why "The Minimalist Hobo"?

So someone asked me recently "Why the whole minimalist attitude thingy?", and since I was just leaving a party with an open bar, I was unable to put together a coherent string of sentences to convey the minimalist philosophy; this entry is going to rectify that.

Minimalism as a concept is a reaction to the "Consumerist" mentality of modern society. There is a consistent belief in the Post Modern School of Thought that the genealogy of the discourse matters -- that is, the historical discourse that we have been told is fact and that we have accepted as fact is, in reality, the subjective point of view of the "powerful". Now this does not mean that there is a conscious conspiratorial effort to pull the wool over the eyes of the masses of society. Rather, this is a byproduct of the winners of any given conflict (whether it's a military conflict or a "conflict" in the market) being able to shape and control the discourse. Over time the discourse is predicated upon the prior premise and before anyone realizes it, society is trapped in a parochial mindset that is unwilling, or unable to question who is promoting the discourse and for what purpose.

To paraphrase Noam Chomsky "The New York Times is writing history". What Chomsky means is that when future scholars look to document and study history they will look to sources such as the New York Times archives to determine what important events occurred at any given time. This means that what is supposed to be a completely objective examination of history may viewed through the lens of an organization and reporters that may have a subjective interpretation. Ultimately this subjective interpretation will be regarded as "truth".

In all societies the manufacturers of truth are the powerful and in American Society the powerful are often those with commercial interests. These commercial interest have been successful in co-opting a mind share of American Consumers with their subjective messages therein forging an attitude of "buy! buy! buy!". In every magazine the reader is bombarded with ads for name brand crap, Television programs inundate with a string of commercials promoting the latest and greatest whatever. None of which can ever bring fulfillment or happiness. Minimalism is an attempt to question, analyze, or at least ignore the message of the day. The ultimate goal is to break free from the consumerist mindset which exhausts the monetary resources of a society. Buying things in and of itself is not necessarily a bad thing--Inequality, however, is. Once a society is able to break free from the consumerist mindset excess resources (i.e., savings) can be used to promote development in underprivileged societies.

Now it was posed to me that this theory reeks of communism with the whole "wealth redistribution" thing. In actuality this is way different; Communism relies on a centrally planned economy which dictates how the resources will be distributed. In minimalist theory the consumer is free to earn what the market is willing to pay for their skill set; the consumer then chooses what to spend their income on. The minimalist should only purchase what is needed for survival and some minimal level of comfort and security. Excess resources, which are garnered by not giving in to the commercial demands, can be then redistributed to the underprivileged in the form of micro-credit loans. The difference in this form of redistribution is that the consumer has the choice of how when and where to distribute the resources; participation in microcredit programs is encouraged but the consumer may choose to donate money to NGOs or any number of development programs. So there it is in a nutshell...questions?

I Literally LOL-ed.

This Australian Guy, David Thorne, has a blog wherein he will sometimes send prank emails to people. This is some of the funniest stuff I've ever read. In one email thread he has a dialog with one of his new neighbors that sent him a notice that he was having a housewarming party. The intent of the neighbor was to let David know that he was having a party and to warn him about possible noise; definitely not an invite. Well David proceeds to invite himself and hilarity ensues! In another email thread David responds to an email notification from his bank...classic! Note the subject line on the 8th email in this thread, hahaha. This is good stuff.

Going Negative...

How worried are investors these days? Well here's a good indication as commented on in the Financial Times; investors are scared to death of putting their money in traditional banks for fear that the money wont be there in the future, or worse yet, the bank itself wont be there. Even more frightening is the prospect of investing in an increasingly volatile market. The safe haven for investors these days seems to be US government debt, and the demand for US Treasury bills shows it.

The demand for t-bills has been so great that the interest rates actually went negative earlier this week...what does this mean? It means that investors are actually willing to pay the US government to hold their debt...The way t-bills traditionally work is that the government proposes a debt; investors "loan" the government money by purchasing t-bills; the government pays the investor interest on the t-bill.

So let's say that I loan the government $1000 (by buying a $1000 treasury bill) at 5% interest; at the end of one year the US government will owe me $1050 ($1000 x 1.05). With a negative interest rate investors are willing to take a loss in exchange for the peace of mind that their money will be there in the future. Let's pretend I purchase that same $1000 treasury bill at -5% interest; at the end of one year the government will owe me $950...I would actually be paying the US government ($50.00) to borrow money from me! And yet, with the mess that financial institutions and the markets are in this is the best bet! How's that for worried?!?!!?

Social D is coming to Austin

It's about time!!! Social Distortion is coming to Austin March 7!!!! It's been years since I've seen them live; this is going to be awesome. There's a rumor that Tiger Army will be playing too. There's a roadtrip involved and definitely lots of partying after the show...deets later!

Toward a Universal Truth?

I've been looking, for the past few years, for a universal truth. A moral absolute that transcends geographic and cultural boundaries; an undeniable commonality...up until now I've been pretty unsuccessful, but I never stopped looking. Every time I thought I had a theory I would always find a valid argument against it. I thought "thou shalt not kill" would be a moral absolute; but then I encountered the self defense and Jus ad Bellum justifications. I thought surely rape, slavery, gender equality, etc. would be regarded universally around the world, but further investigation proved that these concepts are culture bound.

Earlier I was reading a summary on the English School of International Relations and I stumbled upon this: An author named John Vincent in his book Human Rights and International Relations posited that a person has the right to not go hungry; that no one should be denied basic sustenance. The impact of Vincent's assertion should not be taken lightly for this reason: Since the beginning of civilization mankind has struggled to find a common ground in the field of International Relations; a universal belief of a single human right can lay the groundwork for future cooperation amongst state actors. Unfortunately ideological deviations between states have hindered any progress in this area. The fact that Vincent was bold enough to identify an area for universal acceptance inspires hope. Author Andrew Linklater writes of Vincent's theory

[Vincent] argued that the right of the individual to be free from starvation is one human right on which all states can agree on despite their ideological differences. Vincent argued that a global action to end starvation is essential since the absence of the basic means of sustenance should always shock the conscience of humankind. Consensus on this matter would be a significant advance in relations between the Western world, which has traditionally been concerned with order rather than justice, and the non-Western world, which has always stressed the need for greater justice.

So will this be the one moral absolute that will be the "silver bullet" in International Relations? Probably not, but it's a start. And considering that I thought a universal truth was impossible, I'm starting to like our odds.

Post for the sake of posting

Yea, it's been a while since my last post, but I've been super busy. So here's a post just to keep things going. I don't have too much to say, so you probably shouldn't even take your time to read this. As a matter of fact you will regret wasting your time on this post, and then you'll be all pissed off at me...then the next time you see me you'll be all like "dude, your last blog post totally wasted my time; you're a douchebag", then you'll punch me in the head...I don't want to be punched in the head so please don't read this...

What a killer week. I had an Econ test today that I've been studying for since Sunday...I just took it and I have NO idea whether or not I got a single answer correct. At least the weekend is nearly here. I'm hungry but I have absolutely no energy to cook anything and even less energy to go out and get something...feeling very introverted tonight so staying in & recharging my batteries sounds like a good idea. Now if I could only get someone to bring me some food I'd be set.

A week of ups and downs...

Well this week has been great and disappointing. First the good stuff. I attended 2 cool lectures this week. The first was on Tuesday; Wegger Strommen, Norway's Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the United States came to visit my comparative political systems class. Mr. Strommen spoke about the role of the UN in world affairs. Strommen ended the lecture by call for drastic reform for the world's governing body.

The second lecture was last night and was given by John Langan of Georgetown University. The topic of Fr. Langen's lecture was the Five Wars in Iraq in relation to the Just War Principles. Excellent stuff.

But the really good news was me finding out that I will only have to complete 10 credits next semester and I'm officially a graduate!!! Of course the downside to this is that I will not be going on the Taiwan trip. It turns out that I don't need another political science credit, and I can't justify spending almost $4k on a course I don't need...sure would've been a great experience though.

My vote

I finally figured out my voting dilemma. For those of you that may not know, here's the back ground:

I've been considering not voting (or at the very least voting for Ron Paul) ever since John McCain selected Sarah Palin as his running mate. I'm sure Palin is well intentioned, but the office of the Vice President demands more than a narrow minded, backwoods Jane 6-pack. Then there's senator Obama and his socialist view of wealth distribution. Definitely can't vote for him. Thank you Senator, but if you don't mind I'll take a shot at earning my money the old fashioned way; by working for it.

My candidate is Joad Cressbeckler. Aside from his stance on snake oil salesmen, I agree with the majority of his positions.


Old, Grizzled Third-Party Candidate May Steal Support From McCain

A Matter of Perspective...

OK, so the past few posts have been from a sort of "third person, objective" narrative point of view. Well, I'm sick of that. There's no value add in saying "the Hobo" when I mean myself...so here's a change in perspective for ya'...

Hi. Feels good to be back in first person. So, I've been having a bit of a day. Yesterday I brought my Econ book to the office thinking that I would stick around and do a little reading after work and wait for traffic to die down...BIG mistake. As I was driving home it began to rain; and I mean heavy rain. I was stuck in traffic for the better part of an hour and when I finally made it to mid-town all of the streets were flooded. I've never seen the streets like that before; must be a lot of debris from Ike clogging the drainage.

Anyway, I'm like a block from my house when a some a-hole in an f250 comes barreling down the road creating a huge wake that covers my hood. Next thing you know my car is dead. That is pure douchebaggery sir!

Flash forward to now: I'm at home waiting for a tow truck to come get my ride so I can hear whether or not it can be fixed...I so hope it can be fixed' I really like my car; her name is Annabelle.

On the lighter side; I started filling out law school apps last night and I'm looking forward to a quiet weekend at home to work on my personal statement.

BTW, my favorite quote from the weekend camping trip:

TechPoet: What?!?!?! Elton John is NOT gay!!!

Me: That's right!!!! He's a ladies man...he's as straight as Liberace!

A man named Maynard...

John Maynard Keynes that is. Recently the Financial Times published an analysis article titled Man in the News: John Maynard Keynes. The title is ironic because Keynes has been dead for 62 years. Yet Keynes' economic theories are as relevant today as they were in his time.

It's kind of scary to realize that a man was able to present such great insight to the workings of our economy 70 plus years ago and yet we have not been able to forestall our modern economic woes.

As the article so neatly summed it up:

If individuals and businesses try to save more, they will cut the incomes of other individuals and businesses, which will in turn cut their spending. The result can be a downward spiral that will not turn up again without outside intervention.

That is where government comes in: to pump money back into the economy by some means, such as spending on public works, to persuade individuals and businesses to save less and spend more themselves.

This is precisely the behavior we are seeing today; consumers hear about the boogey man on the evening news and pretty soon they're stuffing wads of cash in their mattresses and tightening their belts. And soon the "impending crisis" that they keep hearing about becomes a self fulfilling prophecy. A key economic assumption in many models is that the consumer is rational; well with all of the hype it doesn't seem like we can expect to see a rational consumer anytime soon.

Don't get the Hobo wrong here; there are many many variables at play, but consumer confidence IS a leading indicator of the economy overall...that's what John McCain meant when he said that a large part of the problem is psychological.

of camping and of all philosophers ancient.

Well well well. Midterms are over and the Hobo must say, this semester is killer. The Hobo has never been so lost when it comes to ancient and enlightenment thinkers. The Hobo understood the concepts, but man just was not able to synthesize the info. Oh well. This weekend the Hobo is going camping!!! But it wont be all fun and games. This is a working vacation; the Hobo has much reading to do this weekend! Yay for Liberalism, democratic regimes and international trade! *sigh* At least there'll be no reading on old dead guys. :P

Great Deals and Congratulations

The Hobo went to Academy during lunch today to prepare for his weekend camping trip and got some really great deals! First of all the Hobo picked up a Kelty sleeping bag for $25 which is like half off of its original price. The reason being that the sleeping bag was in the wrong place on the shelf so the store offered to sell it to the Hobo at the marked price. Then the Hobo picked up a Mossy Oak folding camo chair for like $4.00 off because it was missing the tag and when they ran the price check they ran it for the wrong item. The Hobo tried to argue with the store and pay the diff, but Academy wouldn't hear of it. Yay for Academy; Hobo deals abound!

The Hobo would like to extend congratulations to economist Paul Krugman. It was announced today that Krugman has been awarded the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences...Congrats!

They're pounding nails in San Antone, they're pounding nails...

The Hobo has gotten word that The Loved Ones will be playing Scout Bar in San Antonio on November 15...do you smell that? It smells like a roadtrip!

Cool Hand Luke

So as The Minimalist Hobo was creating this blog, right before he received a call from the TechPoet, the Hobo was watching Cool Hand Luke, one of the Hobo's favorite movies. What's really cool is that the movie came on earlier in the evening and the Hobo got to see the beginning of it; right up to the point where Luke is about to eat the 50 eggs. When the Hobo came home from the bar the movie was playing again from the exact same spot! Don't you love it when that happens?!!?!? Now Cool Hand Luke is one of those movies that just sums it all up. It's the story of a man that has been beaten and beaten and yet he wont stay down. Every time he's beaten, every time he's broken he just comes right back.

It's a true testament to the human spirit

The Hobo went to Cecil's Pub tonight and guess who he runs into...none other than Kevin D. Kevin told the Hobo that Reno Divorce front man Brent Loveday may be coming to Houston for a solo show. No firm plans yet, but the Hobo will keep you posted.

Well today's a study day; the Hobo has 2 more midterms this week: Law and Society and International Politics...lates!

Inaugural Post!!!

The Minimalist Hobo has now entered the blogosphere and the world will never be the same. At this moment there is no plan for this blog; no subject matter or theme. I'm just going to post whatever's captured my fancy of the moment. Music, politics, law school, economics mid-terms, technology, random randomness...let's just see how it goes

I just got a call from the TechPoet, so I'm gonna go meet him for a drink...cheers.

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