous to the one set up in the 1300s. You know, the one that the Black Death toppled. A massive die off of people would, only slightly, upset the economy and society. But that's okay, since as long as I have my head lodged between my lower intestine and my colon, it's not happening.<br />
<br />
------------<br />
<br />
Ed. Note: I personally do not have the experience necessary to create a virus, nor do I have the resources, nor would I even if I did. I've always been more of a theory person rather than a doer; but that doesn't exclude others from doing it. <br />
<br />
<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2862170131521435894.post-85225882364691183842013-10-28T12:08:00.001-07:002013-10-28T12:08:20.292-07:00Antinatalism and The Problem of Happiness <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Hey y'all, I ain't dead yet.<br />
<br />
It's been a while, and I apologize for the lack of updates. I've had a tumblr going for a little while, and I'm going to port some of the tumblr posts I made back over the blog, but know that I'm back.<br />
<br />
So, to mark my return from my unannounced hiatus, I have an announcement:<br />
<br />
The Second Blue Pimpernel novel, <i>Liquidity</i>, is in the final stages of drafts. And by final stages, I mean I'm still proof reading; but I've got a print copy, and I don't usually do that unless I'm happy with the plot and I'm ready to move on. I won't put a release date on it, but watch this space for more information.<br />
<br />
Now, onto my post.<br />
<br />
I encountered a particular "philosophical" position the other day while responding to comments on Libby Anne's blog, <i>Love, Joy, and Feminism</i>. The particular post in question, <a href="http://www.patheos.com/blogs/lovejoyfeminism/2013/10/breeders-spawn-and-the-childfree.html" target="_blank">"Breeders," "Spawn," and the Childfree</a>, was making observations on how hostile some people in the childfree movement are capable of being. No movement is too good not to attract its own special little brand of asshole, and the childfree movement is no exception (yes, even the transhumanist movement has its own special breeds of asshole; misogynistic, racist, bigoted, and frankly, flat-fucking stupid, Silicon Valley Brogrammers who are chasing the Singularity while preaching their other religion, Libertarianism). I've seen some pretty nasty people in the chidlfree movement before, but that doesn't change my opinion that it's your choice whether or not to have a child. If you want one, good for you. If you don't, good for you. Life about knowing yourself and knowing what you want; allowing people who <i>want</i> to have children is what <i>pro</i>creation is truly about; what we have now can be called <i>accidental</i> creation. <br />
<br />
But that's not the overall point. I agree with everything she said.<br />
<br />
It was a particular philosophy I ran into in the comments, however, that I severely disagree with. <br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<br />
For those who've never heard of it, here's a Wikipedia link to the two things I'll be discussing today:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antinatalism" target="_blank">Wikipedia: Antinatalism</a><br />
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negative_utilitarianism#Negative_utilitarianism" target="_blank">Wikipedia: Negative Utilitarianism </a><br />
<br />
It will come as no surprise to long term readers that I'm a utilitarian. That's my particular philosophy; I've already declared myself a mild abolitionist who believes a net reduction in suffering will lead to a net increase in happiness, and the goal is to increase happiness. So it might come as a surprise to some people to know that I take issue with these two positions. <br />
<br />
Antinatalism, in so many words, says that birth causes suffering; a negative value is assigned to the act of being born and being alive. Benatar takes that position further, stating that because we suffer at birth, and suffering is negative and the goal is to reduce suffering, the only efficient way to truly reduce suffering is to never have been born at all.<br />
<br />
Fucking cheery, right?<br />
<br />
It gets better. Arthur Schopenhauer argues that it doesn't matter how much joy you experience, it will always be outweighed by the negatives (the pain and suffering) and, as a result, life itself has a negative value.<br />
<br />
Now, let's hitch this ray of sunshine philosophy onto negative utilitarianism, like Benatar does. The goal of negative utilitarianism is to reduce <i>suffering</i>. Now, figure that any joy in life will be outweighed by suffering, and the goal is to reduce suffering. The only possible solution to reduce suffering, then is to reduce life. Life becomes nothing more than a stream of negativity and suffering, and because of that, it's fundamentally immoral and unethical to bring children into this world and things that are alive deserve sympathy at best.<br />
<br />
For a syllogism, we have this:<br />
<br />
Point A: Life contains suffering<br />
Point B: Suffering outweighs the joys of life<br />
Point C: Our goal is to reduce net suffering<br />
Conclusion: The only way to reduce net suffering is to reduce life, since life contains suffering.<br />
<br />
Now, any comparisons here against Darkseid, Thanos, or Judge Death are entirely appropriate. This is the sort of thinking that the most comical super-villains do, cloaked in a pseudo-philosophy.<br />
<br />
Readers know I'm an optimist. This notion that life contains suffering, therefore, end all life is an affront of the deepest sort to me. I'd get along better with an Objectivist than I do these people, since at least Objectivists see a purpose to life.<br />
<br />
Now, if you're looking at this, you're likely wondering: I know something is wrong here, but I can't pin down where. This logic seems rock solid on the surface. And let me assure you, that logic is more than rock solid on the surface, it's rock solid all the way through.<br />
<br />
So, what's my issue aside from pitiful little emotional responses, so the cold hard philosophers can dismiss me as another stupid optimist with their manly and iron-hard logic? Recall earlier I called this a pseudo-philosophy.<br />
<br />
I call this pseudo-philosophy because the problem isn't in the logic. It's not in the syllogism; they're solid. The problem is in the axiom underlying the thesis; the problem is the core notion that drives that entire argument, and drives the entire utilitarian argument, negative, positive, and otherwise:<br />
<br />
The problem is this: Suffering is not inherently bad, and suffering is not inherently undesirable. I see two types of suffering in the world: necessary and ethical suffering, an unnecessary and unethical suffering. The goal shouldn't be to reduce <i>all</i> suffering, just <i>unnecessary</i> suffering. <br />
<br />
Sometimes, suffering can lead to a positive outcome. Since outcomes are the result of multiple different factors, I can't assign a value to how often this happens since some of those factors might be positive, others negative, and the net result is negative, but for sake of argument, it's assign a 50/50 chance. I'm pretty sure that suffering ends on a positive note more than 50% of the time, but being generous, let's assume that.<br />
<br />
How does suffering lead to a positive outcome, you might ask? Well, if you're ignorant of something, say, that the exhaust on a car is hot (this has happened to me before when I was little), you don't know any better. So you reach out and touch it, and hey, guess what, it's hot. You suffered as a result of that - you got burned - but the outcome was a net positive. For all the pain you endured, you learned that the exhaust of a car was hot, and you learned not to do that again. Not only that, but you are able to tell <i>others</i> not to make that mistake you did, so you can be a model for them, thereby reducing their suffering. Since a reduction of suffering is the goal, your suffering lead to a positive outcome and a possible net reduction in suffering. So we can safely say that suffering can have a positive outcome and, indeed, may even be desirable for that purpose. We can even say this was necessary suffering, since you served as an example <i>and</i> you learned something. Not only are you less likely to touch it again, but when someone says, "be careful, that's hot," you're less likely to touch <i>that</i>, too.<br />
<br />
Learning, then, is a positive outcome. Being a model for others, so they don't have to make that same mistake you made, is a positive outcome.<br />
<br />
Not all suffering leads to a positive outcome, though; unnecessary suffering usually doesn't. I define, for all intents and purposes, unnecessary suffering as suffering inflicted through removal of autonomy and choice, or undermining your being in a negative manner, although sometimes even then (for instance, a prisoner being sent to prison is stripped of most of their autonomy and choice, but very few people would call them being in prison unnecessary suffering). Murder is unnecessary suffering. Rape is unnecessary suffering. Physical, sexual, and emotional abuse are unnecessary suffering. These are all instances of something that remove your autonomy, undermine your being in a negative manner, or strip you of your choice (or all three at the same time). <br />
<br />
So, I've defined two types of suffering: necessary suffering, that leads to a positive outcome and the possibility of a net reduction in suffering, and unnecessary suffering, which rarely leads to a positive outcome and usually a net increase in suffering. Suffering, then, is not uniformly bad, and it's not something we should be working to eliminate because it's not bad.<br />
<br />
But wait, what about the argument of non-existence? It's clear that some people experience quite a bit of unnecessary suffering in their life, and these people would be better off if they'd never been born, right?<br />
<br />
Let's look at it from this perspective:<br />
<br />
Goal: Reduction in unnecessary suffering<br />
Point A: A positive outcome can be defined as a reduction in suffering<br />
Point B: A negative outcome can be defined as an increase in suffering<br />
Point C: Ergo, all negative outcomes must be reduced or removed. Since life is full of more negative outcomes than positive, life is still full of suffering, and the only possibly way to achieve a positive outcome is to reduce life.<br />
<br />
This is still wrong.<br />
<br />
Given a negative outcome, you have the opportunity to take a negative outcome and turn it into a positive one. If someone you live is murdered, you can still work with the police to find the individual that killed them, arresting that individual before they can kill again. It's not a positive for you, but it's a positive for society over all. Your negative has become a positive for society. People no longer live in fear of that murderer. Same for the case of rape. It may not become a positive for you, but it will be for society, because that rapist is no longer there to threaten other people.<br />
<br />
So even the darkest negatives generated by unnecessary suffering can be flipped into a positive. I mentioned earlier that you can take a negative and turn a negative into a positive; I told you I don't know what the exact rate was, but I pegged it at 50/50 for the sake of argument.<br />
<br />
So, I can take a negative and I can turn it into a positive. <br />
<br />
But what if I never existed? First off, I'd never be making this argument. But, overlooking that, non-existence affords me the ability to do nothing at all in a very literal sense. Meaning that there will be no outcome at all from me not existing.<br />
<br />
So, let's phrase it this way:<br />
Goal: Reduction in unnecessary suffering<br />
Point A: A positive outcome is preferred<br />
Point B: A negative outcome is not preferred<br />
Point C: A negative outcome can be changed, 50% of the time, into a positive outcome <i>for someone</i><br />
Point D: Non-existence affords no outcome<br />
Point E: No outcome affords no chance for any sort of change, positive or negative.<br />
Point F: 50/100 is better odds than 0/100 <br />
Therefore: suffering, both necessary and unnecessary, are preferable to non-existence, since both stand a chance of leading to the goal - a net reduction in unnecessary suffering, for myself and others. Non-existence, meanwhile, affords me <i>nothing</i>, because <i>I don't exist</i>, and it affords others <i>nothing</i>, because <i>I don't exist</i>. Since my suffering can be used as an example for others to learn form leading to a positive outcome, my existence is justified and so is the suffering that I experience. <br />
<br />
Ergo, both negative utilitarianism and antinatalism are both wrong on the face of it, and the axiom defining both is, in so many words, bullshit. To drive this home even harder, being born may be suffering (since now I know what happiness is, and now I can be deprived of it), but, as I've show by example, it's <i>necessary suffering</i>, since you can take that and turn it into a <i>major positive</i>. Life, my friends, is what you make it, and it's superior to non-existence precisely because it affords you the opportunity to do <i>just that</i>. <br />
<br />
But what about happiness? I've spent all this time focusing on suffering, since the goal of negative utilitarianism is a net reduction in suffering, not a net increase in happiness. I hold that <i>both</i> are necessary - you can't just focus on a reduction of suffering while not trying to improve overall happiness in general, but I <i>also</i> hold that not all happiness is desirable.<br />
<br />
For instance, just as some suffering can be justified and deemed ethical, not all happiness can be said to be ethical and justified. Note above I mentioned happiness for the first time; birth is suffering because I know happiness and happiness can now be deprived of me; that deprivation causing suffering. At work here is the claim that all happiness is good and all deprivation of happiness is bad, but that's not true, because not all happiness is good.<br />
<br />
For instance, a serial killer who enjoys murdering their victims can be said to be happy when they do so. But their happiness is certainly not ethical or justified. Likewise, a CEO who scams his employees so he can make more money, works them without paying them, and lies to them about reasons for cutting their hours while expecting them to work the same while he works even less and makes more money; his happiness is not ethical or justified either. In both cases, their happiness results in a deprivation and unnecessary suffering for others. Since I split suffering up into two categories, I can do the same with happiness; ethical happiness and unethical happiness, just as there's necessary suffering that leads to a positive outcome and unnecessary suffering that may or may not lead to a positive outcome <i>for someone</i>; so too is there ethical happiness, which leads to a positive (a reduction in net unnecessary suffering) and unethical happiness which leads to a negative (an increase in unnecessary suffering).<br />
<br />
Unethical happiness is almost always selfish happiness; happiness achieved at the expense of others. Make no mistake; everything you do in life will likely harm someone(s). Unethical happiness, then, is not preferred, and unethical happiness, then needs to be reduce just like unnecessary suffering.<br />
<br />
Because of this, being deprived of happiness is not necessarily a bad thing, especially since that happiness may well be unethical. But being deprived of ethical happiness is a negative - but remember that like necessary suffering, that negative can be spun into a positive: being deprived of ethical happiness may well lead to a total net increase in ethical happiness.<br />
<br />
So being born and knowing happiness to be deprived of it is not bad. Suffering is not all bad. Happiness is not all good. But all antinatalism and negative utilitarianism is bullshit. <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2862170131521435894.post-47438396199358740202013-04-24T20:27:00.000-07:002013-04-24T20:27:28.436-07:0020 Questions <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
From Townhall.com, a challenge: <a href="http://townhall.com/columnists/johnhawkins/2013/04/20/20-questions-liberals-cant-answer-n1573545" target="_blank">20 questions that liberals can't answer</a>. What they actually mean is "20 questions liberals can answer but I'm going to plug my ears and not listen, or pick at little things and use that as a red herring to avoid the discussion," thus rendering any "debate" with these people little more productive than masturbation (but nowhere near as enjoyable). Since I have a bit of a masochistic streak and I enjoy beating on the strawmen army they pony up, I figured I would take a little swing at this garbage and see if maybe I can't clear the stink. <br /><br />So, let's take a look at these 20 questions I'm not supposed to be able to answer. <br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<blockquote>
1) A few days ago, we were hearing that the Boston Marathon bombers
COULD BE conservative, which proved that the Right is evil. Now, when we
know that the terrorists are Muslims, how can the same liberals be
saying that it means nothing?</blockquote>
First thought: if you were doing any speculation or assuming anything about the Boston Bombers before there was any available information, or you were picking up scraps and running with them, you need to apologize. That's not something anyone, right or left, needs to be doing. Ergo, it doens't matter where you are on the spectrum, if you did that, you're in the wrong. <br /><br />Second thought: Almost every instance of terrorism in this country, from Oklahoma City to the Atlanta Olympics and beyond, have been carried out by someone on the political Right. Whether they're an anti-choice fanatic who guns down a gynecologist in church on Sunday, a bomber for the terrorist organization Operation: Rescue, or just a mundane Liar for Jesus who ignores the fact that the greatest threat to a democracy lies from within, not within, and that threat is the political Right and the extremism that is breeding in that ideological cesspool, it was a logical assumption that the bomber would be on the right. I'm not justifying making any of these assumptions at all, since it wasn't something anyone should've been doing (in addition to being a spectacular example of just how critically every form of media utterly <i>blew it</i>), but when you look at <a href="http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/publications/terror-from-the-right#.UXiH9spc2rM" target="_blank">this list</a> and see that almost every terrorist attack since Oklahoma City and earlier has been orchestrated by a right-wing fanatic, it's a fair assumption, but not one that needs to be made since it just kickstarts the rumor mill, which doesn't need any help after a tragic disaster like that. <br /><br />Hey, here's a question for you: In West, Texas dozens of people were killed and hundreds injured in a fertilizer plant that blew up due to poor regulatory practices and and corporate greed, in addition to the mindnumbingly stupid fact that Texas doesn't have zoning laws. More people died in this than in the Boston bombing - does this mean that the right wing is going to go after the people behind this: the wealthy industrialists and capitalists? Are you going to scream for more regulations, more government control, and zoning laws in Texas, to prevent future tragedies like this? Why is it that a bomb that kills 3 people and injures 180 people, done on purpose, deserves more attention and more scrutiny than a bomb that kills dozens, injures hundreds, and wipes out an entire town? Aren't they both just as bad?<br />
<br />
So yes, I answered it, and I hit you with a rejoinder. I won't hold my breath. <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
2) If you believe we have a "right" to things like health care, food,
shelter and a good education, then doesn't that also mean you believe we
also have a right to force other people to unwillingly provide those
things at gunpoint?</blockquote>
What the hell does this even mean? Are you talking about taxes - the things that gave you the opportunity to do what you do today? The things that pay for the infrastructure that put you at work, the things that pay for the education that got you that job, and the things that pay for the society that keeps you alive, so you're not ripped apart and killed by hordes of murderous people, because you've got scraps of food nobody else has? Are you seriously advocating that making you <i>pay</i> for <b>everything you use, daily </b>is <i>theft</i>? Really? How immature. Seriously, how immature are you? I grew up, I learned that taxes were a fact of life early on. I don't <i>like</i> having to pay for the wars and shit that Neo-cons keep getting us into, but I do anyway. I don't <i>like</i> having to pay for all the tax breaks the Christian churches get (and really, this needs to stop; tax them, and then go after those fuckers for back taxes, too). But I do. And I look at you, stomping your feet and holding your breath until you turn blue in the fucking face, like I see a toddler in the store, angry because they didn't the candy bar they wanted.<br /><br />Without taxes, our society would go to hell. Literally, there would be nobody there to protect you from any people, since you probably wouldn't be able to afford the police, or even worse, there wouldn't be any police since nobody could get educated enough to be one, since there was no open education system for everyone. Without taxes, society becomes ruled by who ever is the strongest - and I guarantee your flabby white ass isn't nearly as strong as you think you are. Society would crumble to post-apocalyptic levels without taxes to support it - how do I know? I live in a city, deep in Third World America, where the tax base has almost completely vanished. While we pay taxes, we don't get what we pay for because there aren't enough of us to cover it - which is what <i>you</i> want, right? A volunteer system, so everyone else can pay them but you and you can still reap the benefits? There is almost no police presence; at last counting, we had 100,000 citizens and 8 police officers. The city could burn down (and has! Some parts are nothing but charred timber), and we'd have nobody there help since our fire department is even more dire straits than our police department There are parts of the city you don't want to be in during the daytime, much less of a night, and the roads - well, you spend more time driving in the median, since there are pot holes that will rip the front end of your car out if you hit them, which makes getting to work really fun and shipping goods by road really practical, right? Stores and shops are closing because they can't get the protection they need or they don't have the customer base, laying people off, who can't get on unemployment and can't find jobs, which leads to fewer shoppers, which leads to more stores closing, which creates a vicious positive feedback cycle. This impacts education; we cram more and more kids into a classroom, resulting in those students receiving a worse education, chasing away potential high tech jobs and resulting in the next generation of unemployed, disenfranchised youth who commit crimes, get tangled in gang warfare, or just die young because poverty breeds stress. This drives down the average life expectancy, which drives up independent health care costs, to the point where people can't afford them anymore, so more people wind up in emergency, taxing the system and forcing you to pay <i>anyway</i>, every time you'd use their services (since we're assuming that the hospitals don't just shove it off on the city). Is this where you want to live? Is this the kind of country you want? Explain to me where I'm wrong. Go ahead, and I'll wait. <br /><br />Why don't you just put down Rand's little fantasy book and join us here in reality, huh? Most people grow out of that shit by the time they're goddamn teenagers, and here you are, an adult...<br />
<blockquote>
3) How can you simultaneously want a big government that will make
decisions that have an enormous impact on the lives of every American
while also saying that the character and morals of our politicians don't
matter?</blockquote>
Excellent question directed to the Strawliberal over here, but I'll thank you to note that I'm sitting a little further to the left, in a region known as "reality." You should try living here once in a while, it can be really nice, even when people like you are trying to fuck it up. <br /><br />Who ever said that morality and character don't matter? Who has ever said that, huh? I don't doubt that someone, somewhere said that, but seriously, I don't think you'll find a large population of liberals who believe that. Most of us do care about character and morals - which is why we voted <i>against</i> Romney-Ryan, McCain-Palin, and Bush-Cheney. <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
4) What exactly is the "fair share" of someone's income that he’s earned that he should be able to keep? </blockquote>
Well, seeing as how I paid something like 1,000 dollars out in taxes of my gross income - ~17,000 dollars for a whole year, whoopie! - and Wal-Mart paid none, <i>anything</i> would be close. Oh, and you don't get to whine about the tax code when your side does everything they can to make it not work. <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
5) Why is it that time and time again, revenue paid to the treasury has GONE UP after we've cut taxes?</blockquote>
Got any facts to back that up? Like, numbers, or something to that effect? Because just <a href="http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=692" target="_blank">about</a> <a href="http://rricketts.ba.ttu.edu/Tax%20Rates%20and%20Revenues.htm" target="_blank">everything</a> <a href="http://taxfoundation.org/article/five-myths-about-bush-tax-cuts" target="_blank">I've</a> <a href="http://www.brendan-nyhan.com/blog/2010/05/national-review-debunks.html" target="_blank">found</a> <a href="http://www.ctj.org/taxjusticedigest/archive/2013/03/the_myth_that_tax_cuts_pay_for.php#.UXiRVMpc2rM" target="_blank">says</a> <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/post/the-historical-myth-that-reagan-raised-1-in-taxes-for-every-3-in-spending-cuts/2012/12/13/58a33e4c-4555-11e2-8061-253bccfc7532_blog.html" target="_blank">otherwise</a>. <br /><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
6) Are you pro-choice or pro-abortion? If it's pro-choice, do you feel
people should be able to choose to have an assault weapon, what kind of
light bulb they use in their house or whether they'd like to put their
Social Security funds into a private retirement account?</blockquote>
<br />Aww shit, here we go again. <br /><br />I am pro-choice; pro-choice in allowing the woman to choose whether or not she wants an abortion right up until the child is born. Why? Because actuality precedes potentiality. We can agree that the mother is an actual human being, ergo, her wants, needs, and desires must be taken into account over those of the fetus, who is not an actual human. <br /><br />The other two points have nothing to do with this question. Like, nothing at all. Choice is not something to considered; no, you don't have the choice to own an assault rifle anymore than you have the choice to own a nuclear warhead or an attack helicopter. And if you believe an armed society is a polite one, why is your side fighting so hard to keep Iran from being a nuclear state? I thought an armed society was a polite one. Clearly, giving everyone on the planet nuclear warheads will make our planet a more stable one, right? If that's not true, then why do you think that allowing everyone the possibility to own an assault rifle is smarter? <br /><br />Because that's my environment you're fucking up, jack. That's why; with that one little light bulb, you're draining more electricity, and pumping more coal smoke into the atmosphere, ruining it for our future generations. <br /><br />Nobody's saying that you can't have your own private retirement fund. I have my own private retirement fund - even though I don't think I'll ever get to retire in my life, since your side is working so damn hard to make that an unreachable goal. But everyone pays into social security, since it's cheaper if there are more people paying into it than if there are less. <br /><br />Are you pro-life or are you pro-forced birth? Do you feel like a woman's life should be as a slave to a child she never wanted because she was never informed of the consequences, since your side refuses to allow half-way decent sex education in this country? If abortions were carried out with an assault rifle, would you agree with them then? Why do you want to ruin the environment, or why do you think it's your right to ruin the environment when all of us have to share it? You don't get your own little spot of the atmosphere you can foul up, no matter how much the rest of us might wish. <br />
<blockquote>
7) If corporations are so awful, greedy and bad for the country, then
shouldn't we be celebrating when they decide to close their plants here
and move overseas?</blockquote>
Because they're awful and greedy because they pack up and move oversees, and it just serves to prove our point? <br /><br />Because they're awful and greedy when they're given pens by our legislator and allowed to write the regulations that they often don't even follow? (see: West, Texas). <br /><br />Because they're awful and they're greedy when they refuse to take care of their workers, constantly focus on the bottom line, and at the end of the day, destroy themselves and put thousands out of work. Or when the abuse the environment that the rest of us have to share. Or when they cut corners on their products because there wasn't enough regulations and they put the rest of us at risk. Or when they buy politicians and create SuperPACs, which exist for the sole purpose giving everyone the finger while using all of the existing infrastructure in society that they no longer pay for. <br /><br />But because you're busy worshiping the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_calf" target="_blank">Capitalist Golden Calf</a>, I don't think you'd see that. <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
8) How can liberal economists like Paul Krugman be right when they claim
that our economy isn't doing well because we aren't spending enough
money when we're already running massive, unsustainable deficits and
spending is going up every year?</blockquote>
Part of a growing society is spending more to help support that society. When you try to cut back on that, then the economy slumps - especially a consumer-based economy, which tends to require these things called <i>consumers</i>, which, as you may or may not know, are people who have money. If they don't have money and they're not employed, either in government work or elsewhere, they don't spend their money. And the rich don't count, since they don't spend money - <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/post-analysis-of-dow-30-firms-shows-declining-tax-burden-as-a-share-of-profits/2013/03/26/3dfe5132-7b9a-11e2-82e8-61a46c2cde3d_story.html" target="_blank">they</a> <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-08/offshore-cash-hoard-expands-by-183-billion-at-companies.html" target="_blank">shove it</a> <a href="http://www.ctj.org/corporatetaxdodgers50states/" target="_blank">away in</a> <a href="http://www.uspirg.org/sites/pirg/files/reports/USPIRG_Tax_Havens_Fact_Sheet_0.pdf" target="_blank">tax havens</a> <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/tag/tax-havens/" target="_blank">overseas</a>, costing us <b>billions</b> of dollars each year. <br /><br />And our deficit is one of the safest in the world to invest in; before the TEA Party started playing games, we had a AAA credit rating. Now, because of their shit and political theater, we're down to a AA, but we're still one of the strongest debts in the world. You deficit hawks worry too much, but, like everything else with you hyperpartisans, it's only when the guy on the opposite side of the aisle is in power. <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
9) If Republicans don’t care about the poor, why do studies consistently show that they give more to charity than Democrats do? </blockquote>
There's a lot of crap in the link that they gave, which is why I didn't keep it. They linked to a conservative who linked to an older conservative. As the <a href="http://www.politicalgarbagechute.com/answering-a-conservative-hacks-20-unanswerable-questions/" target="_blank">political garbage chute</a>, which also fisked this thing said, <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
There are all kinds of reasons that studies like this are idiotic, but
first and foremost, it doesn’t take into account those who give
anonymously. Secondly, the scope with which that study was conducted was
quite large in terms of what “charitable donations” consists of.
Donating to a church doesn’t exactly equate to donating to AIDS
research, when much of what gets donated to churches goes towards
operating the church. It’s bullshit, in other words, to claim that
either side gives more to charity because thankfully most people aren’t
pretentious and self-involved so much that they wear t-shirts depicting
how much money they gave to charity in the previous tax year.</blockquote>
I'd also like to add the liberals do something similar; we pay our taxes without kvetching, which has a larger net impact on society than giving money to some goofy church in BFE where the pastor pockets half of it and then spends the rest of it on who knows what. Frankly a donation to a church is wasted money; I'd rather take that money and pay taxes and things like roads, education, police, fire, and other social services for it. <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
10) Give us a ballpark estimate: If something doesn't change
dramatically, how long do you think it will be until we have an economic
crash in this country similar to the one we're seeing in Greece or
Cyprus?</blockquote>
Well, you seem to misunderstand what's happening in both countries. First of all, there was no effort to level the playing field between the countries that joined the EU and attempted to match currencies; Germany had a stronger economy than either country, and Greece was rife with banking scams, similar to what happened here, that's nearly destroying that country. Germany doesn't want to ease up and devalue their currency, forcing Greece and other poorer countries to suffer austerity cuts in order to keep up with Germany (this is a highly parsed explanation; I may have European readers who can explain this better than I can or correct anything I get wrong; feel free to). <br /><br />But back to the question - we're not far off unless we start cutting defense spending and jumping taxes on the upper class, who are damn determined not to pay their share for the society they abuse on a regular basis.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
11) Since we "all agree" with the idea that our level of deficit
spending is "unsustainable," what would be wrong with permanently
freezing federal spending at the current level until we balance the
budget by increasing revenue, cutting spending or some combination
thereof?</blockquote>
What? Are you proposing a total pay freeze for everyone that works in the military? They're part of the government, too, and they're part of federal spending. A freeze on federal spending denies them their pay, it cuts off their benefits, and it undermines any attempts to help them once they leave the army. I thought you supported the military? <br /><br />Because if you cut spending, you cut people's medicare and medicate, which means that real people are going to be really dead (not that you care)? Because if you cut spending, you'll reduce the money that goes to research? Because you'll be freezing education spending, causing schools to fall apart even faster than they are now? Because you'll be triggering a massive freeze on the federal police, resulting in huge gaps that will leave us open for any outside threat? Because it's a really stupid idea - the kind of stupid that could only be proposed by someone who swallowed <i>Atlas Shrugged</i> as the Third Testament of the Bible and thinks that asshole sociopaths like John Galt are heroes? <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
12) If we change God's definition of marriage to make gay marriage
legal, then what's the logical argument against polygamy or even adult
siblings supposed to be? </blockquote>
Fuck your god's definition; he doesn't exist. <br /><br />And there are none. As long as there's consent and it makes someone happy, why should it be the responsibility for the Conservative Nanny State to stop them? <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
13) In a world where people can easily change states and can, with a bit
more difficulty, permanently move to other roughly comparable parts of
the globe, do you really think it's feasible over the long haul to have a
tax system where 86% of the income taxes are paid by the top 25% of the
income earners? </blockquote>
Because what we<i> really</i> need to do is aim for the bottom and compete with developing world.<br /><br />That's why it becomes the job of the government to create new jobs, while reaching out and helping to create unions and supporting worker's rights in other countries, and the supporting the governments that support them, and strengthening the international courts, so they can bring these corporations to justice when they violate the laws. <br />
<blockquote>
14) If you win a lawsuit that's filed against you, why should you have
to pay huge legal bills when you did nothing wrong while the person who
filed the suit pays no penalty for wrongly accusing you?</blockquote>
To quote PGC: Because not every lawsuit is brought maliciously or without warrant, that’s why.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
15) How can you oppose putting murderers to death and be fine with killing innocent children via abortion?</blockquote>
Actuality outweighs potentiality. The actual human here is the mother; her wants and needs must be taken into consideration before the potential human. And they're not children, they're fetuses, or embryos, or zygotes - you whine and bitch about how liberals don't understand the difference between an "assault weapon" and whatever else, ergo we can't talk about gun control (Ima wavin' my herrin'), so here's a new rule, more salient to the discussion than your smokescreen argument: you can't talk about abortion unless you understand the difference between a fetus, embryo, and zygote, and you can tell the difference between them and a child. <br /><br />When you can prove to me 100% beyond any shadow of a doubt that the murderer is guilty, then we'll talk about the death penalty. Not in the court of popular opinion, not on Twitter, not on Reddit, but in a court of law, prove, 100% they are guilt. You can't do that. Even if you could mind read, you couldn't prove 100% because of how human memories are encoded, stored, and then revised at a later date by the brain. There is no way to prove 100% that they are guilt. Ergo, they may be innocent. I don't want to be responsible for killing an innocent person, do you?<br /><br />What's more, how can you call yourself "pro-life" when poverty and a lack of healthcare kill thousands each year, including children, and shorten the lifespan of many more people? I thought life was sacrosanct? How can you call yourself "pro-life" when you support empire-building wars that kill people overseas, removing government regulations that put thousands in the line of danger (i.e., West, Texas - yes, I'm hammering this home until you <i>get it</i>), and supporting rhetoric that causes individuals like Scott Roeder to go out and shoot doctors like George Tiller, murdering them? How can you pro-life when you want to destroy the environment through oil drilling, when you want to waste the air through coal plants, and when you'd rather destroy the future by smashing social safety nets and freeze Medicare and Medicate, killing thousands, if not more? You don't look very pro-life from here, bub. In fact, I think "forced birth" is more accurate. <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
16) A minimum wage raises salaries for some workers at the cost of
putting other workers out of jobs entirely. What's the acceptable ratio
for that? For every 10 people who get a higher salary, how many are you
willing to see lose their jobs?</blockquote>
First off, where's your proof that raising minimum wage puts people out of work? Last time I checked, California had the highest minimum wage in the nation and, as a result, one of the lowest unemployment rates. Why is this so hard to understand - I'll go slow and use small words: <br /><br />To have a consumer (those are people - that is, human beings - that spend money to buy things) based economy (that is, a system by which the government, or the people of the nation through their elected officials, monitors - okay, I'm going to throw a few big words your way, so hold on - fiscal and monetary policies), you must have consumers to spend money. The more money you give consumers, the more money they have to spend. The wealthy are not consumers. They store their money away, acting as drains on the economy. <br /><br />Not all companies understand this. They want to follow the Law of Iron Wages, which hurts everyone. Thus, someone needs to step in, slap some sense into these stupid bastards, and force them to do the sensible thing. That's the American People, through the will of our elected officials (since, as a democracy, <i>we are the government</i>.) This is called a "minimum wage", and it exists to keep people out of poverty and keep people spending money. <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
17) The earth has been warming and cooling for thousands of years with
temperature drops and increases that are much larger than the ones we've
seen over the last century. Since we can't adequately explain or model
those changes, what makes us think we can say with any sort of
confidence that global warming is being caused by man?</blockquote>
<a href="http://climate.nasa.gov/causes" target="_blank">You're a fucking liar</a>.<br />
<blockquote>
18) We live in a world where people have more choices than ever before
in music, entertainment, careers, news sources and what to do with their
time. Shouldn't government mirror that trend by moving towards
federalism and states’ rights instead of centralizing more and more
power in Washington, DC?</blockquote>
What does music have to do with state's rights? That's a hell of a non sequitor. State's rights is little more than a euphemism for slavery, so I'd be careful throwing that around. Besides, last time we gave the states rights to enforce federal laws, like voting laws, we wound up with members of the KKK getting elected to government positions and states barring African Americans from voting. This recent attack on voting rights is only further proof that the states are not equipped to handle any more power granted to them by the feds. <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
19) If people in the middle class aren't willing to pay enough in taxes
to cover the government services that they use because they don't think
it's worth the money, shouldn't we prune back government to a level
people do feel comfortable paying for in taxes? </blockquote>
Uh, no? Go up to my point above about how I don't like covering warfare with my taxes but I do anyway. It's part of living in a society. Grow up. <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
20) If firms can get by with paying women 72 cents on the dollar for the
same quality of work as men, then why don't we see any firms with all
female labor forces using those lower costs to dominate the marketplace?</blockquote>
I... what? So you're saying that the 72 cents on the dollar that women are getting cheated regularly doesn't exist because female firms aren't using these lower costs to dominate the marketplace? What kind of stupid shit is this? Here, <a href="http://usgovinfo.about.com/cs/censusstatistic/a/womenspay.htm" target="_blank">GAO</a> says you're full of shit. The point is that there are human begins who are being robbed, basically. They're being robbed, and while the corporations and their bosses rob them for their hard work, you're going to sit there and whine and bitch about how paying taxes on your <i>full income, because you're man</i> is "thievery"? That's some tremendous chutzpah. Seriously, that's some huge chutzpah. <br /><br />So there we have it. All 20 answered, where applicable. <br /><br />Was it any surprise that they were all incredibly stupid and based on lies and straw-men? <br /><br />
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2862170131521435894.post-28617862731807512672013-04-08T13:06:00.002-07:002013-04-08T13:06:34.814-07:00You Live in a Country Of Idiots When... <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I just ran across this little tidbit the other day: it was a facebook share that popped on my feed, so I just had to say something about it.So rather than post the actual facebook update, I went looking for the source - and I had no problem finding several different sources. So I just went ahead and grabbed the first source that I could find: <a href="http://www.texasfred.net/archives/20371" target="_blank">from here</a>. <br />
<br />
It's called "A nation founded by geniuses but run by idiots."<br />
<br />
Given that the American people are the government and supposed to be running the government, but you're too busy complaining to know that, I'll agree: you are an idiot.<br />
<br />
Let's roll, folks! It's time for a classic takedown of some Right-wing deliberate obfuscation, malicious belligerent ignorance, and emotionally stunted entitlement! <br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
First, the byline of our conservative blogger, because this always catches my eye:<br />
<br />
<blockquote>
<span style="color: white;"><i><b>I don't play the PC game, so be <i>very careful</i> what you ask for, you might get a lot more than you expect.</b></i></span></blockquote>
<br />
Okay, I'll bite: Why are you so proud of being a jackass who doesn't care about how other people feel that you post it where everyone can see it? "Political correctness" is a byword for "I want to say whatever I want and you're being oversensitive if you get offended." I've <a href="http://post-modernenlightenment.blogspot.com/2011/10/cultures-and-costumes.html" target="_blank">dissected the term before</a>. It allows you, the asshole, to feel like you're the victim. People have feelings. You don't have to respect those feelings, sure. But don't pretend you're doing the world a favor by standing up against people who have shit handed to them from the day they were born, until the day they die. Because, hey, you're not.<br />
<br />
I play the "P.C. game". And I play it because I know what it's like to be on the receiving end of those who are "sick of being P.C." and have no problem saying mentally ill people are dangerous (I'm dangerous alright, but it's not because I'm mentally ill. It's because you're pissing me off). I'm sick of "I'm so tired of all this P.C." bullshit when someone calls you out for calling gay people faggots or black people niggers, or saying that black people feel "entitled" or that poor people are "leaches" or that gay marriage is "the end of the whole wide world and there's nothing God can do to stop it so I have to!" or "Atheists have everything, why can't I force them to pay their tax money to keep a cross up on public property?" When you plug your ears and pretend that society is good and perfect and whine that calling people racist is racist in and of itself. Welcome to backasswards day, folks! Being "politically correct" and carrying about other people beyond the people in our immediate monkeysphere is now a <i>bad</i> thing.<br />
<br />
But I'm not living up to what I preach! I'm being mean to those poor conservatives, who did nothing but be mean to everyone else! <br />
<br />
Golden Rule: you set the standard for how you want to be treated. If you want to be an intolerant ass, don't be surprised when people <i>treat you</i> like an intolerant ass. <br />
<br />
Anyway, onto the list!<br />
<blockquote>
If you can get arrested for hunting or fishing without a license, but
not for being in the country illegally you might live in a country
founded by geniuses but run by idiots.</blockquote>
The two are not equivalent. Hunting and finishing is not the same as living and surviving. I don't need a license to be in the country, do I? I'm a naturalized citizen. I have a green card. That's not the same thing as hunting and fishing.You need a license to hunt and fish just like you need a license to
drive. Being an immigrant is not the same thing. This is classic false
equivalence fallacy. <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
If you have to get your parents permission to go on a field trip or take
an aspirin in school, but not to get an abortion you might live in a
country founded by geniuses but run by idiots.</blockquote>
First off, certain medications are controlled substances and bringing them into the school can be a bit of a problem, especially when a lot of the abused drugs in this country are <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/ondcp/prescription-drug-abuse" target="_blank">prescription drugs</a>. Second, This is another false equivalence. Children don't need a permission slip to take things like aspirin on their own, do they? Why should they need permission to do something like that, when they have a doctor guiding them? Patient doctor privacy exists and should be respected, you know, even if the child is 9 years old (although there's still communication between the doctor and the parent, but as they grow up, there's less and less, so start learning to deal). The school has to get the parental slip in order to legally clear the school to be acting as the parent for the child while they're on the field trip. Legally, the school is responsible, and this slip allows the school to take that responsibility.Third, if you have a healthy relationship with your kid, why are you worrying? They'll come to you for help. The only reason they <i>won't</i> is if <i>you're</i> the cause of the problem, or you've engendered a sense of fear in your child, so they don't think you'll be calm or levelheaded and they're <i>scared</i> of your reaction.<br />
<br />
And if your child is <i>scared</i> of you, well, you're doing something wrong. Like being a decent human.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
If you have to show identification to board an airplane, cash a check,
buy liquor, or check out a library book, but not to vote for who runs
the government you might live in a country founded by geniuses but run
by idiots.</blockquote>
Boarding an airplane, cashing a check, buying liquor, and checking out a library book are not rights. Voting is a right. There's been <a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/Opinion/2012/0829/The-conservative-case-against-voter-ID-laws" target="_blank">a lot </a><a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/12/12/1044203/-The-Argument-Against-Voter-ID-That-You-Won-t-See-in-the-Media" target="_blank">done (and said) </a><a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/09/13/backlash-swells-against-voter-laws.html" target="_blank">about</a> <a href="http://gaanderson.hubpages.com/hub/Fight-Against-Voter-ID-Card-Requirement-Exposed" target="_blank">this </a>(including a <a href="http://www.lawyerscommittee.org/admin/voting_rights/documents/files/Voter-ID-Talking-Points-for-web.pdf" target="_blank">brief by a law firm</a>), <a href="http://www.brennancenter.org/analysis/policy-brief-voter-identification" target="_blank">so</a> I won't waste the words <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/03/how-voter-id-laws-are-being-used-to-disenfranchise-minorities-and-the-poor/254572/" target="_blank">repeating it. </a><br />
<blockquote>
If the government wants to ban stable law-abiding citizens from owning
gun magazines with more than ten rounds, but gives 20 F-16 fighter jets
to the crazy new leaders in Egypt you might live in a country founded
by geniuses but run by idiots.</blockquote>
If the shooter had to stop at least once during Sandy Hook, how many lives might have been saved? You want a literal interpretation of the Constitution? It says you have the right to bare arms. It doesn't say you have a right to ammunition. The bullet is not part of the gun, it's not part of the arm. You can have as many guns as you want according to the Constitution. But there's no guarantee on bullets, magazines, or rounds.<br />
<br />
That said, I have to wonder if we're arming Egypt as a means to keep Iran in check. I can't say what the exact reason for doing it is, but I know the United States doesn't just give aid without having some other, Realpolitik reason for doing it. Saudi Arabia is already our ally, and so is most of the other countries in the region, but now that Mubarak is disposed of, I wonder if we're trying to build a relationship with the new leaders of Egypt to help stabilize that country so we can have another chess piece in the region against Iran.<br />
<br />
Is that a particularly intelligent thing to do? No. But we've done shit like that in the past - we did it with the Taliban and with Al Qaeda when they were fighting the Soviets in Afghanistan, the Graveyard of Empires. We did it again with Iraq during the Iran-Iraq War, when Rumsfield snapped pictures shaking hands with Saddam Hussein. We even did it internally with Iran, when we had a joint mission with Britain to overthrow the first democratically elected prime minister in Iran and replace him with the Shah, who was our puppet and did an excellent job of stamping out competition - secular competition, that is. Khomeini was not secular competition, and he was far more popular than the Shah was. Why wouldn't we prop up Egypt to use it as a pawn in that region against an increasingly belligerent (I say properly paranoid) Iran? It'd be totally in character. <br />
<br />
That's not being an idiot. That's short-sighted Realpolitik, and we've been doing that ever since the Revolutionary War.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
If, in the largest city, you can buy two 16-ounce sodas, but not a
24-ounce soda because 24-ounces of a sugary drink might make you fat you
might live in a country founded by geniuses but run by idiots.</blockquote>
Why? We keep people from getting things that are unhealthy for them in food - you can't buy a can of green beans with arsenic in them without the company breaking multiple laws, and if there's rat poison in your fast food you can take them to court. The government already sets what you can eat at public and corporate establishments, for the safety of the masses. Sugary drinks are not healthy for you - there's plenty of evidence that they're bad (talk to any dentist ever; between the sugar and the acid, you're destroying your teeth, and your memory due to carbonation, in addition to the calories that are added, which taxes your body and puts more of a strain on our already pathetic healthcare industry - it costs more to cover you since you're more prone to certain illnesses, which means that everyone else is playing out more, too, for their premiums, when it's something that, in most cases, can be prevented). You want more? Get up and get more. If you don't like it, then don't eat at those establishments. Eat your rat poison at home, where the government can't stop you since it's your home. Society can foot the bill for you acting on your own at home. But there need to be regulations in terms of societal institutions.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
If an 80-year-old woman can be stripped searched by the TSA but a woman
in a heap is only subject to having her neck and head searched you
might live in a country founded by geniuses but run by idiots.</blockquote>
Absolutely. We need to stop the strip searches of those 80 year old women by the TSA. As far as I'm concerned, I suspect there might be actual agreement here. The TSA doesn't really protect anything, and as an institution, it's a waste of money and needs to be dismantled. We need to stop living in the shadow of paranoia. <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
If your government believes that the best way to eradicate trillions of
dollars of debt is to spend trillions more you might live in a country
founded by geniuses but run by idiots.</blockquote>
Well, in the case of Bush, this is right. In the case of Reagan, this is accurate. But as far as things are with Obama, <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/docs/fiscal_record.pdf" target="_blank">he's cut spending</a>. So, you know, you're wrong. Like everyone who parrots this absolutely asinine right-wing talking point. <br />
<br />
Also: We're in the middle of an economic recession. The rich (I typed "reich" on accident; that's both a Godwin <i>and</i> a historical linguistic expression, since "rich" is a cognate of "reich") are making more money than ever before, corporations are not paying taxes, and the country is falling apart because the top are not pulling their weight. If the private sector isn't creating jobs and it's just getting richer (make no mistake - there are jobs - but as I find out every time I log onto Monster, there's an experience demand that not everyone can meet, and as a result, 90% of the population who would apply for the job <i>can't</i>, because they don't have the necessary experience. Welcome to the catch-22 of employment: to get a job you need experience in the field, but to get experience in the field, you need a job). The government spending trillions of dollars to fix our sorry ass infrastructure (which is at 3rd world levels) and employing all of the people necessary to do so would see millions of new jobs, with millions of new people in employment, who are looking for ways to spend their money. The private sector is not doing this. It's up to the public sector, instead. You can't have a consumer based economy without consumers, now can you? This seems almost tautological, but it's so difficult for some people to understand that it needs to be branded on the of a gigantic anvil and dropped on their head until they understand it. <br />
<br />
Or, in other words, it creates a stronger tax base, so you can make more in taxes. Without that strong tax base, you make no money. You can't make money by magically bleeding yourself dry when there are leeches (the wealthy) sucking everything out of you, too.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
If a seven year old boy can be thrown out of school for saying his
teacher is cute, but hosting a sexual exploration or diversity class in
grade school is perfectly acceptable you might live in a country founded
by geniuses but run by idiots.</blockquote>
Another false equivalence. Diversity and "sexual exploration class" in grade school is not the same thing as a 7-year-old saying his "teacher is cute" and being throw out for it, and whoever threw the kid out for that needs to lose their job, providing that even <i>happened </i>(I'm not <i>saying</i> you're a liar, but you <i>are</i> quoting this for propaganda purposes...). I'm not sure about a "sexual exploration class" in <i>grade school</i>, but we do need to begin sex education at an earlier age than we do and it needs to be far more thorough than it is. Sex, people, is a fact of fucking <i>life</i>. Without it, there would <i>be</i> no life. Let <i>go</i> of the stigma, grow the <i>Hell</i> up, and stop <i>giggling</i> when someone mentions <i>naughty parts</i>. <br />
<br />
Jesus Christ. <br />
<br />
It needs to be incorporated into biology classes. We need to teach our children about their bodies, so they're not so mystified. If they go out and have sex, so what? So long as they're not producing babies, that's just how humans <i>are</i>. Most of the time, you find teens who wait until, or who are in monogamous relationships, but there's no reason we can't arm them with knowledge. It's <i>your body</i>. This shit just pisses me off. It's like we have to keep these children ignorant about who they are and what they are, about how their body operates and keep them from having fun in this one life that they've got, so long as they acknowledge consent and respect it, <i>because there's nothing after this</i>. I have <i>never</i> understood this hangup over sexuality. It's natural. It's human. So long as explicit consent is involved, <i>I do not care</i>. Knowledge is power. That's part of the problem right there: we don't want our children to have power. <br />
<br />
I don't think parents should be responsible for teaching sex ed. If they want to, go ahead. But it needs to be <i>mandatory</i> in our school system, and needs to be taught as part of biology, since it' <i>a part of life</i>. <br />
<br />
It's <i>a part of life. <br /><br />A part of life. </i><br />
<br />
Now, onto the <i>other</i> issue here - the unsaid notion that diversity is <i>bad</i>. That teaching little kids that there are people who might have a different outlook on life than them is somehow <i>wrong</i>. <br />
<br />
Because, as we all know, we teach diversity in history. I mean, I can name Martin Luther King, Jr. Hell, that's all the diversity I need, right? I know who he is. If I'm lucky, I know Malcolm X. He was that radical who said all white people need to die. I might know George Washington Carver, he invented peanut butter or something. I've probably heard of Rosa Parks; she was a big ol' meanie who didn't give up her seat for that poor, persecuted white man. Maybe Dread Scott. He went back to his master after a bunch of activist judges agreed with the south - who knew the ACLU existed back then? I mean, look at all those Negroes! That's more Colored folk than you can shake a dead coon at. And don't get me started on those Chinamen, and the Redskins. I can name ... Siting Bull. Look at me, I can be politically incorrect; I mean, just look at that list - not a white man one on it, and that's discrimination, you know. I bet you can't name that many famous white <i>men</i>, can you? <br />
<br />
See? We don't need diversity. <br />
<br />
There's only one culture that matters and that's American (White) Culture. All other cultures need to be assimilated into American (White) Culture. They should all learn to speak English, because I'll be damned before I learn to speak any of them furrin words. Scratch this and you get absolutely <i>rank</i> xenophobia in addition to <i>brutal</i> racism - all other cultures are <i>bad</i>, they're <i>dangerous</i> to our way of life, we <i>don't</i> need to teach students about their neighbors, because <i>their neighbors should be just like us. </i><br />
<br />
Diversity has other components, too. I'm all for teaching kindergarteners that gay people exist. You don't have to <i>describe</i> anything, but saying "sometime two guys love one another" or "it's absolutely normal to have two mommies" is perfectly fine. Save the descriptions for when they get older and they can understand it; for biology class, where it belongs. <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
If children are forcibly removed from parents who discipline them with
spankings while children of addicts are left in filth and drug infested
homes you might live in a country founded by geniuses but run by idiots</blockquote>
[Citation needed]<br />
<br />
Hell, all of these: [citation needed]. But this one especially, since I don't think I've heard of a child removed from their parents because their parents "spanked" them (never mind that I think spanking is absolutely barbaric; there's no reason to, and why should a child learn to associate anything with pain? I was never spanked in my life and I'm one of the most vocal liberals you've ever met. Either something went horribly wrong or horribly right, but I'm not a convicted criminal, I respect people who show respect for others, and I developed a post-conventional morality that means I'm constantly running headfirst into other, more self-centered moralities). I know that California moved to redefine spanking as abuse, but I haven't heard about it since. If you love your child, why do you need to spank them? They cry in public? That's <i>your</i> fault. They don't have any other way to communicate, and they're tired. And you're forcing them to stay awake, so naturally they're going to get cranky. Children are not innately evil. Smacking the hand to keep them from shoving a fork in the electrical socket as an infant isn't necessary - take the fork away, tell them no, and then distract them and get their attention on something else so they forget about it. <br />
<br />
It's hard being a parent, I know. I see it. I'm a teacher, I sub, I've been in every grade level K through 12 and I work with adults in education. I've been in every subject from AP Calculus (<i>that</i> was fun) to Alternative Ed. Automotive Repair. <i>I have seen it all</i>. It's not easy caring for a child, because humans don't come with the instincts necessary to raise a baby like other animals do; as a self-aware species, instincts are not enough. It's too complicated. Our babies are not capable of taking care of themselves after several weeks. They're not capable of taking care of themselves after several <i>years</i>. But our society doesn't make it any easier - there needs to be maternity and paternity leave, that's paid, and there needs to be structures in place so that you don't <i>have</i> to drag your baby out at 6 in the morning to get your food stamps. More on this in a minute.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
If hard work and success are met with higher taxes and more government
intrusion, while not working is rewarded with EBT cards, WIC checks,
Medicaid, subsidized housing, and free cell phones you might live in a
country founded by geniuses but run by idiots.</blockquote>
We go from racism to classism in a heart beat. Now we're playing in my home stadium. I try my best to be a good ally in the case of racism and other -isms, and I'll confront them when I see them, but my home field is classism and sexism.<br />
<br />
Here that? A safety net is bad. If you pull yourself up by your bootstraps, everything will be peachy-fucking-keen. I have sent out over 100 resumes last year and didn't get a call back one. I suppose that's my fault for not trying hard enough to find a job in addition to my underemployment, huh? I needed my degree to get the job that I've got, but I've got almost 30,000 dollars in debt as a result. All to get underemployed. Buy, ain't that the shit? It's all my fault, though, because without this piece of goddamn paper, <i>I'd never have a job to begin with</i>. <br />
<br />
EBT is bad. WIC is bad. Fuck helping women take care of those children we <i>forced</i> them to have (because you <i>didn't</i> tell them how their body worked, you <i>didn't</i> allow them the option of aborting the pregnancy, and you <i>didn't</i> tell them that the choice was there), we'll just let the little bastards starve to death. Starve to death? Maybe I'm being too cruel - after all, are there no workhouses left? We can't let people have houses unless they can afford them, since it's better they live on the street and commit crimes, so they can go to jail and become productive members of society. We can't let them have cellphones (never mind you need a phone to get a goddamn job), we'll just let them use payphones. <br />
<br />
Have you seen a payphone? I can't remember the last time I saw a payphone, but they should've thought about that before they decided to be poor.<br />
<br />
Seriously, are there no workhouses left for these goddamn children? Shove them in a textile mill, let them work for a living like good little capitalist drones. <br />
<br />
Medicaid is bad, but no mention of Medicare. It's good to support seniors and old (White) people (who vote Republican), but there's no way we can even begin to offer health care to anyone else. They need to suck it up. That disease that they have - they should just go to work sick. Make my hamburger at McDonald's while hacking up their right lung, since that's what the Good Lord intended. Is that spittle, a pickle, or a wad of phlegm? Who knows. They can drag themselves out of bed with the flu and spread it at their work place, creating a pandemic because my fucking tax dollars, that's why! <br />
<br />
There's this damn pervasive myth that the poor people are just sitting on the couch all day collecting my tax dollars. Never mind that welfare reform stipulated that you <i>have</i> to be looking for a job. Never mind that without proof you're looking for one you won't be able to feed your children. Let the school system feed the children; I've seen children who relied on the schools for food and <b>fucking cried on half days because they wouldn't be able to eat</b>. <b>Think about that for a second. </b>That you'd rather see multiple people <i>die</i> than let one or two people abuse a system says a lot about you. <br />
<br />
That you'd rather trigger a pandemic, because people who are underemployed or struggling can't afford to get treated for diseases, rather than letting a handful of people abuse the system says a <i>lot</i> about you. <br />
<br />
And <i>none</i> of it, absolutely <i>none of it</i>, is good.<br />
<br />
I've absolutely <i>ripped</i> this argument, and others like it, apart before. In fact *goes off to look* - it's right <a href="http://post-modernenlightenment.blogspot.com/2012/07/being-poor.html" target="_blank">here</a>. <br />
<br />
And <a href="http://post-modernenlightenment.blogspot.com/2012/08/toxic-memes-and-poor-people.html" target="_blank">here</a>.<br />
<br />
And <a href="http://post-modernenlightenment.blogspot.com/2012/03/because-being-poor-wasnt-humiliating.html" target="_blank">here</a>.<br />
<br />
And <a href="http://post-modernenlightenment.blogspot.com/2012/08/being-poor-part-2.html" target="_blank">here</a>.<br />
<br />
And again, right <a href="http://post-modernenlightenment.blogspot.com/2011/12/people-die-in-america-because-people.html" target="_blank">here</a>. <br />
<br />
And once again, right <a href="http://post-modernenlightenment.blogspot.com/2011/10/not-your-fathers-99.html" target="_blank">here</a>. <br />
<br />
Oh, and lookie here, I found another one, right <a href="http://post-modernenlightenment.blogspot.com/2011/12/look-at-modern-libertarianism.html" target="_blank">here</a>. <br />
<br />
And meanwhile, while you whine and kvetch about EBT cards and helping poor people, Exxon Mobile is pocking millions of dollars in tax breaks, turning record third quarter profits. Corporations like Wal-Mart have gone several years now without paying any taxes at all. The wealthy are writing off more and more on their taxes - you know, that class you don't belong to and never will belong to? Yeah, them - and are shoving more of their money in overseas tax havens, leaving the tax burden more and more on people like me and useful tools like you. The poor pay taxes on their government incomes, the rich don't pay taxes on their private incomes. They get to use everything in this country, put a strain on all the resources, and abuse it as they see fit without giving <i>anything</i> back in taxes, to help keep up the infrastructure or services they use/abuse. <br />
<br />
In biology, there's a name for this type of relationship: it's called a <i>parasitic</i> one. Them at the top? They're <i>parasites</i>. You're looking in the wrong direction if you want to know who's really abusing the system, because you're looking at people on your level, instead of the birds shitting on your head high above. <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
If the governments plan for getting people back to work is to
incentivize NOT working with 99 weeks of Unemployment checks and no
requirement to prove they applied but can’t find work you might live in a
country founded by geniuses but run by idiots.</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: left;">
I sent out 100 resumes last year and didn't get a call back one. All of the jobs that I've seen have required 2 to 4 years experience prior to application in the field, which is really fun when you can't get in the field to begin with. Any decide job is too far from where I live and requires a commute that my car may or may not be able to hand regularly (which doesn't stop me from applying <i>anyway</i>, but I can imagine a case where someone literally cannot get to a decent job because they can't afford bus fare to get from one city to the next). If I were to get unemployed, I would have: </div>
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>Health Insurance: 103 dollars a month.</li>
<li>Car Insurance: 100 dollars a month </li>
<li>Phone bill: 35 dollars a month (+tax) </li>
<li>Car payment: 135 dollars a month </li>
<li>Student Loan A: 99 - 130 dollars a month (varies) </li>
<li>Student Loan B: 147.12 a month (fixed)</li>
<li>Student Loan C: 50 dollars a month (fixed) </li>
</ul>
<div style="text-align: left;">
And that's not including:</div>
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>Dental work. I had to have a tooth pulled and I have cavities I need to have fixed before they get bad and I loose more teeth. The total cost of that, with the tooth pulled? Over 1,000 dollars. You'll notice dental insurance isn't on the list above. </li>
<li>My medicine. I have to spend 30 dollars every 3 months to cover my meds. That's not bad, I'm not complaining, but this is included for completeness. </li>
<li>My eye glasses. Unless you want me driving on the road with a pair of lenses that are no longer my prescription, because my eyes got worse (which they did). That's around 200 dollars. </li>
<li>Any emergency, unforeseen events. Last summer I got hit with, in no particular order but all at once - an infected too, inflamed and infected sinuses, and an inflamed inner ear canal. The cost for antibiotics and treatment ran me well over 200 dollars in total, and I spent almost all of last year in some state of pain because I wasn't able to get that infected tooth pulled until this year. But that's cool, because if I used Medicate (which I <i>can't</i>, since I make too much money), I'd just be a leech. </li>
<li>Any bill I have to pay for my parents because they can't afford it. There are months I've done grocery shopping. Again, I'm not complaining, but 300 dollars is expensive. </li>
</ul>
I make 15.75 or something like that an hour. I work 25 hours a week, for 32 weeks of the year. I am underemployed and I am barely making it, and I cannot find a way out (my income tax return saved my ass this year). If I were to lose my job, I would have all of that that I <i>still</i> have to pay for until I can find a new job (which I haven't been able to). Sink or swim? Son, I done sank a long time ago. At this point, assholes like you are just holding my head under the water. If anything, 99 weeks isn't enough to find another job, since I've looked for the last <i>two years</i> and haven't had any luck. <br />
<br />
And guess what? It's time for my mantra on this blog: <b>And I got lucky</b>. <br />
<blockquote>
If you pay your mortgage faithfully, denying yourself the newest big
screen TV while your neighbor buys iPhones, TVs and new cars, and the
government forgives his debt when he defaults on his mortgage you might
live in a country founded by geniuses but run by idiots.</blockquote>
This is such bullshit that I don't know where to start. <br />
<br />
Odds are, your neighbor was part of the great mortgage scam and the problem wasn't his, it was his <i>bank</i>, who was playing around with it, caused it to blow up in his face, and ruined it all. <br />
<br />
I mean, look at the <i>envy</i> in the last few points that were made. I mean, this is greener than the Pacific Northwest. Ireland has nothing on how green this envy is. This is envy in it's purest, most distilled form. You don't see what goes on behind the scenes, you only see the consequences, and because the consequences don't mesh with your Just World Fallacy (never mind you don't know <i>jack</i> about the circumstances behind them), you turn a vivid, rich shade of<b> <span style="color: #009900;">Islamic green</span></b> with Envy and Hate (capitalized intentionally) for the poor class. Heaven forbid poor people do anything but <i>act</i> like they're poor. If they even act like they might be humans, and that they might deserve some fun things in this life, you're going to rip them apart. Because they don't <i>deserve</i> it, because you don't get it. <br /><br />Here's what I don't understand: if being poor is so fucking great, why aren't these people abandoning their jobs, their lives, and just living off of welfare? Clearly, in their world - warped with envy and hate as it is - that's the superior choice. Why? Why pretend like you're some kind of morally superior human being? Because you <i>know</i> it's not like that. Because you <i>know</i> it sucks. But don't let that stop you from hating on poor people anyway. Gotta feel moral somehow, and since it's easier to kvetch about poor people than get out there and help them and understand their circumstances, we'll just do that. <br /><br />Right? <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
If being stripped of the ability to defend yourself makes you safer
according to the government you might live in a country founded by
geniuses but run by idiots.</blockquote>
Defend yourself against who, exactly? <br /><br />The government? Yeah, that'll go well. It's not like the government controls the military or something. <br /><br />Against criminals? Like the guy who pulled out a gun to try and shoot at the attempted assassin of Gabby Giffords, who nearly shot the person that was trying to wrangle the gun away from the assassin? Like the fact that guns aren't for defense at all, and you can't defend anything with guns - guns benefit the person who acts first, not last? Oh, but I'm sure you're different, John Wayne. I'm sure in your little world, the fact that Obama's security has guns means that you're just as well trained as the secret service, even though, you know, it didn't help Reagan. He still got shot. I'm sure you never miss, Tex, and that if put in that situation Haus, you'd be able to pull out that six shooter and put a bullet in each one of those blackhats, like they did all the time on <i>Gunsmoke</i>, or in every western ever. I'm sure there are plenty of situations, where you can put yourself and make yourself the glorious hero. <br /><br />Frankly, that kind of thinking is a bigger danger to society than a mentally ill person getting a hold of a firearm. Because mentally ill people are more likely to hurt themselves. You? Thinking you're John Wayne, you're likely to get someone else killed. <br /><br />Like a guy trying to get the gun away from an attempted political assassin.<br /><br />This is just a ridiculous list, totally removed from anything that resembles reality at all: this is a helping of racism and xenophobia, wrapped in classism, drenched in entitlement and envy, and then caked with dog shit. <br /><br />And yes, there are people who believe this. Otherwise, it wouldn't have appeared on my facebook feed this morning, causing me to go find it. </div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2862170131521435894.post-16495142228284546342013-03-30T18:20:00.003-07:002013-03-30T18:20:56.401-07:00Creationist Tactics: Zeno's Transitional Fossil <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I'm fairly certain I've blogged on this topic before, or at least mentioned this tactic in passing at least once or twice, but I wanted to devote something like an entire post to this. We see this all the time from creationists; evolution doesn't happen in real life, they say, because there's no proof of it. When pressed, "proof" becomes synonymous with "transitional fossil." The absence of transitional fossils, then, is why evolution clearly isn't happening. <br /><br />Here in lies the rub. I named this after Zeno's dichotomy paradox: according to Zeno's dichotomy paradox, you have Point A and Point B. Say that Point A is your car door, and Point B is your house door. Now, you're leaving your house to get to your car. According to Zeno, you will never reach your car door. In order to go between Point A and Point B, you have to go 1/2 way. But in order to 1/2 way, you have to 1/4 the way. But before you can go 1/4 the way, you have to 1/8 the way. But before you can do that, you have to go 1/16 the way, and then 1/32, and then 1/64, and then 1/128, and then 1/256, et cetera. Thus, since you're always going 1/2 of the 1/2 to get there, you can never reach your point. I've also seen this referred to as Zeno's arrow paradox; in order for an arrow to fly to its target, first it has to go 1/2 the way, but before that, it has to go 1/4, and you can see where this goes. It goes on like this for infinity.<br />
<br />
Why is the transitional fossil argument creationists use identical to Zeno's paradox? <br /><br />We have Species A (sA) and from it, evolved Species B (sB). Creationists claim evolution doesn't happen, because there's no evidence that Species A evolved from Species B. In order to find the evidence sA evolved into sB, we need to present a transitional fossil that shows traits of both sA and sB; call this fossil species sb. So we have sA --> sb ---> sB. No sooner do we do this, though, than we have a demand for another transitional fossil, between sb and sA. Call this one sab. So now we have sA --> sab --> sb --> sB. Then we get <i>another</i> request to find a transitional fossil between sA and sab, and so forth. In order to get from Point A to Point B, we have to travel halfway, but we must travel halfway to get there, and then travel halfway again to get to the quarter of the way, and so forth. The same paradox is at work here. You will continually get requests of a halfway species representing a transitional fossil, ad naseum, and when you can't present it, then Tada! God! Evolution is wrong, suck it, Darwinists! They are aware that the fossil record is incomplete; that's why eventually you're going to run into a situation where this "argument tactic" will prevail. <br /><br />How do we go about solving the problem? Simple. <br />
<a name='more'></a><br /><i>A heads up: I'm familiar with the logic, but I'm taking set theory for a spin for the first time. If I screw up the symbols, I would appreciate begin told. This is as much an exercise in trying to see if I understand set theory as it is me taking apart this "argumentative tactic". </i><br /><br />The first thing you need to realize is that the continued requests for a transitional fossil are red herrings to distract from their main point. Zeno's Transitional Fossil rests on the core claim that follows:<br /><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"Evolution is not happening because there are no transitional fossils."</blockquote>
We can distill this even further:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"If there are no transitional fossils, evolution is not true." </blockquote>
At first glance, this looks like a typical IF-THEN statement. That's the same trick I fell for the first time I started looking at this, and I got all the way to the end of several very complicated logical statements before I realized that this isn't the case at all; this isn't IF-THEN. Let's frame it like this:<br /><br /><u>If</u> there are no transitional fossils, evolution is not true<br /><br />is equal to <br /><br /><u>If</u><i> </i>there are no transitional fossils <b><i>← </i></b>evolution is not true <br /><br />I underlined <i>If</i> to distinguish this from an <i>Iff</i> statement, which is what this looks like on the surface (but isn't). What this statement tells us is that there are no transitional fossils, then evolution is not true. I can word the statement another way to make this clearer: <br /><br />Evolution is not true <u>if</u> there are no transitional fossils. <br /><br />So let's look at this in terms that we can make sense of. <br /><br /><i>A</i>: There are transitional fossils<br /><i>B</i>: Evolution is true. <br /><br />Since we're using logical operators here, though, we need to frame it like this:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>¬(A </i><b><i>←</i></b><i> B</i>) or <i><i>¬</i>A </i><i><i><b><i>←</i></b>¬</i>B</i></blockquote>
(not) There are transitional fossils, (not) Evolution is true. <br /><br />This is a conditional THEN-IF. In order for it to be true, the THEN part has to be true. It doesn't matter if evolution is true or not; in order for the statement itself to be true, then the <i><i>¬</i>A, </i>or "there are no transitional fossils" must stand as true. So let's take a closer look at <i><i>¬</i>A. <br /><br />A</i> means that there is a fossil record with transitional fossils. Negating it means that there isn't a fossil record without transitional fossil. So what we're looking, then, is this: let <i>F</i> stand for any fossil and let <i>T</i> stand for any transitional fossil. Let <i>M</i> stand for the entire fossil record. <br /><br /><i>A </i><b><i>→ </i></b>(<span style="font-family: Lucida Sans Unicode;">∃</span><i>M</i> [<i>T </i><span style="font-family: Lucida Sans Unicode;">∈</span><i> M</i>] ^ [<i>F</i> <span style="font-family: Lucida Sans Unicode;">∈ </span><i>M</i>])<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />And, for our case, to further define what's being said: <br /><br /><i><i>¬</i>A</i><b><i> → </i></b>(<span style="font-family: Lucida Sans Unicode;">∃</span><i>M</i> [<i>T </i><span style="font-family: Lucida Sans Unicode;">∉</span><span style="font-family: Lucida Sans Unicode;"></span><i> M</i>] ^ [<i>F</i> <span style="font-family: Lucida Sans Unicode;">∈ </span><i>M</i>])<br /><br />In English, then, the first one reads: <i>A</i> implies there exists set M where T is an element of M and F is an element of M. Or, that there are transitional fossils implies there exists a fossil record that includes both transitional fossils and traditional fossils. <br /><br />The second one reads: <i><i>¬</i>A</i> implies there exists set M where T is not an element of M and F is an element of M. Or, there are no transitional fossils implies there exists a fossil record that includes only traditional fossils but not transitional ones. <br /><br />So in order to prove that <i><i>¬</i>A</i> is true, we need to verify that there is indeed an entire fossil record (M) where there are no transitional fossils. The minute we prove that there <i>are</i> transitional fossils, then <i><i>¬</i>A</i> falls apart. And because of the way this works - there exists an entire fossil record without transitional fossils - all we need to do is prove that there is <i>one</i> transitional fossil in order to prove that <i><i>¬</i>A</i> is false, and that A is true, and the THEN-IF conditional becomes false since the THEN is false. <br /><br />We begin by getting a solid definition of what a transitional fossil is. <br /><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
A transitional fossil may be defined as a fossil<br />which exhibits traits common to both ancestral<br />and derived groups. This is especially important<br />when groups are sharply differentiated (from: <a href="https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:WMtP-_fF8csJ:www.botany.wisc.edu/courses/botany_940/06EvidEvol/powerpoints/TransitionalFossil.ppt+&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESi9OsdKroDT8MimOyOx7-EQSaGbTtppuxXU3DKuDxu1lZsOHkZf04ekwc9C8BL7dk9hamKIvyrJNoatnD3vP4H4nEYVBvWmFbQNomMhLMub5fRr319UDklI5_qca1fvoReCrOvc&sig=AHIEtbT_3_0IzfDwxRD_1AnkUlEoEmUvww" target="_blank">here</a>). </blockquote>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
So what we're looking for is a species that exhibits traits of both the ancestral species and the species that derived from it. It's going to be, then, a combination of sorts. <br /><br />The most famous transitional fossil is this critter right here:<br /><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.search4dinosaurs.com/jm_archeopteryx.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="250" src="http://www.search4dinosaurs.com/jm_archeopteryx.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />This is <i><a href="http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/archaeopteryx/info.html" target="_blank">archeopteryx</a>. Archeopteryx</i> has features of both birds and theropods, as the link shows: it has a large toe, it has teeth, and the arm shape is very theropod-esque. The rigid, boned tail is also indicative of theorpods. Meanwhile, it had feathers, a strong breast bone for anchoring the massive muscles needed to fly, and had something like a beak. It features elements of both the ancestor group (theorpods) and the descendent group (birds). This makes <i>archeopteryx</i> a transitional fossil. To insist on anything else is a dishonest diversionary tactic (something creationists are <a href="http://www.darwinismrefuted.com/natural_history_2_06.html" target="_blank">infamous for</a>). <br /><br /> Of coures, <i>archeopteryx</i> isn't the only transitional fossil. Not by a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_transitional_fossils" target="_blank">long shot</a>. For completeness, let me introduce you to a transitional fossil I guarantee you that no Creationist has ever heard of: <a href="http://paleodb.org/cgi-bin/bridge.pl?a=basicTaxonInfo&taxon_no=226592" target="_blank"><i>archimylacris</i></a>. This little bugger may perhaps be distantly related to several heads of the creationist movement, being the ancestor of <a href="http://www.sciencecodex.com/creepy_crawly_cockroach_ancestor_revealed_in_new_3d_model" target="_blank">modern cockroaches</a>. It's also the ancestor to modern mantises and termites; if you look at it, you can see traits of all three insects in it, plus the original species it evolved from/with, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apthoroblattina" target="_blank"><i>aphthoroblattina</i></a>. <br /><br />But given the way the statement is framed, only <i>one</i> of these has to be a transitional fossil in order for the statement to be wrong. Since it's clear that <i>archeopteryx</i> meets the requirements, that's all we need. <i><i>¬</i>A </i>is not true, since there are transitional fossils, thus <i>¬(A </i><b><i>←</i></b><i> B</i>) is a false statement and the argument falls apart. <br /><br />What follows next depends on the creationist you're using this against. 90% of them will up and leave and never come back, especially if you're debating with them online. They won't bother replying, because they're ideologically driven and can't admit to the truth that their argument is wrong. The rest are going to aim for one of two tactics, both of which are to be expected but are highly dishonest, intellectually:<br /><br />Nitpicking: a version of moving the goal-posts, they're going to redefine "transitional fossil" or give you some half-assed reason why it's not, when it meets all of the requirements you set forward in the beginning, and you're going to find yourself drawn into an argument over why these are not transitional fossils by people's fullest extent of biological knowledge begins with Genesis 1 and ends at Genesis 2. <br /><br />Red Herring: This is where Zeno's Transitional Fossil comes in. The core of this argument was that if there are no transitional fossils, evolution is not true. We've already proved there are transitional fossils; the argument is dead. However, rather than acknowledge that, you get "yeah, well, you can't provide a transitional fossil between Point A and 1/2A-B!" The proper response here is "I don't need to; your argument is already invalid since all I needed was one to prove that transitional fossils exist." <br /><br />Anyway, I hope I didn't screw up the symbols. I'm still new to this set theory stuff. I have a firm grasp of the logic behind it, but framing it in this sense was a new experience for me. Until next time, good luck!<br /><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2862170131521435894.post-19413703942083154872013-03-21T17:46:00.000-07:002013-03-21T17:46:47.397-07:00Schools of the Singularity <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I was reading through the internet the other day and I came across this article by Eliezer Yudkowsky. Now, I'm not at all familiar with Yudkowsky; Kurzweil I've heard of (and do not support; as near as I can tell, Kurzweil has some major issues - the largest of them being the fact that he's a computer guy with zero knowledge about neurobiology or neurochemistry, who seems to think that neural networks are easily constructed and work like standard computer processors. I'm taking a class on the Brain, Synapses, and Neurons at the end of the month, so I'll get a close look at just how realistic that is. I can tell you right now, though, that it's not realistic at all), and Kurzweil is referenced in the article I read. I've gone further and read a number of articles by Yudkowsky and I like the thinking (especially the article about <a href="http://yudkowsky.net/singularity/simplified" target="_blank">transhumanism as simplified humanism</a>, which is a view point I've been championing in my own little corner of the internet for nearly three years now). That's not what I'm looking at today, though - today I'm looking at the singularity.<br />
<br />
I've touched on the Singularity and the concept of a Singularity before, but I don't recall if I ever went into depth about what I think of it. So I plan to do that. But first, I'd like to take a look at the three different schools of the Singularity that Yudkowsky offers. So follow me down the rabbit hole into a long needed post about transhumanism.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />Yudkowsky breaks the Singularity up into three separate schools of thought, the defining trait of which appears to be what events lead up to it, how it happens, and what happens after it (or how we might be able to tell what happens after it). These three schools of thought all deal with the technological singularity, or the Nerd Rapture, so let's take a look at each one.<br />
<br />
<strong>Accelerating Change:</strong>
<br />
<ul>
<li><em>Core claim:</em> Our intuitions about change are linear; we
expect roughly as much change as has occurred in the past over our own
lifetimes. But technological change feeds on itself, and therefore
accelerates. Change today is faster than it was 500 years ago, which in
turn is faster than it was 5000 years ago. Our recent past is not a
reliable guide to how much change we should expect in the future.</li>
<li><em>Strong claim:</em> Technological change follows smooth curves,
typically exponential. Therefore we can predict with fair precision
when new technologies will arrive, and when they will cross key
thresholds, like the creation of Artificial Intelligence.</li>
<li><em>Advocates:</em> Ray Kurzweil, Alvin Toffler(?), John Smart </li>
</ul>
The accelerated future can certainly seem like the most plausible of the futures. In my life, I've seen the rise and fall of CDs, MP3 players, cassette tapes (anyone remember these? I do), and VCR tapes (anyone remember these? I still remember what it was like to program a VCR). Technology appears to be projecting more linearly, and it seems to be rapidly improving. I remember cord phones. Not cord<i>less</i> home phones, cord<i>ed</i> home phones. I grew up without seeing a cellphone or a computer until I was at least in my teens. I didn't get my first iPod until I was in my mid-20s (I bought it myself; it was one of the first major purchases I made. I still have it, too; it's 4-5 years old, but it's still working, so I see no reason to change it). I remember a time when cars <i>did</i> have less wiring than the STS <i>Enterprise</i>. None of this is a reflection on "better days" in the past; it's merely an illustration of just how much it's changed in my relatively short lifespan of around 27 years. <br /><br />I look at my grandparents, who are in their 80s both. They went from slide rulers and pocket calculators to pocket computers and cellphones with more processing power than the top-of-the-line computers of their day, back in the 1940s. From vacuum tubes to microprocessors to solid state drives. Who went from a time when it was a big deal to fly from one city to the next to a time when we're landing SUV-sized vehicles on Mars with incredible precision.<br />
<br />
Do you know what else I see?<br />
<br />
I see it slowing down. I see technology becoming less and less about innovation and more and more about protecting copyrights and protecting vested interests. This isn't to say that it's stopped completely, but it is slowing greatly. I see a population of people who, while being smarter than their ancestors were even 50 years ago, are not better educated, who don't have the opportunities for self-improvement, and who are being pushed further and further into poverty by our aristocratic overloads. The progress is still <i>there</i>, but it's consolidating, like my student loan needs to be doing. It's not moving as quickly as it was. To back and read the bit about my iPod; I bought it 4-5 years ago and I can compare it to a newer iPod and not see much of a difference. There are newer apps, but the core of it did not change. If I go back to the 1990s, the time gap here is between 1990 to 1995; that was around the time when the VCR started to phase out and when home computers started to catch on. Granted, the technology had been a while for a bit - for home computers it was nearly 20 years, since the first one appeared in the 70s, if not earlier - but if technology was really accelerating exponentially, wouldn't those gaps be getting smaller? It took 20 years for the home computer to become popular. It'd take far less than that for other, newer technological devices to be invented. Like I said, there is still innovation and invention, but it's not going as fast as the Accelerating Future says that it is. And the Accelerating Future also doesn't take into consideration that computers have a maximum processing power courtesy of being made of silicon; until we find something that can replace silicon, we won't be seeing AI overlords or digitally immortal human beings anytime soon.<br />
<br />
I like the Accelerating Future. It's positive, and we need more positivity in this world. It's optimistic, and it proposes that things do get better - and they do. Violence is actually on a decline. Religion is on a decline, too. We're pushing back against the wealthy, and we're becoming more aware of our place in society, and the interlocking gears that can turn everyday interactions into a social minefield for some people. We are making strides towards defeating aging and defeating death, and we're making strides towards morphological freedom, and I sincerely hope that I'll see at least the ability to reverse aging happen in my lifetime. I want to go out on my own terms, not feeble, invalid, and needing someone to change my adult diaper. I think just about everyone feels that way. I don't want to have to live under the threat of getting cancer that is untreatable, and then suffering in agony as a result. I'd hate to think that I died naturally as part of the last generation to do so before we discovered this stuff, but even the most conservative of science fiction sees longevity treatments before the century is out. I'll be 100 in 2085; hopefully I'll live to see that, and live beyond that.<br />
<br />
But the Accelerating Future isn't without its issues, and the optimisim and positivity I was lauding it for <i>is</i> the issue here. It's put a pair of blinders on, so we don't see that there are forces at work - both left (anti-vaxxers, anti-GMOs) and right (creationists, GW denialists) - that are attempting to undermine scientific progress, in addition to scientific progress not necessarily feeding into itself. Newton was required to build Relativity, but Relativity did not come around until much later. Following Relativity, we had the rapid birth of Quantum Theory, it diversified into plenty of weird, completing theories that are still competing with one another, and even though we have the illusive Higgs boson, there's no sign that we made much progress at all - the complete of the Standard Model only showed numerous problems with the Standard Model and may end up with the Standard Model being pitched entirely, for something far, far weirder (my personal favorite is the unparticle theory). Technology is not linear, progress comes in growth spurts after periods of brainy people scratching their heads. True, those growth spurts have had less and less time between them, but there's still growth spurts following periods of inactivity. The future is accelerating. But it's not accelerating as fast as Kurzweil and company think it is. <br /><br />The accelerating future also overlooks <i>social</i> impacts on technology. Recall I brought up anti-GMO people. These are individuals who don't understand science, they run off to GreenHealthPlusTotallyNotBiasedGuys.com for their information, and they regurgitate it. <b>Really</b> not helping matters is that the current face for transgenic food is Monsanto, who might as well have "A Subsidiary of Omni Consumer Products" plastered on the front doors of all their businesses. They are the archetype for unethical business practices; and there's very little government involvement since, you know, money buys politicians easier than votes do, and and Monsanto has a lot of money. Thus, the two get connected (if the research were <i>public</i>, there would be no copyrighting of artificial genomes. It's not, though, so genomes invented by Monsanto <i>are</i> copyrighted). Monsanto is doing <i>serious</i> damage to the image of biotechnology, which science fiction has repeatedly attacked and skewered multiple times (Hello - Tyranids*, Yuuzhan Vong, the <strike>Republicans</strike> Bene Tlielax** - biotech has been shorthand for 'evil alien civilization' since science fiction became science fiction, especially since it always looks so gross and icky). Newer technologies are going to experience social push-back not only from those who don't understand but from those who have a vested interest in making sure their corporate rivals don't succeed. The technology will be beyond the reach of the poor, underclasses. My point here is that the technology will improve more slowly because there will be social resistance against it; either through manipulation of public perception or because it gets tied to the real-life cousin of Weyland-Yutani.The accelerating future, then, won't. <br />
<br />
Let's take a look at the others:<br />
<ul>
<li><strong>Event Horizon:</strong>
<ul>
<li><em>Core claim:</em> For the last hundred thousand years, humans
have been the smartest intelligences on the planet. All our social and
technological progress was produced by human brains. Shortly, technology
will advance to the point of improving on human intelligence
(brain-computer interfaces, Artificial Intelligence). This will create a
future that is weirder by far than most science fiction, a
difference-in-kind that goes beyond amazing shiny gadgets.</li>
<li><em>Strong claim:</em> To know what a superhuman intelligence
would do, you would have to be at least that smart yourself. To know
where Deep Blue would play in a chess game, you must play at Deep Blue’s
level. Thus the future after the creation of smarter-than-human
intelligence is absolutely unpredictable.</li>
<li><em>Advocates:</em> Vernor Vinge</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
I've heard this called the "Vingian Singularity" before, which just sounds all sorts of awesome. The concept isn't that bad, either, when you think about it: the future is almost certainly going to be weirder than we think it is, by virtue of the fact that science fiction is bound to something that resembles truth, while the future is not. Brain computer interfaces exist <i>now</i>; we're working on them to help paraplegic and quadriplegic people adapt to exoskeletons that can help them function like fully mobile individuals. We're working on nootropics right now, and one of the benefits for uplifting animals (that is, surgically altering them so that they're sapient just like we are) is that we get a firmer grasp on what the nature of consciousness is, so we can expand on that and apply it to our own consciousness. Humans today are smarter than humans even several decades ago; we have to be. We're under constant attack from information, and our consciousnesses - which are nothing more than an illusion created by the brain during the processing of this information - are adapting to the information overload by parsing information faster and better. As we inundate ourselves with more information, we'll see an improvement in our ability to handle that information, better memory recollection, and less linear thinking.<br />
<br />
Now here's my problems with this type of singularity: define human intelligence. <br /><br />What is human intelligence? It seems like such an easy task, until you start to think about it. Well, it's our smarts. But what does that mean? What does it mean to be intelligent? I'm a firm proponent of Gardener's theory of multiple intelligences; everyone is intelligent in their own way, in their own area, and some people are more intelligent than their peers in some areas while less intelligent than their peers in others. If we got his route, are we using the mean of all the different intelligences to gauge human intelligence? If that's the case, we've already got superhuman intelligences, since they're above the mean. Would a superhuman intelligence be stronger and Linguistic-Verb and Logic/Math but weaker in Naturalistic intelligence? What would their learning styles be? What <i>is</i> intelligence? <br /><br />What does human intelligence mean? Now answer this - what does <i>super</i>human intelligence mean? What <i>could</i> a inhumanly intelligent thing think of? The best that I come up with is that it just thinks <i>faster</i> and it has a more structure consciousness that expresses better perception of the environment around it, and is a lot more fluid in how it uses ideas. But even then, there are people who will, inevitably, measure up to it. It might be faster, it might be more adaptable, and it might be more creative. But is that superhuman intelligence? Furthermore, we'll <i>still</i> be able to understand what they're talking about; they're bound by the same laws that we are. They won't be breaking the laws of physics anytime soon, so while they may cook up new axioms and develop new ways of seeing things, <i>we will be able to use those new ways of seeing things as well</i>. I'm not doing this to slam superhuman intelligence - whatever that term might entail - I'm doing it to set to rest a concern that people have when they think superhuman computers: God AIs are not going to be something that happens anytime soon. They will not become incomprehensible cthulhus. Writers use that trick because it's a work around for "I don't know how the hell FLT works; let's just say a God AI did it and be done with it" - they serve the same literary purpose in transhuman fiction that precursors like the Forerunners do in <i>Halo</i>, from a literary perspective. Since most people come into contact with Strong AIs through science fiction, this is the impression that they get - <i>but it's not a right one</i>. <br /><br />And the Vingian singularity <i>hinges</i> on this. It hinges on the notion that superhuman intelligences will be able to think and grasp concepts beyond what we peons down here with the biological brains are capable of understanding. In order to understand Deep Blue, you have to <i>be</i> Deep Blue/be at the level of Deep Blue. Well, no. You can understand Deep Blue just fine; it might take you a little longer since you're not a computer, but you can still understand just fine, so long as you have the underlying knowledge of chess. Nothing that Deep Blue does is a mystery to any chess player. It follows the same rules, it's playing the same game that these people grew up playing. It's out-thinking, but it's method of out-thinking is not generating thoughts that are "beyond the human realm of comprehension". That isn't how this game works. Modern physics is already there (seriously, read about quantum theory sometime) and there are humans who understand it perfectly. The best that a "superintellgience" can do is spot a place where someone forgot to carry a one because we're only "human level intelligent", leading to the physicist saying, "Oh, <i>that's</i> why that didn't work out the first time! I forgot [x]!"<i> But we still know what [x] is</i>. <br /><br />So while it's true that we're accelerating to a point where people are gradually becoming more intelligent in their ways of handling information and dealing with the information overload, we have no clue what a "superintelligence" would hold, or if they can exist, or if they don't <i>already</i> exist in the human population. The only real we we get there is through modification of the consciousness, and even then, that's not going to let them think beyond what we already understand as "baseline" humans. It may help us better <i>define</i> what we already know or discovered, or perhaps it might trailblaze an entirely new field of science - but we'll be following it, since we'll be able to understand what it's talking about, even if we can't understand the intelligence itself directly. <br />
<br />
Mathematics is the language of the universe, regardless what type of consciousness you have. There is only one way to understand the universe and that's by studying math. Once you understand math, you can understand almost anything - subhuman, human, or superhuman.<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li><strong>Intelligence Explosion:</strong>
<ul>
<li><em>Core claim:</em> Intelligence has always been the source of technology. If technology can <em>significantly</em>
improve on human intelligence – create minds smarter than the smartest
existing humans – then this closes the loop and creates a positive
feedback cycle. What would humans with brain-computer interfaces do with
their augmented intelligence? One good bet is that they’d design the
next generation of brain-computer interfaces. Intelligence enhancement
is a classic tipping point; the smarter you get, the more intelligence
you can apply to making yourself even smarter.</li>
<li><em>Strong claim:</em> This positive feedback cycle goes <span class="caps">FOOM</span>,
like a chain of nuclear fissions gone critical – each intelligence
improvement triggering an average of>1.000 further improvements of
similar magnitude – though not necessarily on a smooth exponential
pathway. Technological progress drops into the characteristic timescale
of transistors (or super-transistors) rather than human neurons. The
ascent rapidly surges upward and creates <em>superintelligence</em> (minds orders of magnitude more powerful than human) before it hits physical limits.</li>
<li><em>Advocates:</em> I. J. Good, Eliezer Yudkowsky</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
This one is a combination of the previous two; you can see elements of the accelerating future and the Vingian singularity in it. The key element here is the positive feedback cycle that gets triggered when humanity hits a specific point on the intelligence scale, but this suffers from the same problems that the Vingian singularity suffers from: superhuman intelligences are inevitable result. Absent is the claim that they're unpredictable, but the problematic feature here is the definition of "superhuman intelligence." It's "minds orders of magnitude more powerful than human". What does this mean, exactly? What does it mean to be more powerful than a human brain? To process information faster and store it more efficiently? To arrange all of your inputs in such a way that the organization creates a situation where drawing connections through lateral thinking becomes easier? All of these things? This seems like a silly question, but it's not - what is intelligence? And from there, what would <i>super</i>intelligence look like?<br /><br />So many singularities often hinge on the creation of superhuman intelligences, but there's no definition offered up for intelligences. If you accept Gardener's MI theory (and, actually, there aren't a lot who do), would a superhuman intelligence be "superhuman" in all of the different categories, or "superhuman" in one with deficits in another? And what would someone with a "superhuman" naturalistic or existential intelligence look like? <br /><br />Any of these are possible; the only that I've seen that offers a real time scale is the Kurzweil singularity and it's not happening on the scale that he proposed. Vinge's singularity hinges on the new superintelligences being unfathomable to us, requiring us to ascend to their level to understand, while the Intelligence Explosion is a combination of the two (one may say more realistic of the two) but suffers from the fact that baseline intelligence isn't well defined. I have my on thoughts on the singularity, however, so let me share those.<br /><br />A technologically singularity draws its terminology from physics. Basically, it refers to the center of a black hole/collapsar, the point at which big-world physics says, "you know what? screw this shit, I'm outta here" and quantum theory snorts milk out its nose when you suggest there's an easy solution. This is the point at which mathematics breaks down, our knowledge stops and says, "Okay, I give, you tell me", and we stare at the conclusions wondering where exactly we went wrong, when we did everything right.<br /><br />This is a singularity. The point at which predictions based on existing are no longer applicable, and we have to design entirely new models to help us explain what's going on, and then cuss and swear because these new models, which work so beautifully by themselves, do <i>not</i> play well with existing theories.<br />
<br />
So, in this light, what is the best definition for a technological singularity? Remember that technology doesn't exist independent of society; it's impact on society is primacy, since without society there would be no technology. So it makes sense to start looking at this from a social aspect, rather than a purely scientific one. Thus, a singularity is going to be an innovation that has a massive impact on <i>society</i> and <i>technology. </i>And it's going to impact them in such a way that it will be difficult, if not impossible, to predict how the two will change. <br /><i><br /></i>Working with this definition - that a singularity is something that impacts both society and technology in a way that it's difficult to see how the changes will play out - we've already had several. From a sociotechnological level, we have the following as major singularities:<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>The domestication of fire</li>
<li>The invention of the wheel </li>
<li>The invention of metalworking</li>
<li>The invention of algebra and advanced mathematics </li>
<li>The invention of agriculture and husbandry </li>
<li>The invention of domestication </li>
<li>The invention of the moveable type printing press</li>
<li>The invention of gunpowder</li>
<li>The invention of the steam engine</li>
<li>The invention of the internal combustion engine</li>
<li>The invention of the nuclear power </li>
<li>The invention of the first computer </li>
<li>The invention of the first microprocessor </li>
</ul>
<div style="text-align: left;">
And this is just a short list. Basically, I'm proposing that "singularity" is proper defined as <i>every major invention in human history</i>. See, the logic there being that these major inventions shaped the world in ways that we couldn't predict or foresee at the time. The invention of AIs, of mind uploading, of mind downloading, and of other advanced technologies will <i>also</i> become singularities, but they will be lowercase singularities, just like the above inventions were. It makes the singularity seem far more mundane and less majestic - but it also makes the singularity far more believable. Especially since it's already happened. <br /></div>
----<br />
* It's debatable whether or not the Tyranids are a civilization<br />
** It's debatable whether or not the Bene Tlielax are aliens <br />
<br />
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2862170131521435894.post-25077534478442232982013-03-21T15:43:00.000-07:002013-03-21T15:46:20.316-07:00A Mask of Civility<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I've run into this a number of times over the last few days, and it's worth noting:<br />
<br />
Simply because you believe something does not mean it isn't harmful.<br />
<br />
A very good example of this is the argument over marriage equality. While the segment of the population opposed to it is clearly loosing the fight, there are still those Christians (and Muslims, and Jews, and whatever) out there who think that, as long as you're not being Fred Phelps, you're okay. Or that you can still be intolerant but at the same time be a loving human being. <br />
<br />
No. <b>No</b>.<br />
<br />
Intolerant =/= Tolerance. You cannot be a loving human begin if you're a jackass who condemns people for expressing love towards individuals of the same sex. <br />
<br />
"But... it's intolerant not to be tolerant of my intolerance!"<br />
<br />
Alternatively:<br />
<br />
"Oh yeah, you're tolerant, but not towards Christians who stand up for what they believe in. God doesn't <i>hate</i> you, he just [insert theological theistic teleological rhetorical garbage here]."<br />
<br />
You're just intolerant of my intolerance, so you're not tolerant at all. That's how it always goes, isn't it? I'm not as bad as them, clearly, because I believe that God loves you but doesn't support your "lifestyle" choice - but I'm not as bad as Fred Phelps. I'm better than that.<br />
<br />
Let me spell this out. I'd rather deal with Fred Phelps than you. Why?<br />
<br />
For the same reason I'd rather deal with an honest, uncivil brute than deal with a dishonest, civility-obsessed caitiff. You have a gilded tongue, my f(r)iend, and it forks rather clearly down the middle. You are not better because you're not vocally an asshole. You still vote for vocal assholes, you still support polices drafted by vocal assholes, and you still believe shit told to you by vocal assholes. Everything you do is designed by vocal assholes; every waking moment of your life is controlled by these people. You do what they tell you to, you believe what they say, and you claim that you're <i>better</i> than them.<br />
<br />
You're not better. You're subservient to them. You're <i>worse</i>. The vocal assholes made up their minds, and they're not <b>cowards</b> about what they believe. You <i>are</i>. You hide behind civility, you whine when people call you out for what you are. You're both just as wrong, but because you're a coward about what you believe, you're doing more harm than the vocal asshole who dictates your every waking thought. If these vocal assholes are the ubermensch, you are the last man. <br />
<br />
If you believe something, <b>stand up and accept it. Make it yours, actually believe it</b>. <b>Own it</b>. Don't sit there and ho-hum about it. Your belief is the <b>same thing</b> as Fred Phelp's belief. <b>Own it, goddamn it. Be a responsible adult and <u>own it</u></b>. <br />
<br />
And ultimately, it's the <b>same thing</b>. <b>How are you any different</b>?<br />
<br />
Because you hide it behind the mask of "civility." That doesn't make you better. That makes you an intellectual coward.<br />
<br />
I'm not tolerant of you. I will never be tolerant of you. Not only because I'm intolerant of things that hurt marginalized people or hold populations of people down, but because I'm also intolerant of <b>cowards</b>. And when you step up and own your hateful belief, we'll be able to deal on even terms.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2862170131521435894.post-87757659600807916862013-03-04T15:16:00.002-08:002013-03-04T15:16:53.067-08:00Original Genetic Sin <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Apparently, sin is genetic and <a href="http://thinkchristian.net/historical-adam-moving-ahead-in-faith-not-fear" target="_blank">nobody told me</a> (<i>via</i> <a href="http://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/2013/03/03/please-stop-looking-for-the-original-sin-gene/" target="_blank">Slacktivist</a>):<br /><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">This scientific picture of a group
of early humans raises many questions, including particularly difficult ones
related to the Fall. Plantinga and pastor Daniel Harrell both suggest a
possible solution: perhaps Adam and Eve were two individuals within the group
of early humans. This would preserve Adam as a real historical figure and the
Fall as a real historical event. However, th<b>e spread of sin to the rest of the
group is problematic, since it would take many generations to spread
genetically through a population of thousands</b>. </span></div>
</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Personally, I find this to be a startling revelation. Just think for a minute about what the existence of an original sin gene (or, more likely, a sequence of genes, since rarely does a gene do anything by itself) means. Sin, then, becomes a little more than a genetic illness; it is something that can be treated. It is something that can be screened at birth, and removed from the human genome. The human species is capable of removing sin, then, and transitioning to a new, sin-free existence in much the same way that it would remove all other illnesses. <br /><br />Perhaps there is just the tiniest amount of truth in this, surprisingly enough, but it's coming close to a workable answer (that requires a lot of polishing) while going about it in the absolutely wrong manner; it's like solving 2+2 with 5, and going about it as such: 2+1 - 2 - 1 = 3 * 1 = 3 +2 = 5. You're pulling figures out of your posterior, making it up as you go, and eventually coming to a conclusion that's removed from the realm of being correct. But if we consider original sin to include death, and the sequence that leads up to death (which I've heard some people say is the case), then this statement is, surprisingly enough, at least a quarter true. Our genetics contain the keys to our lifespans; these things called telomeres at the end of your genes, which short every time the gene divides with the cell it's in, determine how long your cells last and, by extension, how long <i>you</i> last. So if you include death into the "original sin" label, then that part of original sin is definitely genetic.<br /><br />Now, here's a good example of the incomplete nature of Evangelical Apologetic thinking: if sin has a material cause, then is it possible to manipulate it? If not, why? Think about what we could do: </div>
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>We could screen for sin at conception just like we do other genetic disorders and deformities and remove it from the genetic pool. </li>
<li>We could manipulate the sin gene, setting it so that it's switched "off". If the gene sequence defining sin is switched "off", what happens?</li>
<li>Since it interacts with every generation, ever, it's neither a dominate nor a recessive gene, but it'd have to be something entirely different, like the gene sequences that determine your skin (not skin <i>color</i>, the fact that you have <i>skin</i>), or the fact that you have eyes, four limbs, or something of that manner. Maybe we could experiment with the nature of this "sin gene" and develop other genes that are just like it, which can help control behavior on the same level that we have complex gene patterns that control the fact that we grown skin and the organs we do grow.<br />Just like there are fetuses who are born without heads or fetuses who are born without limbs or legs, then, it follows that there are also fetuses out there who are born without sin, since the sin gene failed to trigger. Of maybe the sin gene never fails to trigger. That would lead to phenomenal insights into how genes trigger and how they do, and perhaps allow us to piece together <i>why</i> the sin gene never fails to trigger and then export that pattern to other genes, as well.</li>
<li>If the sin gene is responsible for self awareness, then we could take it and, through vertical gene transfer, put it into other animals, giving them self-awareness too. What happens if this happens on accident, as vertical gene transfer is apt to do in nature? Can bacteria be fallen - will that bacteria become intelligent?</li>
<li>I can recreate computerized versions of genes, or we will be able to. If we recreate a computerized version of the sin gene sequence, will the computer doing so become fallen, too?</li>
<li>Before the decade is out, we will have genetic treatments to postpone death, and anti-aging treatments. Immortality treatments may come before the end of the century, and eventually, true biological immortality will follow. We can defeat death, and if you're going to narrowly define the "original sin" present in the genome as the existence of telomeres that determine when we die, then we'll end up defeating "original sin" in the long run, too. </li>
</ul>
<div style="text-align: left;">
This is another example of lazy Evangelical-Creationist apologetics. None of these implications were thought through; they're desperately looking for the ever smaller holes to cram their God into. We have the entire gene sequence of not just humans but also <a href="http://www.eva.mpg.de/neandertal/" target="_blank">Neanderthals</a>, <a href="http://www.genome.gov/11008056" target="_blank">chimpanzees</a>, <a href="http://phys.org/news/2012-03-gorilla-genome-sequenced.html" target="_blank">gorillas</a>, <a href="https://www.hgsc.bcm.edu/content/orangutan-genome-project" target="_blank">orangutans</a>, and <a href="http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/06/120613133144.htm" target="_blank">bonobos</a> mapped out, along with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sequenced_eukaryotic_genomes" target="_blank">other plants, fungi, eukaryotic genomes</a> and a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sequenced_animal_genomes" target="_blank">mass of animals that include cats, dogs, dolphins and elephants</a>. We did not find a "sin" gene sequence, because it does not exist. It's fantastic god magic that deserves derision for being as foolish and arrogant as it is. It's also remarkably lazy, since I was able to find all of this information by just typing in "animal genome project" into Google and pressing "go."<br /><br />Molecular genetics is a surefire way to destroy creationism. There's no way it can survive what discoveries that molecular genetics finds; but then, we didn't need molecular genetics to destroy creationism. A little creative but thorough thinking and Google is more than enough to do that. <br /></div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2862170131521435894.post-71924604483447393572013-03-01T17:18:00.000-08:002013-03-01T17:18:26.463-08:00Advice for Feminine Women <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Some advice for Feminine Women - <a href="http://www.magforwomen.com/8-easy-tips-to-act-more-feminine/" target="_blank">8 Easy Tips to Act More Feminine</a><br /><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Being a female and acting feminine are two entirely different things.
Femininity should not be taken for granted. Just because you are a
female doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll be feminine too. It’s an art that
sometimes needs to be mastered. So here are 5 [sic] quick and easy tips for
you to act feminine: </blockquote>
<h4>
1. Dress feminine</h4>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Renee
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straightening up the scarf. The pants were almost bell-bottom like; with wide
pant-legs for the feet, but fairly tight fitting everywhere else. They were
solid white, save for the blue stripe around the foot hole. The belt was
likewise solid white, with a clear dome over it. The shirt was a blue tie-die
shirt, and it fit neatly under the jean jacket. Finally, she wore blue gloves
and her scarf, which seemed to round the whole uniform out. The last parts of
her uniform were sitting on the table beside her, including the plastic
facemask, the goggles, and the armor. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“I
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Rene,
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hurt me.”</span></span></div>
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<br />
<h4>
2. Brush up on your manners</h4>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">She
carried the bag out of the locker as the other girls started to file in. When
she saw one of the girls that pushed her off of the wooden horse, Renee frowned
coldly. Cyan watched her stick her tongue out at Renee and then fall forward, firmly
planting her face into the floor. The other girls stopped as she held her nose
crying. </span></span></span></div>
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</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Renee
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Cyan
caught up with her as they walked towards the door. The bell hadn’t rung yet,
but Renee didn’t have it in her mind to stay any longer. As she reached the
door and pushed it open the bell rang, and she looked back at Cyan.</span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“See?
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Yyyo…”</span></span></span></div>
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</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“No,
she tripped herself. That’s why we tie our shoes: so people don’t step on the
laces.”<br /></span></span></span></div>
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</span></h4>
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4. Be gentle, sweet and kind</h4>
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The Pimpernel landed on the ground as Shadow
ripped into the two hoods that were just stepping out into the midst of the
chaos, their hands full. Two more, with their hands empty, stepped out from the
cab of the truck, as Roth threw the thug off of him and stood up. The Pimpernel
could hear the tiny motors in his hands whirl as he clenched them.</span></span></span></div>
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</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Hey
there, sparkles,” She said. “You left your dignity on the floor back at Joliet
Union. I was going to give it back to you, but it died on the way over here. Oh
well.”<br /></span></span></span></div>
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make. The first was crawling through. The second was more dramatic, so that was
the one she opted to do. Grabbing the top of the window seal firmly in both
hands, the Ghost let go of the wall and tried to swing in. It looked cool, and
it would make her feel like an actual hero. She didn’t bet on the frame being
so rotted it broke when she was in mid-swing, with gravity pulling her down.
Her head slammed against the corner of the window ledge, and she hit the floor
with an exceptionally loud thud, rolling and holding the back of her head. </span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Carajo! Harah! Sharlila!” </i></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">She was still holding the back of her head.
She could see stars, but couldn’t feel blood, so that meant her head was a
little harder than she gave it credit for being. It also meant her mom was
right about her having a thick skull, but she wasn’t going there.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The
Ghost staggered onto her feet. “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Yah ben
shel kahba</i>!” She shouted at the window ledge. “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Lech lehizdayen, yah pin noteph ziva! Yah zayin lo arel! Hijo de puta!
Cago en tu leche; anda que te coja un barro, puta madre! Lech tiez’da’yni,
kalba ben kelev! Pinche puta!”</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>She
turned around, a storm still over her head. It didn’t matter if anyone heard or
not. Even if someone did, they weren’t likely to think anything of it, much
less understand words and phrases that she didn’t understand, having learned
them from her grandfather. It sure helped her feel better, though.</span></span></blockquote>
</blockquote>
<br />
<h4>
6. Do not speak bluntly</h4>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Because
we’re <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">stupid</i>,” Shadow said, falling
into one of the open rooms and grabbing one of the chairs. </span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"> </span></span></span></blockquote>
</blockquote>
<br />
<h4>
7. Be sensitive</h4>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
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</div>
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<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“And
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<br />
<h4>
8. Control your temper</h4>
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<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">“Yep.
According to his web-page, he can bench-press a truck and bend a twelve inch
iron pipe with his bare hand.”</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>She
snorted. </span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“He’s
an underground fighter. Styled vampire. I can’t believe how bad you’ve messed
him up compared to this picture.”</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“I
only knocked his jaw loose. And dropped a several thousand pound chandler on
him.”</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Well,
he says he’s a modified human, because of some kind of accident. He’s not lying
– but his modified body is not one for fighting. He isn’t even a good fighter,
besides that point. Some of the claims about this guy are that he <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">pays</i> others to throw the fight. That
way, it looks like he’s always winning. I’m guessing he’s the Family’s golden
goose – not because he can fight, but because he pays people to lose so he
doesn’t have to. He’s got a hell of a memetic campaign, though. Good manager,
I’ll bet.”</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“He’s
a mediocre fighter at best,” she said. “He only got the drop on me because I
was mad. I’ve learned from that mistake. But that’s good to know. I have
something else I can throw at him.”</span></span></div>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<br />And there you have. 8 ways to be more feminine, brought to you courtesy of the girls of <i>The Blue Pimpernel</i>. <br /><br />
Remember, the Blue Pimpernel is still on sale. You can get a copy (ebook or dead tree), here, <a href="http://www.lulu.com/shop/joshua-kilburn/the-blue-pimpernel/ebook/product-20119689.html" target="_blank">at Lulu</a> (Link goes to the ebook). <br /> <br />
<br />
<h4>
</h4>
<br />
<h4>
</h4>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2862170131521435894.post-6075235606186518932013-02-16T22:14:00.000-08:002013-02-16T22:14:12.670-08:00Timecube, Revelation Style <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I'm not sure what the correlation
between political and ideological extremism and crappy web design is, but
between this, Timecube, CAP, and a number of extremist websites, I'm pretty
sure that we have proof epistemic closure results in pathetic withering of
those facilities. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In a sense, what we're here today to do
is to swing at the low hanging fruit. I found this link through the <a href="http://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/2013/02/15/nra-can-nicolae-handle-this-job/" target="_blank">Slacktivist</a>, since there's no way I'd go looking for this
stuff on my own (lies. That's pure bunk, but don't tell anyone. I just didn't
go looking for this one). We I have for you today is a <a href="http://tribulationinstitute.com/great_tribulation_chart.htm" target="_blank">End Times Tribulation Chart</a> (You have to scroll down to
find it, but you'll see it. It looks like a worksheet table in a Microsoft
office document, because I'm pretty sure that's where it was originally
designed). This document comes us courtesy of <s>the blackest pits of Hell</s>
the authoritative Tribulation Institute (no, the rest of the site isn't any
prettier). This outline is a full map of the Tribulation, and because I love
the intellectual aspect of picking apart ideas, I'm going to high light all of
the various problems I can find with this one. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"But... you put too much thought
into what Christian Fundamentalists believe."</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Well, <i>someone</i> has
to."</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<a name='more'></a><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Before we speak, I see that I'm
mentioned by name at the beginning :"Yahshua speaks to the Seven Churches,
before opening the seals and the four horsemen and the seven seals below
[sic]." Mind you, my name is spelled wrong (<i>Yĕhôshúa, </i>which is
translated into Greek as </span><span lang="EL" style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EL; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Ἰησοῦς, more commonly Joshua/Jesus - yes, I'm an atheist
named after God. If you ever wondered why I have a strong taste for irony,
wonder no more), but I feel honored that I should get a mention here before we
start. </span><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span lang="EL" style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EL; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">So, anyway,
starting at square one:</span><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span lang="EL" style="color: red; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EL; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"</span><span style="color: red; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Ruler behind the UN sitting on the horse with a
bow & a crown (<i>symbolizing the United Nations</i>) went forth
conquering"</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">(I miss comic sans). Right off the bat
we have a problem. If you're using any symbolism <i>at all</i>, then you're
appealing to figures of speech. Most of us would not take issue with this;
after all, we use figures of speech like, every day of our lives. It's
inevitable; attempting to <i>not</i> use figures of speech would make language
almost impossible (since language only means what meanings we assign to it.
What about "table" makes it a "table," besides what you've
been taught your entire life? I understand this is Deconstruction Theory and,
therefore, postmodernism, but I maintain that postmodernism does sometimes
serve a purpose. Not always, but it sometimes does). Language is based around
figures of speech, metaphors, metonymies, synecdoche, and others. Without these
things, language would either cease to have meaning or be drastically reduced
its meaning.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">To most of us, this isn't a problem. We
accept this reality and we move on.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">For a certain subset of the population,
the fact that language has no absolute meaning and is nothing more than a
string of figures of speech, half thoughts, and inferred meanings that may not
always be correct poses a <i>huge</i> problem. See, you can<i>not</i> take
language literally. Whether said language is written, or whether it's spoken,
language simply cannot be literal. The only language that comes close to being
literal is the onomatopoeia, because that's designed to capture something
that's actually physical, like a sound, and replay what that sound is using the
spoken language (and even <i>then</i> it's imprecise, since different people
hear sounds in different ways). Language is <i>entirely</i> subjective, and
even the most literal of language, the onomatopoeia, is subjective to a large
degree (was that a "thud" or a "thunk"?)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">This makes the claim "I take the
Bible/Quran/Torah/[insert holy book here] <i>literally</i>" problematic,
because you <i>can't</i>, because language is not literal. The meanings you
drive from something might be entirely different from the meaning that someone else
drives from it - there's whole school built around this, it's called
"literary criticism" - and <i>admitting</i> that you're using
symbolism right from the start shoots any claim to "literally interpreting
the Bible" in the foot. You can't literally interpret a symbol. It's going
to mean different things to different, as we're going to find out later. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: red; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Extreme inflation will
begin, especially with food."</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Either they're talking about inflation
with the price of food or they're talking about food becoming larger because
someone has finally figured out how to attach a bicycle pump to a pear stem and
pump that puppy up (see? I can take things literally, too. And that's an image
that'll stick for a while).</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">But, let's humor them. Let's assume
they're talking about the prices of food inflating. Prices generally do not
inflate. Prices go up or down to match inflation, but the prices themselves are
not described as "inflating" (at least, not to my knowledge of
economics which, admittedly, is not very advanced). The worth of the dollar you
buy it with inflates or deflates (or stagflates), but the actual price only
goes up or down to match that. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Food prices might well inflate,
especially as arable land decreases and global warming starts impacting growing
seasons. But it that’s not why they’re including this (in fact, it’s the exact
opposite. You’ll see). They’re doing this because it sets up the introduction
for Famine later. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: red; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“Men will become lovers of
themselves”</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">You can probably guess where my mind
went with that. I have a dirty mind, I will admit it. Unfortunately, half the
population has been excluded (tell me it ain’t so; tell me this has never
happened before!) </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">“Social Justice is promoted Community Salvation
&Christ Consciousness which is Apostate Christianity which is perverted
Christianity & Earth (climate change) and creature worship begins to
flourish. Lesbianism & Homosexuality”</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Social justice is promoted! Oh noes!
Tell me it’s not so, social justice! No, anything but equality, fairness, and
human rights! Jesus is the exact opposite of those things, and we can’t have
that, so clearly it’s the work of the antichrist. I love how they threw in
Lesbianism in there – ladies, this is the last mention you’re getting, so you
better get used to it. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Also, right there – climate change is
apparently earth and creature worship. That’s how I know they’re not including
famine as an attempt to foreshadow actual food shortages caused by global
warming. See, global warming is really just part of Earth worship, and therefore,
not real at all! I swear it! I haven’t seen no climate change since I shoved my
head in the sand 40 years ago. It’s where I found Jesus. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: red; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“World Communism intensifying and USA will not escape.”</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Communism
died, and has been dead for a while now. Please join us in the present, thank
you (this was written in the 1990s, which was still after the fall of the
Soviet Union, so there’s still no excuse). </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: red; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The kings of the ten regions are ruling behind the scenes through UN
treaties.ppt EU region elects first president 2010</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The United Nations does not work like
that, and the European Union does not work like that, thank you and good night.
</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">What, you want me to explain? Fine. The
European Union is not a government. It’s a very loose federation, designed mostly
to facilitate trade and a common currency. There is something that resembles a
government, but it’s extremely weak. That’s part of the problem with what’s
happening right now in the Eurozone; the EU council doesn’t have the force to
act and try to stabilize the disparities between some powers (like Germany) and
others (like Greece). Funny that the European Union should come up, since the
EU is probably a good example of just way a global currency is impossible given
the way markets work today. Imagine the problem with Greek right now. Now scale
that up, until it’s affecting Central Asia, the Middle East, Southeast Asia,
Oceania, and Africa (better than half the planet’s total surface area). That
alone would destroy entire countries and send the world into a horrific
economic recession that would undermine any further attempts to unify the
planet under a one world government. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I mentioned that the EU is weak. Do you
want to know what’s weaker than the EU council? The United Nations. The United
Nations has enough power to pass non-binding resolutions and it the “governing
body” has the power to facilitate even less. It has a lot of good programs –
UNESCO, WHO, and others – but as a governing body, it sucks. To create
something like the EU with the UN would require global restructuring and that’d
be bad for everyone. Why do you think it hasn’t happened yet?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Also, the EU doesn’t elect presidents.
It’d be a prime minister if it was anything, because the EU is not a state,
it’s a government (and prime ministers are, in general, heads of government,
not state). </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: red; font-size: 10.0pt;">Censorship will begin in all
media sources via FCC regulations</span><span style="color: red; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Someone turn the projector off, please.
The light’s getting in my eyes. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: red; font-size: 10.0pt;">Terrorism will escalate in the
world especially in the USA via sleeper cells as well as domestic terrorists.
Tension in the Middle East explodes because of high food prices, high
unemployment ppt poverty and gov.corruption. Nations including USA headed for
bankruptcy due to DEBT through bailouts, stimulus packages, etc.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt;">The United States is nowhere near
bankruptcy. In fact, the United States has one of the best debts on the planet,
and it’s also one of the most secure to invest in. Debt, while not necessarily
a good thing, is nevertheless helpful in establishing credit and a credit
rating, in addition to the fact that government debt does not work like
household or business debt. In short, you fail economics forever. But we have
to throw the “small government, so small it fits in your vagina” crowd a bone,
right? </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: red; font-size: 10.0pt;">The POLICE STATE</span></b><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;">. DUN DUN
DUN </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt;">We already live in a police state. A
police state is a sliding scale; we didn’t have to wait for any of this to
happen. We’ve been living in one since the war on drugs in the 1970s; you’re
not making future predictions, you’re just telling me what’s already going on. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: red; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The New Age religion of the One World Governing body
(UN) will begin to rise […] Climate change, sustainable develpoment [sic] and
going green is a hoax and Cap and trade designed to bankrupt USA.</span><span style="color: red; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: red; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Cleansing of Mother Earth will begin</span><span style="color: red; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt;">Sustainable development (I couldn’t
misspell it wrong, no matter how hard I tried; I tried to spell it wrong and I
forgot how to spell it until I typed it spelled right) is apparently a bad
thing. And if going green is a hoax, explain Iceland and Germany. Please, I’ll
wait. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt;">The cleansing of Mother Earth will
begin. I guess that means it’s time to invest in really big SOS pads and a lot
of cleaning fluid, huh? (See? I can take language literally, too. Besides, that
image is a lot funnier). </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt;">Lastly, the United Nations does not work
like that, goodnight.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: red; font-size: 10.0pt;">Power was given to him,
sitting on the red horse to take peace from the earth & to kill one
another; given a great sword</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt;">And that right here is clear as murky
water. You can’t <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not</i> take that
literally, since any “literal” take on it is going to be as much of a guess as
anyone elses’. <br />
<br />
<span style="color: red;">World Communism/Socialism is the UN's ideology, coming
from Great Britain where the Illuminati began in 1776</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt;">Eli Whitney did not invent those terms.
You cannot use them interchangeably. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt;">And Adam Weishaupt invented the concept
of the Illuminati in Bavaria. Bavaria is not Great Britain. There’s a couple of
very subtle distinctions that, while barely noticeable, are quite important:
for instance, Great Britain is on an island just off the coast of mainland
Europe while Bavaria is almost in the dead center of it. I know they sound a
lot alike, but there’s a handful of differences that really should be factored
in if you want someone to take you seriously. At least you got the date right,
though. That’s a pat on the back, right?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt;">There’s some stuff about excessive
taxation, persecution of REAL, TRUE, CHRISTIANS™, and babble about Esau, red
pottery, and violence (I’m not sure what Esau has against red pottery), and
people related to Jacob being cut off forever and…</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt;">WORLD WAR III</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt;">Bet you didn’t see that, did you? </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: red; font-size: 10.0pt;">A he-goat <b>ppt</b> (USA)
comes from the west not touching the ground (by air) against the Ram (ancient
Persia) which is Iran, Syria and Iraq and smotes them. Later his kingdom is
broken ppt and final four kingdoms arise</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt;">Take note. Here, the United States is a
“he-goat,” which I assume is just a goat, since males don’t get special names.
Only females and children (which is pretty offensive, if you ask me).
Nevertheless, we have a he-goat, coming from the west but not touching the
ground against the Ram, which is apparently ancient Persia. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt;">Alright. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt;">Which one of you made Xerxes and Darius
into a lich? </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt;">Note: Iran is indeed ancient Persia.
While Iraq and some parts of Syria were also part of Ancient Persia, they would
not normally be considered part of Persia today, even if Iran were to somehow
undergo resurgence. Perhaps you would be better served if your fictional
Sassanid Empire included modern day Afghanistan, Baluchistan, and Tajikistan,
since those are all Persian-speaking regions. You could possibly stretch that
to include modern day Kurdistan, but I’m not entirely sure that Turkey would be
pleased with that outcome. Perhaps that’s where World War III comes from.
Turkey gets pissed off at the Resurgent Aryan Empire, led by an undead </span><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Yazdegerd III, who somehow
became a lich. Now <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">that’d</i> be a hell
of a story – Iranian nuclear testing accidentally revives the corpse of
Yazdegerd III, who returns to his throne, establishes a new Sassanid Empire in
Modern Day Iran (naturally overthrowing the Mullahs in the process), and then
proceeds a initiate Middle East empire building that would rival what the
United States does, pissing off Turkey (by taking Kurdistan), Azerbaijan (by
conquering them) and Russia and Georgia (through taking South Ossetia and
Ossetia; Ossetian is a Persian language), triggering a war in the region.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">That’d be a
killer story. So much better than this tripe. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Blah, blah,
some stuff about Jews banking and ruining the world through monetary policies,
something about Free Masons (Trifecta! Jews, Freemasons, and the Illuminati.
All we’re missing is the Bilderberg Group and FEMA Death camps and we’ll have
caught ‘em all), Surviving Martial Law, Martial Law being called, FEMA death…
damn. I called that too soon. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: red; font-size: 10.0pt;">After the eagles wings plucked
ppt (USA) Final Four kingdoms arise ppt. 1st Kingdom or beast that was like a
LION (Great Britain) 2nd beast like a BEAR ppt (Russia) The 3rd beast ppt like
a leopard, (Germany) and the 4th terrible and dreadful beast kingdom.</span><span style="color: red; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt;">Just a few blocks ago, the United States
was a he-goat. Now it’s an eagle. Literally – I don’t think that word means
what you think it means. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt;">The United States is clearly the Eagle,
since no other country in history has used that as their national animal
before. I can see the lion being Great Britain, since it’s often incorporated
into British heraldry, and the Bear as Russia is a distinctive if unoriginal
choice, but I’m not sure how the hell you get “leopard” out of Germany. Maybe
because Leopold is a German name? I dunno. The Leopard is the national animal
of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Somalia</i>, not Germany. You know
what Germany’s national animal is? </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt;">The eagle.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: red; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Babylon
<i>(Persia)</i> is fallen (<i>1st Babylon)</i>, is fallen <i>(2nd Babylon
USA/NYC)</i> that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of
the wrath of her fornication.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Babylon was in
modern day Iraq. Persia is not modern day Iraq. You really should think about
investing in a geography course.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">And there we
go again. Your symbolism is inconsistent. One minute the United States is a
he-goat, then next it’s an eagle, and now that he-goat suddenly became a woman?
And of course, one associated with fornication, since, you know, that’s what
those dirty, dirty whores are always tempting us upright and moral men into.
Dirty whores.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">It’d be
helpful if I had a guide for this guide; something to explain why multiple
symbols means the same thing. Since, you know, symbolism doesn’t usually work
like that. Someone get me the goddamn spark notes…</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">WORLD WAR III
CONTINUES </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="color: red; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">(Persia: </span></b><span style="color: red; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Iraq, <a href="http://tribulationinstitute.com/iran.htm"><span style="color: red;">Iran</span></a>
and Syria is <b>fallen and </b>then<b> </b>The <b>United States of <a href="http://tribulationinstitute.com/america.htm"><span style="color: red;">America/NYC</span></a>
is fallen (<i>goes into <a href="http://tribulationinstitute.com/prepare_for_martial_law_tribulation.htm"><span style="color: red;">martial law</span></a> because of some nuclear strikes
against it</i>), but not yet utterly destroyed till 7th Vial (<a href="http://biblia.com/bible/kjv1900/Rev.16.17" target="_blank"><span style="color: red;">Rev.16:17</span></a>,<a href="http://biblia.com/bible/kjv1900/Rev%2016.18" target="_blank"><span style="color: red;">18</span></a>,<a href="http://biblia.com/bible/kjv1900/Rev%2016.19" target="_blank"><span style="color: red;">19</span></a>)</b></span><span style="color: red; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="color: red; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><a href="http://tribulationinstitute.com/last_four_kingdoms.htm"><span style="color: red;">The Final Four Kingdoms</span></a> on the earth have now
risen from the decline of the USA to fill the void left by its demise!! </span></b><span style="color: red; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Sigh. This
reads like a bad science fiction novel or crappy alternative history novel.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">“Man, this is
cool. I’ve redrawn the map of Europe and everything. I put so much thought into
this…”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">“Yeah, but
what are you going to do with the Middle East man, you left it blank?”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">“Shit. Uh…
here we go. A big caliphate. It spans from India to the Atlantic Ocean. I mean,
they’re all Muslim, right? And we’ll call it… uh… the Caliphate. It’s genius. I
bet nobody’s thought of it before man, it’s so perfectly plausible.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Persia =/=
Iraq and Syria, and there was a lot more to Ancient Persian than <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">just</i> those two countries. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">And we’re down
to the Final Four! Call in now with who you think the winner is going to be,
and place your bets because we’re going into the last elimination round! </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The United
States of America is not the same thing as New York City. I expect epistemic
closure to kill any desire to learn about the geography of any other region,
but c’mon. This is your home. You live here. Do you wander around in the night
wondering where your house/kitchen went, because they’re the same exact thing?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Some nuclear
strikes against it. Someone’s read Judge Dread too many times. One does not
simply experience “some nuclear strikes” any more simply than one walks into
Mordor.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Now proceed to
the third seal, but do not collect $200 upon passing go. This is the crappiest
game of Monopoly I’ve ever played.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: red; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">He that sat on the Black horse had a pair of balances in
his hand. A measure of wheat for a penny. Three measures of barley
for a penny. Hurt not the oil & the wine</span><span style="color: red; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: red; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">(<i>The USA and the rest of the world reels in economic
collapse along with devastating inflation!</i>)</span><span style="color: red; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">(The USA and the rest of the world reels from
economic collapse along with devastating inflation! Because having a one world
currency didn’t damage it enough! We have to have devastating inflation!
Devastating! Inflation! I will continue to use this term without having a clue
what it means, because it’s serves my (inferior) storytelling purposes!)</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">A measure of
wheat for a penny. I don’t know about you, but that’s not how I remember that
phrase. And a measure of wheat for a penny is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">awesome</i>. Think about it – how many things can you buy with a penny
anymore? Hell, pennies cost something like 1.2 cents to mint, so you can’t even
buy a penny with a penny! </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: red; font-size: 10.0pt;">The Edomite Federal Reserve
Bank has brought hyperinflation to the world along with war!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt;">Remind me again: why do we have a
federal reserve if we have a one world government? Furthermore, why is there
still a United States if there’s a one world government? When the hell do we
get the one world government, anyway? I’m so confused… </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt;">LAST 2,300 days. Some business about a
beast with the mouth of a lion and the feet of a leopard (Germany and Great
Britain team up?) And then, suddenly, a challenger appears! A dragon gave him
his power (who? Who is him? The Antichrist?). This whole section is a prime
example of what I mean when I say that language is ambiguous and can’t be taken
literally for anything. I’m sure the explanation is on here somewhere (in this
mountain of power point presentations I’m not planning on downloading), but
your chart should be clear on its own. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt;">… and it’s not. For some reason,
beginning sentences with a … when there wasn’t a … Previously makes no sense.
But then, neither does the whole notion of a city getting trodden upon by
gentiles. What is this, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Attack of the 50
Foot Gentile</i>? Is it some kind of Yiddish science fiction movie?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: red; font-size: 10.0pt;">The people of Jerusalem have
made a covenant with death ppt and with hell they are at agreement that when
the overflowing scourge shall pass through it shall not come unto us, for we
have made lies our refuge and under falsehood have we hid ourselves.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt;">I think this is where Jerusalem makes a
peace treaty with the United Nations, so the United Nations will stop sending
their 50 foot gentilezillas to stop stomping on the holy city. In the process,
you end up with a World Government that, shockingly enough, does not control
the entire world. Therefore, it’s not a world government, but hey, far be it
from me to put some thought into this, since clearly they didn’t.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt;">Some business about Oceania and having
read <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">1984</i> too many times, and how he
(presumably the Antichrist) will come in peace and flattery and gain the
kingdoms by reciting every member state of the United Nations with a follow up
of reciting all of their capitals, major exports, and last 40 Presidents (since
countries only have Presidents and not prime ministers). Some business about
pollution and abomination, presumably the Abomination from the Incredible Hulk
throwing down with Captain Plant over this issue, and a bunch of people who now
worship the God-Emperor of Mankind. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt;">The Imperium is born, and we’re only
three seals deep! Tada! </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt;">For my next trick, I’m going to pull a rabbit
from my hat. Presto! *lion roars* </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b><i><span style="color: red; font-size: 10.0pt;">The microchip used for
the electronic financial system of the beast is introduced in America by the
False Prophet ppt- President of the USA - Rev.13:11-18)</span></i></b><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">I read about this the other day on facebook, sadly. The good news is
that the other seals haven’t been broken yet, so they’re ahead of the game and
it’s likely unrelated.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">We’re back to this business about being “literal” in your reading of
the Bible. A microchip is <i>not</i> the number 6-6-6 stamped on your forehead
or hand. A Microchip is not <i>on</i> your hand. It’s <i>in</i> your hand. Am I
going to have to start breaking down the differences between English
prepositions, now, too? This is not a hard concept to understand. A microchip
is <i>not</i> 6-6-6. <i>On</i> your hand or forehead is not the same thing as <i>in</i>
your hand or forehead. Microchip goes <i>in</i> your hand. Number goes <i>on</i>
your hand. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Tell me you at least grab that distinction. This is before we get into
the fact that this is utter garbage, but we’ll never get <i>to</i> that point
if you don’t understand how prepositional phrases and prepositions in general
work. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Okay, we’re at seal number 4. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Green is the color of Islam. Yes, yes it is. That’s a rather astute
observation. It’s the first one that I’ve seen all game and we’re four seals
in.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: red; font-size: 10.0pt;">The military power of the USA
(because it was already in the Middle East in Iraq, Afghanistan, etc.) is
integrated into the UN's standing army when martial law is declared in the US
at the end of the <b>2nd Angel</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;">Stop. Stop right there.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">I thought the
world was reeling from economic depression and that the various powers had been
defeated. I thought that there was a void left where the United States fell,
because the four kingdoms had rose to fill that void. Didn’t you have anyone
proof read this? Where the hell did the United States come from? Yes, we were
already over there. But… but… I’m so confused. Are you people out of your damn
minds? How do you take this literally? It doesn’t even make sense <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">figuratively!</i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">And… we go downhill from there. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">We have some business about sifting through the House of Israel, about
Persia being defeated and being integrated into the UN (But… but… World
Government! Do you not even understand what the word “World” means? Jesus
Christ, people. No wonder they can take it literally. If you don’t understand
what words mean, you can make them mean anything. Literally means figurative,
clearly, just like war means peace and ignorance means strength). The Tsavo
lions will have relatives, and since that’s a picture of a donkey (I think?), I
am now imagining flesh-eating donkeys (that’s a terrifying image).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Aaaand Harp (hark, maybe?)! </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">*KABOOM*. The deadliest mushroom this shy of the formidable
jalapeno-stuffed Portobello. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: red; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Blessed
are they that <b><u>die in the Lord</u></b> from <b><u>henceforth</u></b>, they
shall rest from their labours and their works follow them. And I looked &
behold a white cloud & one sat on it that looked like the Son of Man,
having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">*Phew*. They’re Commonwealth. I was really
worried there; this makes so much more sense now. I can easily see how the
NYC/United States got confused. I think. I can’t imagine any reason why they
would have Commonwealth Spelling? </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Anyway, Blessed are those who Die for the God-Emperor for they shall
float in the Warp and hopefully not get eated by the demons that live there.
And their labors and works (so, it’s not faith alone? What happened to <i>sola
fide</i>? You’re a <i>horrible</i> protestant) shall follow them. And I’m going
to give them a golden crown, and in my hand is a sharp sickl…</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Wait. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Isn’t *scrolls back up*. Yes. The sickle is on the Russian Flag. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Jesus is a
communist. Shit, it’s a set up boys, bail! Abort the operation, we’ve been
betrayed! </span></i><b><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">It’s
a Traaaap! </span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">And at the beginning of the 5<sup>th</sup> seal, we’re treated with a
wonderful image of a guy who’s been beheaded, and then we get this:<br />
<br />
</span><b><u><span style="color: red; font-size: 10.0pt;">How long</span></u></b><span style="color: red; font-size: 10.0pt;"> O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge
and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Hearing something like this coming from a privileged western Christian
makes me angry. It undermines the actual difficulty faced by Christians in
non-western societies, who actually <i>are</i> persecuted, and who really <i>do</i>
die for their faith. You are not dying. You are not being persecuted because
you have to share rights that you’ve had all your life. Nobody is going to be
avenging because <i>there’s nothing to avenge</i>.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Something about a great whore (the United States; the United States can
be practically anything at this point, because by this point, it has been), something
about the witnesses being beheaded, white robes and who has the white robes,
and some business about sickles again – I’m telling you, Heaven is a communist
empire and the whole thing is a trap. You just wait and see. Stalin is going to
be up there and everything. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Millions of believers will be slain. Most of them by God, since he has notoriously
bad aim. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">And now we’re at seal number 6 and I’m starting to get ending fatigue.
At 4,591 words so far, I’ve put more thought and effort into this one blog post
than they did their entire belief system and that’s pretty damn depressing. So
I’m just going to hop, skip and jump to the interesting parts. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">It strikes me that they really like this business about being betrayed
by their kin folk. One of their younger (perhaps gay) nephews probably called
them a raving lunatic and they felt like they’d be betrayed. Because being
called fucking bonkers is the same thing as being beheaded. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">And the
earth was reaped</span></b><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">.<b> Because this time, it was personal</b>.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Ooh… I get to go down both columns at the same time. I doubt it’ll make
any more sense than I just went down them one at a time, but hey, we have to
follow the instructions. Just keep telling yourself we’re almost to the end and
when we’re done, we’ll go play a game more rooted in reality, like <i>Lord of
the Rings Risk</i>.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">There was silence for a half hour, and then there was thundering and
lightning, because Thor arrived through the seventh seal and clobber the
antichrist with his mighty hammer, and with him, came the Avengers to save the
world and… what? I’ve got to make this interesting somehow. Anyway, the seventh
seal breaks, and shit goes down. The Tribulation presumably kicks off now (I
guess?) and the Antichrist is killed in war, and, if I’m reading this right
(since I’m not Semitic or Japanese), the Antichrist is resurrected by Satan right
before Michael throws Satan to the Earth to begin the <b>Great Tribulation</b>.
The Manchild is born, and the woman flees into the wilderness for some years
for… what again? And who the hell is Manchild? </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Gah. Red background. No, please. Don’t subject me to that. His wrath, my
eyes feel it.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
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<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">WORMWOOD FALLS. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think I’ve
finally figured out where I am. This is the Tribulation (Don’t look at me like that.
The United States has fallen at least three times but somehow it always comes
back. I can’t trust the narrator). Where’s the Rapture, though? Did that
already happen somewhere in the obscured madness a half dozen paragraphs back?
All of the traditional tropes are there, and we know how this is going to turn
out. 1/3 of the Sun was Smitten. It was Smitten with delight, or possibly
smitten with anger, or maybe just smitten with… but it’s one 1/3, at any rate. Just
like 1/3 of the stars are now smitten, and 1/3 of the ocean waters are now
bitter, and 1/3 everything else. 1/3 of everything collapses, because nothing
makes a battle look epic like killing 1/3 of the Stars, man. Do you know what
that would do the Universe? There are quadrillions of stars. 1/3 of that is at
least a few (thousand) galaxies. That’s a lot of smiting, and it happens at
once, too – Relativity? Nah. We don’t need that.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">We just killed 1/3 of the population, but rest assured, over one half
are now dead. Gee, I should hope. Of course, if it were a literal prophecy, we’d
have an exact number rather than that, but this is hardly exact. This hardly
makes <i>sense</i>. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Ah, Jesus. Always with the red backgrounds; black text does not go good
on red backgrounds. That’s the scourge right there. This just isn’t playing
fair; my eyes, they buuuurn…</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">The End times harvest, sickles being thrust into the Earth (didn’t
Jesus already do that?), blood up to horses bridals, the Mystery of God is
finished and… the Rapture and Resurrection? I believe this is called “post-Millenialism”,
but I can’t be sure. Anyway, God choses to rapture his church <i>after</i> he’s
killed off half the human population and 1/3 of the Universe – for what
purpose, again? I thought the Rapture was to spare the church, now to say “Hah.
Oops. Sorry guys, I forgot you existed.” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">And then Jesus returns. The end.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Well, there you have. 5,250 words to describe something that’s less
than half that in word count and less than 1/3 that in total effort and thought.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go was my eyes out. That red background is <i>murder</i>.
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2862170131521435894.post-88160294535735510012013-02-08T14:49:00.000-08:002013-02-08T14:49:58.552-08:00No, Liberatarianism Does not Follow Atheism (part 2)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="tr_bq">
You can find <a href="http://post-modernenlightenment.blogspot.com/2013/02/no-liberatarianism-does-not-follow.html" target="_blank">Part 1 here</a>. <br /><br />So, having gone on that long spiel about what libertarianism is and isn't, let's take a look at <a href="http://blog.theproudatheist.com/should-atheism-and-libertarianism-go-hand-in-hand-part-2/" target="_blank">the article</a>. </div>
<a name='more'></a><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
No longer do you live your day-to-day under the eye of an omniscient,
omnipotent big brother figure, doling out rewards and punishment based
on dogmatic law. You look for evidence, you respect credibility and
argument, not blind faith and obedience. You, the atheist, live life
according to your rules, not contradictory statements on crumbling
parchment written sometime between the discoveries of animal husbandry
and archery.</blockquote>
My first note here is that atheism =/=
skepticism. Simply because you've left behind a religion doesn't mean
you did so under any of the pretenses above: you could be like me. I was
never raised to be religious, and I was an implicit atheist from birth
right up through till I started making logical arguments against the
existence of a God and eventually came to the conclusion that there
likely isn't a higher power in the universe controlling everything. Not
all atheists are like that; some do it just because it shocks their
parent (stereotypical satanism is for kids whose parents were shocked
enough when their child announced they were atheists). I often joke that
I would make a better Jewish person than a Catholic, simply because I
already have the atheist part down. But the goal is to point out that
there are still people who are atheist but attend church, and still give
obedience to their pastor or what have you in the form of respecting
their opinion, and, they do indeed attempt live their lives based on
"contradictory statements on crumbling parchment written sometime
between the discoveries of animal husbandry and archery", while still
trying to be good people anyway and discarding the parts that would keep
them from being good people (Which is flat wrong anyway, beyond that.
Islam came around during the 750s, well past the discovery of both, and
the faith and individuals following it contributed a whole hell of a lot
to scientific discovery. Go ahead, look at the name of the stars in the
night sky - 90% of them have Arabic names, and that's <i>for a reason</i>.
Algebra is an Arabic discovery; proper to Temujin, this was not a
primitive, backwards religion.The Baha'i Faith was founded sometime
between the discovery of the steam engine and the industrial revolution.
Neo-Pagans came about sometime between the discovery of the
microprocessor and the first home computer. <i>Not all religions are Christianity and Judaism</i>.) <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
How quickly we decide that we don’t know best for ourselves, while
simultaneously agreeing that <b>SOMEONE out there must know what’s best for
all!</b> The fact that I’m typing this out right now, the fact that you
can read this, the fact that we can have this discussion, hell, the fact
that we can have a discussion at all! The fact that we have the word
“discussion,” that we have a sense of mortality, of right and wrong, of
past and future – these things separate us from the rest of the
creatures with whom we share this planet. We’ve evolved to possess an
incredible gift – that of thinking. Each and every one of us is a being
fully capable of rational thought, of decision-making, of
problem-solving skills, of taking responsibility for our actions.</blockquote>
I
agree with the bulk of it, but the emboldened part should tell you
where this essay is going. I would also like to point out here that the
author is wrong, too; there are plenty of animals beyond humans who can
carry out discussions of their own. Crows and ravens are very social, as
are dolphins. You can indeed carry out a conversation with an African
Gray Parrot. Elephants have shown time and again that they possess a
sense of morality and right and wrong, as well as a sense of altruism.
Rats, likewise, are some of the most empathetic and altruistic creatures
you will meet. To assume these creatures lack a sense of morality is
absurd. They just don't possess one that we've been able to get them to
elucidate so far (why I'm a proponent of uplifting to begin with; who
knows. Maybe their sense of morality is better than our own... maybe, in
the case of rats, anyway). <br /><br />And no, while we do indeed possess the "gift of thinking," we're not the only species that does, and not everyone in our species possess it to the same level that you or I may. I do <i>not</i>
agree that each and everyone of us is fully capable of rational
thought, decision making, and problem-solving, and taking responsibility
for our actions. Those of us who are mentally <i>healthy</i> are
capable of doing that. What about someone who can't make reasonable
decisions because they're simply not "intelligent" enough too? If they
have a mental handicap that keeps them from learning, or from knowing
what they're going to do is going to inflict harm? Are these people
suddenly no less than the rabble that you were casting the rest of the
species on the planet into? Not everyone is capable of making or doing
their own decisions. And it's not up to you, or me, to decide who is. Society should be the judge of that factor, since the greater society is the one who often gets stuck with the fall out.<br /><br />And not all of us are capable of rational thought, either. A
schizophrenic individual is certainly not capable of thinking
rationally (depending upon how severe it is). A person who is in the
throes of depression are not capable of being rational, nor are people
who are in the throes of mania. A person who is clinically depressed might not be able to jump and do the task like everyone else, and they may start medicating to try and make themselves feel better - are they responsible for not showing up to work on time, because they simply do not have the energy after stopping themselves from committing suicide the night before? What about someone who suffers from mania? They're doing, not thinking, and often times doing leads to dangerous things since they feel they're invincible - running red lights, dangerous unsafe sexual encounters, spending sprees, and other destructive things that they literally have zero control over. Are they responsible for destroying their own lives when they had literally no cognitive control over what they did? These people lack the ability to think rationally at these times, and thus, are they capable of taking responsibility for their own
actions? Would you hold them responsible for something they did when they weren't even lucid enough to realize they did it? When it's not even their fault to begin with, since they were born with the genetic makeup to make them susceptible to environmental factors that triggered the mental illness? <br /><br />This is one of the major problems with libertarianism (and conservationism in general). It assumes that everyone has the same level of privilege that you do, and that everyone is capable of the same things that you're capable of. When confronted with the fact that no, this isn't how reality actually works, it's a matter of dismissing them as anomalies because they're not measuring up to what you know about your privileged life.That everyone starts out equal in life, when a glance around will show you that is certainly not the case. Your privilege is not everyone else's privilege. <br /><br />This is what confuses me so much about most atheists. Most of them see that there is a blatant Christian privilege in western society, and that Christians are often given a leg above everyone else. But even mention that there might be a racial, biological sex, gendered, or mental health aspect to privilege and that they might have some privilege of their own and suddenly you're declared PC and cast out with the cranks who practice homeopathy. <br /><br />Anyway, I digress.<br /><blockquote>
I think we can all agree that religious faith, the belief in something
without evidence, is the willing sacrifice of all of those human
evolutionary leaps – it’s this willing desire to place all of our trust
into something alien and unknown and to just HOPE that said entity has
our best interest at heart. The atheist, especially the antitheist, has
made the steadfast and conscious decision to not buy into such parlor
tricks, to say “no” when it comes to the sacrifice of these
all-important faculties. “Give up the ability to think and choose for
myself?” we say. “Sacrifice the right to make my own decisions about
how to live my life? No thank you!”</blockquote>
No, we don't. There's an entire section of the human brain that seems to be programmed more towards accepting supernatural over the biological. Rational thinking is not an ingrown human feature; we are better at finding patterns. This is why humans are such good storytellers; we find patterns, and we craft reasons to go with those patterns. We devise stories, and we tell those stories, and we'll accept a good story before we will good facts by our nature.You're not sacrificing <i>any</i> "evolutionary leap" by believing in a religion; in fact, by doing so, you're <i>living up to</i> what psychological baggage evolution has lovingly saddled you with. There's any number of reasons why we evolved pattern recognition over critical thinking facilities as an innate ability, but I'm sure that has something to do with the fact that finding patterns in nature makes it easier to avoid getting eaten by the lion that's hiding behind those bushes than attempting to think it through and getting killed while you do so. Snap judgments are what we had to do to survive, and being able to associate certain patterns with danger allowed us to make those snap judgements a lot easier. In classic evolutionary sense, that's coming back to bite us in the ass now, but that's neither here nor there. The point is, we were programmed to find patterns by evolution, not think critically. <br /><br />And one last note: Critical thinking is <i>antithetical</i> to traditional human thinking. <i>This is why we have to teach it in schools, you are not born with the ability to think critically</i>. <br /><br />And Hitchens was an asshole. "Religion poisons everything" - sure, tell that to Dr. King, Jr. I'm sure he lead the civil rights movement because he was one of the most devoted atheists in the world, right? Or any abolitionists like Abby Kelley (a Quaker), William Lloyd Garrison (a Quaker), Benjamin Lundy (a Quaker), Elizabeth Blackwell (A congregationalist - C-c-c-combo Breaker!), and others. Were these perfect people? No. But I challenge you to point out a perfect person. Go ahead. I'll wait. Hitchens, being the sexist ass he was, certainly wasn't perfect.<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">
If I’m to take the immediate Facebook reaction to the previous blog as
indicative of the whole of the atheistic world’s feelings about
libertarianism, then about 98.7% of you do not make the same logical
leap as I – <strong>that anything short of libertarian representation
from a governing body is tantamount to the exact same thing we have
escaped in regards to religion. </strong> We are one hundred percent
responsible for our actions and decisions, and should not have them made
for us by either deity or government. Morality should not be
regulated, be it by religious dogma or by law; when morality IS
regulated in such a way – <strong>when the law is expressly designed to influence thought and behavior – it is no longer moral</strong>.
It is, once more, a punishment and reward system, it is Big Brother in
action yet again. The key difference between religion and government is
that at least religion is making some pretty damn appealing promises in
the reward category.</blockquote>
Nope, I certainly don't make that same leap. I'm going to assume that he's a minarchist, since he still implies that government is necessary. However, I find the logical leap from "Worship God or Else!" to "Worship Government or Else!" laughable. <br /><br />The Law <i>is</i> expressly designed to influence thought and behavior. It's there to try and influence socially acceptable behaviors, since at heart we as a species are really nothing more then dirty apes who got lucky and figured out how to reprogram ourselves so that we could move beyond the innate "pattern finding" trend and into critical thinking and metacognition. The Law is there to try and keep you from murdering someone, right? That's and expressed interest of the law to influence your behaviors <i>and</i> your thoughts, since you grow up realizing that murder is not a socially acceptable behavior. Even laws that are designed to stop theft, which I'm sure the author would agree with, are designed with the explicit intent of trying to influence thoughts and behaviors - namely, to discourage the behavior of theft and encourage the thought that theft is harmful to society and the individual. I should be able to steal whatever I want, why are you trying to control my thoughts into convincing me it's wrong!? <br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">
Why is there a law against suicide? ... I’m asking –
why is there a<em> federal law</em> on the books that makes killing oneself a crime?</blockquote>
Because it likely stems from some backwards moral regulation. Not all laws make sense; the purpose of a democratic society is to continually improve and remove the laws that were drafted in an earlier age that makes no sense in our enlightened modern society. Simply pointing out that there's a law against suicide does not denigrate the entire concept of law, nor does it denigrate the entire American Justice system (believe me, it denigrates itself enough as it is; our justice system is a joke, and it's not because of federal regulations or federal government influence - <i>it's because of a lack thereof</i>.)<br /><blockquote>
Why is the government’s job to regulate where and how many handicapped
parking spots are in front of every business, and not the choice of
the businesses themselves? </blockquote>
Why is the government's job to tell businesses they have to serve to interracial couples? Or tell businesses that they have to serve to atheists? I suppose it's not the government's job to try and integrate society either, is it? Keep those black people where they belong. There's more Christians in the United States than there are atheists; I like having the government there to know I'm protected from Christian privilege. I know that I can bring a lawsuit and sue a store for violating federal law if it doesn't serve me because the owner is a bigoted asshole. The same applies here - why is there a federal law?<br />
<br />Did it ever occur to you, who by all accounts is likely a non-disabled individual, that the businesses <i>would not</i> otherwise? How many times a day do you think about how difficult it is to be disabled? Odds are, unless you live with someone who is, not a whole lot. That law is there for a reason - because so many business simply would not include them. Especially since handicapped individuals are a small percentage of the population. businesses are not going to do something that isn't profitable without prompting, and that includes catering to the needs of a tiny percentage of the population. <br /><br />Christians are, by all accounts, the same way towards other people who believe different to than them. They fail to take into account that individuals may not necessarily want to pray. You may live in a liberal part of the country - kudos to you. Not everyone does, and equality only happens when it's enforced by a legislative entity. Death is the Great Equalizer, not the Free Market. <br />
<blockquote>
Why are we allowing the government to kill people in our name? Why
can’t people in Virginia perform oral sex without committing a
*#^&@^!!ing felony?! </blockquote>
See above; laws from an earlier era are not necessarily the most progressive now, but as a democratic society, it's our job to work with our fellow citizens and change that. <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Why is not wearing a seat belt or a motorcycle helmet a crime? </blockquote>
Because I, and others like me, pay out over 100 dollars in insurance a month, and when you get in an accident, especially one where another person was harmed, that insurance goes through the roof. I can barely make it as it is. I can't afford a rate hike because some idiot decided to remove themselves from the gene pool and injure several hundred other people. Stop thinking about yourself for a change and start thinking about the other people in the society you live with. You are a severe danger if you don't have a seat belt, since you can be thrown from the vehicle and become a projectile. Who knows how many people you might hurt? By this time you'll be dead, yes, but why take others with you? And then there's the medical fees - hospitals <i>have</i> to accept you, and if you have a seat belt, or helmet, then you're less likely to be injured. That bill? I gets passed onto the city and then onto the tax payers, or the insurance companies eat it and jump their rates on the rest of us. Simply put, you wear these things so <i>you cost society less when we have to take care of you.</i> It's not always about you and what you want. Sometimes, that has to come second to the society that's forced to take care of you when you screw up and do something stupid. <br /><br />Of course, since people can't always <i>see</i> that, these things have to become laws. Otherwise, everyone would get hurt except for the people who can already afford it. <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Why did New York City feel they needed a law declaring exorbitant soda sizes illegal?!</blockquote>
The logic here being that it's unhealthy. Frankly, I'm rather happy that they'd legislate things that are unhealthy. After all, I <i>like</i> being able to eat knowing arsenic or something didn't get slipped into my food by a company that thought they could save a few dollars here and there by using that instead of some other chemical in their food. Now, as far as the actual soda size, there are certainly better ways to do about doing it, but again: one bad law does not suddenly mean that all laws are bad. The intent of the law is good, but intent isn't magic and there were certainly better ways to employ it (for instance, forcing soda companies to replace sugar with a sugar substitute). <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
We all clearly agree that such mandates <strong>shouldn’t</strong> come
from a religious text; why should they come from anyone but ourselves?
Imagine all of these aren’t coming from your government, but from the
religion that holds the majority in your home country. Is my point any
clearer?</blockquote>
No, it's not. <br /><br />First of all, you haven't convinced me that government is the same thing as a religion. For instance, governments change; even the most totalitarian government will change with time (Nazi Germany collapsed, the Soviet Union fell apart, Pol Pot's regime was overthrown by the Vietnamese). Religions do not. The Catholic church, for example, has remained almost completely unchanged in almost 1,000 years of existence, and Catholic dogma has remained relatively unchanged in that time, as well. And when it <i>does</i> change, it's never a bottom-up change. It's a top-down change. in a democratic government, like the United States, we have a peaceful revolution and we replace government leadership in this country every 4 years; religion does not have such a high turnover rate. Government laws can change to reflect changing societal views - the laws against gays and atheists are changing to reflect a more progressive social view towards those two groups. Religious laws, on the other hand, have pretty much been the same since the religion was founded. <br /><br />A democratic government is like religion in the same way that Venus is like Earth. On the surface, especially to "it's all about ME" libertarians, they appear the same. But 58 kilometers down, the only thing they have in common is that they're a planet in the same solar system with a similar gravity. Both are used to rule over people and establish hierarchies to try and build the better for society, but of them is an societal construct that is redesigned every few years to reflect progressing views while the other is stagnant and mostly unchanging. <br /><br />Is <i>my</i> point clear?<br />
<blockquote>
Some think this libertarian ideal, this notion that the government that
governs best is that which governs least, is selfish. To that I say –
so what? What the bloody hell is so inherently wrong with being
selfish? Not to the point where people are suddenly no longer
functioning members of human society, but rather Mad Max-style marauders
taking what they please and to spit with the consequences, of course. <br /><br />But really – sit down and REALLY think about what the world would be
like if everyone acted predominantly in their own self interest. Would
there suddenly be no more doctors? No more helpful, nice folk? Would
all relationships end? Hardly. We atheists don’t <em>not</em> eat
babies because we’ll be sent to hell, correct? So, it goes to reason
that good people of any belief system will likewise not eat babies <strong>because it’s wrong, not because there are laws forbidding it.</strong> People
will still want to do good because it’s the right thing to do. Why?
Multiple reasons – tit for tat, the warm feeling that comes from doing
what’s right or from helping out someone else, and of course the
likelihood that the morally right will rise up to thwart evil.</blockquote>
I did not bold that, the author did. <br /><br />Not everyone operates at a post conventional level, I'm sure everyone agrees with me. We go back to those people who are not capable of making rational decisions, because of some sort of crippled facility that they may or may not have had any control over. These people may not be able to grasp the whole notion of "this is wrong, don't do it because it's wrong" and need something more concrete. And people will not what is right simply because it's right. We see that every day. <br /><br />And while we're here, let's get into what's right and wrong. How do we know what's bad and what isn't? Hurting others is bad, right? I'm sure that you can agree with that. But not wearing your seat belt and acting selfishly, and getting in an accident, you're hurting <i>me</i> because I now have to pay more on my insurance, car or health, since the hospital had to accept you - otherwise you would die. By not forcing all companies to accommodate disabled people,<i> we are hurting those disabled people</i>. By not attempting to even things out for people by providing individuals lifts out of bad environments as a society, <i>we are hurting, and perpetuating that hurt, against those people</i>. <br /><br />It's <i>wrong</i> to discriminate against Black people. How many people in our wonderful post-racial America would discriminate against them if we didn't have the laws? Hell, how many of them do <i>even though we have them</i>? The difference between not having the laws and having the laws is that there are <i>other avenues</i> that wronged people can take to redress wrongs done against them by businesses an by other people.<br />
<br />These is tunnel vision. What is good for you is <i>not</i> good for everyone else in the society. You can <i>not</i> do something right without something wrong being done as well, socially speaking. The goal of the government, especially a democratic government based on laws and not people or God, is so people can redress their issues and attempt to come to some sort agreement over what hurts everyone <i>the least</i> out of all the possible choices and paths that we can take. Without that government, some people <i>would not be listened to</i>. It's the democratic process, and government laws, <i>that gives these people a voice, since they wouldn't have one otherwise </i>(Ideally. We're still trying to live up to that, but I feel like we're making progress with every new generation).<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
What we wouldn’t have is what we have today – charity at gunpoint. And
if you think taxes aren’t something you pay by literal force, try not
paying them for a few years. </blockquote>
No. What we have today is civilization.<br /><br />Civilization does not pay for itself. Roads do not pay for themselves. Schools do not pay for themselves. The police and fire do not pay for themselves. Welfare is not "charity at gunpoint," welfare and social security are safety nets for those of us who are not capable of living up the same golden society standard that you want to keep setting, and they slip through the cracks. That action of "slipping through the cracks" lead to the creation of a massive underclass of individuals who could not work because they were severely injured, old, young, or otherwise incapacitated. <br /><br />You don't want to pay your taxes? How many people are you hurting? How many people depend upon the infrastructure (which doesn't pay for itself) or our school systems (which are in desperate need of uplifting, but <i>can't</i>, since there's no money. And don't even get me started on voucher schools and private schools; those are jokes. Education is not an industry. It's the ultimate altruistic activity in society; giving our children an education and investing in our future. It should never be privatized since private companies don't understand what it takes to help <i>all</i> of our students; LD and gen-ed alike. Meanwhile, in Louisiana, they were using Voucher Schools to teach Creationism, and most private schools are religious run and operated. but hey. I'm sure you, as an atheist, agree with that. It's private money, after all. Our society doesn't get hurt if schools are used to perpetuate toxic, fundamentalist strains of religion that deny science and reality alike). The majority of the people on welfare are seniors or young people who are injured or hurt. Sure, let's kill off all those people, since they can't take care of themselves but damn it if I don't want to have to pay for their lazy asses.<br /><br />This gets justified as being morally <i>acceptable</i>?<br /><br />And we're back to this: what you want, sometimes, has to be second
nature to what's best for the society you live in. Otherwise, more
people than just you get hurt. And yes, you <i>do</i> get hurt. After all, when you fall, where do <i>you</i> go? <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Sadly, that won’t happen. What very well could happen is that some people, in some place, decide that <span style="text-decoration: underline;">you</span> can’t have [a gun]. They, however,<em> can</em> have one. They have a <em>lot</em>
of them. That’s what the Second Amendment is for – not for arming us
against wild animals or even against criminals. It’s for arming
us against <strong>tyrants</strong>. </blockquote>
The United States has more nuclear weapons than any other nation on the planet. Our military has sidewinders capable of shooting down planes from several <b>miles</b> away. Our soldiers are some of the best armed and trained in the world. There are tanks, there are armored vehicles, there are submarines. There are aircraft carriers and destroyers that can launch missiles from the eats coast that will hit in you St. Louis. <br /><br />And you are going to stand out there with your firearms to defend against this?<br /><br />No, you're not. And not even an anti-tank gun will save you, since that's not going to help against the sidewinder that will reduce your house, and you in it, to a smoldering crater in the ground. <br /><br />The second amendment should be regulated, just like the first. The other day, we had a fellow at the place where I work at make threats about blowing up the school and shooting staff members. He was arrested, because the first amendment does not cover making threats like that. Likewise, the second amendment does not cover excessive weapons. No, you cannot own your own portable nuclear warhead to stand against the feds. Sorry.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
If you think of religion as a form of tyranny, I don’t see how you <em>can’t</em>
picture every single law that isn’t implicitly about protecting you,
your rights, or your property as a form of tyranny as well. The leap is
not, in any way, illogical.</blockquote>
And right there you undo everything you were arguing against. That helmet law? <i>That is about protecting you</i>. That law about having so many handicapped parking spots? <i>That is about protecting you</i>. The laws making it illegal for private industries to discriminate? <i>That is about protecting you</i>. And I actually agree - laws that are not about protecting individuals, and not about protecting their rights, and in some cases even their property, are forms of tyranny. Not only that, but those laws? Not only are they about protecting <i>you</i>, but they're about protecting you from <i>others, </i>as well. From being exploited by others, or from suffering when others do something stupid that hurts everyone, or from being overlooked by other and forced into silence by a society that would never accomodate you anyway, right or wrong, <i>because it forgets you exist</i>. <br /><br />The problem here is that laws that restrict things are <i>not inherently tyrnnical</i>. The good of the society must sometimes out-weight the wants of the specific individual, for everyone's betterment (or, at least, so it doesn't harm everyone <i>too badly</i>). <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Is all of this feasible? Probably not. Is any of it? Possibly.
Possibly, we can realize that humans can trust each other to make the
right decisions just enough so we’re not treating everyone who opts to
be an airline passenger as a suspected shoe bomber.</blockquote>
See, this makes me sympathetic. Because I agree fully; I do wish we could trust one another. Libertarianism is a very positive and optimistic philosophy, which, being the positive and optimistic individual that I am, I wish I could agree with. However, I'm also a realist, and there's a lot of problems with the philosophy, and why most of it, if not any of it, is likely not feasible at all. Libertarianism is positive and optimistic <i>to the point of being unrealistic</i>. Humans are creatures; we are animals. We can be empathetic and caring, or we can be selfish and greedy. We can be constructive and embracing, or destructive and excluding. Society does not consist of just one type of individual. It's all of these types of individuals attempting to live together, and if you remove the one thing that's keeping some people from exploiting others more severely than they already are, then you're stripping out that last bit of protection they have. As it is, it's already almost gone; our government is no longer a democratic process. It's oligarchic, and it's gotten that way because people have stopped playing a part or watching it, and instead have turned to try and focus on their own survival. <br />
<blockquote>
It’s an ideal, a far off dream, a blue sky mental picture of a way the
world could work – there shouldn’t be any law that forces you to pay,
do, or not do anything you want to do so long as it doesn’t harm your
fellow human beings, their rights, and their property. That, at its
core, is libertarianism, and that’s why it naturally follows a disbelief
in a SkyGod. A libertarian believes that no earthly being or
government has the right to tell him or her what to do. An atheist
knows that there is no all-powerful cosmic force that exists, telling
him or her what to do. That is where I draw the link.</blockquote>
That's what it will always be, too - a far off dream, since not everyone is like that. <br /><br />Now here's another link: Which one of these makes more sense?<br /><br />Believing in something that's been proven wrong over and over again, doesn't work, and that will likely never work given our understanding of how society operates - but yet, continuing to hold to that belief in spite of this evidence?<br /><br />OR <br /><br />Acknowledging that it's wrong and not possible, and tossing it aside and trying to find something that does work, or can work a little more than that can, given our society? <br /><br />Because Libertarianism does not work. It's an ideal. A far off dream. <br /><br />Life is not ideal. It is not a far off dream. Leave the religion behind - I can get behind that message. You left behind organized religion; now it's time to leave behind libertarianism, too. <br /><br />After all, if it doesn't work, and it can never work, what's the point in believing in it to begin with?<br /><br />Of course, I'm more tolerant than other atheists. I will accept that people define their existence through beliefs; these core beliefs form up solid elements of their personality. I'm tolerant of that. So long as you believe it and don't try to force it one, I'm cool. If you want to believe that a volunteer society is possible, and that it works, feel free. I won't stop you. Even if you don't think it's possible (under which circumstances I have to ask why you believe it, but hey, people have believed stranger), then what purpose does it have? Don't for something you know won't work on people. That's causing the greatest harm of them all. <br /><br />
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2862170131521435894.post-32907131429163197912013-02-08T12:30:00.000-08:002013-02-08T12:30:05.217-08:00No, Liberatarianism Does not Follow Atheism (part 1)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Readers of this blog know two things about me: one, I'm an atheist, but I don't like the term and I prefer humanist for the same reason Asimov did. Second, I have an extremely... <i>unsympathetic</i>... view of Libertarianism. <br />
<br />
So whenever I see something connecting the t<a href="http://blog.theproudatheist.com/should-atheism-and-libertarianism-go-hand-in-hand-part-2/" target="_blank">wo like they're natural progressions of one another</a>, I get rather upset. See, Libertarianism is, at its heart, a collection of <i><u>incredibly</u></i> varied political philosophies, only a handful of which follow any kind of logical progression and are remotely connected with the real world. So before I go into this, let me outline the various types of "lolbertarian" you'll meet (if only because "libertard" is far too harsh and hateful, for the same reason "retard" is. Some of these are also likely going to be types of libertarianism that you do not recognize from any debates online; the "internet libertarian classic" is a deontological libertarian who holds propertarian and minarchian views. Below the cut is what exactly that means). <br /><br />Libertarianism, in most instances, is the castle built in the clouds; the pie in the sky. It gives us the potential for a society where people don't have to do what they don't want to, where individuals shouldn't be forced to do anything by anyone, and where creative spirit and freedom flourish, like the works of <a href="http://bioshock.wikia.com/wiki/J.S._Steinman" target="_blank">J. S. Steinmen</a>, M.D. It's a great idea. It works great in theory, just like the rotary engine and communism. And it works in real life just like the rotary engine and communism did, too. <br />
<br />Every child dreams of not having to go to bed and of staying up late and eating whatever they want to and doing whatever they want to regardless of what their parents say or what society expects of them. When you age that by about 20 or 30 years, you get most libertarians.<br />
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<a name='more'></a><br /><br />
There are three common ways Libertarians divide up. The first is the <b>Consequentialist/Natural Rights or Deontological Libertarianism. </b>Deontological libertarianism is the type of libertarianism that's big on "natural rights", including individual sovereignty, and believe that things like force and fraud are violations of those natural rights. Deontological libertarians take the position of the non-aggressive principal, which basically states that no human being has the right to <i>initiate</i> force or fraud on another human being or piece of property, at all, and their entire "morality" is built around this concept. At its heart, Deontological libertarianism seems like a mighty good thing, until you realize that these are often the clowns screaming that "taxes are theft!" and are often some of the most jealous of the poor, expressing the greatest hatred for them ("lazy bastards sit on their ass all day and collect welfare - money they stole from me!") <br />
<br />
The whole "taxes are theft" makes a great deal of sense given their entire "moral" paradigm is based around the notion that nobody should be allowed to force anyone to do anything. This falls apart when you look at things like crimes; how do you punish people? By stripping them of their freedom? How does this mesh with your concept of "no human is allowed to initiate force on any other person?" People commit crimes every day; theft, murder, rape. Do you invoke <i>lex talionis</i>? Do you attempt rehabilitative justice? And who pays for it, if the criminal themselves cannot? Or do you just shoot the criminal outright? What if you shoot the wrong person? Should <i>you</i> be shot for murder? There's no easy answers to these question, but claiming outright "nope. Nobody has the power to force anyone to do anything" is just absurd and stupid. It doesn't work in real life - just like that rotary engine.<br />
<br />
Consequentialists, meanwhile, support the free market and private property, <i>so long as they bring about positive consequences</i>. Their moral position is a little more complicated than the psychological splitting of deontological libertarianism. Initiation of force is often not considered inherently immoral to these types of libertarians, and the basic principal they hold is that political and economic libertarian lead to happiness and prosperity. Consequentialist libertarians are more of then than not left-wing libertarians (indeed, there's such a thing as Libertarians socialism, which is inherently consequentialist), although there are hybrid views of the two. For a while, I was a consequentialist social libertarian (I was never an economic liberal; I never have been - I wear red, and I'm a solid socialist/economic conservative). I might still be considered a consequentialist social libertarian, although my position on firearms has shifted over the last few months (I went from "don't really care" to "perhaps banning the more dangerous one is a healthy solution" to "ban those fuckers. Nobody needs an AR-15; regulate that amendment the same way we regulate the others.") <br />
<br />The next distinction is the <b>Propertarian/Non-Propertarian </b>distinction. Propertarians define liberty as "leave me and my stuff alone." They're non-aggressive, and they believe aggression is violation of personal property (these are the other half of the clown car that are screaming "taxes are theft!") They support the free market and are not opposed to monopolies or consolidation of power. If you've read <i>The Blue Pimpernel</i>, while he's only a minor character, the County Executive, Jefferson Phelps, is one of these. <br /><br />Sitting right in the middle are the Mutualists, who argue that private property is a social contract, and that without some sort of government to enforce it, it's meaningless. They believe in a more collective ownership, since without state coercion, hierarchy and individualism would be economically inefficient.<br />
<br />
The Non-Propertarians hold the liberty can only occur in the absence of authority - <i>any authority</i>. Thus, they aim to remove all of various forms of authority, including the authority of private ownership, since the belief that private ownership takes anyway from the others in the group. Related here is Libertarian Socialism, which is a group of philosophies that promote what is basically a form of slightly more organized anarcho-communism; the emphasis is on libertarian municipalism, decentralized direct democracy, citizens assemblies, trade unions, and others.<br />
<br />The last distinction is <b>Anarchism/Minarchism</b>. This is where liberals arguing against libertarianism often make a fatal mistake; it can be easy to assume that all libertarians are anarchists, but not even the "classic troll libertarian" that we encounter online is an anarchist libertarian. Most of them are <i>minarchists</i>, meaning that they want <i>limited</i> government, likely in the same way that the GOP is after <i>limited</i> government. Minarchists believe that states should exist, but that the purpose of the state is to protect against fraud, supply the military, police, and courts, in addition to defending against aggression (i.e., "night watchmen states.") The society of the <i>Blue Pimpernel </i>is a "night watchman state". Anything else is believed to be unnecessary for the state to function and therefore, should be a "for-profit service." The degree to which one is a minarchist can vary; some minarchists see a point in infrastructure (such as roads and a power grid) while others don't even believe that police are necessary and they should be a for-profit service. <br /><br />China is, ironically, the best example of what a Minarchist government would look like in real life. It has a very simple tax policy, and your finances only go towards military spending and police. And it's a Totalitarian capitalist country, so there's an Aesop in here somewhere.<br /><br />Anarchism is what most liberals believe libertarians are. The Anarcho-Libertarianism/Anarcho-Capitalism is the belief in the utter absence of the state. Anarchy, to quote V, means without a leader, not with order. Whether or not I have a sympathetic view of anarchy depends very much on how I feel that day, but since we're all familiar with anarchy (and going there would be another five or six posts unto themselves) would be a lot more complicated than I have space for. <br /><br />Armed with this, then, know that the most common Libertarian is a Deontological, Propertarian, Minarchist Libertarian whose views may be rather slippery and difficult to grasp, especially on the Minarchist front. There are, however, others; you'll find anarchist libertarians, you'll find socialist libertarians, and you'll find mutualist libertarians. Far too often libertarianism gets dismissed as one whole, uniform philosophy, and that makes it really hard to argue against. Especially when you're talking past one another. <br /><br />Often confused with libertarianism is <b>Objectivism</b>, Ayn Rand's joke philosophy that I've picked apart numerous times before (for her part, Rand often regarded the Libertarians as "hippies of the right"), and <a href="http://www.talk2action.org/story/2011/3/15/142615/800" target="_blank"><b>Theocratic Libertarianism</b></a>. That last form is especially dangerous; it presents itself as typical minarchism, but this is type of minarchism that demands less government for the same reason that criminals would want less police; it's an extremely toxic form of libertarianism that bleats "states rights!" and they want the give the states the ability to enforce that theocracy, through a weakening of the federal government. The United States in the <i>Blue Pimpernel</i> is attempting to be a "night watchman state". Really, it's heading towards one of these.<br /><br />Theocratic Libertarianism is a virus meme. Classic Libertarianism is bad enough as it is, but Theocratic Libertarianism is flat evil, since, and you know it as well as I do, when it comes to <i>your</i> freedom or <i>God's</i> will, God's fan club is <i>always</i> going to put the latter first. <i>Especially</i> when they agree with God's will and they want to see <i>you</i> punished for not agreeing with them.<br /><br />Thus ends part one. In part two, I'll look at the actual article itself, since now we can critically look at what libertarianism is, and what it entails. <br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2862170131521435894.post-16477334227240854242013-01-28T15:50:00.001-08:002013-01-28T16:05:24.333-08:00The Ultimate Pro-Life Argument (Doesn't Exist)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
For as long as I can remember, the RCC has been the predominate peddler of the notion that life begins at birth, for some magical reason (soul enshrinement? Can't be. Aquinas is sometimes used to argue this, but that's <a href="http://www.catholic.com/quickquestions/did-st-thomas-aquinas-believe-ensoulment-occurred-40-or-80-days-after-conception-maki" target="_blank">only half the truth</a>. And that's before we dive into the rampant misogyny of the whole thing - what do you expect from a man quoting Aristotle, who as from that bastion of feminism and gender equality known as Ancient Greece? And it fails biology, since the soul wouldn't technically be enshrined for males until 120 days, since we're all female at gestation and only become male once the extra testosterone triggers the development of certain chromosomes. Bad science aside - I'm not going to hold that against either man since they did the best with what they had at the time - the RCC's position here isn't based on any kind of strict reading of the Bible, either. After all, Leviticus gives slave prices for any person over 3 years old, but not under, and Exodus clearly declares that if a man kills a fetus he pays a fine, but it's not murder unless the woman is killed as well. God declares to Jeremiah that "I knew ye in the womb," but that's God talking to Jeremiah, not God talking to all of humanity. David declares that he was a sinner at conception, but that's David talking, not God, and that matches existing doctrine anyway without saying that life starts; the sin is there before the life starts, since the sin is present in the parents, not the fetus. Part of me wants to blame the RCC stance ultimately on the Romans, since the RCC is basically a 1,000-year-old reactionary movement against a culture that doesn't exist anymore, and since the Romans practiced contraception and abortion, the RCC might have branded those sinful because the Romans did them. They did it for bathing, though there's not a single Biblical reason for it). Regardless what the ultimate reason happens to be, they're still wrong, since there's no such thing as a soul to enshrine. But that's their belief, even if it is convoluted, backwards, and relies on several very pinpoint and almost cherry-picked readings - rest assured, dear reader, it's nowhere near as complicated as that Rapture/Second Coming garbage that American Evangelicals push.<br />
<br />
So when something like this happens:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Lori Stodghill was 31-years old, seven-months pregnant with twin boys
and feeling sick when she arrived at St. Thomas More hospital in Cañon
City on New Year’s Day 2006. She was vomiting and short of breath and
she passed out as she was being wheeled into an examination room.
Medical staff tried to resuscitate her but, as became clear only later, a
main artery feeding her lungs was clogged and the clog led to a massive
heart attack. Stodghill’s obstetrician, Dr. Pelham Staples, who also
happened to be the obstetrician on call for emergencies that night,
never answered a page. His patient died at the hospital less than an
hour after she arrived and her twins died in her womb. <br />
<br />
In the aftermath of the tragedy, Stodghill’s husband Jeremy, a prison
guard, filed a wrongful-death lawsuit on behalf of himself and the
couple’s then-two-year-old daughter Elizabeth. Staples should have made
it to the hospital, his lawyers argued, or at least instructed the
frantic emergency room staff to perform a caesarian-section. The
procedure likely would not have saved the mother, a testifying expert
said, but it may have saved the twins.</blockquote>
Being good pro-lifers, the Church hospital admitted to murder and offered to step up and do what was necessary to so help the family through this dark time, raising the moral standard for the anti-abortion side of the debate and set precedent that will strengthen those arguments legally:<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<br />
<blockquote>
But when it came to mounting a defense in the Stodghill case, Catholic
Health’s lawyers effectively turned the Church directives on their head.
Catholic organizations have for decades fought to change federal and
state laws that fail to protect “unborn persons,” and Catholic Health’s
lawyers in this case had the chance to set precedent bolstering
anti-abortion legal arguments. Instead, they are arguing state law
protects doctors from liability concerning unborn fetuses on grounds
that those fetuses are not persons with legal rights. </blockquote>
That's some moral standard. See, a fetus is only a viable human - <a href="http://coloradoindependent.com/126808/in-malpractice-case-catholic-hospital-argues-fetuses-arent-people" target="_blank">unless it's going to cost their hospital a malpractice case, in which case it's not viable person after all</a>.
The take away message here is that "It's alive, so long as we don't
have to pay for it." But then, we already knew that about conservative
pro-lifers, didn't we?<br />
<br />
I'm sorry, I can't hear which side of your face is talking. You'll need to shut one of those up so I can understand what the other is saying. <br />
<br />
The thing is, this is a solid legal argument and the Church hospital will win. This is what the law says; fetuses are not people, they have no rights under the law, and frankly, that's how it should be, since they're <i>not</i>. However, savor the irony of the RCC admitting this, and basically agreeing with me. Will this force them off of their pro-life propaganda? Not likely; misdirection and two-minute hates are all that's necessary to appease Big Brother Jesus. The Church will continue to maintain its "pro-life" position, and do so without missing a beat. <br />
<br />
Still even if they had been consistent, the Stodghill's would've had no ground for the case. A fetus is simply not a human by utilitarian definitions, which is the only philosophy that we can use here. The whole concept of human is legal and a philosophical one, but not a scientific one - what is human is not a scientific question, since 'human' does not carry any more intrinsic specialness in science than, say, chimpanzee (indeed, we share something like 99% of genetic code with chimpanzees. They technically belong in the same family as we do; but I can't remember what the exact reason for putting chimpanzees under the <i>Pan</i> family was). <br />
<br />
The definition of "human" is not clear for several reasons, none of which have been given little more than a single neuron's worth of effort by the "Pro-lifers", since they don't care about life and their sole interest is in punishing women who don't remain "pure" - i.e., who have sex outside of marriage. <br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
Let's talk about life starting at conception: The common argument here is that it has separate DNA, made from two different parents, therefore, it's a separate, independent entity that's alive. There are cells inside of me right now that have modified DNA from the rest of me; these are mutations, and at any given time, I am a carrier of several thousand of these mutations. Should I ever reproduce, some of those mutations will be passed on, and eventually, those mutations will assist in the development of a new species over many millions of years. Are those cells alive? Cancer cells have modified DNA, too; their genetic code is all sorts of fucked up. Are they independent humans, too?</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
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<div style="text-align: left;">
<a href="http://cdn2-b.examiner.com/sites/default/files/styles/image_content_width/hash/c5/90/c59045fa65cf4399c9121b1265f97306.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><br />
You scoff. No, you say, of course not. They're not independent humans.<br />
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Then define human.<br />
<br />
Go ahead, I'll wait. <br />
<br />
Human speak, use tools, and are intelligent. Well, readers of my blog know that, over the course of my premature campaigning for animal uplifting, I've learned these are not exclusively human traits. Crows, ravens, whales, dolphins, and Africa Gray Parrots can all talk, too. Chimpanzees and gorillas can learn sign language. Bees have their own complex language of pheromones, and so do ants. All of the above except for bees and ants use tools, too. And "intelligence," while abstract over all, can be condense to a couple of traits that all of the above (again, except for bees and ant) display. Crows and ravens learn. Whales may be as intelligent as we are. Dolphins, too. African Grays are incredibly smart - they're smarter than some human toddlers. <br />
<br />
Is human possessing a sense of self? Well, if that's what it takes to be a human, our traditional way of measuring that is through a mirror test. This test is to see if you can recognize yourself in the mirror and to date, only a handful of animals have passed it. But here's the kicker - <i>humans don't pass the test until we're 26 months old, on average</i>. And I assure that fetuses do not recognize themselves <br />
<br />
Feeling pain is all it takes? Having finger nails? Having a heart beat? These are all things that make you a "living" being, worthy of human rights? All of the above have it too. Yet pro-lifers aren't out there campaigning for them to be declared human. <br />
<br />
What is human? <br />
<br />
You wanted this debate. You answer the question.<br />
<br />
Human means being upright and looking human. Awesome. Up until the last century, it was common to hear how people would describe Africans and Eastern Europeans as "subhuman" because they didn't look "human" (defined by Western Europeans, of course). In fact, you can still find pictures comparing the skulls of West Africans with Chimpanzees from the glorious days beyond that annoying thing called "political correctness". Blacks didn't look human. Jews didn't look human - propaganda has a huge help in this. Basing it off of looks is silly. A human walks upright and has pink skin (except, you know, for the majority of the population - admit it, I say "human" and the first thing you think of is a white male)! Fetuses don't walk upright, and they don't have pink skin, and I would bet you anything you cannot tell the difference: tell me which is a human fetus and which is a dog fetus:</div>
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<a href="http://cdn2-b.examiner.com/sites/default/files/styles/image_content_width/hash/c5/90/c59045fa65cf4399c9121b1265f97306.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="217" src="http://cdn2-b.examiner.com/sites/default/files/styles/image_content_width/hash/c5/90/c59045fa65cf4399c9121b1265f97306.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://puppychronicles.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/dog-fetus-39-days.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://puppychronicles.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/dog-fetus-39-days.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
Which one is the human?<br />
<br />
Do you give up? <br />
<br />
Neither. <br />
<br />
This is a human fetus:<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://i1-news.softpedia-static.com/images/news2/The-Gender-of-a-Child-Determined-at-6-Weeks-of-Pregnancy-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://i1-news.softpedia-static.com/images/news2/The-Gender-of-a-Child-Determined-at-6-Weeks-of-Pregnancy-2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
The first one is a cat fetus. The second is a dog fetus. Above this is the human fetus. It might be easy to tell the dog fetus from the cat one, but without knowing this, could you tell the cat fetus from the human one?<br />
<br />
In any case, none of them look human. <br />
<br />
But God knows, you argue; God knows! He gave it a soul, and he can tell the difference even if I can't! <br />
<br />
Ignoring there's no evidence for God or a soul, we're back where we started. Read that first paragraph again. However, the Bible can be used to argue any side of any debate, which is why it doesn't really belong here. So, we'll have to take this argument apart some other way. And there's a couple of ways to do it.<br />
<br />
First, if God enshrines the soul at conception, that means God knows what's going to happen with that infant. Would God give a soul to an infant that he knew was going to get an abortion? God is all powerful, remember that; he must be in order to punish us as often as he does (which is to say nothing of his bad aim...). Surely God knows that the child is going to miscarry, so he wouldn't, right? What's the difference between a miscarriage and an abortion, aside from the fact that one is deliberate (and therefore, an "abortion") and the other done by God himself (divine abortion ahoy! It's okay when God does it, since God is a bigger bully than me and he can boss me around)? Surely God that the mother would plan to abort the child, just like he would if he planned to abort it later, so he would never give that child soul at conception, right? That'd just be pointless. So what exactly did you hope to accomplish, anyway, by stopping abortion, other than having a bunch of soulless babies born? Oh ho, you say, but God intended for me to save that baby, so he gave it a soul. This is followed with a sage nod, while overlooking the fact this is like God playing both sides of a chess game and really, it's got to get boring after a while. But what about all of the other infants that you didn't save? That means they weren't murdered, since they were never given souls, therefore, the only abortion that would be murder are the abortions that you stop, which are abortions that never happen, therefore aren't abortions at all. Since they're not abortions that you stop, they're not murder. The ones you don't stop aren't murder either, since there'd be no point in God giving that child a soul. So, let's construct a syllogism here (or a sillygism, since that's what this is):<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Mp: Abortion is murder because the embryo has a soul <br />
mp: God gives souls at conception<br />
Therefore, every embryo has a soul<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Mp: God has <span style="font-size: small;">control over everything<span style="font-size: small;">; nothing happens with<span style="font-size: small;">o<span style="font-size: small;">ut h<span style="font-size: small;">im known <span style="font-size: small;">or intending</span></span></span></span></span></span></span> <br />
mp: Miscarriages are things that happen<br />
Therefore, God intended for the miscarriage to happen<br />
<br />
Mp: God intended for the miscarriage to happen<br />
mp: Every embryo has a soul<br />
Therefore, God committed murder <br />
<i>However</i>: God is good and will not commit murder (He told us not to, because it's bad) <br />
<br />
MP: Murder is Bad and God would not do Bad things<br />
mp: A miscarriage is without a soul is not murder<br />
Therefore: God did not give the miscarriage a soul, so he would not commit murder <br />
<br />
Mp: God is in control over everything and intends for things to happen<br />
mp: Abortions are things that happen <br />
Therefore, God intended for abortions to happen <br />
<br />
Mp: God intended for the abortion to happen <br />
mp: Every embryo has a soul<br />
Therefore: God, through intending for the abortion to happen, commits murder<br />
<i>However</i>: God is good and will not commit murder<br />
<br />
Mp: Murder is Bad and God would not do Bad things <br />
<strike>Therefore: His followers blame it on the impure slut that did it</strike><br />
mp: God did not give the abortion a soul<br />
<b>Therfore: An abortion is not murder </b></blockquote>
(You get left out of this. You are basically another vehicle that God uses to act; it doesn't matter how many places you protest, super-right to lifer, you won't succeed unless God wants you to, which means we're right back at "God intends for everything to happen and is in control over everything."). <br />
<br />
"But... God gives everyone a soul! He would never intend for an abortion!"<br />
<br />
That would make GOD a murderer when he causes miscarriages. Just because He's god it doesn't make murder right. And if God can intend for there to miscarriages, why can't he intend for there to be abortions in the same sense? On that note, you're basically admitting God isn't in control over everything, since there are people who can act outside of his wishes. <br />
<br />
Well, yeah. That's free will. <br />
<br />
But he willingly punishes us for it. Over and over again, like an abusive spouse. Why? He can intend for miscarriages and not for abortions, for what reason? <i>What is the difference</i>? Murdering a "child" is good when God does it, but bad when we do it (hey, the Bible is full of this, so perhaps this is a solid leg to stand on after all)? Is something good because God does it, or does God do it because it's good? Why would he have us living by a totally different set of standards than what he says for himself? That's not intrinsically benevolent at all; especially when you begin to <i>punish</i> people for trying to break those standards and move into the standards you live by. Is god not benevolent? What's the difference between that god, then, and the god of Fred Phelps?<br />
<br />
Because he's god, and he says so, that's why.<br />
<br />
You missed a step. Because he's god <i>and he always agrees with you</i>, and he says so, that's why.<br />
<br />
In fact, I can cleave that even further: Because <i>you say so, that's why</i>. And I challenge you prove me wrong. ("Well, the Bible says...." )<br />
<br />
10 OPENING PARAGRAPH 20 DEFINE HUMAN 30 FETUS TEST 40 SYLLOGISM 50 EPICUREAN DILEMMA 60 THE BIBLE SAYS 70 GOTO 10 <br />
<br />
Let's pound this dead horse further into the dirt.<br />
<br />
If we're going to go back and claim that a unique genetic is what makes you human, how do you define <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chimera_%28genetics%29" target="_blank">chimeric embryos</a>? Human chimeras, while rare, are not exactly unheard of. In this case, the embryo twins, but instead of the twins growing independent, one twin is consumed by the other. This results in two different genetic codes inside of the same individual. Does that mean they're two different people? They are by your logic, so they should get double the legal rights!<br />
<br />
Oh, but wait. One fetus consumed another fetus, denying it the right to life. It basically kills that fetus. Does that mean we charge it with manslaughter? It <i>did</i> commit murder, after all, even if it wasn't premeditated. Forget the school-to-prison pipeline, we're rocking with the maternity ward-to-prison pipeline. <br />
<br />
And what about twins? It's the inverse of the miscarriage problem. Did god give that embryo two souls, because he knew they would twin? We're right back at the problem, then. If knew gave it <i>two</i> souls because he knew it was going to twin, that implies God knows the ultimate fate of the fetus, therefore, God knows if it's going to be aborted or miscarried and wouldn't give it a soul at all. The implications of this are very far reaching: why would God give a soul to anyone if he knew they were going to die? Since we all die, why would God give a soul to anyone? I could walk outside and kill a man, and if he died, it was because God intended for it. I'm completely innocent, I was just doing God's will. <br />
<br />
You heard this logic all the time with the school shootings, or whenever we have some sort of great disaster - God intended for it, you see. He's in control over everything. He never gave those people souls. At the heart of the "soul" argument, with God in total control over everything, you have totally absolved personal responsibility. If something happens, its because God intended it. <br />
<br />
But what if God <i>doesn't</i> have total control?<br />
<br />
God still gives out souls, right? Why would he award a soul to something that was going to die in the womb? In fact, we all die, so why would he give a soul to anything since it was just going to die? So does that mean God does give souls to miscarriages, only to murder them later on? We're back to God doing evil things now (it's good when God does it bad when we do it? It's a double-standard of Biblical proportions), but you calling them good because because they agree with what <i>you</i> believe. Clearly, this argument can continue onward, like a dog chasing it's tail down the event horizon of a black hole, where it remains, forever, to those of us on the other side of the horizon.<br />
<br />
So how do <i>I</i> define life?<br />
<br />
Life is a process. There is no one moment where it begins, and no one moment where it ends. Any line is going to be as arbitrary as the next, however, I can tell you with certainty that there is<i> one</i> thing I regard as being alive involved here without any question: we can argue until we're blue in the face over whether or not fetus' are alive and what not, but there's no question the mother is alive. This is where I start. The mother is a living entity, and because of it, her life, her wants, her needs, have to be taken into consideration over something that may or may not be alive. She already <i>is</i> alive. And that's what matters. <br />
<br />
Thus, I am pro-choice, and pro-life. I support the choice of the mother, and the I support the mother's life, since she's the one thing that I regard as being alive with any certainty.<br />
<br />
And apparently, the law - and the Catholic Church now, too - agree with me. </div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2862170131521435894.post-74256482279762280462012-12-31T21:16:00.002-08:002012-12-31T21:16:24.922-08:00Happy 2013<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Happy 2013 everyone.<br />
<br />
2012 was not a great year for me. I got my hours cut near the end of the year and I've been trying to deal with that, and then all of the health stuff that's been going on - I'm just glad I made it to the end of this year. I don't really think it was a great year for anyone. And while once again I'm spending New Years at home, by myself, I have hope that this year is going to be a little better than last year. See, this year, I have a legitimate resolution. I have several actually:<br />
<br />
1. To begin work on my post-Baccalaureate in Chemistry. I see new teaching jobs daily, but they're all math and science. So I'm approaching a post-Bacc in either chemistry or biology; chemistry because that looks like it'll take the least amount of time.<br />
<br />
2. To become more motivated. One of my archilles heel is that I just am not motivated. I make plans, but I never follow through with them. I have these high and lofty ideas but I never chase after them. This year it's going to stop, because this year, I want to start setting realistic goals and pursue them.<br />
<br />
So there's my two resolutions - to start setting realistic goals so I can motivate myself to get them better and to begin work on a Post-Bacc in Chemistry. We'll see how well I follow through with them, but writing them down tends to make things a little more permanent.<br />
<br />
So, anyway, Happy 2013 everyone.<br />
<br />
And good riddance to 2012. </div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2862170131521435894.post-14188703096963229072012-12-28T17:12:00.000-08:002012-12-28T17:13:52.388-08:00Thoughts on Spree Shootings<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
A while ago, I wrote an essay about the <a href="http://post-modernenlightenment.blogspot.com/2012/11/the-age-of-post-hero.html" target="_blank">age of the post-hero</a>. This ties closely in with what I plan to ramble about today. <br />
<br />
There's been a lot of finger pointing about the nature of the shooting in Newtown. And just like always, there's a rush to blame everything but the actual sources of the problem themselves: Easy access to guns and the culture that we have.<br />
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<a name='more'></a><br />
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I think, to some degree - and this is all just personal conjecture, so take this whole thing with a huge grain of salt - that the push for equality is one of the things playing a factor in this. Before you pelt me and accuse me of making a hard right turn, know that I'm not saying we need to stop pushing - if anything, that it's factor means we need to push it harder. By definition, fixing inequality in society means we have to expose that inequality. One of the greatest gulfs of inequality is the gender inequality that divides our society, and the series of double standards that we set for ourselves. These double standards - in particular, the double standards surrounding masculinity, especially in an age when what is and isn't "masculine", are coming under fire. Feminism is pushing these double standards aside (rightly so) and even working hard to cast them aside (as they should've been a long time ago). As we expose the intrinsic inequality in our society, we lay bare these open sores for all to see. However, there's always the reactionaries - rather than to help these sores heal, they work to pick at them and make them worse that we can see them. They work to try and shove dirt back over them. In the process, these sores lie open, untreated, and eventually develop infections.<br />
<br />
Infections like Adam Lanza.<br />
<br />
It's a pretty well known fact that most of the shooters in these cases are almost always white men. White men, the segment of society that have had the upper hand in society for a long time. That time is more and more coming to end; equality inches painfully forward, and the days when being white and being male was a guarantee for anything is rapidly falling aside. It used to be that you were guaranteed a wife out of school, practically, and a job, and you knew your place since it was dictated by the gender order of the day, skewed as it was. You're not guaranteed anything anymore; not a job, not a wife, not even a position in society. The world is flipping upside down, and we're seeing people who are refusing to adapt.<br />
<br />
They attach themselves to toxic images of masculinity, which is pedaled by the reactionaries. A mild form of this attitude is the rampant misogyny that is spewed across the Internet like a bile of half-shit half-vomit. This idea that men are getting screwed in the deal (and they are, to a degree, but they're hurting themselves more by pushing back than pushing forward), that they're losing everything, that privilege is a zero sum game. This is white anger; these spree shooters are the embodiment of white anger. The disenfranchised nature of these young men, who feel like failures; they didn't live up to the idea of masculinity as culture presents it. They didn't live up to it at all, so they seethe with anger and rage and eventually it boils over. Eventually, it spills out.<br />
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While the whole of society is racist, <a href="http://post-modernenlightenment.blogspot.com/2012/11/skin-tone-markers.html" target="_blank">whether you see it or not,</a> there is a segment of the white population who are sexist, racist, and working backwards against the society that flipped them on their heads and then left them there. And rather than getting up and trying to find a place in this new world, they instead push back and try to go back to what they had before, which they never really had to begin with. Eventually, you realize that. You realize you're fighting back for nothing, and that sort of nihilism - because by that point you're too deep in and there's no way out - can be overwhelming. That white rage boils over, and you grab yourself a gun. People do stupid things in the throes of passion. <br />
<br />
What if these crimes are the same thing? They came home and found society cheating on them. Society had left them behind, and now they're lashing back out against society, trying to reclaim some of what they felt had been stolen from them? <br />
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I don't buy into the argument "they did this, therefore they're mentally ill." That seems way to convenient. The only type of mental illness I can think of that would breed something like this might be ASPD (antisocial personality disorder), or in vanishingly rare cases, paranoid schizophrenia, but even then, mentally ill people are not forces of nature. They have reasons for acting like they (yes, even people who have paranoid schizophrenia can have a reason for doing what they do - believing that your hallucinations are commanding your actions may not be rational, but it's a reason, unlike a tornado or hurricane, which acts without rhyme or reason). They have <b>reasons</b>, damn it. <b>Reasons</b>. And instead of seeing that, "mentally ill" gets branded around like a term that explains everything, carrying the same weight with society that "Goddidit" carries with creationists. What's more, people can do horrible things and otherwise be neurotypical: Nazi Germany is a good example. Not the leaders of the party themselves, but the people of Germany. The entire country was not mentally ill. They had a reason for doing what they did - it was every bit as individual as the German involved, some did it because they legitimately felt like they were helping their country, others because they were bitter and mad, and still others because they were under the throes of Hitler's rhetoric. Sometimes it can just be raw hate. Hatred is not a mental illness; there's nothing genetic about hate. That's a purely learned behavior. And then you ask "why do they hate?" And you start digging deeper from there.<br />
<br />
How many Americans are neurotypical? Would you guess at least half of the population? How many give a thought to the fact that we've killed more children over the course of the variety of wars that we've been involved in, than have been shot by spree killers? Americans don't bat an eyelash about that. Even the otherwise neurotypical ones. "It's a byproduct of war." <br />
<br />
So no, the men behind this do not need to be mentally ill. They can be completely neurotypical, and denying that fact is dangerous, since it keeps us ignorant and in the dark, disabling us from acting against another spree shooting. We do need more mental illness safety needs in society, and we do need to work to remove the stigma surrounding it but guess what? Brandishing the term around as a cause for this sort of thing doesn't help that. <br />
<br />
Let me go back to that line, "it's a byproduct of war." Our country is a society that glorifies and has a fetish for military. We have a fetish for war, and we believe that the whole notion of war fuels masculinity. It's the ultimate masculine virtue to go to war and fight for your country. Not everyone does, since the military can afford to be choosy about the people it takes in. But our movies, our video games, our society - glorifies violence. Not real life violence, but cartoon violence. Over the top violence that don't display the end results on either the victim or the perpetrator. Cartoon violence. <i>The Expendables</i> was full of cartoon violence. <i>Rambo</i> was full of cartoon violence. The Halo series is full of cartoon violence. <i>Manhunt</i> is nothing but a long love letter to cartoon violence. We build shrines to violence in our culture, likely because we're so sexually repressed it's not funny, but that's beside the point. This fake violence; exerting this fake violence is part of what being a man is about. This hypermasculinization present in these films and games that underscores our very culture. Am I calling for censorship? Fuck no. Am I saying we need to redress this in our culture and stop and wonder why that is? Absolutely.<br />
<br />
I'm inclined to blame this hypermasculinization on the reactionaries. The people who are pushing back against social change, forcing social change to stagnant to such a degree that people can no longer be sure where they're at, socially speaking. For spreading lies, making privilege seem zero-sum, or painting it like it's something that people are responsible for. For turning social change into a blame game. People like Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, James Dobson, Mark Driscoll, Rush Limbaugh - FOX News, WhirledNutDaily, One News Daily, Focus on the Family, American Fuckhead Association, The ALCJ - <b>these</b> are the faces behind the shootings. These shootings are <b>their </b>faults, indirectly. <b>They</b> have lied about change, <b>they</b> have spread this false notion of what is and isn't masculine. <b>They</b> routinely undermine what's been change and spread confusion further. Every single problem in society can be laid at <b>their</b> feet.They spread the virus; it's important to know what the virus is, however, in order to begin treating it. The virus is their ideology. It's the scope of their ideology, their words, their actions. The treatment for this virus is to quarantine and minimize. It's to step around, and shove aside, and cast out of society, the people behind it. They are one of the many, many roots for the hypermasculinziation that leads to these shootings.<br />
<br />
Being conservative is one thing. Being a conservative means taking small, baby steps towards an eventual goal. The men above are not conservatives. They're reactionaries. And they've stagnated the waters long enough for hypermasculinzation to develop, appealing to these lost and angry young white men who have been lied to their entire lives, believing that they deserve everything by our media and then getting none of that and being told it's their fault for not living up to these ideals. These young men are in a near constant state of war against themselves and eventually, against the society that they feel betrayed them.<br />
<br />
Do <i>you</i> blink an eye when you learn that children were killed in an airstrike that caused a great deal of pain to the enemy? "Oh, that's so terrible. That's so sad, <b>but it had to be done, because it's making the world a better place; they're going to have freedom, you know</b>."<br />
<br />
Tell me again these people are mentally ill.<br />
<br />
Easy access to guns is just one of the many ways in which this acts itself out, but the easy access to guns makes it easier for them to act it out. It makes it easier for them to go to war, and carry out their attacks against the society that they've come to view as the enemy. It makes it easier to carry this stuff out without putting a lot of thought into it. Making guns harder to get would likely drastically cut down on the spree shootings, and it's something we need to do anyway since, really, I can't go into a theater and scream "fire", because the First Amendment is regulated. I can't say what I want about anyone, because that's either libel or slander. The Second Amendment needs the same regulations and right now, it has none. It won't, however, deal with the actual problem itself: that the reactionaries are pushing back.<br />
<br />
So we need to push harder. We need more people, we need more weight, we need more justice. We need to push harder than they are. We need to shove them out of the way, pushing the reactionaries into the dustbin of irrelevance, where they belong. That these spree shootings are happening is showing that the reactionaries have succeeded in stagnating progress. They're leaving these wounds untreated, and they're staring to fester.<br />
<br />
So c'mon, let's start the push back. Let's show society it's not a zero sum game, and the privileges can be shared between everyone rather than taken away from the few that have it now. Let's shove these reactionaries out of the way, and take our spots in the bright future - without them, if need be. Let's prove the reactionaries wrong by showing the victims of these shootings, and their families, their loved ones did not die in vain. Let's work to fix the work that the reactionaries have undone, and finish the job. And most importantly, let's change ourselves - because until we change the culture, anyone can be a spree killer. </div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2862170131521435894.post-55533274211860803312012-12-25T18:45:00.002-08:002012-12-25T18:46:15.530-08:00Merry Kwanzamas<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
We made it (was there ever any doubt?) Surprisingly enough, the world didn't end on 21 December, just like it never ended on all the days before it. So here we are, on the Christmas Evening, looking out over the last week before we hit New Years and 2013. A lot happened that could make you think that it did, though: Newtown, the recent even with the firefighters getting shot, the fact that trying to carry on a debate with gun owners is like trying to reason with creationists, this BS about the fiscal cliff, and other things that make me wonder if we'd all just been better off if the world just ended right there on the spot. But it didn't. You can't run like that.<br />
<br />
You can't run at all from your problems. The only way to deal with them is to own up to the and fix them. Unfortunately, Americans seem less and less inclined to do just that. So let's blame everything but the problem itself, and come up with every excuse that we can to dodge the actual question, since that might force us to actual think of solutions that we may not personally like. Let's blame video games, despite there not being a shred of evidence that it causes violent behavior. Let's blame movies, let's blame TV, but God forbid we blame easy access to firearms. Banning automatic weapons and passing regulations to limit the number of guns and the amount of ammo manufactured each year might lead to American Christians being herded into concentration camps by FEMA or something. Government, after all, is EBBBBILLL. Overlooking the fact that if you're an American and you're reading this you <i>are</i> the government, it doesn't change the fact that most gun owners do not make me confident in them owning weapons. Especially with their childish, black-and-white view of society where force is always the answer. "If you're being held at gunpoint, do you want to have a fire arm so you can shoot the guy or do you want to wait an hour for the police?" No, I don't want a firearm. I'll get my ass shot, and so will you, before you can even draw it. Did you read your own question? You're at <i>gunpoint. </i>What are, you John Wesley Hardin, fastest gun in the west? I doubt it, but hey, never let Dunning-Kruger stop you from thinking you're the best at your imaginary wild west scenarios. And why is that the only two choices - isn't that a false dichotomy? Why can't I try to talk to the person and talk them out of it? If I'm understanding and empathetic, I'll have a better chance of getting through than if I try to cap their ass when they <i>clearly</i> have the advantage. I addressed something similar to this in a post way back when I talked about whether or not we even need heroes anymore in society - I came to the conclusion we do not. Newtown and it's aftermath are what belief in heroes get us. What a belief in "black hatted bad guys" who can only be stopped by sheer luck and chance, since "white hatted good guys" usually get shot (see: the <i>armed</i> security guard at Columbine).<br />
<br />
(And I wonder how many gun owners were gung-ho for voter <strike>disenfranchisement</strike> registration, "to prevent voter fraud" and all that BS, and don't see the irony now that they're whining about registration of their own hobby - and before you say that it could easily be flipped the other way, go look up the number of voter fraud cases. Now look up the number of people killed by guns each year. I'm sure that they're running neck and neck in numbers). <br />
<br />
Anyway, on a totally separate and unrelated note, I've got a list of things that I want to accomplish in 2013; I figure if I write them here, maybe it'll make them more permanent. One of the things I want to become more motivated and procrastinate less, but I'll wait to put the whole list (yes, the irony burns - but that's in 2013).<br />
<br />
Anyway, I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas if you celebrated it. Otherwise, I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season. After New Years, winter sort of takes up space and the year kicks into high swing. <br />
<br />
Here's to my 27th Christmas. May I live to see another 27, and beyond. And here's to your Xth Christmas, dear reader, and may you live long enough to see another <i>X</i> number of Christmases - or whatever holiday you celebrate. </div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2862170131521435894.post-20464644466619682632012-12-03T16:31:00.000-08:002012-12-03T16:33:05.172-08:00I'll See You In 2013<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
634 BCE: The Romans feared that Rome would be destroyed 120 years after the city had been founded. It was founded on the myth that twelve eagles had shown Romulus a mythical number, that was supposedly the lifetime of Rome. Each eagle was believed to represent 10 years. Rome was sacked once in 394 BCE, and it wasn't sacked again until 410 CE, when the Visigoths hit the city. Depending upon how you want to define the Roman Empire, the empire either didn't fall until Constantinople (1463), when the Holy Roman Empire collapsed and become Modern Germany (1806), when the Ottomans fell (1911) or when the Bolsheviks overthrew the Russian Empire and the Tsars (1917). Even going with the sacking of Roman, each of those eagles could not have been 10 years - that'd put them better than 600 years off. And with the other dates, they don't even remotely come close. <br />
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389 BCE: Rome again, for the same reasons above. Again, wrong for the same exact reasons.<br />
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66: the world ended sometime between 66 to 70 CE, according to The Essenes, a sect of Jewish Aesthetics. Sadly, <i>their</i> world met a very literal end when they went to war against the Romans. <br />
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365: The world ended this year, according to Hilliary of Poitiers. <br />
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375-400: The Antichrist has already been born and the world would end before 400 CE, according to Martin of Tours. <br />
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500: Jesus returned, according to Hippolytus of Rome, Sextus Julius Africanus, and Ireneus.<br />
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796, Apr 3: Jesus came back and crowned a crowd of people, according to Spanish monk Beatus of Liebana. <br />
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799 - 806: The world ended sometime in during this period, according to Gregory of Tours. <br />
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800: In what might be the first recorded instance of a Harold Camping in action, the world ended this year, according to the revised predictions of Sextus Julius Africanus (oops. Forgot to carry that zero, huh?)<br />
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848: The world ended this year, according to Thiota. <br />
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992 - 995: The Antichrist came back, and end times, within three years of 992, when Good Friday coincided with the Annunciation, according to various Christian Groups.<br />
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1000, Jan 1: The world ended on this day, as predicted by Pope Sylvester II, and various Christian groups. Sylvester is reported as being unaware of all the previous instances that the world ended, and feigned ignorance at being told that the world had ended at least six times before he was proven correct.<br />
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1033: The world ended on the 1,000th anniversary of the First Coming of Jesus, according to various Christian groups, ending with his Third Coming since 500. <br />
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1184: The Antichrist arose to take over the world, according to various Christians. <br />
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1186: The world ended during a planetary alignment, as predicted by John of Toledo. Word has it that he read it in an Ancient Mayan Codex. <br />
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1260: The Millennium began, sometime between 1200 and this date, according to Italian mystic, Joachim of Fiore. <br />
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1284: 666 years after the Rise of Islam, the world came to an end, according to Pope Innocent III. When accused of Islamophobia, Pope Innocent III proclaimed himself to be innocent of any charges. <br />
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1290: The world ended in 1290, after the followers of Joachim of Fiore rescheduled the ending. Reports at the time indicate that the stadium was booked and they had to find another venue for a cheaper price.<br />
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1335: The world ended in 1335, after the followers of Joachim of Fiore again rescheduled the ending following the last time the world ended, in 1290.<br />
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1346-51: The world legitimately came to an end for a great many people as the Black Death swept through Europe, leaving nothing but death in its wake in one of the worst pandemics in human history. A pandemic which had not been predicted at all up to that point.<br />
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1370: The Antichrist arose in 1366 and the Millennium began in 1370, according to Jean de Roquetaillade. Those attending the show were disappointed to find that 186 years of age had not at all been kind to the Antichrist's mind, and fans commented that his 1184 performance was a great deal better.<br />
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1378: The Antichrist appeared in this year, according to Joachite Arnaldus de Villa Nova. The Antichrist returned with much complaining, since he was told by his divine agent that the 1370 performance would be his last one before retirement. <br />
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1504: The Tribulation was well under way before this, but this was the Millennium, according to Sandro Botticelli. <br />
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1524, Feb 1: The world ended with a great flood that started in London, according to numerous Astrologers.<br />
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1524, Feb 20: Just 19 days after a great flood starting in London ended the world, a planetary alignment marked the end of the world and ushered in the Millennium according to Johannes Stöffler. <br />
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1525: The Millennium began, according to Anabaptist tradition.<br />
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1528: The world ended this year, based on predictions of Johannes Stöffler, who was still following up on his success from the previous prediction. <br />
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1528, May 27: The world ended, according to Hans Hut.<br />
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1533: Christ appeared before a crowd in Strausbourg, and 144,000 people were saved while fire consumed the rest of the world, bringing it to an end as predicted by Melichor Hoffman.<br />
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1533, Oct 19: Meanwhile, Judgement Day began at 8:00am on this day, as calculated by mathematician Michael Stifel.<br />
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1534, Apr 5: The apocalypse took place on this day, and only the city of Munster was spared from the disaster, according to Jan Matthys.<br />
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1555: The world came to an end after 7,000 years of human history had passed, as was recorded by Pierre d'Ally, a French Theologian. He wrote this down in 1400, and said that 6,845 years of human history had passed, but apparently did not consult with Ken Ham first, since that would make humanity not quite 7,456 years old, but not the 10,000 that AGI insists it is (Of course, because they believe in <i>exact</i> science, they'll tell you it's 6,000 - 10,000 years old and hope you don't notice the 4,000 year gap. And if you round that number to the nearest thousandths, you get 6,000 years, so they're right on the money).<br />
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1586: the Reign of the Devil, which began in 325 at the Council of Nicea, finally came to an end this year after 1260 years, marking the end of the world. This was as recorded by Spanish Christian reformer Michael Servetus.<br />
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1588: The world ended this year, vindicating the prediction of Regiomontanus.<br />
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1600: The world ended before this date, which was the upper date set by Reform Theologian Martian Luther. He would later go on to create the religious movement that would give the world Fred Phelps, Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, and American Christianity, making the world wish he was right.<br />
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1624, Feb 1: A great deluge hit the Earth during this time, ending the world, as predicted by Astrologers. Reports indicate that the astrologers were feeling a little left out, especially since people seemed to forget about how they had successfully predicted the end of the world in 1524 and they felt the Theologians were being glory hogs.<br />
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1648: The Jewish Messiah, concerned with how many times the world had ended, arrived in this year as predicted by Sabbatai Zevi, of Smyrna. He accurately predicted the date of the arrival and was there to meet the Jewish Messiah using the kabbalah.<br />
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1654: A nova that occurred in 1597 was used by physician Helisaeus Roselin to predict the world during this year.<br />
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1656: The world ended this year, as predicted by various Christians, who used Bible math to figure out that it had been 1656 years between Creation and the Flood.<br />
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1657: The final battle of Armageddon occurred during this year, leading to massive causalities. This was predicted ahead of time by the Fifth Monarchists. The Antichrist, who hadn't seen a performance since his 1378 appearance, was dusted off and propped on a dead horse and flogged to death by members of the oppositional forces for his poor 1370 and 78 performances, which were so bad audiences still hadn't forgotten them.<br />
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1658: After 7,000 years (the world was created in 5,343 BCE, without a 0 date), the world came to an end as predicted by the renowned captain and Native American Right's activist, Christopher Columbus.<br />
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1660: The Antichrist, who had first appeared in 456, and brought about the end of the world in 1660. Martin of Tours, despite setting the date at 400 and off by 56 years, was reported as feeling "vindicated" and saying "this is a hard business. It's difficult to get these numbers right, so you have to have a little give and take, y'know?"<br />
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1666: The world ended twice this year: once with the Jewish Messiah made a second appearance, as predicted by Sabbatai Zevi, and once when numerous Christians feared that the number 1666 would mark the appearance of the Antichrist, despite being 1,000 more. Interestingly, here in the <i>real</i> world, London burned to the ground in the Great Fire of 1666.<br />
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1673: The Millennium began this year, as predicted by William Aspenwall, a Fifth Monarchist.<br />
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1688: The end of the world came in this year, as predicted by mathematician John Napier, who used the Book of Revelations to back up his Bible Math.<br />
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1689: The world ended this year, according to Pierre Jureiu. <br />
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1694: In an unprecedented event, the world ended came to an end <i>three</i> times this year: The Millennium began twice this year, according to John Mason and Johann Heinrich Alsted, and Jesus also made a surprise reappearance, unforeseen by all except for Johann Jacob Zimmerman. <br />
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1697: The world ended this year, according to noted New World Puritan Minister, Cotton Mather. It would also end two more times after this, also according Reverend Mather, since the end of the world supposedly tastes like Lay's brand chips: you can't have just one. <br />
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1700: The world ended twice this year: It ended once more, according to John Napier, who due to finances was forced to reschedule his last ending of the world. It also ended according to Henry Archer, a Fifth Monarchist, with what was likely the Tenth Coming of Jesus since 1600. <br />
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1700-1734: At some point during this window, the world ended again according to Cardinal Nicolaus of Cusa. He supposed made the claim that he was unaware of all the other predictions, but was happy to be vindicated. He is also said to have made the claim that "Napier and Archer are hucksters; I predicted it first in 1700, those bastards just got lucky. Me? I needed a large enough window. You never know in this business; the more room you give yourself, the better off you are."<br />
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1705-1708: The end of the world occurred in either 1705, 1706, or 1708, as accurately predicted by the Camisard prophets.<br />
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1716: The second end of the world, as recorded by Cotton Mather. <br />
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1719, Apr. 5: A comet reportedly slammed into the earth, destroying it, according to Jacob Bernoulli. Due to being within several meters of the impact zone, of an end of the world even that took place 293 years ago, Bernoulli could be reached for comment.<br />
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1736: The third and final end of the world, marking an end to Cotton Mather's epic <i>End of the World Trilogy</i>, which he started in 1697. Mather was supposedly weeping tears of joy to have finally finished his life's work.<br />
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1736, Oct. 16: Amateur astronomy William Whiston accurately predicts another comet collision, ending the world not even 20 years after the first comet impact ended the world, as reported by Bernoulli.<br />
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1757: The last judgment occurred in the "spirit world" this year, according to Emanuel Swedenbourg. When asked for their thoughts on this last judgment on the spirit world, numerous native and animist leaders reported they "had no idea what the hell [Swedenbourg] was talking about".<br />
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1776: The world ends when Antichrist arises in the new world and overthrows English rule, forcing England to lose her colonies in the ... wait. Oops. <br />
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1789: The Antichrist appeared, according to 14th century Cardinal Pierre d'Ally, who is on record as having successfully predicted the end of the world 200 years previous.<br />
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1792-1794: An accurate prediction of the end of the world placed it between these two years, as predicted by the Shakers cult.<br />
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1793 - 1795: Richard Brothers accurately predicts the end of the world and the Millennium during this time. Back in the real world, Brothers was eventually committed to an asylum.<br />
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1795, Nov. 19: The world ended on this date, as predicted by Nathanial Hallhed, who was campaigning for the release of prophet Richard Brothers.<br />
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1805: Christopher Love accurately predicted the end of the world, in a massive Earthquake, followed by the everlasting rule of God. When contacted for comment, God confirmed the date, with the addendum: "I know this is getting old, but it'd just be mean to leave My followers hanging without proving their predictions right."<br />
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1806: A Hen laid an egg in Leeds in which the phrase "Christ is Coming" was written. When asked for confirmation, Jesus confirmed the messages were indeed real, and result of a heavenly campaign manager who had misallocated campaign funds, forcing them to resort to cheaper campaigning methods to announce Jesus' Second Coming than had been used previously.<br />
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1814, Dec. 25: Pregnant with the Christ-child, 64-year-old self-described prophet Joanna Southcott, predicted that her child would be born in Christmas. In the real world, Southcott died on the day of her prediction, but an autopsy revealed that she (surprisingly) was not pregnant.<br />
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1836: John Wesley accurately foresaw the founding of the Millennium during this time.<br />
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1843: Harriette Livermore announced the end of the world this year, accurately predicting it both this time and the second time she made the announcement.<br />
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1843: The world ended twice this year. Once on April 28, and the other on December 31. Jesus returned both times, but due to internet lag and appalling processing power on their computers, the Millerites who predicted the Second Coming would miss it because they d/c'd. They would, however, be there for the Third Coming.<br />
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1844: The world ended twice this year. Acting as inspiration for an aspiring young Harold Camping, William Miller predicted the world would end on March 21 and then, after being vindicated, went on to spite the world by summoning Jesus again on October 22. <br />
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1874: Harriette Livermore's second accurate prediction. Jesus is reported as having been very tired and very worn out, having made so many sudden and successive appearances without a break. The Heavenly Union said they would enter talks with the prophets, warning them attempting to Summon Jesus too many times for fear of violating contractual terms.<br />
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1853 - 1856: The Crimean War suddenly boils over into the rest of the world, becoming the battle of Armageddon as believed by many Christians at the time.<br />
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1862: The world ended 6,000 years after Creation, in 1862, as accurately predicted by Scottish Clergyman John Cumming. <br />
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1863: The Millennium began on this date, as predicted by the Christian Israeli Church. When contacted for questioning, John Wroe was said to be "elated" and "happy that God followed through with his promise yet again". <br />
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1873: The second advent occurred, and the world ended yet again, as according to the author of <i>The Present Truth, or Meat in Due Season</i>, Jonas Windell. <br />
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1874: Both the Bible Studies Movement and the Seventh Day Adventists accurately predicted the end of the world during this time, shortly on the heels of Jonas Windell's accurate prediction. <br />
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1878: Apparently not content to be correct once, the Bible Studies Movement issued yet another correct prediction in 1878.<br />
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1881: Both Mother Shipton and the Bible Studies Movement scored an accurate prediction for the end of the world in this year, although because Mother Shipton had been alive in the 1400s, it was difficult to reach her for comment. Her agent did not return our phone calls.<br />
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1890: The Ghost Dance lead to the beginning of the Millennium in 1890, as predicted by Wovoka. Exactly why a dance would lead to the second coming of Jesus has since puzzled a great many baptists, who believe dancing sinful.<br />
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1892-1911: By reading the careful alignments of the great Pyramids of Giza, the pyramidologist Charles Smyth accurately predicted the end of the world during this window.<br />
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1901: The Catholic Apostolic Church proclaimed that Jesus would return following the death of their last member, who died in 1901. Jesus was spotted in the streets of New York, and when questioned, claimed that he was there "just to pick up some Yiddish food."<br />
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1908: The Bible Studies Movement issued yet another accurate prediction this year. <br />
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1914: Another accurate Bible Studies Movement prediction, which, surprisingly enough, lead to the end of the world sometime between the First Battle of the Marne and the First Battle of Ypres. Soldiers fighting on the Front of World War I were said to be surprised and thought it was Jesus, but it as hard to tell him indiscriminately killing the unsaved from the shells and mustard gas indiscriminately killing everyone.<br />
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1915: The Millennium began again for what is likely the 1000th time since 0 CE, making this a recursive, post-modern moment in modern history. <br />
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1916: According to a successful prediction by the Bible Studies Movement, World War I did not end with the Treaty of Versillies. Rather, it ended with the Rapture of the Saints, but since so many people had died from the war, it was hard to tell the Raptured from those who had merely been killed.<br />
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1918: Another successful ending prediction brought to the world by the Bible Studies Movement.<br />
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1920: In 1920, all Earthly governments perished by the sword and anarchy, while God came back down and destroyed entire Churches wholesale. When asked why, God mentioned that he was tired of all the successful predictions of the Bible Studies Movement and was working to destroy the churches so Jesus could get some time off, following the falling through of the Union/Church negotiations. <br />
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1925: Joseph F. Rutherford, a Bible Studies Student, predicted the end of the world with the return of people to Israel, who had achieved perfect health through all of their years wandering the world, using Alternative Medicine from the Mystical Far East that would later find its way to the United States, once the world had stopped ending. On September 13 of the same year, Margarette Rowen said that the Angel Gabriel had accurately predicted, and gave to her, that the world would end on Midnight. <br />
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1935: Wilbur Voliva, an Evangelist, said the world would go "puff" in September of the year. He accurately predicted the Second Coming of Puff the Magic Dragon, resulting in great confusion. <br />
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1936: The Rapture happened and the world ended, according to Herbert Armstrong. <br />
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1941: The Jehovah's Witnesses accurately predicted the end times on this date. <br />
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1943: Showing off, the Herbert Armstrong predicted the end of the world again, for a second successful time.<br />
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1947: Beginning in this year, the world collapsed into post-apocalyptic anarchy, resulting in Lord Humongous taking over the wandering desert tribes and their vehicles, ruling a distant place known only as "the Thunderdome", in accordance with the writings of John Newbrough.<br />
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1954, Dec. 21: The planets align precisely with one another and a great rift in the center of the galaxy, producing a cataclysmic effect predicted by the end of the Ancient Mayan Cale... wait. Wrong year. Dorthy Martin accurately predicted the death of the world in a giant flood. <br />
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1959, Apr. 22: Florence Houteff began her campaign to warn people of the Rod, which would cause the end of the world... that's not right. She began her campaign to worn people of the end of the world, which was imminent and occurred later that year, and the campaign was world wide and made references to a Biblical rod.<br />
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1962, Feb 4. Jeanne Dixon, a renowned psychic and well established prophetess, predicted a planetary alignment that brought about the end of the world, making it around the 5th or 6th planetary alignment to successful eradicate the world.<br />
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1967: Humor is set aside for a minute. 1967 was the year that Jim Jones convinced a large number of people that a nuclear apocalypse was imminent. They joined his cult, and he moved them into South America, at Jonestown. The result of this was 909 temple members who died in 1978, including 200 children, killed by cyanide poisoning. Darkly enough, the particular song that started playing at this entry is this <a href="http://Johannes Stöffler" target="_blank">one</a>, which wasn't intended but certainly fits.<br />
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1967, Aug 20: George van Tassel received an accurate message from the alien Ashtar, who predicts the "third woe of the Apocalypse", which would resulted in the Southern United States being destroyed in a nuclear assault by the Soviets. <br />
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1969: Again, humor is set aside. Charles Manson predicted a race war in 1969, and ordered the Tate-LeBlanc Murders in an attempt to bring it about. <br />
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1969, Aug. 9: George William accurately predicts the end of the world on the verge of the 1970s, thus saving the world from the horrors of disco and bell-bottoms.<br />
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1970: Hal Lindsy publishes the text <i>The Late, Great Planet Earth</i>, which successfully predicts the end of the world. As of this writing, this otherwise successful document is 42-years-old.<br />
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1972: Herbert W Armstrong, displaying that age hasn't taken him down at all and he's still pretty spry for an old guy, once again accurately predicts the end of the world, adding to his already extensive collection of accurate predictions. <br />
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1972, Jan 11-12: The Comet Kohoutek heralds a great apocalypse, as predicted by David Berg. <br />
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1975: The Jehovah's Witnesses successful predict the end of the world and the second coming of Jesus during this time.. Not to be outdone, Herbert W. Armstrong rises to the occasion one more and final time, predicting the end of the world to spite the Jehovah's Witnesses.<br />
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1977: John Wroe successfully predicts the end of the world, while William Branham accurately predicts the end of the world as occurring no later than the end of the year. <br />
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1980: Leland Johnson, having come off a successful prediction of a nuclear Armageddon in early that year, predicted that God's Kingdom would be established again before the year was over with, shortly after heaven's engineers had dismantled it from the previous Millennial predictions.<br />
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1980s: Hal Lindsey, a prophet renowned for the accuracy of his predictions, publishes <i>1980: Countdown to Nuclear Armageddon</i>, which successful predicts the coming nuclear apocalypse and the reestablishment of the Millennial.<br />
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1981: Chuck Smith predicted that the generation of 1948 would be the last generation. He was correct; the world ended and there were no further generations following the prediction.<br />
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1982 Mar 10: John Gribbin and Stephan Plagemann successfully predicted the planetary alignment that would destroy the world that year, undermining all of God's previous attempts to establish a Millennial kingdom as predicted in 1980 and frustrating the saved, who didn't expect such a sudden end to their paradise.<br />
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1982, Oct/Nov. Pat Robertson makes his first, of many, correct predictions regarding the end of the world and the second coming of Jesus.<br />
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1984, Oct 2: Jehovah's Witnesses yet again successfully predicted the end of the world. Pat Robertson is on record as having accused them of aping off of his already pin-point accurate prediction. <br />
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1985: Lester Samerall joins the rank of successful prophets to predict the end of the world. This is also the year that I was born. <br />
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1987-88: An accurate prediction on the end of the world issued by Noah Hutchings, president of the Southwest Radio Church. He, with pinpoint accuracy, predicted the world as ending "sometime in 1987 or 1988."<br />
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1987, Apr 29: Leland Johnson is successful in yet another prediction on the end of the world.<br />
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1988: Hal Lindsey successfully predicted the Rapture yet again, this time in the year of 1988. He then went on to sell millions more copies of his book, <i>The Late, Great, Planet Earth</i>.<br />
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1988 Sept/Oct: Edgar Whisenant successfully predicted the date of the apocalypse, with laser-like accuracy, as occurring sometime between the months of September and October.<br />
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1989, Sept. 30: On a roll from his last prediction, Whisenant once again called the end of the world on this date in 1989. <br />
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1991: Esteemed Louis Farrakhan, leader of the tolerant and open Nation of Islam, accurately called the Iraq War the "War of Armageddon."<br />
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1992, Sept 28: A successful attempt to predict the apocalypse occurred on this day, in 1992, as predicted by Born-Again Christian Rollen Stewart.<br />
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1993: David Berg's prediction of the Tribulation, which began in 1988, successfully reached completion by 1993, marking the return of the Millennium.<br />
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1994, May 2: Neal Chase called the end of the world 40 days after a nuclear attack on New York, resulting in a bombing that leveled the city and won him drinks on the house at the local bar for the remainder of the tribulation.<br />
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1994, Sept/Oct: Legendary Prophet Harold Camping, learning from the previous predictions of those before successfully predicted the end of the world exactly during this time, as "sometime between September and October", validating that God hates the months of April, September, and October.<br />
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1995, Mar 15: Prophet Harold Camping scores yet <i>another</i> successful prediction of the Rapture.<br />
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1996, Dec 17: Sheldon Nidle, a Californian psychic, successfully predicted the end of the world when 16 million people were hoisted up into a space ship populated with angels.<br />
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1997, Mar 26: Marshall Applewhite, leader of the Heaven's Gate cult, lead his cult out during the appearance of the Comet Hale-Bop. <br />
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1997, Oct. 23: James Ussher, a 17th century Irish Bishop best known for his accurate measure of the Earth's age (at ~6,000 years old), accurate predicted the end of the world on this date, exactly 6,000 years since Creation.<br />
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1999: The Seventh Day Adventists once again accurately predict the end of the world, while Charles Berlitz, a linguist best known for his guide books on specific languages, accurately predicted the end of the world, but was a little hazy on how it would be ending.<br />
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1999, Jul: Bucking the trend, as daring young prophets are known to do, Nostradamus predicted a "terror king" who came from the sky, leading to the end of the world that many feared that it would.<br />
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'Before' 2000: Hal Lindsy once again managed to successfully predict the end of the world following his 1980s predictions, as did Gordon Lindsy, Timothy Dwight IV, the Jehovah's Witnesses, and conspiracy nut, Texe Marrs. <br />
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2000: Peter Olivi, a 13th century Theology wishing to give himself a lot of wiggle room, predicted the rise of the Antichrist in 1300 or 1340, and the end of the Antichrist's reign in 2000. Helena Blatvasky also correctly foresaw the world ending in 2000, although Theosophy was an entirely different set of reasons than the Antichrist, who apparently had stepped down following his tragic 1300s performance. Isaac Newton also accurately predicted the arrival Jesus and the Millennial in 2002, while self-proclaimed Christian Psychic Ruth Montegomery successfully predicted the change in the Earth's axial tilt that lead to the appearance of the Antichrist. Ed Dobson, Reverend Moon, and Lester Sumerall also accurately predicted the end at this time, while Edgar Cayce, a renowned prophet, predicted the second coming, along with 18th century Johnathan Edwards, who predicted Jesus' Millennial beginning this year. Jerry Jenkins and Tim LeHaye predicted a Y2K bug causing an economic collapse that would lead to the end of the world, while Jerry Falwell said that God would pour his judgment on the Earth. Not all of these predictions came true; understandably, the Hosts of Heaven didn't have enough manpower to make them all occur, but like Santa, according to the Archangel Michael, "We couldn't do it all, but we gave it that old college try anyway."<br />
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2001: Tynetta Muhammad accurately predicted the end of the world. She is a columnist for the Nation of Islam.<br />
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2003, May: Earth collides with Nibiru, according to the prophetess Nancy Lieder, who was receiving messages from the aliens at Zeti Reticuli warning her of the event.<br />
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2006, Sept 21: The House of Yahweh, related to IHOP But without the pancakes, released a newsletter that predicted the end of the world in nuclear Armageddon.<br />
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2007, Apr 29: Legendary Prophet Pat Robertson once again predicts the end of the world, with such success that it's unnerving.<br />
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2008: The world ends with the LHC goes online, producing strangelets that turn the planet Earth into a mass of strange matter.<br />
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2010: The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn successfully predicted the end of the world during this year, using their magic to likely foresee the imminent doom.<br />
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2011, May 21: Legendary Prophet Harold Camping makes another successful prediction on the end of the world. However, God called in sick that day, telling Harold Camping that, while successful, he would need to reschedule the apocalypse. However, God did carry out a "Spiritual Judgment," according to Camping. When asked for their thoughts on this last judgment on the spirit world,
numerous native and animist leaders reported they "had no idea what the
hell <strike>[Swedenbourg]</strike> [Camping] was talking about".<br />
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2011, Aug-Oct: Despite the best efforts of scientists to lie to the people about their intentions, the Comet Elenin both collided with and passed close enough by the Earth to disturb the crust, resulting in a new apocalypse.<br />
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2011, Sept 29: Roland Weinland predicted, in 2008, what would eventually come to pass: the second coming of Jesus, and the explosions that blew up American port cities, resulting in the blowing of the second horn of Revelations. This was his first successful prediction; he would later schedule the same prediction again in May of 2012, just to show off.<br />
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2011, Oct 21: Harold Camping's original 2011 prediction completed with the second coming, proving Camping right, as he had been ever since 1994, when he started.<br />
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2012, May 27: Weinland's second replay of his 2011 prediction comes to pass, and once again, the port cities are annihilated in a burst of nuclear flames. <br />
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2012, Dec. 21: The Mayan long count calender, which is shaped like a circle, rolls over to its new era. Meanwhile, Earth will be destroyed in a supernova, by a collision with Nibiru, an alien invasion, geomagnetic reversal, and finally, the sheer pain of being overwhelmed with bad television predicting events that will never happen, and never have happened.<br />
<br />
<br />
So stop worrying about the end of the world. It hasn't happened yet, and if it does happen on December 21, it wont be because it was predicted ahead of time: it'll be because of some fluke coincidence that likely couldn't be predicted anyway. I'll probably be around (I have the month of December off) but I'm announcing now that I will be here to see you folks in 2013. I hope you'll still be here, too. <br /><br />- <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_dates_predicted_for_apocalyptic_events" target="_blank">source</a> </div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2862170131521435894.post-4333584652530114292012-11-22T21:42:00.000-08:002012-11-22T21:44:58.608-08:00Personality Types<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<br />
The temperament philosophy is an old, outdated pseudoscience. It's not a very effective method to gauge people's personalities, since individual people are too diverse to be narrowed down into one or two categories. Like the Enneagram, or the Myers-Briggs Test, it tries to take something as complicated as a human personality and narrow it down, or pigeon hole it, into a single category or, at most, one category with few supporting points.<br />
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Despite being pseudoscientific and specious at best, they're still fun to work with, because they can sometimes give you a handle on what type of individual you are. You might find that you fit more into one category than the others, or you might find that you fit more into a handful of categories than others. It can give you a label to help define yourself - both a blessing and a curse, because that label you use to help others identify some part of you can become the only thing that defines you, and when that happens, something went wrong. For instance, I'm a very strong Type 3 on the Enneagram, and my MBTI is INFJ (which is a bit of a contradiction, but I score high on Type 1, Type 4, and Type 7, the usual matches for my MBTI).<br />
<br />
As an author, however, these can be good starting places when designing characters (I'll admit that I didn't start here. I take parts of my own personality and I break it up and let it grow from there, but that's beside the point; this is <i>clearly</i> intended to be a "do as I say, not as I do" post). I do sometimes take personality tests from the perspective of my characters, just so I can know ahead of time, or help get a better view of who they are as people. It can help you flesh out and define the little people populating your book: it can also help you spot potential conflicts a mile away - and explore it in your book.<br />
<br />
This method is how I've been able to flesh out the cast of the <i>Blue Pimpernel</i> in my head, at least, as well as I have. Each girl has a very distinctive personality, with similarities and differences that make them stand out but make it so that it makes sense when they work together, and make even more sense when they rub one another the wrong way and it leads to conflict.<br />
<br />
I was glancing through <a href="http://archive.fighunter.com/?page=temperaments" target="_blank">this post</a> on the four temperament philosophy, and it hit me just how easily I can break the cast (or, rather, the main four characters, anyway) into the categories. It helps a lot that, as the author says, "everyone has a little bit from all of them (aka, the P.T. Barnum effect)", but that everyone has one major, defining trait and a minor one. While that may be true for some people, and not for others (it isn't for me), it helps me get a better grip on the characters and come at their personalities from a different perspective. <br />
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All samples are from the <i>The Blue Pimpernel: Liquidity</i>. I vouch not for quality, since I haven't even finished the final draft yet, let alone proof read. However, consider this to be a sneak peak of sorts:<br />
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<blockquote>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Found
the lab!” Karasu said.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Found
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">a</i> lab,” she heard Helsing say. “Rene
and I found another one.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Well,
that’s certainly…” Karasu was cut off when a loud explosion ripped through the
room, blew the door off, and caused the entire building to rattle.
“Impressive.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Holy
shit, Aya. I heard that out here,” Specter said.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Holy
shit, Ben, I can barely here you in here,” Karasu said, trying to adjust to the
fact that her ears were ringing rather loudly.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“That
was some kind of drug lab,” the Ghost said.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“So
I take it we don’t want to destroy the one that we found, huh?” the Pimpernel
asked. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">“Drug labs are
dangerous. One little mistake and the whole thing goes up like a volcano,” the
Ghost said.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“So
a slow dismantle without breaking anything,” Helsing said.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“No,”
the Pimpernel said. “A rock, a few matches, and running like fuck.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Karasu
sighed. “There’s no need to be pointlessly destructive,” she said, running back
through the exit of the gym.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Says
the girl who just blew up her lab,” the Pimpernel said.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“I
was shot at,” Karasu said.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Don’t
destroy anything,” Maggie said. “Come back to the van; we know this is a
manufacturing place, we know that this is where they make them, so let’s let
the police….”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Run,”
the Pimpernel said.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Karasu
raced through the first door, spinning around and looking at the building as
the Pimpernel and Helsing took a dive from the second story window. The
Pimpernel caught herself and rolled, and Helsing did the same, both of them
running. A split second later, the room exploded in a violent fireball.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Kaboom,”
Specter said.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Jesus
Christ, Renee,” Maggie muttered.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“The
police. Maggie, do you know what’ll happen if we leave that for the police?
They’ll help!”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Karasu
sighed and shook her head, running parallel to them. A few seconds later there
was an even larger explosion in the building, and they could now see large
flames licking from some of the windows.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> "Well, we don't have to worry about that, now do we?" the Ghost said.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Karasu
looked back over her shoulder and spotted several people run from the interior
of the burning house. That was the last she saw of them before she ducked into
the towering grass, continuing full speed ahead towards the road, and on the
other side of it, the van.</span></div>
</blockquote>
<br />
There are four temperaments, each one with their own traits: <span style="color: red;"><b>Choleric</b></span>, generally associated with alpha behavior; <span style="color: orange;"><b>Sanguine</b></span>, generally associated with socializing, social butterflies, and people who love and engage in drama; <span style="color: lime;"><b>Phlegmatic</b></span>, or meek, inoffensive followers; and <span style="color: magenta;"><b>Melancholic</b></span>, or people who are serious, stoic, creative and intelligent. A person usually has one dominate trait and a secondary one to help flesh them out, but they can pick up and hold traits from all of the different groups. So an individual might be Sanguine predominately with Phlegmatic supporting traits. I personally am fairly evenly distributed across the board as far as that is concerned - I have traits from all of them, but at any given time, I tend to weigh Melancholic or Choleric (I'm extremely slow to anger, but when I get angry, watch out; my wraith is something to behold). <br />
<br />
Each of the main characters of the Blue Pimpernel fits rather well into a category created by some combination of the two, likely because I created all of them by breaking up my personality and spreading it out amongst them. Because of that, it shouldn't come as a surprise the bulk of them have Choleric traits as a secondary temperament. <br />
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<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">Both the couch and the television had
come from her [Renee's] house, too. When she moved out, Maria and John asked if she
wanted to save anything. Because she was too shocked and numb to answer either
way, they “pillaged” the house – John called it that, jokingly – and what they
took found its way into their basement, with the rest of the crap they hadn’t
unpacked.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>As
she looked at the couch, her mind drifted back and she remembered all the
times, growing up, that she’d run instinctively to that couch, in the corner of
the living room. She would steal something from Sam as a little girl, and her first
instinct was to bolt for the couch and bury it. She’d get sick, or be tried
from school, and her first instinct was to collapse on that couch. As a
toddler, she would have tickle battles with her mom on that couch. Shortly
after one of her birthdays, she and Ofelia fell asleep on that couch.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>She
took in a deep breath and turned away. She was happy they had it. But she
wasn’t ready to deal with the memories that came along with it, buried under
those brown cushions and between those metal springs. There was no place to go
but forward; no other path to follow but the stairs up. She would deal with
them in time, but moving forward was the path to healing. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The
kitchen attached to the basement stairs, right beside the fridge. Renee had her
own carton of milk separate from the one that the rest of the family used; she
had no problems drinking right from it, although Maria didn’t like her doing
it. She opened the door and leaned in, looking around for her own special
compartment. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>One
on hand, she was happy to have her own special compartment in the fridge. She
had her own block of cheese, her own ham, bacon, and small carton of eggs, and
her own carton of milk, among other things. She knew it had something to do
with the fact that the family couldn’t eat these things – the ham and bacon,
anyway – she wasn’t all that aware of the restrictions that Maria imposed on
her family, because Maria didn’t impose them on her.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>On the other hand, the fact that
Maria imposed them on everyone else <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">but </i>her
made her feel singled out; like she didn’t belong. Like she wasn’t part of the
family. Maria was the driving reason why religion was practiced at all in the
house; if it were left up to John, the family would be lapsed – like she was.
Maria making the conscious decision to leave her out made her feel like she
wasn’t welcome.</span></blockquote>
Renee, the protagonist, is <b><span style="color: magenta;">Melancholic</span>/<span style="color: red;">Choleric</span></b>. Renee shares this temperament with Aya, who is also Melancholic/Choleric, but the two of them are different enough in significant ways that it's hard to tell they share the same temperament. <br />
<br />
Renee's defining trait is her sheer stubborn, nigh inhuman levels of determination. However, she has a number of other traits, too, both fitting neatly into one of the two categories with only a little drawn from a third. Bolded are major, pronounced traits of hers. <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: left;">
<div>
<span style="color: magenta;"><b>Melancholic:</b> </span></div>
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>Emotionally Sensitive - Renee cries a lot in the first novel. She does in the second, too. </li>
<li>Creative - Renee can be very creative in her problem solving. For instance, when she realized she couldn't match Roth in the first novel after Roth had undergone a series of heavy modifications (during the Joliet Union fight), she dropped a chandelier on him, instead.</li>
<li><b>Introverted</b></li>
<li><b>Stubborn</b></li>
<li>Passionate- Renee gets attached to something and will not back down. </li>
<li>Has more that she dislikes than she like</li>
<li><b>Easily upset</b></li>
<li>Is very intense - as a side effect of being so damn stubborn and passionate . </li>
<li><b>Is very slow to make friends and has a hard time making new friends</b></li>
<li>Is very suspicious of others </li>
</ul>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<b><span style="color: red;">Choleric:</span></b><br />
<ul>
<li>Brash - I can't think of to many things Renee ever stops to think through before she acts, and I created her </li>
<li><b>Easily Angered</b> </li>
<li>Strong - Renee doesn't show a lot of strength, but it's in there</li>
<li><b>Stubborn</b></li>
<li><b>Defiant</b> </li>
<li><b>More likely to fight than flee</b></li>
<li>Reliable - Renee will pull through for her friends </li>
<li>Vengeful - Not a major trait, but she got really pissed off in the first book and it became person between her and Roth. </li>
<li>Loves Winning - She lacks a lot of self-esteem, and she doesn't like competing against her friends, but she does keep all the times she won close to her heart</li>
</ul>
<b><span style="color: orange;">Sanguine:</span></b><br />
<ul>
<li><b>Naturally Physical</b> - Renee shows her affection by holding your hand, hugging you, squeezing you, or through some kind of physical action or touch. </li>
<li>Displays emotions openly - Renee has a hard time hiding her emotions </li>
</ul>
</div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<br />
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<br />
<blockquote>
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<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>They
were Ironsides Charts, detailing the time up to the Rapture, the Tribulation,
and the new Millennial Kingdoms. Those charts were always so beautiful and
colorful; it was like looking at a wild post-modern design or surrealist
painting, by Max Ernst, Giorgio de Chirico, or especially René Magritte’s “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">C’est n’est pas une pipe</i>.” This was not
the Bible. This wasn’t even a picture of it, but that this wild and fancifully
feverish dream had never the less been accepted by so many Christians as
“literal truth” took a lot away, in her [Aya's] opinion, from how colorful and
beautiful the charts were. At points, it channeled Hannah Höch, one of the
original inventors of the photomontage. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>That
this was calling to mind Dadaist and surrealist art over 100 years old felt
fitting. It felt more right than what they were hoping the charts would inspire
for sure. The names were familiar, because she’d grown up with them in Sunday
School: King David, Ezekiel, John of Patmos, and the Seven Churches of Asia.
Anyone who knew anything about Christian history knew that the churches were
major, early churches and they didn’t exist anymore except, perhaps, in spirit.
She could name them all by heart: Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamon, Thyatria, Sardis,
Philadelphia, and Laodicea. None of them had significant Christian populations
anymore; she’d learned when she was in Israel that the bulk of Greek Christians
had been deported by the Turks during the exchange of citizens, meaning that
the churches – if you took it to mean the local population of Christians,
rather than the buildings and streets themselves – effectively did not exist.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>There
were seven messages. Each one went out to each church; a plea, to tell them to
hold strong because they were under the assault of Roman authority during that
time. She remembered studying about the history of Roman, and the history of
apocalyptic literature, and how its nature was a lot like how some viewed Nostradamus’
predictions: veiled social critiques, made in an era when such critiques could
get you killed. It was a message of hope: “your strength and fortitude of faith
would be rewarded.” <br />
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>While
there was nothing about strength of faith and fortitude of faith, there was
plenty about rewards. This chart, in fact, seemed to be all about rewards. And
punishment. The last time she’d seen punishment displayed that graphically was
Hieronymus Bosch’s works.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>There
was almost an element of gloating to it. And that underscoring element made it
far more disturbing than anything Bosch could have produced.</span></div>
</blockquote>
Aya is the hero when Renee is not wearing that hat and Ofelia is busy doing something else. She more classically fits the role of second-in-command, but because the girls form an adhocracy, whoever has the ability at the time is expected to live up to it. Renee and Aya have a lot of friction between the two of them, because they're so different but at the same time, so incredibly similar. Like Renee, Aya is <b><span style="color: magenta;">Melancholic</span>/<span style="color: red;">Choleric</span></b>, but the two differ in such pronounced ways that it can be difficult to tell. Aya picks up the traits of the two temperaments that Renee leaves behind:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: left;">
<b><span style="color: magenta;">Melancholic</span></b><br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><b>Serious</b> - Aya is usually the straight girl when one of the others is goofing off; usually Ben, but sometimes Renee if Renee made a joke she wasn't aware of.</li>
<li>Emotionally Sensitive - Like Renee, Aya is sensitive emotionally </li>
<li><b>Analytical</b></li>
<li><b>Critical</b></li>
<li>She needs things to be right the first time around</li>
<li>Bitter - Aya is a developing cynic </li>
<li>Introverted - She's not outgoing at all</li>
<li>Stubborn - She can be just as stubborn as Renee can</li>
<li><b>Easily Upset, but keeps her emotions hidden</b></li>
<li>Deep and Thoughtful - Aya is really smart, and has a tendency to over think things. </li>
<li><b>Holds Grudges</b></li>
<li>Prefers Planning - this is one of the areas where she doesn't get along with Renee </li>
<li>Corrects Others - Renee, anyway </li>
</ul>
<b><span style="color: red;">Choleric </span></b><br />
<ul>
<li><b>Proud</b></li>
<li><b>Confident</b></li>
<li>Goal Orientated - She needs to see the results, that's all she cares about</li>
<li><b>Gets Things Done</b> </li>
<li>Doesn't show weakness - She's not one to show how she's feeling, and because of it, she comes across as cryptic and cold </li>
<li><b>Strong</b></li>
<li>Can't Admit if they're wrong - Especially if it was Renee who was right</li>
<li><b>Vengeful</b></li>
<li>Criticizes Others - Renee, anyway</li>
<li>Offers Unwanted Advice - to anyone who will listen</li>
</ul>
<b></b></blockquote>
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<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">Ofelia wasn’t in their room. She [Renee]
shared a room with Ofelia because two of them had to share a room, and she felt
more comfortable sharing a room with Ofelia than she did with Cyan. Cyan’s room
was across the hall; Renee peered through the door and looked into the bathroom
next door, and then into Cyan’s room. Her room was meticulous; everything had a
place, the bed was perfectly made, what little stuff she’d brought along was
either put up nice and neat or still in boxes. Cyan had made no mystery of the
fact that she intended to move in with Aya, and while Aya would grumble about
it around them, Renee was pretty confident that Aya would have no other way. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>After
all, if she truly didn’t like it, she would’ve stopped Cyan.</span></div>
</blockquote>
Cyan is the consummate follower. She would follow Renee and Ofelia to the end of the Earth, objecting to any stupid plan they have but not leaving them to their own devices. She has one or two moments per book when she does something by herself, on her own, but she's usually seen interacting with someone else. Cyan is a <b><span style="color: lime;">Phlegmatic</span>/<span style="color: magenta;">Melancholic</span></b> individual:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: lime;"><b>Phlegmatic</b> </span><br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><b>Meek</b></li>
<li><b>Inoffensive</b></li>
<li><b>Submissive</b></li>
<li><b>Follower</b></li>
<li><b>Quiet</b></li>
<li><b>Listener</b></li>
<li><b>Can't say No</b></li>
<li><b>Doesn't Assert Herself </b>- this, however, is changing </li>
<li>Trustworthy - Renee has been friends with her for a long time. Cyan is very reliable.</li>
<li><b>Avoids Conflict</b></li>
</ul>
<b><br /><span style="color: magenta;">Melancholic</span></b><br />
<ul>
<li>Serious - Cyan doesn't make too many jokes, but unlike Aya, she's rarely the butt of them</li>
<li>Analytical - Cyan is very intelligent</li>
<li>Critical - But that won't stop her from doing something anyway</li>
<li><b>Introverted</b></li>
<li>Very Emotional, but keeps them inside - Cyan has one constant emotion: contentment. It doesn't matter what she's feeling inside; it's very rare for her to get upset</li>
<li>Deep and Thoughtful - She's like Aya: She over thinks things</li>
<li>Correct others - something that she's picked up on doing is correcting Renee or Ofelia when they make a mistake</li>
<li>Reluctant to make friends, has a hard time getting to know people, and is slow to warm up to them - all of the same traits that Renee has apply to her as well</li>
</ul>
<b><span style="color: red;">Choleric</span></b><br />
<ul>
<li><b>Strong - </b>Cyan is a rock. </li>
<li>Reliable - If she gives you her word, she is there, and will be there, until the very end </li>
</ul>
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Blue
was the one who broke it,” Ofelia said. “Aya, don’t try anything stupid. Wait
for her to come back with the ladder.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“I’m
not jumping, Ofelia.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“I
just want to make sure.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Renee
tucked her hands in her pockets. “Cyan probably wasn’t the best choice to fix
it,” Renee said.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“What
are you talking about?” Ofelia said. “Blue is really smart.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“She
is. But … well, just wait,” Renee said. “I still remember the ‘Hoover
Tumbleweed Machine’ that she built. Technically, Ben and James talked her into
building it; she rewired a vacuum clear for Ben’s ‘science fair
project’ – that is, a strong enough gust of wind could blow all of the water
off of the surface of the Earth, and that’s why the Earth had a 24 hour day and
where the water from the Flood went.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Flood?”
Aya asked. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Noah’s
Flood,” Ofelia said. “You know, the whole metaphorical story from Genesis about
the guy with the boat and the animals? That story. We’ve been taught that it’s
the ‘literal truth’ by people who don’t know what the words ‘literal’ or
‘truth’ mean.”</span></div>
</blockquote>
Ofelia is the alpha female of the group. She is the outgoing one - if you want to find Renee, you look in the corner of the room. If you want to find Ofelia, you look in the middle. She is the life of parties, the charismatic girly-girl who happens to love mechanics and engineering. The social butterfly who is also a mastermind leader. When Renee isn't wearing the leader hat, it's usually Ofelia (and if not her, then Aya). <br />
<br />
Ofelia's primary type is <span style="color: orange;"><b>Sanguine</b></span>, but she picks up traits from <span style="color: red;"><b>Choleric</b></span> and <span style="color: lime;"><b>Phlegmatic</b></span>, as well. Ofelia has always been the most interesting character to me - Renee, Aya, and Cyan are all like me (or, as is the case with Renee and Aya, <i>are</i> me to varying degrees), but Ofelia is nothing like me. <br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b><span style="color: orange;">Sanguine</span></b><br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><b>Social </b></li>
<li><b>Displays Emotions Openly and changes them quickly</b></li>
<li><b>Upbeat and outgoing </b>- she's a direct contrast against the other fictional characters who have her name, and against her name sake: Shakespeare's "Ophelia".</li>
<li>Positive - good things happen to those who go after them</li>
<li><b>Extroverted</b>Loves Attention - she loves having attention, and loves calling attention to herself </li>
<li>Chatty - she's always willing to strike up a conversation, too, or get involved in the rumor mill</li>
<li>Flighty - it's hard to tell, but some of her ideas are very, very stupid and very, very dangerous. For instance, the entire novel series is her fault.</li>
<li><b>Feel comfortable around them</b> - Renee does especially, and that's why they're best friends</li>
<li><b>Naturally Physical</b> - another reason she and Renee get along so well; both of them enjoy hugs and hand holding to show how much they care</li>
<li>Makes Friends Quickly - in a few minutes she can become your new best friend </li>
</ul>
<br />
<b><span style="color: red;">Choleric </span></b><br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><b>Proud </b></li>
<li><b>Confident</b>Gets Things Done - Once Ofelia starts something, it happens, or it will happen</li>
<li>Passionate - she's very passionate about any number of things</li>
<li>Reliable - For the same reasons that Cyan is</li>
</ul>
<br />
<b><span style="color: lime;">Phlegmatic</span></b><br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>Trustworthy - despite being a social butterfly, Ofelia is really good at keeping secrets</li>
<li>Avoids Conflict - she doesn't seek it out, and she tries to mitigate it when it rears its head, often times putting herself between Renee and Aya, and talking with Aya later (since she's closer in age to Aya than she is to Renee). </li>
</ul>
<br /></blockquote>
And while there's other characters, those are the four major ones. I can do this too with the villains (for instance, Roth is purely Choleric; Justice is a mix of Choleric and Melancholic), and with the minor characters (Ben is Phlegmatic/Sanguine, Maggie is Choleric and Melancholic, Maria is Phlegmatic and Sanguine, etc), those are the four major protagonists. <br />
<br />
All of the sample text here is from the final rough draft of the second Blue Pimpernel novel. I'm still not done with it yet, but that's what the draft is shaping up like (meaning that this text might not be present in the final - but hey, you saw it here first). </div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2862170131521435894.post-45418130845179342492012-11-20T11:52:00.000-08:002012-11-20T11:52:08.094-08:00Skin Tone Markers<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I'm a white guy. I've expressed that before (for a certain value of guy). And while I come from an area that's poorer than shit, and I myself am poorer than shit, that doesn't mitigate the privilege society awards to me for being the color that I am.<br />
<br />
I've come along way in acknowledging that privilege, but I probably still have miles to go before I sleep. Today, I was reminded of just how far I've come, and just how blind some people are to the concept of privilege (and how insidious racism actually is capable of being). I was reading <a href="http://www.patheos.com/blogs/thinplaces/2012/11/bus-people-flesh-colored-crayons-and-privilege-some-thoughts-on-race-and-adoption-plus-a-book-giveaway/" target="_blank">this narrative</a>, and there was a little part of it that struck me:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Decades ago, in graduate school, a professor and I chatted as we
prepared for a holiday party in the English department. I made
decorations, digging around in a box that was loaded with miscellaneous
art supplies – colored pencils, dried out markers, and broken old
crayons </blockquote>
<blockquote>
“Nice crayon,” my professor said as I colored a poster.<br />
“What?”<br />
“What color is it?”<br />
I turned the crayon around in my hand and read: “Flesh.”<br />
“Got a problem with that?”<br />
I was stumped. “With <em>what</em>?”<br />
“Miss Grant, I think you’ve had just about enough gender studies courses,” he said. “How about giving a little more thought to <em>race</em>?”</blockquote>
I am an amateur artist. I used to have a lot more artistic talent than I do today; I've squandered it, but drawing is still something that I occasionally do for fun. I was drawing before I was writing; I stopped drawing sometime in early college, which was about the time that I started to pick up in my writing. I traded one talent for another, you might say. Today, a lot of my art is done in Daz Studio, and with 3d rendering. 3d rendering, with some help from photoshop, has its advantages. At the same time, though, I'm restricted in what I can and can't do (because I can't design my own models, and the selection of primitives, or basic shapes, isn't very broad) in a way that I'm not when I draw. <br /><br />I still have a pile of <a href="http://www.prismacolor.com/products/colored-pencils" target="_blank">primsacolor markers</a>. I actually have several boxes of them; I still use them. I love primsacolor; they're my favorite type of marker, because they make smooth strokes and I can "layer" progressively darker colors, to create the illusion of shadow and depth in a picture. If you've followed that link, you probably see the prismacolor markers are expensive; one marker sells for 3 dollars. I probably have over 200 dollars worth of markers that I've collected over 5 or 6 yeas of art work, including Christmas gifts. Eventually, it just got too expensive. That's another reason I don't have many hobbies other than writing anymore: writing is free. Everything else costs money I don't have, and time I can't waste.<br /><br />Reading the narrative above reminded me of a time when I was relatively young - I want to say this happened about 6 or 7 years ago, maybe even 8. I was sitting in my mom's room, and I was organizing the markers according to color type (so, these were greens, these were oranges, these were reds, etc). I had them all nicely organized, and I was going through the various color groups with my mom. I even had a group I called "skin tones." Unfortunately, that "skin tones" group was a rather restricted group - just like the "flesh" crayon in the narrative above, my "skin tones" were all various shades of pale. Blondwood (not peach; prismacolor peach is a lighter shade of this very vivid pink and only works if you're coloring the skin on a pig), Tan, Creme, Brick Beige; the one thing they all had in common is that they were all pale (with, as the case with some, yellow underscoring them). Browns had their own category, which I called "earth tones". <br /><br />I did not even register that. I just didn't. I erased an entire group of people and replaced them with dirt. <br /><br />I recognize it today. I no longer separate my markers like that. I don't have a "skin tone" category, since I can use just about any marker ranging from creme to my dark browns* to represent skin tones (if I did break it up properly, that category would be about 75% of my maker total). I don't even break them up; they're all lumped in two boxes sitting in the corner of my room, but when I did after that, they were done strictly by color: blues, oranges, yellows (which included blondwood, creme, and brick beige), browns, blacks, whites, grays, reds (which included the umbers) and so on and so forth. <br /><br />It took my mom pointing it out to me that how I was dividing the markers back then was racist. And the irony of that is my mom is not an egalitarian; she will admit she is a racist individual who does not like Black people**. It's never been very prominent, and I've only seen it on display once or twice. So I'm still not entirely sure, reflecting back on that story, how it turned out the way it did, and why, of all people, she was the one to point that out. <br /><br />But yes, this is what people mean when they say you have privilege. It was nothing malicious on my part. It was not me intending to erase an entire population, completely and utterly, and prioritize "Earth colors" over them (which is stupid in retrospect; "earth colors" are everything from brown to blue, with green, orange, yellow, and everything else thrown in the mix). It wasn't me intentionally expressing some unconscious dislike for individuals with dark skin (which include more than just Africans; this includes Dravidians, some Pacific Islanders, Australian Natives, and some Southeast Asian populations, among others). <br /><br />It was ignorance. That's all it was. And it doesn't excuse it at all; but it's like any mistake. You pick up and you learn from it. And that's what I did, and that's what I'm still doing.<br /><br />* Dark brown is as dark as I can get when I'm using markers. If I wanted to create a darker skin tone (I know they exist) then I would do something like "Dark brown, dark umber, black", but I'd never use black as a solid, base color for a picture (because I rely on going from "light to dark" to create the illusion of depth, and there's not many colors darker than black. Also because I ink my pictures using black ink, which complicates it just a touch). <br /><br />** My mom, and a few people that I know, makes a distinction between "good" black people and "bad" black people. It's a distinction that, growing up, I never understood. I point it out every time it gets brought up: If they're lazy good for nothings, why not just call them lazy good for nothings, since that's what we call whites who are like that (and don't get me started on passing judgement on people like that; until you understand their circumstances, you cannot morally make these judgement calls about people), instead of calling them niggers? And guess what? They don't have an answer, and it's because they don't know why, other than it being blind habit. <br /><br />Maybe I'm the reverse. Rather than blaming the poor black people for the collapse of my neighborhood, and the collapse of my city, I'm more apt to blame the rich white people, since they're the ones with the money, the power, and the capability to come in and help us fix it - but they actively chose not to, and instead, continue to exploit poor people, black, white, Asian, Native, and any other group. Somehow, I feel the reverse is less acceptable socially, even though it's definitely the more moral of the two. And it's definitely not, like I heard some brain-dead libertarian tell me, "economic discrimination" because they have more money. Nobody chose to be black. You chose to be rich. You have all of the responsibility that comes along with it; the first thing Spiderman teaches is us that with great power comes great responsibility; money is power in this society. You don't want that responsibility? Give up the power, and the money with it. Stop being rich. It's a lot easier to stop being rich than it is to stop being black. </div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2862170131521435894.post-16181673603476188722012-11-10T16:26:00.001-08:002012-11-10T16:51:57.480-08:00The Age of the Post Hero<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Before I go anywhere here, let me explain where I've been.<br />
<br />
Near the end of last month, we had a scare with my dad. He hurt himself pretty badly (a TBI, or traumatic brain injury for those who don't speak medicine), and had to be rushed off to the hospital. He spent the rest of the month there, and after a few scares, made a recovery and now he's home. So there's that to be thankful for. <br />
<br />
That said, I do plan to start blogging more - I've sort of let this place hang, and haven't been doing anything with it even before the injury. Part of this is because I'm working on not one but <i>three</i> separate novels right now. <br />
<br />
- <i>The Blue Pimpernel: Liquidity, </i>the second Blue Pimpernel book. I've still got the release date set for sometime early next year, but I'm not going to release it before it's ready. I'm making pretty good progress, though; one of the hardest parts of writing a sequel is trying to keep with the feel of the original novel. The Blue Pimpernel had a very distinctive feel to it; the first part of the book was laced with a pervading sense helplessness and despair; the second half of the book was underscored by a very strong sense of hope. I'm trying to balance those two feelings, and it can be rather difficult at times and requires fine tuning. The third book, <i>Entropy</i>, has been outlined already and is just waiting for me to finish <i>Liquidity</i>. ~14,000 words in the most recent draft (the finished book is over 90,000 words). This novel calved off of <i>Entropy</i>; <i>Entropy</i> actually has a finished draft, but that draft was over 300,000 words, which was twice what the first novel was and unacceptably long. So I split the beginning off and <i>Liquidity</i> developed from that. The benefit of this is that <i>Liquidity</i> ... ahem... flows well into <i>Entropy</i>.<br />
<br />
<i>- Terra Firma, </i>my first and thus far my only long going transhuman novel. And by transhuman, I mean "utterly and uncompromisingly embraces the future." I've taught myself French for this novel (granted, I taught myself French so Aya could speak it too. In fact, French appears a lot in most of my works: I grew up watching Sesame Street broadcasts in <i>Quebecois</i>, and I could speak conversational French Quebecois by the time I was entering Elementary School. American schools being what they are, I never spoke another foreign language again until High School, and by that time, my command of French had atrophied. Not helping was that the language I chose was German, a language unlike French in a lot of ways, so I didn't really come back to French with intention of using it until.. less than 4 years ago.) <i> </i> <i>Terra Firma</i> is set on Voyageur, an aerostat in the Venusian atmosphere. Voyageur is a cross-section of the Francophone world, featuring a relatively large cast of Indians (the main character is a Tamil woman), Africans (one of the secondary characters is an Somali pseudo-male), Southeast Asians and some Polynesians, influenced strongly by French culture. I'll have more on <i>Terra Firma</i> as the novel progresses from its early stages, but I'll say this: the novel embodies every single philosophic point I count as a virtue - it's uncompromisingly pro-democracy, pro-post-scarcity, pro-transhumanism and technoprogressive, and the driving conflict of the story is whether or not to terraform Venus and make it into a new Earth, and the conflict it generates between the different factions, along with the underhanded political dealings. This novel was as heavily influenced by <i>Orion's Arm</i> and GURPS <i>Transhuman Space</i> as it was by <i>Eclipse Phase</i> (perhaps it was influenced more by the previous two than by the latter, since Eclipse Phase is very dark, and this novel can only be described as much preppy post-cyberpunk as it is preppy post-human). ~47,000 words as of the first pre-draft. <i>Outlander</i> eventually evolved into this book. <br />
<br />
- <i>White Rabbit, Black Swan, </i>the bastard child of Enlightened satire and popular culture, this particular novel is where I go when I get really mad at something. It's plot is relatively simple and straight froward; this simple and strong plot allows be built a lot of satire around it, and cram it full of references to everything from <i>Alice in Wonderland</i> and <i>Gulliver's Travels</i> (to major influences) to <i>Cosmos </i>and even <i>The Flintstones. </i>Some topics that I satirize/mercilessly make fun of include the prosperity gospel, Rapture theology, Randian theology, the current "politics of popularity", and anti-vaccination and other air-head leftist anti-science ideologies. Think <i>Alice in Wonderland</i> + <i>Gulliver's Travels</i> + <i>Rifts </i>+ political pop culture<i> </i>and you're getting close. ~29,000 words as of the rough draft. I don't have a clear source for where this book came from, but it's been relatively consistent in every draft since I first started it some 4 years ago. <br />
<br />
So, now you know where I am and what I've been up too, what I've been up too, and what works I'm involved in at the moment. I plan to do more blogging in the future, though, so don't fear! <br />
<br />
Now, onto my observations for the day.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
I have a long standing feud with fantasy, because I view fantasy as regressive. Granted, I view a lot of modern science fiction as regressive, too, but because I'm involved in RPGs more often than not, and those tend to lead heavily fantasy, I've noticed a large number of tropes that seem to align with Romanticism and anti-Intellectualism in fantasy; I made a comment on the Book of Faces the other day about how, since Elves never seem to progress despite having a long life, they must be against progression. I have since taken to referring to them as the race of the TEA Party.<br />
<br />
Really, though, quite a bit of modern Speculative Fiction seems to channel these regressive notions; the idea that what's happened in the past is somehow better than what's happening in the future, and as a result, we should somehow strive for the future. Frankly, this is bullshit. I don't find this fun at all. I don't find this engaging, and ultimately, I find it destructive socially. You might claim it's just a game. You might say it's just a television show, but our entertainment says a lot about who we are and it reflects our societal values, in addition to helping crystallize them. There's a reason one of the tenants of Dominionism is to gain control over the media. The media is a powerful force in influencing how people think and approach things. If you're innudated, constantly, with the fashionable cynicism that democracy doesn't work, and that all the solutions to our problems are in the past, then people will begin looking that way. I have an example for you: one of the more popular shows at the height of the Space Race, that got us to the moon, was <i>Star Trek</i>, a show that showed the future in space as something bright and promising; a show that displayed the future, while flawed, as something we should want to achieve. Escape from our world into a world better than ours, where everyone is equal, where rationality and science (or, rather, technobabble) will save the day. <br />
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What's the most popular show now?<br />
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Escapism through celebrities, who we build up and then tear down with relish. Reality TV. Video games that show a future embroiled in countless conflicts and wars, dignifying the American Fetishization of Conflict and the Military. The Government is Lying (never mind <i>you</i> are supposed to be the government, you damn fool), aliens exist and they're hostile and want to blow up our planet. There's no future worth having; the best selling books are dystopic hellholes worse than <i>The Blue Pimpernel</i>, or misogynistic garbage like <i>Twilight </i>and<i> 50 Shades</i>, which preach values from an era that we were better off leaving behind us. Movies portray superhero-style action heroes who run around shooting stuff up, mindless action; "the police can't be trusted here, so let's roll with this ourselves." <br />
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Okay, sure. It's laced with fashionable cynicism and repulsive romanticism. It's underscored by destructive post-modernism, which seeks to apply Deconstructivism to the fabric of reality (Hey, go deconstruct gravity and jump off a building, if you think objective reality is fake). You don't find shows like <i>Star Trek</i> anymore, which show what the glory the future holds, and the problems that we might face and how we might overcome them. No, we get shit like <i>Star Wars</i>, set in a galaxy "a long, long time ago", like a goddamn fairy tale, replete with fairy tale-esque morality that has no bearing at all on the complicated nature of the modern world. We get superheroes like <i>Batman</i>, who get pitted against Strawman anarchists like Bane and uphold the current status quo as it is; a transparent reactionary fantasy, like <i>Bewitched</i>. Who solve all of their problems by running around and beating up criminals, instead of attacking the real problems with society and engaging the real issues that our society faces. <br />
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The job of fiction is to engage the modern world, not run from it. But that's what's happening. Fiction is scared to engage the modern world. It's not "fun", or it's too "political." Everything is political, in the sense that everything can take on political hues. It's not necessarily fun, that's true, but different people have different definitions of fun, and they're not necessarily the same thing. I've vented before about how "fun" to me involves engaging my mind and teaching me new things, because to do otherwise is to treat me like a moron. <br />
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This is why I refuse to take most video games seriously. There are some video games that make an noble attempt - <i>BioShock</i> springs to mind immediately, as how it takes a critical look at a philosophical and political movement and displays the problems of going to the extremes of anything, a message that the TEA Party would do well to learn from. Fiction should engage with society, it should highlight our problems, and it should engage in frank discuss with us - Fiction is in an unique position in our society to do just that, since Fiction is just removed enough from reality to explore these things, without actually having to sacrifice anyone other than pixels on a screen or ink on a page.<br />
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Fiction, above all else, needs to <i>transgress</i>.<br />
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Fiction hasn't been doing that. Fiction has been more interested in the past that never existed. It's been more interested in these worlds that are removed from our own, rather than engaging in our own. It's more interested in Empires and Kings, in great Heroes who save everyone at the end of the day rather than letting those peasants figure out how to solve their own problem. <br />
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What does that sound like to you? If you answered "the modern Republican Party," you get a cookie. And the reason why is because fiction has been contaminated by a virulent strain of romanticism. Theirs is a paradise of regret. A paradise formed of how the future scares them, so they turn back and revise what the past was like, to match what they want it to be to fit their narrative of what they <i>feel</i> the world should look like. That <i>feel</i> is important, since <i>feeling</i> something does not make it right, but the belief that <i>feeling</i> something makes it right is certainly Romanticism in action. <br />
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Even steampunk, a genre that I'm rather fond of for all it's promise and optimism and spirit of progress in technology, is still about a past that
never existed, and is still infected with a strain of romanticism, albeit a more tamped down one. There doesn't need to be emperors. There doesn't need to
be kings. The world is too complicated for them. The world is too
complicated for any one person; leave your Randian fantasies at the
door, since it's too complicated for John Galt to handle on his
lonesome. I'd argue that our world is even too complicated for the concept of a God, since a God is little more than just another hero who's going to come along and save us all (providing science doesn't get there first) from our ultimate fate - death. <br />
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George W. Bush displayed a very <i>Star Wars</i>-like morality when he stood before the world and declared an "Axis of Evil." This Black and White view of the world was routinely mocked still is. We don't need that. Our world is more complicated than "This evil dictator of Ruritania is Pinochet Caligua Nero Pol Pot Hitler, he eats babies, sacrifices kittens, sodomizes puppies and requires his ass getting kicked, now go do it, grand Hero of Justice!" That <i>Star Wars</i> style of morality - the Empire is evil because they wear black, red, and white - has no place in our modern world. It's too complex. And because the job of fiction is to engage, that "morality" has no place outside of children's fiction. Even then you'd have to make a damn fine argument as to why it should be there, when clearly it's not what they're going to encounter later in life. This morality lays out unrealistic expectations, which, when they inevitably comes to pass, breeds a sort of fashionable cynicism and total rejection of the modern world. Then these people get into power and cynically manipulate those fools who haven't been hit with the reality stick, and we wonder why society is as fucked up as it is. Even the cynics who don't manipulate others feel a sort of self-righteous smugness: "Look at you. You honestly think you can change it? One of them is just as bad as the other and everyone is interested in only what helps themselves." Which, of course, is wrong. If given the opportunity, people <i>will</i> help one another, and they <i>will</i> work together - we're social animals. This is a given.<br />
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So here's a question: Why doesn't more fiction display this? Why doesn't more fiction show people working together, instead of reinforcing the detrimental notion that people (as a group) are stupid, panicky animals? It's easy to cherry-pick examples of the former. I point you to 9/11 as an example of how wrong that is. I point you to all of the people who work in homeless shelters, people who retain their cool during disasters and help work with communities to reestablish themselves. Not <i>Persons</i>. <i>People</i>. Where is <i>this</i> is modern fiction? Why is all we get is this cynical notion of people as stupid animals interested only in themselves, when clearly it's only true for a small population of people - those cynical enough to use the attitude manipulate other cynics? <br />
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Fiction should <i>transgress</i>. <br />
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So you know what it should be time for fiction to transgress from, and leave behind?<br />
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The entire concept of a Hero.<br />
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The Hero serves no place in our modern, democratic society. We are all responsible for our own fates, we are all responsible for our neighbors, just as we're responsible for ourselves. The Hero is responsible for this cynicism; it's responsible for this notion that people are dumb and panicky and stupid and need to be herded by great rulers and kings, since obviously we're so stupid we can't lead ourselves. <br />
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I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Our society is <i>far</i> too complicated for a single person to come in and remove all of the problems. It's time to leave the notion of the heroes in the past. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., a hero if there ever was one, had a clear enemy he was facing. It was a clear problem in society; they wore white sheets, they galloped on horses, and they cynically manipulated people into believing that attacking blacks was in their best interest. They were in power in Alabama and Georgia and Mississippi; they were the authority. They were unjust. They were a clear problem. <br />
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He did a great thing. But he left the job undone (not his fault; there was that assassination thing, you know), and as a result, the problem has become far more diffuse. Racism, while still very much an issue in society, exists on multiple layers and is too much for one hero to come along and try to fix. Poverty is too diffuse; there are too many problems for one person to try and fix it all. Our political situation is far too complicated for one person to attempt to correct it. To have a hero, you need to have a very clear villain. You need to have a very clear problem. <br />
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We've left behind the era of very clear villains and very clear problems. We've left behind the era where we could unambiguously say that someone was evil. I'd argue we never lived in that era to begin with. It's the regret and longing for this simpler time that drives the myth of the Hero. <i>We</i> don't want to have to be responsible. <i>We</i> would rather someone else come along and take control. That's what the Hero does. The Hero arrives, he saves the day, and then rides off for the next time. He slays the dragon. He attacks the evil empire, and then hands the keys over to the good king, providing he doesn't just become the king himself, where he can continue to save us from ourselves. <br />
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I don't <i>want</i> someone like that, and you shouldn't either. The very <i>concept</i> of an Epic Hero is anti-democratic and anti-American. America, the United States, is a country <i>Of</i> the people,<i> By</i> the people, <i>For</i> the people. Not Heroes. People. Us. the Hero as we recognize them - the Fantasy or Space Opera hero like Luke Skywalker - is fundamentally anti-Democratic. Introduce as many flaws as you want. Deconstruct the hero as much as you want. It does not change the fact that the very existence of a hero degrades morality to the point where it's black and white, it does not make the hero anymore friendly towards democracy, it does not make the hero anymore progressive or liberal. The very notion of a hero - especially an Epic Hero - is a regressive and conservative one. Liberalism and Progressivism has no room, since we're busy dealing with our own problems rather than waiting for someone to come and fix them for us. We <i>are</i> struggling to together.<br />
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For this purpose, I define hero as a distinctive entity from the protagonist. Simply being the center character to drama does not make you a hero. I don't define it as someone like Arthur Dent, either. No, Hero as I use it is someone like Luke Skywalker - an almost Greco-Roman like hero, like something from an Ancient Greek Drama, who makes sweeping decisions and arrives right at the nick of the time to save the day, and the people love them for it. They become worshiped. They become part of the Cult of the Hero.<br />
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These great heroes have simplistic moralities, their narratives often present them as utterly right, and their society loves them for it. <br />
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Our society does not need that simplistic morality. I've said it about eight times now, and I'll say it again: It's too complicated. There's too much else there; there too many conflicting viewpoints, and only a handful of them you can look at and say "yep, that's unambiguously harmful and wrong." There's no room for a white hate to come in and save us all from the others that might be wrong, but make some good points along the way. There's no need for a hero take their sword and cut through the Gordian Knot of Bureaucracy. That does far more harm than good.<br />
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But what about escapism? <br />
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You'll convince me escapism is a valuable thing when the entire society hasn't lost itself in it, and refuses to solve actual problems rather than running with their tails tucked between their legs back into their fantasy world. When people rejoin those of us who are willing to solve problems, see that Myth of the Hero as something that no longer belongs in the modern world, then, possibly, you can convince me that escapism is constructive. When fiction starts to pay attention to the fact that the hero is a myth no longer needed in the modern world, and isn't nothing but one stream of "escapist fantasy" after another, then I'll go back to seeing escapism as something valid. We abuse escapism like a goddamn drug. It's time to go off of it for a while, until we learn how to use it more productively. When it's not gotten to the point where it's threatening the stability of our democracy, because the entire society has lost itself in this toxic escapism, waiting for a hero to come and remove our collective heads from our asses so we can see it's just us, and us alone, to solve these problems. <br />
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I'm a student of literary criticism, which is what you're seeing here. One of the may schools I'm familiar with is Marxist criticisms, and when you apply the thought of Marxist criticism to the very idea of a hero, and blend in a little deconstruction, you can see what the hero truly is: a tool that the upper class has used to reinforce expected behavior. <br />
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1. <i>Primitive Communism: </i>Tribal communism, through cooperative primitive societies. At this age, the hero is a god or a demigod; a figure of myth that the village elders tell to their children, to instill morals that are worthwhile for their society to continue functioning, or pass on warnings. These are fable heroes and folk heroes; they are often times not even human, and are not concerned with power structure or are concerned with upsetting the power structure for their own gains (this often times leads to a warning about respecting existing structures put in place by the gods - see just about every trickster ever, but Prometheus especially).<br />
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2. <i>Slave State:</i> The tribe progresses to a more cosmopolitan setting and becomes the city-state. The aristocracy and upper classes are born at this time. At this age, the hero becomes the Homeric hero of myth; descendents of the gods and demigods, they still serve as a warning or example to the society, but they have absolute authority either way, except at those cases when they're at the mercy of their gods. The lower classes are reduced to Homeric spear carriers and pawns to be slaughtered at will given what the hero wishes; This is the morality of <i>Star Wars</i>. The only reason we don't see this is because it's clones and robots, rather than people; it's faceless black soldiers, dehumanized and associated with a singular entity universally considered evil by the narrative and ham-fistedly shown to be so. <br />
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3. <i>Feudalism: </i>The aristocracy becomes the ruling class, social order progresses and becomes more complex with a lot of interlocking wheels. There exists a class of merchants who will eventually evolve into the capitalists (why I maintain that modern capitalism is the bastard child of 17th century Mercantilism and 18th century Imperialism). The hero in this age is often an aristocrat, or a king, or some mix of the two. Rarely you end up with someone like Robin Hood, who is neither and is transgressive, but even Robin Hood acknowledges he only does it not because Monarchy is wrong, or because Feudalism is wrong, but because the current king and sheriff are evil for abusing their people. A good king does not abuse his people. Because they're not a good king or sheriff, they need to be replaced with a good king and sheriff. The heroes reinforce the notion that this is the natural order, with the aristocracy holding power and the lower people living for no greater purpose than to serve the aristocracies, who they are raised to view as heroes.<br />
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4. <i>Capitalism: </i>Capitalists rule this age. They create and employ the proletariat, which are often times treated as no better than the serfs in feudalism. The transition in this era is to the new money, and the new social order. The Hero of capitalism takes a couple of different forms, but regardless who it is, the hero is usually either a great capitalist who uses his capitalism for "the benefit of the people", someone who defends capitalism, or the embodiment the heroes of the earlier era, updated to match the new society. Important is that the hero of the capitalist era never question the good of capitalism; it might question how capitalism is being conducted and question whether or not <i>business as usual</i> is useful, but they will <i>never</i> question the utility of capitalism. As with feudalism before it, capitalism becomes the new social order that heroes uphold and respect. <br />
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5. <i>Socialism:</i> Worker consciousness expands, people and the proletariat begin to realize their own strength. The hero here is a hero who stands up against the social order. They are in the last stages of their life, and they take on a transgressive nature; questioning what the social order stands for. However, ultimately, the hero of this era ends up pining for a simpler time in the past, because the problems of the society where the proletariat begin to awaken and exert their own influence and power is one that a demigod with the strength of 400 mortals cannot solve. This marks the beginning of the end for the concept of the Hero, since the proletariat no longer need a hero. They begin to view themselves as responsible - as shown by their revolutions, and the eventual proletariat state that gets set up. Heroes begin to impede, rather than fix, and they begin to hurt rather than help. Their very existence begins to destroy that which they try to fix, in true deconstructionist fashion, since what they're trying to fix/uphold is too sensitive and too complicated for the simple morality at which a hero operates off of. <br />
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6. <i>Communism:</i> A classless, moneyless society that socialism will transition into in short order. Just as it's left behind the old shackles of class and money, so too has it left behind the concept of hero. Because everyone is working to make the world a better place, you have no need for a hero in society. Everyone becomes the hero, and when everyone is the hero, nobody is. A world without a hero means that all bear responsibility, and that nobody sits around waiting to be saved. There is no class, there is no existing social order to enforce. While I doubt a true classless society can be achieved, I do believe that it's possible to get really, really close, and when we reach that point, we'll have reached the point where we no longer need heroes. <br />
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While different countries differ, the United States is about a 4.5 or 5 on this scale. We're at the point now where heroes just get in the way of social justice, and serve no purpose due to the nature of the problems they're often pitted against. While 6 is likely impossible, I'm sure that by around 5.75, we'll have hit the point where it becomes apparent we no longer need a hero. Such a hero will just get in the way of social progress, since the whole purpose of the hero up to this point has been protecting social order, rather than upsetting it. <br />
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And when progress and improvement of the human condition rely upon upsetting the social order and undermining existing structures to spread knowledge and give people their own power, and heroes exist for no other purpose than to reinforce the notion of the aristocracy in power, you have to ask: who is <i>really</i> the hero here? <i>Is</i> there a hero? Can there ever <i>be</i> a hero?<br />
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Asking that question, in this light, you see that only is time to abandon the hero but you also see the truth. You see that the aristocracy has used it as a device to control people since they were born. Before then, it was used as a device to stop social progress and to tell tales to threaten people about the dangers of violating social order. And what it ultimately boils down to is this:<br />
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That the hero has never existed to us non-aristocrats at all. <br /><br /><br /><br />--------------------------<br /><br />This is a post-script thought: There have been socially progressive heroes, but they're incredibly rare. the only hero I can think of is Golden Age Superman, who punished the upper class and stood up for the lower class. So the above statement about the hero having never existed for us isn't exactly true, but it's certainly true for most of fiction. But even then, in our society, Golden Age Superman could not solve all of the problems. So Superman is one of those heroes who appears at the beginning of Stage 5 and starts to question the existing social order - he was like that for a while, anyway. Then he hit the superpower lottery and like most people who got suddenly powerful, left us well behind.<br /><br />I've applied this deconstruction to the Blue Pimpernel and it produces interesting results. Renee was never a classic hero to begin with, and while Renee's morality is black and white, the narrative's morality isn't (remember: Johnson is a member of the Party, too, and Johnson isn't a bad guy). The Party has good and bad to it, and while it's clear that the Party is an impediment and needs to be destroyed for society to progress, the Party is a solid problem. Its a clear problem, like horsemen in white sheets. The fact that the Party exists as a visible entity, rather than a diffuse one, is what allows her to exist as a "hero". Added to this the fact that she doesn't act on her own, is at the mercy of an FBI agent who only allows her too operate because her existence is useful for scaring, not arresting, the corrupt that have gamed the system (thereby forcing them into doing stupid stuff that they <i>can</i> get arrested for), and use manipulative cynicism to create a dystopic self-fulfilling prophecy, and you see Renee and her friends as atypical superheroes. Renee and her friends are what you get when you deconstruction to hero to the point that it has no choice but to loop back around into a reconstruction. </div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2862170131521435894.post-58764828377561146252012-10-30T16:11:00.001-07:002012-10-30T16:11:27.939-07:00More Christian Evil; Why Religion is Child Abuse Reason #1,340,230,000<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: left;">
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.tampabay.com/news/publicsafety/religious-exemption-at-some-florida-childrens-homes-shields-prying-eyes/1258390" target="_blank">State authorities have responded to at least 165 allegations of abuse and neglect in the past decade, but homes have remained open even after the state found evidence of sex abuse and physical injury</a>.
<br /></li>
<li>The religious exemption has for decades allowed homes to avoid state
restrictions on corporal punishment. Homes have pinned children to the
ground for hours, confined them in seclusion for days, made them stand
until they wet themselves and exercised them until they vomited.
<br /></li>
<li>Children have been bruised, bloodied and choked to unconsciousness in
the name of Christian discipline. A few barely escaped with their lives.
In addition, in two settled lawsuits, a mother said her son was forced
to hike on broken feet; a father said his son was handcuffed, bound at
the feet, locked away for three days and struck by other boys at the
instruction of the home.
<br /></li>
<li> Adults have ordered children to participate in the punishment,
requiring them to act as jailers, to bully troublemakers or to chase,
tackle and sit on their peers.<br /></li>
<li>Teens have been denounced as sinners, called "faggots" and "whores,"
and humiliated in front of their peers for menstrual stains and
suspicions of masturbation.
<br /></li>
<li>
Parents share the blame. Some sign away their children for a year or
more without first visiting a home or checking credentials. But state
officials bear some responsibility because they have not warned the
public about programs they believe are abusive.
<br /></li>
<li>
Florida taxpayers have supported some unlicensed homes with hundreds
of thousands of dollars in McKay scholarships — a government program to
help special needs students pay tuition at private schools.</li>
</ul>
</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<i>Smaller government; YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK! Christan Love! Can you feel it, or do we have to HIT YOU <b>HARDER</b>?</i> <b>Fucking monsters, every last one. </b><br /></div>
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