(second block, fourth letter of the prisoners' quadratic tap code...)

image
...am here to tap through the walls.


Tue Feb, 17 2009

Notes Against Pragmatism

"The argument, as I see it, is predominantly...
1. You will be better off with a government than you would be without one.
2. Therefore it is necessary that you, and everyone else, accept the existence of a government."

I will happily stipulate to that being the statist argument. That's it, essentially.

The anarchist argument is essentially a defensive rejection. In this, the common objection to the anarchist "argument from a negative" (to paraphrase the oft-seen) is fairly correct: it is against the positive assertion of the statist. This is a matter of ethics, however: if one's principal political value is the state, then "the negative" is no good not for reasons of logic or anything, but because it is against the positive assertion of the state. If one's principal political value is the individual, then it is good and proper to assume the negative position against the positivist.
~~~~~

(a basic NoteIwrote, taken elsewhere)

~~~~~


(another worthy bit)
"But, even if you agreed with 1, I expect you wouldn't agree with point 2."

Me? Personally? Certainly not.

"2. Therefore it is necessary that you, and everyone else, accept the existence of a government."

The word "necessary" is an assertion of politics, in this context, bound-up with "government", which must be taken as "the monopoly on the use of force" and all its implications (such as: relinquishing the authority to act on my own mind in matters of force; accepting the forceful dictates of the state; etc.).

Uhm, no. Really: very not interested in all or any of that. The most fundamental problem with it is in violating reality and nature with the surrender of mind. There is just no question about that: I get to think for myself at all times, and I get to act on what I think.

Feb 17, 09 | 10:57 pm

AxeBites

Various guitars I see floating by, mostly Gibson and mostly eBay.

Early Norlin ES-335 -- 1970, in Walnut ("ES-335TDW"). This is a period-piece look and feel, and arguably the sound as well but that's to cut things very finely. A "classic" 335 would be the original of 1958 in the Sunburst or Natural finish, or the Cherry Red of 1959; the Walnut of 1970 (second year of that finish offering) is not really a "classic" 335. In the history of the Gibson aesthetic, this is analogous to, say, vertically-striped polyester bell-bottoms or Bahama Blue shag carpeting. None of this is to say that they're not cool guitars, and this is a nice one. Excellent photographs.

Chrome hardware, featuring the trapeze tailpiece (like my L-47 and I've always liked it) and ABR-1 bridge with period-typical nylon saddles. Bound rosewood fretboard, with small block markers, and then the crown inlay at the machine head. These would be the T-top Humbuckers. Vintage Nazis would moan that the upper bouts are pointy (the body templates were wearing-out in the factory) and the fourteen-degree machine head with the volute signals a sometimes not-fun era of the line, but these things really do rock or moan or whatever you want a 335-type semi-hollow to do. ...which, of course, is because it really is a 335.


In the months since I've let AxeBites languish all to bleedin' hell, Gibson's Robot Guitar technology has sifted out to other models than the original Les Paul application. I don't know how it's going: I still haven't even seen one of these self-tuners. I don't see piles of them burning on the sides of the highway, nor reverent hangings in display cases over bars, so who knows? This 2008 Robot SG is ready to rock in the Metallic Red. Nickel hardware; it's the stoptail wired for data to send to the tuners, with dual Humbuckers. It's a bound rosewood fretboard, but I really like the single-bound machine head with the crown inlay. That's a real cool old-school look, right there, to set off that crazy-ass color. {nod}