Nestor's Cola

Frankly, when I think of religion, I think of the word restraint. You can’t do this. You can’t do that. You can’t see this, watch this, listen to that, and you certainly can’t do this on this day. Not to mention the endless contradictions, the reconstruction of powerful ideologies such as ‘ego’ and ‘dominance’ into some form of ‘bad word’ that must be pooh-poohed into a corner, and that only through suffering and submission can we achieve some form of lasting reward (that hasn’t even been proven it exists) AFTER we die.

Modern Religion, to me, is working mythology. The difference between our mythology, and say, Grecian mythology, is that they had stories about their gods, as they happened. “ahahaha, Zeus must be hurling lightning bolts!” and shit like that. we’ve got some five thousand year old fairy tale that says, “Stuff happened, and there were boobs.”

Judeo-christian ideologies effectively state that only through suffering and selflessness, willing subjugation to God and our Fellowman, servility and an abandonment of independent action are we able to achieve a lasting immortality.

But Wait There’s More! Act Now and you get your own set of Ginsu knives! There’s a “Get Out of Jail Free” card. Let me tell you about it. This criminal was on the cross when christ was up there . Common story, I’m sure you’ve heard it. He’s like, “Dude, You’re God. I believe you.” and Jesus is like, “Dude, seriously. I tell you this: You’re going to heaven.” The murderer dude is like, “Score! Blarg I are dead!” Did you catch the sekrit message? Check it out: Fuck up all you want. Kill jews by the millions, shit on your neighbor, fuck his wife, rape his dog, and drown his children in piss. willingly and intentionally participate in the exploitation of children. When you die, repent, and boom- straight shot into heaven, free of charge, “your sins are forgiven you”.

Contradictory, no? even if you live your life as sin free as you possibly can, some cock-choking shmuck will be able to get in anyway.

It’s funny.

I didn’t believe in God until a guy on TV told me to.
I didn’t believe a faceless, sexless, shapeless, and nameless (except for ‘God’) being loved me until a guy on TV told me so.
I didn’t know I led a sin-filled and wicked life… until some guy on TV told me so.
I didn’t know that God needed my love and generous charitable tax-deductible donations to keep this guy on the air… until the guy on TV told me so.

Frankly, dude, I dunno what you’re selling, But I’m not buying.

Today I saw an article on Muslims and the Middle East, and all this Jihad crap everyone goes on and on about, and seems to have been going on about, at length, for some time now. To be honest, I can’t think back and remember a time without hearing that there was some form of shit (usually religion based) going on in the Middle East. I span several decades, mind you. Think aobut hat for a second. That’s a long grudge. It doesn’t start after nearly thirty years, this bullshit they have against each other apparently goes back hundreds, maybe even a thousand years. Everyone’s mutually fracked off about each other, and for what? God? their Church?

It’s time I stepped up on my Soapbox.

As I understand it, to be Muslim is to have a Charge, a Commission. “Go out and find those that are not Muslim. If they are not Muslim, get them to become Muslim. If they refuse, kill them.” Well, in extremist cases. But we’re talking about those extremists, right? Let’s direct our attention to this faith.

I believe, that to some extent, religion is a comfortable blanket that you wrap yourself in before going to bed in an eternal grave. It’s like breeding: a bulwark against mortality. People are afraid to die. We want to know what will happen to us after we die.

Hold the fucking phone right the fuck there.

If Religion is supposed to be a comfortable thing, something to soothe our fears, something that helps us come to terms with our short lives and even shorter ambitions, calms and comforts us against some of the frustratingly obtuse and aggrivating things this mudball of a planet has to offer us, Shouldn’t it also keep us from wanting to kill each other and stir the hive? Instead of kicking over anthills, shouldn’t religion be a personal experience? It should be something that brings you peace in the long watches of the night; Something that makes you feel more at ease standing in the line at the grocery store; or something that helps you sleep in a long trans-atlantic flight.

Those radical followers of a defunct and malignant religion, they’re not happy. They’re not at peace. They’re not comfortable. These people, for whatever reason, are fucked in the head. You want my opinion? There you have it. If you have to be a prick and be unnecessarily violent because your God(s) told you so, I say that you’re a fucking fanatic and whatever it is that you believe in, it’s not anything that’ll bring you or anyone else peace.

I think every major religious trunk out there has been responsible for a variety of atrocities, violence, and theocratic hate against those it determines to be “heathen”, and I think that again, violence spawned from religious intent defuncts and destroys any religious credibility. In other words, it’s all bullshit. (:D)

I’m not here to tell you what you should believe. I’m not going to beat you down because you’re Christian, Jewish, Muslim, or fucking Revival in the Holy Field with Mother Mary jerking off the Sacred Donkey in Tijuana. What I am going to do is I’m going to tell you that if you really believe, if you really have faith in (whatever), you’re not gonna be a prick about it. You’re not going to feel compelled to beat me down for the sake of something that is essentially a valium against death. You’re going to die. Deal with it.

My faith? My beliefs? I have faith that we will inevitably evolve beyond the need for comfort foods, comfort religions, comfort blankets and comfort zones. I believe that we all will evolve beyond archaic fear-based ideologies and will explore the human condition and achieve our next level in thought and expression. I believe that as long as there is science and art, mathematics, poetry and music, Philosophy and sculpture, discussion and passion, logic, reason and constructive emotive expression, there will be fucking progress.

Nestor: Hanging out in Tijuana watching Holy Mary and the Divine Donkey~

An Allegory:

Democracy is a society of robots. The robots all know pretty much how they should be governed, since they’re all robots. However, since they’re robots, they’re not terribly bright, and when it comes time for election, they elect for themselves a ruler. Not a robot, but instead, an iguana.

That’s democracy. Thanks for playing.

So I was back in college when this happened.

This ‘pagan’ guy who was fairly and reasonably articulate gave me this book to read which was all about this neo-modernistic ‘future warrior’ crap, where it systematically called for the pacification of the modern man, that aggression was a negative and destructive art; passivity was the way, a ‘go along to get along’ attitude was so ingrained, I couldn’t help but be amazed as the words HERD MENTALITY seemed to scream from between the lines.

Where did anyone get the idea that an aggressive, proactive personality was a hotbed for negative (violent) and destructive frame of mind? After some careful thought and a little bit of research, I’ve found that the roots could very well stem from around the sixties/ seventies, right around the time of the Vietnam war. You see, when draft-dodging started up, there was a flurry of support from the female community; there were even bumper stickers that said, “Women say yes to men who say no.” meaning that if a man were to dodge the responsibility of serving God, his fellowman, and the Government, then he was deserving of sex. Now, back then, this defiance was practically sacriledge; the idea at the time was that a man who was well thought of in his community was a man that spent time in the service, served his country, and spread the glory of democracy to the god-fearing heathens around the world. back then, it was perfectly fine to use ethnic and racial slurs in reference to ‘the enemy’. An interesting use of the Almighty Vagina to control the (relatively) simple minds of the men who were just coming out of high school with no real idea of who or what they were.

So, this blind pacifism was spread through the male community; nay, not just a pacifism, but a embracing of the so-called ‘feminine side’ of men. It was suddenly required of us to cry. To feel things. To gaze at sunsets and make long, dolorous sighs at paintings we held no real reverence for.

Mankind has lost its face. How can you define someone as a man when there is no genuine male characteristics, when they have literally been drowned in the Estrogen of ignorance? The death of the male, testosterone charged, assertive, agressive attitude went with not a bang, but instead a whimper at a lovingly patterned drapery that matches well with the upholstery.

Now, I’m not saying that stereotypical visages are a thing to embrace. But I will give you some food for thought.

A college professor divided a room of men and women, and handed out long strips of red cloth. He told everyone to tie a cloth around a scar, an injury, the site of a broken bone. Every man had to request more than the initial five strips. a majority of men were almost swathed in red from head to toe. women, on the other hand, yes, they did have their uses of the red strips, but the thrust of the result was this: The men had substantially more red than the women. What makes men court injury, damage and accumulate scars more than women? Why are men more prone to damage than women?

A young porn starlet was interviewed, and she said, “I believe that the men are the backbone, and the women are supposed to support the backbone. And you don’t want your backbone breaking on you, do ya?”

I believe in traditional gender roles to a point. This ties strongly to my affinity for D/s, but it also encompasses more.

The face of Mankind should not be a beast, but instead a Warrior. A Warrior has a motive, a cause, a drive, and also an incentive. A Warrior truly has a sense of duty, of responsibility, and the strength to achieve every goal he sets. He knows when it’s time to take no for an answer, but he also knows when that simply won’t do, and to put his foot down and step up to challenge. He does not emphasize sensitivity or collapse through effeminate behavior nor does he adopt a blindly stoic attitude that precludes the expression of emotion, but instead works through his emotions as strengths, rather than debilitations.

Passivity is not a strength. Go along to get along is not a strength. effeminate simpering and abandonment of your male roots is not a strength. Dedication, confidence, resolve, guts, responsibility, drive, ambition and aggression are not things to shun or live in fear of. Rather they should once again be embraced and adopted back into the circle as they once did. Timothy Leary once said, “Think for yourself. Question Authority.” and you should not accept the movement to abolish the iconoclastic ideals that define us as men. That define us as individuals.

That sick, pathetic simpering, whining, crying part of you that lies awake at night, quaking in tremulous fear at the shadows, at life, at the unknown is not yours. It does not belong to you. That’s why it does not feel right, feel normal, feel healthy. It was put there by the movement to ‘go along to get along’. It was put there by the all-seeing, ever knowing Crowd. The blind indifference of conformity and self-debasement for the sake of societal gain. Ego is not a negative word. It has no negative connotations whatsoever.

God gave you feet so you could stand up. A wide flaring pelvis so you could stand upright, and vertebrae in the neck to hold your head high.

God also gave you the ability to cow your neck, to kneel down, to lower yourself, but not for self degradation; but instead so that you could help others stand for themselves.

Okay, kids. Nestor is going to break it down for you: Religion is functionally useless nowadays except as a primer for philosophy and as a functional moral primer for existing in today’s world. Things like “Don’t kill” and “Don’t steal” are decent fundamentals. It’s good to instill a personal belief in what’s “right” and what’s “wrong”. Morals (and as an extension, laws) are the survival mechanism for any society that allows itself to propagate. morals bring a personal motivation to an impersonal law.

Let’s set aside what constitutes “right” and “wrong” for a moment. For the sake of argument we’ll use murder.
Killing your fellowman has consequences- you piss off people around you, and you destroy the equilibrium that a society creates amongst its peoples; and so therefore (unsanctioned) killing goes against the survivability of your society’s way of life. So the society concocts an explanation: “Killing is bad. We’re going to outlaw killing.”

Irregardless if there’s a theology present, it still establishes a rule, a defining characteristic. Theology just hammered home the point a little more with the promise of repercussions beyond the mortal coil: “Don’t kill, or when you die, something bad will happen to you.” Accentuated with the fear of death, the fear of the unknown, and no proven knowledge of what exists beyond the boundary of life, you have a perfect mechanism for delivering society-driven survival methodologies into your children. Here’s the kicker: It’s fundamentally no different than telling them that the boogey monster will eat them alive if they don’t go to sleep on time.

Along the way, you can throw in “guideposts to better living” for the individual because again, it serves the society’s best interests to make sure the individual is functioning properly. For the sake of argument, let’s say Vitamin X makes you healthy. Fights cancer, freshens your breath, and gives you stupendous sexual prowess. It’s then in your best interests to take Vitamin X. So let’s write that down: Your society… no wait. Your God says it’s in your best interest. Seeing as your God is the final arbiter of what happens at death, wouldn’t it make sense that he’d suggest something in life? Of course!

Breaking it down in case you missed it, religion is an excellent tool to deliver a personal connection with impersonal laws. In the past, most societies were theocratic in nature, so this was advantageous. The law, “You cannot kill, or you will recieve X punishment” is abstract. You can’t relate that to yourself without a moral obligation. Religion establishes that moral obligation. What’s amusing with this scenario is the fact that there are loopholes. “You cannot kill, or you will recieve X punishment (except)” You are free to kill those that attempt to kill you. You are free to kill those that threaten your society (encouraged, even!).”

maybe my prolem is the fact that they interject a nameless, faceless, unprovable God in the whole thing, and then at the same time that he can’t be proven, claim to speak in his name.

So, I’m playing the Plus+Disc finally. The music is … I dunno. richer. more subtle. the interface is also a lot smoother and more professional-looking. It sounds and looks a lot better and the character designs are smoother. I like it.

Also, one of the arcs had this little picture:

Super Sacchin!

(Pssst! Sacchin! Hey, Sacchin! Over here! No, you can’t.)

Isn’t it sad?

Oh, I admit it, I was waiting with bated breath for Mirror Moon’s Unlimited Blade Works patch. The irony is that the day it came out I had to return to work so I wasn’t able to play it right away, go figure.

LOL DRAMA aside, leaked beta vs final version, they did a good job. Takajun and all the rest of the Mirror Moon staff have my utmost respect and admiration. they really went all out on this one and you can tell.  I’m only the slightest bit miffed that they didn’t include a walkthrough and instead gave a flowchart, but really, who cares? it’s not that big a deal. The official patch is seriously badass and the added voices are a big plus. Plus, if you die, you get a taiga dojo, and that’s almost worth it. No downloadables, but I have a very upset Rin.

Oh Nestor, you beast~

If the Fate arc was about Saber and the servants, then Unlimited Blade Works was about the humans involved; Shirou, Tohsaka, Shinji, etc. Definitely character development throughout the whole arc, though to me it got strained at points. Archer reveals himself to be the bastard I knew he was “You’re a total failure. How’s that working out for you?” and is awesomely GAR. Shirou, despite being a tool, actually starts getting better towards the end. Tohsaka is appropriately cute, too.

There’s one point where the arc diverges and Tohsaka asks Shirou a question that (i believe) ties strongly into the Heaven’s Feel arc, which is still untranslated. I’m eagerly awaiting that arc, mainly because it revolves around Sakura (she makes my heart go pitter-pat) and also because it’s supposed to be the longest arc in the game. Kind of hard to believe, but the longer arcs are more rewarding to me. They explain more about the (lol) Nasuverse.

Monkeys~
For the sake of this dicussion, I’ll speak in metaphor. We’re going to perform an experiment.

Take four monkeys and place them in a cage. give them a ladder and at the top of this cage, suspend a banana. eventually, they will discover that they can use the ladder to climb up and retrieve the banana.

Once one starts up the ladder to get the banana, turn on a fire hose on the remaining three. Repeat the process. eventually, they will learn that if one of them climbs the ladder, the remainder get hosed. this of course pisses them off considerably, and so if any one of them try to climb the ladder, they pummel and punish the offender until he stops. this continues until no monkey is willing to climb the ladder.

This is where it gets interesting.

Take one of these conditioned monkeys out of the cage and replace it with another monkey from the wild that has not been conditioned. Repeat the scenario. What do you think will happen when that monkey sees the banana?

Well, the result is obvious. But here’s what you do: You keep replacing monkeys. Eventually they don’t know just why it is they beat up the monkey that tries to climb the ladder, they just know that if one goes up the ladder, they beat him up.