May 2007
I CAN HAZ WRLD PIECE?
I CAN HAZ WRLD PIECE? The Global Peace Index ranks 121 countries by metrics including
…ease of access to “weapons of minor destruction” (guns, small explosives), military expenditure, local corruption, and the level of respect for human rights.
NZ is at #2, Australia at #25, USA and Iran at #96 and #97 respectively, and—unsurprisingly, but no less tragic for it—Iraq dead last at #121.
Regarding the origins of the universe
Regarding the origins of the universe: an attempt to tie together a number of disparate threads
1.
Creationism boils down to this: old-man white-beard Jehovah making mud sculptures on the banks of the Euphrates a ridiculously short length of time ago. Mud sculptures, god-breath, life!
It’s a picture not without its charms, but it’s utterly human. Far too human, in my opinion. God is not one of us.
2.
In the beginning, this story goes, was matter. Mindless, soulless, will-less, static, matter. Then, it decided togot it in its head to for no apparent reason randomly exploded into things.
From this, supposedly, came form, then order, then life, and finally consciousness, awareness, thought. Since when has outcome preceded intent?
It’s attractive, though. Our maintained existence from one moment to the next depends only the laws of physics continuing as they are. Even if god forgets us, we won’t vanish.
3.
Our universe makes sense. Logic, reason, the scientific method, all work. Sure, they can’t always tell the whole story, but even in that they are consistent. Our universe has an underlying order to it.
6.
All of this suggests something to me. There is a Being, a will, a consciousness underlying all of reality. Not for nothing is god sometimes called ‘the ultimate reality.’
This Being is, in some sense, rational and logical—even though these are human concepts. Therefore, we share at least some values with the Being. We are, as it goes, in Its image.
Reason is ungodly, apparently
Reason is ungodly, apparently. It concerns me deeply that the Creation Museum presents ‘Human Reason’ and ‘God’s Word’ as mutually exclusive opposites. (Actually, the whole museum concerns me deeply, but the Reason vs. Religion thing is, I think, deep in the roots of the problem.)
Update 31/05/07: Here is a comprehensive list of responses to the museum (via Kottke.)
Dammit!
Dammit!
Once, just once, I wish Dilbert could be wrong about the world.
“…where civilization especially prevails…”
“…where civilization especially prevails…”:
…I think that I speak within bounds when I say that, though the birds of the air have their nests, and the foxes their holes, and the savages their wigwams, in modern civilized society not more than one half the families own a shelter. In the large towns and cities, where civilization especially prevails, the number of those who own a shelter is a very small fraction of the whole.
— Thoreau, Walden (pt. 1c)
“There is no such place as away”
“There is no such place as away”: freeganism, dumpster-diving, and waste:
We used to stub a cigarette out in an ashtray and never think of it again. Now we think, where will the stub end up, the ash and the foam and the paper? We grew up imagining that rubbish was taken away, only to find there is no such place as ‘away’. The by-products of our desires are hidden in the earth or burned to make a toxic canopy over our heads: we are aware of that now, and that awareness has grown to feed a spirit of personal regeneration. At some level we recycle not to save the planet, but to free the part of ourselves that is enslaved to the world’s goods and the body’s functions.
— Andrew O’Hagan, The Things We Throw Away
The principal object
The principal object:
I cannot believe that our factory system is the best mode by which men may get clothing. The condition of the operatives is becoming every day more like that of the English; and it cannot be wondered at, since, as far as I have heard or observed, the principal object is, not that mankind may be well and honestly clad, but, unquestionably, that corporations may be enriched.
— Thoreau, Walden (pt. 1b)
Why I'm currently uneasy about certain forms of mission
Why I’m currently uneasy about certain forms of mission:
(Taken from The Gospel of Supply Side Jesus.)
This is not to criticise the likes of Freeset (I’ve worked with them, and they’re amazing people doing some great work), but I’m just not entirely sure about their approach in the broader sense.
Write this book, make a million dollars
Write this book, make a million dollars:
“I’d Cain you if I were Abel: A Biblical look at smacking”
This title is free to a good home. However, if you do make your million with it, I wouldn’t mind a couple hundred in compensation.
Interpreting the Tao
Interpreting the Tao. A (long) while ago I posted this extract from the Tao:
When the Tao is lost, there is goodness.
When goodness is lost, there is morality.
When morality is lost, there is ritual.
Ritual is the husk of true faith,
the beginning of chaos.
Let me re-write it, by way of interpretation:
Chaos exists.
Out of chaos comes ritual, the beginning of faith.
Ritual provides a framework from which morality is discovered.
Morality provides a framework from which goodness is discovered.
Goodness provides a framework from which the Tao is discovered.
I think we can probably all relate to these stages. We start with The Rules, and we obey them blindly, without understanding. Then we begin to understand them, and we gradually form a moral system. The rules become (of necessity) more flexible—guides, rather than laws. They still help give shape to our moral system where it is less clearly defined, but the more fully we establish our moral system, the less rules are necessary.
And again, our moral system gives shape to a ‘goodness,’ and as this goodness is more fully realised, our moral system becomes unnecessary, and in some manner detrimental. Our system begins to hamper and restrict what we have begun to know.
The problems I have in understanding and interpreting this system, as it affects myself, is: what words do I use to describe each stage? and: are these the only stages, or might there be more?
For instance, my first effort to explain my stages would be:
- Rules
- Religion
- Morality/Ethics/Goodness
- …?
(It occurs to me that many people choose a stage at which to live, and never move beyond it; I don’t resent this, but it’s not the path for me. ‘Growth or death.’)
The problem I face is that I have no words for the stage I currently face. I suspect that I can only name something once I have begun to properly understand it.
(Note: I found this post in my drafts; I wrote it November last year.)
The reasonable man adapts himself to the world
The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable man persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.
— George Bernard Shaw, Maxims for Revolutionists
I’m not feeling particularly reasonable.
I've run out of ideas, thoughts, and philosophies
I’ve run out of ideas, thoughts, and philosophies. I stand on the edge of a great discovery, but it’s an action, not an idea, and all the thinking in the world won’t bring it any closer. This is where the journey begins.
#107
I wish, today, that a hole would open in the earth and swallow a certain client. I would not mourn their disappearance. (Update: it didn’t. Earth, you have disappointed me.)
Magic numbers
Magic numbers. I 09 think F9 I 11 just 02 witnessed 9D a 74 revolution. E3 Those 5B who D8 believe 41 in 56 freedom C5 have 63 triumphed 56 over 88 fear C0. More at Chilling Effects and Slashdot. Update 4/5/07: Legal summary here.
Music and Life
Music and Life. A nice, 2-minute flash animation (produced by Trey Parker and Matt Stone) which beautifully explains the meaning of life.
