Confusionism

China, the great dragon of middle earth, has been flicking its tail this way and that for about 5000 years now. It is beyond all doubt the largest elder civilization on planet Earth. As network technology comes into adolesence, what is publicly known of Chinas internal affair is years old once dissemminated. The fastest news are those that depict horrid catastrophes or abhorrent breaches of human rights. More often now, there are some sprinkling of pandas, business news and the olympic games coming up. Focus has once again been aimed at the dormant bamboo eater.

Here the other day I mentioned the Golden Shield project, aka the Great Firewall of China. It is significant, imposing stringent rules upon outbound traffic, access and content control. Its symbology is akin to that of the Maoist illusion being shattered. Public technology, as bicycles and internet, need not lead to dramatic changes in society.

In the west we have a different kind of control on information. If anything, it seems like the exact opposite strategy, but can you compare the face of Janus with Yin & Yang? USA is as closed a society as that of China, only the power is more visible. It deals in black and whites but let the two faces turn their profile in a dizzying spin. There is so much going on, so much information and sponsored information (ordered, paid for, influenced) that no man can claim responsibility, not even to law. In China, the dragon stares right back at you.

To some extent, China is another world, the only large system that at least partly live by alien rules. Not that those rules and in-built loopholes cannot be found or understood. It is just the scale of something communicating with a billion vocal cords but one voice that is kind of scary. Dissidents are as big as gnats on the fur of that very same dragon. Of course, an irritated dragon migt be a bit grumpy at times.

High-tech China does exist. Their engineers might be as good as myths dictate, e.g. that he will ask you what functions you want and build it for next to nothing, ten times as fast as any competitor. This is a civilisation which literally has moved mountains by manpower alone. Expect the Olympics to be a really big gig. Even if China is partly closed, there is a great deal of Internet users on the inside of the big wall. If the system lives partly in isolation, it has great potential for developing unique strategies and adaptations. Think of it as evolution on another branch. Think of it as mutation.


Kontreadmiral kommer med ren trussel.
Han har blitt bedt om å ikke uttale seg til pressen, "... og dette er et løfte jeg kommer til å holde ennå en stund til."

Salget av blomster og planter i Norge har økt med over 33% sammenlignet med samme tid i fjor. Greit nok at vi har et altfor stort forbruk, men jeg syns det er hyggelig at det blir plantet så mye. Mulig det har noe med 23 grader klokken fem om ettermiddagen en andre mai. Beinvarmt.

Bjarne Håkon
"Dette er ikke mennesker som skal integreres i det norske samfunn. Disse skal ut av landet... Å tilrettelegge for aktiviteter og hygge er ikke vår oppgave."
Nei vel, men hva i pokker med gjestfrihet: at en i det minste holder pasientene på venterommet med noen ukeblader. Nå foreslår ikke jeg at en skal gi asylmottakene abonnement på Se&Hør, Illustrert Vitenskap, Seil og Båt, Kvinner og Klær, Hjemmet. Asylsøkere, syke eller voldelige eller kriminelle har en ting til felles - de er asylsøkere. De flykter fra noe.

Jeg vet at jeg hadde reagert med ganske stor frustrasjon dersom jeg flyktet fra FrP-land og måtte vente i et bambusbur i Kina for å bli sendt tilbake når RV kommer til makta. Om jeg var kriminell, ville jeg kanskje føle det fortjent, men at hvis livet er så mørkt og fornedrende, har jeg alt å vinne på å bryte ut av det.