muddi

Ah yep that triggered the full memory for me...it was a book called Tikki Tikki Tempo: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tikki_Tikki_Tembo

The Hulk is just Jekyll and Hyde retold. That story is an old one and has its own analyses over the decades, not really Marxist though, more about good and evil within man, and how one chooses between them, if at all.

But we could turn it towards a Marxist analysis in saying that the proletarian has the seed for revolutionary thought and action within them, but it only comes to fruition when something materially changes so that the proletarian can no longer continue to exist under their capitalist mode of existence.

This doesn't have to be something fancy like gamma rays or whatever that serum Jekyll/Hyde drinks; it could be any workplace incident that changes a worker's life for the worse. This is when we get class action, literally class action suits, protests, strikes, maybe even socialist revolution.

Oh man this is stirring up some memories from early grade school about an English version of this that we used to sing about a boy with a long name and his younger brother.

I always wondered if that was just the moral of the story: don't give your children long names. Which my parents did to me 😡

Self dunks are so satisfying though!

The Federation is built on principles that run counter to Maoism in important respects like allowing differences of opinion and anti-authoritarianism.

Do you know what the "mass line" concept by Mao is?

Earth and the Federation was communism. Admittedly an idealist version of it, came about because it was voted in by enlightened voters. But even then the Bell Riots showed that it was capitalism that caused conditions to arise in which the oppressed rose up against the failures of capitalism, and finally end it.

Not sure if you specifically meant something about Mao, but at least be aware of this. It's the most basic theory of communism that capitalism fails, turns into barbarism, and the working class have no option but to revolt to resolve the crisis.

I think of it in terms of levels building on top of each other, or circles enveloping each other; also how I evaluate interviewees and new hires:

1. Finishes the task, but needs handholding
2. Finishes the task, figuring it out from docs, guides, and internet
3. Finishes the task, proactively trying to make sure it doesn't return again as a bug or failing QA
4. Finishes the task, designing things in a way so that devs don't need to put in extra effort in the future

In short, learning how to do something right, but also alternative strategies, how to pick the best option, and finally make sure you always end up with the right choice, or automatically do so, by design.

It's at core a matter of experience, but taking on new opportunities and reading up helps to accelerate that.

Some Polandball type shit, making out nation-states as characters in some pseudo-relatable sitcom

I'll check it out! Thanks for the rec

And about the Indian stories, I think you'll find a rhythmic pattern. Maybe the translations can ruin it, I can't confirm or deny this.

I think you're right, I'm probably missing out on certain contexts and linguistic play reading the English translations. It adds to the melancholy in a way though, knowing there's more beneath the surface of the words I can only barely grasp

Desecrated

Because the Founding Fathers are a pantheon for the American civic religion? (Answering myself, unironically yes!)

Meanwhile they'll protect the acts of burning Qurans and rendering the Prophet in insulting ways as free speech, and not inciting public religious conflict

This might already be well-known but Avery Brooks also directed some episodes! Like Far Beyond the Stars, one of the best episodes

I'm reading the Kathasaritsagara now! Reading those kind of collections of tales makes me feel like I'm living among the ancient/medieval villagers of India, an interesting perspective shift to say the least