Leftism, Rightism and “Political Correctness”

I just saw a US PBS news report where a doctor advocating for poor people in respect of “neglected diseases of poverty” (a very American concept among developed countries that could equally be used for Australian Aborigines) hesitated about saying that pharmaceutical companies don’t invest in treatments for such diseases because poor people can’t afford, or don’t have the health insurance for, the medications that treat them. She actually said she didn’t want to be non-politically correct. So maybe we’re at a point where being PC isn’t just about being left-wing. Perhaps it simply means going with the predominant elite political orthodoxy in the face of a contrary orthodoxy held by the general public. (The public option for health care in the US is more popular with the public than with their HMO-funded politicians.)

“Blogs” in Online Newspapers

Opinion or gonzo pieces published in online newspapers do not count as “blogs” just because they have comments open to them. “Blog” = “weblog” = “web diary”. This has been angering me for some time.

A Reason Australians Fear Boat People But Not Plane Arrivals; Skin and Penetration

Some scholars think that “leprosy” spoken of in the New Testament was really any form of skin disease like psoriasis, but that Jews in that time equated a non-intact skin barrier with corruption of the soul. This soul corruption was the source of ostracism, not fear of catching the skin disease. The lesson here was not about Jesus’ bravery and compassion overriding his fear of infection; it was about all humans being redeemable and that all humans should be beyond judgment and ostracism from other humans.

There is some kind of innate, universal human reaction to skin being pierced. This explains irrational fear of syringes/needles/injections/blood tests and people’s fascination with tattoos and skin piercing. Getting a tattoo or piercing is like a roller-coaster: meant to induce pleasant, conquerable fear and an endorphin rush. An intense emotional motivation and response is also involved in the actions of people who pathologically cut themselves.

I think this same irrational but emotional response to penetration of boundaries is at play with Australia’s reaction to boat people versus their reaction to asylum seekers coming by plane. There is also a definite, prominent element of racism involved but that won’t be dealt with here.

Australia’s fear of boat people is irrational for a number of reasons, including that there are hardly any compared to asylum seekers and illegal immigrants who come by plane.

I haven’t really found anyone in the media questioning why Australians have such differing reactions to boat and plane arrivals. David Marr glosses over the question, briefly stating that the issue is one of “control”. All other opinion I’ve found on the question relies on the racism issue.

I think Australians, like the British and the Japanese, visualise their island country in their head as derived from all the maps they’ve seen of their country. This gives them a subconscious sense of their country as being like an independent cell with a membrane. The issue of people coming into their country through their coast is more subconsciously analogous to the concept of “piercing”, “puncturing” or “penetration” rather than “porousness”, which, I think, is the way, say, Americans view their borders.

This is an irrational, emotional response, probably related to evolutionary factors. It doesn’t mean it’s a wrong response. But you would think that humane people would try to override whatever initial negative emotional reaction they have with a look at the empirical data and a dash of empathy.

Fear versus Love Dichotomy

I was first introduced to the “love versus fear” dichotomy by someone well-known and who I thought I felt deep feelings for. He went to a couple of Hillsong Church masses when I knew him, and was impressed despite the anti-gay rhetoric.

I’m not sure exactly through what neural substrates (I hate using that term - implies you’re a moronic reductionist) the joy of feeling connected to the Universal employs, but the pathways seem, to me, extremely addictive. If you connect ideas in the cerebral cortex to certain limbic responses then you are playing with fire.

Like Donnie Darko, I’m not sure why so many religious and neo-religious (New-Age) groups have devised a “fear v love” dichotomy. Maybe the purveyors have an ulterior motive - I don’t know. But I do know that fear doesn’t preclude me, personally, from love and vice versa. I would like someone to explore the origins of this purported dichotomy; personally I don’t really know how this came to be.

Superannuation Funds Advertisements

I’ve seen a couple of superannuation funds TV advertisements lately saying that the sharemarket will rebound as if it’s a certainty. One of them features Bernie Fraser, former head of the Reserve Bank of Australia. My own fund lost 10% in the past year, a good performance relative to other funds, but implies that superannuation is a long term investment that will perform better in the future. No one knows if sharemarkets and other areas of investment for super funds will ever rebound at all. No one knows if capitalism will even survive in its present form in the future. The NSW Department of Fair Trading, the ACCC, etc should be alert to these dangers and try to protect your average punter from the dangers. But everyone assumes that the present model of “capitalism” will prevail and deliver results for those foolhardy enough to put their retirement savings into.

Contradiction in Atheists Using Eugenics

There’s a full circle at play here: the only way you can believe in eugenics is if you believe that consciousness itself (a non-materialist concept) should be allowed to be a factor in determining what environments obtain (implying who lives and breeds, etc). So you can’t be an atheist while being a eugenicist. I personally believe that humans don’t have an inkling of what constitutes a worthwhile human being and should shut their over-educated and over-specialised mouths and allow natural human evolution to develop as is. Perhaps in 20 years’ time there will be no space for humans who spend their time critiquing tracts of English literature.

Disappointing Signs of Barack Obama’s Weakness: Military Torture/Abuse Photo Issue; Appointment Mistakes; The Tamil Issue

[written a few months ago - minus Obama's problems re Rx]

Barack Obama has made a mistake in his backflip on releasing photographs of US military abuse of prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan. The US Federal Court of Appeal ruled in a case between the ACLU and the US Government that the photos should be released. The dispute is now headed for the US Supreme Court, at which Obama has previously said the US Government couldn’t win. Obama has made a mockery of his pledges of governmental transparency.

He has shown some of the first chinks in his armour by not trusting his own authority and judgment and blinking in the face of opposition from the military. At first the retention of Robert Gates seemed to be a considered decision; now it seems like an act of weakness. Obama looks uncertain on his feet, deferring to the advice of the military who have a clear conflict of interest in this issue when dealing with acts that not just make themselves look bad but also could lead to the laying of charges against senior figures in the military. The excuses that the release of the photos could stop future military investigators doing their jobs properly and gathering all possible evidence for fear of publication or that enemies of the US could be enraged and put US troops into more danger are ridiculous. Military investigators do their jobs - if they don’t then their Commander in Chief must be weak. Further troop danger is a poor excuse because people motivated enough to join anti-occupation paramilitary groups need no further antagonism.

First, Obama is in a strong enough position to take on forces within his government and the military and withstand any underhanded retribution. He just mustn’t realise it.

Second, everyone is going to assume the worst if the photos aren’t released. Obama’s assurance that the photos aren’t as bad as those that emanated from Abu Ghraib is unconvincing. Some Pentagon officials have said that they are worse.

A further worrying sign of deferral to people who Obama thinks are authorities is the appointment of Tim Geithner as Treasury Secretary and Larry Summers in a senior economic advisory role.

Geithner is a banking industry stooge. He has worked for Henry Kissinger’s consulting firm. He has worked for the IMF, a proxy for neoconservative bankers and an organisation that has destroyed several economies including that of Argentina’s through giving loans in return for the decimation of their public sectors. Paul Keating has excoriated Geithner’s work at the IMF in the Asian Financial Crisis in the late 1990s, saying that China and other Asian countries won’t deal with the IMF ever again after Geithner’s work there. Keating also says Geithner is partially responsible for China’s hoarding of capital and refusal to float the renminbi, contributions to the Global Financial Crisis. Geithner was head of the New York Federal Reserve Bank in the time leading up to and including when it oversaw the beginning of the financial crisis. While there he did the bidding of financial institutions including hedge funds. The Federal Reserve is in turn actually owned by the banking sector, contrary to most people’s beliefs.

Summers is viewed with derision by many in the academic community due to several scandals at Harvard. He is also pro-tax cuts in recession, not spending on infrastructure. He is a follower of Milton Friedman, hardly an expert of getting out of recessions and depressions. Summers is too close to the finance industry who he is now supposed to help restructure.

Perhaps Obama should turn to economists who predicted the Global Financial Crisis instead of people who helped create it.

Finally, Obama has been unforgivably late in speaking out about the Sri Lankan genocide of the Tamil people. He has also refused to do anything more than speak out. Obama should use his stature to put more pressure on the Sri Lankan Government.

These are just a few signs of Obama’s lack of confidence. On other issues he has been impressive so far.

Sexual Orientation by Sensory Taxonomy

There is yet another complicating factor in classification and determination of sexuality in addition to other factors like the genetic, the hormonal, the emotional, the cyclical, the situational, the deliberative, the socially constructed, etc. I’ve known this for a long time but this morning I woke up with it pushing itself insistently into my mind. People can have different sexual orientations for each of their senses.

Personally, I am far more visually attracted to men, but it sometimes oscillates, especially on psychedelics. The over saturation of distorted female forms in the media I was exposed to in my adolescence has altered my sexuality on the visual level. Sometimes I realise I wouldn’t actually want to have sex with a lot of the men I check out, and often there’s an element of self-comparison / competitiveness involved.

I hate deodorant, perfume or aftershave on either sex so it’s difficult to make a judgment, but I like the smell of men’s sweat more than that of women‘s, but the other way around when it comes to breath.

On the tactile level I prefer women. This is complicated by the fact that I prefer to take the “lead” role in sex, for instance I instinctively hug a sexual partner around the waist rather than around their neck.

I’m not sure about my reaction to vocals. I like any sexy voice. I like both high-pitched and husky voices on women. Unlike most gay men I like soft voices on men that have a touch of femininity, as well as gruff voices. For some reason when I hear a woman having sex in a neighbouring apartment I react with jealousy and want to fuck the woman. I usually jack off.

The above with respect to my own reactions must be tempered thus. I think I’m an unusual case: a mostly gay man who has an extremely “heterosexual” 2D:4D ratio (ratio of the index finger to the ring finger). My EEG, as well as that of my mother’s, shows a lack of hemispheric coherence associated with autism and over-masculinised brains.