Reality in the Digital Age

It’s comforting to view social and intellectual progress as a continuous, positive process, particularly with the rapid innovation of tools to improve access to information.  From this perspective, we applaud the Internet, and the ease with which one can now find answers to questions which previously would have required effort, special access, and perhaps training to research.

But easy access to knowledge is not a panacea for ignorance.  Along with a nearly endless variety of other media available—including a plethora of 24/7 news channels—the Internet is indeed a conduit for data and access to knowledge.  But it is also a misinformation superhighway.  People are deluged with competing assertions of reality; without a solid foundation of critical discernment skills that allow them to filter reality from myth, it is overwhelming.  In order to resolve the resulting dissonance, many simply default to the beliefs and prejudices they already hold. 

This tendency is well understood by those who wish to exploit it for their own purposes.  Their web and cable networks provide palatable, easy to digest solutions to complex problems; tying traditional values inextricably to the agenda they wish to promote – likewise casting those who oppose their agenda as opponents of these same comforting traditional values. 

Viewed from outside the beguiled bubble, these sleights of conflation and misdirection are obvious and amateurish.  But within the bubble, these have become so frequent that they are really no longer discreet events, but now comprise an entirely separate reality. 

Mark Twain famously said that, ‘A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.’  That was well over a hundred years ago.  As valuable as are our advances in information technology, their ability promulgate the dissemination of myths leaves those who attempt to correct, or even monitor them with a task that would make Sisyphus appreciate his lot.  

Christmas Truce

One hundred years ago, during the First World War, one of the most amazing events in the history of modern warfare occurred. 

For almost five months, British, French, and Belgian troops had been engaged against the Germans in the bloodiest, most destructive fighting ever to have occurred in Western Europe, each side slaughtering the other in wholesale numbers.  The fighting had devolved into a mutual siege, with both sides entrenched – sometimes only yards apart.  In the no-man’s land between the trenches the dead and wounded could not even be recovered for fear that the recovery teams would be killed.  There was seemingly no trace of humanity left. 

Yet, beginning on Christmas Eve, a brief peace came to the Western Front.  It began with Christmas carols sung in the trenches – clearly audible to those on the other side.  Then the small Christmas trees lit up, and set at the top of the trenches.  Finally the offers—and tentative acceptances—to meet in the middle.  There, among the artillery craters, in the field of death, these enemies experienced one another’s humanity – exchanging small gifts of chocolate and cigarettes; some even offering signed postcards.  Wounded soldiers were recovered; many of the dead were buried in peace. 

It didn’t last, of course.  Military commands on both sides were infuriated by this fraternization – and made sure it was not repeated in subsequent years of that tragic conflict. 

But for that one incredible moment … 

Reality-Based ... and Not

Trying to have a reality-based conversation with somebody who gets their ‘facts’ from Faux News, is like trying to get a 700 Club member to take real medicine, and stop sending money to their witch doctor.   

Prospectus

Fractional Legislator Ownership™

It’s long been recognized that one of the most profitable investments a plutocrat or industrialist can make is in the promising Congressional sector.  When you run the numbers the results are conclusive; with up to a ten-fold return in the first year, those who aren't investing in the legislative branch are missing out. 

But since the Citizens United ruling opened the government more fully to market forces, we've witnessed a significant uptick in the investment required to participate in this sector.  The level of investment that used to easily obtain the services of a senior Senator, now may not even be enough for a freshman Representative.  While this affects even established, more well-heeled players, it may present a serious barrier to entry for new investors.  Many of the best Senators and Representatives are already locked up, and the rapidly increasing costs of those who are available can adversely affect cash-flow. 

So how does a small to medium tier tycoon access the long-term benefits available in this sector, without the short-term hit to liquidity?

This is a problem that lends itself to a creative solution; one which I’d like to share with you.  Taking a cue from luxury aircraft industry players such as NetJets and Airshares Elite, I have founded FLO (LLC), where we architect and broker Fractional Legislator Ownership™ opportunities. 

Advantages of FLO

FLO enables our investors to enjoy many of the same benefits, and the same prestige of owning your own Senator, with a relatively more modest upfront investment.  Some investors—particularly those in highly controversial industries, or those needing specific language inserted into the tax code—may still need to fully own a Senator or House committee chair; perhaps even a Supreme Court justice.  But for all but the largest oligarchs, a strategically-designed FLO should be more than enough to meet any conceivable need. 

Profile Match

Our innovative investor-matching program employs an algorithm that matches your profile with that of other investors; identifying compatibilities and uncovering synergies, so that the combined investments of the fractional owners most effectively direct the activities of your Congressional Representative or Senator.  

Risk Reduction

Another advantage to Fractional Legislator Ownership™ is risk reduction.  As Simon Cameron once famously said, “an honest politician is one who, when he is bought, will stay bought”.  At FLO, we carefully screen our Representatives and Senators to assure that they are sensitive to the needs of our investors.  But we know that they’re human, and thus, imperfect.  If they fail to meet expectations—whether in committee work or in full session—our systems detect it, and take immediate action.  We will redirect your legislation to other key Senators or Representatives in our portfolio.  And we handle the discipline of the one who missed his or her cue – minimizing the likelihood of a recurrence.  In all cases, your investment is assured.  

Timely Opportunity

With the new Congress being seated soon—particularly the wholesale changes in leadership in the Senate—unprecedented opportunities are available to the proactive investor.  Have your people call to discuss these with one of our FLO Legislative Account Executives.  Better yet, drop by one of our offices in person. We'll open a chilled bottle of Dom Perignon, and thoroughly review our prospectus in person.  

We look forward to a mutually beneficial collaboration.  

Opera and Science

It’s fine to not be into opera.  Much of it is sung in foreign languages, using allusions and symbolism that only makes sense to people who have studied it, and are really interested in it.  I respect opera, but am not interested enough to invest the time and effort into learning it. 

It’s okay to not really be into science.  A thorough understanding of science is not easy.  Fully understanding even a narrow field of scientific knowledge requires years of directed effort and focused intellect.  Much of it is not intuitive, and sometimes runs counter to common sense.  And because frontiers of science push back against superstition and folk beliefs, many people ignore or reject science in favor of the comfort and safety of tradition. 

Few people who choose to ignore opera would then get into a heated argument with an expert on the implications of a plot element or the timing of an aria in Die Fledermaus or Otello.  But for some reason, people who have never studied science—or applied the scientific method of inquiry to anything—feel free to expound with some imagined expertise in opposition to the very fundamentals of modern science. 

People have a right to their opinions; but the right to hold them does not lend them merit. 

One who has never shown expertise or aptitude for opera would not be a good candidate for leadership of the Met.  And likewise, one who is willfully ignorant of science is not a good candidate for a role in translating scientific knowledge into governmental policy. 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/inhofe-an-epa-foe-likely-to-lead-senate-environment-committee/2014/11/05/d0b4221e-64f4-11e4-836c-83bc4f26eb67_story.html

More Black Friday Thoughts

I’m thinking of writing a book; sort of a sequel to Fahrenheit 451 – Ray Bradbury’s novel of a dystopian future, in which people don’t read books, have closer relationships to characters in ‘reality’ shows they watch on wall-sized televisions than to those around them, drive too fast, compulsively consume whatever products they’re told to, and listen numbly and uncomprehendingly to stories of unending foreign wars. 

This book should just about write itself. 

I think I’ll call it Black Friday.  

My approach to Black Friday is similar to the one I take with NASCAR; I have no interest in actually attending an event, or watching it start to finish; but I look forward to highlights of the carnage on the news.  

Black Friday Blessing

A BLACK FRIDAY BLESSING

May your training pay off for you,
at the mall Thanksgiving night;
May you win the empty parking space,
with no door-dings from the fight. 

May the doors bust down before you,
and the crowds be at your back.
May the items that you’re seeking,
come right to you off the rack. 

If somebody needs an elbow
don’t be bashful, let ‘er rip.
With three TVs and five of you,
don’t let this moment slip. 

The other jealous shoppers know
you’re gonna be a hero
to your little ones; but they each know
to theirs, they’ll be a zero. 

Yes, you had to shove and jostle,
but you know it wasn't wrong;
May Black Friday spirits fill you,
all the BF season long.  

- Michel-Jacques Villeneuve

Happy Against Their Will

It's impossible to make somebody happy against their will.  

Some people hold power by maintaining an attitude of displeasure or disaffection.  Attempts to cheer them up, or gain their trust threaten this power, and will be resisted.  

Unless they are willing participants, your effort is better directed elsewhere.  

Happy Holidays! Gesundheit!

I can hardly express the outrage I feel when it’s Christmas time, and somebody walks up to me, smiles, and says, ‘Happy Holidays!’  

Just who the hell do these people think they are?  It’s not ‘Holidays’, it’s ‘Christmas’, damn it!  When people ignore the Prince o’ Peace, it just makes me want to tear them limb from limb! 

While we're on the subject I get pretty peeved when people say  'Gesundheit' instead of 'God Bless you!', or 'Excuse me' instead of 'Pardon me'.  

Gotta run now.  The O’Reilly factor is starting.  He’s continuing his special report on the secular humanist agenda!  



Can we all agree that over the next month or so, if somebody offers us a pleasant greeting, we just accept it cordially - like mature grown-ups?  
On the other hand - if you sneeze, and they say 'Gesundheit!' instead of 'God Bless You!' I think you ought to tear 'em a new one.  

Enough for Everybody

Veterans Day

On the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, the guns fell silent all along the western front. 

So ended the First World War – the most devastating war Europe had ever experienced; begun one hundred years ago last August, ending four bloody years later. 

It was the world’s first exposure to industrial-scale murder.  Over a billion (with a ‘b’) artillery shells were fired into the frontier of trenches that stretched across France and Belgium, from Switzerland to the North Sea.  Four million soldiers died in those trenches, and in the shell-pocked moonscape ‘no-man’s land’ hell that separated the sides. 

When it ended, there was briefly a hope that humanity had learned its lesson about militarism.  In that light, November 11 was established as a holiday to celebrate peace.  Here is the final clause in the US Congressional resolution of 1926:    

“Whereas the legislatures of twenty-seven of our States have already declared November 11 to be a legal holiday: Therefore be it Resolved by the Senate (the House of Representatives concurring), that the President of the United States is requested to issue a proclamation calling upon the officials to display the flag of the United States on all Government buildings on November 11 and inviting the people of the United States to observe the day in schools and churches, or other suitable places, with appropriate ceremonies of friendly relations with all other peoples.”

It’s an international holiday.  Though it goes by different names in different countries, the prayers for peace, and the expressions of respect for those who have borne the brunt of conflict are common. 

Greetings for Veteran’s Day, Armistice Day, Remembrance Day. 

Peace!  

Voter Fraud

As an opening gambit in many swindles, the swindler warns his prey of the danger that lurks all around – particularly directing attention to others who might be planning a crime.  As the victim’s attention is directed away, his wallet disappears. 

This misdirection is often very effective; so effective that—if the victim doesn't notice who ended up with his wallet—the crime may validate the warning, strengthening the  bond between predator and prey.    

The campaign to disenfranchise voters—through restrictions on early and absentee voting, wholesale purging of voter rolls, strict voter ID laws, and intimidation gangs at polls in poor and minority precincts—is NOT an attempt to COMBAT voter fraud.  IT IS VOTER FRAUD – fraud of a magnitude not seen since the days of Jim Crow. 

Promoters of these restrictions have spread rumors about widespread voter fraud, but aside from a small minority of easily-confused and frightened voters, these rumors are not really even intended to be believed.  They just serve as semi-transparent window dressing, so people can feel validated in cheating others out of their right to vote. 

Clearly, those promoting these programs, and pulling the strings of the gullible, completely understand what they’re doing and why – and are cynical enough to not need the window dressing for themselves.  They have looked around—both at the country today, and at the demographic trends—and realize that the plutocracy they represent cannot long survive in a fully-participatory, empowered democracy.  Their only hope is to make sure participation is suppressed. 

There is nothing new about the suppression of democracy in this country.  From the days of the Federalist Party, there have always been those who stand to lose by greater participation.   Restrictions against women, blacks, Indians, and even non-property owners are all part of our history.  The difference now is the trajectory and the transparency.  Instead of moving in the direction of more inclusion, we are back-sliding.  In the past this was done openly; now we’re supposed to pretend there’s a higher motive.  Pretty much everybody knows better; but some of you know you’re not supposed to admit it.  
 

With the Voting Rights Act gutted by the usual suspects on the Supreme Court, the disenfranchisement may work in tipping a number of close races this time.  Many will celebrate now what we should all be grieving.  We are becoming a nation that condones and institutionalizes cheating in the most important civil function we perform. 

Whatever we call the system that is evolving, we should avoid words like ‘democracy’; they are meaningless and foolish in this context.  

LAZARUS WEPT

LAZARUS WEPT

Give me your energetic,
your rich;
your landed gentry
yearning to breathe free –
of taxation, welfare,
or any obligations
intended to meet the needs of
the huddled masses. 

As for the retched refuse

of your teeming shores …
they will be detained,
then returned to you.
  

Prejudice and Assimilation

A persecuted ethnic or religious minority cannot overcome discrimination and prejudice by assimilating within the oppressing society, then participating in discrimination against a new target.  This only serves to validate the idea of discrimination; and merely postpones the day when one will once again become the target.    

The only thing this changes is that, when the cold stares and furtive innuendo are once again directed at these people, they will no longer have any moral high ground from which to appeal.   

Gravity and Reality

Gravity is one of the fundamental forces that define the universe.  It defines the orbits of moons and planets – and even the very shapes of these bodies.  It is the physical manifestation of matter’s drive to aggrandize itself across the vastness of space.  Gravity holds us to the Earth, and holds the Earth together.  Concentrated in stars, gravity is so strong, it fuses hydrogen nuclei to make helium, lighting our days.  

But in too great a concentration, it just swallows up everything.  The gravity within a black hole is so strong that not even light can escape. 

Similarly, the quest to accumulate wealth and power is a key driving force in the human experience.  It’s why we seek new lands, build railroads, skyscrapers, and the internet.  Within bounds, it can shape incredible innovation and creativity; generating jobs, wealth and plenty. 

But when unchecked wealth and power become too concentrated, they too create a black hole, which swallows everything within its horizon – bending and shaping it to its will.  Once in its sway, neither light, nor truth, nor sustenance escapes. 

Some physicists speculate that within a black hole, a separate reality may exist; one warped and distorted by the intense forces of the concentrated mass, but within which, this distorted microcosm may seem somehow normal – and the universe outside the influence of this overbearing force seem  distorted.  

The More You Know

Educated, well-informed people equivocate, qualifying their comments with reservations, uncertainty, and exceptions.  
Children, fools and zealots declare their beliefs with an absolute certainty that is the unique possession of those who just don't know what they don't know; and who either can't comprehend, or don't care about nuance or complexity.