THE ROBERT W. WHITAKER ARCHIVE

DAVE | 2008-10-31

Prometheus,

That is what I remember too. 2001 bored me because it was just another one of those pieces about tyranny that offered no real insight into tyranny.

You are supposed to be impressed by HAL exercising conscious volition. In art, these are tricks by "artists" to promote themselves, to get an audience. Real art is utilitarian. It does something to improve your life. Personally if its only function is to hang there and impress you it annoys the hell out of me.

Robert Whitaker wrote this:

"I am a priest, my job is to keep you from Sin, which I define."

"I am a doctor, my job is to keep your heart beating."

"I am a professor, my job is to provide you with an Education, which I define."

"I am a guru, my job is to help you escape the Wheel of Life."

"If you ask anyone you PAY about making life worth living, they will laugh out loud."

"That is NOT their table."

That is what the "inevitable future" is, just another trick. Just another hustler inducing you to buy a ticket for something that delivers no real value.

That is what all the McCain and Obama supporters are doing when they take the effort to punch their ballot. Purchasing a ticket that offers no real value. All of them are believers in "the inevitable future".

COMMENTS (7)

#1 shari | 2008-10-31 19:03

When someone conplains that they "tired of living" what they usually mean is that they tired of dying.

#2 Prometheus | 2008-10-31 20:51

Shari says "When someone conplains that they "tired of living" what they usually mean is that they tired of dying."

Prometheus says: That's an excellent quote! Someone who is 'tired of living' really isn't living.

Appreciating modern art is an excercise of adopting the perspective that the artist requires of you.

#3 mickey | 2008-11-01 01:53

hi!

#4 shari | 2008-11-01 10:31

Hi Mickey!

#5 mderpelding | 2008-11-01 20:46

Dave is very close here.

I note a quiet "moral value" attached to the word "tyranny."

Wasn't it Marcus Aurelius who stated that a man at the age of 45 has seen all that the world had to offer? I am probably taking a bit of literary licence here, but I do believe old Marcus had a point to make. Note that we always make the same mistake. To whit: we assign intrinsic human moral values to extra-human events.

We fight "tyranny".

"slavery"

"communism"

"marxism"

"capitalism"

and an endless number of other isms and systemic horror stories that have always been a part of human existence and always will be part of human existence.

But the values defined by the words "good" and "evil" are based upon the actions of the individual. Not upon human defined systems.

Our distant racial ancestors understood that whatever communal failings existed within any white community was the fault of an individual and not the tribe.

There will always be masters.

There will always be slaves.

There will always be leaders.

There will always be followers.

There will always be wise men.

There will always be fools.

There will always be brilliance.

There will always be ignorance.

The preceding statements describe the truth.

Or maybe, the Truth.

But whatever the "Truth" may be, each of us, here and everywhere, is a moral actor. If we wish to define ourselves as adults.

Let me explain...

A moral man doesn't value an ideology.

He values his grandchild.

#6 Simmons | 2008-11-02 18:36

The future is equality with the rest of the world. Seven billion of them and 70 million barrels of oil per day slaves to split amongst the "equals."

#7 Dave | 2008-11-02 20:05

Mderpelding,

I never believe people when they profess commitments. Nor do I believe any confession of moral values, and pretending that it is all about "family" changes nothing.

It is the real commitments I look for, in myself, and others, what people do when courage is actually (not theoretically) required of them.

Now it is possible to be courageous on behalf of very evil objects. That is why you have to very careful when you have your enemy at an advantage.

Nevertheless, let the priests pretend they know God.