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Khodzadegi

Khodzadegi (Self-Toxication) خود زدگی

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Khodzadegi (Self-Toxication) خود زدگی

And the Nature of Non-Matter

Cure: Abolishment the Intelectual Property Rights Regime

Document Number: DRAFT-120009   [ .bib ]
Version: 0.6
Dated: February 25, 2009
Group: essays
Primary URL: http://mohsen.banan.1.byname.net/DRAFT/120009
Federated Publications: ByTopic -- ByContent
AccessPage Revision: This AccessPage was produced on May 21, 2013 at 17:20 PDT (-0700)
Author(s): Mohsen BANAN

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SHORT DESCRIPTION

Khodzadegi (Self-Toxication) is the disease that inflicts a society when capitalism becomes not just the economic model, but also the societal model as well. It takes an Iranian Software Engineer to identify America as a terminally ill society and to identify the ramifications of propagation of the Western Intelectual Property Regime to the East. It may be too late for America, but there is an Eastern solution.

Many symptoms of the rotting of the American society have become more clear in the past several years. The absolute total failure of health care, lack of truth in mainstream American media, bogus invasions of sovereign land are some such symptoms. These in turn signal failures of the professions of Journalism, Medicine and Politics in America.

The ill that has brough these symptoms is that capitalism kills professions.

There are measures that members of each profession should take to defend their profession. The key measure that I focus on for my profession (Software Engineering) is the rejection of Intelectual Property regime.


FULL INLINE DOCUMENT

Khodzadegi

خود زدگی


و ماهیت غیر شیع


Khodzadegi (Self-Toxication)


And the Nature of Non-Matter


Cure: Abolishment the Intelectual Property Rights Regime







Document # DRAFT-120009
Version 0.7 - February 25, 2009







This is a DRAFT document



It reflects work in progress.
It is undergoing rapid updates and evolution.




Copyright © 2009 Mohsen BANAN



Permission is granted to make and distribute complete (not partial)
verbatim copies of this document provided that the copyright notice
and this permission notice are preserved on all copies.



Contents

This is a Draft

It reflects work in progress. It is half baked. It is also quite incomplete.

It is inappropriate to quote text from this draft document.

It is inappropriate to cite this draft document in other documents. This draft is unstable and is undergoing changes and updates.

For the most part what is in here are notes for myself.

There is enough in here for some to be able to read in between the lines. I would like to hear your comments and criticism. Contact me.

Note: Concept of Corporation and Corpocracy needs to be developed.

NOTYET: When owner ship rights are wrong, horrible things happen. Consider Slavery. The damage that Intellectual Property Rights regime will cause will prove to be larger than the damage of slavery. Keep your eyes on the nature of what is being owned (non-matter for IPR and human beings for Slavery) and the stupidity of Western laws becomes clear.

NOTYET: Beyond Gharbzadegi: Khodzadegi

1 What is this paper?

And, What Am I Doing?

I write this because a disease is spreading which is damaging my profession (Software Engineering) and my society (Iran).

More broadly speaking, this disease is capable of killing humanity.

A sequel to جلال آل احمد Jalal Al-E Ahmad's ``Gharbzadegi: Weststruckness'' غرب زدگى [#!PLPC-120024!#], [#!englishTranslation!#] is needed. Gharbzadegi was written in 1964 (<1343>) when Iran was facing Western dominance and colonialization in the Industrial age. The Iranian revolution did stop certain aspects of the disease that Al-E Ahmad identified. But, roots of that disease remains at work and it is morphing and in different forms it has been spreading. Gharbzadegi has infected the West itself. What should we call that? Khodzadegi خود زدگی (Self-Toxication)? Now that very same Khodzadegi is spreading in the East.

Since then, in addition to the Iranian revolution we have had the Information Technology revolution as well. The meaning and significance of both these revolutions is under understood. Western style raw capitalism (source of Khodzadegi) has been extentded to the non-material world through the Intellectual Property regime and is again being forced upon the East. Blindly, we have entered a new era based on Western law and with Western attitudes.

We happen to be living at a rare inflection point of technological environment. We wittnessed the beginning of information age. It is at this very begining that our actions and thoughts have most impact. Later the disease will be easier to notice but harder to stop.

What is happening now is far more subtle and crucial than what was happening in 1964. If we don't catch this early enough the damage will be very serious. It is not just a matter of rejecting the Western Intellectual Property laws. We should reject the thought and the concepts of Western Copyright and Patent and find our own - not by adopting but by rethinking.

In the West in general and in America in particular the econmic model has become the societal model. A rotten model that we certainly want to avoid. The forces at work are propagating this as a trend.

It may well be too late for America and Americans. I am not writing any of this for mainstream American or mainstream Western consumption. Of course, this draft is in English and these thoughts are open to all. Whoever can build on it wherever and however they wish.

I am attempting to identify the essence of the disease and cure it in the context of East starting first with my own profession.

There may be a cure. The Eastern tradition does have some of the right models in it to fight this disease. The concept of Non-Material Capitalism - that is Capitalism which rejects the western Copyright and Patent regime - resonates most with Eastern traditions and Software Engineering profession. It is natural for non-matter to be shared. Copying is natural law and knowledge thrives through free dissemination. Collaboration is more human than competition. Society profits when it is in harmony with nature of non-matter. Free/Libre Software and Libre Services are not just theories anymore. They are real. We can build on these and free ourselves.

In specific when it comes to Iran, how should we be formulating our national policies to fend this disease. Given the extremely critical role of the Western Intelectual Property regime in the Information era, where should Iran/East stand on that? How do we Easterners go about rejecting the so called Western Intelectual Property regime?

The domain of analysis is very complex and I certainly am not fit to deal with it alone.

So, I offer my thoughts and actions and hope for your thoughts and actions.

I write this as a Software/Internet Engineer.

I write this as an Easterner/Iranian.

Yet, I am writing it in Bellevue, WA, USA and in English as a Gharb-Oftadeh: Westfallen 1 غرب افتاده.

2 First Draft In English

The right choice of language for a topic such as this is a function of audiance, domains of discussion and dimensions of analysis.

The primary audience being Iranians and Easterners makes Farsi/Persianq, Arabic and Chinese as natural choices.

Yet, I am writing this first draft in English. From a practical perspective, I am best equipped to capture my thoughts.

If there is merit, I hope to also write this in Farsi/Persian. The Farsi/Persian version should not be viewed as a translation but a different version.

Beyond the obvious audience impact, the choice of language actually impacts thought and communications.

Farsi/Persian has 2 distinct words for Uncle (Amoo va Dayee) and 2 distinct words for Aunt (khaleh and Ameh). That gets amplified by 2 when you get to first cousins (pesar amoo, dokhtar khaleh, ...). In Chinese, aunts and uncles additionally have age ranks in explicit words. In Chinese, there are two distinct words for grand father (Ypo, ...) and 2 distinct words for grand mother (Ykon, ...). There is no good translation for ``Gharbzadegi'' غرب زدگى. The english translators of Al-Ahmad's book take 2 pages to justify why hanging to the orginal word is justified. Neither west toxication, nor west strickenness does it justice. When it comes to family, society and values Eastern languages are generally richer than Western languages.

NOTYET: Use of English as an Internation Form of communications. Not the American use of English. Fox (the American English) says ``War on Terror'' and ``Israel'', Aljazeera, Press TV (International English) says: ``the so called War on Terror'' and Zionist state. My use is International English (the so called Intellectual Property Rights regime) not the American/British english.

Western languages are richer in terms of established vocabulary when it comes to business, war, exploitative law and technology. To the extent that the terms ``patent'' (sabteh ekhter) and ``copyright'' (haghe chap) exist in Farsi/Persian they are raw and crude translations. Same thing with western made ``Intelectual Property Rights''. Atomic Bomb (bombeh atom) is a literal translation. Pahlevan have value conotoations that are absent in Warior. I don't even know what the translation for ``hedge fund'' would be.

Language in fact impacts thought and behavior. Syntax and semanttic are generally not independent of one another. The thought of ``Shock and Awe'' (Notyet: best farsi translation) would be very unnatural in Farsi/Persian.

Then there is what is lost in transaltion and mis-translation. When President Ahmadinejad says ``This injustice in Palestine shall dispear from the pages of history'' and it becomes ``Israel should be wiped off the page of earth'' says how good Americans have become in propaganda through mistranslation.

Beyond practicalities, there are a number of other reasons why a rough first draft in English makes good sense. The native vocabulary of self-toxicated makes it easier to point to the disease. Demonstration of my mastery of the western concepts provides credibility when it comes to the logic of rejection of the same concepts. The dangers of lost in transaltion and mis translation are addressed from the get go. The shared benefits of stopping the disease early on before it impacts Easterners (Arabs, Indians, Chinese, Japanese, ...) can be had by exploiting the universality of English.

With this first draft in English, perhaps some Westerners may be helped to see that they are sick, acknowledge their disease and work towards a cure. One can hope.

If my thoughts expressed in this rough draft in English are worthy of exposure, those wishing to help me with the Farsi/Persian version. can drop me a note at ``contact me''.

3 Self and Society

The fundamental difference between Eastern and Western thinking and tradition revolves around the relationship of individual and the society. Western thought takes it towards supremacy of the individual. Eastern thought takes it towards supremacy of the society.

The so called Intellectual Property regime (Copyright, Patent, Trade Secrets and Trade Marks) was meant to be a construct to balance the interests of the individual and those of the society. It is a Western construct.

Hang on to these two thoughts during this discourse.

4 The Disease

The nature of the disease is not well understood neither in the society where it started and is spreading most rapidly (America) nor amongst my colleagues (Internet/Software Engineers).

The disease is Khodzadegi (Self-Toxication). Acute Selfishness amplified through raw Capitalism has become the way of life in the West in general and in America in particular. This disease has been spreading rapidly in the West as celebrated selfishness and materialism and in the East through colonialism, neo-colonialism under such labels as globalism.

The incubation period for this disease is very long. By the time the patient realizes he is sick, it is too late. In the case of America, it is probably already too late. That patient is likely terminal. I want to stop this disease before it kills other societies.

I speak not of over consumption, polution, exploitation, destruction of the environment, ... These are just symptoms.

This disease is capable of killing humanity.

5 Health of a Society

The underlying concepts of Capitalism in modeartion have merit. I am saying that an economic model such as Capitalism should remain subservient to the societal model. When the economic model becomes the societal model, you end up with a sick society. The sickness is particularly egregious when the economic model is based on negative human characteristics. Capitalism promotes selfishness. Its natural progression turns the economic model into a societal model. You end up with a selfish society of the selfish.

In Gharbzadegi: Weststruckness غرب زدگى Jalal Al-E Ahmad جلال آل احمد generally gets it right and puts his finger around the problem. However, machine and technology are not heart of the matter. We should embrace technology but require the right match between society, human environment (technology) and economic model. The search for this right match is my main focus.

Plenty goes into formation of a society, the bigger pieces that form and are formed by society include:

  • Societal Values - Morality, Religion, Custom, Art, Culture, ...
  • Technological Environment - Agricultural, Mercantile, Industrial, Information
  • Economic Model - Feudal, Communist, Capitalist, Socialist, Non-Material Capitalism. Mixed.
  • Professions - Journalism, Medicine, Teachers/Academic, Clergy, Lawyer, ...
  • Societal Governance - Dictatorship, Democracy, Theocracy, ...
  • Inter Societal Relations - Colonialism, Neo-Colonialism, Globalization, WTO, Professions sans frontier, ...

A large complicated mix, and yet we have not event touched on Character.

Health of a society revolves around the happiness and comfort that it brings to the society and lack of harm that it brings to other societies.

None of this is new and people have been looking for the right mix for a long time. We have history.

6 East and West

Well, what is a society? what is east? and what is west?

In Gharbzadegi, Al-E Ahamad provides his rough definitions. Let's consider that, prerequisite reading.

Empasis on the relationship of Self and Society is the fundumental difference between East and West. It is the balance that is important.

NOTYET: Bring in pictures from Moe Rahimi picture.

5 Americans go to a restaurant. 5 Brits go to a restaurant. 5 Iranians go to a restaurant. 5 Chinese go to a restaurant. The bill arrives. What happens?

The Americans and the Brits take out their calculators (virtual perhaps) and divide the bill based on who ate what and how much their particular portion is.

The Iranians and the Chinese try to compete or pretend to try to compete to pay the entire bill for everyone.

Eastern symbolisms. Significance of the gathering being higher than the food. Age, Hosting, Prestige comes as a result of generosity.

The further you move towards the Self the more material things become. The further you move towards the Society the more non-material things become.

Consider the Pope in Vatican vs the Ayatolahs in Ghom/Najaf. The Vatican is filled with Gold, Silver and Bronz. When you enter Pope's office there are fancy chairs everywhere, fancy everything everywhere. When you enter an Ayatollah's office, all is modest. You sit on the floor. The Material world is highly deemphasized.

Sure the Pope speaks of evils of materialism. His environment speaks louder than words. The Easterner sees the Material Western symbols. The Westerner sees alck of material as poor.

Consider a Christian funeral vs a Muslim funeral. The Christian funeral revolves around respect for the self by other self. Organized, orderly, material. The Muslim funeral is about grief of the society for one. It is not orderly. Lots of screaming.

Eating at home. Eating together. Clearing of the table. Each person's responsibility.

Sofreh. Sitting on the floor. Very easy to extend the sofreh. Not individualistic.

In America the largest societal unit is Self. In Iran the smallest societal unit is Family.

Tehran Taxis - Ghabeleh Shoma-ra Nadreh. Every day reminder that world does not revolve around money. No meters, fairness and reasonableness at work.

The Westerner and the Easterner. Westerner, analytical, planner, materialistic, responsible

Iran/East vs America/West. I am qualified.

Family, honor,

Easterner - Kamakazi, Harakiri, Uncle,

Materialism: Vatican vs Sistani

Concrete vs Abstract: Material and scietific vs Sufism, ...

Native American. Materialism.

Self doubt, analytical model leading to western scientific model.

Materialism suppressed in the east. Sistani vs the Pope.

Student a societal resource. Free school. exam based. vs American model.

Japanese factory vs American factory.

How Colonialism and exploitation suppresses economic and growth.

High school - Azarmi asks Borujerdi, why are all muslim countries backwards?

7 Technological Inflection Points and Ownership

Introduction of new technology in a society has immense ramifications.

Typically only those involved in the introduction of society understand ramification.

In no time the new technology becomes business and societal impact becomes business driven. By the time that society recognizes its values has been corrupted, it is too late.

Many technological inflection points introduce new entities. These new entities are then to be owned. That ownership analysis has multiple dimensions. Business and self-interest are the first reactions and usually get it wrong.

The mercantile era introduced other people as ``new entities to be owned''. Empty ships were travelling from Europe and America to Africa loaded with guns, business men and mercenaries. They were then coming back with human cargo. In the west that was all considered healthy business. Ship captain was watching all of that but said nothing.

The agriculture and farming era introduced animals as ``new entities are be owned''. In due course we got to agro-business and techno-farms.

The industrial age introduced oil as ``new entities to be owned''. British colonialism and American neo-colonialism came about.

Internet age introduced software, services, frequencies, spectrum, domain names, ... as ``new entities to be owned''.

8 Capitalism and Self-Toxication

Capitalism is deeply rooted and promotes the following concepts:

  • Selfishness
  • Ownership
  • Competition
  • Dominance and Exploitation

Proper functioning of the society requires balance. The economic model alone should not be the basis of the society. Many societies have accepted capitalism in moderation and have created mixed-economies.

The raw capitalistic model, American style, has brough wealth and dominance to those that have spoused the above raw concepts and at the same time it has made them morally bankrupt. The process of raw capitalism as an economic model to rule the American society involves elimnation of roles of key professions.

Capitalism is rooted in the material world. Its applicability to a manufacturing society has then been extentded to the non-material world through the Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) regime. The economic model that is fit for the material world is not fit for the non-material world.

9 Corporation: The Psychopath

Came with Capitalism the concept of the ``Corporation''. A legitimate entity parallel to humans whose only purpose is to be profitable. And to accumulate assets. The bulk of those assets are non-tangibles taking the form of ``Intelectual Property''. Western rules. They create frenkensteins.

10 Perhaps Too Late for America and Americans

Many symptoms of the rotting of the American society have become more clear in the past several years. The absolute total failure of health care, lack of truth in mainstream American media, bogus invasions of sovereign land are some such symptoms. These in turn signal failures of the professions of Journalism, Medicine and Politics in America.

Much of this essay is specific to the raw American flavor of capitalism. Although I have lived most of my life in America, I am Iranian. A system can not understand itself. The transformation requires a view from outside. Hence, this offering from outside of the American system.

National Character is purely a macro level abstraction.

It is defined by the paterns of behavior of a nation as a whole over time. Towards itself (health care, press, ...) and towards other nations.

This is not the domain of whitebox analysis and "dastam bood taghseer asteenam bood" does not cut it. It is not dast or asteen that are relevant. It is the entire behavior that becomes National Character.

The tone and position that I have taken in the context of this essay, is that of an outsider observing and rejecting.

A system can not understand itself. The transformation requires a view from outside [#!deming!#].

Much of this essay is specific to the raw American flavor of capitalism. Although I have lived most of my life in America, I am not American. I am Iranian.

This essay is mostly about observing a broken system and suggesting ways of fixing it.

Hence, this offering from outside of the American system.

It is reasonable for the society to hold professions accountable for fulfilling their responsibility. And when a profession fails to fulfill its responsibility, then it reasonable to use candid language with each member of that profession. Beacuse this mode of thinking is rare in America, my candid language can come across as harsh. Keep in mind that it is the failure of the profession, not my tone that is the source of the problem. I am just doing my part to agitate.

Most critical professions are already dead in America.

11 Inter Societal Relations

Another dominant characteristic of the selfish is exploitation. Exploitation has become an integral part of American capitalism and business.

American prosperity so far has been partly through exploitations of others, Native Americans, Blacks, Neocolonialism of middle east, ...

As the exploited resist, the exploitation is reduced, the prosperity is diminished. Selfishness then takes hold, capitalism turns inward and destroys its own society.

12 Properties of Non-Matter

The fundumental difference between Matter and Non-Matter is that Matter exists in singular and non-matter exists in multiple.

Knowledge, ideas, software, recorded music exist in multiples. Copying does no harm to the original.

You can't touch it, you can't feel it.

Because matter exists in singular, it is natural for it to have an owner.

12.1 Private and Public Non-Matter

Because non-matter exists in multiples it is not natural for it to have an owner. But non-matter can be private non-matter or public non-matter. Private non-matter is secret. Public non-matter is knowledge. Neither is ownable.

So called Intellectual Property Rights are unnatural.

Because non-matter is copy-able it thrives in a collaborative environment where they go through multiple derived work accumulation. It is unnatural for derived work from public non-matter to become

Non-matter knows no borders. Non-matter is transmittable. All of this in today's technological context. Digital era. Information.

Cost of reproduction is negligible.

The ``key'' to most houses is non-matter, itself marked as ``do not cuplicate.'' Because the key need not and should not be shared, it is Private Non-Matter.

In the context of digital signatures, the user's secret key is Private Non-Matter and public key is Public Non-Matter.

12.2 Forms of Non-Matter

Today our technological context presents us various forms of non-matter.

  • Software
  • Books
  • Music
  • Movies

Of course in due course some matter will evolve into non-matter. Given a particular set of orders (non-matter) a numerically controlled machine replicate matter which then becomes non-matter.

12.3 Manifestation of Non-Matter as Service

Meta level of Libre Services.

13 Intelectual Property

Capitalism is rooted in the material world. Its applicability to a manufacturing society has then been extentded to the non-material world through the Intellectual Property Rights regime.

A particularly powerful tool of business to dominate and crush professions is the so called Intellectual Property regime. The recognition that by rejecting Patents, Copyrights and the norms of trade secrecy many professions can protect themselves against business dominance is badly absent in most professions.

Journalism can be more productive and resistant to business corruption by rejecting copyright and adopting copyleft. Pharmacudical, Bio-Medicine and Medicine can be more productive and resistant to business corruption by rejecting patents and adopting the patent-free model.

The software engineering profession has already demonstrated how by adopting the copyleft and patent-free models it can resist dominance by business. GNU/Linux has stood up against the Microsoft monopoly.

The principles of the software engineering profession's collaborative model can be reapplied to many other professions.

In essence the solution is in properly defining non-material capitalism.

The general outline that can be deployed by members of many professions to resist corruption through raw capitalism are:

  • Reject the so called Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) regime.
  • Preserve communication freedoms of Internet.
  • Introduce new bunsiess models that are copyleft and anti-patent based.

13.1 Rejection of the so called Intellectual Property Rights Regime

About 100 years ago, the capitalist came up with the Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) regime which take away various individual freedoms.

Many Americans consider IPR regime as natural law. In fact it is a failed experiment.

The balance that Copyright and Patent law are to bring between the well of the society and the benefits of Business are resulting in harm to the society and lack of progress through collaboration.

The patent-free and copyleft model of GNU/Linux has demonstrated how IPR regime is inferior to the Libre regime.

13.2 Intellectual Property: A Failed Economic Model

It is a myth that Intellectual Property is the basis of successful economic model.

Linux has stood against the Microsoft Windows monopoly. This is not a software vs software issue. It is copyleft vs copyright. It is patent-free vs. patents. It is sharing vs trade secrets. It is and collaboration vs competition.

That very same model can be applied else where.

I have written a business plan based on that.

It is being used as an exploitative economic model where corporation and rich nations are milking poor countries.

13.3 Intellectual Property: A Rigged Misnomer

Did You Say ``Intellectual Property''? It's a Seductive Mirage.

We will use the term ``Non-Material Restrictions Regime'' NMRR to collectively refer to Copyright, Patent and Trademark. We will use NMRR and Intellectual Property interchangeably.

13.4 Intellectual Property and Religions

Property and Rights are proper domain of religions.

In the Moslem/Shiat tradition I located, http://www.ido.ir/a.aspx?a=1385023101

It is in Farsi/Persian and is quite comprehensive. It was sponsored by the Iranian Government. The summary is that most Shiat clergy invalidate Intellectual Property rights. Khomeini and Golpayegani are fully against Intelectual Property.

In the Jewish tradition I have found http://www.jlaw.com/Articles/copyright1.html

There is a summary at the end of that article.

In the Catholic tradition, there is: Jean-Paul II Encyclique "Laborem exercens" (1981) n°613

The English version is at: http://www.vatican.va/edocs/ENG0217/_INDEX.HTM

And there is: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=966681 full paper is there for download.

13.5 Copying is not Stealing

Stealing is only applicable to the material world. You can not steal non-mater.

Judaism, Christianity and Islam all consider stealing a sin. Judaism, Christianity and Islam all encourage sharing of knowledge and distribution, copying and reading of books.

God did not copyright his/her/its work. The Torah, the Bible and the Koran are all copyleft. There is no copyright notice on God's work. My work is always also copyleft. I encourage you to make your work copyleft as well.

13.6 IPR: A Western Construct

Patents and Copyright are a western construct. Even if they were to be a fit for western societies, they can be total misfit to other societies.

They have been promoted as a universal concept, They are not. Patents and Copyright have been pushed on other societies through globalization, neocolonialism and ... Swallowing the IPR regime has become price of entry into the likes of worldbank. Many West-Toxicated Japanese, Chinese, Indian, Iranians, etc have taken IPR at face value.

Sharing of knowledge, ideas, poetry, music, etc. are more dominant in many eastern societies.

14 Stoping the Disease

Key startegies:

  • Contain the Corporation
  • Reject Western self-oriented thought
  • Reject Western IPR regime
  • Redefine non-material norms towards the society
  • Contain capitalism to an economic model - not a societal model

Towards that emphasize responsibilities of the following to the society.

  • Role and responsibilities of Philosophers and thinkers
  • Role and responsibilities of Religion and the Clergy
  • Role and responsibilities of professions

15 Society above Individual

The American culture is primarily based on self and money.

In the form of ``Rugged Individualism'' Americans promote selfishness.

In the form of supremacy of ``Free Markets'' Americans have put money above all.

American culture and values are an off-shoot of western and Christian values.

Western cultures and religion are generally far more materialistic oriented than their eastern counter part. Consider the Pope's gold in Vatican to the Ayatolah's humble house. Consider the customs of a Christian funeral in contrsat to the customs of a Moslem funerl.

Money is not and need not be the main thing that drives people's action.

Humans do things that fall outside of the capitalist's model. If you think that people only do things for money, the actions of those 19 young men on 9/11 would not be easily understood.

The notion that you give based on your means and you receive based on your needs is foreign to Americans. Each on his own is very American.

The self-centered aspect of the American character pushes raw capitalism outside of boundaries of civilization.

It is the society that defines or selects the economic model. There is no such thing as a universal economic model.

Variations of mixed-economic model where free market and bounded capitalism are at work are appropriate for various socities. While many concepts of capitalism can prove productive in some societies, American style raw capitalism is a Frankenstein.

Once in place the dynamics of the economic model influences and changes the society. The choice of the economic model can generate a negative feedback loop that emphasizes the negative aspects of the societies character. Given time an economic model has the potential of rotting the society.

Economics is not a hard science. At best it is a very soft science. Western economists the likes of Adam Smith, Ludwig von Mises, John Maynard Keynes and Milton Friedman take themselves way too seriously. They create Frankensteins and are unaware of it. People are not for economy. Economy is for people. Society should be on top and economy underneath.

Raw capitalism has become the economic model of choice for materialstic and selfish Americans. That model further emphasis money and self. This negative feedback loop is out of control and full rotting of American society is predictable.

Adam Smith starts with selfishness and then puts the greater good spin of "invisible hand" on it thereby encouraging selfishness. There you have the feedback loop. It is just a matter of time.

Capitalism is selfish. It relies on selfish self-interest to promote a system whereby everybody gets the best they can. What it doesn't do is to dictate (as much as many would like to portray it as such) any definition of the best. While in theory Money is an obvious target for the best, but it isn't the only one. In practice, Money becomes the only target.

Once the feedback loop of selfishness is in place, it is only a matter of time that professions stop fulfilling their responsibility to the society. In due course the society rots. Most involved in the process are of course totally unaware of their own participation.

You assist an evil system most effectively by obeying its orders and decrees. An evil system never deserves such allegiance. Allegiance to it means partaking of the evil. A good person will resist an evil system with his or her whole soul." -Mahatma Gandhi

My concern here is that the rotting can spread beyond the American and Western societies and impact other socities.

16 Responsibilities of Professions

The ill that has brought these symptoms is that raw capitalism kills professions.

Proper functioning of a society depends on professions fulfilling their responsibilities. When professions fail their responsibility, the society falls apart.

Based on the above, it is then reasonable for the society to hold professions accountable for fulfilling their responsibility. And when a profession fails to fulfill its responsibility, then it reasonable to use candid language with each member of that profession. Beacuse this mode of thinking is rare in America, my candid language can come across as harsh. Keep in mind that it is the failure of the profession, not my tone that is the source of the problem. I am just doing my part to agitate.

Failure of all these professions have one main theme in common. They all became subservient to business and became tools of business.

People do things for other than money.

Part of the identity of an individual is defined by what he does. His profession. Based on the reputation of the profession, the individual receives respect from the society. That human need for respect is an integral part of life's balance.

Professions play specific role in proper functioning of the society. When a profession fails to fulfil its responsibility the society fails. If the Journalist bends the truth in favor of money, the truth starts to disappear. The society needs the truth. If the Doctor focuses on revenues and not healing, basic pursuit of happiness disapears from the society.

Unless responsilities of professions are accounted for in the economic model, then society falls apart.

Critical professions are failing in America and raw capitalism is rotting the society.

16.1 How Capitalism Killed the American Politician

The easiest profession that money could buy of course was the politician. To begin with most politicians are ambitious lawyers.

A more accurate label for the military-industrial complex is the military-industrial-congressional complex.

A simple tool for crushing public interest is extreme privatization. Every time there is a need to bring about balance between public interest and corporate interest, the winner is money.

The likes of AIPAC have mastered the process.

With that process in place, American democracy was replaced by corpocracy.

All that is left of democracy in the US is a name and pretences for Joe Sixpack and Mary Merlot. They are not the citizen, they are not the electorate but first and foremost they are the consumer.

16.2 The Profession of Journalism is Dead in America

Journalism is amongst a few critical professions that are essential to health of the society.

The responsibility of the journalist is to publish the truth. Simply put the journalist is to report the facts accurately and without bias, agenda, prejudice or passion. If the journalist is bought then there is no truth. The society starts to rot.

That has now fully happened to the American journalist.

There is very little truth left in the American press. Spheres of consensus are created and manipulated by corporation, the corpocracy and neocolonial agendas.

Self-censorship has become second nature to the point that the American journalist is unaware of it.

Here are some of the dynamics. If the American journalist writes pro-Israel he gets promoted. If the American journalist writes pro-Palestine he gets demoted. Guess what gets written. The truth has become irrelevant to the American journalist. All that he remains concerned with is the pretence of balance.

Real journalists the likes of Alexander Cockburn are driven to the fringes. Extreme Zionists the likes of Wolf Blitzer receive full corporate support and become corpocracy's favorite.

As corporate tools and agents of corpocracy, the American journalist manipulates the American consumer and creates bogus Spheres of consensus such as:

  • Bogus Sphere of Consensus: Jews Are the Victims
  • Bogus Sphere of Consensus: Israeli Jews are democratic, Moslem Palestinians are Terrorists
  • Bogus Sphere of Consensus: American and Israeli interests are the same
  • Bogus Sphere of Consensus: Saddam has weapons of mass destruction
  • Bogus Sphere of Consensus: Iran is a threat

The journalist is expected to function as a mirror for the society. The ugly American character is perfectly happy with a rigged mirror.

As a result the sphere of consensus outside of the US is that the core of the American character is that of a morally bankrupt self absorbed bully.

Failures of the profession of journalism in America are numerous and widespread. Below I touch on several that I have first hand experience with.

16.2.1 Failing The Palestinians

16.2.2 The Post Iranian Revolution Failure

The deactivation of the US embassy in 1979 was directly linked to the 1953 CIA coup.

Iranians could not have taken a chance and allow the US embassy to possibly be reused for another coup. Deactivation of the US embassy was a measure of self-defense.

Though details of the Mossadeq coup were well known at the time, the American press portrayed it as an unprovoked hostage crisis.

The American journalist failed to give meaningful historic context to the deactivation of the US embassy.

16.2.3 The Iran-Iraq War Failure

The US press portrayed the invasion of Iran by Saddam as a justified conflict.

16.2.4 The Dot-Con Failure

The American journalist sucked up to spin and flippers and participated in much pump and dump.

16.2.5 The 9/11 Failure

After 9/11 no American journalist ever bothered to ask WHY?

The likes of Chalmers Johnson who understood blowback were pushed to the fringes.

16.2.6 The Iraq Invasion Failure

As tools of the Military-Industrial-Congressional complex the American journalist pushed the neo-con agenda and took Americans to a botched colonial war.

16.2.7 The Iran Demonization Failure

The American journalist again functioned as a tool of corpocracy and the Zionist AIPAC to demonize Iran without regard to facts.

Deliberate Mistranslation of ``Israel Should Be Wiped Off the Map''

Deliberate Portrayal of President Ahmadinejad as Jewish holocaust Denier

Iran Fear Mongering

16.2.8 Copyleft and Journalism

Copyright is the primary tool of the capitalist to control Journalism. What if the profession of Journalism was to adopt Copyleft as a matter of course?

16.3 The Profession of Medicine is Dead in America

Medicine is amongst a few critical professions that are essential to health of the society.

Real understanding of failure of the profession of medicine in America, gives you a very good glimpse into the real character of the American people.

16.3.1 American Doctor: The Real Sicko

You have to be deaf, blind and dumb or you have to be American not to know that the American health care system is totally screwed up. Yet it was necessary for Michael Moore to make the case for Joe Sixpack through Sicko.

16.3.2 The American Doctor/Customer Relationship

By nature, the doctor/patient relationship is supposed to be very unique and very special. Raw American capitalism has turned that into business. Just for money, the American Doctor has been happy to become of tool of business. Forgoing the reputation of his profession, just in one or two generations.

The oath has become a joke. There is no more trust. There is no trusting the businessman.

It has come to this. My unfortunate interactions with the American doctor goes like this:

``Hello. I don't know which is worse, getting sick or having to see you.''

``Bye. Nice doing business with you.''

16.3.3 Failure of the American Doctor

Despite being well educated and well paid, the American doctor put up no fight as his profession was being killed by the businessman.

There is plenty that the American Doctor could have done and can do. That it has not even done. I am yet to meet ONE American doctor who is willing to take responsibility for the collective profession of medicine.

The universal model is the only civilized model. The private (money rules) model is in direct conflict with the Hippocratic Oath. Who is to get the care when resources become limited? In America, not the one that needs it most. But the one with most money. Yet at no point did the American Doctor organized as a political force and took a position. The Insurance and bio-Med lobby have the politician and the American doctor in their pocket.

Plenty of foreign doctors have come to Mecca of Capitalism for money. They are perfectly happy being tools.

16.3.4 Anti-Patent and Medicine

The primary tool that the drug companies employ to maximize profit is the patent regime. Break that patent hold and you have a chance in lessening the influence of the capitalists.

16.3.5 Infant Mortality

16.4 The dotCon Attack on the Engineering Profession

Engineers built the Internet based on principles of freedom and collaboration.

In the late 90s financiers and businessmen took the Internet and turned it into dotCon. The dot-com bubble was a massive fraud perpetrated by financiers against the engineering profession, honest businesses, and the public. For me personally, the dotCon era was a call to action to take steps to protect my profession and expose fraudulent business practices.

Preservation of privacy and societal freedoms in Internet is partly the responsibility of software engineers.

Our introduction of concept of Libre Services and an open business model based on copyleft and patent-freedom is part of fulfilling that responsibility.

16.4.1 Responsibility of First Generation Internet Engineers

Generally speaking, engineering is not amongst critical professions that are essential to the health of the society.

The nature of engineering work is simple and straight forward. You build good things and you get paid for it.

Emergence of software engineering and Internet over the past 50 years or so have somewhat changed things. Before software, what engineers built was material. Rules for ownership of buildings and bridges is clear and straight forward. But who should own software? Should software development process model be based on the competitive model or should it be collaborative.

The businessmen and capitalists followed the proprietary and the competitive model and have produced the likes of Microsoft Windows.

The engineers followed the free/libre and the collaborative model and have produced the likes of GNU/Linux.

The businessmen, financiers and capitalists want copyright and patents. Engineers defended their profession by rejecting copyright and patents.

Internet was initially built on the libre/free model, but now business dominates it. The overall model of Internet operations is being determined as I write.

What happens to the direction of Internet is being determined right now. Future generations will experience the consequences of our action or inaction. Future generation of Internet engineers will have a great deal less power to impact direction of the Internet.

As first generation Internet engineers it is our responsibility to take it in the direction of libre/free and collaborative.

16.5 MS Windows vs GNU/Linux

Success of GNU/Linux.

Instead of saying capitalism "degenerates professions" into wage-slaves (Marx also uses a less complimentary term of prostituting in the interest of capital) in service of capitalist masters, I say ``Capitalism Kills Professions''. Kill and death convey the notion of elimination.

Each profession has a responsibility to the society. Those responsibilities, get in the way of the raw capitalistic model to reduce all values in favor of money. So, raw capitalism first kills professions.

This concept crosses all professions turning journalists, economists, university professors, social scientist, etc, into apologists for the system.

17 Cure: Non-Material Capitalism

Two recent events leads this humble Iranian Internet/Software Engineer to think that there could well be a cure to this disease. The two events are:

  1. The Iranian Revolution
  2. Free Software Movement and the Internet

Each of these two events point to key aspects of how people (society) and professions can assert themselves over an economic model.

Preservation of privacy and societal freedoms in Internet is partly the responsibility of software engineers. For my profession, as a software engineer I have something to show.

We understood how Copyleft (GPL) and Free Software can prevent corruption of my profession. We now have GNU/Linux.

We are now putting on the table Libre Services in the context of a new Business Plan and a new Business Model.

Perhaps the success of our profession can be used as lessons for other professions.

My hope is that through proper analysis and thinking we can out maneuver the capitalists.

We introduce the label of Non-Material Capitalism as the economic model most appropriate to the non-material world, that of information, software, knowledge, ideas, music, etc.

Non-Material Capitalism is free market, private and competition oriented but it rejects ownership of non-mater. Otherwise, non-material capitalism is capitalism.

Unlike matter which exists in singular and is Property, Non-matter exists in multiples (through copies) and is not property. It is not in the nature of non-matter to be owned. The society benefits more when non-matter is not owned.

IPR regime is a failed experiment. Success of GNU/Linux and end-to-end dynamics of the free Internet have demonstrated that the copyleft and patent-free models are superior.

There is a chance for balance to be brought to raw capitalistic model of America through assertion of Non-Material Capitalism by key professions. This would involve recognition and understanding that raw capitalism kills professions and that adoption of non-material capitalism is in the interest of professions and society.

Many symptoms of the rotting of the American society have become more clear in the past several years. The absolute total failure of health care, lack of truth in mainstream American media, bogus invasions of sovereign land are some such symptoms. These in turn signal failures of the professions of Journalism, Medicine and Politics in America.

Capitalism thrives through individual selfishness. America as the home of the most selfish people has become Mecca of Capitalism. Other mature cultures and less selfish people are more resistant to raw capitalism.

One by one professions are failing and the American society is rotting.

18 Formulation of National Policy

Consensus oriented policy formulation in the open. Broad exposition, multi-disciplinary, lively discussions.

Non-Matter will dominate the future. Many crucial national policies need to be made to deal with non-matter.

This requires synthesis between professsions that are at the forfront of the technology, thinkers, the clergy and the government.

The sooner we deal with the topics that I bring out in this section, the better chance we have to stand against the West and contain Khodzadegi.

Clearly we don't have enough trained people to deal with this adequately.

Here I briefly touch on the aspects that relate to my profession.

18.1 Society Oriented Norms for Non-Matter

Consensus on rejection of Western style Patents and Copyright.

Rejection of Proprietary software. Do not use Microsoft Windows anywhere at all. Adopt GNU/Linux everywhere.

Create an Eastern front against WIPO (Western (not World) Intelectual Property Organization).

Fund strategic Libre Software projects.

Fund strategic Libre Services projects.

18.2 Harminze Spectrums Easternly

Spectrum (the right to transmit wirelessly) belongs to the society.

Cultivate spectrum with technology. Leave service delivery to free market.

Harmonize spectrum and technology with where it makes sense (Europe, Asia).

Where it makes sense, dedicate spectrum to professions.

18.3 Harminze Internet Easternly

None of the DNS roots are in Iran. ``.ir'' is in control of the west.

Harmonize central aspects of the Internet easternly.

How Iran IANA come about? totally ad-hoc.

No References!



Footnotes

... Westfallen1
Fallen in the west is an alternate translation


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