blog | Crommunist

4 Why we #Occupy

January 10, 2012
by Crommunist
· blog · Canada · news · Occupy · politics

I realize I haven’t written about the Occupy movement in several weeks. Unfortunately I have fallen victim to the same syndrome that I criticize in the major media outlets: once the novelty wears off, it becomes more of a struggle to find interesting things to say. Of course, because I get most of my content from those same outlets, their lassitude becomes mine. In my defense, I am a blogger, not a newspaper or a cable network – I do not share the same level of responsibility in reporting what is going on in the world.

Feeble excuses aside, I have certainly not done my job in defending the Canadian incarnation of the Occupation. An Occupation, I hasten to point out, that has not disappeared simply because its camps were razed. The Occupation lives online and in small committees that periodically plan (and execute) acts of protest. While the physical occupation is gone, Occupy Canada is very much alive.

I’ve had more than a couple of discussions with people who claim not to understand why Canada needs an Occupy movement. After all, they say, many of the banking sector reforms demanded by the Wall Street Occupation are already in place here. Money doesn’t infiltrate politics to nearly the extent that it does south of the border. Unemployment is lower, our social safety net is more comprehensive, and our right-wing politicians are about where the American president (a.k.a the vanguard of creeping socialist extremism) is. What exactly do we have to complain about?

Well, maybe this for starters:

22 Oh-so-phisticated

January 9, 2012
by Crommunist
· blog · critical thinking · crommunism · religion

One of the most common complaints that “moderate” believers have about anti-theists is that we are criticizing a version of god that nobody actually believes in. The kind of sky-dwelling patriarch that visits wrath on his own imperfect creation is a convenient target for derision, but it is a straw deity argument. Theology has developed, through careful examination of the scripture (and, presumably, guidance from the holy spirit), a much more ‘sophisticated’ and nuanced understanding of what YahwAlladdha actually is. Atheists should be criticizing this new and supremely amorphous deity, since that’s what people are praying to for a cancer cure.

There is no shortage of reasons why this argument is completely false. First of all, outside the hallowed halls of theological academies, the average person is not taught, and does not believe in, a quasi-deistic benevolent creator who is an embodiment (but not a corporeal one) of all that is good in the universe. While people are quick to jump on the bandwagon of “I don’t recognize that god” whenever an atheist criticizes belief in the bloodthirsty Canaanite war god (an act that is amusingly similar to the apostle Peter), they are oddly ignorant of the legions of neo-Calvinist churches crowing with triumph every time an earthquake or a tsunami destroys some gay heathen mecca.

The list of reasons why the “sophisticated god” argument is nonsense abounds, but what doesn’t seem to filter into the discussion at all is how self-defeating it is. It is an argument that, if followed through to its logical conclusion, proves itself to be either false or insulting to the deity it is supposedly defending. … Continue Reading

14 Our first loan(s)

January 6, 2012
by Crommunist
· blog · Blogmeta · Kiva project

Cromrades,

We have done a great thing today. We have stood in the face of great economic disparity, and unflinchingly taken a tiny step toward reducing it. The cry went up, Cromrades, and we answered it to the tune of 2 Kiva loans.

The first, to Gulshan Mammadova in Azerbaijan:

Gulshan needs 2000 AZN to purchase new merchandise (cleaning solutions) for sale. She sold only food products at her store, but now wants to also sell cleaning solutions because these goods are in demand among customers. Gulshan is married and has three children. She is an IDP (Internally Displaced Person) from the city of Fuzuli and now lives with her husband and children in the Fuzuli region. Gulshan is 32 years old. She has had this food store for six years.

And the second, to Godeffroy Edgar in Benin:

Godeffroy is married and has three children. He specializes in making and selling soap in Cocotomey. To distribute the soap, he takes it to pharmacies, supermarkets and sales outlets. In order to meet client demand, he is asking Finadev for a loan so he can increase his working capital and contribute to household expenses.

Two loans of $25 each were made on behalf of the Crommunist Manifesto. The loans are scheduled to be repaid in 20 and 12 months respectively.

Thanks to everyone who helped pick these loans. I’m looking forward to doing this again next month.

Like this article? Follow me on Twitter!

8 Movie Friday: No One’s Gonna Love You…

January 6, 2012
by Crommunist
· blog · movie

So I’ve been having this stupid fight all week in various places, and facing the same ridiculous accusation at each turn. My objection to Cee-Lo Green’s adaptation of John Lennon’s Imagine is absolutely not me saying that nobody should ever change songs. That’s stupid. Artists are supposed to put their own spin on musical expression – it’s the whole point. There is, however, an ethos among musicians that has a lot to do with artistic integrity. If you are going to use someone else’s artistic creation, you have to either remain faithful to the original in terms of intent, or find a radical new way of presenting the same material.

To wit, Cee-Lo does an absolutely outstanding cover of a tune by Band of Horses:

This is one of my favourite covers of all time, which is saying a lot because I listen to a lot of music. Some say it’s better than the original – I think that’s a tough call to make (unless the original is no good – every cover of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah is better than the original because Cohen, genius that he is, can’t sing for beans). Regardless of which one is better, this cover does not take liberties with lyrics, does not invert the intended expression, doesn’t fuck with the song. Cee-lo fucked with Imagine. In a conversation on Reddit I likened what he did to re-writing Bohemian Rhapsody to give it a happy ending, or adding a verse about how totally acceptable it is to be white to James Brown’s anthemic Say It Loud (I’m Black and Proud). While the intention may be noble, it violates the creator’s expression and is inherently disrespectful, regardless of intent.

Now it is entirely permissible to violate any and all of those things if it is the service of repurposing the work of art to give an entirely new message. One of the most brilliant examples I can think of in recent history is when Alanis Morissette did a cover of My Humps by the Black Eyed Peas: … Continue Reading

2 Ask Buddy Roemer Anything

January 5, 2012
by Crommunist
· blog · politics

If you are a Redditor, you may be familiar with the concept of an “Ask Me Anything” – an open thread where the poster will answer questions from the gallery.

Buddy Roemer, my official pick for the GOP Nomination, is now doing an AMA on Reddit.

Ask him your questions about campaign finance, about SOPA, about NDAA, about church/state separation, about whatever you like!

Like this article? Follow me on Twitter!

3 Server hiccups

January 5, 2012
by Crommunist
· blog · Blogmeta

Hey all,

So we do the best we can, but technology is a fickle pickle. We had a major server problem this morning, but if you’re reading this, it’s fixed. On behalf of all of us at FreeThought Blogs, I sincerely apologize for the downtime. To make recompense, here’s a silly comic:

In the future, if this kind of thing happens again, you should look to Twitter, as I usually lead the chorus of random cognitive utterances under the hashtag #FreeThoughts.

Like this article? Follow me on Twitter!

8 Becoming Canadian

January 5, 2012
by Crommunist
· blog · Canada · critical thinking · good news · race

As the child of an immigrant father, I am conflicted about what it means to be “a Canadian”. I spent my childhood living in a white community, surrounded by kids whose parents had been born in-country, if not in-city. I didn’t really start encountering immigrant families until I was in my adolescent years, by which time I had a fairly firm grasp on what I thought it meant to be ‘Canadian’.

As the years have passed and I’ve become more intimately acquainted with the varieties of Canadian experience, it’s become more and more difficult to justify my belief that Canadians ought to share a set of values. I think that everyone should always agree with me about everything, but I am willing to accept dissent within tolerance margins. Canada’s values are, for the most part, in concert with my own values – there is a certain amount of chicken/egg questioning that one must engage in, but I can defend most of my values beyond simply stating “because that’s what I believe.”

The question, though, becomes whether or not it is reasonable to expect newcomers to this country (like my father) to adopt “our” values. After all, as I have argued before, one of Canada’s strengths is that it doesn’t have a monocultural or monoethnic heritage: … Continue Reading

1 My pick for Republican nominee – Buddy Roemer

January 4, 2012
by Crommunist
· blog · politics

I’m kicking myself for not doing this earlier.

Those of you who follow my Twitter feed may have already guessed this, but I do wish to endorse a candidate for the Republican nomination. Former Louisiana governor, economist, and unabashed #OWS supporter (the latter, I reckon, is the reason many people haven’t heard of him). I don’t agree with all of his policies, particularly his stance on immigration, and he’s a Republican so he’s about reducing expenditure rather than increasing revenue (taxes), but he’s an incredibly funny and engaged candidate. His signature policy issue is getting money out of politics. To demonstrate his commitment to the idea, he funds his campaigns through donations capped at $100. He returns cheques in excess of that amount. He’s also friends with Colbert, so that counts for a lot in my book.

If you live in the United States, please consider donating to his campaign (I would, but foreign contributions must be funneled through PACs, and Roemer has a no-PAC pledge). If you are on Twitter, consider following him. Either way, read his platform and see what you think of him. Or, send him a tweet. He will write back to you. He’s like that.

My dream ticket, incidentally, is Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, with Buddy Roemer getting a sweet cabinet position (and one for Barack Obama too, so long as it has nothing to do with national security or civil liberties – he’s already shown himself to be untrustworthy). But so long as I’m picking fantasy candidates, I’d like to see Jed Bartlet in office.

Like this article? Follow me on Twitter!

5 When in doubt, Mockus

January 4, 2012
by Crommunist
· blog · politics

I guess it was a bit pie-in-the-sky to expect that some new story would come along to pair with this piece I’ve been sitting on for a few weeks now. Sadly, the serendipitous news gods are not inclined to grace me in this way, so I will present it without context. This is just a really really cool thing to do:

Antanas Mockus had just resigned from the top job of Colombian National University. A mathematician and philosopher, Mockus looked around for another big challenge and found it: to be in charge of, as he describes it, “a 6.5 million person classroom.”

Mockus, who had no political experience, ran for mayor of Bogotá; he was successful mainly because people in Colombia’s capital city saw him as an honest guy. With an educator’s inventiveness, Mockus turned Bogotá into a social experiment just as the city was choked with violence, lawless traffic, corruption, and gangs of street children who mugged and stole. It was a city perceived by some to be on the verge of chaos.

People were desperate for a change, for a moral leader of some sort. The eccentric Mockus, who communicates through symbols, humor, and metaphors, filled the role. When many hated the disordered and disorderly city of Bogotá, he wore a Superman costume and acted as a superhero called “Supercitizen.” People laughed at Mockus’ antics, but the laughter began to break the ice of their extreme skepticism.

Basically, this guy trolled his whole city for their own benefit. By instituting weird policies, he actually achieved some pretty impressive results. I am a big proponent of “trying stuff out” when facing an intractable problem like crime or poverty. No apparent solutions? Everything you’ve tried has failed? Try something else. Try something ridiculous. Try something really cool:

The fact that he was seen as an unusual leader gave the new mayor the opportunity to try extraordinary things, such as hiring 420 mimes to control traffic in Bogotá’s chaotic and dangerous streets. He launched a “Night for Women” and asked the city’s men to stay home in the evening and care for the children; 700,000 women went out on the first of three nights that Mockus dedicated to them.

(snip)

When there was a water shortage, Mockus appeared on TV programs taking a shower and turning off the water as he soaped, asking his fellow citizens to do the same. In just two months people were using 14 percent less water, a savings that increased when people realized how much money they were also saving because of economic incentives approved by Mockus; water use is now 40 percent less than before the shortage.

(snip)

He also asked people to pay 10 percent extra in voluntary taxes. To the surprise of many, 63,000 people voluntarily paid the extra taxes. A dramatic indicator of the shift in the attitude of “Bogotanos” during Mockus’ tenure is that, in 2002, the city collected more than three times the revenues it had garnered in 1990.

Voluntary taxes? Televised showers? City-wide ‘ladies nights’? I love this guy’s brain, and wish to set up a hammock in it.

Anyway, read the whole thing. I am sadly unable to put it to work in the service of a larger point, but it’s a really cool story.

Like this article? Follow me on Twitter!

4 Two sides to national superstition

January 4, 2012
by Crommunist
· blog · crapitalism · news · religion

Religious adherents seem to particularly resent having their deeply-held beliefs described by the word “superstition”. After all, superstition is the belief in things that are totally illogical, that have no foundation in science, that are based on old wives’ tales and pre-scientific nonsense. Religion isn’t based on superstition. Perish the thought! Religion is based on faith!

Of course, atheists have long known that faith is just superstition’s Tyler Durden. Faith looks the way superstition wants to look, talks like it wants to talk, and fucks like it wants to fuck. This may be the reason why religious folks get all bent out of shape whenever this comparison is made – they see the uncanny resemblance and don’t want to admit the truth of the charge. Well, maybe they’ll start paying attention when it starts blowing up skyscrapers. Oh… never mind.

Faith, or religion, or superstition, or whatever synonym you prefer can motivate people to do impressive things. Mozart wrote some of the most beautiful music the world has ever known, and devoted it to God. One can argue about painters like Michaelangelo and Raphael (and the other turtles as well), but the fact is that there is a lot of art created in the service of superstition. But for every example of artistic inspiration, there’s an example of something else entirely: … Continue Reading

Page 69 of 144