| | The original 'The Day The Earth Stood Still', from the 50's, was the classic movie painting a theoretical picture of how the Paradox of Violence might function in a utopic vision of civilization: an advanced civilization has addressed the issue of state violence by creating 'perfect' machines(utopia always requires some perfect element, in this case, a literal deus ex machina, a machine like robot.) These perfect machines -- Gort -- are coldly judge, jury, and executioners, programmed(there is the fatal flaw in this plan...)to do one thing: respond to the first use of violence with overwhelming violence, literally, by vaporizing the offender. In that civilization, people have learned the absolute of why 'crime does not pay,' and have adapted to a paradigm that trivially avoids the wrath of the local GORTS: never project the first use of violence. Easy to implement, trivial to avoid the consequences.
This advanced civilization has taken notice of earth's development of nukes, and shows up to fire a warning shot across our bow; the neighborhood will respond with overwhelming force if we get too jiggy with our new found technological power. They demonstrate their ability to enforce their policy via Gort, coupled with a short duration shut down of all the technology on earth, a kind of harmless demonstration -- to prove they could enforce their policy. The equivalent of Truman exploding the first atom bomb in Tokyo Bay, which was not our choice.
So, that is the utopic work of provocative 50's romantic art. Reality is, our politically driven state. It is as if we actually have a GORT -- our powerful state, but instead of 'perfect, utopic flawless programming -- a perfect machine that always gets it right, and simply responds to whatever it perceives as the first use of violence -- our imperfect state GORT has naked, sweaty apes crawling all over it, whispering suggestions into GORT's ear that mere political/economic outcomes are the equivalent of first use of violence, justifying the direction of overwhelming state power for any willy-nilly political whim that the local weight of naked sweaty apes can dream up.
A political game that permits that is in no rational persons' best interest; only naked, sweaty apes that are overcome with the thought "we could get away with this" -- and who find that too irresistible a shortcut to political persuasion -- could possibly sanction that game, of whispering into GORT's ear and justifying the use of that power to coerce for other than the clearly defined first use of violence.
How do they justify it? On moral grounds? On religious grounds? For what they sanction themselves as their really, really good cause? For the good of the victims? Based on a free-for-some, the eating of the few for the benefit of the many?
Well, the Senate is about to install one of those Ivy League instructed justifiers into the Supreme Court.
It is on university campuses where these justifiers are bred, but it is also IBM lobbying Moynihan for special dispensation in the 80s, ultimately resulting in some poor bastard flying an airplane into an IRS building in an impotent rage as a result. The directions from which those naked sweaty apes crawl up and over our state GORT are not just from the left.
GORT isn't a hypothetical; our state is GORT. What is scary about reality is, our GORT is missing the 'perfect programming' from that utopic work of romantic art. Our GORT is fettered only by a graceless, clawing political mess, by imperfect naked sweaty apes crawling all over him and whispering in his ear for the latest really, really good cause.
When do the adults rush in to this out of all control process and demand a 'time-out' from all the graceless, clawing, political free-for-some?
regards,
Freed
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