Plato's Self Help

"One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being ruled by your inferiors." Plato (Republic, Book I, 347c) Plato's quote is applicable to free software. The penalty for refusing to use Linux, is you end up being ruled by the chains built into Microsoft's inferior proprietary products. Plato's quote implies self help and self reliance.

Spinoza's Pantheism in an Einstein Quote

Here is a spectacular quote from Einstein mirroring Spinoza's pantheism: "A human being is a part of the whole called by us 'the universe'; a part limited in time and space. He/she experiences themselves as something separate from the rest-a kind of optical illusion of consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must to be to free ourselves from the prison by widening the circle of understanding and compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty."

Customizing Ubuntu

Check out this blog post which explains how to customize Grub, Ubuntu splash theme and gdm theme.

Hitler, Bush, Chomsky and Plato

On Hitler and Bush, Plato once said: “Tyranny naturally arises out of democracy.” Therefore, what democracy needs is an eye of vigilance of checks and balances to prevent tyranny from bubbling up. Ad Hitlerum fallacies as found in Alex Jones’ inside job conspiracy theories, as found on Diggnation and committed by Chomsky’s slave moralists prevent the elite from transforming into a police state and carrying out false flag attacks to advance violent imperial ambitions for oil. I suppose without prosperity, in the event of economic, environmental, political, public health crises, capitalism can’t possibly remain democratic. Thus, Plato’s quote should read for 21st century scholars: “Tyranny naturally arises out of democracy especially when the economy is no longer viable.” The iPod generation over the next 30 years will spontaneously create an AIDS vaccine, create a new sustainable energy source, structurally adjust capitalism to make it more sustainably functional, and discover themselves spiritually, returning to the geocentric paradigm. I’ve seen it.

Slackware, Summer Reading List, Slamd64 Tonight, Papers

I wrote three philosophically important papers in the last month of my final year at Trent

* Review of Goldman's Imperial Nature, on resistance to the IMF.
* Contemporary Just War Theory breeds violence, which reinforces The Secret teachings
* Nietzsche's Genealogy of Morals as it applies to sub prime mortgage crisis in America
* JS Mill and Singer's article on African poverty and income distribution and molotov cocktails
* Spinoza's link to the environment (maybe this essay wasn't so great)

In other news: Today I was crying because I don't have the programming skill to fix compiz-fusion myself. I wish I could make compiz-fusion more stable. Maybe I'll feel better if I nuke and then reinstall win32 before I install Slamd64 12.1 and install e17 using Stratera's SlackBuilds.

In other news, ##slackware idlers on FreeNode suggest new users read Slackbook at least twice. My summer reading list grows again. Here is what my summer reading list looks like now (sorry for the screwed up formatting):

* Slackware Essentials

* Lost in Space by Mike Dooley

* Happier than God by Neale Donald Walcshe

* Chaim Perelman, Realm of Rhetoric as I promised Tindale I would
* Slavoj Žižek, (1989)The Sublime Object of Ideology --> This book might be fun to read because of this note. (More here)

Žižek writes:

It is my belief that these three aims are deeply connected: the only way to "save Hegel" is through Lacan, and this Lacanian reading of Hegel and the Hegelian heritage opens up a new approach to ideology, allowing us to grasp contemporary ideological phenomena (cynicism, totalitarianism, the fragile status of democracy) without falling prey to any kind of postmodernist traps (such as the illusion that we live in a "post-ideological" condition). (The Sublime Object of Ideology, p. 7