Friday, May 30, 2008

Essay (for school, 5 paragraph) on Communism

While generally considered one of the worst forms of government, communism is greatly misunderstood. Countries such as the (now defunct) Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) are generally blamed for being “oppressive” and “totalitarian” to the people. The two terms may be true, however, only for the USSR under Stalinist rule. Generally, communism is a better form of government than a capitalist government.
Karl Marx is essentially the grandfather of communism. His works with Friedrich Engels, mainly Manifest der Kommunistischen Partei (Manifesto of the Communist Party) and Das Kapital (Capital) are the roots of modern communism. Communism is, in the most basic format, a government in which every person is economically equal. The state is to own all the land and share it with the people. There is no such thing as private property. While this at first seems like a bad idea, it’s for the good of the proletarians (the physically working class).
In Marxism, the original form of communism, there is to be a society without state or class. None of the so-called “communist” countries have ever achieved this- thus making them socialist countries. Socialism is, as defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary, “a stage of society in Marxist theory transitional between capitalism and communism and distinguished by unequal distribution of goods and pay according to work done.” However, they are socialist by Marxist definition. There are many different forms of communism, such as Leninism, Trotskyism, Stalinism, etc. Marxism is the most just form of communism and should such be the type a country is led by.
As previously stated, Marxism is the form of communism in which there is to be no state or class. Socialism is the step in-between. What seems to happen is that the rulers of the socialist countries abuse their power. They keep the power for themselves in the government, and end up being oppressive to the citizens. This is exactly where the hate comes from. The socialist leaders give the honest communists a bad name.
As everyone knows, art is a great way to communicate points and ideas. Communism is no exception to this rule. An easy way to represent it is with the powerful symbol of the hammer and sickle, which represents the working class. In the words of Karl Marx in the conclusion of The Communist Manifesto, “Working men of all countries, Unite!”

Friday, May 23, 2008

Why won't you move Mr. Bubbles?

"I am Andrew Ryan, and I'm here to ask you a question. Is a man not entitled to the sweat of his brow? 'No!' says the man in Washington, 'It belongs to the poor.' 'No!' says the man in the Vatican, 'It belongs to God.' 'No!' says the man in Moscow, 'It belongs to everyone.' I rejected those answers; instead, I chose something different. I chose the impossible. I chose...Rapture, a city where the artist would not fear the censor, where the scientist would not be bound by petty morality, where the great would not be constrained by the small! And with the sweat of your brow, Rapture can become your city, as well."

I just finished playing BioShock last night. I rented it Sunday night and took turns playing with my brother. Honestly, the ending sucked. I worked to get every little sister and save all of them, and I got the achievement. Hooray for me. I missed quite a few [achievements] however. Oh well, I returned it last night anyway. I'll go into the AI.. It was actually pretty decent. The Big Daddies would attack fast and hard as I had expected them to. The storyline was great. The plot twist near the end really had me by surprise- the last book I read with a plot twist was really obvious. The last boss fight was kind of disappointing though. Sorry for the scant review. I'm not big on doing this for games.. But I will say the Big Daddies are my favorite characters. I was hoping you could become a Bouncer, but alas, the Rosie was the only one available.
Peace out.

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

"10 Questions Every Intelligent Christian Must Answer"

I will link you to the video this stems from at the end. I will answer the question as an atheist.

1. Why won't God heal amputees?
It's not physically possible.

2. Why are there so many starving people in the world?
Because they can't get the food they need, and not enough people care.

3. Why does God demand the death of so many innocent people in the Bible?
God doesn't like opposition.

4. Why does the Bible contain so much anti-scientific nonsense?
Actually, back then, nobody could explain anything. They didn't have the resources.

5. Why is God such a proponent of slavery?
Who knows? This isn't possible to actually answer, just the Bible says so.

6.Why do bad things happen to good people?
No matter what, it's purely by chance that something will happen to you.

7. Why didn't any of Jesus's miracles in the Bible leave behind any evidence?
They never happened.

8. How do we explain the fact that Jesus has never appeared to you?
He never actually existed.

9. Why would Jesus want you to eat his body and drink his blood?
I'm not sure about this one- I'll assume that Jesus loves you so much that you have to eat him.

10. Why do Christians get divorced at the same rate as non-Christians?
Because marriage doesn't work like it should.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=zDHJ4ztnldQ

Sunday, May 18, 2008

God is no better than Joseph Stalin (according to one Christian)

The other day I was talking to this Christian on MSN. We got into the standard religious debate. He started talking about God and Jesus taking their followers to heaven one day. He also said after that, that if you do not wear a certain symbol, you will be beheaded.
Excuse me, what the fuck?
Isn't God supposed to be an all-loving creature? This makes him sound like a heartless dictator striving to wipe out a certain group of people.
Ring any bells? Adolf Hitler and the Holocaust. Joseph Stalin and the Great Purge. They came, and they took in their followers. They killed all who opposed. Granted, the victims of the Holocaust had no choice. But this is still insane. How does it go? God killed over 200,000 people in the Bible. Satan killed around ten. If I were me, I'd rather chill with Satan. I think he is a pretty cool guy, eh kills less people than God and doesn't afraid of anything. Seriously, this post is short, but the topic is important. If God would kill people for not following him, why would you follow him knowing he is a jerk? And, if he is taking you to heaven, isn't he essentially killing you in the process? Either way, there's a mass genocide. Everybody loses. And, since heaven is a fantasy land, this event would never happen. I think it is called Rapture. Moar liek, raptor, amiriet!?
Peace out.

Saturday, May 17, 2008

Being pro-choice makes you a murderer!

I blame some idiots at my school for this post. No names shall be given.
The other day in class, someone said, or overheard me say I was pro-choice. Yes, I support the mindless killing of "babies" when inside the womb. Now, this is how it pretty much went down.
I was approached, and this was said to me: "IF YOUR WIFE WANTED A BABY YOU'D KILL IT YOU'RE SO MEAAAAAAN."
Exactly, bullshit. I'll tell you why.
1: Being pro-choice does not mean I want to make abortions mandatory for all women.
2: If my wife wanted a baby, I'd have to want one, too.
3: I can't force her to get an abortion.
I also love some of the great arguments I get against abortion, such as "IT'S MEAN!" and "HOW WOULD YOU LIKE IT IF YOUR MOM ABORTED YOU!?"
Yeah. I'm afraid for society.
It seems that going against the Bible in any was is wrong. I know my facts. I'm not some idiot atheist who is just out to pick a fight with all Christians (though I am good at that sometimes). I know what I'm arguing about.
Next blag post will probably be:
God is no better than Joseph Stalin (according to one Christian).