Funmurphys: the Blog

Dark Watchman Vs. The Architect of Fear

Is this the day? Is this the beginning of the end? There is no time to wonder. No time to ask why is it happening, why is it finally happening. There is time only for fear, for the piercing pain of panic. Do we pray? Or do we merely run now and pray later? Will there be a later? Or is this the day?

This is the opening narration for the original Outer Limits episode "The Architects of Fear" where a group of scientists fake an alien invasion in an attempt to forestall escalating international tensions and a potential nuclear holocaust. We took in the Dark Knight over the weekend and this quote could have opened the third act of the film where the Joker is threatening the Gotham City with widespread destruction.

The Dark Knight is a dark film about a city fighting a terrorist. it's one of the grimmest movies I have seen in a while. It's not as downbeat as "Seconds" but certainly the "Empire Strikes Back" may be the last mass market film to end on so low a note. It's very well done but definitely a movie with adult themes.

Heath Ledger's performance is chilling. His Joker reminded me of Lewis Black on a rant (who they should consider now that this will be Ledger's last role). It becomes clear that the Joker is truly an agent of chaos, his real goal is for the citizens of Gotham City to lose their faith in orderly society ("the hidden conspiracy of goodwill") and descend into anomie. I viewed It as a cautionary tale for any free society fighting terrorism.

"He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And when you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you."
Freidrich Nietzsche Aphorism 146

Batman is challenged to drop his own code of ethics and use whatever means necessary. But in spite of horrific provocation is able to follow his internal compass.

"Sed quis custodiet ipsos custodes?" Juvenal

Which is normally translated as "But who will guard the guardians?" and Alan Moore interpreted as "Who Watches the Watchmen?" (more on that in a moment). To locate the Joker Batman engages in a massive invasion of privacy, but does so in a way that he has no personal control over the information gathered or the mechanism he created, allowing it to be destroyed when it's no longer needed. This is in the face of a villain who is killing any government official who tries to stand against him, and for good measure follows through on his threat to blow up a hospital.

Although I said it was a dark film about adult themes the boys both enjoyed it and we had a long discussion about civil liberty, and the difference between the police, the National Guard, and the Army. And the difference between the way that a free society fights criminals, affording them protection under the law, and enemy combatants who are committed to the destruction of a society.

"The mature man lives quietly, does good privately, takes responsibility for his actions, treats others with friendliness and courtesy, finds mischief boring and avoids it. Without the hidden conspiracy of goodwill, society would not endure an hour."
Kenneth Rexroth in the "Introduction to Tolstoy's The Kingdom of God Is Within You"

Ultimately, when confronted with the challenge to kill complete strangers or be killed themselves, Gotham's citizens--even its criminals--refrain.

The previews included the new Watchmen movie, which looked outstanding. If you haven't read the comic graphic novel, it's an extremely dense and intricately plotted exploration justice, vigilantism, and what it means to be a hero. My personal preference would have been for a 12 episode miniseries, with each episode an hour to 90 minutes long to do Watchmen justice, but that's probably harder to fund and monetize and it's taken more than two decades to bring it to the screen as is. It will probably get redone in 30 years as a hypertext movie to do it justice.

Alan Moore was apparently not aware of the Outer Limits episode "Architects of Fear" when he wrote Watchmen, but became aware of it as he and Dave Gibbons were collaborating on it, inserting a reference to it in the last issue.

We watched the the "Architects of Fear" again tonight, and I was surprised and how scary it was and how poignant the concluding narration remains:

Scarecrows and magic and other fatal fears do not bring people closer together. There is no magic substitute for soft caring and hard work, for self-respect and mutual love. If we can learn this from the mistake these frightened men made, then their mistake will not have been merely grotesque, it would at least have been a lesson. A lesson, at last, to be learned.

Some Days I Miss St. Louis

Or perhaps it's just my childhood.

"If we hadn't our bewitching autumn foliage, we should still have to credit the weather with one feature which compensates for all its bullying vagaries - the ice-storm: when a leafless tree is clothed with ice from the bottom to the top - ice that is as bright and clear as crystal; when every bough and twig is strung with ice-beads, frozen dew-drops, and the whole tree sparkles cold and white, like the Shah of Persia's diamond plume. Then the wind waves the branches and the sun comes out and turns all those myriads of beads and drops to prisms that glow and burn and flash with all manner of colored fires, which change and change again with inconceivable rapidity from blue to red, from red to green, and green to gold-the tree becomes a spraying fountain, a very explosion of dazzling jewels; and it stands there the acme, the climax, the supremest possibility in art or nature, of bewildering, intoxicating, intolerable magnificence. One cannot make the words too strong." Mark Twain

I miss the change of seasons, not just the alternation of hot and wet but four seasons. I miss ice storms and the power going out. Now of course I would be responsible. But as a boy it was my parents' problem and changes in routine--no school!--were welcome.

"The true object of all human life is play. Life is a task garden, heaven is a playground." G. K. Chesterton

Today's Quote: A Trio From Mencken

"There is always an easy solution to every human problem -- neat, plausible, and wrong."

"The men the American public admire most extravagantly are the most daring liars; the men they detest most violently are those who try to tell them the truth."

"I believe that all government is evil, and that trying to improve it is largely a waste of time."

--------------- H.L. Mencken (I'm guessing after a politician was nominated to run for President)

Dr. Who Quote

I purchased "The Saint" by Orbital on iTunes and also decided to buy "Dr. Who?" as well from their "Live at Glastonbury" (iTunes recreates the old record listening booth from "Webster Records" of my youth). The "Dr. Who?" song is their interpretation of the Dr. Who Theme, it opens with a great quote spoken by The Doctor from "The Dalek Invasion of Earth"

"One day I shall come back. Yes, I shall come back. Until then, there must be no regrets, no tears, no anxieties. Just go forward in all your beliefs, and prove to me that I am not mistaken in mine."

Today's Quote: More On Thinking

"A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices."

------------------ William James (Are you thinking what I'm thinking?)

Today's Quote: On Complaining

"I can't complain, but sometimes I still do."

---------- Joe Walsh (Speaking for all of us)

Today's Quote: On Failure

"I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody"

-------- Bill Cosby (Said perhaps after he started speaking out against cultural problems in the Black community)

Today's Quote: On Deep Thinking

"The supreme paradox of all thought is the attempt to discover something that thought cannot think."

---------------- Søren Kierkegaard (Later paraphrased by famous philosopher Curly Howard as "I keep trying to think, but nothing happens")

Today's Quote: On Dishes and Idealism

"Everybody wants to save the earth; nobody wants to help Mom do the dishes."

-------- P.J. O'Rourke (probably engaged in that favorite pasttime of oldsters, complaining about the kids of today).

Today's Aphorism: On Political Campaigns

"A political campaign starts when a politician stops working and goes about making speeches about all the work he intends to do."

----------- Unknown (probably becuase it's so old - Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.)

Today's Quote: On Plans

Most plans are just inaccurate predictions.

------------ Ben Bayol (probably in response to his wife's complaints about the typical male's lack of planning)

Today's Quote: On Comedy

Comedy is tragedy plus time.

I saw it in the window, and I just had to have it.

----------------- Carol Burnett (she must have had some hellacious tragedies based on how funny she was)

Today's Quote: On Bigotry

Bigot: One who is obstinately and zealously attached to an opinion that you do not entertain.

More of My Wisdom

I have another revamped aphorism I like to say:

Rome wasn't built without deadlines.

Today's Quote: Your Ideas

Don't worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any good, you'll have to ram them down people's throats.

--------------------- Howard Aiken (probably after an engineering design review)

Today's Quote: William F. Buckley Jr. In Memoriam

I'd rather entrust the government of the United States to the first 400 people listed in the Boston telephone directory than to the faculty of Harvard University.

I get satisfaction of three kinds. One is creating something, one is being paid for it and one is the feeling that I haven't just been sitting on my ass all afternoon.

Liberals claim to want to give a hearing to other views, but then are shocked and offended to discover that there are other views.

It had all the earmarks of a CIA operation; the bomb killed everybody in the room except the intended target!

Back in the thirties we were told we must collectivize the nation because the people were so poor. Now we are told we must collectivize the nation because the people are so rich.

You cultivate the essential virtues: high purpose, intelligence, decency, humility, fear of the Lord, and the passion for freedom.

There is an inverse relationship between reliance on the state and self-reliance.

Idealism is fine, but as it approaches reality, the costs become prohibitive.

I won't insult your intelligence by suggesting that you really believe what you just said.

The academic community has in it the biggest concentration of alarmists, cranks and extremists this side of the giggle house.

Liberals, it has been said, are generous with other peoples' money, except when it comes to questions of national survival when they prefer to be generous with other people's freedom and security.

Truth is a demure lady, much too ladylike to knock you on your head and drag you to her cave. She is there, but people must want her, and seek her out.

Life can't be all bad when for ten dollars you can buy all the Beethoven sonatas and listen to them for ten years.

One must bear in mind that the expansion of federal activity is a form of eating for politicians.

A Conservative is a fellow who is standing athwart history yelling "Stop!

---------------- William F. Buckly Jr.

Today's Quote: The Power of Three Days

After three days men grow weary, of a wench, a guest, and weather rainy.

--------- Benjamin Franklin (I wonder if it was after a 3 day bout of the flu?)

Today's Quote: On Exactitude

It is the mark of an educated mind to rest satisfied with the degree of precision which the nature of the subject admits and not to seek exactness where only an approximation is possible.

------- Aristotle (and not Onassis)

An Aphorism Of My Own

My son was giving me grief about using aphorisms, and asked me if I had anything original to say. I reminded him of one of my very own (at least as far as I know) aphorisms, or more accurately an aphorism with my own twist:

Time flies whether you have fun or not, so you might as well have fun

Okay, maybe it doesn't rank up there with

Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana

but at least it's more than a funny line.

Murphy Family Sayings

How To Pour Oil On Troubled Waters

I have been involved in enough forum flame wars and have seen enought blog flame wars to be pretty much sick and tired of them. I also understand (as a wise man millenia ago point out) there is nothing new under the sun. So when I cam across some words of wisdom concerning how to best repond to controversy, I figured that I would reprint the advice. I would charge for it just to increase its worth to you, but as it's free elsewhere and I'm not a consultant, here is an excerpt of Eight or Nine Wise Words About Letter Writing by Charles Dodgson AKA Lewis Carrol for free:

A few more Rules may fitly be given here, for correspondence that has unfortunately become controversial.

One is, don’t repeat yourself. When once you have said your say, fully and clearly, on a certain point, and have failed to convince your friend, drop that subject: to repeat your arguments, all over again, will simply lead to his doing the same; and so you will go on, like a Circulating Decimal. Did you ever know a Circulating Decimal come to an end?

Another Rule is, when you have written a letter that you feel may possibly irritate your friend, however necessary you may have felt it to so express yourself, put it aside till the next day. Then read it over again, and fancy it addressed to yourself. This will often lead to your writing it all over again, taking out a lot of the vinegar and pepper, and putting in honey instead, and thus making a much more palatable dish of it! If, when you have done your best to write inoffensively, you still feel that it will probably lead to further controversy, keep a copy of it. There is very little use, months afterwards, in pleading “I am almost sure I never expressed myself as you say: to the best of my recollection I said so-and-so”. Far better to be able to write “I did not express myself so: these are the words I used”.

My fifth Rule is, if your friend makes a severe remark, either leave it unnoticed, or make your reply distinctly less severe: and if he makes a friendly remark, tending towards “making up” the little difference that has arisen between you, let your reply be distinctly more friendly. If, in picking a quarrel, each party declined to go more than three-eighths of the way, and if, in making friends, each was ready to go five-eighths of the way--why, there would be more reconciliations than quarrels! Which is like the Irishman’s remonstrance to his gad-about daughter--”Shure, you’re always goin’ out! You go out three times, for wanst that you come in!”

My sixth Rule (and my last remark about controversial correspondence) is, don’t try to have the last word! How many a controversy would be nipped in the bud, if each was anxious to let the other have the last word! Never mind how telling a rejoinder you leave unuttered: never mind your friend’s supposing that you are silent from lack of anything to say: let the thing drop, as soon as it is possible without discourtesy: remember “speech is silvern, but silence is golden”! (N.B.--If you are a gentleman, and your friend is a lady, this Rule is superfluous: you wo’n’t get the last word!)

My seventh Rule is, if it should ever occur to you to write, jestingly, in dispraise of your friend, be sure you exaggerate enough to make the jesting obvious: a word spoken in jest, but taken as earnest, may lead to very serious consequences. I have known it to lead to the breaking-off of a friendship. Suppose, for instance, you wish to remind your friend of a sovereign you have lent him, which he has forgotten to repay--you might quite mean the words “I mention it, as you seem to have a conveniently bad memory for debts”, in jest; yet there would be nothing to wonder at if he took offence at that way of putting it. But, suppose you wrote “Long observation of your career, as a pickpocket and a burglar, has convinced me that my one lingering hope, for recovering that sovereign I lent you, is to say ‘Pay up, or I’ll summons yer!’” he would indeed be a matter-of-fact friend if he took that as seriously meant!

That last piece of advice is the least obvious and reminds me of how often after a controversy the person who lit the fuse will claim "I was just making a joke". Just like all other communication, if it isn't clear to the audience, the mistake is yours, not theirs.

Via the Evangelical Outpost

Quotes for a New Father

A co-worker (OK, an employee of one of my clients) had a son this week and e-mailed a JPEG of his newborn child--what did people do before digital cameras?--so I sent him these quotes that I thought I would also share with the dozen readers of this blog:

"One of the most important things to remember about infant care is: never change diapers in mid-stream."
Don Marquis

"All is pattern, all life, be we can't always see the pattern when we are part of it."
Belva Plain

"Many men can make a fortune but very few can build a family. "
J. S. Bryan

"Life is full of miracles, but they are not always the ones that we pray for. "
Eve Arden

"Courage is the capacity to confront what can be imagined."
Leo Rosten

An Ancient Radiation That Haunts Dismembered Constellations

In God We Trust, All Others Bring Data
attributed to W. Edwards Deming

The rule of ABCD: Always Be Collecting Data
I can't find a good source for this one, I heard it years ago in a presentation but not all of the content from the pre-Internet years has found its way into Google's cache. If you have a source, please add a comment.

from Brick by Ben Folds Five

As weeks went by
It showed that she was not fine
They told me son its time to tell the truth and she broke down and
I broke down
Cause I was tired of lying

All this time I thought it was about a couple in their twenties, with the girl dying of some early onset cancer, with "They" being her doctors. But according to Frank Maynard's original Ben Folds Five Website

On the record, Ben wasn't much help [...] Since the song became so popular, it's been clarified that the song is indeed about a guy taking his girlfriend to the clinic for an abortion, and how he handles the situation. [...] he has stated (on the syndicated radio show "Loveline") that it was based on his experiences in the 12th grade, and that he had spoken with his girlfriend at the time and she said she didn't mind if Ben talked about it. In the article by David Daley in the February 1998 CMJ New Music Monthly, Ben says "It's the story of my senior year of high school, basically. More so, it's about the fact that it happens and there are emotional byproducts."

And, in closing...

'A,' 'B,' 'C.' 'A,' always, 'B,' be, 'C,' closing. Always be closing.
from Blake's speech in Glengarry Glen Ross (screenplay by David Mamet)

Advice from Ads

I found wisdom in the ads, or at least advice I should heed...
a tagline from an Accenture ad series

It’s not how many ideas you have.
It’s how many you make happen.

The list of remarks you should "Keep on Walking" past according to Johnnie Walker:

• It Will Never Fly.
• If It Ain't Broke, Don't Fix It.
• Don't Ruffle Feathers.
• The Climate Isn't Right.
• You'll Never Get Funding.
• This Isn't Even Your Department.
• You'll Get Laughed Out Of The Room.
• That's Too Risky.
• Don't Step On Any Toes.

Two closing thoughts at opposite ends of the spectrum from Orwell and McLuhan:

Advertising is the rattling of a stick inside a swill bucket."
George Orwell

"Ads are the cave art of the twentieth century."
Marshall McLuhan

Five Quotes from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Inspired by Merlin Mann's 5ives I am posting my quotes in batches of five. I recently lost several hours perusing the quotes pages from The Chronicles of Sir Aurthur Conan Doyle and have selected these as among his best.

"It is of the highest importance in the art of detection to be able to recognize, out of a number of facts, which are incidental and which vital."
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle "The Reigate Puzzle"

"Of all ghosts the ghosts of our old lovers are the worst."
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle "Gloria Scott"

"The world is full of obvious things which nobody by any chance ever observes."
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle "The Hound of the Baskervilles"

"His face is of a walnut brown, and tells of long winter drives over bleak country roads, with the wind and the rain in his teeth. It looks smooth at a little distance, but as you approach him you see that it is shot with innumerable fine wrinkles like a last year's apple. They are hardly to be seen when he is in repose; but when he laughs his face breaks like a starred glass, and you realize then that though he looks old, he must be older than he looks."
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle "Behind the Times"

"I am that most helpless of living creatures, the son of a millionaire."
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle "The Sealed Room"

Closing the Neurotic's Notebook

• Purgatory must be like that moment when your first awake, just before you remember that you love and are loved.
• "Your money or your life." We know what to do when a burglar makes this demand on us, but not when God does.
• Don't be yourself--be someone a little nicer.

From the (still out of print, but prices are rising) "The Complete Neurotic's Notebook" by Mignon McLaughlin. Earlier entries in this series: June 22, 18, 10, 7, May 10, April 25 and 28.

Penultimate Triplet of Quotations from Mignon McLaughlin

• The young have such fervor: nothing can stop them except success.
• In youth we are plagued by desire; in later years by the desire to feel desire.
• When I was a child, nobody died; but now it happens all the time.

From the out of print "The Complete Neurotic's Notebook" by Mignon McLaughlin.
Earlier entries: June 18, June 10, June 7, May 10, April 25 and 28.

More Advice from Mignon McLaughlin

• Don't fool yourself that important things can be put off till tomorrow; they can be put off forever or not at all.
• We have a terror of seeming to exert ourselves, lest it be noticed that we exerted ourselves and did not succeed.
• The neurotic lies awake at night, composing letters to those he hates. He seldom thinks of dropping a line to those he loves.

From the out of print "The Complete Neurotic's Notebook" by Mignon McLaughlin.
Earlier entries: June 10, June 7, May 10, April 25 and 28.

A Trio of quotes from Mignon McLaughlin

• Despair is anger with no place to go.
• The death of someone we know reminds us we are still alive--perhaps for some purpose we ought to re-examine.
• We are like people with short term leases on summer cottages; we can never seem to make our provisions come out even with our stay.

Can't Get Enough of Mignon McLaughlin

• Every group of six or more has its inner circle, its circle, and its hangers-on.
• Traditions are group efforts to keep the unexpected from happening.
• We catch frightful glimpses of ourselves in the hostile eyes of others.
• It's terrifying to see someone inside of whom a vital spring seems to have broken. It's particularly terrifying to see him in your mirror.

More Mignon McLaughlin (3)

• Many of us who are equal to life's emergencies cannot bear it day-after-dayness.
• An old racetrack joke reminds you that the program contains all of the winner's names. I stare at my typewriter keys with the same thought.
• If there is something you must do and you cannot do it, you cannot do anything else.
• What you have become is the price you paid to get what you used to want.

Another Harvest of Insights from Mignon McLaughlin

More aphorisms from "The Neurotic's Notebook" (still out of print, but worth buying second hand).

Courage can't see around corners, but goes around them anyway.

A Quintet of Quotes from the "Neurotic's Notebook" by Mignon McLaughlin

It's out of print, but worth picking up second hand.

Learning too soon our limitations, we never learn our full powers.

A Quartet of Quotes on Innovation, Strategy, Reflection, and Duty

"Innovation is the first reduction to practice of an idea in a culture."
James Brian Quinn from Intelligent Enterprise

"A strategy is a pattern or plan that integrates an organization's major goals, polices, and action sequences into a cohesive whole. A well-formulated strategy helps to marshal and allocate an organization's resources into a unique and viable posture based on its relative internal competences and shortcomings, anticipated changes in the environment and contingent moves by intelligent opponents."
James Brian Quinn in Strategies for Change

"Follow effective action with quiet reflection.
From the quiet reflection will come even more effective action."
Peter F. Drucker

"Never mind your happiness; do your duty."
William Durant

These are a few of my favorite quotes. Taken together, they suggest to me a harmony of perspectives that I find useful to maintain when I am making plans.

Nevermore

I love a good quote. Usually they're short and pointed; The Sophorist has collected a trio of long yet pointed ones.

It's Baaaaack!

With apologies to Thomas Hood:

No sun,

No warmth,

No cheer.

No flowers,

No leaves,

No buzzing bees.

No Wonder,

November.

Lyrical Wisdom

Tax the Rich

Feed the Poor

Till there are no

Rich no more

I'd Love to Change the World,

But I don't know what to do,

so I leave it up to You

Computer Programming

Any fool can write code a computer can understand. Good programmers write code that humans can understand.