Personal Archaeology » Politics

I kept seeing goarmy.com commercials on television while watching the Discovery Channel… and they kept talking about being strong and army strong and all that business… well.

I came up with the following:

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Mine Evil Overlords Hath Deigned Me Worthy Of…

James Pyrich — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 23:37:37 +0000

A refund!

Oooh! And they will also send me a check or whatever for $600 as part of the Economic Stimulus Act of 2008!

Go ahead and take my money. You are committing evil by pointing a gun in my face and demanding my money, so go ahead and take it. You commit further evil by claiming that it’s my “duty.”

It’s not my “duty.” It’s your fucking gun in my face. It’s evil.

So go ahead and take it. You’re still evil.

The Narrative of the “Free Republic” by Stefan Molyneux

James Pyrich — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 22:05:00 +0000

The Narrative of the “Free Republic” by Stefan Molyneux

Read it!

Digg It!!

UPB: Validated

James Pyrich — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 15:44:20 +0000

The following is a review of Stefan Molyneux’s Universally Preferable Behavior – A Rational Proof of Secular Ethics:

The first time I read this book (UPB), I didn’t really “get” it. I mean, I saw the logic and the proof and thought, “Hey, that’s kind of neat.” I was not able to access the implications that the proof of this theory would have in my life and in the greater world.

I have since re-read UPB. While I still struggle with the full range of the implications for my life, I think I get it (certainly more now than I have before).

The null zone concept is brilliant as well as fascinating! I now have the image in my mind of a “null zone” being forcibly inserted between the “little truths” and the “Great Truths”, which disconnect abstraction from practice in the minds of individuals.

This alone ought to be enough to demonstrate to anybody why this is a multi-generational project. Once you’ve had abstractions forcibly disconnected from practice within your mind, it is a trek through the fires of ten thousand hells to reconnect them.

Also of incredible resonance to me is when Molyneux discusses the emergent properties of morality within society as opposed to the imposition of whim-based morality from a centralized authority. This is the fundamental “reversal” of intuition that either Dawkins or Dennett (I can’t remember quite where I read it) has described when it comes to the science of evolution; that life, the universe, and everything do not proceed from the top-down, but from the bottom-up. Complexity and order are emergent properties of matter over time, hence it makes sense that morality and social order are emergent properties of human society over time.

Eradicating that “null zone” within my own mind and becoming ever more aware of my top-down moral standards is the horrible, horrible consequence of UPB. The upside, however, is that if, one day, I have children… I will not inflict a “null zone” upon them and will equip them to be resistant to it!

I haven’t found any flaws. I think that Stefan Molyneux has done it.