An Ideal Society

SaintNULL — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 17:13:43 +0000

What’s your ideal society?

This is a difficult question for me, since I have no experience creating societies. I’ll do the best I can do to describe what I think, to me, would be an ideal society.

I will break my society down into its constituent parts.

–Race and Ethnicity
At first, it seems like eliminating ethnic differences would be ideal–because it would remove one area in which prejudice can form–however this has the effect of eliminating many aspects of culture, which may or may not be desirable. To me, this is not ideal, so I would leave things as they are. That is, ethnically diverse, but far more pluralistic than my current society (I say far more, because I include the, hopefully, outliers: those people who promote racial superiority, and would prefer segregation to integration.)

It does not seem possible to make everyone become of one race, since there will always be variation within a species; with humans, this variation extends beyond biological traits, into cultural ones. Ergo, ethnicity, as well, will persist.

What’s left, then, is to have a society in which no minority groups exist: where no one is discriminated against based on the group to which one belongs. A society that has no dominant group, with minority and majority referring only to the number of people within a group.

–Sex and Gender
Here is one area where I believe total equality is senseless (age is another). Females and males differ drastically in many aspects; such as physical characteristics and emotional development (as a result of the differing levels of hormones between them, primarily androgens and estrogens). Therefore, while equality is desirable in the majority of areas, it is not in all.

This is not to say that access to opportunity would be dependent upon sex, it would be based on the person’s qualifications, traits, strength, intelligence, skills: what ever aspect it was that the opportunity required. What I mean by total equality is a complete loss of division between the sexes. Some may want this elimination, I do not. It’s hard to define exactly why this is. I suspect that it is a result of my life experiences, socialization, and my desires (which may, at times, not come from fully rational thoughts).

For gender, what defines femininity and masculinity would be decided by the individual, with society as a whole holding no specific expectations of either. This seems best, since it would allow more people to do the things they want to do.

–Age
Though the following is related to social class, I will discuss that separately.

This is perhaps the only area where an impractical aspect seems ideal. In my society, people would live life in roughly the opposite order as it is now lived in much of the world. Instead of people retiring when they grow old, they would work. People would do all the things they desire (if possible) when young, without having to worry about money. After this period of freedom, then work would begin.

This may seem undesirable to some, with nothing to look forward to as they age, however I believe this would give the greatest number of people a chance at happiness, fulfillment even.

As I mentioned previously, this is highly impractical, and would be nearly impossible to implement. There would have to be a set age at which people began working, and it would need to allow enough time for those people to become proficient and productive in their work, before their death. Also, the rate of new humans born would need to be controlled to some degree, since should birth rate exceed the rate of death significantly, support for the nonworking would be exhausted. And that is another factor, how does society support the desires of all those people whose productional contribution would be nil, or close to it?

An alternative solution would be if all work could be accomplished by machines, save for maybe intellectual work, since machines doing our thinking for us has no place in my society. This alternative seems like it would be preferred by most people, since they would then be free to do as they please throughout their entire lives, not just the earlier years of it. And now that I consider the consequences, I think I’d choose this over the above option. However, the technology that would allow this type of machinery would require much work, both mental and physical. So while this may be optimal, it would require the work model described above, or that of current U.S. society, for it to be created.

Another thing to consider is that there would be people who might want to work, who may enjoy it. This would complicate the system were it ever to be enacted or implemented, depending on the method used.

Regarding privilege–and why, again, I think total equality is senseless–a person’s age would not be the determinant for which privileges that person is allowed. Rather, they would be determined by a person’s development. For instance, a child prodigy having more freedom than a child who is mentally handicap. The same would apply for the old as it would for the young. If an elderly person was capable of taking care of himself, then no interference in his life from those whom he did not wish it from would be allowed.

This brings me to another consideration, how those who cannot support themselves would be cared for. If everyone did what he or she liked when young, and if only the old worked, this would leave very few people to tend to those who can’t care for themselves. This, in part, because the workers would be providing for the young, the nonworking old, as well as the handicap. This could cause havoc, with perhaps some workers wanting to eliminate those who make no contribution to society and who never will (similar to how the Tiwi “cover up” their old women). Even if many people, when young, chose to help, I still doubt that it would be sufficient to support all those who are handicap.

–Social Class
Short of mind control, or some other method to control everyone’s view–or more accurately, how she ranks goals, desires, positions, and possessions of others–social class will persist. So my ideal version reflects a solution similar to that proposed by Herbert Gans in his essay “The Uses of Poverty. . .”: where the poor are only so with respect to their income in relation to the rich (since social class would not exist in the same sense as it does today were my ideal, regarding not working when young, to exist, I’ll base these ideals on a society like the current one in America); where they receive a much larger portion of the median than they do today in America; and where the conditions in which they live are different from the rich only concerning value, amount, or size. For example, while a rich person may have a 10,000ft^2 house, a poor person would have a house smaller, but not worse (e.g. in an area with higher crime rates, poorer access to goods and services, superior construction methods, etcetera).

However with this comes another question. What are unacceptable living conditions (since even human suffering is acceptable to some)? How can one condition be absolutely classified as better or worse than another? This is especially relevant should the poor receive more of the median income. If the level of poverty is raised, will people eventually become unsatisfied with that new, higher, level? Since each culture has its own standards of success and wealth, failure and poverty, it seems impossible to ever have a society whose people are happy with the level of poverty. What the average American might consider unsuitable for living, could be perfect for a member of the Yanomamö tribe.

But, since my task is not creating an entire world, only a society, the only obstacle becomes finding a way to have that society’s membership be satisfied with the levels of stratification which exist within it. While this may be difficult, it’s less so than the previous obstacles.

–Family and Groups
There is no single ideal family structure; each person’s is different from another’s. The structure of the family should be created from that family’s history and traditions.

I feel that there are two sub-topics in family that deserve individual attention, these follow.

-Divorce and Marriage
This is an area where my opinion diverges: should divorce be allowed, there are bound to be people–children, spouses, and others–who will, as a result, suffer. Disallow it however, and not only will people suffer, they may also deviate (and in fact this is possible with the previous choice as well). With either choice I will be indirectly allowing, if not causing, this.

-Children and Parents
Should parents rule their children? Should it be the parents’ responsibility to instill values in, or to instruct, their children? What about in cases where the parent(s) does not care about the child?

I am uncertain what would be best, so I will go along with biology: that is, with most mammals, there is a period where the mother cares for her children. The length of time of this period is different for each mammal. In my society, it would be a decision reached among those directly involved–namely the child and mother. I suppose the father’s role would depend on my decision regarding divorce and marriage. As would the family’s status as a primary group.

Groups–those among close friends, to those comprising complete strangers–would be free to form and free to disband as desired, so long as none was illegal.

–Politics, Crime, Deviance
Lacking a benevolent ruler, a democracy seems like it would be most suitable for my society. Considering that this is my ideal society, its people would share the views and values described in this essay, and so the people would create a government that’s laws perfectly align with these.

In dealing with deviance, there would only be a penalty if the deviant act was criminal. Although, if enough people deviate, this could be dysfunctional. For while in normal societies deviance can be functional, in my ideal one, any change brought about by it would be dysfunctional, since it is, already, ideal.

One concluding comment, a problem I foresee, how to keep the society as it is in my depiction of my ideal? As time passes, as generations die, the ways of society would morph, with new aspects emerging. And these too would die. With each new generation, meanings, values, ideals, these all would change. Governments may be overthrown, artificial divisions made, people warring with those who hold views opposed to their own. In short, an ideal society would only be so for a time, then it would not be.

Immigration History of the Thai to the United States

SaintNULL — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 16:54:02 +0000

Before 1960, there was not much to see
of the Thai in those States they call free.

But in that year, there was a war,
that brought American soldiers ashore
on the “republic” of Thailand, for this Vietnam war.

Along with soldiers, tourists this brought,
and soon trade was less negotiated in Baht.
For the US tourists all thought in dollars,
and so profitable became Thai bars and massage parlours.

This western influence was not without effect,
new music, foods and business, it did effect.
And perhaps it was this, which gave the idea,
to a few Thai, to go past Korea
on a trip that would take them from their native Thailand,
and on past the islands that compose Japan.
Into America, “Land of the Free”,
where they’d only have to pay, a “tiny, small fee”.
Where their dreams would come true, their families be broken,
where some would embrace them, while others’ hate went unspoken.

You see,

the place was large, and the pace fast,
so those large Thai families were destined to pass
into obscurity, some detail in history
of the way things and people had once used to be.

And now some say the affect has traveled:
that family tie unraveled.
That is, this tie holds not, as it once did–
their parents will leave, and so will their kids.

Thai immigration to the United States was nearly nonexistent until the US stationed troops in Thailand during the Vietnam war due to the country’s proximity to Vietnam. In 1962, the US moved 10,000 troops to Thailand. By 1969, the number of US troops had reached 45,000. There was an interstitial in which the troops were removed, but all were back in place by 1964.

With the troops came funding from the US military. Beginning with US$30 million in 1962 and increasing over the next ten years, until reaching US$123 million by 1972. In addition to this, the US also funded Thai police and military programs, with amounts approximately equal to the military aid previously mentioned. All this money being poured into the economy did much for increasing the standard of living, though perhaps indirectly. For it was the military tourism (Bangkok was now a location for GIs’ rest and recreation tours) that actually put money into the local economies: New Phetchaburi Road was an “‘American strip’ lined with bars, nightclubs, brothels, and massage parlours”. Other Thai-owned establishments began popping up around US air bases, and by 1970, there were enough attractions to bring in over six-hundred thousand tourists, with the majority of these being American. (Wyatt, 147-149).

And so, likely because of this western influence of the soldiers and tourists on the natives, thus began the immigration of a significant population of Thai to the US.

By the early ’70s, approximately five-thousand Thai had immigrated to the US, with women outnumbering men three-to-one. Though perhaps skewed toward legal immigrants, census data indicates that this population comprised mainly doctors, business men, and wives of US Air Force personal (this last likely being the reason for the unexpected ratio of women to men). (Schlight).

Immigration of Thai into the US has remained at roughly constant levels since. (Office of Immigration Statistics).

According to the 2000 US Census, there were 79,211 people who identified themselves as at least partly Thai living in the US. 36,525, or 46% of these lived in California.

As of 2008, there were approximately 130,000 Thai born immigrants in the US.

As somewhat of an aside, and while hard to objectively measure or say for certain that it is in fact westernization that is the cause, the degree to which a Thai is tied to his family has been reduced. More common is it now for children to leave their parents and move farther away and to choose their own spouse than it had been in the past.

Works Cited

Schlight, John. A War Too Long: the USAF in Southeast Asia, 1961-1975. Office Of Air Force History, United States Air Force, 1996. Electronic-Resource.
Wyatt, David K.Thailand: a Short History. New Haven, Conn.: Yale UP, 2003. Text.
U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Office of Immigration Statistics, 2008 Yearbook of Immigration Statistics.
.

Homework, etc.

SaintNULL — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 15:39:03 +0000

(Photo: source)

Here is a list of some schoolwork and essays. Feel free to do what you will with them (except no profiting from the essays, which are licensed by CC-NC.

Billy Talent – Definition of Destiny Lyrics

SaintNULL — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 01:55:29 +0000

Since everywhere else had incorrect lyrics for this song, I’m posting the correct ones here. (If anyone sees any errors, please point them out.)

Definition of Destiny, by Billy Talent. From Billy Talent III (2009)

Won’t ya stop, take a breath
Find a moment to reflect
On the pure and simple choices that we fail to see
From the worst, to the best
From the east coast to the west
On a never ending quest
To end our misery

So cut to the chase
It’s time to escape
before it’s too late
Yeah pick up the pace
And catch up with fate
It’s slipping away

So get off my road
No I won’t be told
Cause I got my own
Definition of destiny
Yeah take back control
And don’t let it go
The future’s unknown
Definition of destiny
Definition of destiny

Punch the clock, till we’re old
While our lives are put on hold
When did all our childhood dreams began to disappear
Well a long, time ago
We had passion, we had goals
Why is life so set in stone it doesn’t have to be

So cut to the chase
It’s time to escape
before it’s too late
Yeah pick up the pace
And catch up with fate
It’s slipping away

So get off my road
No I won’t be told
Cause I got my own
Definition of destiny
Yeah take back control
And don’t let it go
The future’s unknown
Definition of destiny

So get off my road
No I won’t be told
Cause I got my own
Definition of destiny
Yeah take back control
And don’t let it go
The future’s unknown

Along the way, we lost our way
So will you change, or stay the same
Somewhere between, reality
And fantasy is destiny

So cut to the chase
It’s time to escape
before it’s too late
Yeah pick up the pace
And catch up with fate
It’s slipping away

So get off my road
No I won’t be told
Cause I got my own
Definition of destiny
Yeah take back control
And don’t let it go
The future’s unknown
Definition of destiny

Yeah take back control
And don’t let it go
The future’s unknown
Definition of destiny
Cause I got my own
Yeah I got my own
Yeah I got my own
Definition of destiny

Definition of destiny
Definition of destiny
Definition of destiny

Ten Minute Turns

SaintNULL — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 19:12:01 +0000

Ten Minute Turns

An awesome band.

Sickabod Sane (aka Chris Burns)

SaintNULL — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 18:39:03 +0000

myspace.com/chrisburns

Two of my favorite Sickabod Sane songs:

Primal Candor:

The Birth of a Permanent Option:

This Panda Likes Chewing

SaintNULL — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 05:23:31 +0000

Very Like A Whale – Ogden Nash

SaintNULL — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 07:07:33 +0000

One thing that literature would be greatly the better for
Would be a more restricted employment by the authors of simile and metaphor.
Authors of all races, be they Greeks, Romans, Teutons or Celts,
Can’t seem just to say that anything is the thing it is but have to
go out of their way to say that it is like something else.
What does it mean when we are told
That that Assyrian came down like a wolf on the fold?
In the first place, George Gordon Byron had enough experience
To know that it probably wasn’t just one Assyrian, it was a lot of
Assyrians.
However, as too many arguments are apt to induce apoplexy and
thus hinder longevity.
We’ll let it pass as one Assyrian for the sake of brevity.
Now then, this particular Assyrian, the one whose cohorts were
gleaming in purple and gold,
Just what does the poet mean when he says he came down like a
wold on the fold?
In heaven and earth more than is dreamed of in our philosophy
there are great many things.
But I don’t imagine that among them there is a wolf with purple
and gold cohorts or purple and gold anythings.
No, no, Lord Byron, before I’ll believe that this Assyrian was
actually like a wolf I must have some kind of proof;
Did he run on all fours and did he have a hairy tail and a big red
mouth and big white teeth and did he say Woof Woof?
Frankly I think it is very unlikely, and all you were entitled to say,
at the very most,
Was that the Assyrian cohorts came down like a lot of Assyrian
cohorts about to destroy the Hebrew host.
But that wasn’t fancy enough for Lord Byron, oh dear me no, he
had to invent a lot of figures of speech and then interpolate them,
With the result that whenever you mention Old Testament soldiers
to people they say Oh yes, they’re the ones that a lot of
wolves dressed up in gold and purple ate them.
That’s the kind of thing that’s being done all the time by poets,
from Homer to Tennyson;
They’re always comparing ladies to lilies and veal to venison,
And they always say things like that the snow is a white blanket
after a winter storm.
Oh it is, is it, all right then, you sleep under a six-inch blanket of
snow and I’ll sleep under a half-inch blanket of unpoetical
blanket material and we’ll see which one keeps warm,
And after that maybe you’ll begin to comprehend dimly
What I mean by too much metaphor and simile.

Some Fonts Are Great. . . And Then There’s Wingdings

SaintNULL — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 06:50:08 +0000

A video about fonts. It’s better than it sounds.

http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1823766

“Mailbox, mailbox, MAILBOX!”

Words Mean More Than You Think

SaintNULL — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 04:32:24 +0000

This is a post with little substance,
based on a story that is quite absurd,
because its only purpose was to use certain words
which are themselves linguistic terms,
that make no sense when used alone.
So it’s quite useless, and should be burned.
But it’s not a book–it is electronic.
Which really is not ironic,
considering that this is a webpage.

Even the all-powerful Pointing has no control about the blind texts it is an almost unorthographic life One day however a small line of blind text by the name of Lorem Ipsum decided to leave for the far World of Grammar. The Big Oxmox advised her not to do so, because there were thousands of bad Commas, wild Question Marks and devious Semikoli, but the Little Blind Text didn’t listen. She packed her seven versalia, put her initial into the belt and made herself on the way.

When she reached the first hills of the Italic Mountains, she had a last view back on the skyline of her hometown Bookmarksgrove, the headline of Alphabet Village and the subline of her own road, the Line Lane. Pityful a rethoric question ran over her cheek, then she continued her way. On her way she met a copy. The copy warned the Little Blind Text, that where it came from it would have been rewritten a thousand times and everything that was left from its origin would be the word “and” and the Little Blind Text should turn around and return to its own, safe country.

But nothing the copy said could convince her and so it didn’t take long until a few insidious Copy Writers ambushed her, made her drunk with Longe and Parole and dragged her into their agency, where they abused her for their projects again and again. And if she hasn’t been rewritten, then they are still using her. Far far away, behind the word mountains, far from the countries Vokalia and Consonantia, there live the blind texts. Separated they live in Bookmarksgrove right at the coast of the Semantics, a large language ocean. A small river named Duden flows by their place and supplies it with the necessary regelialia.

It is a paradisematic country, in which roasted parts of sentences fly into your mouth. Even the all-powerful Pointing has no control about the blind texts it is an almost unorthographic life One day however a small line of blind text by the name of Lorem Ipsum decided to leave for the far World of Grammar. The Big Oxmox advised her not to do so, because there were thousands of bad Commas, wild Question Marks and devious Semikoli, but the Little Blind Text didn’t listen. She packed her seven versalia, put her initial into the belt and made herself on the way.

Even the all-powerful Pointing has no control about the blind texts it is an almost unorthographic life One day however a small line of blind text by the name of Lorem Ipsum decided to leave for the far World of Grammar. The Big Oxmox advised her not to do so, because there were thousands of bad Commas, wild Question Marks and devious Semikoli, but the Little Blind Text didn’t listen. She packed her seven versalia, put her initial into the belt and made herself on the way. When she reached the first hills of the Italic Mountains, she had a last view back on the skyline of her hometown Bookmarksgrove, the headline of Alphabet Village and the subline of her own road, the Line Lane. Pityful a rethoric question ran over her cheek, then she continued her way.

On her way she met a copy. The copy warned the Little Blind Text, that where it came from it would have been rewritten a thousand times and everything that was left from its origin would be the word “and” and the Little Blind Text should turn around and return to its own, safe country. But nothing the copy said could convince her and so it didn’t take long until a few insidious Copy Writers ambushed her, made her drunk with Longe and Parole and dragged her into their agency, where they abused her for their projects again and again. And if she hasn’t been rewritten, then they are still using her. Far far away, behind the word mountains, far from the countries Vokalia and Consonantia, there live the blind texts.

Separated they live in Bookmarksgrove right at the coast of the Semantics, a large language ocean. A small river named Duden flows by their place and supplies it with the necessary regelialia. It is a paradisematic country, in which roasted parts of sentences fly into your mouth. Even the all-powerful Pointing has no control about the blind texts it is an almost unorthographic life One day however a small line of blind text by the name of Lorem Ipsum decided to leave for the far World of Grammar. The Big Oxmox advised her not to do so, because there were thousands of bad Commas, wild Question Marks and devious Semikoli, but the Little Blind Text didn’t listen. She packed her seven versalia, put her initial into the belt and made herself on the way. When she reached the first hills of the Italic Mountains, she had a last view back on the skyline of her hometown Bookmarksgrove, the headline of Alphabet Village and the subline of her own road, the Line Lane. Pityful a rethoric question ran over her cheek, then she continued her way. On her way she met a copy. The copy warned the Little Blind Text, that where it came from it would have been rewritten a thousand times and everything that was left from its origin would be the word “and” and the Little Blind Text should turn around and return to its own, safe country. But nothing the copy said could convince her and so it didn’t take