“If people believed in determinism, civilization would break apart” – this seems to be the general consensus among proponents of free will, and indeed, some believers of determinism as well[1].

 

This proposition makes no sense to me whatsoever. It’s not like the people who are advocating or those who prove determinism is true are enslaving people. Did Columbus’s discovery of America physically distort Earth from being a square to being a sphere? Did Dawkins manipulate history by hypothesizing about natural selection and evolution? No, these theories on the laws of reality describe things that are, have been, and always will be.

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Since I have time today, I thought I’d catch up on some of the writing ideas I’ve had for over a month. I was planning to either read Handmaid’s Tale (which is pretty good even though it’s a school book) or play Aion, but something (can’t remember) reminded me I had lots of notes to write up, so I went to my notepad file and picked one out.

 

 

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So I was just flipping through the class econ book offhandedly one day (wasn't interested in what the teacher was saying, didn't have any other homework to do that didn't involve taking out a book and making it too obvious), and I came upon the chapter about the Federal Reserve. It was the first page to the chapter, with a picture of a bunch of 100 dollar stacks wrapped in a yellow strip marked "$10,000" and then a lot of fine print that I couldn't see. Then I thought, hmm, Benjamin Franklin....

....why is he on our money again?

(I get to this more or less tabula rasa approach every once in a while when I'm too saturated with anything. The one that happens to me most is when I've read too much or writted/typed too much, I start seeing words as just squiggles and symbols, and I can't read them anymore. I can see them, sure, but I can't make sense out of them. Sometimes I also "lose" my ability to put a word together and just see their individual letters and sounds - "any?" What the hell is an an-yih? "symbol?" How am I supposed to say a word with four consonants in a row? It's kind of hard to explain, how it exactly works. But I do know this takes me closer to a blank slate approach.)

Well, people (teachers) have said we have Franklin and other people on our money to remember them, with more important people on lower amounts because those are circulated more (which is entirely ridiculous once you realize that >90% of all currency isn't physical).

Many currency systems throughout the past have also done this, with stamping the pope or the local magistrate/king on the coins of the geographical region, but when we look at those currencies today, we think of those past rulers as prideful, and spreading propaganda. They just wanted their face seared into history, their face seared into the minds of the population, other than that, there was no reason.

The only thing the Federal Reserve is doing different is that they're printing other people's faces on currency. When we parallel modern US currency to past civilizations' currencies, we can eliminate the part about the Federal Reserve being prideful.

Can we consistently argue that the Federal Reserve is also not spreading propaganda?

This is an English paper I turned in last Friday. The topic was more or less whatever we wanted to write about, as long as we could synthesize five of the seven(?) possible sources that we had gone over either in class or in the book (chosen from a list) we had read that month, with a requirement on the usage of the book we had read outside class that month and Kohlberg's theory of moral development.

There are many things that I personally don't particularly agree with in this essay, mainly because I had to word things to fit inside the seven page limit. The ending was a big one. I could have made it so much more grand, but I couldn't find a way to do that with the space that I had left. (I can't really remember what I wanted to say anymore either Dx) I also don't agree with what I say about Kohlberg, but I had to fit it in somehow and that's how it turned out. Though I don't particularly think the way I say it myself, it is certainly the way it works for many people, so it will still make sense somewhat.

Oh yes, and I did steal the title from Stefan Molyneux. I remembered at the last moment that Ryan (teacher) wanted a title page, and I was like, hmm, what would be good for this? And I thought, hey, why not?

I'll tell you what grade I get on it later, haha.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Since formatting has been a pain in the ass, I shall just link you to an upload. The title is not on this document, I put it on another one because I couldn't figure out a way to have the page numbers start on the second page.

"Statism Is Dead".

It was too long. LJ wouldn't let me post it.

So I uploaded it elsewhere.

I was planning to write up an entry on something I learned in Stat class a few days ago about randomness, but I just got really pissed off and I thought I’d talk about that instead. Because, like I’ve said before, writing is my drug. Probably because 1) I can’t get my hands on drugs, 2) I don’t like needles or smoking, and 3) it’s probably more efficient than drugs anyways. It actually gets shit out of my head.

 

I was moving a portable fan thingie back and forth and I was commenting on how loud it was. It used a notch thingie to keep the fan in place and moving it from notch to notch was quite loud. So I was messing around with that and trying to figure out if there was a way to change the fan’s position without making noise, and my mom was like, stop doing that. And I’m like, why? She’s like, because it’s loud. And I’m just like, yeah, that’s why I’m trying to figure out how to make it quiet. And she just repeated herself, why am I doing that? So now I’m like, I just told you my fucking reason (I didn’t say that, but I said:), why the hell not? And she asks me why would I make loud noises, and I’m just like, fuck this shit (I said:), because I want to. And then she’s like, that’s the worst possible reason. And I said, well that’s the basis of every single reason in the world. Why do I believe 1+1=2? Because I want to be consistent with reality. Why do I make loud noises with this portable fan? Because that’s the only way I know of to move the thing around, and that also happens to be the only way to test if my methods/theories are or aren’t working. And she’s just like that’s the worst possible reason STILL FUCKING REPEATING HERSELF AS IF I DIDN’T SAY A FUCKING THING and I’m just like so you agree that all reasons are based on wants, and yet you still say my reason is the worst possible reason as if it was worse than all other reasons, and she just ends with I’m really irritating.

 

(The Cantonese word sounds like “toe-yeem” and Mandarin it’s “tao-yeehn”, I don’t know an accurate translation other than “the quality of pissing off”. Saying “You are (the word)” is accusing that person of having the objective quality of pissing anyone and everyone off, rather than the English version, “You piss me off”, which states a relationship between two specified parties.)

 

And I’m just like, and you expect me to believe you when you say you’ll pay for my college tuition? This is why I don’t believe you. And she just repeats herself AGAIN and I CAN’T FUCKING LEAVE THE HOUSE BECAUSE THAT MEANS I’M A DEAD MAN and this is exactly the same thing with governments. Hell, one guy today explicitly told me that it wasn’t the governments’ fault that they own every square inch of land on the planet, they just “happened” to do that. It is simply and just “unfortunate” that I can’t find a place to live. And I’m just like, if it’s just “unfortunate” that there “just happens” to be no land for me to settle on, then you might as well say that it’s “just unfortunate” that Kitty Genovese was knifed to death, and it’s “just unfortunate” that men are raped in prison. God fucking damit, IF GOVERNMENTS ARE JUST FOR PROTECTING THEIR CITIZENS THERE IS NO GOD DAMNED MOTHER FUCKING POINT IN GOING AFTER LAND WHERE THERE ARE NO CITIZENS. THERE ARE NO FUCKING PEOPLE IN ANTARCTICA, AND YET THERE ARE 47 CLAIMS ON IT. DON’T GIVE ME THAT SHIT ABOUT “UNFORTUNATE” AS IF GOVERNMENTS WEREN’T SENTIENT AND HAD NO CHOICE IN WHAT THEY WERE DOING Fuck it. It’s not working at all.

 

This is just pissing me off even more.

 

I need me some drugs.

 

If there’s one thing I don’t like about being sick, it’s because it means I can’t think. A sore throat, a runny nose, or a fever – each of these is sufficient on its own to prevent me from doing heavy duty thinking. Or playing. Or anything really for that matter. I can’t sleep well, food doesn’t taste as good, music doesn’t sound as pretty, half dressed women don’t turn me on as much, undressed…. etc. It’s just bad all over. I dislike it very very much.

Fortunately I don’t have any homework due tomorrow, so my being sick won’t affect things too much. If its still there by tomorrow afternoon I’ll be pretty fucked though, because I have to finish reading this book called “Chronicle of a Death Foretold” by the end of the week, and it has so far taken a disproportionate amount of energy to comprehend the book.

So anyways.


The God we call the State.

 

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Some people smoke pot. Some other people drink alcohol. Some others use hallucinogens.
Me, I have facebook notes.

( I'm pretty sure this drug is legal... )

First time writing stuff up in a long while!

And if we’re not counting pointed one-themed essays written either for my own use or school’s, even longer. I can’t even remember the last time I “blogged” simply about my life. Well. I guess most people don’t do that anyways. It’s always accompanied with an opinion of some sort; I just focus more on the opinion and less on the event. That’s how my memory works anyways, so I don’t have all that much of a choice. Or perhaps my memory mechanism is based off of how I use it and was different in the past? Certainly possible, though I haven’t the slightest clue and it isn’t all that important anyways. What is important is that I’ll be trying to work towards that type of memory with the assistance of this blogging here. If I had to pin objectives on why I am going to write here (the “here” part isn’t the emphasis), then it would be to improve this type of memory.