Watching the World Pass Us By

 

There's many things we can't know. Many things.

But of all the things that can be known for sure, of all the possibilities that can be known, we can know, for sure, with absolute clarity and certainty, that Australian government regulators took one look at the new flying Tesla and thought, "We'll ban it. Or at least regulate it so hard that no one can ever have that much fun in a car." 

You know it's true. These same people see a burnout as a reason to crush a car. They see a car with too low suspension as a hanging offence. They see a car with an exhaust slightly too loud as a reason to pass a new law to punish people for driving past their Tesla battery, Chinese solar and garaged Chinese PHEV home once when they've gotten home from a long day of thinking up new laws. 

No wonder our society is so backwards. While Tesla seeks to exploit the laws of physics to achieve new things. Australian regulators just look for new things to ban. Why think when you can ban? Why have fun when you can ban? Why even try to be creative when you can ban?

This country is so lame sometimes. Wait, is saying that now banned?

So That’s Why Alien Tech Was Like That?

 

I know this is not about AI, but I still think that is relevant.

The advent of AI, I believe, is going to lead to the systematic decoupling of much technology from WIFI. Who here is annoyed that their new toaster, their new fridge, or their new treadmill, needs to update occasionally to work properly? I read the other day that a woman’s printer was updated to reject off brand cartridges. People are annoyed enough as it is with an overconnected world.

But now? Look what hackers can already do. Destroying supermarket stock with a hack.

AI just recently rendered video game copyright redundant, with decompiling and recompiling made exponentially easier and possible with AI tools.

The music industry is reeling, as music is able to be produced at a quality that shocks most people when they actually here.

Hollywood is next. From replacing long CGI processes, to eventually creating personalized entertainment, massive disruption is coming.

The interconnected hyper tech world is going to be impossible now that AI can exploit programs the way it does. Everything is too exposed, like villages without walls across eastern Europe in the days of the wandering steppe tribes; everything is an easy target.  

Imagine what AI directed by hackers could do to a network of self-driving Tesla's?

I think the future will be more analogue than we expected. Maybe not Butlerian Jihad analogue, but more analogue. Maybe Alien style.

If you are not sure what I am referring to there, I’ll explain. The Butlerian Jihad was a war in the Dune universe where humanity overthrew sentient machines and outlawed most computer technology because it was too dangerous. Instead, they used genetically engineered people who have computer like minds for such tasks. They are called Mentats.

And of course all the computers in the Alien universe are not that different to the types that existed in the late 70’s and early 80’s. Very basic machines, that look far behind anything that you would find in the average person’s home today.

Maybe this explains why in these universes technology appears so backward, because they lived through what we are likely about to see?

Who needs a fridge to be connected to the internet anyway? What are the possible advantages? Why does a treadmill need to be updated every few months to work? A lot of this interconnected technology was made to look cool in movies, but in reality it is just more trouble than it is worth. I think we are going to see a great decoupling from the internet of many devices in our lifetime.

 

Prison Guards and THEIR Wives

 

Every day I am becoming more convinced that our country is ruled by the descendants of the prison guards and even more so by the descendants of their wives who were the real power in the home. After all, how many men say, I'll ask the boss, right?

The incessant desire to over protect, over shelter, over everyone else is stifling in this country.

I went to look at something on the second hand market other day. Before I got there I spoke with a friend about how bad our society is for rules, taxes and more. Our country is killing his business, and many other businesses. And it is driving people away from our country. Anyway, I asked the young guy who was selling his stuff why he was selling it. Answer: he and his girlfriend are moving overseas because this country is too expensive.

I read the other day someone say that Australia's problem is not being descended from convicts, but from prison guards. I'll add, and their busybody wives.

Most men and women I know are sensible Blokes and Sheila's. But I reckon we have a higher than average level of busybodies in our nation's DNA stream. And they are becoming worse.

You know you can just turn off your TV, and devices and not watch. I plan to not watch, as, well. Make sure your kid never has a device in their room. Problem solved. But, no, this woman wants to mother the whole country.

If only we had a faraway colony to send such people.

On Public Executions

 

Here are just a few of my thoughts on public executions from a few social media posts I have written in the last couple of days. I believe the death penalty is just and righteous. I believe we have erred greatly in moving away form it in much of society. Here are some of my thoughts on public executions in particular.

Are they evil?

No, even Jesus himself supported the death penalty.

When people say Jesus did not support the death penalty or public executions, they are just wrong. You don't even need to quote the Old Testament, which he as God the Son inspired, to prove it.

Matthew 21, Jesus words is one example. In this parable he is the Son, and he affirms his Father's actions.

And since virtually all executions were done in public in his day, and he never once rebuked the practice, appealing to Jesus to call them morally wrong is simply a false appeal. It is not an appeal to the Jesus of the Bible. But another Jesus, recreated in the sentiment of the modern mind. Here are our Lord’s own words,

“33 Hear another parable. There was a master of a house who planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a winepress in it and built a tower and leased it to tenants, and went into another country. 34 When the season for fruit drew near, he sent his servants[c] to the tenants to get his fruit. 35 And the tenants took his servants and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. 36 Again he sent other servants, more than the first. And they did the same to them. 37 Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ 38 But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and have his inheritance.’ 39 And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. 40 When therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” 41 They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons.”

Allowing the state the power to kill people in secret is far more dangerous, and far more common (for example, abortion, euthanasia). We have an inverted sense of morality today that causes us to have outrage at the wrong things.

Is deterrence the only reason for them?

No. There are other very good and righteous reasons for them.

Whether public executions are a deterrent is debateable. I think in some periods of history they have proven to be. For instance, after the peace of Westphalia newly affirm states went around and very publicly rounded up roving gangs of criminal men and executed them, as a warning to what would happen to people if they rejected the state’s monopoly on violence. This worked at the time. But perhaps there are times when it has not worked, the French Revolutions might provide examples of that. But, either way, deterrence is not the only reason a punishment should be meted out, vengeance is another very important reason:

1 Peter 2:13-14, "13 Be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, 14 or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good."

Romans 13:1-5, "1 Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. 2 Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. 3 For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, 4 for he is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer. 5 Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God's wrath but also for the sake of conscience."

People seeing the government harshly punish those who have hurt them or would hurt them, has a satisfying and calming effect on a society. Because it is just, righteous and good to see evil punished. People want to know the government will protect them from disorder. It is the government’s primary role.

The law has a responsibility to seek vengeance against evil. This is a vital aspect of its role. Christian societies have understood this, which is why every single Christian society in history, until very recently, did public executions of the evil.

This serves the purpose of making sure citizens never feel any need or any desire to take vengeance into their own hands. Christians know God forbids revenge, because vengeance is his and his alone. The state is one of his arms of vengeance.

A lot of people are increasingly becoming disenfranchised with the legal system because genuine evil often goes unpunished. Even serious rapists and violent criminals are often let off with minimal punishments. Famous cases go viral over social media. This creates instability in a society.

Hence, the government correctly applying vengeance is not just a deterrent, it is also a pacifier of the decent population, as decent people are more likely to trust and respect governments they know have their best interests in view.

Of course, states can take this too far. They can become too harsh, too quick to use the sword. This too is an evil. But a refusal to use it is an overcorrection. Another evil of its own.

So, there are multiple reasons to support the reapplication of such punishments by governments. And I believe this high tolerance of crime period will end with just such an approach, because the pendulum has swung so far in one direction it will likely swing back hard the other way.

Governments are running the calculation right now that rapid population growth is worth the increased crime people are experiencing. But they are not accounting for the unforeseen social effects this will have that will cause people to seek governments that are much harsher on crime. The pendulum has probably started swinging back as many governments across the West are making a tougher approach to crime an election platform.

What about spiritual reasons?

I genuinely think one of the biggest problems of our modern affluent societies is how easy it is for people to entertain themselves, drug themselves, amuse themselves, drink themselves, and otherwise convince themselves that death is not a problem they should really think about.

But the Bible says that being forced to number our days gives us a heart of wisdom.

"10 The days of our lives are seventy years;

And if by reason of strength they are eighty years,

Yet their boast is only labor and sorrow;

For it is soon cut off, and we fly away.

11 Who knows the power of Your anger?

For as the fear of You, so is Your wrath.

12 So teach us to number our days,

That we may gain a heart of wisdom." Psalm 90:10-12

I don't have any intention of watching a public execution, especially not one from a foreign country. But it would be good for a lot of people's souls if people were not so sheltered from seeing the face of death, so much.

The way we have sanitized it, moved it behind closed doors, made it the consideration of people far off, or a different age, is not good for our souls.

It is not an accident that a people who are so easily able to deny the reality of death so easily in their experience of life, are so foolish.

"So teach us to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom." I genuinely and truly believe that there is a direct connection between how easy it is to shut off our minds to the reality of mortality and how atheistic, agnostic and apathetic we are to things of eternity.

Death is unpleasant. Deeply sad. Deeply painful. And it is part of our lived experience until Jesus returns. Something which is just and righteous and drives that message home is good for people's souls. We should think about that.

 

What Always Happens

 

I once heard a preacher say about the Bible that it does not tell us what happened, it tells us what always happens. That is correct. The Bible teaches us how to live in light of the wisdom offered by the Lord of creation. He shows us in his word how the corrupt will always act if they are not restrained.

I've written many articles about how our immigration policy is a form of exploitation.

Both to create a vulnerable workforce (do a bit of reading into slaves in the massage business for example), but also to suppress Australians own wages.

Now a prominent politician is actually saying the truth out loud, about big business, governments, and mass immigration,

“Liberal frontbencher Andrew Hastie has accused “big business” of agitating against migration reform “because they like having a vulnerable workforce” on temporary visas.

Labor, the Coalition, and One Nation have all targeted temporary visa holders in proposed reforms to Australia’s migration system.

However, business leaders, including the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, have warned significant cuts to that cohort would hit some sectors hard.

The Coalition has proposed reducing the overall number of temporary visa holders by 650,000 over four years, with certain priorities for aged care, healthcare, and construction workers.

Addressing the pushback, Mr Hastie told the ABC on Friday big businesses were “making noise” because they “like having a vulnerable workforce on temporary visas”.

“There’s a reason why they want that. Because they’re non-unionised. They can pay them less. And they have an element of power,” he said.

“Because, of course, someone on a temporary visa is not going to make a whole bunch of noise.”[1]

A government that is not solely focused on serving its own people, but that has the power to replace its people with other, easily, will disrespect both. It is just a fact of human power dynamics.

I came to the conclusion that this is how big business and the corrupt act towards the worker not through studying social studies, or things like that, though I have studied those things. I came to this conclusion by reading the Old Testament prophets and seeing how the powerful would exploit the weak when they were not restrained. And human nature has not changed.

Of course, you can look at how immigration suppresses wages, drives up rents, puts pressure on social services, and more to see that it does not serve the populations upon which mass immigration is imposed, and see the same problems. But really, it is God’s word that reveals the heart of man and how he will act when he is given too much power over the worker and not enough incentives to act justly. Other research just confirms this. 

And now a prominent politician has said this is the case out loud.

Things are changing. Australia is a hard left country. We are on track to become the new Argentina in my lifetime; that is a basket-case economy that was once one of the richest per capita countries in the world. If more leaders start speaking the truth on issues like this, we have a chance to turn this situation around.  

List of References

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[1] https://www.news.com.au/finance/andrew-hastie-says-big-business-wants-temporary-migrants-because-they-are-vulnerable/news-story/9b9dfdcaddcd5ce0782321a921b5ef53?utm_source=News.com.au&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=Emplifi&fbclid=IwY2xjawU21W5leHRuA2FlbQIxMABwZG9mAWJyaWQRMXBxMFMxd25TOG1Pejl0cTZzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEeGTHw-sFdB106KS8PM3zq-lL5rYUkyqADyOXi0qjIDAndk8y-_wg_OIDWUug_aem_ZcKowmXYUhSoCn5gYUN9oA

Civilisational Foolishness

 

Australians are slowly learning many ancient lessons the hard way. Like the high cost of living alone, especially as you age.

They call it the singles tax:

"Singles tax costing people hundreds of dollars a month...

“That concept is known as the singles tax – the idea that single-income households do not benefit from the same cost-sharing benefits when it comes to things like rent and bills as a couple does.

Australian Bureau of Statistics data suggests a single person spends more than $770 extra on living costs a month compared to a person in a couple.

Brisbane financial advisor Michael Khouri said there was also the time and effort factor to consider, as well as that inability to share resources.

"If somebody's single and they're trying to do everything themselves, they're usually a bit more time poor," he said.

He said he also saw people who had just come out of a separation struggling to fund separate homes – either renting or buying – especially as the cost of housing continued to rise.

"Fifteen years ago, I'd find that probably half or maybe say 30 to 40 per cent of their expenses was housing — and now it's just getting higher and higher."

More than half of Australians living alone are women, and around half of those women are aged 65 or older.”[1]

I know a lot of people do not have sympathy for a lot of boomers, but I can’t help but see a perfect storm brewing in this area. Many of these older people, over 65, were born and raised in one of the most prosperous economic booms and times the world has ever seen, in one of the most prosperous countries the world has ever seen, and amongst some of the easiest conditions the world has ever produced to help people get ahead.

They called this country the lucky country for a reason. Because we really were better off than most in so many ways, and it was also evident that this prosperity was more a result of luck than anything else.

Now, consider the disaster coming for many older men and women who were forged in that sort of benevolent economic environment, thinking they can easily tank their marriage, or burn their families connections, because it has always been relatively easy to rebuild yourself in this country. A lot of these people have a rude shock coming, and I think the rest of society has to recognize this as well, because the political power of this demographic is still incredible and will be for years to come. Australia is about to be hit by a poverty wave that will likely set this country on track to be something like the new Argentina in a few decades, or close to, if things are not addressed very quickly.

This sort of situation should be rare anyway. People are not really meant to live alone. We are meant to live in large, often multigenerational, households. This sort of family arrangement was always a shelter from financial burdens.

But Australians got so rich, beyond the wildest dreams of our ancestors, that living alone became cheap, easy and common. At least for a time, and only when economic windfalls were ticking up. But this sort of culture is really a house of cards. Once things get tough, it becomes hard for people to live alone. Especially on government handouts.

Because people were really not meant to live this way. It is an aberration, a product of a hyper-individualist society with short time horizon preferences. In other words, our society is filled with stubborn people who cannot think ahead.

The saddest part for me in the article is that this woman says she fears she might have to move in with her adult daughter. Why is this a fear? Because our culture has made this an undesirable thing.

But really this should be a no-brainer. How much family wealth is chewed away from people across our country, because families that could live together and would have once done it without thinking in the past, are each paying for rents, regos, their own rates, electricity bills, etc, etc, when people could live together and prosper.

If you pay attention you will note that a lot of families that come here from Asia, or Eastern Europe, or other places don't hesitate to pool resources, and they build wealth this way. Why? Because they drive down their costs for all sorts of things in their life. Life is done better in community. It is just wisdom.

Australian culture really has been hollowed out. An older man or woman with kids should never even have to think about not being able to pay rent.  It should be unthinkable, except in the most extreme of circumstances, "Honour your mother and father" means primarily to make sure they are never destitute. But we should not forget, that it was the older generations who taught the younger generations to break this generational safety blanket, and go their own way and now we have countless people in desperate situations that just did not need to happen.

List of References

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[1] ABC Business, 2026, https://www.msn.com/en-au/money/government-support-and-welfare/singles-struggle-to-afford-housing-as-cost-of-living-rises/ar-AA2dHarz?ocid=msedgntp&pc=NMTS&cvid=6ac6ec1dfc26404888200d4ef6474e70&ei=42&fbclid=IwY2xjawU0AjdleHRuA2FlbQIxMABwZG9mAWJyaWQRMXFjTWpNZEtkZzM3aFpoTnRzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEeLj4jbExbaJShsVHqpCeLJ2FWcBOKBbvofNrbZDwmzbbA5WSHDgsfhdMAgJ0_aem_JDCHrX24gWIviv6FlvYrGw

Your Wealth Is Not For You

 

I knew a researcher once who was studying the long-term effects of daycare. In their research, as they told me, they found that the earlier parents put their kids in childcare, the earlier those children as adults would put their parents in aged care.

What goes around, comes around, right.

I have read research that shows that day care for more than a few hours a week is known to cause long term behavioural and emotional issues. Researchers have known this for decades, and yet the data was actively suppressed, because it went against the narrative of equal work for men and women being good for society.

We have all seen how predators are running rampant through day care at numbers people are so shocked to hear about, that they compartmentalize it and ignore it, because it is too frightening. But Australian state governments have been in the process of tightening laws because they are aware of how widespread the issue is.

And I have observed that most of this information will wash over many parents for a few reasons:

1)     They might literally have no other choice, because of their situation.

2)     They might feel like they have no other choice, even though they do, they just are not capable of seeing it.

3)     Daycare centres are so common and so much a part of our culture that herd mentality just causes people to use them without really thinking deeply about it. This is common behaviour for humans, even though just a generation or two ago we thought differently on this issue, behaviours can become accepted as the norm very quickly.

4)    The idea that "my kid is the exception" causes people to ignore the data. But the data does not say some kids do well in daycare, it says all kids suffer behavioural and emotional issues after a certain amount of hours. Your kids might handle that better than others, but the environment is not the best place for kids, even if it is a well done daycare.

5)     The idea of restructuring your life around avoiding daycare is so hard to consider, that even giving the idea time to think about is just not possible for many people. Life is already hard enough as it is, right?

I feel for those who would prefer not to use daycare but have no other choice. I understand the financial trap many are in. I get it. Older generations have handed you a pretty broken economy and society. I think we older Australians, which I am quickly getting toward being one, have a responsibility to seek to recreate a society where people are not forced into this position, as much as possible. As I get older, I think much more about the legacy I will leave my children and their children, than anything else.

A righteous man's wealth is meant to be to the benefit of his children's children, not himself.