"In a democracy (‘rule by mob’), those who refuse to learn from history will be the majority and will dictate that everyone else suffer for their ignorance."
*heh* (“Sexist!”)
eWeek has a lil slideshow of 10 dirty lil “secrets” Steve Jobs glossed over about the iPad. They’re not secrets, of course, since anyone can discover them, but these are lacks deliberately downplayed by Apple and the Apple Fanboiz Macultists. Here’s my interpretation of the slideshow.
A commenter who made a monumentally stupid assertion in commenting on a recent post led me off on a rabbit trail today, which, in turn, led to this gleaning from several past posts of thoughts about people who simply do not think. From, “Facts vs Feelings”
I met an old guy who runs a junk store who’s a good example of “feelings over facts”. He had on his shelf a bottle of clear amber fluid labeled “Pepper Beer–not for drinking”. Naturally that led this unmoderated tongue to comment, “What a shame. Beer is for drinking” which led to…
“Beer destroyed my family,” and a tale of growing up in a family where his father got drunk on beer and was abusive. No amount of pointing out the fact that the beer didn’t force excessive amounts of itself down his father’s throat making him into an abusive drunk was going to convince him of his father’s responsibility for his own drunkeness. No, it was the beer that did it.
*feh* Such people are idiots. Inanimate objects, chemical substances and the like do not make people harm others. People make themselves do harmful things, including making the CHOICE to abuse mind-altering chemical substances of all kinds.
The bushwah about people, including addicts, not being responsible for their actions is the perhaps single most harmful meme in our society today.
From September 22nd, 2008’s post, “Are You Too Stupid to Vote?” noting the results of the Civics Quiz found here,
Heck, face it. Most American citizens who now possess the right to vote don’t know the fundamentals of our government structure, our history or anything genuine about current events (most still getting their information from the Mass Media Podpeople Hivemind propaganda machine).
Too stupid to be allowed to vote, and yet it is this mass of stupid people who will elect the congresscritters and administration that will exercise power.
Scary.
BTW, that civics quiz? Got 100% right. Anyone who gets a lower score either wasn’t paying ANY attention in grade school (OK, maybe junior high), or else was but suffered their earliest lobotomy in public school. Seriously, folks, it’s one easy-peasy quiz… and those who took the quiz who had held or currently do hold public office were the lowest scorers. But that’s OK. Most folks failed it outright, anyway.
And these same civics-illiterate boobs can (and do) vote. See especially the finding that those who watch the news are less well-informed than those who don’t.
And here, noting the difference between so-called “radical” and so-called “moderate” Muslims is an example of correcting misconceptions foisted on self-enstupiated sheeple by the “philosophy of consolation for Western civilization as it commits suicide,” as espoused by Mass Media Podpeople, politicians *spit* and Academia Nut Fruitcakes, is “The Difference Between ‘Plain Old Muslims’ and ‘Islamic Terrorists'”
“Plain old Muslims” claim the Koran (choose your own trendy spelling) is their literal guide to a holy life.
Islamic terrorists claim the Koran (choose your own trendy spelling) is their literal guide to a holy life.
“Plain old Muslims” revere Mohammed and view his life and teachings (of which the Koran, Hadith, etc.) as worthy of emulation in all of life.
Islamic terrorists revere Mohammed and view his life and teachings (of which the Koran, Hadith, etc.) as worthy of emulation in all of life.
Now, THE distinction: Islamic terrorists honestly, forthrightly and openly seek to actually emulate the bloody Butcher of Medina, while “Plain old Muslims” are either just not all that serious about actually following Mohammed or are living lives of lies, decieving the Dar al Harb.
There. Now you know the single most significant difference between “Plain old Muslims” and Islamic terrorists.
And, from The Islam Comic Book,
[audio:Islamnot4me.mp3]And from a 2009 re-post (of a 2007 piece) on morality vs. the very nearly universal deceit that is accepted in our society,
M. Scott Peck wrote some 20 years ago or so about “People of the Lie” (a pretty insightful book, IMO, and one with particular application to understanding the Mass Media Podpeople Hivemind and politicians *spit* as a class) wherein he said that the truly evil “are masters of disguise and cloak themselves with masks of respectability, goodness and often piety.”
The Lie is central to the destruction of a moral culture, and it is by continually lying about darned near everything, continually selling the culture of The Lie that the culture of the Mass Media Podpeople Hivemind (almost entirely congruent with a culture of The Lie) makes its lies into reality, as sheeple ape the Mass Media Podpeople Hivemind in their daily life, in everything from envy of the lifestyles seen portrayed on the dullertainment offered to the political agenda of the Hivemind as revealed in dullertainment and “news”-ertainment programs.
And art. I saw a segment of a public television show the other night featuring an “artist” who painted on wood using house paints. The “artist” was shown as an example of a modern primitive painter. The “artwork” displayed was crap. And that’s speaking kindly. The worst stuff I’ve seen in years. Presented as “art”. When the very idea of art is debased to such a level, is it any wonder that in performance art we have such excrescence as “rap”? (Go on: try to make a convincing argument that listening to rap “music” does not debase an individual. Try. Please.)
But about all sorts of topics, from Islam to Healthscare, from taxes to “welfare” the increasingly illiterate (in many, many ways), self-enstupiated sheeple who get all their news propaganda from the Mass MEdia Podpeople Hivemind and their understanding of the Constitution from the American Communist Liars Union ARE the problem. As the money quote in the blog header says,
“In a democracy (‘rule by mob’), those who refuse to learn from history are in the majority and dictate that everyone else suffer for their ignorance.”-third world county’s corollary to Santayana’s Axiom
In the face of such stupidly ironic statements from The Ø! as,
“When times are tough, you tighten your belts. You don’t go buying a boat when you can barely pay your mortgage. You don’t blow a bunch of cash on Vegas when you’re trying to save for college.”
That from the idiot who apparently thinks spending money the country DOES NOT HAVE on wasteful, useless, pork to buy votes for his agenda is the way to deal with a national economic crisis. Cue Bugs Bunny:
[audio:What-a-maroon.mp3]“We live in an era in which… government of the government, by the government, and for the government apparently can never vanish from the Earth, but instead will continue to grow…
…Meanwhile, appeals to common sense are futile: we all know the common sense solutions to many problems, but the government of the government by the government and for the government isn’t about to allow that.”–Jerry Pournelle
A common sense approach to dealing with an economic crisis engineered by “feddle gummint” meddling is really quite simple. Not painless, but simple.
“Feddle gummint”: stop spending money we do not have.
Getcher stinking hands off my money! Effect the FairTax and operate the “feddle gummint” on whatever it brings in. Period.
“Feddle gummint”: stop spending money we do not have. That WILL mean fewer “feddle gummint” workers and pork programs and meddling in the personal lives of citizens, which, of course, means less power for Beltway self-anointed elites. Oh, boo-hoo.
Of course, absent some serial counseling sessions with Dr. Tarr and Mr. Fether, I doubt the Beltway Bandits will release their deadly grip on the throat of the U.S.
But miracles happen.
Due to an amazingly uninformed assertion made in comments, I’m adding one lil video that packs enough references to enable ANYONE who wants to do their own homework to fact check it, even glean more information by ignoring the Mass MEdia Podpeople Hivemind propaganda and simply doing a little research:
Quite contrary to the myth propagated by the Hivemind, politicians *spit* and anyone with a commie/socialist/class warfare axe to grind, typified by comments such as this,
I think we can sum up the cause of our current economic crisis in one word — GREED. Over the years, mortgage lenders were happy to lend money to people who couldn’t afford their mortgages.
The Federal government required financial institutions to make sub-prime loans to people who could not afford to pay them back. Outright lies such as the one I quoted above (and no, I will not link to that lying site. Google it if you want) are the core of the meme The Ø!’s administration and co-conspirators are flacking.
But it is a lie. Sure there was greed. Largely on the part of those who sought the loans they could not afford to pay back and on the part of politicians whose “careers” were boosted thereby.
From the otherwise excellent and usually reliable Windows Secrets newsletter comes this guffaw from the usually serious Fred Langa responding to a reader’s question about outdated browsers (with massive security holes) being required by the “feddle gummint’s” FAFSA web site:
First of all, it appears the site has been updated since your phone call. The FAFSA help page lists all the supported browsers, which now include IE 8 and Mozilla Firefox 3.5.4.
Second, consider the threat level: most browser security features exist to protect you against hostile sites that might try to stuff malware into your system or steal information from you. Why would the government need to attack your browser? If the government wants your personal information, it can get it quite openly through legal channels.
Oh. Wait. He was serious. “Why would the government need to attack your browser?” It’s not “need” that drives a “feddle gummint” bureaucrap to do anything, Fred. They pretty much do as they want, because they can. Government of the government, by the government and, especially, for the government shall not perish from the Earth, Fred… *sigh*
Frankly, I consider “feddle gummint” websites to BE malware, unless proven differently.
Geert Wilders’ short film re-introducing the West (Western Civilization used to know all this) to just the tip of the cult of hate iceberg:
From Jerry Pournelle:
“Anarchy ain’t pretty; degenerate democracy is even less so.”
In case you missed it, third world county’s Corollary to Santayana’s Axom is simply this:
“In a democracy (‘rule by mob’), those who refuse to learn from history are in the majority and dictate that everyone else suffer for their ignorance.”
–NOT the Beltway self-annointed elites–are the nation.
[OK, fair warning: a rather disjointed, rambling disquisition that suffers from early morning disorganization and too little coffee in my system. I trust that you, kind reader, will extract the pith and draw those connections that are missing. I want to find the time later to develop this, but may not. So it goes… ]
Principled actions, guided less by pragmatic “foresight” than by a rational application of hindsight combined with the collected wisdom of those whose principles have worked to produce good in the past, prognosticates future outcomes better than raw pragmatism or starry-eyed idealism or both combined.
Idealistic actions (or more properly, actions based on ideals some profess–honestly or not–to hold) that stand only on the thin air of unproven, untested dreams and reject or blithely ignore the lessons of history lead almost inexorably to bad results. Who can doubt that at least one or two of the proponents of the “Great Society” policies that we are still plagued by from the 1960s did indeed have “good intentions”? (Well, frankly, I do doubt it, because anyone who took thought to lessons from history could likely have foreseen the outcomes we face today, and thoughtlessness equals bad intentions in my book, because if the instigators of such as the “Great Society” policies didn’t care enough to be genuinely thoughtful, then their intentions were at best adulterated by that thoughtlessness and so were less than “good”–indeed they turned out to be downright pernicious.)
Santayana stated the lesson clearly enough: Those who fail to learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat its failures. (Close enough, IIRC :-))
And as the header on this blog asserts:
“In a democracy (‘rule by mob’), those who refuse to learn from history are in the majority and dictate that everyone else suffer for their ignorance.”-third world county’s corollary to Santayana’s Axiom
I know that last sounds like a clarion call to despair in a representative republic that has become both increasingly democratic and increasingly illiterate12, but we need not give up all hope. At least the post-literate age in which we seem to be living has alternative mass media outlets to disseminate facts to counter the propaganda from Academia Nut Fruitcakes, politicians *spit* and the Mass MEdia Podpeople Hivemind, and as woefully illiterate of Western Civilization’s history and culture as a majority of our American electorate may be (OK, the evidence is in: “is”), as ignorant of current events as it is (even, or especially, those who watch/listen to lots of “news”), at least–finally–We the People now almost universally have a sort of “press” within our power. Witness this modest lil blog.
We have that “press”. For now. We are not yet in the state of the presbyterians and puritans (uncial “p” in both cases for a reason) of Elizabethan England, where an organ of the State had asserted ALL control over the dissemination of information, and this week’s SCOTUS turnaround gives some small hope that that dire eventuality is receeding from us just a tad, but we must keep on spreading the good news: We the People are the nation, NOT Washington D.C. and the Beltway elites.
Past time to start acting that way.
I think readers here will be unsurprised by the fact that I am disquieted (rather, “pissed off”) by the “feddle gummint’s” ever more intrusive (and indeed, iniquitous) meddling in local and even personal, private affairs. As some recent readers may also be aware, I’ve discovered the Martin Marprelate Letters and begun repairing that woeful lack in my education by reading them. So, it will surprise no one, I trust, that I here combine, in one brief snippet from , the two:
“This is a pretty matter that standers by must be so busy in other men’s games. Why, sauceboxes, must you be prattling?”
If that doesn’t sum up the gaggle of congresscritters, feddle gummint bureaucraps and black-robed statists as succinctly as possible, then I’d like to see a more succinct and telling comment.
Bring ’em on!
Not apropos of anything in particular. Just a comment on the passing scene.
C.S.Lewis, commenting on the Martin Marprelate Tracts, enunciates my own view toward those who would stifle legitimate debate in the public forum today:
“Those who refuse to let their opponents dispute have no right to complain if they hear instead lewd catcalls in the streets; in a sense, it is what they have chosen.”*
And so, if I sometimes resort to “lewd catcalls” and mockery of those who would stifle debate–or even worse, corrupt discourse with deception and outright lies–I have the eminent company of such personages as “Martin Marprelate”.
“How to Handle the Terrorists” (someone needs to write new lyrics to “How to Handle a Woman”… or maybe not. Perhaps under The 0!’s White Cafe-au-lait House rules a simple word change from “woman” to “terrorist” will do.)
Go ahead. Watch the speech by TOTUS linked above (as “glibly” er “ummed” through by The 0!). Read between the lines and translate from Dhimmicrappic Newspeak. I submit that my analysis is an accurate summation of the “steps” The 0! announces to “deal with” the problem of “man-caused disaster” (to use HIS DHS appointee’s terminology)–all on the heads of a “small band of violent extremists” not, of course having anything to do with a broadly-based worldwide jihad. Of course, TOTUS’s speech would have been much more convincing (though still as stupid) had TOTUS gotten someone who’s a competent public reader to deliver it.
Or, as Small Dead Animals put it:
The War On Man-Caused Disaster
Bringing a monthly status report to a Semtex fight.
Continue reading “The 0! Establishes The Newspeak Method of Dealing With Terrorisim”