Well I heard there was a secret chord...

This one is a little bit more personal then most of my posts. I'll try to keep it from getting over gushy, and I'll keep it tied into the general and try to stay away from specific pining.

I've been reading a lot about crowds, crowd instinct, and control of crowds lately. Elias Canetti wrote "Crowds and Power" which is a great read to be sure. Everyone should take at least a passing look at the opening chapters to get a very different look at the formation of crowds, how the behave, and (the part that is pertinent to this post) the very important function that they serve in the human experience.
I've had this urge for the past couple weeks to just scream at the sky over some personal losses I've had. And my goal here is to kill two birds (and sort of elevate my own need to spill all of this nonsense out) by coupling my outpouring with a consideration on the need to do so.

Canetti holds as a central idea that humans validate their experiences and emotions in the sharing thereof. This makes a lot of sense, observation adds a special validation to the human experience. I think in a way we just feel better with the knowledge that others are aware of our sufferings and internal pain, and of our joys and personal triumphs. It's key not to become bogged down by them, that sort of thing leads to a melancholic self obsession that holds you back and breaks you down.

The sharing of experience is something uniquely human, (one of many things in such a category) and while I'd hesitate to name anything as the "linchpin of society" it's definitely a top running candidate. The need to share experience and the euphoria that results from it can be attested to by anyone who has seen a riot or mob. The amazing thing is that the energy and power of these emotions manifests itself in very real very physical results. In riots both positive (a sports championship win) and negative (bread riots) the shared joy/misery of the crowd creates a pent up force that must be applied and directed in some vector. The body reacts to the crowd, the will of the crowd in that sense swallows up the individual in a complete and total way.
Perhaps that is the root of our need to cry out that we are in pain. Because when others respond to that cry it is a step closer to losing yourself and your identity, however briefly, to the crowd. And in that loss you distance yourself from the need to miss people, the need to be loved, the need to struggle on with dealing with your problems... however temporary that relief may be.

This is a lot more esoteric then most of my posts, and I recognize that I'm in a way sort of corrupting the idea I'd had for this blog by mixing in the personal.

Orwell Said This Would Happen

"Freedom is the right to tell people what they do not want to hear. "

"The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one's real and one's declared aims, one turns, as it were, instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish squirting out ink."

George Orwell.

So it turns out that the closest city to me, Lancaster PA, is now one of the most camera infested cities in America. I can't help but noticed that Mayor Grey, one of the leftest leaning mayors I can remember, was in office when this change came about. I'm very nervous about the level of acceptance with a literal Big Brother incursion. I think that the world of Orwell's 1984 must have come about just as gradually. I wonder about the sacrifice here, and if it really equates itself to greater security. This is not a new argument, and I'll allow the reader to consider the debate on it's own merits as laid out by those far better equipped then myself.

The biggest shock to me is how quietly it was able to be achieved. I'm sure I must have heard about the plan in some context, but I don't recall anything this encompassing or this intrusive being described.

The goals of a leftist government are summed up in control of the activities of the every day population. Information is and observation are the key tools. Something done is secret has a power all it's own because the powers that be cannot observe it. I think that a certain level of crime is an unfortunate byproduct of individuality. The best way to eliminate crime is to destroy all individuality.
Nobody ever got mugged in an ant farm

The importance of disent

I'm reading a compilation called "The Anti-Federalist", compiled by Herbert J. Storing.
Hopefully my readers are familiar with the collection called "The Federalist Papers". It's easy to imagine the framers of the Constitution working in a vacuum, but it's really not the case. The reason we have the bill of rights is because the dissenters made their points clearly and aggressively.
Dissent can be patriotic, absolute compliance results in unchecked government.
I aim to have more up on this later, after I take care of a few things.