Commentary on a Patriotic Essay, Installment I: Considerations on Representative Government

Introduction

In this first installment of my new blog series, Commentary on a Patriotic Essay, I will be reading through John Stuart Mill's Considerations on Representative Government. I hope to achieve an atmosphere similar to Mystery Science Theatre, but darker and more cynical. These are troubled times for the American people.

Preface

Those who have done me the honor of reading my previous writings will probably receive no strong impression of novelty from the present volume;

Admit it. You haven't read anything like this before, or if you have, you certainly didn't enjoy it. Well, I hope to make this a little more exciting for you by being an asshole while you read it. Wish me luck. I will be skipping Mill's wordy bullshit and giving you the meat of his writings.

Several of the opinions at all events, if not new, are for the present as little likely to meet with general acceptance as if they were

There's hope! John Stuart Mill was largely ignored or disputed, just like you and me.

It seems to me, however, from various indications, and from none more than the recent debates on Reform of Parliament, that both Conservatives and Liberals (if I may continue to call them what they still call themselves) have lost confidence in the political creeds which they nominally profess, while neither side appears to have made any progress in providing itself with a better.

 Politics was fucked up back in  Mill's day, just like it is today. The two competing political factions even called themselves the same things! Even more extra-ordinarily, they had been corrupted in exactly the same way. They caught a horrible case of the hypocrisy pox.

Yet such a better doctrine must be possible; not a mere compromise, by splitting the difference between the two, but something wider than either, which, in virtue of its superior comprehensiveness, might be adopted by either Liberal or Conservative without renouncing any thing which he really feels to be valuable in his own creed.

Mill was an utter idealist, who makes the claim that creating an effective government is possible, and he says we should demand one and not compromise. Wow, well, that idea preceded basically every failed Utopia ever conceived, including Communism. But let's read more about what this terrorist has to say.

When so many feel obscurely the want of such a doctrine, and so few even flatter themselves that they have attained it, any one may without presumption, offer what his own thoughts, and the best that he knows of those of others, are able to contribute towards its formation.

 This is the conclusion to the Preface. Mill says that when everyone realizes that the Government is a corrupt piece of shit, anyone can point it out. Good point, Mill. 

Wage Slavery: Good blog post and my comments

I recently read an interesting blog post on wage slavery.

It had exactly zero comments, so I decided to spice up the page a bit.

1. YELLOW YAM SAYS:

   JULY 17, 2015 AT 8:52 AM
   Here’s a good way to tell if you are a slave.

   1) Calculate the lowest cost of living feasible while meeting all basic needs, including food, shelter, and reasonable security.
   I think you’ll find that the “suits upstairs” have made this nearly impossible. But there’s a “living wage” calculator at MIT that’s
   better than nothing. Other than that, the US government censors basically anything except cost of living indexes, which are relative.

   2) Subtract your lowest cost of living, which I’ll refer to as “minimum living expenses,” from your after-tax income. Let the result be called real income, since slaves would presumably have those expenses covered for them.
   If the value is negative, you are earning less than a slave would. Congratulations, chattel slaves make more money than you do. The positive value is the money you can spend on free choices, including more expensive substitutes (like a residence bigger than an inexpensive studio.)

   3) Trace the positive quantity to ensure that it’s not going to expenses such as interest or protection fees. In order to be free, you must be able to decide what to do with your own after expense income.

   Your real income, as long as it can be freely spent, is the measure of the financial freedom you have. A slave has none. A wage-slave often has less financial freedom than a chattel slave. At least, if freed, a chattel slave would have no outstanding debt.

   I tried to avoid standard economic and statistical jargon, as these are largely exploitative mysticism. I hope you enjoyed my analysis. Now watch as exactly no one reads this. Vote for me.
2. YELLOW YAM SAYS:

   JULY 17, 2015 AT 9:02 AM
   Edit:

   I’ll add that unpaid internships are actually a good deal, since entirely every good job on the market requires previous work experience, which most people don’t have for the job in question. In all honesty, that means that these aren’t new jobs but merely invitations to transfer from one department in the military industrial complex to another compartment. A job transfer is not a new job on the market. For simplicity sake, ONLY entry level jobs are new jobs and if and only if they:

   1) require no experience
   2) are reasonably likely to hire you as an anonymous individual with related academics or other basic demonstrated interest.

   Look carefully, and you’ll find that there are basically no jobs like that at all in the economy except minimum wage jobs or unpaid internships.

   If your dad isn’t Ron Paul or you aren’t part of some favored political identity, good luck landing that sweet job without doing it for free for awhile.

News and Updates and the Cult!

Recently, I have become aware that there is a sizable cult that encompasses an unknown yet powerful group of citizens in my city. How did I find this cult? Their headquarters was listed in the Ford navigation directory that powers my car navigation system. The name of this cult is the "Church of the Morning Star," which as many might recall, is another name for Satan. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I have uncovered a Satanic cult right here in  my home city. And I have pictures!

I went to the headquarters listed in my navigation system, and guess what I found? The church was recessed deep into an ant colony like neighborhood, probably 5 to 10 turns in. Every house was almost identical, even the way the yards were cared for. Now, you might be thinking that's some kind of Home Owner's Association bylaw. Just bear with me.

I finally arrived at the headquarters, and there was absolutely nothing. There were no cars, a few people checking out my car to see who I was, and nothing else, just one big nondescript house. I checked my nav system to see if I went to the correct location, and I was right on top of it. It was the house just in front of me.

When I was looking at my nav system, I noticed there was a school called , "School of the Church of the Morning Star," which was located about 15 minutes away. At this point, I was excited that I found a cult, and I wanted to join. So I plugged the school into my nav system hoping there would be a way to talk to these people. Keep in mind that it's the middle of summer, right?

The school turned out to be in another house, in another identical neighborhood, with the same-styled yards. And this neighborhood was 15 minutes away! At the school, even though it's summer, there were several cars. I stood at the base of the driveway leading to the school house, and I could hear children and adults talking. Since no one noticed me, I decided to take pictures. Here's what I found:

This is a view of the school from the base of the driveway. Notice that there are several cars. 

This is another angle. It shows that there are even more cars parked on the other side.

 There are even more cars parked in the cul-de-sac just outside the driveway.

 And those cars are parked on the other side of the cul-de-sac as well.

Well, I decided all of this was very strange. So I looked at the backsides of as many vehicles that I thought I could see without arousing suspicion. I found a marine corps license plate, and I also saw this:

Tom Price is a Republican congressman from my state. He's sort of like Ron Paul's evil twin. Also, he doesn't believe in man-made climate change and has no brain. So I learned two things about the cult, which are that one of the members is a former marine and another member voted for Tom Price. He's probably a political conservative.

My hopes were a little dashed, since I wanted the Church to engage in occult beliefs and maybe even some exciting goat sacrifices. But if they are conservatives, they might fall more under the Christian heretic cult type, for example Mormons. In any case, having a massive, sprawling, mycelium-like cult operating in your city is nothing to despair about. How exciting!

For my next post on this topic, I am going to try to join the cult! Pray for me.