6) When Guevara met McCarthy.

Anyone who has ever used the internet in the past few months will know what I am talking about when I speak of online advertising.

It comes up in many forms, including, but not limited to; popups, web banners, spam e-mail, etc. Most of the time it is just plain annoying. It is so common that you no longer recognize the main ones, especially if you see them over and over again on a website you visit often. Accidentally hover your mouse over one? Yeah I want to start shooting the computer too.

This brings me to my conceptual metaphor of "Capitalist Fascism". The main and chosen few who control all the wealth decide to form a party to oppress the people. They bombard them with propaganda, and other acts to prove their loyalty to the people and to demand the same in return. They control the one thing that can be used to manipulate people: Money.

The propaganda I use in this example is the online advertising. It is the rich CEOs demanding your loyalty and obedience to the their up and high class(or party) of wealthy individuals consumed with utter greed.

Can you blame them? Of course not. As everyone is in pursuit of survival and happiness, wealth just happens to be one of those things to nirvana. Everybody wants it, everybody needs it.

Truth is, in this economy, acts of generosity are extremely rare and valued. And if conditions might allow it, the path we tread may lead to Karl Marx's Communist Revolution. If I had said that forty years ago, I might be dead right about...now.

Then again, what do I know? I'm just another equality loving socialist who believes in an achievable utopia.

I'd like to thank Fate for the First Amendment.

5) Semper Invicta.

Above is a picture of my airsoft gear. I decorate the helmet with what defines me as who I am: around my core beliefs. The holster is what I posses, my morality. The weapon is what I attack with against my life and problems. The goggles remind me of the importance of perspective. The helmet reminds me of infinity and fate in my life.

I believe in the three things that makes us human: Fate, Infinity, and Conviction.

ETKA/Fate - Belief and perception that you shape your destiny and it shall shape you.
AYLOYSTAT/Infinity - There shall be no bound to any established concept of action.
MESION/Conviction - Heed the translation of your power from mental to physical, with full force and devotion to its origin.

When they ask about my religion I tell people I'm agnostic. When I tell them what I believe in, it seems more and more that people either don't care or really think it's stupid. That's just it isn't it? Human nature.

When this happens, I think about what Albert Einstein once said:
"True religion is real living; living with all one's soul, with all one's goodness and righteousness."

The unspoken truth is that nobody acts on this anymore. No respect or morality that comes with daily life. It is rare. We see racism, intentionally and unintentionally. Since the beginning of time war has been fought over religion. The crusades are more or less a perfect example. Am I saying it is right or wrong? No.

I'm asking how we got here. What happened to the ideals that we were brought up with? Tolerance, Peace, Love? It just seems to disappear overnight when nobody else your age is doing it. Is that the problem? Peer Pressure?

I would never disrespect your creed. Is it wrong to ask you not to disrespect mine?

Interlude: The Least I Could Do.

I apologize. It seemed so damn relevant.

Source: http://www.leasticoulddo.com/

4) morituri te salutamus

We give death a personification, an image, a perception of what to fear as inevitable. It happens every second, but everyone tries to dodge the subject. There is the American society that stays away from death, but at the same time, has a weird and complex obsession for it.

There hasn't been one Hollywood action movie where the protagonist does not have a brush with death, or is involved in the act themselves. Countess fiction and non fiction devote themselves entirely to the subject. You can find it anywhere and everywhere. You just have to look for it.

Episodes of the popular television show Family Guy depict Death as a laid back character who fumbles with his job. In the episode "Death is a Bitch", there is a scene where one of the main characters, Peter has dialogue with Lois, his wife, and Stewie, his infant son:

Peter: Look. Here they are. My family. Guys, I don't say this often enough, but I'm gonna die!
Lois: Oh my god.
Stewie: High five! Anyone? Anyone?

Of course you could argue that this is purely fictional and for laughs, but what I'm trying to emphasize is that death causes a paradoxical response. We can laugh and make jokes from it, then find out that your cat Whiskers died, leaving you in tears. We've come so far in humanity as to render Death a subconsciously strong symbol of something we understand all too well. Just google death and war and you will see dead bodies, weapons, and destruction of past and present wars.

Is it ethically wrong to be so close to it? We could say it causes extreme behavior in people. Then again there are extremes that people go to to depict it (WARNING:GRAPHIC):

Then there is the glorious side of it calling. The ancient samurai practiced a strict code of honor unto death, as do the modern day Klingons of Star Trek. We find this fascinating and might even imagine ourselves in it. When we understand they survived through death, we can imagine ourselves in their position. Here's an excerpt from Eric Nylund's The Fall Of Reach:

"The red war stripes that had been painted on the Iroquois' side looked like bloody slashes. The dockmaster had privately told Commander Keyes that his crew could buff the paint off - or even repaint the stripes, if he wanted.
Commander Keyes politely refused the offer. He wanted them left exactly the way they were. He wanted to be reminded that while everyone had admired what he had done - it had been an act of desperation, not heroism.
He wanted to be reminded of how close a brush he had had with death." (Nylund 157)

I'm not ashamed to admit that I've imagined myself in Captain Keyes's position. I am no exception to the fascination with death rule. I'm not trying to say it's a good or bad thing. I'm just trying to make you think on what I've already said.

And when my desperate hour comes, I will remember what I know by heart: "Be not afraid of the man unwilling to die, but be terrified of the one who is going to sacrifice them-self in a heartbeat."

3) Time Traveling Dust Bunnies of Doom.

Although I would like to travel through time, the theories of what could or could not happen when you return are endless. Time paradoxes here and there shouldn't do much. Right?

The concept of time travel is not new. Theorists have played with the concept for centuries, but none have ever truly been known for actually traveling through time. That's where fiction comes in.

A good TV example I can think of is of the original series of Star Trek, where a few episodes depict Captain Kirk and Spock in an alternate time line. Their persona is different and nothing like the one we know. Ever since, time travel has become regular in the Star Trek universe.

Perhaps the wildest imagination I've seen devoted to alternate history is writer Harry Turtledove, whose works have made me a theorist of the implications of time travel. He has a multitude of series devoted entirely to "what if?" scenarios in which the timeline is dramatically changed because of one factor. I will briefly tell you about one of Turtledove's series: Timeline 191.

Timeline 191 is a fifteen novel series which follows the United States from the Civil War to the end of World War Two. There's only one catch: the southern Confederate States of America (CSA) gains independence at the end of the civil war. This timeline is interesting as it is agonizingly complex; some events are just impossible to imagine as feasible.

To give a quick summary of major deviations: The CSA is never dissolved. Lincoln never signs the Emanipation Proclamation. In WW1, US president Theodore Roosevelt joins the Central Powers against Woodrow Wilson of the CSA. In WW2, Allied powers of the US, Germany, Canada, fight against the Axis powers of the CSA, France, Britain, and Russia. At the series conclusion, the CSA loses and is absorbed into the Union, ending their 83 years of independence. Confused yet?

One last example I'd love to mention is the video game Metal Gear Solid 3, which is a prequel to the entire series. I decided to see what would happen if I killed off one of the vital characters of the series:

Maybe one day I'll create a time machine to change humanity. Or something like that.

2) No I don't have a girlfriend.

With the recent passing event of PAX (Penny Arcade Expo), it seems relevant to talk about the role of video games in our society. PAX is one of the few examples of how gaming has influenced most of our lives. Gamers who follow gaming closely will know what I am talking about when I say things like E3, Sony Entertainment North America, Nintendo, Microsoft, etc.

What few seem to realize is how big gaming is in the general media. It makes its appearances here and there in the form of cameos in movies, tv shows, and, commercials. The recent bloom of Wii related items have spurred the market in telling people exercise in your living room will keep you from being fat. The unknown fact is that so many Wii's are bought everyday, but less than half of them are actually used.

Of course we like video gaming for a reason. It distracts us from the realities of life by replacing it with an alternate one, one where your actions have no moral or physical repercussions. As an avid gamer myself, I can tell you that gaming simply helps me relax in times of great duress. There is something to be said for going home to crawl into your room. Inside said room in the world of video games you can be anyone and anything you want to be.

There are of course, the parents who say that video games are violent, they inspire crimes (mentioned in my previous post), and they are making our new generation conscious soldiers. There have even been political scandals involved (google sex-box scandal).

The future of gaming? These days there are 3D goggles that work with your computer to create a real live world image. Frankly it seems that technology will one day advance to the point of no return, blending video games with reality. When we can't distinguish between the two (for some it has already happened), I'm going to sit back and read a good book.

And if we're living in The Matrix, I'll just keep laughing.

1) Get OFF my lawn!

After reading On Killing by Lt. Col Dave Grossman (required reading for the FBI academy mind you), I seem to have begun thinking about Death and its role in the modern United States society and perhaps the societies of most other countries in the world. In a nutshell, On Killing explains about how the military has indoctrinated soldiers and the current generation of young to become desensitized to death and violence.

The presence of violence in general media is not a new concept. However, it seems the few that do object to this gain absolutely no support from the general public. It has begun to become more widespread and common. The recent cases of video game "inspired" crimes seem to be one of the most memorable examples in the past years.

Back fifty years ago, this was not an issue. However, the origins were apparent. To quote Grossman: "In World War 2, only 15 to 20 of combat infantry were willing to fire their rifles...In Vietnam this figure rose to 90 percent". In a span of just a few decades, what transpired?

I'd like to use the career of Clint Eastwood, one of my favorite actors, as an example. In one of his well known movies The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly (1967), Eastwood plays "Blondie" (The good), who outguns some bandits to turn "Tuco" (The Bad) to a local town for some reward money. It is not until later we find out that Blondie comes up to free Tuco at his execution, and the two split the money. The implied message? You can be outside the law and still be a "good guy".

In Dirty Harry (1971), Eastwood plays Harry Callahan, a SFPD inspector who is willing to go above the law to capture "Scorpio", the deranged murderer of San Francisco. Harry pursues
Scorpio, fueled by a murderous rage and hate that could rival that of his target. After torturing Scorpio and cornering him, Harry does not arrest Scorpio, but shoots him dead in the chest, while throwing away his badge. The implied message? You are above the law as long as the bad guy goes down.

In his more recent film, Gran Turino (2008), Eastwood is grizzled Korean War vet Walt Kowaski, who has to deal with the local Hmong gang that threatens the lives of both him and his neighbors. In one scene, he raises his M1 Garand at the gangsters on his yard, and growls "Get OFF my lawn". The implied message? Superior firepower is a great deterrent.

So some wonder how our society has grown more violent. I simply ask: What are you going to do about it?

We Are Human.

Everyday events cause us to have opinions. They come and go as they please, but few take the time to fully examine them. They can be destroyed by other thoughts, actions, peer pressure, etc. Not enough people seem to appreciate the value of these opinions. It does not matter if it seems insignificant or is branded stupid by your brain. What's important is that it matters. Your Opinion Matters.

I hope this blog can be a space where I can express my opinions in the form of unrelated and random rantings. Little observations about the world compounded with my analyzations. My hope is that you respect my opinion as much as I hope to respect yours. My goal here is to try to provoke and encourage thought so that little by little, we can change the world for the better.

As a person who daydreams (who doesn't?), I hope to record what I can put together in words here. It would be great for me to talk about a variety of subjects, including games, movies, music, history, T.V., etc. If you're here to stay and read, I encourage you to have an opinion. Do you agree or disagree?

After all this is said and done, we can try and be proud to walk away knowing we had an opinion, even if we did not act on anything. All our actions stem from thought. For better or worse, it is important to try and understand our own opinion and the opinions of others. For some, a "good" event might be interpreted as "bad", and vice versa.

This is just one more step to becoming more reliant on decisions. If the answer is as simple as yes and no, good and bad, so be it. But if your answer is one you can stand behind, argue for, justify, and never regret, wouldn't that be great?

We stand here armed with the weapons to change the world.

Are you ready?