Political Ranting and Raving, or Goddamn, I'm a Cynical Fuck

This is edited from a conversation I had through e-mail with someone. I felt like posting it here. Enjoy.

First, some links:
Industrial Society and It's Future: the Unabomber Manifesto
An Essay on Hypocrisy, by Timothy McVeigh

I read the Unabomber Manifesto back in high school. Got it from the newspaper archives on the computer system in our library, and printed out the whole thing. Still have it, stashed away in a binder somewhere. Interesting read, and while my perception of Ted is that his view of reality is a bit skewed, I agreed with more than I disagreed with in his manifesto. As for McVeigh, his essay is spot on. Everyone likes to bitch and moan about how EVIL these people are, but to be perfectly honest, I think it's a bunch of crap. In my view, modern society, especially American society, has it's priorities all out of whack. Everyone is so busy chasing their tails, looking for distractions, ANYTHING to keep their minds off of the fact that we're living in the fall of Rome. The most annoying thing about it is that they KNOW it's all bullshit, they have to. NOBODY can be that stupid. But they're so afraid to admit that the emperor has no clothes that they keep lying to themselves in the hopes that their lies will eventually come true. Hell, the US government drops BOMBS on people in foreign countries because the politicians' approval ratings are down. The fact that this doesn't make people's blood BOIL makes me want to head to a clock tower with a sniper rifle myself. I know exactly why people like McVeigh and Kaczynski do the things they do: they can't stomach the lies anymore, and they have to do something, anything to try to wake people up, even if they do have to kill a few hundred people to do it. Everyone can whine and moan about how wrong they were, but they're just too chickenshit to do it themselves, pardon my French, excuse me, "Freedom." I don't know, maybe there is something wrong with me, but when I heard that a bunch of picked-on kids at Columbine High School killed a bunch of their classmates, my thought was, "about fucking time." I was the same kid in high school, I even wore a trenchcoat, no shit. The level of inhumanity and cruelty that goes on everyday is enough to make any sane person snap, and the fact that most people don't just shows how insane we all really are.

A lot of people like to compare Hitler and McVeigh, or Kaczynski, or at least talk about them in the same conversation.

See, I distinguish between Hitler and McVeigh and company. To my perception, the Third Reich was all about self-deception. The mentality of Germany during that time was probably comparable to America today: miserable people wanting a comfortable illusion that will make them feel better. Hitler gave that to them, which is why he was such a success until WWII spanked him. The people had to know that bad shit was going down, but they let it happen anyway, because they wanted to believe the lie so much, with every fiber of their being. They stuck their heads in the sand KNOWING what could happen, what would happen, but simply because they were given a pleasant lie, a scapegoat they could blame all their problems on, they let it happen. Pure, unadulterated WEAKNESS, in my view. I really hate it when I see people trying to make excuses for the German people in WWII, or trying to cast aspersions on the reality of the Holocaust. I see it as self-delusion, plain and simple. I have no sympathy for Germany in the aftermath of WWII. Screw 'em. They got what they deserved for being COWARDS, for not standing up to Hitler and seeing him for what he was.

McVeigh and Kaczynski, on the other hand, were not trying to pass off a big lie, in my view. They were probably people who tried to get people to see how bad things were, the extent of hypocrisy in modern society, but were brushed off. So, in order to get some attention, they started killing people. Now, they obviously didn't think things through, because if they had, they would have realized that all that could happen was that their actions would brand them as monsters and nobody except for strange, disturbed people like me would be interested in what they had to say. But what the hell, that's what you get for being an idealist.

In my view, the initiatory value of studying the Third Reich is a matter of "know your enemy." The initiatory value of McVeigh, Kaczynski, the 9/11 terrorists, et al is a matter of "these people are saying the right things, now what my job is is to figure out how to say these same things in a more constructive manner so that people will actually HEAR them."

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Now some comments on this article:

More than 11 weeks have passed without conclusive evidence of an Iraqi
program to develop weapons of mass destruction, senators said, and it's time
to investigate whether intelligence reports saying so were correct.

This is a classic example of the CYA principle at work. These senators don't give a damn whether the intelligence reports were correct or not. It's just that Shrub and his cronies have done such a sloppy job, the sleepers are actually starting to wake up and ask questions. This so-called "investigation" is a dog and pony show. EVERYONE knew that those intelligence reports were a lie. If they were so concerned about it, they would have stopped the war in the first place. This is a farce for the sheep, to give them the illusion that there is actually some accountability in government.

An investigation doesn't mean senators think that something was done
incorrectly, Sen. John Warner, R-Va., chairman of the Armed Services
Committee, said on CNN's "Late Edition."
"By the fact that we're just investigating it, should not in any way
indicate that we're putting any credibility doubt against" the CIA or the
Bush administration, Warner said.

Translation: "See, we're putting this investigation on to give people the illusion that we give a damn that we killed a bunch of people in Iraq on false pretenses, but we also don't want to annoy Bush & cronies too much. I really wish that the president would've had the foresight to PLANT some weapons in Iraq to be 'found', because frankly, this is embarassing to you and me."

One member of the Intelligence panel, Sen. Bob Graham, running for the
Democratic presidential nomination from Florida, went further than other
senators in declaring on CNN that the government might have willfully
distributed erroneous information on Iraq's arsenal.
"If we don't find these weapons of mass destruction, it will represent a
serious intelligence failure or the manipulation of that intelligence to
keep the American people in the dark," Graham said.

Translation: "I'm going to make a big show of calling for serious inquiry when I'm in front of the cameras, and am going to present myself as the seeker of Truth(TM). This is a gamble I'm playing, because I really want to be your next figurehead, excuse me, President. If it pays off, rest assured, I won't make any real changes in government, but I'll put a friendlier face on it so that you can all pat yourselves on the back for being oh so enlightened."

The rest of the article continued in the same self-congratulatory, faux "concern for the people" attitude I've come to expect from everything, especially politics. You get the point. I'm just a cynical anarchist with a dream that one day, people will be able to talk intelligently about reality without having half of the world respond with, "Huh? Never mind, COPS is on."

"Doctor, my brain hurts!" "Oh! It'll have to come out!" -Monty Python

Take this brain test, if you feel like it:
http://www.mindmedia.com/brainworks/first-paragraph.jsp
It seems to be making the LiveJournal rounds...

Your Brain Usage Profile

Auditory : 53%
Visual : 46%
Left : 64%
Right : 35%

masque, you are mildly left-hemisphere dominant while showing a slight preference for auditory processing. This overall combination seems to indicate a well-working blend of logic and judgment and organization, with sufficient intuition, perception and creativity to balance that dominance.

You will at times experience conflict between how you feel and what you think which will generally be resolved in favor of what you think. You will find yourself interested in the practical applications of whatever material you have learned or whatever situation you face and will retain the ability to refine whatever knowledge you possess or aspects of whatever position you are in.

By and large, you will orient yourself toward intellectual activities and structure. Though not rigid, you will schedule yourself, plan, and focus on routine and continuity of operations, rather than on changes and disruptions.

When changes or disruptions occur, you are likely to consider first how to ensure that such disruptions do not occur again, before dealing with the present disruption. The same balance is reflected in your sensory preference. You will tend to be reflective and measured in your interaction style. For the most part, you will be considered objective without being cold and goal-oriented while retaining the capacity to listen to others.

Preferentially you learn by listening and maintaining significant internal dialogues with yourself. Nevertheless, you have sufficient visualization capabilities to benefit from using graphs, charts, doodles, or even body movement to enhance your comprehension and memory.

To the extent that you are even implicitly aware of your hemispheric dominance and sensory style, you will feel most comfortable in those arenas which emphasize verbal skills and logic. Teaching, law, and science are those that stand out among the professions, along with technical sales and management.

Now THIS is a great quiz...

Which Agent Smith are you?

By Madeline Elster