Tuesday, November 2, 2010

stop voting, start acting

Would you play the lottery just to win money you already own?

How would you like to live under a dictatorship? Sounds awful! I hate the idea of being forced to conform to someone else's ill-conceived morals. Yuck.

Well, what if you got to be the dictator? You could run the whole society however you like! Then would you live in a dictatorship?

When I was a child, I'd have said yes. I thought humanity was spiraling out of control. I thought they needed my firm guidance. Now I say that's bullshit.

I would not rule those who do not agree to be ruled. That is not my right. Nor is it anyone else's.

an alternative to dictatorship

Let's make things more fair. Imagine we split the dictatorial power. We'll give equal power to every citizen over the age of eighteen. Unfortunately, it might be time-consuming for everyone to decide what everyone else in the nation can and cannot do. Can we streamline this system?

What if you could only wield the dictatorial power if you got a majority of the other citizens to bestow it on you? Hell, let's make it even more complicated. We'll elect lots of people and give them different slices of the dictator pie. We'll give one group the dictator's power to create laws. Another group will have the dictator's power to control the military and police force. And we'll give the dictator's power of interpreting laws to yet a third group.

Does any of this sound familiar?

What we've cobbled together is nothing more than a slow-acting, internally conflicted, irrational dictator. It doesn't matter how many people wield the power. Even if you give the general populace a tiny slice of power, a vote, they're still subjects. They're still forced to obey their addle-minded dictator.

Why do you keep doing this to yourself, America? The powers of the government are just a throwback to the age of monarchy. Everyone used to think you needed a king to run a society. Now we know better. But most people still think you need a government, a thousand-faced monarch, to run a society.

A government is just people. There's no service they can provide that can't instead be provided by people without dictatorial power.

You're just putting your freedom on the line for an outdated tradition. In the best case, democracy is dictatorship under the majority. In the real case, it's dictatorship under the dollar.

Stop playing Russian Roulette with your freedom. Voting only reinforces the false belief that we can control our destinies by putting them in the hands of politicians. If you want to control your destiny, don't just hand it over to someone else.

Here's something that won't surprise you: I never signed the Constitution. That is, I never agreed to it. I never handed over my human rights. Any action against me by the United States' government is a crime against human liberty. Whether it's taxation, imprisonment, or invasion of privacy, without my consent, it's criminal.

Stop being an inactivist! Stop voting and do something that matters with the other 1460 days every four years. Don't ask a politician to live your life for you!

Saturday, October 30, 2010

how about that novel you've been working on?

Coming this November: Let the creative juice flow with some wild authorial action!

Have a great idea for a book? How about a bad one? Well, would you at least like to have one?

If you want to develop the writing habit, have I got the jump-start for you! Come join the National Novel-Writing Month this November. The goal is to write fifty-thousand (50 000 (50k)) words of fiction in thirty days. Nobody cares if you churn out a steaming pile by the end of the month. As long as it's 50k or more, you win! Quantity over quality, just write, write, write!

I've had one hell of a plot in mind for several years, but without any benchmarks, I was turning out a piddling page count each year. And thanks to my own hyper-criticism, I ended up trashing every bit of it. Since NaNoWriMo has given me a goal and pushed criticism from my mind, it's the perfect tool to focus me on my fiction-writing habit.

May the prose be with you.

Thursday, October 28, 2010

free speech and offense

Is regulation the best response to offensive speech? No. Well-planned counter-argument is.

One of the few mainstream notions to which I subscribe: I hate hate. Hate speech sickens me. It's disgusting, abhorrent filth that I wish never to hear spewed forth again.

But I will defend to the death your right to say it.

My reason is simple. It is not my right, nor anyone else's, to decide which ideas are worthy of the monicker, "Ultimate Truth."

the trouble with Ultimate Truth

People will lie to you. Your own eyes, ears, and brain will mislead you. And in pursuit of Ultimate Truth, you will learn that truth is neither grand nor absolute. As Ben Kenobi once said, "many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view." Truth is impure. Truth is unstable. But best of all, truth is free. Logic can only tell us which truths may stand together. Reason can only tell us which truths may fulfill our goals. But nothing in logic or reason can tell us which truths to start with.

Nothing in logic or reason can give us an iota of Ultimate Truth.

No one has privileged knowledge. No one's knowledge is better than everyone else's. Maybe there's some knowledge that works well for everybody, but I haven't published it yet.

As much as this precludes silencing others, it does not preclude speaking louder still. I drool over the concept of counter-speech. When you hear something you hate, say so! Honesty feels great! Counter haters' free speech with free speech of your own. Anonymously if you have to. Counter-speech is the almighty god of wiser discourse. What more can I say?

Fight speech with speech, fire with fire, and never, ever escalate!

Non-violence must never be punished with violence.

That means never arresting, hitting, slapping, pinching, or biting people because of what they say. Am I wrong? Let me know it in the comments!

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

out-of-control noise got you down? add some in-control noise!

Are unfriendly sounds stressing you out? Here are some links that can help for free!.

I love peace. I love quiet. My family makes noise. It's unnerving. It breaks my focus. It slows my work to a crawl. My work needs focus.

Now I have Forest Mood and Rainy Mood. They're free-to-use white-noise streams. They give me control over what I hear, so my family's noise won't stress me out.

When I get tired of listening to those, I don't switch them off. I head over to Grooveshark and add my favorite songs to the mix. Only English-free songs, to prevent distraction.

Of course, there's always Pandora if I'm feeling adventurous. I prefer to stick with a set playlist while I'm working, though.

Am I missing out on a great strategy for dealing with noisy cohabitants? Please leave a comment and let me know!

Friday, June 25, 2010

super special issue!

In other words, I'm bad with schedules. So, no more schedule!

One day the Internet might be censored. On that day, my homeland is lost. For now, please enjoy some banned material!

Saturday, April 24, 2010

special issue: the meaning of life

And the meaning of life is . . . drumroll

I bring you this unscheduled update because I recently read Argument from the Meaning of Life on The Skeptical Christian. After you've read my short piece, I recommend reading this article for yourself, so you'll know why I write this.

The Skeptical Christian writes about meaning what I call value-attribution and its relationship to a theistic God. Unfortunately, their argument is full of hand-waving and undeclared assumptions, so I'm here to help tune up your deception-detection. Now let's talk about meaning, values, and why we do the things we do!

what is meaning?

Meaning happens to be one of my favorite topics. After all, I love rational choice.

Wait, what?

Hey, I'm serious. Meaning is value, and rational choice is all about maximizing value. Let me emphasize:

Meaning is fundamental to rational choice.

It's all about what values you have! Rational choice is, after all, the endeavor to maximize the value the meaning! of future outcomes. So, without meaning, rational choice is impossible. I can't emphasize this enough.

If you watch your weight because you want to be healthy, you're acting towards some prescribed health-value. Health is meaningful to you. If you ignore nutrition because you value flavor more than health, you're preferring flavor-value over health-value. Flavor is more meaningful to you.

We find people acting in ways we do not understand because they have different fundamental value-attributions than we have. People find themselves acting in ways they do not understand because their values shift out of control. This variety is not a trait of humanity. Rather, it is a trait of rational choice itself, based on the whimsical nature of value.

God and values

As intelligent beings, we need value-attributions. So, where do our values come from? From biological functions? From God? As it turns out, it is inconsequential where value comes from. Only values themselves not their sources! can sway the actions of intelligent beings. If knowing the source of a value matters to you, it is only because you value that knowledge.

Since we're on this page, it's safe to assume that we do value that knowledge. So, let's address the claim that our values must come from God. If there is no God, this claim is obviously false, so for the sake of discussion, let's assume that there is a God. Let's also assume this God cares how we act and thus clearly describes those desires.

If God wants me to value God's pronouncements, then God has to instill that value directly into my rational processes. Otherwise, how can I care?

Can Heaven and Hell make me care?

Even if God offered to reward my good acts in Heaven, why should I want to be rewarded, unless God makes me value my own pleasure? Likewise, if God intends to punish me with Hell, I have no reason to avoid punishment unless God gives me values telling me to avoid pain!

You may think it is obvious that I should avoid pain. I disagree. Many people, myself included, believe it is better to suffer and die and suffer some more! than to be enslaved. Even if the slave-master is an all-powerful God, we have to struggle.

Well, if reward and punishment can't sway me, won't I acknowledge that God's decree is an absolute, independent of whether I value it? Nope! I deny that God's pronouncements are absolutes, because God could just as easily have made the opposite decree. An absolute is inviolable only because its opposite is impossible. That's what an absolute is. Since we can defy God's command, it cannot be absolute. If God's values were absolute values, everyone would have to share them, without exception.

Please don't be confused when someone pulls out the words, "absolute" and "meaning". They probably haven't thought about the significance of those words. And don't be obsessed with endings! The end is just another moment, no more important than the present--less so, as you cannot sense the future! Knowing what meaning is, we can see that it needn't come from God. It could, but if it does, God is being sloppy indeed. Values vary at random amongst people. It's more like what you'd expect from an evolutionary standpoint.

Now please, go check out that article, and let me know what you think.

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

what is the uploaded mind?

More than possessions, our ideas come to own us.

The uploaded mind is a place for cooperative inquiry. Free thought with friends! Thinking without boundaries! Suggesting the taboo and being taken seriously!

Sounds nice.

But wait! This isn't just any uploaded mind. This mind is mine. The power is in my hands. All the power of comment-deletion at my fingertips! Won't I just stamp my own ideas onto the page, dissent be damned?

Frankly, hell no. I can't help but hold some bias Who can?, but my favorite bias is in favor of free speech. I don't care if you're intent on telling me that microscopic Bigfoots faked the moon landing on my grandfather's ass. Gibberish, lies, and insults are still speech, and speech should be free. May I hear something alarming every day for the rest of my life!

Now someone should ask, "But what about racists, mystics, pseudo-scientists, and lying advertisers?" Call them out on it! Tell them off! Tell them to go fuck themselves. Give them some kind advice to be more truthful. Do some research, tell your friends and neighbors, and stop buying their products!

How should we respond to speech we find vulgar? With some free speech of our own!

I won't delete any comments calling me a poo-poo head. Go ahead, try it. For me, the act of posting is a covenant with the Reader. Yes, this is our covenant that you're reading right now. I want to expand your mind. Just as much, I want you to expand mine. Go ahead and tell me about your god, or about the wonders of representative democracy. Free speech is cool. I post, you disagree, and everyone gets wiser. Maybe I'll select the topics, but I shall not select the views.

the problem with debate

Please, please, please: Don't confuse inquiry with debate. Inquiry is a contest between ideas. Debate is a contest between people. Debate puts our pride on the line.

Debate binds our pride to a certain viewpoint. Any concession on that view means personal defeat. Shame. So debate drives us to fly in the face of reason.

It's one of humanity's deadliest failings.

the wonder of inquiry

Now, let's contrast. With inquiry, when we concede, we win. How can this be? Simple!

Inquiry is the search for a better viewpoint.

In conceding, we discard a weak view for a strong one. Suddenly, we're closer to finding a viewpoint that suits us.

Here, there are no theists or atheists, liberals or conservatives, statists or anarchists. Abandon labels. Your ideas are not you. If your ideas are truly defeated, you can find something better and move on. Dissent helps you grow. Concession rewards you with a stronger position.

Learning is my life. Show me something I haven't seen before, something compelling, and I'll admit I was wrong. If I'm too embarrassed, maybe I'll just shut up for a while and think.

Thank you for reading. Please let me know what's on your mind!