Christmas Eve 2015

A friend writes to me:

I understand--I really do understand--the sentiment which says that a political discussion can be dangerous, can lead to blows, or almost a mini-civil war.  And, I suppose that's true especially in such a situation as when you are in Northern Ireland and talking about the presence of British troops....or in Greece perhaps after the Civil War there, or in countless other situations.... 

But the USA in 2015 wasn't yet Belfast or Athens--even if the growing social and economic inequality is a wild beast waiting to escape from its cage.

In any case, I cannot accept or tolerate my sister's behavior.  She literally screamed at me, at the top of her lungs, and with fury and rage in her voice: "No! No! No!"--when I merely attempted to enunciate the following propositions:

1.  The Financial Crisis in the USA has harmed most people in the country, but those who caused it and benefited from the system have now recovered their losses, and acquired new profits.

2.  Economists did predict the crisis:  Michael Hudson and Steven Keen to name two.  (My authority for that is an Economics blog where Economists voted.)

3.  It is very unfair to suggest that "we" are all "greedy" as if all of us were to blame, as if all of us equally benefited from the economic system.  When an aging person wants a decent retirement, they merely want a civilized or non-poor level of living, not luxury.  When a Wall Street Hedge Fund manager seeks profits, he is not after a decent standard of living, but a luxurious one.  The truly rich own yachts and private airplanes, own companies (and freely fire the rest of us) and buy politicians.  It's not right to compare the aging pensioner or would-be pensioner to the wealthy and their servants.

There is a further oddity about (3).  My very own mother was accused by my sister of being greedy.
Yet, my mother, as a defenseless widow, merely seeks a decent life--not a luxurious one.

All in all, it was  a very sad evening.  My sister's performance was shocking.  She went on to engage in the most ruthless and factually inaccurate ad hominem.  And, here too, there are cruel ironies.

My sister's behavior suggests that her idea of "winning"  (sic) an argument consists in shouting loudly, insulting your opponent, and destroying their character with whatever slander comes to mind.

But the irony is this:  My sister complained that it was disgusting to have her Christmas Eve spoiled by an "atheist"--and she uttered that word with venom, contempt, loathing.  Oddly enough, it was not a visit to the Church that had been interrupted by a political discussion. Moreover, my sister is officially a member of the Roman Catholic faith.  Yet, the atheist's views (for the author of these words does indeed not believe that God exists) were much like those of the current Pope.

For the Pope himself has said that while greed is natural, that's no excuse; and we should oppose it.  Moreover, greed, he suggested, leads to the poverty of children and wars.

So, the evil atheist had, on Christmas Eve, been defending a view very much like the Roman Catholic Pope.  And the atheist was viciously attacked by a follower of the Pope.  Curious and ironic that...

I myself can think of nothing to add to my friend's story. However, it does remind me Yanis Varoufakis's reaction to the brick wall of deafness he met at the meetings of the EuroGroup.....

I suppose that someone might say that our ideal of free discussion and debate is often a mere formality or an excuse to prop up a sour system.  I suppose that it often is.  Yet, when I hear a story like this one, I do think that it should be possible to have a discussion with different points of view, without censorship.  I can't see why that should be so difficult. 

 

Facebook

Facebook is a terrible thing, a miserable thing.
I find myself writing my thoughts there, and receive admonishment from "friends".
It is not appropriate, it seems, to express emotions which do not fit the format.
Most especially, ambiguity and the working-through of thoughts do not belong to that format.
Yet, if anything, it is that which friends should allow--not the final expression of happiness, but the preliminary, if difficult, steps of understanding.
All banned in that space of momentary joys, pleasures, and above-all Capital-A-Achievements.
How disgusting.

I don't agree with google or fb or anyone else.  Your advertising is unwanted.  The internet and all its associated elements should be run by the government as a public service, free of charge and without advertising..  As for those who currently mis-manage the web, you should all be put on trial in public--streamlined live. And I would hope that you will all be fired from your jobs because you have shown nothing but contempt for the public.

What kind of place is this? Pure Idiocy in the Czech Republic

"Well you've been washing your clothes a lot."
Jeezus fucking Christ!
That is none of your goddamned business.
What's more:  What kind of cheapskate university is this where they want to make a profit from teachers washing their clothes?

I wash my clothes once a week! That's a lot?  What kind of a country is this?

A lot compared to students who take their clothes home once a week and wash them at home.... I suppose that's what a lot means.

How dare you even notice how often I wash my clothes!  It's none of your business!

That's fascism.  That's impertinent. Who are you to tell what's washing my clothes a lot--or a little?
I am wasting my money because I wash my clothes too much?!
If I think my rent is high, it's because I wash my clothes too frequently?

Really.  I can't find words to describe it.
I guess I'll indulge another local custom--and go piss in the street.
which is common in the whole of the Czech Republic and not only one Neo-Liberal entity.

But I'll tell you one thing:  when you piss in the street, you don't wash your hands
And that's basic sanitation.
The sort of thing that makes the difference between civilization and something else.
So, pissing in the street is uncivilized.  

But pissing in the street by males and young children is common.
And it's not sanitary.
Western Culture?   Make me laugh!

You're paying more for rent because you wash your clothes too much.--Yeah, that's exactly the sort of thing I expect to hear at the University of xxxxxx......It's not an isolated incident.  And it wasn't completely unexpected.   It's characteristic of the local mind-set...... the local mindlessness supporting impossibly idiotic utterances.  You see, it's like this:  when someone complains, it's always THEIR fault!   And the complaint has to be stomped out, dismissed, and if at all possible the complainer must be made to feel as though he or she is lacking in a basic component of intelligence.  Whatever we do around here, and what we think is normal is unmentionable, untouchable,  a sort of religious icon.  And anyone who says or thinks otherwise is not deserving of consideration, and will not be taken seriously.  And must be stomped on immediately.

I actually resisted the move toward billing me electronically for washing my clothes, and held out for cash payment.  But they insisted I pay electronically.  And gave me no choice.  I anticipated the fascism in it, and I was right.  Of course, it needs  a certain mind-set to employ the technology that way, and they have it, and they did not disappoint me......

What's good for the mindless accountants that keep the books ain't good for you or me.  The idea that it's good for everybody is just another of the lies that is propagated mindlessly .....  But the mindless ones I am dealing with here don't raise to the level of even attempting that sort of justification.  It is mindless unquestioning obedience they want.....

Perfect Timing

Here in Pavilon E on the campus of a Central European (formerly "Communist") country,
I live in a dormitory.
It is not the worst dormitory.  My room is relatively large and has a separate kitchen corner.  I do not have a stove, but only a hot plate--which regularly ceases operation.
(But if I ask, they will repair it.)
It can be noisy here, and my windows face onto a nearby high rise with its thirty or so balconies.
On the other side of the flat, I see an ugly intersection where billboards are illuminated all night.  The paper thin curtains do a poor job of keeping out light.

However, I have the luxury of not needing to clean my own toilets.  A cleaning lady does that twice a week.  But I never know when she will come...And she is here now, just when I was about to take a shower.

I've got to teach soon, and I don't know if I will manage to shower.
Ahh, she's just left.

I don't like the thought that one person does all the dirty work.  And I don't like the way the cleaning ladies sit in their room on the ground floor smoking,.....The smoke filters up the stair well, and the place stinks.

Yet, they deserve better.  Their job is not respectful.  

Ah, gotta go take a shower...

So much for a slice of life from a post-Socialist paradise..........

Wage Slavery

Today I spent a good two hours planning for the courses I'll be teaching, as well as hunting for textbooks.  Then I spent more than two hours on public transit commuting to teach for about two hours.  I shall be paid for two hours of work.

That makes four unpaid hours of work today.

Wage slavery.

Czech Public Transport/Czech Punishment

One of my colleagues jokes, "Oh, you take that bus (the one going to the train station)?  Ha Ha Ha.  It's always full.  How can you do it?"

Well, if she knows it's always full, then so do the transport authorities.

Or, maybe not.  Maybe they are busy pasting paper advertisements to the windows of the buses,
and collecting payment.  (Hard to see out sometimes.  It's actually obnoxious and disrespectful.)

In 1996 I rode buses in Bratislava, in the Slovak Republic, and they were just as crowded and creaky
(swaying from side to side, hitting bumps hard) as are the buses today in the Czech Republic, in the city of Pardubice.  I see no progress.

If every family owns a Skoda and every school age child owns brand name sneakers and a smart phone, no, I don't count that as progress.

But no one complains, and it is (evidently) a laughing matter.

However, it's worse after a holiday or three day weekend--as if people were being punished for not working.

Oh yeah, the Glorious EU gives money to the Czech Republic and--lo and Behold!--they generously allow the government to buy buses.  But they are crappy buses--the sort that bounce up and down and seem ready to break apart on the bumpy roads.  And they are often full.

The buses are, moreover, full at entirely predictable times.  (As are, characteristically, the trains.)
Why not have more buses at those hours?

I repeat.  I saw this in 1996 in Bratislava. It is not a new problem.  (Yes, I know Slovakia is not the Czech Republic. For my purposes, it doesn't matter.  The point is that there has been little real progress.)

Some people call this "austerity"--denial of basic services to the majority of the population, in order to spend the money elsewhere.

Where is the money going?  Well, despite the fact that the army's budget in the Czech Republic is not increasing as much as they would like, there's a question of what they plan to really do with the equipment they've got.  Who are they really going to fight a war with?  Or is it all to be used against potential immigrants?

Don't Care Health Care

It is a bit more than a year after my father's death.
He was killed by a system and a facility which didn't care about him.
He was alone, without adequate attention, in a bed he could fall out.
As a frail elderly man, with a touch of senility, he needed constant attention, which he did not receive.  Worst of all, he was separated from all friends and family.  My mother had been married to him for 65 years, and now, at the age of 89 suffering from physical weakness, he was alone in a cold institutional setting where he had no one to really talk to.  (Oh, yes, occasionally a nurse was there---but only occasionally.)
My mother would have gladly stayed with him, but the facility did not allow her to.
Moreover, she was sternly lectured by some sort of accountant and a so-called "social worker" who told her that they would keep my father in their facility until his insurance account was empty.  Oh yes, they used different words, but it came to the same thing.
My father was only allowed to return home because we have a lawyer in the family, and he threatened the facility.
My father died at home, but he never lost that feeling that he had been abandoned and was alone.  An uncaring facility killed him.
This was predictable.  If those who were supposedly caring for him did not take the time to think about it, if their hearts have become so hardened that they accept this sort of mistreatment as "normal", then that is an indictment of the system of medical (don't) care.
In fact, I wish they could hear the following story:  When I was in Slovakia I read the following story.  A man was about to be executed by the Communists.  The executioner turns out to be a friend from childhood:  "What are you doing here?", asks the man about to die.  "Well, it's hard to find a job; I couldn't find anything else."

damned unpleasant

It's not pleasant to walk along a busy roadway, with cars screaming past.  An occasional motorcycle has ear-splitting sounds.  Some cars, too, seem to behave as if the driver thought he were in a race.  The sound, the speed, the stupidity of it all makes me want to retreat to a place far from what is so misleadingly called 'civilization'.

Then the bicyclists are impatient.  Ridiculous!  Some even have little bells.  What the hell does that mean?  Get out of my way!?  Why?  Why can't you slow down?  Twits!  Impudent jerks!

Sidewalks crowded in the most unpleasant way.  Waiting for a bus, bicycles come speeding. You must step aside or risk collision.  Worst of all, when the bus is about to arrive, and you see a speeding bicyclist coming towards you, you must calculate: can you safely maneuver to the bus door without a collision?  Because you cannot count upon the asshole  bicyclist to slow down or make room for you.

And then there are the rotund pairs, strutting amiably in the middle of the sidewalk, oblivious to the world around them.....unaware that a bicycle is approaching.

Let the two fatties crowd the sidewalk at the same time two bicycles approach, from either distance, and then try to cross the sidewalk to reach your bus!  That's the sort of joy I enjoy in this place which dares to call itself a city.

THE INTERNET IS CRAP

From time to time, I glance at the blog of a retired philosopher, from whom, I dare to say, I've learned a few things.
But I often find myself bothered by his tendency (occasional, to be sure) to be mesmerized by the possibilities of the internet.
I think there's a simple explanation for why I find his attitude unfathomable.
I've not got as much free time as he does.  So, when something goes wrong with my computer or with the internet--or if I simply fail to read a web page carefully--it's more of a problem for me than it would be for him.  (Not that he doesn't have occasional problems.)
But, on the whole my overall judgment is that the internet is crap, and it is getting worse.
Dealing with my computer is also crap because the damn thing is of low quality, and I am in no position to buy a new, better one.
So, it's the old problem of time and money.
Recently I misread a webpage.  Well, is that even the right verb?  The page had lots of information, and I failed to notice the bit which applied to me.  In my experience, that sort of thing occurs frequently.
Internet pages overwhelm us with colors and their flashing signs, and I don't like it.  It is rather like the familiar phenomenon of learning to ignore omnipresent advertising.
But note the difference between an old-fashioned phone call as a means of acquiring information and the web:  You can ask a specific question to a person at the other end of a telephone.  That is not possible with the Internet, and that's the source of many problems.
When I go online to find out the answer to a question, I am typically about to run from one place to another. If I make a mistake and get the wrong information, it has immediate unpleasant consequences.  I am sure that if I were retired, and not rushing about, I would have a different attitude toward the damn thing.

Police State Pardubice

"I am the Law, and I will interfere with your life as I see fit..."  (Pseudo-Kafka)

At Pardubice's main (and busiest) street, a man crossed the street when the light was red.
Apparently, he got to the other side of the street uninjured, so there were no or few cars.
In the video linked below, we see what happens next.

A policeman (plainclothes but on duty) shouts "Stop", and the man does not.
At that point the policeman throws him on the ground, handcuffs him, and calls for backup.
 (Yes, obviously only a serious criminal would behave like that.  So, it is necessary to get back-up!)

 http://www.ceskatelevize.cz/ct24/nejnovejsi-videa/312063-gibs-pri-zasahu-policista-v-pardubicich-nepochybil/

Are Czech policemen taking notes from their American counterparts?

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-aALArJP4rw

I can't see what harm the man did.  In any case, I see bicycles and cares driving aggressively and risking harm to pedestrians every day.  But the police apparently don't consider that worthy of notice.

You cannot cut your way to prosperity.

Politicians with their damn lies,
never tell us straight.
Their victims:
widows, orphans, and children.

Toothy grins,
false hair,
false lies,
false lives.

We live despite them,
and they need us more than we need them.

High Tech--Pardubice Style

Here is an example of how technology has not made my life better:

 I have to ride to bus to work or to the train station. I have to pay to ride the bus. What is the quality
of the buses? They are no better than the buses I rode in Bratislava in 1996. Some are exactly the same quality. Some are a little newer, so less dirty, but they all have seats that you could fall out of because the suspension in the buses is crappy. The buses shake and tilt excessively. What do I mean "excessively"? When I rode buses in North Carolina in 1997, the buses did not do that. So, these are Cheap buses.

So, technology is not being used to make the buses better.

However there is new technology in the buses. It is used to control passengers.

To get a lower priced ticket, you have to buy an electronic card that registers how much you have paid. That's a newer technology.

And you have to press that card against a large box when entering or leaving the bus. Which is, by the way, a real nuisance if the bus is crowded and you are carrying something. The other day a bus jerked from side to side and I dropped my card into the deep stairwell of the bus doors. (That's because the buses are so high off the ground---so high that you fall out of them or jump out of the rather than step out of them.)

And those electronic passenger monitoring boxes take up a lot of space.

Space that could be used for grab bars to hold on. (Because the buses do jerk a lot and shake from side to side, you really need to hold on.)

So, why is it so important that people register electronically? What would happen if we didn't pay at all? The point is that WE have to pay.

WE have to be controlled. When everybody knows damn well that there is a whole class of people who will never use public transport, and do not contribute to the well-being of society, namely the bankers who stole TRILLIONS of dollars or Euros. (I am referring to the Economic Crisis, also know as the Great Recession, or the Second Great Depression--which, by the way is really not over yet--no matter what you may happen to hear from corporate media.)

There is a whole class of people who do not pay taxes--or only pay a small amount of taxes, at a lower rate than the rest of us--and only take from us. That class includes politicians and bankers.

So technology is used to keep us down, to control us, to discipline us, to keep us in place. It is not used to make our lives better.

I could make similar complaints about the trains. And often this crap is plastered with signs telling us that the generous EU paid for it. As if they were doing us a favor.

Another example of technology in the buses is the absolutely idiotic and juvenile television on the buses. It is full of advertising and bogus public service announcements. EG idiotic games which allegedly test your intelligence, or bad attempts to teach English.

So you have crappy, low quality buses where the newest technology is used to control the population, to subdue us and fill our heads with garbage.

That's typical of the world I live in. My world has not gotten better because of technology.

Then again, there's the fact that buses and trains are crowded today, just as they were in 1996 in Bratislava.  (So, Czechoslovakia has made lots of progress.)

Yet another obnoxious feature of  the buses in Pardubice is that they tape paper notices and advertising onto the windows of the buses.  Some buses have advertising painted from the outside so that the windows let in less light.  All of these features make riding the buses just goddamn unpleasant.  But when they are collecting advertising money, now that's a real insult!
There's money being collected for advertising, but the buses are still crap.  Now, that's real progress.

So, I really don't understand why the authorities of the bus system in Pardubice think they have a reason to celebrate.  They've been spending money advertising their anniversary.  They should spend that money improving the bus system with better buses.  Or, maybe they could let the bus drivers have an extra day off--or shorter schedules.  Instead, they spend the money on propaganda.  That tells you something.  But the video below is just so cool.  Yeah, right.  That video makes my bus ride so much more enjoyable.

http://www.dpmp.cz/den-otevrenych-dveri-2015/

Talk about delusions of grandeur!

What Pardubice does not have/know

There seemed an urgent need to create streets and spaces that made people feel they were planned for them, not cars....
The Guardian, http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2014/jul/07/in-a-successful-modern-city-the-car-must-no-longer-be-king

Yeah, for people--not cars, not bicycles, not glorified roller skates...

At every step, I must compete with bicycles, roller skaters and cars@!\
Damn it!
A bicycle almost hit me today because the cyclist was too impatient to wait.
And behind me, another bicycle came up quickly, silently, adding to the mess.

Really, this is not a nice place.  And the pedestrian paths are always crowded with unwanted traffic.--That on top of dodging cars......

Three Things

Three things have become perfectly clear to me:

1.  The Internet is increasingly a torture device.

2.  Bourgeois morality is despicable, petty, narrow, smug, and a thousand other things it was proclaimed to be one-hundred and fifty years ago.

3.  A person can have what they call "computer literacy", but be illiterate.  I.e., they are unable to read a text with understanding gotten by analysis and supplying historical/sociological/critical context.  Without real literacy, a mind becomes a repository for other people's thoughts. For that reason, what they call computer literacy is much less important than real literacy.

The Desultoriness of Czech Television

After watching the discussion on Czech TV of the American election campaign,
I was reminded of William James's remark that most people believed themselves to
be thinking when they were merely reshuffling prejudices.

However, we would have to modify that.

It was is as if the conversation were built out of building blocks which consisted
of crude categories created by someone else, someone not then present in the conversation,
and there was no analysis of those categories, which were employed with an amazing lack
of grace and subtlety.

So little is understood about the USA; incomprehension in inverse proportion to the frequency with which it is discussed.

No Democracy Now

The police come onto the train. Maybe six.  I didn't count.  They actually don't speak.  I get out my passport.  I've seen it before.  No words are spoken.
I also make the mistake of getting out my Residence Permit.  What a mistake.
If I had only showed the passport, it would have been quicker.
The guy takes out a scrap of paper--again without speaking a word.
Then he goes to the space between the cars, where there's a toilet.  He and his chums consult. He phones someone up.
After a time, he comes back.
Did he say anything?  I don't recall.
I complained vociferously to my neighbor.  He probably heard me, and didn't like it.
He didn't seem angry, so much as uncomfortable.
Good.
He should think about what he's doing.
Interfering with people for no reason.  Just in case he might find something.
Is it legal?  Then the laws are bad.
Freedom?  No, it's not.  It's interference.
 

the situation in Czechoslovakia 2015

Life here becomes increasingly frustrating.
How can I say that there's been no progress here since 1996?
That's what I think.
Telephones and pads, computers--none of that is progress.
Minds are becoming filled with garbage, and even the dreams that students have seem to be becoming increasingly circumscribed and hollow.
And I am not allowed to comment or mention these facts.
It would be considered rude.
So, please allow me to repeat what I've said before.  There is a basic problem here (and I don't say it isn't in the USA; it is.) which Kafka already described.  It pre-dates Communism.
So, if I say there's been no progress since 1989, I am not making a remark that is especially about Communism.
Unfortunately, since I hail from the cruel empire of the USA, I can't say that without being misunderstood.  So, now, please allow me to cancel the misunderstanding:  I am not claiming that the USA is in any way superior.  The USA is a mess.  Nonetheless, I see no substantial progress in this region since 1996.

The Internet is One Big Tax Form

The Anthropologist David Graeber has written some interesting things.  I'm not completely overwhelmed by everything he's written that I've read, but I do respect him.

On the other hand, recently I read something where he was asking how many hours we waste filling in forms.

He seems to miss the point that the Internet is increasingly a series of small boxes that we've got to fill out following someone else's rules.  And it is a nightmare.  As if every day had become tax day.

It is possible that there are classes among Internet users.  Maybe some individuals (University Professors) spend less of their time having the Internet rammed down their throat.

But as I hunt among too-small boxes with excessive redundant and unwanted information, trying simply to get the information an old fashioned paper map conveys with ease, I would like to curse and smash my laptop to pieces.  (I am trying to find out which bus I should take to go to a nearby company where I am supposed to teach English.) The Internet ain't fun when we use it for work which is forced upon us by the need to survive.  

obscenities

I know that dictatorships
tyrannies,
do not respect the right to privacy,
our personal space,
where we grow love between persons,
family,
and others.

Most obscene of all
is the fact that
among the lost letters
which my mother has never received
are poems,
very personal poems,
reflecting upon my father's love,
my father,
who died last year,
and whose loss I feel.

I wanted to console my mother,
to tell her that I remember my father,
and think of him,
every day,
that I appreciated him,
that I still love him.

I wanted to tell her that she is,
to that extent,
less alone with her grief.

Someone has stolen this from me,
and her.