Occupy Occupy Occupy.

Here's a roundup of Occupy Links I might want at some point later:

The Revolution, live.

On the subject of The Books.

The Feed, updating.

You don't really have to ask whether or not I am in support of this whole thing, do you? When I have kids, I want them to know that this happened, and that I was for it. I'll probably be ashamed, on some levels, that I wasn't there, in zucotti park, with everyone else.

Trinity Church's article.

Now I go to do some thinking.

Important Reminders

Why People Don't Change Their Minds, Facts or Not: a study.

Important for me to remember, and everyone.

On Plutocracy, Anarchy, and bitterness.

If Socialist is going to be a bad word, I want Objectivist to be a word at least as bad. Objectivist and Plutocrat should be synonymous with Anarchist, in the way that I see conservative blogs conflating Socialism and Fascism. Yeah, Dichotomy. Yeah, how the worm turns. But look here-- we have right-wingers shredding government past the point of Monarchy-- who wants monarchs? No one. And they're managing to skirt around Fascism even, except in the case of religious politics, because a non-secular government can't help it. One Faith = One Party is kind of... accidentally mandatory. But that's another shade of teal deer.

I am here today because I am bitter as all hell. The tear-down of government-- as a tyrant, as restrictive, as evil and thieving-- angers me deeply. Who is making this argument? Would-be Plutocrats who are convincing those of us who are a little-bit successful that the Government is trying to rule and run our lives for us.

No, not ours. Yours. Why? Because you can afford to run our lives, and Government is there to stop you. So what do you do? You forment near-anarchy, because you know you'll be able to buy your way out of it. You're plugging for the pure economic tyranny of the USSR, except instead of the State, wealth and the Plutocrat will be revered. You are holding up as an idol the spectre of "Success".

I don't think that word means what you want us to think it means.

Anyway. I need to make another post here-- a personal link list of Andelku's posts about The Hedgehog.

You'll understand when you see.

i r srs politiks-wank.

The Problem of the moderate political philosophy is that it is, by necessity, tl;dr. That is to say, the moderate position cannot (or can rarely) be reduced to a soundbite or catchphrase-- you can't sum up, in two lines, a position which has to take into account the positions of both sides, extract the best, discard the worst, qualify where appropriate, define one's warrants (and possibly those of the Others), and then explain where it all came from and why one arranged it as one did-- provide context, as it were-- before one ever comes to a conclusion. And the moderate conclusion is, to paraphrase the poet, rarely neat, and never simple.

Which is why no one ever wants to listen to us. We ramble, we rant-- but we go on too long and half of the listeners don't understand a damn thing that was said.

Nonetheless, that is the purpose here. It is I, das Kainenchen, and my wankish, rambling, tl;dr politiksish opinions for the world to skip over and not actually read. Sometimes extreme sounding, always-- so I hope-- at least somewhat considered. But imho, being a moderate is not always about being a wishy-washy, middling compromiser. It is about also bending both ends around to where they meet at the extremes and get themselves tied in nasty-fun knots.

That's what I like to do.