On The Importance Of Knowledge

I’m certain anyone who’s been reading this, lately, is aware of my frustration with viewpoints which I am not only opposed to, but which I personally consider uninformed, ignorant, uneducated, even damaging. But what I am about to say, I feel applies to, and should be considered by, everyone. Liberal and conservative, atheist, christian, and muslim alike (and naturally, every other belief or ideology that exists). This is a message to all people.

If I have one passion in life, it is knowledge. I consider knowledge the single most important thing a human being can pursue. I believe in maintaining the pursuit of knowledge as an eternal, and relentless endeavor. Do not ever stop learning. The universe, reality, conforms to no one’s beliefs. We must conform our beliefs, and our values, to coincide with it, and knowledge is the only way to accomplish that. Regardless of what your beliefs are, whether or not I might agree with them, do not allow them to become a filter. I urge you to learn as much as you can, and to interpret all of the information you take in with as open a mind as possible. Despite the concern that such a policy may leave one open to outlandish possibilities, it is usually the case, that all available information, considered openly, competently, and in the absence of unnecessary assumption, will be sufficient to point to the truth.

As a child, in school, I was told that knowledge equals money, equals power. Today, I cannot emphasize enough how positively misguided that assertion was. I do not think, in observing anything in the real world, that there is any positive correlation between knowledge and money, let alone knowledge and power, though there is certainly one between money and power.

If anything, I believe a proper equation might look something like: (Money)^2 * (Manipulative ability) + (Knowledge) = Opportunity, and then: (Opportunity) * (Ambition) * (Devotion) = Power. I could keep going, by the way. Each of those breaks down into other contributing traits, which are ultimately guided by psychological and neurological factors, which themselves break down into genetics and evolutionary influence, then down further to environmental factors, planetary development, galactic development, and we would finally arrive back at the Big Bang, currently an axiomatic threshold. Of course, defining detailed and accurate equations for that kind of thing is well beyond human capacity. It doesn’t mean it isn’t theoretically possible, it just means that there very well may be no being in existence who can actually do it. Nonetheless, the mere possibility, and the certainty that this is true down to at least the subatomic level, is what makes me so certain that fate is absolute, and free will an illusion.

Getting back to the point, though, that assertion is upsetting, to me. For so many reasons. It isn’t true. But more importantly, the pursuit of power is a perversion of knowledge, serving only to undermine its importance, and the assumption of knowledge as a means of acquiring power has, as can be seen with any commodity deemed valuable, yielded an abundance of cheap substitutions. Knowledge must be regarded as vital, not valuable. “Valuable” is something to be hoarded, to be kept for oneself, to be used in bartering, in acquiring one’s wants, and serving one’s own selfish ends. “Vital” is something to be shared, to be cultivated and spread as freely and widely as possible, as without it all hope is lost. “Valuable” is something for which an imitation will suffice, provided nobody can tell the difference. “Vital” is something which, if not genuine, no matter how convincing an imitation, is not able to serve its intended purpose, and is therefore worthless. We lust for the valuable. We depend on the vital. And the last thing we want, in any circumstance, is for the vital to be considered valuable.

On the subject of power, it should not be seen as a privilege to be pursued, an opportunity to serve oneself. Power is properly viewed as a burden, a responsibility one assumes in the interest of making the jurisdiction in question a better place for its inhabitants. Nobody who takes the former of these two views belongs in any position of power.

Knowledge is vital, as the basis of civility, and the catalyst of progress. Because with knowledge comes comprehension, of oneself, of others, and of one’s environment. Increased empathy, greater compassion, greater awareness, and better decisions. The best thing we can do, for ourselves and each other, is to continue to learn. And to let nothing and no one deter, obstruct, or otherwise inhibit our pursuit of knowledge. Learn. And don’t ever assume you know everything, or even that you know as much as you need to, about anything.

Benghazi

A lot of talk about Benghazi, here on Xanga, lately. I wrote this in response to trun’s recent entry, but let’s be honest, she’s just echoing the rest of her teabagging ilk, so this certainly can be applied to them all:

To be honest, I wasn’t following the story from the beginning. But all I can find to support your claim, is a video of Obama speaking at the U.N., about violent responses to a Youtube video, and speeches by one or two other individuals who were being informed of the latest available information, by the CIA. In a context provided by Mr. Hannity, over at Fox News, who insists that Obama is referring to the Benghazi attack, and blaming it on the video. Do you have any source which clearly demonstrates that Obama claimed the attack in Benghazi was caused by that video? Because in my search, I also came across an interview on 60 Minutes, which took place the day after the attack, September 12, in which Obama clearly states his suspicion that those who carried out the attack “were looking to target Americans from the start”:

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=5…

The Wikipedia article about the attack references a speech on September 20, in which the same official who previously stated that it was a response to the video, states that it was a terrorist attack. Which is a bit early to make that correction, being that the administration allegedly cared too much about the election to let the truth out. 9 days is more like...you know, the time frame in which investigations are conducted, and new information is discovered, and alters the analysis. Wait, I’ll let U.S. intelligence tell it for me. From September 28. Two weeks after the attack, still before the election. Definitely not a good time for the administration’s coverup to be exposed: “In the immediate aftermath, there was information that led us to assess that the attack began spontaneously following protests earlier that day at our embassy in Cairo. We provided that initial assessment to Executive Branch officials and members of Congress . . . . As we learned more about the attack, we revised our initial assessment to reflect new information indicating that it was a deliberate and organized terrorist attack carried out by extremists.”

I can’t find any evidence that Obama or his administration knowingly lied, at any point. To be fair, I know it can be difficult to prove that a person knowingly lied about anything, unless you can read minds, an ability you Fox News teabagging types may think you have nailed, especially concerning us dirty commie liberals, but a skill which I contend you would first need to obtain minds of your own, in order to develop.

So we can sit here all day arguing over who is being brainwashed by partisan propaganda (because yes, I absolutely do believe you are), but I will point out that, at least from what I gather here, “They said one thing, then they said something else later” appears to be enough to confirm intentional deceit, for you. When it’s convenient. And unless you’ve got something more convincing, I see your allegations of intentional deceit, or coverup if you also propose it, as just one more claim you expect me to accept without any evidence.

I have no intentions of suggesting that either Obama or our government are perfect, but I look at the unmitigated spite and vitriol, that is in no way proportional to anything that either has done, and the outrageous, misinformed claims, speculation, and sensationalism, and I see it all as this decade’s alien abduction stories. That is, it appeals to, and is engaged in by, let's just say a...certain type of person (it's the same type in both cases), because it makes them feel important. Except you teabaggers aren’t just impressing some friends at the local watering hole. This time, your nonsense is having a devastating impact on this country.

Animal Farm And America

I was bored as hell, the other day. I decided, pretty much at random, to watch the old, animated version of Animal Farm. Becky informed me that there was a live action version, too. So I went ahead and watched that, too. On Youtube. I scrolled down to the comments. Guess what one of the first ones was? Go ahead, guess! Yeah. Another teatard talking about how, “One of those pigs shouls be renamed Obama.” Eh, maybe Snowball, actually (I very much doubt that’s the one the commenter had in mind)...I think the movie might just apply, in many ways, to our situation, right now. Just...not the way so many dumbasses would have you believe. See, their logic basically goes like this: “Animal Farm are abouts communisms. Boooo communisms! (Yeah, I should have Eyegle narrate this.) Obama is communist, because...ummm...because he is! Because we no like him, is why! (Seriously, the only remotely communist thing he’s done is Obamacare, and that’s no more communist than anything else your taxes pay for.) So, warnings. If Obama then Animal Farms! Moo!”

But drop the labels, and consequently the misapplication of them, and what you have is an allegory about a group that recognized the need for change, at least, that things should not, and could not remain as they were, and basically split over what manner of change to strive for, and how to implement it. You’ve got honorable leaders, who genuinely want peace and prosperity for all people, power-hungry opportunists, who manipulate and maintain power through fear and deception, and the masses, who are dumb as hell, gullible as fuck, and for some reason, can never tell the difference between the previous two types, at least until it’s too late. What makes me say that? Because there is a large portion of this country who, if tasked with applying our situation, right now, to Animal Farm, would, without hesitation, cast Obama as Napoleon. Which is so stupid it’s nigh impossible to fathom. Again, it’s just, “Communist, bad guy, Obama.” This is what I call, intellectually deceased. Teatard logic. It’s hard to say what is there, to make that connection, but the actions and general attitude are most certainly not.

No. Let me share my analysis. Now obviously, this is not necessarily a direct metaphor. Some elements are different, clearly we have not had an uprising, but all of us do seem to recognize some need for change, in this country, and the essence of the story remains more or less intact.

Jones is just our current establishment. The government and the system, as it is. Nobody is satisfied with it. Like I said, we recognize the need for change.

The upper class, the wealthy, the corporations, the banks, and yes, the politicians too, are the pigs. Obama, and the rest of us liberals, are in the position of Snowball. This never changes. Throughout history, intellectuals always seem to suffer the same plight. We have both the knowledge and compassion to improve the world, but that makes us both the greatest threat to those who lust for power, and by default, subject to the suspicions of the ignorant masses, which in turn, proves all too useful and convenient, to the aforementioned powerphiles. Regardless of what others may be in the crosshairs of tyrants, and for whatever reasons, rest assured, the one constant target, is intellectuals.

Napoleon? Take your pick. A number of candidates appear to be competing for the position of freaking Stalin pig. Glenn Beck, Bill O’ Reilly, Donald Douchebag Trump, anyone at Fox News, and anyone with money and power associated with the Tea Party. Taking advantage of people’s insecurity and ignorance. Using fear, intimidation, propaganda, and outright lies to control people, openly accusing their opponents of being traitors (Unamerican, hates America, wants America to fail). Proclaiming their love of freedom while simultaneously describing a narrow and extremely personal definition of what constitutes a “real” American. ATTACKING INTELLECTUALS, PROGRESSIVE CONCEPTS, AND SCIENTIFIC FACTS!!! (evolution, global warming) Decrying anything that will improve the quality of life for everyone, at the expense of their precious power. (renewable energy, for example. And decent wages for workers.) You all should really have picked up on that, by now, and sent a clear message that you’re not interested in their fear-mongering bullshit. One thing these types never manage to do, is hide their overt aggression. That should tip you off. Make no mistake, given the opportunity, any one of these dick bags would seize power and start executing all who oppose them. The only reason they don’t silence their critics by force, is that they can’t. They haven’t had the opportunity, I’m sure at least some of them are actively looking for it, though, and it is extremely important that we make sure they never get the opportunity.

Without a doubt, the dogs are the Tea Partiers. You should find it frightening how heavily armed, ignorant, and easily manipulated these people are. That’s a bad combination. All those “Napoleon” types have to do, with these idiots, is point and fire. Tell them who you don’t like, make up some bullshit reason (but be sure it makes them feel threatened), and they’ll foam at the mouth, ready to pounce at their master’s command. A disturbingly large number of people, out there, fully believe that Obama is a muslim (or that it would matter, if he was?), and/or socialist, communist, fascist (despite the fact that they can’t even distunguish between those three), and/or actively trying to disarm them. Doesn’t make sense, there isn’t any evidence to back it up, but none of that matters. All you have to do is say two words about equality, and to them, you’re a dirty commie, out to take all of their hard-earned money and enslave them. Or just say the following two words: background checks. Now you’re a tyrannical dictator, out to seize their every means of self-defense so you can...yep, enslave them. As long as their masters tell them to think that. They just prey on their fears, and then tell them who to hate. Now they’ve got an obedient, braindead army, poised to strike whenever the opportunity arises.

You know when the pigs rationalize their elite status? Claim that they need and deserve more than everyone else, and justify the others living in relative poverty, because everything depends on their leadership? Two words: “Job Creators”. It’s truly eerie how similar that reasoning is.

And of course, Boxer is still the working class. It’s almost not even worth mentioning. Like the intellectuals, that role is rather constant.

So there you have it. And the scary thing is, if you told anyone who was familiar with the story, that there are some distinct similarities between Animal Farm and our country today, whether they agreed with you or not, they would almost certainly believe you were making the claim that Obama has us on the road to communism, largely unaware of everything I just described, or as I call it, the real trouble.

The Freakin' FCC

“I offered them the blueprints for Utopia. They proceeded to wipe their asses with them.” -MM

So, Becky showed me the new Kmart “ship my pants” commercial. Funny. A little juvenile, but funny. My first thought was, “You just know One Million Moms is going to menopause all over that.” Of course, they did. But not the first time I checked. No, it was on my first visit that something else was brought to my attention.

Apparently the FCC was (is?) considering easing up on its decency standards. Like permitting use of the word “fuck”, and some nudity. I say (is?) because while they are accepting comments until the end of April, according to a news article I came across, response seems to be rather heavily in favor of maintaining the current bans. Which, in my opinion, is just sad.

Where do I begin? The primary concern seems to be, “Oh dear lord, the children!!” Which...again, where do I begin? First, and I can’t emphasize this enough, I do not believe a child has ever been harmed, in any way, by hearing curse words, or even seeing nudity. The problem...no, one of many problems...with our society is, you’re all blithering imbeciles. (Way to get everyone on your side, Jason!) Hey, I call it like I see it. You make all kinds of subconscious associations, and never bother to assess their validity. Now, I will admit, there may be some room for debate, on the issue of nudity. Particularly if (and probably only if) we’re talking about showing people fucking. But I’ll get to that in my next point. For now, let’s talk about cursing. What damage is it going to do, to a child? I’ve heard it’s going to make them rude and/or disrespectful. Yeah, no. Cursing doesn’t do that. Shitty parenting does. I’ve heard that curse words become a crutch, that the kid is going to use them too frequently, or fall back on them. I have no idea what constitutes “too frequently”, or why that overuse would be more likely to occur with a curse word than any other. And frankly, no it won’t. If a person uses certain words or phrases too frequently, it’s not because they heard them or started using them too early. That’s a ridiculous assertion. I myself have been fucking cursing casually since I was thirteen fucking years old, and I don’t fucking use fucking curse words too fucking much, except when I’m trying to make a fucking point in a comedic fucking fashion. Fuck. Well, will it make them less intelligent, then? Surely cursing will cause a child to develop poor reasoning skills and...oh shit, wait, it doesn’t? Yeah, it doesn’t. Talk to me for five minutes. You might not agree with everything I say, but I don’t think you’ll be disputing my fucking intelligence. What do you prefer, a fucking calculus lesson? Fucking trigonometry? Or should we talk special fucking relativity? Oh, and my mom used to say it shows poor self control...she never curses. I love my mom. But if you’d grown up with her, you would see a massive shitload of irony, right there. Trust me on this, there is no correlation between cursing and self control. It’s just considered rude? Well, that’s exactly what I think should change. We shouldn’t overdo it, but I think we should, by now, have the logical fortitude to incorporate curse words into our regular vocabulary. In many ways, haven’t we already? One word. Internet. Try to not see the word “fuck” online.

Point two is very simple. Free expression, and why finding something offensive is not sufficient grounds for terminating it. No, not even OMG FOR THE CHILDRENZ!!! It is not the world’s responsibility to avoid offending you. It is not the world’s responsibility to provide you with your personalized ideal environment for raising your child. In fact, you might consider all of the obstacles to that environment the world supplies an opportunity to show your child the proper way to respond to all the offensive but harmless things one does not care for: by simply ignoring them. To really drive this point home, consider the following dose of irony. A very large percentage of the people who feel it is important to censor television (OMM for example) is conservative, and therefore also outraged that they don’t allow prayer in public school...which to the best of my knowledge, isn’t even true. Cases of prayer being suppressed tend to be few, far between, and exaggerated. But hey, I’m with them, on that. I see no harm in allowing (allowing, not forcing) kids to pray in school. It’s harmless self expression. And here’s a really good policy, for all of you OMMs out there. Whatever it is you want to do about forms of free expression like cursing, or nudity. Consider what your response would be, if someone suggested doing the same, with your religion, and your right to express it freely. What if the FCC suddenly decreed, “God, Jesus, church, prayer, are all banned from being shown or spoken of, on television”? I have every reason to see those things as just as offensive, and just as damaging (and yes, I would contend potentially MORE damaging) as the f-word, or a vagina. I have just as much of a right to not want my (hypothetical) children exposed to those things. But it’s not your responsibility to avoid any mention of them around me. If I don’t want my (hypothetical. I neither have nor want!) children exposed to your religion, I can say to them, “No, don’t watch that. It’s about Christianity, and that’s a dirty, dirty religion.” Is there a possibility they’ll disobey me and watch it anyway? Of course! You know what? That’s part of having kids! Maybe one day I catch them with a cross in their backpack, and I ground them for four billion years. “You may emerge when the sun’s red giant phase commences, dammit!!” You do not get to sacrifice everyone else’s free expression to your precious children. But, to be fair, to everyone who values their own free expression, do have some consideration. I don’t think it should be illegal to shout “Fuck fuck, penis penis, douche penis fuck!” at a child, but it’s still incredibly rude, and why I’m not welcome in Chuck E. Cheese anymore.

I really do want to address that irony again, though. Holy fuck. How do you make your brain do that? Seriously. That’s like a backflip and twisting on god damn pretzel magnitude... “Damn government! Don’t you dare try to take away my guns! By which I mean ensure that only sane people get them. You have more important things to do, like making sure nobody corrupts my children my saying “fuck” on a television show they might conceivably watch, against my instructions or by accident, at some point in time.” Oh, or even better, when it’s not even their own children they’re worried about. I love that one. “My kids are well behaved, and only watch what I approve of, but what about all the children with less responsible parents?” Because now it’s okay for you to determine what’s okay for everyone else’s children? Care to explain that one to me? No, no need to. Your fascism is showing. You gave yourself away, on that one. You’ve appointed yourself dictator of decency. An oppressive government is a-ok, as long as it’s taking orders from your control-freak ass. You can’t frame it as concern, you just want to push people around.

“But I see a glimmer of hope, ever so faint. I’m at least two generations ahead. It could take fifty years or more of trial and error. You’re wasting a lot of time by not listening. If I’m still around, find me when you think you’re ready.” -MM

Giving A Fuck ~ A Scientific Analysis

Lest anyone think I’ve completely lost my mind, I feel I should point out the obvious, and state that I am simply trying to be comical, here. I’m thinking I might submit it to a scientific journal or something, next April Fools Day.

Earlier today, I found myself using the common phrase, “I don’t give a fuck.” I don’t even remember what it was I was referring to. And therein lies a problem. The phrase has become so common that using it often leaves one feeling dissatisfied, having failed to properly express the magnitude of one’s indifference. Being a man of science, I, for one, am unable to rest until my feelings have been properly quantified. And it’s no surprise the phrase, “I don’t give a fuck,” fails to deliver, on that front. It provides only a single, arbitrarily defined value, despite its need to cover a wide range of indifference, from genuinely preferring one option or outcome but not quite enough to warrant effort and/or consideration, to having literally zero interest in a matter, to being enraged by the idea that a matter is even suggested to be of any value or relevance. However, with some slight modification, we can improve both the accuracy and versatility of the phrase.

It is in this spirit that I propose that we henceforth declare the fuck to be the scientific unit of enthusiasm, just as the second is the scientific unit of time, or the meter is the scientific unit of distance.

As with any unit, it is important that we establish the value of the base unit. So what constitutes a fuck? Well, in the context of the phrase, it seems that a fuck should be defined as the minimum effort with which one might achieve a satisfactory session of sexual intercourse, which would, of course, be defined as reaching orgasm. A Google search of “fastest orgasm” did not prove as helpful as I’d anticipated. It is therefore my suggestion that we could best accomplish the task of defining the fuck by having a couple who’ve been married for five to ten years, and both have to be up early for work, copulate inside an MRI machine, and scanning their brain activity. The average activity achieved over the course of coitus, by whichever partner shows less activity overall, multiplied by the length of the coitus (t), shall be defined as the level of enthusiasm which constitutes a fuck, and be described as the amount of enthusiasm necessary to perform t seconds of mediocre sexual intercourse. 

Now, metric prefixes can be attached to the word fuck, to more accurately convey one’s level of enthusiasm, extending even beyond the expression of indifference. For example, one might find that an extremely compassionate individual gives a petafuck about world hunger, which depending on the value of t in the above description, would be the level of enthusiasm it would take to perform mediocre sexual intercourse for anywhere between 30 million and 2 billion years. Whereas by contrast, as you may note from my previous blog entries, it might be said that I give a femtofuck about the Bible, which is the enthusiasm required to have mediocre sexual intercourse for a few quadrillionths of a second (about one trillionth of the blink of an eye). Naturally, describing one’s enthusiasm in the moment would require an estimate, but that estimate could always be verified later, by a simple brain scan.

By properly quanitifying our feelings, we achieve greater accuracy in self expression, and thus greater satisfaction in self expression. For this reason, it is imperative that we establish and institute the fuck as the scientific unit of enthusiasm, as soon as possible. In the meantime, I encourage you, the reader, to properly quantify your indifference, going forward, and in each instance in which it becomes necessary, clarify the approximate amount of fucks you give. I hope you’ve enjoyed reading this, but if you haven’t, I give precisely 2π nanofucks.