Politics.html

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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 <dd>
  31 <dl>
  32 <dt>
  33 <a href="#sec4">Healthcare <em>Reform</em></a>
  34 </dt>
  35 </dl>
  36 </dd>
  37 <dt>
  38 <a href="#sec5">Capitalism is Intrinsically Evil</a>
  39 </dt>
  40 </dl>
  41 </dd>
  42 <dt>
  43 <a href="#sec6">Misc</a>
  44 </dt>
  45 <dd>
  46 <dl>
  47 <dt>
  48 <a href="#sec7">Long Term Copyright Causes Harm to Society (<code>Draft Revision 2</code>)</a>
  49 </dt>
  50 <dt>
  51 <a href="#sec8">Fewer Laws Are Better</a>
  52 </dt>
  53 <dd>
  54 <dl>
  55 <dt>
  56 <a href="#sec9">Individuals should not have their actions regulated</a>
  57 </dt>
  58 <dt>
  59 <a href="#sec10">Corporations must have their actions heavily regulated</a>
  60 </dt>
  61 </dl>
  62 </dd>
  63 </dl>
  64 </dd>
  65 <dt>
  66 <a href="#sec11">Social Ills</a>
  67 </dt>
  68 <dd>
  69 <dl>
  70 <dt>
  71 <a href="#sec12">Mass Culture</a>
  72 </dt>
  73 <dd>
  74 <dl>
  75 <dt>
  76 <a href="#sec13">The Talking Heads</a>
  77 </dt>
  78 </dl>
  79 </dd>
  80 <dt>
  81 <a href="#sec14">The Automobile</a>
  82 </dt>
  83 <dt>
  84 <a href="#sec15">Learned Ignorance and Weakness</a>
  85 </dt>
  86 </dl>
  87 </dd>
  88 </dl>
  89 </div>
  90
  91
  92 <!-- 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>
  93 a liberal; nor am I a conservative. I do not buy into the traditional
  94 socieconomic dipole scale, and I also reject the <em>political compass</em> two
  95 dimensional scale; my political belief system could best be described
  96 as <em>curmudgeonly bastard</em> if you must have a label for it. This is only
  97 because being a curmudgeonly bastard isn't an ideology, but rather a
  98 broad set of ideas centered around the rejection of traditional
  99 political and social structures (<em>i.e</em> hating everything). I reject the
 100 <em>ressentiment</em> (lookit I'm Nietzsche) of traditional anarchism and
 101 believe not that every man should have no master (for then <em>all</em> would
 102 be weak), but rather that he should be his own master (does that even
 103 <em>mean</em> anything? Eh, it sounds nice so who cares).</p>
 104
 105 <p>These short essays are mere stubs I wrote a long while ago, and each
 106 will perhaps be extended in the future.</p>
 107
 108 <h2><a name="sec1" id="sec1"></a>
 109 <a href="Wisdom.html">The Basis of My Philosophy</a></h2>
 110
 111 <p class="first">I read some things and thought they were cool. Now I can make people
 112 think I'm smarter than I really am.</p>
 113
 114
 115 <h2><a name="sec2" id="sec2"></a>
 116 The Current Economic and Political Structure Is Broken</h2>
 117
 118 <h3><a name="sec3" id="sec3"></a>
 119 The Government of the Unites States</h3>
 120
 121 <p class="first">I feel that the government in the United States is very close to being
 122 broken beyond repair (perhaps this is a bit conservative, but one must
 123 hope). As it stands the government above the local level (and even
 124 there!) ignores the individual citizen and instead is only forced to
 125 do anything by large scale action. As far as the individual is
 126 concerned we no longer live in a Republic, but rather in an Plutocracy
 127 which is quickly descending into something far worse.</p>
 128
 129 <h4><a name="sec4" id="sec4"></a>
 130 Healthcare <em>Reform</em></h4>
 131
 132 <p class="first">Upon airing my objections to the current Healthcare <em>Reform</em> bill, I was
 133 asked: did you read the bill? To which I replied with action and read
 134 <a href="http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h111-3590&amp;tab=summary">the official summary of the bill</a>. And now I ask those who asked me if
 135 I had read it: have <em>you</em> read it. I received as a reply an unequivocal:
 136 <em>why should I have to</em>.</p>
 137
 138 <p>Fun fact: it isn't as bad as some people make it seem, but guess what?
 139 <em>It does nothing beneficial to the individual</em>. All it does it require
 140 that anyone over 30 purchase insurance, severely restricts the usage
 141 of Health Savings Accounts (which, may be not so bad&mdash;I have no
 142 opinion on their usefulness... but <em>Republicans</em> created them so they
 143 <em>must</em> be <em>evil</em>), and is generally a piece of hey-look-I-did-something
 144 (but nothing goes into effect until I am out of office)
 145 legislation. This has never happened before, obviously. We are on the
 146 surface of Mars now too didn't you know.</p>
 147
 148 <p>Meanwhile there is what amounts to no price controls, an actual <em>ban</em> on
 149 the formation of State run healthcare (until 2017, and then only at
 150 the discretion of the HHS secretary), and token (unfunded) support for
 151 the formation of healthcare cooperatives. There are some taxes on
 152 large drug makers, but the research required by the FDA for drug
 153 approval is <em>tax deductible</em> (and so the larger drug makers can avoid
 154 most of the new taxes, har). And... an excise tax on overly fancy
 155 healthcare plans... more or less, a nice bill that, if it manages to
 156 not be overturned by 2018, will do absolutely nothing one way or the
 157 other.</p>
 158
 159 <p>It is obvious that I am indeed a dirty Nazi redneck terrorist
 160 teabagger Republican piece of shit who hates the poor and black
 161 people. I guess it's time for my white ass to move to Iran and see how
 162 I like it there!</p>
 163
 164
 165
 166 <h3><a name="sec5" id="sec5"></a>
 167 Capitalism is Intrinsically Evil</h3>
 168
 169 <p class="first">Cooperation is better than exploitation. How can one justify an
 170 economic system based upon paying others as little as possible in an
 171 attempt to make the most profit from their labor so as to make some
 172 profit?</p>
 173
 174 <p>But then again, what does <em>evil</em> mean?</p>
 175
 176
 177
 178 <h2><a name="sec6" id="sec6"></a>
 179 Misc</h2>
 180
 181 <h3><a name="sec7" id="sec7"></a>
 182 Long Term Copyright Causes Harm to Society (<code>Draft Revision 2</code>)</h3>
 183
 184
 185
 186
 187
 188 <p>It is straightforward to calculate a fair cost for material goods. The
 189 material cost follows from the materials, and the labor cost generally
 190 derives from the complexity of construction. The fixed price for each
 191 item consists of both of these factors. Thus it is trivial to ensure
 192 that a craftsman is fairly compensated for his effort.</p>
 193
 194
 195
 196
 197 <p>Creative works must have their value calculated via a more circuitous
 198 route. The physical form of a creative work is of little importance;
 199 the ideas it represents are. The material and direct labor costs
 200 (printing, binding, etc.) are thus so small as to be of negligible
 201 importance when calculating value. There is effectively no objective
 202 way to place value on abstract work; all the value judgements we can
 203 make are subjective. We must then rely on irrational human valuations
 204 to determine the value on their own.</p>
 205
 206
 207
 208
 209
 210
 211
 212
 213
 214 <p>Creative works are fundamentally different from concrete works. A
 215 painting may inspire others start a new stylistic movement, the
 216 structure of a story may cause the formation of a new literary form,
 217 an essay may incite a new political movement, etc. Creative works
 218 weave themselves into the mental fabric of each individual exposed to
 219 them in a way that material goods cannot. A book may change your life;
 220 a table will never do that. This suggests that the abstract concepts
 221 which compose a work have a strange nature and great value. Those who
 222 control the distribution of creative works wield great power as a
 223 result of the ability of ideas to change the individual.</p>
 224
 225 <p>After a certain period of time the physical manifestation of a
 226 creative work loses commercial value. New art is being created
 227 continually, and no one can be expected to read every important book
 228 written, see every film, and so on for other areas. When a work ceases
 229 to be profitable to publish distribution ceases. Allowing abstract
 230 works to simply drop from the market creates a serious problem. New
 231 ideas are built upon old ones, and after ideas have assimilated into
 232 the collective concious it is important to be able to go back to the
 233 old ideas and analyze them to understand the present culture. If a
 234 work is no longer available it is impossible to do this. Thus works
 235 that are no longer being commercially exploited should become the
 236 property of the public so that any worth preserving will be preserved
 237 by <em>someone</em> and avoid death.</p>
 238
 239
 240
 241
 242 <p>Copyright manages to work fairly well for ensuring creators are
 243 compensated for their effort, preventing abuse of creator rights to
 244 the detriment of society, and ensuring that works will become public
 245 property after they are commercially unprofitable. Irrational human
 246 judgements over time often work well, and so giving exclusive right to
 247 copy a work makes sense for a period of time to allow society to
 248 determine its monetary value. The fair use provisions of copyright
 249 give society reasonable leeway in the use of the ideas contained
 250 within a work while the work is protected, and this allows society to
 251 continue enriching its creative culture. The limited term of copyright
 252 and ensuing reversion to the public domain prevents the cultural
 253 stagnation and the loss of history that would result from works
 254 becoming unavailable.</p>
 255
 256
 257
 258
 259
 260
 261 <p>The term of copyright must be finely balanced between the need to
 262 ensure creators have enough time to receive fair compensation for
 263 their effort, and the desire to avoid cultural stagnation from
 264 unavailable works. The term must be short enough that a work will not
 265 be unavailable for too long after commercial interest dies. Every year
 266 that passes where the work isn't being published tends to reduce the
 267 number of copies in existence. It must also be long enough that a
 268 creator can profit according to the value that society puts upon his
 269 work.</p>
 270
 271 <p>A term should be just long enough that a work will fall out of
 272 copyright when physical copies are still likely to exist. A man may
 273 keep his book collection unto his death, but his children may simply
 274 sell them off or discard them after he departs the mortal
 275 coil. Intuitive judgement says that things that are worth entering the
 276 public domain will be preserved by someone for at least his life. A
 277 person who has creative works in his posession is often attached to
 278 them and will keep the ones he likes the most for as long as possible
 279 (e.g. my music collection is backed up in flac so that I will be able
 280 to listen to my music forever). After he dies there is a large
 281 increase in the chance that the works will perish unless he by chance
 282 made special arrangements to have them preserved.</p>
 283
 284 <p>A generation then seems to be a reasonable term; how many things are
 285 really commercially viable after thirty years? Some works may be
 286 relevant to the children of the generation who created them; it seems
 287 reasonable then that if a work is still commercially viable after a
 288 generation then the creator deserves to retain copyright for a second
 289 generation. It is questionable whether more terms would be good
 290 (issues of supression of information, right to profit, etc. come into
 291 play), but they can't quite be ruled out. A renewal system with a span
 292 of roughly thirty years ensures that a work will be out of publication
 293 for at most a generation's time. This appears to be a good balance
 294 between the right of the creator and the desire to keep knowledge from
 295 dying (from my eyes).</p>
 296
 297 <p>The works of the current generation, their parents, their
 298 grandparents, and their great-grandparents are still copyrighted in
 299 the US. Works created in the present will be copyrighted for the
 300 lifetime of the author and seventy years after; a span of roughly six
 301 generations.</p>
 302
 303
 304 <h3><a name="sec8" id="sec8"></a>
 305 Fewer Laws Are Better</h3>
 306
 307 <h4><a name="sec9" id="sec9"></a>
 308 Individuals should not have their actions regulated</h4>
 309
 310
 311 <h4><a name="sec10" id="sec10"></a>
 312 Corporations must have their actions heavily regulated</h4>
 313
 314 <p class="first">Corporate power disrupts the functioning of a free society. If the
 315 power wielded by a corporation were merely the sum of the individuals
 316 that composed it there would be little issue; the fundamental problem
 317 is that the benefits of gaining access to mass production facilities
 318 and a huge workforce that can be forced to cooperate on certain goals
 319 gives a large corporation much more than this.</p>
 320
 321 <h5>Corporate Personhood should be revoked</h5>
 322
 323
 324 <h5>Corporations should not be allowed to influence politics</h5>
 325
 326
 327
 328
 329
 330 <h2><a name="sec11" id="sec11"></a>
 331 Social Ills</h2>
 332
 333 <h3><a name="sec12" id="sec12"></a>
 334 Mass Culture</h3>
 335
 336 <p class="first">American culture in the early 1900s began to homogenize, and now there
 337 is a single massive culture that almost all three hundred million
 338 people in the country share. This presents problems to those who do
 339 not fit in; in the days of the self sufficient village one could move
 340 to another location to find people similar to him, but now there is
 341 nowhere to go. Everywhere a <em>social deviant</em> goes he will feel alienated
 342 and have his social options severely limited.</p>
 343
 344 <p>A monoculture reduces the rate of idea formation, and ours is actively
 345 hostile toward anything not falling in line with the
 346 mainstream. People are trained to act as a mass instead of as
 347 individuals; this results in far less creative people. Critical
 348 thinking is not encouraged; no, it is far worse! Critical thinking is
 349 discouraged, and those of us who wish to argue our points with logic
 350 are met with the undefeatable enemy of a closed mind that has been
 351 exposed to propaganda from birth.</p>
 352
 353 <h4><a name="sec13" id="sec13"></a>
 354 The Talking Heads</h4>
 355
 356 <p class="first">Poison the well. Burn a strawman.</p>
 357
 358 <p>This is real argument. Real thought.</p>
 359
 360
 361
 362 <h3><a name="sec14" id="sec14"></a>
 363 The Automobile</h3>
 364
 365
 366
 367
 368
 369
 370
 371
 372
 373
 374
 375
 376
 377
 378
 379
 380
 381
 382
 383
 384
 385
 386
 387
 388
 389
 390 <h3><a name="sec15" id="sec15"></a>
 391 Learned Ignorance and Weakness</h3>
 392
 393 <p><a href="Old%20Viewpoints.html">obsolete</a></p>
 394
 395 <p><a href="TRUTH.html">TRUTH</a></p>
 396
 397
 398
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 424
 425 <p class="cke-footer">Corinne: this is why we should have designated bath buddies
 426 Corinne: to get places you cant reach because youre slippery and in
 427          case you get a lil tooo slippery and crack your head open
 428          someone can call the coast guard and save you
 429 </p>
 430 <p class="cke-timestamp">Last Modified:
 431     April  4, 2010</p>
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