The American Revolution was possible because we were an isolated and well-organized colony with vast natural resources, and we didn't have to destroy the terrible taxing Empire, just separate ourselves from it. We also had foreign help that wanted to bring down the government we were revolting against. To what foreign countries today might American freedomists turn for help to bring down Washington? Which of those do you want to see become more powerful than we are?
The French "people's" Revolution resulted in Napoleon. Russian "people's" Revolution resulted in Stalin. Chinese "people's" Revolution resulted in Mao. Spain's failed and they got Vichy. Germany did it with an internal Uber-Party coup... and got Hitler.
Looks to me like a new US Revolution would result in not an affluent Libertarian community, but rule by militant religious fanatics under a real take-charge authoritarian Ordained Leader who would brook no dissent from liberals, perverts, perps or suspects, protesters complaining about their rights or rations, or the Godless... no? Tell me, after we have guillotined Pelosi and torched the Tar Baby on a cross in his front yard, then what? Will we all become Deputies, open a gas station or a Bible school, and buy new cars? And what about Aunt Bea's apple pie? Is that to kill for, or what?
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
Sunday, August 7, 2011
Is The Internet Divine Vision?
“The computer is a mirror in which I can see through the eyes of Thoth.”
Alex St. Luc, Enosar Emeritus
The Scribes Of Osiris
We take it for granted already. To know everything, anything, anywhere, now. That was only for God to know. There was a time only a few years ago in my own lifetime when most of the information in the world was printed on paper and available in catalogued libraries. That might sound like a terrible restriction today, but in its time it was a revolution. Before Gutenberg, there were few books, and only a few had access to read them. Most of what everyone knew of the world, they had only heard. After Gutenberg, all of the established institutions began to change as larger numbers of people knew more and more about the world. The changes were not predictable at the time. It was only after a generation had grown up with that information that they developed not just new ways of doing things, but new ways of organizing themselves and relating to each other.
If the invention of writing is the First Literary Revolution, and the Printing Press the Second, then the Third Literary Revolution is the Internet, the great commonly-shared data cloud of access to all of the information in the world, instantly. I can “invoke” the content of every book in thousands of libraries, in every language, and thousands of films, and daily newspapers across the world. I have access to cameras, maps, and even pictures from outer space, anywhere on earth, right now. All the information anyone knows, or has ever known, is now available instantly, to everyone, anywhere. Only a few years ago, such access to knowledge could only belong to God. Only Thoth, the Ibis-headed scribe who represents the Egyptian “intellect of God” could know all things at all times. Now we all have that. We are become as Gods. Though some of our science fiction writers have been exploring the idea for a century or so, this is going to change the nature of being human in ways we cannot yet predict.
The generations of people raised on the Internet and its Siamese-cousin the TV, living in that omnipresent data cloud (it knows who we are and where), and all connected to each other by social networks of varying exclusivity, will not think and feel much like the more individualized lives we live today. The Latterday-19th Century Teaparty type still trying to remember the Alamo for Jesus on election day would look to those people like a blind old fool who wandered in from the desert, and has never even seen an encephalo-metagram projection. “He wants to disband the Terran Sodality and the National Consensus and let everybody vote for two guys who will make all the rules… and they get to decide how much we pay them! Haw haw haw! When did you find your way out of the cave, Gramps?”
James Nathan Post
The Scribes Of Osiris
“The computer is a mirror in which I can see through the eyes of Thoth.”
Alex St. Luc, Enosar Emeritus
The Scribes Of Osiris
We take it for granted already. To know everything, anything, anywhere, now. That was only for God to know. There was a time only a few years ago in my own lifetime when most of the information in the world was printed on paper and available in catalogued libraries. That might sound like a terrible restriction today, but in its time it was a revolution. Before Gutenberg, there were few books, and only a few had access to read them. Most of what everyone knew of the world, they had only heard. After Gutenberg, all of the established institutions began to change as larger numbers of people knew more and more about the world. The changes were not predictable at the time. It was only after a generation had grown up with that information that they developed not just new ways of doing things, but new ways of organizing themselves and relating to each other.
If the invention of writing is the First Literary Revolution, and the Printing Press the Second, then the Third Literary Revolution is the Internet, the great commonly-shared data cloud of access to all of the information in the world, instantly. I can “invoke” the content of every book in thousands of libraries, in every language, and thousands of films, and daily newspapers across the world. I have access to cameras, maps, and even pictures from outer space, anywhere on earth, right now. All the information anyone knows, or has ever known, is now available instantly, to everyone, anywhere. Only a few years ago, such access to knowledge could only belong to God. Only Thoth, the Ibis-headed scribe who represents the Egyptian “intellect of God” could know all things at all times. Now we all have that. We are become as Gods. Though some of our science fiction writers have been exploring the idea for a century or so, this is going to change the nature of being human in ways we cannot yet predict.
The generations of people raised on the Internet and its Siamese-cousin the TV, living in that omnipresent data cloud (it knows who we are and where), and all connected to each other by social networks of varying exclusivity, will not think and feel much like the more individualized lives we live today. The Latterday-19th Century Teaparty type still trying to remember the Alamo for Jesus on election day would look to those people like a blind old fool who wandered in from the desert, and has never even seen an encephalo-metagram projection. “He wants to disband the Terran Sodality and the National Consensus and let everybody vote for two guys who will make all the rules… and they get to decide how much we pay them! Haw haw haw! When did you find your way out of the cave, Gramps?”
James Nathan Post
The Scribes Of Osiris
Wikileaks And Anonymous
Can Speaking The Truth Be Blasphemy?
When I see the Wikileaks guy being chased across the planet with the Agents all pointing at his penis, and not a word about the truth of what he revealed, and the Anonymous "1000 Points Of Leak" participants being called cyber-terrorists and traitors, I am reminded of that iconic scene in The Wizard Of Oz. There pulling the levers behind the curtain and putting words into the mouth of the Great and Powerful stands a guy wearing an expensive suit and an Uncle Sam hat. While Dorothy and her trio of stooges stand gaping, he calls for his loyal guards. "This dirty little dog is trying to tarnish the reputation of The Great OZ," he informs them. "Take it out and kill it."
When I see the Wikileaks guy being chased across the planet with the Agents all pointing at his penis, and not a word about the truth of what he revealed, and the Anonymous "1000 Points Of Leak" participants being called cyber-terrorists and traitors, I am reminded of that iconic scene in The Wizard Of Oz. There pulling the levers behind the curtain and putting words into the mouth of the Great and Powerful stands a guy wearing an expensive suit and an Uncle Sam hat. While Dorothy and her trio of stooges stand gaping, he calls for his loyal guards. "This dirty little dog is trying to tarnish the reputation of The Great OZ," he informs them. "Take it out and kill it."
Saturday, August 6, 2011
AFGHANISTAN UPDATE
"Insurgent" used to mean somebody from outside a country who comes in to organize arms against the legitimate government. "Partisan" used to mean civilians in a country who organize arms against an occupying foreign-empowered regime. "Red State" used to mean Communism, where everybody gets a job, a government check, and health care. Today, insurgent means anyone who stands up against America's guns, God, and credit cards. Partisan is a dirty word freeloading liberals call loyal Republicans, and folks in Red states vote to kick the sick old beggars and demand to see their papers. Ever read Orwell? "He who writes the dictionary defines the truth."
The people of Afghanistan are in the same position as political Independents in America who say voting for a GOP or DEM candidate is picking “the lesser of two evils” – or the new con deciding which cellmate to let fuck him to protect him from the other (even knowing he’s going to get fucked by both). The Afghan must choose between the mad executioners of the puritan authoritarian Islamic Taliban or the ultimate-armed robots and evangelists of the Christian American equivalent. Both are clearly evil by any reasonable standard. Those who try to do something to help themselves -- Allah beheads, and Jesus bombs from heaven.
Unfortunately, the war in Afghanistan is not about them at all. Without a war, our economy would collapse. Troops are cheap, and sending even a few thousand of them, withdrawing them, honoring them, and burying them are politically visible actions, but if we ever quit sending the bombers burning 40,000 gallons of fuel every mission, and the USAF quit buying all that gas, EXXON would go broke! Likewise, if we quit bombing the opium and hashish fields to protect the US big pharmo corporations from superior third-world agricultural produce’s competition... our so-called health care industry would go broke! If we quit sending our civilian armed security troops, and quit paying our Afghan regime to hire them, we would have 30,000 unemployed perp-shooting Jesus-fanatic killer-cops-for-hire looking for work back in the inner city hoods of home. If we quit making war on the reed fields of Araby (like Caligula)... our economy would go down like a pom-pom boy in the shower.
Much as he might like to, The President cannot get us out of that war, at least not without starting another. You know the scene: the men in black suits take Barack Obama into the underground projection room, and they show him The Film. He turns white (gulp!), and quickly comes to a specuguine conclusion… “I ‘spec you gwine do what you has to… Mr. President.” ("Ya shoulda seen the last boy was in here... heehee, ol Dub like to shat his shorts!")
The people of Afghanistan are in the same position as political Independents in America who say voting for a GOP or DEM candidate is picking “the lesser of two evils” – or the new con deciding which cellmate to let fuck him to protect him from the other (even knowing he’s going to get fucked by both). The Afghan must choose between the mad executioners of the puritan authoritarian Islamic Taliban or the ultimate-armed robots and evangelists of the Christian American equivalent. Both are clearly evil by any reasonable standard. Those who try to do something to help themselves -- Allah beheads, and Jesus bombs from heaven.
Unfortunately, the war in Afghanistan is not about them at all. Without a war, our economy would collapse. Troops are cheap, and sending even a few thousand of them, withdrawing them, honoring them, and burying them are politically visible actions, but if we ever quit sending the bombers burning 40,000 gallons of fuel every mission, and the USAF quit buying all that gas, EXXON would go broke! Likewise, if we quit bombing the opium and hashish fields to protect the US big pharmo corporations from superior third-world agricultural produce’s competition... our so-called health care industry would go broke! If we quit sending our civilian armed security troops, and quit paying our Afghan regime to hire them, we would have 30,000 unemployed perp-shooting Jesus-fanatic killer-cops-for-hire looking for work back in the inner city hoods of home. If we quit making war on the reed fields of Araby (like Caligula)... our economy would go down like a pom-pom boy in the shower.
Much as he might like to, The President cannot get us out of that war, at least not without starting another. You know the scene: the men in black suits take Barack Obama into the underground projection room, and they show him The Film. He turns white (gulp!), and quickly comes to a specuguine conclusion… “I ‘spec you gwine do what you has to… Mr. President.” ("Ya shoulda seen the last boy was in here... heehee, ol Dub like to shat his shorts!")
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