Livets lønn

Our day-to-day reality – life expectancy, health, wealth, and education – was considered unrealistic and utopian in the eighteenth century. So, what’s next? Rutger Bregman, Dutch historian and author, explores how utopian ideals like a basic living income and a fifteen-hour work week could become a reality in our lifetime.
Basic living Income is not communism, it is common sense, and poverty is not the result of a lack of character, but a lack of cash.

Det lønner seg å ta nyheter med en klype salt, når den som formidler dem står på denne lista:

• Øystein Steiro Sr
• Henrik Arnesen
• Resett.no
• Lykten.no (tidligere «Ordet er mitt» og «Frie ord»)
• Ekte nyheter

Da teller gjerne sensasjonsfaktoren mer enn sannhetsgehalten.

Anand Giridharadas, forfatter av Winners Take All:

«We must decide whether, in the name of ascendant values such as efficiency and scale, we are willing to allow democratic purpose to be usurped by private actors who often genuinely aspire to improve things but, first things first, seek to protect themselves.

We must ask ourselves why we have so easily lost faith in the governments elected by and accountable to the people. These engines of progress got us where we are today – in the democratic efforts to outlaw slavery, end child labour, limit the workday, keep drugs safe, protect collective bargaining, create public schools, battle the Great Depression, electrify rural America, weave a nation together by road, pursue a Great Society free of poverty, extend civil and political rights to women and African Americans and other minorities, and give our fellow citizens health, security and dignity in old age.

Much of what appears to be reform in our time is in fact the defense of stasis. When we see through the myths that foster this misperception, the path to genuine change will come into view. It will once again be possible to improve the world without permission slips from the powerful.»

Amitav Ghosh, indisk forfatter, om boken «The great derangement».

The plan of the Western elites

I think today’s politics is not as deranged as you think. People think that Trump and the people around him are in denial, and they don’t know about climate change. That’s not the case at all. Steven Bannon actually is one of the founders of this biodome project in Arizona. He is extremely well informed about climate change. It is not that they don’t have a plan. They have a plan – and the plan is like this: They have come to the conclusion that the only way Western lifestyle is sustainable, is that millions of people die. That’s it. That’s their conclusion.

China’s strategy

The reason China is moving on climate change, is that they are run by technocrats. They understand the issue; they understand how you can respond to the issue. Secondly, their framing of the issue is not in terms of morality or goodness or being kind to the earth. They’re framing this issue in the terms of survival. And that is the ultimately modern form of politics. Politics is, and always has been, about taking decisions that allows the body of politics to survive.

Jevons paradox

Greater efficiency of energy actually leads to more consumption, rather than less. You know the paperless paradox? People thought that once you have internet, offices would become paperless. Instead we started using much more paper. So I don’t think energy efficiency or alternative energies will solve the problem.

It’s not like creating solar panels are innocent of impact on the environment. You need all sorts of rare earth minerals, all sorts of technological apparatuses to make them.

If you take wind, these giant windmills have to be mounted on enormous concrete foundations. And concrete is, after fossil fuel, the most environmentally destructive substance that we have.

So, we really need to talk about how do we cut back.

–  Jeg kan gjerne parafrasere Ibsen, og si at mitt kall er ei at tale, kun at skrive. Den som snakker kan komme i skade for å si utrolig mye dumt, det vet alle som har prøvd å snakke fornuftig og sammenhengende. Den som snakker improviserer, og det kan man gjerne gjøre hvis man har talent for det. Jeg har det ikke. Ved skrivebordet kan jeg hele tiden korrigere og gjennomarbeide teksten. Dette har ingenting med skriftfetisjisme å gjøre, det gir meg ganske enkelt en mulighet til å se på verket med en viss distanse. Det skriftlige er en langt mer reflektert form enn en muntlig samtalesituasjon. Når man snakker er man inne i sin egen stemme. Man spyr seg selv ut, enten man vil eller ikke. Straks man skriver er man en slags utenforstående betrakter av sitt eget språk, og det er slikt det blir litteratur av. Jon Fosse, som selv har vært journalist, sa i et intervju at han er på det rene med at det er intervjueren som styrer intervjuet. Det tror jeg han har rett i. Jeg liker å styre mine ytringer selv.

Intervju med Tor Ulven i Vagant 4/1993

«Ingenting er verre enn det vi kan forestille oss»

J. M. Coetzee, fra boka «Før barbarene kommer».

WASHES

OGRYN FLESH

THRAKA GREEN

ASURMEN BLUE

OTHERS

SHINING GOLD (METALLIC) (-)

TIN BITZ (METALLIC)

MITHRIL SILVER (SØLV METALLIC)

*BOLTGUN METAL (LYS GRÅ)

GUNMETAL (MØRK GRÅ METALLIC)

SCORCHED BROWN

WHITE

CODEX GREY

UNDERCOAT BLACK

SNOT GREEN

GOLDEN YELLOW

*BLOOD RED

*BLEACHED BONE (-)

ULTRAMARINE BLUE

FOUNDATIONS

IYANDEN DARKSUN GUL (-)

MARCHARIUS SOLAR ORANGE (-)

MORDIAN BLUE

CALTHAN BROWN

ORKHIDE SHADE

TALLARN FLESH

MECHRITE RED

TOM

DWARF BRONZE

GNARLOC GREEN

For å male Legion of the Damned

Chaos Black* – Shadow Black* – Navy Grey – Codex Grey*
Blood Red* – Fiery Orange – Fluorescent Orange (Golden Yellow)
Bestial Brown (Calthan Brown) – Caramel (Iyanden Darksun) – Bleached Bone* – White Skull*
Boltgun Metal* – Chainmail (Mithril silver)

The problem with it, and this is actually a mystery to me. Every crypto currency that’s been started, to my knowledge, and there might be some I don’t know about, because it has been exploding lately, so I might not have a comprehensive view, but they’re all ponzi schemes, they’re all scams!

What happens is, people who started, create a bunch of fake wealth for themselves and then other people turn it to real wealth by speculating and the earlier you are in, the better your chances of coming out, but there’s always that little chance you’ll do well, so later speculators want to do well and that’s what’s called a ponzi scheme. But since it’s global, is doesn’t pop right away, and so it can go on for a really, really long time. But it’s terribly dangerous, and terribly unfair to most people.

They’re based on this ridiculous pseudo libertarian idea of trying to emulate the gold standard. So there’s a fixed number of these currencies. It’s a feudal model and incredibly regressive, yet it’s hip, popular thing. Just look at it, it’s terrible!

Jaron Lanier var blant de første innovatørene i Silicone Valley og regnes som en av vår tids mest fremtredende visjonærer. Han kalles gjerne The father of virtual reality og Time Magazine har satt ham på listen over de 100 mest innflytelsesrike mennesker i verden. Lanier underviser ved New York University og ved Columbia University og er blant grunnleggerne til International Institute for Evolution and Brain som utgår fra Harvard University og Parisuniversitetet

I en tid med ekstrem velstand blant enkelte mennesker, sier ingenting mer om de ultra-rikes liv enn Financial Times’ ubeskjedent prangende luksusmagasin «How to spend it«.