Knowledge is a fractal, just-percolating path between nihilism and totalitarianism

This is a tale of finding complexity and coming to terms with the world, partially. Better said, coming to terms with a little role of ours in the world, and how hard playing that role will inevitably be.

I recall my early times in Berlin when my motto was 'everything is a lie'. Even now from time to time I can't help that sentence slipping out my tongue. I was coming from a media delusion, a politics delusion, and I was confronting a University-scale scam and (once again) delusion; so I used to get drunk with friends, howl at the full moon -- which in Berlin is a bare tree laden with snow amid a desert parking lot, and repeat all over again 'this is a lie, my self is a lie, the rotting lungs of the city are a lie'. And I would doze off on a freezing concrete street until that yellow vodka would carry me home. I once lived on a 13th floor and I have memories of flying in through the window. I had abandoned myself to a hopeless nihilism.

The other extreme is being blindly sure of a truth impossible to grasp and is the essence of fascism, I have no doubt. How totalitarian this sentence was!

My little revelation was that neither position is true. It might seem small, but all of a sudden loads of dilemmas appear clear to me:

• (Wo)men is born neither evil nor good: it is a complex thing in between. 
• Evil (or good) in (wo)men is neither born nor fostered: it is a complex thing in between. 
• Media do neither lie nor tell the truth: it is a very complex thing in between. 
• There is definitively some truth and use in politics, as obvious as it is that all politicians lie. We must wring them out and out as a wet cloth to extract some of that use to the world. 
• Things are neither relative nor have they got an absolute existence of their own. Relativism is relative and difficult to size. Things exist just on a glimpse, always there and always about to vanish as if the world were quantum in nature. 

Summing up: things are complex, very complex!! And I largely recognize the defeat against this Nature in the younger, more frustrated drunkard playing chess with the shadows of the Berlin wall. A fawn hidden in the woods, its heart a nest for a dove flapping with fear. So easy to abandon ourselves to either nihilism or totalitarianism. But acknowledging that the world is complex paves a tiny, little way in front of us. The reality is complex and we must work hard to extract truth and knowledge, to make serve our work. Reality is not pointless, it is very difficult to grasp. 

Three nazi tales: II, The Facebook

As recently as two weeks ago I came across an article at a Spanish newspaper (in Spanish) written by a well known spanish polemist (this site is unluckily also in Spanish, though there is a non-working British flag in the upper left which should allow one to change the language); a regular one of the neoconservative, pan-nationalcatholic TV-channel intereconomía. The author was disappointed that no official tribute is payed to the blue division anymore.

The blue division consisted of spaniards which voluntarily enrolled to fight WW2 as part of the nazi army. This broadly makes them nazis from my point of view. Most of them came from franco's army, which broadly makes them fascists for me. I'd even say that there isn't any difference in here. More about the blue division can be found in the wikipedia, I was delaying the link on purpose to have you read my opinion first.

As members of the nazi army they fought the Russian campaign. Serving the nazi army. The polemist claims that they fought with real courage and honor, and that this makes a great score. He also remarks as merits of the blue division that they could once have raped a russian girl, but they didn't though they had a clear chance and big urge to do so.

franco's children. So far so good.

I read this article through one of my facebook contacts: a young boy once actively involved in the recent #spanishrevolution which demands more democracy among other stuff. He was in full agreement with the polemist. He argues that what really matters is that "they died for their ideals, whatever they were"; that they gave everything for nothing --quite a pity, I shall guess...--; and that all of this makes them "the last great heroes of this country" (this last in capitals, which I refuse to reproduce in here).

A cold opinion in the internet, sharp as the side view of the letters I write right now. Words of my generation. A reminder that time is cyclic, that we've already been in this planet for a while and history is exhausted, and that we have no other fate than playing it over and over again as the fractal piece of a rusty pianola.

Three nazi tales: I, Oranienburgerstraße.

At the corner Friedrichstraße with Oranienburgerstraße there was a pizza restaurant. I didn't use to go there: too expensive for me. But it was near the place I study and could see it everyday. Two weeks ago I walked by with two friends who were visiting me.

The place isn't a restaurant anymore. It was closed. The inside was dusty and the furniture removed out of its place, chopped into splinters. At each and every one of the wide windows someone had painted gross jewish crosses from the bottom to the top. I double checked the calendar: it was 2011. I double checked the place: it was Berlin-Mitte.

We left the place towards Brandenburger Tor. A shade of sadness. We slipped through a bunch of Syrian people demonstrating for the current president of their country who has been recently accused of crimes against the humanity by Amnesty International. "We'll blast you all", one could read on their shirts, or see the smiling face of president al-asad. "We'll blast you all", my sorrow sang.

Democracy 2.0

There is a #SpanishRevolution going on!!! Of course, it is directly inspired in the icelandic movement, but I'd say that the closest inspiration are the arab ones. Key feature --which I didn't find so important in the icelandic case-- are web 2.0: facebook and twitter. They brought together a bunch of very different people just because they we are upset with our corrupted politicians and the system they support.

A main claim against this movement is that the politicians say we don't know what we want. We organized independently of any political party or syndicate. We discovered that we don't need any underlying structure to express our claims. The politician power fears this enlightenment. The easiest thing is to say we don't know what we want.

I do know exactly what I want: I want a public social network over which I can interact with another people discussing initiatives which will democratically rise or fall. A public social network over which I can configure my vote about the many different issues of importance to my country, in real time, without the corrupt sense of delegating my will each 4 years in a party working for international enterprises. A public social network which would allow me to link my vote to a determined party or think tank or person if I desired to do so because I consider that I am not an expert on a topic, or because I considered that the topic is not so important to me, or because I just don't want to review the color of my opinion each and every minute and I trust enough a certain party or think tank or person. But also, if the people on which I delegate plans some dirty move, I want a public social network to remove my endorsement at the moment I desired, on real time and not just each 4 years.

This I call it a real (or at least more real) democracy.

A foreseeable claim against this is that we are not prepared for such a thing, or that the thing couldn't be kept under control... Just wait until you hear that. Doesn't this remind you of a fellow Mubarak talking to the Egyptian folks? O a gay --yeah, this one is on purpose-- called Franco preparing Spain for over 40 years for the simulacrum of a democracy? Don't let them play any tricks on us when they are scared and try to spread their fear. We have the technology to implement it, now we only need the will.

So up to here my point. I do know exactly what I want: not only regarding the 'how', but also have some thoughs on the 'what later'. And better on: each girl and boy, and elder and middle aged and whoever you can find tonight camping on the Spanish's squares does know what they want. Maybe they don't want the same as me, but they do know what. And we shall speak out loud and frighten the night.

Meeting on Tuesday the 19, at 15:30 in front of the Spanish embassy. Further meetings for Friday and Saturday! Keep looking at the hashtags:

#SpanishRevolution
#acampadasol
#acampadaberlin
#nolesvotes
#notenemosmiedo
#yeswecamp

Leave us kids alone!!

I can see it coming!

My (grand)father used to say that we should let the youth take over the institutions; not only hear their (our, as I'm young myself) opinions, but also grant them attention and interest.

Of course no one would ever hear my grandfather in this point, as wise and old as he was. And so, politics and similar advance so slowly, sometimes backwards. And I can see nowadays how people older than me is completely wrong in their points --they usually even mistake the debate-- and how they prevent me and others like me from making the world one that fancies us. It makes me feel kind of angry and frustrated.

But years will pass by and the older will become elder and latter slain, so my generation will at some point gain control over the world. Great done! But we will also grow older, as any rolling stone; and our ideas wouldn't be anymore those shaking the scene, but the ones taking firm hold of it. At this point, we shall also have grown into mad and irritated fellows. We have our 15 minutes and won't waste them. We won't let any 15-, 25-, 35-years-old lad with funny technological gadgets and up-to-date-fashion dresses ruin our moment. We will fight with ourselves to implement our aged ideas into a world that is not the same anymore, and thus we will condemn the youth to a living hell of frustration and ever repeating history and we won't understand that they are our only chance to make our desired chimera real.

Just to put it easy: we are fighting a Darth Vader, and the fighting itself is the easiest way to becoming one ourselves.

The right paradigm?

To create jobs is seen as a great thing. People cheer about the idea that more jobs available would help us out of the financial crisis we're in. We humans have worked since the beginning of the history, usually because we had to. If we look back, little changed about this point. We need to work to have a life according to our times. We voluntarily become slaves of a system which will provide us with a house; heath insurance; safety against anarchy, radical islamism and other similar threats; a good school for our children so they are competitive enough to cope with their own lives and become slaves themselves.

Each time I read in the newspapers that someone created that much of new jobs... I can't see this as good news anymore.

Why is life like that? If we had actually achieved some progress we shouldn't need to become slaves of a sick system involved in wars and other forms of killing. I'm sure there's money enough in the world, welfare and resources enough so as to live without working for a few generations. It is again the distribution of these resources which matters to create the enslaving structure we live in.

I seek an ideal state I call the 'idle humanity' in which machines have taken charge of our works, and welfare and resources reach everyone for free. I wouldn't be afraid of this 'idle humanity'. No one works... so what? There's no need to... Even more, I assume higher unknown structures of 'work' would arise, in which enthusiastic humans would get involved voluntarily. No need for every one to participate: others could decide to die on a LSD orgy lasting many decades.

If you like my idea of 'idle humanity', good news are awaiting you! There are many countries in the world which work for such a picture to become real! As an instance, the amazing socialist government of the spanish kingdom has already over 20% unemployment. What an achieve in equality!!! Complementary measures such as not supporting students who just graduated were also implemented. Of course the remaining 80% work without any kind of motivation, just as in the 'idle humanity' model. They accept low (or even no) salaries, because money is not what matters in a society-to-be were everything is for free. The inspiration for work arises in these people in the same way as secondarily needs arose when the primarily ones were satisfied.

And so on, and so forth. This is progress, evolution.

Speak out loud!!

I am not a clever guy (I even misspelled clever in this sentence, but the corrector helped me out), so I'm sure I don't have any brilliant solution for the world. I am, however, in this process of awareness of how much of the things in which my life relies, are lies: money, politics... But the fact that I don't have any actual solution shouldn't prevent that I act to say what I don't see right. I hope a smarter person will find out some solutions, maybe they are my acts which help this able one to become aware of the problems.

This is why, in the next elections I will wander the streets of wherever I'm at and write over each and every poster with politicians in it: "everything is a lie". A small action for a great purpose.

The price of the money...

...is a lie!!

Canteen of a public university in Germany, supposed to have lower prices for students:
1/2 chicken + fried chips + 20 cl coke: more than 6€, plus the chicken is row, the chips are cold, the coke is warm and any of the things tastes disgracefully (even the coke).

Turkish guy in the corner:
1/2 chicken + fried chips + 50 cl coke: less than 5€, plus coke is cold, chips have been done right now, chicken is completely cooked; everything tastes wonderful.

Further examples:

- I've lost my wallet so I need to cancel my card at the bank. This has a fee of 15€... I wonder what do I pay for. The girl at the bank presses a button: old card blocked + 15€ gone from my account. If I find my old card, it can be unblocked again without having to issue a new card. This means: I didn't pay the 15€ fee for issuing a new card, I payed them for the girl to press the "block" button. Same operation with a Spanish card is free, which makes me wonder how harder it is to press the computer "block card" key in a German computer than in a Spanish one.

- I've lost my wallet so I need a new student card. This has a fee of 16€... I wonder what do I pay for. By the way, the university is a public one and it's supposed to have popular prices. 16€ is cheap compared to... a new laptop, e.g. But it's a huge difference compared to the actual cost of issuing a student card. I wonder if the aims of the public university is to provide services to the people or to make money as any other private university does... Public universities just target a population sector which can't be targeted by private university. But the university itself seems to be a lie.

- I need to send a fax from Berlin to Spain. Doing some Google-Re-Search you can find the price for sending a fax can be as low as 10 cents a page. They charge me 1€/page in the place under my house, and an extra € because it's going to Spain. So random...

And so on and so forth...

Money is a lie. The price of money is a lie set almost by random. What more proofs are needed?? What's the supply and demand law justifying any of the prices above? It's just a stochastic game of a few obscene people.

My answer: boycott the money!!

Back home...

It's nice to be back home from time to time; although since I came back to Galicia last week the allergy doesn't let me sleep, my eyes itchy and I'm sneezing the whole time. And it's like this each time I come back.

I also rediscover the essence of my very folk. I watch local TV--or even any national broadcaster--and become quickly ashamed of the shit on. Can't believe that so much emptiness can be enclosed in such a flat screen.

And from time to time I run into some ethical debate with myself. In large ads at the sides of the main entrances of the city we can see two children drinking or sharing a bottle of water. One of them looks healthy, the other doesn't. The one is fully dressed, the other isn't. The one doesn't, the other looks thirsty. And in between them, in huge letters: "If I drink, (s)he drinks", and a brief explanation that part of the benefits of the company would be shared with some african, thirsty children.

The ad belongs to fontecelta (a Galician brand of bottled water), and I first wondered what the increase of this company's benefits would be thanks to this propaganda. It followed, of course, the straightforward doubt about the ethical of winning a few thousand € with the thirst of any random kid. I though, if the true aim were to help those children, they could do it without telling anyone. Silent hero. Unsung hero. But heroes must be sung to exist. Latter on, I remembered many other such actions (yeah, they're everywhere, indeed). It was amazing when some musicians decided to donate 1€ of each CD's price to hungry--or such--children so to avoid 'piracy'. And they even dared say it.

Charity, as everything else, indeed; has become a show. I'm thinking of dropping a line to the fontecelta friends to know their point about this issue... I'd be nice if they would answer!!

Soldados de Salamina (Soldiers of Salamina)

I've read this book almost as bad books are read: in one day and a few hours.

First thing: it's an amazing reading. Second thing: it reconciled me on Spanish civil war readings. Third thing: it's been a great wake up call.

I condensate the two first points in a quick plot of the book: it tells the story of a Spanish writer and fascist "probably the man who has spent more work and intelligence onto sinking Spain into an orgy of blood"(1)--and indeed the first fascist of Spain, as he called himself-- who escapes a massive shooting in the last days of the Spanish civil war. I don't know if the anecdote is worth telling, but the actual story told is worth reading. The book contains digressions where many other stories of beaten glory come up to tie you up to your past (if you are Spanish or European, or maybe whatever you are).

So the reading has always been pleasing and the writing is great; but it hasn't been until the last part, when it's told the story of an ancient fighter of the Spanish republic, later a soldier in equatorial and north Africa and eventually a conqueror of the liberty of Paris--all of them are the same person--; that I got enlightened. This old beaten man telling his story, the story of his dead comrades who have died for us, surrounded by a world that doesn't even remember him anymore while bunches of neonazis parade in streets with names of old fascists... this has been my wake up call for me to remember my past, to be thanked to the people who made my present possible and to help make a future in which they are again remembered.

I know there's a film based on the book. I haven't seen it. I recommend the book. I recommend anyone steaming from an european family to read the book, to know a great approximation to the very beginning of the whole horror on which our accommodated lives rely--though, as for everything, that horror had many beginnings; any of them as valid as a beginning as any other--. I recommend anyone to read the book, regardless of the family from which she or he steams. It's a great book. And the last god of the literature, Roberto Bolaño, plays a crucial role on it!!

Some links: 
Original book in Spanish: Soldados de Salamina (Spanish Edition)
Book in English: Soldiers of Salamis: A Novel
DVD film: Soldiers of Salamina (Soldados de Salamina) (NTSC/REGION 1 & 4)




(1)From the book, though this translation is mine and you might find a different one if you read the English version of the book. 

Until when? (II)

Now with english subs:

Hasta cuando? (Until when?)

Sorry, it's only in Spanish... I guess in a few days we'll have a version with English subtitles.

What were all those controls for, actually??

Last time I flew (2 weeks ago), when I arrived at SQC airport a nice poster said: "scanners can see what you can't!! Congrats: 50 years of Europe Federation of Customs. " There stayed the shadow of a bomb behind suitcases and other airport-stuff. Great!! Scanners see what I can't... shit... then why do I need to take my shoes off each time before walking into the plane??

The jest goes further, when Europe Union --without any authority (they didn't ask me and they aren't even my government!!)-- comes to a deal with the US government to share private data of the passengers! To share information which even within the Europe Union was absolutely forbidden for an airline to share with anyone but the passenger her/himself. Shit! But great! We are free from the threat of international terrorism!!

Wait a... what the hell??? Today a guy tried to blow up an airplane in Detroit? How was it possible?? To go through all those controls... maybe he was a citizen who suddenly became crazy, and thus there's no criminal record which would hold back his travel... or... no, shit... he was not!! This guy is related to Al-Qaeda and his name appears in the lists of many terrorist organizations, says FBI... shit!! What the... Maybe US government should come to a kind of deal with those terrorist organizations so that they would kindly share the names and sexual orientations of the terrorists they have available... as well as they do with the dangerous European citizens...

Eh, you guy!! Wake up! Those controls and deals between EU ad US were not to prevent international terrorism... They just wanted to hinder our freedom... Kid! Kid! You there yet?

The Worst of the Nightmares...

...picture yourself you wake up a Monday morning and you find yourself in a country leaded by a pro-fascist party.

Picture yourself you was living in a country with a party which modernized the infrastructures and gave money for research and for the people to learn languages. You was living in a country where actions against the financial crisis had been energetically impulsed, abetting the investments in the regional economy and ensuring the workers in case of unemployment.

Picture yourself you study abroad with scholarships given by your government and wish to revert your work in your country. Picture yourself the huge amount of people studying abroad had the impression that your country was improving up.

Picture yourself the crowd you left behind in there, who have right to vote and so they do, doesn't want any improvement, nor security against the crisis, nor scholarships for their daughters and sons... picture yourself you go to sleep thousands of kilometers far away from your home and when you wake up you are in the worst of the nightmares...