Feeling Like Beethoven's 6th: Lively, Almost More Understated Than Normal... Rather... "Pastoral"

Okay, so maybe the title's not so accurate now that Winamp won't stop crashing. So I reinstalled it, and I'm having to add my music files all over again. Fiendishness! It must be because I upgraded from 5.0 to 5.03. That's supposed to make things more stable. But then again, it's a piece of software, therefore the only accurate psychology is reverse psychology. It now appears that all of my playlists have vanished...

Anyway, I was reading an essay this morning on the bus on the comparison of the treatment of the sexual instinct in 1984 and Brave New World as a means of totalitarian control. The topic is interesting because the two treatments are totally opposite and yet the effect of totalitarian control is the same. But here's how the difference is reconcilable. Let me first examine Brave New World. Sex is encouraged by the State to disturbing degrees. It has the function of distracting people from the reality of their pitiful lives. The substance of the society is that temporary pleasure (i.e. soma, etc.) is used to make people ambivalent by consuming their energy and time. Its totalitarianism is derived from making the people passive. Contrapuntally, totalitarianism in 1984 derives it's power from the suppression of people's energy, thus channelling it into vehement hatred and fear. People then submit (even, actively support perhaps) to the totalitarianism because of their fear and hatred. Thus the two extremes are highly effective for the control of the individual.

The afternoon I was reading an article in National Geographic on the "The End of Cheap Oil." It awakened a number of sentimates in me which in reality have little to do with oil, but they are still interesting. Take the case of China. It's obvious that China will inevitably supplant the US as the world's foremost economic power. But consider China some more. Think of the labor. According to the CIA World Factbook the population of China was recently estimated at 1,286,975,468. As if this was not enough labor, consider the fact that as of now 50% of the labor force is occupied in agriculture. Much of their agriculture is not mechanized yet either. And consider how economically powerful they are now. Dear godlessness! With the discovery of democracy, human/civil rights, and a dose of market liberalization, China will be unstoppable for about the next 5 centuries, assuming they don't go to nuclear war with India, and can work out some economic cooperation with them too. Furthermore, the labor force has phenomenal motivation. Not only does East Asia have a culture of enormous work ethic, but the society is at the stage where it's almost on the cusp of prosperity. Thus the society is nearly entirely free of the kind of post-industrial decadence that is getting to W. Europe and America. With their culture and stage of motivation, people have an incredible value for education. Once they make their leap into the age of relative prosperity; democracy, human rights, and market liberalization will inevitably come about, bringing further prosperity. Don't forget that China doesn't have the kind of weird religious baggage (lumbering orthodoxies and social systems centering around things that aren't in normal reality, like God, the afterlife, etc.) that has plagued the rest of the world. Most Chinese are either Taoist/Daoist, Buddhist, or atheist. Taoism/Daoism and Buddhism are hardly religions but more like ways of life. Nietzsche called them "atheist religions" because they merely prescribe a philosophy on life that is nonorthodox, atheist, and generally seeks to minimize suffering and achieve internal harmony. They center around the individual instead of some other thing that no one is quite sure about, but you will get burned at the stake for questioning. The benefits of this kind of philosophy for a society are innumerable. It leads to an immediate acceptance of rational/empirical/scientific beliefs without layers of garbled resistance from archaic factions of society. And a society with such beliefs retains all morality unlike the bitter antiscientists (in other words, Ian Rocker, bitter at all scientific thought) like to think. In other words, people tend to act more logically when they believe in a fully logical philosophy. Or something like that. But that's why America's toast and China is going to rule the world someday soon. There's no hope... unless...

AHA! We should nuke 'em now! And then Texas should secede from the Union AFTER that happens, as they have the full right to do. That way they can pretend to have the moral high ground, George W. Bush can relocate all of the nuclear missile silos there, and then have time to be run for the presidency of Texas so he no longer has to remain in the American political system. Maybe not, but it's a thought... A thought that my favorite person--Barry Goldwater--would be proud of. Goldwater tried to win an election by advocating possible use of nuclear weapons in 1964. Now that's called smart politics. Oooh! And that reminds me of George C. Wallace. The defining moment of HIS career was in the climax of his speech "I say segregation today, segregation tomorrow, and segregation forever!" If you can obtain an audio file of the speech you really should. The way he literally snarls it is perfectly fitting of all segregationist stereotypes. If it weren't so disturbing, it'd be funny.

I'll leave you on that note. Today was the 50th anniversary of Brown v. The Board of Education. What's ironic is that the ruling was, although very correct and admirable in hindsight, a bit of an abuse of judicial power. Considering how horrible of a ruling Plessy v. Ferguson was, it has a bit more precedent. And don't forget US v. Cruikshank and US v. Reese which not only nullified the 14th and 15th amendments for African Americans (somehow this is supposed to be upholding the constitution?), but also seemed to forget the notion that the US Constitution is the "supreme law of the land." Don't they teach you that in 3rd grade? But wait! they had different compulsory education laws in the 1870s. But wait again! wouldn't we expect our Supreme Court justices to make it past the 3rd grade? Hmm... Oh well, Brown was a 9-0 decision, so who cares? And think of where we'd be if it hadn't happened. The NAACP put together such an amazing case that they really deserved to win it just because of that though.