| Random Patterns of a Chaotic Order: A Cybernetic Manifesto for a World of Organized Confusion |  |  |  |
| Posted by admin | |
| Sunday, 01 February 2009 16:01 | |
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The game MONOPOLY by Parker Brothers must have been a good socializer to the idea that monopolizing and being greedy is good. For decades the ideology of monopolizing has shaped the consciousness of Malaysians and monopolizers are considered heroes of the Malaysian-styled laissez faire world of corporate-crony-crypto capitalism. Azly Rahman There is a need for greed in this post-colonial British country called Malaysia. It is the need for greed at a high speed that is killing the rakyat/masses, fast. From the need to monopolize plantations, public works companies, investment brokerages, private hospitals, television stations, media conglomerates, satellites beaming 100 channel televisions that turn kampong folks into soap-opera and Bollywood junkies, right up to airlines that need newer landing grounds that will also turn surrounding areas into Disneylands -- Malaysians are now addicted to the fascination of monopolizing. The game MONOPOLY by Parker Brothers must have been a good socializer to the idea that monopolizing and being greedy is good. For decades the ideology of monopolizing has shaped the consciousness of Malaysians and monopolizers are considered heroes of the Malaysian-styled laissez faire world of corporate-crony-crypto capitalism. There is even a Malaysian version of the game MONOPOLY that is based on the cities of Cyberjaya and Putrajaya. We love to teach ourselves how to make the other guy bankrupt and how to monopolize everything. We love to even make the bankers bankrupt. The best part of this game of simulation is when we land in jail and cannot collect "$200.00". It seems like a perfect foreshadowing of the jailing of American Ponzi-scheme guru Madoff and in Malaysia of those politically-well connected robber-barons who will be hunted down and jailed when total change sweeps the nation. They cannot collect their $200.00. Not even in a by-election. MONOPOLY killed America and many other nations. The capitalist world is collapsing under its own weight. Marx predicted that America would collapse but the prediction did not come true; Roosevelt's New Deal saved America from drowning in its dustbowl. The "ten days that shook the world" of Russia – of the October Revolution" did not shake America but gave a chance for the IWW or the International Workers of the World ("The Wobblies") to scare American capitalism off. In Malaysia, the game is "rent-seeking" monopoly and of "interlocking directorateships" especially in the GLCs (government-linked companies.) The rakyat/masses are merely spectator happy to read about first Malaysian billionaires, world-class Malaysian companies, and who's who in the Malaysian corporate world. The rakyat are happy that they now can fly cheap, that they are reading about how famous Malaysia is as a great "medical tourism" destination, and which Bollywood star will get a Datuk Seri-ship. I wonder if there are ways we can curb the capitalist urge in us; an urge that is often couched cleverly in the language of "progress, innovation, and trickle down". This cannot pass the test of "deconstructionism", Habermasian "ideologiekritik", nor answer the question "cui bono" or "who benefits"? Of late there have been enthusiastic talks on "medical tourism" in which private hospitals are making their services attractive to foreigners seeking highly affordable and at greatly-discounted treatment at Malaysian's leading medical centers. I think the rakyat must insist on these hospitals to offer medical tourism opportunities to Malaysia's poor – those who we hear seek public donations for surgeries that will possibly save their lives. But Malaysia is moving in high gear in the area of privatization and medical centers are only interested in serving efficiently only those who can pay. Let the kampong folks and the poor of all races seek traditional cure for their terminal illnesses; the medical centers are profit-centers run by Malaysia's multinational corporations that are run by the rich and the powerful. This is the image of progress we are seeing. As in many of story of the Indonesian writer Muchtar Lubis, the life of the politician is more important than that of a padi planter. We are a nation, like Sisyphus as Albert Camus says -- imagining ourselves happy as we roll the rock up and down the hill -- in a country where the few monopolizes and the need for greed is growing at a great speed. It is as if the few wants to plunder the nation as fast as they can before the entire country, like the story of Firaun/Pharaoh and Qarun in the ancient scriptures, is swallowed by the Ogre of power, arrogance, and wealth combined.
The specter of the spirit of revolutionary ideals is making its presence in multitudinous ways; this specter, archived in the consciousness of nations, buried by the political economic wave of advanced capitalism sped up by the revolution in nano-technology and imperialized by those who owns them means of controlling the international production-houses of labor. As the post-modern world moves into the realm of a changing nature of Pax Americanism, as the world continue to see conflicts multiplying in many countries, overarchingly networked into the advanced capitalist matrix of both Eastern and Western powerhouses of Capitalism, the global masses of peoples alienated, enslaved, marginalized, and victimized by the forces of Techno-Elitism began to rise and educated of their condition, their awareness aided by cybernetic technologies and mass application of activist-cybernetic journalism. The collapse of the American Empire and the rise of Obama-ism both as an ideology of hope and despair and a transparent mask of postmodern Imperialism is a meeting ground between the forces of historical-materialism brought about by the specter and the dying force of 21st. century global imperialism that is having its tentacles amputated one by one. The specter that is haunting the globalized world of networked economies is a specter that is Fractal in nature; borne out of the manifestation of Chaos and Complexity, recognized and discerned through the application of a hybrid of Complexity and Critical Theory. Essentially post-modern technopoles called the "modern nation-state" or "countries" or "hamlets of democracies" are fast and furiously breaking down. Culture, politics, economics, religion, and society are no longer meaningful constructs to describe the innerworkings of these "post-Nationalistic era entities" called "independent and sovereign" nations. A new paradigm of describing these post-modern tribalistic enclaves hegemonized and shrouded by the politico-linguistic terminologies of nationhood and statescraftism is need. Let us explore further the fundamental character of the cybernetic republic and the possibility of a world totally transformed by Digital Technologies ruled by Techno-Mystics whose job is to provide stewardship to deconstruct Capitalism, gradually install a technological paradigm of social change based on the yet-to-be-constructed principles of Cultural Egalitarianism, and consequently bring forth radical changes characterized by the establishment of a postmodern form of Agro-based socialism that harnesses the power of Nature and bring Humanity closer to its Natural Self. [OUR USUAL REMINDER, FOLKS:
Comments (6)  ... written by magickriver, February 02, 2009 11:21:45 Timely piece, Azly. Glad Malaysia has produced our very own "Marshall McLuhan"  report abuse disagree 0 agree 5 ... written by Diz, February 04, 2009 01:37:39 Not sure about McLuhan, maybe more Hunter S Thompson... Azly, dude, were you stoned when you wrote the manifesto? I'm generally a big admirer of yours but you need to tone down the language - too much time reading deconstructivist literature and complexity theory (or perhaps cybernetic sci-fi) is bound to damage your communication skills. "Tribalistic enclaves hegemonized and shrouded by the politico-linguistic terminologies of nationhood"?? Shurely shome mishtake! I agree with you, though, that capitalism must collapse under the weight of its own contradictions (Marx was right after all) or because we will simply run out of fossil fuels and revert to a society where only the Mad Maxs will survive. Not sure you're correct in your view of Obama either. What is Obama-ism anyway - the guy's only been in office for a fortnight? report abuse disagree 1 agree 5 ... written by cheemengwong, February 05, 2009 05:26:55 Capitalism, greed, monopoly without the knowledge and wisdom of truth will surely kill our folks here and at the end they will never know what hit them. What is the truth then? I think it is knowing our nature and addressing it personally. Forget about the culture hype, modernity and the need to follow the herd. Go discover ourselve. Be true and honest about who we are first before we point our fingers at someone else. report abuse disagree 0 agree 1 ... written by Su Dhanoa, February 05, 2009 12:53:00 Just remember that when a game of monopoly is played, in the least the other players are able to defend themselves from the scrooge, but what is being play the BeeEnd is another story - just downright vicious/greedy/cheats/robbers/murderers!!! report abuse disagree 0 agree 0 ... written by flyer168, February 07, 2009 10:26:30 I had the honour of meeting & sharing a discussion with the late Tun Tan Siew Sin & Tun Hussein Onn prior to their passing & their words & statements still ring clear in my ears. This great one to share with you ..."There is no more Honour left amongst our new leaders unlike during our time with Tunku!" To be a Public figure, one must be established, sincere, honest, credible, transparent, have integrity & be above board - should be opened to scrutinization like in the US. Many of our Leaders today have "skeletons" of their past in their closets (some have their family's baggages as well!), so how can they be "Honourable" to carry out their duties diligently without "Fear or favour", even after taking an "oath" to the King/Sultan/the nation & rayaat. Ultimately they "Buckle" under pressure & their true colours behind their facade will be "revealed" for all to see. Our prayers to God Almighty seeking "Truth, Justice, Freedom & Equality" will be answered. Through "Devine" intervention, UMNO, its Leaders & their Lapdogs are now "Destroying" each other with their "Power, Greed & Henious Crimes". Every new day will be another "New Revelation" to reveal the "Truth" in its Self Destruct motion towards its "Demise". Just give them enough rope to "Hang" themselves at every turn in their "Final" chapter. May God bless, guide & protect this great nation, its remaining assets & its Anak Bangsa Malaysia forthwith. report abuse disagree 0 agree 0 ... written by chuckmoore, February 10, 2009 02:11:01 Dr Azly, While I agree that Neo-Liberal capitalism has crashed real hard due to its own internal contradictions, I do not foresee the overthrow of capitalism anytime soon, since there are no ideologically unified forces with the degree or organisation, preparation and mobilisation to do it and that applies to the Anarcho-Syndicalist Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), the Trotskyite nor the Stalinist left in the west or anywhere else for that matter. Nothing much will come out of the world of cyberspace without organisation and real struggle in the physical world and also especially not when cyberspace is a hotbed of conflicting islands of viewpoints to which birds of the same feather flock to respectively. Dissent needs a clear unified direction and a powerful leadership to assert itself collectively in the real world and that is not forthcoming from the denizens of cyberspace. You parrot too much the utopian nonsense by the starry-eyed proponents of cyberspace. Also, please don't fall for that trap of hero worship and media hype about President Obama, when is actions so far indicated that he will be not much different from President Bush and that he may well launch an imperialist war against Iran & Pakistan and especially that he's pulling troops out of Iraq only to double the number of troops in Afghanistan, and that he's pledged support for the state of Israel. report abuse disagree 0 agree 0 Write comment This content has been locked. You can no longer post any comment. You must be logged in to a comment. Please register if you do not have an account yet. |
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