A few days ago, an elderly guest to our spectacular super-hero hideaway made the shocking statement that, "Blacks have less bones than whites."
"How could someone spew such nonsense?" You might inquire.
This was one of the rationalizations behind his notion that individuals of African
descent can be treated differently. His implication was that not only are they less than human, but African americans are really an altogether different species.
The typical left wing liberal, would likely argue that African-americans, are fundamentally no different than whites. Further, they might rightly bring up the argument that typical racial constructs are in themselves fallacious.
The trouble is that that such arguments miss the whole point.
I fear that if we earthlings are ever graced by an intelligent alien species we will do the same sort of 'othering' towards them. We will fail to see them as 'people.' because they are sufficiently different enough to fall outside our sphere of moral consideration.
The left will go into error-mode for not having a ready made ethnic class to lump them into, and the right will suddenly see all present earthlings (even mexican immigrants, feminists, and atheists, etc.,) as 'true patriots' and seek to wage a new pre-emptive war on the aliens. For "God sakes," those darned pesky aliens have no bones at all. And they are just disgusting! (No movie ever captured this inter-species othering phenomenon as well as the masterpiece called "District 9").
The real trouble that the left and right fail to understand is that all individual life forms should be treated with respect even if they do not fit neatly into one of our neatly packaged preconceptions of moral consideration.
Sadly, right-wing conservatives are just as anti-individual as left-wing liberals. Both are collectivists, only they fight for different teams.
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Saturday, April 16, 2011
A New Way of Thinking is Emerging!
Sometimes, I dont feel like I even speak the same language as people anymore. Nowadays, whenever I try to talk to a person off the street about an analogy I see between life and a work of fiction, they just kind of look at me and grunt, "huh?"
Whats going on? Is it just me, or is there some kind of systemic breakdown of complex thought that a superhero such as myself needs to uncover.
According to, the Jenkins Group, 80 percent of families in the United States did not buy a single book last year. By the time people graduate from college, 42 percent of them will not even bother to read another book!
(Source:http://www.humorwriters.org/startlingstats.html)
I am finding more and more, I have to truncate my words and my thoughts just to get through to people. Especially the average person on the streets. I can only imagine this will get worse as people spend more and more time on Facebook, Twitter, and thinking and words in communications are necessarily simplified into one-liners, to match the new forms of media. These new forms of media require it.
The bad thing is that complex thoughts, and reasoning and logic itself really need paragraphs, not just sentences. Not just quips like, 'wher u at', 'wat u doin,' 'chillin,' text-message style chit chat that many people engage in nowadays. For better or worse, a new form of thinking is emerging. When our words change our brains change right along with them as our words are just representations of whats going on in our brain states and brain cells, and vice versa.
Whats going on? Is it just me, or is there some kind of systemic breakdown of complex thought that a superhero such as myself needs to uncover.
According to, the Jenkins Group, 80 percent of families in the United States did not buy a single book last year. By the time people graduate from college, 42 percent of them will not even bother to read another book!
(Source:http://www.humorwriters.org/startlingstats.html)
I am finding more and more, I have to truncate my words and my thoughts just to get through to people. Especially the average person on the streets. I can only imagine this will get worse as people spend more and more time on Facebook, Twitter, and thinking and words in communications are necessarily simplified into one-liners, to match the new forms of media. These new forms of media require it.
The bad thing is that complex thoughts, and reasoning and logic itself really need paragraphs, not just sentences. Not just quips like, 'wher u at', 'wat u doin,' 'chillin,' text-message style chit chat that many people engage in nowadays. For better or worse, a new form of thinking is emerging. When our words change our brains change right along with them as our words are just representations of whats going on in our brain states and brain cells, and vice versa.
Atlas Shrugged is an inspiring flashback to a time when heroes could be heroes.
The New Atlas Shrugged Movie is a fine flashback to a time when the good guys were really portrayed as the heroes of silver screen and the bad guys were, bad. Sadly, nowadays a misguided main character in a hollywood movie, more often than not, spends his or her time time trying to devise ever more repulsive mechanisms to chop up their victims. Or if thats not destructive enough, the more creative anti-hero might even try to recombine their victims in new and amusing ways, such as a grotesque human centipede chain, as we saw in the exceedingly curious Human Centipede movie. Or if our typical modern hollywood hero is of the more reserved type, perhaps he or she is just content in discovering through his or her own existential ineptitude that the true condition of human beings is utter worthlessness and despair. Now granted I can certainly enjoy the latest horror movie, as a form of escapism, as well as the next person.
But unlike many if not most modern movies where the hero is a total moral and mental weakling, the heroes of Atlas Shrugged like Hank Reardon, and Dagney Taggart are refreshingly different.
The new Atlas shrugged is set in an upside down world of the near future; not incidentally almost exactly like the present screwed up world we are living through. When corruption takes over, the new Atlas Shrugged movie reminds us that there still might be individuals, who uphold the virtues of hard work, honesty, integrity, ones word being one's bond, the struggle to accomplish more of yourself, and the resisting of temptation to be bullied into doing something you know to be wrong.
Unfortunately, such traits are clearly not in vogue in some circles.
Accordingly, this movie is so anathema to everything a modern moviegoer has been programmed to expect from your typical hollywood film. It is not surprising that for many modern critics, (who are often vampiric blood suckers in nature, but not nearly as cool as real vampires), Atlas Shrugged serves them a full course dinner of wolf's bane washed down with a well aged glass of fermented garlic flavored chianti. Perhaps the most surprising thing to me is that any critics were able to sit through the entire paradigm shattering movie without melting into little ecto-plasmic puddles of goo right there on the theater floor.
Of course the critics hate it! Why is this a surprise? Nearly all of them, hated the book, especially those that never read the book, and that is just as I had expected it would be all along.
Mark my words, the movie will succeed in spite the critics, because it brings out the best in us, where most movies just seek to accentuate and wallow in our faults rather than rise above them And for many a hero hungry movie goer that is something radically new and refreshing, if not paradigm shattering.
But unlike many if not most modern movies where the hero is a total moral and mental weakling, the heroes of Atlas Shrugged like Hank Reardon, and Dagney Taggart are refreshingly different.
The new Atlas shrugged is set in an upside down world of the near future; not incidentally almost exactly like the present screwed up world we are living through. When corruption takes over, the new Atlas Shrugged movie reminds us that there still might be individuals, who uphold the virtues of hard work, honesty, integrity, ones word being one's bond, the struggle to accomplish more of yourself, and the resisting of temptation to be bullied into doing something you know to be wrong.
Unfortunately, such traits are clearly not in vogue in some circles.
Accordingly, this movie is so anathema to everything a modern moviegoer has been programmed to expect from your typical hollywood film. It is not surprising that for many modern critics, (who are often vampiric blood suckers in nature, but not nearly as cool as real vampires), Atlas Shrugged serves them a full course dinner of wolf's bane washed down with a well aged glass of fermented garlic flavored chianti. Perhaps the most surprising thing to me is that any critics were able to sit through the entire paradigm shattering movie without melting into little ecto-plasmic puddles of goo right there on the theater floor.
Of course the critics hate it! Why is this a surprise? Nearly all of them, hated the book, especially those that never read the book, and that is just as I had expected it would be all along.
Mark my words, the movie will succeed in spite the critics, because it brings out the best in us, where most movies just seek to accentuate and wallow in our faults rather than rise above them And for many a hero hungry movie goer that is something radically new and refreshing, if not paradigm shattering.
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Atlas Shrugged Is Coming To Town
Speaking of economics and movies, I wonder how many people will be seeing the new Atlas Shrugged movie. I know one promising thing is that the mainstream critics at Rotten Tomatoes have predictably given it a zero percent so far at the time of writing.
Some magnificent, provocative, and profound movies have been trashed by the herd of critical scores of Rotten Tomatoes, so I am cautiously optimistic.
Atlas Shrugged 0%
The happening 18%
Repo Men 22%
After.Life 27%
Slipstream 23%
Southland Tales 35%
Human Centipede 49%
Doom Generation 47%
Anti-Christ 48%
Flashbacks of a Fool 38%
The Box 45%
(Source: I personally compiled this list based on scores of good movies with poor critic metascores as listed Rottentomatoes.com)
Of course scoring so poorly on the Tomatometer doesnt assure that Atlas Shrugged will be great, but it means there is a good chance that it will be anti-establishment. (Its not Rotten Tomatoes fault since it is just a consensus). But it saddens me that there are so few people, especially those who call themselves critics, cannot appreciate movies that try to see things in new ways, who cannot appreciate an intellectual and surreal movie like Anthony Hopkins' Slipstream, or an allegorical masterpiece like Anti-christ, or a slow paced anti-action movie such as The Happening, or a totally in your face think outside the box movie like the highly provocative Southland Tales.
I do hope the Atlas Shrugged movie will be a success. If only to provide an alternative voice to the establishment anti-individualism that is running rampant in our world.
When people rip on individuals and individual achievements, as well as champions of individualism, like Ayn Rand, and Ron Paul do they not realize that the collective, herd, mass, majority is only an epistemological abstraction without feelings of its own. And that by joining collectives they are joining a herd that will devalue and trample over themselves.
So minions and individuals alike, will you be seeing the new Atlas Shrugged movie when it comes to town?
Some magnificent, provocative, and profound movies have been trashed by the herd of critical scores of Rotten Tomatoes, so I am cautiously optimistic.
Atlas Shrugged 0%
The happening 18%
Repo Men 22%
After.Life 27%
Slipstream 23%
Southland Tales 35%
Human Centipede 49%
Doom Generation 47%
Anti-Christ 48%
Flashbacks of a Fool 38%
The Box 45%
(Source: I personally compiled this list based on scores of good movies with poor critic metascores as listed Rottentomatoes.com)
Of course scoring so poorly on the Tomatometer doesnt assure that Atlas Shrugged will be great, but it means there is a good chance that it will be anti-establishment. (Its not Rotten Tomatoes fault since it is just a consensus). But it saddens me that there are so few people, especially those who call themselves critics, cannot appreciate movies that try to see things in new ways, who cannot appreciate an intellectual and surreal movie like Anthony Hopkins' Slipstream, or an allegorical masterpiece like Anti-christ, or a slow paced anti-action movie such as The Happening, or a totally in your face think outside the box movie like the highly provocative Southland Tales.
I do hope the Atlas Shrugged movie will be a success. If only to provide an alternative voice to the establishment anti-individualism that is running rampant in our world.
When people rip on individuals and individual achievements, as well as champions of individualism, like Ayn Rand, and Ron Paul do they not realize that the collective, herd, mass, majority is only an epistemological abstraction without feelings of its own. And that by joining collectives they are joining a herd that will devalue and trample over themselves.
So minions and individuals alike, will you be seeing the new Atlas Shrugged movie when it comes to town?
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Finally Someone Willing to Stand Up to All Those Experts!
This is by far one of the saddest and most laconic statements ever made capturing the philosophy of a significant cross section of Republicans.
I guess someone standing up to the experts would make that special someone a non-expert; in other words it would make them an amateur, unknowledgeagle, untrained, unskilled, and just generally not knowing much about what they are doing.
Because oh, yes, my friends, that's exactly the thing we need more of in the world!
But who am I to speak?
As a mere mythical anti-bullying internet superhero, I am trapped in a perpetual battle in the dark vortex between the two extremes known as the left and the right. Sadly liberals are people who want to bully people about issues of economic self-determinism and conservatives are people who want to bully people about social issues. I don't know which is worse: prying into my bedroom window, or reaching into my pocket to grab money out of it. Sadly on many serious issues like the Patriot act, Prisons, the War on Drugs, Starting New Wars, the two parties are virtually indistinguishable.
As an internet hero, I am working hard to use my heightened intellectual and sensory abilities to bust out of the duality between republican and democrat, left versus right, etc.
I welcome all conservatives and liberal super-villains who dare to visit my secret blog lair on to discuss these issues with me. I have found no home with the Democrats, Republicans, Centrists, Tea-Party Goers, etc., which is why I was forced to carve out such a bitchin' Lair entirely my own.
So, all my fellow earthlings, and Milky Way Galaxians, let me know what you think! Click on the word comments below to leave a post. Either use an existing screenname, or use the scroll down menu and choose name/url to create screenname or profile that suits you. I will not delete posts even if you disagree with me!
Video source NatCen4ScienceEd: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzrUt9CHtpY&feature=player_detailpage
Monday, April 11, 2011
Attention All Bullies: Justice is Served
Attention all bullies: Justice is served!
In high school, you bullies liked to poke fun at the nerds, geeks and smart folk. You called us dork, homo, queer, wimp, four eyes, or if you were having a particularly bad day you just sucker punched us in the chest when we werent looking, or perhaps you outsourced your bullying and stuck a sign on our backs saying "Kick me" and let your buddies do all the work.
Instead of learning for yourself the ways of the physical universe, you went and played football, or you smoked the various herbs, drank six packs of brew, and partied on the weekends prostituting your brains for a 'quick fix' or a 'good time', and ostracized us for not doing the same.
Instead of learning for yourself Euclid's geometry, differential equations, machine language, electronic circuits or other forms of applied mathematics; you instead chose cheerleading and playing hockey, football and basketball, or you simply made us do your homework by threat of force because you were too busy ridiculing or trying to beat us up to get much involved in that whole learning thing.
How are all those cheerleading pom poms, footballs, hockey sticks, and beer bongs working out for you now? Not too well from what I hear.
Now many years later, you still havent learned the techniques of producing something useful, or how to use the mechanisms of generating the true wealth (i.e., computer programming, engineering, biological sciences, geological sciences, metallurgy, etc.) to benefit humanity, nor have you learned proper logic, symbolic logic, reason, and analysis. (Once learned these can be applied to any situation to solve problems and generate new avenues of exploration).
Fast forward: This is not High School. Your time is up!
Now you cannot simply lean over our desk and give us a wet willie to get the answers from our trigonometry exam when your mortage comes due. And to think you used to joke and complain how stupid math was, and how you would never use it.
You ask what time it is?
Well for you, its panic time! Sheer, unadulterated--looking under the couch for spare change--while shivering in your dirty jock strap cause you didn't pay your heating and water bill--while trying to pay your mortgage--all encompassing terrifying Panic Time!
In other words, you have no real employable skills because you were to busy with more important things (like picking on us) to learn anything applicable during your formative years; yet still you complain and whine and want to take from and bully the nerds, geeks, dorks and smart folk who have become the millionaires and billionaires of today. Yet you still insult us even though you use the toasters, cars, jets, light bulbs, televisions, facebook pages, youtubes, ATM machines, and CPU's that we created. (Still cant see any use for all that stupid mathematics?)
But alas, since we run the companies you work for, you cannot as easily bully us by force, so you do so by herding together like mindless sheep in unions, working seven at a time to change a lightbulb, coasting at your jobs that anyone including a trained gerbil could perform. Yet whenever one of us comes up with an idea, you swarm around trying to get a piece of it, just as you did in the locker rooms and hallways, trying to take our lunch money.
Only now, instead of taking our lunch money, you stop paying your mortgages and expect us to pick up the tab, or you chant, "Eat the rich," (the new rallying cry of the grown up bully). What about welfare programs, mortgage cram-downs, union rallies; these are the mere temper tantrums of an bully turned adult still trying to bully the nerds and geeks and all the people you used to make fun of, but who are now successful.
Now you are working for us!
You cant get what you want through the path of least mental effort, so you try to use your bully-unions, socialism, guilt tripping and government to get it for you.
Some things never change!
Your grade in life: F.
Signed,
The Moonraker,
Hieronymus Bosch XVII
In high school, you bullies liked to poke fun at the nerds, geeks and smart folk. You called us dork, homo, queer, wimp, four eyes, or if you were having a particularly bad day you just sucker punched us in the chest when we werent looking, or perhaps you outsourced your bullying and stuck a sign on our backs saying "Kick me" and let your buddies do all the work.
Instead of learning for yourself the ways of the physical universe, you went and played football, or you smoked the various herbs, drank six packs of brew, and partied on the weekends prostituting your brains for a 'quick fix' or a 'good time', and ostracized us for not doing the same.
Instead of learning for yourself Euclid's geometry, differential equations, machine language, electronic circuits or other forms of applied mathematics; you instead chose cheerleading and playing hockey, football and basketball, or you simply made us do your homework by threat of force because you were too busy ridiculing or trying to beat us up to get much involved in that whole learning thing.
How are all those cheerleading pom poms, footballs, hockey sticks, and beer bongs working out for you now? Not too well from what I hear.
Now many years later, you still havent learned the techniques of producing something useful, or how to use the mechanisms of generating the true wealth (i.e., computer programming, engineering, biological sciences, geological sciences, metallurgy, etc.) to benefit humanity, nor have you learned proper logic, symbolic logic, reason, and analysis. (Once learned these can be applied to any situation to solve problems and generate new avenues of exploration).
Fast forward: This is not High School. Your time is up!
Now you cannot simply lean over our desk and give us a wet willie to get the answers from our trigonometry exam when your mortage comes due. And to think you used to joke and complain how stupid math was, and how you would never use it.
You ask what time it is?
Well for you, its panic time! Sheer, unadulterated--looking under the couch for spare change--while shivering in your dirty jock strap cause you didn't pay your heating and water bill--while trying to pay your mortgage--all encompassing terrifying Panic Time!
In other words, you have no real employable skills because you were to busy with more important things (like picking on us) to learn anything applicable during your formative years; yet still you complain and whine and want to take from and bully the nerds, geeks, dorks and smart folk who have become the millionaires and billionaires of today. Yet you still insult us even though you use the toasters, cars, jets, light bulbs, televisions, facebook pages, youtubes, ATM machines, and CPU's that we created. (Still cant see any use for all that stupid mathematics?)
But alas, since we run the companies you work for, you cannot as easily bully us by force, so you do so by herding together like mindless sheep in unions, working seven at a time to change a lightbulb, coasting at your jobs that anyone including a trained gerbil could perform. Yet whenever one of us comes up with an idea, you swarm around trying to get a piece of it, just as you did in the locker rooms and hallways, trying to take our lunch money.
Only now, instead of taking our lunch money, you stop paying your mortgages and expect us to pick up the tab, or you chant, "Eat the rich," (the new rallying cry of the grown up bully). What about welfare programs, mortgage cram-downs, union rallies; these are the mere temper tantrums of an bully turned adult still trying to bully the nerds and geeks and all the people you used to make fun of, but who are now successful.
Now you are working for us!
You cant get what you want through the path of least mental effort, so you try to use your bully-unions, socialism, guilt tripping and government to get it for you.
Some things never change!
Your grade in life: F.
Signed,
The Moonraker,
Hieronymus Bosch XVII
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