Game over man, game over: Frankenmalware has been unleashed

[barbie gaze]

I have contemplated the imprisonment of the offender, rather than the
seizure of his goods—-though both will serve the same purpose—-because they
who assert the purest right, and consequently are most dangerous to a
corrupt State, commonly have not spent much time in accumulating property.
To such the State renders comparatively small service, and a slight tax is
wont to appear exorbitant, particularly if they are obliged to earn it by
special labor with their hands. If there were one who lived wholly without
the use of money, the State itself would hesitate to demand it of him. But
the rich man—not to make any invidious comparison—is always sold to the
institution which makes him rich. Absolutely speaking, the more money, the
less virtue; for money comes between a man and his objects, and obtains
them for him; it was certainly no great virtue to obtain it. It puts to
rest many questions which he would otherwise be taxed to answer; while the
only new question which it puts is the hard but superfluous one, how to
spend it. Thus his moral ground is taken from under his feet. The
opportunities of living are diminished in proportion as that are called the
"means" are increased. The best thing a man can do for his culture when he
is rich is to endeavor to carry out those schemes which he entertained when
he was poor. Christ answered the Herodians according to their condition.
"Show me the tribute-money," said he—and one took a penny out of his
pocket—if you use money which has the image of Caesar on it, and which he
has made current and valuable, that is, if you are men of the State, and
gladly enjoy the advantages of Caesar's government, then pay him back some
of his own when he demands it. "Render therefore to Caesar that which is
Caesar's and to God those things which are God's"—leaving them no wiser
than before as to which was which; for they did not wish to know.

Henry David Thoreau, Resistance to Civil Government, or Civil Disobedience

The odds are overwhelmingly on the side of the powers that be. What is
romantic is not the positive evaluation of the liberation movements in the
backward countries, but the positive evaluation of their prospects. There
is no reason why science, technology, and money should not again do the job
of destruction, and then the job of reconstruction in their own image. The
price of progress is frightfully high, but we shall overcome. Not only the
deceived victims but also their chief of state have said so. And yet there
are photographs that show a row of half naked corpses laid out for the
victors in Vietnam: they resemble in all details the pictures of the
starved, emasculated corpses of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. Nothing and
nobody can ever overcome these deeds, nor the sense of guilt which reacts
in further aggression. But aggression can be turned against the aggressor.
The strange myth according to which the unhealing wound can only be healed
by the weapon that afflicted the wound has not yet been validated in
history: the violence which breaks the chain of violence may start a new
chain. And yet, in and against this continuum, the fight will continue. It
is not the struggle of Eros against Thanatos, because the established
society too has its Eros: it protects, perpetuates, and enlarges life. And
it is not a bad life for those who comply and repress. But in the balance,
the general presumption is that aggressiveness in defense of life is less
detrimental to the Life Instincts than aggressiveness in aggression.



In defense of life: the phrase has explosive meaning in the affluent
society. It involves not only the protest against neo-colonial war and
slaughter, the burning of draft cards at the risk of prison, the fight for
civil rights, but also the refusal to speak the dead language of affluence,
to wear the clean clothes, to enjoy the gadgets of affluence, to go through
the education for affluence. The new bohème, the beatniks and hipsters, the
peace creeps — all these “decadents” now have become what decadence
probably always was: poor refuge of defamed humanity.

Eros and Civilization. Herbert Marcuse 1955

Political Preface 1966


On Thu, Feb 2, 2012 at 8:07 PM, barbie gaze <barbiegaze at gmail.com> wrote:

>  I hate rampant capitalism but I don't know of a viable alternative.    I
>> can only hope there's some pendulum in play but I don't foresee that,
>> either.
>
>
> It's not capitalism, rampant or tempered, that causes this disgust, this
> surrender, this hate. Is it? Isn't it something rational? Capitalism, or
> what you imply capitalism is, is rooted in superstition and irrational
> human exchanges. What you seem to be upset about is not capitalism but
> technical and rational control of cunsumers. This is acommon disorder, and
> a frustration we all share that is compounded by the fact that technical
> and rational control prevents critical thinking,  something we claim to be
> teaching to the young in our schools. Of course, we can not teach young
> people to think, critically or otherwise, but that's another frustration.
>  Moreover, because the young are all slaves, in a much greater and more
> profound sense than any of us old farts are slaves, to the virtues of the
> rational and technical mass culture, to speed and efficiency, and so on,
> what the young percieve as freedom, that is, the freedom to consume,
> renders the freedom to think counterproductive, irrational and
> superstitious. I want my MTV.
>
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