Once again, this journal entry is for me. Not you.
Hmm...
Now that I've woken up a little bit more, this post doesn't seem
nearly as insightful, well-written or a as good a read as it did when i
semi-conciously wrote it. This post is a great lot of wank, something
I'd been thinking about for a long time and eventually transcribed.
I've developed the ideas in it since, but watching the Hogfather
recently made me remember it, and made me want to post it.
Recently, I've found a direction in life: something I want to do,
possibly to the exclusion of other things. This has been a long time coming
and I've felt rudderless for a few years now. I've got no idea
whether or not this is juse a phase or how long this will interest me.
I'm hoping it will either be a very long time or very short time.
Everyone seems to be changing. Not just my circle(s) of friends maturing,
as has been written and discussed at length by many of them, but the entire
world. I just watched "Steal This Film", part one, a chronology
of The Pirate Bay and the Information Revolution it represents.
This great social revolution is, as The Pirate Party (a political group in
Sweden that stands for freedom of information, for those that don't
know the background) says, inevitable. With the invention of information
technology and it's uninhibited spread to the masses, communication
between humans still remains the binding force for the spread of
information, but now it's not just with words and images and
actions.
Communication is also more than parts and shapes and numeric value. In
sociological and anthropological terms, it is the fuel of revolution, it is
the impetus of mass hysteria in all its varied degrees, and it will prove
to be the death of a social model that we have essentialy BUILT Western
culture on. The RIAA and MPAA and other money-hungry systems will
eventually adjust. They are not the issue here. Their business models will
adjust to the new social model... as soon as we find out what this new
model will be.
What I am unsure of is whether or not this is a good thing. It seems all
good on the surface - how can one advocate anything BUT the free
flow of information? - revolution, social upheaval, rights of the people,
etc... But is the direction this will take the best one?
The Pirate Party and The Pirate Bay both seem to say one thing: "It is our responsibility to show to you, The Corporations, that
your current model of business cannot work in this new world. But it is NOT
our responsibility to come up with a new one to replace it with; it is
yours."
While I think what they are saying is correct and that no-one but NO-ONE
can stop this information-driven social change, I don't think that not
taking responsibility for the changes is a good idea at all. We need a new
social model, and we need it fast.
Privacy and personal "rights" are one of the things, really, that
put us apart from animals. Not above, though. We evolved from packs of
monkeys who had no need for things like privacy, and the only right you had
was to die, if you were too weak. Our early civilisation had no privacy or
rights, as we think of them... But we WERE free.
We were free to be killed if we stole a loaf of bread. We were free to
become an early-civilisation version of a mob kingpin, if we were able, and
those that were strong and able enough protected themselves by paying (or
forcing) others to protect the kingpin and do his bidding. The kingpin was
free to be overcome by another one.
We were still free to die, if we wanted. This is freedom. This is known.
Privacy is also a VERY new thing. The vast and varied history of mankind
has included little privacy. Families lived on the street, or in one-room
houses. People made love where they could. People killed in the dark and
hoped they weren't seen... but were free to be discovered. It's
only in the last few hundred years that we, as individuals, have
"rights". What is a "right" when we, today, do not even
have the freedom to die? I feel there is something fundamentally wrong with
the fact that, for years after I've departed this mortal spiral, I
will still have a credit card debt.
We have built a fine civilisation, we Westerners, a vast and grand
construction, the totality of which is nigh impossible to be grasped by any
one man.
The point I'm trying to get to is this: the future of all humankind
can NOT be related to how we did things in the past, or how we did things
now.
There can be only one possible outcome: The Progression of the Species.
It's obvious that we're killing our cradle. The great social
change we're experiencing will be nothing compared to the change we
WILL make once our environment, our cradle that we do not seem to be able
to escape. Our cradle will change it's weather patterns, and we will
have to adjust our lives accordingly. The human race WILL adapt. But the
masses will find this easy, as our current social model means they will do
what they are told.
Turn down the air-con. Don't water the garden any more. These will
change...
Restrictions on who can have air-conditioners. Minimum size of gardens in
areas that need improvement, maximum sizes of gardens in areas of different
needs.
And all of this will be easy. It will be a near-seamless transition,
because we already do what we're told. We shall just have to suffer
discomfort at the hands of what, collectively, we have all done.
But this is just bandaiding, it's not the optimum solution, even if we
DO get our planet back on-track. The social change we need is one where we
can advance as a species. A culture without a need for corporations to
provide funding for pure research. A medical treatment being independant of
how much money we have. A model that makes our intellectual or social
development paramount, not simply a means to an end.
Make no mistake; this IS the future. It is the ONLY way forward.
Anything else is just circling back on itself, treading already well-trod
paths. I can only hope that this social change will eventually lead to this
Utopian view of things, but I do not believe that it will be a direct
result, I can not believe that the views, beliefs or opinions of The Pirate
Party are the way of the future... and, really, when it gets right down to
it... I'm not sure it's even the way TO the future.
posted by Azrael on Wednesday 27th December 2006, 22:33:23
The only real hope is to drastically curtail the number of humans on the
planet.
This sounds harsh, heartless and cruel. But it is the truth. We are
breeding ourselves out of existence. Not only ourselves but every other
living organism on this rock.
Well... yes, but that's not the point. We can recover and adapt,
and even if there's a nuclear winter and the last remaining human
dies in the cold, unprotected... then we deserve it, and the world
will eventually stabalise and another species will arise.
But that, also, is not the point.
To move forward, we need to progress past the point of waste.
It's in the very nature of life to waste energy and matter in the
process of living, and we have merely amplified that. We need to
achieve some semblence of utopia, or not only are we going to kill
ourselves but if we survive it, we're just going to do it again.
I first heard that idea sitting on Buddha's lap when is was
a young pup.
We were at the driving range eating
Cheetos & talking about golf & such.
I asked
him, "What do you think is the single most crucial part of
making consistent contact with the golf ball?"
He choked on his Cheetos & nicely hopped IPA he'd
brewed up for the occasion. In between coughs he said,
"RAE, it's all about understanding & realization.
Whether or not your golf ball is stuck well, the sun will come up
tomorrow with or without you."
With a stern
& fatherly tone he said, "Now, quit taking the damn club
so far inside. You're trapping it behind your body. Hold
those hands high, wanker!!"
I believe that the idea of utopia is just something to chase. We can never
be really happy as a society of beings. People always clamor for stuff and
power. Cruelty and avarice will always dominate kindness and reason. We
have seen it over and over.
It sounds good, I'd love it if we all just got along, and ate tofu,
and were excellent to each other. But it is not in our nature. We suck. I
can't even begin to contemplate what it would take to change that
fundamental core of humankind.
I'd love the sun to rise tomorrow on an earth without one human on it.
I am completely serious. I do not see how we add one good thing, we only
take and take.
more than one evil empire has been built upon the utopian dream of one
individual who saw the course of the future with such clarity that he must
do everything in his power to make it come to pass.
...even use force. after all, it is the only logical course of action, and
everyone will eventually see things with the same clarity you do.
some advice:
cut back on the pot
put on a few years
get a job. a real job.
spend some time living life before getting involved in trying to improve it
for everyone else. we all have different ideas of what utopia is, and
having to buy a CD or DVD every now and then won't kill
anyone.
Oo, a valid opinion, yay =D
You seem to be under a misconception as to the sort of person I am.
I'll correct this, but you're not that far off your
assumption, really.
a) I don't smoke the stuff, not because I don't like it, but
because my job requires random drug-testing.
b) I'm in my mid-twenties, I'm supposed to the think
like this =P
c) I'd call the job I have had for the last year, working
fulltime 0730-1600, 5days a week on a minesite a real job, thanks
=P
d) I buy CD's and DVD's when I decide I like them enough. I
have a collection. Not huge, but not small either.
i am accustomed to hearing this sort of thing from someone whose
favorite filesharing site just got closed down or who just got
busted for shoplifting CDs.
s'cool.
I try to support artists directly, rather than paying for
CD's. Paypal is a wonderful thing. The only real reason
why I buy actual CD's is when I want to pay for a
higher quality of music.
Arse, it hasn't. 65 million years ago, Reptiles were the dominant
type of animal on earth. 100 million years ago, there were no flying
vertebrate animals. If that isn't change, I don't know what
is.
The world changes. So must we.
I think Devoto wasnt talking about dinosaurs , but about
civilizations and people in general. And I could agree with that
. As unoriginal as it may seem , but 1984 really has a lot of
answers and explanations to back up that idea.
Regarding what you wrote (nothing personal), all I can is that it
is really easy to spot you western people. You all seem to live
in this fantasy world without any connection to real life. You
talk about the great importance of the pirate bay ,but you seem
have forgoten that more than half the world doesnt even own
a computer moreover actually care about the social
implications that it makes. You talk about RIAA MPAA as global
evils - ok so your cd disk will cost 8$ and not 18$ . What
exactly will that change??? Will people grow wings and start
flying? Or this " information-driven" society. 95% of
the world population doesnt give a fuck what happens around it ,
because frankly it is to busy everyday trying to survive. Sure it
is sometimes entertained by the news ,gossip or whatnot ,but it
all could be just made up every day, because IT MAKES NO
DIFFERENCE TO THEM. Any village person and even an average urban
dweller wouldnt distinguish a war with Iraq , from one with Iran
, Pluto or Kansas.
The chang in you or your friends- you are just getting
older. You'd laugh at the beliefs and values you have
now 5-6 years ago.
You talk like the "smell of revolution" is in the air,
seriously go outside , its just the good ol' exhaust fumes.
All I am trying to say that is you need less theory and much more
practice. 99% of us don't care what you think or what ideas
you have. 100% dont want what you want. We will continue on
living , going down the same paths we always have , for more than
5000 years now. Governments ,laws, people ,everything will change
but in reality it will always remain the same. Welcome to the
real world - it sucks. You are going to love it.
I've read 1984. I know it's merely an effect of
just getting older. I nearly SAY as much.
What I can't figure out is why I write a great load of
really good disjointed insight and everyone is paying
attention to the two micro-paragraphs I wrote about the RIAA
and my own life.
As I said, they are not the issue I'm trying to
make.
People've been telling me "welcome to the real
world" for a good five years now, whenever I write
about something like this. I think it's jsut
stereotyping, that people read some of it, write me off as
this year's half-wit, pretentious thinker, and dole me
whatever advice they think this 14-going-on-25-year-old
needs to wake up.
Bugger that.
Sure more than half the world is unaffected by the
information revolution, except for the fact they're
not.
Minesites dot africa like a acne on a pubescent male's
face. Jobs. Controlled by communication. Go up high enough
and you will see that anyone that can be controlled by
information is, yes?
Of course, you will be shaking your head at this point.
Well, that whole post wasn't about anything you
outlined in that comment.
My article is not about piracy, or revolution, or even about
the need for change. It's about the need for
adaptability.
People that aren't governed in a Western Society are
not the people I'm talking about. They're the
people that might be quite happy to stay where they are
forever. And there's nothing wrong with that,
everyone's happy with where they are right? The world
sucks after all.
The fact that they're "too busy just trying to
survive" is why they can be controlled, why they WILL
be controlled, and why it's inevitable that they will
change with the rest of the world (not saying that
there's change coming, jsut remarking on the simple
fact that time changes).
I know what Devoto was talking about. Thing is, we either
have to change and somehow work conflict in with a social
model, or we will eventually, after some more circling and
re-treading of paths (possibly for m
Devoto on Thursday 28th December 2006, 21:42:22 (#43009)
Conflict is already a part of our social model. It has
been part of every living things existence. If there is
no conflict nothing happens. War, racism, terrorism,
religion, politics, money, education, sex, charity,
fast food, sliced bread, a can of coca-cola. All exist
and continue to exist because of conflict. You can not
say this conflict is good and that conflict is bad. It
is all conflict and thus all the same.
I know all this, yes.
War arose when we were but single-celled
organisms. Conflict = competetion for resources =
need to mutate and adapt more quickly to new areas
= biological arms race.
It's only natural that this transcends the
difference between mind and instinct.
What I'm saying is that we need to work in
some form of conflict into the social model that
will be coming, for it to work at all. Sure, this
is elementary, but my point is that conflict or
competition is the ONLY thing that is needed.
Everything else can be constructed or replaced.
Now I'm confused as to what your
original, and now revised, point is. From
what I gather, 1) you acknowledge that the
world is already conflict-driven, 2) you
think somehow that conflict will not be in
the next social model and needs to be, but 3)
you don't want to tread along the same
old path (conflict-driven paradigm).
As I think I said at the beginning, this
was something I was mulling over for a
while, but have progressed past, hence,
"and now revised".
Your points are close, though. 1) Yes;
2) I'm worried that some will try
to avoid it, but of course it will be;
3) No, I don't. But I know
it's necessary, and will be for a
ridiculously long period of time, damn
close to forever.
What I was trying to get at is that we
don't need to kill anything for
conflict, all we really need is to adapt
to what is changing and just go with it,
rather than fighting the change,
which is what everyone regardless of
culture or situation seems to be
doing.
Please, come back to reality for a
moment. We fight change because
very often change is not
good.
It is the way of the world that one
person's vision for "good
change" conflicts with
another's. Say this country
starts turning towards Islamic
fundamentalism: no, I'm not
going to sit back and just "go
with the flow"; I'm going
to get my gun and fight.
So when you think that we should
just "adapt," what you
are implying is to be a spineless
worm. Sorry, I want more than
that.
Fair call. Sounds like a
plan.
That's kind of what I was
getting at in my pre-point
ramblings: that there's a
belief that there is too much
power in too few hands, and
that we depend on too many
things, this needs to be
changed, and the battle of The
Pirate Bay will be copied in
other areas. I believe this,
at least.
This 'survival of the
fittest' mentality is the
best thing for change, as even
if the old
method/culture/technology/mode
l wins, we come out in the
best position for to endure or
take advantage of the new
change.
I believe the communications
revolution will result in a
change and that many varied
parties will fight it, but I
don't believe society
will remain the same for much
longer with all it's
other battles to fight.
But half your post was about you and RIAA! And if I
wasnt ment to notice it then why write about that ?
Isnt the text supposed to be consistent and flow from
one point to another?
You have lots of words and way too many directions of
thought . Your main problem is that you can not clearly
formulate what you are thinking. I am sorry , but I
really am under the expression that I am reading a
random word generator. Your text lacks essence ; a
clear idea
I did say the post was for my benefit, not yours.
Said that at the very top, before you even clicked
into it =P
If it wasn't for the fact that it's said
there, I would apologise for it's disjointed,
difficult-to-follow narration.
I will, of course, endevour to make things more
readable in future.
And as for the RIAA... that was just the thought
that kickstarted the thought-train about change
and societal adaptability. The RIAA is just an
example, it's not what I'm building my
case on.
nikral on Thursday 28th December 2006, 01:49:26 (#42973)
utopia is impossible for so many reasons.say you have a faint notion on how
we can progress into the future
without destroying what is left.you will be shut down
by persons of power,not for lack of knowledge,but for
profiteers who have money and power.
the natural thing is,that the person who has the ideas,would have to tell
what is just.would you be able
to agree to some of the ideas or only the ones you
like.
majority isn't the rule,its more who has the power.
i bitch and moan about a lot of things,but im happy
to not live in a third world country with no hope.
like you say change isn't always bad.
Bad and good are only filters in which we look at the world.
Change happens whether we want it to or not.
My... "Utopia" has been commented on far too much. My dream
of Utopia is not a state of being where everyone is happy. It's a
state of culture where we can accept change.
the end of the world? that's a little doomsday isn't it?
i like your style though, anti-human, i tried introducing this into my
sociology class without much effect. thing is, mankind is not destined to
live forever. sounds like a pretty common concept, but most people have
this idea that mankind will somehow break away from our planet and spread
across the galaxy and universe, thus ensuring that we remain at the top of
the food chain forever. not gonna happen. we need to use the time we got to
do the best we can.
that's why i say, relax guy, stop
worrying about how you can change society and trying to second guess or
even enforce the new social change. mankind is an adaptable species like
you said. any surviving species is obviously adaptable, otherwise it
wouldn't be here today.
my philosophy is, what happens, is supposed to happen. can't change
the past, can't see the future with 20/20 vision. we just know what we
know, and not a damn thing can prepare you for the unexpected. stop trying
to sidestep fate, cause it's fate that got you this far. if i die
tomorrow, then that's what was supposed to happen. if i lose a limb in
a terrible can opening accident, well then that was supposed to happen
to.
i believe in a greater plan. not to say it's God or Allah, because i
frankly don't know. but i know that whatever happens, is supposed to
happen.
recommended reading for Azrael:
The Foundation novels by Isaac Asimov
Bugger what we are "destined" to do. Bugger what we THINK we
are "destined to do.
There's only one path. Survival. Survival is being able to adapt
to change. Whatever change that may be is... well, whatever it will
be.
np
tell me what you think of it if you do get around to
it, or if you don't finish it. it's not a
difficult read, but i know many people who didn't
want to finish it
"The social change we need is one where we can advance as a species. A
culture without a need for corporations to provide funding for pure
research. A medical treatment being independant of how much money we have.
A model that makes our intellectual or social development paramount, not
simply a means to an end."
Yet, ironically, you profess "adaptability." What you propose
would drive civilization into a dark age of stagnation.
Research would comprise of ivory-tower scientists with no practical
accountability. The presence of free medical treatment would be extended
to other "rights" such as the right to shelter, the right to
food, the right to education, the right to land, the right to free
enterprise, the right to protection, etc. all of which would create a
society lacking need, and therefore any desire to compete. Finally, a
"means to an end" gives individuals in a society a purpose;
remove that and you have a directionless people, one based on ego, where
the only "end" is to please oneself.
Competition, greed, money, war--how ironic, and yet almost appropriate,
that the features of society we hate most create the most progress. The
civilizations which ground to a halt were those who concentrated inwardly,
and lost their purpose in the world around them. Their
"revolution" cost them their dynasties.
Don't let the siren's call dash you on the rocks of Utopia.
Mankind has not changed for thousands of years because there is no
better way.
That's all well and good, if you don't take into account
outside influences that challenge that way of life.
I believe that the results of mistreating our environment will damn
near be challenge enough, and that's not taking into account
other cultures or adversity from within.
And I maintain there is nothing wrong with ivory-tower science, as
long as reasonable progress is made.
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold.
