Yatta!

Haha. I haven't posted in a while. Someone told me to after seeing my Swastika Pillows post.

Anyway, I should talk about something… uh…

Here we go! Some philosophical discussions I've had recently:

1. Morals: How do they work? I say they're dictated by the society as a whole, and whatever the groupthink specifies as "good" and "right" is morally correct. For example, if everyone thinks racism is OK, it is. If everyone thinks killing people is OK, it is. But on the other hand, this usually doesn't happen, and anyway, with something like racism, there isn't much mainstream sentiment against it. On the other hand, if you allow people to judge and interpret society under their own conceptions of morality, you get crazy people who justify mass murder, and they would be 100% correct to do so since you're advocating the right of the individual to have their own morals. It ultimately makes problems like racism worse, because people can justify it themselves. Even if you can judge them, one person judging has no impact. And one person does not have the right to judge others like that in the first place. While I do believe that people can have their own morals, they should accept that the groupthink ultimately dictates how moral something is, no matter what the individual thinks. If you want change (say, racism), you need a radical external critique (which means, becoming the president won't work since there is huge social inertia; starting a political movement is a lot more effective).
2. Securitization: Came up in English class. Is it better to imprison Japanese enemy aliens in WWII than to let them roam free? I think imprisonment here is justified. There is a huge risk of letting any of them run free and potentially act as spies. And anyway, I, as a Japanese, would rather get blamed for Pearl Harbor than a huge cross-oceanic invasion of California. Just saying. It might've been for the best, since Japan was still going pretty strong at that point. No matter that Japanese were, as a whole, loyal. One disloyal person can destroy the entirety of respect and acceptance the US had for Japanese at the time. I'd rather be imprisoned than blamed for the suffering of everyone else in the world, or at least, California and the Pacific Coast.
3. Retro technology and Existence: Just a thought on the bus; I carry around old technology, and my room is full of it. Why? It makes me feel nostalgic for when I didn't yet exist in this world. That very idea makes me think whether the world existed before I was born. Maybe. Retro technology gives me a bit more confidence (even if it has no overall change in outcome) that probably, some world existed before I was born. It must've been tight, especially in the 70's!
4. Government: Many probably know I advocate Anarchy. Not as an end, but as a means. The potential vacuum of government created after a major catastrophe creates opportunity for true competition to take its course. Normally, we would have a Capitalist system with checks stopping competition in its tracks. Not true with an anarchy. The anarchy created would stimulate different groups with different ideals to create their own unique societies, full of similar-thinking people. It's probably better to have a more cohesive group than one that's disjointed and forcefully united into a huge country by the ugly glue that is nationalism. Nationalism is historically bad for a nation. Look at Nazi Germany and Japan; what's going to happen to the US with all its patriotism? Anyway, while I do advocate exchange of persons throughout these independent communities, I don't advocate actively creating an anarchy that would lead to them. Frankly, anarchy has its problems; lots of death and suffering. But if it's inevitable (for example, if the economy fails anyway), might as well have some sort of hope and course of action: starting your own ideal community amidst others. If yours fails, you can join another. If you disagree, you could join another. And eventually, there would be a true government, the one that serves the most people the best. It might be oppressive, it might be extremely libertarian, it might be standard representative democracy with checks and balances and a bipartisan system. But it would be the most effective, most utilitarian form of government. I just hope it'll be a better one than what we have now.

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Swastika Pillows

Today in US History, we talked about the Confederacy as a symbol, namely through its flag and various memorabilia that surrounds it.

While almost everyone agreed that a Confederate flag is acceptable but a Swastika was not, I thought a Swastika was totally OK. My teacher, clearly very… intrigued by my stance, pointed how bad the Germans were in the 40s.

However, this exemplifies a great double standard in how the US views itself and how they view the Nazis.
Examples of similarities and comparisons between the US and the Third Reich:

1. The Nazis rounded up all the Jews, and killed them mercilessly.
   Compare: The US rounded up all the Japanese during WWII and withheld general freedoms, they enslaved an entire race of a continent, changing its culture forever, and killed probably more people in combined wars ever (because of its huge role in industrial manufacturing).
   Impact Calculus: The US obviously did more damage than the Third Reich, seeing as they enslaved a whole continent and provided for 1000-fold amount of killing through manufacturing guns, munitions, and even foodstuffs during the isolationist era. A bunch of European wars were sourced by American food
2. The Nazis destroyed Democracy, and instead placed a dictator who step-by-step stripped away liberties
   Compare: The US is launching an even scarier attack on civil liberties. While the Nazi attack was obvious, the Americans are less careful, because they have the Constitution that allows for slow undermining. Government Surveillance, Bureaucracy, Capitalism, etc. all fall in this category.
   Impact Calculus: The US probably is doing more damage than the Third Reich could ever do, but not at an accelerated pace. It's even worse because while the Nazi attack was obvious, the American attack on liberties is subtle and ever-occurring.

Those are two points, and are usually the larger ones.
The Germans, remember, also:

1. Boomed their economy in a few short years.
2. Used nationalism to its greatest extent, as used by the US in all its (rather frequent, if I might add) wars.
3. Exemplified and proved how Nietzschean Will-to-Power works in the real world, that it requires some underdog that is pushed down and taken advantage of and used as teaching tools to teach the people not to fear and to be powerful to prevent this themselves.

The only argument in favour of the US I see is that the Nazis were like Distilled Alcohol, with much more "evil" or "bad" content per year. US aggregate evil-ness, on the other hand, so grossly outweighs Nazi evil that there is no comparison.

And the Nazis had a neat flag and goose-step, not to mention armbands. I wish they could be acceptable to wear/do again, because they're rather funny and cool.

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Starfleet Embroidery

Welcome to the third instalment of the art series!

This time, we have a less… communist design. As many of you know, Starfleet is the exploration wing of the United Federation of Planets in the Star Trek universe, and Starfleet Command is located in San Francisco (I really think some of those details are wrong already; see Wikipedia for a more accurate description; if Trekkies are nerds/geeks, and Wikipedians are also nerds/geeks, then wouldn’t some be both, thus ensuring that the article is genuine?).

Made on the 8th of July, 2007, photographed on the 14th of July. I’m back in the U.S., by the way.

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Soviet Branches

Welcome back to the second part of the art series!

This time we have a piece constructed in Robert's Park (I think), probably on the 6th of June, 2007. Again, it is the Hammer and Sickle design, this time made out of broken branches and leaves. All were carefully laid out on a cleared piece of ground, where we brushed off the branches and such. The finished product is the picture you have here.

Making-of pictures will become available if there is a demand.

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Soviet Cookie

Welcome to a three-part series involving interesting art I’ve made/received!

We start off with an interesting piece of the Hammer and Sickle design used by the USSR, as a cookie. Made by Theo Schear, the cookie was given as a “Secret Snow-Buddy” (politically-correct equivalent of Secret Santas) present. The cookie was eaten on the bus ride after school, after taking a few pictures. This is the only photograph I have of this piece. Sorry for the poor resolution.

This photo was apparently taken on the 5th of December, 2006.

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Japan!

I’m in Japan now. It’s the rainy season, so most days are either raining or cloudy; today is one of the better days. Our temperatures are around 30°C or below, which is nice and comfortable for me!

I’m currently writing a short story in Japanese for Japanese School that’s pretty cool (I hope), so I’ll probably post it here after I turn it in, and after I translate it. I write better in English :D

If you notice, the title of my blog is in Cyrillic now. Just on a whim… it might change back later.

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Keyboards!

Keyboards are really, really cool input devices. I’m not sure how any of us could live without them!

But my old iMac’s keyboard I’m typing on really sucks. The keys push to softly, both tactile and aurally; I really want something a bit… clickier, crispier.

So I’m looking into buying an IBM Model M keyboard, all the way from the 1980s. It’ll be pretty cool. They use a special, patented buckling spring system, thus providing the tactile and aural feedback I want.

But the Model M isn’t the only keyboard like that. The Apple Extended Keyboard II also has a reputation as a good keyboard, and uses mechanical switches under each key. Both designs feel much better than the soft, rubber dome characteristics of an ordinary keyboard, Mac or PC these days.

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Why Self-Driving Cars Won't Happen

Haven’t we all dreamed of cars that could drive themselves? That could keep you safe, without your intervention? I know I have. But without a societal change, this would never become reality. Although I do not have time to further clarify these points, there are reasons why this can’t happen.

In this capitalist society, although car companies think about the safety of their costumers, it’s usually for their own interests. An unsafe car would lead to massive lawsuits against the company, and the company doesn’t want that. So they develop safe technology to use in cars. But one of the keys of business is to make sure your customer keeps buying. And right now, this is achieved becuase however minor a crash may be, the car would be totalled, and you would need to buy a new one. Car companies therefore make much more profit overlooking safety development cost.

But how about self-driving cars, to get back to my topic? That is an impossibility. Although it may be feasible now, or in the future, car companies would be reluctant. Sure, the idea may sell for a while, but consumers will soon realise that it’s not worth buying new cars when the old one has not been damaged at all, and never will be through crashes. Any crash would lead to lawsuits, after all.

Note: This overlooks the fact that the pieces could be faulty, but this would be fixed anyway through warranties.

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What is Genocide?

The International Criminal Court defines it as such:

"genocide" means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:

1. Killing members of the group;
2. Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
3. Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
4. Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
5. Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

Now then, under this definition, what is Genocide?

1. Any killing of two or more people.
2. Anything that hurts others’ feelings.
3. Not maintaining a building, especially for poorer groups.
4. Abortion–it allows people to choose, so this prevents births, which is exactly what it tries to do.
5. Deportation, Exile, and other such things, because it moves children (along with their parents) to another place forcibly.

Now look at e. Exile? Hmm… didn’t God exile the Jews to Babylon? Does this mean that God committed Genocide? The definition is just too broad to use practically. We should use “Holocaust” instead of “Genocide” for the generally accepted “mass murder” definition.

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There Is No ESCAPE!

Made by Ian Arnold and Takumi Murayama!

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