The West does not owe slave descendants anything

The thoughts that most conservatives have about reparations generally is either in the camp of thinking that whats in the past is in the past, or that due to disproportionate representation of black people on the welfare roles that we have already paid. What neither of these take into account is that fact that the idea that slavers went to Africa and rounded up a bunch a free men to use as slaves is almost entirely a myth perpetuated by the book and the movie Roots (which was both fictionalized and plagiarized by the way). The truth is that in almost all cases American slavers sailed to Africa where they met up with African slavers who sold them slaves. This should be evident by the fact that the native Africans were no more or less civilized than many of the Indian tribes that Western Americans came across, but they did not conqueror and enslave them. If they had run into Indian slave traders in any kind of large numbers (I certainly can't say that it never happened) there would have been just a large a trade of Indians as slaves, but the fact remains that it was unique to Africans.

This is not to say that all white men who bought slaves were righteous. The right thing to do would have been to free them as soon as they had been purchased. But consider another case. If you came across a man who was desperate for cash and in his desperation offered to sell you his wife's engagement ring which was clearly worth thousands of dollars and though you could have paid full price, you take advantage of the situation and buy it for only a few hundred. Is that the good christian thing to do? No of course not. But on the other hand, after the transaction is made do you owe that man anything. Again no. In the same way, American slavers did not owe the slaves that they purchased freedom because they did not enslave them. The truth is that those who made it to America where the lucky ones. There were certainly some bad slave owners in the south, but in Africa to treat a slave as being more valuable than a horse was the exception.

If your still not convinced consider another example. In Nazi Germany, Oskar Schindler rescued many Jews from concentration camps. The rescued Jews basically worked for him in his factory as slaves. At the end of the war did he owe them reparations? Of course not. By acquiring slaves he was saving them from the gas chambers, and is considered a hero for it. This is not 100% analogous with American slavery, but it demonstrates the principle. If life as a slave in America was not worse than life as a slave in Africa it means that Americans do not owe former slaves anything. In fact we did give them something: freedom. Something that they or their ancestors would not have gotten in Africa where the slave trade is alive and well to this day.

Abusing Chivalry

Most men have the idea impressed on them that they should protect the weak. This is particularly manifest in the idea that a man should never hit a woman. The assumption with this idea is that the man is always stronger than the woman, otherwise it would not matter, as is made obvious in that severely handicapped men generally are not held to this standard, but find themselves falling more into the societal category of women in that they should never be hit either. What is less engrained is the idea that if you are on the receiving end of special treatment you should not abuse it. That is to say if you are a woman or in some other societal role where men are to refrain from being violent towards you, you are also obligated to refrain from being violent towards them. But more and more its getting to the point where this second half of the unspoken contract is completely ignored. Take for example the recent event with Phoenx Jones, the costume wearing, pepper spray wielding, crime patrolling, self styled super hero.

Phoenix Jones Stops Assault from Ryan McNamee on Vimeo.

In this video he is patrolling with his side kicks and sees a street fight taking place under an overpass. He immediately runs in and breaks up the fight with pepper spray while his side kicks call 911. Then one of the girls who was watching the fight starts chasing him around attacking him with her high heel. Now clearly there is no question that Phoenix Jones could literally kill this girl with his bare hands if he so chose, but she correctly assumes that he will hold up his end of the societal contract while she flagrantly breaks her part of it. And the real kicker is that the only person charged with anything in this case was Phoenix Jones, while clearly he was on the receiving end of assault.

Contrast that with the more recent case of two women assaulting a man working at McDonald's (read the story here).

In this case the worker behind the counter questioned a $50 bill that they gave him and in response one of them reached across the counter and slapped him, and then threw herself over the counter while her friend started walking the long way around to reach him. They also assumed that he would uphold his end of the societal contract while they flagrantly broke their end. In this case they were wrong. He responded by grabbing a metal rode and beating them. One of them just suffered a fairly deep cut, but the other suffered a broken skull and arm.

It's interesting the way that the story is reported. They keep it in terms like there was an altercation that got violent. The sense is very much, something bad just happened and then the McDonald's employee went crazy. It never mentions whether or not the $50 bill they gave him was counterfeit or not. So most likely what happened is that they gave him a fifty, and as per store policy he had to check it out make sure that it was not counterfeit. In their intoxicated state the two women took this as a slight and then go on to assault the worker. He excessively defends himself. So unlike the phrasing in the news report that he attacked unruly customers, or that it was a fight the escalated out of control, this is a case where a man was attacked by two women and responded. It is totally inappropriate to say that he attacked them, as they were literally chasing him behind the counter with intent to harm when he “attacked”.

At least in this case all parties were changed with crimes. However if we keep going on with the idea that men should just sit there and take it or run away while women attack them instead of responding we'll get more and more of these incidents. Also, it needs to be made clear to women what their role in the societal contract is, as many of them clearly think that theirs is a place of privilege and the the contract only goes one way.

Accidental Alpha

When I still in school, before I knew anything about game, I was visiting my friend Ishmael back home over Christmas break. At the time he was renting a house with some other guys, one of whom I found out owned his very own gorilla suit. It was the best costume that I had ever seen, covering the whole body, with a fake gorilla head and everything. Being the 6'3” broad shouldered beast that I both was and am, the suit did not fit me. Ishmael on the other hand could get right in it. It was just to great a suit to not use, so I had to think of something. Prior to being shown the gorilla suit our plans had just been to rent a movie and hang out. So in the interest of using it right then, before I went back to school, Ishmael and I came to an agreement. After exchanging some “I will if you will” type pacts it was decided that he would wear the suit to the video store and I would lead him with a rope looped around his neck. If anyone looked at us funny in the store I was to lead him over to them and ask “Would you like to touch my monkey” after which he would offer them his hand.

At the store itself most people avoided eye contact. I think that we only actually went up to 2 groups, one middle aged couple, that was not that amused, and one lone attractive girl. As we were browsing the new releases moving slowly around the outer wall, we found ourselves in the same general space as her. She looked over at us bemused, and as per our pack, I walked right up to her maintaining eye contact and asked “Would you like to touch my monkey?” She laughed as she shook Ishmael's gorilla clad hand, and then instead of moving on as I was planning on doing, she started up a conversation. She was trying to find common ground at first asking what kind of movies we liked. And then she said something like “You know I bet my dog would really like you.” Now I really don't like changing my plans after I've made them, and so I was wanting to get on with our evening and spend time hanging out with Ishmael before I had to go back to school. So as she was trying to start up a conversation I was trying to disengage without being rude. As she was talking I was switching between looking at her to browsing over movies on the rack in front of me. Eventually we were able to get away and went on to watch a movie and share a few laughs before I had to leave. As we got out of the store into the parking lot we let out the laughter that we'd been holding in. We couldn't believe how much attraction had been generated while purposefully acting like annoying jackasses.

It wasn't till much later after reading about game theory that what happened started to make sense. The first thing that we were doing was peacocking. That is we were dressed in a way intended to draw attention. Secondly under the additional social presser of peacocking, by making the agreement to walk up to people and ask them if they wanted to touch my monkey, we demonstrated social dominance. If we had not done that and instead avoided eye contact and slunk away from people who looked funny at us, then it would have been less attractive than if we had done nothing at all. Finally, by being genuinely disinterested in actually picking anyone up, I naturally had alpha body language. The end result was that it was actually awkward not to go for the insta-date either by asking her to come watch a movie with us or inviting ourselves to her place to watch and meet her dog.

Cat Logic

When I move around the house, on occasion my cat will start racing from room to room ahead of me. This has always been a particular source of amusement for me as from what I can tell what is going on in his mind is first observing that his master is taking a step towards the living room. This observation is processed with inscrutable cat logic. The final result is that he decides that he has to run into the living room as fast as he is able to go in order to beat me there. I then go into the living room to be met with a wild stare, and as I turn around and hear the sound of his legs furiously propelling him past me again the process is repeated.

Whats so funny about this is that for some reason that is not based in any real logic, but makes perfect sense in cat logic, my cat expends tons of energy to ensure that he is the first to arrive in every room. I suspect that it is some sort of game, and he's probably winning, but who knows what goes on in the mind of a cat.

That said, I also found this article on why atheists don't have to showrespect for other religions quite amusing. For the most part it is full of normal atheist talking points about how religion is evil and whatnot. But what struck me is that the author admits that many religions are harmless, and then goes on about the importance of making more atheists. So as I try to look at it from their perspective, what I see is first the observation that there is no god/supernatural/after life. Everything that we do ultimately will not matter as we are all going to die anyway. After death it does not matter whether you've lived a good life or a miserable life, as your consciousness is simply gone. Everything can be explained by science, which ultimately means that we have no free will. These observations are then processed by inscrutable atheist logic. Then the final result is the burning passion to make everyone else believe that there is no god/supernatural/after life/morality/free will. And as I look into those wild atheist eyes, I find myself thinking “You go atheist, live that dream”.

Chris Christie's hypothetical presidential run

The worst smell I have ever smelled was my dog right after being sprayed by a skunk. I was delivering papers at the and had to just keep going despite the terrible smell of my companion. I distinctly remember at one point my dog crapped on the lawn of one of houses I was delivering to, and as I bent over to clean it up, I actually found the aroma pleasant. The smell of the skunk spray was so bad and so overwhelming that even the smell of dog shit was pleasant by contrast.

This is why Chris Christie looks good.

He looks really good when he is going toe to toe with public employees who's sense of entitlement is running rampant. He shows a willingness to fight hard battles that most politicians lack. Unfortunately that's the end of the positives. Take for example here where he is responding to questions about his appointment of a Muslim judge. When asked about the issue of Sharia law he goes on to say that its crazy because the guy is an American citizen and has sworn to uphold the law. This of course completely ignores the fact that we have had rulings in the US that were based on Sharia law. Were the judges in those cases not American citizens? Did they somehow avoid taking the oath to uphold the law before being sworn into office?

Then there is the issue of immigration. You remember how Rick Perry was blasted for supporting in state tuition for illegal aliens? Christie passed the same bill in his state.

Then there's climate change. He has bought it hook line and sinker. Even after the East Anglia email scandal where the whole world was able to see confessions of falsifying data in order to reach predetermined conclusions. And yet ol Christie somehow missed it. And he missed resignation of Dr. Ivar Giaever. And Hal Lewis. And Chris Landsea. And Paul Reiter. And this petition of 31,000 scientists from. And the admission that there has been no warming since 1998.

And any politician who still supports global warming initiatives is either stupid or receiving kick backs from the green machine.

So the point is that Chris Christie might be trying to make the state of New Jersey smell like dog shit, but for a state that currently smells like skunk spray it's progress. As a nation, we need to do better.

A Game Resource

A while back I made a couple of posts that were intended to give a compact overview of what game is coming from the perspective of someone who has never heard of it before.  Well heartiste has put out a great post on that topic.  It's different in that it is not what game is, but rather what game is not.  So here you go, compact list of anti-game written far better than I ever could have.

http://heartiste.wordpress.com/2011/09/23/what-is-anti-game/

Jesus and Game Part 2

I put this post together mostly from skimming the book of Matthew. And from it I've found texts that demonstrate the alphaness of Jesus.

Jesus is a leader of men. When he wants someone to do something he does not ask. He tells them.

Matthew 4:18-20

And Jesus, walking by the sea of Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea: for they were fishers.

And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.

And they straightway left their nets, and followed him.

Here we see that Jesus just went up to a group of strange men and told them “Follow me”. And they did it. He didn't ask “Would you like to follow me?” or “If its not too much trouble, could you join with me?”.

Matthew 10:5

“These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not”.

He does not say: “Okay guys, I want you to go into the city. Can you do that?”

Jesus has a massive frame. Often the Pharisees would come up to him with some sort of verbal trap designed to make him back off, apologize, or incriminate himself. These are huge shit tests. And Jesus passes every one by bringing people into his frame instead. Never once does he qualify, apologize or back off. And he always does things in such a way so that after his response, he is innocent and the Pharisees are guilty and sputtering with rage.

Matthew 9:10-12

Jesus eats with sinners and is accused.

“And it came to pass, as Jesus sat at meat in the house, behold, many publicans and sinners came and sat down with him and his disciples.

And when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto his disciples, Why eateth your Master with publicans and sinners?

But when Jesus heard that, he said unto them, They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.”

This might look like beta justification, but it's critically different in that there is no I language, and it also is a reframe. By making his analogy he casts the Pharisees as being out of line. Now instead of him cavorting with sinners, the Pharisees are framed as being heartless.

Matthew 12:1-4

“At that time Jesus went on the sabbath day through the corn; and his disciples were an hungred, and began to pluck the ears of corn and to eat.

But when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto him, Behold, thy disciples do that which is not lawful to do upon the sabbath day.

But he said unto them, Have ye not read what David did, when he was an hungred, and they that were with him;

How he entered into the house of God, and did eat the shewbread, which was not lawful for him to eat, neither for them which were with him, but only for the priests?”

Instead replying to their accusations Jesus reframes the issue. Now instead of looking like a law breaker, he made the Pharisees look like ignorant hypocrites.

Matthew 15:1-11

Then came to Jesus scribes and Pharisees, which were of Jerusalem, saying,

Why do thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? for they wash not their hands when they eat bread.
But he answered and said unto them, Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition?
For God commanded, saying, Honour thy father and mother: and, He that curseth father or mother, let him die the death.
But ye say, Whosoever shall say to his father or his mother, It is a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me;
And honour not his father or his mother, he shall be free. Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition.
Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying,
This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.
But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.
And he called the multitude, and said unto them, Hear, and understand:
Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man.

Jesus is caught breaking the law as it is understood, but instead of apologizing or qualifying, he turns it around on the Pharisees. After explaining how their (seemingly unrelated) teachings go against the law, he nails them with the line “Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man.”

There are many more examples than these, and I purposely left out many that involve miracles, even though they are valid. But a man coming of as alpha by preforming a miracle is too easy. Much like it is not so impressive to see a rock star being alpha.