Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Not even wrong
I'm always irritated by wildly overused cliches.
Two of them are wrong in so many ways you can hardly count them.
I've already noted the first one: The fake "Ben Franklin" quote about security and freedom. Franklin didn't say it; his print shop merely published it in a book by another author. Franklin did say something on a related subject, but his meaning was the opposite of the cliche. And the cliche is just bad advice in a broad way. Very few people actually want freedom; most want security and stability.
The second one is the fake "Einstein" quote about insanity and repetition. Albert didn't say it; Wiki thinks it was first written in a novel by Rita Mae Brown in the '80s, which would explain why Clinton liked to use it.
= = = = =
What strikes me now is that both sayings are intentionally misapplied in modern Western governments and institutions.
(1) Our problem is way beyond freedom vs security. Agencies like FBI, DHS, TSA claim to be "giving us security in exchange for freedom". Well, they're stealing something that seems like freedom, but what they're really stealing is stability and normalcy, and giving us nothing but confusion and despair in return.
Society always has rules. Some societies have stricter rules than others, but people don't feel less free in those cases. Human brains adapt to constants. When you know the rules firmly, you don't feel the rules. Thus you feel free no matter how strict the rules. But when the rules are unknowable and continually changing, you have neither security nor freedom. You're forever trying to adapt, forever running into new obstacles that your mind is unprepared for. That's real tyranny, that's the single sole solitary purpose of those agencies, and that's modern America.
(2) And our problem is way beyond sanity vs insanity. Governments, schools, universities, corporations, and cultural institutions are failing, but not because they are repeating evil actions and expecting good things to happen. They're not that dumb, for fuck's sake. THEY DO EVIL THINGS BECAUSE THEY EXPECT AND DESIRE EVIL RESULTS. That's the problem. They're not crazy at all, they're Satanic.
The constant repetition of the saying about constant repetition is a constant misdirection, forcing us to believe that all of our institutions are merely crazy.
= = = = =
Later: The Santayana quote about repeating history is also misused, but in a more complex way.
The usual short quote is not fake, but it's misleading. In context it appears that Santayana was thinking of the full reality, but didn't quite say it.
The full reality: Repeating isn't always wrong or always right. If you truly learn from personal experience or from written history, you will repeat what works and avoid what fails.
Our problem is not that we keep repeating.
It's that we do the wrong fucking thing EVERY FUCKING TIME..
When history tells us to repeat, we do the opposite. FDR fixed the 1929 bubble by clamping down hard on speculators. That solved the problem completely. We then deleted the solution in 1999, guaranteeing a repeat of the problem. When the problem repeated in 2008, we did the opposite of FDR. We gave the speculators an infinite gift, so the problem has gotten worse.
And when history tells us to avoid an action, we repeat. Vietnam told us to avoid engaging in pointless unwinnable wars. So we engaged in pointless unwinnable wars THREE TIMES, and we're ginning up for the fourth right now.
Perfectly wrong every time. Perfectly evil every time. Perfectly Satanic every time. ¶ 7:48 PM
Two of them are wrong in so many ways you can hardly count them.
I've already noted the first one: The fake "Ben Franklin" quote about security and freedom. Franklin didn't say it; his print shop merely published it in a book by another author. Franklin did say something on a related subject, but his meaning was the opposite of the cliche. And the cliche is just bad advice in a broad way. Very few people actually want freedom; most want security and stability.
The second one is the fake "Einstein" quote about insanity and repetition. Albert didn't say it; Wiki thinks it was first written in a novel by Rita Mae Brown in the '80s, which would explain why Clinton liked to use it.
= = = = =
What strikes me now is that both sayings are intentionally misapplied in modern Western governments and institutions.
(1) Our problem is way beyond freedom vs security. Agencies like FBI, DHS, TSA claim to be "giving us security in exchange for freedom". Well, they're stealing something that seems like freedom, but what they're really stealing is stability and normalcy, and giving us nothing but confusion and despair in return.
Society always has rules. Some societies have stricter rules than others, but people don't feel less free in those cases. Human brains adapt to constants. When you know the rules firmly, you don't feel the rules. Thus you feel free no matter how strict the rules. But when the rules are unknowable and continually changing, you have neither security nor freedom. You're forever trying to adapt, forever running into new obstacles that your mind is unprepared for. That's real tyranny, that's the single sole solitary purpose of those agencies, and that's modern America.
(2) And our problem is way beyond sanity vs insanity. Governments, schools, universities, corporations, and cultural institutions are failing, but not because they are repeating evil actions and expecting good things to happen. They're not that dumb, for fuck's sake. THEY DO EVIL THINGS BECAUSE THEY EXPECT AND DESIRE EVIL RESULTS. That's the problem. They're not crazy at all, they're Satanic.
The constant repetition of the saying about constant repetition is a constant misdirection, forcing us to believe that all of our institutions are merely crazy.
= = = = =
Later: The Santayana quote about repeating history is also misused, but in a more complex way.
The usual short quote is not fake, but it's misleading. In context it appears that Santayana was thinking of the full reality, but didn't quite say it.
The full reality: Repeating isn't always wrong or always right. If you truly learn from personal experience or from written history, you will repeat what works and avoid what fails.
Our problem is not that we keep repeating.
It's that we do the wrong fucking thing EVERY FUCKING TIME..
When history tells us to repeat, we do the opposite. FDR fixed the 1929 bubble by clamping down hard on speculators. That solved the problem completely. We then deleted the solution in 1999, guaranteeing a repeat of the problem. When the problem repeated in 2008, we did the opposite of FDR. We gave the speculators an infinite gift, so the problem has gotten worse.
And when history tells us to avoid an action, we repeat. Vietnam told us to avoid engaging in pointless unwinnable wars. So we engaged in pointless unwinnable wars THREE TIMES, and we're ginning up for the fourth right now.
Perfectly wrong every time. Perfectly evil every time. Perfectly Satanic every time. ¶ 7:48 PM
