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Tag: justice

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    Intolerable Contradictions: Egality vs Liberty

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    1–2 minutes

    There is a contradiction in appealing to equity and egalitarian outcomes in a society that proclaims individuality as a natural right: the liberated person is an imminently vital figure to be protected.

    Equality is an improbable ideal, and egalitarianism removes rights from some to disperse amongst others. These concepts level through a promoted “normalization,” which is the opposite of sovereign self-making: it is coercive alignment.

    Maintaining a state/society that can move into the future requires a shared set of values (such as equality under the law, the idea that your rights end when they infringe on another, and wealth/position is not a shield.)

    Contradictions can be tolerated when the narrative provides a payoff (a noble or economic goal to be achieved) but become intolerable when confusion unravels stability.

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    Reinstating Natural Rights

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    1–2 minutes

    A coercive government cannot reinstate man’s “natural rights” because natural rights are a by-product of a peaceful industry.

    Granted, war may have been necessary to achieve temporary peace, but war is precisely when natural rights are suspended.

    Also, one cannot appeal to a current, settled state of peace and freedom to have “natural rights” reinstated because large businesses, industries, and machines maintain dominance. In fact, these very systems, devices, and bureaucracies are why we need to reestablish human rights: these dominant systems undermine natural liberty.

    In this conundrum, re-awakening “natural rights” implies a split from both war and managerial industrial systems that maintain servitude. It isn’t easy to imagine how a revolution that could accomplish this may manifest and engender awe in a time that could introduce such notions as “natural rights.”

    ~ from #Accelerate (the accelerationist reader)

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    Cynical view of wealthy altruism

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    1–2 minutes

    The fortunate can ignore the unfortunate. Through myriad small (and large) benefits, it becomes impossible to relate, engage, or comprehend the distant poor except in the abstract.

    The fortunate, or privileged, have localized, particular concerns that are distant from survival but not without emotional and social pain.

    Today’s initiative is to demand their sight morally; that is, the gaze of the privileged must see the less fortunate and empathize (and feel guilt).

    Yet, this symptomatically multiplies the positions and disparities instead of diminishing them.

    Noticing the unfortunate (or victimized) begets feigned social signaling, adding a layer of selfish deceit and social utility to the sight so desperately sought-after. The gaze that was supposed to recognize a plight and generate focused action for the poor is activated into multiple effects, which act more substantively for the altruist.

    Their gaze on the poor benefits the wealthy more.

    This pantomime merely cloisters the wealthiest’s actual self further away: by demanding their attention, we are left somehow more blind as they recede behind enacted propaganda, leaving us seeing only an after-image of kindness with no substance.

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    The tyranny of time

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    1–2 minutes

    You might expect the tyranny of time to be it’s resolute march forward without empathy, yet it is our social mass adoption of it as a governing system that transforms it to brutality.

    Time is not relentless or uncaring. Time is shared mass consensus, and so it is a reflection of ourselves.

    You can ignore time, as some Amazonian tribes. Or, while you’re asleep it ceases to matter. But upon awakening in our society the time prison of the clock manifests devastatingly real effects.

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    hard-won rights

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    1–2 minutes

    The hard-won rights of the previous generation are valuable, but the new generation will have new agendas which grew from prior victories.

    The hard-won rights of yesterday are the footing for new battles today. But the youth are not interested in maintaining old infrastructure. At least not until they grow older.

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    Easily unbalanced

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    1–2 minutes

    When you are under stress your passage narrows from a trail to a bridge, and finally into a thin line upon which you balance. On the trail you could brace, on the bridge you could wobble, but upon the tight rope a gentle breeze can topple you.

    Our resiliency is fluid, and while we may weather the wobbles gracefully your increased stress will guarantee a fall from the softest touch.

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    embalmed in injustice

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    1–2 minutes

    It is easy to succumb to justice: dadgummit, we are in the right. However, being "right" prevents you from living fully.
    There is definitely a type of vital energy in rage, but it is a narrow range of living: a trap of intensity that drowns joy.
    Within this trap, we live in a state of strained repetition: embalmed in injustice.

    “He was embalmed no longer in injustice.” Phillip Roth, The Human Stain

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    Balancing for Weakness

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    1–2 minutes

    We are often defined by our weakness. However we put ourselves in frameworks that balance.

    Those with criminal instincts are attracted to the police academy, while obnoxious people attempt to become sales people, and those who do not understand themselves, and their family members, work to become a psychologist.

    Our deficiencies become the drivers to normalize ourselves.

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    The Will and Migraines

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    1–2 minutes

    My desire pursuit is overly strong: I push routine and health aside to achieve.

    The reaction is days of pain-enforced respite.

    It is a balancing mechanism: the down time is roughly equivalent to the misdemeanors against the body.

    The will forces attrition, and the bodily response is sabotage of goals that sustain the ego.

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    Luck: to celebrate or hide?

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    1–2 minutes

    we privilege, specific traits: being beautiful, smart, or athletic. Every society will value specific genetic traits. When being born with them, especially with two or more, it is like being a superhero.

    These traits should be celebrated, as the individual can be seen as a model for what’s possible, and equally, the gifted should be humbled by recognizing their luck.

    A problem develops when someone is born with a gift, and yet must subvert or hide it in order to avoid jealousy. It speaks of a twisted society that would allow such small-minded persecution.