cosmoshiden

[cosmoshiden]

Math troubles

In my recent experience with taking university math, I was informed to take principles of math, pre-calculus, or foundations of mathematics. My institution insisted that I needed one of these courses in order to continue on with my degree as a bachelor of arts. However, what I was not told at the time is that principles of math was long gone. I will elaborate on this later, but for now I will focus on what happened when I made my choice.

Basically, I took on pre-calculus, but found myself unable to grasp the math. From there I fell behind within several weeks. This caused me to withdraw from the course. About 3 months later, I was about to sign up for a course in logic, but I was informed to take either of the three as mentioned above. In my blindness I took pre-calculus again, and tried my luck by finding a tutor. The course ended in failure for me, as I wasn't able to once again grasp the content, even with a tutor's help and recieved an "F". It also didn't help that I have a learning impairment that hinders my understanding of math. As such, I tried again with a tutor and received a "C-", yet that wasn't enough for the administrators, so I was given a "hardblock" on my attendance. My institution's standards at the time were either a 60% or a 70% in math.

At this point, I was given a choice of signing a contract to take pre-calculus again, taking a placement test or going back to my old high school to take Math 11 or 12. I went with the third option and spent over a year retaking pre-calculus, while failing miserably. My math teacher grew worried about my poor performance, so I told her my situation, and she later informed me that principles of math was discontinued, that the information I was given by my university was misleading, and that as a student in the humanities, I should have been taking Foundations of Math. Meanwhile, I was informed that Pre-Calculus was in fact for students going into the Sciences, Technology, Engeneering and Mathematics (STEM). With this revelation, I came to realize that my university didn't explain this to me when advertised, nor is this explained on their website.

Now I did take foundations of math, and passed with a 62% or a "C", and that should have been enough right? Nope. Once I returned to my university to show to my academic advisor, they later informed me that I needed to score a 70% in math. This came to me as another door slammed in my face. My university had moved the goalpost over, especially as they demand that I take pre-calculus yet again! I find this no only absurd, but that it begs the question, why the heck does a humanities student need to take a math course that's designated for the STEM fields? Even the placement test solely covers pre-calculus.

This changing of the rules also entails that by raising the standards higher, it prevents humanities students such as myself from completing their degrees and graduating. Not to mention that earlier I was informed that the 60% grade in math was reserved for persons with cognitive disabilities. This in turn makes it difficult for neuro-divergent students to continue attending the university, while also being ableist. Also, without making a clear distinction of which math course is designated for which field or degree, it creates confusion for students and is detrimental to humanities students insofar as it would cause them to drop out, waste their time, and money. This has me pondering is my own institution leans more towards the STEM fields rather than the Humanities.

Favoring the STEM fields and showing a disregard for the Humanities is no different from science worship, which is akin to phallic worship. This is especially in the case of hyper-rationality and scientism, where the former is in favor of reason rather than intuition is the primary source of knowledge, while the latter assumes that only science can give us knowledge. In feminist epistemology, the sciences are seen as masculine, as they favor reason.

When trying to explain this to my academic advisor, they told me the conditions and tried to suggest the same hoops I shoot through. However, I wanted none of it, and threatened to move to back to my previous university. My advisor tried to sweet talk me from taking this suggestion, but I would not relent or buy into the same offerings and solutions that didn't work for me beforehand. Even when I tried to explain the differences between the two math courses, they just brushed it off. Hence, I just walked out angrily while never looking back.

So here I am as neuro-divergent person, embittered, humiliated, and feeling hoodwinked. I had my degree in my grasp, only to have it taken away from me. My advice is for students in the humanities is to make sure you ask which is relevant to their fields.

[cosmoshiden]

Best space operas to watch that aren't Firefly

So while I have made long winded rants about how much I hate Firefly with a whitehot passion to death, one might ask are there space operas that I like? Well,I have quite a few actually. Now just sit back and allow me to make four of my recommendations!

Killjoys (2015-2019)- this series is one of my favorite space operas from the mid-2010s, as it has everything about it that is modernized for the time. It has space gunslingers, queer romance(s), alien invasion, space hippies, artificial intelligence computers with a sense of humor and more! The series is a live-action Cowboy Bebop, about a trio of space bounty hunters, who go on missions concerning loot retrieval, to assassinations, and of course, hunting down bounty heads. However, the series builds up to an epic storyline that entails a showdown with an alien invasion. It's also worth noting that this was an entirely Canadian production.

Dark Matter (2015-2017)-this series is Canada's answer to Firefly (much like Killjoys, it too is an entirely Canadian production). And like Killjoys, Dark Matter is concerned with some of the same themes above, though it never quite made it to its final 2 seasons worth of storylines. Nonetheless, Dark Matter is concerned with a group of space pirates/mercenaries who wake up from suspended animation with amnesia, and are off on a mission to put down a revolt. I would say that this show is philosophical in the concept of personal identity, especially if one who loses their memories is an entirely new person, and whether or not they are to be held accountable. Also, after watching this show, I came up with three rules which I like to coin as the Space Pirate Creed: Rule #1. Kill or be Killed; Rule #2. Get rewarded for your deeds, and Rule #3. Cowards and traitors are to be shot or spaced (thrown out the airlock). Why's this important? It's the rules the characters play by of course!

Starhunter (2000-2004)-now this Canadian space opera predates Firefly by 2 years, and actually lasted for 44 episodes over 2 seasons. While not as well known today, Starhunter is notable since it has many plot-beats that are reminiscent of Firefly. For one, there is an episode about a family trying to outrun a mysterious cadre which involves a child with telepathic powers (sounds like River Tam eh?!). Other similar episodes include an abandoned space outpost, that was left deserted because of an experiment that went awry, and gave a teen girl powers (similar to River once again). Now what makes Starhunter different from Firefly is that, it's set in a semi-realistic environment, in which space travel is limited to our solar system, spaceships are like cars that can travel between planets in a matter of days, and that it's mainly about space bounty hunters like Killjoys. Although, the plot is more about a group of space bounty hunters who are used as unwitting pawns for a shady corporate entity that seeks bounty heads who have telepathic powers.

Lexx (1996-2002)- A parody of Star Trek, Blake's 7, Space: 1999, and Space Patrol, Lexx is a Canadian space opera about a group of fugitives who hijack a dragonfly-shaped, semi-organic warship from a space dictator with the ability to reincarnate himself. The show ran for 4 seasons, and started off for the first 2 seasons in standard space opera fare with traveling to distant planets and cultures, and in the end the characters use the titular Lexx to blow-up the planet. Although, the last two seasons are a mixed bag. Most of its humor though, is derived from toilet humor and sexuality. However I do have to concede that some of its humor and situation are horribly dated which are transphobic and homophobic by today's standards as a warning. One of the highlights of the series would be how in season 2 when the show parodied slasher films! It's humor is not for everyone, though I do recommend watching it for how it does make fun of the space operas listed above!

And that's it for now!

[cosmoshiden]

Anthropology in sci-fi: Star Trek vs Valerian and Laureline

anQuite recently I watched a film adaptation of the classic French space opera comic Valerian and Laureline. The film, Valerian and the City of a thousand Planets, depicts a group of indigenous aliens wielding high tech weapons to pull off the kidnapping of a commanding officer of the United Federation. As such it is up to the space mercenaries Valerian and Laureline to rescue the general. Now I will not go into a review of the film, but rather it’s depiction of Indigenous populations that sets it apart from productions such as the tv series Star Trek and the film Avatar.

For starters, let us discuss how Star Trek fares. Star Trek’s approach is based on the infamous ��Prime Directive” in which starfleet will not intervene on a so-called “pre-warp” civilization’s development. This entails that they will not give an indigenous population on a planetary body technology that entails the baggage of imperialism as it has been done to people in the Americas, Australia, and other parts of the world. However, a pre-warp civilization is not to be permitted into the Federation. Why is that? Apparently, starfleet only permits membership if they are “warp capable” or possessing the technology of warp drives. This creates a problem in that it appears that the Federation is rather elitist and prejudiced towards civilizations that do not possess warp drives. It also does not help that the Federation holds a social evolutionist view of civilizations, especially as they have concepts such as the “Richter Scale of Culture” to distinguish pre-warp and warp capable civilizations, which was first introduced in the 1967 Original Series episode Errand of Mercy. This is a very outdated concept even at the time it was introduced, as founding North American cultural anthropologist Franz Boas developed the concept of cultural relativism circa 1887-1920, and was recognized in 1940. So, with that, Star Trek’s view on Indigenous populations assumes that they cannot understand technologies such as warp drives. 

Moving onto the 2009 film Avatar, the movie presents the cat-like Na’vi as having contact with humans and learned their language. Yet, the Na’vi are never presented learning how to use human technology or even trading cultural artifacts, such clothing or art. This is a stark contrast to how Indigenous populations such as the Inuit on Baffin Island learned to use rifles, snow mobiles, and Western maps to enhance their already efficient methods of transportation with sleds, harpoons, and navigation of the Island. In other words, we never see the Na’vi using human weapons against them, or adopting human customs other than English. Instead, at the film’s climax, they are shown using bows and arrows and spears. This depiction comes off as racist and stereotypical and is ahistorical as natives in the real world used rifles to fight colonizers such as the Lakota adopting horses and guns. 

Now looking into Valerian and the City of a thousand Planets, the natives of whom are called the Pearls, adapt human technologies in order to begin their adventure. In the film, after their home planet is destroyed, the Pearls adapt the use of starships from the burned out hull of a cargo ship, and from a computer program that was translated in their language. It is from here that they learned to speak dozens of languages, computer science, physics, botiny, chartology, astronomy, mathematics, and so forth. In my view, the Pearls are nonstereotypical as they are shown to not only pick up and comprehend the world outside their comfort zone, but that they can be innovative, inventive and creative. This depiction avoids the stereotype of natives using hand-to-hand combat and short-ranged weapons and that they are not shown to be child-like. Though, having only recently viewed the film, it remains to be seen if they managed to remove the white savior trope presented in Star Trek and Avatar. One other note, it’s implied in the film that indigenous populations are welcomed in Valerian’s and Lauraline’s version of the Federation, unlike in Star Trek.

In the future, I believe that Star Trek’s and Avatar’s creators should take a few notes from Valerian and Lauraline about depicting natives. It’s been over 60 years since Star Trek debuted, and they still depict Indigenous populations in a stereotypical manner to this day. Avatar does not do any better either. Hence, it’s time to drop the ethnocentricism and social evolutionism. 

[cosmoshiden]

On building a NASA Cooperative

Looking at how NASA was built on the technology of Nazi scientist Werner von Braun, it’s come to my attention that I feel NASA should be dismantled. Now this doesn’t mean abolishing it completely. Rather, I would prefer to see NASA reconstituted as a Libertarian Communist cooperative. In my mind, what this looks like is that a cooperative NASA would be used to serve the masses in terms of astronomy, developing medicines in space stations such as the International Space Station and monitoring weather patterns.

Another aspect of NASA that would have to go is technology that was used by Nazi technology in World War II. It is hereby that I argue a cooperative NASA should not have any hallmarks of von Braun’s legacy. This is especially as there is blood stained on the technology in question (i.e. rocketships). So what should move in and replace the Nazi technology? That I shall answer below.

I believe that Soviet technology of rocketry should replace the Nazified ones. Using Soviet rocketships and satellites would be more or less intimidating and removes the negative connotations of Nazi influence over a reconstituted NASA. Ergo, no more racist, colonialistic baggage.

Now another question arises as to how this is to come about? This point I don’t really have much in the form of an answer. All that comes to my mind at the moment is to have scientists, technicians, and engineers who are sympathetic to Libertarian Communism in order to realize this. In other words, they would have to be ready and willing to takeover NASA and begin a revolt or rumble. However, that would be mostly difficult given how NASA is technically a military unit, and many have Robert Heinlein’s centre-right influence.

Other problems that may arise is if this is another form of colonialism since the NASA cooperative is built on stolen land, and raises the question if we are simply continuing colonialism through technology? I haven’t the slightest answer for this objection. As such, I leave this one open for others to come up with their own solutions to this problem. 

Anyhow, I just wanted to get this out there. So, to anyone reading this, you on board with this idea or are there some other problems to consider? Peace.

[cosmoshiden]

On nurses unions

This is not going to be my usual rant about Firefly or my Gundam commentaries. At this moment, I will discuss my views on a specific type of labor union. Particularly, a nurse’s union. But first let us establish what a labor union is. The idea behind labor unions are that they are organizations formed by workers and negotiated by management to arrange for workers’ rights and benefits (for example, safe working environments, paid vacation time, equal pay, fair hours, severance pay, the right to not be fired on a whim, etc.). Now while the idea may be sound, the way this is carried out is by general strikes, pickets, sit-downs, and plea bargaining with management, which is nice and all. However, a problem arises in that in the event that a workplace changes management, the negociated contract needs to be renewed with the new boss in change. This is especially in a nurses’ union, where if management is changed, then the nurses would have to negotiate and plea bargain for a contract renewal. The question to be asked here is, should plea bargaining, demonstration tactics and negotiation through a labor union be the defacto method for nurses to obtain their rights? That I will attempt to answer below.

One of the ways that unions operate is by bureaucracy which stands to represent and lead workers in arranging a contract for their rights with management. This is especially when it comes to nurses unions, such as one in British Columbia, Canada. In fact, on their homepage, it is mentioned that they encourage “leadership” under the value of Excellence and equal rights through “representation” under the category of Democracy. What is meant by this? This entails that representatives are to be elected by the nurses to represent their demands from management. Yet this way of communication between management and nurses is limiting, which I shall explain next.

A problem arises insofar as by having representatives speak on the nurses behalf, this takes away their voices. In other words, the nurses can’t speak for themselves and thus remain passive and reliant on an authority within their union. By having representatives do their talking, this makes a nurses’ union hierarchical and no different from the very bureaucratic processes that it is supposed to oppose. As such, this leads into representatives resembling management. Now we shall go into the problem of a nurses’ union under a manager.       

One of the drawbacks for a nurses’ union or any other labor union is that, it is under the thumb of a boss or management-class. Under the management-class, the union is subject to the whims of the bosses, and can decide to remove benefits or infringe on rights. Also, as stated above this is made worse when new management moves in and disregards the contract established by the previous boss. Thus, boss/management classes are feudal tyrants in the workplace. So, what is the alternative? 

Rather than a union, nurses should push for a nurses’ co-operative. A co-operative is best described as a workplace and business without a manager, and is self-managed by the workers. Or to simply put it as the Canadian Worker Cooperative Federation states, the workers own and control a business. In this case, should nurses in British Columbia or all of Canada push for this, they would have control over their work environment and receive benefits and equal rights, without the need of representatives and managers to plea bargain, or rather beg for their rights and benefits. Now how could this be achieved?

One way is by seizing control of a hospital or healthcare center that is about to be closed down, via sit-in, lock-up, picket, demonstration, and mutual support to open a healthcare cooperative. Another is by locking up a hospital and healthcare clinic and bringing arms such as clubs, bats, chains, knives, guns, molotov, and crowbars. The latter case is in the event that police and riot squads show up to put down a protest. The former case is a good starting point, but doesn’t resolve the issue for nurses. As such, be prepare to rumble with the man!

So, does this mean that nurses should have to rely on third-party representatives? NO!

Should nurses simply beg for their rights and benefits? NO!

Is management always willing to negotiate while nurses stand on their knees? NO!

Must nurses remain passive and hope that anyone in authority will hear their cries? The answer is still NO!

Direct action be it through an ecology of change of a combined strategy and tactics of active non-violence and armed resistance is the best way to win the day. Likewise, Robert Franklin Williams believed that there must be “flexibility in the freedom movement”, and I believe a diverse sense of direct action is in order to achieving a co-op for nurses. 

One last thing, All Bosses Are Bastards.

[cosmoshiden]

What are the Earth Federation’s acts of misconduct in Gundam 0079?

In the opening scene of each episode of the anime and each instalment of the film trilogy Mobile Suit Gundam, the audience is shown the horrific, genocidal, and destructive massacre of a major city and people from a space colony. This action was done deliberately by the antagonist, fascist nation, the Principality of Zeon. While the Principality, headed by the Zabi family is based on the fascist governments of Italy and Nazi Germany, and some their genocidal actions based on Imperial Japan’s own terrorist acts in Manchuria, and many of their crimes against humanity and other war crimes are easy to point out, it’s not always the case when it comes to the Federation in my opinion. So what are the Federation’s own crimes against humanity and war crimes? That we shall see below and conclude how every morally gray UC Gundam is.

To begin with, what could be considered a real world war crime the Federation commits is the fact that Amuro Ray, Hiyato Kobayashi, Kai Shiden, Sayla Mass, and Fraw Bow are recruited as child soldiers to fight for the Federation. Now according to the Geneva Convention and the International Criminal Court, recruitment of child soldiers is indeed a war crime. This is but one war crime committed by the Federation. Another war crime committed by the Federation in concert with child soldiers is how Amuro Ray goes through physical and mental abuse by his commanding officer, Bright Noa, captain of the White Base. For instance, Bright Noa resorts to hitting the 15-year-old Amuro in the face in episode 12 when he refuses to fight, after going through shell shock, and the captain disregards his mental health as a result. Bright. Not to mention that, Bright also has Amuro and company are conditioned to hate the Zeon when watching dictator and fleet admiral Girhen Zabi’s broadcasted speech, and to serve the Federation’s “cause” to defend “democracy and individual rights”. We see later that Amuro considers the Zeons to be evil space invaders in episodes 13, 14 and 15 as per his conditioning by Bright. Ergo, Amuro is taught to see all Zeon as evil and thus is gas-lighted to seeing them as dehumanized beings. 

Aside from being condited by Bright, Amuro and company have also been recruited unwillingly as human guinea pigs. What is meant by that is how Amuro and co. are made to test experimental weapons in battle. This also comes at the cost of the child soldiers in the Federation’s prototype mobile weapons, to suffer further from shell shock. Additionally, the kids are also being used as part of the Federation high command, especially General Revil, to be part of a eugenics program to breed newtype troops. Revil in specific, wants to breed a new race of super soldiers in order to help the Federation not only win the war, but to enforce its will over the colonies and defend the neoliberal order.

In addition, other war crimes and crimes against humanity are the use of human shields. This is not stated in the tv series and film trilogy, however, the Federation does have a habit of placing and intermingling military personnel and installations in civilian areas. To give an example, in the first episode of the tv series, the Federation has a base and testing ground for their prototype mobile weapons, which makes it a target for Zeon attack, and an endangerment of civilians. Not only that, but there was also a military installation in Belfest in the tv series, which was also in a civilian area. This can be assumed that the Federation is using civilian areas as human shields as the Federation assumes that their foes won’t attack an area full of non-combatants in them. However, it seems that they did not learn this lesson, especially as earlier in the war, they did the same thing. It can also be inferred that the Federation thought that the colonies of Sides 1, 2 and 4 would not be attacked by Zeon; yet this proved to be disastrous and entailed the deaths of 4 billion people. As such, it puts blood on the Federation’s hands. Plus, another instance of human shielding is when the refugees of Side 7 were left on board White Base. This happens in episode 4 of the tv series when the White Base arrives at Luna II, but are refused to leave the ship and settle on Luna II by order of the paranoid Admiral Watkins. 

In another case, we see a pair of war crimes committed by Federal troops when Amuro visits his hometown. One is a squad of drunken federal soldiers in his mother’s home. In this instance, we see the Federal soldiers disregarding his personal property and possessions. Here it can be inferred that the Federation during the war has resorted to destruction, looting, and pilagging of civilian property, which is yet another war crime on their part. Then when Amuro goes to visit an apple vendor who is an old family friend, we see Federal troops harassing her over not paying the vendor for food. This shows the elitism and disregard for the poor on the part of the Federation. Not to mention the human rights abuse of economic harm in not allowing a poor vendor to have basic income.  

One final war crime and crime against humanity that the Federation committed we shall explore is unlawful imprisonment and forced deportation. When attempting to leave the civilian population behind on Luna II, Admiral Watkins places the crew of the White Base and its civilian refugees under arrest, imprisonment, and accusses them of being spies. This is done on a pretense of suspicion, but without due process or evidence. Hence, Watkins causes willful harm to the civilians aboard White Base, unlawful arrest, detention without trial, disregard for human rights, willful harm to political groups (refugees notwithstanding), extrajugdicial punishment, and dehumanizes them through his suspions. 

As for the act of forced deportation, this is an act committed by the Earth Federation before the One Year War. When it came to the planet’s environmental catastophy, the Federation began their massive colonization program by forcibly evicting, displacing, and relocating 7 billion people in the O’Neill space islands, under the guise of relieving the earth of its “excess population”. This is for the most part a crime against humanity, as the civilian populace had no say or consent to being coerced into deportation. Other crimes to consider is how this also means that the Federation used political repression in deporting hundreds of millions of people into space and how it also leads into curtailment of human rights, such as crushing demonstrations and assembly rights.This also entails that the Federation used climate change as an excuse for land grabs, in order to satisfy their capitalistic interests. 

Overall, I just wanted to put this out as there isn’t a whole lot of talk on some of the Earth Federations’ own war crimes during the OYW. It’s pretty common to hear of their usual war crimes, human rights abuses, and crimes against humanity. Normally, common responses to abuses by the Federation are that it’s bascially the military and not the civil government of the Federation. My response to that is, the military is the government of the Federation. Other responses in defense of the Federation is one is reading too much into the lines. Although, there is no such thing and that is more like what we call interpretation. With all that, I hope this sheds some light as to how in Gundam UC, the Earth Federation is a totalitarian police state. 

[cosmoshiden]

Something that I noticed on Firefly but no one appears to have...

Firefly, the cult classic space western created by Joss Whedon is one of the worst examples of neoconfederate propaganda ever produced since the film Gods and Generals. Until 2007, commentary on the series has ranged from charges of racism, sexism, heterosexism, cultural appropriation of Indian, Arabic, and Chinese cultures, promoting the infamous lost cause myth, and use of stereotypes in its 9 main characters and antagonists. Some examples being how Shepard Book is the Uncle Tom of the crew, Zoe Washburn as the Sapphire and a slave, Saffron as the Femme Fatale, Nischa as the blood-thirsty Russian, the Tams portrayed by white people instead of Asian people cast in the roles, the Reavers being stand-ins Native Americans in old westerns, and the black bounty hunter harboring the worst cliches of a dangerous, freed black man. However, there are some aspects that I personally have yet to see covered in terms of characters being racial and gendered stereotypes. Hence, I will attempt to cover what has yet to be said on the matter.

First off, Zoe Washburn represents a tenant of the Lost Cause myth. That would be the myth of the black confederate soldier. This is the claim made by Neoconfederates that the Confederate army had black soldiers fighting for deep south during the American Civil War. Of course, as stated beforehand, it is not true that there were black soldiers fighting for the Confederacy. While there were black teamsters, chefs, laundry handlers, boot polishers, and supply curriers, but they were slaves. In other words, Zoe is a fabrication of a black confederate soldier through science fiction. This is a contribution to the lost cause as it serves to distort even further that the Civil War wasn’t about slavery as what all narratives of advocates of the neoconfederates serve.

Secondly, another stereotype that Firefly poses is in the character of Kaylee Fry. Kaylee Fry played by actress Jewel Statie is supposed to be a “sexually liberated” tomboy, with a feminine side to her, upon first glance in episodes such as the pilot Serenity, Out of Gas, Jaynestown, and Shindi.  However, due to Jewel Satite’s Iroquois heritage, she comes off more as a Pocahontas stereotype. That is, we see her flirting with and having relations with white males, preferring white males, seeing white males as superior to men of her race, and thus is freely available for white men. All the while, she is thus desired by white men in return, despite being viewed as inferior, (especially by the misogynistic Mal Reynolds who at one point would prefer to use aggravated assault and locking her in the cargo hold in a not-so-appropriate joke in the pilot).

Thirdly, another racial stereotype in Firefly is the portrayal of Inara Serra. It comes to my attention that, at times Inara is the Spicy Latinx. An example of this is in the episode Trash. In the conclusion of the episode, Inara treats the episode’s antagonist, the femme fatale Saffron, in a threatening and aggressive manner, such as pointing the episode’s McGuffin, a stolen antique laser gun at her. Not to mention that she then proceeds to lock Saffron up in a garbage container, while Saffron begs not to have the lid of the container closed.    

Fourthly and lastly, there’s the character of River Tam, who harbors several sexist stereotypes. River is essentially the damsel-in-destress for most of the series, the born-sexy-yesterday stereotype, and the manic-pixie-dream-girl cliché. Some examples the latter two we can see clearly is in the episode War Stories, where we see River using her undefined powers to take out several goons without looking. While her behaving as if she were born-sexy-yesterday stereotype is when she is interacting with Shepard Book in Jaynestown and freaks out over his undone hair like a scared child.  

Overall, this I hope sheds some light on areas of Firefly that have been bothering me for some time. As I end this, I sure as heck never want to go back to revisit Firefly again. Firefly just plain sucks arse.  

[cosmoshiden]

Firefly, does it need a reboot?

It’s been nearly 20 years since Firefly was taken off the air. There have been talks of a reboot floating around for years. Yet does this series need a reboot? Well, my stance on this is that, yes Firefly really needs a reboot. There are some things that I find infuriating about Friefly that need be changed and removed. First, get rid of the US civil war allegory; cause honestly, that is KKK propaganda and is an erasing of slavery from history via sci-fi; instead, replace the backstory with a Canadian history allegory for the violent rivalry between the Northwest Company and the Hudson's Bay Company. This could be done with the Blue Sun corp. once being two companies, now forced into one by the gov't much like the Northwest and Hudson's Bay companies were merged into one. This way Mal and co. have a less murky backstory since they took part in this corporate war. Second, why not cut the cast down to 5 to start the show, and gradually introduce the remaning 4 slowly. Third, I'd like to see some Asians cast in the roles this time around, while having more LGBTQ2IA+ characters. Hell, why not combine characters like Zoe + Jayne, Wash + River, Kaylee + Innara, Book + Simon, while making River/Wash Asian and nonbinary, Book/Simon Black and Transwoman, Kaylee/Innara Hispanic and Indigenous American, and intersex, and Zoe/Jayne is pan sexual and black. As for Mal, make him a middle-aged, out of touch type who thinks he owns the ship, and in a relationship with Simon/Book, with the latter three, Zoe/Jayne, River/Wash, and Kaylee/Innara, are in a polygamous relationship. Fifth, how about there being no captain of the ship, and anytime Mal tries to give an order, he gets lynched, (which I think should be the running gag). Sixth, I would keep the premise of pirating, but there being an actual arch-enemy like the operative with hired help, but making the enemy the Blue sun corp. instead of the Alliance. Seventh, I would prefer the telepathic powers be given by a device that the crew receives from a job that goes awry, and one of the 5 gets the powers, and the operative is sent after them. Anyhow, I don't expect this to be given a warm welcome from anyone who comes across this post (mainly from Firefly fans, be they neoconfedie or not), but then again, this had to be said. One other thing, can we please get rid of the Reavers; we can do without anymore Native American stereotypes; especially taking Josh Whedon out of the picture. I suggest that the reavers be made into space pirates who are made up of poor people who joined because of lack of opportunity or job loss after the corporate war. Seventh, how this can be achieved is by hiring writers of color and LGBTQ21A+ persons and women, for arranging the show’s plots, narrative, characters and dialogue. This entails removing Josh Whedon from the picture and thus having a director of color instead. In hindsight, it just makes for more diversity in the casting, crew, writer’s room and directing. Anyhow, that's my two cents.

[cosmoshiden]

Gundam as anti-classism

Mobile Suit Gundam was written in 1979 as an anti-war piece and a postmodern, deconstruction of the super robot genre which was popular in Japan at the time. Re-watching Mobile Suit Gundam, I’ve come to see it as anti-classism in the last year. Now what is classism? Classism is a bigotry toward another person due to class differences, especially when the rich assume that they are superior to the poor. Now how does Gundam map out classicism?

To begin with, the Earth Federation, a global governing body which rules over the Earth and its orbital colonies, treats its own citizens as beneath them. We see this in episode 13. Particularly, in the episode, a pair of federal soldiers take some apples from a vendor without paying for it. The soldiers then proceed to harass the vendor by throwing money on the ground and make the apple vendor pick it up for the soldiers’ amusement. This incident in the episode means to provide evidence for the Federation’s classist oppression and the reason for why the rebel colonies of the Principality of Zeon strike back at the Federation. 

Now an objection to this is that, this is not the Federation civil government that is oppressive, it’s the military. That the military is oppressing its own citizens which whom they have sworn to protect and serve. Not to mention that one would argue that a few bad apples in the military doesn’t mean that the Federal military as a whole is not to be entirely blamed; nor the civil government as they are oblivious to the oppression of their own civilians. 

A rebuttal to this is that, an objection such as the one above, ignores how members of the military are essentially the government. As such, the politicians and soldiers are the same class, the ruling classes of the Federation. Further, not only are the Federal politicians aware of the oppression of the poor, they allow and encourage such acts in order to keep the poor in line. Nevertheless, the inhabitants of the planet are often referred to in the series as “earth-born elite” which implies that those living on the planet are wealthy, while the poor have been made to live in space.

Conclusively, the 1979 series tackles classism rather well. It demonstrates how oppression in terms of wealth inequality can lead to warfare and unrest. Especially for a show about giant robots in a realistic fashion, there is much more to it than just an anti-war message; it tackles the roots of armed conflict. Anti-classism is just one of them that’s well hidden. 

[cosmoshiden]

The Shaded Walls

The walls are being

painted black and brown.

People in blue overalls

Coat the walls with

Its first layer of paint.

  The walls are being

Painted black and brown.

People in blue overalls

Coat the walls with

Its second layer of paint.

  The walls are being

painted black and brown.

People in blue overalls

Coat the walls with

Its third layer of paint.

  The walls are painted

With a black and brown

Shade in all corners,

Except for the door

With its rows of polls.

Looked over by the

People in blue overalls.

[cosmoshiden]

Why not stick it to the man?

Cosmos, why not stick it to the man? After you brought down cloud nine, after you made way for the STEM to take root, after you said you are not concerned with what others think of the high father, you stick with the man?

Cosmos, you decide to stick with the man, to mock the non-lab rats, to mock the people who try to end hypocrisy? You insult those who only try to help you to understand that to know is not all in the senses? Instead you stick with the man?

Cosmos, you refuse to stand up for the kids who die? Who struggle against the old people who eat gold and blood? To the kids who bleed iron blood on the streets to try to fight the man? Instead you stick with the man?

Cosmos, you refuse to take down the man, so you can have privilege? You refuse to do good, because you are too scared? Or maybe so you can go and be bad? So you can go an chase skirt by force? Instead you stick with the man?  

Cosmos, you stick with the man? I guess cloud nine fell on your head and turned it to smack? Are you out of whack? Why do you stick with man Cosmos? 

[cosmoshiden]

The Force as a god.

Obi-Wan: “Remember, a Jedi can feel the Force flowing through him.”

Luke: “You mean it controls your actions?”

Obi-Wan: “Partially, but it also obeys your commands.”

When reading into the lines from Episode IV, it’s implied that the Force, the all-compassing energy field that surrounds and penetrates as well as “binds the galaxy together”, it’s almost as if Obi-wan implies that the Force is a deity unto itself. Now what sort of deity? I propose that it is akin to a pantheistic god as in certain strands of Buddhism, Hinduism, Confucianism, Stoicism, and Calvinism for example, in which God is the Universe and determines all events. Though, the line where Obi-Wan acknowledges this, he later indicates that the Force has some leeway into allowing individuals to have control over their thoughts. This would put the Force into a compatiblistic position, where divine intervention meets freedom of the will; yet some problems do arise.

If the Force is supposedly a pantheistic God, and that it is to be earned by “hard work” rather than the “quick and easy” way as the Sith do, that would place the Force into an analogue of the Christian God and Hesiod’s Zeus, in that the Force has a divine plan to cleanse evil. But then why does the Force allow for powers such as Dark Side energy bolts to be used by the Sith? And why allow the Sith to continue to do such horrible things to people in the galaxy?

It probably would be best if the Force were more akin to a Lovecraftian God in which it plays no role in the world. Not to mention having an indifference toward all actors of its power. Ergo, it has more or less of a neutral stance in the struggle between Jedi and Sith.

[cosmoshiden]

Why I won’t watch the ova or read the manga version of Gundam: The Origin

This one I’ve been waiting to rant on for awhile. Gundam: The Origin is a retelling of the original series I refuse to give attention to in either anime or manga mediums. My reasons are the amount of conflicting changes to the back-story that was established by the novel trilogy. Some changes include Zeon Deikun being turned into a war-monger, the Zabis letting Revil escape to invade the earth, the invasion of Jaburo taking place earlier in the one year war, Char having a look-a-like he replaced, etc. Also I’m not too big on retelling the story of Amuro as a civilian.

The changes listed above I feel have some conflicts with the motivations of the characters, take away from the anti-war message and a misunderstanding of the commentary of ideology. First, making Zeon Deikun a war-monger defeats the purpose of his role as the mouthpiece of the series’ anti-war message, why the Zabis want to murder and betray him, and the commentary on how one’s philosophy can be weaponized for personal and rhetorical gain. Second, having the Zabis let General Revil escape and anticipating his escape, and using it as a tool to push for invading earth is just too perfect, and makes them out to be supervillains in their reasoning; it made more sense that they did not anticipate his escape, because they were hoping to end the war quickly, with Revil foiling the plan. Third, if the Zeons invade Jaburo early, then how could they recover their losses? When the Zeons attacked Jaburo late in the war, they were only able to land 30 Mobile Suits out of 100, with the majority of the Suits destroyed in mid-air; not to mention that the invasion cost half of Zeon’s Earth Attack Force. Plus the reasons for Zeon not invading Jaburo from the get-go was that they needed to bide their time to improve mobile suits to adapt to earth’s environments, such as the sea, desert, the tropics and urban areas to name a few. Lastly, by making Char murder someone who is identical to him just pads out his back-story as to lying about his age to join the Zabi forces so he could enact his revenge, and makes him less sympathetic and more of murderer and villainous.

My gripes with simply retelling the story of Amuro as a civilian commandeering the Gundam is not only trite, but it begs for adapting the novel trilogy. In the books, Amuro is already a soldier with training to pilot the Gundam, and take on Char, due to the learning computer backing him up. Now that’s how I feel that the story could have been retold. Heck, Amuro’s fate could have been done differently then to have recycled from the tv series. Either Char’s troops take him out like in the books or have Amuro die in a draw with a newtype pilot other than Char.

[cosmoshiden]

Explaining the Pseudo-Arachnids of Starship Troopers

The Pseudo-Arachnids of Klendathu

Castes:

Queen: Main function is the reproduction of its members in the novel. However the board wargame of the same presents in expansions scenarios that the Queen takes control of Bug troops should 3 of the brain bugs be destroyed. Resembles a tick, with a large abdomen of an ant or termite queen.

Brain: Its function is to govern the underground cities of the Arachnid civilization. The brain is also implied to be telepathic; it has the ability to see what its troops and workers see and hear, as well as control over the will of its subjects. However, if the brain bug die, then its warriors and workers will die with it.  Also, in the board wargame, the brain comes in two variants; the “Combat Brain” which controls one of the five districts of a bug city, while the “Master Brain” on the other hand, has the ability to control two districts should two of the combat brains be destroyed in certain scenario expansions. The brain bug resembles a tick, with a large head, with metal plating.

Warrior: Primary fighting unit of the arachnid army. Carries light but effective beam weapons that can slice through a Mobile Infantryman’s powered armor “like a hot knife cutting a hard-boiled egg”.  According to the back board wargame’s box, the warrior bug’s beam weapons are built into its arms and legs. Resembles a spider with a pair of red eyes, sheer-like mandibites, with two arms and appears to be covered in metal. Extremely aggressive in combat, yet just as effective in squad-based combat as the Mobile Infantrymen of the Terran Federation, just as they are in hand-to-hand combat. Also, arachnid warriors will continue to fight even if their legs are shot off. Despite their aggressive attitude, the warrior bugs are capable of recognizing when an enemy has surrendered and then take prisoners.

Workers: The labor-pool of the arachnid civilization, responsible for building starships, maintaining the underground cities, and manufacturing construction vehicles and weaponry for the arachnid civilization. Resembles the warrior bugs, yet they are less aggressive, especially as they tend to flee from combat. Bug warriors tend to use the worker bugs for diversion against mobile infantrymen by herding them like cattle to swarm the enemy. Workers are then dispatched as to overwhelm and enemy trooper, to create the illusion of a large arachnid army swarming its opponents while the Warriors prepare to either ambush or snipe their foes.

Engineer: Exclusive to the board wargame; Arachnid engineers are responsible for building the spider-web like cities of the bugs, via a burrowing machine which makes a “frying bacon” noise.  Arachnid engineers like the workers resemble the warriors and are likely to flee from combat as the workers would.

Technology:

Beam weapons: Weapons carried by arachnid warriors. Built-into the warriors’ limbs, they are mainly for melee combat against enemies.

Burrowing machine: Digging device used by arachnid engineers for tunnel construction, repair and expansion. Also used to build prison cells and throne cells for the brains and queens.

Tunnels: The underground catacombs and dwellings of the arachnids, which have a “glossy and smooth” finish to them, thanks to the workers. All communication, production, transportation, life-support, and military functions of the hive are carried out in the tunnels.

Arachnid complex: Exclusive to the board wargame. The underground cities of the hive, broken down into five districts with each run by a combat brain. At the center of the hive complex, the brains and queen sit in seven cells, with the queen in the center.

Demo charges: Exclusive to the board wargame. Demo charges are used by arachnid engineers to seal and open new tunnels for the arachnid hive. Also used as mines to kill Mobile Infantry troops. Comes in several variants: from the standard high explosive to nuclear explosives.

Heavy Beam weapon: Exclusive to the board wargame. Heavy Beam weapons are robotic, four-legged tanks with long-ranged beam weapons that can target multiple enemies. Manufactured, maintained and repaired by the workers. They are controlled remotely by the combat brains via telepathy. One Heavy Beam weapon is built for each district of the hive-complex.

Spaceship: Warship which acts both as a planetary support vehicle for warrior bugs by carpet bombing the surface for enemies. Also for transporting prisoners to Klendathu. Armed with scattering missiles.  

Scatter missiles: Exclusive to the board wargame. Large missiles that separate into smaller missiles to carpet bomb a planet of enemies.      

Society:

Arachnid society is mainly hierarchical, militant, technological and industrial. Despite the division of labor in bug society, the arachnids function as one entity that works together to achieve their ends and survive as a civilization. Also, when it comes to taking prisoners in war-time, the arachnids study the prisoners to get an understanding of their opponents. Though it is unknown if they simply use X-rays and 3-D modeling as opposed to dissecting live specimens to learn more about their foes. Hopefully it should be the latter as they are willing to accept and recognize an enemy combatants’ surrender. The Arachnids appear to hold a high regard for their home planet Klendathu, since they transport all prisoners of war there, as opposed to an allied colony or space station outpost, which they see as expendable as their colonists are. Bug colonists, including brains and queens, are more than willing to give up their lives, home colonies and resources to prevent enemies from taking their home planet, even going as far to kill their own queens to avoid capture. Other significances of the Arachnids is that their bodies appear to be covered in metal in the box and instructions artwork of the board wargame, indicating that they are race of living machines in the form of giant spiders, or that they are a race of bio-mechanical aliens. This is also hinted at in some expansion scenarios as the bugs appear to have the ability to survive in any atmosphere, including that of a gas planet such as Venus. With that, this indicates that the bugs’ ability to adapt to different atmospheres allows them to easily colonize other worlds and spread across the Milky Way.

 Economy:

The bug economy is technologically industrial and centrally planned. The brain caste is mainly the ones to plan out the economy and city planning. While there is no mention of currency, it can be presumed that the arachnids rely on a resource-based economy to trade with other interplanetary civilizations, especially when in chapter 2 of the novel, it is mentioned that there are other alien civilizations that the Terran Federation has made contact with, and trades among them; therefore the Arachnids trade with the same planetary nations as the Federation, and is possibly competing with them for it. Along with their ability to adapt to all sorts of environments, this gives the Arachnids better access to resources, such as minerals and gasses to manufacture fuels, spaceships and developing other devices to expand their industrial and technological base in the Milky Way.  

 Homeworld:

While the terrain of Klendathu is never described in any detail in the novel, the board wargame fills in the missing details. Klendathu’s terrain is mostly a large savanna, with some rugged terrain. The important structures being subterranean, with a capital city somewhere on the planet.

[cosmoshiden]

Commentary on Anita’s review of War for the Planet of the Apes.

For this blogpost, I’m going to take a stab at a commentary on Anita Sarkeesian’s review of War for the Planet of the Apes. And oh boy, this is going to be hard to swallow. Now for disclaimer, is you have not seen the film, spoilers are no further than below. You have been warned!

“Let’s start with the two male figures who head up the film’s two warring factions, neither of whom have any real character development beyond the age-old male motivation of personal loss: Caesar (Andy Serkis), leader of the apes who, at the film’s beginning, hopes for a peaceful end to the violent persecution of apes by the humans, and Colonel McCullough (Woody Harrelson), the living embodiment of hypermasculine fervor and rage leading a group of surviving humans in efforts to crush the apes once and for all. Caesar’s struggle for peace turns into a quest for vengeance after McCullough murders his wife and son in the film’s first act. Thus, one of the film’s two female ape characters is promptly dispatched to fuel the story arc of the male hero. (Both of them wear beads in their hair because how else are we gonna know they’re female without some good old-fashioned gendered signifiers, right?!) The other female ape, Lake, serves little purpose in the story but to be designated the caretaker of Caesar’s surviving son. War, it seems, is man’s work, no matter your species.”

Watch the previous two movies to see Caesar’s development. To understand the circumstances of the plot and setting to War of the Planet of the Apes, you need to see the previous films as well. While I will concede the point of the female characters, I have to disagree that the protagonist and antagonist were solely motivated by the deaths of their loved ones; it was the fact that for the main character, he has been through hardship from the previous movies due to the loss of his people and the harm brought on by human beings before the apocalypse. The antagonist is hardened by the loss of his entire race and the possibility of humans becoming cattle like in the original novel and film Planet of the Apes.

“Meanwhile, what’s McCullough’s motivation for seeking an end to the apes? He, too, has lost a child. Because of course he has. See? He and Caesar are basically two sides of the same really tropey coin! The circumstances of McCullough’s particular loss are a bit different, revealing just how hateful and misguided his vision is: he’s a die-hard human supremacist, and won’t hesitate to slaughter his fellow humans under any circumstances if he believes they somehow compromise that inherent “superiority.” The presence of qualities like love and compassion are meaningless in his evaluation of whether any individual, human or otherwise, deserves to live, when they should be paramount.”

I’m sounding like a broken record here, but the first film establishes that a virus which was meant to cure Alzhimer’s disease, in fact killed most of the human race and is degenerating them to a race of speechless, brutish creatures like in the Serling movie and Boulle novel of the same name. And the concept of favoring one’s own species over another’s is called speciesism as populariezed by Peter Singer and the late Tom Regan. It’s not just race, but animal devaluation here.

 “The colonel’s hatred for the apes is as contagious as the virus he fears will end humanity’s rule over the Earth; at one point, he riles up his soldiers into a frothing mass of blind nationalism and hatred of the apes just by standing on a platform above them and shaving his head while blasting the national anthem from tinny speakers. (Again, this is not a subtle film.) Moments later, he has the gates opened to a pen where imprisoned apes are held so that his soldiers can vent their hatred with brutal physical violence. For McCullough and his soldiers, making America great again means subjugating the apes entirely, and eradicating those who won’t bow to human rule.

 Clearly the film wants to pretend that it is siding with the oppressed, the apes who so clearly represent any group that the dominant culture fears, exploits and oppresses. However, given the long, disgusting history of racial slurs and racist imagery that liken black people to apes, the more explicit the film makes its use of the apes as a stand-in for an oppressed group, the more uncomfortable things get. By casting the apes in the role of the oppressed against human enemies led by a white leader who, with his showy, head-shaving shtick, is blatantly intended to suggest neo-Nazism, and whose cruelty to the apes recalls the Southern slave master of Civil War films, War charges full-force into reinforcing this particular, deeply racist notion of the otherness and inferiority of black people. As Audre Lorde so wisely put it, “the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house,” and you cannot use imagery so steeped in racism to criticize and challenge racism. War spends so long dwelling on imagery of apes being beaten and abused that it crosses over into the realm of the white power fantasy.”

Anita, I think you are looking at this from a very narrow applied ethical position. It isn’t just cultural and racial relations you should look at the Planet of the Apes series, but from an environmental and animal ethical stance on how animals are treated by human beings, in the institution of science, agriculture, captivity and domestication and how we deny them the right to be able to flourish or enjoy the good life as we know it. Seriously, there’s a lot more going on here than just the evils of racism; the film is dealing with speciesism and meant to show how we humans are no different from the animals in terms of emotion.

“It’s also frustrating that, like other mainstream blockbusters that on the surface purport to be critical of violence, War is incapable of imagining an alternative, or presenting us with a vision of a way out. Time and again throughout the film, violence begets violence. The death of Caesar’s family sets him on a path toward revenge. A man the apes encounter loses his life because his fear and hatred of them leads him to respond to their presence by attempting to kill them. And on and on.”

At this point I would agree, but there was far more than just avenging his family at stake. Caesar was pushed over the edge, throughout the film series, and this was the tipping point that leads him to finally settle the score. What’s worse is that he finally acknowledges that he is becoming like Koba, the antagonist of the second film in this series, toward hating all humans.

 “The film seems to shake its head regretfully at this state of affairs, but still builds up to a climax in which rocket launchers are fired and helicopters explode in spectacular fashion for our enjoyment. The only hope of the cycle ending, it seems to say, is if one side is all but completely wiped out, and though the film repeatedly acknowledges the ways in which racism, nationalism, and a certain strain of violent, virulent masculinity are so often linked, it offers no hope of escape from this particular gender knot, which lends these specific toxic masculinities, damaging as they are, the appearance of being natural and inevitable. What would be truly radical and wonderful would be to someday see a blockbuster that asserts that understanding, compassion, and cooperation can overcome, and that we can happily share the world with those who are different from us, though not so different as we may have once thought.”

I would suggest to Anita to take some time to read up on animal ethics from the perspectives of Peter Singer, Tom Regan, Martha Nussbaum, Rosalind Hursthouse, Christine Korsgard, David Fraser, Mariam Stamp Dawkins and Alister Norcross to get an understanding of the field.  Also, I recommend reading the original novel for commentary on how we treat animals. There’s much more nuance going on here than just cultural discrimination and racism here. Now I’m not saying Anita should like the film, I’m simply wanting to point out that she making some overstatements in her review and that she should take some time to get some background on the matter discussed.

[cosmoshiden]

The Frege-Geach argument

The Frege-Geach argument is a problem started by the late Peter Geach as a response to emotivism, a position in moral epistemology, which claims that morality comes from emotional responses as opposed to reason and is subjective. Geach argues that morality comes from reason, and is objective, according to his moral epistemic position, moral rationalism. How he does this we shall see below:

Now figure 1 demonstrates a standard well-formed formulae as the sentence are able to go through a logical deconstruction. Ergo, the rationalist approach is logically consistent and conforms to natural deductive logic. How this is done is by taking the letter of a character from the words “torture” and “execution” from the two premises and conclusion to form a conditional proof.

Figure 1: Cognivist proposition:

Premise 1: If torture is bad then execution is bad,

Premise 2: Torture is bad,

Conclusion: Therefore execution is bad.

 T -> E, T |- E

1 (1) T-> E   A (CP)

2 (2) T         A (CP)  

1, 2 (3) E    1,2, MPP    

 For figure 2, it demonstrates the inability to form a well-formed formulae. Specifically since premise two does not form a sentence and only an emotional reaction, then there is a gap in the conditional proof. Ergo, the emotivist approach fails to conform to natural deductive logic.

Figure 2: Non-cognivist proposition:

 Premise 1 If torture is bad then execution is bad, Premise 2: Boo! Torture! Conclusion: Therefore execution is bad.

 T ->E, ? |- E

1 (1) T -> E       A (CP)

2 (2) ?                ? (??)

1 (3) E                1, MPP  

[cosmoshiden]

I’m feeling jaded by Anthony.

When not myself, I’m feeling jaded.

I’m feeling jaded. Win one fang-to-fang. Lose one fang-to-fang. Guilty all the way.

I’m feeling jaded. Leave bits on the side. Hope someone will have a look.

I’m feeling jaded. A bandwagon starts up. One person stays behind to watch.

I’m feeling jaded. World goes topsy-turfy. A fly swings by.

I’m feeling jaded. Fan blowing hard. Hot inside a room.

I’m feeling jaded. People forgetting to philosophize. Others don’t have the know-how.

I’m feeling jaded. More rhetoric no philosophizing. A dull discussion.

I’m feeling jaded. Need some humor. Maybe a good surreal image.

I’m feeling jaded. Sipping chocolate milk. No happiness gained.

I’m feeling jaded. Looking at books. Probably should read.

I’m feeling jaded. Allies turning on allies. In-fighting galore.

I’m feeling jaded. Movements online not moving at all. Stuck in their tracks.

I’m feeling jaded. Poking a hornet’s nest. Get ready to be stung.

I’m feeling jaded. Movers moving without direction. No backtracking or looking back at all.

I’m feeling jaded. Bunch of sadists in the midst. Not one gadfly to be seen.

When I feel like myself, I will not be so jaded. But for now, I’m feeling jaded.