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| 6 | <title>Do Not Accept the Weak State of Mind in Our Time</title> |
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| 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 |
| 82 | as <em>positive anarchism</em> if you must have a label for it. This is only |
| 83 | because anarchism isn't an ideology, but rather a broad set of ideas |
| 84 | centered around the rejection of traditional heriarchial political and |
| 85 | social structures. I reject the <em>ressentiment</em> of traditional anarchism |
| 86 | and believe not that every man should have no master, but rather that |
| 87 | he should be his own master.</p> |
| 88 | |
| 89 | <p>These short essays are continually evolving, and each will be split |
| 90 | into its own page as the ideas contained within it are fleshed out in |
| 91 | my mind. Writing things down tends to help me to do this for there are |
| 92 | limits to how much information the top of my head can hold limiting |
| 93 | the usefulness of internal thought once an idea becomes complex |
| 94 | enough. Political and social beliefs are perhaps the most complicated |
| 95 | ideas a man can have because of our complex intertwined social |
| 96 | structures.</p> |
| 97 | |
| 98 | <h2><a name="sec1" id="sec1"></a> |
| 99 | <a href="Wisdom.html">The Basis of My Philosophy</a></h2> |
| 100 | |
| 101 | <p class="first">It is often helpful to know what someone considers as the basis of his |
| 102 | philosophy when interpeting what he has written. As such I have |
| 103 | compiled a page of links and quotations to reveal the inner secrets of |
| 104 | my mind.</p> |
| 105 | |
| 106 | |
| 107 | <h2><a name="sec2" id="sec2"></a> |
| 108 | The Current Economic and Political Structure Is Broken</h2> |
| 109 | |
| 110 | <h3><a name="sec3" id="sec3"></a> |
| 111 | The Government of the Unites States</h3> |
| 112 | |
| 113 | <p class="first">I feel that the government in the United States is very close to being |
| 114 | broken beyond repair. As it stands the government above the local |
| 115 | level ignores the individual citizen and instead is only affected by |
| 116 | large scale action. As far as the individual is concerned we no longer |
| 117 | live in a Republic, but rather in an Oligarchy which is quickly |
| 118 | descending into something far worse.</p> |
| 119 | |
| 120 | <p>I do feel that there is still some reform that could be made in the |
| 121 | near (ten years perhaps) future that could allow the government to |
| 122 | become tolerable again. We are, however, quite close to the edge where |
| 123 | there will be no fixing it. If that threshold is passed we are in for |
| 124 | terrible times.</p> |
| 125 | |
| 126 | |
| 127 | <h3><a name="sec4" id="sec4"></a> |
| 128 | Capitalism is Intrinsically Evil</h3> |
| 129 | |
| 130 | <p class="first">Cooperation is better than exploitation. How can one justify an |
| 131 | economic system based upon paying others as little as possible in an |
| 132 | attempt to make the most profit from their labor so as to make some |
| 133 | profit?</p> |
| 134 | |
| 135 | |
| 136 | |
| 137 | <h2><a name="sec5" id="sec5"></a> |
| 138 | Misc</h2> |
| 139 | |
| 140 | <h3><a name="sec6" id="sec6"></a> |
| 141 | Long Term Copyright Causes Harm to Society (<code>Draft Revision 2</code>)</h3> |
| 142 | |
| 143 | |
| 144 | |
| 145 | |
| 146 | |
| 147 | <p>It is straightforward to calculate a fair cost for material goods. The |
| 148 | material cost follows from the materials, and the labor cost generally |
| 149 | derives from the complexity of construction. The fixed price for each |
| 150 | item consists of both of these factors. Thus it is trivial to ensure |
| 151 | that a craftsman is fairly compensated for his effort.</p> |
| 152 | |
| 153 | |
| 154 | |
| 155 | |
| 156 | <p>Creative works must have their value calculated via a more circuitous |
| 157 | route. The physical form of a creative work is of little importance; |
| 158 | the ideas it represents are. The material and direct labor costs |
| 159 | (printing, binding, etc.) are thus so small as to be of negligible |
| 160 | importance when calculating value. There is effectively no objective |
| 161 | way to place value on abstract work; all the value judgements we can |
| 162 | make are subjective. We must then rely on irrational human valuations |
| 163 | to determine the value on their own.</p> |
| 164 | |
| 165 | |
| 166 | |
| 167 | |
| 168 | |
| 169 | |
| 170 | |
| 171 | |
| 172 | |
| 173 | <p>Creative works are fundamentally different from concrete works. A |
| 174 | painting may inspire others start a new stylistic movement, the |
| 175 | structure of a story may cause the formation of a new literary form, |
| 176 | an essay may incite a new political movement, etc. Creative works |
| 177 | weave themselves into the mental fabric of each individual exposed to |
| 178 | them in a way that material goods cannot. A book may change your life; |
| 179 | a table will never do that. This suggests that the abstract concepts |
| 180 | which compose a work have a strange nature and great value. Those who |
| 181 | control the distribution of creative works wield great power as a |
| 182 | result of the ability of ideas to change the individual.</p> |
| 183 | |
| 184 | <p>After a certain period of time the physical manifestation of a |
| 185 | creative work loses commercial value. New art is being created |
| 186 | continually, and no one can be expected to read every important book |
| 187 | written, see every film, and so on for other areas. When a work ceases |
| 188 | to be profitable to publish distribution ceases. Allowing abstract |
| 189 | works to simply drop from the market creates a serious problem. New |
| 190 | ideas are built upon old ones, and after ideas have assimilated into |
| 191 | the collective concious it is important to be able to go back to the |
| 192 | old ideas and analyze them to understand the present culture. If a |
| 193 | work is no longer available it is impossible to do this. Thus works |
| 194 | that are no longer being commercially exploited should become the |
| 195 | property of the public so that any worth preserving will be preserved |
| 196 | by <em>someone</em> and avoid death.</p> |
| 197 | |
| 198 | |
| 199 | |
| 200 | |
| 201 | <p>Copyright manages to work fairly well for ensuring creators are |
| 202 | compensated for their effort, preventing abuse of creator rights to |
| 203 | the detriment of society, and ensuring that works will become public |
| 204 | property after they are commercially unprofitable. Irrational human |
| 205 | judgements over time often work well, and so giving exclusive right to |
| 206 | copy a work makes sense for a period of time to allow society to |
| 207 | determine its monetary value. The fair use provisions of copyright |
| 208 | give society reasonable leeway in the use of the ideas contained |
| 209 | within a work while the work is protected, and this allows society to |
| 210 | continue enriching its creative culture. The limited term of copyright |
| 211 | and ensuing reversion to the public domain prevents the cultural |
| 212 | stagnation and the loss of history that would result from works |
| 213 | becoming unavailable.</p> |
| 214 | |
| 215 | |
| 216 | |
| 217 | |
| 218 | |
| 219 | |
| 220 | <p>The term of copyright must be finely balanced between the need to |
| 221 | ensure creators have enough time to receive fair compensation for |
| 222 | their effort, and the desire to avoid cultural stagnation from |
| 223 | unavailable works. The term must be short enough that a work will not |
| 224 | be unavailable for too long after commercial interest dies. Every year |
| 225 | that passes where the work isn't being published tends to reduce the |
| 226 | number of copies in existence. It must also be long enough that a |
| 227 | creator can profit according to the value that society puts upon his |
| 228 | work.</p> |
| 229 | |
| 230 | <p>A term should be just long enough that a work will fall out of |
| 231 | copyright when physical copies are still likely to exist. A man may |
| 232 | keep his book collection unto his death, but his children may simply |
| 233 | sell them off or discard them after he departs the mortal |
| 234 | coil. Intuitive judgement says that things that are worth entering the |
| 235 | public domain will be preserved by someone for at least his life. A |
| 236 | person who has creative works in his posession is often attached to |
| 237 | them and will keep the ones he likes the most for as long as possible |
| 238 | (e.g. my music collection is backed up in flac so that I will be able |
| 239 | to listen to my music forever). After he dies there is a large |
| 240 | increase in the chance that the works will perish unless he by chance |
| 241 | made special arrangements to have them preserved.</p> |
| 242 | |
| 243 | <p>A generation then seems to be a reasonable term; how many things are |
| 244 | really commercially viable after thirty years? Some works may be |
| 245 | relevant to the children of the generation who created them; it seems |
| 246 | reasonable then that if a work is still commercially viable after a |
| 247 | generation then the creator deserves to retain copyright for a second |
| 248 | generation. It is questionable whether more terms would be good |
| 249 | (issues of supression of information, right to profit, etc. come into |
| 250 | play), but they can't quite be ruled out. A renewal system with a span |
| 251 | of roughly thirty years ensures that a work will be out of publication |
| 252 | for at most a generation's time. This appears to be a good balance |
| 253 | between the right of the creator and the desire to keep knowledge from |
| 254 | dying (from my eyes).</p> |
| 255 | |
| 256 | <p>The works of the current generation, their parents, their |
| 257 | grandparents, and their great-grandparents are still copyrighted in |
| 258 | the US. Works created in the present will be copyrighted for the |
| 259 | lifetime of the author and seventy years after; a span of roughly six |
| 260 | generations.</p> |
| 261 | |
| 262 | |
| 263 | <h3><a name="sec7" id="sec7"></a> |
| 264 | Fewer Laws Are Better</h3> |
| 265 | |
| 266 | <h4><a name="sec8" id="sec8"></a> |
| 267 | Individuals should not have their actions regulated</h4> |
| 268 | |
| 269 | |
| 270 | <h4><a name="sec9" id="sec9"></a> |
| 271 | Corporations must have their actions heavily regulated</h4> |
| 272 | |
| 273 | <p class="first">Corporate power disrupts the functioning of a free society. If the |
| 274 | power wielded by a corporation were merely the sum of the individuals |
| 275 | that composed it there would be little issue; the fundamental problem |
| 276 | is that the benefits of gaining access to mass production facilities |
| 277 | and a huge workforce that can be forced to cooperate on certain goals |
| 278 | gives a large corporation much more power than the simple sum of its |
| 279 | members.</p> |
| 280 | |
| 281 | <h5>Corporate Personhood should be revoked</h5> |
| 282 | |
| 283 | |
| 284 | <h5>Corporations should not be allowed to influence politics</h5> |
| 285 | |
| 286 | |
| 287 | |
| 288 | |
| 289 | |
| 290 | <h2><a name="sec10" id="sec10"></a> |
| 291 | Social Ills</h2> |
| 292 | |
| 293 | <h3><a name="sec11" id="sec11"></a> |
| 294 | Mass Culture</h3> |
| 295 | |
| 296 | <p class="first">American culture in the early 1900s began to homogenize, and now there |
| 297 | is a single massive culture that almost all three hundred million |
| 298 | people in the country share. This presents problems to those who do |
| 299 | not fit in; in the days of the self sufficient village one could move |
| 300 | to another location to find people similar to him, but now there is |
| 301 | nowhere to go. Everywhere a <em>social deviant</em> goes he will feel alienated |
| 302 | and have his social options severely limited.</p> |
| 303 | |
| 304 | <p>A monoculture reduces the rate of idea formation, and ours is actively |
| 305 | hostile toward anything not falling in line with the |
| 306 | mainstream. People are trained to act as a mass instead of as |
| 307 | individuals; this results in far less creative people. Critical |
| 308 | thinking is not encouraged; no, it is far worse! Critical thinking is |
| 309 | discouraged, and those of us who wish to argue our points with logic |
| 310 | are met with the undefeatable enemy of a closed mind that has been |
| 311 | exposed to propaganda from birth.</p> |
| 312 | |
| 313 | |
| 314 | <h3><a name="sec12" id="sec12"></a> |
| 315 | The Automobile</h3> |
| 316 | |
| 317 | |
| 318 | |
| 319 | |
| 320 | |
| 321 | |
| 322 | |
| 323 | |
| 324 | |
| 325 | |
| 326 | |
| 327 | |
| 328 | |
| 329 | |
| 330 | |
| 331 | |
| 332 | |
| 333 | |
| 334 | |
| 335 | |
| 336 | |
| 337 | |
| 338 | |
| 339 | |
| 340 | |
| 341 | |
| 342 | <h3><a name="sec13" id="sec13"></a> |
| 343 | Learned Ignorance and Weakness</h3> |
| 344 | |
| 345 | <p><a href="Old%20Viewpoints.html">obsolete</a></p> |
| 346 | |
| 347 | <p><a href="TRUTH.html">TRUTH</a></p> |
| 348 | |
| 349 | |
| 350 | |
| 351 | <!-- Page published by Emacs Muse ends here --> |
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| 375 | </p> |
| 376 | |
| 377 | <p class="cke-footer"> We live in a time of revolution |
| 378 | We swim the silent seas of sanity gone |
| 379 | </p> |
| 380 | <p class="cke-timestamp">Last Modified: |
| 381 | September 26, 2008</p> |
| 382 | </body> |
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