WILFING

i have spent the last hour wilfing. In fact I have spent a great deal of the last 2 years wilfing.

Comment on Giddens

"Labour doesn't need to be coy about its egalitarianism.
The next election will be a close-run thing, but Brown can still win if he squeezes Cameron with a radical, policy-rich agenda."
"Mental illness seems on the rise; it is responsible for more work days lost than unemployment."
Anthony Giddens
Thursday March 15, 2007

CitizenSofa
March 17, 2007 9:41 PM

"mental illness""unemployment" "work"
All concepts that need re-thinking in the light of Green thought.

Wage Slavery

Maybe at some point in the next millennium they will abolish the utter absurdity of wage slavery.

Terry Waite on Terrorism

I have just watched Terry Waite's programme about Terrorism on Channel 5.
It was really good.
I think it needs saying that states can be terrorists too.
But I understand that he was talking about non-state terrorism.
When does war become terrorism? And when does terrorism become war?
Does it just depend on who is speaking.
The idea is of course that terrorism is violence that is not committed by a state and often targets civilians indiscriminately.
Terry Waite said that he thinks of terrorism sometimes as being a symptom of a situation.
He's got a point. He said that he doesn't agree with their methods but understands why they do it.
I don't think there is anything inevitable about the choice of terrorism as a tactic.
It is debatable whether it is ever justified.
It can be demonstrated that there is no correlation between the degree of oppression and the bad circumstances of a given group and the extent of its adherence to terrorism.
Fanaticism is not always caused by terrible oppression.

I firmly believe in peace and peaceful means.

Profit motive

If the principle that your purpose and your purpose in life is to make money; if the principle that the purpose of everything is to make money, that profit is the motive that drives society, that money makes the world go round, is allowed to stand then the result is disaster.

If the profit motive exists anywhere in a society it will always work itself out to its logical conclusion. It will always be in conflict with the life principle.

The profit principle will always try to work itself out to its logical conclusion which is the destruction of life.

Surely there is room for the profit motive? Surely it can be accommodated in a sane society?
I am inclined to say no. Open your eyes and look around.

Is the profit principle not essentially and by defintion in conflict with the life principle?

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Everybody wants to work. Everybody does work. Everybody wants to be active.
The idea that some people are inherently lazy and work shy and indolent is a lie.

Compulsory voting

Voting - or expressed registered abstention - should be compulsory if you ask me.

I don't see why anarchists and/or libertarians should have to be fundamentally opposed to voting in all circumstances.

I don't think that voting is signaling consent to be governed.

I think those who do not wish to vote should be allowed simply to abstain.

Saturday 14th April 2007. Involuntary detention is a crime

Involuntary detention of psychiatric patients is a crime.
Involuntary medication of psychiatric patients is a crime.

There is an illogicality that stares out from the scandal that is psychiatry in its present form.
If psychiatric illnesses are bio-medical illnesses like cancer or diabetes, then surely people with such supposed conditions should have the right to refuse medications and treatment just as people with cancer and diabetes have the right to refuse treatment.

There is no difference between saying that "this "mentally ill" patient is a danger to himself or others" and "this violent offender who has just finished a six month sentence for violent behaviour is a danger to himself or others".
Being violent is also a risk to the perpetrator. Hence being violent is dangerous to oneself.
If the logic of mental health were applied to "non mentally ill" offenders then persistently violent people should be locked up indefinitely.

If someone is persistently violent though not "mentally ill" are they not also a danger to themselves or others?
Why are they not detained without crime as well?
The current system is an absurdity and a crime.

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The contention that people who are "a danger to themselves or others" should be incarcerated without having committed an offence is an absurdity and leads to the crime of detention of the innocent.

Everyone is potentially a danger to themselves or others. Therefore everyone without exception should be locked up.

Involuntary detention of so-called "mentally ill" persons (this means nothing) is arbitrary detention, a breach of habeas corpus, an infringement of human rights and a crime.
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It is only convention that leads people to baulk at this reality.

What if someone thinks they are Caesar and wants to conquer Gaul or something else similar?
This is a very common retort.

This is first of all merely a belief on the part of the person claiming to be Caesar and wanting to conquer Gaul. There is no evidence of an illness of any kind.
Secondly, a belief, whatever it may be, cannot in any circumstance in itself warrant arrest.

On principle alone no one should be incarcerated without crime.

Convention still has force and people say what if they are a danger to themselves or others?

This is ludicrous.
Whether someone is a danger to themselves or others firstly is not something that medicine can necessarily determine so why should a doctor make this determination?

Secondly, it is an absurd and ludicrous determination to say that someone is a danger to themselves. or others. etc. etc. Everyone is potentially a danger to themselves or others.
And there's not really much else to it than that.

There is no distinction between a "mentally ill" offender or potential offender and a "non-mentally ill" offender or potential offender.
The category "mentally ill person" does not and cannot exist.

Non Capisco Non Ho Mai Capito

I do not understand economics and I want to.
Does anyone have any advice?

Scarce resources - infinite wants.
That's what it says in a basic textbook I found.

But I was always told "there's enough for everyone's needs but not for everyone's greed".

Sounds like politics to me.

Hmmmm.....