piątek, 29 kwietnia 2011

Adolescent Collectivists

For Michael Gerson there is one simple explanation for Objectivism: adolescence.

Many of us experienced a few unfortunate years of invincible self-involvement, testing moral boundaries and prone to stormy egotism and hero worship.

Michael obviously seems to know what he is talking about. Either himself or many of his friends and family must have been egotistic, self-involved and immoral hero worshippers during their youth. So basically what we are dealing here with is a social circle of JOCKS.

Usually one grows out of it, eventually discovering that the quality of our lives is tied to the benefit of others.

Unfortunatelly, Michael hasn't grown out of it. When jocks discover they can no longer beat up people without going to jail, they do seek alternative ways of abuse. Soon they discover political means to do so, ie collectivist ideologies, which give them a moral right to force other people into servitude. Thus, a jock eventually joins one of the strands of modern collectivism, be it religious, conservatist or liberal. In theory their sport heroes get replaced by either God, Nation or Society. In practice however they all worship Government as the hero that forces other people to serve their goals. So no wonder Michael must obviously hate Rand's moral commandment never to sacrifice others to himself. He rants against "selfishness" so that at the end of the day he can enjoy a society molded and bullied by his hero Government. A society where our lives become "tied to the benefit of" Michael Gerson and the like.

Brrr...

sobota, 9 kwietnia 2011

The Whitest Kids U' Know

WKUK is a very talented group, especially Trevor Moore, I love him. Some brilliant sketches. Here are basically the best out of the first three seasons, some are simply hysterical:

Bad Panda, Brain Tumor, Heaven, Opposite Day, Mall Bitches, Ten Easy Steps to Have a Perfect Relationship, Girl Sympathy, Moon Bears, 911 Call, Joining The Army, Ninja School, Accidental PukeCall Of Duty, GandalfGrapist, Throw Up Employee, EarthquakeAccidental Puke, White Castle CheesburgerSummer Vacation Story, Gallon of PCP, Get a New Daddy, Saturday, Good Morning Dad, Happy Birthday, Line Leader, Take My Face Off, The Never SongTrevor Talks To Kids, Whiskey, Dinosaur Rap, God Says Song

Now down to business. WKUK is pretty liberal. Which is usually good for comedy. Conservative biased shows are rarely funny. There are outstanding exceptions like It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, but liberals are usually the open minded ones. Take Sniper Business. Pretty funny sketch (not nearly as funny as some of the above though). WKUK tells us business is like a war. Funny, but false. Precisely zero people die and rarely any assets are destroyed when a company goes bankrupt. Rather, people change jobs and assets get reallocated to more efficient uses. Actually, business is precisely the opposite of war. It happens to be the one and only way for society to increase its standard of living. However yes, free market competition does not guarantee life employment and eternal status quo. Sorry, that is reserved for Heaven.

So I have nothing against funny liberal sketches, but then Backseat killed me. I have never seen anything so explicit in a comedy group before. It's not much of a sketch really, but a detailed recap of WKUK political views:

If you think about it, socialism's not really that bad. Yeah, I guess you're right. It's kind of like, being really nice and fair. If you think about it, socialism's like everybody helping everybody else out and capitalism's like greed. It's weird. It's like the only reason capitalism works is because it plays on man's biggest flaw. It's almost like, if you really work on developing your soul and being a good person, capitalism is constantly throwing obstacles in your way. Yeah, it's like the principles that every single religion teaches are directly opposed to the principles of capitalism.

Now, we know the guys are brilliant. As such they are another example for Bread & Butter, my very first post. I admire WKUK. But then, the guys are retarded, at least as far as economics goes.

Going backwards, the last sentence: Yeah, it's like the principles that every single religion teaches are directly opposed to the principles of capitalism. Of course they are! Socialism is a religion with God replaced by Society, another abstract being that does not exist in reality. No one has ever talked with Society except prophets of socialism, who seem to know in detail what Society's needs are. How is that different with God prophets? We had Industrial Revolution 200 years ago when capitalism was invented, and not 10,000 years ago (or whatever) when first religions were. WKUK guys do seem to be aware of religion pitfalls in God Says Song. Still, no clue, no idea how to connect the dots.

It's almost like, if you really work on developing your soul and being a good person, capitalism is constantly throwing obstacles in your way. I agree it should be as easy as possible to be a decent person. But then, as Einstein has said, you should try making everything as simple as possible, but never simpler. It is fallacious to believe there can exist a system which makes it easier to produce than to steal. Laziness is easier than productivity, sort of fundemental thing in our universe, no matter what solar system you are on, if you think about it.

If you think about it, socialism's like everybody helping everybody else out and capitalism's like greed. It's weird. It's like the only reason capitalism works is because it plays on man's biggest flaw. No, in real (not fairy tale) socialism you have to pay bribes or be close friends to get anything done, because no one has financial motivation to work. Defrauding the company you work for is pretty much okay (each is sort of worker owned, at least in theory), so if you work at a toilet paper company, you steal toilet paper and barter with other guys who, say, work in a grocery or butcher's shop etc. But this is all redundant in capitalism. You don't need other people to love you or bribe them to provide you with goods and services you need. You simply pay them using goods you've previously earned by offering your own services and goods to yet other parties, money working as an intermediary. You don't eliminate greed by eliminating capitalism. Rather you merely eliminate the only non-violent and honest method of cooperation (ie helping everybody else out) between strangers.

If you think about it, socialism's not really that bad. Yeah, I guess you're right. It's kind of like, being really nice and fair.

I mean, really, you should take Heaven and replace Suicide with Socialism there.