--- /dev/null
+---
+postid: 067
+title: Brazil
+date: October 7, 2017
+author: Lucian Mogoșanu
+tags: video
+---
+
+<p style="text-align: right">
+*I hereby inform you, under powers entrusted to me under section 47,
+paragraph 7 of council order number 438476,
+that Mr. Buttle, Archibald, residing at 412 North Tower, Shangrila Towers,
+has been invited to assist the Ministry of Information with certain inquiries,
+and that he is liable to certain financial obligations
+as specified in council order RB/CZ/907/X. Sign here, please.*</p>
+
+<p style="text-align: right">
+*What would you like for Christmas?*
+*My own credit card.*</p>
+
+Brazil depicts *to the letter* the utopian society as imagined by the
+modern Western socialist beast, which in turn, and seemingly
+paradoxically, makes it your average dystopia, as previously described
+by authors such as [Zamyatin][we], Huxley, Orwell, Burgess, Vonnegut,
+Dick, Kafka and many others. So what's so special about it, then?
+
+Special about it is that Brazil represents Terry Gilliam's[^1] own view
+of this dystopian society. But let's not get ahead of ourselves, the
+story is very typical of such works: boy lives in a shitty, properly
+[Soviet][soviet] place, without any aspirations of his own[^2]; boy is
+haunted by dreams which get him in love with girl; boy meets girl; boy
+gets in trouble; boy gets his head under Soviet boot. Yes, that is all
+there is to the story, yet in my opinion what makes the movie worth
+sitting through is not the story, but all the little ornaments sprinkled
+here and there in very good taste.
+
+More precisely, I wasn't kidding when I said that "the utopian society
+as imagined by the modern Western socialist beast" is depicted to the
+letter. Gilliam's vision of the future was entirely accurate, in that
+the vast majority of items [marketed][marketing] to you as innovative,
+progressive, etc. in the year 2017 were identified as the shit they are
+in the year 1985. As in Brazil, freedoms are doublespoken and distorted
+employing the "human rights" placeholder; either at home or at work,
+"the people" live like cattle, in small boxes where they are constantly
+fed soulless propaganda under the guise of "being more connected";
+technology "works", except it doesn't; every activity is
+[thoroughly regulated][greenspan], so much that regulation stands in the
+way of actual business; actual business is deemed "terrorism", with the
+exception of state-approved terrorists, who will actually destroy you
+with your best interest in mind. And so the story goes on and on, ad
+nauseam.
+
+Throughout the movie runs a light, jocular atmosphere, sometime crossing
+into the dream-like surrealism -- is this a dream, or is it real? the
+viewer is left wondering. By the end, the line between dream and reality
+is drawn clearly, leaving us with the same crushed individual and the
+same crushingly incompetent horde of bureaucrats running the joint. To
+be honest, I'm completely unsatisfied with this "find refuge in your
+imagination" narrative (borrowed from Orwell, most likely), at least as
+long as technology is still accessible to those smart enough[^3] to do
+things with it.
+
+Word has it that two other of Gilliam's films, 12 Monkeys and The Zero
+Theorem, are made roughly in the same style. Might be, but until those,
+I think it's worth giving this one a good view.
+
+[^1]: You might know him from his work with the Monty Pythons.
+
+[^2]: Good thing he has other people to aspire for him, namely the
+ Mother-figure, which incidentally is the proper representation of
+ Orwell's so-called Big Brother. Let us quote:
+
+ > **Mother**: Sam, it's time for you to grow up and accept
+ > responsibility. Your poor father would be appalled at your lack of
+ > promotion. Ooh!
+ > **Sam**: Mother, I just wish you would stop interfering! I don't
+ > want promotion. I'm happy where I am.
+ > **Mother**: No, you're not. Jack Lint is a lesson to you. He
+ > doesn't have your brains, but he's got the ambition. You haven't
+ > got the ambition. Luckily, you've got me and the deputy
+ > minister. Mr. Helpmann was very close to your father.
+ > **Doctor**: Now please, Mrs. Lowry. Don't get upset. Mr. Lowry,
+ > please wait in reception. You're giving her wrinkles.
+
+ So you see, much despite hypocritical claims to the contrary, the
+ boy gets the chance to "promote" the way "promotion" worked in all
+ times and places, which is via his WoT. However, he correctly
+ intuits that his "promotion" means in fact nothing, that it's all a
+ <del>very</del>not-so cleverly concocted story luring him into
+ becoming a fungible cog in the "we" machine.
+
+ The moral? Scavengry is an [honest trade][building-business], unlike
+ turd polishing, shit peddling, etc., whatever's fashionable this
+ decade. That's why Harry Tuttle is a <del>hero</del>terrorist and
+ Jack Lint isn't.
+
+[^3]: I don't know if you understand the depth of this point, so let me
+ elaborate.
+
+ Yes, technology is important and "has disrupted" many things, ever
+ since the beginning of the industrial revolution, and up until
+ today. More importantly though, technology has since the stone age
+ and until today been a tool of oppression, and it will be continue
+ to be this way for as long as the human race exists, and the more
+ the technology will improve, the more oppressed "the people" will
+ be, hence the entire so-called dystopian derping of 20th century
+ writers. No, technology isn't here to "make the world a better
+ place", it does not "empower" you, and there is nothing you can do
+ to avoid this simple fact.
+
+ However, there has been a short period of time, beginning roughly at
+ the end of the '80s and ending roughly now, in which "the people",
+ that is, "the middle class", could build their own technology, say,
+ out of transistors, and say, by making use of their personal
+ computers. This for a very few decades rendered collectivist
+ thinking obsolete and thus gave ordinary people control over very
+ limited territory. You see, "the people" were suddenly empowered,
+ but because of their natural stupidity they could not acknowledge
+ nor could they find any meaningful use of their power. Hence the
+ system rebalanced to give "the people" "[mobile][android]" and
+ "[cloud][cloud]" and whatnot, and now you won't be able to return to
+ the golden age when you could do whatever you liked with "your"
+ technology, because you couldn't seize that opportunity. In short,
+ no, you just ain't smart enough fo' that kind of shiz.
+
+ And thus, as ever, you are left with
+ [hallucinated choice][hallucinated]. So, pray tell, what the fuck
+ did you think I've been preaching on this piece of virtual paper for
+ the last four years or so? Yes, Stallman is a nutcase, I'm not far
+ off, and who the fuck are you?
+
+[we]: /posts/y02/04b-we.html
+[soviet]: http://btcbase.org/log-search?q=soviet
+[building-business]: /posts/y01/028-building-business-or-why-gypsies-are-smarter-than-romanians.html
+[marketing]: /posts/y02/043-on-the-failure-of-marketing.html
+[greenspan]: /posts/y03/062-greenspan-assault-on-integrity.html
+[android]: /posts/y02/03f-android-the-bad-and-the-ugly.html
+[cloud]: /posts/y02/041-cloud-software-is-unreliable-ii.html
+[hallucinated]: http://trilema.com/2017/the-practical-costs-of-hallucinated-freedom
--- /dev/null
+---
+postid: 068
+title: The story of the citadel on the hill, by a thicket
+date: November 11, 2017
+author: Lucian Mogoșanu
+tags: in the flesh, storytime
+---
+
+Once upon a time, somewhere near a small sea,
+
+<a href="/uploads/2017/11/citadel-01.jpg"> <img align="middle"
+class="thumb" src="/uploads/2017/11/citadel-01-thumb.jpg"> </a>
+
+on a hill, bordering a thicket surrounding an even smaller village,
+
+<a href="/uploads/2017/11/citadel-02.jpg"> <img align="middle"
+class="thumb" src="/uploads/2017/11/citadel-02-thumb.jpg"> </a>
+
+there lay a mighty [citadel][young-boy].
+
+<a href="/uploads/2017/11/citadel-03.jpg"> <img align="middle"
+class="thumb" src="/uploads/2017/11/citadel-03-thumb.jpg"> </a>
+
+Its walls were high,
+
+<a href="/uploads/2017/11/citadel-04.jpg"> <img align="middle"
+class="thumb" src="/uploads/2017/11/citadel-04-thumb.jpg"> </a>
+
+capable of withstanding attacks coming from both land and sea -- and
+that it did, during the worst of times.
+
+During the best of times, it had been part of Most Serene Republics,
+small states and Empires. It was a place of good tidings, quite
+literally a place of new ones -- a place of trade, but also defended by
+the men of old against invaders, a task which today's so-called men
+would deem herculean.
+
+Now there remain only ruins,
+
+<a href="/uploads/2017/11/citadel-05.jpg"> <img align="middle"
+class="thumb" src="/uploads/2017/11/citadel-05-thumb.jpg"> </a>
+
+<a href="/uploads/2017/11/citadel-06.jpg"> <img align="middle"
+class="thumb" src="/uploads/2017/11/citadel-06-thumb.jpg"> </a>
+
+a patch of grass yet green in the face of a bare November light
+
+<a href="/uploads/2017/11/citadel-07.jpg"> <img align="middle"
+class="thumb" src="/uploads/2017/11/citadel-07-thumb.jpg"> </a>
+
+and a lonely cloud, casting its shade across the land.
+
+<a href="/uploads/2017/11/citadel-08.jpg"> <img align="middle"
+class="thumb" src="/uploads/2017/11/citadel-08-thumb.jpg"> </a>
+
+[young-boy]: /posts/y03/04c-young-boy-brave-man-old-man-hermeticae.html
projects / thetarpit.git / commitdiff
