Re: Electronics - how to ruin a good hobby. A story with no morals...

Roger Lascelles wrote:

"Scott Stephens" <scottxs@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:C4udnR3wJ57Jf5DeRVn-iA@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Roger Lascelles wrote: 

I think it is very hard to have
a good discusson on a newsgroup, without misunderstandings, because it takes
a lot of time to craft a thoughtful, accurate reply.  I would have to tell
you about my life, so you know why I speak as I do.

Yes, you say one thing about your employer, and I make a metaphor with Hitler & Stalin! Did I provoke you to clarify?

Right now I have a bad headache from working very hard for my boss.  My code
just doesn't want to run today !

When does code ever *want* to run? My code seems to have a malevolent will to frustrate me, as if *Murphy* was inside it. I think that is common. Christians attribute it to *Original Sin*, God cursing us. No, its our finite minds. Our consciousness manages finite amounts of high-level abstraction. Our subconscious levels un-lossless encode the lower abstractions. When we replay our cartoon-like dreams on the reality of our real computers, we are introduced to the cruel reality of reality.

But we get smarter, faster and stronger. Just as muscles are exercised by weights, so are minds exercised by conceptual integrations, regurgitations and reiterations.

I hear anger, experience, wisdom in what you say. 

Do you hear information crunching into an organized conceptual framework?

My situation is this :  my health is poor, so I only work a part week. To
pay the rent on the house, I have increased my work hours to more than I can
handle, so I am fatigued and my brain doesn't work properly.  I can't stop
work, because the government will not class me as sick enough.  I have a
wife and two children dependant on me.

I'm sorry if you feel I insulted you, I don't know your plight. I have nothing more valuable to lose than my freedom. Perhaps you have family and other values. Unlike most people that figure "we're all dead in the long run", I figure if I'm dead after some odd years, I ought to die servicing what values I am proud of, because that is better servicing what dishonors me for a longer span of years.

I try to avoid anger and bitterness.

Its only good if you can kick-ass effectively. Lobbing grenades and pissing people off unreasonably serves no good. Which is why I still respect the motives behind, if not the reasoning of religion. People mean well and are compassionate. And that counts. A kind, silly word helps more than a mean, wise one to many.

I haven't worked out the meaning of life or anything.

That's sad, because I'm convinced life's meaning is what the living chose to find meaningful. Yes, its a tautology, but as you know from 2nd order differential systems, its the nature of reality.

I think we are part of society - for good and bad.  The culture here in
Australia, like every culture, has some ugly aspects.  I have some too.  For
better or worse, the human race is my people - and your people.  Before we
can be heard by people we have to love them.

That is a philosophical issue I'm crunching. We start out as brutal savages, as in "Lord of the Flies". Nature teaches us wisdom, by painful object lesson. In grade school corruption is expressed at brute-force level, and as we progress, through lies, deceit, ridicule and delusion.

In adult-hood, we are playing political "games", corrupt schemes one gang uses to vote themselves the work of another gang.

I have an optimistic outlook, long-term. If the world wasn't evolving, we wouldn't have a democracy but dictatorship, we wouldn't organize past the level of savage tribes, we wouldn't stop roaming to hunt to create farms and track produce with money, we wouldn't have evolved from stupid animals or, at the end, atoms wouldn't have formed self-replicating systems.

Nature demands we behave on principle, not self-deceiving predators or prey.

Many business people have a drive for wealth and power

Wealth for what reason? Power for what cause? Go a level of abstraction, an integration of subsumed concepts deeper. Search out what wealth and power mean for those that seek them. Wealth and power are means to an end. Evil seeks them as values greater than the life which gives them meaning. The wise seek them as means to the living, which give them meaning.

The evil desire envy of others. The wise desire the love of the wise, and the fear of the wicked. Evil desires domination of others. Love desires others being the best they can be, the world being the best it can be, so the best values can be created and traded. The same in Objectivist or Christian morality (they diverge from this common ground). Other moral codes optimize other 'values'.

Would you take a regular pay-check from Adolf Hitler or Joey Stalin in a
death-factory?

That would be really bad. 

If you want an interesting opinion:

http://jeffcomp.com/faq/murder.html

On further reflection, I identify the essentials of geek and
business-predator:

Geek: A person that thinks social competency can replace either
brutality, deceit or popularity in a dishonest, rat-race culture.



For me, the Geek lacks social competency.  That is why he can't read "shark"
when he sees the predator.  I think that a balanced adult has a working
knowledge of people and can avoid the big cons and flare-ups.

I screwed that up! I meant but didn't type:
Geek: A person that thinks *technical* competency will be rewarded in an honest culture. But corrupt cultures reward brutality, deceit and popularity.

The only redeeming quality of this forum is it helps me identify the
precise nature and modus operandi of the evil corrupting the system.

I exaggerated in my despair. I often get useful technical information here. But the moral climate is dreadfully depraved. And creating better technology for evil people is evil.

Only a fool thinks they are good by doing good things for bad people.
The subconscious mind we rely on to identify and create eventually
becomes the means by which dishonest people undermine their own
motivation, as witnessed by Dave's personal problems.


I have never worked for a totally good person. Must I starve, therefore ?

No, I have concluded that the world, as I, am mixed. Sometimes evil, sometimes good, and incapable of acting on perfect principle. And even if I could, the imperfect corrupt culture I live in would turn my virtue against me into my destruction, as it has.

Neither Solomon, Buddha or Rand advocate self immolation in the name of perfection.

This is my wisdom: Deal with evil on your terms, not its terms. Deal with evil if you must, in spite of itself, not because you are buying its cheap, degrading excuses and lies it gives you to enslave you. Hate it and use it, as it hates you and uses you. Know A is A, know the truth and be free.

And my culture, by its choice to deceive me in my naive youth, has
chosen me as its prophet rather than its workman. So be it.

I might have said, as I often have, my employers and coworkers never desired my technical productivity, but rather desired social dominance at the cost of profits.

We seem to be able to adjust our point of view to favour our own
advantage.

This happens on the schoolyard playground, children calling each other false names, then denying the shame, pain and injustice.

  At least you have the gift of seeing what many will never know.

"Gift"? Sometimes I wonder if the pathetic stupid sycophants, that the bullies pity, are not really happier in stupidity. But that can't be my path. What an honor it is, for God/Nature/Fate to have chosen me to fight a solitary battle against the world!

Reminds me of a favorite Rush song; "If their lives had been exotic and strange, they would gladly exchange them for something a little more plain, maybe something a little more sane".

I'm smiling now, anyways. That's all some of us have, or need.


Scott

--
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DIY Piezo-Gyro, PCB Drill Bot & More Soon!
http://home.comcast.net/~scottxs/

POLITICS, n.
A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles.
The conduct of public affairs for private advantage. - Ambrose Bierce

Don't ever give up what you want in life. The struggle is worth it - Ayn Rand

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