Blog Archives
NOVEL SEND UP OF SUPERPOWER CLIMATE THEORIES
Animal Farm 2 is a fiction novel that sequels and updates George Orwell’s Animal Farm. The animals’ commune continues under totalitarian pig rule. The animals are employed to mine coal discovered on the farm for a power station. The animals learn climate science when global warming is associated with pollution and they discover that heat and water emissions from all sources are more culpable than carbon dioxide from their coal.
Guided by logic and science they plan to liberate their farm from pig and human control. The story is a satire that satirizes politics and some theories of climate science.
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DO YOU LIKE ANY THING?
If you answer ‘no’, welcome to the company of non-materialists whose members eschew unnecessary consumption.
Socrates said “we should eat to live, not live to eat”.
Eating is necessary, but Epicureans eat abstemiously. Epicurus drank only water and ate with others.
Minimalists do without cars and clear their homes of clutter. In their view most products lack beauty, utility and real value. Conservation minded non-materialists believe acquiring things uses scarce resources and pollutes the environment.
Kaczinsky is opposed, violently, to industrial technology because it is created as a surrogate by inept technologists with corrupted goals. He is an extremist included here to show the anti-technology end of a spectrum. Train and plane spotters could be at the other.
Stoics are materially frugal because maintaining luxuries takes a lot of time. It is acceptable to enjoy wealth as long as one is careful not to cling to it.
According to stoic Marcus Aurelius:
‘Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking.‘
For Marx and Engels, materialism meant that the material world, perceptible to the senses, has objective reality independent of mind or spirit. According to Hegel the world is to be comprehended not as composed of ready-made things but as a complex of processes, in which things apparently stable go through an uninterrupted change of coming into being and passing away. These socialists thought that things define the social order:
The master is in possession of a surplus of what is physically necessary; the servant lacks it, and indeed in such a way that the surplus and the lack of it are not accidental aspects but the indifference of necessary needs.
Things can have importance beyond objectivity. People have real affection for certain things and take good care of them. They are fond of the tools they use to make other things in crafts and arts.
Robert Persig cared for his motorbike, often taking it to pieces and reassembling it, the way people care for their horses. In his book The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance he demonstrates his Zen philosophy of ‘quality’ living, with care as a compromise between mechanical classicism and romantic spirituality.
My book Time is Gold is a story about a marathon runner who tunes up her body and mind like a complex technology, in the Zen way, with her attention on goals and processes but not outcomes. When the thing is you, self-care causes liking. https:/martinknox.com
Review of novel Time is Gold
Reviewed By Romuald Dzemo for Readers’ Favorite: 5 STARS
Time is Gold by Martin Knox is a brilliantly plotted and well-written novel that centers on a strong and original concept. Maxi Fleet wants just one thing: to run faster than any female has ever run before. She is training to beat the world. Stan has offered a lot of support, supervising and guiding her as she trains to compete in a future marathon. Maxi is determined to push herself beyond the limits and achieve her dream, and there is a strong support system to help her as she pursues this dream. Jack Cram is a PhD student in physics who is working on a revolutionary concept of stretching time. In Maxi, he finds the best opportunity to experiment on his theory, and if he succeeds, it will be a breakthrough for him and the scientific community. Can his idea of “extreme-flow” improve Maxi’s performance and produce the desired results?
This is a wonderful story with elaborately developed themes, including love, ambition, hard work and pain, the drive for success, performance, and friendship. Set in the future, it has strong psychological and scientific underpinnings. The story is told in an absorbing first-person narrative, a style the author uses with mastery and it establishes a real connection between readers and the characters. The story has a premise that got me hooked right off the bat and I loved the bold ideas developed in this novel, especially the concept of “extreme-flow.” This concept stipulates that anyone can perform better by getting into the flow that is extremely engaged. Hence marathon runners and others who embrace endurance with cognitive vigor can bolster their time, bit by bit, crossing finishing lines earlier, inserting additional accomplishment and staying younger. Time is Gold is a classic novel, speculative in style, hugely engaging, and featuring tight and excellent writing. While I loved the plot points, it was the depth with which the characters are written that had me turning the pages.
Information https://martinknox.com
KNOW IF GROWTH IS GOOD OR BAD?
Australia's GDP growth was 0.2 percentage points for the quarter ending September 3rd, 2019, bringing the annual pace of GDP growth to 1.2 per cent. It has been higher in the past and is almost at the zero growth rate favoured for a steady state economy. It is a half of the US rate of 2.3 percent for the 4th quarter in 2019. Australia's production is growing slowly. Are we to suppose there has been improvement in something else? Unlike Bhutan, Australia does not record happiness. If there has been an increase in happiness, or a decrease, we wouldn't know. Media reports of growth and its effects provide only a partial picture.. To appreciate what growth is occurring and how beneficial it is, I will switch my viewpoint to individual developments, the criteria for identifying winners and losers, and what they can expect. This is investigated in my paper DOES GROWTH BENEFIT SOME GROUPS AT AN EQUIVALENT COST TO OTHERS? For developments where this occurs, there are several possible philosophies of compensation. A conclusion is that development proposals should be audited for their attention to: markets; the public good; resource use efficiency; disadvantaged people; and conserving environments. Careful development will ensure that growth, although it may be slow, will be fair. My novel Presumed Dead is a crime fiction story that illustrates a government decision process for a casino development involving a sassy woman city councillor.
growth-benefits-and-costs-160819.docx
