Video Matt Damon: The Problem is Civil Obedience

[MarsOrScars]

I don't normally care about what my actors and actresses think when it comes to politics and other social issues, because typically they're suckling from the tit of corporate interests.

While he still seems to be a staunch statist, I thought this speech was interesting. What do you think?

 

[Kim Chee]

Sounds like a solid dude.

I wonder when he's going to stop lurking and become an StP member.

 

[Fanatical Steward]

Since human groups past a certain size often form political structures (i.e. religious, chieftains, etc.), an alternative viewpoint on this issue involves the fact that codified laws can also prevent whimsical judgements of leaders in a society. This viewpoint does not condone improprities or current political and economic structures under current world leaders, but it illustrates that people in large socities without laws could take actions with relative impunity until such a time that the groups reach a stable size. This would result in the loss of scale efficiencies from large political units that provide relatively inexpensive goods for the majority of people.
It also appears that the majority of people think about the reprehensible nature of political institutions, but few people actually performe actions that attempt to abolish these wrongs until such a time that it no longer represents a major problem. An example of this appears as Henry David Thoreau states in "Civil Disobedience" that:
"I know this well, that if one thousand, if one hundred, if ten men whom I could name -- if ten honest men only -- ay, if one HONEST man in this state of Massachusetts, ceasing to hold slaves, were actually to withdraw themselves from this copartnership and be locked up in the county jail therefor, it would be the abolition of slavery in America." (para. 21)
This particular quote represents the fact that many people will not face the consequences necessary to abolish an evil in society. Thoreau provides another example of this with his discussion in paragraph twenty-four about the fact that people fear the consequences of said disobedience. Additional examples of this fear or disdain appear as Martin Lurther King Jr. states in "Letter from Birmingham Jail" that he feels disappointment with the "moderate who is more devoteed to 'order' than to justice . . ." (para. 23). These passages illustrate the tendencies of people that hold fear or disdain towards another group to ignore the salutations for support to right these wrongs. It appears reasonable to conclude that this feature of humans remains the same now as it was in the time of theses writers.

 

[Fanatical Steward]

This topic also pertains with the fact, as Niccolo Machiavelli states in "The Qualities of the Prince," that an incorrect action of some leaders remains to maintain an appearance of generosity while they impoverish the state in the pursuit of this "generosity." (Para. 10). This pertains with many modern states because it remains best to keep a miserly attitude towards expenses because it allows a state to afford measures that can repel the existence of a group. Another point that bears mention, as Machiavelli states in this work, includes the fact that many leaders project an attitude of beneficence while they attempt to maintain power inside a political institution. This appears prominently in paragraphs eight and twenty-three of Machiavelli's "The Qualities of the Prince." This remains pertinent with the present conversation because it illustrates the neccesity of people to recognize the evil that often lurks behind the effervescent veneer of political leaders.

 

[Tude]

@7xMichael - well if we spy a new member named Bourne, Bill the Krill or "Handsome Drug Addict" (from an SNL episode) - then we know we've snagged the Damon guy.

 

[creature]

i'd be more impressed with mr. demon if he *wrote* the fucking thing, rather than just read it..
that fucker is **********RICH********** & he's made his money off of promoting some of the worst cultural tendencies that mar the very *meaning* of fucking america..

he *shits* violence..
oh, wow, he did an astronaut hero, so now the press will fawn upon him..

fuck, a highschool debate leader could read the same stuff & go on to be a fucking corporate lawyer..

if he gave away all his fucking money & was left with just 2 fucking million, it might mean something, but all that fucker is doing is self-promoting..

 

[creature]

& unfortunately social theory in general just proves how inadequate the human will to *do* good is, as opposed to its will to *do what it *desires**.

self justification is the primary instinct of intelligence, when intelligence defines desire..

when little kids share, without a whole lot of theoretical consideration, *that's* the face of the only hope humanity has, after we burn our fucking asses off this fucking planet & have to build up from whatever flesh survives the fallout of human nature having engineered the process of its own self-consumption..

from primates with fucking rocks to late hominids with pointy sticks to fucking microwave weapons, humans engage in social control, and the most extensive ramifications are *always* derived from and based upon augmenting the physical power of the individual social controller (soldier, cop, mercenary, whatever), and reducing the physical power of those to be controlled..

invariably this leads to *some* kind of economy of slavery, regardless of whom survives and/or resists..

in terms of freedom, justice, compassion & equitable self-governance, humans *fail* when there is a number more than fucking 1.

in good relationships of a higher number, but ***no more*** than when each individual interacts with each other *directly* (like, say, a kibbutz or communal farm, or a mobile tribe), and *if* no physical instruments of social control are used, i *suspect* that the effects of assholishness would be greatly mitigated by the instinctual kindness that is required for people who prefer to live with each other, rather than bashing each others heads in with rocks (which most people are arguably deserving of at least a few times in their lives..)

we are a fucking brain dead species.

if & when we ever get *really* smart.. as in the default nature of our sapience being that which extends us into full empathy with each other.. *& not as an exception, but as our common condition*, THEN we will live in peace, & THEN maybe we can talk theory... but by fuck it will be retrospectively, because when (& if) the fuckers whoever get to that point look back at us, they are just going to see most of our farblegarble as nothing more than a gelatinous spewing against the inevitability we all know *presently* is making its way towards us..

what scares me, really, is that natural selection is on the chopping block..

i mean, people can fry each other for enough generations that it may be plausible that the only fuckers who will survive are the ones who refuse to kill..

but what happens when you build people whom are *happy* with being tools of the state..?

christ...


christ jesus...

 

[Deleted member 125]

um, yea most of us know howard zinn. i dont really see whats impressive with his writing being read by a celebrity. whats next? paris hilton reading a passage from siddhartha and people thinking she is fucking buddha?

 

[creature]

wait.. wait...

i saw paris hilton's profile in the crotch-stain of my pants...

you mean.. you mean.....


she's **not**...?

 

[Fanatical Steward]

she's **not**...?

. . . a saint? . . . a dirty celebrity? . . . potentially promiscuous? I could finish that thought in many different manners.

 

[creature]

well.. i dunno hur ejukashun levl, but i thigk she cud reed The Fucking Dhammapada, or sumthin..

unles it wud bern her i's out or sumthin..

 

[creature]

Satire & the Infinite Possibilties of Pissing people Off..


but only justified if done with good intent..

otherwise..?

people like me (& often enough me) are just assholes...

 

[MarsOrScars]

um, yea most of us know howard zinn. i dont really see whats impressive with his writing being read by a celebrity. whats next? paris hilton reading a passage from siddhartha and people thinking she is fucking buddha?

My mistake then is assuming Matt Damon wrote this piece himself. Seems to be the case which significantly reduces any sort of meaning this might have as to the guy actually using his platform to promote civil disobedience.

 

[creature]

yeah, but it gave us all a good reason to flame him about something actually meaningfull, so..


thanks!!

; )