Old versus modern gods

(The following opinions are my own. You don’t need to share them, but you do need to respect them. Also, watch out for spoilers.)

In American Gods by Neil Gaiman Shadow has just been released from jail. A man who goes by the name Mr. Wednesday shows up from nowhere to hire Shadow as his errand boy/body guard. Wednesday is later revealed to be the norse god Odin, whose goal is to gather the gods of old mythology to stand united against their common foe: the gods of modern America. The lack of believers has made the old gods lose their power (Anubis, the egyptian god of afterlife works at a funeral agency and Afrodite, the greek god of love and beauty, makes her living as a prostitute, for example) whereas the modern gods of America, such as Internet, Celebrity and Media has gained a lot of power.

Throughout the book the modern gods are pictured as bloodthirsty, evil and egoistic. The old gods have a few skeletons in the closet, but is generally pictured as warm hearted. Is that the world we live in today? Did humans lose all sense of morality when the religious beliefs faded?

As an engineer I can help to feel that the use of gods is obsolete. 1000 years ago, when the vikings couldn’t understand thunder, they made up a god to explain it. Sure, nobody believs in Thor any more. But still, in the year of 2010, religious people uses their respective God to explain things they don’t understand. Did you know that what we in Sweden (and most of Europe) call Force majure (you know, your iPhone getting flooded by hot lava isn’t covered in the warranty) is actually called an Act of God in such a developed country as United States. I believe, or rather believe that I know, that scientists will be able to explain everything. It’s just a matter of time. The more time spent researching, the less we need to believe in gods to explain things to us.

Before I get smited by religious fanatics I need to tell you that I dig one thing about all those made-up stories: The karma/heaven-hell/afterlife-bit. It doesn’t really matter if there really exists a Valhalla or not. As long as people believe it does they will act and behave better as people. My grandma keeps telling me that people were a lot nicer when she was young. I don’t know, maybe the lack of beliefs do affect us more than we think.

Why can’t we just merge the best parts from each age? We shouldn’t need gods to act with moral. I say we drop the old gods, keep the ideals and embrace the modern gods as they deserve!

(If you’re into fiction, this book is definitely worth a read. Also, the real-time strategy game Age of Mythology combines ancient beliefs with the mordenity of video games in an awesome way. Play it!)

My thoughts regarding The Story of Stuff

Very interesting lecture. Annie Leonard is a good speaker, well educated and is carrying strong opinions. The clip is three years old, but still more up-to-date than ever. The topic concerns every one of us.

However, I can’t help having a feeling of the lecture kind of back firing. The more I watch, the more I’m convinced that Leonard is not at all objective, thus making the clip a lot less credible. For example, she mentions that 99 % av everything we consume is trashed in six months. C’mon, how is that meassured? Is 1 % of the number of things kept, or 1 % of the value? If I in six months I buy 99 cartons of milk and 1 iPod, but only keep the Ipod, does that make me a polluter? Either if the value is calculated or not, it doesn’t really seem to fit in my life. Annie, more sources please.

Okay, to be a bit reasonable, I totally agree with her. The earth is going down, and we got to something. Enlighten people sure is a good start. But to just stop, or reduce, our consumerism isn’t that easy. As she mentions, it has become our culture to do so. Although I’m not too fond of the government getting more power and influence, I believe taxes on especially hazardous goods would be the fastest way to make people consume less. We can’t count on the companies to produce less, or switch to less profitable ways of production, just as you never would agree to a reduction of your salary. Even if they did agree to that, it would mean a lot of people getting canned. Not so sure that’s what Annie Leonard wants.

I think the best thing to do, is to aim for more progress in technology and science, saving the earth that way. Let’s just hope we get there before more countries reach the consumtion rate of the U.S., because then we’re screwed.

My two cents on Snooping Bosses

First of all, I must say it’s terrifying all that spying actually happens. The authors mention George Orwell, and when I read it feels like the article was picked right out of 1984. To make things even worse, the article was written 2006. Imagine what bosses and other spies can do with another four years of developing technology.

That was my feelings after reading the text for the first time. A day later I read it again. And then a third time. For each time I read it I realized more and more that I didn’t feel sorry for any of the ”victims” in the article. If that first guy had a real, important reason for skipping work I’m sure his would’ve let him. But when he lies to his boss, the guy who pays his checks, for something that probably wasn’t reason enough, I can’t really pity him.

Instead, this makes the more reason for the boss to monitor his empoyees. As he obviosly can’t trust his workers, he has to watch them. This makes me think of when my parents were renovating their bahtroom. Everytime I came home I found the plumbers having coffee. It wasn’t once or twice. No, it was like 5 out of 10 times I walked in on them they were on break. Maybe it was coincidence, maybe they actually only worked half the time, I don’t know. But if I had some kind of camera, I would know if they were pausing away my parents money. As one of the managers of the article said: ”I don’t give a rat’s rear what they do at home, but what they do at work is all my business.”.

Unfortunately, that’s not all true. People fired because of blogging in their spare time are mentioned. Penelope Trunk was warned for writing about sex online. This might seem harsh, but is it really? Imagine yourself as an employer. Would you let one of your staff members, say a salesman, enter one of those scandalous tv-shows like paradise hotel? I wouldn’t, and suddenly I mess with their leisure time.

To summarize, there isn’t really anyone to blame for this big brother society, since it’s obviosly needed. And of course, noone can stop techonology. I guess all you can do is behave…

Oh, the irony.

So, here we are. I, Erik, have started a blog. Me, who always have carried the most hatred for these common blogs. I mean, sure, if you were some kind of rockstar, or lived in a foreign country, or at least had an interesting disease it's possible that I would read your blog. But I just can't take it when normal, common, boring people are blogging about their everyday life. No, I don't want to know who you voted for on Idol last night, what you had for lunch and I especially don't care for your stupid outfit of the day. Believe it or not, but I also eat and wear cloths, and it ain't that fun.

Well then, now you're probably wondering what makes my blog so special. I am taking a class called English for scientists and engineers. Yep, that's all. But, is that really enough to separate me from those disgusting everydaypeople blogging? No, of course not. I did not start this blog by choice. It's compulsory. Tasks from that class will be published here for my classmates to read and comment. I can't prevent all you other people from reading this, but I figured, sooner or later you'll drop out anyway.

Anyway, here's my blog. Suppose that's what they call irony.