Man, people are great. I complain about people, a lot, but basically I really love people. They're so cool. Really I just hate small talk. If we could get rid of small talk I think I'd be a much more social person.

But anyway, I figured my retreat to Houston here would be like sophomore year, where I basically spent the year more or less in gentle contemplation. It was a pretty good year, all in all. But the point is, I had thought I'd become more and more introverted, because I tend to adapt to whatever situation is at hand.

However!

As time has gone by I've actually become more extroverted if anything. And I really like people. They can be damned stubborn and stupid and mean, but at heart just about everyone is lovable. Which is what it all comes down to, love. You gotta love people, you gotta love yourself, you gotta love everything, because the other side-I don't mean conservatives or anything, I mean 'The Man', I mean everything and everyone that's conspiring to keep the world the same because they're afraid of change-they're afraid. They're afraid of terrorism and they're afraid of The Left and The Right and they're afraid of each other. And the folks in control, they're the most afraid of all, and they channel all their fear down to everyone else that'll listen to them, which is a lot of people, because when people are afraid they look for people with solutions.

The problem ain't being afraid of terrorists, or the democrats, or fascists, the problem is just being afraid, having a general paranoia, because then you don't trust anyone, you don't want to work with anyone, you just want to keep the few people you're not afraid of-the people you love-safe, and safe means happy, because if you're safe you're not afraid, and if you're not afraid you're happy. So they'll do whatever they have to to get happy and it's common knowledge today that money can buy happiness so they'll spend and spend and do whatever they have to to get the money, even if it means ripping off other people and not worrying about anyone out there but yourself.

But the answer to all this isn't to be more afraid, that just reinforces it all. Fear breeds fear. "We have nothing to fear but fear itself" (from a great fearmonger). You can't fear the rich, you can't fear the fascists, you can't fear anyone or anything. You must be fearless. I don't mean macho parading around (they're the most afraid of all), I mean being full of love, not some wussy sanitized love either, but really loving people. Married to everyone.

And this doesn't mean you should paralyze yourself, either, the enemy is still there, and they're still afraid and spreading fear, and we need to stop that. "All of this is not to say we approach soldiers with flowers when they come for our children-nor do we offer corporations our children when they come for our flowers. Sometimes love can only speak through the barrel of a gun". Sometimes love means action. I've pointed out this story before and I'll point it out here: there were Quakers rescuing slaves, and a southern slavecatcher came to them, and one of the Quakers gently leveled his shotgun at the slavecatchers head and said simply, "Friend, thee aren't wanted here". That is what we need: no fear, no enmity, simply the knowledge of what is right and a willingness to act on it.
11:33 PM

Should I dye my hair blue? On the plus side, I really think it would look cool, and I like blue. On the downside, it's so ostentatious. No knee-jerk reactions of 'fuck society, man, do whatever you want' or, for that matter, 'ur just doing it 2 b weird'. If you must have a knee-jerk reaction, let it be 'omg alex u r0x0rz so much'. That's certainly my knee-jerk reaction to, well, me.

Oh, and as a corollary (actually that definition makes me think I'm using the word wrong. damn.), what colour? Dark blue or bright blue? Or for that matter, some other colour altogether? I rather think blue's my colour, but I'd consider, say, black. Or maybe really pale blonde.
2:33 AM

I was against conquering Iraq before the war and I'm against us having done it now. The difference between those is the tense. I still think we oughtn't've done it, but now we're damn well stuck there. Some folks on the left, perhaps driven by rabid anti-Bushism, maybe by misguided populism or just a desire to see the war end badly, have said that we should "bring the troops home". There have, in fact, been a number of rallies to this point, and the protests against "the occupation" are growing. (I actually wrote most of this the other day, and since then there's been protests around the world).

Frankly, what the hell? If we leave the country now it'll be left devestated and the best the folks of Iraq could hope for would be a another Saddamite tyrant, and more probably some sort of fundamentalist theocracy would fill the vacuum. This is the sort of dilemma one becomes an anarchist to avoid, we have to choose the lesser of two evils. And in this case, the US staying in Iraq is a lesser evil than the US leaving Iraq.

Of course, there is injustice here, and as long as we are committed to fighting injustice we have to fight this too. But the answer isn't to have the US recall the troops, it's to help popular non-authoritarian movements arise in Iraq. For instance, in Algeria there's recently been a radical movement called the aarch that operate in neighbourhood assemblies and are non-authoritarian and egalitarian.

So I guess I'll be practical for a bit and say what the US should do. I think they should restore infrastructure and concentrate on education-I really think that the better educated people are, the less likely they are to fall for demagogues. And the less prone a society is to demagoguery, the more democratic it is. And the more democratic, the more stable. And the more stable, the less it needs the US. Sadly, I can't picture a quick withdrawal (which was a great reason for opposing the war). We're pretty much stuck there.

If someone has a good argument against this (from the left; I don't want to hear someone on the right complaining about how much it's costing the taxpayers, etc.), I'd love to hear it.

PS Oh yeah, Ginnie now has a blog, hypothetically about her adventures in the world of legitimate the-ater. Imagine, a blog with a purpose/theme, the first among us.
1:40 AM

As part of my strict regimen of ADD-dealing-with, I'm going to a therapist fellow. Originally I was supposed to go to one lady, but then my Dad called to re-schedule an appointment and her answering machine message ended with "and may God be with you" or some similar message, and my Dad's message quickly became that he didn't think his son would work well there. So the next therapist he called he related this story, and in reply the therapist told us no worries, he's Jewish.

The guy is very much an ex-hippie. Well, much more emphasis on the latter part and much less on the first. He obviously thinks of my dad as some drill sergeant-he kept asking if, with my Dad in the military and all, very organised (and, it was implied, authoritarian), how that clashed with my more liberal personality. For those of you who don't know my Dad, I very much take after him. He is laid-back, rather liberal, etc. Certainly not the authoritarian militaryman made famous in the media.

Anyway, this meeting we had yesterday, which was my first without my Dad, he starts out by asking what I think of spirituality and metaphysics. "Spirituality?", I scoff, then spit on the floor, "I gots none of that". Well, really I said, "no, that's not really my thing, I'm not too into spirituality". What, he asked, about metaphysics? You know, other planes, energy flowing between us, etc.? Don't let anyone tell you this blog isn't high literature, you just saw symbology: the red symbolizes the alarms that were going off in my head. People talking about other planes and flowing energy have a place, but it's not on the giving end of the psychologist, if you get my drift.

So this conversation, despite my best efforts, leads to an experiment. I put my hand out, and he slowly waves his hand towards mine, in order to transfer energy between the two. I tried, I really did, to have an open mind. I checked in with my hand, I talked to the hand, but the hand told me nothing about energy. His disappointment was palpable. 90% of the time people could feel something, even with their eyes closed! Wow. Science may be able to explain gravity, chemistry, astronomy, and 99.9% of the universe, but this particular case must surely be magic.

However! I did not laugh. I was very polite. Really it's no more ridiculous to be transfering energy than to believe that a supernatural deity runs the earth, and at least the New Agers try to get proof, even if it is silly poorly-gotten proof.

However, though hippies may have not been the most advanced spiritually, and they may rely too much on stereotypes (there's The Man, man, and then there's us), but politically, we sure can find common ground. Once we got talking about politics and the difficulty of trying to be socialist in a capitalist country, I knew for sure he'd be my therapist. "See, you can't do your own thing because capitalists don't want that, capitalism's all about running the little guy out of business". Warm fuzzies. And since most of my difficulties are as a result of trying to live socialistically-ie not take too much, value people over things, not help other people hurt other creatures, etc.-it sounds like he'll be able to help. He also told me that his retirement plan was that him and his wife were going to travel around the country, doing odd jobs and the like.

So eventually it ended, a few minutes late since we'd both gotten into it, and I shook his hand and out I went, down to the elevator, where I was joined by a short fat bald man, who said, "It's a tough old world, ain't it?". I sort of made a non-commital "(ye)ah" while I desperately searched my mental database for what sort of social etiquette rule made an exception for short fat bald men, and there was none. This guy was flagrantly disobeying the foundation of all civilized society: you do not talk on the elevator, even* if you are short, fat and bald. I was looking around for some sort of authority I could report him to when he kept going.

"You out of high school yet?", he asked. There was nothing I could do. I was trapped. "Yeah", I said. "What're you doing now?". "I'm talking to a short fat bald man who has no respect for the fabric of our society, who is nihilistically destroying everything good in the world", I didn't reply. Instead I told him I was usually a student at UT, though this semester I was working. "Oh man, that's great," he said, "where are you working at?" "None of your business", I didn't say, instead settling for "oh, I'm gonna be doing some tech support stuff". "fantastic!", he said, "computers and the like?". By this time the elevator had stopped at the bottom. Using my mad pirate skillz I tore the doors asunder. "yeah, bye", I shouted, though by this time I was several miles away. In my haste to get away from this madman I had gone out straight instead of turning right towards my car, so I started to walk that way, when there was the short fat bald man. I quickly turned around, and ended up walking all the way around the building the other way to get to my car without further conversation.

I hate dealing with people.

In other Alex-related news, oh, that reminds me, when I was packing up to leave Illinois, you know what I found? The Alex Newsletter Sign-up Sheet. Ah, fond memories. The first one is coming soon, I swear.

Anyway, if I sent it out today it would say that I called my Uncle-who is hooking up this job shizat-yesterday, and it turns out they've lost my drug-test paperwork. So I get to take the drug test again, yay! Actually I was impressed with myself, apparently I can pee on demand if needed. If only that translated to a career (my umbrella is piss-yellow!).

Hopefully I'll have the job pretty soon. Until then, I remain faithfully yours, the much bored Alex.

*especially

PS please notice the new blogs on the sidebar. Besides Jen-e and Zeunert, also there are El Bob and Tiffany. Or actually I guess she's styling herself Tyffany nowadays, but frankly that's just silly beyond belief. Sorry. But both Bob and Tiffany, despite both having name-related handicaps (Bob stubbornly calls himself "Ryan"), are great people, and I assume their blogs will follow suit.
6:11 PM

Could one of you kind folks who's on a computer (ie, not a Mac) go on Kazaa and download a song or two for me? I tried getting something for the Mac, but if this Mac was champion hot dog eater Takeru Kobayashi and every degree of suck that Macs are was a hot dog, well, Mr Kobayashi would be looking at a new record. So anyway, the songs I want are:

Godspeed You Black Emperor - World police and friendly fire (possibly 'static')
Godspeed You Black Emperor - Monheim
Godspeed You Black Emperor - Broken windows, locks of love pt. III (this and above possibly just 'sleep')
Godspeed You Black Emperor - She dreamt she was a bulldozer, she dreamt she was alone on an empty field

umm...I had a more diverse list in mind when I set out on this request, but now I can't remember. Oh well, I'll just ask some more as they come to me. I guess other songs from GYBE-non-GYBE bands (fly pan am, a silver mt. zion, etc.) would be cool.

Thank you very much. I will reward the faithful with, possibly, cookies. Or maybe with pictures I draw-subject of the faithful's choice- with their name cunningly put in somewhere. Perhaps the faithful will have a special update dedicated to them.
11:46 PM

Ok, let's see if I can't do a post that isn't just me whining.

For some reason, maybe because I constantly discuss political workings, some folks have called this a political blog. But it isn't, really, except now I'm going to highlight some of the biggest things I see happening out there that aren't really being reported on:

Sherman Austin: Sherman Austin was the webmaster of Raise the Fist, a website which, if you went back a few pages, eventually linked to another page that, at the bottom, had instructions on making bombs. For this heinous crime, he has been sentenced to a year in federal prison (where he has already had death threats made against him by white supremacists) and, once he is out, he is forbidden to associate with any group that wants to change the government in any way (while on 3 year probation).

Sherman is an anarchist, and this is why he's in jail. There are plenty of pages that have instructions on making bombs (for instance, the White Supremacist's Manual, which includes instructions on bomb-making, assassinations, etc.-and for which no one has been arrested), but the webmasters for those sites haven't had their houses surrounded by 25 fbi agents carrying submachine guns. The ACLU hasn't helped Sherman at all, which is why I took the ACLU bumper sticker off my car (also because they support "corporate free speech" and don't support gun rights, but I always figured that in a pinch they'd help out the anarchists).

Josh Connole: after the ELF caused about a million dollars worth of damage to a SUV dealership in California (this right on the tail of a $50 million ELF fire in San Diego), the FBI was pissed. And so, without any evidence at all, they arrested Mr. Josh Connole, a prominent activist. They burst into the co-op where he lived, seized a lot of stuff in the house (computers, any revolutionary literature at all, etc.), and took him off. Of course, they let him go a day later, because, you know, they had absolutely no evidence (they said he looked like a blurry photo of the ELF guy. Josh replied that "that's not me! that guy's wearing Nike! I would never wear Nike!"), but they haven't yet returned the stuff-which contained a lot of the activist networking stuff for the area.

Per-Olof Svensson: When Volkert van der Graaf assassinated Pim Fortuyn a few years back, there was no end of fuss from conservative sites. They were all going on about how this shows that leftists don't care about the democratic process, how they're all fanatics, etc. Now the far-right Per-Olof Svensson assassinates a minister of Sweden and there is nary a pip. Svensson, had he been Dutch, would no doubt have voted for Fortuyn, and van der Graaf would doubtless have supported the Swedish prime minister (despite both being more extreme then their corresponding person). At least van der Graaf thought he was assassinating the next Hitler; Svensson was just crazy.

Lee Kyang Hae: Lee was a South Korean farmer advocate (and, as I recall, anarchist) who, along with a number of other angry farmers, traveled to Cancun to protest the WTO meeting recently held there. And in Cancun he got to the top of the pole and stabbed himself to protest the WTO's actions. For the rest of the WTO meeting (which in the end was forced to end early after rich nations refused to give the poor nations any quarter), vigils were held in his honour. We are all Lee. Also it should be noted the protests in general were massive, though pretty much non-violent; at the forefront were many Mexicans, and then there were farming activists, student activists, activists of all stripes. Fences were cut, tear-gas was thrown, and flags were burnt, but this was a extremely-guarded resort-town so it was pretty much just activists (unlike Seattle, Genoa, Quebec, where ordinary people could go).

Miami: the next big protests are going to be in Miami Nov. 20-21st against the FTAA Wish I could be there.

Project Censored: has released its most recent list of most censored stories, and while of course topping the list would be Neo-conservative plan for global dominance, and in fact most of the stories are in that vein, there were some interesting ones, particularly Argentina crisis sparks cooperative growth (but people can't do it on their own, they need a state!)

There are a lot of other stories out there that hardly get any coverage (see Project Censored), but those are some of the best of the bunch right now. If you want a good source for alternative news, well, I love Infoshop iNews, but that may be a bit too anarchist heavy for some people. I guess Alternet after that. Be suspicious of anything that ends in .com and not .org, that's my rule.
10:18 PM

Arr! That's about as much pirate-talk as I can muster, though, neither I the writer nor you the reader really want to have an entire update in piratesque, I think. Anyway:

My job has not yet started, so I have been rather bored. Like, you know how bored God was when he decided, what the hell, I'm going to create an entire universe? That's how bored I am. I went to Borders today, though, that was fun, I just read for a couple of hours (I read an anarchist-friendly version of the Tao te Ching by Ms Le Guin, part of the Chuang Tzu by Thomas Merton, who incidentally was the Trappist head-monk when Daniel Quinn of Ishmael fame was in that order, the Windows half of 'Fences and Windows' by Naomi Klein, which was quite good. Yes, I'm a boring person who reads much more non-fiction than fiction nowadays. Oh, and some of the writings of Subcommandte Marcos, who's a neat guy).

Luckily the boredom shall soon be alleviated, as tomorrow is a busy day (errands, shooting, movie), Sunday, well, at least my Dad will be here (my Grandmother has scurried off to France), and then hopefully by Monday or so the job will have begun.

Sigh. Apparently I don't really have a blog update in me right now. Blech. It's not that I'm having a bad time, it's just sort of an extremely boring time, which is worse. Ah, well, I have only myself to blame, I'm sure there's stuff to do in Houston if only I explored. The problem is, everything's by car, and while I like driving basically I like a destination. Maybe I should turn more to my internal resources. Meditate or something.

I've been getting more into Godspeed You Black Emperor. It's starting to feel weird when the playlist goes to a 3-minute song, so I go back to GYBE. They really are a great band.


8:26 PM

Wow, I haven't updated in a while. New blogs since I last did: Jenn-e and Zeunert's. It's amazing how if you badger people they'll do stuff just to shut you up.

Oh, right, I haven't updated because I've been in Austin! I had a spectacular time, thanks with extreme prejudice to all concerned. I haven't really felt right since leaving Austin, and finally everything was good again. Can't wait 'til next semester.

Anyway, I've been reading about volunteer vacations. Though the whole thing smacks of charity, I think I might like to do it. I was planning on just staying in Austin this summer, but for about as much money I could teach in Nepal. That seems rather cool. Actually just checking that site again it says teaching english is 'limited' during June and July...still, I could do one of the other programs, maybe 'School and Community Maintenance'.

I'm sorry, I got distracted...I was about to mention the Maoist insurgency, but then I figured I should address to a site so people can find out more, and Wikipedia didn't have much, and I ended up on this awesome site called broadleft.org, which has links to leftist parties all over the world. The anarchist page was, naturally, of the most interest to me. For instance, did you know that there's a Nigerian anarchist league, with a few thousand members?

Wow, and then just now I was looking at that Nigerian page and noticed the 'Africa' link, followed that through to the Lebonese anarchists who talked about going to Ruesta, Spain, which is apparently an entire village owned by the anarchist CGT. What the difference between the CGT and the CNT (let alone the CNT-AIT or SO) is I don't know, nor why Spain needs four anarcho-syndicalist unions.

Anyway, the point is, the only problem with Nepal is the Maoist insurgency.

I was looking at Strattera.com, which is the address of this drug I'll be taking for my ADD which by all accounts won't change my personality (*crosses fingers*), and anyway, I can't help but notice that on the front page is a picture of two kids who are obviously about to fly a plane indoors. I don't think their mother would approve. Is this the sort of behavior Strattera is encouraging?

Well, that's about all, I thought the volunteer vacation thing would take up more.
1:33 PM

Since no one came forward I started up my own Friendster thing. Now comes ya'll's part. Go to www.friendster.com and sign up. I'll be harassing each and every one of you until you do. For references, say you were referred by vicaREMOVETHISYA'LLriousproxy@hotmail.com . Obviously remove the part that it tells you to remove. It'll be cool. Then get your friends to sign up! Imagine, you'll be able to see all your friends networked! Yeah, this is nifty.
5:03 PM

David Friedman is an "anarcho-capitalist", which is frankly just an awful thing to be. I admit though, I haven't actually read any of his stuff, so I can't fully comment. From what I have read of anarcho-capitalism, though, they don't seem to be for equality at all, and without equality you can't have liberty, and without liberty you might as well have the bloody state. Anyway, he wrote this cute poem.

Government produces all order
Anarchy is the absence of any government
Anarchy is chaos
QED.


In Washington there isn't any plan

With "feeding David" on page sixty-four;

It must be accidental that the milk man

Leaves a bottle at my door.
 

It must be accidental that the butcher

Has carcasses arriving at his shop

The very place where, when I need some meat,

I accidentally stop.


My life is chaos turned miraculous;

I speak a word and people understand

Although it must be gibberish since words

Are not produced by governmental plan.


Now law and order, on the other hand

The state provides us for the public good;

That's why there's instant justice on demand

And safety in every neighborhood.
1:40 PM

I'm considering making the switch over to weblog format, ie brief updates of links with commentary (as opposed to the current layout of semi-daily rants, which is the traditional set-up of the emo blog). Anyway, on that note, I'm also considering joining up with that Friendster thing. It sounds neat. Anyone have experience, care to comment?
6:48 PM

Way way back when I found Librarian.net, and couldn't help but note that apparently librarians are a superior form of life, here to spread world peace through categorization. If I had the patience to go through the enormous amounts of schooling you have to have to become a librarian I'd go for that. Anyway, I then promptly forgot about the site, as I am wont to do, and only found it again today through a link. And I surfed that for a while and found a link to her personal FAQ. Lo and behold, she is an anarchist! I must've just missed her at the Bomb-Throwers of America conventions.
6:42 PM

Offbeat, upbeat, light-hearted, warm, funny, touching, witty, hot fudge and cold ice cream-this is what this post must be (says Brittany). It must teach us about ourselves and how to deal with adversity and how when the going gets tough, the tough get going. It must be quirky. It must contain truths of the world and the secret to a happy life. So without further ado:

ALEX'S STORY

Cast of characters:

Alex
Others

Once upon a time Alex was listening to the radio and it went:

doo doo, do de do

And this got Alex all excited and he went out and beat up a ninja. The ninja was lying on the ground wailing out pleas for mercy, but all Alex heard was:

doo doo, do de do

But beating up a ninja wasn't very hard, so Alex went to the caribbean and commandeered a ship from the British navy there. As he sailed away the British sailors were all shouting at him, but to him it sounded like a chorus of:

doo doo, do de do

So Alex sailed the seven seas, attacking other ships and building up his collection of swag. He could've done all this by himself but he was a social guy so he hired other pirates. Every sunday they sang at the Rusty Pearl in their barbership Pirat-et. They sang:

doo doo, do de do

But even this bored Alex after a while. Alex had ADD. So he left all his swag to the other pirates and went to outer space. He found a planet which was covered in a soft purple moss and he lied down and made fungus angels. After he had made a million of these they took him up to heaven. "Now you will meet God", said his angels. When they ascended they made a divine sound that sounded something like:

doo doo, do de do

So Alex met God. He asked God, "God, sir, I gotta know, why all of this? Why the ninjas, why the pirates, why the fungangels? Does it MEAN anything?" And God said:



Actually God didn't say anything. If he had said anything Alex would've been ripped apart, his skin from his flesh and his flesh from his bones. But God winked, which Alex took to mean:

doo doo, do de do

And this satisfied Alex. Alex said goodbye God, thanks, and he left heaven, and he had many more rousing adventures on earth. Everywhere he went, there was the same chorus, a thousand screams of ecstasy and pain and love, all said to Alex:

doo doo, do de do

and Alex knew it was good.

doo doo, do de do

---

Wasn't that special? Meaningful? Due wednesday: a thousand word essay on the meaning of this story.
12:34 PM

There are a lot of oppressed people in the world. Some are black and oppressed by whites, some are workers oppressed by employers, some are young oppressed by the old. Everywhere there is hierarchy. And, in theory, almost every modern political system is centred around this question: how do we end the oppression? Conservatives swear that if we just keep things up as they are right now freedom is right around the corner. Liberals think we need more state, libertarians think we need less. Communists and fascists both think that there needs to be a central Party to lead the people to freedom.

Anarchists are the only ones who believe in self-liberation. Self-help is a term that has recently been co-opted by the Right to mean one person trying to work his way to the top, but this isn't what it means at all. At best one person trying to liberate themselves will lead to one person liberating themselves, and at wost (most frequently), this 'war of all against all' means that nobody liberates themselves, something the rich have been exploiting for years.

Instead of ruthless individualism, anarchists champion collective self-help and self-management. All great victories of the past few centuries-workers' rights, women's suffrage, civil rights, etc-have been gained not through a benevolent state granting privileges, but through an angry and organised people working together to demand their rights. The state and the ruling class are always the last to move.

If we are going to end the oppression without we must end the oppression within. Our organisations, if they seek equality, must be non-hierarchical; if they seek freedom they must be free; if they seek self-management they must not deny self-management to their members. Ourselves, if we seek equality we must act to end hierarchal relations in our own lives, if we want freedom we can't tell others what to do, and if we want collective self-management we must practice individual self-management.

Anarchists have been accused of thinking everyone is good and perfect and this is not true. To the contrary we don't trust anyone enough to put them in power over another person. The biggest murderers of this past century (and any century) had a state to back them up: Hitler, Mao, Stalin. In a stateless society there's no way for madmen to hijack the state.

We've also been accused of being utopian and thinking that no one will try to seize power. Though we say most powerlust is rooted in capitalism and once that's gone so will most people's will to power, we recognise there are madmen out there who simply must be in control of others. However, we think that people who have tasted freedom won't be dumb enough to give it up. Every dictator, ganglord, cult leader or politician has only gotten to power by promising freedom and equality-once these goals have been obtained that bribe is removed.

Anarchism isn't about throwing bombs, it isn't about being a pot-smoking vegan hippie, it isn't about dumpster-diving and romance, and it isn't even about The Revolution. Anarchism is about ordinary people working together to achieve the greatest good for everybody. Anything where the more people participate the better it works, that's anarchism. Linux is anarchist, wikipedia is anarchist, pot-luck dinners are anarchist, and some day, the world will be anarchist.
3:23 AM

Ok, I feel bad for not updating. The funny part is that I've been harassing Samia, Bam, Lia, and the brand new Brittany to update. Do as I say, not as I do.

It's just that it's been hard, Take Two. I want to get it just right. And by 'want to get it just right' I mean I write about a page and scrap it, over and over. The problem is, I have a lot of morals-many of which I don't live by, but that's ok because I sincerely mean to as soon as possible-and there's very good reasoning behind them, but they're different then present society, a lot of things important to me are about matters most people don't even think of as moral issues (where you live, for instance, or advertising).

I don't even like the word morals. Morals come from above-from society, from God, etc.-whereas I think that ethics should be self-derived. This isn't to say that I don't think morals are absolute, I do (or what's the point?).

And in the meantime I've given up a number of things that would've made great updates, which I can't really remember now. I suppose I should've written them down or something like that. Oh, I know something:

Slashdot linked me to Robotic Freedom, an article by Marshall Brain (a good name for an intellectual), about, well, robots. Not actually about freedom, but yes, about robots. Apparently General Brain likes to talk about robots, and has written a number of other articles, none of which I have read, since I believe the basic premise in this, which is: we have a problem on our hands.

(the other day brittany told me she didn't really care, she knew it was wrong, but she didn't really care about the ills of the world because, well, they weren't her problem. an understandable feeling, but soon they'll be her problem, they'll be everybody's problem.)

The world is increasingly automated. Colonel Brain feels that by 2015 50% of the workforce will be at risk for replacement by robots.

Actually, let's consult with Sir Marx. He said that capitalism was doomed because of this: profit = driving up sales. Driving up sales = either more consumption, or more market share. At some point, he argued, consumption would reach its limit-consumers could consume no more-and all businesses would be forced to make profit by either fighting for market-share or cutting costs. Since cutting costs is the prime way of getting more market-share, that means it has to be done. Now cutting costs means paying people less, since eventually everything works its way back to people. So once peak consumption is reached, it will mean companies paying their employees less, which will mean less consumption, and so on.

Obviously this takes an advanced capitalist country, which is why he didn't think Russia or the like was ready for socialism (as proved the case).

Anyway, so back to the 50% of the workplace being replaced with robots. That's a hell of a lot of angry workers. And there will be no new jobs. The Industrial Revolution moved people from the fields to the factories. The Automated Revolution will move them from the factories to the poorhouses. Also, as the fellow in this article points out, since there will be less people to pay there will be more concentration of wealth (as if it's not already bad enough).

However good Lieutenant Brain is at analysis, though, he really really sucks at coming up with alternatives. His idea is to give everyone $25k a year. They'll then spend this, being good little consumers, and that will be their job: spending. His ideas for how to get this money are as follows:

1. advertising. He literally points out that the side of the Washington Monument could be an advertisement, though he does caution that this is 'extreme'. He also lists the following as potential goldmines: the back of one dollar bills, bridge overpasses, and roads.

2. selling natural resources. Presumably the buyers would be the people lucky enough to already be rich before his plan for statis came into play.

3. fines on corporations. Of course, this assumes that corporations are going to be bad, but rather than try to do anything about it, we'll just fine them post facto (though why they would bother when any profit incentive has been removed I don't know).

4. auctions. This is like the selling natural resources plan, but a wee bit more democratic, and for pieces of radio spectrum.

5. national lotteries. Yeah, that'll keep there from being concentration of wealth!

6. copyright licencing. Instead of the virtually limitless copyrights we have now, he suggests that copyright owners be able to buy their way out of the public domain! So if you're rich and profiting off a copyright, you can keep on being rich and profiting off a copyright!

7. extreme income tax. If someone's making a lot of money, over, say, $500k or $1000k, then tax their income heavily. a) this is already somewhat done, though less and less, it's true. b) since this doesn't tax the actual amount of money someone has, it doesn't stop the rich from being rich, it just makes it harder to be new-rich.

8. national mutual fund. basically any company has to put 20% of its shares in a nationalized stock-holding. So the better the income does, the better it pays off to the people. This of course relies on a continued-growth economy, which as Mr. Marx pointed out is increasingly less possible. But still, this and the above are the only two I sort of like.

9. other taxes. Pretty vague here. Just other taxes in general, you know, taxes, they make money.

The society this guy envisions seems literally fascist to me. I don't mean that in the leftist screaming-fascist way, I mean, literally fascist. Like, we watched The Believer the other day, and at point a character talks about launching an above ground intellectual fascist movement, and it seems that in robots their day has come. Rather than prevent concentration of wealth I think the above plan would transform citizens into consumers, and make rich people stay rich. The problem is: if only rich people own the means of production, only rich people have any power. Robots come with a hefty price-tag.

So the solution seems pretty obvious: take back the means of production. Rich people got that way by overcharging consumers and underpaying workers. They have no better claim to the robots than anyone else. All this 'give $25k to everybody' talk is just an extremely awkward solution designed with the view of people simply as consumers.

Needless to say, I don't support nationalization. Since the government is run by the rich (the president is a millionaire, most congressmen are millionaires, corporations openly buy votes, etc.) it will be a change in name only. I've talked a lot today, though, so I'm just going to link to an article on Libertarian Municipalism, which seems the best idea in general, and specifically one that will work better with the automation factor than, say, syndicalism.

Sorry I talked so long.
3:26 AM