Week 2: November 6th, 2008

Today's Story

Topic Number Three: Of Religion by: Youngil Ely Loew
My name is Ely Loew. I am not an atheist. Atheists, especially those who are hostile to religion, are one of my pet peeves, along with Conspiracy Theorists, and extreme nationalism (in any country). For example, Bill Maher was a guest on the John Stewart Show (from Tuesday 9/30/08), discussing religion. This was the first time I had heard of him, and he said some things that hit a personal nerve. To be fair, I agreed with many of his points, like I do with everyone, but overall, he's an example of what's wrong with the anti-religious movement. Even though I admire John Stewart's political and comedic genius, it disappoints me to see him have such an anti-religious guest on his show. Of course, I wasn't surprised. It's hard to forget Steven Colbert got his jump start into fame with his segment 'This week in God' (which was hilarious) on the Daily Show. I understand the idea of having controversial guests on a show, but what bothered me is that Stewart seemed to be approving of Maher's views by laughing at his most outrageous and infuriating comments. I'd like to grab some points that Bill Maher made and comment on them. You can watch his interview in two parts at http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=186755&title=Bill-Maher-Pt.-1 and http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=186756&title=Bill-Maher-Pt.-2. First comment (Para-phrased unless put in quotations): There are two Americas. One is the progressive, European nation that most of us live in or would like to live, but it's being strangled by this other, stupid red-neck nation that won't allow it to develop. This is a very broad and unfair generalization, but even worse, it is setting the stage for later comments that imply only real idiots believe in religion. There are uneducated and misinformed people in both parties, and it is pure arrogance, in my opinion, to say that your views are better because you are smarter… This debasing of the intelligence of the opposition is similar to the dehumanizing of another race to justify discrimination. That comparison might be a stretch, but if the views of the anti-religious movement become a majority, then those views would translate into laws. Second Comment: If you tell people the tenets of any religion, and people aren't familiar with it, they'll think you're crazy. I was ranting the beliefs of Scientology in the streets of London, and people thought I was a nutter. That's only because Scientology is a new religion. Christianity is just as crazy, we're just used to that one. (He then goes on to imitate the conversation between Jesus and God, making comments like God is a single parent, he went down to impregnate Mary to give birth to Jesus, a.k.a Himself, etc.) Personally, I also think the Christian understanding of Jesus and God's relationship is a bit irrational, but for someone to attack the most complex and confusing part of a religion and point out its logical shortcomings as a basis for declaring that the whole religion as worthless is a little short sighted, in my opinion. It also ignores the most noble and effective parts of that religion. I believe that Christianity and Scientology (as well as every other religion), provide an incredible service to their followers and to society as a whole. If a religion also provide a disservice (a debatable point), then it is still outweighed by the benefits that religion provides. Third Comment (and this is the thing that atheists/strong agnostics say that frustrates me the most): John Stewart was pointing out that religion is comforting, and asking if that doesn't give it some value. Bill Maher's response: "Well, its comfort and aid that comes at a great price. Like almost every war in history, suicide bombings, and oppression of women and minorities, and having sex with children…" The question I have to ask in response to this argument is, "Did those things not exist before religion?" This statement is a perfect example of probably the most common logical fallacy (for those of you who have studied for the LSATs, pay attention): confusing correlation with cause and result. Humankind has problems, and if we study the rise and fall of civilizations, it is arguable that religion helps lead the way toward progress and reform. Although the history of Christianity is far from pure, compared to the ancient civilizations they were surrounded by, the Christian civilization probably had the greatest influence on today's modern concepts of human rights. Most hospitals and schools around the world were built by Christian missionaries, especially before the end of WWII and the creation of the U.N. Were WWI and WWII religious wars? The Japanese had suicide bombers during WWII. Were these religiously motivated? Greeks and Romans had sex with children. They oppressed women and minorities… In fact, it was often religious people that helped liberate women and minorities. Think of Martin Luther King, Jr. Gandhi. Mother Theresa. Again, when we talk about war it's difficult to identify a single precise cause. The most accepted theory is that most wars in history were fought over scarcity of recourses or national pride. Other than the Crusades, and the 100 Year War in Germany, I'd like some more examples of religiously motivated wars. The Revolutionary War? The Civil War? People start wars for various reasons, and sometimes they use religion to justify them, but religion itself rarely is the cause of war. Rarely… Religion is run by people, and so it is a victim of, and not a source of, evil. Evil comes from the selfishness and ignorance of people. Comment Four (this is one I agree with - to be fair and balanced): The Bible was written over 2000 years ago, for people who didn't know where the sun went at night, or how women get pregnant, or what an atom or a germ was. It was forgivable to make up these myths. But now its 2008, it's not so forgivable. I agree with this to the extent that the Bible is outdated and should not be taken literally. It was written for a people who needed symbols and metaphors to understand the world. Imagine trying to explain an atom to someone in the 1st century. People would have thought you were crazy. To jump back to an earlier comment, what society thinks is crazy is very relative and subjective. Therefore, it should not be a basis for determining what is true. Fifth Comment: I'm not an atheist, because I find atheism to mirror the certainty of religion. What I say is that I don't know. That is an excellent sentence, if it was genuine. Unfortunately, despite his 'uncertainty', he's still confident enough in his view to portray religious people as stupid… Sixth Comment: "I understand that not having faith is a luxury of having a good life." This is another statement that makes my blood boil. Only poor people who've suffered are justifiably religious… the rest are stupid. I've led a very good life, and I'm very religious. There are probably just as many people among the rich as there are among the poor that believe in religion. Einstein was a very strong believer in God, and although Hawkins tries to dispute this point by pointing out Einstein wasn't really affiliated with a specific religion, the fact remains that Einstein was frustrated when atheists used his statements to attack religion. There are very smart and intelligent people who strongly believe in religion. Either way, I was annoyed. It really bothers me when people like to attack religion, and even worse, make a profession out of it. I know that religious people often believe and do some crazy things, but again, it's dangerous to create a cause- result relationship out of something that could in fact just be correlation. For example, there are many non-religious people that believe in 'crazy' things, like the conspiracy theorists who believe that international bankers control the world and that 9-11 was an inside job. I believe the search for truth has to always be open-minded and respectful. Humility is also important. Even though I think the conspiracy people are 'crazy' (disclaimer: this is a very relative word. I only use it to make a point, not to be insulting), I've probably spent over 25 hours watching various videos and researching claims that they've made. While doing so, I asked myself, "could this be true?". My personal answer is "NO", but I could be wrong, and I accept that. Using all the logic and reason I posses, I believe that religion is valuable and that God exists. This has been confirmed for me through various experiences and intense studying. I also believe that religion overall has made the world a much better place, despite its faults. I think it's good to question and challenge, but to say that the other side is stupid for believing something is to ignore the value of what they believe and what they are doing. I think that it is good that conspiracy people believe what they do, because it forces people to question the way they are living and what is happening around them. I get a little annoyed when they call me blind or brainwashed, but I believe the only way to handle that is to take them point by point through every claim in a given conspiracy movie and show them the contradictions, misinformation, and outright lies. If they are willing to take the same amount of time listening to me the way I listened to them, then I believe that we would both be wiser and closer to the truth. By the way, although I aim to always be patient and open minded, and not to insult people that believe differently, I know I sometimes fail. It's a goal to aim for, nonetheless.
11/05/08

Topic Number Three: Of Religion

My name is Ely Loew. I am not an atheist.

Atheists, especially those who are hostile to religion, are one of my pet peeves, along with Conspiracy Theorists, and extreme nationalism (in any country).

For example, Bill Maher was a guest on the John Stewart Show (from Tuesday 9/30/08), discussing religion. This was the first time I had heard of him, and he said some things that hit a personal nerve. To be fair, I agreed with many of his points, like I do with everyone, but overall, he's an example of what's wrong with the anti-religious movement. Even though I admire John Stewart's political and comedic genius, it disappoints me to see him have such an anti-religious guest on his show. Of course, I wasn't surprised. It's hard to forget Steven Colbert got his jump start into fame with his segment 'This week in God' (which was hilarious) on the Daily Show. I understand the idea of having controversial guests on a show, but what bothered me is that Stewart seemed to be approving of Maher's views by laughing at his most outrageous and infuriating comments.

I'd like to grab some points that Bill Maher made and comment on them. You can watch his interview in two parts at http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=186755&title=Bill-Maher-Pt.-1 and http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=186756&title=Bill-Maher-Pt.-2.

First comment (Para-phrased unless put in quotations): There are two Americas. One is the progressive, European nation that most of us live in or would like to live, but it's being strangled by this other, stupid red-neck nation that won't allow it to develop.

This is a very broad and unfair generalization, but even worse, it is setting the stage for later comments that imply only real idiots believe in religion. There are uneducated and misinformed people in both parties, and it is pure arrogance, in my opinion, to say that your views are better because you are smarter… This debasing of the intelligence of the opposition is similar to the dehumanizing of another race to justify discrimination. That comparison might be a stretch, but if the views of the anti-religious movement become a majority, then those views would translate into laws.

Second Comment: If you tell people the tenets of any religion, and people aren't familiar with it, they'll think you're crazy. I was ranting the beliefs of Scientology in the streets of London, and people thought I was a nutter. That's only because Scientology is a new religion. Christianity is just as crazy, we're just used to that one. (He then goes on to imitate the conversation between Jesus and God, making comments like God is a single parent, he went down to impregnate Mary to give birth to Jesus, a.k.a Himself, etc.)

Personally, I also think the Christian understanding of Jesus and God's relationship is a bit irrational, but for someone to attack the most complex and confusing part of a religion and point out its logical shortcomings as a basis for declaring that the whole religion as worthless is a little short sighted, in my opinion. It also ignores the most noble and effective parts of that religion. I believe that Christianity and Scientology (as well as every other religion), provide an incredible service to their followers and to society as a whole. If a religion also provide a disservice (a debatable point), then it is still outweighed by the benefits that religion provides.

Third Comment (and this is the thing that atheists/strong agnostics say that frustrates me the most): John Stewart was pointing out that religion is comforting, and asking if that doesn't give it some value. Bill Maher's response: "Well, its comfort and aid that comes at a great price. Like almost every war in history, suicide bombings, and oppression of women and minorities, and having sex with children…"

The question I have to ask in response to this argument is, "Did those things not exist before religion?" This statement is a perfect example of probably the most common logical fallacy (for those of you who have studied for the LSATs, pay attention): confusing correlation with cause and result. Humankind has problems, and if we study the rise and fall of civilizations, it is arguable that religion helps lead the way toward progress and reform. Although the history of Christianity is far from pure, compared to the ancient civilizations they were surrounded by, the Christian civilization probably had the greatest influence on today's modern concepts of human rights. Most hospitals and schools around the world were built by Christian missionaries, especially before the end of WWII and the creation of the U.N.

Were WWI and WWII religious wars? The Japanese had suicide bombers during WWII. Were these religiously motivated? Greeks and Romans had sex with children. They oppressed women and minorities… In fact, it was often religious people that helped liberate women and minorities. Think of Martin Luther King, Jr. Gandhi. Mother Theresa. Again, when we talk about war it's difficult to identify a single precise cause. The most accepted theory is that most wars in history were fought over scarcity of recourses or national pride. Other than the Crusades, and the 100 Year War in Germany, I'd like some more examples of religiously motivated wars. The Revolutionary War? The Civil War? People start wars for various reasons, and sometimes they use religion to justify them, but religion itself rarely is the cause of war. Rarely… Religion is run by people, and so it is a victim of, and not a source of, evil. Evil comes from the selfishness and ignorance of people.

Comment Four (this is one I agree with - to be fair and balanced): The Bible was written over 2000 years ago, for people who didn't know where the sun went at night, or how women get pregnant, or what an atom or a germ was. It was forgivable to make up these myths. But now its 2008, it's not so forgivable.

I agree with this to the extent that the Bible is outdated and should not be taken literally. It was written for a people who needed symbols and metaphors to understand the world. Imagine trying to explain an atom to someone in the 1st century. People would have thought you were crazy. To jump back to an earlier comment, what society thinks is crazy is very relative and subjective. Therefore, it should not be a basis for determining what is true.

Fifth Comment: I'm not an atheist, because I find atheism to mirror the certainty of religion. What I say is that I don't know.

That is an excellent sentence, if it was genuine. Unfortunately, despite his 'uncertainty', he's still confident enough in his view to portray religious people as stupid…

Sixth Comment: "I understand that not having faith is a luxury of having a good life."

This is another statement that makes my blood boil. Only poor people who've suffered are justifiably religious… the rest are stupid. I've led a very good life, and I'm very religious. There are probably just as many people among the rich as there are among the poor that believe in religion. Einstein was a very strong believer in God, and although Hawkins tries to dispute this point by pointing out Einstein wasn't really affiliated with a specific religion, the fact remains that Einstein was frustrated when atheists used his statements to attack religion. There are very smart and intelligent people who strongly believe in religion.

Either way, I was annoyed. It really bothers me when people like to attack religion, and even worse, make a profession out of it. I know that religious people often believe and do some crazy things, but again, it's dangerous to create a cause- result relationship out of something that could in fact just be correlation. For example, there are many non-religious people that believe in 'crazy' things, like the conspiracy theorists who believe that international bankers control the world and that 9-11 was an inside job.

I believe the search for truth has to always be open-minded and respectful. Humility is also important. Even though I think the conspiracy people are 'crazy' (disclaimer: this is a very relative word. I only use it to make a point, not to be insulting), I've probably spent over 25 hours watching various videos and researching claims that they've made. While doing so, I asked myself, "could this be true?". My personal answer is "NO", but I could be wrong, and I accept that. Using all the logic and reason I posses, I believe that religion is valuable and that God exists. This has been confirmed for me through various experiences and intense studying. I also believe that religion overall has made the world a much better place, despite its faults. I think it's good to question and challenge, but to say that the other side is stupid for believing something is to ignore the value of what they believe and what they are doing. I think that it is good that conspiracy people believe what they do, because it forces people to question the way they are living and what is happening around them. I get a little annoyed when they call me blind or brainwashed, but I believe the only way to handle that is to take them point by point through every claim in a given conspiracy movie and show them the contradictions, misinformation, and outright lies. If they are willing to take the same amount of time listening to me the way I listened to them, then I believe that we would both be wiser and closer to the truth.

By the way, although I aim to always be patient and open minded, and not to insult people that believe differently, I know I sometimes fail. It's a goal to aim for, nonetheless.

11/05/08

Topic Number Two: Against The Gods: A Remarkable Story of Risk by: Justin J. Fong
[Note: based on a true story] Somewhere between counter strike and Indian food began my trek in defiance of the Gods. It was a belief that hedging strategy can overturn fate. Like many others before them, my latest addictions can take any form, strike at a whim, and totally derail a man's sense of self control. It's a new TV series - it's a shiny musical instrument, a new method of hand to hand combat. But more than likely it's testing out a new world view. A new world view is like the way you see things after a movie that leaves you in a stupor for days, or a song you hear that completely matches the moment as you are feeling it. An addiction will steal my nights and turn my productive hours into recovery sessions. Yet somehow, my subconscious prescription for relief is always the same "Take in as much as you can until you are sick. Then you won't need it anymore." I blame these habits on my upbringing. --- It was my third university in three years. I finally settled into a study of choice - politics, rather than a study of necessity - accounting. After a rousing argument over the merits of communism, a Japanese housemate and I concluded that treating valuable humans like numbers (dialectical materialism) is what ruined the lives of all those people in history books. Good thing we were in America where everyone counts. The satisfaction from our nightly bowl of ramen seemed to reinforce the truth of our conclusions, in manner allowing us to move on to less serious matters. "You want to try something fun?" he asked. "Well I don't drink, don't smoke, don't womanize, I haven't gone clubbing since two schools ago, the gym is closed and I've beaten you in ping pong three nights in a row … I don't see what were gonna do," I replied. "Let's try poker." "My religion is against gambling." "It's just for two dollars," he said. After I weighed the satisfaction of a vending machine against beating my housemate at something else, I accepted. After all, I had to remain at the top of the food chain. --- The first night, we played for an hour. The next night was also just an hour, but with more enthusiasm. And we snowballed from there. From a bird's-eye-view, the process is pretty lame. A table of addicted guys sit around for hours and lie to each other about what they were given by the dealer. But from a metaphysical point of view, it's a most enthralling dynamic. These gladiators bring their pride, their fears, their aggressiveness, passivity, greed and a bit of their livelihood ($) all to one place. We each threw in a couple of bucks, but treated the outcomes as a little bit of life and little death. Within our circle of regulars, each brought something to the table. Matthew is unwarrantedly aggressive, Mark only plays by the book, Luke is scared of everything and whatever John does is irrationally random. My personal label was probably "Jerk." The strategy was to piss other players off with my belligerence so they will make bad moves out of spite … I still do this to this day (although less effective). As time went on, the minimums kept increasing: one dollar, to three, to ten to twenty dollars and so on. My Japanese friend and I were always on top, yet somehow he always excelled further than I. He went on to internet poker and became somewhat of a low-level school legend after he turned $15 into $2000. "Was his poker philosophy stronger than mine?" I wondered to myself. Painfully wanting to break my glass ceiling, I asked him what to do. He said, "Justin, you are feeling too much. You have to think in terms of probability and risk." The profundity of his statement shocked me. It sounded simple enough, but somehow the mixture of an anti-Hollywood ("follow your brain, not your heart") message and my receptiveness to the next world-view experiment, lifted my friend to Dali Llama-like status (for an hour or two). After learning the ins and outs of hold 'em hands, my game vastly improved. The subject of risk fascinated me. I took a class on advanced statistics and researched gambling theories. I read several books on Warren Buffett and his ideas on subjective risk assessment. While touting the most expensive and coveted portfolio in America, his business philosophy says, "You can't know the exact numbers for everything, but you can take your best guess and make rational choices accordingly." I took this to heart. Then my world became a game seen through the lenses of subjective risk. If I increase my budget request by so and so, how likely is it to be thrown out? Can I hedge my grades by saying hello and goodbye to the professor every class? If I buy a gadget, is it worth it to buy the Circuit City insurance? If I say this to her, odds are she will respond favorably? I even created a subjective risk philosophy to justify my speeding on highways, as well as managing traffic jams. I was so proud of the novelty of my world-view. It was interesting, it spoke to my intelligence and most of all it was a creative creation arrived at exclusively by ME. --- The next summer, I began "dabbling" in the stock market. I had enough money to buy a couple of shares in an oil company and a manufacturer of gold. I loved the idea that I actually owned a piece of a gold mine. I was hoping someone one day would ask me, "Justin, what do you do?" and I would respond, "I own a gold mine." Chuckling, that person would probably say, "Wow, it's doing that well? Must be a software company or a marketing firm?" Then I can respectfully correct him/her, "No, I actually own a gold mine!" A developing risk philosophy was becoming more tangible with each share I bought. To me, it was a fresh new world, a fresh idea and a fresh start … Unfortunately, it paid off. --- "Hey, how come you don't play poker much anymore?" "I 'm doing something better than poker, I'm playing the market! It's so easy because we're in an up market. Almost any stock you buy without any knowledge is a 50/50 flip to go up or down (a % you may readily take in poker), but with analysis, your odds change in your favor greatly!" Looking back on this statement, I'm not ashamed of my faulty advice, rather more that I believed in it so much. My interested friends and I created a club. Then we formed a legal partnership entity, an entity with a brokerage account and a Tax ID #. Oh, and like any self-respecting college start-up, we created a serious commercial and posted it on Youtube. [http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1815042654206389450] Together, we dabbled collectively and paid ourselves small dividends. We knew that with a small track record and an up market, we should up the ante. We began raising funds from interested investors eventually bagging 170k with margin (ability to match your money with borrowed money - in essence 340k). This escalated my game by exponential proportions. At the time, our club was married to China, finance stocks and oil companies. Finance stocks and I are not really together anymore. --- It was around this point, where my Japanese friend became less of a happy-go-lucky ramen munching student, and into pale, skinny hermit. All day and night, "click … click … click …. DAMN IT!! Click … click … YES!!" Genuinely concerned, I asked, "Hey, how are you doing? You are becoming a recluse." "A re-what?" "A recluse … never mind." After moments of deep thought … and some clicking, he told me the news, "I lost it all in two hands." "Lost your bank roll? But you are sooooooo good." He giggled at my exaggeration. "I went from 1:2 dollar blinds to 5:10 to 50:100 blinds. I couldn't stop myself ... Now I'm starting from the bottom again" "You should play the stock market. Stop wasting time playing poker," I told him. I called him a dumb-ass several times and then left him to his vices. While walking, we would sometimes pass signs from Student Social Services marked "Are you a gambling addict? If so come in for a talk …" I would rip out the paper and give it to him and we'd have a good laugh. --- At the height of my philosophical development, I found a book by (then unknown) Nassim Nicholas Taleb, a Lebanese native, former hedge fund manager turned probability philosopher. The book, Fooled by Randomness, was filled with truly dense essays on the philosophical underpinnings of man's misunderstanding of probability. The book also spoke to me because it was filled with angst. Most notable was his extensive analysis of the "Black Swan" effect. This means not believing something can happen, just because it has never happened before … just as people believed there was no such thing as a black swan until they found one in Australia some years ago. This book became more than an intellectual exercise for me. The implications began to chip away at my world-view, which I realized I've grown very attached to. As I slowly digested each of Nassim's Princeton educated primeval anecdotes, the seeds of doubt settled into the chinks of my confidence. I can remember an ominous feeling overcoming me. This book was a premonition of my demise. --- My mother called me and asks me about a speeding ticket. "$450 dollars? How did this happen?" My comprehensive road risk strategy was too complex to explain over the phone, so I said, "It's complicated Mom, talk to you later!" I had just been caught doing 85 in a transition zone from 55mph to a 45mph work zone. Little did I know that fines are doubled in work zones throughout New York State. I also did not know that the police litter the Taconic Parkway on the 4th of July, our independence day. I had convinced myself that the speed I was at was OK because driving in the right lane was a hedge. Cops mainly look for speeders in the left lanes. I also thought that you can drive faster after seeing someone pulled over by a cop, because it decreases the likely-hood that another one is ahead. These and a few other factors, transformed into the magical Fong road-risk point system yields great risk-reward ratios of time saved/possible repercussions. My mother later commented, "I want you to stop wasting your time with the stock market thing. You're just playing around with other people's money and not really making anything from it. It's not what you are really meant to do." (My mother is always right, yet I would never publically acknowledge it) --- One day my partner calls me at the accounting (irony) office where I worked. "Justin, check our account" "Holy **, we just lost $12,000. I wonder what just happened?" "It's probably just a blip right? Hold right?" he asked. "Yeah hold." --- The next day. "Justin, check our account" "Holy **, we just lost $20,000 in one day. Why is this happening?" "Sell right?" "Hmm … There is no way this decline can sustain itself … Hold." "Are you sure?" "Yeah, I'm sure." ---- The bad news was swift and unforgiving. I would have preferred a natural disaster. Unfortunately I don't get to choose which tragedy to be involved in. After months of battering our portfolio, creating investor reports explaining what a sub-prime mortgage is, and eventually divesting of all funds (giving what was left back to investors), all but my core group conveniently drifted off. Some found their way to different countries, some buried their heads in sports and others interestingly obtained jobs in finance. I was left with large debt and a broken spirit. Nassim was right about the Black Swan. The Sub-prime mortgage crisis hit, the country was in recession and many smart men were fired. Nassim later published a book entitled, Black Swans, a best seller. At least I have my poker skills. --- Never in the history of man have I seen someone with a losing streak like I had. Seven months! We play every Friday night, for about five hours. Seven months! The most painful part of it was that I only lost to the worst (most irrational) player amongst the regulars over and over. For example, he could beat my pocket Kings, with a 4&5 off suit by waiting till the end. The table would ask, "Why the heck did you stay in?" He would reply, "Feeling, a feeling." Through his thick Korean accent, it would sound like, "Peeling, ah Peeling." Peeling became a regular joke at the table. I did not find it so funny. The losing streak hurt me in a way I could not understand. The lack of control horrified my sensibilities. I did everything numerically right, but still lost to Peeling. I grew angry at God because my rewards were no longer matching ability. Growing desperate, I contacted my best friend (Sean) to mull over the implications of these experiences. In a diner in Mineola, New York, he and I hammered out the details. Our conclusion: in response to Einstein: perhaps He does play dice. And they are His dice, not mine. Thanks Sean. Figuring out an explanation somehow lightened the load of my losses. --- I spoke with my Japanese friend sometime near his graduation. "Are you going to walk at graduation this year?" I asked. "Nah. I don't care about it that much," he said. "Hey buddy, why do you think gamble so much?" I asked. "Honestly, I think my ancestors were degenerate gamblers. So I think it's in my blood … (giggles)." "All of my ancestors were poor fishermen," I said. He then mentioned, "Also, I guess I do it because the possibility of losing money reminds me that I am alive… I feel like I need that." --- The title Against the Gods: My remarkable story of risk was taken from a book by Peter Bernstein, on mankind's evolution of dominion over the natural world through harnessing concepts of risk. --- [Note: I have since broken my poker losing streak and have become one of the table's best players again. This piece is meant to be read as a story for enjoyment, and not to be taken seriously as evidence for lack of universal laws.]
09/08/08

Topic Number Two: Against The Gods: A Remarkable Story of Risk

by: Justin J. Fong

[Note: based on a true story]

Somewhere between counter strike and Indian food began my trek in defiance of the Gods. It was a belief that hedging strategy can overturn fate.

Like many others before them, my latest addictions can take any form, strike at a whim, and totally derail a man's sense of self control. It's a new TV series - it's a shiny musical instrument, a new method of hand to hand combat. But more than likely it's testing out a new world view. A new world view is like the way you see things after a movie that leaves you in a stupor for days, or a song you hear that completely matches the moment as you are feeling it. An addiction will steal my nights and turn my productive hours into recovery sessions. Yet somehow, my subconscious prescription for relief is always the same "Take in as much as you can until you are sick. Then you won't need it anymore."

I blame these habits on my upbringing.

---

It was my third university in three years. I finally settled into a study of choice - politics, rather than a study of necessity - accounting. After a rousing argument over the merits of communism, a Japanese housemate and I concluded that treating valuable humans like numbers (dialectical materialism) is what ruined the lives of all those people in history books. Good thing we were in America where everyone counts. The satisfaction from our nightly bowl of ramen seemed to reinforce the truth of our conclusions, in manner allowing us to move on to less serious matters.
"You want to try something fun?" he asked.

"Well I don't drink, don't smoke, don't womanize, I haven't gone clubbing since two schools ago, the gym is closed and I've beaten you in ping pong three nights in a row … I don't see what were gonna do," I replied.

"Let's try poker."

"My religion is against gambling."

"It's just for two dollars," he said.

After I weighed the satisfaction of a vending machine against beating my housemate at something else, I accepted. After all, I had to remain at the top of the food chain.

---

The first night, we played for an hour. The next night was also just an hour, but with more enthusiasm. And we snowballed from there.

From a bird's-eye-view, the process is pretty lame. A table of addicted guys sit around for hours and lie to each other about what they were given by the dealer. But from a metaphysical point of view, it's a most enthralling dynamic. These gladiators bring their pride, their fears, their aggressiveness, passivity, greed and a bit of their livelihood ($) all to one place. We each threw in a couple of bucks, but treated the outcomes as a little bit of life and little death.

Within our circle of regulars, each brought something to the table. Matthew is unwarrantedly aggressive, Mark only plays by the book, Luke is scared of everything and whatever John does is irrationally random. My personal label was probably "Jerk." The strategy was to piss other players off with my belligerence so they will make bad moves out of spite … I still do this to this day (although less effective).

As time went on, the minimums kept increasing: one dollar, to three, to ten to twenty dollars and so on. My Japanese friend and I were always on top, yet somehow he always excelled further than I. He went on to internet poker and became somewhat of a low-level school legend after he turned $15 into $2000. "Was his poker philosophy stronger than mine?" I wondered to myself. Painfully wanting to break my glass ceiling, I asked him what to do.

He said, "Justin, you are feeling too much. You have to think in terms of probability and risk."

The profundity of his statement shocked me. It sounded simple enough, but somehow the mixture of an anti-Hollywood ("follow your brain, not your heart") message and my receptiveness to the next world-view experiment, lifted my friend to Dali Llama-like status (for an hour or two).

After learning the ins and outs of hold 'em hands, my game vastly improved. The subject of risk fascinated me. I took a class on advanced statistics and researched gambling theories. I read several books on Warren Buffett and his ideas on subjective risk assessment. While touting the most expensive and coveted portfolio in America, his business philosophy says, "You can't know the exact numbers for everything, but you can take your best guess and make rational choices accordingly." I took this to heart.

Then my world became a game seen through the lenses of subjective risk. If I increase my budget request by so and so, how likely is it to be thrown out? Can I hedge my grades by saying hello and goodbye to the professor every class? If I buy a gadget, is it worth it to buy the Circuit City insurance? If I say this to her, odds are she will respond favorably? I even created a subjective risk philosophy to justify my speeding on highways, as well as managing traffic jams.

I was so proud of the novelty of my world-view. It was interesting, it spoke to my intelligence and most of all it was a creative creation arrived at exclusively by ME.

---

The next summer, I began "dabbling" in the stock market. I had enough money to buy a couple of shares in an oil company and a manufacturer of gold. I loved the idea that I actually owned a piece of a gold mine. I was hoping someone one day would ask me, "Justin, what do you do?" and I would respond, "I own a gold mine." Chuckling, that person would probably say, "Wow, it's doing that well? Must be a software company or a marketing firm?" Then I can respectfully correct him/her, "No, I actually own a gold mine!"

A developing risk philosophy was becoming more tangible with each share I bought. To me, it was a fresh new world, a fresh idea and a fresh start … Unfortunately, it paid off.

---

"Hey, how come you don't play poker much anymore?"

"I 'm doing something better than poker, I'm playing the market! It's so easy because we're in an up market. Almost any stock you buy without any knowledge is a 50/50 flip to go up or down (a % you may readily take in poker), but with analysis, your odds change in your favor greatly!" Looking back on this statement, I'm not ashamed of my faulty advice, rather more that I believed in it so much.

My interested friends and I created a club. Then we formed a legal partnership entity, an entity with a brokerage account and a Tax ID #. Oh, and like any self-respecting college start-up, we created a serious commercial and posted it on Youtube.

[http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1815042654206389450]

Together, we dabbled collectively and paid ourselves small dividends. We knew that with a small track record and an up market, we should up the ante. We began raising funds from interested investors eventually bagging 170k with margin (ability to match your money with borrowed money - in essence 340k). This escalated my game by exponential proportions. At the time, our club was married to China, finance stocks and oil companies. Finance stocks and I are not really together anymore.

---

It was around this point, where my Japanese friend became less of a happy-go-lucky ramen munching student, and into pale, skinny hermit. All day and night, "click … click … click …. DAMN IT!! Click … click … YES!!"

Genuinely concerned, I asked, "Hey, how are you doing? You are becoming a recluse."

"A re-what?"

"A recluse … never mind."

After moments of deep thought … and some clicking, he told me the news, "I lost it all in two hands."

"Lost your bank roll? But you are sooooooo good." He giggled at my exaggeration.

"I went from 1:2 dollar blinds to 5:10 to 50:100 blinds. I couldn't stop myself ... Now I'm starting from the bottom again"

"You should play the stock market. Stop wasting time playing poker," I told him. I called him a dumb-ass several times and then left him to his vices.

While walking, we would sometimes pass signs from Student Social Services marked "Are you a gambling addict? If so come in for a talk …" I would rip out the paper and give it to him and we'd have a good laugh.

---

At the height of my philosophical development, I found a book by (then unknown) Nassim Nicholas Taleb, a Lebanese native, former hedge fund manager turned probability philosopher. The book, Fooled by Randomness, was filled with truly dense essays on the philosophical underpinnings of man's misunderstanding of probability. The book also spoke to me because it was filled with angst. Most notable was his extensive analysis of the "Black Swan" effect. This means not believing something can happen, just because it has never happened before … just as people believed there was no such thing as a black swan until they found one in Australia some years ago.

This book became more than an intellectual exercise for me. The implications began to chip away at my world-view, which I realized I've grown very attached to. As I slowly digested each of Nassim's Princeton educated primeval anecdotes, the seeds of doubt settled into the chinks of my confidence. I can remember an ominous feeling overcoming me. This book was a premonition of my demise.

---

My mother called me and asks me about a speeding ticket. "$450 dollars? How did this happen?"

My comprehensive road risk strategy was too complex to explain over the phone, so I said, "It's complicated Mom, talk to you later!"

I had just been caught doing 85 in a transition zone from 55mph to a 45mph work zone. Little did I know that fines are doubled in work zones throughout New York State. I also did not know that the police litter the Taconic Parkway on the 4th of July, our independence day.

I had convinced myself that the speed I was at was OK because driving in the right lane was a hedge. Cops mainly look for speeders in the left lanes. I also thought that you can drive faster after seeing someone pulled over by a cop, because it decreases the likely-hood that another one is ahead. These and a few other factors, transformed into the magical Fong road-risk point system yields great risk-reward ratios of time saved/possible repercussions.

My mother later commented, "I want you to stop wasting your time with the stock market thing. You're just playing around with other people's money and not really making anything from it. It's not what you are really meant to do." (My mother is always right, yet I would never publically acknowledge it)

---

One day my partner calls me at the accounting (irony) office where I worked.

"Justin, check our account"

"Holy ****, we just lost $12,000. I wonder what just happened?"

"It's probably just a blip right? Hold right?" he asked.

"Yeah hold."

---

The next day.

"Justin, check our account"

"Holy ****, we just lost $20,000 in one day. Why is this happening?"

"Sell right?"

"Hmm … There is no way this decline can sustain itself … Hold."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, I'm sure."

----

The bad news was swift and unforgiving. I would have preferred a natural disaster. Unfortunately I don't get to choose which tragedy to be involved in.

After months of battering our portfolio, creating investor reports explaining what a sub-prime mortgage is, and eventually divesting of all funds (giving what was left back to investors), all but my core group conveniently drifted off. Some found their way to different countries, some buried their heads in sports and others interestingly obtained jobs in finance. I was left with large debt and a broken spirit.

Nassim was right about the Black Swan. The Sub-prime mortgage crisis hit, the country was in recession and many smart men were fired. Nassim later published a book entitled, Black Swans, a best seller.

At least I have my poker skills.

---

Never in the history of man have I seen someone with a losing streak like I had. Seven months! We play every Friday night, for about five hours. Seven months! The most painful part of it was that I only lost to the worst (most irrational) player amongst the regulars over and over. For example, he could beat my pocket Kings, with a 4&5 off suit by waiting till the end. The table would ask, "Why the heck did you stay in?" He would reply, "Feeling, a feeling." Through his thick Korean accent, it would sound like, "Peeling, ah Peeling." Peeling became a regular joke at the table. I did not find it so funny.

The losing streak hurt me in a way I could not understand. The lack of control horrified my sensibilities. I did everything numerically right, but still lost to Peeling. I grew angry at God because my rewards were no longer matching ability. Growing desperate, I contacted my best friend (Sean) to mull over the implications of these experiences.

In a diner in Mineola, New York, he and I hammered out the details.

Our conclusion: in response to Einstein: perhaps He does play dice. And they are His dice, not mine.

Thanks Sean. Figuring out an explanation somehow lightened the load of my losses.

---

I spoke with my Japanese friend sometime near his graduation.

"Are you going to walk at graduation this year?" I asked.

"Nah. I don't care about it that much," he said.

"Hey buddy, why do you think gamble so much?" I asked.

"Honestly, I think my ancestors were degenerate gamblers. So I think it's in my blood … (giggles)."

"All of my ancestors were poor fishermen," I said.

He then mentioned, "Also, I guess I do it because the possibility of losing money reminds me that I am alive… I feel like I need that."

---

The title Against the Gods: My remarkable story of risk was taken from a book by Peter Bernstein, on mankind's evolution of dominion over the natural world through harnessing concepts of risk.

---

[Note: I have since broken my poker losing streak and have become one of the table's best players again. This piece is meant to be read as a story for enjoyment, and not to be taken seriously as evidence for lack of universal laws.]

09/08/08

Topic Number One: Why I Joined the World's Largest World Domination-Bent Cult by: Sean Torrie
I am a Freemason. I have been a Mason for a year and a half now. I was made a Master Mason on March 14th 2008. I was almost exactly 24 years and six months old; the youngest member of the Lodge by 15 years. When people see the ring I've worn every day since, they're often shocked to learn I'm a young member of what was almost a forgotten organization. That, or they're immediately convinced that I'm an operative in a shadow government cult with sinister anti-lots-of-things objectives. It varies. I could go on about the truths and myths and mysteries of Freemasonry, but that's not what I want to do. I hoped to open Einstein's Dice with something about me, and by relation, something about the site. How it is that I see the part of me that wanted to join the Masons, is one of the same parts that made me want to create the site in the first place. The first time I had ever heard of the Masons was from some of the paranoid ramblings of one of my closer friends. He was CERTAIN that they were the key figures, sitting comfortably in almost every town and city in the country, even the world, plucking the strings of the invisible symphony of control that ran our daily lives, and controlled our minds. Hoping to change his tune, if for no other reason than to simply skip to another track, I looked up the available information on the Masons online and found that it was mostly a moldy old club for equally moldy old men, and the whole thing had been continuing to fall out of popularity since the 60's. I was done with the topic and I moved on with my life. It was when the Da Vinci Code movie was on the cusp of arriving in theatres that the good old History Channel began airing something like a half dozen new documentaries on the secret societies that were featured in the movie, that I took a new notice of the Masons. I always loved a good history review, having paid only enough attention in classes to get passing grades, so I always found time to watch the channel. I also grew up watching those first pristine seasons of The X-Files, so I loved me a good conspiracy. Needless to say: Historical documentaries about conspiracies had me enthralled! As they went through Opus Dei, and Priory of Sion, and then progressed to the Freemasons I couldn't help but notice a significant change of pace, and story telling. The message changed from documented examples of malice, to something more curious: it seemed that the Freemasons had founded the country I lived in! If not in full, then in at least a great part. They kept alluding to their roll in the movie, and the possibility of their sinister goals, but kept on coming back to vital historical figures, and great accomplishments made by members, as well as goals and intentions of equality all being a great part of the Enlightenment period, and freely spreading information and ideas at a time when doing so was carefully prohibited by the overt government conspirators who wanted to keep their people poor and ignorant. I thought these guys sounded great now! It was too bad the club was all but defunct, and only old men, and a few of the guys on the documentary were members. I could only imagine how difficult it was to be accepted into it too. At about the same time, a number of my friends at the university I attended had finally been given official recognition as a club, and with the humorous title of "The Hofstra Gentlemen's Club" we got together every Thursday night, smoked cigars, held doors for people, and made it a point to have solid, intelligent conversation (yes, women were not only also members, but at one point a president of the club). I found it comforting that our club was an actual place where there was no set agenda of conversation like the Psychology Club, or the Politics Club. Why would you want to get together and be required to talk about something in your free time? That sounded more like working out a failing relationship than a club you have fun at. All was well and good until one afternoon at the drugstore job I still hold some schmuck off-duty NYC detective came in to get Tiger Balm. I recognized a less popular Masonic symbol on the ring he wore. I asked if he was a Mason, and he quickly burst into excitement! By the end of the conversation he had left me with his email address, and an offer to join his Lodge. The Lodge that had existed in my home town for almost 80 years, and I had never noticed. The very next day I went to work and found a plain manila envelope with only my name on it. My coworkers said that a man came into the store, in a bit of a rush, left the envelope and said no one but I should open it. When I got this, I can hardly begin to tell you, I was CERTAIN that I had just stepped into a world of bad decisions. My friend HAD to have been right! The freaking Illuminati-Masons are like vampires! You invite them inside and all of a sudden its permission to be under surveillance! Was every other customer who came in that day a test? Were they testing me? Was my fate to be decided upon how well I gave someone their change, or if I remembered to ask that they have a nice day? I was doomed! It turns out the detective was almost late for the train, and just wanted to get the applications to me as soon as he could, so I could have as much time as I needed to mull over them and carefully consider my membership, though I didn't get to know that until the few days of paranoia had subsided. I emailed the Mason, and he stressed that it wouldn't interfere with my education, which was good since I still had a year to go. In fact, the Masons had a love of education and stressed that the better educated a member was, the better a Mason he could be! Meeting only twice a month wasn't too bad either. He told me specific books to order, written by Masons, for Masons, or Masonic candidates. I was… astounded. Their ideals paralleled, so closely, the "culture" that had developed at the Gentlemen's Club that it was almost hard to believe! The books that the detective had suggested I read absorbed me. I read through them every chance I could get. Slowly I saw where all the conspiracies came from, and how it was that there were so many members, but you never heard about the organization anymore. The Hippie movement of the 60's and 70's promoted not doing what your parents had done, since it clearly wasn't working out towards a peaceful world. I could always see that this idea was true, but what wasn't apparent to people then, but is to me now, is that the Freemasons had been a binding force that kept the every day joe linked to his government. The Masons were the first construction Union, when they were Stone Masons in Europe. They were the first lobbyists in England, when the American Colonies wanted to retain their rights and be properly represented as equal citizens; then they acted as generals and planners when their rights were denied. They were the first lobbyists in the country, to ensure a greater equality for the people. The Masons were persecuted in all of the 3 major dictatorships in the past century based solely on their nasty habit of causing insurrections to ensure the people's opinion was not only voiced, but very clearly heard. These were totally my kind of unruly jerks! If the Nazis and the Communists didn't like em, then there had to be something just swell about them! I looked at the numbers, and it was clear: less people became Masons as time went on after the 60's. Less people were voted into office that were Masons, and the special quality of corruption that we've come to see in the past few years as the norm, slowly crept into the system. At the same time, there seemed to be an ever increasing sense of distance from the actual function of American politics and the people it was supposed to represent. I can clearly remember why I never cared about the 2000 elections, and it's most likely the same reason so many other people did the same: I made the assumption that no matter who won, either way we were going to end up with a liar in charge, and it doesn't matter what he says: odds are better his actions will say he's lying, and he'll get reelected anyway. I was also 17, so my opinion really didn't matter either which way. With all of this, a philosophy of equality, aiding your brothers, an amazing global network, an ideology that sees all religions as unified in the very idea that just believing is SOMETHING is enough, and a symbol that works better than most passports; how could I turn it down? Lingering paranoia. All these people that were famous Masons could have been in on a grand scheme! They could have been designed to look so amazing by the way they organized our society! What better form of power is there beyond the immortality of being made an idol? Then I found that last thing I needed, that thing that would make me sure that I was making the right decision. Dave Thomas was a Freemason. Dave Thomas, Wendy's- triple-cheese-burger-classic. That Dave Thomas. And kapow! I was decided. If the man who will someday be the long-term source of my inevitable heart failure was a Freemason, then I sure as hell wanted to be one too! Years later all my fears are now dissolved. It took 6 months since I gave in my application for me to get my first degree. It turned out I had joined a (still) dying Lodge. They had lost their property and were operating where ever they could get the rights to be on the land, and privacy to perform the rituals (that totally don't involve devil worship). These were mostly older men who wanted to have a chance, a few times a year, to get out of the house and be in the company of friends. These are clearly not the global-domination, hell bent, evil force that my friend had made them out to be. If they were, they wouldn't be forced to merge with another Lodge in the next few months just to keep alive. As for that schmuck detective, I'm very proud to say, is one of my better friends now. I'll still call him a schmuck, but I do that with my good friends. He's the coolest cop I've ever met, and I'm a step or two beyond proud to call him my Brother. Since I've joined the Lodge the irony has become that we now have the largest population of Masons under 30 in the whole region, but we still don't have enough guys in the baby-boomer generation to run the rituals, while us young guys learn it. Remember my paranoid friend? The one who first told me about the Masons? He practically disowned me for a day when I told him I was joining. He was sure I was done for. Comically enough: he got his First Degree at my Lodge in May; I was Master of Ceremony. So why did I chose to be a Mason? I chose to be a Mason because we have reached another hurdle in humanity's social evolution. The internet might be the single most important thing that has happened since the printing press. Those same words that Guttenberg standardized into books, can now be sent clear across the planet in less time than it takes for us to understand it's been sent; ideas can spread faster than they can be created, and there's no ideology that I've seen that is better geared towards managing and organizing new ideas in an open forum than the Masonic one. I'll play cheap here and say: if religious radicals can throw extremist ideology around to one another and organize attacks on people who didn't even know they were someone else's enemies, then there needs to also be a level hand, enlightened but not blinded by the light, out there to counter the ideas and say "stop being silly, and put down that pipe bomb".
09/01/08

Topic Number One: Why I Joined the World's Largest World Domination-Bent Cult

by: Sean Torrie

I am a Freemason. I have been a Mason for a year and a half now. I was made a Master Mason on March 14th 2008. I was almost exactly 24 years and six months old; the youngest member of the Lodge by 15 years.

When people see the ring I've worn every day since, they're often shocked to learn I'm a young member of what was almost a forgotten organization. That, or they're immediately convinced that I'm an operative in a shadow government cult with sinister anti-lots-of-things objectives. It varies.

I could go on about the truths and myths and mysteries of Freemasonry, but that's not what I want to do. I hoped to open Einstein's Dice with something about me, and by relation, something about the site. How it is that I see the part of me that wanted to join the Masons, is one of the same parts that made me want to create the site in the first place.

The first time I had ever heard of the Masons was from some of the paranoid ramblings of one of my closer friends. He was CERTAIN that they were the key figures, sitting comfortably in almost every town and city in the country, even the world, plucking the strings of the invisible symphony of control that ran our daily lives, and controlled our minds. Hoping to change his tune, if for no other reason than to simply skip to another track, I looked up the available information on the Masons online and found that it was mostly a moldy old club for equally moldy old men, and the whole thing had been continuing to fall out of popularity since the 60's. I was done with the topic and I moved on with my life.

It was when the Da Vinci Code movie was on the cusp of arriving in theatres that the good old History Channel began airing something like a half dozen new documentaries on the secret societies that were featured in the movie, that I took a new notice of the Masons. I always loved a good history review, having paid only enough attention in classes to get passing grades, so I always found time to watch the channel. I also grew up watching those first pristine seasons of The X-Files, so I loved me a good conspiracy.

Needless to say: Historical documentaries about conspiracies had me enthralled!

As they went through Opus Dei, and Priory of Sion, and then progressed to the Freemasons I couldn't help but notice a significant change of pace, and story telling. The message changed from documented examples of malice, to something more curious: it seemed that the Freemasons had founded the country I lived in! If not in full, then in at least a great part. They kept alluding to their roll in the movie, and the possibility of their sinister goals, but kept on coming back to vital historical figures, and great accomplishments made by members, as well as goals and intentions of equality all being a great part of the Enlightenment period, and freely spreading information and ideas at a time when doing so was carefully prohibited by the overt government conspirators who wanted to keep their people poor and ignorant.

I thought these guys sounded great now! It was too bad the club was all but defunct, and only old men, and a few of the guys on the documentary were members. I could only imagine how difficult it was to be accepted into it too.

At about the same time, a number of my friends at the university I attended had finally been given official recognition as a club, and with the humorous title of "The Hofstra Gentlemen's Club" we got together every Thursday night, smoked cigars, held doors for people, and made it a point to have solid, intelligent conversation (yes, women were not only also members, but at one point a president of the club). I found it comforting that our club was an actual place where there was no set agenda of conversation like the Psychology Club, or the Politics Club. Why would you want to get together and be required to talk about something in your free time? That sounded more like working out a failing relationship than a club you have fun at.

All was well and good until one afternoon at the drugstore job I still hold some schmuck off-duty NYC detective came in to get Tiger Balm. I recognized a less popular Masonic symbol on the ring he wore. I asked if he was a Mason, and he quickly burst into excitement! By the end of the conversation he had left me with his email address, and an offer to join his Lodge. The Lodge that had existed in my home town for almost 80 years, and I had never noticed.

The very next day I went to work and found a plain manila envelope with only my name on it. My coworkers said that a man came into the store, in a bit of a rush, left the envelope and said no one but I should open it.

When I got this, I can hardly begin to tell you, I was CERTAIN that I had just stepped into a world of bad decisions. My friend HAD to have been right! The freaking Illuminati-Masons are like vampires! You invite them inside and all of a sudden its permission to be under surveillance! Was every other customer who came in that day a test? Were they testing me? Was my fate to be decided upon how well I gave someone their change, or if I remembered to ask that they have a nice day? I was doomed!

It turns out the detective was almost late for the train, and just wanted to get the applications to me as soon as he could, so I could have as much time as I needed to mull over them and carefully consider my membership, though I didn't get to know that until the few days of paranoia had subsided.

I emailed the Mason, and he stressed that it wouldn't interfere with my education, which was good since I still had a year to go. In fact, the Masons had a love of education and stressed that the better educated a member was, the better a Mason he could be! Meeting only twice a month wasn't too bad either.

He told me specific books to order, written by Masons, for Masons, or Masonic candidates. I was… astounded. Their ideals paralleled, so closely, the "culture" that had developed at the Gentlemen's Club that it was almost hard to believe!

The books that the detective had suggested I read absorbed me. I read through them every chance I could get. Slowly I saw where all the conspiracies came from, and how it was that there were so many members, but you never heard about the organization anymore.

The Hippie movement of the 60's and 70's promoted not doing what your parents had done, since it clearly wasn't working out towards a peaceful world. I could always see that this idea was true, but what wasn't apparent to people then, but is to me now, is that the Freemasons had been a binding force that kept the every day joe linked to his government.

The Masons were the first construction Union, when they were Stone Masons in Europe. They were the first lobbyists in England, when the American Colonies wanted to retain their rights and be properly represented as equal citizens; then they acted as generals and planners when their rights were denied. They were the first lobbyists in the country, to ensure a greater equality for the people. The Masons were persecuted in all of the 3 major dictatorships in the past century based solely on their nasty habit of causing insurrections to ensure the people's opinion was not only voiced, but very clearly heard.

These were totally my kind of unruly jerks! If the Nazis and the Communists didn't like em, then there had to be something just swell about them!

I looked at the numbers, and it was clear: less people became Masons as time went on after the 60's. Less people were voted into office that were Masons, and the special quality of corruption that we've come to see in the past few years as the norm, slowly crept into the system. At the same time, there seemed to be an ever increasing sense of distance from the actual function of American politics and the people it was supposed to represent. I can clearly remember why I never cared about the 2000 elections, and it's most likely the same reason so many other people did the same: I made the assumption that no matter who won, either way we were going to end up with a liar in charge, and it doesn't matter what he says: odds are better his actions will say he's lying, and he'll get reelected anyway. I was also 17, so my opinion really didn't matter either which way. With all of this, a philosophy of equality, aiding your brothers, an amazing global network, an ideology that sees all religions as unified in the very idea that just believing is SOMETHING is enough, and a symbol that works better than most passports; how could I turn it down?

Lingering paranoia.

All these people that were famous Masons could have been in on a grand scheme! They could have been designed to look so amazing by the way they organized our society! What better form of power is there beyond the immortality of being made an idol?

Then I found that last thing I needed, that thing that would make me sure that I was making the right decision. Dave Thomas was a Freemason. Dave Thomas, Wendy's- triple-cheese-burger-classic. That Dave Thomas. And kapow! I was decided. If the man who will someday be the long-term source of my inevitable heart failure was a Freemason, then I sure as hell wanted to be one too!

Years later all my fears are now dissolved. It took 6 months since I gave in my application for me to get my first degree. It turned out I had joined a (still) dying Lodge. They had lost their property and were operating where ever they could get the rights to be on the land, and privacy to perform the rituals (that totally don't involve devil worship). These were mostly older men who wanted to have a chance, a few times a year, to get out of the house and be in the company of friends. These are clearly not the global-domination, hell bent, evil force that my friend had made them out to be. If they were, they wouldn't be forced to merge with another Lodge in the next few months just to keep alive.

As for that schmuck detective, I'm very proud to say, is one of my better friends now. I'll still call him a schmuck, but I do that with my good friends. He's the coolest cop I've ever met, and I'm a step or two beyond proud to call him my Brother.

Since I've joined the Lodge the irony has become that we now have the largest population of Masons under 30 in the whole region, but we still don't have enough guys in the baby-boomer generation to run the rituals, while us young guys learn it.

Remember my paranoid friend? The one who first told me about the Masons? He practically disowned me for a day when I told him I was joining. He was sure I was done for. Comically enough: he got his First Degree at my Lodge in May; I was Master of Ceremony.

So why did I chose to be a Mason?

I chose to be a Mason because we have reached another hurdle in humanity's social evolution. The internet might be the single most important thing that has happened since the printing press. Those same words that Guttenberg standardized into books, can now be sent clear across the planet in less time than it takes for us to understand it's been sent; ideas can spread faster than they can be created, and there's no ideology that I've seen that is better geared towards managing and organizing new ideas in an open forum than the Masonic one.

I'll play cheap here and say: if religious radicals can throw extremist ideology around to one another and organize attacks on people who didn't even know they were someone else's enemies, then there needs to also be a level hand, enlightened but not blinded by the light, out there to counter the ideas and say "stop being silly, and put down that pipe bomb".

09/01/08