Money

         Money is whatever you want it to be. Facebook currency, the money in your bank, it can be anywhere and everywhere. Currency and modern capitalist economics is the current foundation of our structural political societies. Now in this piece I will not go in the aspects of money which other better economists and writers can delve in, nor the subjects I have touched upon in other writings. I want to write about a disturbing trend I have seen in the modern society and especially during this global recession. I feel as if the need for capital and the desire to "accumulate" wealth is an as high as it ever was. I see more and more people pursue jobs/careers for money. What is important is having objects, flashy cloths, and to be so called "alpha". It is important to understand that in an era where consumerism is highly praised and associate happiness with the symbol of wealth which is money. Yet if you study money itself you see that at any point in history it could be worthless and can change. So why do we place such value on something that easily be blow away like a piece of dust? Still our culture does this, it pushes this and it drives this to the ultimate extreme. I describe the modern economy as a matrix, we seem to want to believe we live in an alternate reality where when the dream bubble pops we will crash and burn like no other. If people can easily discard communism and many of its other forms as trash and state elitism or anarchy as a childhood idealist dream that is not truly possible. Yet humanity can openly accept the concept of the “growth economy” with limited resources, the financial "tools" which we invented, and other various risk factors which shape our world. People accept the crappy boom and bust model which is totally insane. How can it be that the society we strive for is a society with so much waste and excess. It is yet another theory which believes that we can forever expand and consume all in our path. Marx, Keyes, Hayek, and whoever helped developed our modern economic society did not consider the fact that our human population would grow in desire to such extremes. Those theories should be inspirations for future theory but not the bases of what we should be constructing now. In the present we need to look outside the box a little bit and envision a future and build one that will help to support our species both rich and poor as a whole. Yes this sounds a bit socialist but different in the sense that where socialism is about creating equal opportunity and taking wealth to create a more fair society. No the basis of this new society should be common survival of our entire species. Let's not kid ourselves the ideal world may not happen the future could be a place where the privileged live comfortably like they always have historically and the rest of us are left to scrap by and make due with the resources that are left to us. We should be careful not to make our nightmares our own realities.

A good book on the history of money I recommend: Ascent Of Money

If you don't like to read the documentary can be found here (could be broken by the time you read this). 

Future of Education

           MOOC(Massively Open Online Courses) are being played as the great innovation of education and it's downfall. So which one is it? I believe it is both, its going to change the landscape, but I can guarantee that the old model everyone is use to is going to die. Teachers and administrators should be afraid because it marks an end to the easy money and laziness that has plagued higher education. Knowledge will be freely accessible and open to all(now I mean truly open, not like some of the scams that are going behind the scenes). Big top rich schools are leading the charge but they too forgot that the goal of education is to be free and open. Such things as selling licenses for courses and at outrageous rates tells me that the "old guard" hasn't yet seen the big picture yet. They still think they can make big and fill the school coffers. They believe that by having the brand and the power of a "diploma" is going to see them through. They are gravely mistaken for the education system is going to see the greatest liberation it has ever seen. The idea of “credentialism” as we know it must end, if we are truly aiming for a better global education on a grand scale. For a piece of paper does not determine knowledge but merely that you have sat in a classroom, taken tests, finished homework, and completed projects. Our education system is like a factory that wants to produce good little citizens that do what they are told and fit in the societal structure. Universities like Harvard, and MIT are not seeing where the long term goal of this will be. Eventually everyone, professionals, hobbyist, and others will be producing in one form or another their own original content where they may not offer "credits" or "diplomas" but like in the ancient times were merely reading made one more intelligent it will be the same with open online education. A person will be able to choose not from just "institutionalized" colleges but also from people from all walks of earth. It is a similar theme of “internet anarchy” which has revolutionized the music, film, and the publishing industry. The Copyright industry is still fighting piracy, alas the government still want to "withhold" dangerous information, and now education wants it to be 1985. Jokes on them. Internet and the philosophy it has unleashed is here to stay unless we all get unplugged. Change is constant and occurring and it has no mercy on anyone.  These dead institutions act as if they can survive and maybe they have a chance to evolve and evolve themselves yet there will be casualties there always is. It is often not pretty but it is necessary for progress to evolve and develop. In truth the education system has for too long gotten fat with money and laziness. It abused the economically poor students and wage laborers. It is a system designed only for the truly wealthy as it was originally intended when the university system was put in place in Europe. It is a new era and a new time where this no longer has to be true. A person no longer needs to mortgage away their future for the promise of a better tomorrow. It will be a future where people around the world can contribute to world of knowledge as Wikipedia, Piratebay, and Youtube have shown what global creators and collaborators can make possible. To deny our desire for knowledge right, wrong, complete, or incomplete is criminal. The truth is as the old barriers break down it can only benefit our own personal liberty of knowledge and if we as a species are so afraid of what that can bring than what does that say about ourselves?

Death of Privacy(A New Era with a New War)

A new era and a new war. The world right now in the early 21t century is enduring a time of revolution and change. In a free flowing era of information technology, where everything seems open has smacked society with the truth: the rules of the game have changed. Governments want to seize information, monitor it, control it, because of the perceived threats it fears. Entire nations have refined the rules of what espionage is not only is it just targeting diplomats and government officials, but also the common citizen especially since accessing the normal lives of everyday citizens is even easier than it has been before in human history. Many people already knew or had a strong inkling but when it is slapped in your face as it was with the NSA and Snowden(if you haven't been checking the news you should be). It becomes very apparent of what I have said before that privacy as we know it is dead. When we wish to interact with people through the cell phone, email, or video within that moment privacy is dead, but it was also dead when we wrote letters and telegrams. Spies and others often would intercept these messages, but it was not as invasive as it is now. Privacy ends when you are listening without permission on a private conversation, or when you are secretly watching someone in their own privacy either in person or by the use of technologies such as hidden cameras. Privacy is an illusion unless you are truly isolated. I sometimes wonder if people truly understand how limited freedom actually is. For instance you can take your own life at any moment, but you can also you get sick and die I am pretty sure not many people living today desire such a fate. An earthquake can destroy an entire city, at the moment we can't control those types of events so there is no choice on our part. We often place choice with freedom. We can choose to buy certain products, we can choose which street to turn on, we can choose what mate we can to reproduce with, and various others examples of "choice." As I mentioned before choice is not as "free" as we like to make it. Yes we can pick what novel to read, or what movie to watch, but we didn't pick our parents, genetic code, or country of birth. All huge factors of our experience and quality of life. If you are born poor in India you will live a very different life, and perhaps an even shorter one compared to a rich person living in France. Yet a healthy African child can live longer than a cancer ridden baby in the United Kingdom. It is chance? Luck? or Destiny? This often goes into deep philosophical debates on the matter and also the human yearning to make the world a more equal place so that where you are born should not determine major aspects of your life.

Let's go back to privacy and how information technology has changed the landscape. People who have access to information technology have access to massive information and create millions of different online communities where common interest and not geographical location plays more of a factor. People can build friendships across entire continents with only the language barrier stopping them. Yet it is this double edge sword that people are finally realizing. Society relies on common infrastructure and corporations to provide these services but they also have access to this information. Information that can statistically predict what products you will buy what websites you visit and what communities you are a part of. From the massive data society is outputting every single probable future that can be determined. A scary thought indeed thus the question remains how can a person be free and have choices when algorithms can determine what choices and places we will search next. It becomes apparent that we are not as truly free as we would like to believe. What I am trying to get across is that by merely saying "stop NSA" and "stop corporations" will not stop the changes that are occurring today. Someone will naturally yearn for power and today information is power. The illusion of freedom is so profound for if everyone is truly free would they not marry whoever they wished, be rich, good-looking, and powerful? I think many would but for those of us who understand such dangers we would reject such notions no matter how tempting it would be. Freedom is an ideal, and much of it is a human construct. We can choose to encrypt all personal data, or unplug ourselves from our technology, but now an entire generation especially those age 35 and under don't think this is such an option. What this piece is attempting to do is to challenge what you think of freedom and liberty. Ask yourself what is freedom to you and how truly free are you? Going through this journey is important and I think one realizes that freedom is not as absolute as we would like to believe. There is choice but if choice is limited than how can that be freedom? The paradox continues.

Side Note:  I recommend if you haven't watched it to see it. PirateBay documentary