Wednesday, October 16, 2013

The Death of Thomas Paine and Civic Duty

Dead is the age of pamphleteers. Hard data brings to mind visions of science fiction movies and the Utopian surveillance state which has - and this is a cliche - used Orwell's "1984" as a training manual as opposed to a warning. We do not have Huxley on the six o'clock anymore and Tupac is not around except in hologram form to remind us that slavery days are hardly an age past.

Here are some koans instead.

Q: Why has the fifth estate experienced mass surveillance through the centuries?
A: It's easy

Q: What do you call a non-Russian speaker who quotes Tolstoy and Dostoevsky?
A: Typical Blogspot user

Q: How many software updates does it take before you blame it on the compiler?
A: I don't know, it's still compiling


edit: If you're in Calgary, make sure you vote for your school trustee, councilor and mayor. I'm sure if Andrei was living here, he'd vote Mr. Naheed Nenshi as well. Nenshi has a strong Public Policy background from Harvard and was a professor of many years at Mount Royal University. His leadership was instrumental during the city flooding and may have been key in saving the town from a massive shutdown.

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