harmful empowerment

I was thinking about the rise of structured shared knowledge becoming something less Aristotelian and more synaptic. I was wondering if, sometime in the not-too-distant future, our hive minds will systematically exterminate the human race - beginning, of course, with the advertisers, then moving on to the bloggers. And while I was washing my face, thinking about what would make some great blog fodder, unfortunately I came to staggering hault.

I spent the remainder of the evening in the cold bleak heart of the city, against the blowing a skingy wind that cuts to the very soul. It is in this dense bitterly cold fog that the moisture danced and sparkled in the streetlights. Divine sparks suddenly and spontaneously lit up deep in the network leading me to where I emote.

Stephen Harper, who would rather be right - at least in terms of his principles - visited Afghanistan just the other day where he pretty much unsheathed his knife for a so called 'just war' for Canada's role in international leadership. It boiled down to issues of taste and judgement for Canadians inside and outside of the country.

I'm not sure about the ‘cutting and running’ part of things, but it's certainly a direct attack on our own sanctity. The presence of blood, especially in situations where no blood should exist. Moreover, Mr. Harper voluntarily going about (and as a figure of speech) with blood on his clothing is culturally insane against Canadians and with once was, peacekeeping. Oh, there may be good reason for it, in some particular cases, but the default impression of onlookers can go before the fact that we’re technically overstepping the boundaries for what is said to be ‘only’ a representative situation of our capabilites.

All over the world, we’re left to ourselves with varying reactions ranging from bemused indifference to deep disgust, the ones in the Middle East are living with daily reminders that freedom's goods are for someone other than themselves. And that the use to which the West puts their 'freedom' is, by and large, to piss on their human rights, and this on top of taking their land, their resources, appropriating the cool bits of their cultures, co-opting their governments, shooting at them...

So it seems to be a stance of, "…our fight is okay, yours is offensive." In a modern Western gestalt, one simply can't make such an argument and be taken seriously. But a modern Western viewpoint isn't the only one operating in this conflict; there's also the viewpoint of ordinary public mess and then, instead of cleaning it up, we’re wallowing in it.

But I still think it's a social good and social duty to question limitations, and it's because of this that I can understand and acknowledge the viewpoint that holds this sort of thing is wrong and shouldn't be done. That's the heart of free expression, as I see it. Sometimes it's worth exactly what you pay for it, but even then, it's better than the alternative.