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We Will Delete Your Laws! Resistance Is Fractal!
Check out the manifesto of the UK's new MP3 Party—a party devoted not to the protection and legalization of MP3 file trading, but to "protect and promote the interests and ideas of the mp3-generation worldwide".
1. It is a mathematical fact that very complex systems have certain limits after which any increase in complexity makes this system exponentially less efficient.The manifesto is interesting, and amusing, and even when I do not agree with it, I admire their spunk. According to Aaron Swartz's weblog, where I spotted this, they have actually filed the necessary papers with the electoral commission to become a legitimate political party.2.The above conclusion is true for any system: mathematical, molecular, mechanical, atomic, etc.
It should be universal also to other social systems: economical, political, legal etc.
Therefore those systems neede to be constantly, significantly and forcefully simplified in order to raise their level of functionality and efficiency.
The MP3 PARTY in the UK will make its topmost task to work for and support a significant simplification of the UK economic, political and legal system.
"ELECT US AND WE WILL DELETE ONE REGULATION PER DAY, ONE LAW PER WEEK, ONE SUBSIDY PER MONTH AND ONE TAX PER YEAR."
My first reaction was: If it walks like a libertarian and quacks like a libertarian, it's probably a libertarian. But they make some bizarre departures from libertarianism when you delve into the specifics of the manifesto: IQ tests for Parliamentary representatives, deportation of long-term prisoners to Russia, a royal title for anyone who can get 100 UK citizens to agree to be their subjects—it's libertarianism with a mad-scientist edge.
If this doesn't win the next Turner Prize, I shall be sorely disappointed.
In Which the Shrub administration seems to be saying,
"Pass the crack pipe, please."
The madness never stops when it comes to Operation TIPS. Remember Operation TIPS?
To refresh your memory, it's a much-criticized nationwide network of citizen informants "who, in the daily course of their work, are in a unique position to see potentially unusual or suspicious activity." Yes, apparently we were jealous of China's paranoia-inducing system of citizen informants.
Now, Salon and the ACLU are reporting that calls to the TIPS hotline are being forwarded to—get this—the hotline for the Fox television show America's Most Wanted.
Because, you know, in the current economic climate, trusting private corporations to do the right thing really seems like the best thing to do.
While we're at it, let's just put Hilary Rosen in charge of copyright legislation. Oh, wait! Shit! They already effectively did that!
