Johann

What is finished... is the idea that this great country is dedicated to the freedom and flourishing of every individual in it. It's the individual that's finished. It's the single, solitary human being that's finished. It's every single one of you out there that's finished, because this is no longer a nation of independent individuals. It's a nation of some 200-odd million transistorized, deodorized, whiter-that-white, steel-belted bodies, totally unnecessary as human beings, and as replaceable as piston rods... Well, the time has come to say, is dehumanization such a bad word. Because good or bad, that's what is so. The whole world is becoming humanoid - creatures that look human but aren't. The whole world not just us. We're just the most advanced country, so we're getting there first. The whole world's people are becoming mass-produced, programmed, numbered, insensate things...

"Howard Beale"

"Network"

Oh, wait, I forgot, we are still in the mode of "stop the specific mode of this each particular attack".

Blow up building with fertilizer bomb-> must track all sales of fertilizer
Shoe bomber -> must scan all shoes
Underwear bomber -> must scan through underwear
Bomb with black powder -> must start scanning everywhere for black powder
Bribe TSA agents to let drugs through -> oops, no way to check this, just forget about it.

Unfortunately, using this method of "prevention" will take hundreds of years, thousands and thousands of different bombs, and the elimination of most every civil liberty you have to "win the war on terrorism".

http://science.slashdot.o ... ?sid=3714923&cid=43627333

ein
Tier - das in einer Falle steckt, die es
hält - langsam tötet wartet nicht bis es verreckt - es wird
ziehen zerren rufen scharren Flucht ist die Mission - nur
die wird jetzt beachtet den Preis rechtfertigt der Lohn doch es
gibt da ein Tier, das etwas anders reagiert - es sucht
Nahrung vögelt rum baut sich ein Nest hat nicht kapiert - daß es
hängt - wie 'ne Ratte mit gebrochenem Genick - und der
Käse nichtmal schmeckt -- sagt mal

was - habt ihr so in diesem - Jahrtausend vor? - wenn's nur
noch um's Tore schießen geht tut's auch ein Eigentor -
jeder gegen jeden, keiner hat mehr was davon, außer
einer handvoll Reiche, und die auch nicht lang jetzt
stellt euch mal 'ne Herde Zebras in der Steppe vor jedes
will das beste Fressen - und schreckt es nicht davor - zu-
rück dem Nachbarn - die Nahrung zu entreißen Schwache
abzudrängen, ster'm zu lassen - und drauf zu scheißen

was gibt's in der Steppe noch? richtig - Hyänen man muß
gar nicht lange suchen und dann kann man sie schon seh'n - erst
schleichen sie geduckt und warten, checken den Wind - bis der
Boß kurz mit dem Ohr zuckt und der Überfall beginnt sie sprinten
los krall'n sich ne Leiche, die Zebras bleiben heiter schau'n kurz
hin schau'n wieder weg -- und dösen weiter
das war ja echt leicht denken die Aas-Fresser beim Fressen diese
Zebras sind cool drauf - vielleicht wird das ja was Festes

- so geht das weiter die Hyänen werden frecher
- sie bauen Vorratslager füllen sie bis unter die
Dächer mit Leichenfleisch und sie reiben ihre Pfoten
denn die Zebras bleiben munter - erfüll'n die Quoten
- der ganze Kontinent wird umgebaut in ein KZ
- Hyänen so fett - , liegen nur im Bett solange
noch Busch da ist - muß Busch den Lagern weichen wir woll'n
mehr für irgendwann - arm im Herz reich an Leichen

ein
Tier - das in einer Falle steckt, die es
hält - langsam tötet wartet nicht bis es verreckt - es wird
ziehen zerren rufen scharren Flucht ist die Mission - nur
die wird jetzt beachtet den Preis rechtfertigt der Lohn - doch es
gibt da ein Tier, das etwas anders reagiert - es sucht
Nahrung vögelt rum baut sich ein Nest hat nicht kapiert - dass es
festhängt wie 'ne Ratte mit gebrochenem Genick - und der
Käse nichtmal schmeckt

(warum
schau'n wir gaffend zu während man Schwachen fertig macht - lachen
über'n Schaden - als wär' er nicht an unser'm eig'nen Dach -
treten heimlich geifernd nach - zeigen Eifer nur bei Nacht
Kloppe auf dem Pausenhof - sozusagen Klassenkampf
wenn die Glocke schrillt klemm'n sich alle in die Bänke
zischen sich an - drohen heimlich schmieden Ränke währ'nd_sie
trocknen und bluten - und der Leerkörper saugt bin Be-
amter und gut is' - Du gehst jetzt raus)

Most of us are unable to sort out reality — we can't distinguish between a thing and a symbol for that thing . This springs from several causes. One cause is that we are isolated from the natural world, where the distinction between a thing and a symbol is more obvious. Another cause is our educational system, which simply reflects the intellectual laziness of the society in which it is embedded. A third cause is resistance on the part of vested interests — if we could think creatively, we would be difficult to govern, and advertisers would have to appeal to reason instead of emotion.

Paul Lutus

How we confuse symbols and things

Most Americans are educated in name only — we do not have the comprehension of ideas that would be required to think for ourselves, and we also are not trained or encouraged to do this. Not only are we unable to think creatively, we don't even possess this expectation, and this is not an accident .

There are many vested interests that prefer us as we are — in government, religion and in corporate America. Think how much more trouble we would be if we could think for ourselves. Not only would we be much more difficult to govern (to the degree that politicians would have to explain their actions), we would be much more alert to the public stupidity that so often surrounds us.

Paul Lutus

How we confuse symbols and things

It is no accident that modern education doesn't teach the distinction between symbol and thing — if it did, education as we know it would fall apart. After that, after education reshaped itself to provide actual knowledge instead of the symbolic representation of knowledge, the society around us would be transformed.

But in the meantime, most "educated" people cannot tell the difference between a fact and an idea, the most common confusion of symbol and thing. Most believe if they collect enough facts, this will compensate for their inability to grasp the ideas behind those facts.

Paul Lutus

How we confuse symbols and things

The whole concept of alienation found its first expression in Western thought in the Old Testament concept of idolatry. The essence of what the prophets call "idolatry" is not that man worships many gods instead of only one. It is that the idols are the work of man's own hands -- they are things, and man bows down and worships things; worships that which he has created himself. In doing so he transforms himself into a thing. He transfers to the things of his creation the attributes of his own life, and instead of experiencing himself as the creating person, he is in touch with himself only by the worship of the idol. He has become estranged from his own life forces, from the wealth of his own potentialties, and is in touch with himself only in the indirect way of submission to life frozen in the idols. The deadness and emptiness of the idol is expressed in the Old Testament: "Eyes they have and they do not see, ears they have and they do not hear," etc. The more man transfers his own powers to the idols, the poorer he himself becomes, and the more dependent on the idols, so that they permit him to redeem a small part of what was originally his. The idols can be a godlike figure, the state, the church, a person, possessions. Idolatry changes its objects; it is by no means to be found only in those forms in which the idol has a socalled religious meaning. Idolatry is always the worship of something into which man has put his own creative powers, and to which he now submits, instead of experiencing himself in his creative act. Among the many forms of alienation, the most frequent one is alienation in language. If I express a feeling with a word, let us say, if I say "I love you," the word is meant to be an indication of the reality which exists within myself, the power of my loving. The word "love" is meant to be a symbol of the fact love, but as soon as it is spoken it tends to assume a life of its own, it becomes a reality. I am under the illusion that the saying of the word is the equivalent of the experience, and soon I say the word and feel nothing, except the thought of love which the word expresses. The alienation of language shows the whole complexity of alienation. Language is one of the most precious human achievements; to avoid alienation by not speaking would be foolish -- yet one must be always aware of the danger of the spoken word, that it threatens to substitute itself for the living experience. The same holds true for all other achievements of man; ideas, art, any kind of man-made objects. They are man's creations; they are valuable aids for life, yet each one of them is also a trap, a temptation to confuse life with things, experience with artifacts, feeling with surrender and submission.

Erich Fromm

"Marx's Concept of Man"

Success is not validation of an idea and we should be ashamed to think so.

Cigarettes are one of the most successful consumer products on earth. Inhaling a lungful of carcinogenic smoke several hundred times a day is undoubtedly a stupid idea. Tobacco has made a small number of people incomprehensibly rich, to the great detriment of humanity.

Personally, I think nearly all of these 'social' startups are bad news. Not as bad news as a lung cancer epidemic, but bad news nonetheless. I think they feed a culture of passivity and attention deficit. I think they fragment human interaction into the smallest possible dopamine-inducing units. I think they're essentially Skinner boxes in disguise - apps that dress up an intermittent schedule of reward as meaningful activity.

The startup culture talks the talk about "changing the world", but in truth most of us couldn't care less so long as we get our next funding round. For every Watsi, we have a hundred bullshit companies with bullshit products, providing yet another means of idle distraction for indolent westerners. We can hardly distinguish between what is worthwhile and what is popular or profitable.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5636090