This book is just great. J.R. grew up without a father, and looking for male models, he found the fellowship of the men at The Tender Bar. The way he writes about these people makes you know them, and love them, just as much as he does.
The book is about people, but also the hard work of growing up. Being so attached to a bar J.R. makes a good job. Reading the last pages I had tears in my eyes, due to the pure beauty of what he writes.
There are a lot of memorable passages. About his father not being cut to be a father, but J.R. wanting to be a father's son (p.150). He says farewell saying "You drive like nuns fuck".
A priest gives advice (p202): "Do you know why God invented writers? Because He loves a good story. And He doesn't give a damn about words. Words are the curtain we've hung between Him and our true selves. Try not to think about the words. Don't strain for the perfect sentence. There's no such thing. Writing is guesswork. Every sentence is an educated guess, the reader's as much as yours. Think of that the next time you curl a piece of paper into your typewriter." (This makes me think of the way of mastery, how you can master a thing only when you no longer have to think about it.)
J.R. makes a mistake writing an article and is all upset. Until Bob the Cop tells a story and ends it with: "Honest mistake. Like I told you, that's why they put erasers on pencils. But J.R., believe me. They do not put erasers on guns." (The USA, hello!?)
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Thomas Cleary - The japanese art of war
This is a book about japanese mentality, trying to explain why japanese and western cultures often clash. Some parts, where he goes into psychological explanations, are written in an inaccessible way. But what I like about this book is the quotations from old masters, before the original ideas of eg Buddhism and Zen got distorted and simplified. The overview of Japan's history is very interesting too.
The art of war, as it is called, can be used to achieve anything. It is a guideline for politics, war, craft - basically for life. It is fascinating how ideas dating centuries ago are still valid, but nowadays often seem to be forgotten:
Huainanzi: "There are no wasted people and no wasted things." (p27)
Musashi: "Amateuristic martial arts are a source of serious wounds." (p25)
The art of doing something well is to not think - to master whatever it is so well that you can do it without thinking (p28). Thinking screws things up, basically. (This is an important part of the way of mastery, see my coming entry about that.)
Takuan (p29): "You need to realize that when you practice from the state of the beginner all the way to the stage of immutable wisdom, then you must go back to the status of the beginner again. ... As a beginner you know nothing... you just fight without thinking of anything... But if you practice day after day and month after month, eventually stance and swordplay don't hang on your mind anymore, and you are like a beginner who knows nothing. ... Completely ignorant people don't show their wits, it seems, because they haven't got any. Highly developed intelligence doesn't hide because it has already gone into hiding. It is because of pseudo-erudition that intelligence goes to one's head, a ludicrous sight."
(p32) "As the testaments of Yagyu and Musashi illustrate, warriors followed the Zen teaching on emptying the mind for several purposes: one was to learn the secret of learning itself; another was to learn to act with spontaneous efficiency, free from doubt, hesitation, and fear, in whatever circumstances they might find themselves; they wanted to see realities independently, without extraneous influences; and they wanted to learn to see things before they happened, to make themselves invulnerable to enemies and become masters of their own fate."
Musashi attempted to establish a basis for rounding out the personality of the warrior (p38):
1. Think of what is right and true.
2. Put the science into practice.
3. Become acquainted with the arts.
4. Become acquainted with the crafts.
5. Understand the negative and positive qualitiesin everything.
6. Learn to see everything accurately.
7. Become aware of what is not obvious.
8. Be careful even in small matters.
9. Don't do anything useless.
Shosan (p45): "Be aware of yourself and know yourself. No matter how much you have learned and how much you know, if you don't know yourself you don't know anything. Indeed, if you don't know yourself you cannot know anything else. People who don't know themselves criticize others from the point of view of their own ignorant selves. They consider whatever agrees with them to be good, and hate whatever doesn't go their way. They become irritated about everything, causing themselves to suffer by themselves, bothering themselves solely because of their own prejudices. If you know that not everyone will be agreeable to you, know that you won't be agreeable to everyone either. Those who have no prejudice in themselves do not reject people, and therefore people do not reject them."
Shosan (p47): "Fools disregard their lives for sake of desires. Even though they trouble themselves mentally and physically by their cravings, they are never satisfied, and yet they never give up."
Shosan again (p50): "When people forget they are going to die, and act as if they think they are going to live forever, they do not fully appreciate and utilize the passing months and years. As long as they are like this, they only act on greed, anger and falsehood, turning away from social and family duties, not understanding human kindness and obligation, employing flattery and cajolery, neglecting home and work for useless hobbies and amusements."
Shosan (p51): "Both Buddhist and social principles are nothing but the application of genuine honesty, making reasoning accurate and action just."
Superficiality is bad, "thought of as a loss, or alienation from the autonomy of the 'original mind', which Zen teachings identify with 'buddha nature'. (p54)
In "modern" teachings, speed has often been associated with spontaneity. This is wrong, however. Speed doesn't come from automatic reactions, but from "the precise awakened response of fluid awareness as originally developed in authentic Zen." (p59) (D.T. Suzuki seems to be one of the culprits.) The idea is to not set your mind on anything - not your own body, not the opponent, not any weapon used - but to keep it free, "fluid", ready to be used wherever needed, but never linger on anything. "It is not quickness of action but immediacy of attention that makes this possible, the Zen master [Takuan] writes, emphasizing freedom of mind." (p58)
Takuan continues (p64): "The mind that stays fixed in one place doesn't work freely. A wheel turns precisely because it isn't fixed. if it is stuck in one place, it won't turn. The mind won't work either when it is fixed in one place."
An interestin difference between japanese and chinese culture is pointed at on page 69. The legitimacy of revolution against tyranny is clearly defined in native classical philosophy, where the doctrine of killing one tyrant to save many people from oppression can be traced far back in history. (Makes you wonder when the Communists of China will finally be exterminated, doesn't it?) In Japan, on the other hand, the Shinto bias of political thought represented the ruling classes as racially superior.
Continuing the thoughts about not letting your mind linger, Yagyu says (p74): "The immovable or imperturbable mind is normal. If something comes at your eyes, you blink. This is the state of not being upset. The essential point is just not losing the normal state of mind. To try not to move is to have moved. To move is an immovable principle."
Musashi continues further, describing the warrior's postures of balance (p78): "Even when you are still, your mind is not still, even when hurried, your mind is not hurried. The mind is not dragged by the body, the body is not dragged by the mind. Pay attention to the mind, not the body. Let there be neither insufficiency nor excess in your mind. Even if superficially weakhearted, be inwardly stronghearted, and don't let others see into your mind."
"Because of the extremely long duration of military rule in Japan, the balance in Bushido between Zen and the art of the advantage seems to have tilted decidedly to the latter. ... This book therefore turns from Zen for warriors to the topic of pure strategy." "The 36 chambers", or strategies, are listed starting at page 87. The author is unknown, but he was a master warrior in the classic tradition of The Art of War.
(p93) The Taoist classic Tao Te Ching says, "Knowers don't generalize, generalizers don't know."
"To be sure, the myths of the difficulty of the japanese thinking have contributed most of all to their own authentication. ... their creation and maintenance are among the thirty-six classical strategies..."
On page 96, the subject of moral is touched again: "When people lack a constant means of livelyhood, they lack psychological stability. When they are desperate, people steal. When society is not functioning properly and people are cold and hungry, there can be no end to crime." Well, this explains it all, doesn't it? The riots in Greece, the crimes in the USA and the stability of eg Sweden. The society has to be fare. In fact, in Japan, "a great deal of thought is given to extenuating circumstances in criminal cases". (p97) Maybe this is why the crime rate in Japan is so low?
On page 98, the virtue of modesty touched: "It is best not to pretend to know all about everything. Even if thay do know something, cultivated people do not advertise the fact... When ignorant people make assessments of others and think that they know what others know, they cannot be right. For example, when someone who lacks intelligence but is good at chess sees intelligent people who are not as good at chess, he thinks they are not as smart as he is. And when he sees people who are skilled at all sorts of arts but don't know how to play chess, he thinks he is better than they are. This is a big mistake." "In all actions and attitudes, success is based on singleminded seriousness, while failure is based in whimsicality."
On page 99, Total Quality Control, TQC, is mentioned. This is an important part of the japanese industrial success. An example is given learning archery: "Beginners shouldn't hold two arrows, because counting on the second arrow results in carelessness with the first."
I'm writing about the silliness of believing in any Deist religion ("the case just isn't strong enough") in my entry about The God delusion, but this early writing by the Japanese about the religion the Portuguese tried to shove down their throats is straight out fun (p102):
"According to what I hear of the Christian teaching, there is a great Buddha called Deus, who is the one sole Buddha, master of the universe and lord over all. This is the creator of the universe and all beings. This Buddha came into the world in some foreign land to save people sixteen hundred years ago. His name was Jesus Christ. Ignorant of this, they say, other countries honor the worthless Amida Buddha and Gautama Buddha, the height of folly.
Refutation: If Deus, as the master of the universe, created all lands and all beings, why has that Deus hitherto neglected countless nations, not appearing among them?
Ever since heaven and earth were opened, the buddhas of past, present, and future have emerged over and over again to liberate beings. How many hundred of millions of years would you say this has been going on? What basis of proof is there for saying that Deus never appeared in such-and-such country?
If Deus is the master of the universe, he is sure doing a slipshot job of it if he lets a multitude of the nations he has created be taken over by subsidiary buddhas, suffering them to spread their teachings to liberate beings, ever since the opening of heaven and earth. This Deus is indeed a foolish buddha.
Furthermore, they say that Jesus Christ came into the world and was crucified by ordinary men of the lower world. This is the master of the universe? How could anything be so illogical?
The Christians do not know the unified enlightened state of the true likeness of original awareness. In their ignorance they have taken over one buddha to worship. Their fault in coming to this country to spread devilish teachings and false principles cannot avoid the punishment of Heaven.
There are many ignorant people who cannot understand such simple logic, and throw their lives away out of reverence for that teaching. Is this not a national disgrace? One hardly dare mention what this does to our international reputation."
(p105): "What the Christians teach, on the other hand, is focused solely on a view of the reality of existence, which increases thoughts, worries, and conscious emotions, leading them to to make up a 'creator of the universe', thus reinforcing the habits that make them revolve in mundane routines, while believing this to be the way of enlightenment." Hello!? No wonder so many people is the West is walking around depressed while going to a shitty job and doing "what has to be done"! A tale is quoted in the book, "illustrating the Buddhist teaching that formulations of doctrine are provisional expedients designed to provoke special perceptions, not to be elevated to the status of absolute truths. Everyone is aware that purely subjective impressions and feelings cannot be exactly conveyed in words; Zen teaching takes this to the limit by insisting that the experience of the clarified mind cannot be understood just by descriptions of procedures or results, but must be verified in direct experience."
Some thoughts about nature (p108): "The Shinto relationship of humanity to the environmentis through a feeling of gratitude to the world of energy and matter as mush as for it; the Western Christian relationship is based more completely on a kind of gratitude for the material world, not to it."
The Japanese have a mush closer relationship with the nature than the West has (p111). Christians believe only humans have souls, which Buddhists think is a very cruel and merciless way of thought.
(p115) While the West tends to think about sides, that think they are opposed to one another, from a Buddhist point of view, this makes little sense, as it is not a people or a system as such but the alliance of ignorance, greed, and aggression that is the same problem everywhere.
Finally, to round it off, some sex (p118):
"Several symptoms of alienation of the sexes, all commonly noted by observers of Japan, are linked to this militaristic suppression that began in earnest eight centuries ago: simultaneously stimulated and repressed sexuality, a resulting undercurrent of violence, and acute manifestations of these phenomena in the form of sadomasochism, are quite evidently products of extended military domination. Similar phenomena can be seen in all societies when they are in militaristic phases of their development."
The art of war, as it is called, can be used to achieve anything. It is a guideline for politics, war, craft - basically for life. It is fascinating how ideas dating centuries ago are still valid, but nowadays often seem to be forgotten:
Huainanzi: "There are no wasted people and no wasted things." (p27)
Musashi: "Amateuristic martial arts are a source of serious wounds." (p25)
The art of doing something well is to not think - to master whatever it is so well that you can do it without thinking (p28). Thinking screws things up, basically. (This is an important part of the way of mastery, see my coming entry about that.)
Takuan (p29): "You need to realize that when you practice from the state of the beginner all the way to the stage of immutable wisdom, then you must go back to the status of the beginner again. ... As a beginner you know nothing... you just fight without thinking of anything... But if you practice day after day and month after month, eventually stance and swordplay don't hang on your mind anymore, and you are like a beginner who knows nothing. ... Completely ignorant people don't show their wits, it seems, because they haven't got any. Highly developed intelligence doesn't hide because it has already gone into hiding. It is because of pseudo-erudition that intelligence goes to one's head, a ludicrous sight."
(p32) "As the testaments of Yagyu and Musashi illustrate, warriors followed the Zen teaching on emptying the mind for several purposes: one was to learn the secret of learning itself; another was to learn to act with spontaneous efficiency, free from doubt, hesitation, and fear, in whatever circumstances they might find themselves; they wanted to see realities independently, without extraneous influences; and they wanted to learn to see things before they happened, to make themselves invulnerable to enemies and become masters of their own fate."
Musashi attempted to establish a basis for rounding out the personality of the warrior (p38):
1. Think of what is right and true.
2. Put the science into practice.
3. Become acquainted with the arts.
4. Become acquainted with the crafts.
5. Understand the negative and positive qualitiesin everything.
6. Learn to see everything accurately.
7. Become aware of what is not obvious.
8. Be careful even in small matters.
9. Don't do anything useless.
Shosan (p45): "Be aware of yourself and know yourself. No matter how much you have learned and how much you know, if you don't know yourself you don't know anything. Indeed, if you don't know yourself you cannot know anything else. People who don't know themselves criticize others from the point of view of their own ignorant selves. They consider whatever agrees with them to be good, and hate whatever doesn't go their way. They become irritated about everything, causing themselves to suffer by themselves, bothering themselves solely because of their own prejudices. If you know that not everyone will be agreeable to you, know that you won't be agreeable to everyone either. Those who have no prejudice in themselves do not reject people, and therefore people do not reject them."
Shosan (p47): "Fools disregard their lives for sake of desires. Even though they trouble themselves mentally and physically by their cravings, they are never satisfied, and yet they never give up."
Shosan again (p50): "When people forget they are going to die, and act as if they think they are going to live forever, they do not fully appreciate and utilize the passing months and years. As long as they are like this, they only act on greed, anger and falsehood, turning away from social and family duties, not understanding human kindness and obligation, employing flattery and cajolery, neglecting home and work for useless hobbies and amusements."
Shosan (p51): "Both Buddhist and social principles are nothing but the application of genuine honesty, making reasoning accurate and action just."
Superficiality is bad, "thought of as a loss, or alienation from the autonomy of the 'original mind', which Zen teachings identify with 'buddha nature'. (p54)
In "modern" teachings, speed has often been associated with spontaneity. This is wrong, however. Speed doesn't come from automatic reactions, but from "the precise awakened response of fluid awareness as originally developed in authentic Zen." (p59) (D.T. Suzuki seems to be one of the culprits.) The idea is to not set your mind on anything - not your own body, not the opponent, not any weapon used - but to keep it free, "fluid", ready to be used wherever needed, but never linger on anything. "It is not quickness of action but immediacy of attention that makes this possible, the Zen master [Takuan] writes, emphasizing freedom of mind." (p58)
Takuan continues (p64): "The mind that stays fixed in one place doesn't work freely. A wheel turns precisely because it isn't fixed. if it is stuck in one place, it won't turn. The mind won't work either when it is fixed in one place."
An interestin difference between japanese and chinese culture is pointed at on page 69. The legitimacy of revolution against tyranny is clearly defined in native classical philosophy, where the doctrine of killing one tyrant to save many people from oppression can be traced far back in history. (Makes you wonder when the Communists of China will finally be exterminated, doesn't it?) In Japan, on the other hand, the Shinto bias of political thought represented the ruling classes as racially superior.
Continuing the thoughts about not letting your mind linger, Yagyu says (p74): "The immovable or imperturbable mind is normal. If something comes at your eyes, you blink. This is the state of not being upset. The essential point is just not losing the normal state of mind. To try not to move is to have moved. To move is an immovable principle."
Musashi continues further, describing the warrior's postures of balance (p78): "Even when you are still, your mind is not still, even when hurried, your mind is not hurried. The mind is not dragged by the body, the body is not dragged by the mind. Pay attention to the mind, not the body. Let there be neither insufficiency nor excess in your mind. Even if superficially weakhearted, be inwardly stronghearted, and don't let others see into your mind."
"Because of the extremely long duration of military rule in Japan, the balance in Bushido between Zen and the art of the advantage seems to have tilted decidedly to the latter. ... This book therefore turns from Zen for warriors to the topic of pure strategy." "The 36 chambers", or strategies, are listed starting at page 87. The author is unknown, but he was a master warrior in the classic tradition of The Art of War.
(p93) The Taoist classic Tao Te Ching says, "Knowers don't generalize, generalizers don't know."
"To be sure, the myths of the difficulty of the japanese thinking have contributed most of all to their own authentication. ... their creation and maintenance are among the thirty-six classical strategies..."
On page 96, the subject of moral is touched again: "When people lack a constant means of livelyhood, they lack psychological stability. When they are desperate, people steal. When society is not functioning properly and people are cold and hungry, there can be no end to crime." Well, this explains it all, doesn't it? The riots in Greece, the crimes in the USA and the stability of eg Sweden. The society has to be fare. In fact, in Japan, "a great deal of thought is given to extenuating circumstances in criminal cases". (p97) Maybe this is why the crime rate in Japan is so low?
On page 98, the virtue of modesty touched: "It is best not to pretend to know all about everything. Even if thay do know something, cultivated people do not advertise the fact... When ignorant people make assessments of others and think that they know what others know, they cannot be right. For example, when someone who lacks intelligence but is good at chess sees intelligent people who are not as good at chess, he thinks they are not as smart as he is. And when he sees people who are skilled at all sorts of arts but don't know how to play chess, he thinks he is better than they are. This is a big mistake." "In all actions and attitudes, success is based on singleminded seriousness, while failure is based in whimsicality."
On page 99, Total Quality Control, TQC, is mentioned. This is an important part of the japanese industrial success. An example is given learning archery: "Beginners shouldn't hold two arrows, because counting on the second arrow results in carelessness with the first."
I'm writing about the silliness of believing in any Deist religion ("the case just isn't strong enough") in my entry about The God delusion, but this early writing by the Japanese about the religion the Portuguese tried to shove down their throats is straight out fun (p102):
"According to what I hear of the Christian teaching, there is a great Buddha called Deus, who is the one sole Buddha, master of the universe and lord over all. This is the creator of the universe and all beings. This Buddha came into the world in some foreign land to save people sixteen hundred years ago. His name was Jesus Christ. Ignorant of this, they say, other countries honor the worthless Amida Buddha and Gautama Buddha, the height of folly.
Refutation: If Deus, as the master of the universe, created all lands and all beings, why has that Deus hitherto neglected countless nations, not appearing among them?
Ever since heaven and earth were opened, the buddhas of past, present, and future have emerged over and over again to liberate beings. How many hundred of millions of years would you say this has been going on? What basis of proof is there for saying that Deus never appeared in such-and-such country?
If Deus is the master of the universe, he is sure doing a slipshot job of it if he lets a multitude of the nations he has created be taken over by subsidiary buddhas, suffering them to spread their teachings to liberate beings, ever since the opening of heaven and earth. This Deus is indeed a foolish buddha.
Furthermore, they say that Jesus Christ came into the world and was crucified by ordinary men of the lower world. This is the master of the universe? How could anything be so illogical?
The Christians do not know the unified enlightened state of the true likeness of original awareness. In their ignorance they have taken over one buddha to worship. Their fault in coming to this country to spread devilish teachings and false principles cannot avoid the punishment of Heaven.
There are many ignorant people who cannot understand such simple logic, and throw their lives away out of reverence for that teaching. Is this not a national disgrace? One hardly dare mention what this does to our international reputation."
(p105): "What the Christians teach, on the other hand, is focused solely on a view of the reality of existence, which increases thoughts, worries, and conscious emotions, leading them to to make up a 'creator of the universe', thus reinforcing the habits that make them revolve in mundane routines, while believing this to be the way of enlightenment." Hello!? No wonder so many people is the West is walking around depressed while going to a shitty job and doing "what has to be done"! A tale is quoted in the book, "illustrating the Buddhist teaching that formulations of doctrine are provisional expedients designed to provoke special perceptions, not to be elevated to the status of absolute truths. Everyone is aware that purely subjective impressions and feelings cannot be exactly conveyed in words; Zen teaching takes this to the limit by insisting that the experience of the clarified mind cannot be understood just by descriptions of procedures or results, but must be verified in direct experience."
Some thoughts about nature (p108): "The Shinto relationship of humanity to the environmentis through a feeling of gratitude to the world of energy and matter as mush as for it; the Western Christian relationship is based more completely on a kind of gratitude for the material world, not to it."
The Japanese have a mush closer relationship with the nature than the West has (p111). Christians believe only humans have souls, which Buddhists think is a very cruel and merciless way of thought.
(p115) While the West tends to think about sides, that think they are opposed to one another, from a Buddhist point of view, this makes little sense, as it is not a people or a system as such but the alliance of ignorance, greed, and aggression that is the same problem everywhere.
Finally, to round it off, some sex (p118):
"Several symptoms of alienation of the sexes, all commonly noted by observers of Japan, are linked to this militaristic suppression that began in earnest eight centuries ago: simultaneously stimulated and repressed sexuality, a resulting undercurrent of violence, and acute manifestations of these phenomena in the form of sadomasochism, are quite evidently products of extended military domination. Similar phenomena can be seen in all societies when they are in militaristic phases of their development."
Monday, December 1, 2008
Do the Swedes have balls at all?
I admit I thought Reagan was cool back in the days, but I defend myself by saying I was just a kid. Luckily I didn't stay a kid, but studied the world we live in, the history we have and learned from my mistakes.
That's why I've looked with a growing sense of disgust on how Swedes look up to the USA. It's true it used to be a country that you could look up to - The New Deal and The Marshall Plan to name two examples. Before the negative effects of an economy where people are left on their own was known, it looked like a marvellous place where anybody could succeed. But with the facts at hand we know it's not good having a government that doesn't give a shit about its citizens. That companies shall not be supported by the government. That a system that leads to great divides grows greed, which in the end leads to a society where any thing and any body can be bought.
Now that the "Freedom" of the USA has proven to be a very bad strategy, where the greedy businesses crumble, shocked that chasing for easy fast bucks wasn't a sustainable strategy (they even beg the Swedish government for money!), where people realize that living on borrowed money isn't a sustainable way of life, you might think that also Swedes have come to their senses. But no. What do I read in one of the biggest swedish newspapers, Svenska Dagbladet? One of these Hale-the-USA "liberal" idiots who wants swedish politicians to be bought as well. Makes me want to believe in God and Hell and eternal suffering...
But why is this??? Why do so many people still think the USA is so great? Because the USA have the biggest guns? Because they're not capable of realizing or admitting a mistake? Because they're conservative non-thinkers? Because they too got blinded by greed? Because they haven't got the balls to stand up against "the greatest nation on Earth"???
That's why I've looked with a growing sense of disgust on how Swedes look up to the USA. It's true it used to be a country that you could look up to - The New Deal and The Marshall Plan to name two examples. Before the negative effects of an economy where people are left on their own was known, it looked like a marvellous place where anybody could succeed. But with the facts at hand we know it's not good having a government that doesn't give a shit about its citizens. That companies shall not be supported by the government. That a system that leads to great divides grows greed, which in the end leads to a society where any thing and any body can be bought.
Now that the "Freedom" of the USA has proven to be a very bad strategy, where the greedy businesses crumble, shocked that chasing for easy fast bucks wasn't a sustainable strategy (they even beg the Swedish government for money!), where people realize that living on borrowed money isn't a sustainable way of life, you might think that also Swedes have come to their senses. But no. What do I read in one of the biggest swedish newspapers, Svenska Dagbladet? One of these Hale-the-USA "liberal" idiots who wants swedish politicians to be bought as well. Makes me want to believe in God and Hell and eternal suffering...
But why is this??? Why do so many people still think the USA is so great? Because the USA have the biggest guns? Because they're not capable of realizing or admitting a mistake? Because they're conservative non-thinkers? Because they too got blinded by greed? Because they haven't got the balls to stand up against "the greatest nation on Earth"???
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
You can't rely on borrowed money alone
I like this mess. Everybody is scrared, screaming, clinging on to cash, not understanding what the hell happened. Well, reality struck back.
For the past 20-30 years most of the "gain" of economy has been built on borrowed money. Companies borrowed more in order to increase the ROI. Private persons could borrow more and more as the value of their housing rose and the credit in general became available everywhere. Why not by a 42" plasma TV, I don't need to pay it until next year! Why not buy a car, the bank is willing to give me the money!
This is not economic growth, this is living on money that does not exist. Well, sure, right then you could have made a fortune selling your house, but you never did. So did that money ever exist, really? I'm not going to go as far as some left-wing people claiming it's all fake money, that most of the money we see is not real. Look at "The truth about Central banks oppression" and "Failing monetary system" for some loony examples. But sure enough, they have a point, after all.
You can't rely on borrowed money alone. As long as everything goes well it's not a problem. But since much of the value in the system actually isn't real (somebody says your house is worth a million, but if you don't sell it, how do you know?). The bank trust you to borrow a certain sum of money only because they think you could get that much for it if you sold it. But if they suddenly, for whatever reason, don't believe you can get it, you're in trouble. Because the whole system relies on trust. There used to be silly amount of trust, banks etc were just throwing money at you. But now suddenly there is no trust left at all. Not anywhere. But has anything really changed? No.
The only thing that happened was that the trust died. Well, it didn't die totally. After all the whole monetary system is based on trust, so if the trust totally died money would be worthless. We'd be back in a barter trade system. Now, that would be a disaster!
We're nowhere near such a disaster, though. We only see a correction of the values, down to more reasonable levels. Finally!
For the past 20-30 years most of the "gain" of economy has been built on borrowed money. Companies borrowed more in order to increase the ROI. Private persons could borrow more and more as the value of their housing rose and the credit in general became available everywhere. Why not by a 42" plasma TV, I don't need to pay it until next year! Why not buy a car, the bank is willing to give me the money!
This is not economic growth, this is living on money that does not exist. Well, sure, right then you could have made a fortune selling your house, but you never did. So did that money ever exist, really? I'm not going to go as far as some left-wing people claiming it's all fake money, that most of the money we see is not real. Look at "The truth about Central banks oppression" and "Failing monetary system" for some loony examples. But sure enough, they have a point, after all.
You can't rely on borrowed money alone. As long as everything goes well it's not a problem. But since much of the value in the system actually isn't real (somebody says your house is worth a million, but if you don't sell it, how do you know?). The bank trust you to borrow a certain sum of money only because they think you could get that much for it if you sold it. But if they suddenly, for whatever reason, don't believe you can get it, you're in trouble. Because the whole system relies on trust. There used to be silly amount of trust, banks etc were just throwing money at you. But now suddenly there is no trust left at all. Not anywhere. But has anything really changed? No.
The only thing that happened was that the trust died. Well, it didn't die totally. After all the whole monetary system is based on trust, so if the trust totally died money would be worthless. We'd be back in a barter trade system. Now, that would be a disaster!
We're nowhere near such a disaster, though. We only see a correction of the values, down to more reasonable levels. Finally!
Monday, November 24, 2008
Richard Dawkins - The God delusion
This is the book to read for any one that persists on believing on a God, or just wants to make up his/hers mind. The case is just too thin - after reading this book it's amazing that any one actually has ever believed in the crap. I mean, the Japanese saw through it centuries ago (see The japanese art of war for some eye-opening views on Christianity). I guess the only reasons why people still cling on to these silly ideas are to be found in our brains (see Stumbling on happiness for fascinating facts about how our brains deceive us).
For those wanting arguments against deism, please read this book.
In the preface to the paperback edition Dawkins mentions another reason why people cling to religion: "...that they have been let down by our educational system and don't realize that non-belief is even an option. This is certainly true of most people who think they are creationists. They have simply not been properly taught Darwin's astounding alternative."
On page 28 Robert M. Pirsig, author of Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance, is quoted: "When one person suffers from delusion, it is called insanity. When many people suffer from delusion it is called Religion."
Darwin writes about Einstein, known for sayings like "God does not play dice". On a quick glance it might look like Einstein was a believer, but Darwin claims otherwise. Back in those days (even today in many parts of the world) it wasn't possible to say you were a non-believer and still be taken seriously, and Einstein played along, using God in his sayings only metaphorically.
Dawkin is quite upset with the fact that religions get undeserved respect. Blame it on your religion and you can say basically anything (p41). Religious wars (Northern Ireland, Iraq) are referenced as "ethnic" or other terms, just to avoid saying it's all due to different believes (in the same God, strangely enough). It includes killing and all kinds of criminal acts. Any kind of "hurt" or "offence" can be blamed on religion too. The Islamic world got all upset when a few cartoons were published in Denmark. On page 49 the journalist Andrew Mueller is quoted: "If any of you clowns out there are right about anything, the cartoonists are going to hell anyway - won't that do? In the meantime, if you want to get excited about affronts to Muslims, read the Amnesty International reports on Syria and Saudi Arabia."
Gore Vidal (p58): "The great unmentionable evil at the centre of our culture is monotheism. From barbaric Bronze Age text known as the Old Testament, three anti-human religions have evolved - Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. These are sky-god religions. They are, literally, patriarchal - God is the Omnipotent Father - hence the loathing of women for 2,000 years in those countries afflicted by the sky-god and his earthly male delegates."
Another person is brought up and argued to have been an atheist, Thomas Jefferson (p64). He said things like "Christianity is the most perverted system that ever shone on man". Continuing (p65): "All the Founding Fathers, whatever their private religious believes, would have been aghast to read the journalist Robert Sherman's report of George Bush Senior's answer when Sherman asked him whether he recognized the equal citizenship and patriotism of Americans who are atheists: 'No, I don't know that atheists should be considered as citizens, nor should they be considered patriots. This is one nation under God.'"
Being an atheist in the USA seems tough, and rare, but in fact they are numerous. And one of the main things Dawkin wants to achieve is for the atheists to dare to "come out of the closet".
In the chapter "The poverty of agnosticism" Darwin expresses his dislike of the indecisive, those that are too week to take a stand. After all, the proof clearly indicate that it is much more likely that a god does not exist rather than he does.
It's very funny to read how Dawkins totally ridicules the religious ideas: That a single entity would have created the whole universe? If you think the universe is complicated, imagine how complex the one who created it must be! It simply doesn't make sense (p147). And prayers? Why would any God consider any one man more important than the others? Where is the logic? (The logic, of course, is to fool the people to believe in this idiot idea, so he shuts up, does his prayers and does what you want him to). And miracles??? Saints? There are earnest investigations going on to discover whether any miraculous cures can be attributed to prayers offered up to people thought of to be declared saints (p84). Can you believe this shit??? And how about people who claims to have seen Him or heard Him in his head (p112)? These "experiences" are of course made up. Again, read Stumbling on happiness to see how the brain constructs things based on what we know. If we think it might be possible that God is talking to us, our brain might actually make us believe this is what is happening, when in fact only the cat walked by or something. Sam Harris, in The end of faith:
"We have names for people who have many beliefs for which there is no rational justification. When their beliefs are extremely common we call them 'religious'; otherwise, they are likely to be called 'mad', 'psychotic' or 'delusional'... Clearly there is sanity in numbers. And yet, it is merely an accident of history that it is considered normal in our society to believe that the Creator of the universe can hear your thoughts, while it is demonstrative of mental illness to believe that he is communicating with you by having the rain tap in Morse code on your bedroom window. And so, while religious people are not generally mad, their core beliefs absolutely are."
In the chapter "The argument from scripture" (p117) Dawkins points out that the bible is nothing but ancient fiction. And ancient as it is, it is filled with stories about killings and incest and rape. No wonder people are fighting in the name of religion, and doing all kinds of atrocities. Not to mention how women have been oppressed. Chapter 7 is filled with vicious stories, and commands to kill in the name of God, from the bible, making it very hard to believe that any one can believe anything in that book.
Woody Allen (p144): "If it turns out that there is a God, I don't think that he's evil. But the worst that you can say about him is that basically that he's an underachiever. "
The bottom line in Dawkin's book is that every thing can in fact be explained by Darwin's theory. It is in fact the only way to explain how such unbelievably complex organisms as us humans could have been "created". Sure, there are gaps in science, things still unknown, but this is very natural. The sad thing is that e.g. creationists claim these gaps prove they are right, filling them with 'intelligent design' theories.
Chapter 5 - The roots of religion - mentions some reasons why such silly ideas have been able to pursue (pretty much the same as in Stumbling on happiness); such as Darwinian side-effects and indoctrination.
In chapter 6 - The roots of morality - the pure evilness of some religious people are shown in death-threats against people with other views. The chapter clearly shows morality has nothing to do with religion. It shows eg that people exposed to different religions, or none at all, all share the same basic values of good and evil. Some religious people claim that without religion there would be no good, everybody would be evil. Just as if they are good themselves only to suck up to God! As Einstein said: "If people are good only because they fear punishment, and hope for reward, then we are a sorry lot indeed." In fact, looking at crime data in the USA (p262), it shows that states and cities that are Republican (conservative Christians) are more troubled than others.
Chapter 8 starts with George Carlin saying: "Religion has actually convinced people that there's an invisible man - living in the sky - who watches everything you do, every minute of every day. And the invisible man has a special list of ten things he does not want you to do. And if you do any of these ten things, he has a special place, full of fire and smoke and burning and torture and anguish, where he will send you to live and suffer and burn and choke and scream and cry for ever 'til the end of time ... But He loves you!"
On page 329 Dawkin talks about abortion and how some religious people can't see the difference between a living man and a blump of cells, killing doctors performing abortions, in the name of God. Sick people. They have arguments such as an abortion could have made Mozart never to have been born. If that is your level of reasoning, then an abortion could have stopped Hitler too... Then Dawkin comes to the subject of religions fostering fanaticism, how some people would be happy if New York would be eliminated in a nuclear blast, as they would see it as Armageddon, the return of Christ. Basically he says that just accepting things without thinking is a very good way to become a fanatic.
Chapter 9 is about advanced child abuse - religious schools - and how hard it is to escape from the claws of religion. It ends by saying that an atheistic world doesn't mean that the bible would be burnt and forever forgotten, but that we can still be in touch with a treasured heritage.
Page 403 shows how weak the religious reasoning is. This is the "proof" that purgatory exists: "If the dead simply went to heaven or hell on the basis of their sins while on Earth, there would be no point in praying for them. 'For why pray for the dead, if there be no belief in the power of prayer to afford solace to those who as yet are excluded from the sight of God.' And we do pray for the dead, don't we? Therefore purgatory must exist, otherwise our prayers would be pointless!" Another "argument" says there must be a God, because if there were not, life would be empty, pointless, futile... Un-fucking-believable...
Ok. After reading this book, I am proud to call myself an atheist. And just to piss some people off, I call myself a radical atheist.
For those wanting arguments against deism, please read this book.
In the preface to the paperback edition Dawkins mentions another reason why people cling to religion: "...that they have been let down by our educational system and don't realize that non-belief is even an option. This is certainly true of most people who think they are creationists. They have simply not been properly taught Darwin's astounding alternative."
On page 28 Robert M. Pirsig, author of Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance, is quoted: "When one person suffers from delusion, it is called insanity. When many people suffer from delusion it is called Religion."
Darwin writes about Einstein, known for sayings like "God does not play dice". On a quick glance it might look like Einstein was a believer, but Darwin claims otherwise. Back in those days (even today in many parts of the world) it wasn't possible to say you were a non-believer and still be taken seriously, and Einstein played along, using God in his sayings only metaphorically.
Dawkin is quite upset with the fact that religions get undeserved respect. Blame it on your religion and you can say basically anything (p41). Religious wars (Northern Ireland, Iraq) are referenced as "ethnic" or other terms, just to avoid saying it's all due to different believes (in the same God, strangely enough). It includes killing and all kinds of criminal acts. Any kind of "hurt" or "offence" can be blamed on religion too. The Islamic world got all upset when a few cartoons were published in Denmark. On page 49 the journalist Andrew Mueller is quoted: "If any of you clowns out there are right about anything, the cartoonists are going to hell anyway - won't that do? In the meantime, if you want to get excited about affronts to Muslims, read the Amnesty International reports on Syria and Saudi Arabia."
Gore Vidal (p58): "The great unmentionable evil at the centre of our culture is monotheism. From barbaric Bronze Age text known as the Old Testament, three anti-human religions have evolved - Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. These are sky-god religions. They are, literally, patriarchal - God is the Omnipotent Father - hence the loathing of women for 2,000 years in those countries afflicted by the sky-god and his earthly male delegates."
Another person is brought up and argued to have been an atheist, Thomas Jefferson (p64). He said things like "Christianity is the most perverted system that ever shone on man". Continuing (p65): "All the Founding Fathers, whatever their private religious believes, would have been aghast to read the journalist Robert Sherman's report of George Bush Senior's answer when Sherman asked him whether he recognized the equal citizenship and patriotism of Americans who are atheists: 'No, I don't know that atheists should be considered as citizens, nor should they be considered patriots. This is one nation under God.'"
Being an atheist in the USA seems tough, and rare, but in fact they are numerous. And one of the main things Dawkin wants to achieve is for the atheists to dare to "come out of the closet".
In the chapter "The poverty of agnosticism" Darwin expresses his dislike of the indecisive, those that are too week to take a stand. After all, the proof clearly indicate that it is much more likely that a god does not exist rather than he does.
It's very funny to read how Dawkins totally ridicules the religious ideas: That a single entity would have created the whole universe? If you think the universe is complicated, imagine how complex the one who created it must be! It simply doesn't make sense (p147). And prayers? Why would any God consider any one man more important than the others? Where is the logic? (The logic, of course, is to fool the people to believe in this idiot idea, so he shuts up, does his prayers and does what you want him to). And miracles??? Saints? There are earnest investigations going on to discover whether any miraculous cures can be attributed to prayers offered up to people thought of to be declared saints (p84). Can you believe this shit??? And how about people who claims to have seen Him or heard Him in his head (p112)? These "experiences" are of course made up. Again, read Stumbling on happiness to see how the brain constructs things based on what we know. If we think it might be possible that God is talking to us, our brain might actually make us believe this is what is happening, when in fact only the cat walked by or something. Sam Harris, in The end of faith:
"We have names for people who have many beliefs for which there is no rational justification. When their beliefs are extremely common we call them 'religious'; otherwise, they are likely to be called 'mad', 'psychotic' or 'delusional'... Clearly there is sanity in numbers. And yet, it is merely an accident of history that it is considered normal in our society to believe that the Creator of the universe can hear your thoughts, while it is demonstrative of mental illness to believe that he is communicating with you by having the rain tap in Morse code on your bedroom window. And so, while religious people are not generally mad, their core beliefs absolutely are."
In the chapter "The argument from scripture" (p117) Dawkins points out that the bible is nothing but ancient fiction. And ancient as it is, it is filled with stories about killings and incest and rape. No wonder people are fighting in the name of religion, and doing all kinds of atrocities. Not to mention how women have been oppressed. Chapter 7 is filled with vicious stories, and commands to kill in the name of God, from the bible, making it very hard to believe that any one can believe anything in that book.
Woody Allen (p144): "If it turns out that there is a God, I don't think that he's evil. But the worst that you can say about him is that basically that he's an underachiever. "
The bottom line in Dawkin's book is that every thing can in fact be explained by Darwin's theory. It is in fact the only way to explain how such unbelievably complex organisms as us humans could have been "created". Sure, there are gaps in science, things still unknown, but this is very natural. The sad thing is that e.g. creationists claim these gaps prove they are right, filling them with 'intelligent design' theories.
Chapter 5 - The roots of religion - mentions some reasons why such silly ideas have been able to pursue (pretty much the same as in Stumbling on happiness); such as Darwinian side-effects and indoctrination.
In chapter 6 - The roots of morality - the pure evilness of some religious people are shown in death-threats against people with other views. The chapter clearly shows morality has nothing to do with religion. It shows eg that people exposed to different religions, or none at all, all share the same basic values of good and evil. Some religious people claim that without religion there would be no good, everybody would be evil. Just as if they are good themselves only to suck up to God! As Einstein said: "If people are good only because they fear punishment, and hope for reward, then we are a sorry lot indeed." In fact, looking at crime data in the USA (p262), it shows that states and cities that are Republican (conservative Christians) are more troubled than others.
Chapter 8 starts with George Carlin saying: "Religion has actually convinced people that there's an invisible man - living in the sky - who watches everything you do, every minute of every day. And the invisible man has a special list of ten things he does not want you to do. And if you do any of these ten things, he has a special place, full of fire and smoke and burning and torture and anguish, where he will send you to live and suffer and burn and choke and scream and cry for ever 'til the end of time ... But He loves you!"
On page 329 Dawkin talks about abortion and how some religious people can't see the difference between a living man and a blump of cells, killing doctors performing abortions, in the name of God. Sick people. They have arguments such as an abortion could have made Mozart never to have been born. If that is your level of reasoning, then an abortion could have stopped Hitler too... Then Dawkin comes to the subject of religions fostering fanaticism, how some people would be happy if New York would be eliminated in a nuclear blast, as they would see it as Armageddon, the return of Christ. Basically he says that just accepting things without thinking is a very good way to become a fanatic.
Chapter 9 is about advanced child abuse - religious schools - and how hard it is to escape from the claws of religion. It ends by saying that an atheistic world doesn't mean that the bible would be burnt and forever forgotten, but that we can still be in touch with a treasured heritage.
Page 403 shows how weak the religious reasoning is. This is the "proof" that purgatory exists: "If the dead simply went to heaven or hell on the basis of their sins while on Earth, there would be no point in praying for them. 'For why pray for the dead, if there be no belief in the power of prayer to afford solace to those who as yet are excluded from the sight of God.' And we do pray for the dead, don't we? Therefore purgatory must exist, otherwise our prayers would be pointless!" Another "argument" says there must be a God, because if there were not, life would be empty, pointless, futile... Un-fucking-believable...
Ok. After reading this book, I am proud to call myself an atheist. And just to piss some people off, I call myself a radical atheist.
Time to give up?
I never give up. But if I ever would, now seems to be a very good time. When the "capitalistic" governments are reintroducing socialism just to save bad business. At the same time the true socialism, where you care about the people, is dying all over the world. The biggest problem of them all - the climate change - is coming faster than anticipated. Politicians do nothing but giving the people a bad consciousness. Companies do a little - if they see any money to be made. A major system change is needed ASAP but nothing, absolutely nothing, is done.
The capitalism of the USA has fostered a country of egoists. Just as if this wouldn't be bad enough, this same attitude is spread around the world. If 300 million Americans don't care is manageable, but if you add most of Europe to that and 1,3 billion Chinese, we face a serious fucking problem. The National Geographic's China issue says this is the case. The communists have made people think about themselves only, just as the government of the USA, only to stay in power. It is claimed that the Chinese care about their own business, their own family, but nothing beyond that - politics, environment... If this is the case I'd say we're screwed. The climate change has to be targeted now, strongly, but having people and their governments not caring in the amounts of billions is just too tough.
Reading the Economist I saw an article about green protests, how people are using the Internet in order to make others aware of how the environment is destroyed. This is great, really, but imagine all the damage done that is not cared about! Knowing from other fields, it's likely that just a fraction of the damage is noticed, and of those rare cases even fewer are actually stopped. So, the vast amount of protests just shows how very much is being destroyed, by companies, governments and people alike.
Now I read, in The Economist again, what I'd say is the certain proof of a nation in decline - suddenly education is no longer important! As India and China spits out millions of engineers and, I guess, a great deal of PhD:s, then innovation and education is no longer that important. Now it's the ability to cash in on inventions that is important, so MBA:s are better than PhD:s. And the global companies (from the USA) can find innovations and commercialize them. Sure, but a country that relies on the rest of the world for educated people, for innovations and also the production - how stable is such an economy? I'd say it's hanging on to a very, very thin rope. The bad thing is that Europe tends to sniff America's arse, so maybe these dangerous thoughts will get here as well.
Now, this is bad. But if we use our imagination a bit and look forward: What will the only remaining superpower do when it finds it complicated to feed its people? And is running out of money? Beg? Help the billions drowning and starving around the world? Help stabilize the utter chaos that the climate change will bring? Give land to the refugees? Stop using cheap energy? Of course not.
Fuck it, I say. I've given up being a vegetarian already. I never stopped flying. I never started those economy studies. Right now I think the smartest thing would be to save up some cash, buy a piece of land far enough from the rising see and watch our civilisation go under. Goodbye
The capitalism of the USA has fostered a country of egoists. Just as if this wouldn't be bad enough, this same attitude is spread around the world. If 300 million Americans don't care is manageable, but if you add most of Europe to that and 1,3 billion Chinese, we face a serious fucking problem. The National Geographic's China issue says this is the case. The communists have made people think about themselves only, just as the government of the USA, only to stay in power. It is claimed that the Chinese care about their own business, their own family, but nothing beyond that - politics, environment... If this is the case I'd say we're screwed. The climate change has to be targeted now, strongly, but having people and their governments not caring in the amounts of billions is just too tough.
Reading the Economist I saw an article about green protests, how people are using the Internet in order to make others aware of how the environment is destroyed. This is great, really, but imagine all the damage done that is not cared about! Knowing from other fields, it's likely that just a fraction of the damage is noticed, and of those rare cases even fewer are actually stopped. So, the vast amount of protests just shows how very much is being destroyed, by companies, governments and people alike.
Now I read, in The Economist again, what I'd say is the certain proof of a nation in decline - suddenly education is no longer important! As India and China spits out millions of engineers and, I guess, a great deal of PhD:s, then innovation and education is no longer that important. Now it's the ability to cash in on inventions that is important, so MBA:s are better than PhD:s. And the global companies (from the USA) can find innovations and commercialize them. Sure, but a country that relies on the rest of the world for educated people, for innovations and also the production - how stable is such an economy? I'd say it's hanging on to a very, very thin rope. The bad thing is that Europe tends to sniff America's arse, so maybe these dangerous thoughts will get here as well.
Now, this is bad. But if we use our imagination a bit and look forward: What will the only remaining superpower do when it finds it complicated to feed its people? And is running out of money? Beg? Help the billions drowning and starving around the world? Help stabilize the utter chaos that the climate change will bring? Give land to the refugees? Stop using cheap energy? Of course not.
Fuck it, I say. I've given up being a vegetarian already. I never stopped flying. I never started those economy studies. Right now I think the smartest thing would be to save up some cash, buy a piece of land far enough from the rising see and watch our civilisation go under. Goodbye
Don't bail out the loosers
Now when everybody is running around scared of the big bad wolf it's easy to use these upset feelings for your own good. So companies are trying to get money from governments to bail them out, not having to take the full responsibility for bad business.
This is very bad news - the basic functionality of market capitaism is ruined. If you do good business you are rewarded, if you do bad business you die. Changing this you have socialism and no longer any working markets.
So, let GM apply for Chapter 11, and let people who can do business take over the crumbs. Scrap the rest. It might sound tough, but remember that you get what you deserve. The GM leadership deserves nothing but a big hit on their heads. The employees will survive, after all the good parts of GM will survive in some way. In a way that is sustainable.
This is very bad news - the basic functionality of market capitaism is ruined. If you do good business you are rewarded, if you do bad business you die. Changing this you have socialism and no longer any working markets.
So, let GM apply for Chapter 11, and let people who can do business take over the crumbs. Scrap the rest. It might sound tough, but remember that you get what you deserve. The GM leadership deserves nothing but a big hit on their heads. The employees will survive, after all the good parts of GM will survive in some way. In a way that is sustainable.
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