But Some Animals Are More Equal Than Others

"... Then they saw what Clover had seen.
It was a pig walking on his hind legs.
Yes, it was Squealer. A little awkwardly, as though not quite used to supporting his considerable bulk in that position, but with perfect balance, he was strolling across the yard ... And finally there was a tremendous baying of dogs and a shrill crowing from the black cockerel, and out came Napolean himself, majestically upright, casting haughty glances from side to side, and with his dogs gambolling round him.
He carried a whip in his trotter.
...Then came a moment when the first shock has worn off and when, in spite of everything - in spite of their terror of dogs, and of the habit, developed through long years, of never complaining, never criticizing, no matter what happened - they might have uttered some word of protest. But just at that moment, as though at a signal, all the sheep burst out into a tremendous bleating of --
'Four legs good, two legs better! Four legs good, two legs better! Four legs good, two legs better!'"

Father Authority

"Every organization needs strong leadership. At home my word is law. Whatever I say goes. For instance, recently my son wanted a laptop computer for his birthday. I said, "Go ask your mother." And he did. That's respect."

Stephen Colbert

On Politicians

"Nations which select the men who are to govern them might have been expected to choose men commanding universal admiration and affection; it might have been thought that those who were deemed wisest and best would be selected for the delicate and responsible job of managing other people's affairs. This, however, is not the case. In most democratic countries to call a politician is to say something derisive about him ... This is a paradox which was not foreseen by the pioneers of democracy. Indeed, it was not true in their day. When democracy is new it usually brings great men to the fore but it loses this merit as it becomes well established. Why is this?... Meanwhile, let us remember that in a democracy, criticism of our politicians is criticism of ourselves - we have the politicians we deserve."

Bertrand Russell

It sure is ironic that you should not let democracy fully develop for the sake of the nation. When democratic processes are fully established, it becomes a playing field favourable for the popular politician (in the negative sense) and not for a 'governor' - where qualities closer to a good manager, with a good sense of international and ground issues, would be more suitable. The unfortunate limitation of human capacity is such that the people who can 'get there' or usually very different from the people who can 'do it'. When the electorate choose options that will benefit themselves (as people tend to do on promises) and not those 'fit to rule' (which may not benefit the voter), the democratic machine blindsides itself. There is little point in criticizing the democratic system because there isn't anything hitherto better than this bad machine. But all these points toward a view that being more democratic is not necessarily a good thing ... and that we may have arrived at something good, perhaps unintentionally.

The Stillness on the Road

My workplace is considerably far. I spend about two hours on the road, on a public bus, every weekday. During this time, I do a couple of things - read the papers, take a catnap, use the phone, think, fantasize - but most often I listen to music, body and mind still and idle, and gaze at the moving scenery. Contrary to the preference of most people, I don't really dread the locomotion because it gives time to float the weight off my psyche, fill the fissures in my temperament and raise the sensitivities of my intuition. This I believe, is close to what some spirituality-inclined folks regard as the benefits of meditation - a purported enrichment and healing of the soul. It is also close to what some 'people' (for the lack of a better description) like to call 'personal space' - an escape from the unnecessary drama and futile bustle of modern life. I convulse at the use of either terms, meditation or personal space, because one is so 'urgh' (fuddy-duddy? uncool? what!?) and the other is so 'bahh' (emo? corny? what!?). In any case, words are just words and terms terms. The point is that such a still-locomotive 'therapy' (boy, I am on a roll for word loss) is really 'good' (vocab hemorrhage). I refer back to the title, which captures all I really want to say.

There is a line on the left you must not cross

"Modern ideas of liberalism, egalitarian ideals, welfare state concepts ... all these are appropriate in an affluent society, but are largely irrelevant to a nation struggling to escape age-old poverty ... These concepts encourage a propensity to laziness and inaction, inculcate a belief that society owes every man a comfortable living and proliferate trade unions whose main purpose is to get more pay for less work."

Goh Keng Swee

The Dangers of Communism: Marxism, Envy and the Hobbesian Man

As a restless, impressionable teenager who was frequently dissatisfied by my own material well-being, I was easily swayed by Marxist ideas. Throughout the years, I have many times been bought over by it, only to have it fizzled out by the irrelevancy to my day-to-day life. As fortune would have it, and I am fortunate, I never lived in a political milieu where I had a chance for Marxist ideas to germinate. In University, the Marxist scholars that I came to know were mostly hopping on the 'hip', radical bandwagon and severely lacking in any rigorous thought or realistic convictions. On many occasions, admittedly, I identified myself with this ilk of people, if for nothing, just to appear 'smart' or 'critical'.

As I started to think, Marxism began to seem like a frightening joke. Besides not making any economic sense (you don't really need any more evidence than to look at the economic fiascoes in North Korea, Russia, East Germany and the likes); its pitch though seemingly a morally right one, is a dangerously wrong one.

Marxism thrives on a very base and powerful emotion - envy. It borders on the genious of emotive language how Marxism cloaks envy with a cape of justice - that everybody should be equal. Instances where real exploitation takes place are given maximum exposure and unfounded generality. Overwhelmed, envy warps the reader's rationality into a lopsided train of thought that makes an imagined sense of justice so distortedly real. For the intellectually unperceptive, it gives highly-charged motive and erroneous justification for unreasonable action. Marxist material fail to mention one thing: as much as inequality is a very sad fact, it is also a very inevitable, natural phenomenon in any society, a Communist one included.

Communism has a very flawed premise. It conceives of Man in the romantic, as a Rousseau-sort benign nobility. Granted Man having such a capacity, it is closer to the exception rather than the norm. I am of the view, as History and experience has shown me, that Man is of the Hobbesian type. In a Communist society, once the high-falutin ideals start to wear off its charm, he will eventually partake in activities that will benefit himself rather than the greater good. And seeing the Hobbesian man benefit, other men including the romantics because of envy or a sense of justice (familiar?) react. If they are opportunistic, they will do like the Hobbesian man did. If they are not, they will find ways to stop and punish the Hobbesian man. Eventually, they resort to a legal social contract to deter and prevent people from such undesirable behavior. When sanctions originally moralistic turn legalistic to keep order, people's actions originally based on altruism turn into fear of punishment. Consequently, Communism loses its meaning and appeal in the hearts and minds of people; and people soon realise they are hopelessly trapped by rules and sanctions (not to mention physical boundaries and violence witnessed in Eastern Europe and North Korea) with little or no freedom. It befuddles me how Communism can work when its assessment of man is so naive, and throws me into despair how people can still believe it with so much evidence of its repercussions.

Yet, Communism did its part in History; not as it intended but laughingly collateral. It galvanised the poor man's sentiment into an actionable voice; the content of it though erroneous, its form powerful. Governments of the world were reminded not to neglect and pay lip service to the poor, for if they don't protect the interest of the poor man, Communism and its attendant emotive garbage would. That is Communism's greatest legacy - a caveat to governments the Pyhrric victory of the neglected, impressionable poor - its own failure.

The Lessons of Experience

"Most people learn nothing from experience, except the confirmation of their prejudices. To learn anything genuinely from experience requires a kind of open-mindedness which is the essence of the scientific temper, though many men of science are somewhat lacking in it."

Bertrand Russell

Not Everything, No

"There are some roads which we must not follow, some enemy troops we must not fight, some cities we must not attack, some grounds we must not contest, even some orders from the ruler which we must not obey."

Sun Tzu

Look Out

"Think of the different things that may be noticed in the course of a country walk. One man may be interested in the birds, another in vegetation, another in geology, yet another in the agriculture, and so on. Any one of these things is interesting if it interests you, and, other things being equal, the man who is interested in any one of them is a man better adapted to the world than the man who is not interested."

Bertrand Russell

History is a Pendulum

"Cynicism such as one finds very frequently among the highly educated young men and women of [x] results from the combination of comfort with powerlessness. Powerlessness makes people feel that nothing is worth doing, and comfort makes the painfulness of this feeling just endurable. Throughout [y] the university student can hope for more influence upon public opinion than he can have in [x], but he has much less opportunity than in [x] of securing a substantial income. Being neither powerless nor comfortable, he comes a reformer or a revolutionary, not a cynic. The happiness of the reformer or revolutionary depends upon the course of public affairs, but probably even while he is being executed he enjoys more real happiness than is possible for the comfortable cynic."

Bertrand Russell

The above was written in 1930 comparing educated youths of the West and East - sociopolitically, the malaise of the West and purposefulness of the East. Almost 80 years on, this paragraph has struck me as somewhat the reverse, at least to the world that I understand now. Interesting, isn't it.

Social Amnesia

Sun - God - dies solis - Sunday.

Moon - Goddess of Moon - monandaeg - Monday.

Mars - Tyr - dies Martis - Tuesday.

Mercury - wodan (Odin) - Wednesday.

Jupiter - Thor - jove's day - Thursday.

Venus - Frigg - dies veneris - Friday.

Saturn - sater daeg - Saturday.

How did we forget all the Galaxies and Gods and History and Culture and Rituals and Imagination and Fantasy behind our days?

Box' of Shaded Memories #14

Words escape me.

Moral Sentiments

"How selfish soever man may be supposed, there are evidently some principles in his nature, which interest him in the fortune of others, and render their happiness necessary to him, though he derives nothing from it, except the pleasure of seeing it."

Adam Smith

Box' of Shaded of Memories #13

[Suicide Flower]

All that vast anguish of space,
so much time taken to tread.
Compounded to such an ironic end,
like a yellow flash,
a turn of head,
and a careless shrug.
A suicide flower,
didn't fall from the sky.
In impossible anti-climax,
it laid there lazy,
trying to die,
while basking in the sun.

The only story of the world

What is more limited is more desired, and what is more desired is more valuable, and what is more valuable, by virtue in and of itself, will invite increased acquisition. With increased acquisition, it becomes less limited and then less desired, and then less valuable.

Repeat. For (almost) everything.

Working Class Inspiration

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/24/magazine/24labor-t.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1

Political Ideologies

Conservatism (reproduces inequality, for govt intervention):

- inequality as natural aspect of society. Preferable that those from the superior groups should be in positions of power in society and government.

- traditional values provide guidelines for group cooperation and individual behavior. And it is the role of institutions such as the family, the church, the government to communicate and enforce these values.

Classical Liberalism (reproduces inequality, against govt intervention):

- while equality before the law (equality of opportunity) is important, government should not attempt to create material equality (equality of outcomes). People pursue their interests in different ways and with different levels of success. Even in situations of hardship, government action is undesirable because it can undermine individual initiative and independence. Thus government should have no significant role in addressing inequalities.

- role of the government should be limited. Each person should be allowed to act with minimal constraints and free to pursue as much property and wealth as possible. Laissez-faire economy; unconstrained by government regulations.

Socialism (levels inequality, for govt intervention): a vision through which economic and political power could be directed to benefit all groups in society.

Marxist-Leninist Socialism (levels inequality, for govt intervention, use of force)

Democratic Socialism (levels inequality, for govt intervention, use of democratic means)

- emphasize the substantial reduction of inequalities in material conditions, power and status, but they do not attempt to achieve complete equality of material conditions. The approach to change is gradual, placing continued importance on the protection of individual rights and freedoms, even as it transforms the socio-economic order. The government might own some of the major economic resources in the society and it strongly regulates much of the economic system, but it does not attempt to plan and control all aspects of the economic system.

Parameters

Key Concern:
The allocation of things that are valued, whether via determination or competition or a compromise of both.

Narrative Methods:
(1) Describing the 'what'; characterization.
(2) Explaining 'how' and 'why'; causes or consequences.
(3) Prescribing the 'should'; recommendations.

A man's character is his fate.

Heraclitus (540 BC - 480 BC)

From fact-finding to negotiation

"There is no substitute for the hard work of preparation."

Winston Churchill

The croak of a clogged voice

And because you cannot hear silence, it makes faint the hollowness that resides in the heart, and uncertain the judgment of the hasty.

Box' of Shaded Memories #12

Gowns in the Sun

An Opening Inquiry on Contentment

I have concluded - through literature, observation and experience - that choice and recognition are the strongest determinants to contentment or discontentment. The first, choice, has two not necessarily related categorical aspects - the having of choices and making good choices. To take money for example, having money gives you choices and even if you don't do anything with the money, the psychological cushion of being able to make choices is significant. Making good choices with your finances, be it an opportune investment or shopping for a good deal, also contributes to contentment. On the contrary, having the lack of choices or making bad choices bring much discontentment - in part due to real consequences, in part psychological - to the actor. Of course, this is not restricted to money and can be applied in many cases where there are decisions to be made.

The second, recognition, is more complex. Being recognised extensively and positively, for whatever reason, lends itself to contentment. The value of the positive here happens in a context. A drug lord scoring a major business is recognised positively by a certain group of people, but recognised negatively by another. As such, it depends very much on how the actor's thought system is aligned and to which 'milieu'. The extent and quality of recognition are obvious augmenters of its contribution to contentment.

What do you believe in?

Ideologies present limited versions of reality and expanded prophesies of what the future holds.