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Chapolin Colorado
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Todos os meus movimentos são friamente calculados.

Being among those old enough to be able to answer one way or the other, I can tell you not all—which isn’t to say none or even few—of us regret, or are displeased with the consequences of, decisions one might put in those terms. The cautionary note is relevant, the implied advice is beneficial, but there are also some who need to hear they are not defective or lesser for not being as blithe and gregarious as the others around them.

nostr:nevent1qqsxsjy8mg7242xymnkw0y26tstspp4ahzfk2ylumtdakv8n53fsu2gppemhxue69uhkummn9ekx7mp0qgsdxn5r94p2mzuncxsu8jzqpy6yqheshjlc2leeaghsprpx8qlh35qrqsqqqqqppqfpta

Sometimes it is. Every basket has its share of bad apples, when it comes to apple baskets; but not every basket is an apple basket—and some apple baskets carry more bad apples than good ones.

I don’t think they are solving the same problem, no, though they may say so, even believe so; once we move beyond appearances, see how their trees inevitably grow, the fruits they inevitably bear, mere variations in perspective simply cannot account for half of it; still, and so much for well worded, “goal” would have been a better choice to convey my meaning, though you might not consider it much of an improvement. My point remains, however; I don’t think you’re saying what they seem to think you’re saying—and vice-versa. As to duck typing, it may work in programming (the debate rages on), but it is lacking when it comes to honest dialogue or logic—and, ironically enough, “moves like a duck, quacks like a duck,” pretty much describes Che Guevara’s approach to sending people to the paredón.

Nevertheless, there is more Unix-nature in one line of shell script than there is in ten thousand lines of C. It seems at least two distinct conversations are happening here, despite the parties treating them as one. Would you describe a need to literally fight another man for food as indicative of civilization? I think not. Your interlocutors, are they proposing socialism as an alternative? Not here, they aren’t. Throwing punches has its place, but I advance the possibility that you gentlemen will come to realize you are in fact approaching the same problem from different angles, rather than from different armies.

“Nature never accepts a cash payment in full for anything — this would be an injustice to the poor and to the weak. ... It is only the progressive installment plan Nature recognizes. No man can make a habit in a moment or break it in a moment. It is a matter of development, of growth. But at any moment man may *begin* to make or begin to break any habit. This view of the growth of character should be a mighty stimulus to the man who sincerely desires and determines to live nearer to the limit of his possibilities.” — William George Jordan, [The Kingship of Self-Control](https://www.artofmanliness.com/character/manly-lessons/manvotional-the-kingship-of-self-control/), in *Self-Control, Its Kingship and Majesty*, 1905.

De certa forma, eu segui o caminho inverso, começando pela solidão e pelos livros, então acabei lendo bastante. De todos que li, esse foi um dos livros mais úteis — e sendo leitura interessante, envolvente, lê-lo é unir o útil ao agradável. Boa leitura!

Replying to Avatar Cheyenne Isa ₿

THE GREAT LIE OF CAPITALISM: A CORPORATE MONSTER IN FREE MARKET ATTIRE

It passes itself off as the system of freedom, of individual initiative, of triumphant merit. It cloaks itself in glorious terms: growth, prosperity, opportunity. But dare to lift the heavy velvet of official rhetoric and what do you find? The same, old, putrid alliance between the throne and the altar, between political power and economic power, just with a new name and an expensive suit. Capitalism, as theorized, is a ghost. A noble ether that has never materialized. What we have, what is sold to us every day as the only possible economic truth, is a hybrid monster, a postmodern and hyper-technological mercantilism.

Do not call it capitalism. That term is an insult to the intelligence of anyone who has ever opened an economics book without falling asleep after the first page. What dominates so-called Western democracies is a corporatist system, an unwritten but ironclad blood pact between the halls of government power and the skyscrapers of financial and industrial power. It is an obscene ballet where the State is not the referee, but the first, tireless promoter. It distributes privileges, grants de facto monopolies, uses laws to build barriers that protect the already-installed colossi and crush the embryo of competition.

And the big corporations? Ah, they no longer compete in the market. No. They compete in the corridors of power. Their skill lies not in producing better goods at cheaper prices, but in securing subsidies, exemptions, favorable regulations, bailouts when the game gets dangerous. It is socialism for the losers who are too big to fail, and ruthlessly "free" for everyone else, for the small, for those who don't have an army of lobbyists in Washington, Brussels, or Rome. Their profits are parasitic, because they spring not from efficiency or innovation, but from having captured the State and diverted its levers for their own exclusive advantage.

Neoliberalism? A mask. An intellectual fig leaf to cover the shame of a return to the worst kind of clientelist statism. It is the doctrine that provided the philosophical cover for this legalized robbery, passing off deregulation—which allows predators to devour prey—as "freedom." They convinced everyone that the State is the enemy, only to be able to privatize it piece by piece and sell it to the highest bidder among their friends. It is the most colossal sleight of hand in history: while it stares you in the eye screaming against bureaucracy, with the other hand it is already signing the decree that transfers wealth from the public to the private sector, but always into the same, usual, voracious pockets.

This system does not create widespread wealth; it extracts it. It does not build; it plunders. It is a perfect machine for the concentration of wealth and the destruction of true entrepreneurship. The man who opens a shop is strangled by taxes and levies conceived for him, while the global giant negotiates with the tax authority and gets credit at zero interest. Where is the freedom? Where is the merit? It is a cruel joke, told by paid-off university professors and complacent newspapers.

The true free market, the one where a genius idea in a garage can overthrow the established order, has been murdered. And its hired killers are precisely those who wave its flag. We live in the era of crony capitalism, the economy of favors. And the greatest tragedy is that we have even stopped imagining that there could be an alternative to this rigged game.

— ✦ —

🦅 Cheyenne Isa ₿ 🦅

Having read your jeremiad, I’m glad you did not point to some alternatives, but I wonder if you lean toward one or if all left in the box is hope.

Replying to Avatar 7fqx

I totally stole the idea of reading 33 pages a day, as mention by nostr:npub1zw7ftkfpezmtym8n2j2fvnd0smunztl9pyjys0fxdqne08vq397s5yvpu5 recently. Something about that number just works and has got me back into a better reading discipline / habit.

X < 33. Write X page(s) for each 33 pages read. Or X line(s) of code. Some X of whatever it is your creativity brings forth.

Proscribe the very concept of objectivity as tyranny; give finagling a cute nickname like #jeitinhobrasileiro and, when not praising it, laugh it over; in fact, laugh everything over — _castigat ridendo mores,_ huehuehue! — and mock those who are serious about anything — specially if they are serious about learning, those eggheads — and if this is not enough, even coupled with the nearly-universal adoption of a parenting strategy consisting of letting screens raise candy-brained, Ritalin junkies, then structure your bureaucracy around humiliating, even punishing, those who strive to walk the straight path while being lenient, if not rewarding, toward those who don’t. If a country does all this, and worse, and more for long enough, can the result be any different?

Possível, senão provável, passo seguinte seria a criminalização de VPNs ou tecnologias semelhantes, todavia; é o que tem sido discutido, temido, pela comunidade internacional de privacidade — o que ora ocorre vendo no Brasil não sendo fenômeno nacional ou isolado. Sempre há e haverá formas de evadir a vigilância, mas atravessar uma ponte é mais eletrizante quando um deslize pode resultar em afogamentos.