(note, for clarity, all of the titles in quotes are lyrics from rap songs. Most of them gangsta rap songs from artists people like to stick their nose up about. There may be one or two Nietzche quotes as well.)
Sometimes we have moments of scope that defy the terms introspection and its antonym. You can see a trail of actions behind, splitting of into temporary reality you were once convinced were permanent. Likewise, the vista in front of you is 360 degrees wide and limited only catastrophe and unexpected crevasses. This is not necessarily that moment.
It's funny to get older and feel the tug of realism nagging at your idealism. The contradiction is also a lightbulb; being composed of essentially stardust, how can it be that credit card debt, the law and medical conditions can possibly matter. And yet here are a litany of things stealing time and sapping energies.
I'm writing a research paper for my Nonfiction class about free energy devices. I don't believe one has been discovered (though there are many claims), and yet soemthing about the will of these people fascinates me. There is a sprawling drive for newness in the human genome, not in all of us perhaps, that demands that this place be even more interesting than on first glance. Luckily it is. Plus, as you may know, I love a good conspiracy.
As this post has no theme, I feel compelled to think out loud about something else. You may be aware of the terrifying (and willful) stupidity of Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez. Recently, a video has been bouncing around on the internet (check it out here). Essentially, under grilling about the treatment of terror suspects, Gonzalez states that the constitution does not "grant individuals the right to habeas corpus, but states that it shall not be infringed". Not only does this display a woeful lack of understanding for basic sentence structure, legal precedent and common sense, but this attitude is so belligerently dangerously that I feel that exact moment may have signified the first second of our fascism. There has been a great deal of trampling and misleading from 2001 until now, but the statement by the top lawyer in the country that we as individuals now DO NOT have rights inherent to a democracy since the Magna Charta may be that instant in which we've finally stepped onto the slippery slope.
Why is habeas corpus important? Great question. The Trial, one of my favorite novels, shows us how in stark surreality. One can not defend themselves if there charges are never explained to them. And further, under a no habeas corpus paradigm, individuals may not even be suspected of criminal activity, it grants the powers that be the muscle to let your ass rot in jail. It is the antithesis of freedom.
Sunday, January 21, 2007
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First of all, since it's much more important at the moment, Gonzales has begun to literally frighten me with his views of the constitution. How can we have such an idiot in any position of power? I really recommend to you watching the Daily Dhow with Jon Stewart from last night, it brings up this video, and discusses it in a way that I found to be highly amusing.
Secondly, there has to be working designs for "fre energy" devices, there's no way someone hasn't come up with one yet. I remember back in my high school physics class, we were discussing the use of permament magnets in energy generation (not any intrusion of electromagnets, mind you). My teacher took a magnet, and stuck it to a metal band on the ceiling. Then he said "Barring interference from someone, that little magnet will sit ther and defy gravity for 400 years.. and no one has designed an engine that uses them yet, supposedly..." My mind kind of went "BOOM!" (if you know what I mean). Especially with the strength of magnets we have been able to produce now, someone must have designed something that uses only permament magnets to make energy. Of course, I'm sure the oil companies might not take a liking to said person, maybe that's why we haven't heard anything...
When it comes down to realism and idealism, I think a fusion of the two should be in order. For example, imagine this scenario: (I'm going to throw out random numbers here, just for illustration, they are not set or anything)
Let's say that someone on welfare was getting about $12,000 a year. Now let's also say that this welfare would be limited in duration (barring extenuating circumstances, like losing all 4 limbs, etc.). Now let's say that the govt. offered free classes in a tech school for a job that is in high demand at the moment, and also offered to increase the person's welfare amount to, say, $15,000 while they were attending this school. Let's also say that the minimum amount a person would be making once they were trained would be like $30,000. In this way, we would be harnessing people's greed to improve their stations in life. So we acknowledge greed as a motivating factor in many people's lives, yet we use this idea to increase our nation's trained workforce, which would be like a one-time investment to get someone on their feet again instead of just giving them more money per month for every baby they pump out.
I haven't worked out all the details yet, but this philosophy is probably most in line with the politics of a "social democracy". I think it would be a great idea to help combat both poverty and unemployment. What do you think?
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