Fools and Fanatics - TTG

These are the words of Tom Lowe, a British spy sent to befriend and kill Edward Teach, the pirate Blackbeard, in the NBC series Crossbones. It was based on Colin Woodward's fictional book The Republic of Pirates. In the NBC series John Malkovich created a magnificent portrayal as Blackbeard. Although the series only lasted one season, I enjoyed it immensely. I could feel the sweat, the sand and the sea salt on my skin with every episode.

I have no commentary beyond the words of the fictional spy Tom Lowe. He's absolutely right. Just look around. Humility and reflective contemplation are in short supply. Perhaps God gifted fools and fanatics with such passion and certainty as a fitting punishment for our sins. Or perhaps this condition is an evolutionary aberration that will doom our species to extinction.

TTG

 

Comments

[Charles Dekle]

TTG,
This is off topic but I thought that some here would like to know that Fox is making a movie of Heinlein's "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress", http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/bryan-singer-tackling-sci-fi-778949.

As for your post, lately I am inclined to agree with the last conclusion. Sigh.
Regards,

[dilbert dogbert]

Reminds of this:
Yates
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned.
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.[4]

[The Twisted Genius]

dilbert,

This is when the best have to rely on their quiet professionalism and FIDO.

[kao_hsien_chih]

TTG,

Full agreement with your observation that "humility and reflective contemplation" are in short supply everywhere. But the society today discourages both, unfortunately: self-promoters who claim far more than can possibly be justified make it to the top all too often, in all fields of endeavor. Madison's observation in his speech to the Virginia ratifying convention, where he said the ultimate fate of a republic depends on the virtue of the people in selecting those who are to lead them is applicable to this challenge...

[Charles I]

Recently I was reading an article on dysfunctional Toronto School Board, and in the comments on the absurdities on display at one recent meeting was this nugget, or words to this effect:

Its always the craziest people who make the rules because the rest of us just throw our hands up in the air, and let them have their way so we can get back to work.

[Charles I]

It'll be action packed and spectacular I'm sure, hope its good. My dim recollection of the tale was a frontier human drama mostly rendered in dim, cloying lunar grayness, even though every moment was a desperate hour. I must dig it up and read it.

I used to be nothing but a bindle, haha a Freudian typo, a bundle of opposing passions. Thankfully, I found Gratitude, and I'll be goddamned if there wasn't Grace on the other side of that. My ego has never recovered. . .

[VietnamVet]

TTG,

Your post and CP’s below perfectly bookend the basic quandary that faces our future; the irrational verses the rational. A rational foreign policy would make peace with Iran and counter the aggressive postures of the Israelis and Saudis. Force Turkey to moderate or quarantine the Islamic State and formally partition Iraq and Syria to separate the warring ethnic and religious groups. But, the psychotic will never submit to the concept of a peaceful Israel or an end to war profiteering. The chaos in the world will only end when the rampant plutocratic greed is stopped. Finlandize Ukraine. Write off the Greek sovereign debt owed to French and German banks.

[Charles I]

Hey, check this out and do not despair.

A guy theorized this FIFTY years ago and Hubble has coughed up proof of his theory. It is being used in materials and all-spectrums(but not all, all at once) cloaking technology today - "lensing".

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2015/03/05/astronomers-saw-the-same-star-explode-four-times-in-four-places-because-of-a-rare-cosmic-phenomenon/?hpid=z4

c.f.

Invisibility cloaking in 'perfect' demonstration

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-20265623 &
http://www.nature.com/nmat/journal/v12/n1/abs/nmat3476.html

Electromagnetic cloaking with metamaterials

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1369702109700720

I just stumbled on some very current - last week - reporting on new materials with variable properties like adjustable density foam, or dial-a-tensile strength or flexibility ceramics, that will allow for adapting these theories not just to many physical applications but across more than just the visible elctromagnetic spectrum. Damned if I can find it jsut now. . .

[BabelFish]

I like all of this but the last one is particularly delightful.

[BabelFish]

I read an Air Force/DARPA bit about complete optical stealth back in early 1995. There are some very positively oriented and creative minds out there!

[BabelFish]

As long as Tom Bleeping Cruise isn't in it!

[BabelFish]

Will you at least apologize for the ice tea I just snorted through my nose upon reading your last lines?

[different clue]

kao_hsien_chih,

Madison did not foresee 24/7 mass media sensurround pressure-injection brain marination such as we have today. He did not foresee Bernays.

[turcopolier]

All

"And all our yesterdays have lighted fools the way to dusty death..." pl

[Imagine]

Sentient computers could be coming to your gov't soon around 2023. I'm quite scared of what President Biden could do with the right capabilities, and computer morals likely won't be ready for prime time until 2028. Advice?

[Jack]

VV

French and German banks have very limited amount of Greek sovereign debt on their books. EU governments already transferred most of the Greek debt to EU taxpayers who in turn have saddled Greek citizens with the repayments as part of the initial "bailout" of Greece. Government interventions are used to bailout preferred cronies from losses and have future generations of taxpayers as the bagholders. Both the left and right want more government and less capitalism. This is an example of what happens with increased government interventions. If capitalism was allowed to work the shareholders and creditors of the French and German banks would have taken the losses. The financial industry is one of the most heavily regulated businesses yet they are gigantic leveraged speculative funds.Why not? Management get to keep a large piece of the winnings while governments transfer their losses to hapless taxpayers. As long as people continue to be seduced by big government there should be no change to the status quo.

[Ishmael Zechariah]

TTG,SST;

It might just be that, these days, not God but the faculty of greater and lesser Ivies are the ones imbuing the fools with certainty and passion. The award winning Ms. Nuland comes to mind, the one who F__ed EU on an unsecured phone...

"Un sot savant est sot plus qu'un sot ignorant." - Les Femmes Savantes (1672), Moliere.

Ishmael Zechariah

[Mongoose]

The fictional Tom Lowe sounds as if he's channeling Bertrand Russell: "The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt."

The hard work of reflective contemplation requires hard work--and doubt--and more hard work, including but not limited to self-questioning, none of which plays well in the haze of today's social media. So much for stating the obvious. Solutions? I don't have any but I'm just an aging curmudgeon dismayed by what passes for gravitas among the talking heads and politicians of both parties. SST is one of the few sites one can drink from the well of insights ladled out by others, not all of whom I agree with but I certainly learn every time I visit this site.

[VietnamVet]

Jack,

We agree that the taxpayer has been tasked to pay off the bad loans made by the western banks. Those not transferred to taxpayer supported institutions are still on the books. The profits from quantitative easing in the USA were intended to bring the books into balance without declaring bankruptcy; except stagnation in the USA and depression in Europe continues unabated. Meanwhile more speculative loans have been made. The total derivatives outstanding are $639 trillion compared a world economy of $72.6 trillion. This is why the Greek Exit is blood sport. Although 85% has been transferred to taxpayer supported institutions; if Greece defaults, the bad debts have to be written down, sovereign and private. Plus any derivative bets made have to be settled. The whole western financial edifice could crumble and more states default. The Elite’s desperation is so bad they’ve settled on pillaging Greece and seizing Ukraine. Nuclear armed Russia is next.

[David J.]

TTG

The last sentence reminds me of the sci-fi novel Dawn by Octavia Butler. The author suggests that humans have an inevitable self-destructive conflict between their high intelligence and their hierarchical natures. Octavia Butler was a great writer that died far too young.

[Charles Dekle]

Imagine,
Before retiring, I proposed that the next programmer that proposed a new feature to already buggy software should have their fingers broken. Let's just say that the room went silent. Shortly thereafter I retired much to the relief of those without humor.

As for computer morals, unless they also develop a sense of humor and irony, we are screwed.

Cheers,

[Charles Dekle]

Agreed!

[William R. Cumming]

YUP! YOU NAILED "it"!

[William R. Cumming]

YUP! AGREE WITH YOUR POST TTG AND ESPECIALLY THE LAST SENTENCE. We are now witness to the sixth GREAT EXTINCTION.

IMO Viruses not insects will inherit the EARTH!

[William R. Cumming]

It is humans love for technology that will doom us IMO!