fugitive philosophy - Latest Comments

Re: The Invisible Fist (Part II)

Duckrace2000 — Fri, 29 Jun 2012 07:50:01 -0000

By "that," I'm sure he means "
an efficiently run government that operates purely in the interest of the populace." This, however, does not stop the argument from being claptrap. The free market is probably the best method of delivering crap you don't need. When it comes to life or death, however, it fails miserably.

Re: dispatched

tcV — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 23:09:29 -0000

Alas, Canada is always susceptible to the trends of the US --- we are but an echo of the mockery of governance and social welfare south of the border. That said, it doesn't make Canada's predicament any better for it, though it means that strategically, the front against the right --- from anticapitalist to liberal --- is as multinational as its enemy.

Re: dispatched

Daniel Holdsworth — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 21:26:19 -0000

great blog entry! Canada has definitely changed a lot politically since I moved here 5 years ago sadly mostly for the worse..

Re: memory rewound: the space echo

tcV — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 18:44:47 -0000

PS. try refreshing the page.. sometimes the photo doesn't load first time around.

Re: memory rewound: the space echo

tcV — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 18:33:09 -0000

Photo is all good from here my man.

Re: memory rewound: the space echo

Billy — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 17:54:38 -0000

pic is missing?!

Re: cyclists are commies

tcV — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 19:15:39 -0000

Few people know this but years ago there was an initiative known as "Future Surrey" which -- yep -- gathered together stakeholders in Surrey, from developers to community groups to youth, to seek their input in designing the future of the suburb, errrr, "city." As the proposals were vetted by small groups of different community members, the developers began to drop out as they realised that most of the participants did not want strip malls and suburban lots barren of trees. The final design, which came out of the group I was a part of and spoke for (I was a youth community leader at the time), was quite utopian, featuring linked parks and encircled communities bordered by public transportation corridors and greenways, with mixed-use development throughout. It was nearly Star Trek. Needless to say it's sitting on a dusty shelf somewhere, but what a study it would make in going back to it, and realising that hey, given the chance, most PEOPLE want a beautiful city with parks, mixed use, greenways, public transport and paths. Kind of like Whistler, actually, but on a larger scale, with smaller centres conjoined with greenery. Noticeably absent were large freeways. The developers rolled their yes as "this could never happen" as one told me at the time. True. But it might happen later, after all has collapsed, and this fragile empire of oil and pollution grinds to a halt. Maybe.

Re: cyclists are commies

tcV — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 15:01:23 -0000

Indeed, I agree with you completely, cycling necessitates walking... have you been to a city like Montréal? It is predicated on walkability and mixed-use housing. Sidewalks and parks are everywhere. Much of the entire city can be walked in any direction, and people live within the city itself—which isn't to say there aren't suburbs (there are), but that the city itself is not an empty core, but a place which people live within.

Vancouver has been at this state for sometime with its high-rise development, led long ago by the West End, so needless to say the fight undertaken there now is a significant one, for it is of two directions: (1) either the city is for suburbanites who drive in/out of the city, and use it as a shopping mall and parking lot or (2) the city is first and foremost for its residents a place to live, which means prioritizing walking and cycling.

I think it is fair to say that focusing on cycling, bike lanes and green business like Bixi also supports all manners of walking... for cyclists demand good pedestrian access, bike lockers, and so on.

For moving across long distances, however, bikes are a more feasible alternative than heading out on foot. Bikes replace commuter cars...

If it need be said, I am also in favour of public transport, LRT, trams, etc... and ultimately I realise that it is quite impossible to rid ourselves of the car, given the expanse of geography around us. However, cars really have no place as a means of short travel within cities.

Re: for now, for us—yes (perhaps)

tcV — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 11:48:11 -0000

Thanks Paul! Of note I've been in touch with Zero and they're slowly but surely working on fixing the digital version's endnotes.

I should probably note that these comments are provisional. I haven't yet had the time to turn back to SR/OOO due to work overload myself, though I certainly look forward to doing so, including your book.

Re: for now, for us—yes (perhaps)

Paul Ennis — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 09:50:27 -0000

Hey Tobias, thanks for pointing this out. I will post up on the blog when I hear back from the publishers. I'm sorry I don't have time to respond in detail to this post but since submission I am have not been too heavily engaged in philosophy due to work. If I get some free time at the weekend I'll do a response.

Paul

Re: Unmalleable Mob Mentality: the technical exclusion of politics

tcV — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 13:10:57 -0000

Eli Pariser: beware online "filter bubbles" --- TEDX talk says basically the same thing in more elegant terms --- http://www.youtube.com/watc...

Re: technics & decrepit democracy

tcV — Sun, 15 May 2011 15:48:25 -0000

Thanks Alan. And thanks for blogging about iShift—I just checked that out. Living in Whistler I'm curious if I can somehow partake.

https://alchurchill.wordpre...

Re: technics & decrepit democracy

Alan — Sun, 15 May 2011 15:27:52 -0000

Like it - very good.

Re: technics & decrepit democracy

tcV — Fri, 06 May 2011 14:09:17 -0000

Hey, thanks for writing, apologies for the language, this is simply the way I write/think when blogging work which will hopefully become integrated into publications in which I better define my terms. Hence the point of the blog as a kind of whiteboard for ideas.

Your critique is spot on. "Democracy as practiced in the West" is indeed predicated upon genocide, colonialism, racism, slavery, environmental exploitation, imperialist war and class-war capitalism. Yet, so is authoritarianism / fascism, yet without any hope whatsoever of participatory change—unless, that is, one buys into the dictator cult and joins the brownshirts. As Hunter S Thompson put it (to paraphrase), "I may not like capitalism, but it's the only system that I could possibly live in." Guys like HST, and probably you and I, would've been shot long ago if we were living in a nondemocratic society. So that's a strong argument: democracy is the least worst system.

That said, I often align with, or at least creatively mine, anarcho-collectivist principles (check out the other posts here), which is why I discuss here "democratic governance." Anarcho-collectivism is often thought as direct democracy; that's the point, to safeguard our current and existing means of democratic governance so that, with effort, changes can be made to further radical and/or direct democracy. Unless the State is indeed overtaken by (crypto)fascism—at which point all bets are off—I see this as a progressive strategy of steps: proportional representation; commonfare (guaranteed income to redress unpaid labour of the general intellect—ie the crowdsourcing we all participate in, in this highly mediated, socially-networked society); increased decentralized powers to smaller geographical units (regional autonomy). Yet the planet is far past the point where one can imagine small autonomist anarchist enclaves—our entire food production system and technologies we readily enjoy (hello, internet!) require global levels of cooperation. Unless one's vision of anarchism includes the destruction of infrastructure to return to preindustrial levels of subsistence existence (hello, the grunting of John Zerzan), the future will entail further democratic governance over these processes rather than abdication of them. This means shifting power from corporations to people, to put it in basic terms, or in the terms of political economy, including not just social governance but economic (both radically democratic).

So why should Millenials vote? Because, in short, none of the above possible solutions—which are real and not idealist visions—can take place without involvement in the existing though admittedly flawed system of democracy. While I encourage exodus as a strategy—ie go build and do your own thing right now, TAZ style—I see this as a parallel development to winning over the apparatus of what's left of the nation-state. If one invests solely in exodus but does not simultaneously push progressive party representation in existing democracy, one is simply setting oneself up to be an irrelevant social entity — just as the Hippies were after they wandered back in from their communes in the 1970s and realised they had won the battle, but lost the war, which is where we're at now: the neoConservatives are taking over.

Vote, because that's the most effective way, right now, to counter the neoCon juggernaut. At the same time, organise alternative means. We don't need more protests. We need more food coops, alternative living and employment situations, alternative schools, decommodified forms of art and music too. But all of this will cease to exist if the (crypto)fascist corporate nonState comes marching in. To keep the latter out, VOTE. There are alternatives.

The next step would be involving oneself in the majority representational party of the centre-left, the NDP, so as to effect some level of insider change. Despite a full awareness of the bitterness and cynicism this engenders, I believe it is necessary. We need to build coalitions between the exodus and anarchist left and the party Left. The Left must unite, in short, for there to be strategic, long-term gains.

Re: technics & decrepit democracy

Lungfish — Fri, 06 May 2011 13:27:04 -0000

Hey, I really appreciate the analysis and all of that, am feeling a bit overwhelmed by the heavy academic language...

Anyways, I'd be interested as to why democracy as practiced in West for the past few hundred years is really worth preserving? Given the uphill battles surrounding the suffrage of non landowning white men, much less the colonial/environmental abuses of supposedly democratic states, what exactly motivates us "Millenials" to cling to their existence?

Just to be clear, I'm coming from an anarchist, social network abstaining perspective here. I'm not a fan of cryptofascism, and I prefer the state to at least play at democracy than entirely do away with it, but it doesn't seem like anything new.

Re: technics & decrepit democracy

tcV — Tue, 03 May 2011 16:57:13 -0000

United States (data from www.electionfraud2004.org and others as indicated):

o In April 2004, California banned 14,000 EVMs because the manufacturer (Diebold Election Systems) had installed uncertified software that had never been tested, and then lied to state officials about the machines. The machines were decertified and criminal prosecution initiated against the manufacturer.

o In the 2004 Presidential elections, in Gahanna, Ohio, where only 638 votes were cast, Bush received 4,258 votes to Kerry’s 260

o A study by UC Berkeley’s Quantitative Methods Research Team reported that irregularities associated with EVMs may have awarded 130,000 – 260,000 votes to Bush in Florida in 2004

o There have at least the following bills in the US legislature, all of which were the result of perceived problems with EVMs. (It is not known if any of them has passed; HR = House of Representatives, the lower house, and S = Senate, the upper house):

§ HR 550: Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act of 2005

§ HR 774 and S 330: Voting Integrity and Verification Act of 2005

§ HR 939 and S 450: Count Every Vote Act of 2005

§ HR 533 and S 17: Voting Opportunity and Technology Enhancement Rights Act of 2005

§ HR 278: Know your Vote Counts Act of 2005

§ HR 5036: Emergency Assistance for Secure Elections Act of 2008

o In 2006, a team of Princeton University computer scientists studied Diebold Election Systems EVMs, and concluded that it was insecure and could be “installed with vote-stealing software in under a minute”, and that the machines could transmit viruses from one to another during normal pre- and post-election activity. Diebold, now Premier Election Systems, is the largest US manufacturer of EVMs

o In 2006, computer scientists from Stanford University, the University of Iowa and IBM suggested that Diebold had “included a ‘back door’ in its software, allowing anyone to change or modify the software… A malicious individual with access to the voting machine could rig the software without being detected”

Germany (2009)

o The Federal Constitutional Court of Germany declared EVMs unconstitutional

The Netherlands (2006)

o The ministry of the interior withdrew the licenses of 1187 voting machines because it was proven that one could eavesdrop on voting from up to 40 meters away. The suit was brought by a Dutch citizen’s group named “We Do Not Trust Voting Machines. This group demonstrated that in five minutes they could hack into the machines with neither voters nor election officials being aware of it.

Finland (2009)

o The Supreme Court declared invalid the results of a pilot electronic vote in three municipalities.

United Kingdom (2007)

o The Open Rights Group declared it could not express confidence in the results for the areas that it observed. Their report cites “problems with the procurement, planning, management and implementation of the systems concerned.”

Ireland (2006)

o Ireland embarked on an ambitious e-voting scheme, but abandoned it due to public pressure

Brazil (2006)

o There were serious discrepancies in the Diebold systems predominantly used in Brazil’s 2006 elections

Re: technics & decrepit democracy

tcV — Tue, 03 May 2011 16:55:16 -0000

The 2600 crew / Chaos Computer Club has LOTS to say about India's electronic voting system, which has had various problems. I'm with the hackers on this one. Black box voting is not the way to go.

http://www.schneier.com/blo...

https://rajeev2007.wordpres...

"Since there is no physical audit trail of the vote, once you have cast your vote, you cannot verify that your choice of candidate has been honored. It is a relatively minor task for a software-savvy criminal to fix an election, with nobody being the wiser."

Re: technics & decrepit democracy

Nicolai — Tue, 03 May 2011 16:25:51 -0000

Interesting about the Northern Foundation.
I can't find my reference, but India has an excellent electronic voting system.

Re: when the night was young

tcV — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 23:00:28 -0000

There will be mansions for all after the great collapse! :D Of course, no food either, nor electricity, nor oil. But perhaps that is a tad too dark. In the short term, though housing might collapse in areas far from city centres and in impoverished regions (np. Detroit), in desirable areas greater numbers dictate that housing will never quite crash entirely --- quite simply, population growth is exceeding all available resources. That said, what constitutes a "desirable area" might change drastically once climate change sets in. Or in the case of Vancouver, if the Big One hits.

Re: when the night was young

MysteryLibertarian — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 22:38:48 -0000

I'll also add that a good chunk of boomer's retirement wealth is in their real estate McMansions. When the cash out begins, we just may pick up a nice McMansion for pennies on the dollar. The only restriction will be the cost of heating it.

Re: when the night was young

tcV — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 11:13:03 -0000

Thank you indeed sir. I am guessing that the allocation of wealth will more or less remain within generational hand-me-downs; i.e. the boomer children will inherit it. This containment of wealth in a particular and increasingly narrow segment of the population is, of course, why questions of class composition have once again arisen within political theory. Though one might think that the large boomer bump will more broadly distribute accumulated wealth, the greater numbers only demonstrate that it is funnelling into a very small percentage—or at least at the numbers that count for true leverage capital. Where do you think the wealth will flow, and how? Will it move offshore, with dissolution-effects on the nation-state?

Re: when the night was young

sportsbabel — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 09:25:35 -0000

nice piece. and the only thing i will add is that once the baby boom begins its slow return to the dust, we are going to one of the biggest (and unpredictable) wealth reallocations in canadian (and if you include the american boom, north american) history. the powers-that-be need to hoover as much of that up as possible before it flow god-knows-where....overseas charities? pet trust funds?

Re: 21C book burning: Scribd & the DMCA

tcV — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 21:30:28 -0000

Scribd, Inc. Attn: Jason Bentley, Copyright Agent 539
Bryant St, Suite 200
San Francisco, CA 94107

Dear Mr. Bentley:

This letter is a formal response to a claim of copyright infringement against one or more of the documents that I’ve uploaded and published on Scribd.com. I believe the claims of copyright infringement are inaccurate and should be rejected because:

The PDF uploaded to Scribd is not an exact copy of the work provided to the complainant but a draft copy from the original Word document over which the complainant has no copyright.

I am the author and retain certain rights as determined in the Publication Agreement with The International Society for the Arts Sciences and Technology (ISAST), including the right to publish "in any anthology of which [I am] an editor". My Scribd archive of published works is such an anthology and I hereby exercise the right.

MIT Press has failed to maintain an accessible copy online. I thereby retain the right of author to republish the work if the Press is no longer providing access at its stated URL of publication:

http://mitpress2.mit.edu/e-...

The complainant does not hold full copyright to the material in question and therefore lacks standing to assert that my use of the material is a violation of any of the owner's rights --- as I retain certain rights as the author.

My use of the material is legally protected because it falls within the "fair use" provision of the copyright regulations, as defined in 17 USC 107. If the complainant disagrees that this is fair use, they must work directly with me, though legally viable channels, to resolve the dispute. Scribd and its employees under no obligation to settle this dispute, or to take any action to restrict my speech at the behest of this complainant.

I declare, under penalty of perjury, that I have a good faith belief that the complaint of copyright violation is based on mistaken information, misidentification of the material in question, or deliberate misreading of the law.

I ask that Scribd, upon receipt of this counter-notification, restore the material in dispute, unless the complainant files suit against me within ten (10) days, pursuant to 17 USC 512(g)(2)(B).

My name, address, and telephone number are:

tobias c. van Veen
-- REMOVED --

I hereby consent to the jurisdiction of Federal District Court for the judicial district in which I reside (or, if my address is outside the United States, the jurisdiction of the Federal District Court for the San Francisco, California judicial district).

I agree to accept service of process from the complainant.

Best regards,

tobias c. van Veen

Re: Contesting Civil War: Tiqqun & Agamben

tcV — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 01:02:48 -0000

Indeed, what is so frightening is how banal the cops are --- "oh look! revolutionary books! quick, ping Intel!" As if the presence of books somehow still matters when political presence, likes, dislikes, reads, affiliations, comments, postings, and so on are already so easily determined through a simple Google search. Perhaps the materialization of the belief still carries some weight. Of course, this is all to say how disgusting it is for cops to abuse their powers of entry when they should be *cough* aiding the average citizen.

Re: Contesting Civil War: Tiqqun & Agamben

mark duff — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 08:46:53 -0000

Tiqqun has provided an excellant analysis of 21stC Capital. the Empire is intervention, no action is required by militants, if you have the wrong books, you go to jail.i was home-invaded and called the police.the police noticed my posters and books..when leaving one cop said to the other,'im referring this guy to Intell'....