Death and Certainty

I watched "The Seventh Seal" last night. If you are unfamiliar with the film, the basic plot surrounds a crusader returned to his homeland. On a beach he comes face to face with Death, litterally. He challenges Death to a game of chess. So long as the game goes on, so does the Crusader's life, and if he wins he gains an extra extension on his life.

It's a great film, but what really struck me is something the Crusader says to Death in the first few scenes. He mentions that he is searching for certainty, not belief, or faith.
To quote the script:

                                     KNIGHT
                        I want knowledge, not faith, not
                        suppositions, but knowledge. I want
                        God to stretch out His hand towards
                        me, reveal Himself and speak to me.

                                    DEATH
                        But He remains silent.

                                    KNIGHT
                        I call out to Him in the dark but no
                        one seems to be there.

                                    DEATH
                        Perhaps no one is there.

                                    KNIGHT
                        Then life is an outrageous horror.
                        No one can live in the face of death,
                        knowing that all is nothingness

This struck me so profoundly because my girlfriend and I have had nearly the exact same conversation, she the knight and I Death. (hmm how oddly fitting..) I thought about this dilemma of faith and certainty for a while longer and a truth appeared to me. That uncertainty is a necessity of this test of life. It is easy to walk a path when you are certain of the end. Like mentioned in "Constantine"

Gabriel:
passage requires faith
and faith by definition is belief
without proof. You have proof.
And that means you're not playing
by the same rules as everyone
else.

If you KNOW the outcome you can operate differently, and so the gain is less. In the case of life, death, and the hereafter knowing would negate the benefit all together. Going into a maze with a map and a gps locator is no challange, and so not rewarding. Its common knowledge, or thought, that the greater the risk the greater the reward. This holds true in more places than you would think.

On Death
It occurs to me today that one of the most comforting, or happy things that could happen to me would be to know I had a set time left to live. A truely fatal prognosis. Not a 90% chance or whatnot, but an actual time limit on my life. This goes back to the previous paragraph of certainty. To be certain of one's end allows for different choices. I find it would be the most welcome knowledge I could gain. Now I don't want to know how much time I have left. Anything over a year would be more torturous than not knowing at all, but if I were told that I would die in 6 months, or even next week, absolutely and certainly, I would be quite at peace, even happy.

Greetings Comerade American!

Been re-reading the Communist Manifesto lately to remind myself of its contents. Originally it was for a research paper, but that is long past.
I came to the end of a chapter and realized (again) just how much closer we (America) are to Marx's vision than the USSR ever was.
Marx lays out 10 tennants for implementing communism in advanced countries.
"1.)Abolition of property in land and application of all rents of land to public purposes." = Property Tax, Eminent domain.

"2. A heavy Progressive or graduated income tax." = april 15th

"3. Abolition of all right of inheritance." = Estate Tax/Death Tax, Gift Tax. The rates aren't at 100% yet, but they are halfway there (literally)

"4. Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels." = Patriot act section 806

"5. Centralisation of credit in the hands of the state, by means of a national bank with state capital and an exclusive monopoly." = Federal Reserve, IRS, and while credit isn't fully in the hands of the state, the credit card companies are far from free with what they can do.

"6. Centralisation of the means of communication and transport in the hands of the state." = FCC, Dept. of Transportation

"7. Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the state; bringing into cultivation of waste lands, and the improvement of the soil generally in accordance with a common plan." = EPA, Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service etc

"8. Equal obligation of all to work. Establishment of industrial armies, especially for agriculture." = We haven't fully implemented this step, largely because our industrial armies are mechanical, only requiring a few humans to operate and maintain them, and keep the production levels high. This allows more workers to persue more gainfull activities for the state. However there is an "equal obligation of all to work". Its often refered to as consumerism. ;)

"9. Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries; gradual abolition of all the distinction between town and country by a more equable distribution of the population over the country." = We have somewhat rejected this idea. Spread out populations are harder to keep under control. Concentration of individuals allows for mass indoctrination and easy elimination if control is ever lost.

"10. Free education for all children in public schools. Abolition of children's factory labour in its present form. Combination of education with industrial production, etc." = Dept. of Education, and Subsidized vocational schools.

It's amusing to me just how we have managed to create this functional and productive facist/communist state, all the while rallying against facism and communism. Making the world safe for democracy, by spreading our own version of communism. Its hilarious. Sometimes I swear there is someone planning all this. The increasing medocrity of public officials, especially the presidential candidates, in an effort to cause the public to become disheartened with their voting rights, all the while making the governmental process so backward and complicated that the average voter can't take the time to understand all its workings, much less participate, so that slowly the entire populace simply wants the government to keep running so long as their lives aren't affected much by its machinery. The conversion of Americans from bold free men to complacent slaves. It's utterly brilliant yet tragic in its outcome, proving that even the nobleist endevours in government will fail due to human nature.