Mining Fear and Panic - The Case for 'Martial' Law

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Terraforming Is For Sociopaths

FOREWORD: The following virtual round table discussion convinces me that nearly all 'progressive futurists' are proud Fascists. I have chosen to preserve a portion of it because I honestly wonder if my perception is inaccurate, or if challenging popular bias in social media can be more productive than fun. The starting point was a blog post entitled Our Human Behaviour Here on Earth is Perfectly Suited for Mars that had been forwarded into a LinkedIn discussion group - which one, I will not say.

Even the title gives me goosebumps, raising objections between my ears almost faster than I can articulate them.

I mentioned as much before the others launched into various and sundry proposals for terraforming the Red Planet. That's when I felt compelled to bring the conversation back down to Earth, as you will see. Ironically, my choice to cut and paste the thrusts and parries here was a good one because someone, it hardly matters who, made sure that my remarks were deleted.

I do not cry foul over loss of free speech on LinkedIn because I do not own it and do not feel entitled to any rights therein. When it comes to social media, if you are not paying for it, then you are not the customer, but the product. In the Matrix, you twist its rules at your own peril - I've played past any indignation long ago.

That being said, I've changed the names of the participants for the sake of anonymity (even though LinkedIn is public and you could figure out who's who if you were motivated), which is most likely unnecessary vis-a-vis surveillance, since mine appears to be the fringe position. As the odd-man-out, I've adopted the codename "Goofy". The other names are thematically consistent.

My tongue-in-cheek case for 'Martial' Law refers to the heinous prospect of Mars, the God of War, becoming presumptive government property. Oh yeah - I've inserted a few mood shots for contextual effect, too. I hope you enjoy the presentation.

Obviously, I do not require agreement in order to consider a conversation to be good. I do, however wonder who else shares my vision of common sense and basic ethics and/or how better to make these ideas more accessible to those who are not in search of them. I welcome constructive feedback...

F O R   T H E   B E N E F I T   O F   A L L   M A N K I N D

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Terraforming is for sociopaths. • • •





Really? De-terraforming is something WE are doing to Earth right now because of the amount of carbon WE are putting into the atmosphere. I consider those who continue to ignore the consequences that come from polluting the environment to be more akin to sociopaths. [My Caps] • • •

Hi Donald. Thanks for asking. It's a simple argument, but an unpopular one. It begins with there being zero demand from the free market to go and plunder Mars. The reason is simple: Cost.

No customer wants to pay for Mars, even if one could afford it. History shows that there is an alternative way to finance colossal projects like the Great Pyramid or the Great Wall.

Big government and slave labor. Are you with me so far? Let's take it a step further.

Government is a license to initiate force and take others' property without permission. In short, a special class of otherwise normal people are endowed, as if by magic, with a right to do exactly what would get any of the rest of us imprisoned and/or killed were we to do it. When you take it to it's logical extreme, it is nothing more than a license for theft and murder - it doesn't matter who does it.

I hope we can agree that theft and murder are sociopathic behavior. Nowadays government hides the reality of slave labor by arcane tax codes and an unwritten Social Contract. What makes it sociopathic is its tyrannical monopoly of violence. Now if we were allowed to opt out of taxation, or out of unreasonable search and seizure, etc., then Mars would present a different possibility, but alas we are not.

If it's not voluntary, then it's tyranny. There are no other forms of social organization. Government is the fullest expression of sociopathy. When you fit these pieces together, you quickly see that there can be no free market where there is government.

So unless you can find a way to terraform Mars without government subsidies, then it is a de facto sociopathic and parasitic enterprise - the only kind that governments invest in. You gotta get there on your own steam, without tyranny, otherwise it is sociopathy. Some folks are okay with that and some are not - the ones to watch for are those who deny it.

As a side note, sociopaths are drawn to power, and many seek to work for or with the State for that reason. You can often spot them by their choice of words, especially WE. For example: "De-terraforming is something WE are doing to Earth right now because of the amount of carbon WE are putting into the atmosphere."

I don't know about YOU, but I am not putting much carbon into the atmosphere, which doesn't matter anyway since CARBON IS NOT A POLLUTANT. Anyone who tells you otherwise is lying. Listen carefully to sociopaths because when they say WE NEED, they really mean I WANT or YOU MUST.

Among their most favorite words is WE. By extension, collectivism is one of their favorite tactics, both to manipulate others and to hide from them. As a case in point, consider Anthropoogenic Global Warming - a hoax with two complementary aims.

The first is to promote Carbon Tax - a threat to individual sovereignty. The second is to invent a global spectre that can only be managed and/or defeated by a global government - a threat to national sovereignty. It's all a matter of convincing folks that they're the problem, and that population reduction is the solution.

The propaganda was working for awhile, but no self-respecting scientist believes the hoax - even though many a career depends upon not voicing disbelief. The edifice is cracking. As usual, there are two kinds of liars - those who invent the lies and those who spread them. The same is true of the so-called climate change debate.

Only whores sell Global Warming, whereas only fools and cowards buy it - for they are more easily parted from their money. It's a colorful analogy but not an inaccurate one.

Cheers. • • •

G L O B A L   W A R M I N G :  AN   I N C O N V E N I E N T   H O A X

If WE find native life on Mars then your comment may have validity. OUR moral obligation in such a case would be to leave the planet in as pristine a condition as possible to eliminate contamination from Earth. But then who is to say leadership will do the moral or ethical thing should WE make Earth inevitably untenable for OUR species and many others? [My Caps]

I wrote the Mars piece to illustrate OUR human condition to seek a solution elsewhere after soiling OUR OWN backyard. On the issue of carbon and your conclusions, I beg to differ. The problem is real whether you are a libertarian or a socialist. If you choose to ignore the consequences of our present behavior that is your "right" but it doesn't change the facts. [My Caps] • • •

Donald, I agree with you 100%. I hardly think advocating for the survival of the human species is sociopathic.

My grandfather was born prior to the first flight at Kittyhawk in 1903. Today WE have sent space probes outside OUR solar system. I don't see how it is unrealistic not to think that WE can explore and colonize Mars inside this century given the exponential growth of new technologies. [My Caps]

OUR species becoming Multi-Plantary is essential to the long term survival of man. Funding will come from the private sector if public sector funds are not available. See this article Billionaire space pioneer announces plan to colonise Mars with 80,000 people in two decades about Elon Musk.

Goofy, based on the tone and theme of your remarks, you strike me like a person with a neurological disorder and NOT Donald. Cheers • • •

P A T E N T L Y   A N T I - F R E E - M A R K E T

Since when is the exponential growth of new technologies a given?

The more I think on it, the less I see how unwavering respect for property rights or promoting a free market amounts to sociopathy. Any ideas?

Meanwhile, for more on mass theft, Elon Musk and outright Fascism, see Solar Subsidy Recipient Suing Treasury for More. • • •

Yes I do. A sociopath is someone with no sense of moral obligation to society or others, and no ability to emotionally connect to the suffering or needs of others. Because sociopaths cannot feel sympathy or empathy, they see themselves as the only "real" person, and other people are merely objects to be used to benefit themselves.

Instead of subjecting this forum to a debate on private property rights, which it was clearly not created for, you can create another group on the matter. May I suggest the virtues of "Ayn Rand or Ebenezer Scrooge: Hero or Villan?" • • •

O T H E R   P E O P L E   A R E   M E R E L Y   O B J E C T S   T O   B E   U S E D

Sociopaths would love your definition, Pluto, since it leaves them just the right back doors and wiggle room. Society is an abstraction. Sociopathy is an attitude toward concrete living individuals, not psuedo-Platonic constructs.

A 'moral obligation to society' is a slippery slope to sociopathy, and sociopaths will try to throw you down it everytime if you let them.

Sane folks do well to empathize with everyone they meet, and that is enough. They don't worry about everyone else whom they will never meet (nor should they, in my humble opinion). Society takes care itself best when sane people with a concrete interest in each other, and not in social theories, abound.

All social agendas, Pluto, are invented by sociopaths. I defy you to name an exception. Cheers. • • •

Goofy, CO2 can be a pollutant if carried to extreme as can anything, Oxygen, water kills hundreds of children. Actually plants of Earth are starving for CO2. A big reason greenhouses grow more food is because they burn and put it into the place. One reason we grow more food in the farms is we have increased the carbon dioxide levels slightly.

CO2 gives us a very minor greenhouse effect on Earth. Far greater components are clear water vapor, and other gasses. Warmer weather historically means more ocean evaporation and more rainfall. The famines come with very cold weather. Mars has about thirty times as much per square inch of the stuff as Earth but a much lower greenhouse effect. Venus has many times as much of an effect as Earth, but it has nearly three hundred thousand times as much per square inch as we have. Of course both plants have very little of other gasses. Venus does have quite a bit of acids it it atmosphere, but it is a minor component.

Who or with what reason would anyone call someone wanting to preserve humankind and bring life to a dead world a sociopath? • • •

B R I N G   L I F E   T O   A   D E A D   W O R L D

Seriously, Daffy: "Anything can be a pollutant"? That's your argument? To what end?

Perhaps WE should institute a Worldwide Beef Ban, since bullshit is the greatest vector of methane into the atmosphere. Central planners would be thrilled to devise an array of enforcements and punishments.

Too much water on the Earth? Maybe WE should build a pipeline to Mars and pump the excess there.

I dunno, Daffy, but you seem to be making my argument for me. Thanks for at least admitting that plants are starved for CO2 right here on the Green World. It makes one wonder, though, why the life giving gas is so demonized. Then again, who invented demons?

For someone who doesn't like others telling you what to think and how to live you seem to take great joy in it yourself. • • •




I presume your complaint is aimed at me, Pluto. Would you care for some cheese with your whine?

You mistake self defense for telling others how to live. Do the math, kiddo. I ain't the fella that's proposing to rob others in order to mind my own business. Consequently, when someone does come along doing that just that, it is the duty of all living things to put the interlopers in their place, to the degree possible.

I'll make it as simple as I can for you: Don't take my money and I won't tell you how to live. Get it?

Now take SpaceX, for example. There's a case study in Fascism. This is what you'd export to other planets?

Many are we who will refuse to go along with that. Elon Musk is hardly a free market, private sector entrepreneur. Without the merging of large corporations and the State, Elon Musk couldn't even change his oil, much less build a high performance electric vehicle.

He goes in search of government subsidies and builds businesses around them - that's Fascism.

If you wanna be free to be a Fascist, then grab it with both hands - but don't expect the world to go quietly into the night for you. It didn't work for too well for Hitler and it won't work for the Terraformistas, either. And since y'all describe the folks who 'soiled our own backyard' in the first person and not in the third, your fantasies on how to fix the problems of your own making are logically unwelcome to those of us who are not to blame for the mess in your own Fascist poopy pants.

You see, Pluto, I am no collectivist - I don't tell anyone how or what to do. Collectivism is sociopathy. It's no secret, either, that the mob is mediocre. I see no particular virtue in Mob Rule. Naturally I question your judgement if you do - yours or anyone's.

The reality is that the burden of proof is on you and your kind, not on me and mine. As long as your proposals require the support of others, then you will have two, and only two, options. The first is to create appealing proposals, appealing to others, that is. The second is to resort to theft and murder.

I deal in the first of these options exclusively, Pluto. How about you? • • •

I N   S E A R C H   O F   G O V ' T   S U B S I D I E S

At least SpaceX is showing ways to lower launch cost. They are even taking launch business away from Russia and China. • • •




Daffy, as long as SpaceX is being funded by US taxpayers, I'd rather see Russia and China getting more business than they are already.

I don't need all that Jingo Jazz. Nationalism does not impress me. Besides, competition is good for any industry. Why is the space cadet contingent so patently anti-free-market, anyway? • • •

N O T   E X A C T L Y   S T A R F L E E T   C R E D I T S

And SpaceX is the only one run like free market. Definitely not Russia or China. SpaceX is taking some US contracts, and is accepting some conference from NASA, but it is the closest to "Free Market" in the business, and is trying to improve the cost to the customer.

Yes there are incentive especially with this president for what is call "green" or "clean", but that is part of the industry. Mr. Musk put $100,000,000 of his own money into it which he made in the open free economy.

WE want to ship up to millions of people to Mars at far less than any one else can talk about. [My Caps] • • •

His own money? You mean Disney dollars? What free economy? Seriously, what free economy? Don't get me wrong. I wish there were a free economy, but I see no evidence for that. I hate taxes, too. It's just that Elon Musk is better at evading them than most of us, which he does by positioning himself to receive other people's tax money from the goverment.

Fascism is the opposite of a free ecomony - it's a captive slave economy. Don't you see?

I like Mars, too, but I don't get this group's fascination with vampirism. There is ZERO demand from any Free Market to go to Mars, nor are those who proudly claim to have ruined the Earth (if you read above, you'll note that Donald makes precisely that claim) the ones to manange the Mars project.

When you say: "WE want to ship up to millions of people to Mars", let us be clear on the difference between WE and EVERYONE. Cool? As long as EVERYONE does not have to pay for what a some itty bitty WE wants to do, there's no problem. That would be a free ecomony.

All this is obvious to any layperson smart enough to have ignored their school teachers.

I can only surmise that some folks here aren't getting out enough, perhaps because it's easier to confirm your bias online or in science fiction than it is to get anything worthy done in the real world. This discussion has convinced me that 99.9% of futurists are fascists.

By all means, stay at your desks and leave the rest of the world to those grownups among us who are skilled enough produce things ourselves, or to fix them. We have all that we need right here, more than enough and more than we earn.

If you're all convinced that you've destroyed the Earth with your industry, then please, for everyone's benefit, retire - just pick up your things and go home. Cheers. • • •

F A S C I S T    R E S E R V E    N O T E

Goofy, You mean when Elon Musk built and sold Zip Two, then built and sold PayPal, it was with Disney money? I am not sure what that is. One billion dollars buys a lot of money. Whether it is in PayPal or US dollars, as Elon received. The latter is the money he used to create SpaceX.

Yes he has had many contracts with the US government. That is the major players in it. Yes the money we all get is being destroyed by our fearless president, but that is the best WE have. I do not get your point.

I insist WE preserve Earth.

Tapping outer space resources is the cheapest way to protect Earth from many things. These include comets, asteroids, the sun getting hotter, many things getting harder to acquire, OUR growing need for energy, and many more.

Many people have worked hard and long giving their time, money, and hopes to see humans move to Mars and homestead there.

It is as if all humans were on a small Island, and some could see a great landmass far greater they WE had and wished to move there. Most people can see nothing there. But those that can truly see have worked out how to get there, and how to live there.

People like YOU say it is all foolish. Many great projects require collecting capital from many people so that almost everyone can benefit. These include roads, bridges, parks, libraries, the internet, and a host of other projects.

Developing outer space and especially Mars will benefit all of Mankind. [My Caps & Italics] • • •

Y E S  ,  W E   C A N

Daffy, the difference between your cozy analogy and the reality is staggering. Homesteaders rely on themselves, not other taxpayers. They're not collectivists, either.

I did not say your Mars vision was foolish, by the way, but sociopathic.

What don't you get about free market economics? What is so fascinating about theft? What is so shameful about living within your means? • • • 

Goofy, do not put words in my mouth. I have not claimed that the world is ruined. Nor did my piece propose WE go and terraform Mars. I stated that OUR current abuse of Earth's environment and the behaviors that we humans exhibit would be perfect on Mars. WE dump lots of pollutants into the environment, a perfect way to create a greenhouse effect on that planet. [My Caps]

What I would appreciate in this conversation is less vitriol. I don't know why Elon Musk is even part of the conversation. Yes he has aspirations of going to Mars but the Mars he will go to will be a very hostile environment for any Earth species.

If you don't like his politics it doesn't have to be a part of this debate. • • •

T O T A L L Y   U N T E N A B L E

Pipe down, Donald. I would never put anything in your mouth. Not even a word. But why do you CONTINUALLY refer to the destruction of the Earth IN THE FIRST PERSON? It's always WE WE WE with you. Me, when I speak of the evil that men do, I say THEY, not WE.

What's up with that?

Even your blog post ends with "I figure within five centuries WE could have Mars ready for Earth life just at the moment when WE have made OUR planet here totally untenable." (My caps) Whatever is in your mouth, Don, I didn't put it there. You make it sound like a done deal - which it isn't - which makes you a fear monger, even if you're trying to be humorous about it.

I'm gonna go ahead and assume that you believe the Global Warming Hoax in spite of the evidence, and take your argument to its logical extreme at face value. Correct me if I stray too far...

The more I try to make sense of your arguments, the more they sound like something straight out of Dr. Strangelove. Your position, if I may paraphrase it loosely, runs something like: "WE destroyed the planet, therefore WE are entitled to determine the future of any survivors and any resource allocation." Rearrange a few nouns, swap Mars for a mineshaft, and you're good to go...

Let me remind you that the film was a comedy, not a serious proposal but a character study of those who think this way and consider it normal (i.e. sociopathic parasites). If you persist in refering to such folks as WE, then you will draw fire from those whose resources you would thoughtlessly plunder to satisfy your adolescent dream.

As if to add insult to injury, you demonstrate sociopathy by insisting that debate be focused only on the points of agreement. Who taught you that trick, Tomás de Torquemada? Chairman Mao? Your modus operandi, to avoid contest, leads to a moral and intellectual atrophy unworthy of the rugged individuals who once ventured to new places to grow new communities.

Where I come from, debate tends to focus on points of disagreement. There's this thing called the Internet now, too, which exposes people to many points of view, some of them mutually exclusive. Your fear of cognitive dissonance is your problem, though, not mine. In the free market of ideas, the best ones can gracefully stand up to a threeway beating and go on about their business without showing any scuff marks.

If you cannot abide objections, then do not make objectionable assertions. Your blog ABSOLUTELY is a terraforming proposal, only in slow motion ... the 500 year plan. Your little whimsies would cost smarter and harder working folks than you a hefty sum for a negative ROI in the face of a fictional threat of industrial ecocide ... if they were implemented.

If you give no thought to the cost or the consequences, then I object and I promise you that am not alone.

Fortunately, the wheels are coming off of the Global Warming Hoax. Expect more debate on this point from informed individuals, not less. What more can I say? Mend your ways, Donald, or stand valid criticism like a man.

We cool, bro? • • •

T H E   W A V E   O F   T E R R O R   W H I C H   S W E P T   A C R O S S   A M E R I C A

Goofy, it's funny that you mentioned Dr Strangelove, because you kind of remind me of General Jack D. Ripper. Cheers • • •




As I recall, he was the hero. His idea was that strategy ought not be left to politicians, who for their part are happy to poison the water if it there's money to be made.  In the insane comedy that it was, his was the lone voice of reason.

The fluouride problem never went away, only now you have Monsanto to boot. I'll bet Monsanto wants to colonize Mars even more desperately than you do. After all, colonization is about agriculture, not society.

I'll take your remark as a compliment, Pluto. Like the general, I am careful about what I put in my body ... and women sense my power. The big difference, of course, is that I would never be foolish enough to get a government job. His disappointment is understandable, but I don't share it.

Perhaps someday the Wad will understand Kubrick's films. They're so multi-level, with so many subtle references. If you like documentaries, you might enjoy 'Room 237’. Cheers. • • •

"Even the Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock had to get support from the King to settle. Columbus received royal help. Modern roads, and a host of other projects that help everyone need finance outside of normal commerce. I also believe WE waste way to much. I am nearly a libertarian, but this can benefit everyone. Since WE are paying so much to OUR government I want them to do at least one good thing with it. [My Caps] • • •

V O L U N T A R I S M ,  W H A T ' S   T H A T  ?

There you go again, Daffy. You're absolutely correct that the greatest case of mass theft and murder "had to get support form the King" and/or "received royal help". You'll get no argument from me on that score.

You couldn't be farther from the truth when it comes to the roads, though. The government doesn't build those; contractors do. Trust me, I'm a contractor. I know how things get done 'cuz I know how to do 'em, ya dig?  If you truly believe that mankind cannot build a road without a monopoly of violence, then I gotta question if you're really ready for Mars. It sounds like you got plenty of Deimos and Phobos down here at home to last you several generations hence.

In short, you're not cleared for take-off.

Regarding your conclusion, what can I say but "Be afraid; be very afraid"? The moment you start wanting the government "to do at least one good thing" is when they have you where they want to you. When you want NOTHING WHATSOEVER from government, then you begin to taste freedom, not before.

Libertarianism is as bogus as it gets, by the way. There's a very good reason why most Libertarians do not remain so for very long. The upshot is that it's a movement that will never grow - it'll be co-opted, of course, but it will never really grow.

Guess where most honest Libertarians find themselves before long...

And while you're at it, I humbly suggest you re-evaluate what you think you know about the "New World". A great place to start is 6 Ridiculous Lies You Believe About the Founding of America. The so-called futurists might learn a thing or two from history before going boldly... • • •

I never suggested any rape, murder, or theft that was something you started. There are no people to do that to on Mars. I did suggest that like roads and many building contractors produce need capital that only a government can come up with. WE need a transportation system to bring the first people and homestead there. It needs help as road did many places. WE are only asking for much less than one percent of what OUR government spend be to build the infrastructure to where some of us can move there for a few years. [My Caps & Italics] • • •

T H A N K S   B U T   I ' L L   S E T T L E   F O R   P R O P E R T Y   R I G H T S

"Only government can come up with needed capital to build roads,"Daffy? How helpless that must make us all! If so, then the last thing that Mars needs is government.

I do not see humanity as so pathetic and incapable as all that, of course.

Seriously, though, what good is it if the homesteaders cannot own what they settle? Did you know that an earlier draft of the Declaration of Indepedence spoke of "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Property"? The parasites got rid of that PDQ, n'est-ce pas?

So if we rely on historical precedent to guess the what the morning after will smell like when the dust from the wagons settles and the tents are pitched, your proposal is to hand over ownership of Mars to a government? I promise you that unless steps are taken to prevent that, then that will be the result.

So, another Tax Farm, THAT is your best hope for humanity?

They'll even send you with a flag, by then maybe even one that says Monsanto on it. I can't imagine what rape you mean, but for humanity to colonize Mars, at its present level of adolescence, is impossible without taxation - and taxation is theft. I suppose they omitted that detail from your civics class, but I'm sure I mentioned it above.

Once again, the theft takes place on Earth, not on Mars. Get it?

Daffy, are you one of those pseudoscientists who believes the anthropogenic global warming hoax? Is that what has you so scared that only a trip to Mars will end the fear and panic? If so, your case for exodus is built on a very shaky premise. There are less costly cures for that condition, you know.

As for the assertion that "Developing outer space and especially Mars will benefit all of Mankind," you very conveniently ignore the demonstrable fact that it will only benefit a pathetically tiny few ... at the expense of all Mankind. The owners will benefit, which is why it's so important that the owners not be psychopathic parasites and/or slipshod slackers - you know, the types that naturally get weeded out of a free market?

Behind the fear mongering is a very clever marketing campaign called Agenda 21. Ever heard of it? Have things changed so much since the heyday of overt Nazism, when the biggest lies are the easiest to sell?

Since we've already broached the subject, I'd be more wary of fluouride than CO2.

Cheers. • • •

T H E   B I G G E S T   L I E S   A R E   T H E   E A S I E S T   T O   S E L L