From: Lucian Mogosanu Date: Sat, 11 Nov 2017 17:00:12 +0000 (+0200) Subject: posts: 067, 068 X-Git-Tag: v0.10~5 X-Git-Url: https://git.mogosanu.ro/?a=commitdiff_plain;h=afe825242eab816283f1c425bba0f9fef63f425a;p=thetarpit.git posts: 067, 068 --- diff --git a/posts/y04/067-brazil.markdown b/posts/y04/067-brazil.markdown new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9215e35 --- /dev/null +++ b/posts/y04/067-brazil.markdown @@ -0,0 +1,139 @@ +--- +postid: 067 +title: Brazil +date: October 7, 2017 +author: Lucian Mogoșanu +tags: video +--- + +

+*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.*

+ +

+*What would you like for Christmas?* +*My own credit card.*

+ +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 + verynot-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 heroterrorist 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 diff --git a/posts/y04/068-the-story-of-the-citadel.markdown b/posts/y04/068-the-story-of-the-citadel.markdown new file mode 100644 index 0000000..395f351 --- /dev/null +++ b/posts/y04/068-the-story-of-the-citadel.markdown @@ -0,0 +1,56 @@ +--- +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, + + + +on a hill, bordering a thicket surrounding an even smaller village, + + + +there lay a mighty [citadel][young-boy]. + + + +Its walls were high, + + + +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 patch of grass yet green in the face of a bare November light + + + +and a lonely cloud, casting its shade across the land. + + + +[young-boy]: /posts/y03/04c-young-boy-brave-man-old-man-hermeticae.html diff --git a/uploads/2017/11/citadel-01-thumb.jpg b/uploads/2017/11/citadel-01-thumb.jpg new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e6d0c0b Binary files /dev/null and b/uploads/2017/11/citadel-01-thumb.jpg differ diff --git a/uploads/2017/11/citadel-01.jpg b/uploads/2017/11/citadel-01.jpg new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d6b74fd Binary files /dev/null and b/uploads/2017/11/citadel-01.jpg differ diff --git a/uploads/2017/11/citadel-02-thumb.jpg b/uploads/2017/11/citadel-02-thumb.jpg new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2d68036 Binary files /dev/null and b/uploads/2017/11/citadel-02-thumb.jpg differ diff --git a/uploads/2017/11/citadel-02.jpg b/uploads/2017/11/citadel-02.jpg new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f9b6ac2 Binary files /dev/null and b/uploads/2017/11/citadel-02.jpg differ diff --git a/uploads/2017/11/citadel-03-thumb.jpg b/uploads/2017/11/citadel-03-thumb.jpg new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c899fb8 Binary files /dev/null and b/uploads/2017/11/citadel-03-thumb.jpg differ diff --git a/uploads/2017/11/citadel-03.jpg b/uploads/2017/11/citadel-03.jpg new file mode 100644 index 0000000..44f4a1a Binary files /dev/null and b/uploads/2017/11/citadel-03.jpg differ diff --git a/uploads/2017/11/citadel-04-thumb.jpg b/uploads/2017/11/citadel-04-thumb.jpg new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2ab8799 Binary files /dev/null and b/uploads/2017/11/citadel-04-thumb.jpg differ diff --git a/uploads/2017/11/citadel-04.jpg b/uploads/2017/11/citadel-04.jpg new file mode 100644 index 0000000..65ed206 Binary files /dev/null and b/uploads/2017/11/citadel-04.jpg differ diff --git a/uploads/2017/11/citadel-05-thumb.jpg b/uploads/2017/11/citadel-05-thumb.jpg new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c291648 Binary files /dev/null and b/uploads/2017/11/citadel-05-thumb.jpg differ diff --git a/uploads/2017/11/citadel-05.jpg b/uploads/2017/11/citadel-05.jpg new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5144407 Binary files /dev/null and b/uploads/2017/11/citadel-05.jpg differ diff --git a/uploads/2017/11/citadel-06-thumb.jpg b/uploads/2017/11/citadel-06-thumb.jpg new file mode 100644 index 0000000..600a9ee Binary files /dev/null and b/uploads/2017/11/citadel-06-thumb.jpg differ diff --git a/uploads/2017/11/citadel-06.jpg b/uploads/2017/11/citadel-06.jpg new file mode 100644 index 0000000..fa34a66 Binary files /dev/null and b/uploads/2017/11/citadel-06.jpg differ diff --git a/uploads/2017/11/citadel-07-thumb.jpg b/uploads/2017/11/citadel-07-thumb.jpg new file mode 100644 index 0000000..89d3d4c Binary files /dev/null and b/uploads/2017/11/citadel-07-thumb.jpg differ diff --git a/uploads/2017/11/citadel-07.jpg b/uploads/2017/11/citadel-07.jpg new file mode 100644 index 0000000..11a9526 Binary files /dev/null and b/uploads/2017/11/citadel-07.jpg differ diff --git a/uploads/2017/11/citadel-08-thumb.jpg b/uploads/2017/11/citadel-08-thumb.jpg new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e5eaf09 Binary files /dev/null and b/uploads/2017/11/citadel-08-thumb.jpg differ diff --git a/uploads/2017/11/citadel-08.jpg b/uploads/2017/11/citadel-08.jpg new file mode 100644 index 0000000..218b344 Binary files /dev/null and b/uploads/2017/11/citadel-08.jpg differ