The following is a post I wrote a couple weeks ago, but didn't publish 'cause I wasn't sure if it made any sense. Tonight I read it again, fixed it up a bit, and I think it makes fine sense. NOW THE DECISION IS YOURS!!!
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I'm trying to get to the bottom of this SOPA PIPA thing, after being intrigued by this, which seems to imply that the Anti-SOPA movement is not really a grassroots thing, that it's just two different types of huge corporations fighting one another.
When I heard that, I was like "well shit, am I really fighting the right fight here?" Because I tend to question and analyze a lot of stuff, especially political and news-related stuff.
So I wondered, does anyone have any data about the jobs and money lost to the media industry, that can scientifically show the link between piracy and job loss?
That question led me to this testimony document. I couldn't read it without getting pissed off. Logical fallacies, twisted words, bullshit, bullshit, bullshit.
Did any one of these people take a logic class? Reductio ad absurdum, Ad Hominem, Straw man arguments, etc. I read better supported arguments on 4chan*.
Now I must mention that I didn't take a logic class, and I am nowhere near as ruthless about analyzing things that I am less suspicious of.
Why do the supposedly intelligent and responsible people you would imagine be put on a Senate Committee let people bullshit all day in the most sacred halls of government? It's absolutely sickening.
It sounds to me like this is all just a goddamn game played between billionaires, about profit margins. The reason lower profit margins could threaten jobs, is because when profits fall, the lowest paid people will be the first to get the fucking axe. Companies don't care about their people. They care about money. And they hire people to convince everyone that they do care about people. The only reason life in America isn't shitty is that they know that if they did really fucked up things, we would get pissed off and take them down.
So it's the old rule of marginal changes, that we learned about in school: as long as you change things a little bit at a time, nobody will get pissed off enough to really stop the progress.
Okay.
Well that's enough of that. I've blown off some steam.
I may have said a little too much earlier. I don't have any direct evidence to support the assertion that corporations only care about money. When it comes down to it, corporations are just businesses, and businesses are just institutions made of people. And people usually care about each other. Then again, it's hard to care about people that you never meet, unless you present them as people.
Maybe it's just how the world works, you know? Maybe money and power can never be separated. Everyone needs money to get along, you know? Maybe the old "power corrupts" saying is literally true: no matter how hard you try, with power comes corruption.
Maybe the reason power and corruption come together is because the more power one has, the more strong the illusion of control is.
If something bad happens that you feel you have no control over, all you can do is get upset. But if something bad happens that you do feel you have control over, you try to fix it. The more power you have, the more unintended side effects your attempts to fix the problem will have. These will in turn cause more problems.
I just think of the last few times I've been really pissed off. Yesterday, for example, I had to drive to Sacramento from Lafayette, for an appointment. I was running a little late, but as I got onto the freeway, I realized I didn't have any cash for the bridge toll. "Oh shit, damnit," I thought, and I got irritated that I would be late. But what really pissed me off, was that I should have remembered that. Most of my frustration came not from the situation, but the fact that I felt I had control over it.
And what do I do when we feel indignant? I react by blaming everything but myself. "Stupid speed limit is gonna make me late," or "My stupid smart phone couldn't find an ATM fast enough." The smart phone one is another example of my sense of power making me indignant. So I start getting really sensitive about being wrong.
Here's another factor to consider, something that I think should be considered more: the national economy, which is directly related to the prosperity of millions of people, is a very complex system. I think that sometimes policymakers and other businessmen overestimate how much they understand these systems, and that lack of understanding creates unintended consequences.
Or maybe I just think it's complex 'cause I never took any advanced statistics or economics classes. But the big meltdown in 2008 doesn't give me the impression that everyone knew what they were doing.
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There you have it. My opinion about it now is that I'm glad they shot it down, and I agree with the Obama administration's stance that legislation is needed, but it needs to be better than this. In the meantime, I'm going to try going totally legit as far as my media diet. I'm an artist myself, you know. Hell, since I'm an actor maybe I can at least write my Netflix bill off as a business expense.
~Chris
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