Battleangel

“No matter how paranoid or conspiracy-minded you are, what the government is actually doing is worse than you imagine.” /William Blum

Colophon

• Location: Sweden
• Writing since April, 2001. On the net since 1997.
• In my late twenties … and tired of this fixation with time.
• My academic background is biology and behavioral science Namely basic Ecology, Evolution and Molecular biology as well as more exhaustive Social Psychology and Sociology. I’ve also added assorted courses in Natural Geography, Marine Biology, Evolutionary Psychology, Social Anthropology and Political Science to a growing list of academic merits. I find the apparent dichotomy of natural and social science to be quite rewarding.

Dispositions

• I strongly dislike the United States of America and almost everything it stands for. The USA effectively dominates the world via economic, military and cultural means. It would be a mistake not to see the truth and in turn fail to care. As virtual and unwitting citizens of Empire we need to care.
• I also strongly dislike sports. The main purpose of the rise of organized athletics is surely to control and distract the public mind, subdue the masses. This becomes even more relevant when you consider the role of sporting events in the construction, upkeep of nationalism. And for that matter the espousing of the corporate sphere, such as sponsorship and the violation of civil liberties that invariably follows (e.g. Olympic Games). And speaking of the corporate sphere and colonization, sports also tend to instill an unhealthy sense of competition that invariably works to further and in some vulgar sense legitimize the claims by the capitalist / free market system.
• Immaterial law / intellectual property and corporate rights are among the most unpleasant problems that we face today. As citizens of western industrialized nations this limits our freedom, hampers development and barricades information … for the developing world it is a matter of life and death.
• I’m an atheist and a passionate antagonist of religious notions. I tried the agnostic approach, live and let live and all that, but it didn’t really work for me. Despite being the “scientific” thing to do. While not resorting to extremes, we ought to make religious life as difficult as possible and take responsibility not allowing any new religions to form, spread and prevent current religions from proselytizing, i.e. missionary work. Freedom of religion is to be free of religion, not religions being free to proselytize.
• And lets not beat around the bush … Here are a few more things I despise … Philanthropy as linked to neo-liberalism; Tipping as opposed to wages; The hollow celebrity cult and Hollywood myth making; Fileplanet and proprietary distribution; Apple and other deceitful trends turning high-tech development into opiate for the people; Globalization as it is understood in terms of unfair trade and free flow of currency; Zionism and Nationalism as a rule of thumb; Laissez faire, laissez passer; Conservatism, new and old, because of frankly unenlightened views; Neoclassical liberalism and Libertarianism because of said laissez faire; Liberal fundamentalist universalism; Communitarianism; Gun ownership; (Multicultural) Particularism beyond affirmative action, in other words balkanization or cantonization; Civil Religion a la America; Privatization to escape social responsibility; Censorship of and attempts to corporatize and discredit the Internet; Failure to acknowledge social stratification (gender, class, ethnicity etc); Rejection of science; Luddites; Militarism as in the unfettered focus on false and contrived security at the expense of everything else; Reckless destruction of the the environment; Hunting except when in the most dire need for population control; Jurists; Economists; Bollywood; Guerilla marketing; Tupperware as a model; Light and sound “smog”; Littering; The Credit Card cult of indebting; Pornography, though its spell is not so easily broken, but it’s good to have ambitions; The neoclassical Freudian cult of the self; The counterproductive youth cult and the fixation with time; IQ, psychometric tests; Group development, team building psychology scams; Reader’s Digest as a model; Jewelry, irrational, artificial desires; Intellectual drain, academic thievery as perpetrated by US universities;
• And furthermore … Denim; Urinals; Carborated beverages; Eating out, fast food; Gaming consoles, platforms; Water, public swimming pools; DRM ridden HDTV and next-gen DVD; TFT Monitors; SMS; Wrestling, WWE; Poker, gambling; Competition, social comparison; Circus shows; Auctioneering; Drinking, smoking and narcotics; Pathological salespersons; People who can’t tag their mp3s properly; APE/FLAC/Lossless audio formats; Flattery; Bragging, swagger; CV achievements; Hypersociality; Myspace; Coins; Family ties, blood lines; Dress code, social deportment; Soliciting for sympathy; Gadget miniaturization; Briefcases, handbags;

“What do you despise? By this are you truly known.” /Frank Herbert

Misc

• I’m currently reading this (and this).
• I am
• You are what you eat. I’m mostly Oatmeal.
• I have the ambition to move to a more vegetarian (and less pre-processed) diet. Not so much because of ethics as egotistical, physiological reasons.
• I enjoy making lists. Flowing text just ups the pressure and the expectations. Plus it requires focus and effort.
• My first computer experience was an Atari 130 XE (wiki). I later moved on to the Atari 520 STFM (wiki). Mmmm … Powermonger, Hunter, Populous. Those were simpler days. It is also here that I overcame intellectual property.
• Eerily enough, I’m also a longtime user of Gravis and Matrox hardware. I can almost sense a pattern here.
• “Battleangel” was originally a homage to Yukito Kishiro and his Gunnm manga. Over time I have become less attached to the name, and nowadays it is just that, only a name. But what is in a name? Read the manga and perhaps you can find out …As for “Silent Nation” I borrowed the title from the, at the time, brand new Asia album “Silent Nation.”

Creed

• Transhumanism: “Transhumanism (sometimes abbreviated >H or H+) is an emergent philosophy analysing or favouring the use of science and technology, especially neurotechnology, biotechnology, and nanotechnology, to overcome human limitations and improve the human condition.” (Wikipedia)
• Technocracy: ” … government by technicians who are guided solely by the imperatives of their technology.” (Britannica)
• Copyfight: I just don’t believe in imaginary (“intellectual”) property.
• Global justice: I support (retail, authentic) “terrorism” … Or in other terms the struggle of the impoverished, downtrodden and geographically marginalized against the stranglehold of the New World Order, formerly known as imperialism, formerly known as theft, rape and murder. I am hesitant to use the term “terrorism” but what is the alternative? To let the hegemony decide for you what meaning words will hold, effectively limiting the scope of critical thinking? Should we let “them” decide what is acceptable, relevant or fashionable? Now that is power indeed. Take the erosion of (traditionally legitimate) liberation ideologies for instance. Their convenient inclusion into the terrorism definition speaks plenty of what “they” really fear. Not that anything has really changed since the days of the cold war when the same roundabout resistance was being categorized and dismissed out of hand as some variation of communism (the communist world conspiracy). Weighing this evidence and countless other parameters, I guess all that is left is being a “terrorist” — perhaps for no other reason than to deprive the term of all form, all connotation as to disempower “them”, the agenda setters. But I digress.
  Bottom line: It’s payback time for centuries of “democratization.” The logical course of action of course is to support the weak and the downtrodden before the strong and the have-mores become so inviolable and so greedy that no one is safe. “First They Came for the ‘Terrorists’ …” to paraphrase a classic. Whose side will YOU be on?