Big Brother vs the First Amendment | Establishing Secure Communications - Part 4/4

••• today's entry continues here below •••

Along these lines, I conducted an interesting thought-experiment. Say you knew .. that you would get your ass kicked .. but you also knew that it was the right thing .. would you still do it?

What if you knew you would probably die trying?

If you do not have the time to read this title (dodging drones and whatnot), Dostoevsky's response to the Utopian Socialists can be found here:

"And where did all these sages get the idea that man needs some moral, some virtuous wanting? What made them imagine that what man needs is a reasonably profitable wanting? Man needs only independent wanting, whatever this independence costs, and wherever it may lead."

Interesting, no? Given the updated age in which we live.

[ Does not Lenin have a piercing gaze? "Comrade, tell me. Where were you last night? Answer carefully." ]

Speaking of listening to prophetic voices from the past .. regarding MLK's tone here .. does it remind you of what Dostoevsky said at the conclusion of Notes from Underground ..

» I'm trying hard, "But they wont let me be .. good."

I hear that Dostoevsky was master of tonalities .. that he broke new ground there.

But tones are often dependent upon cultures to give them their distinctive rings .. which can be lost in translations between such different cultures. So you kinda have to tap into his spirit. Feel him.

Note that » Notes from Underground is a » compare-n-contrast (mostly contrast) ..

.. a rather sharp contrast ..

.. of the ideas/culture/mindset (.. "climates of opinions") in Russia .. of the 1840's (literary, sentimental) .. with those of the 1860's (rational, utilitarian).

Dostoevsky wrote (and published) the novel in two parts (January & April 1864). He actually begins with the later half .. the 1860's. Then he finishes with the earlier years (1840s).

What makes the novel so powerful .. is that he actually embodies the spirit of these ages .. by showing the reader both what he has become (in the 1860's) .. and how he got that way (by embracing the foreign ideas and influences of the 1840's).

I read this as Dostoevsky saying, "Dude, your values suk."

He says [ my own words/interpretation ], "Dude, I completely embraced your values and your imported culture, and look what happened to me. This is why your values suk."

You might say it this way » "Dude, look at me. I am all fucked up. And it's YOUR values that fucked me up."

The image I get here from Dostoevsky is .. one of an artist, merely holding out his pen, stationary.. and letting the platform-of-the-culture move him around ..

.. for two decades .. and Fyodor saying (as the portrait materializes, as the story unfolds), "Look at this. Look at picture that I paint when I did everything your way. This is precisely why your cultural values suck."

But, to say to dominant culture » "Dude, your values suk" .. this presents a challenge, no? A confrontation.

But .. if we do NOT stand up and challenge shitty values .. do we not (implicitly) condone (or even encourage) those shitty values?

There is a yin-yang (flip-side) to Dostoevsky's response that I quoted above, which resides in the word » independent.

I thought about that for a while, for a few days, and I think what he is saying is that .. we all need to get OUR OWN "wanting" ..

.. which is really nothing new. Tho it seems men frequently need to be reminded.

Right now I am sure that you are well aware of the (sharp) contrast between your inner voice-of-wanting saying one thing vs that outer voice-of-wanting .. saying something different. Vastly different.

By the way, the cover image from the Everyman Library copy of Notes from Underground (1993) .. comes from another painting by Géricault .. one named » Portrait of a Young Man.

How thoroughly apropos (.. of far more than just the Wet Snow).

After Notes from Underground, came Crime & Punishment (.. to part-of-which, at least, I'm sure you can relate).

I would, of course, recommend » Kafka's The Trail. Le Monde ranks it the 3rd best novel of the century. "Shoo! Shoo you bad neuroses! Scat!"

They say » madness is a condition of emotional stress, short of insanity, caused by the inability to handle mentation.

So you want to continue to consider things carefully.

Next year will mark the novel's 100-year anniversary (.. written in 1914).

And here are two promises .. that I'm sure you can use. I have already op-tested them .. check sat.

Scripture says .. that the man who "does what is right" .. is welcome. And when God welcomes you .. I would imagine that none of the others really matter very much.

If I were judge, I would say you (definitely) did the right thing. And I know that I'm not the only one who feels that way. Not hardly. The list continues to grow and grow.

Obviously, the government has other ideas .. as to what would represent the "right thing" to do (.. as I'm sure does Jerry Sandusky also).

Vaya con dios, amigo.

I would like to apologize, on behalf of my generation, for leaving such a shitty fiscal turnover. (We are working on a remedy.)

It has become clear that your generation is going to have to set the bar higher. Much higher.

Uno mas cosa. I dont know how you feel about the fact .. that Bolivia is where they killed Che Guevara. Ernesto.

I read somewhere that the image of Che Guevara was the single most reproduced image on the entire planet. Ever. From time immemorial.

Boy, it is hard to keep up with your life. Warp speed. Tho it seems like you are in good hands.

I have long loved Nicaraguan coffee. It's one of my favorites (.. after Ethiopian Sidamo). Try the espresso with a twist of lemon .. like the Italians do it.

Tho I posses no first-hand experience to confirm .. I have heard, from multiple sources, who I trust ..

.. that those Ukraine girls are among the world's finest. They really knock you out.

This article says that your Russian lawyer, Anatoly Kucherena, has brought you ( "in a large paper bag" ) a copy of Crime and Punishment. That is too cool.

Hopefully he brought you a copy of the Pevear translation. If not, I would be happy to send you mine. I have the paperback, which seems to be selling briskly, still.

If I just send it to the Sheremetyevo airport there iin Moscow, I'm sure it would get to you. Most Russians feel that the Constance Garnet translation makes them vomit.

Dostoevsky was BORN in Moscow. Crime and Punishment is set in St. Petersburg. Dostoevsky lived there for years. A Western-style city. His grave is also there, so you will want to check it out.

Learning new things slows down the perceived passage of time. Live long and prosper (.. beyond just the dollars and the roubles).

I remember when I started reading Crime and Punishment .. sitting under in the shade of old olive tree in the plaza just outside my favorite (but noisy) coffee shop.

Every other paragraph, it seemed, would find me setting down the book on my lap and saying, "Wow," ..

.. because I had just read something so _______ (« word? mind-blowing?) ..

.. that I needed to stop-n-think about what I had just read .. for a minute or two before I went on.

Ideas to which I had never been exposed .. but to which I could immedately see the insights they contained.

I tried to read Crime and Punishment back when I was younger, but it did not resonate then.

The story, I suspect, can be difficult to relate to for the person who has not yet experienced deep personal (soul-fucking) anguish and torment.

You will rarely find a copy of Crime and Punishment in the hands of the person who is floating down the river-of-life on flowery beds of ease. Yes, you are still young, but I don't think you'll have that problem (.. unable to relate to Raskolnikov).

I have always enjoyed reading books about a particular area WHILE I AM THERE .. in that area, in that place. Because it makes your stay there SO MUCH RICHER.

For example, I started reading Mitchner's novel » Hawaii .. on the plane from New York to Hawaii (via San Francisco). Later I read Chespeake, not long after arriving in Pennsylvania.

Raskolnikov is a thoughtful young man .. which, I suspect, is one of the reasons why Anatoly picked it for you. And Chekhov .. so rich.

The Russians bring a formidable team to the World Literature games. Superlatives abound. They kick much ass .. and make it look easy.

Certainly literature is subject to personal preference, but the Russians line up behind no one. And they are no stranger to suffering.

In Moveable Feast (originally pub 1964, exactly 100 years after Notes from Underground), Hemingway says this in his chapter titled » Evan Shipman at the Lilas:

"From the day I had found Silvia Beach's library, I had read all of Turgenev, what had been published in English of Gogol, and the Constance Garnett translations of Tolstoy, and all the English translations of Chekhov.

To have come on this new world of writing, with time to read in a city like Paris, where there was a way of living well and working, no matter how poor you were, was like having a great treasure given to you."

Hemingway talks about taking this "great treasure" with him to the mountains of Austria in winter, when Paris got ugly. He concludes this section by saying:

" .. and at night you could live in the other wonderful world the Russian writers were giving you. At first there were the Russians; then there were all the others. But for a long time there were [only] the Russians."

» Culture Shift of the Disillusioned

There is a cultural shift going on today ..

.. as the generation of Ozzie & Harriet dies out, the self-deluded generation (.. who are all about the money) ..

.. the generation that seems more interested in comfort and even luxury .. than in doing what is right. 

The culture embraced by the generation that values profit$ above people, profits above honor .. profits above pretty-much everything .. placing profits above even children.

"The only thing that matters," they say, "is how it looks." [ Maintain the illusion .. at all cost$. ]

The generation of window-dresssers. Expert window-dressers.

It has become clear why the values embraced by this sinking culture suk so badly. Painfully clear .. especially to the youth of our nation.

"Long as it looks good on the outside, then it doesnt much matter how ugly the inside."

Update » I just saw Krugman's piece titled » Hunger Games, USA. Wow. July 14th. Note the date. Does not his entry smack of something transcendent? I cannot (yet) put my finger on it.

Love him or hate him, you can be sure Paul will speak his [ Nobel Prize-winning, Princeton University ] mind .. fearlessly.

I was most struck by his final sentence » "I don't fully understand it, but it's a terrible thing to behold."

That sentence seemed to echo in my mind .. long after I had closed the browser window.

I mean, if a Nobel-prize winning professor at Princeton can't understand it, then who can?

I guess it is true what they say .. that actions really do speak louder (.. than mere words).

And Edsall gets ugly .. only a few days later. Cassidy also has something to say. Even Egan has had enough.

What do you call it .. when the Right goes wrong? </update>

See .. we-the-people LEARNED THINGS .. from the financial collapse of 2008. And this is what we learned » that our government [ "OF the people, BY the people, and FOR the people") ..

.. is really concerned with and primarily about the wealthy.

Which is why .. coming to replace the outgoing generation .. and it cultural values based primarily on profit [.. regardless of how those profits might come ] ..

.. and appearances [.. regardless of what ugliness those appearances might hide] .. is the Generation of the Disillusioned.

And they have arrived.

Values .. are the things around which a culture lives and breathes. The values of the outgoing culture have run their course. And these values arent working for the next generation.

Today's youth, more than anyone, can see the end-game repercussions of these (screw-the-youth) values.

Does it not seem obvious (.. to even the most casual of observers) .. that the Arriving Generation (AG) .. does not have the same values ..

.. as those of the Out-Going Generation (OGG)?

» Values Wrapped in Words & Actions

See .. one of the debates surrounding the Snowden revelations .. is (naturally) over terminology » whistleblower vs leaker ..

.. and in trying to steer the conversation .. with the "unhelpful" Hero-vs-Traitor (.. see t=7:45 ].

[ Uh, she is here, too [ at t=10:30 ]. Jesselyn. Wow. A pit bull in high heels.

And she smiles, too .. like she enjoys it.

If I were a Government official trying to do sneaky unconstitutional shit .. I would not want her sniffing around .. not with those burn-a-hole-in-your-head eyes. =)

If I was gonna pick someone .. to drive the wooden stake of vengeance into Big Brother's heart ..

.. uh, that would be my girl.

Better yet » a stiletto heel .. straight to the eyeball of the Panopticon Cyclops ..

.. with a Constitutionally-reinforced stiletto.

Buy her a shot of Stoli for me. ]

Beyond the visuals we get from the term » 'whistleblower,' I see Mr. Snowden more as » a flashlight. Shining a spotlight on some ugly Orwellian shit.

There is Big Fucking Brother himself .. wiping his ass with the Bill-of-Rights .. as Thomas Paine weeps.

Notice how differently I have framed the debate » Big Brother vs the First Amendment. That is a much better contrast. And far more respresentative of the revelations .. certainly from the People's perspective, wouldnt you say? (I certainly would.)

Tho admittedly, the Snowden revelations came AFTER I posted this entry .. which is why it grew so large, and why I needed to break it into TWO parts (.. soon to be THREE. Uh, now FOUR. Make it stop! ).

I derived that title solely from earlier revelations .. about the Justice Dept + Holder secretly wiretapping AP + Fox News reporters.

The whole topic [ of secret government shit doing stuff contrary to the Bill of Rights ] exploded with Snowden .. and my entry snowballed.

» The Zeitgeist-i-ness of the Organic Entry

A similar thing happened to (with) my post-Newtown » Dostoevsky entry. The zeitgeist in today's entry however, seems even more relevant. No?

I normally try to break up the larger entries into smaller ones, which are easier to manage, and can be better tuned for search engines ..

.. unless something tells me not to. But I can see how "tearing apart" something that was formed-together .. into two separate parts .. could be considered terribly inorganic.

As it applies to ideas .. the notion of 'organic' means to me .. letting (allowing) concepts to form on their own .. as best I am able (self-honesty req'd) ..

.. without having to cram or force a hypocritical square into an obviously round moral position ..

.. and just sit back and see what gives .. when I give it an honest look. Let it form on its own.

I got the idea for this concept (or organic honesty) from the Bug .. by watching the things he would say .. the things that would come out of his mouth. And things that he would do.

Kids are as kids do. And nothing do they do more .. than » be honest.

[ If you LET THEM, or course. If you LET THEM .. be themselves.

And not try to repress them. And not coerce them into conforming to a parental view of the world. A parental perspective. Before they are ready. ]

The Aaron entry was more timely in the sense that it (the suicide) occurred on the very same day. .. as my Dostoevsky entry.

I posted today's entry on May 23rd, and the Snowden story broke on June 6th .. exactly two weeks to-the-day.

[ It normally takes me a while to dial-in an entry .. after I publish the initial idea/topic that I plan to persue. ]

Snowden's revelations reveal how the government has been using the FOURTH amendment (.. whereas my title says the FIRST) ..

.. to wipe things such as drips of black motor oil off their garage floor .. and whatnot off of things we-won't-say.

I would bet that a closer look into the remaining few rights that we still have .. have been similarly sullied.

So perhaps I should have waited two weeks .. before posting today's entry. Or maybe I should rename today's entry » Big Brother vs the Whole Fucking Bill of Rights.

» Trust and the Steering Wheel of the Organic Entry

It may be off-topic, but I would like to briefly discuss the dynamics of the organic (authentic) entry .. as per my experience.

The biggest downside to the organic entry .. is that it is » 'scary' (« not the right word, but you get the gist).

By that I mean » you have to give up 'control' (« again, not the right word) .. to surrender control .. to LET something else take over the steering wheel, so to speak.

For someone who was trained to always have 100% control over the nuclear steering wheel .. this relinquishing is not as easy as it might seem.

With the organic entry .. you surrender control, so to speak .. and LET the entry GO WHERE IT WANTS to go.

I liken this feeling to faith, which is trusting God and particularly his promises. Because .. whether you are trusting in God, or in your own intuitive, creative impulses .. it can still be a challenge ..

.. especially for the person who prefers to drive the ship-of-his-life with both hands planted firmly on the steering wheel.

Because you have to operate in a different way, using a different paradigm. You have to shift the tracks of your train over to an alternate route.

The feeling is » you don't know what's coming (down the track) nor do you know where it's going. That can be a terrifying feeling for some people.

I mean, yes, you know the general direction, but that is all. You never imagine the back alleys your route will take. You only know that it won't be the way you think .. it will be.

The general direction of today's entry » How our goverment is morphing into Big Fucking Brother right before our very eyes.

But my experience has been .. that these organic entries .. are always better than I could do myself. Waay better.

Because you discover that .. while YOU may not know where your creative intuition is going .. IT DOES.

Sometimes I will try to steer an antry in a certain direction, but it simply will not go. And other times, you follow your intuition down a strange path .. only to see how wonderfully it turned out.

Better than you could have ever planned yourself. And that's all I'll say for now on that topic.

» Trust Us & Bend Over | We Know What's Best for You

Regarding Snowden's revelations, the government clearly has a problem ..

.. because we-the-people (obviously) cannot have an informed discussion .. about how much surveillance is 'reasonable' ..

.. about what exactly would represent an 'unreasonable' amount .. if we dont know. When we're not 'informed'. When we're left out in the dark. Out in the cold. Clueless.

"Trust us," will not work. We lost that back in 2008, dawg. And we've seen nothing that leads us to believe that anything has changed since.

Tho this is an eyebrow-raiser, because I heard (somewhere) that Jon was 'protected' by Clinton (Bill).

If it really is/was not 'criminal,' like Gasparino says, (.. which probably doesnt surprise anybody) but rather only 'stupid' .. then who's fault is that?

Here then is what I would say » when a black man walks out of a cornes 7-11 with six-pack tucked furtively under his muscular arm .. can't you see how that is also just being 'stupid'?

Only *less* stupid. A *LOT* less.

» Values, Conviction & Sacrifice

Yes, people will disagree and debate over the right-ness vs the wrong-ness of Snowden's revelations.

That is good. That is healthy. (Better than blithe ignorance we had before June 6th. Far better.)

Tho yes, ideally the dialogue would revolve around State Surveillance (beyond anything the Nazi's could ever have dreamed of) and the Triple-Top-Secret Courts.

But we're heading there.

No one however, will deny or argue .. that members of the younger generation .. obviously FEEL VERY STRONGLY ..

.. that the VALUES embraced by the older generation .. suk. A rejection of those values you might say.

One would have to FEEL VERY STRONGLY, wouldnt you say? .. to walk away from a $200K-a-year job in Paradise (Hawaii) and a beautiful girlfriend. No?

That is a lot to walk away from. How compelling a conviction one would need in order to make such a sacrifice .. would be difficult, I think, for the average American to comprehend.

Values that suk very badly .. especially regarding the choices and decisions that have been made .. decisions that clearly affect their generation .. in huge ways.

In at least one such instance, these objections-in-values .. were made on surprisingly constitutional grounds.

If there is one thing that we can say about Nazi Germany .. it is that the people seemed to be behind Hitler with one voice .. and few Germans were speaking out against his relentless infringement and revoking of the rights of the people.

Precious few. Does not Scripture Itself suggest .. that if you are thinking and doing and going the same way as the Large Mass of People .. then you're fucked?

Recall that Orwell wrote Nineteen Eighty-Four in 1949, which was AFTER Hitler died (in 1945, April 30).

George (d 1950) lived thru and with both Hitler and Stalin (d 1953).

We need more Americans who have the cojones to stand up and call bullshit on unrighteous (Amendment-trampling) bullshit. Not less.

They are all that stand between us and the compliance of Nazi Germany. [ Just ask the Dixie Chicks. I'm sure they would heartily concur. ]

So, when you get down on your knees tonight, you should thank God for Edward Snowden, and those like him ..

.. lest you be caught in a Nazi-style take-away of our rights .. when it's too late. (You still have a voice, dont you?)

The term 'hero' doesnt resonate for me when I think of Ed Snowden and what he has done .. unless you consider Thomas Paine a hero.

Like the Dixie Chicks & Angelina Jolie and countless other Americans, Snowden is a True American, who actually gives-a-fuck about his country, and about what is right.

And he is willing (obviously) to sacrifice .. to sacrifice it all .. for the country he loves. To me .. that kind of (true) Americanism goes beyond the definition of a 'hero'. Far beyond.

He does not see our country as merely a way to pad his own personal retirement account with Goldman Sachs.

He could be out at Makaha right now, with his beautiful girlfriend .. sitting around a crackling fire on the beach there .. roasting marshmellows and living large on $4K/week.

A better question me thinks » Is Snowden *just* a hero? Or did he just sacrifice his entire fucking life (.. a most-beautiful life, a most prosperous life, with a most-beautiful person) ..

.. to save your ass from a lifetime of Prismatic fucking .. by Big Fucking Brother?

Render your answer, and do not lie.

[ Or hey, maybe you're into that kind of voyeristic shit. To each his own.

(I knew this dude .. who knew this girl .. who was into that stuff. A very kinky girl. The kind you dont take home to mother.) ]

I feel that the Nobel committee should 'recall' Obama's Peace prize .. and give to Snowden. [ That's what I think. How's that for clarity? ]

The question I want to ask young Mr. Snowden » did Aaron have anything to do with it? (.. I heard you mention January)

» Luxury Liner vs Shabby RAFT

The painting that I used above comes from a work done in 1818 [.. same year that Shelley published his sonnet Ozymandias, when he was 25 years old ] ..

.. painted by a remarkably talented young man of 27 named Théodore Géricault (1791-1824), who died 40 years before Dostoevsky published Notes from Underground.

Théodore Géricault died when Dostoevsky was just 2 years old. So it seems they shared a small slice-of-time on this-here planet.

This painting that represents a real-life event. The tale behind the painting is most disturbing. But perhaps also telling. And maybe even instructive.

A tale where 150 people were set out to sea. On a RAFT. A shabby RAFT. To die.

All but 15 did. (Easier to kill, I guess.)

Does it not appear today .. that the older generation .. is setting out the younger generation .. on a RAFT of shabby construction?

To fend for themselves .. on the economic seas.

As my generation (the older generation) continues to consume all the quality materials .. for their own luxury liner.

And the longer we stay on this path, on this trajectory, the deeper the hole we dig ..

.. the harder, the more difficult it will be for our children to dig themselves out.

No?

I can only imagine .. what life will be like in these United States .. in sixteen (16) years [2029].

The greatest mathematician ever ran the numbers and says we're good to 2060, at best.

I can't help but wonder what Matt thinks. Oh, look. Here's a clue. ■

For more along these lines, here's a Google search preconfigured for the query » first amendment, another for » secret government DOJ subpoena, another for » george orwell, one for » big brother 1984, and lastly one for » establishing secure online communications.

Uno mas for » nsa prism.

You can analyze the HTML weight-profile of this web page » here.

Today's entry begins here » Big Brother vs the First Amendment | Establishing Secure Communications - Part 1/4.

Radified home

<intentional_moveable_type_bottom_spacer>