Silly Socrates

Silly Socrates would like to ask a candid question. Why does any candidate have to attend the Saipan Chamber of Commerce's events? Why are they pressured? Why are they reprimanded in public and chewed out on the radio, papers, when they don't? At least, in the American system, politicians have the right to campaign freely. They don't have to "campaign" by going to certain events to boost the venue holder's importance. They can and can't campaign in their own way, and if they are losing out, let the people decide come election day.

Perchance some candidates want to debate elsewhere or go from door to doors? (Remember, the Chamber's debate is a partial venue). It is not the Chamber's job to act as the Election Committee.

Over the years, Silly feels as though the Chamber of Commerce has overstepped its boundaries as a private organization that promotes trade and somehow become the fourth branch of the CNMI government without the consent of you and me.

Although many people fear the board members of SCC (and these members act very important in all social affairs) and think that SCC is a divine/impartial organization, Silly would like to point out that the Saipan Chamber of Commerce is a private organization, a band of people in the business community with special interests, more or less an amalgam of their own. Its members were not elected by the people nor have the legitimacy of talking behalf of the people. They were not mandated by heavens to become more important than you and me.

At least, in Greece, where Silly comes from, Chamber of Commerce promotes trade in their own cities. Publishing votes and holding sessions like the Congress are unheard of.

Chamber takes a vote. Yes, but does that vote mean anything? Does it hold any vested power by the citizenry of the CNMI? Or does it simply hold the opinion of people with money in the CNMI? Why is the chamber feared? Why is it all about the chamber? Few rich men, when this election year should be about the people?

Sometimes, Silly feels as though the Chamber is the fourth branch in the CNMI government, or at least, it has somehow become one, without consent of the people...

Posted by Silly Socrates at 6:10 PM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Silly would like to suggest a silly idea, that there should be freedom of expression to promote a healthy discourse. Without free exchange of ideas, how could there be democracy? How could we know what even the "unpopular" or the "voiceless" want?

Silly detests and abhors autocracy in disguise of democracy, i.e. giving the right to speak until one is offended. Silly quotes Voltaire's desire to protect freedom of speech in exchange for his life, in the event one disagrees. As they say, sunlight is the best disinfectant to all the germed thoughts under the carpet.

Silly is also happy to find Plato on the realm of internet, somebody who agrees that there should be free exchange of thoughts. Please visit his site here.

PS: Mr. Turbitt, I've never made a comment on your blog that is offensive or even undermines your well researched and well balanced position. Why would you want to kill a bird? Do you want a silent forest? Is that your vision of true democracy?

PPS: Also, Silly would suggest that people stop making false lists of "Saipan Blogs" that is misleading in nomenclature as it only includes those who are accepted as the "norm" (using Foucault's ideas here), not someone like Silly, though Silly should be perhaps included in the Greek list. In that light, Silly Socrates welcomes anybody who wants to link to Silly's blog.

Silly's like Hard Rock. Silly loves 'em all and serve 'em all; also, deservedly a link whore.




Yours maybe,
Silly Billy Socrates

Posted by Silly Socrates at 5:38 PM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Silly Socrates has been observing that there have been many anonymous commenters on the net, saying what they want under false sense of privacy. But little do they know that most of these websites have "sitemeters" or "trackers" on their website that collect tremendous amount of information from your computers--how you came to the website, how long you stayed there, what you clicked, where you are from (your IP), what language your computer browses in, what kind of browsers you use, and alot of other information. So, in short, you are not anonymous, per se.

There's a way to fix that. Well, the first way is to die, resurrect, and become like me, Socrates. But, that's really hard because, after all, you'll never be Socrates... Maybe equivalent of Solon and the likes, but not up to my game.

More realistic way of addressing this is to hide your IP. There are many programs out there that hide your IP. When your computer requests information directly from the server of the site, the site is able to collect your information. However, by using proxy servers, you can remain truly anonymous.


Get it?

Silly Socrates

Posted by Silly Socrates at 4:34 AM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Thank you for visiting my humble abode senators, praetors, citizens, and slaves (or quasi-slaves who have no de facto say in the state of our Assembly).

Those curious. Those who love me. Those who are angry over bytes, seething and seeking to revenge by exposing a flaw or two in my perfect logic. Thank you.

The state of Attica is alarming, full of politicians, thus creating an impetus for the Silly Socrates, that is for my soul to furiously type in my keyboards. It is my attempt to help pose the right questions, ask for the sufficient axioms, assumptions, and supports of claims on the net, and at the same time, be Silly.

Before I commence to argue against the sophists, I would like to set few records straight since all seems to be crooked, especially with the gay marriage debate floating around these days:

1.) Kids need to know that hemlock does not sit well on your stomach. After drinking that stuff, I went to afterlife and had to go to the bathroom almost incessantly, habitually cursing out on Plato for not changing my stubborn mind about death and young boys. Let's just say my stool was κόκκινος, which means "reddish" in Greek, for about a year.

2.) After begging for millions of years at Mt. Olympus, hitting on Hera and all of his chicks, Zeus granted me the right to live again, only on the internet world, partly from jealousy I suppose. As such, my spirit wanders from continents to continents. My last five comments seem to come from Germany, Nigeria, China, Florida, and Spain. (For your information, souls transport pretty fast, quicker than Nietschze can make the Nazi's go nuts and Colin Powell, Karl Rove can say I quit to Bush.)

3.) Now, I enjoy posing questions and seek to purely discuss the issues, so don't get pissy for asking the wrong questions that stick solely to the issues. And if I sound too smart, don't be hatin' on me. As I've said before, when I was alive and flesh, "Envy is the ulcer of the soul."

To all the philosophers out there, Rene Descartes does my laundry (although I don't wear clothes these days and vice versa), so go shove it.

4.) Okay, I'll have to refute myself, in a way retract my previous statement. I don't know everything. My disclaimer is my (in)famous quote: "I know nothing except the fact of my ignorance."

5.) This is pretty important. I pledge that I will not cuss in English. If I have to cuss, I'll cuss in Greek.

6.) I will not make any personal attacks, or ad hominem, which means that I will not bring up anything that is not posted on the net. However, if the personal information of the author is revealed on the net by the same author, I will discuss it based on ethics. For example, if someone says that I am a Nazi and I hate all Jews, I will reserve my right to discuss that. However, if my soul is aware of his/her anti-semitism but the anti-semitic him or herself does not reveal that in the blog entry, it will not be questioned, as it is based on an assumption. This is in alignment with New Criticism, making criticisms based solely on text presented by the author, or the "voice." But as such cases will be rare, we will not have to lose sleep over that matter.

I'll see your souls around. Happy blogging. And hopefully, we'll have a great time in our journey towards the "truth."

PS: You can either leave a message for me here or write to me at sillysocrates at gmail. I'm sure that all will be sorted out by my very organized assistant Aristotle, who loves to classify things over and over again. If not, I'll ask him to persuade Michel Foucault, who probably wants to talk to Aristotle very, very much.



Yours Falsely and Silly,
Socrates

Posted by Silly Socrates at 9:13 AM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post