Ethics. I think I am talking about Ethics. #2

So You Know Where I  Come From 

 
Born 1943 in an Italian Catholic 'hood.
Most Neighbors came from Calabria for work in the steel mill.
My Nonno came from Emilia-Romagna, so I have blue eyes.

Every Fall just as we did in Italy
We carry a statue of Madonna of Casandrino 

bedecked with flowers
on palanquin
to the Park with Music
and Feasting
and Knights of Columbus
and Girls dressed as Angels
and Boys carrying be tasseled golden banners.

 

Republican Conservatives have made Hunter Biden a symbol of Uncle Joe Catholic's decadence. Our media never chooses to make talktalk about his war hero Son who died. All we get to see is Hunter the Hound. Hunter just wants to feel good and live well and make bad Art. He makes hot new copy. 

Roman Catholic Conservatives have made Uncle Joe's membership in the Democratic Party a symbol of Joe Biden's Sin. Uncle Joe is to be shamed when he attends Communion is the plan. Dirty baby killer some chant. Makes hot new copy.

Jesus said at the Seder "Do this in remembrance of Me." Jesus loved absolutely. Jesus broke bread in Communion with Judas and Peter.  Peter who denied him. And Judas who left Communion with bread crumbs in his beard to get his reward from the Romans.

In my 'hood, a Neighbor who carries the story of that slutty Pagliaro girl or the Arcamone boy's arrest about everywhere, like a gift in a basket, is called Chiacchierone. That means bigmouth or chatterbox. That person is greeted by everyone and trusted by no one. And ghosted relentlessly, except at the tables of those equally despised, where they dine on cakes, wine and malice. "I say to you, they have their reward." That is what Jesus said. I say it is a damn shame that Malignant Scrupulosity is not painful, except to Others.

After the war, US personnel discovered a very large diary dictated by Goebbels. In it are his principles of propaganda. Leonard Doob's 1950 article details them from a translation of the diary by Louis Lochner (1948).

Goebbels' Basic Principles

Avoid abstract ideas - appeal to the emotions.
Constantly repeat just a few ideas. Use stereotyped phrases.
Give only one side of the argument.
Continuously criticize your opponents.
Pick out one special "enemy" for special vilification.

How shall we live in an age of Propagandists and Liars and Doom Merchants? What shall we do about all the pernicious talktalk marketing? 

I am not a powerful person. I am not rich, nor influential in any significant manner. I cannot unilaterally change the way the world around me runs, and I certainly cannot change what people think and say and believe. All I can do is live with integrity, and use that integrity as a platform for living the rest of my life. This living with integrity may not change anything, it may not sway anyone to my way of thinking (or any way of thinking). But it is all I have, and it is what I am committed to do. - Michael Boyle

 

Where is Benjamin Franklin when you need to talk to him? - UPDATE

I wrote this in 2017. Now this article from Wapo gives more substance to my alarm:

The U.S. says humans will always be in control of AI weapons. But the age of autonomous war is already here.

The Pentagon says a ban on AI weapons isn’t necessary. But missiles, guns and drones that think for themselves are already killing people in combat, and have been for years.\

Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote. - Benjamin Franklin 

Congress is not at all interested in what the American people want. And they have no plans to give us anything we want. That becomes more obvious by the day and the event. 

And the government (yours and mine) is working on robot soldiers to kill a lot of us when:

Scott Olsen - Getty Images

1. climate change produces riots because of famine and liack of potable water everywhere or 
2. there is an "American Spring." Mass civil rights demonstrations and food riots are so messy. 

Governments are planning to kill you and me only if necessary, of course. And they have the machines to do us now in great numbers. Right now. And they are working on improving them. And they have secret courts.

So stop with the "lizard people" and "they coming to take our guns, RickyBoy" conspiracy theories and wake up. Just because you are paranoid does not mean no one is following you. Wake the fuck up, World. We all have a big problem. A problem not amenable to retaliatory force. And we cannot solve it if we do not help each other.


UPDATE: Nobody read this much. Most folks probably dismissed my concern because they think I am a crackpot.

I am a crackpot. So the only argument I can extend is continuing to provide information. Talk me down. I am scared.

Progress on developing armed robot soldiers is continuing. As this article from WIRED asserts. I do not know what Franklin's concept of "well-armed" could be when we are confronted with such golems.

Killer Robots With Automatic Rifles Could Be on the Battlefield in 5 Years

• BY ALLEN MCDUFFEE
 

“They’re not just tools, but members of the squad. That’s the goal,” Lt. Col. Willie Smith, chief of Unmanned Ground Vehicles at Fort Benning told Computerworld. “A robot becoming a member of the squad, we see that as a matter of training.”

Darpa Robotics Challenge

UPDATE 2: 

Military Researchers Develop Corpse-Eating Robots

• BY JOHN SCOTT LEWINSKI  
 

From the file marked “Evidently, many scientists have never seen even one scary sci-fi movie”: The Defense Department is funding research into battlefield robots that power themselves by eating human corpses. What could possibly go wrong?

UPDATE 3:
If the Atlantic is writing about robots, robot weaponry and other golems, I guess I am not crazy paranoid after all.

If the Robots Kill Us, It's Because It's Their Job

Don't kill us, guys.

PATRICK TUCKER

UPDATE 4:
Is this a mosquito? 

No. It's an insect spy drone for urban areas, already in production, funded by the US Government. It can be remotely controlled and is equipped with a camera and a microphone. It can land on you, and it may have the potential to take a DNA sample or leave RFID tracking nanotechnology on your skin. It can fly through an open window, or it can attach to your clothing until you take it in your home. 

Read more At http://www.snopes.com/photos/technology/insectdrone.asp#pQ6D2qlAHs9yrW0o.99

Mud People Channel Posted This in the Interest of Public Welfare

"I am amazed and know not what to say." - Hermia, A Midsummer Night's Dream 

 

These Folks seem like might be fun people judging by other videos on their channel. They took the magnetism video down. I did not understand the intent of the video they posted to me. Fun? Satire? Serious warning?  They will not talk to me. And they opened the conversation. Just another case in which the comments are more fun than the post.

The Practical Limitations of Government or Dance Like It Is 1975

Because I am a Women's issues gadfly, I troll the Internet message boards for a chance to argue Women's issues. One argument I hear fairly often goes sort of like this: 

"No, you are not in control of your body because The Gummint makes laws about what you can do with it. You can't just take drugs, for example. Or prostitute."

Actually, I can take drugs if I so choose. And I have. I am astounded that anyone thinks The Rules keep people good. It plainly evident that it is humanity's goodness and longing for peace that keeps The Peace of the Rule of Law.

I can choose whatever I want and pay for it. The government has only two responses to behavior it wishes I would not do: prohibition and punishment. These are weak responses in the face of psychoses and/or casual and joyful wrongdoing. How so? Follow me.

I had to have a background check to do a job. I came up with a spotless record. I breathed a sigh of relief because I subscribe to the Rule of Law for the most part, I want my government to be effective and expect it to be, and I thought my Sin would surely find me.

My arrest in 1975 for growing 13 six foot tall marijuana plants in the greenhouse of my country home never showed up. Only time I ever got arrested. Somehow the Police got the idea that my house was the East Coast depot for all the Humboldt County Green. They sent a truck to tow away the bales of marijuana and three squad cars. I was out. They left me note: "Mrs. B, please come on over to the police station." So fully expecting to be slammed into the pokey, I ambled on over to the station house.

They booked me. I confessed to the Judge so they would let my innocent gardener go. The Russian carpenter living in the basement confessed too.  I plead guilty to Misdemeanor Cultivation of a Controlled Dangerous Substance. Cost me a $185.00 fine. Cops took the plants and the baggie with about a gram in it that belonged to Sergei.

All of this happened because the municipal dog catcher had the hots for me and came round to put the make on me one afternoon. I think, on the whole, that even though I had no house I could see out any window, and my nearest neighbor was two miles away, it was a mistake to swim naked in the pool.

Ah, the War on Drugs. The Gummint is not good at "controlling my body." And not good at keeping track of crime and Evildoers like me. Good thing I am not a psychopath and I am sober. Think how much trouble I could get into if I tried, know what I mean? And there are people out there trying every day.

So let us just shed the idea that order is imposed and can be imposed by the government without the cooperation of the people right now. I leave you with these thoughts from Lao Tzu translated by Herrymon Maurer.

Govern the country by regular rules;
Direct the army by cunning moves;
But win the world by avoiding fuss.
How do I know that this is so?
Inward light!

Beneath heaven,
The more rules and prohibitions there are,
The poorer the people become.
The sharper the weapons there are,
The greater the country's confusion.
The cleverer the people become,
The more cunning acts take place.
The more laws and orders there are,
The more thieves and robbers appear.

Therefore the sage says:
I do nothing,
And the people of themselves reform.
I love stillness,
And the people of themselves grow straight.
I don't fuss,
And the people of themselves get rich.
I don't want,
And the people of themselves grow simple.

When the law is dumb dumb,                      

The people are simple simple.

When the law is smart smart,
The people are broke broke.
Good fortune rests on bad fortune;
Bad fortune hides in good fortune.
Who knows the end of this?

It does not stop:
The normal turns into the odd;
The good turns into the weird.
Long have the people been in a stew!

Therefore the sage is
Severe, but he doesn't cut;
Exact, but he doesn't hurt;
Straight, but he doesn't strain;
Bright, but he doesn't dazzle.