2aff8b5c |
1 | <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?> |
2 | <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" |
3 | "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> |
4 | <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> |
5 | <head> |
6 | <title>Do Not Accept the Weak State of Mind in Our Time</title> |
7 | <meta name="generator" content="muse.el" /> |
8 | <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" |
9 | content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /> |
a7e21d41 |
10 | <link href="http://feeds.unknownlamer.org/rss/site-updates" |
11 | rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="Updates Feed" /> |
12 | |
9dcdb59d |
13 | <link rel="stylesheet" href="default.css" /> |
2aff8b5c |
14 | </head> |
15 | <body> |
16 | <h1>Do Not Accept the Weak State of Mind in Our Time</h1> |
17 | <div class="contents"> |
18 | <dl> |
19 | <dt> |
20 | <a href="#sec1">The Basis of My Philosophy</a> |
21 | </dt> |
22 | <dt> |
23 | <a href="#sec2">The Current Economic and Political Structure Is Broken</a> |
24 | </dt> |
25 | <dd> |
26 | <dl> |
27 | <dt> |
28 | <a href="#sec3">The Government of the Unites States</a> |
29 | </dt> |
30 | <dt> |
31 | <a href="#sec4">Capitalism is Intrinsically Evil</a> |
32 | </dt> |
33 | </dl> |
34 | </dd> |
35 | <dt> |
36 | <a href="#sec5">Misc</a> |
37 | </dt> |
38 | <dd> |
39 | <dl> |
40 | <dt> |
41 | <a href="#sec6">Long Term Copyright Causes Harm to Society (<code>Draft Revision 2</code>)</a> |
42 | </dt> |
43 | <dt> |
44 | <a href="#sec7">Fewer Laws Are Better</a> |
45 | </dt> |
46 | <dd> |
47 | <dl> |
48 | <dt> |
49 | <a href="#sec8">Individuals should not have their actions regulated</a> |
50 | </dt> |
51 | <dt> |
52 | <a href="#sec9">Corporations must have their actions heavily regulated</a> |
53 | </dt> |
54 | </dl> |
55 | </dd> |
56 | </dl> |
57 | </dd> |
58 | <dt> |
59 | <a href="#sec10">Social Ills</a> |
60 | </dt> |
61 | <dd> |
62 | <dl> |
63 | <dt> |
64 | <a href="#sec11">Mass Culture</a> |
65 | </dt> |
66 | <dt> |
67 | <a href="#sec12">The Automobile</a> |
68 | </dt> |
69 | <dt> |
70 | <a href="#sec13">Learned Ignorance and Weakness</a> |
71 | </dt> |
72 | </dl> |
73 | </dd> |
74 | </dl> |
75 | </div> |
76 | |
77 | |
78 | <!-- Page published by Emacs Muse begins here --><p>I have views that could perhaps be seen as odd. Do note that I am <strong>not</strong> |
79 | a liberal; nor am I a conservative. I do not buy into the traditional |
80 | socieconomic dipole scale, and I also reject the <em>political compass</em> two |
81 | dimensional scale; my political belief system could best be described |
9dcdb59d |
82 | as <em>curmudgeonly bastard</em> if you must have a label for it. This is only |
83 | because being an curmudgeonly bastard isn't an ideology, but rather a |
84 | broad set of ideas centered around the rejection of traditional |
85 | heriarchial political and social structures (<em>i.e</em> hating everything). I |
86 | reject the <em>ressentiment</em> (lookit I'm Nietzsche) of traditional |
87 | anarchism and believe not that every man should have no master (for |
88 | then <em>all</em> would be weak), but rather that he should be his own master.</p> |
89 | |
90 | <p>These short essays are mere stubs I wrote a long while ago, and each |
91 | will perhaps be extended in the future.</p> |
2aff8b5c |
92 | |
93 | <h2><a name="sec1" id="sec1"></a> |
94 | <a href="Wisdom.html">The Basis of My Philosophy</a></h2> |
95 | |
9dcdb59d |
96 | <p class="first">I read some things and thought they were cool. Now I can make people |
97 | think I'm smarter than I really am.</p> |
2aff8b5c |
98 | |
99 | |
100 | <h2><a name="sec2" id="sec2"></a> |
101 | The Current Economic and Political Structure Is Broken</h2> |
102 | |
103 | <h3><a name="sec3" id="sec3"></a> |
104 | The Government of the Unites States</h3> |
105 | |
106 | <p class="first">I feel that the government in the United States is very close to being |
9dcdb59d |
107 | broken beyond repair (perhaps this is a bit conservative, but one must |
108 | hope). As it stands the government above the local level (and even |
109 | there!) ignores the individual citizen and instead is only forced to |
110 | do anything by large scale action. As far as the individual is |
111 | concerned we no longer live in a Republic, but rather in an Plutocracy |
112 | which is quickly descending into something far worse.</p> |
2aff8b5c |
113 | |
114 | |
115 | <h3><a name="sec4" id="sec4"></a> |
116 | Capitalism is Intrinsically Evil</h3> |
117 | |
118 | <p class="first">Cooperation is better than exploitation. How can one justify an |
119 | economic system based upon paying others as little as possible in an |
120 | attempt to make the most profit from their labor so as to make some |
121 | profit?</p> |
122 | |
9dcdb59d |
123 | <p>But then again, what does <em>evil</em> mean?</p> |
124 | |
2aff8b5c |
125 | |
126 | |
127 | <h2><a name="sec5" id="sec5"></a> |
128 | Misc</h2> |
129 | |
130 | <h3><a name="sec6" id="sec6"></a> |
131 | Long Term Copyright Causes Harm to Society (<code>Draft Revision 2</code>)</h3> |
132 | |
133 | |
134 | |
135 | |
136 | |
137 | <p>It is straightforward to calculate a fair cost for material goods. The |
138 | material cost follows from the materials, and the labor cost generally |
139 | derives from the complexity of construction. The fixed price for each |
140 | item consists of both of these factors. Thus it is trivial to ensure |
141 | that a craftsman is fairly compensated for his effort.</p> |
142 | |
143 | |
144 | |
145 | |
146 | <p>Creative works must have their value calculated via a more circuitous |
147 | route. The physical form of a creative work is of little importance; |
148 | the ideas it represents are. The material and direct labor costs |
149 | (printing, binding, etc.) are thus so small as to be of negligible |
150 | importance when calculating value. There is effectively no objective |
151 | way to place value on abstract work; all the value judgements we can |
152 | make are subjective. We must then rely on irrational human valuations |
153 | to determine the value on their own.</p> |
154 | |
155 | |
156 | |
157 | |
158 | |
159 | |
160 | |
161 | |
162 | |
163 | <p>Creative works are fundamentally different from concrete works. A |
164 | painting may inspire others start a new stylistic movement, the |
165 | structure of a story may cause the formation of a new literary form, |
166 | an essay may incite a new political movement, etc. Creative works |
167 | weave themselves into the mental fabric of each individual exposed to |
168 | them in a way that material goods cannot. A book may change your life; |
169 | a table will never do that. This suggests that the abstract concepts |
170 | which compose a work have a strange nature and great value. Those who |
171 | control the distribution of creative works wield great power as a |
172 | result of the ability of ideas to change the individual.</p> |
173 | |
174 | <p>After a certain period of time the physical manifestation of a |
175 | creative work loses commercial value. New art is being created |
176 | continually, and no one can be expected to read every important book |
177 | written, see every film, and so on for other areas. When a work ceases |
178 | to be profitable to publish distribution ceases. Allowing abstract |
179 | works to simply drop from the market creates a serious problem. New |
180 | ideas are built upon old ones, and after ideas have assimilated into |
181 | the collective concious it is important to be able to go back to the |
182 | old ideas and analyze them to understand the present culture. If a |
183 | work is no longer available it is impossible to do this. Thus works |
184 | that are no longer being commercially exploited should become the |
185 | property of the public so that any worth preserving will be preserved |
186 | by <em>someone</em> and avoid death.</p> |
187 | |
188 | |
189 | |
190 | |
191 | <p>Copyright manages to work fairly well for ensuring creators are |
192 | compensated for their effort, preventing abuse of creator rights to |
193 | the detriment of society, and ensuring that works will become public |
194 | property after they are commercially unprofitable. Irrational human |
195 | judgements over time often work well, and so giving exclusive right to |
196 | copy a work makes sense for a period of time to allow society to |
197 | determine its monetary value. The fair use provisions of copyright |
198 | give society reasonable leeway in the use of the ideas contained |
199 | within a work while the work is protected, and this allows society to |
200 | continue enriching its creative culture. The limited term of copyright |
201 | and ensuing reversion to the public domain prevents the cultural |
202 | stagnation and the loss of history that would result from works |
203 | becoming unavailable.</p> |
204 | |
205 | |
206 | |
207 | |
208 | |
209 | |
210 | <p>The term of copyright must be finely balanced between the need to |
211 | ensure creators have enough time to receive fair compensation for |
212 | their effort, and the desire to avoid cultural stagnation from |
213 | unavailable works. The term must be short enough that a work will not |
214 | be unavailable for too long after commercial interest dies. Every year |
215 | that passes where the work isn't being published tends to reduce the |
216 | number of copies in existence. It must also be long enough that a |
217 | creator can profit according to the value that society puts upon his |
218 | work.</p> |
219 | |
220 | <p>A term should be just long enough that a work will fall out of |
221 | copyright when physical copies are still likely to exist. A man may |
222 | keep his book collection unto his death, but his children may simply |
223 | sell them off or discard them after he departs the mortal |
224 | coil. Intuitive judgement says that things that are worth entering the |
225 | public domain will be preserved by someone for at least his life. A |
226 | person who has creative works in his posession is often attached to |
227 | them and will keep the ones he likes the most for as long as possible |
228 | (e.g. my music collection is backed up in flac so that I will be able |
229 | to listen to my music forever). After he dies there is a large |
230 | increase in the chance that the works will perish unless he by chance |
231 | made special arrangements to have them preserved.</p> |
232 | |
233 | <p>A generation then seems to be a reasonable term; how many things are |
234 | really commercially viable after thirty years? Some works may be |
235 | relevant to the children of the generation who created them; it seems |
236 | reasonable then that if a work is still commercially viable after a |
237 | generation then the creator deserves to retain copyright for a second |
238 | generation. It is questionable whether more terms would be good |
239 | (issues of supression of information, right to profit, etc. come into |
240 | play), but they can't quite be ruled out. A renewal system with a span |
241 | of roughly thirty years ensures that a work will be out of publication |
242 | for at most a generation's time. This appears to be a good balance |
243 | between the right of the creator and the desire to keep knowledge from |
244 | dying (from my eyes).</p> |
245 | |
246 | <p>The works of the current generation, their parents, their |
247 | grandparents, and their great-grandparents are still copyrighted in |
248 | the US. Works created in the present will be copyrighted for the |
249 | lifetime of the author and seventy years after; a span of roughly six |
250 | generations.</p> |
251 | |
252 | |
253 | <h3><a name="sec7" id="sec7"></a> |
254 | Fewer Laws Are Better</h3> |
255 | |
256 | <h4><a name="sec8" id="sec8"></a> |
257 | Individuals should not have their actions regulated</h4> |
258 | |
259 | |
260 | <h4><a name="sec9" id="sec9"></a> |
261 | Corporations must have their actions heavily regulated</h4> |
262 | |
263 | <p class="first">Corporate power disrupts the functioning of a free society. If the |
264 | power wielded by a corporation were merely the sum of the individuals |
265 | that composed it there would be little issue; the fundamental problem |
266 | is that the benefits of gaining access to mass production facilities |
267 | and a huge workforce that can be forced to cooperate on certain goals |
9dcdb59d |
268 | gives a large corporation much more than this.</p> |
2aff8b5c |
269 | |
270 | <h5>Corporate Personhood should be revoked</h5> |
271 | |
272 | |
273 | <h5>Corporations should not be allowed to influence politics</h5> |
274 | |
275 | |
276 | |
277 | |
278 | |
279 | <h2><a name="sec10" id="sec10"></a> |
280 | Social Ills</h2> |
281 | |
282 | <h3><a name="sec11" id="sec11"></a> |
283 | Mass Culture</h3> |
284 | |
285 | <p class="first">American culture in the early 1900s began to homogenize, and now there |
286 | is a single massive culture that almost all three hundred million |
287 | people in the country share. This presents problems to those who do |
288 | not fit in; in the days of the self sufficient village one could move |
289 | to another location to find people similar to him, but now there is |
290 | nowhere to go. Everywhere a <em>social deviant</em> goes he will feel alienated |
291 | and have his social options severely limited.</p> |
292 | |
293 | <p>A monoculture reduces the rate of idea formation, and ours is actively |
294 | hostile toward anything not falling in line with the |
295 | mainstream. People are trained to act as a mass instead of as |
296 | individuals; this results in far less creative people. Critical |
297 | thinking is not encouraged; no, it is far worse! Critical thinking is |
298 | discouraged, and those of us who wish to argue our points with logic |
299 | are met with the undefeatable enemy of a closed mind that has been |
300 | exposed to propaganda from birth.</p> |
301 | |
302 | |
303 | <h3><a name="sec12" id="sec12"></a> |
304 | The Automobile</h3> |
305 | |
306 | |
307 | |
308 | |
309 | |
310 | |
311 | |
312 | |
313 | |
314 | |
315 | |
316 | |
317 | |
318 | |
319 | |
320 | |
321 | |
322 | |
323 | |
324 | |
325 | |
326 | |
327 | |
328 | |
329 | |
330 | |
331 | <h3><a name="sec13" id="sec13"></a> |
332 | Learned Ignorance and Weakness</h3> |
333 | |
334 | <p><a href="Old%20Viewpoints.html">obsolete</a></p> |
335 | |
336 | <p><a href="TRUTH.html">TRUTH</a></p> |
337 | |
338 | |
339 | |
340 | <!-- Page published by Emacs Muse ends here --> |
341 | |
342 | <p class="cke-buttons"> |
343 | <!-- validating badges, any browser, etc --> |
344 | <a href="http://validator.w3.org/check/referer"><img |
345 | src="http://www.w3.org/Icons/valid-xhtml10" |
346 | alt="Valid XHTML 1.0!" /></a> |
347 | |
348 | <a href="http://www.anybrowser.org/campaign/"><img |
349 | src="img/buttons/w3c_ab.png" alt="[ Viewable With Any Browser |
350 | ]" /></a> |
351 | |
352 | <a href="http://www.debian.org/"><img |
353 | src="img/buttons/debian.png" alt="[ Powered by Debian ]" /></a> |
354 | |
355 | <a href="http://hcoop.net/"> |
356 | <img src="img/buttons/hcoop.png" |
357 | alt="[ Hosted by HCoop]" /> |
358 | </a> |
359 | |
360 | <a href="http://www.fsf.org/register_form?referrer=114"> |
361 | <img src="img/buttons/fsf_member.png" |
362 | alt="[ FSF Associate Member ]" /> |
363 | </a> |
364 | </p> |
365 | |
9dcdb59d |
366 | <p class="cke-footer">unknownlamer: you cannot both me in the state of sin and grace |
367 | simultaneously |
368 | Tony: sure you can, sex while figure skating is pretty sinfully |
369 | graceful |
2aff8b5c |
370 | </p> |
371 | <p class="cke-timestamp">Last Modified: |
9dcdb59d |
372 | December 11, 2008</p> |
2aff8b5c |
373 | </body> |
374 | </html> |