The Greek Tragedy

I think the article below perfectly sums up the situation in Greece; It is the most down-to-earth, right to the point exposition of the issues that plague greek society I've ever read:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/25/opinion/25tsoukala.html

The counter-revolution

I don't think I even have to write a single word for this, please have a look at:

http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/index.html (Charles Stross)
http://www.boingboing.net/2009/11/20/britains-new-interne.html (Cory Doctorow)

Politics and Boredom

Interesting view on radical politics http://www.crimethinc.com/texts/atoz/asfuck.php.

The above, together with other essays is part of a book called Days of War, Nights of Love, a somewhat interesting reading (although I have to admit I do find their views on primitivism somewhat alien to my way of thinking, rolling around in mud-half naked is not exactly my way of having fun).

Discrimination

I saw this on Slashdot yesterday:
http://heather.cs.ucdavis.edu/itaa.real.html
Which sort of confirms my views; Food is the new Sex, Age is the new Race

Work And Maxim Gorky

There is this famous quote by Maxim Gorky (a Soviet Writer) that goes something like this:

"When work is a pleasure, life is a joy! When work is duty, life is slavery."

Which makes me wonder. What if you work purely for self-preservation (i.e. so you can have a roof over your head and three meals per day)? What does that make life then ?

Education I

There is a debate raging right now at BBC as to whether UK universities should be allowed to raise their fees as they please, which could mean fees of up to 20K pounds for some students (see http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7946912.stm).

Most of the posters seem to concentrate on the monetary value provided by university education. The argument goes like this: If I spend 3-4-5 years in University, I lose the 15K per year I would have made as an apprentice/clerk/etc. When I finally get my degree I should, over the course of a lifetime, ear earn more than I would without having the degree.

In places like the U.S. things look almost the same; Parents set up college funds for the children, hoping that when their child graduates it will end up having a better position under the sun than they did. In fact, most Americans don't think that it's even possible to lead a middle class life without having a degree.

In developing nations like china and India, one can witness massive shifts of students populations depending on the current market trend.

In the context above some degrees are deemed useless; Psychology, sociology, media studies/journalism etc. have such a low return on investment that, if you follow this line of reasoning, it's not worth studying at all; Better flip burgers (see this for more http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/education/article2403006.ece)

So, bottom line is, people see universities as very expensive trade schools. You get training in something, you then sell it on the free market to the highest bidder. As with most things these days, we socialise risk (“getting the degree”) and privatise profits (“slaving endless hours for your boss”).

We are now trying to make the deal ever worse; We ask students to pay for their future enslavement out of their own pockets.

Alternative Tech Proposals

Truly thought provoking articles on Alternative Production: [edit - link was broken]

Industrial Policy: New Wine in Old Bottles
Seeds Sprouting in the Rubble