The assassination of John F. Kennedy is often cited as a major turning point of American politics.  His death was tragic and left a great scar across the political face of the country, leaving it in a state of shock. Whoever was running on the Republican ticket was certain to have a tough time arguing against the policies of a dead man. Yet, Lyndon Baines Johnson’s resounding victory over Barry Goldwater in the election of 1964 was a turning point in itself, and not necessarily a good one.

“Barry Goldwater?  Ain’t he the warmongering racist who opposed the Civil Rights Act?”

Indeed he was, if you believe his detractors.  Though Kennedy’s assassination shadowed his candidacy from the start, his opposition to the Civil Rights Act would doom him to the popularity of a fringe candidate.  Coupled with his consideration of using nuclear weapons in Vietnam, he was easily painted as an extremist, out of touch with the mood of the day.

Yet, the resulting era of dirty politics and over-reaching federal powers still endures to this day.  Barry Goldwater may not have been a great alternative to LBJ, but even had he done what his critics threatened he would, he may still have been a better President than Johnson turned out to be.

Despite the claim, Goldwater didn’t actually oppose the Civil Rights Act because he was a racist.  To him, telling people who they could and couldn’t let onto their property wasn’t consistent with the principles of a free society.  The policy of segregation, of exclusion and public discrimination toward blacks was quite reprehensible, backward even for the 1950s.  Yet, like the 14^th and 15^th Amendments to the Constitution before them, Federal  statutes only forced compliance, but didn’t address the underlying problem of racism, especially in the South.   ”You cannot pass a law that will make me like you — or you like me,” Goldwater told one rally. “That is something that can only happen in our hearts.”  Goldwater’s downfall was opposing an Act that traded a principle of free speech and association, hateful as it was being employed by some, to treat the symptoms of racism, but not the cure.

People just assumed he was a racist because he opposed the Civil Rights Act.

Barry Goldwater also predicted the current form of the Republican Party.  In an interview with the Washington Post in 1994, the then-retired Arizona senator said

When you say “radical right” today, I think of these moneymaking ventures by fellows like Pat Robertson and others who are trying to take the Republican party and make a religious organization out of it. If that ever happens, kiss politics goodbye.

I think we all know how that turned out.

Though Goldwater had alienated many in his own party with his offhand, often reckless remarks, gone against the Civil Rights Act, which on the surface seemed like a positive step for a divided country, it was LBJ’s “Daisy” campaign which sealed the election and led to the biggest victory by a presidential candidate in the 20^th century.

“Daisy” was a commercial that ran briefly, featuring a little girl counting to ten, then having that count reversed by a baritone voice down to zero, at which point a nuclear bomb exploded.  Johnson successfully depicted Goldwater as a warmonger who would resort to a nuclear attack on Vietnam.

Click here to view the embedded video.

It was true, Goldwater had openly said that small nuclear bombs could be used to destroy the foliage in the jungles, reducing the Vietcong’s cover, which was the cornerstone of their  military strategy.  What he had said made a little sense from a military perspective and perhaps even from a human perspective. He didn’t appear to want to direct the bombs at population centers, but rather at forests, which may have reduced human casualties.  It’s not a great argument, but I suppose an argument could be made. However, in the context of political debate and without acknowledging the gravity of using nuclear devices as weapons in war it was a careless and costly remark.  Goldwater had hereby supplied his opponents with enough fuel for him to be burned as a warmongering psychopath who would love to drop the a-bomb on Vietnam.

Yet, once Johnson was elected, he quickly reversed his rhetoric and hurriedly drew up plans to escalate the Vietnam War, fabricating the Gulf of Tonkin incident to drum up support for full-scale war.  Agent Orange, a chemical agent, was used on the jungles of Vietnam to defoliate them, resulting in 400,000 deaths and 500,000 children born with birth defects.  The war was undeclared by the Congress, unconstitutionally expanded the power of the Executive branch, took over ten years and resulted in the deaths of over four million Vietnamese, Laotian and Cambodian men, women and children.  Who was the extreme warmongering psychopath again?

At least Goldwater wanted to get in and leave quickly or get out altogether.

An interesting article in Reason discusses the Goldwater movement and how, after the political beating he got in the election, a joke about the election went:

They told me that if I voted for Goldwater, we’d have a war in Southeast Asia, civil and racial unrest, and a ruined economy. I went ahead and voted for him anyway, and it turned out they were absolutely right.

At the time of the campaign, Vice-President Johnson was telling the public, “We are not going to send American boys nine or 10 thousand miles away from home to do what Asian boys ought to be doing for themselves.” Meanwhile, his advisors were drawing up plans to put 200,000 troops in Vietnam within a year.  His “Daisy” commercial made Goldwater seem like the warmonger that Johnson himself actually turned out to be.

The use of military force without a declaration, in direct violation of the Constitution; the expansion of Presidential powers beyond their constitutional limits;  these were the results of Johnson’s election.  “Daisy” ushered in a new age of dirty politics, giving rise to creeps like Richard Nixon and the religious Right’s brand of morality.

Goldwater wasn’t a racist, but he came across as one because he had no idea about how his views could so easily be misconstrued or even just misinterpreted.  When you stand against something, you’d better propose a better alternative and market it well or someone else will define your stance for you.  Once Goldwater stood against the Civil Rights Act on the grounds that it overstepped the bounds of a constitutional Federal government, he needed to propose a better solution for curing the social ills of racism and segregation.  Instead, he became a magnet for the KKK and a whole manner of other segregationists who assumed he just hated the darkies as much as they did.

Such is the destiny of the politician who means well, but is not aware enough of the game to play it effectively.

Showing sympathy for Goldwater and his politically incorrect opinions may not win me any friends.  It may even make me some enemies.  But I liken his stance to that famous phrase attributed to Voltaire:

I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.

If freedom is only reserved for the prevailing attitudes of the day, and all other views are punished, then there will surely come a day when the prevailing attitudes are usurped to enforce one group’s notion of freedom at the expense of other groups or individuals.  When freedom is supported in principle, it must be supported for all.

Wars of ideology need to be fought with ideas.  Freedom is not a state which can be granted by the government.  It is the inherent state of human beings.  Governments  have trampled on more rights through over-reaching regulations and unnecessary wars than have racists who refuse service to blacks.

Goldwater lost because the public could not see the distinction between not supporting the Act and not supporting that particular cure for racism. Currently, as we continue to fight two wars in the Middle East, have our freedoms usurped through wiretapping and dismissal of the right of habeus corpus, as we relinquish more and more of our freedoms, even the freedom whether or not to buy health insurance, it seems that the public today are even less capable of making that distinction as they were in 1964.

Imagine allowing prisoners to reduce their sentences by 50% by completing a degree from a recognized university.  Not only would they have some control over their futures, but they would gain valuable skills which can help them succeed in the future, as well as self-confidence in their abilities.  It is in the interest of society that we educate and rehabilitate those who have not had success with education in the past.

In prison, I’d imagine you have a lot of time.  What prisoner wouldn’t jump at the chance to reduce their sentence by reading a few books?

The principle behind this proposal is that crime is inversely proportional to level of education.  That is, the lower the level of education, the more likely a person is to be incarcerated.  A recent study on Education and Public Safety by the Justice Policy Institute indicates the following:

• States with higher levels of educational attainment had crime rates   lower than the national average.
• States with higher college enrollment levels had lower rates of violent crime than those with lower college enrollment levels.
• States which invested more money into education saw violent crime rates decrease.
• Risk of incarceration is significantly higher  for those of color, who are more likely to have greater barriers to educational opportunities.

The full Justice Policy Institute report can be read below:

Left and Right should not fight,
They should instead combine their might,
For nurture plays its vital role,
So society needs its Liberal,
But Liberty is a delicate flower,
Easily trampled by runaway power.
To ensure that freedom ever lives,
Society needs its Conservative.
The Founders knew these facts of course,
For they were intellectuals,
Learned men of poise and grace,
Who wanted to put government in its place,
To ensure the freedom that all desire,
While raising the standard of living higher.
They were a part of the Enlightenment,
Weary of the heavy hand of Government,
Where whim rules the fates of all,
Corruption breeds and freedoms fall.
They chose another road instead,
Leaving Kings and Queens for dead,
They founded a nation of Common Law,
With the pursuit of happiness at its core.
For happiness is not a guarantee,
Just a right to keep your property,
If some person has not enough,
You can’t just steal someone else’s stuff,
For if you did, then what would be,
The proper role of charity?
Plus how could such a thing be right,
To forcibly take through government might?
The founders knew that some need care,
That community support should always be there,
But not by chopping down the law,
And the freedom they fought the British for.

~

Adam Smith had demonstrated,
And with economic model calculated,
A notion new and elegantly grand,
That the market had an invisible hand.
As free people traded at a rapid rate,
The hand stepped in to regulate,
When businessmen lied and stole,
Their supply of wealth soon went cold,
For fickle is the buyers’ taste,
When competition rules the marketplace.
Without the use of government favor,
Business could only grow through labor,
By being better than all the rest,
Not buying favor through lobbyists.
So thus it went and all was well,
Until an idea began to dwell,
As the Founders’ time had come and gone,
Had they been right all along?
Or could the balance be tweaked a bit,
To make society give a shit,
About the poor, the sick, the needy,
“Ah ha!” they cried. “Let’s tax the greedy!”
And thus the guilt trip foiled the plan,
To have freedom rule the land,
For how can one be truly free,
When others may claim your property?
But once that principle was signed away,
The poor they grew, day-by-day,
A new currency had shown its creed:
The currency of necessity.

~

When the needy get the greater claim,
It makes more sense to do the same,
So interest groups they grew like weeds,
To propagate their list of needs.
But soon the rich ran out of dough,
And saw the way they had to go,
They used the government to promote their cause,
By adding a clause into the Laws,
That helped their business thrive and grow,
By buying people in the know.
Enter the age of Corporatist glee,
From Goldman Sacks to AIG,
They cheat and steal and bribe and curse,
To get a piece of the public purse,
All this because we deemed it wise,
To use the government to equalize,
Just like Religion’s old advice,
That good will come from sacrifice,
We kept believing through and through,
That a little bit more would finally do,
Until we looked around and saw,
There was nothing left to give anymore.
And not just that (surprise, surprise)
The claims of need had all been lies.
By helping people out of poverty,
The people had lost their liberty,
The Corporations which had grown so great,
Against whom none could regulate,
Divided up the public spoils,
Plundered the workers of their toils,
And yet the Liberals cry and moan,
“Capitalism took my home!”
Conservatives, now bought and paid,
Looked for nations to invade,
All the while the Corporation grew,
(Thanks to Haliburton and Blackwater too!)
The people marched and demanded Change!,
So it bought a candidate, trademarked the name.
The people breathed a sigh of relief,
At having a fresh Commander in Chief.
And yet, though this one had a brain,
Things somehow remained the same,
Wars continued, defecits grew,
Pundits argued ’til they were blue,
But no-one seemed to really know,
“Just where did all the money go?”
In the South, they chanted and they screamed,
“Give me back my American Dream!
They marched and Teabagged avenues,
Attracting whackos and their crazy views,
While in the North the Federalists surged,
“Protect us from this awful scourge!
Give us what the Frenchies have,
Their way of life doesn’t seem so bad!”
Yet wanting to be just like the rest,
Ain’t what made America the best,
The source of greatness plain to see-
The U.S. was the champion of Liberty!

~

But that was quite some time ago,
Now Left and Right bicker to and fro,
Trying to gain the upper hand,
To spend their way to oblivion,
Ignoring the elephant in the room:
‘Round the corner bankruptcy looms!
Though money flows in the people’s name,
The politicians treat it like a game,
“The economy is about to tank,
Let’s print more from the Central Bank!”
They call Bernanke on the phone,
And arrange to secure another loan.
Crisp green bills like cannon fodder,
With the interest zero on the dollar,
The politicians can spend again,
And act as if they’re noblemen,
Passing bills on the Senate floor,
Then heading back to ask for more,
Never pausing to reflect,
On how they might pay back the debt.
Yet History makes its lesson plain,
That lack of money leads to pain,
Empires past should make us wary,
For their downfalls were always monetary.
So Left and Right, I’m here to say,
There truly is another way,
It’s time to let people be free,
To feed the tree of Liberty,
To end the Wars to End the Fed,
Before the Republic is truly dead.

Science has a simple answer too, but one which is barricaded by a lexicon of required knowledge. From ideas about atoms and mollecules to forces and the various laws of nature, the knowledge which a scientist may take for granted is the same knowledge that daunts the layperson from pursuing a scientific answer.

The journey to a more accurate truth about life is a long one.  If religion, with its simple comforts and basic comprehensibility, works just fine for the average believer, why would they turn to a more incomprehensible theory about atoms and mutations and fossil records?  Without a lot of further study, the layperson would have to accept many of the basics of science on faith alone.  What would be the benefit?  A lack of certainty about the ultimate meaning of it all?  Exclusion from the club to which the rest of his or her society belongs?  Is it really any wonder that most choose to go with the the social club and the guilt-cleansing service religion provides?

Many Atheists assume that there is some higher purpose to human consciousness other than its own indulgence.  Why the need to slave away at absolute truths when, from an evolutionary perspective, the genetic material passed on by both the religious fanatic and the Atheist are identical. Religions have reduced a complex universe down to simple terms which even a child may understand.  What benefit does one have from a more accurate truth, and does the potential benefit outweigh the cost of learning it?  When Science is able to reduce it’s theories down to simple allegories and fables which can be readily grasped by the young generation and those who use their brains more for looks than for mental function, then it will achieve a status as cherished as religion is for billions of people now. From there, it might inspire billions to seek more and more accurate truths once they realize that anyone can learn anything with discipline and patience.

Those scientists among us who see religion as a burden or blemish on humanity, should realize that they are the enlightened few who have traversed the heights of understanding and so it is they who must bridge the gap with those unable to do so themselves.  Far better to allow people to believe generalizations and simplifications about science than to allow the continuation of the God theory with the angels, devils and other superstitious ideas associated with it.

As an example: does a cat care about the truth of whether you have hostile intentions or not?  Oftentimes no.  It won’t waste time pondering the matter, it will simply run away when you approach.  The truth may be that you are friendly and can provide the cat with a good meal, but as a general rule, the cat has preserved the status quo of it’s species in running away from larger animals, avoiding any potential threat.

What Atheists are asking of the religious is to defy the very laws of evolution that the Atheist holds dear.  Thousands of years of history have shown both safety in numbers and that conservation of effort for the same reward is favored by evolution.  Any species which can achieve the same result (passing on of genetic material to offspring which in turn reaches sexual maturity) with the least amount of effort, will ultimately prosper.

Let me make it clearer:  Religion follows the same epistemological process as science on the most basic of levels.  A phenomena is observed (Life).  A reason is given (God).  If we imagine an island-dweller with no concept of the outside world or of scientific knowledge, the model of a God moving the celestial bodies about, providing rain and sunshine as needed, elegantly fits their basic understanding of the world.  It is a theory in the scientific sense.  With our modern knowledge, it is not difficult to poke holes in this theory or any other simple theory of existence, but usually the adoption of new theories are based on their utility, not their inherent truth.

There are theories and then there are things that work.  What scientists must do better is educate an ignorant populace about the wonders of scientific knowledge.  They must do this not in an arrogant way, but in a sympathetic way.  They must be the translators of knowledge into simple terms, which reveal the real-life practicality of these theories.

The basics of evolution: A bird has three children, all of whom are slightly different to one another. Two of those birds happen to be better at flying away from predators than the other one. The poor flier is eaten and doesn’t have children. The other two have two children. Now we have two separate family tree branches: light feathered and dark feathered offspring. The light-feathered offspring are easily seen by predators and they are eaten before they can reproduce, leaving only dark-feathered birds. This is the process of natural selection, whereby small variances in the children influence their survival and hence their ability to pass on their genetic code. Over millions of years, this results in major changes in life forms, as some variations are better than others at surviving in their environment.

For the religious, knowing the workings of natural processes via science should bring them closer to God, for these are the universal processes by which He operates.  The study of science IS the study of God’s laws!  In my religion, Etheism, knowing science is being closer to knowing the true nature of God.

A while ago, I decided to consider alternatives to Atheism.  I wound up creating my own religion.  I didn’t do it for the chicks, for the fame or for the chance to be crucified.  Nor did I do it because I have grown disillusioned by science.  Science does a great job of explaining the world, our history, the laws of Nature, and even what our near future might look like.  It is essential to our survival and it must continue unhindered, with the full support of humanity.  But what of the big questions that science still cannot answer?  Are we not allowed to wonder why we are here and what our struggle through life is for?  It is for this reason I developed Etheism.

Throughout history, philosophers and preachers have searched for a meaning, some clue as to what it’s all about.  To know this is to know God.  Well, are we getting closer to knowing God yet?

Etheism holds that God is energy.  Using this simple substitution, I dare you to read the ancient biblical texts and see if they don’t make more sense.  What was always most imbecillic about mainstream religion was its view that God was some kind of father figure sitting up in the clouds, listening to what humans do, meddling in their affairs.  Unless you are a young child or a complete and utter moron, this will obviously be insulting to your intelligence.  Defining God as energy allows us to clearly define Him by the natural laws we have for how energy functions in the Universe.  There is still much to learn if we are to become fully enlightened, but at least we are on the way.  As we come to expand our view of the Universe, so too will we expand our definition of God, from petty father figure, to omniscient deity, to Universal constant.

But why define God at all?  There has been, thus far, no evidence to support any theory of a higher consciousness having created any of the phenomena we see around us.  Existence is not evidence of creation.  Even if there had been creation, it must’ve occurred billions of years ago, as our most advanced techniques for dating the age of the earth and of the living creatures who have lived on it indicate.  The absurd idea that the world is but a few thousand years old and that woman was created from man with one of his ribs is childish nonsense which ignores so many facts about the world we have come know.

If you really are religious and are still reading, consider:  God gave you a brain, so why don’t you use it?  You have been given the amazing gift of volition, of choice, of understanding and knowledge.  You are conscious, self-aware and capable of understanding the mysteries of the universe.  You can know why the sun and moon appear to move across the sky, or how people came to look different from each other, some with dark hair and black eyes, others (like me) with fair hair and a fragile relationship with the sun.  God, if He exists, surely doesn’t want you to treat your brain poorly by ignoring the voluminous amounts of evidence supporting the theory of evolution on the one hand, with a book authored by God-knows who, compiled by a bloodthirsty dictator about a prophet none of the authors ever met.

Let me put it another way.  I’m sure that if I put a bag over my head, I could eventually learn how to get on with my life.  But for God’s sake, why not just take off the bag?

Yet, in spite of the horrors committed in its name, religion has been the greatest cause of human population growth in the history of humanity.  The prescription religion has dispensed throughout the Ages has been to “go forth and multiply” and the multitude has obeyed.  Where poverty and religion have combined, the effects have been especially pronounced, generating generation after generation, perpetuating paternalism, all the while passing religion on.  We have assumed that religion was indoctrinated into children early enough that they weren’t able to rationally comprehend it, thereby accepting it as a part of their lives.  But what if it wasn’t just nurture that helped religion to grow and flourish?  What if there was a genetic factor involved?  If there was a genetic link between genes and suceptability to religion, then the religious may well give birth to naturally religious children.  As those who are most religious would quite possibly pass on their genetic material with a greater urgency, the numbers of the religious would be increasing compared to the non-religious.

This may sound like the rantings of a maniac.  “Genetic link to religion?  Such a thing has never been proven!”  And it hasn’t.  But there is good evidence to suggest that there is something in human psychology that gives rise to belief.  You just have to look at it from another angle than religion.

Look at a group of people.  Tasked with a job to do, the group naturally falls into a team of leaders and followers, as each member finds its political place within the group.  We call this politics, but it is actually just an effective way to manage the group dynamic and achieve the result desired.  If a group has too many leaders, it’s focus is diluted and the group can splinter into factions.  Unless some members can switch to a follower mentality, allowing themselves to “follow the leader” as it were, the group will be unfocussed.  Unless other members can lead those other members, giving direction and balance to the group, the group will be doomed.  It seems that, like bees, a person can adopt either role in order to achieve the higher purpose of the group.  Throughout history, those who have been able to follow their leader precisely, by aligning their own goals, dreams and desires with the group have had an uncanny ability to win.  Independence of mind and spirit have traditionally worked well for the leaders of the world, but have fared poorly in group dynamics.  Hell, I have a hard enough time living with this kind of mindset in these supposedly independent and free times.  I would’ve probably been burned on the stake before my 15th birthday, had I been born a couple of thousand years prior.

I think it is not a coincidence that political fervour often mimics religious fervour.  Our tendency to follow has protected us in the past, allowed our groups to function more effectively (though quite often being murderously effective).  It gave humanity strength, yet it is at the same time its weakness.  In the evolution of human thought, it is natural that we would transition from a group to an individualistic mentality.  Trouble is, it seems we are going backwards.  Back in the 4th century BC, Aristotle and Socrates were chatting philosophy, trying to derive the nature of the universe.  Artistotle himself could be said to be the founding father of Science.  Yet, it took almost two thousand years for scientific thought to actually take hold.  Had we not been afflicted with the mind-stunting ignorance of religion for centuries, where might we be now.

I’m pretty sure we’d have flying cars.  Leonardo da Vinci would have invented them for sure.

I created Etheism in the hope of creating, not another closed dogmatic system of belief, but an evolving, inclusive vision of a universe which would one day welcome us into its arms.  As our technology and our knowledge increase, as we come to learn more and more secrets of this amazing universe, we may well give birth to creations which allow us to explore the cosmos (or at the very least fly to work).  Who knows what intelligence we may find, given the means of conducting a more thorough search.  But even if we remain alone in the universe, we will advance or die together.  Our own small roles in continuing the delicate spark of life will remain, even after the circumstances of our birth, death and all that happened in between fades into eternity.

Etheism is a celebration of Life.  A unifier, not a divider.  It is a religion which is pro-science, pro-life AND pro-choice, pro-rational individual and pro-understanding.  It is inclusive.  If you’re alive, you can join.  Those who we disagree with, we feel compassion toward, never hatred.  We feel connected to the universe and relish the joys of life.  We understand that God may fill our bodies and world around us, but this universe is a self-determined one.  We live and die by our own choices.  There is no supernatural force, guiding the outcome.  We are not disappointed by this, as we understand that the natural world is so full of wonderful and amazing things that there is simply no need for the supernatural.  As for the purpose of humankind, perhaps one day it will achieve harmony.  That is our goal.  When we learn to form a synnergy with our natural world, we might discover a higher form of existence, leading to still other higher and higher forms.

The answers to all of our questions are right there in the puzzle we call life.  It’s up to us to solve it.

Solution: After Googling, doodling and racking my brain, I finally just thought like a computer.  As a result, I’m typing away again.

This Toshiba Satellite M200 has been pretty good until now.  I’ve had it for almost 2 years and apart from overheating on warm days, it’s been a pretty solid machine.  I do lots of video editing on it and the speed at which it renders is quite impressive for a tiny laptop.

However, impressed I was not when, during a long night of tapping out a script, my battery died.  It made a feeble attempt to go to sleep just prior to this, but as the battery gave out it’s last squirt of power, Windows wrote about all the lovely things I had been typing and how it wanted to remember them later, but then all went black.

My natural recourse was to plug in the power.  That I did.  I saw a flash screen for Phoenix Labs, as one might see while the computer wakes up.  No boot options or suggestions to hit the Delete key.  Then a black screen, a flashing cursor and nothing happening in the hard drive department.  No worries, I thought.  Corrupted restore file is the problem.  I’ll just shut off the power and hold the button a really long time.  This is how I show my laptop I really mean business.

After that didn’t work, I still wasn’t worried.  I’ll take out the battery.  If things get serious and button pushing doesn’t work, start the strategic withdrawal phase.  Know that this phase, once started, could lead to the computer’s destruction, as each increasingly integral component is taken out and yet the game goes on.  Battery comes out easily.  Goes back in seconds later.  There, the hardware will be power starved, not remember anything and the system will reboot from scratch.  But after another boot, there is that damn black screen and cursor, blinking at me as though taunting me.  Off, on, off, on, you don’t treat me well… on, off, on, off,  you suck at computers.

Here was I, trying to work this out in a civilized way.  I push a button here, I push a button there, computer works.  We don’t have to create a scene.  We don’t want anyone to get hurt.  But you made me pull out your battery because you still didn’t work after I had tried so hard to be polite.  And now we’ve already crossed over to the dark side.  Now I have a taste for this game of torture.  What will it take for you to work for me?

I took out, then replaced the RAM.  Blink, blink, ha, ha.
I pulled out the hard drive, plugged it back in.  No, no, blinked the screen.
I inserted said hard drive into a portable unit and checked to see it was working.  All was well.
I racked the internet, which told me to hold the power button for a minute, run boot disks (obviously no boot menu so can’t boot), change Windows power options (hello, not booting!) or update my BIOS.  The cursor actually found the last one quite amusing.  Blink, blink, go ahead and try, it said.

I have no idea where the nearest Toshiba shop is.  I really didn’t want to have to find out.  I had to come up with another solution.  I spend a good part of my day sitting in front of my computer and if that vast stretch of time is gone I might start reading books or doing something productive.  As you can see, I desperately needed a solution.

Toshiba laptop, turns on.  What happens?  What would I do if I were that laptop.  The first thing I do of a morning is check to see that I’ve got all my bits.  Legs, arms, face, dick, balls, OK.  It really is all a man needs to be a man.  Everything else is extraneous.  Sure, I’ll put a T-shirt on and may even wear pants, but first I’m checking to make sure I have some legs to put in those pants.  So, if I’m a computer waking up from a deep sleep, I think I’ll be checking to see that my parts are all cool.  If they are, then move on to the hard disk boot sequence and let Windows do the rest.

I’m going to pause here to mention that my approach to problem solving my computer is to FBM.  First blame Microsoft.  There’s no passion there.  It’s all for show.  I guess companies are a lot like their founders.  In this case, bland.  That’s how I see Microsoft.  I’m going to have a little rant about my phone with its Microsoft Windows Mobile operating system in the very near future, I can feel it.  When a problem arises, I assume that it’s a Windows fault.  For example, when going to sleep, have a tag to say not complete.  When the session saving has finished, change that tag to finished. When the system boots up, if session saving tag reads finished, restore it.  If it reads not finished, do a fresh boot.  Simple.

So in my mind, it’s the point after the system check that everything goes wrong.  So I try to make the security check fail.  I pull out the hard disk again, but this time leave it out.  I turn on the computer.  The now-familiar Phoenix logo flashes, the little blue bar down the bottom fills, then…

Black screen, flashing cursor.  Its blinks seem slower this time, as though it was an effort to blink them out.  It says, “you got me”.  Suddenly, a bunch of white writing appears.  Hardware failure!  Blah, blah, blah!  I reset the computer, plug in the hard drive and voila! We’re back to standard boot-up.

The whole process from start to finish took almost 2 days.   I am most unsettled when Google can’t solve my problems.  It has become like a big brother to me and when it doesn’t come through, I’m left vulnerable, having to use my own brain for a change.  But my brain proved that it is still working and that it, with the help of a little Microsoft distrust, could still save me from a life of productivity.

It’s like money.  Some people will hesitate to spend money on a new pair of shoes, whereas they will happily sink their money into a gadget they could probably live without.  Marketing is based on creating a desire and making it appear like a need.  After envisioning an enriched life with the new product, we feel loss when we go back to the real world.  That loss creates a buying urge.  That buying urge lasts momentarily, but it’s why telemarketing and infomercials do such great business.  They create motivation by promoting a reward.

I am motivated by dissatisfaction.  I may have a streat of obsessive compulsive running through me.  It’s controllable, but I can definitely feel it’s pull.  Once I am aware of something better, I am consumed by the desire to get it and implement it in my life.  This is useful and a huge burden, for I spend a great deal of time being intensely dissatisfied with the way things are.  For the things that are easily changeable, like my hairstyle or clothes, it’s a useful way to motivate that next haircut or shopping trip.  On the other hand, when it involves the superfluous, like my desktop wallpaper or defraging my computer hard disk, it just wastes time.  But when it really hurts is when I confront things which are nearly impossible to change, for that is dissatisfaction with no payoff and no viable chance of resolution.  It’s an emotion only inches from despair and feelings like these things can make life miserable.

God, grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
the courage to change the things I can;
and the wisdom to know the difference.

This is the mantra for Alcoholics Anonymous and it’s wisdom can’t be overlooked.  Yet it’s the last part, the wisdom to know the difference which stumps me.  Some things are impossible and we can easily know they are impossible.  But life is filled with people who accept too many things as being impossible, when in fact they are possible.  Often, we can’t know what’s possible or impossible until we try.  Edison had 1000 failed attempts at making the light bulb, Churchill lost every election for public office until he was 62, Sigmund Freud was booed off stage when he first presented his ideas, Michael Jordan was kicked off his high school basketball team, Henry Ford went broke five times before he succeeded and history is filled with scores of other such tales.  Click here if you’d like some more examples.

Van Gogh sold only one painting during his life. And this to the sister of one of his friends for 400 francs (approximately $50). This didn't stop him from completing over 800 paintings.

I have lived by the saying:

EVERYTHING IS POSSIBLE

because I would rather attempt the impossible and fail than to resign myself to accepting that some things just can’t be done.  It’s an exciting outlook and it’s the only way to achieve the impossible.

So, I feel motivated to change the things which I feel could be improved because I believe that everything is possible to change and make better.  I am motivated to do so by my strong feelings of dissatisfaction.  Seems good?

Then why am I not in the gym?  Why am I not well-versed in the Korean language?  Why don’t I keep my bike, room or shoes neatly cleaned and polished every day?  Because the dissatisfaction I use as a motivator is not motivation enough in small doses.  Eventually that dissatisfaction may grow until I force myself to really do something about it, but then I’ll only do it until the feeling subsides and stops bothering me.

If we motivate ourselves through negativity, we are creating a place for negativity in our lives.  The things which we want to get done rely upon emotions of guilt or sadness which we seek to avoid.  It goes without saying that this is a less than ideal state in which to live.

If we spend our lives backing away from negativity, we are facing the wrong direction and have no hope of finding and catching our dreams.

The solution then, is to transform those negative thoughts into a positive vision of the future.

As it is, U.S. students score well below other developed nations.  In a 2006 international science and mathematics test, U.S. 15-year-olds scored 30th in Science and 35th in Math (behind Latvia and Estonia).   The money for Social Security has been spent.  One in every 31 Americans is either in jail, on parole or on probation.  Meanwhile, the government keeps handing out trillions of dollars to corporations who had a hand in the current financial crisis.

Internationally, the US government (on behalf of it’s largely ignorant populace) has carried out simultaneous wars around the globe, maintained its military presence in over 70 countries and has engaged in assassination and torture.

The revolution is coming.

How long can a population have their productivity taxed, their savings stolen, their good name tarnished and their children retarded by an ever-growing system of incompetence and corruption?  How far will the American Empire stretch before it totally collapses?  All I know is, it can’t be much longer.

America is a geographical location, no longer an idea like it used to be.  However, the principles America was founded on are no longer visible, except as a horribly disfigured Dorian Gray contortion of themselves.  Freedom used to mean something, not just the right to shovel as much food in your face as possible.  Somewhere along the lines, true freedom was bartered for 24-hour movie channels and the strong, independent-minded American just became the loud, obnoxious know-it-all whom everyone despises, yet no-one will tell to shut up.

So where did it all go wrong?  We don’t know the exact date, but we do know that the system was broken long before either of the Bushes, though they did more than their fair share.  What we do need to focus on is the solutions.  Here are my top ten:

1. Wake up.  Address reality, not the fiction you mistake for reality.  Americans have long believed that they were number one, that what they are doing is right, that they can do no wrong and live however they please.  Rationality over mysticism, facts over opinions and science over religion.  

2. Halt the income tax, replace it with a flat tax on spending.  Why, oh why do we tax income?  Hard work should be encouraged, not punished.  Income tax is not only unnecessary and immoral, but it’s also the reason your politicians can redistribute obscene amounts of money to their corporate friends.

3.  Tie down the currency.  You must realize that as you read this, you are being taxed invisibly.  Each time the Federal Reserve prints new money (ie. all the time) the value of your money goes down.  That’s a tax on savings.  It’s immoral and it’s like a credit card with no limits in your name being spent on your behalf by politicians.  Link the currency to a commodity like gold and then the politicians can’t spend money they don’t have.  Simple.  Surprisingly it’s our old commie friends Russia and China who have offered this up as a logical way of bringing stability to international markets.  You know things are bad when the communists know more about capitalism than you do.

4. Bring home your troops.  Yes, all of them.  America, you do not own the world.  Nor can you afford to maintain your world empire.  Even if you could, you’re not welcome.  If your presence was a positive influence, then maybe.  However it has long been known that you have long conspired against foreign governments to further your own interests while creating more conflicts than you solve.  Your military help would be better on-call and then, only if it’s absolutely necessary.

5. Update education to a 21st century methodology.  Old laws and regulations keep new thoughts and ideas from being implemented.  Teachers’ unions make the education system both bloated and ineffective.  Any field in which competition is discouraged suffers from the same falling standards.  Less regulation, more independence and the demolition of the DoE.  Allow the market to provide schools which will be rewarded or punished depending on their quality.  Just like we do with food.

6. Decriminalize drugs.  Where in your constitution is the right to dictate what others do with their bodies?  In the interests of “public safety” your legislators have helped the drug lords to get rich.  Were drugs legal, they would be placed on shelves and served to adults in controlled amounts and of a predictable quality.  Contrast this to now, where people of all ages are dealt drugs of unpredictable quality to be used in secret for fear of discovery and legal consequence.  Drug dependence is a health issue, not a criminal issue.  Addicts need help and adults in a free society need not be told what they can or can’t do with their own bodies.  It does seem that this one is catching on in the mainstream media, albeit slowly.

7. End the culture of violence and paranoia.  In line with #4, you have a lot of work to do at home to correct the pervasiveness of weapons and violence in your own culture.  It’s almost impossible to find an American movie that does not have a gun featured at one time or another.  Gun control is one answer.  Education and a culture of brotherhood addresses the bigger picture of aggression.  We have lost our sense of community, not just in America, but in most modern societies.  We need to find ways to repair the social fabric of which we are all a part.

8. Stop blaming capitalism and let insolvent companies fail.   The system of capitalism is the fairest and most efficient economic system devised by man.  ’Capitalism run amok’ has been blamed for the current crisis.  Companies have been bailed out because of some apparent shortcomings of the system.  Excuse me, but capitalism is just fine.  Capitalism is a system whereby foolish moves are punished.  If you’re a bank and you bought some bad assets, then you lose.  When you fail, others will capitalize and then grow in your stead.  Capitalism made America great and gave you the lifestyle you currently enjoy.  Learn what it is and what it’s not.  Bailing out companies with public money is the very antithesis of capitalism as it rewards stupidity.  It should come as no surprise then that the current system is not capitalism and hasn’t been for a long time.  We live in the age of corporatism where companies lobby to receive favors and funding from the government.  Where excess legislation creates barriers to new entry, thereby reducing competition.  Your Founding Fathers would turn in their graves to know that the majority of Americans today still think they live in a capitalistic society.

9. Take personal responsibility.  Educate yourself on politics, the correct way to educate your children, on healthy eating, on philosophy, the world, on history and science.  Reality is all around you and you are personally capable of understanding it all.  You just have to open your eyes and try.

10. Get on the metric system.  If anything is a more glaring indicator that America is still way behind in science, it’s the fact that they still use the arbitrary notions of feet, inches and gallons when the entire world uses metric (Myanmar and Liberia excepted).  Wouldn’t it be nice to have a system of measurement which is easily convertible between units and which is based on the dimensions of the world, not of some ancient king’s shoe size?  Are you guys just jealous because France came up with the idea first?

‘Mental Block’ by Elif Ozkoc

Inspiration is just a momentary clearing of one of the blocks. Drugs, alcohol sometimes allow us to temporarily clear these blocks, but we must find a way to clear them permaently by a study of their underlying causes.

Imagine something you do well. Maybe you can hit a tennis ball well, maybe you can peel apples or maybe it’s just wiping your own ass. Actions we are good at run smoothly from start to finish, as soon as we have the inclination to instigate them. A geniuses process is the same. A genius writer might turn his mind to create a new play. His mind will leap to selection of a striking idea to base his new play on. He draws from his experiences and chooses an idea that stands out. He then relishes in selecting an appropriate scene on which to display that idea, a scenario that would show all the qualities of the idea. His mind dances around it, a dreamlike fantasy as he composes places and characters, all the while drawing from his experiences to flesh out the scene. Having shaped the story in his mind, he then sets out to write it down, to play with words, searching out the right one in an instant. In his mind, there is no effort. Everything is balanced and has no weight. His mind is free from doubt, just as your legs are as they walk along. Just as you could stop walking at any time, or change course or break into a run, this genius writer’s mind is free from the fears, doubts, worries or shames that would silence or crush his ideas. Writing, to him is a pleasure.

To me, and most of the world’s other writers, we find ourselves blocked at various stages of the process. To clear these sticking points, we need to examine ourselves very hard. We must look into our own psyche and find the fears, doubts, worries we have had, the automatic assumptions that we have made which shut down our engines. For some of us, it may just be a lack of knowledge. Even the genius may need to expand his knowledge and experiences to flesh out his idea.

Acquiring knowledge and excorcising demons are all ways to convey our ideas. And conveying our ideas is just one more way of communicating a part of ourselves to the universe.

The queue for the bus outside the Namdaemun market

I was heading home from school. I’d taken the bus at Gwanghwamun and there had been no people on it at the time, so I secured a good seat. The bus traveled past Seoul Station and Namdaemun Market before heading up the hill towards my place. At the market, the bus always fills up with old people. Namdaemun seems to be a market aimed at old people exclusively, as there is nothing there that anyone under 50 would be caught dead wearing. The curious thing is, most of the old people who board the bus there aren’t carrying anything. Perhaps it’s just a place to go to hook up with other old people. Who knows, but for the sake of the story let’s just take it that there were a good deal of old people on the bus this day.

Normally, in polite social circles, a young man should get up and let an older person sit down. This much is common knowledge. But there is a certain amount of leeway here. For age is such a relative thing. Someone may look sixty or seventy, but could actually be much younger, or a much younger person may have difficulty standing for some reason of health or circumstance. You have to make a quick decision as to their relative age and need. So here I was, enjoying my seat, but weighing up the woman who had shuffled into my vicinity, who seemed about 50, give or take a decade. I must have pondered this for a minute or so because I noticed we had already ascended the hill and were about three stops from mine.

Now here is where I feel my defect in personality shows itself. I call it a defect, maybe it’s too strong. Perhaps it’s an advantage, a knack for slicing through the bullshit. However it may seem, I’ll admit to feeling a little guilty when I caught myself thinking it. For up to this point, I had purely honorable intentions. I assumed that my desire was to help this old lady sit down and take a load off. Wasn’t that my desire?

I started to get up when another thought hit me. If I was to get up now, I would naturally move toward the door. The woman who took my place would assume that I had vacated my seat due to the fact that I was getting off. She would not notice until later, maybe never at all, that I had in fact got up early on her behalf. I would be giving up my seat and not getting any recognition for this fact.

Ok let me stop you right there. I know, I’m a monster. Giving up your seat to a person older than you is not something you should seek praise for. But think about it. When you do give it up you do it in an obvious way don’t you? A little bow, a gesture, maybe you add “please, sit down” and smile. Why did you do that? It’s not necessary. Except that it makes you look good. If you were truly selfless you would get up, pretending that you had somewhere else to be and let the seat speak for itself.

The typical everyday scene inside the 402 bus

That was my dilemma. On the one hand she was old, on the other hand not really that old. She had just got on, I was soon to get off. I’d give my seat, but would not get credit even if I did the song and dance because too much time had passed already. I was in the no-man’s land of etiquette. Life isn’t always clear cut. Sometimes you have to make a choice you’re not proud of later. In the choice between getting up with no credit and enjoying my seat, I chose the latter.

Feel free to tell me what a bad person I am. I can’t help but agree. But next time you’re giving up your seat for someone older, giving your little bow, smiling your sympathetic smile, ask yourself how much of that was really necessary and how much was just for that little rush of self-indulgent pride you got when they thanked you. Just how selfless are you really?