______ ______ ______________ | | | | \ | \ / \ / ____ \ ______| | |________| | / \ | |____ | ________ | ( {} ) | _____) /~~~~~~~~~~~ | | | | \____/ | |______ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~\ | |~~~~~~~ / \ / \ / | ~~~~~~~~~| | | | |______| |______| /_____________| | | | | | | | | ...Hogs of Entropy Text Files Present... | | | | | | | | "Politics, Freedom, and the Human Spirit" | | | | | | | | By: I Wish My Name Were Nathan | | | | | | \ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ / ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ [ Instructions: read forward from sections I to XIX and then stop. ] I Fear has crept into our hearts and paralyzed our will. II Ugliness is a virtue! Shitty haircuts rule! Welcomely accept the taboo and vehemently reject the accepted and the standard! Common sense is banal, anal, nil, and ill! III Our minds are not steel traps, but sponges. Our bodies are the means by which our mind absorbs information. Our hands, eyes, and ears are the tools for obtaining information to absorb. Most of us waste these tools, lie stagnant, and the forces about us -- television, politics, religion, and advertising -- spoon-feed us, flood our minds, wash away the independent ideas therein. We must be reminded of free will. IV How does thought operate in a capitalistic democracy? Perversely. V Good American citizen: go to school, learn about the real world, get a job, marry your lover, contribute to society, die happy. This is the tenet of our country: Schooling gives you the tools, the critical thought, the experience to become a world citizen. A job develops the work ethic, provides for you and your family, eliminates the boredom and sloth of spare time. A full life is enjoyed, your death is paid for. Bullshit. A perverse crime against humanity was committed upon wedding the ideas of democracy and capitalism. Democracy: the institution by which the people rule themselves; the purest, most idealistic form of human existence. Capitalism: the institution by which money rules people; the neurotic, paranoid quest for money as happiness; the fettering away of a life for the goal of working to live rather than living to work; the destroyer of philosophy; the ill- conceived mother of spare time. VI Anarchy is a pipe dream. Disillusioned citizens look to a world without freedom-killing laws, mind-numbing standards, and soul-crushing conformity. That world contains no politics, no judges, no restriction. That world is a simple conception, born to fruition with the mere act of opening people's eyes. That world, unfortunately, cannot exist by human nature. Philosopher A says that humans are inherently evil, and without the restriction of society, would tear off around the world in a rampage of selfish, destructive acts. Philosopher B believes that humans are good and well-meaning, and that the restrictions of society itself influence humans to do wrong. Philosopher C takes the stand that humans are born tabulas rasas -- blank slates -- and are entirely influenced by the society around them. Philosophers are humans, living in societies. They are prejudiced by their own minds. VII Take a trip into the animal kingdom. Before the invention of zoos, animals lived exactly as current supporters of anarchy wish to. Animals roam free, living off of nature, apparently enjoying life to the fullest. Why can't humans live like this? Humans are cursed with consciousness. Humans are cursed with consciousness. That sentence was repeated twice. You noticed it. I noticed it. Notice, as well, that you are reading dots of light shining through a piece of glass. We take for granted the distinctly human attributes we have. Most notably, intelligence. But intelligence is not merely human. All animals have brains and memories, and can conduct rational thought by synthesizing memory and instinct. Exactly how these memories and instincts are formed, no one knows. A squirrel will run across a highway in terror when a rumbling growling speeding car approaches; the squirrel heads for a tree, runs to a nice spot, and stops. This is an intelligent act. An unintelligent being, such as a robot which has precise audio circuits, mechanical limbs, touch sensors, and a video camera, could be created by adept human engineers. This robot, however, would run off the end of a high tree branch to its demise -- actually, it would run into the base of the tree -- realistically, it would sit in the middle of the road and be run over -- all without an artificially intelligent brain. Animals, insects, sea creatures, all have intelligence, and in varying amounts, to be sure. Humans themselves only use 10%-15% of the brain for active thought. Perhaps the same percentages exist in other beings. The human's larger brain is only useful for more refined instinct, behavior, and communication; and a more comprehensive memory. As well: Humans are cursed with consciousness. The remaining portion of the human brain is a center of consciousness. We are aware that we exist. For this sole reason, we are human. VIII Why do humans have language? Why do these 256,000 pixels shining on a VGA monitor make you think, scan your eyes from left to right and top to bottom? Humans have no more radical a language than animals. A cat's meows and cries convey curiosity, greeting, and fear. Why do we not simply utter grunts to convey philosophy and economics? Humans are cursed with consciousness. Humans realize, through conscious thought, that separate sounds can convey separate ideas. A cat only meows because it is not aware that it is being so vague. From the womb of a primitive hominid, the first human emerged with a non- spectacular genetic mutation which gave it consciousness. This human, however, did not know a thing about passive participles or oblique cases of pronouns. Language evolved slowly over thousands of years. A newborn baby does not know a thing about passive participles or oblique cases of pronouns. Language evolves slowly over several years. The difference lies in the fact that the baby's parents consciously decide to teach it everything they know, in hopes of providing a necessary advantage over the animals. IX The human mind acts much as Freud describes, with the three levels of the id, the ego, and the superego. The id is simply inherited from the animal kingdom, providing the instinct to survive. The ego and the superego are shaped by consciousness, providing respectively the drives for personal and selfish desires, and moral and communal needs. Animals have subsets of the human ego and superego, such as in the concept of marking territory and following the herd, respectively. Humans are cursed with consciousness. How, how, how are we so cursed? Consciousness gives us the ability to actively learn, invent, and synthesize. Without consciousness, we wouldn't have the selfish or communal need to do such things. Why is this a curse? The human is torn between the ego and the superego. These otherwise primitive facets of the mind are blown up into opposing and continuously compromising forces by the means of consciousness, which suddenly makes them very important. X An idealistic anarchy is impossible due to the superego. Anarchy is an all-ego condition, where everyone is independent, free-thinking, selfish, and loving it. The superego is what forces people to form governments, organize themselves, maintain order. A true communism is impossible due to the ego. This government is an all-superego condition, where people live together and provide for each other, no one has power, and everyone loves it. The ego is what causes leaders to see themselves as individuals, and independent, powerful ones at that, and which leads to corruption. As well, the ego causes subjects to react against their superconformist society and rebel. The basic power struggle is the result of the war between the ego and the superego. If an anarchy were established, someone would want to control someone else. If a true communism were established, someone would want independence, and would want to control someone else. Our current government, a republican representative democracy, provides the means for a well-nourished ego and superego. The ego is appeased by freedom, and the superego is contented with fair law and the right to vote. But... XI Capitalism fucks us over. Money fucks us over. Our current American political system provides us with two major parties, Republican and Democratic. No matter how these parties were created, they are now mainly the representatives of money. Main planks of the parties' platforms, such as abortion, national defense, civil rights, are actually, in a large part, money issues. Abortion is most often a way to prevent the high costs of raising a child. The sheer idiocy of having a cost of living itself is a direct result of money. National defense is unnecessary, but the Defense continues. The United States has not been directly attacked as a means of takeover in nearly two hundred years. Defense spending is an excuse both to protect our financial interests in other nations, and to give people jobs to enhance the technology which allows us to do so. Civil rights on the surface is purely social. Groups of oppressed people seek dignity and self-worth. But people are guaranteed these things, as well as freedom and legal power, by the Constitution. Only a money-based society forces civil rights to exist. Affirmative action is the current topic of debate. This is clearly related to money. There is a need for civil rights legislation only for discrimination leading to financial complications. Otherwise, as mentioned before, we're inherently guaranteed civil rights by the Constitution. Of course, an ideal vision and real life often clash. In America, where slavery and dictatorship are illegal, the basic human struggle for power is satisfied by the Dollar. Economic class provides a gauge of power over one's fellow citizens. Rising to the top of the money ladder, whether it be through entrepreneurship or pure crime, is the power goal. Intellectual power and conscious thought are useless to an American. Intellectual power and conscious thought are useless to an American. Unless these tools can be used to make money flow. XII An aside before moving on: Stuff caused by money: o education, giving the tools to make money (20th century bent) o much crime o materialism o greed o social stratification o taxes o gambling o social security o corruption Stuff fucked over by money: o obtaining an education o fashion o art o law o health o living o happiness XIII A thinking person will often ponder the eternal question: "What is the purpose of life?" The purpose of life is to make money. Money is power. Money is happiness. This is the capitalist form of happiness. There are alternatives. XIV Humans are cursed with consciousness. Consciousness brought us politics, prejudice, lust for power. Be idealistic, though. Imagine a society without any of the bad things associated with current and past world governments. No politics. No kings or queens. No power struggle. No corruption. No ingrained spoonfed philosophies about life's purpose, death, creation, or the bell curve. What is there left? Certainly we'll see human equality if all this hierarchy were destroyed. Right? No. Humans are animals. The male is stronger than the female. Females bear children, limiting their productivity for nine months at a time, in the name of life. The male is free to run about and impregnate females, with only a fifteen-minute period of down time between conceptions. There you have it: males and females cannot be equal on a physical or gender basis. Humans are cursed with consciousness. People have various levels of intelligence. Smarter people come up with new ideas. These ideas serve the community. People are grateful. The smarter people are elevated to a position of power. There you have it: humans cannot be equal on an intellectual basis. Humans are animals. Concentrated groups of humans evolved over time in different areas around the world. In these groups of people, skin color, physical ability, and mental ability evolved in different ways. Groups of people who sense some difference in themselves will take advantage of these differences. There you have it: different races cannot be equal on an intellectual or physical basis. Humans are cursed with consciousness. If I were to continue like this forever, I would eventually demonstrate a simple fact: everyone is completely different and inherently unequal. The categories mentioned above are by far the most obvious, and therefore take on the most importance. People can pretend to treat everyone color-blindly, gender-blindly, brains-blindly. But people notice differences. Ignoring them is only a game. It is a complex game consisting of extensive compromise. No human institution can play the game perfectly. XV In America, we have numerous cultural groups, differentiated by the groups' native homelands, economic status, race, gender, religion, and beliefs: New Orleans jazz musicians, inner-city gangs, golf-playing richbitches, struggling fiction writers, Congressional fatcats, God-fearing Christians. One often finds that once a person has found his group, he tends to substitute his group's self-image for his own. Amidst wildly-varying diversity, there is rank conformity. Most people today attempt to individualize themselves, certainly. Unfortunately, their steps away from conformity are small, insignificant, and bland. Picking from a small variety of popular music, selecting a favorite hack writer, picking out a unique wardrobe from a Sears catalog, making oneself look like a glamorous movie star, watching a personal combination of prime-time networked shows -- this is the American's idea of nonconformity. Oh, and hobbies as well -- maintaining the fastest and most expensive personal computer setup in the neighborhood, collecting low-priced stamps, reading romance novels, buying new fast sports cars, masturbating to the latest pornography -- are an American's attempt to individualize himself from his peers. These steps toward individuality conform to the popular standards of acceptable nonconformist deviations. In a free society, we are afraid to truly be free. We are too self- conscious of our actions. We are embarrassed by _other people's_ actions. We wholeheartedly condone individuality, but deride or condemn actions which are truly individual. In schools, where children are taught the virtues of the American way of life, dress codes are enforced, long hair is disallowed, earrings for males are still taboo, and free speech is a joke. Standardized tests and routine multiple-choice tests numb students' minds into blind subservience. Schools attempt to destroy the very basis for a happy, individualistic life. After a decade or two of schooling, where conformity is promoted, the American citizen is usually left in one of two states. One, as a happily brainwashed follower. After schooling he looks around him for his direction in life, leeching off the leeched-off lives of others. Or two, as a disillusioned angry individualist. This person either keeps his rage to himself, going insane, numbly becoming conformist, or expressing his rage and finding a quick trip to jail or Congress. To find a happy individualist is rare. It also makes you nervous and embarrassed to be around him. This is sick. It's got to stop. XVI Once again: What is the meaning of life? What is our purpose? For the modern American, life is usually spent working for a living instead of living to work, hating politicians and not voting them out of office, watching television continuously with a vague sense of resentment, and wishing it all weren't so. Most likely, the general course of life will follow as such for most citizens of this era, who will spend it waiting for Jesus to come back, for another war to spice things up, for a comet to smash into earth, for a revolution, or for sweet death. I am doubtful that anything much will change for a while. Don't be depressed by this. I'm simply telling you the facts as I see them. So, WHAT is the meaning of life, once all these restrictions are considered and accepted? The purpose of life is to be as individual as possible, while you can muster up the energy, strength, courage, and humor to do so. One person cannot change the world -- but one person can change himself XVII Life is not a drudge. Life is not an inevitable sequence of disappointments. Life is not written in stone. You have the power and the freedom in most cases to live as you want. In order to see this, briefly detach yourself from your immediate world. Forget your family, your friends, your obligations, your money, your hatred of politics. What is life? It's about eighty years. What is life? It's about you. XVIII Again: Ugliness is a virtue! Shitty haircuts rule! Welcomely accept the taboo and vehemently reject the accepted and the standard! Common sense is banal, anal, nil, and ill! XIX Our will has not been paralyzed. We have simply forgotten that it exists. |=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=| | _____ Call Goat Blowers Anonymous for the LATEST HoE! _____ | | 6/ ^..^ (215) 750 - 0392 ^..^ \9 | | \_____(oo) This Issues Featured Support Board is: (oo)_____/ | | WW WW ftp.fc.net /pub/deadkat/Hacking/HOE WW WW | | etext.arcive.umich.edu /pub/Zines/HoE | | corney www: http://www.rit.edu/~mpg4681 | |=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=| Copyright (c) 1995 HoE Publications, SoB, and I Wish My Name Were Nathan. This essay commissioned and financed by the benevolent Exxon Corporation. All Rights Reserved. #89-5/5/65