All posts by Indy

>The Selfish Gene

>I know absolutely nothing when it comes to evolutionary biology and zoology or whatever it’s called. I know I love sex, but that’s about it. I believe sex is a part of evolution… ;)
Nevertheless, having read Richard Dawkins‘ amazing book The God Delusion (I wrote a bit about it here. Also check steve austin’s runthrough (in Swedish) here.), I decided to try his old masterpiece The Selfish Gene. I’ve come across the title several times when reading about religion, and especially when reading what the Young Earth creationists have to say. These comedians seriously believe that the universe is less than 10,000 years old. It is estimated that 47% of Americans hold this view, and almost 10% of Christian colleges teach it. No wonder the world is a fucked up place!

However, when reading The Selfish Gene I’m so fascinated by this whole thing called existence, I’m almost willing to submit to the idea of Intelligent Design and whatever the hell these crazies (EDIT: the creationists) are talking about. It’s really that amazing. There’s a lot more to evolution than many people realise. And I mean a lot more!
Dawkins, just as in The God Delusion, argues like the professional he is, but it’s never a dull read and even people who aren’t the slightest interested in the theory of evolution should enjoy this book if they only gave it a fair chance. It’s not hard going and Dawkins provides a lot of interesting examples that’ll make your brain flip because they’re pretty mindbending and thought-provoking.
I don’t know, maybe die hard biologists think Dawkins’ simplifying and dramatising ideas, often using sweeping statements, are laughable. I like it, though.
But what struck me, me being a Spenglerian (or at least having read a lot of Spengler stuff and liked it), is that Dawkins’ argumentation leaves little room for the influence of culture and individuality when it comes to human development. Even so, he apparently coins the term ”meme” in this book, meaning ”a unit of human cultural evolution analogous to the gene, suggesting that such “selfish” replication may also model human culture, in a different sense” – or ”a unit or element of cultural ideas, symbols or practices; such units or elements transmit from one mind to another through speech, gestures, rituals, or other imitable phenomena”.
I have the feeling I will return to this book when reading Spengler further on…

Anyway, this is probably the best popular science book I’ve ever read. If you decide to read it, make sure you get the 30th anniversary edition (yes, it was originally published in 1976!), since it includes a very large selection of notes which offer an additional perspective to many topics.
As for the title, The Selfish Gene: it’s kind of a metaphor describing the behaviour of genes, where altruism is an integral part of the so called ”selfishness”.

I read Charles Darwin‘s On the Origin of Species some 15 years ago, and I think that kind of got me started on the anti-Christian (left hand) path, and I’m re-reading it right now.
Still, I feel I know nothing. Like Manuel.

>Dead morality

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Let us consider the other case of so-called morality, the case of breeding, a particular race and kind. The most magnificent example of this is furnished by Indian morality, sanctioned as religion in the form of “the law of Manu.” Here the task set is to breed no less than four races at once: one priestly, one warlike, one for trade and agriculture, and finally a race of servants, the Sudras. Obviously, we are here no longer among animal tamers: a kind of man that is a hundred times milder and more reasonable is the condition for even conceiving such a plan of breeding. One heaves a sigh of relief at leaving the Christian atmosphere of disease and dungeons for this healthier, higher, and wider world. How wretched is the New Testament compared to Manu, how foul it smells!
Yet this organization too found it necessary to be terrible–this time not in the struggle with beasts, but with their counter-concept, the unbred man, the mishmash man, the chandala. And again it had no other means for keeping him from being dangerous, for making him weak, than to make him sick–it was the fight with the “great number.” Perhaps there is nothing that contradicts our feeling more than these protective measures of Indian morality. The third edict, for example (Avadana-Sastra I), “on impure vegetables,” ordains that the only nourishment permitted to the chandala shall be garlic and onions, seeing that the holy scripture prohibits giving them grain or fruit with grains, or water or fire. The same edict orders that the water they need may not be taken from rivers or wells, nor from ponds, but only from the approaches to swamps and from holes made by the footsteps of animals. They are also prohibited from washing their laundry and from washing themselves, since the water they are conceded as an act of grace may be used only to quench thirst. Finally, a prohibition that Sudra women may not assist chandala women in childbirth, and a prohibition that the latter may not assist each other in this condition.
The success of such sanitary police measures was inevitable: murderous epidemics, ghastly venereal diseases, and thereupon again “the law of the knife,” ordaining circumcision for male children and the removal of the internal labia for female children. Manu himself says: “The chandalas are the fruit of adultery, incest, and crime (these, the necessary consequences of the concept of breeding). For clothing they shall have only rags from corpses; for dishes, broken pots; for adornment, old iron; for divine services, only evil spirits. They shall wander without rest from place to place. They are prohibited from writing from left to right, and from using the right hand in writing: the use of the right hand and of from-left-to-right is reserved for the virtuous, for the people of race.”

These regulations are instructive enough: here we encounter for once Aryan humanity, quite pure, quite primordial–we learn that the concept of “pure blood” is the opposite of a harmless concept. On the other hand, it becomes clear in which people the hatred, the chandala hatred, against this “humaneness” has eternalized itself, where it has become religion, where it has become genius. Seen in this perspective, the Gospels represent a document of prime importance; even more, the Book of Enoch. Christianity, sprung from Jewish roots and comprehensible only as a growth on this soil, represents the counter-movement to any morality of breeding, of race, privilege: it is the anti-Aryan religion par excellence. Christianity–the revaluation of all Aryan values, the victory of chandala values, the gospel preached to the poor and base, the general revolt of all the downtrodden, the wretched, the failures, the less favored, against “race”: the undying chandala hatred as the religion of love.
Friedrich Nietzsche, Twilight Of the Idols (1889)

>The power of P2P

>As The Pirate Bay trial – one of the biggest trials of the Internet age – continues, the power of P2P grows stronger for every day.
About a month ago Ordfront Publishing House released the book Piraterna – De svenska fildelarna som plundrade Hollywood (The Pirates – The Swedish file sharers who pillaged Hollywood). A couple of days ago projO uploaded the audiobook version at The Pirate Bay (thanks mom, for letting me know!). The thing is there is no official version of the audiobook – projO decided to make her/his own version simply by reading the book out loud and recording at the same time and then making it all available via trackers. A perfect example of the power of file sharing!

Me, I’ve been a pirate for as long as I can remember.
Commodore 64, Turbo 250 by Mr.Z, Jan Listerud, the demoscene, Paradox, hundreds of games on one c-90 tape, floppy discs, swapper, Amiga 500/1200, BBS, StarNet, US Robotics HST, The Final Cartridge III, hiphop, double cassette decks, mixtapes, copy parties, the library (!), VHS piracy, Hong Kong movies, graffiti, Foucault, the concept of hacking, trades, death metal, punk, tape trading, IRC, anarchism, Chomsky, Flashback, Napster, CD-R, Audiogalaxy, slsknet, DC++, torrent sites, mp3-blogs, private trackers, and last but not least: Google – the very best tool the world of piracy has ever known… Sort of.
I give thanks to piracy for my huge interest in music, movies, art and literature. Piracy is the reason for my quality collection of records, DVD:s and books (not counting piracy material, of course).

Information wants to be free.

>Electronica (bc)

>In case you ever wondered what these DJ:s actually do when turning them knobs back and forth, here’s a video that might give you an idea of what’s going on. This is live beatmaking with the KORG Electribe MX.


I was heavily into the electronic music scene back in the early 90’s and I still enjoy a lot of that stuff, such as the old Warp classics: Sabres of Paradise Sabresonic, B12 Electro-Soma and Time Tourist, Black Dog Productions Bytes, Aphex Twin Selected Ambient Works 85-92, Autechre Amber, everything by Plastikman… “Intelligent techno” or “Intelligent Dance Music” as it was called back then. Cheesy as fuck.
Here are some cool tracks that still kill.


Plastikman – Pakard
from the Artifakts (bc) album (1998)
Although released in 1998 the music was composed in 1994-95,
to be featured on an album called Klinik, which was scrapped by Hawtin. The (bc) is actually an acronym for “Before Consumed”, Consumed (1998) being the album that followed Musik (1994).
Richie Hawtin aka Plastikman – such an amazing producer,
a dark acid minimalist genius if there ever was one!


The Sabres of Paradise – Clock Factory
from the Sabresonic album (1993)


B12 – VOID/Comm
from the Time Tourist album (1996)


Black Dog Productions – Object Orient
from the Bytes album (1993)


Aphex Twin – Hedphelym
from the Selected Ambient Works 85-92 album (1992)
This is not really an ambient album in its true sense.
Selected Ambient Works II (1994) is more like it,
and it’s also one of the darkest and best electronic albums ever.
Check out the video below for a quick album walkthrough.


>Darkthrone – How low can a punk get?

>I was asked to write a review of Darkthrone’s latest album for Sweden Rock Magazine. I won’t translate it for all you non-Swedish readers, but the bottom line is this: It sucks. I rated it 2 out of 10.
I have nothing against Darkthrone per se, though. I’ve been emailing back and forth with Fenriz, and I even think he likes the band I’m in. He’s a funny guy. However, that doesn’t change the fact that the album sucks, and it’s even suckier than The Cult Is Alive (2006) and F.O.A.D. (2007), which says a lot. This, of course, having to do with me being a huge fan of their old material.
After Panzerfaust (1995) Darkthrone was dead to me. They made quite a return with Hate Them (2003), finding a new kind of twisted darkness to their metal, somewhat regaining a little bit of their integrity. When Sardonic Wrath (2004) turned out to be a rather bleak copy of the previous effort I lost interest again. Still, whenever there’s a new Darkthrone album I must listen to it. But for the past five years it’s been an utterly disappointing experience…
The four albums below are my kind of Darkthrone – each and everyone of them a powerful display of that eerie darkness they were able to call forth back in the day. I’d rate all four of them 9 out of 10 without hesitation.


But as always, it’s just a matter of taste. I just find it too bad they’re raping their old past with this “hiking metal punk” bullshit using the name Darkthrone. It’s blasphemy – the stupid way.
Now, here’s the review.

Darkthrone
Dark Thrones and Black Flags

Möt Gylve och Ted, Norges motsvarigheter till Sveriges buskisduo Stefan & Krister. År 2008 finner vi dem allra längst ner på botten bland det sämsta avskräde till musik ni kan tänka er. Ungefär så. Ok, kanske inte riktigt så, men efter att ha följt duon sedan fantastiska ”A Blaze in The Northern Sky” (1992) känns det verkligen vidrigt att plöja denna dynga i stereon.
Visst, till en början förstod jag ärligt talat inte Darkthrones storhet, men efterhand växte de gamla plattorna till de monumentala mästerverk de verkligen är. Med ”Ravishing Grimness” (1999) och ”Plaguewielder” (2001) började det gå utför, medan ”Hate Them” (2003) var en uppryckning till det bättre. ”Sardonic Wrath” (2004) var en blekare kopia av föregångaren, varpå det sedan slog fullständigt slint på ”The Cult is Alive” (2006). Dålig buskismetalpunk förpestad med dålig buskislyrik – varför? Efterföljande ”F.O.A.D.” (2007) var också rena skiten och med nya ”Dark Thrones and Black Flags” når mupparna således botten. All form av integritet och trovärdighet är spårlöst försvunnen.
Lyriken är sannerligen värdelös: ”When… comets crrackh! Witch getto attakk / Remain secret / Brandish steel / Black metal is unreal”. Jaha?
Och när Fenriz listar och kommenterar favoritband i slutet av CD-häftet blir man än mer förbannad: ”If you think real metal has something to do with blast beats and corpse paint, go somewhere else!”. Detta tröttsamma tjat om vad som är riktig metal i både texter och kommentarer gör mig ömsom fullständigt matt ömsöm vilt rasande. Karln får hålla käften och ägna sig åt något värdigt istället.
Fenriz må vara en go gubbe, ha skön musiksmak och sporta tokroliga tatueringar, och Nocturno Culto har förmodligen också några sympatiska sidor, men det förtar verkligen inte det faktum att Darkthrone anno 2008 stinker.
Det som en gång i tiden (mellan 1992-1996) var ett fantastiskt black metal-band som skapade stor lyrik och stor musik är idag ett stort skämt. Åtminstone om man jämför med det gamla – och det måste man göra. Hade de valt ett annat bandnamn för detta plojprojekt hade jag kunnat skippa jämförelsen. Nu släpar de Darkthrones goda namn i smutsen och det kan väl ingen som gillar det gamla tycka är bra? Skulle ni digga om Stefan & Krister började lira black metal? I så fall är det här en tiopoängare. (2/10)

>Funeral Fog VS Life Eternal

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Click the images to enlarge
The kids never give up…
Soccer training.

Another field, another team.

Yet another field.

Today was such a grey and misty day almost all photos turned out black & white. I thought I’d aptly add Mayhem’s brilliant Funeral Fog here, but I found the even more brilliant rehearsal version of Life Eternal instead, the one recorded May 16, 1992. I really like it this way, neither Dead nor Attila present, just voiceless…