A Review of the Movie, "Lazarus Man"

The award-winning movie "Lazarus Man," starring Barack Obama, typified the American mindset of the early century.

One of the pivotal scenes of the movie is described below.

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Teacher's Lounge. Barack Obama is an idealistic young history teacher for Eighth Grade students. He is bewildered by the apathy of the teaching staff, and the absolute, immobile stupidity of the classes. He is speaking with one of the senior teachers.

O>I don't get it. You sit there and read the paper during every class, and give them nothing but thinly-veiled contempt - let them drift in and out of the room, talk, fight. You make no pretense to teach them. Why do they hate me more than they hate you?

It's because you suck as a shepherd, Obama. You bring the sheep out in the meadow, and torture them for your own selfish entertainment. At least get under a tree, get drunk and fall asleep. That's what good shepherds have done through the ages.

O>But I want to DO something - to make a DIFFERENCE in their lives.

Obama - you have come face to face with the soul of your species, and you don't like it. You don't like reality. THEY are reality. All a sheep really cares about is being next to the ass-hole of the nearest sheep. Anything else makes them scared.

O>But I was NOTHING like them when I was in school!

That's because you are a mistake, a genetic aberration. All of this shit about fresh-faced, eager young students looking for knowledge - those are the occasional and rare, the little blips that the race sends out every once in a while, to ask a question. The question is - "ARE WE INTELLIGENT BEINGS?" The answer is "NO." And you won't face reality for long enough to understand that. So you torture the sheep.

Every class has one or two of them, like you, every few years. The other students usually beat the shit out of them, for a good reason. They are dangerous to the herd. They might grow up and be like YOU.

O>I can't stand it. So we're supposed to sit back and produce ANOTHER generation that grows up, becomes miserable, gets drunk, lives for nothing, beats their wives and kids? Like we don't care?

As opposed to what, Barama? You have just described the character of our species - it's no difference than pointing out that sheep live in herds, bees in hives, that lions eat herbivores. That's what we do, by and large. It's the caring part - that's an alien idea, as foreign as though it came from Mars. Ask your class. Go ahead, you got balls? Ask them how to be a better teacher. They'll tell you to read the paper and leave them the fuck alone.

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All you really are, Barama, is a spore of a bad idea, a terrible idea - that stuff that we teach right out of Civics 101, that Tom Jefferson horseshit. It's a lot better that they associate him with President's Day Sales Events, and Mount Rushmore, than the crap that you're peddling, that you have in your head.

You serve a useful function to society. You encapsulate those with the potential for bad ideas - your fellow fresh-faced idealists - and protect the herd from them. Think of your "greatest inspiration," your favorite teacher. He or she did society a favor. Look what happened to you. Look where YOU wound up with, you with your best ideas.

O>But I'm here to teach! To give somebody a chance!!

Whatever got you here - it protected the herd. You didn't go to a place where you could cause the greatest damage. People like Lenin and Hitler - they caused some serious damage to the herd. Not you. Thank God.

Every time, some fucker with a vision, some idealistic-minded asshole, gets up there - and usually he's psychopathic enough to snare a shitload of people in his delusion - a Believer. Every time some fucker like you gets into a dangerous position, the species takes a hit.

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That's why Jesus walked on the deal. Took a dive. Willingly walked into the Wheel of Karma - more like a sawblade.

You like history, Obama? Here's this for you. All the contemporary Gospel literature was about the return of the Line of David. Jesus came down, and had the choice - go ahead with the plan, or face the reality of what He really created. He took the Dive. He walked on us. The whole rest of Christian literature is all about papering over that fact. He dumped us.

"All the New Jerusalem stuff? Not here, not on this planet, not with this mis-begotten species.  It's all right there in the Bible, see?  They had to do a little creative revision to get the story out that Jesus still loves us.  They spun the Temptation by the Devil, and the story of the Three Tabernacles, out of the Gethsemane story.  That's when he walked.  The night before.  It's all one story.  He thought about becoming the New David for all of us - and he said, 'fuck it.'"

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Doug French on the Bubble

It's hard to be blindingly cynical every day.  Read Doug French on the Bubble Economy in Mises (see also You Can't Print Prosperity for yux) - he'll carry the water today.

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PS: How long do we have? Bill Sardi says until Tuesday. That's the big melt-down for him. I'm still going for October 17th.

Sardi, French, FDIC

On Animadversion

An excerpt from a letter.

Thank you again for a wonderful essay, "Is There a Natural Anti-Liberty Mindset?" You draw near enough to a certain human skill which intrigues me deeply, that I thought I should share my observations on this common interest with you.

There is a certain capacity of the human mind, a fundamental skill of civilized survival, which I call "animadversion." It's a Latin word which has not been brought into English inaccurately; we use it as a pale shadow of its original meaning. It is the facility of drawing one's attention to an issue of interest for further scrutiny under the full energy of our reason, and all our intellectual skill. This psychological process is a necessary precursor of the application of reason to a particular item worth study.

We hint at it in concepts such as "distraction" and "inattention" and "concentration." I believe that it is a skill which is taught in all fine schools and by all fine teachers; and is generally not refined in American society, but perhaps indeed suppressed.

The principle comprises the finding of something worthy of the application of reason and common sense, and the perseverate ability to see it through until reason is exhausted, and the desired conclusion is discovered.

Ayn Rand was a dogged and fierce advocate of this process, and imbued it with a moral necessity in Atlas Shrugged and in other places. She ties it closely with the moral elements necessary seen in good character.

You refer to a thing called an "anti-liberty mindset," and consider whether it is a manner of thinking which is innate or learned. I would suggest that such things derive from a simple psychological process that is the enemy of animadversion; that is, the ability to halt the process of rational thought upon encountering a certain signal, like a "Stop Command" of a Turing calculating machine - Halt and End, do not proceed in thinking, you are done.

This facility is regrettably an element of many dogmas, and is eagerly trained in American society. If we are careless in a certain matter, is someone likely to be harmed? There are areas in which we permit ourselves persistence of attention, such that we might come to a more clear conclusion, and others in which we stop and go no further. It nears the concept of "denial," but is not exactly so.

Sometimes this occurs from simple intellectual flabbiness, the weakness and inexperience in the skill of following a thought through independently, regardless of consequences or approbation. Sometimes we see it in the other extreme, which is the conscious choice to distract the attention to other matters at hand.

There is something sluttish about this passivity, to be intellectually defiled and deviated with the feeblest of consent, the rational equivalent of "boredom sex."  CS Lewis made great use of this characteristic of humans in "The Screwtape Letters," which are fictional examples of correspondence between devils, and using it as a manner of frustrating moral growth. A great, but insanely depressing read.

Our culture has refined intellectual passivity to the point that many people seek intellectual thralldom, disguised as "relief from stress," i.e. the stress of being intellectually alive. We get high, we gamble, we watch the Idiot Box or the InterSewer.  We substitute intellectually vacant memes, mantras which we do not even have the character of will to repeat ourselves, preferring to receive them on the broadcast media.

Death Panels, Chandra Levy, Miss California, Tea Parties, Global Warming. These are all things which many people in our culture simply receive as pre-packaged thought bullets to be attended to. We are even encouraged to take these things up and arrive at the pre-directed conclusion which is expected of us, having become incredibly skilled in media nuance.

Michael Vick has a job with the Eagles - good or bad? We search our database, struggling with connotations and nuance. I have a dog, and like dogs, therefore I am supposed to say "BAD!" in an energetic and outraged fashion. Angelina Jolie, and what of her? Good or bad?

This suffices for intellectual life for many members of our civilization, as near to being on life-support as anyone might wish to be. I would have the plug pulled, myself.

I would say that the capacity is perhaps innate - no more foreign to us, than the ability to draw our attention to things of greater urgency that suddenly present itself. A hominid lost in thought during a tiger attack, is a hominid less likely to survive. We have psychological conditions, such as "obsessive-compulsive disorder" where a person's ability to turn their attention this way and that under their own volition, has become impaired.

But it is only a primitive skill, which needs refinement - or expungement, as our society earnestly strives for. Stubborn attention to detail is not a particular hallmark of American civilization, and greatly to its detriment. I recommend reading some of John Taylor Gatto's writing on teaching to see an exploration of the matter; and also "Teaching as a Subversive Activity" by Postman and Weingardner - and old and deeply flawed book, but containing brilliance nonetheless.

You offer the wonderful paragraph:

"Is there a natural anti-liberty mindset? No, there is not. Children want to ask questions, to explore, to experiment, and to think. People truly want charity, or as that word is also understood, kindness and love. In such an environment, liberty flourishes. But there is an artificial anti-liberty mindset promoted incessantly by all things state, and by all things political. It can be rejected, combated, and I hope, destroyed. The first step is to recognize that the anti-liberty mindset is not natural – in spite of the state’s sustained and subtle messages to the contrary."

I'm sure that you understand FAR more than I do the utilitarian purposes of installing these mind-stops into people, well-demonstrated in the military. Humans, left to their own devices, do very human things, such as run away in combat; a tendency which leads to poor outcomes in military things. The Italians and French now bear the banner of this egregious habit, and the military strives to suppress it. Thankfully, the groundwork has been well-laid in the first eighteen years, making the advanced training much easier.

It is perhaps ironic that the very first thing which MUST be learned in military training is how to surrender - completely, abjectly, totally surrender.

The capacity to turn one's mind away without a struggle is the very antithesis of Libertarian understanding of civilization and humanity. Rarely is it clearly spoken of - although Ayn Rand brought it forth at the very start of her writings, and called it "Anti-Life." I think it deserves further discussion, as one of the most profound ideas which have harmed mankind.

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Ovine Thunder

The loathsome Teabaggers are at it again, pretending that clamans turbae is somehow an element of American government. Remember, the Crowd and its mind and manipulation was one of the stunning tools of Lenin and Hitler, indeed.

Simpering about in petulant premise that yowling pre-purchased slogans constitutes protest, they wander into Town Meetings and such, acting the faithful stooge the same as many Baby Boomers did, when they "protested" in a manner prescribed and underwritten by that leech upon the Left, the Soviets. Bought and paid for then, the signs pre-made for them, the phrases pre-packaged and sold, they pretended that they were acting independently - but as an interchangeable mob.

It is a horrible thing to see, when Americans consider being a stooge to be the summit of their capacity as citizens.

And nearly all the man, every one of them, would trade their protest over "healthcare" to become a functionary on a "neighborhood life panel," which will speak forth The People's Vote on the end-of-life decisions of its citizenry, ne'er mind the doctors or hospitals or family, We! Love! Life! and will spin out the mortal skein past Atropos' grim hand, for the wreck of brain-dead citizens, derelict of soul. It will be The People's Vote! Yes! That way, we keep Government Out Of Healthcare!

As essays before have shown, the Average American has become a herd animal - defined as he who gets nervous if not in full view of the ass-hole of the neighboring herdmate. Packed in to the center, that's the key, that's the safety; out on the edges, that's where the wolves can see you. Hardly the mind of patriots.

It is not necessary to speculate upon a puppetmaster; perhaps it is in the Mind of the Herd itself, the Group Consciousness.

"Controlling Grandma's Life!" HAW! The Great Depression II has only begun, and if Grand-Ma starves to death on a Plains hovel - as happened to thousands during the Dust Bowl - is that a better death? They chase moonbeams, and will not see what is plainly before them.

Such crowds offer the pretense of independence and spontaneity - but rather, they are most closely akin to the "All-Textile Workers' Spontaneous Demonstration of Support for Peasant Soviet Power!" Bullshit, that is.

Not even the bravery of the Light Brigade; more like a stampede of sheep herded by a clever dog.

You had me at "DUH!" When Americans chose stupidity over independent thought, that was the Cardinal Sin of a citizen. It should be our Official American Slogan. DUH.

teabagger

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In Case You Don't Get It

The matter of the Arrest of Gates by Crowley dismays me terribly.  The privacy issues alone are worth discussion.  However, the case shows the absolute inability of the American People at large to detect bullshit whatsoever.  Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire is indeed fascism run amok.
But the American people first need to attune themselves to Reality and Reason before they can handle such things as discussion of an arrest. The Real World is inglorious, and the call on the case was made by Gates and Crowley, two pissed-off fellows trying to navigate the world as best they could.
The dangers of fascism do not come from the stoop of a Harvard residence. It runs deeper, and is far more our fault than we wish to admit.

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Here is the fundmental linguistic form of fascism.

(subject) should be (qualitative) (characteristic.)

Negroes should be more respectful.
Police should be less racist.

Any time that a missive is entered to THEM, and a subjunctive form of the indirect order is used, then fascism has whispered.  Officer Crowley might well indeed have lost control of the spiral by offering such advice, if he did so - Prof. Gates, you should be less agitated.
If Gates heard this (which is speculation) then he probably blew up (overreacted?) and the whole thing got on the Red Line to Hell.

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On the Law of Scarcity

Being unfamiliar with the formal principle called the "law of scarcity," I have paused for an inadvertent education on the matter. My initial supposition was that with a fixed limit of product, demand which is at least equal to that product will "order the queue" of demand by means of price. One does not need to posit "unlimited" demand; rather, demand in excess of supply will suffice.

But I also learn that the price can be manipulated by threatening one's rights or property; or the alternative, offering an unearned windfall. People will not demand something as much as when they are persuaded that it is "theirs." Also, people who are persuaded that they have stumbled upon a treasure, will pursue it more ardently than if it were just offered in the marketplace without persuasion.

The "Marketing Minute" blog by a Chip Cummings offers:

Can you create a sense of urgency in your marketplace? Limited access to a conference call; only $1.2 million in this particular loan program available; offers only accepted for 7 days; only 38 people allowed access; 10% discount only for the next 72 hours…..

You get the idea - use Scarcity to get your market to act quickly. This works well with customer retention strategies, initial prospects, and special events. There are a couple of rules:

1. Be sure to FOLLOW THROUGH on your promise! A limit is a limit. By holding your ground, they will respond accordingly NEXT time.
2. Set clear guidelines and expectations. Be sure to TELL the prospect EXACTLY what to do!

If heathcare is perceived as a fundamental right, than people will ardently pursue its fulfillment. To some degree, they are correct in doing so, because the ultimate measure of fundamental rights derives from the rational basis of the individual. Unfortunately, the "rational" part has left by the roadside in this approach.

Canute has a bad rap these days. I read in Wikpedia the following:

Henry of Huntingdon, the 12th-century chronicler, tells how Cnut set his throne by the sea shore and commanded the tide to halt and not wet his feet and robes; but the tide failed to stop. According to Henry, Cnut leapt backwards and said "Let all men know how empty and worthless is the power of kings, for there is none worthy of the name, but He whom heaven, earth, and sea obey by eternal laws." He then hung his gold crown on a crucifix, and never wore it again.

Unlike modern rulers, he got the point on the first try. He's head-and-shoulders a better empiricist (and thus, economist) thank the DC Boys these days.

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economics Canute

Civilization is a Drag, man.

One of the eternal gifts of the Baby Boomers is the conviction that civilization is a drag. Combined with the perpetual desire never to grow up, the Rousseauvians have gone old and soft in the belly, still convinced of their eternal role of the Chosen Generation. As they stumble into the history books along with every generation, their epitaph grows longer.

WAR, actually, is a thrilling and primitive way to bang the drum and roll in the mud, release one's Inner Hominid and generally having a good time. Some of the other cultures seem to object to this, because war causes people to get real dead.

John Galt was always a drag; John Bradshaw and Iron John, effete; let's go John Wayne. Embrace illusory masculinity. The macho keyboard commando vows - SURRENDER IS NOT AN OPTION! But in fact, during wartime, surrender is everywhere. The only ones who will not run are those who have not gone to fight in the first place.