The Concepts Dictionary for
Dummies.
Bribe, the - the form of corruption
(look up:
Corruption, the) - an unofficially presented opportunity to improve
one's situation, by obtaining some values (material, or others) in
exchange of mis-performing (performing in the wrong way, or not
performing at all) one's duties in his/her official capacity, or just
performing them rightly, when where are no simple and reliable means to
ensure that otherwise. Whenever human beings are used as the
parts of hardware (look up: hardware) of the formal system (look
up: Formal System, the), a Bribe is introduced as the simplest way "to
oil the mechanics" - to make a man act as intended by the rules of that
formal system - to say, put the system to its proper use, or to bend
the performance of that system to your goals - to misuse it. The
clan values (look up: Clan Values, the) systems are so tightly linked
to the concept of Bribery (the process and phenomenon of giving and
taking the Bribe) , that I would rather call them an implicit Bribery,
than an alternative to the phenomenon of Bribery.
Bribery, the - the process and phenomenon of
giving and
taking the bribe (look up: Bribe, the).
Bureaucracy, the - the corrupted (look up:
Corruption, the) staff of the formal system (look
up: Formal System, the).
Clan, the - a group of people, closely tied
by
the common
blood, spilled blood or common interests. To be a part of the
Clan (member), one have to perceive himself as such, or there should
exist some simple and reliable means to make him do so. A Clan
remains rather virtual and insignificant entity, till it starts to
enforce its clan values (look up: Clan Values, the) efficiently.
Clan Values, the - the usually unwriten system of
laws (look
up: Law, the) of the clan (look up: Clan, the) which are supposed to be
in the best common interests of the clan members. In real life
however, just as any real law code (look up: Law, Real), they do, for
the most part, include a lot of outdated, worthless stuff, which,
together with a lot of endeared and honoured by tradition idiosyncratic
peculiarities, do well to hide duality, double standards and sub clan
oriented inclusions in the code. The Clan Values, when their
enforcement is efficient enough (look up: Enforcement, the), may
implement the implicit bribery (look up: Bribe, the) schemes, bending
the working of the law and other formal systems (manned by human
beings) to the will, to the interests of the Clan - without the
explicit promise of any immediate personal gain, but rather, by its
implicit promise - as the consequence of the general advance of the
Clan as the whole. Thus, the Clan Values may work as the bribery
substitute.
Corruption, the - the form of crime (look up: Crime, the),
inheritantly peculiar to the bureaucracy (look up: Bureaucracy, the),
especially - to the state bureaucracy (look up: State, the). The
most common form of corruption by far is common bribery (look up:
Bribery). Generally speaking, Corruption is abuse of the power
(look up: Power, the) to the end of achieving some goal, different from
the one's duties in his/her official capacity - personal/clan/political
/etc. material/ideological/philosophical /etc. When one is
managing any kind of resources - not really belonging to him/her, or
wielding some kind of power - which isn't sure to remain his/her to
wield to the end of his/her life, there is always a conflict of
interests between one's official function and one's interests and of
both aforementioned with the interests of the third parties. From
such a conflicts the Corruption is borne.
Crime, the - a misbehaviour, misconduct,
punishable under the law (look up: Law, the) and committed within its
jurisdiction (look up: Jurisdiction, the). There is no crime
outside the code of law and its jurisdiction. While the modern
law (look up: Law, the Modern) states, that Criminal (judicial) justice
(look up: Justice, the Criminal) are the one with the common justice
(look up: Justice, the) - there is no connection between these concepts
but those, dwelling in the minds of idealists.
Crime, the Organized - one of the most profitable
types of the criminal (look up: Crime, the) enterprises. The
[alternative] state (look up: State, the). The most bitter
competitor of the state in its favourite racket - the racket of
protection, including the military racket. It does provide some
kind alternative to the state, but, when it clashes with state really
hard, it's rather bad for business. Any business. The basic
one of staying alive including. Nevertheless, when some kind of
really profitable racket, such as the drug dealing (look up: Drugs,
the), is considered too dirty even for the state, it have to co-operate
with the Organized Crime, forming some kind of hate hate
partnership. On the other hand, it may well be stated, that some
deeds, like throwing into the prisons the miserable sick men - the drug
addicts, are to foul even for the Organized Crime - and never mind the
profits. Then, for a share in those profits, the state officials
do take upon themselves the dirty part of the mutual enterprise.
Even as the Organized Crime is a venerable enterprise rooted in history
may be even somewhat deeper, than the state and its government (look
up: Government, the), the modern Organized Crime became one of the most
powerful international entities as the result of the alcohol and then
drug Prohibition american laws (look up: Law, the). The gang
makes a healthy profit on whoring, gambling, arms trade and even the
legal businesses and institution, but to make its jump-start for that
kind of power it needed something simple and enormously profitable and
the drug dealing fit the description to T.
Criminal, the - whoever breaks the law (look up:
Law, the)
within its jurisdiction (look up: jurisdiction, the) and get seized and
persecuted and convicted for it. Note, that it isn't sufficient
to
commit a crime (look up: Crime, the), to be considered a
Criminal. If
you do commit crimes, but may not be properly called a Criminal, you'd
make a good politician, if you aren't one already.
Drugs, the - as some kinds of job kill one's body
and/or mind and/or soul, so do some kinds of drugs. Of those, the
most dangerous are the drugs, that manage to give their victim some
kind of a pleasure, some kind of a relief, at least, as they start
their unholy job. Of those, the most dangerous are the drugs,
that make their users became addicted not only psychologically, but
physiologically too. The faster and stronger develops an
addiction, the stronger and more dangerous is the drug. As these
drugs do kill slowly and the personality, integrity of the addict goes
away well before his health, otherwise, and his health go away ways
before his life, the addiction isn't just a personal matter, but a
materially costly and psychologically harmful social disease.
Thus, it's nothing, but natural, that the most successful world
religions (look up: Religion, the) do outlaw the most dangerous drugs
and, in some cases, even the plain alcohol - for the good
measure. It may seams just as natural, that the law (look up:
Law, the) does... outlaw them, too. It would seam far less
natural to you, when you would consider the states (look up: State,
the), where the law fails to do so. There are no more addicts
there. The drugs are cheap. Therefore, the rate of the drug
induced crimes is inexistent. So, this prohibition, like that
alcohol prohibition in USA, which gave birth to the modern organized
crime (look up: Crime, the Organized), is just an innocent error?
It's rather difficult to believe in so profitable an error. The
billions dollars (USA) are made from it yearly. The organized
crime goes hand in hand with corruption (look up: Corruption, the).
Enforcement, the - the important part of the
operation of any formal, and even not so formal a system (look up:
Formal System, the). State (look up: State, the), law (look
up: Law, the), government (look up: Government, the), clans (look
up: Clan, the), organized crime (look up: Organized Crime, the) -
everyone needs it. When the operation runs smoothly, there is
hardly any need for anything more, than a simple implication, that the
Enforcement, the power (look up: Power, the) to enforce the rules of
the system, is out there, somewhere, that it exists. But, in the
end, there should be an option to apply as much force, as the bigger
picture (the bigger system, the agreements and practices of the
dealings between the systems) allows - and, usually, that means the
deadly force at least. Even nowadays, tortures aren't all that
unheard a practice in the dealings between a state and its citizens,
just like some quite real threats to the relatives of the
opponent. The state may use, for the purpose of enforcement, its
military and paramilitary units and the police (look up: Police,
the). It isn't all that important, how does the organized crime
call them, but it surely does have its own military and paramilitary
units and the police too. More peaceful enterprises do call their
police "the security" and do rely of the state's and organized crime's
enforcement units most heavily, when the shit hits the fan - as that is
the crucial part of any protection racket "insurance" deal, that the
insurer's enforcement units would stand by, ready to answer the
"client's" call to arms. In fact, there would be nothing
unethical in the protection racket, would the state and the organized
crime be less territorial animals. Should they start to offer
their protection to everyone, who's ready to pay for it, instead of
forcing it on everyone inside their area of control, their useful
services would surely became more competitive and less disagreeable by
far.
Formal System, the - the finite automaton, the
Turing machine. Well, its the scientific definition.
Practically, to understand the functioning of the Formal System, one
don't have to understand all about its states, transitions and
language. The main point is, that the Formal Systems are built to
perform their tasks in predictable manner. Well built formal
systems works efficiently and doesn't enter the infinite loops and
stumble on the conditions, that its creators failed to take into
account. For the big enough systems, it's almost inevitable, but,
at least, it shouldn't happen on the most frequently encountered inputs
(in the usual situations). But even a badly designed state
machine is predictable. Well, it is - unless it is built of the
human beings. The problem with this, last kind of the Formal
System is, that they are, well... rather informal. As the human
beings are anything, but predictable, such formal systems tend to
exhibit stochastic and even erratic behaviour. The Turing machine
may be stochastic, but it may never be erratic. The interplay of
the human interests make such informal systems infinite, unpredictable
automaton. The human formal system tends to develop its own
interest, quite different from its designed functions. Such a
system starts to fight for its own existents and the well being, starts
to fight for its own place under the sun - just as it's human
components do.
Government, the - the bureaucracy (look up: Bureaucracy, the) of
the state (look up: State, the). The formal system (look up:
Formal System, the), which manages the affairs of the state (look up:
State, the) is also called "the Government". The main branches of
the Government are: the lawmakers (look up: the law), the executives,
and the justice (look up: Judicial System, the). The power branch
(military and paramilitary), the intelligence and the press are
considered the lesser branches - but they aren't by any means less
important. The balance between the Government's branches ensures
stability, while any asymmetry brings contention and troubles.
Hacker, the - the representative of the
youngest by far of all the powers (look up: Power, the). His
power lies in his knowledge of and/or his abilities with the nets - the
human-computer webs. He knows how to crack them and how to
protect them. He may prefer to deal with its human or computer
side vulnerabilities, but he just have to be proficient enough with the
both types. There may be no freedom of speech nowadays without
him - but, on the other hand, he is the one to breach the privacy,
too. He may create an amazingly big value all by himself - but
all that pales in comparison with the amount of harm he is capable to
deal single-handedly. They do claim, there are all kinds of the
Hackers out there, but the whites and blacks may interchange all the
way - without even the bother of passing through the grey zone.
As most of the Hackers aren't employed as such, we may not speak about
the corruption here (look up: Corruption, the). We have to invent
a new word to describe, what exactly does tend to happen, when nobody
recognizes in any positive way whatsoever the enormous power, that a
person wields. The lawmakers (look up: Law, the) do tend to
criminalize the Hackers as well as all the classical Hacking activities
indiscriminately. Well, on this stage its just about as stupid as
an attempt to outlaw the government (look up: Government, the) or the
police (look up: Police, the). It won't work, even if it sounds
like the thing to do. In the way, when the lawmakers started to
outlaw the organized crime (look up: Crime, the Organized) they did, in
effect, criminalized the government as the whole and all its structures
separately. And what good did it bring to our life, but some more
hypocrisy? You see, nowadays every power needs to employ Hackers
to remain the power for so much longer. You may claim, you have
no interest whatsoever in the offensive hacking, but you would still
need to employ the number of hackers, proportional to the amount by
value product of all you hackable assets - to do some defensive hacking
for you. One already may not claim any degree of control over his
military and/or paramilitary units, unless he have all the information
security measures in place. Tomorrow, as the military robots come
to life, one may see his weaponry turn against himself, unless his
Hacking forces are superior to his opponent's ones. To keep you
in power in the future you may need all kind of scientists -
technologists, mathematicians and physicists, microbiologists,
mass psychologists, etc. - but to be in power today, you need
Hackers. It may seams, that the Hacker force needs some kind of
the brute force to defend them, to amount to anything, but, in fact,
the distributed Hacker network needs nothing, but secrecy - and it's
the one most qualified to provide that commodity, too.
Hardware, the - one of the two main
components of the formal system (look up: Formal System, the).
The division between the hardware and the software is an artificial one
and the border is rather blurry and arbitrarily drawn at that.
Wherever you do design the formal system in formulas or in some kind of
hierarchical diagrams, there is no "Hardware" and "software" in the
design. When the Egyptian priests built their amazing machinery,
they didn't think of it in the Hardware/software terms. This
division most probably originated in the programmable machinery, such
as all kinds of musical boxes and mechanical looms. The Boolean
algebra designs Hardware and programs in the same way, but the real
production on the very dawn of electronics (and, most certainly, before
it) differed. Charles Babbage could or could not see the dividing line,
as his calculating devices were not, in the strict sense programmable -
but he could dream to make them so. When Von Neumann proposed to
store the program (software) and data in exactly the same way
(nowadays, its very difficult to change that status quo - and most of
the computer security problems, that may not be traced to the human
factor and standardization are rooted here; well, the latest 64 bit PC
software and hardware come with some improvements in the area) the
separating line were, finally drawn in the minds of about all the
computer professionals. You build it from the metal,
semiconductors and other raw materials - then, its the Hardware.
You write it and store in the memory sells (flip-flops) - then, its the
software. When all kind of programmable circuitry come to life,
however, the division was exposed for what it was all the way - the
blurry, arbitrary and, sometimes, even misguiding concept.
Intelligence, the - once upon a time, it wasn't
about brains at all, it was "just" an information gathering. You
harvested precisely the same kind of data, the opponent tried to "hide"
from you under the secrecy label, thus marking it out for your
convenience. Afterwards, the amount of the "secret" information
grown - exponentially, enormously so. Even the public schools
started to label their documents as "top secret". In fact, there
usually are some secrets in there, but not what you generally expect to
extract from your opponent. In fact, most of the "secrets"
nowadays do hide nothing but some kind of the corruption (look up:
Corruption, the). Surely, it may be readily exploited by any kind
of opponent, but to sort out the data on the thousands of separate, but
not all that independent cases of corruption, to make some kind of
sense out of it, you need a lot of really intelligent labour and most
of it is done by the computer specialists, too. Thus the computer
nets became the essential part of keeping, protecting, processing and
stealing intelligence and the hackers (look up: Hacker, the) became the
key element in the intelligence services. Just how important the
intelligence service may be? They used it in the Rome, it was
rediscovered by the author of the "Robinson Crusoe" and even in those
times one could be easily ambushed and utterly destroyed by the
"weaker" but more informed an opponent. And yet, most of the wars
(look up: War, the) of the past were won by the economy, by the amount
of steel produced, rather than by the intelligence services. The
modern "War on the Terror" was the first one to prove, that even the
two orders of magnitude advantage in the firepower gives you no real
edge without the superior intelligence. In the conflict between
some two states, the brute force may still win the day. But when
the elephant have to squat a mouse, no amount of random stamping around
would do. Nothing would do, but the perfect knowledge of the
mouse's exact location and plans. What does it tell to you? -
Well, it should spell the chaos and anarchy to all the states, who
won't shift their priorities from the army to the intelligence
services. They may just die out, like dinosaurs.
Judicial System, the - the "thinking" part of the
law enforcement (look up: Law Enforcement, the), the part, that
interprets the law (look up: Law, the) and pronounces the
judgements. It's one of the main branches of the state's (look
up: State, the) government (look up: Government, the).
Jurisdiction, the - the area in the common space
and in the legal (look up: Law, the) space, where the given law or the
given part of the given judicial system (look up: Judicial System, the)
have the legal right, the authority and the real power (look up: Power,
the) to make and enforce (look up: Law Enforcement, the) its
judgements. It should be obvious from the very definition, that
the concept is very complicated one for any practical
implementation. There always are some disagreements as to the
exact borders - and to try to decide them by the direct application of
the power is very bloody and unprofitable an approach. Even well
within its physical borders, the state in general and its law
enforcement branch in particular may lack the power and the will to
take all the affairs in their Jurisdiction. On the other hand,
there is such venerable an institutions, as the exteritoriality and all
kind of the martial law. Namely, the military may take the matter
of jurisdiction on their covered by the spilled blood hands and apply
the deadly force to everyone inclined to dispute their right to do
so. By the modern american standards, if you do cross the borders
on you way to do something, you'd rather check, if your activities are
legal in that state - otherwise, you are crossing the border of state
with the intention to break its law! How do you like that
one? As if this outrage to the very principles of the law wasn't
sufficient, the same applies to all your electronic information - and
some 90% of all the data flow in the Internet is routed through
american servers! Sky is the limit, as they say. Than, if
you won't recognize the jurisdiction of some court of law in such a
matter, you'll get a prison term for the lack of respect to the court -
even if it finds you nor guilty in the original case...
Justice, the - the christian concept, based on such a venerable
cornerstones, as the Good and Evil from the ancient legend of the
humanity (Adam and Eve) downfall, including the evil snake, naive Eve,
the fruits from the tree of knowledge and the punishment of the sin of
disobedience by non other, than the god almighty. As the result
of the
consumption of the ecologically (of thought, naturally) suspicious
fruit, we are, along among all the living creatures, able to discern
between Good and Evil. Now, tell me, please, which ones from: the
eating of grass by sheep, the eating of a sheep by wolf, the
eating of
a sheep by man, the killing a wolf by man - are Good, and which are
Evil? There is no Good and no Evil among the natural things, in
the
ecology. Most of the unnatural things, invented by humans do look
Evil
enough, but then, how may we judge in our ignorance of the far
consequences? So, the concept of Justice, of the just reward of
Good
and Evil - by the Talion Law, namely "eye for eye", even as it sounds
quite independent of the underlying concepts of Good and Evil, as its
almost always impossible to repay literally in kind - and we are
practically unable to judge the far consequences and reasons of the
event.
Justice, the Criminal - the formal goal of the
law enforcement
(look up: Law Enforcement, the). When those, who break the code
of law
(look up: Law, the) within its jurisdiction (look up: Jurisdiction,
the) do receive their punishments according to the law (look up: Law,
the Real), we say, that the Criminal Justice is served. Note,
that the
Criminal Justice doesn't care overmuch about the [positive] rewards -
which is the main concern of the common justice (look up: Justice,
the). It doesn't care, whether the criminal (look up:
Criminal, the) acted for Good or Evil case - even as it states
otherwise. The law's wrong, but it's - the law, - as the romans
said. But even this rather unjust variety of justice is an ideal
one and could not be implemented in real life. The best we may
have is the real criminal justice (look up: Justice, the Criminal,
Real).
Justice, the Criminal, Real - the practical
implementation of the abstract concept of the criminal justice (look
up: Justice, the Criminal). To deal out the proper (according to
the law (look up: Law, the) punishments to the law breakers and thus to
serve the criminal justice, one have to prove (look up: Proof, the) the
fact of the crime (look up: Crime, the) and the persons of those, who
committed it. The jurisdiction of the law (look up: Law, the)
under which the crime was committed (the law that was broken) and the
jurisdiction of those, who enforce that law (look up: Law Enforcement,
the) should be established too. To prove anything in our real
world positively is too difficult and costly a process, to be practical
- even when it isn't outright impossible. So, the Real Criminal
Justice settles instead for the standard legal proceedings, which it
does call "proofs", even when they aren't. So, the Real Criminal
Justice doesn't even have to be corrupt (look up: Corruption, the) to
be unjust. And corrupted it is - just like any and every
bureaucratic system. It does use the fingerprints as the
convincing evidence, even as anybody may easily collect your
fingerprint from the glass you used - and put it wherever he wishes -
and there is no corruption here, but the pure economy. Unlike the
criminal justice, its real implementation should keep the peace as
well, as the law. To that end, its model incorporates the
mechanisms for the peaceful solutions to the inevitable
contentions. It is competitive - which allows the participants
spend their resources and apply their power (look up: Power, the) in
the peaceful, rather than in the murderous manner. The expensive
lawyers may cloud the matter at hand, till there remains no chance for
truth to emerge - which is, anyway, preferable to the outright
violence. The expensive settlements not only allow those, who
break the laws escape the necessity of being criminals (look up:
Criminal, the), but also do make the blackmailing of the innocent men a
profitable activity. As the blackmailing in the courtroom isn't
punishable by the law, it isn't even considered a crime.
Law, the - an explicitly stated in writing and
exactly
enforced universal code of conduct and punishments for
misconduct. Its a
purely theoretical concept, absolutely inapplicable to the real
word. This abstract concept nevertheless does give a birth
to a lot of more
or less practical implementations - vulgarizations of the pure
concept. Look up: Crime, Clan Values, Lawyers, Judicial system,
Bribe, Drugs. This abstract concept nevertheless does give a
birth to a lot of more or less practical implementations -
vulgarizations of the pure concept (look up: Law, Real). In some
very real sense, the Law is the state (look up: State, the) and the
state is the Law - as it structure is described in the Law and the Law
enforcement (look up: Law Enforcement, the) should hold it together and
make it function properly. The Law is the genotype of the state,
it ensures its continuity in time - and its enforcement shapes its
phenotype to the design.
Law, the Modern - the modern hypocritical
implementation of the law (look up: Law, the; Law, the
Real). The Modern Law doesn't call itself just genotype of
the state (look up: State, the), describing it's design (structure and
operation) as the formal system (look up: Formal System, the). It
doesn't just add, that its goal is the peacekeeping and protection of
the rights and the privileges of "the best" citizens and serves the
flourishing of the state, as it deed in the first known European
codes. No. Nowadays, it does state, that it serves the
common Good and gives the justice (look up: Justice, the) not only to
the citizens, not only to the residents of state and its people, but to
everyone. All these statements are impractical in the
implementation, as the interests of all these categories are highly
mutually contradictive. They may profit in any material sense
nobody, but the lawyers (look up: Lawyers, the). However, they
may put some balm on the ill conscience of the lawmakers and judges and
make the courts of law proceeding at least sound like some kind of
civilized shaw. Like any kind of the ambiguity and the internal
contradiction in the human manned formal system (look up: Formal
System, the), they do breed corruption (look up: Corruption, the).
Law, the Real - the vulgarized practical
implementation of the
law (look up: Law, the). Historically, the modern Law codes are
the descendants of the first known ones, like the Code of Hamurappy
(Babel). When the first such codes were introduced, the real
purpose was just the simplification and standardization of the daily
running of the state. It took quite some time to realize, that by
implication, the very existence of the written code of Law does limit
the power of state officials, including the head of state and his most
powerful satraps and viziers (counsellors, advisers, ministers).
It gives every literate man a frame of reference to judge the state
officials by the standards of the state itself. Thus, the tool,
devised by the rulers of the growing in size and complexity states to
free themselves from the rather dull, boring and not by any means
glorious labours of daily running (managing, judging) the state, became
mixed up with the abstract concepts of rights (look up: Rights, the)
and justice (look up: Justice, the). This unholy alliance gave
the birth to the hypocrisy, we call the modern law (look up: Law, the
Modern).
Law Enforcement, the - the enforcement (look up:
Enforcement, the) of the law (look up: Law, the) - as the branch of the
government (look up: Government, the), action and phenomenon.
There are a lot of different names for it, but the power (look up:
Power, the) hand of the Law Enforcement is known as the police (look
up: Police, the), and its brains - as the judicial system (look up:
Judicial System, the). The penitentiary system (look up:
Penitentiary System, the) may be considered as the part or the
by-product of the Law Enforcement as well.
Lawyers, the - the ones who do prosper of the
judicial system (look up: Judicial System, the). They do have the
knowledge to exploit the its (and the law's (look up: Law, the))
contradictions and general corruption (look up: Corruption, the).
In the third world, they do have the knowledge and connections to
exploit the individual corruption of the servants of law. In any
case, they do provide the contending parties some relatively peaceful
means to compete in the court of law. These their primary
functions, but they also do try to keep the police (look up: Police,
the) from breaking the law too impudently, they may give their clients
a useful counsel and they may, even, apply the pressure to their
clients opponents in the ways, that may not be proved to be criminal.
Penitentiary System, the - the important part, or
by-product (depends on how do you look at it, as the concept changes
all the time) of law enforcement (look up: Law Enforcement,
the). Historically, the ancients enslaved, killed, mutilated and
exiled their criminals and other captives (look up: Criminal,
the). As the fortified castles became the part of the medieval
life, however, the imprisonment of the criminals, captives and other
undesirables became a practical concept. By limiting the freedom
of one's victim in space, one makes visiting every imaginable kind of
indignity and outright torture upon his victim all that much simpler,
as he's depraved of the opportunity to run, or hide or even to defend
himself. As the prisons and more modern concentration camps
seamed insufficiently cruel to the sick minds of their inventors, the
freedom of prisoners was restricted even more by all kinds of chains
and other restriction devices. Nowadays, this sad list starts to
include all types of shrewd electronic devices. The torture list
expanded and sophisticated in time, too - and now it includes, in the
addition to the good old roman and medieval inventions, electrical,
chemical and psychological tortures. Furthermore, the modern
state (look up: State, the) does have the means and certainly doesn't
lack the will, to make the "free" life of its citizens just as
restricted and observable as that of the prisoners, thus finally
uniting the imprisoned and temporally free parts of the people.
The Penitentiary System uses the very taxes (look up: Taxes, the) you
pay to break the health of the poor bustards that would have,
afterwards to receive their medical treatments from you taxes, or
your insurance money. To break their personal integrity - in so
much as they had one in the first place and thus to make them the most
dangerous kind of miscreants. To bread diseases.
Police, the - the muscle behind the law enforcement (look up: Law
Enforcement, the), the "ultimo ratio reginam" - the last argument of
the kings (state) (look up: State, the), the government (look up:
Government, the), the judicial system (look up: Judicial System, the)
in their quest to gather the taxes (look up: Taxes, the) and enforce
(look up: Enforcement, the) their law (look up: Law, the), just as the
army, the military force is the last argument in the external
conflicts. Police is the army, the state uses to make war (look
up: War, the) upon its own citizens. The citizens know, that the
Police is paid with their taxes and thus, most erroneously, may
consider it in their employment. The state does actually
encourage such an misapprehension - up to the certain
point. The Police itself does realize fully well, that it's paid
by the state - and the citizens do cough up their taxes voluntarily or
under the pain of... pain. The judicial system does have the
penitentiary system (look up: Penitentiary System, the) and the Police
to drive the point home. In fact, would the Police not be
balanced by all other kinds of military and paramilitary unit, it won't
feel, that it needs the state with its government any more. The
Police doesn't really feel, that it protects the law. It just
does wish to became the only successful lawbreaker in the
vicinity. No other kind on organized crime (look up: Crime, the
Organized) does have that kind of manpower, that backing from the state
and such a global co-operation. Even when you are in the hands of
the army, if you're still alive and aren't mutilated enough to consider
yourself murdered already, there are a lot of forces in the world ready
- and even actually eager to challenge that particular army - and
even your tiny case may serve as a nice pretence. It isn't nearly
as easy to challenge the actions of the police, its always costly even
to attempt to do so, and in the most cases it may not be done in the
real time - even the costly help won't arrive in time for anything
more, than the attempt to avenge you. The good part of the story
is, that even the state with its government does fear that kind of
power - and doesn't let it go unchallenged. All kind of
diplomatic immunities do exist only to create some thin layer of these,
that doesn't have to fear the Police. Even the lawyers (look up:
Lawyers, the) do have some kind of imminence in the eyes of the
police... but that's based on some kind of the unwritten accords, that
prevent the police going after a lawyer on the condition, that he won't
question certain police practices. As compared to the actual
power he wields, even the big policeman's salary looks like a
pittance. It make the Police one of the most corrupted (look up:
Corruption, the) bureaucratic (look up: Bureaucracy, the)
organizations. Just a few years ago, some government attempts
were made to determine the exact location of the Police connections
with the organized crime. The simplest way is the surest one -
and the important information was handled to the heads of the different
Police departments, under the label of the top secrecy and with varying
"small" but important differences, distortions. Would you be
surprised to hear, that EVERY version leaked to the organized
crime in the space of few hours? The interesting thing to
determine is the question wherever the information leak is one-sided or
does it work both ways? How many does the Police know about the
plans of the organized crime? Actually, it's the question of the
power structure, you may ask, instead, just how high ranking are the
Police department heads in the organized crime hierarchy?
Power, the - the ability to perform the
enforcement actions (look up: Enforcement, the). Certainly, it
does require some manpower. But there is so much more to
it. The moral, the will, readiness and the ability to do violence
counts for more, than the shear force of numbers. Even the army
did understand it from the dawn of times. Then comes the material
part of the enterprise - starting from the money that may buy it.
The ancient Greeks were, probably the first ones to realize its
importance - and to call the money the bloodstream of the war (look up:
War, the). But even the gold isn't all there is to it. To
be ready to the ultimate forms of violence, to the real and final test
of Power, you should keep your arms in the state of the permanent
readiness, to have the logistics, which brings the newest weapons to
you service no later, than they became practical ones to use.
From the viewpoint of the Power, everything is considered a weapon,
starting from the good roads and water supply. The Romans were
probably the first people to realize it. Then, there is the
feedback between the modern technology and the desirable qualities of
your manpower to consider. Once, the Spartans thought, that the
strength, health, dedication and training were everything. Then,
their days as the military power were gone, as they were outsmarted by
their opponents. So, the general have had to be smart enough even
then. Not too smart, mind - the Caesar was more of the threat to
his motherland, than any barbarians could ever be. Nowadays, you
need a quick mind to drive the simplest tank and to pilot the simplest
jet fighter. You need to be more intelligent by far to
design them. Today, even the army sees that the power is in the
military machinery, these, who may man it, and even these, who design
it. So far, so well. But nowadays, there are hackers (look
up: Hacker, the) to consider. Well, there is always some
hackers. They are these people, who may conscript the machinery
to their service, just as the state (look up: State, the) may conscript
the manpower - with no moral right for it, but with the plenty ability
to back, to enforce their desires. To keep the service of your
own machinery and/or to conscript your opponent's one to your service,
or, at least, to deprive him from the services of his own, you need to
have the very best hackers on your pay check. Yes, on your pay
check. However the shocking does come the fact to the officers,
the more ability you do require in these, who serve you, the more
honour you have to show in your dealing with them. The soldier
may be conscripted, even the general may be shouted upon, the
technician shall be paid, but, in the addition to it, he may be put
under pressure too - but the scientists are of no use, unless treated
and paid well enough - and hackers are the threat to anybody, who tries
to cheat them in the least. Currently, the Powers do try to
outlaw the hackers to press them into their service from the position
of strength - and I may almost pity those, who do indulge their
stupidity in so costly a way. And even that doesn't seams to be
the last stage in the evolution of the power. As the war becomes
less and less practical an option, as it becomes more and more costly,
more and more impossible to contain and threatening to the very
existence of our species, the Powers have to compete in the more
peaceful ways. They always did so, but once the military
competition was the most crucial to the survival, and today, it seams,
its gradually replaced by the economic competition, but in the future,
it may become the competition in the technology - with less and less
relevance to its practical impact - be it military, or in
economics. And than comes the ability to sell your achievements
to the people, and even to the technological elite. Here comes
the age of the power over the minds, rather, than the power over the
bodies. Now, they do call it the informational warfare, but there
is so much more to it, than the deceit - there are powerful concepts,
there are working concepts, there are the entities, that were called
the informational viruses, symbiotic abstractions and even the gods by
some - and just "The Sheep" - by Haruki Murakami.
Proof, the - the strict proof is the positive
one. You have to ensure, that something actually did happen this
way. You have to recheck your Proof and let a few specialists to
help you with it. You'd rather proof, that where wasn't any other
way for it to happen to, to rule out any conceivable alternative - but,
in the strict sense, all by itself it doesn't constitute the Proof, as
there are other logics about, but Aristotelian one. Nowadays,
most of the scientists do agree on what does constitute the scientific
Proof. And that bears no resemblance whatever to what does
constitute the legal proof (look up, Proof, the Legal).
Proof, the Legal - the abomination used in the
judicial system (look up: Judicial System, the) instead of the proof
(look up: Proof, the). They put some publicly known possession of
yours on the crime (look up: Crime, the) scene - you are the
criminal. The criminal "looked sort of like you" in the middle of
night, in the middle of fog, viewed for a halve a second, as remembered
after a couple of months to the witnesses - you are the criminal.
You were threatened, or outright tortured into confession - you are the
criminal. The state's prosecution, or some costly lawyer did
manage to convince few non too bright a citizens in your guilt, or they
just didn't like you and get too bored of the proceeding - and you are
the criminal. Well, here we are, and even this kind of criminal
justice (look up: Justice, the Criminal) is ways too costly to
implement - that is, not even speaking of the humanitarian aspect.
Protection, the Racket - the principal racket of the state (look
up: State, the) and an important one to the organized crime (look up:
Crime, the Organized) too. The simple, unvarnished fact is, that
no peaceful activity is possible in our world without some kind of
armed protection to back it. In fact, even the most warlike
organizations do need some kind of the mutual security system.
When such an armed forces to reckon with are uniting to increase their
defensive power (look up: Power, the), they do it "voluntarily" - to
say, forced by the circumstances, by the life itself, rather by
their potential "allies", even as even them rarely have much choice in
the matter. In such relatively equal, symmetrical an
alliances the profits are the stability, increased security and, maybe,
saving some money on that security, too. The real profits came,
than a powerful organization is "proposing" such an insurance to
someone relatively defenceless - for a fee. In such
"misalliances" the service is, usually, enforced on the client.
The states and other organized crime organizations do traditionally
enforce such a "taxes" (look up: Taxes, the) on everyone within their
controlled territory and even do try to go a bit more far afield, when
something sufficiently fat and defenceless turns up. As the
forced protection means, first of all, the protection from the
protector itself, when the client does actually need the protection he
paid for already, he is, in the very best case offered some lame
excuses, instead of one - and usually he is tolled that it's all his
own fault and he shall consider himself really lucky, if he wouldn't be
officially blamed, persecuted and punished for it. The state
won't protect you from the crime (look up: Crime, the), and the crime
won't protect you from the state, and when one state is trying to
protect you from the other, or one criminal organization tries to
protect you from the other... well, if the actual hostilities would
eventually break up, you would, most probably, be the first one to
suffer the consequences. Whoever does shear his sheep, doesn't
mean to skin them and lose their wool in the future, but, when there
are too many sheerer per single sheep - well, the skinning just tend to
- sort of happen.
Reader, my - reader of these lines, I do not, by
any means try to rob you out of your love to your god father, your holy
father, your president and your jailer. I argue you to spend a
moment in contemplation each time one of these near and dear fellows
asks you to spill the blood - yours or some poor son of bitch and/or to
act in conflict with your consciousness, if you have one - and that's
it.
Religion, the - historically, the first power
(look up: Power, the) to bring the humanity some kind of culture, some
kind of law (look up: Law, the) and order, some kind of state (look up:
State, the) organization. It is, also, the first power behind the
large scale wars, large scale repression and other large scale
atrocities. The first significant cases of genocide recorded were
brought about by the than young monotheism - but then, as it brought
about the first known and recorded attempt to achieve the general
literacy, too - that may be the case of its rather sad priority in all
kind of recorded atrocities... The secular culture has, in the
last couple of millenniums, grown far beyond the wildest dreams of the
rigid adherents of religion. Even the modern flexible religions
may not change nearly fast enough to incorporate the latest
achievements of the modern science. The religious law is so much
outdated as to be totally inapplicable in the modern society. The
religious "morality" sounds absolutely immoral as it speaks approvingly
of the slavery and contradicts the church practices all the time.
So, is that it? Alas, not nearly so. We started the twenty
first century with the new generation of the religious conflicts and
rather gruesome atrocities. The very laws, that separated the
religion from the state and defined its place, rights (look up: Rights,
the) and freedoms - and were so progressive at the time, all of the
sudden became our lethal undoing. Instead of stripping the state
religion of all its privileges, we just extended them to all the
religions - and suffered the consequences. Than, these privileges
were stripped from the sects - and that proved to be an insufficient
halve measure. Should we just outlaw the Religion, now? Oh,
but the monotheism has some venerable tradition of the existence out of
the bonds of the law! It would nothing, but flourish, if
criminalized (look up: Crime, the). It thrives in poverty, it
prays to it martyrs. The religion fills some kind of emptiness in
the people's souls - and there is nothing around that may replace it,
as yet. Like the drugs (look up: Drugs, the) it should not be
criminalized. Stripped of all its privileges, carefully watched,
but, still, not an outlaw.
Rights, the - the list of activities, allowed to you - by the human
law (look up: Law, the), laws of nature, tradition, some kind of
agreement or public accord - without the need to personally take care
for the enforcement (look up: Enforcement, the) of your Rights - as
they are enforced otherwise. Surely, it's an idealized
concept. All of us do think, we have the Right to breathe - till
somebody actually tries to suffocate us. In reality, we do often
need to protect our Rights - even as, in theory, there should never be
any need for that. The rights weren't invented by humans.
For example, the very existence of the rituals of submission in the
animal kingdom implies some kind of the one's right to remain alive
and, in fact, even relatively healthy after losing the battle to a
peer, or even the leader, one chooses to challenge prematurely, even
unwisely. Your dog would scream, if you would step on it's paw -
and you may call that an instinctive reaction; but it would scream at
you if you try to deprave it of some right, that you granted it
yourself right to the bones, which remained from your dinner, its place
on its pallet, or in your armchair, etc. - and it looks as a cultural
kind of the response; it calls to it's rights - and shouldn't even
imply any violence. In fact, if your dog seriously growls at you
- both of you are in need of some help from the specialist - and if
it's ready to bite you - the help is long overdue.
Rights, the Human - the rights (look up: Rights,
the), we, in our mania of grandeur, do claim to be our own - by the
right of birth as the human being. We do claim the right to live
- even as the earthquakes, tsunami and tornado don't recognize
it. Actually, the state (look up: State, the) and its law (look
up: Law, the) do claim the right to take our lives as they will - in
wars (look up: War, the), in the course of the execution of our
"duties" and in other kinds of just (look up: Justice, the)
retributions. We do have the right not to be tortured, even as
the states and other kinds of the organized crime (look up: Crime, the
Organized) do it to us all the time and we do it to one another
too. The religious ones, at least, do claim their god given right
to the unlimited propagation - even as the biosphere of our planet may
not support it for much longer. Nowadays, in the most of the
world, the rich do acknowledge the right of the poor to some kind of
food and shelter - they don't won't to feel themselves the inevitable
pray of the choice of the despaired, after all - but this "right" is
really affordable only in the relatively rich societies and is hardly
compatible with the "right" to the endless propagation.
Taxes, the - the protection (look up: Protection,
the Racket) money, that the citizens have to pay to their state (look
up: State, the) - as well, as to any other states, that have the
power (look up: Power, the) to enforce (look up: Enforcement, the)
their Taxes upon their persons and/or upon some of their activities.
State, the - As the gangs of the law (look up: Law, the) breakers
grown up in their size and power, they gradually divided among
themselves, growing into the organized crime (look up: Crime, the
Organized) and governments (look up: Government, the). Namely,
the daytime racket of protection became government just as soon, as its
leaders started to fight among themselves for the better place in the
hierarchy and build themselves some kind of fortified castles; while
the night-time protection racket, that gave more freedom by far to its
ranks and didn't care overmuch for the hierarchy and fortification,
became organized crime of the mafia type - honour, family values,
etc. Every time you do hear loud noises about the honour and
family values, it may be worthwhile to consider this point. Well,
when it decides, that the time came for a good, messy war (look up:
War, the), the government takes the traditional mafia values out of
their dusty closet, air them up a bit, and presents to the general
public for its own. A rather dirty business, as they go, the
state is - but there are, currently no alternative to this and other
forms of organized crime, as the anarchy manages to be worse,
still. So, however you would call the fiefs of the other kinds of
the organized crime, the territory, which the government thinks, that
it owns, was called The State - together with the government itself,
and everything inside its borders. Today, the States are
associated with the peoples, just like the slaves of the household were
the part of the family in the ancient Rome on the very dawn of its
existence, and the pets are even now. Some peoples go so far, as
to consider themselves the owners of their states - but there is no
way, as yet, for the whole people to manage the State efficiently - and
thus, the only real power, that the peoples may have - is the power to
change their governments, which work hard on making even that power of
the peoples an empty illusion, by dividing themselves into a small
number of interconnected alternative governments, which are the one
with one another and other types of the organized crime.
War, the - the ultimate demonstration of the lack
of power (look up: Power, the). While the belief in power is
strong, while it looms huge in the mind's eyes of all other powers -
big and small, there would be no real need for any kind of the
enforcement (look up: Enforcement, the) of its law (look up: Law, the),
its interests and the power shows in general. When the belief is
weakened, there comes the time for some power show, some demonstration,
some example. Still, its a far cry from the real war. Being
a power is all about the ability to intimidate one's opposition into
surrender, failing intimidating it into the total inaction in the first
place. But when the power becomes unsure in itself - and most
rightfully so, when it lacks the ability and/or will to control the
territories it claimed by its own - to protect its "clients" and to
protect itself - then comes the time for the War. When the
government (look up: Government, the) of the state (look up: State,
the) wages a large scale War, it does the most perverted and even
humorous thing: it conscripts its citizens. It actually pays back
a small part of the taxes (look up: Taxes, the), the protection money
(look up: Protection, the Racket) to the very same clients it sold its
protection services to - and, of all the things, actually requires
their protection! Moreover, it actually tries to FORCE them into
protecting it! Now, speaking about temerity... The organized
crime (look up: Crime, the Organized) does nearly the same things - but
in a far more neat way. It collects the unpayable debts, it
provides the services it didn't care to put the fixed price tag on in
the first place - and then, as the way of repayment you have to provide
your services in return. Sounds kind of just (look up: Justice,
the), free choice, that everybody makes for himself... but in the end,
it covers about the same shit as the conscription does. With each
technological revolution, smaller and smaller the power may challenge
the biggest fellows - as the very meaning of the power evolves and the
oldest components became more and more obsolete. The
unconventional weapons may replace millions of soldiers - even as they
don't all by themselves spell the end to the age of tanks, planes and
rockets. Few dozens of the top level hackers (look up: Hacker,
the) may give you all the enemy's technology on the plate - his
research, all his know-how and the use of all his high technology
systems. Just a couple of hackers may deprive your opponent of
the use of his technology and wreck the chaos in all his high
technological systems, intelligence including. Even as the
hackers don't all by themselves spell the end to the age of
unconventional weapons and robot, they just change the priority of
development and funding. The problem with the mass destruction
weapons is their ever increasing availability. The problem with
hackers is their tendency to be thinking and even self employed a
force. The problem with robots is, that very existence of the
military ones puts an end to all the efforts to make them capable of
the peaceful coexistence with us. When the self replicating
military nanotechnology or artificial intellect would be developed -
whatever comes first we may kiss our planet good bye. We are
coming to the stage, where we won't be able to afford to wage the
actual Wars. The War becomes more and more incompatible with the
very existence of the mankind. So does the military funded
research - even without the actual application. You may see the War as the straight and brutal approach to the redistribution of the limited resourses and power; it always was the simplest way to prevent the overpopulation - just like the natural disaster and plagues did, but, supposedly, it's more easily controlled (not really, and, alas, no more); now it helps to get rid of the results of the overproduction too - with some nice money making opportunities for some interested parties on the way. However, it's hardly worth the exponentially increasing risk of our selfdestruction.
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