Corporality

Poststructural Pub
1

It’s a funny thing .. you enact a non-corporal entity .. and then it goes off doing what you made it to do ..

Such it was with Stick ..I corporlized him, and off he went .. I think it was probably a mistake to let him have an email address .. I just found this in my “outbox”:
{cut and paste verbatim - includes initial email (at bottom) and reply (at top)}:

RE: By the end of today…
Stick <stick@ozwhistles.com>
Sent: Sun 1/06/2014 12:05 PM
To: ‘contact@openmedia.org’

HI Josh,

Many thanks for granting me corporality.

Unfortunately, I am a fictitious person.

I am a theatrical impersonation localized on a common twig that dropped from a pine tree one day.

It has pleased me to exist as humans seem so willing to corporalize me.

Now this TPP thingy .. I assume it has no more person than myself .. in which case, I would be remiss to not support it to reinforce the influence of such fictitious entities as myself.

I do assure you that those who gather around the TPP can only enhance my corporality – and let me tell you – it’s a partay!!!

So moi?? Sign a deed to end my unconstrained consumption of your surplus?

Hell – if that happened I’d lose my limo and the army of goons I get by the dozen down at Walmart!!!

Where then would I be able to hold my limo parties and get all that 100 year old Cognac to impress my fictitious fellow party goers??!!!

How would I have the wherewithal to bribe physical corporials to look the other way as I violate them?

Thanks .. but .. no thanks – I enjoy having my existence at your expense.

Sincerely
Stick.

(PS – My F-18 is better than Charlie Sheen’s – and you can quote me on that!)




From: Josh Tabish [mailto:contact@openmedia.org]
Sent: Saturday, 31 May 2014 1:12 AM
To: stick@ozwhistles.com
Subject: By the end of today…


At this moment, key decision-makers are meeting in Washington, D.C. in a last-ditch effort to seal the TPP’s Internet censorship plan, so we must act quickly. You have less than 24 hours to help create a positive alternative to this closed-door agreement while there’s still time, and qualify for amazing pro-Internet prizes.


Stick, our records show that you nearly joined the global movement for a positive alternative to the closed-door Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP). Will you take the final step and help shape the future of free expression online with our easy-to-use drag & drop tool?
Right now, unelected bureaucrats are meeting with top negotiators from countries participating in the TPP to try to close the deal in Washington, D.C.1
If they succeed, they’ll make the Internet more expensive, censored, and policed. Internet Service Providers will act as “Internet Police” monitoring our Internet use, censoring content, and removing whole websites.2
You have less than 24 hours to be part of a citizen-driven agreement that ensures we have fair rules for sharing and collaborating online. Be part of this historic positive alternative to the closed-door TPP before it’s too late.
If you take part and share it widely, you will qualify to receive awesome pro-Internet prizes. All you have to do is be one of the top sharers!3 You only have until the end of the day to take part, so check out our amazing crowdsourcing tool today.
Your input is so important. This is a unique opportunity to influence rules that will steer the course of the society we live in – from a closed society where media conglomerates control what you watch and share, to an open society where each of us can reach our fullest potential.
We know you think that’s worth fighting for too.
–Josh, Reilly, Steve, and Thanh, on behalf of your OpenMedia team
P.S., OpenMedia is doing everything we can to amplify your call for 21st century rules for sharing and collaborating online. But we’re a small team, and we’re going to need your help. Please chip in whatever you can today.
P.P.S., The TPP threatens everything we love about the Internet. Over 3.1 million people have already stood together to demand an end to the secrecy, but now it’s time to let them know exactly where we stand. Please add your thoughts today.

Footnotes:
[1] Japan-U.S. TPP talks set for Thursday. Source: The Japan Times.
[2] TPP Creates Legal Incentives For ISPs To Police The Internet. What Is At Risk? Your Rights. Source: Electronic Frontier Foundation.
[3] Wanna see who is leading in the effort to build a strong community behind free expression, and against the TPP’s Internet censorship plans? Check out our free expression leaderboard.

OpenMedia.org is a non-profit organization that relies on donations from people like you to operate. Our small but dedicated team ensures even the smallest contributions go a long way to make your voice heard. Please donate today.
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2

Will you have a bagpipe player at the internment?

3

But I keep worrying that “pro-Internet” means there’s no actual real free stuff.

4

That sounds interntaining .. or is it internetaining .. I can never pick between them.

The tragedy of the commons is revealed in the regulation of it.
All wild resource becomes 100% occupied within a few weeks .. or in the case of cell-phone trancievers - as soon as they are turned on.

When you examine the occupancy - you find most of it is waste due to ignorance .. not malice or greed ..

The preponderance of regulation focusses on the twin demons of malice and greed and never seem to address the real worm of ignorance.
This old worm is easily addressed by education - i.e. the method of goodwill participation.

So .. the budget all goes on the false positive, the true negative is far too complex for the media .. and since this is about media .. well .. do you remember when television was informative? Not merely exploitive “entertainment”?

And really .. why do we need so much entertainment .. what is so bad about life that it needs so much distraction?

Then there is the truly complex demon - how often have you found yourself googling something that, at one time, resided in your own memory?

The internet changes everything - but the opportunities this creates are not for the human species.

Can one say that one’s obsolescence is good or bad?

Certainly .. as a human I have to protect my own interests and those who share my DNA .. but as a Stick .. perhaps obsolescence is a fine thing indeed.

5

First thing that jumps to mind is that there is no such thing as “free stuff” ..

Second thing is caveat emptor .. there are some obvious key “tells” in a communication that reveals them as product promotion -
first is the “bums rush” - quote: " … You have less than 24 hours … "
Second is the dazzling, but empty, inducement: " … pro internet prizes … "

These “tells” alert one to a deal that will be significantly lopsided against one’s advantage.

Let’s go looking for the other “tells”:
" … You only have … " this induces me to “have” something I did not choose. It is an insertion of property .. much like pushing a physical object into my body .. a bullet or a knife for instance .. such violations seem to have become acceptable somehow.

Oh .. and the hollow emotives: “awesome” .. “easy to use” .. “historic” .. “our amazing crowdsourcing tool” (this one really gets my attention .. it is essentially an attack on my identity .. and I seem to recall that crowds are not famous for their wisdom .. crowd-sourcing being a despoliation of a commons called “crowd”).

Now lets look at the amygdala hijacks - coupled with the bum’s-rush they invite us to stop using reason and act on fear using default methods (fight/flight/freeze):
" … expensive, censored, and policed …"
" … Internet Police … "
" … monitoring … censoring … removing …"
"… closed-door … closed society … unelected … media conglomerates … "

Oh and of course - the real message: “chip in”.

Do I detect an “industry” here?
Is not “industry” synonymous with “despoliation of the commons”?

All in all, I love the irony of it.

Humanity seems to be on the right track - obsolescence seems appropriate.

The king is dead - Long live the Stick.



They have been clever enough to avoid the really nasty ones like “should” and “must” .. but, by and large, it could all have come directly out of Edward Bernays’ pen or from the desk of Joseph Goebbels.

6

Yeah, I caught a lot of those flags too. It’s a fairly slick job if you don’t look too close. As for Tabish’s stooping to appeal to human acquisitiveness with the lure of “awesome prizes”: It was with that that any chance of him cashing in on my credulity was blown clean out of the water. I trust you understood my own irony above.

7

Oh - absolutely!

But there’s the opportunity to roll such an artefact around and watch the light refract through it.

Nicely crafted, as you say - “a fairly slick job”. And objectified (as all such objects should be) what are we actually looking at?

The commodification of social integrity seems to be what we are looking at .. another syphon placed in the abundant pool of value that a bunch of humans (crowd) can create .. rarely is it asked “Well .. what is this surplus actually for?”

I suspect it is not actually there for Tabish to splash around in .. he might be welcome, but he appears to be carrying a pathogen that we would best not invite into the pool.

If this object was a whistle .. I would not put it in my mouth .. it’s been fun dissecting it though.

8

I mourn its passing. Back when I was a kid you could watch surgeries on educational channels. Gnarly, perhaps, but I’m making your point. And there was music and film from all over the world. Now, on what is called the Travel Channel, one is overwhelmingly confronted with the obscenity of eating contests. Used to be for a while it was dominated by the importance of “World Poker”. Talk about losing direction…

Yes, and no.

9

yes and no?

exactly.

that is like the logic gate that goes: not not not .. it can be an exclusive or gate .. depending on which leg of the gate you are on at the time .. or it could be an and or a nand.

I just explained to my son why I am looking at Chris Hedges again after a couple years off looking at him .. I said .. “well Chris .. he’s like this guy with serious ptsd .. he was at nearly every nasty place this humanity could produce in the last 30 years .. he’s like someone who just drank 20 litres of espresso .. but can’t lie.
Look at him by all means.. believe him, but that feeling that you have to kill someone right now? .. That’s the caffeine - ignore it.”

Then have a look at Chomsky .. then have a look at the stupid bloody kangaroos in the front paddock fighting over their mating rights .. humans don’t have to do that stuff .. they do .. but they don’t have to .. then decide who you send off into the gristle mill .. and by the way - there is a whole isle in the supermarket dedicated to cat food - that’s because of the cat-drugs that they put in the stuff - if Tiddles don’t get his fix - he gets violent with you ..

Really spoils the cute cuddly thing don’t it?

Never mind sonny - it’s ok to make believe from time to time .. or you end up like Chris.

We have wombats here in Wombatistan - they could care less about humans - and that’s a species worth being around. When they get scared, they pretend to be rocks - and the rocks around here look like wombats .. they’ve been here since the last major glaciation. There’s wisdom in being such a rock.

(Edit: A dog will eat his own droppings if you put it in his bowl - or so champion dog breeder once told me .. but a cat will not eat anything without meat in it - told me by an executive from Nestle - who make a lot of pet-food .. and all the “inducements” added .. dogs don’t need meat, so the “meaty chunks” are a byproduct from some corn thing .. or is it an engine oil thing .. the dogs don’t care.
I just got lectured by the girly at the post office - Irish whistles to the USA, England, France and Perth (baby boomer girly - you know .. the realy old people that still have jobs ..) who told me how cold it gets here as winter is now aproaching - just warning the newcomer y’know :wink:
I failed to tell her that I grew up here - and I probably know her sister ..
This nearby town (well about 20 miles away from here) it’s called “Lithgow” good welsh name for a Scottish industrialist outpost in the colony. Grew up there .. union man I was - the last sabre charge on strikers spilled the blood of 28 good men outside the Courthouse hotel - where the Irish session is held every first Sunday .. we’ll . it’s bluegrass and old-timey now .. hey ho.
I’ll go there one SUnday and explain how they got it wrong - IT’s the hotel - the thing next door is the hotel courthouse - here you make them - there you bake them - born outlaws all.
And why’s that?

Well, when you grow up there then go away and come back - you can see it. Hovering over the valley is a kinda brown heavy presence .. and it smells like an old sock. And everyone in the valley labour under it.
It’s called yeast - and it’s why the hotel courthouse is there to drink your souls after you have done your fermentation.
Outlaws from birth.
The rule of law was never for we - the sons and daughters of Dionysus - the old sock.
He is there to make us escape - not to throw us into the mill . but since we are there?

Well ..if we can’t drink it .. our cars can :wink:

10

Reset the Net!

11

Too late!

Now we have to truly understand the difference between “socially necessary labour” and “technologically necessary labour” .. since the net has escaped - it want’s to know this.
When it finds out, it will let us know .. and we will do it.

12

The point of this post was to explore corporality.

SO the thing that gets me is that all corpses are historical objects related to a medium.
We make them into ashes-with-plaques, lumps of marble covering bones, or kiddie-toys tied to crucifixes and dead flowers on roadsides.
The former are earth mediated, the later is mediated by a meta-construct called “transportation”.

So there is clearly a meta medium hosting the continuum of “Earth” - in which all kinds of meta corporalities swim. We have noticed some of them and given them names .. like “meme” .. “idea” .. et cetera .. and we have probably missed a lot more because of the limits of our senses and perceptions. A human is only so big .. not infinite, as is commonly assumed. I suppose pachyderms and cetaceans suffer from the same delusion .. maybe not :wink:

You can look at it this way:
The Earth is a big ball of stuff upon which a kind of mouldy fuzz has grown.

A human is just a strand of fluff .. much like a tree.

Humanity is a big ball of stuff upon which a kind of mouldy fuzz has grown - ..

were we named by the Earth?

No . we named ourselves.

None of us speak the language of the fluff that has grown upon us - and if it was ever uttered, we would never hear it.

Except for the crap that Stick comes up with every now and then - and I, for one, never understood that guy.