Monday, 20 December 2010
Music: The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song by The Flaming Lips
If you could watch everybody work
While you just lay on your back,
Would you do it?
(Yeah yeah yeah yeah, yeah yeah yeah yeah)
If you could take all the love
Without giving any back,
Would you do it?
(Yeah yeah yeah yeah, yeah yeah yeah yeah)
Wednesday, 24 November 2010
The Mind of the Mob
Police lines surround student tuition fee protesters
There is plenty of psychological research that has demonstrated that people ("normies" at least) lose all sense of self in a sufficiently large crown. Fear, hatred and anger spread like wildfire. This is why mass-panic sets in for no reason and people are trampled to death, why protests inevitably reduce to violence.
You cannot consider a gathering of people as human beings. They must be treated like all animals: if they turn rabid, put them down.
Two police officers were injured as police contained demonstrators on Whitehall.
There have been occupations in at least 10 universities, including at Oxford University's Bodleian Library.
School pupils walked out of lessons to join university and college students on local protest marches across the UK.
As darkness has fallen, fires have been started and windows broken in Whitehall by demonstrators who are being contained by police.
Earlier a police van was attacked and barricades thrown as protesters tried to break through police lines.
There have been reports of 15 arrests and 11 members of the public are believed to have been injured.
The Prime Minister's spokesman said: "People have a right to engage in lawful and peaceful protest, but there is no place for violence or intimidation".
There is plenty of psychological research that has demonstrated that people ("normies" at least) lose all sense of self in a sufficiently large crown. Fear, hatred and anger spread like wildfire. This is why mass-panic sets in for no reason and people are trampled to death, why protests inevitably reduce to violence.
You cannot consider a gathering of people as human beings. They must be treated like all animals: if they turn rabid, put them down.
Saturday, 20 November 2010
Book: The Myth of Morality
I've added a new book to my "Good Books" section. The Myth of Morality by Richard Joyce.
"In The Myth of Morality, Richard Joyce argues that moral discourse is hopelessly flawed. At the heart of ordinary moral judgements is a notion of moral inescapability, or practical authority, which, upon investigation, cannot be reasonably defended. Joyce argues that natural selection is to blame, in that it has provided us with a tendency to invest the world with values that it does not contain, and demands that it does not make. Should we therefore do away with morality, as we did away with other faulty notions such as witches? Possibly not. We may be able to carry on with morality as a 'useful fiction' - allowing it to have a regulative influence on our lives and decisions, perhaps even playing a central role - while not committing ourselves to believing or asserting falsehoods, and thus not being subject to accusations of 'error'."
Most talk of "morality" goes over my head. In my younger years, during one of those lovely philosophical discussions only teenagers can have, I even presented the argument that human conscience is the inherent avoidance of actions which tells us if we do X to Y, Y or their associates will seek revenge. The rest of human morality can be explained by attempts to feel superior, to garner respect and gain allies.
People tend to disagree with me on that subject. It seems whilst they can agree this is most likely how human morality evolved, people seem horrified that I would think this the general rationale behind "moral actions". They often point to the incredibly rare acts of self-sacrifice, of people throwing themselves on grenades and the like. I've aways considered anybody willing to die for another person to be suffering from some kind of mental disorder. A kind of deficiency of the thought that renders them moronic enough to die for any cause, individual or group.
"In The Myth of Morality, Richard Joyce argues that moral discourse is hopelessly flawed. At the heart of ordinary moral judgements is a notion of moral inescapability, or practical authority, which, upon investigation, cannot be reasonably defended. Joyce argues that natural selection is to blame, in that it has provided us with a tendency to invest the world with values that it does not contain, and demands that it does not make. Should we therefore do away with morality, as we did away with other faulty notions such as witches? Possibly not. We may be able to carry on with morality as a 'useful fiction' - allowing it to have a regulative influence on our lives and decisions, perhaps even playing a central role - while not committing ourselves to believing or asserting falsehoods, and thus not being subject to accusations of 'error'."
Most talk of "morality" goes over my head. In my younger years, during one of those lovely philosophical discussions only teenagers can have, I even presented the argument that human conscience is the inherent avoidance of actions which tells us if we do X to Y, Y or their associates will seek revenge. The rest of human morality can be explained by attempts to feel superior, to garner respect and gain allies.
People tend to disagree with me on that subject. It seems whilst they can agree this is most likely how human morality evolved, people seem horrified that I would think this the general rationale behind "moral actions". They often point to the incredibly rare acts of self-sacrifice, of people throwing themselves on grenades and the like. I've aways considered anybody willing to die for another person to be suffering from some kind of mental disorder. A kind of deficiency of the thought that renders them moronic enough to die for any cause, individual or group.
Sunday, 14 November 2010
Music: A Very Nasty World
Ready to attack you, we will smack you, better run.
Don't come walking in the wildwood if you haven't got a gun.
Every creature, for survival, has to look out for itself;
Got no nannies here, old grannies dear, to look out for your health.
Thursday, 28 October 2010
Drunken Ramblings
Tonight I got drunk, I danced, I clubbed. All in all, it was an interesting experience.
The latest episode of Lie To Me had an interesting ending, where Tim Roth's character (one "Dr. Lightman") wrote that he understood very little, least of all those close to him. I too will admit, I understand very little. I see people and I know what they feel, happy, sad, angry, annoyed, aroused, excited, but all in all I understand very little. I know they are experiencing something, but I do not understand. I know I am required to do certain things at certain times, but do I understand? Of course not. Do any of us? I don't know. But people seem to.
It seems as if almost everybody I meet was handed a blue-print to behaviours, a list of requirements, of responses and of reactions. And it seems I missed that handing out, missed the instructions, missed that which is needed to be...well, human. I have to make due with what I can figure out by myself. If anything, being an unknowing outsider has made me stronger, more alert, aware and adaptive.
I will gladly dance, in a loud club it is a benefit to dance. In a loud club, you can't hear the words people say with any ease, their tonality is barely noticeable, all you have is body language. That means 2/3rds of my wasted social energies can be redirected to body language (both mine and theirs) and other attentions. This is a boon, is it not? It's simpler, it lets me relax my efforts. At worst I can redirect them to other social elements, at best I can redirect them to more important elements. Things may be not harder, may be not easier, but there is a simplicity to it none the less.
Maybe that is why others find clubbing so interesting, or maybe they are other reasons. Again, maybe they get something inherently "deeper" out of the experience. As I said, I know but I do not understand. Human life occurs all around me, and I can not help but watch. An outsider looking in, and I wouldn't want it any other way.
The latest episode of Lie To Me had an interesting ending, where Tim Roth's character (one "Dr. Lightman") wrote that he understood very little, least of all those close to him. I too will admit, I understand very little. I see people and I know what they feel, happy, sad, angry, annoyed, aroused, excited, but all in all I understand very little. I know they are experiencing something, but I do not understand. I know I am required to do certain things at certain times, but do I understand? Of course not. Do any of us? I don't know. But people seem to.
It seems as if almost everybody I meet was handed a blue-print to behaviours, a list of requirements, of responses and of reactions. And it seems I missed that handing out, missed the instructions, missed that which is needed to be...well, human. I have to make due with what I can figure out by myself. If anything, being an unknowing outsider has made me stronger, more alert, aware and adaptive.
I will gladly dance, in a loud club it is a benefit to dance. In a loud club, you can't hear the words people say with any ease, their tonality is barely noticeable, all you have is body language. That means 2/3rds of my wasted social energies can be redirected to body language (both mine and theirs) and other attentions. This is a boon, is it not? It's simpler, it lets me relax my efforts. At worst I can redirect them to other social elements, at best I can redirect them to more important elements. Things may be not harder, may be not easier, but there is a simplicity to it none the less.
Maybe that is why others find clubbing so interesting, or maybe they are other reasons. Again, maybe they get something inherently "deeper" out of the experience. As I said, I know but I do not understand. Human life occurs all around me, and I can not help but watch. An outsider looking in, and I wouldn't want it any other way.
Monday, 18 October 2010
Good Books?
So I put up a page called "Good Books". Basically if I read a book and think it's interesting, or begin reading a book and think it's interesting, I'll put it there with some kind of link. I'll try and keep them vaguely topical, at the moment they're a couple of Robert Greene's books and a couple of Psychology books.
Better the devil you know, after all.
Better the devil you know, after all.
Tuesday, 12 October 2010
Cats and Roads
This night I saw a cat get run over. It got clipped on the head and sent flying by a car, and landed with half of it's head missing and it's eye hanging out, blood pouring over the road. The people I was with looked horrified, one even on the verge of tears. I didn't and still don't understand why, so I just tried to match their expressions as best I could.
The cat was it, seemed, for a time still alive. And it was seizing. It's whole body was shaking violently, the last efforts of a dying body to move to safety perhaps. The image seemed more comical than traumatic.
One of the people I was with said he felt ill, another said he felt "sorry" for the cat, another just stood near tears. Me? I frowned and looked sad, horrified and shocked (a combination that is surprisingly rarely required), but said nothing and definitely didn't experience any sympathy, illness or tears for what is just a dead cat in the road, it's blood flooding onto the black tarmac.
The cat was it, seemed, for a time still alive. And it was seizing. It's whole body was shaking violently, the last efforts of a dying body to move to safety perhaps. The image seemed more comical than traumatic.
One of the people I was with said he felt ill, another said he felt "sorry" for the cat, another just stood near tears. Me? I frowned and looked sad, horrified and shocked (a combination that is surprisingly rarely required), but said nothing and definitely didn't experience any sympathy, illness or tears for what is just a dead cat in the road, it's blood flooding onto the black tarmac.
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