Woke up with a blinding headache at 6am this morning. Turned on the news, more warnings of possible summer riots. This country's afraid of me, I can tell. I've seen its true face.
The streets are extended gutters and the gutters will soon be full of blood and when the drains finally scab over, all the vermin will drown. Along with us. The accumulated filth of of all their lies and murder will foam up around their waists and all the whores and their paymasters will look up and shout "save us"...and I'll look down and whisper, "no".
They had a choice, all of them. They could have followed in the footsteps of good men, like my father, or Clement Attlee. Decent men who believed in a days pay for a day's work. Instead they followed the droppings of lechers and bankers and didn't realize that the trail led over a precipice until it was too late. Don't tell me they didn't have a choice.
Now the whole world stands on the brink, staring down into bloody hell, all those bankers and economists and smooth talkers...and all of a sudden nobody can think of anything to say.
Greed is a powerful drug. I think people WANTED the "easy way out" so badly they had no idea how much they were miring themselves in deep deep shit.
And yes, they are totally afraid of anything resembling violent change and chaos. Even though they created it themselves.
Well spoken.
:mittens:
good not only as a rant but a short piece of writing
More of Rorshach's writing voice!
Uh....not precisely the reaction I was expecting.
Explanation: I think Rorscach's moral absolutism is repugnant and stupid. His boneheaded insistence on doing what he percieves as right overrides common sense, decency and indeed survival instinct.
Now, would it be right to go out there and hang a few bankers? Maybe. It certainly would be less overall damage than has been done to people by their actions. But is it smart? No. Schadenfreude and thoughts of revenge are all nice and well, but with no way to effect them, are nothing more than hot air. The "summer of rage" that has been talked about so much over here will only achieve what is normally achieved when people without tanks and helicoptor gunships go up against people with them.
Furthermore, while its all good and fun to blame the bankers, they're not the only bad guys here. Where were the economists? The government? The regulators? Its not like they weren't gorging themselves on the same lies. How are you going to get back at all of them.
I worry. I worry because the same sort of psychopaths we've had in government will be the ones leading the charge against it. Look how quickly the fascists both in the UK and USA moved to get their claws into workers movements.
The world is complex. It doesn't need simplistic reactions.
For the UK, those answers are a bit more puzzling than they are over here. We have a very simple scapegoat: Bush and his people.
But really, his PEOPLE are THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. Hence my answer--choosing greed, the opiate of the masses, to further the agenda past the watchdogs, was really the overarching sentiment behind the last decade or so.
:mittens:
2000 "Capitalism may not be perfect, but look at the collapces caused by communism"
2003 "The free market is bringing the greatest prosperity we have ever known
2006 "You can use greed to incentivise your workers"
2009 "Yes, well it was all the banks fault for taking our advice and following our system"
:argh!:
Quote from: Cain on March 04, 2009, 09:05:10 PM
Uh....not precisely the reaction I was expecting.
Explanation: I think Rorscach's moral absolutism is repugnant and stupid. His boneheaded insistence on doing what he percieves as right overrides common sense, decency and indeed survival instinct.
Now, would it be right to go out there and hang a few bankers? Maybe. It certainly would be less overall damage than has been done to people by their actions. But is it smart? No. Schadenfreude and thoughts of revenge are all nice and well, but with no way to effect them, are nothing more than hot air. The "summer of rage" that has been talked about so much over here will only achieve what is normally achieved when people without tanks and helicoptor gunships go up against people with them.
Furthermore, while its all good and fun to blame the bankers, they're not the only bad guys here. Where were the economists? The government? The regulators? Its not like they weren't gorging themselves on the same lies. How are you going to get back at all of them.
I worry. I worry because the same sort of psychopaths we've had in government will be the ones leading the charge against it. Look how quickly the fascists both in the UK and USA moved to get their claws into workers movements.
The world is complex. It doesn't need simplistic reactions.
and I thought it was a piece about alienation and lack of relations between society and the individual...
though I have to ask, what is probably a stupid question
who's Rorscach? - I thought it was just a fictional character
My last comment wasn't well thought out. While I like the idea of repurposing Rorschach's writing voice, that wasn't the topic. Trying again:
Quote from: Cain on March 04, 2009, 09:05:10 PM
Uh....not precisely the reaction I was expecting.
Explanation: I think Rorscach's moral absolutism is repugnant and stupid. His boneheaded insistence on doing what he percieves as right overrides common sense, decency and indeed survival instinct.
His views are unrealistic and his solutions aren't even feasible in a comic book. But I think people still like him because of that same crusaderly attitude. People want there to be simple solutions to messy problems. However I can equivocate that he doesn't have real answers to any of society's ills.
Quote from: Cain on March 04, 2009, 09:05:10 PM
I worry. I worry because the same sort of psychopaths we've had in government will be the ones leading the charge against it. Look how quickly the fascists both in the UK and USA moved to get their claws into workers movements.
True. Level headed people will probably not be involved in the right causes.
The only real way to solve the problems at hand is to start a real dialogue with the institutions that have the leverage to solve large issues.
i thought this thread would be something along the lines of someone saying "clown"
and then someone submits this:
(http://www.swingmachine.org/issue7/gifs/inkblot.gif)
except that's not a clown. It's obviously a flower who's roots are some kind of futuristic upside down city.
i dunno - looks more like the roots are upside down gnomes playing cards to me.
Quote from: rong on March 05, 2009, 09:44:56 AM
i dunno - looks more like the roots are upside down gnomes playing cards to me.
Why did you just make me turn my laptop upside down?
Quote from: Aufenthatt on March 04, 2009, 09:50:14 PM
:mittens:
2000 "Capitalism may not be perfect, but look at the collapces caused by communism"
2003 "The free market is bringing the greatest prosperity we have ever known
2006 "You can use greed to incentivise your workers"
2009 "Yes, well it was all the banks fault for taking our advice and following our system"
:argh!:
This totally made me laugh. Given that capitalism appears to be in the death throes of it's own, inescapable, conclusion, suddenly all those assholes who screamed "capitalism is the best system we have" look as dumb and shortsighted as all those assholes who said "communism is the best system we have"
Bottom line - we don't have a workable solution. Simply being the most successful of a bunch of dumb ideas =/= workable :lulz:
Quote from: rong on March 05, 2009, 09:26:22 AM
i thought this thread would be something along the lines of someone saying "clown"
and then someone submits this:
(http://www.swingmachine.org/issue7/gifs/inkblot.gif)
(http://blogs.thetimes.co.za/stompies/files/2009/02/predator.jpg)
still nobody has told me who Rorscach is
:argh!:
Quote from: Thurnez Isa on March 05, 2009, 04:48:13 PM
still nobody has told me who Rorscach is
:argh!:
afaik it's some kind of marvel superhero guy, he's got a trenchcoat and a morphing rorschach blot for a face. someone used it as an avatar a while back.
although that's all i know about him. apparently he's some kind of hardcore vigilante as well.
read the watchmen. Its worth your time
You can't be a really real discordian unless Rorschach is your hero :argh!:
Quote from: Triple Zero on March 05, 2009, 05:08:48 PM
Quote from: Thurnez Isa on March 05, 2009, 04:48:13 PM
still nobody has told me who Rorscach is
:argh!:
afaik it's some kind of DC superhero guy, he's got a trenchcoat and a morphing rorschach blot for a face. someone used it as an avatar a while back.
although that's all i know about him. apparently he's some kind of hardcore vigilante as well.
He's the only character in "Watchmen" that shows any consistency. He is also based heavily on "The Question".
Quote from: Faust on March 05, 2009, 05:19:50 PM
read the watchmen. Its worth your time
http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/485797
now you could get all your watchmen needs in a Saturday morning cartoon
Quote from: P3nT4gR4m on March 05, 2009, 01:04:51 PM
Quote from: Aufenthatt on March 04, 2009, 09:50:14 PM
:mittens:
2000 "Capitalism may not be perfect, but look at the collapces caused by communism"
2003 "The free market is bringing the greatest prosperity we have ever known
2006 "You can use greed to incentivise your workers"
2009 "Yes, well it was all the banks fault for taking our advice and following our system"
:argh!:
This totally made me laugh. Given that capitalism appears to be in the death throes of it's own, inescapable, conclusion, suddenly all those assholes who screamed "capitalism is the best system we have" look as dumb and shortsighted as all those assholes who said "communism is the best system we have"
Bottom line - we don't have a workable solution. Simply being the most successful of a bunch of dumb ideas =/= workable :lulz:
TANSTAGI (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tanstagi&oldid=71966987).
The problem is that Capitalism is an ism. It's a proposed economy that's driven by market forces and profit motives. The game can actually work OK under certain conditions. The problem is that the game is maintained by a referee--a government--and every man has his price, even outside of a Capitalist economy.
The problem with all human systems is the "human" bit.
Put it this way - if there is a god and he did give us freewill then that fucker has a sense of humour after all. We all come out with a mind of our own. Actually that's not strictly true - we come out with a mind, but only a fraction of it is our own. The rest is biologically and socially programmed, open to exploitation and subject to change.
But we all have one each and that's (x-1)* too many for an economy or a government or even a fucking sewing circle to run efficiently.
*x being the given population of any society or economy or sewing circle.
P3nt, you should really read some Foucault. You'd like him. I'll explain why in an essay or rant, but essentially you said the same thing there as he did towards the end of his work in the 80s, after he'd finished bumming people out by talking about prisons and knowledge and power and how essentially everyone is fucked because power exists everywhere.
I don't often read highbrow stuff like Foucault and the like but if and when I do I always prefer if I've already considered at least the outline position by myself. Gives me a sense of accomplishment :D
Quote from: rong on March 05, 2009, 09:44:56 AM
i dunno - looks more like the roots are upside down gnomes playing cards to me.
You're both wrong. It is a winged, crowned Charlie Brown wearing vulcan ears and reading a book, while sitting on a fractal lotus that is sitting on a six-dimensional bong.
Quote from: Thurnez Isa on March 05, 2009, 11:15:58 PM
Quote from: Faust on March 05, 2009, 05:19:50 PM
read the watchmen. Its worth your time
http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/485797
now you could get all your watchmen needs in a Saturday morning cartoon
That was fucking superb! :lulz: