Sunday, 12 May 2013

The Coffee Vending Machine - a love story on democracy and hot drinks

There was a time, long ago, where countries were ruled by a person, a family or simply an elite. Then, extreme militancy made the democratic reforms pass, in the name of a better society, by having a larger number of its members participating in the the public debate. With the following story, I'm aiming a critique to the ones who believe voting (by universal suffrage, or by any other) is the best way to solve social/economic problems in a free society.

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Imagine a multi-button coffee vending machine with the following drinks: (A)Black Coffee, (B)Decaf, (C)Hot Chocolate, (D)Cappuccino, (E)Tea and (F)Milk. Now, usually you go to the machine, put the money in, very likely you get the satisfaction you paid for. However, this will be a different case:
Imagine there's only one coffee vending machine in your country (could be in your state/province or even in your town). Now someone suggests and "everybody" agrees that, to be fair, we should vote on the drink we enjoy the most in order to elect the country's official drink. 
Imagine an "election" was held, and the results were presented to the public:

(A)Black Coffee       52%
(B)Decaf                  19%
(C)Hot Chocolate       7%
(D)Cappuccino         11%
(E)Tea                         6%
(F)Milk                        5%

Now, it is clear that (A)Black Coffee won this election by having over 50% of the votes. From now on, there will be only one available drink in the coffee machine for the next (lets say) 4 years, when another election will be held.

Where the problems start:
A citizen who just happens to like hot chocolate (exclusively), now will have to drink black coffee if he wants to have a hot drink at all. This may also happen to the Decaf lover or the Cappuccino girl, or lets say someone has an health issue with having coffee, now his/her economic and social freedoms have been severely limited.

But isn't democracy imperfect but the best we have today? - Well, if the machine were to be operated solely by market forces and individual free will, i.e. not being controlled by a third party (be it a king, dictator or majority rule), wouldn't it be much fairer and efficient?  

You say that this machine is a bad metaphor when compared with our society? Do you claim that society is much more complex and there are variables that can't be represented in this particular example? - Sorry, but if there are too many variables that you can't fully understand them, then why should you be in favor of creating an authority (that physically does not exist, but intervenes) which claims it can solve social and economic problems by being coercive and fail consecutively in solving those same problems? Besides, the drink that gets elected will never fully represent your true taste (unless it's your own drink) and you'll end up spending your life trying to persuade (eventually coercing) people that like tea to drink a latte and to love it even more.

Wednesday, 8 May 2013

Comentário Político - A Europa e o Caos


A Europa, não raras vezes apelidada de “Velho Continente”, é, por definição, diversa, seja a nível étnico-linguístico, seja em termos culturais, sociais e históricos, e ainda nas diferenças a nível político e no modelo económico, embora algumas as diferenças tenham a tendência para se esbater, existe ainda uma enorme dicotomia Norte-Sul, sendo que no caso do Sul, em que nos inserimos, muitas vezes se torna mais fácil criar afinidades com pessoas da América do Sul ou mesmo de África, devido a certas semelhanças socioculturais.

A Europa revela uma tendência para reagir às crises com integração e porventura, alargamentos, verificamos que mesmo num período conturbado em que se questiona a existência da União a curto-médio prazo, a Croácia irá juntar-se à União a partir do dia 1 de Julho de 2013, a meu ver, é um indicativo de que uma desagregação não está nos planos da Europa, ou, sendo mais conciso, do principal país decisor, a Alemanha, que se mantém à tona de todo o caos em voga um pouco por todo o continente mas mais concretamente no Sul, exibindo ares de alguma “falsa inocência”, a própria União tem responsabilidades na crise atualmente vivida, sem descurar obviamente os erros de cada país e a corrupção sistemática nos mesmos, pois torna-se fácil recordar a Política Agrícola Comum, PAC, e a política das pescas, em que países como Portugal foram “subsidiados” para reduzir a sua produção a níveis baixíssimos, o que obviamente leva a um decréscimo na produtividade, a aplicação de modelos uniformes a países com inúmeras diferenças a todos os níveis, mas neste caso concreto, económicas, torna-se ruinosa.

Pegando no período entre 1989 e 1991, fértil em revoluções políticas, o colapso de URSS e a queda do muro de Berlim, no meio de toda esta incerteza a Comunidade Europeia avançou para um processo de integração e assinou ainda o tratado de Maastricht, maior integração poderá significar maior interdependência, porém, o grau de dependência difere drasticamente consoante os estados-membros. A ideia muitas vezes preconizada de “prosperidade comum” torna-se bastante questionável quando existe no seio da União um cariz de decisões no limiar do totalitário, novamente com a Alemanha a assumir o seu leme, os interesses da União parece não raras vezes indissociáveis dos interesses alemães.

Os autores do documento elogiam o cariz democrático da União e a sua “causa”, exaltando a união de países que tinham acabado de sair de uma guerra mundial, não só aqui mas noutros aspetos é possível estabelecer-se uma comparação com a URSS, podemos destacar também a nacionalidade “europeísta”, basicamente promover o esquecimento de tradições, costumes e nacionalidades, o que é, no fundo, o que Bruxelas mostra tenções de fazer, a expansão é outro fator comum, a URSS expandiu-se para continuar a existir, a União parece querer fazer o mesmo. A “democracia” de fachada parece me também outro dos paralelismos, a URSS possuía também uma espécie de parlamento, o soviete supremo, onde eram aprovadas sem grande cerimónia todas as decisões, quando comparado com o Parlamento Europeu, torna-se difícil vislumbrar alguma tomada de decisão muito significativa, isto leva-nos a um outro tipo de “gulag”, o que promove o “politicamente correto”, um processo de diluir opiniões até que se forme um “populismo saudável” com base num conceito vazio e questionável como a “moderação”, qualquer opinião fora deste espectro deve ser silenciada.

A mesma “liberdade” idealizada no modelo europeu encontra-se agora em sério risco, e adensa-se ainda mais esta ideia ao contemplar planos de austeridade draconiana impostos externamente, que não só ameaçam a soberania de cada país como a atropelam, da mesma maneira que declarações como a da Chanceler alemã, Angela Merkel, que referiu que os países devem ser “Obrigados a cumprir” os programas, e mais recentemente, que deveriam “abdicar da sua soberania”, indago-me de que soberania estará a líder de facto da União a referir, dada a escassez da mesma, ou mesmo as declarações mais antigas de dois políticos alemães, importantes membros do político CDU, de Merkel, que sugeriu que a Grécia deveria “vender ilhas para evitar a bancarrota, ou mesmo a Acrópole e o Pártenon”. Quando declarações desta estirpe são apenas repudiadas pelo povo grego, e não do seu governo, ou do governo de qualquer outro estado membro, penso que é o momento ideal para finalmente retirar a máscara dos valores da “democracia”.

A referência feita a valores perdidos e a defeitos que ressurgem, feita pelos autores, tem tanto de prosaico como de romântico, sendo certo que existem concretamente valores positivos e negativos, o correto e o errado, torna-se bizarro e hipócrita deificar a Grécia clássica, Roma, na forma do Império Romano, e Jerusalém, sendo que podemos atribuir a cada uma delas, respetivamente, mas não só, a escravatura, o imperialismo, e a expropriação, perseguição e isolamento de uma nação e de um povo, sob a égide de valores ocidentais como a “moderação” e o “politicamente correto”, apresentando-se a tese sem propor a antítese, a síntese, sua superação, é inexistente, isto na dialética hegeliana.

Os autores defendem ferreamente a união política, segundo eles, uma moeda comum só será viável se a federação for uma realidade, citam os tratados europeus como uma dos fatores que levam á obrigatoriedade de uma união política, em que não haveria um “abandono de competências dos estados nacionais”, tendo em conta que cada vez existem menos competências exclusivas aos estados e mais diretrizes e imposições legais da EU, torna-se difícil vislumbrar uma união política em que existam sequer competências exclusivas a cada estado que sejam relevantes, e aqui se estabelece outro ponto em comum com a URSS, a coação, num caso através da ocupação militar, no outro, por constrangimentos económicos e terrorismo financeiro.

Outro dos argumentos a favor da integração é o de que a Europa se desmoronaria numa difusão de “precariedade, desemprego, regressão social, miséria”, pergunto me em que iria diferir em países como Portugal e Grécia, em que todos estes fatores parecem já algo implícito, destaque-se a opinião de que “já não existe outra opção: ou a união política ou a morte”, uma sentença proferida sem qualquer argumento substancial, que não a repetição incessante de slogans de “solidificação”, “integração”, “cooperação”, “solidariedade”, no fundo, palavras opacas, quando não estão presentes medidas concretas para as sustentar. 

Concordarei, no entanto, que o modelo europeu atual falhou. Pode ser comparado a um doente em estado terminal a quem se continua a administrar morfina, não deixa de ser no entanto redutor que apenas se considere apenas uma via para o sucesso da Europa, sendo importante destacar que o sucesso da Europa nem sempre significa o sucesso de todos os seus estados membros, e mais importante, a que custo?

Não descurando as suas presumíveis e legítimas boas intenções, verificamos a típica linha de pensamento dos intelectuais, arrogando-se no direito de saber mais sobre os indivíduos do que eles próprios, desconhecimento sobre o “mundo real” e os processos de mercado, deificação ou crítica fácil, julgando-se moral e intelectualmente acima de tudo e de todos.

Por cada ditador da história, por cada Hitler ou Estaline esteve sempre presente um conjunto de intelectuais que legitimava a sua atuação do ponto de vista cultural, ideológico e filosófico. As massas terão tendência para exaltar textos deste cariz como sendo verdades absolutas e inquestionáveis, neste sentido, terminarei citando o escritor turco Mehmet Murat Ildan :

“A frase “Sabedoria das massas” não está presente na história, pois a sabedoria não é suficientemente abundante para formar massas.”

Friday, 3 May 2013

Stoicism - The Philosophy of a freed slave and a Roman emperor

“A Stoic is someone who transforms fear into prudence, pain into transformation, mistakes into initiation, and desire into undertaking.” 


It has been said that the Stoic Philosophy first showed it's real value when it passed from Greece to Rome. The doctrine of Zeno of Citium and his successors were well suited to the gravity and practical good sense of the Romans . 

In the wretched times from the death of Augustus to the murder of Domitian, there was nothing but the Stoic philosophy which could console and support the followers  of the old religion under imperial tyranny and amidst general corruption.

The two best expounders of the later Stoical philosophy were a Greek freed slave and a Roman emperor.  Epictetus, a Phrygian Greek, was brought to Rome, we know not how, but he was a slave and afterwards a freedman of an unworthy master. Epaphroditus by name, himself a freedman and a favourite of Nero. 

Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, the author of "Meditations", Roman emperor from 161 to 180 AD and the last of the Five Good Emperors, Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius  and Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, this term was coined by Machiavelli in 1503 in his Discourses . Even though Antoninus based himself almost entirely in Epictetus, their method is completely different. Epictetus adressed himself to his hearers in a continuous manner. Antoninus wrote down his reflection for his own use only,  in short unconnected paragraphs which are often obscure. 

“If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.” 
― Marcus AureliusMeditations


The Stoics made three divisions of philosophy, Physic, καθάρσιο, Ethic, ηθική, Logic, λογική. This division, we are told by Diogenes, was made by Zeno of Citium, the founder of the Stoic sect, and by Chrysippus, but these philosophers placed the three divisions in the following order: Logic, Physic, Ethic. It appears however, that this division was made before Zeno's time and acknowledged by Plato, as Cicero remarks. Logic is not synonymous with our term of Logic in the narrower sense of the word.

In the midst of  war, pestilence, conspiracy, general corruption and with the height of so unwieldy an empire upon him, we may easily comprehend that Antoninus often had need of all his fortitude to support him. The best and the bravest men have moments of doubt and of weakness, but if they are the best and the bravest, they rise again from their depression by recurring to first principles, as Antoninus does. He constantly recurs to his fundamental principle that the universe is wisely ordered, that every man is a part of it and must conform to that order which he cannot change, that whatever the Deity has done is good, that all mankind are a man's brethren, that he must love and cherish them and try to make them better, even those who would do him harm. This is his conclusion.

"What then is that which is able to conduct a man? One thing and one thing only, Philosophy. But this consists in keeping the divinity within a man free from violence and unharmed,  superior to pains and pleasures, doing nothing without a purpose nor yet falsely and with hypocrisy, not feeling the need of another man's doing  or not doing anything; and besides, accepting all that happens and all that is allotted  as coming from thence, wherever it is, from whence he himself came; and, finally, waiting for death with a cheerful mind as being nothing else than a dissolution of the element of which every living being is compounded. But if there is no harm in the elements themselves in each continually changing into another, why should a man have any apprehension about the change and dissolution of all elements? For it is according to nature, and nothing is evil that is according to nature."

Sunday, 28 April 2013

We are on facebook now

The internet has been very much shaped by the social networks in the past decade. It is imperative for any movement, community or even business to make use of the amplification that these cyber tools now provide to the publishers. As so, we gladly announce you that we have lauched our Leviathan Slain Facebook page. Please Like us, follow us, subscribe... whatever! We have some awesome contents for you, freedom lover!

http://www.facebook.com/leviathanslain

Thursday, 25 April 2013

Morality or Efficiency - The Values for a Free Society

In most (even to say all) political arguments there are inherent elements to the debate that are disguised or even ignored, that would simplify objectively the discussion. Since all we say, ultimately, has strong ideological content (in other words, all we express are ideologies), that is derived from principles/axioms/premises and through reason and evidence we integrate them into conclusions on the ways we must guide our action.
That said, and the radical question arises "What is the root of ideology?" - well… Ideas. And what is the root of ideas? - More and more ideas. The intelectual self will inexorably deconstruct the root of all his ideas to morality (by deduction from moral principles) or by efficiency (by inducting from the wanted results to the root axioms). This could be examplified by the following situation:
If you were asked, in a dichotomy sense question, what would you prefer as the guiding/primary "value" of your society, would it be efficiency or morality? In other words, would you sacrifice morality for the sake of effiency, or would you give away efficiency for the sake of morality? - This is the root question of all socio-political thought, the argument between Individualism or Collectivism. Obviously, you can and should consider the short/long run consequences derived from your choice above.
As an individualist, I can clearly see the efficiency coming in the long run by preserving a solid moral basis, and not the other way around. This can also be seen as the question between the means and the ends. Since efficiency is obviouly the ends, where does morality stand (morally, do the ends justify the means)?
If it wasn't for the constant presence of institucionalized coercion and violence, I wouldn't be writing this post. I'm inspired by what I call the biological argument for anarchy (i.e. a free, voluntary society) - in nature, if you compare a monoculture, like a corn field, (higher short term effiency and productivity and a very low resilience - great risk of a systemic crisis) with a diverse culture, like a garden, (great resilience but lesser efficiency in the short term) you will (hopefully) conclude that the high risk of systemic crisis is going to cause unintended, destructive and depressive consequences eventually (e.g. the constant resource to cultural, military and economic warfare, the boom and bust and fiat inflated currencies cycles that enpoverishes millions and are the price to pay for state sovereignty).
It will, sooner or later, be the collapse of efficiency without morality, Nature's spontaneous order will take care of it, since it is an antithesis to the natural order. Then, to idealize the free society, it's imperative to start with morality, in order to achieve peace, coexistence and prosperity. To build this morality, we need universal axioms, like non-agression and self-ownership in order that our own freedom ends where others start.

Tuesday, 2 April 2013

The Ethics of Friendship

“What is a friend? A single soul dwelling in two bodies.” 
― Aristotle

In the VIII and IX books of Nicomachean ethics , Aristotle develops  a rational and concise case, concerning the several types of friendships and their ethical classification.  Being a treaty on ethics,this requires discussion, friendship is needed, therefore it is a virtue  or it implies virtue. One of the pillars of his assertion is that "No one would choose to live without friends, even if he had all the riches in the world , we can think that the rich and those who occupy the most important places and hold power are the ones that need friends the most; indeed, what would be the usefulness  of such prosperity without the opportunity to do  good, since it manifests itself in it's  most praiseworthy form when regarding friends?".

The disciple  of Plato created three different categories  for friendships, each of them is formed according to the qualities that  serve for their very own formation.  So, we have friendship according to pleasure, friendship  according to utility, and   friendship according to virtue, or, the perfect friendship. 


"Wishing to be friends is quick work, but friendship is a slow ripening fruit." 
— Aristotle


The first two, friendships derived from pleasure or utility, are ephemeral, a passing phenomenon that eventually shatters. This happens because one of the parties has ceased to be the same, since this particular friendship was only the means to access a  certain end.

We  face these friendships in several  stages of our life,  if  we remember the mundane school time we had, it is easy to identify which were and were not the friendships that we  established according to pleasure, the so called spirituous people, full  of life, are very often the ones that maintain a broad circle of friendships, not because of their virtue but because of their joviality, this happens not because of their character  or what they are within themselves, but of the amount of pleasure that such people can induce in others. Summing it up, these  people compensate their lack of qualities with an excess of joviality.


"A friend to all is a friend to none."
— Aristotle


Friendships according to utility are also from a similar nature. We  can identify them at  workplaces, imagining the relations between the workers of an office, or when we have a team or a group that works towards a common goal. In this specific case, these  people are focused not on a selfless friendship but they maintain their friendship because it will turn into something prosperous for each one of them, their desires and whims are ultimately selfish.

Friendships according to virtue, or perfect  friendships, are, as Aristotle says "perfect in the sense of the duration and every other aspect, and in it one receives, in a similar or different way, the same that one gives."

Aristotle also draws the line between "good men" and "bad men",  only good men are able to possess perfect or virtuous friendships,even if they can also have friendships by utility or pleasure, whereas bad men cannot aspire to perfect friendships and are confined to friendships by utility or pleasure,  the correspondence between Ethics and Friendship becomes clear.

"For Aristotle, friendship in its highest form has a political or civic dimension. We love our friends not just because we like each other or are useful to each other, but because we share the same values and ideals for our society, and come together to advance those ideals." 
— Jules Evans (Philosophy for Life)


Monday, 1 April 2013

From Portugal with love

Começo por saudar todos os portugueses e lusófonos que lêem este blog, e em geral as mentes curiosas que se interessam pelas escolas do voluntarismo, do objectivismo, do libertarismo, do anarco-capitalismo ou de qualquer outra ideologia ética, política, social ou económica dentro deste espectro.

Nesta publicação gostava de referir duas situações que me ajudarão a transmitir o princípio que eu acho basilar para o funcionamento duma sociedade livre e civilizada. O primeiro destes conceitos é a praxe. Como estudante universitário contacto inevitavelmente com actividades académicas e obviamente a praxe não é excepção. No que toca à minha opinião, a praxe é algo por que nutro uma grande estima e respeito, embora a considere uma (perdoem-me o vernáculo) merda colectivista, opressiva, autoritária e paternalista. E mesmo tendo estes atributos todos que eu desgosto categoricamente, é uma instituição voluntária, i.e. todos os seus membros estão lá sem estarem coagidos, ou seja, por consentimento mútuo dos novos membros e dos já pertencentes à hierarquia vigente.

Por outro lado temos a actividade tributária fiscal, também conhecida por impostos, da qual nutro a mesma opinião que o conceito referido anteriormente: uma merda colectivista, opressiva, autoritária e paternalista. Contudo, esta actividade não é de todo voluntária. A pergunta moral impõe-se sempre: se eu decidir, de minha justiça, que não quero contribuir para o bolo fiscal e consequentemente não poder usufruir dos benefícios inerentes à redistribuição centralizada, posso? Naturalmente que sim, mas esta opção possui um gigantesco asterisco, um "senão". Se eu decidir como propus anteriormente, os agentes fiscais e jurídicos irão rotular a minha livre e voluntária decisão de evasão fiscal, punida com coima, expropriação ou até cadeia. Isto é, terão "legitimidade" de utilizar violência contra alguém que violou o contrato social, algo que nunca me comprometi, mas magicamente com o meu nascimento nesta social democracia que dá pelo nome de Portugal, toma imaculada validade.

A diferença e o princípio chave está na liberdade para escolher, na acção voluntária, contudo como em muitas situações do nosso quotidiano temos "liberdade" para escolher, mas somente a(s) decisão(ões) que uma entidade centralizada define como acertada(s).

Best wishes,
Tiago Águia de Moura

Tuesday, 26 March 2013

A critique to moderation

In the current days, we are bombarded with opinions coming from a vast ideological spectrum, some backed up by tradition, others by morality and even some from empirical or rational constructions. What to believe in? How should society be organized? - These are questions that have hunted our thought for millennia. How to answer them properly according to our zeitgeist? With moderation.

From the great professor that History is, we have learned in school that such "extremist" regimes like authoritarian communism and fascism (hardcore collectivist systems in general) lead to social distopias and torment our liberty. That said, and we rapidly form an antithesis from this reality in our minds, as a response to the pursuit of the best society possible, given the resources.

Curiously, (or not) 60 years into postmodernity, and all the western world is submerged in a form of softcore collectivism. The slight variations among western nations include democratic socialism or the more conservative christian democracy. You won't find a third one. Human rights (the ones declared by the UN at the beginning of postmodernity) are the imperative values of all western political, social and economic thought. Yet, the wide majority of people I come across, answer me to the political/social/economic ideological question with the lovely label of Moderation. But what is moderation?

Moderation may be formally defined as non-extremist or non-excessive action, being within reasonable limits... Yet I categorically disagree with this definition. Why? Because I advocate that even moderation is extremism in itself. I'm not looking forward to get an argument on semantics but rather on reason.

So, to begin the defence of my thesis, I start by questioning the inevitable: What is extremism? Here the definitions fall short, and are clearly redundant. To define extremism, you must define extremes, and to define extremes you must draw limits to the spectrum and obviously create a centered interval where moderation fits. But is our thought limited or infinite? Can we draw such lines? I think not. 

Everytime we look back in time and study history we only see the limits of our thought expanding in an objective perspective. So moderation must be what the democratic majority believes, like a statistical mean associated with an interval defined by a constant multiplying by the standard deviation. But what value does that constant hold? Ceasing the questioning for a bit, I want to claim it very clearly why moderation is also extremism. Because to believe or hold any ideological perspective is ultimately to embrace that methodology to a practical end. And who doesn't have an ideology? Even believing in nothing is an ideology in itself, even being subjectivist or an ethical utilitarian implies holding that view as an ideology.

To conclude, I deeply believe there is no such human being without ideology. Even if moderation may be considered the present status-quo, it is a clear falacy. It may serve as a convention, a starting point, but never as a logical argument to the ideological discussion. Those who label "extremists" as impractical, illogical and invalid for arguing are the utopian narrow-minded people they so bravely fight against - an enemy in themselves.

Best wishes,
Tiago Águia de Moura

Tuesday, 19 March 2013

The Allegory of Ignorance

The Allegory of the Cave,  written by the founder of Western political thinking and one of the pillars of our very own civilization, hailing from the Isles of Greece, "where burning Saphos loved and sung, where grew the arts of war and peace, where Delos rose and Phoebus sprung! 
Eternal summer gilds them yet, but all except  their sun, is set." 
- Lord Byron


The parallels between the famed allegory presented in "The Republic" and the unfortunate cult of ignorance, a world in which your ignorance is as good and as valid as my wisdom, thoughts of impunity and even contempt  for knowledge have become another plague of the narrow minded sheeps longing for the all mighty, all knowing and all wise shepherd to guide them through the perils of life, a life in which they are but delayed corpses  with a breeding function, ah, a pitiful existence? Is it not? If only ignorance  was  only a bliss, it is also a bless.


In the allegory, Plato displays Socrates describing a group of people that have lived their entire lives chained to the wall of a cave, facing a blank wall. Shadows are seen projected on the walls as a result of things passing in front of a fire behind them, the people begin to ascribe forms  to the shadows, while Socrates in the allegory explains that the shadows are as close as the people will ever be, regarding reality and consciousness. He then proceeds to explain that the  philosopher is like a prisoner who has escaped  from the cave, and thus his understanding about the shadows evolves and understands that the shadows on the wall do not make up for reality in any sense, for the philosopher can understand the true form of reality, as   opposed to the mere shadows seen by the prisoners.


This very concept is as true today as it was in 380 BC, no amount of technological advance can overrule some of the most basic premises/conditions/limitations/commodity of human nature throughout the ages, Plato believed that the world needed to be apprehended intellectually, one might "cowardly" argument that not everyone has the "need" or the "capacity" for such feat, the subjectiveness of intellectuality is used as the clementia for the scarcity of our intellectual zeitgeist, fed by every imaginable form that diffuses ideology ,  from all the media, adding to that the entertainment industry of all kind and the  political system that rewards the "bless/bliss" of citizen apathy, we  are taught to execute and not to think, thinking has become  a very perilous,  and rare, phenomenon in this world, "ideas are more dangerous than guns", even a psychopath had the  lucidity to recognize such base truth.

The need of reason and philosophy to understand the world is, however, something that I personally reserve as a bene placito, the Inquisition has  long passed and inquisition of thought is not the aim  of  this humble, and rhetoric, is  to bring thought towards idle mind. Amicus Plato, sed magis amica veritas.

In conclusion, we need a new Renaissance, we need to develop taste towards knowledge and wisdom, these positive traits beget love, compassion, solidarity, and above all, individual  , free,  uncorrupted thought towards the improvement of oneself and the improvement  of all, following our own path alone  casting  away the peer pressure and social control of preying, jealous and insecure eyes, afraid of  difference, afraid of individuality and still cloaked in the very same shadows described by Plato, the  sun will dawn once again and a new era will arrive, whether it will be on this very same  aeon, or it  will remain the utopian dream of a new wave of the agitators of thought, it depends on you, yes, yourself, so put those thousands of atoms and stardust to work and think for yourself.

“War is peace. 
Freedom is slavery. 
Ignorance is strength.” 
- George Orwell, 1984


Thursday, 7 March 2013

MONOPOLY - the XXI century update

Here we got MONOPOLY, one of the amazing games of our childhood. The board, the cash, the houses and hotels, the cards and those rainy Saturday evenings. It is an amazing game, lightly simulating the issues of property and "free market" until the day it all changed.

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MONOPOLY, the board game, keeps being fabulous in uniting families and friends for 4 hour long games, yet the version of MONOPOLY applied to society has been a completely different one.
Now imagine, that you and 7 friends of yours gather around the table to play some MONOPOLY. However, now the game is different. Mr. Lovejoy gets to the table and he asks you if he can play. "No Lovejoy, the table is full." - to this he quickly answers - "Don't worry, I'm not here to play, I'm here to rule.". Everyone takes a laugh on him and Lovejoy calls a friend to the room. "So... this is my friend Marcus Brutus, he's here to kick your ass if you don't do what I say."

All the players were terrified by the 7 feet (2.1m) tall, incredibly muscled Marcus Brutus, and quickly agreed with his leadership. "Now lets play" - Lovejoy said - "I must warn you, my people, that I have some modifications to add to the original game:"

     "1: Every commercial transaction will be taxed 25%. So if you buy, sell, pay a rent, or trade some property, I shall have a quarter of that value."
     "2: Any time you pass in the starting square and get the money, I shall have 50% of that income, 80% if you are the richest player the poorest player will receive all the money collected."
    "3: The railroads and utilities like the electricity and the water, are hereby nationalized. If any of you gets in these squares, I will interpret that as a threat to the public good on trying to make a greedy profit out of such vital goods. You'll have to pay as a fine the full property price, and go to jail for 5 turns."
     "4: If you want to build on property you need to ask me for a permit and pay me an extra 10% commission of the value of the construction. In case the worst off player gets in your property he shall not pay a cent for the rent, neither you the owner shall receive anything, since you're helping the disadvantaged."
     "5: The chance and community chest cards will have 2 roles. If you have to pay something, you'll pay it to me. If you have money to receive, you'll get it from me but it will be taxed 25%, that will be given to the less wealthy of you in equal shares."
     "6: Finally, every hour of gameplay, you'll have to pay me 10% over all your property as a property tax (20% if you are the richest player and 0% if you are the poorest), you are not allowed to take longer than a minute after the hour to pay this amount."

"There we go, these are my laws that will work for the public interest, I provide you with security and a safety net, you pay a fair share in return... Now lets play. Oh, wait! If you disobey by any means to any of these commands, here Mr. Brutus will get you to the dentist and nationalize all your property. Good luck!"

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So, I guess you should really try this with your friends and see the results...