Repeat The Mistakes Of The Past

In the 1800s inspectors noted: "A somber discontent runs through the ranks of this class. That they long for the return of the past, loath the present, despair of the future, give themselves up to the evil influence of agitators."

You might think that sounds like Trump supporters, but ironically these people wanted to immigrate to America. The philosophies of blame and escape beget the misery they try to evade. As Buckminster Fuller says: "We are called to be architects of the future, not its victims." We must see ourselves as part of society and the adopt a culture of problem solving.

Sheeple

The "religious" seem to prefer certain personalities and leaders. Surely their sacred text could give some clues to who would make a good or bad leader. The following scriptures describe the "anti-Christ"... presumably this is the exact opposite type of character they would choose...right?

"Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God."
- 2Thessalonians 2:3-4

Hmm, a man of sin is revealed, also called the son of ruin, who elevates himself above all that is decent, who sits at the height of power, and believes himself divine?

"The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness."
- 2Thessalonians 2:9-12

A man who has no sense of lawfulness, who promises wonders with wicked lie after lie, whose followers could be saved from him if they sought truth, but seem to be suffering a strong delusion and take delight in being insufferable trolls.

"And he was given a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies, and he was given authority to continue for forty-two months. Then he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme His name, His tabernacle, and those who dwell in heaven. It was granted to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them. And authority was given him over every tribe,[d] tongue, and nation. All who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world."
- Revelation 13:5-8

A man who has "all the best words," and was given authority to rule for 4 years, who when confronted by good people - assaults them, who has control of the largest global imperialist power, whose infamy (and/or tweets) reaches everywhere in the world and in every language, and aggressors seem to worship him. WELL... good thing nobody like that seems to be around, and good thing no religious people would ever back such a character.

The Unheard Einstein

Suggest you have a way to blow up an entire city, we'll listen to every word, praise, and elevate you...but suggest you have a way to create peace, sustainability, liberty, and justice...we bury that.

"I am convinced there is only one way to eliminate these grave evils, namely through the establishment of a socialist economy, accompanied by an educational system which would be oriented toward social goals. In such an economy, the means of production are owned by society itself and are utilized in a planned fashion. A planned economy, which adjusts production to the needs of the community, would distribute the work to be done among all those able to work and would guarantee a livelihood to every man, woman, and child. The education of the individual, in addition to promoting his own innate abilities, would attempt to develop in him a sense of responsibility for his fellow men in place of the glorification of power and success in our present society."
- Albert Einstein

It Sucks Being Psychic

"Is anyone growing worried, at all, that even when the public makes its wishes known that we are fed up with overreach, the government will still go to ANY length to bypass democracy; break international laws, crap on the Constitution, illegally hack private industry, assassinate people without due process, torture people and hold them without charge...honestly, is it going to take Storm Troopers invading your home before you realize we are no longer "the land of the free and the home of the brave?" Every trust violated, every election a dog and pony show, every system replaced with waste and bureaucracy, every value distorted into war and exploitation, when will we realize we are beyond writing letters to our congressman?"
February 9, 2015

"Mark my words, the issue that you will see around Net Neutrality in the coming years won't be bandwidth throttling. It will be the "lawful" use of the Internet. Hold your freedoms close, they're homing in on the last bastion of free flowing ideas."
February 27, 2015

"Venezuela has the largest oil reserves. Their government is being subverted already, I wonder when our government will officially deploy there. I'm waiting for the announcement any day."

March 07, 2015

Pre-Midterms "Red Meat"

Red Meat for the left: Healthcare for everyone and climate action
Red Meat for the right: Hate immigrants and dog whistle to white nationalists

I vote for whatever or whomever is REASONABLE...but I have to say, there is no question where more reasonable people are at this point in history.

Hodgkinson != Sayoc

    If we were a truly enlightened society, we would shed all unnecessary violence and work towards flourishing as a whole. That said, I'm tired of this false equivalence in violence in politics. Cesar Sayoc, now known as the the MAGA-Bomber, is an insane sycophant. Earlier in Trump's Presidency James Hodgkinson shot at conservative congress members...was he wrong to do so, probably...but he had volunteered for campaigns, protested, and followed every non-violent path imaginable before he took to violence...and sorry to say it, but Trump and his accomplices are demonstrably corrupt and unfit, will set us on an irrevocable path towards climate disaster, and endanger our democracy in many ways...so there are definitely empirical and rational reasons to be alarmed and reactive. When you look at the causes Hodgkinson was fighting for and the things he protested, it is clear he is a rational and compassionate person. Sayoc, on the other hand, has a long list of criminal activity, drug abuse, childish delusions, and volatile outbursts. In an ideal world, perhaps all violence is unacceptable... but being humans and in a far from perfect world, violence happens...and when it does, it matters what preceded the violence, it matters WHY they do it, the details matter and not all instances are equal.

How Can Progress Win

    I've been wanting the "left" to be more effective in winning political battles...and how do the politicians decide to try? Not by drafting or passing legislation that will help people, not by removing corruption that can uncripple our system, not by adopting progressive ideals that are extremely popular and winning elections...they decide to throw sexual assault victims under a bus and poison their cause by dragging it into the political sphere to die as a poisoned tribal issue. They've glorified protest...so they can do nothing and put all the responsibility on the public that entrusted THEM to fix things. Why do people have to protest to communicate their will to THEIR "representatives?" Politicians are serving themselves, not the people.
    So what are some solutions... well the most efficient form of governance is a Dictatorship...an order is given and it is carried out. The problem is you often get the wrong Dictator...and you become efficient at regression or malice. Cross that one off the list. Then there are those that will throw out the question: "why don't YOU run?" The political process has been corrupted to be exclusive to elites, it requires time and money that most don't have...it also requires a public bullshitting ability since the system is not focused on solving problems, but 24/7 news cycles and personality worship or assassination. On the other side, everyone expresses worry at what will happen if the people have more power...like a Direct Democracy; everyone says it will be "mob rule"...but at this point what are the elites doing that is better? Our system is a joke, they can't find consensus, they aren't able to protect the planet, our system, or create any meaningful progress...I'm not sure monkeys throwing darts would be any less effective at this point. They aren't even effectively deluding the public...we are getting screwed and we feel it excruciatingly.
    We must get past all this, and focus on solutions...we must get organized...we must improve our understanding of the world, we must learn to grant more "good will" and effectively communicate, we must learn to evaluate and craft arguments, we must all have the humility to be lifelong students and not make everything about ourselves. This is the obvious path forward, do humans have the maturity to follow it?

The Communists Should Have Sought Enlightenment

    My search for improved understanding of economics obviously dragged me across the age-old false dichotomy of Capitalism vs Communism. In this day and age, if you point out the many problems with Capitalism, you are labeled a Communist...which is a sad because it prevents us from having intelligent discussions about economics. That said, I am not a Communist and this is not a comparison or a rant about our economic system, but rather an observation and some funny imaginings.

Note on my economic philosophy:
I think there are a great many people like me that like the ideas of cooperation over competition, intelligent management of resources over Social Darwinism, a healthy balance of ideological ambition with methodological efficiency, and a desire to be sustainable. The best way to describe my ideology is probably a Structuralist form of economic philosophy.

    When I look at the many things communist regimes have done wrong (granted most were just authoritarian regimes that leveraged the populism of "communism") I notice that there is one thing that they did really wrong...and it was CULTURE. They tried to force people to do the right thing, rather than teach them HOW and WHY to do the right thing. Egalitarianism is a beautiful thing to strive for, but you can't force it upon a population who doesn't understand why it is important. It's the same with cooperation, you can't "force" people to cooperate. So we can see why an authoritarian approach didn't work for forming an egalitarian society. Sadly enough, even though we use a very similar authoritarian cultural approach in capitalism (yes your workplace is a dictatorship, tell your boss to "fuck off" and then tell me how you voted yourself out of being fired), it marries well with an economic system that values hierarchy and competition.
    This leads me to another observation, and that is about the culture of Buddhism. The Buddhist tradition has thousands of years of development, and it seems to value the ideas of equality, living frugally, sharing and harmony. This strikes me as fairly compatible with the spirit of communism (the whole "from each according to his ability, to each according to his need" bit), but is prewrapped and ready to be adopted by proponents of that economic system.

Note on my religious background:
I am an Atheist and I do not think religion (i.e. ideological dogma) of any kind is good, but I do think Buddhism is probably one of the more benevolent religions.

So just to tie things up, I just started imagining what would have happened if those two things had met up in a serious way, and think they would have made interesting bed-fellows. I don't suggest either of these things, but if you are already a communist with culturally authoritarian tendencies, perhaps you should start looking into Buddhism.

How to love #MeToo too much

I recently brought up the observation that either victims were coming out about sexual assault disproportionally more frequently during elections or hearings, or at the least the media was making it seem that way. When I suggested that the optics were bad...BAM...I got called names, I got called an enemy of the movement...my intelligence and empathy were put in question, I was accused of blaming the victim.
    I started trying to clarify my position...I told them I believed the victims and I believe every case should be taken seriously, I want them to get all the support and investigations they were owed, and that I am not demanding that they come out only under certain circumstances...just that we not create a culture in which they think they only get support when their accuser is a powerful person is in the public eye. My point was optics are a fact...even for the victims, and they have to weigh and be mindful of those factors. I pointed out that victims are NOT being well-served by coming out at these times, they are thrust into the public eye, with death threats, their families being harassed, etc. And yes, I even suggested that if it continues this way, it could become a political tool that is used with untruthful accusations. I also pointed out that by not allowing anyone to question the motivation...they are actually running cover for those who want to use the victim for political gain. The screaming and insults continued.
    Now at this point, you probably have an opinion of whether you agree or disagree with me.  Now if you are one of those who disagrees with me, and you think I deserved to be screamed at, insulted, and called an enemy...I want you to ask yourself some important questions...are you changing minds...are you creating an atmosphere that is making it easier for people to support victims or are you poisoning it? Are you even making it safer for victims? I'm a completely fallible ape, I'm not trying to pump myself up...but I will say I do activism to protect women and their rights and the policies and candidates I support provide a strong record of this, to the best of my discernment I objectively treat women respectfully in my daily life, I call out misogyny...if I am the enemy...your criteria are bizarre. These experiences have made me not want to touch the topic, I have to chant the mantra "the victims are separate from the SJWs, the victims are separate from the SJWs." I understand people are passionate...but consider that being the loudest and the angriest...does not mean you are the most EFFECTIVE...and may even hurt your cause.