Fishing

"Give a man a fish and he eats for a day, teach him to fish and he eats forever."

Fucking bullshit!

This is that simple minded World Vision, bleeding heart, fucking stupidity that brings out my goddamn apoplexy . Go into a poor country and teach some guy to fish. Whoopy! He can go on a nice fishing holiday to the fucking Bahamas when he becomes a fucking millionaire in the Democratic Republic of the Genocidal Maniacs National Lottery.
It doesn't fucking matter that this guy's family is only going to eat until some hungry son of a bitch who doesn't know how to fish kills him for his rod. No one thinks about the fact that this man used to be the only basket maker in his village, and he never got round to teaching his son how to weave because he discovered fishing, which bought him more HIV positive whores. Now he's ruined most of the baskets with rotting fish, and the village can't store grain for their cows during the winter, so they can't trade with the other villages who need meat in the summer because their cows got hit by foot and mouth. Which means they don't get any extremely high quality tobacco to trade with the Westerner, so they don't get any money to improve the village's infrastructure and improve their quality of life.
They can't store the grain any more so they have to expand the pasture for the cows, felling trees and destroying the grass land. The soil can't hold all the water anymore, creating puddles and swamps for mosquitoes and malaria, which kills the young and the elderly. The dead elderly can't teach the dying young how to grow maze any longer so they all begin to starve.
The starving people become violent, blaming other villages for their problems. Feuds turn into wars, and the Western media takes notice. Bleeding hearts rush to bring food and medicine which keeps those of fighting age alive, feeding the ever more brutal armies that are funded by the only thing left to them. Diamonds.
Not even the greatest bleeding heart in London or Sydney can say no to shiny carbon, twinkling on her finger.

So fuck you Tim Costello and every bleeding heart motherfucker like you. You fund and fuel the engine of destruction to further your own egos. Fuck all of you Mother-Fucking-Teresa, psychopathic, image driven Branjelina "do-gooders." If you want to be a real fucking hero and help poor people, stop voting for inverventionist leaders and allowing your parliments to pass those paradoxial "Free Trade Agreements" which forcebly divert the productive capacity of poor people away from living, to feeding our Western greed.

We aren't responsible for the lives of people far away, or even next door. We're responsible for the consequences of our actions. You really should think those through the next time you send off that tax deductable donation.

Lyrics: Rev 20:20- Puscifer

I find this funny...

Don't be aroused, by my confession
Unless you don't give a good Goddamn about redemption
I know Christ is comin', so am I
And you would too if the sexy devil caught your eye

She'll suck you dry
But still you'll cry, to be back in her bosom
To do it again
She'll make you weak
And mourn and cry, to be back in her bosom
To do it again

(Pray) Til I go blind
(Pray) Cause nobody ever survives
Prayin' to stay in your arms just until I can die a little longer
Satyrs and saints, devils and heathens and lies
She'll eat you alive

Jesus is risen, it's no surprise
Even he would martyr his mama to ride to hell between those thighs
The pressure is building, at the base of my spine
If I gotta sin to see her again then I'm gonna lie and lie and lie

She'll make you cry
I'll sell my soul, to be back in your bosom
Gladly now please suck me dry
And still you'll cry, to be back in her bosom
To do it again

(Pray) Til I go blind
(Pray) Cause nobody ever survives
Prayin' to stay in her arms just until I can die a little longer
Satyrs and saints, devils and heathens and lies
She'll eat you alive

My pulse has been rising
My temples are pounding
The pressure is so overwhelming and building
So steady they're fretting I'm ready to blow
What is she what is she what is she waiting for?

(Pray) Pray til I go blind
(Pray) Pray cause no one ever survives
Prayin' to stay in her arms just to die longer
Satyrs and saints, devils and heathens and lies
She'll eat you alive
[ Rev 22:20 Lyrics on http://www.lyricsmania.com/ ]

Self Esteem

The Western economy is suffering from sever self esteem issues, it's really important for us to take steps to address the problem. It needs to look itself in the mirror and repeat the words "I am not fat on debt. I am not consuming too much. In fact, I need to consume more and more!" If we don't improve the economy's self esteem, there is a chance it may sink into a depression and take drugs and have unprotected sex with other economies and die in childbirth while other little economies are born.

This is pretty much what all Western governments and central banks are thinking right now, but really it's bullshit. The economy is too fat. We need to go on diet, and get some exercise producing more than we consume. The economy feels bad, because it's a hideous mess, but our paternalistic big-brother's are telling us it's still beautiful and feeding us more doughnuts. We have waning car industries in Australia and the US, not because of a lack of credit, but because the cars suck ass and they're hemorrhaging cash on overpaid Union Workers and dumb executives. We can't bail them out no matter how much free money we hurl at them, because their costs are going to increase through inflation faster than Kevy-o-sevy can say "This is for working families."
Sadly, bailouts on in all countries, are going to hit those very families harder than just letting a broken system flush away. It's quite simple. More money is injected into the upper echelons of bad businesses, now whether or not these businesses get back on their feet is irrelevant, because that money otherwise would not be in circulation, therefore the money has been inflated and has less value. Which in layman's terms means that things will cost more, so by the time that money filters down to you and me the benefits have been largely negated. That's the best case scenario too.

Proposal

My proposal for my "class" up at the community center.

I would like to put forward a request that I would be able to run a weekly class on any one weeknight for about six weeks or longer during 2009. Each class will focus on various aspects of political philosophy in what I hope will be a threefold manner.

1) An interactive lecture on a political aspect or issue of my choosing. (see the First Six)

2) Responses/rebuttal from individual class members, with their points of view.

3) A discussion of recent events (And coffee etc.)


The First Six

Session One: The Paradigm
As an introduction to myself and everyone else in the group, I plan on exploring the left/right paradigm and where we all sit on our own little spectrum. However the point of the lecture will be to challenge that paradigm by looking at how much of it is based on word association and group pigeonholing. I hope to end the session having made mention of distractionary politics and how to combat it. (The stimulus for the session will be my own piece, Archetypes in Stereo.)

Session Two: The Failures of Logic

Following on from The Paradigm, I will be putting forward ideas based on "Big Picture Logic" in an argument against various policies from around the world, not pertaining to any set ideological grouping. However by the end of the lecture I do intend to have put forth examples of ideological failures that relate to logic.

Session Three: The Argument for Anarchy

A different type of lecture, where I will put forward a partially tongue and cheek argument for anarchism. Overall, this will be an attempt to explain how personal and economic freedom are interlinked.

Session Four: The Austrian

An introduction to The Austrian School of Economics, and economic freedom.

Session Five: The Smaller Picture

How do we stay free? How to get through the "Global Economic Crisis" on your own.

Session Six: The Revolution

The final session about how we can change the things that really matter and what personally would like to be doing.

With these sessions I hope to provide knowledge and information to members of the local community, and improve substantive awareness of politics in the wider world. I will endeavor to make the classes entertaining (I have a very dark sense of humor, and can make all kinds of horrible things funny.)

As for costing, this will depend on the center's policy and how many people come, but I would like to make a little cash out of this, or at least cover my expenses to a degree.

YOU ARE ALL DREAMING

For those of you with the time, I would like to direct you to a brilliant online book called Economics In One Lesson, by Henry Hazlitt. This very short book beautifully explains the fallacies that our modern economic system is based on in a simple and concise manner. Even if you are ambivalent towards economics, I strongly encourage you read it anyway. Simple understanding of economic fundamentals is extremely beneficial financially, and is very important to everyone's future freedoms.

And for those who think this is dry and dull... Fuck you!

http://jim.com/econ/contents.html

House

For those who know me, you would know that due to something being wrong with my knee, I have taken to the use of a cane as my primary mode of transportation. I'm sure this is hilarious to see; a young once extremely athletic, man hobbling around the college, looking like he's about to yell at you to get off his lawn.

But as it turns out, my knee is somewhat the medical mystery. 5 years of increasing and generalized pain, where physio does not help, lead me to a Sports Doctor. Now after telling me that part of his job is to keep me away from surgeons, the sports doctor sends me to get an MRI.
I return to him with the scan, and he immediately shows me that I have a multiseptated ganglia, and I just need to see a surgeon and it will be all gone! Yay!!
But I get to the see the ortho-surgeon, and he is stumped by the fact that the ganglia is so small, and causing so much pain.
Off to get X-Rays, which are totally clear.
More confusing.
So I'm sent to another ortho-surgeon who is supposed to be a little better at soft tissue related things... He points out that the cyst isn't in the area where the pain is most severe, and it is not communicating with the joint. Added to this, there isn't much he can do to aggrivate the knee mechanically. (To tell the truth, it hurt slightly less while being prodded and twisted, but that could just be distraction.)
Big mystery!
Now I get a bone scan and if they still can't figure out what's wrong with me with that, I'll be taken along to a meeting of all the local ortho-surgeons who will all ponder the enigma that is my knee.

I enjoy the show, but it's a pity that House ever hit televisio. It makes my limp seem less... Origional.

Alive part 3- Cultivation

Read part 1 and 2

I've never had a near death experience and most likely never will. I'm not going to wake up force-fed the fire that will cleanse me of my failures. Sitting and hoping for it just got me burned.

We starve when we don't eat. I wasn't starving because I ran out of food. I began to starve, because I didn't eat when I was hungry and instead of dying, I gave in. I let the hunger take over. I filled my mind with all the disaster it longed for. I accepted it... and I ate.
I ate, and stayed alive. But I found that I had consumed everything around me. There were no more problems to solve that I could see. No more thoughts to bridge the gap. Nothing to cling to.

But I was alive.

This hasn't been a depressed, hopeless tirade. This has a happy ending, it just hasn't got there yet, and likely won't for many years.

I was alive, and that's the best place to start.
Life, creates more life... So I planted a garden. They're just small seedlings now, but I'm watering them, feeding them. Cultivating a crop that will feed the hunger, and keep me alive, keep me growing, and help me become strong again.

Being Alive isn't over, so there isn't a happy ending to this post. But I'm pleased enough to pause on a reasonably positive point in the story.

Alive part 2- Starvation

Read part 1 first.

Starving people become desperate.
I NEEDED, something, anything to fill that hole. So I began to try and feed off the people I relied on. I tried to gorge myself, so I was not swallowed whole. But you can't eat validation or drink pity. You can only exhaust it's supply.

Desperate people become delusional.
I fought for every last scrap I could, clinging to the insane hope that I could stave off disaster with other peoples thoughts. Deluded and starving, I managed to suck away the well of good care, that I believed I needed and relied upon. The craving continued to burn, continued to grow larger, I couldn't handle the thoughts anymore, couldn't sort through the delusion.

Delusions collapse into hopelessness.
Without hope to cling to, I drifted, ready to let the delusions swallow me hole... And I waited to die.

Also to be continued.

Alive part 1- Hunger

I wasn't meant to post on this blog, this week, but I changed my mind, and am posting a whole series :P

I've never had a near death experience. I've never seen the blinding light, never conversed with my creator or talked with my dead grandmother on the other side. I've never had holy purpose careen down the feeding tube, to fill my belly with righteous fire, as my brain shut down.
In some way, I used to wish that I did wake up one morning in a hospital bed, to find myself compelled to right the wrongs of my life, or find the zeal and meaning I surely lacked.

I have even hoped for disaster to strike, so I may be energized into action. Something to struggle against so I could fill the void that I felt in my personality. Something to feed the hunger. Some way to feel alive. I remember praying for war and economic disaster. Praying to nothing, and clinging to the empty hope, that someday, I'll find something meaningful for my ego and anima to devour, so they could become whole.

Some people drink to fill void. Some drug themselves into their own oblivion, in an attempt to fill the pit, or hide from it. Others will sleep around, hurt themselves, or even hurt the people close to them. Just to bridge the gap with feeling, or forget the emptiness.

I think. Thinking, planning, and solving problems helps to keep me sustained. But sometimes that can backfire. Sometimes it becomes impossible not to think of the hunger. I dwell on the hunger, until it grows so strong, I become afraid it will consume me, control me. I become afraid, I'll go and create the struggle I used to pray for. Fear makes the hunger grow stronger, too.

So in the end, there's only one thing to do. One thing to stop it. Render oneself too weak to think, plan, or even move. I have let my body waste, and strength wane. I have been reliant on others to survive. Reliant on them to give me the will to rise in the morning. But the hunger is still there, fueling hope for the terrible. Eventually I began to starve.

... Time for something to eat. (Literally, I need lunch.)

To be continued.

EPIC

I've been so bored over last 3 days I have made 8 posts (including this one) on two blogs, with one incomplete but scheduled for January. Woohoo!! This epic feat of internet usage has lead me to create, the EPIC awards. Awards that I give myself, and anyone else who has depressing amounts of free time on their hands.

And the winner of the first occasional EPIC is... ME!! Yes, me everyone! Patting myself on the back for being the biggest waste of bandwidth since RickRolling. I would like to thank my non-existant boss, for not existing and everyone else who should be harrassing me to do something important.

Something Interesting

Normally I'm all gloom and doom about politics but today a couple interesting reports have surfaced that give me heart.

1) Here : Voter turnout in the US has barely risen, despite a massive swing to the Dems. This indicates that a fair chunk of the Republican party stayed home this election day, which tells me they were not all that scared about Obama being the Anti-Christ that they would vote for McPalin. This says about 2 % of the GOP isn't completely insane and about 39% of the US figured there was no point voting for either. Why would such a dismal report on their democracy please me? Well basically it confirms my belief that Americans are still not satisfied with their two party system and if they aren't satisfied, they'll be more receptive to the Third Parties next time round. Here's to hoping Nader, Paul, Bawldwin and Mckinney etc. can get into the debates and finally get some real discourse happening.

2) Here: Finally they're at least partially admitting what I have been thinking all along. Georgia was at least mostly responsible for the out break of hostilities in August. This is an example of one of the many arguments I have against America's foreign policy, but that's something for another time.

There we go, some positivity. I' m glad I have Google News, it was quite a pleasant find today.

Unconditionally Irritating

After my post, "Love", I've had a thought on unconditional love and why we find it so annoying when people seem to show it to us. We all do. I get annoyed when people put up with my shit when they really shouldn't, and the people I love unconditionally get really annoyed with me. (Okay, I can be more annoying because I tend to make a point of telling them just how much I'll be able to put up with before it kills me, whether it's needed or not.)
But why is it so bloody annoying?
Well, as one of those people who hates so much of the world that I pathologically go out and search for things to love, I thinks it's partly because we don't understand how you can love someone for no reason; partly because it makes us feel awkward, and partly because these people have a tendency to suck all the fun out of life with their constant worrying over us.
This adds another dimension: responsibility. If someone loves you unconditionally, you end up feeling responsible for their feelings and they for yours. Plus you can't get rid of them, because they'll just keep coming back with a smug grin saying "I love you."

You start thinking they're completely insane. But in reality, only sane people can love unconditionally. Think about it, we all love some people like that, but only psychopaths can hack their family to bits and feel nothing.
So how do we put up with these annoying people? It's easy, we keep going on as normal. Keep getting annoyed when they annoy us. Keep feeling a bit weirded out by their insistence to help out. Keep holding back the desire to wipe that smug grin off their face and let them be themselves.
None of us have a choice with the people we love like that. No one can stop themselves. It's just life.

There you go, a bit of a break from the political.

4 Degrees

"Lay back and let me show you another way..."

Here's the beginnings of the pitch for my class.

The class is designed for challenging discussion between myself and those who attend. My goals for it are to broaden and intensify political awareness, as well as my own awareness of the local political psyche. I also intend (as everyone does) to get my own views out into the wider community. Mostly because the rEVOLution only requires common sense, I believe this may in fact be effective, and harmless. (By that I mean, I'm not trying to start violent rebellion.)

The problems I expect to face in this, are that many of the people who are likely to come, would be very set in their beliefs [old], and the people under my direction would most likely disagree with me fervently [stupid]. Fortunately, I love arguing my point of view.

I am going to approach the class/group (whatever) from the side. Meaning I'm going to first learn as much has I can about the personalities and ideals of the people who come along, before really attempting to provide information or inject my own.

My first session will be about definitions in politics. What means what to who. (Liberal/ Conservative etc) the ultimate goal of the session will be to help people make better sense of phylosophical debates, and or be able to spot political labelling.
(I will post my session plans... while writing I've decided to call the class/group a session now.)

As a side project, I will be attempting to improve on the Nolan Chart (google it), making it a three dimensional representation of one's political beliefs, rather than just two dimensional.

The revolution is all about education. So like Maynard sings; lay back and let me show you another way.

Classes

I am going to be planning classes/discussion forums on global politics and political philosophy at the community center near where I live... I'm obviously not a hippie, so I think I'm entering an empty market of ideas. I guess this is my way of spreading the Revolution (Okay, this may take some explaining later on, but go with it) or at least testing the waters as far as how I might begin to work towards it.
In a way I guess Barack Obama has inspired me... I don't agree with his philosophy, or the falacious left/right paradime that has brought him to power, but the response by someone I care about greatly, to my negativity about the state the world is in, and how he won't help, has pushed me into action. Basically, I've been told I can't possibly make a difference, because I'm just one tiny insignificant man... Well, I'll just have to prove this someone wrong :)

So I'm going to be planning my first class and an overall proposal for the entirity of the meetings.
I'm thinking once a week for six weeks at some point next year. If there are any questions, leave a comment. I have a lot of planning to do.

Remember The 5th

This was going to be a huge post, but the idea is so simple, so strong, I do not need pretty words to say... Freedom.
Search the internet, for all things for the free, and never forget the 5th.

Love

Hope. People love to hope. It's an incredibly comforting emotion. With hope we can feel safe in a war zone and strong when we're weak. With hope, desperation can be lessened and our spirits lifted. Yes, we love to have something to hope for, even, and in fact especially, if it's indistinct.
So, I ask you, what you hope for? What you want for your life? Now, I truly believe most of what you hope for will have something based in another two emotions. Happiness and Love.

We hope for both. We strive for both. We pursue both. Love and happiness. With hope we long for them. But the audacity of hope is not that it leads us to them, but that it holds us back in it's comforting paternal arms. We sit and we hope for things from On High and Hill. But only in the pursuit of happiness, and the cultivation of love can we find them.

Only in freedom, can we pursue happiness, and chase, guard or court whatever, or whoever, we love. If we choose to surrender to hopes of manna from heaven, and angels with penicillin halos. Hopes of unity and cohesion, we surrender our freedoms. There may be strength in unity, but through strength someone gains power. There may be victory through that strength in unity, but through victory chains can be shackled. And when we're shackled and clinging to hope, we no longer try. We no longer try break free, because hope has us confined in its warm caress. Wrapped in bandages of longing, so tight we can't move. We no longer pursue, because we fear to lose the hope promised by cohesion. We fear to leave the safety of the collective That is the audacity of hope. The audacity to steal freedom with its winning smile and silver tongue.

We can't always cling to our hopes and dreams, sometimes we've just got to let them go and follow them. This is my motivation. What leads me to the decision that I must pursue a world where all can chase their own happiness. This for the loves and fears of my life. For the loves and fears of their lives. For the loves and fears of the individual, not the lust and mass hysteria of the collective. I have been told as a single being I can make no difference, but this is not true. Because I know and love many single beings, who know and love many more. It will spread. Once awoken to the message, one cannot return to the chains.

So in closing, I speak to those who are awake. I ask that you do not let the assaults on freedom harden you. Do not let the jeers of those who are asleep dissuade you. The Revolution will succeed because we love.

Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells...

Christmas is coming ladies and gents, and it's time to get buying, buying, buying... This year we really need you to spend, spend, spend, and spend it early, because nothing makes the economy feel better about itself than giant amounts of household debt! But don't you worry about paying those bills folks, because our fearless leaders have ensured that the banks don't need you to pay it back directly! The Government's going to pay it back for you... But wait! "That's our Tax money," I hear you say! Never fear, because we have this wonderful thing called a Central Bank, that lends money to the government, so they can buy themselves a nice big present too! It's called Re-election, or in Layman's terms a giant barrel of pork! Nothing better than Ham for Christmas lunch, eh?

Anyhoo, I'm prepping a two big posts for my favorite holiday, November 5th (Guy Fawkes Day), so this was just a quicky.