Illusional Reality

Take Action, Save The Internet

By Hawk | Published Thursday, January 30, 2014

Not so long ago, we struck down the ACTA treaty and stopped the censorship laws SOPA/PIPA. And now another attack on the freedoms that we hold dear is in the horizon. This time it is directed on what is called the Net Neutrality.

Net neutrality (also network neutrality or Internet neutrality) is the principle that Internet service providers and governments should treat all data on the Internet equally, not discriminating or charging differentially by user, content, site, platform, application, type of attached equipment, and modes of communication. In other words, you can access anything on the internet, without someone else limiting or stopping your access to it.

This needs to stop; otherwise the face of the Internet will change forever, in a very ugly way.

The first thing we should all do, is to join Avaaz in their petition to the EU and U.S decision makers. They address them by saying:

We urge you to use your power to stop a two-tiered Internet for the rich and ensure that all data traffic is treated equally. Allowing service providers to prioritise certain content and act as gatekeepers will undermine the democratic and open nature of the Internet. We count on you to show true global leadership and stand strong for Net Neutrality.

The link to the Avaaz petition: http://www.avaaz.org/en/internet_apocalypse_loc/?fBhbybb&pv=42

The next steps that we must take are explained in this website: http://savetheinternet.eu/en/

And keep in mind that much of what is on the internet is based on the U.S or in the countries in the European Union, so we are all affected. Also, don’t forget, as John Stuart Mill wrote in his book On Liberty, “a person may cause evil to others not only by his actions but by his inaction, and in either case he is justly accountable to them for the injury.” And that is why we must all act.

Liberty Lessons from John Stuart Mill

By Hawk | Published Saturday, October 26, 2013

I recently came across John Stuart Mill, an influential English liberal thinker. In all honestly, I am quite surprised I didn't read much of him until now. Certain quotes of his are relatively familiar to me, but I either didn't bother giving much attention to the author (which is highly unlikely) or they were miss-attributed. Reading certain quotes of his on Goodreads, I was impressed by his intellectuality, liberal beliefs and liberty principals.

I decided to post here some of his quotes on freedom of opinion, of individuality and liberty, as I think they teach great lessons.

The quotes are:

“If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind.” ― John Stuart Mill

“The only freedom which deserves the name is that of pursuing our own good in our own way, so long as we do not attempt to deprive others of theirs, or impede their efforts to obtain it. Each is the proper guardian of his own health, whether bodily, or mental or spiritual. Mankind are greater gainers by suffering each other to live as seems good to themselves, than by compelling each to live as seems good to the rest.” ― John Stuart Mill, On Liberty

“In this age, the mere example of non-conformity, the mere refusal to bend the knee to custom, is itself a service. Precisely because the tyranny of opinion is such as to make eccentricity a reproach, it is desirable, in order to break through that tyranny, that people should be eccentric. Eccentricity has always abounded when and where strength of character has abounded; and the amount of eccentricity in a society has generally been proportional to the amount of genius, mental vigor, and moral courage which it contained. That so few now dare to be eccentric, marks the chief danger of the time.” ― John Stuart Mill, On Liberty

“The peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an opinion is, that it is robbing the human race; posterity as well as the existing generation; those who dissent from the opinion, still more than those who hold it. If the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth: if wrong, they lose, what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with error.” ― John Stuart Mill, On Liberty

“He who knows only his own side of the case knows little of that. His reasons may be good, and no one may have been able to refute them. But if he is equally unable to refute the reasons on the opposite side, if he does not so much as know what they are, he has no ground for preferring either opinion... Nor is it enough that he should hear the opinions of adversaries from his own teachers, presented as they state them, and accompanied by what they offer as refutations. He must be able to hear them from persons who actually believe them...he must know them in their most plausible and persuasive form.” ― John Stuart Mill, On Liberty

“The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not a sufficient warrant. He cannot rightfully be compelled to do or forbear because it will be better for him to do so, because it will make him happier, because, in the opinions of others, to do so would be wise, or even right. These are good reasons for remonstrating with him, or reasoning with him, or persuading him, or entreating him, but not for compelling him, or visiting him with any evil, in case he do otherwise.” ― John Stuart Mill, On Liberty

Some of them might be rather long, but they are worth reading.

The Greater Fool

By Hawk | Published Sunday, June 9, 2013

A poem written by me. Enjoy.

The Greater Fool

A voice unheard,

For the mouth was kept shut

In a silent place able of great echo

A stand not taken,

Where everyone is sitting or lying down

A change not seen,

For the comfort zone is oh so sweet

A survival, not a life

A sense of insignificance

Strengthened by us

A flawed logic,

In an irrational world,

A sense of belonging,

That seems to one that he must enforce

But it’s all an illusion

Keeping your words in chains

Your actions inactive

For the agenda does not include you

One can, and one must

Dare to be

What the world should,

And has to be

Why me?

Why fight a war I can’t win?

What is the purpose?

Who will see?

One has to look

And see

That the world has not seen progress

Without the ones

Who ignored those questions

Without the Greater Fools

Who didn’t lack fear,

But their courage overwhelmed it

Who felt alone,

But knew they can, and did take it

Delusional, many often said

But when has success

Been reached

Without wicked thought

Over confident,

An ego too great

Just dysphemisms,

For the brave one

Who dared a step to take

To give it a try,

History to make

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LOTR - Like in the great stories

By Hawk | Published Thursday, January 24, 2013

I am posting here a small dialogue between Sam and Frodo, which took place at the end of the second episode of the trilogy, that is, of The Two Towers.

The dialogue:

Frodo: I can’t do this, Sam.

Sam: I know. It’s all wrong. By rights we shouldn’t even be here. But we are. It’s like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger, they were. And sometimes you didn’t want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn’t. They kept going. Because they were holding on to something.

Frodo: What are we holding onto, Sam?

Sam: That there’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo… and it’s worth fighting for.

Video of the scene:

I just wish to say that this is by far one of the very best scenes from the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and a truly motivational one.

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In remembrance of George Orwell

By Hawk | Published Monday, January 21, 2013

George Orwell's works have tremendously influenced me. He has been a very important figure in my life since an early age.
He died on January 21, 1950, but he will never perish from the minds of the people he taught how to think in a more critical, rational way. From the minds of people like me.

As a sign of remembrance, I would like to share here, on my blog, some of my most favorite quotes from him. I don't have a favorite quote, though. I could never pick one as my favorite as they are all unique and so full of enlightening meaning.

Here they are:

“In a time of deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”
― George Orwell

“He who controls the past controls the future. He who controls the present controls the past.”
― George Orwell, 1984

“Perhaps one did not want to be loved so much as to be understood.”
― George Orwell, 1984

“The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.”
― George Orwell

“We shall meet in the place where there is no darkness.”
― George Orwell, 1984

“If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.”
― George Orwell

“Perhaps a lunatic was simply a minority of one.”
― George Orwell, 1984

“If you loved someone, you loved him, and when you had nothing else to give, you still gave him love.”
― George Orwell, 1984

“Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed: everything else is public relations.”
― George Orwell

“Being in a minority, even in a minority of one, did not make you mad. There was truth and there was untruth, and if you clung to the truth even against the whole world, you were not mad.”
― George Orwell, 1984

“Sanity is not statistical.”
― George Orwell

“The propagandist's purpose is to make one set of people forget that certain other sets of people are human.”
― George Orwell

“I enjoy talking to you. Your mind appeals to me. It resembles my own mind except that you happen to be insane.”

― George Orwell, 1984

“Everyone believes in the atrocities of the enemy and disbelieves in those of his own side, without ever bothering to examine the evidence.”

― George Orwell

“He felt as though he were wandering in the forests of the sea bottom, lost in a monstrous world where he himself was the monster. He was alone. The past was dead, the future was unimaginable”

― George Orwell, 1984

Rest in peace, Eric. You are greatly missed, and tremendously appreciated.