far away

I guess that one of the perks of beingd on the other side of the pond is thtat you get to party twice.

FELIZ NAVIDAD mates!!!

-From MADRID iL Meme

Holidays

I was chating with a good friend before taking off for my trip. To be honest I am not sure what her religious background is, but is defenitely nothing to do with Christ or Jesus. I was just wondering how annoying it has to be to deal with all the Christmas crap when you do not celebrate it...

Music

Today I just realized that different musical styles communicate about the same message. Whether it is joy, sadness, deception, courage, drama, etc. music is always that one could relate to. However, there is crapy music... so in the end I am in the same place...

The other side of the weekend

Now for the public that is more interested in exciting stories I have a good one for you. Like every year I threw a end of the year party. However, this time it was not as crowded, we did engaged in heavy drekke drekke drekke. It was a night of playing chandelier and 48 were completely gone within hour and a half. Now, I am not so proud of this because the night did not turned out well for me. After gaming, my party and I went to old dinky town to keep it up. As we were switching from bar to bar I tripped and sprain my ankle. I have to say it was very painful, so much that even though I was plastered I had to retrieve form the area. Anyway, that's what I get for not being responsible right. So listen up and learn from my mistakes and remember to always watch your step... like Johnnie Walker.

The weekend

This weekend was probably the most unproductive weekend I had the entire semester. After a 9 week rally of studying and going to bed at 2am on average, this semester is semi-officially over. That is because I still have plenty to do in only two days. How's that going to happen? I honestly do not know. I have to make use of my brutal honesty and accept that I did not prepare well fro the closing of the semester. I seriously have little energy and I have half of my body in a different time zone already. That is my exiting end of the semester story. how's yours? I hope you are doing well my friends.

Ohhh Yeah!!!

That is a little strange

I think that it is kind of suspicious that the bookstore does not allow anyone in the textbook section. I think if textbook companies offered better prices they would not have to engage in such anti free market behavior. That in itself is a perfect example of how people like free markets only at their convenient discretion.

Seriously

What the Fuck happened?
Like... for real no comments at all?

Ok I get it... I really do. It has been garbage. Since no one criticize me I'll take on that task too. In order to do that let me make use of the self interview mechanism.

Lewis: Hi il Meme! Thanks for joining us tonight.
il Meme: My pleasure to be here with you Luis... sorry Lewis... it is my accent.
Lewis: No problem! Could you please tell us what went wrong this semester?
il Meme: have I said that the wild duck has dove(abrupt interruption)
Lewis: Yes! Yes! Like a million times, but could you translate that to plain englis?
il Meme: Sure, my definition is as follows: The wild duck represents the world morals and ethics which have plunged like a mother fucker this year. Furthermore, the general public have their eyes on matters that are important, but which solution will not have an impact on the well being of the society.
Lewis: Remarkable, please continue elaborating.
il Meme: The current democratic deficit is not being address and every year it becomes harder to unionize the majority to strongly opposed to all the crap going in the power circles of this world. In fact I believe that from all times in history we are in an era where tyrants have us in their hands, because thought the commercialization of the world they have attained to idiotise the masses while keeping in check by means of fears, such as terrorism, financial crises, and violence in general. The way the have many of YOU idiotised is simple,they have made you believe your life is good. They have made a competitive conformist society which thinks despite of not believing in free markets still engages in its practice. As Noam Chomsky says it is bot about socialism or communism, it is about true democracy. The world is not going to be changed by Obamas or a likes. WHAT THE WORLD NEEDS IS FIRST AN INTELLECTUAL REVOLUTION AN THEN A POPULAR REVOLUTION. Capitalism can be replaced by a better economic system. The real issue is that, rich people are afraid that their wealth will be reduced from multibillionaires to millionaires. Therefore, any objection to capitalism has been challenged.
Lewis: What do you propose?
il Meme: it has to start with intellectual centralization. One where intellectuals actually work together and not against each other.

Good Choices

In his paper The Tyranny of Choice, Schwartz provides insightful reference the results of well being assessments by David G. Myers and Robert E. Lane. In which “increased choice and increased affluence have, in fact been accompanied by decreased well being in the U.S… as the GDP more than doubled in the past 30 years, the proportion of the population describing [themselves] as ‘very happy’ declined about 5%, or 14 million [roughly].” Moving on Schwartz starts to elaborate his thesis by explaining why more choices are not necessarily better. He recalls the economic principle of opportunity cost, and makes clear that “the quality of a given option cannot be assessed in isolation from its alternatives.”
Moreover, if we take for granted the fact that such opportunity costs decrease by large the attractiveness of the “best” choice, then the number of alternatives goes up. As a consequence, Schwartz argues many of us experience a state of paralysis that at the same time make the sense of loss bigger. The ultimate result of the exhausting decision process is less satisfaction from the final decision. Schwartz continues by adding more explanatory variables to his thesis. With items such as regret, adaptation, and high expectations being part of the formula of the consequences of having too much to choose from.
The conclusion of the paper is that even though having many options to choose from is a good thing, it is also truth that there is a threshold where more options actually turn into a negative thing. Although, Schwartz does not have an idea as where that threshold is, he suggests that we have long passed it.

Bourne, Jason Bourne

What can I say... EXTREME WAYS ARE BACK AGAIN!
ENJOY THE EYE OF THE HURRICANE otherwise known as THE WEEK BEFORE FINALS !!!

Art Sale

Anyone interested in buying some good presents for your family at incredible discounted prices, please stop by the Art Sale in Christensen center this coming week. Have in mind that you are helping the Art club to fund raise to go to New York next semester.

Bittersweet

Yeah that's right! This semester has been bittersweet for me. It is my last fall semester and it has been the worse in terms of workloads. As a consequence I have not been able to fully enjoy my last steps in this academic sanctuary. As a matter of fact lately I just move my mere inertia. The true is that I have been trying to do many things at the same time and that did not work well at all. So my recommendation for Sophomores and Juniors is to start thinking about internships and other activities you want to do in the future now. That way if you want to go to grad school or whatever it is you will have time to prepare and won't have to crunch it all up in one semester. That's what I did and I gotta admit I have failed at pretty much everything this semester.

Where is education heading?

I think is interesting reflecting on that. I believe that schools at the university level that is, and maybe high schools too, focus a lot in preparing students to be the perfect droids of the future system. The youth is regarded as the future of the world, because we are going to be filling out those work place spots in the upcoming decades. Anyway, back to the theme of education I think that no one is teaching people meaningful things regarding the development of humanity as a whole. It is also truth that no one really cares when they hear theories about it. I would argue person would have given up to the systematic workings of or globalized world when he or she is at the stage where changing the world does not sound appealing or it seems more like an impossible dream. AND that's what the people who control the world want. They want you to feel comfortable with your misery or with your success helping to alleviative some one else's misery. I guess the major problem in our society is that the fundamental problem that makes us miserable is not being discussed directly. It is rather broken down into several issues that if they were solved, which is highly unlikely, we will still be miserable. That problem is easy insatiable economic growth...

Inequality continued

The economic importance of studying, analyzing and taking action in the issue of income inequality is that statistics show that the US has performed better when inequality levels have been at low levels. However, I think that as part of addressing the issue of inequality it is also important to get a little bit ahead of ourselves and look at the consequences of such growth. That is, we have to know if growing that much is sustainable. As a matter of fact that is a question that we can ask right now. Is economic growth worth the trouble? Are more choices and higher GDP levels making us better off in an aggregate picture? Unfortunately not, of course free markets will also heat up competition thus bringing several different kinds of products and services. How wasteful is competition? Is it worth to have completely free competitive markets at the expense of fundamental human needs like free health care, decent education, clean air, and sufficient water among others?

It is evident that the income inequality paradox does not have an easy solution, or maybe is so easy that no one actually pays attention to it. For instance, the income inequality problem in the US and elsewhere will not be eradicated without a popular struggle pushing for a more equal distribution of wealth. The ideas to reach an appropriate economic reform are out there. The problem lies in that many people argue that with all its flaws capitalism and the free markets is as best as it gets in terms of economic structure. Fundamental flaws in the system like the ridiculously disproportionate acquisition of wealth by a single individual, and the arbitrariness in corporate world practices are only commented on but never addressed. That is, I believe due to the decentralization of intellectual power combined with a media intoxicated mentality of the general public. As Noam Chomsky remarks, it is true that living standards have risen in the overall as a result of capitalistic policies. However, rising living standards were also material from the 1800s to the 1900s within slave societies. “Is that an argument for slavery?” –Chomsky
Is rising living standards within capitalistic nations a good argument for income inequality and ecosystem destruction?

Income Inequality

It is very interesting to analyze this topic and this semester I have been able to actually look at it from different angles and points of view. Different angels because I am studying the impact of the increasing income inequality on health outcomes, and also writing a paper with a conservative view on income inequality. The most revealing of all this studies has been the connection with some of the ideas of intellectuals that I have been following. Most importantly Noam Chomsky, Stephen Bezruchka, Carlos Carlos Monsiváis, and Jean Paul Sartre. In addition I got recently referred to the ideas of Ken Wilber by one of my economics professors(That I mention, because I think I agree with Wilber's idea of integration, but I have to add that it is also about centralization). In any case, my posture in regards to the issue of income inequality do indeed agree with the radical position. However, I will like to be modest in arguing that my view, granted of amateur, actually transcends the what I call the mainstream radical position.
For Example the radical view to combat income inequality puts a lot of weight in enforcing a more equal and just income tax system. Despite the fact that radical thought thus suggest that a more unionized majority will have a greater impact on the policy toward more equal income distribution, they pay little attention to how to attain that unionization. Or rather fail to explain in more detail why is that the unionization has weakened since the last severe popular struggle. This is were I diverge from them, because I think that the most important single factor causing the present socioeconomic struggle in the US has to do with the passive manipulation of the media on the minds of the general public. I do have to make clear that it is more than likely that several other individuals might have ideas closely related to mine or perhaps about the same as mine...

Out of ideas

It has been really hard to come up with topics to share in this wall. I guess I could used the day to day narration technique. Although my days are boring lately. I don't do more than studying and working. It was nice to have a longer weekend... still did tons of homework. At least I got to sleep in. Well like my dearest ex boss in the institutional advancement will sing: Back to work, back to work, back to work (of course a gag that only people that have worked as callers would get)... yeah right!