Video Game Friday is discontinued. I thought I would be able to opine on one subject on a regular timetable, but all I accomplished was exposing my painful lack of writing discipline. I still have ideas in my head for game-related posts, but I’ve moved on mentally and no longer feel like writing them. Perhaps in the future when my interest returns I’ll pound them out, but for now I’ll just go back to riding my mood swings when it comes to finding stuff to blog about.
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Reader Steve T. emailed me a nauseating column from econocastrati Paul B. Farrell on why women need to seize control of America to avert the End of Days. Some choice cuts:
ARROYO GRANDE, Calif. (MarketWatch) — Yes, Wall Street has a death wish, secretly trying to self-destruct. Can’t stop. Don’t get it. Wall Street’s culture, mindset, brain, psyche — whatever you call it — has a saboteur locked deep in the unconscious. Not only are they hell-bent on self-destruction, they’re taking America down with them.
Why? It’s a “guy thing.” Alpha-males have the power. Worse, their death spiral can’t end till Venus conquers Mars and its killer instinct — until we see a new era where women rule not only Wall Street, but Washington and Corporate America. This is a race against time: Alpha-males versus Venus and the feminine mystique. Guys love games. Are women up to it? To win, they must change the rules of the game.
The Alpha-males running America are textbook examples of the Oedipus complex in action. Men? No, inside they’re still little boys who secretly want to win mommy’s favor by knocking off big daddy. Basic psychology, except they’re overdosing the real world with too much edgy testosterone … aggressive, arrogant, narcissistic … bullies on the playground overcompensating for an inferiority complex … they love games, fights, contests, winning, deals, risks, wars, anything to prove they’re king-of-the-hill … like owning truckloads of money, enough for several lifetimes … think Liar’s Poker, they play for bragging rights, to tell “the guys” how they beat “the other guys” on the playing field … but psychologically they really are just little boys in big-boy costumes playing “grown-up” … especially the new breed of Wall Street traders gambling in history’s greatest casino, the $700 trillion global shadow banking system for derivatives.
This conclusion needs no esoteric psycho-babble. Anyone who’s read “Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus” is way ahead of little boys inhabiting the brains of Blankfein, Paulson, Summers, Bernanke, Geithner and all the other so-called leaders whose secret, collective deathwish is taking America down with their childish games: Beating daddy, winning mommy’s favor. Yes, too much testosterone is killing our world.
“Men are from Mars, Women from Venus” is more than a self-help slogan. When working on an earlier book, “The Millionaire Code,” my research revealed a key fact about gender personalities: 75% of men had left-brain characteristics — logical, rational, math, science, systems, concrete facts, details, objective, ordered, knowledge, strategies, impulsive, authoritative, rules, analytical, practical, pattern-seeking, safety, focused on the past, on today, short-term thinkers, warriors. That’s the “guy thing” on steroids, the aggressive, narcissistic Alpha-male, the inner-little boy with an unresolved Oedipus complex.
On the other hand, 75% of women tend to have right-brain characteristics: Intuitive, subjective, meaning, philosophical, feelings, creativity, imagination, images and symbols, possibilities, alternatives, forward-thinking, more aware of the future, with a strong sense of long-term benefits and consequences, the big picture, peacemakers.
Yes, America is a nation ruled by Alpha-males with a death wish, yet blind to their fatal self-destructive flaw. The warnings are everywhere, loud. But once again, few will listen. As Grantham put it, “the three or four dozen-odd characters screaming about it are always going to be ignored,” much as Greenspan, Paulson, Bernanke and Congress did for many years before the 2008 meltdown. Our Alpha-male leaders always ignore signs of a coming system failure, denying every new, bigger meltdown and collapse … until it’s too late.
Can we dodge our fate? Redirect the “guy thing?” America is ruled by high-testosterone Marsian, Alpha-male little boys motivated by a killer instinct and an Oedipus complex, trapped in a myopic left-brain culture. The only way to avoid America’s fate would be a shocking paradigm shift creating a new consciousness that thrusts more right-brain thinkers — more women — into leadership roles.
Let’s see. Unsubstantiated claims that masculinity, a dead and dying creature in the 21st century West, has anything to do with the economic crisis? Check. Freudian pseudoscientific claptrap masquerading as legitimate psychoanalysis? Check. Unshakable religious faith that femininity will save America, never mind that the women who pursue roles in government, Wall Street and other masculine endeavors are visibly lacking in femininity? Double check! I’m particularly amused by his examples of alpha male evil in American finance. Is anyone seriously going to argue that econ-nerds like Hank Paulson, Ben Bernanke, and Timothy Geithner are rugged paragons of machismo? It is to lzozozlzlozlzolzolz!
What offends me most about Farrell’s article is his ellipses fetish. Is his keyboard broken, or is he under the delusion…that padding…the length of sentences…makes…for…more…thrilling…writing? Or is William Shatner going to be recording the voiceover? I’m no master of the English language, but I’m not the one getting paid to spout misandrist drivel on a major financial news website. Come to think of it, the only guy who dared to write…like….this was French, and he actually had a reason for doing it.
Laugh these idiots to scorn, ladies and gentlemen. It is all we can do now.
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Next, the Sydney Morning Herald is reporting that we have a year to go before the Internet buys the farm:
In less than a year, the world will run out of internet addresses and inaction by internet providers could lead to broken applications and more expensive net connections, experts warn.
The protocol underpinning the net, known as IPv4, provides only about 4 billion IP addresses – not website domain names, but the unique sequence of numbers assigned to each computer, website or other internet-connected device.
The explosion in the number of people, devices and web services on the internet means there are only about 232 million left. This allocation is set to be exhausted in about 340 days.
“When the IPv4 protocol was developed 30 years ago, it seemed to be a reasonable attempt at providing enough addresses, bearing in mind that at that point personal computers didn’t really exist. The idea that mobile phones might want an IP address hadn’t occurred to anybody because mobile phones hadn’t been invented [and] the idea that airconditioners and refrigerators might want them was utterly ludicrous,” said John Lindsay, carrier relations manager at internet service provider (ISP) Internode.
As a stop-gap measure, Huston said ISPs would begin forcing multiple customers and devices to share single internet addresses, which would lead to common web applications ceasing to work. Huston pointed to web applications such as Gmail, Google Maps and iTunes as examples of those that would break.
“Over the years unless we embark on IPv6 then the internet will get slowly more and more strangled and applications will work in stranger ways,” Huston said.
Oh crap! The world is coming to an end! Whatever shall we do if we can’t listen to pirated Apples in Stereo albums and send each other decade-old chain joke emails? Why, we’ll have to go back to talking to each other, like face-to-face, and fill our spare time with productive pursuits like learning to play the guitar and translating medieval poetry! We’re doomed! DOOMED, I say!
In all seriousness, this story will probably turn out to be complete crap, like every other apocalypse scenario scare story the sixth-rate minds that populate the media conjure up.
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Finally, the hipsters of the world have a new enemy – fundamentalist Christians:
The New York Times has once again pushed past the barrier of decent journalism into a world of reckless myth-making with their latest article celebrating the lifestyles of so-called “hipstersâ€â€“ semi-employed upper middle class white trash who stay drunk on their parents’ money well into their thirties. The article, entitled “A Bushwick Mansion Where Music Fills the Halls,†is a sweaty, swarmy ball of self-satisfaction that reeks staleand foul. It is an absurd and irresponsible piece of liberal arrogance that only the Times could pull off with an innocent face.
Hipsters are nothing to be proud of and they are certainly nothing for a national media organization to celebrate. They represent indulgence and failure of every kind. From their incessant need to have pre-marital sex or else masturbate themselves numb to their shameless willingness to feed from the trough of hardworking Americans to support their blogs, indie bands or t-shirt companies, these people embody the death of the Puritan ethic. They live like 14-year olds– emotionally stunted, egomaniacal, crying for no reason and then twittering about it. They dress like 14-year olds as well, often in cartoon character clothes that show off unpleasant patches of skin. Were it not for their bruises and awkward facial hair, it would be impossible to tell them apart from actual drunk teenagers.
I hate to burst the bubble of your retro Bazooka bubblegum, hipsters, but this is Sarah Palin’s America! Your silly antics won’t get you a pair of overalls and a slice of apple pie in the heartland. Your little tight twinky Lady Gaga t-shirts and lip piercings will get your butt whooped in the Topeka. Your eyeshadow and hair dye would melt if you tried an honest day’s work in a farm or on a factory floor. And you people think you know anything about the heart and soul of human beings just because you signed up for that course at Vassar? Did you even go to class?
Yes, we all know you’re rich kids who went to expensive fancy schools even if you wear second-hand clothes and speak like you’re more stoned than you really are. By the way, was it Sarah Lawrence or Brown, Bard or Wellesley? Was there a night where French literary theory and supermarket wine resulted in a regrettablesexual experience against a dorm room wall? I wonder. And did your parents subtly bribe you not to move back home after graduation because you looked so unpresentable? Did you ever wonder why they were so quick to give you an allowance to “start off on your own†so far from home? No surprise then you ended up in Austin or Bushwick, Oakland or Philadelphia. I know your type. I’ve seen it all before.
I find myself torn here. I’m not a huge fan of hipster culture – a bunch of pretentious conformists-in-denial with the fashion sense of retarded toddlers and an obsession with irony aren’t hard to hate. But I also think anyone who uses the phrase “Puritan ethic” approvingly needs to be beaten into a coma. Puritanism is the root of so much of what is wrong with America, from drug prohibition to statutory rape to an obsession with “hard work.” And for all their idiocy, hipsters do have redeeming attributes. They make good music, for starters, and hipster girls are generally cute and fun to be around. More importantly, hipsters have it right in spending their lives skating by with minimal effort. Stephenson Billings’ call to traditional values is a threat to my life philosophy of slacking off and focusing on the good things in life, like boozing, reading old books, doing push-ups, and coitus.
On an ordinary day, I say fuck the hipsters and glory to God. But if my only choice is a heap of grungy spoiled brat layabouts and a religious fundie with a banana in his shorts, I’m going with the folks with the groovy parties:
Funny that it took two black guys to create the whitest rap video ever filmed.
UPDATE: Hermes informs me that the hipster piece is satire. I invoke Poe’s Law to cover my ass.
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Is there a superior translation of The Journey to the End of the Night? Or should I just read the translation that came out this year?
[Stick with the Manheim version, it's the best. - ed.]
Some of those “hipster girls” look more like standard-issue camwhores, IMO.
In other news, and re-read the last sentence.
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Levi Johnston Ex Lanesia Garcia Pregnant: Bristol Palin Wedding Off?
Bristol Palin’s friends have told RadarOnline.com that she is heartbroken after finding out that her fiance Levi Johnston may have impregnated his ex-girlfriend, Lanesia Garcia. In fact, Bristol may be having second thoughts about going through with the wedding, although a Palin family representative said, “no official decision has been made.”
Earlier in the week, the National Enquirer reported that Garcia was pregnant and she and Johnston were together when he was single last year. A source says that Johnston claims the baby isn’t his, but that, “Levi is one of three possible fathers who were with Lanesia during the probable week of conception.”
I bet Paul Farrell’s mommy was impressed by his article. The little boy throws his entire sex under the bus just to show women what an enlightened guy he is.
Maybe if this guy had any testosterone he’d write an article about the negative effects feminism has had on men and western civilization.
Why do these people always ignore women’s drive to consume? As if men are the only ones who are crazy with money, status, etc.. I mean how could you be this oblivious!?
Brutha, thanks for posting the Farrell article. Since I work on Wall Street (actually Water Street, a half-block down from Wall Street) in a major financial firm, I passed this mucus-dripping piece of spooge about the office. We all want to beat his Manolo-licking pussyboy ass down.
The technology that allows for the ‘sharing’ (this is not actually what occurs) of a single IP address among multiple devices doesn’t break any applications. What it does, is makes the private networks of ISPs more complex, requiring hardware and network engineers that wouldn’t be necessary if the ISPs were successful in lobbying for the implementation of IPv6.
What ISPs have set up now, is basically like what you would have in a home network, for multiple PCs/devices connecting within your home over a single internet connection. Obviously the ISPs private networks are a lot more complex, but use a similar concept. They have a Point of Presence, which is connected to the Internet, the actual backbone that is, with one of the “about 4 billion” public addresses. This POP then dishes out private addresses which are only valid over the POPs own network to your modem, and uses the hardware address on your cable/DSL modem to identify your specific home or business. All data sent and recieved hits the POP first, address information is translated from public to private, and then is sent along. Applications and devices are blind to this process and can’t be ‘broken’ except by faulty network engineering.
No one has a public IP address without requesting it and paying extra for it. The limit of available IP addresses is for public ones. Any lack of public addresses is due to ineffeciency of networks in implementing NAT. A single ISP POP will have a dozen public addresses, when in reality it only needs one, or two depending on philosophy. Many businesses have public addresses when they don’t need one at all. When there aren’t any more public addresses the option to have one will become unavailable. Nothing else will change.
The advantage, from the users side for IPv6, is the possibility of less down time and lower latency due to less routing and translation and less hardware, that is less complex itself. However I don’t think that ISPs give a shit about this ultimately. They pay out big bucks to network engineers to keep this whole thing going, and they want to shitcan their ‘overqualified’ gurus, and replace them with fewer, less skilled techs.
Stupid and vain woman.
http://gizmodo.com/5600576/the-young-and-the-restless-and-the-tech-support-guy
Uh-oh, Ferd. Now you’ve gone and done it: taken satire at face value. Poke around that Christwire site some more; it’s obvious that it’s satire. (Look at the most popular article there, “I Am Extremely Terrified Of Chinese People.”) That a smart guy like you inadvertently took it seriously it shows that it’s not very good satire, but it’s satire nonetheless.
[Crap. I had a niggling suspicion in the back of my head, but I ignored it. Oh well - I invoke Poe's Law. - ed.]
Some of the entries at the rational wiki with the article on Poe’s law you link to made me cringe. Reading the entry on feminism reminded me just how far from the loony world of Multikult Liberals, Femninists, Neoocons and Fundamentalist Christiant nutbats the discourse in Game and HBD blogs takes place.
We are doomed to live out our entire lives not just in countries with insane self destructive policies and ideologies but also in countries where the majority of the intelligent will carefully build fences around their mind to ensure they never realize how insane the prevailing policies and ideologies are.
That misandic financial article : Yet another example of manginas/whiteknights doubling down after the start of 2010.
One man with Game deprives 10 manginas of what little scraps they were getting, so their only tactic left is to double down on their pedestalizing and misandry.
But you can only double down so many times.
Next up : A wave of Sodinis.
The really pathetic part is that the Farrell guy gets the Oedipus complex WRONG. Oedipus did not kill his father in order to ‘please’ his mother. Nor was that what Freud postulated in his own psycho-analytic theories.
The way he breezily asserts the ‘classic case of’ Oedipus complex is a downright insult to anybody with an education. The reason why the Oedipus complex is so well-known (and hence known by hack journalists like this Farrell prick) is because it was so controversial; because it is such an ‘out there’ theory which lacks solid evidence. The idea of somebody ascribing this to people he has never met, let alone applied psycho-analysis to, is completely absurd. Obviously something else is going on here: given how often he repeats the phrase, it seems there is something driving this Farrell guy (I am assuming less popular and less wealthy than the guys he attacks) to identify others as “little boy-alpha males” – a phrase which makes absolutely no sense in the Freudian context he is vaguely trying to fit his analysis into …
… he is a pretentious fop, having heard of a few key Freudian ideas but having never read closely enough to really understand them, he merely asserts some half-understanding of them as if they are scientific truths …
… and as has already been commented, if anybody is the ‘little boy’ trying to please mommy, it is Farrell. Who exactly is his article appealing to? Men, or women? He is practically hugging their ankles, hoping that by saying nasty things about the more powerful men, he will earn their favour.
Farrell is like a naked little boy, crying and pointing fingers because ‘mommy’ chases the nasty alphas. He grasps at any weapons he can find; misinterpreted pop-psychology will do … “look at me, mommy, look at how much better I am than the other nasty boys.” This is so plain, his veneer is so transparent, I actually feel embarassed for the guy.
FWIIW, that “manliness destroyed the economy” meme comes from Michael Lewis’ article on Iceland. Mr. Lewis, of course, has had his ball surgically removed by that MTV broad he shacked up with. True story.
http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2009/04/iceland200904
Love the hipster, hate the hipst.
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