Unbundling the I

re: "The Brain Implants That Could Change Humanity" (The New York Times, August 30, 2020)

A non-too-subtle reminder that our minds, our innermost beings, are fully created by the workings of our brains. We know very little, but as the vague outlines are filled in, the long suspected reality is more solidly grounded: we are, in every sense, fully determined by the atoms following the laws of physics in the chemistry of our biological cells making up the structures of our brains. The movements of those atoms are what coalesce to form our thinking: ideas, emotions, desires, decisions, and all the rest of what is us, inextricably linked to the physical body that is our foundation, and which body we can increasingly use technology to bend to our physically determined will.

Pretending this is not so cannot be helpful. I like that those interviewed for this article have the honesty to admit this. We can go forward, continuing to better understand what makes us us in all ways that matter to us, reflecting on the implications of this increasing understanding of what it is to be a human person, or we can reap the awful fruits of wilful ignorance.

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The above comment was submitted by Felix Qui to The New York Times article.

It is published there at https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/28/opinion/sunday/brain-machine-artificial-intelligence.html#commentsContainer&permid=108883591:108883591

  

Law and order v. justice: to which should a voter give allegiance?

re: "Rival Themes Emerge as Race Enters Final Weeks: Covid vs. Law and Order" (The New York Times, August 29, 2020)

Law and order v. justice: to which should a voter give allegiance?

That good old-fashioned clarion call to "law and order," the first, middle and last refuge of the morally compromised and despots, religiously following the example set by the high priests, those tradition bound "good" conservatives of ancient Judaea, the self-styled social leaders who had that radical street preacher guy Jesus brought up and strictly punished according to the rule of law by the proper authorities some 2,000 years ago.
 
White Biden seems more inclined to social justice based on moral reflection, it is a great pity that the Trumpists totally reject Jesus's example as recorded in the four gospels that begin the New Testament of the Christian Bible. But then, who would expect respect for Christian principle from those who reject all good morals, along with reason and democratic principle, to devote themselves to 100% blind faith in Donald Trump of all people.

The choices facing the American electorate come November are at least clearly defined: a return to the democratic principles that had once made America great in all ways worth being great, or four more years of decline and fall.

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The above comment was submitted by Felix Qui to The New York Times article.

It is published there at https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/28/us/politics/joe-biden-trump-conventions.html#commentsContainer&permid=108873232:108873232

  

Let's wait and see

re: "Hope at last in 'Boss' case?", (Editorial, Bangkok Post, August 28, 2020)

Before celebrating that a hint of a shadow of something that might seem to be justice appears to be edging closer to potentially taking root even in a case embodying perfectly the essence of the traditions of conservative Thainess that coups are staged to protect from the threat of democracy, let's wait to see how the hint of the shadow of possibility of justice fares under Thai law in the coming months, even with the backing of the PM whose commitment to democracy and free speech for Thais on Thai affairs seems to express itself in the arrest of student leaders who speak freely about Thai affairs as democracy requires be protected.

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The above is the text that was actually posted as a quick comment on the article by Felix Qui to the Bangkok Post.

The text of that quick comment as edited was published in PostBag on August 29, 2020, under the title "Let's wait and see" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/1976491/three-hollow-pillars

  

Backtrack welcome

re: "The winds of change are blowing" (BP, Opinion, August 24, 2020)

Dear editor,

It is welcome to see the Post's Veera Prateepchaikul backtracking from his previous lapse of judgement in seeming unduly sympathetic to the coup that in 2014 overthrew Thailand's supreme rule of law that had defined the Kingdom as having a democratic form of government under a constitutional monarchy.

However, when Veera writes that "The revered institution has been with Thailand for centuries and is respected by millions of Thais," he makes a factual claim that manifests signs of being another lapse of critical judgement. As the intelligent, critically astute young protestors could doubtless explain to Veera, like all factual claims about the way the world really is, a claim about what a group feels and believes must be supported by solid evidence for that claim. Does Veera have the solid evidence required to back up his claims about the thinking of the Thai nation, or is he merely repeating a traditional shibboleth, like Catholic Popes dogmatically asserting, when confronted with the radically new ideas of Copernicus, Galileo, and other scientists,  that "everyone knows the Earth is the centre of the universe and that the sun and everything revolves around the solid Earth at the centre of all things"?

Veera presents precisely zero evidence for his claim about what the Thai nation in fact thinks and feels. And nothing really is not good enough evidence for any factual claim. Veera might of course be entirely right in the claim he repeats about the Thai people's feelings; however, the recent polls done do in fact show solid majority support for the students protesting out of love for and loyalty to their nation. This gently suggests that Veera could also be as correct as the Renaissance popes resorting to dogmatic insistence and violence, even unto torture and execution, to hold back the Enlightenment progress in all areas based on knowledge, reason and a commitment to secular humanist morals for  human persons and their human societies.

 Felix Qui

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The above letter to the editor is the text as submitted by Felix Qui to the Bangkok Post.

The text as edited was published in PostBag on August 25, 2020, under the title "Backtrack welcome" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/1973967/backtrack-welcome
  

Age-old problem

re: "Brainwashed kids" (BP, PostBag, August 20, 2020)

Dear editor,

While RH Suga makes a point worth considering ( "Brainwashed kids", PostBag, August 20), has it occurred to him that it might in fact be the traditionally educated elders who have been brainwashed? It is, after all, the fanatical right-wing elders who are unable to make a rational argument to state and support their articles of mindless faith, in contrast to the informed, eloquent students. And since it is also the elders of Thainess whose unwisdom has so held back Thailand economically, socially, politically and morally for many decades, the weight of evidence suggests that it is the old folk who lack mature understanding of the political issues here.

Ageism is a dangerous sword to wield — falling on your own is embarrassing.

 Felix Qui

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The above letter to the editor is the text as submitted by Felix Qui to the Bangkok Post.

The text as edited was published in PostBag on August 21, 2020, under the title "Age-old problem" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/1972003/locke-doesnt-fit
  

Discussion closed

Re: "Promotions pose test for Thai lecturers", (Opinion, Aug 14, 2020)

As usual, the root cause of failure in a Thai institution is the refusal of some to admit the free, open discussion necessary to identify failures, weaknesses, abuses, corruption, fake claims, moral stagnation and all the rot that inevitably seeps in when free speech is suppressed to protect that which fools argue cannot stand on its own two feet, so must be propped up by brutish dictate. Nothing could be more anti-academic, or less in accord with the good morals of democracy, or opposed to good morals generally. In other words, another Thai institution is corrupted with all the malaise against which the youth of Thailand is rightly protesting.

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The above is the text that was actually posted as a quick comment on the article by Felix Qui to the Bangkok Post.

The text of that quick comment as edited was published in PostBag on August 15, 2020, under the title "Discussion closed" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/1968599/not-going-to-happen

  

Perversion rules: The anti-person assault on female US persons

re: "We Just Saw the Future of Anti-Abortion Laws" (The New York Times, August 13, 2020)

The warped legal arguments against abortion are so contorted in their perverse twisting of fake claims of caring for mothers and others that they corrupt the US justice system at the behest of those whose motives are, at heart, dishonest.

The anti-abortionists resort to perversion in their arguments because they cannot come out and make an honest argument in favour of abortion for the very good reason that no such argument exists. Hence, they warp whatever they can to suit their agenda against the right of American women to freely decide the uses to which their own bodies, they themselves, are put.

The only sound case for opposing abortion would be that it involved killing a living human person, but abortion does not do that. It kills only a living human with or without a heartbeat, but at no point in any pregnancy is any foetus ever a person; no person could ever be killed by an abortion. The facts being plain to all, there can be no morally sound reason, hence no legally sound reason, to treat aborting a human foetus any differently to killing any other living thing with or without a heartbeat, such as pig, duck, or veal calf, all of which possess exactly the same morally relevant characteristics of personhood—none.

But the anti-person opponents of abortion cannot rebut these facts, so they pervert the US legal system to serve their dishonest agenda inspired by whatever fictions rule their fanciful imaginings, forcing the fruits of their delusion on all they can.

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The above comment was submitted by Felix Qui to The New York Times article.

It is published there at https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/13/opinion/arkansas-abortion-laws.html#commentsContainer&permid=108618256:108618256

Too good to be true: From Russia with love?

re: "A Bible Burning, a Russian News Agency and a Story Too Good to Check Out" (The New York Times, August 12, 2020)

Burning Bibles? What's wrong with getting warm? Will it hurt the gods?

Burning an American flag? Isn't that the foundational expression of its democracy based on freedom that American soldiers died to protect?

Even if the stories were not utterly fake, sensible people, people who valued the ideals that found America as a nation of free individuals, would not get all riled up. But rational, moral people would also wonder whether something too incredible really was quite credible: if it's too stupid to be true, maybe it isn't true.

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The above comment was submitted by Felix Qui to the New York Times article.

It is published there at https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/11/us/politics/russia-disinformation-election-meddling.html#commentsContainer&permid=108588406:108588406

  

United? It already is

re: "We must stay united, says PM" (BP, August 7, 2020)

Dear editor,

Dear Mr. Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, who most saliently overthrew Thailand's previous supreme rule of law, you appear to labour under some notion that the Thai nation, the Thai people that is, might not be united. Please allow me the pleasure of correcting that misguided belief: the Thai nation is united.

The Thai people are united in their support for the patriotic young students protesting for a better future because they love their Thai nation. They might not love you, but that is no bad thing. They do not love dictatorship, but that is surely a very good thing. They do not love forced ignorance of Thai history and of Thai affairs, than which so healthy a loathing nothing could be more patriotic or expressive of true love of the Thai nation. They do not love the corruption with which decades of successive anti-democratic governments have infected the very law and the institutions defined under the supreme legal pillar that is the constitution, so often overthrown when it looked as though the good morals of democracy might at last take firm root; but again, this disdain for the malaise at the heart of their nation is not so much to be condemned as to be commended.

Yes, there is some dissent, but the hate-filled rants of radical right-wing fanatics seeking to again divide Thai society, setting Thai against fellow Thai by spreading fake claims about the brave students, are but a small minority, unrepresentative of Thai thinking and attitudes in 2020. As the only solid evidence, the recent polls, show, the Thai nation solidly supports the students whose love for their nation moves them to protest for its betterment, a sublime expression of true patriotism. Have no fear Mr. PM. Thailand remains happily united.

 Felix Qui

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The above letter to the editor is the text as submitted by Felix Qui to the Bangkok Post.

The text as edited was published in PostBag on August 8, 2020, under the title "United? It already is" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/1964779/united-it-already-is
  

Chinese whispers

re: "'Craven cowardice': UNSW condemned for deleting posts critical of Beijing" (The Sydney Morning Herald, 2020, August 3)

Respect for free speech, a founding principle of democracy as of good morals, requires that you support the right of others to say what you find offensive, hateful and false. If some Chinese students loyal to the repressive regime in Beijing demand that comments they deem offensive, hateful or false be suppressed, that proves only their failure to respect the basic moral basis of democracy. If UNSW caves to such anti-democratic demands, then the university administration also proves itself to fail to respect the right to free speech, which is also a cornerstone of academic excellence.

Australia deserves better of its universities. Its students deserve better of UNSW. The Chinese people of Hong Kong and elsewhere deserve better of UNSW.

If some feel that a mistake has been made, they are free to present their case. If the repressive authorities in Beijing think false reports have been made about Hong Kong, Xin Jiang or elsewhere, the obvious solution is to invite in more independent observers to investigate and report. By seeking to suppress reports that are unfavourable, they confirm the likely truth of those reports.

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The above comment was submitted by Felix Qui to The Sydney Morning Herald article.

It is published there at https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/craven-cowardice-unsw-condemned-for-deleting-posts-critical-of-beijing-20200803-p55hy5.html#comments

  

Uncivilly unAmerican

re: "Federal Agents Don’t Need Army Fatigues" (The New York Times, August 1, 2020)

But the civilized look of civil public servants acting in a civil manner does not so neatly fit the mythic rhetoric of bullies fanning flames of division with exaggerated buffoonery and wild talk, often fake claims and outright lies, of the need for  a vicious "law-and-order campaign" to enforce their peace.

That sort of talk is exactly what we expect of of China's brutish Xi Jinping, of Russia's repressive Putin, and of despots throughout history riding on authoritarianism. The president of the United States, any US president, should be able to do better than the likes of America's despotic enemies espousing the antithesis of democratic principle, of respect for liberty, and of every ideal that had once made American great both economically and morally.

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The above comment was submitted by Felix Qui to the New York Times article.

It is published there at https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/31/opinion/federal-agents-trump-uniforms.html#commentsContainer&permid=108427997:108427997