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Firefly: Jaynestown Review

Hero.

Fame is a corrupting thing. It's allure so encompassing that those who have tasted it will go to any lengths to maintain it. It's lens so perverting that those in its thrall will abandon all wisdom. It is, in many ways, akin to an ego-boosting drug. Anything to maintain the high. But we, while momentarily entertained by the coke-addled friend's antics, soon shift our attention to more genuine bits of interest. If only fame worked like the soul-expanding narcotics, great artistry might be maintained. (The differentiating metric of ego-inflating versus soul-expanding narcotics is a useful one but one that is a bit too much of a tangent for an article ostensibly about a sci-fi television show.)

Of course, the above understanding of fame is usually understood only when applied to an individual. But similar effects can be seen on groups of people or whole organizations dedicated to a piece of entertainment. Like, say, a television show. The pressure of maintaining the fame trumps the soulful artistry which made the show famous in the first place and soon the show reduces itself to meta-self-reference and naval-gazing.

With an introduction like this, it should be clear that this reviewer's opinion of Jaynestown is anything but positive.

The Tyler Cowen

Nothing like a little bout of food poisoning to take the wind out of your sails. But we've righted the ship after a pretty disastrous start to March and are (hopefully) back on track.

1. What happens if it happens there? Not to sound alarmist but western society could well be in for a painful adjustment period.
2. Beijing's connections to Pyonyang grow stronger and the North shows further signs of reform. How would South Korea react should the North continue its tentative steps along China's reform-path? Both via NKEconomyWatch.
3. The moral circle and its expansion with globalization.
4. The virus designed to attack Iran's nuclear computers. How is this story not a bigger diplomatic headache? 

Hierarchy of Needs

After reading a review of Samuel Moyns' The Last Utopia: Human Rights in History by John Gray, I'm inspired to re-frame a previous attack on American Exceptionalism in a new light. American Exceptionalism, particularly when used by liberal and neo-liberals to justify 'democratization' and 'state-building' foreign policies, misunderstands what is the greatest good for a people. While concepts like freedom, human rights, and the right to self-determination are noble ideas in theory, they are not timeless. Nor yet are they particularly useful if established in the wrong circumstances. In the link above, Gray does a fine job deconstructing the myth of universal human rights. In this post, I will try to do the same for the concept of freedom and illustrate, through an application of Maslow's hierarchy of needs, how promoting freedom at the cost of a number of other needs is ultimately detrimental to a society.

The Tyler Cowen

1. How the turmoil in the Middle East is reopening ideological rifts among Neoconservatives. (I NEED to finish this damned hierarchy of needs article.)
2. North Korea builds a new long range missile pad. 
3. Great infographic breaking down the income inequality in America. 
4. Post-apocalypse now. Via The Browser.

Firefly: Our Mrs. Reynolds Review

Kristina Hendricks! Heavens above! Firefly is certainly sporting some prestigious supporting cast members. First Zack Efron and now the face of Mad Men. (At least, one of its many faces. Jon Hamm's chiseled visage is equally iconic.) 

I had the pleasure of watching Our Mrs. Reynolds with a handful of Firefly virgins, which was an enlightening experience, both for the episode and for the show overall. If nothing else, Firefly is a funny show. After four episodes under my belt, I couldn't help but wonder if my laughter wasn't starting to sound a little forced. If my affection for the show wasn't overcoming my ability to judge it dispassionately. But Our Mrs. Reynolds had all four of us in stitches at points, indicating that I have not yet fallen prey to fanboyitis. 

The Tyler Cowen

1. Combining thousands of tourist photos is trippy. 
2. Great review of Life. Via The Browser. 
3. Foreign policy myths that never seem to go away. 

Firefly: Safe Review

Oy. This gang should really stay off the wild west worlds. They don't have the production values to make them feel like alien planets instead of someone's backyard. I get the importance of a cowboy vibe to the show's overall identity and all, but much of Safe was just jarring. That is not to say that the episode is a total loss. It simply stands in stark contrast to Shindig's tight pacing and Bushwhacked's immersive atmosphere.

The Tyler Cowen

1. Two videos via The Awesomer. Both of cute animals shot in slow motion.
   
   
   
2. Korean culture. Via Marginal Revolution. 
3. The celebrations for Kim Jong il's birthday. 
4. Good piece about the Egyptian revolution that bears heavily on an unfinished piece we're working on here. (One of these days!) Via The Browser. 

Uncodified Spiritual Musings

One of the potential pratfalls of being an agnostic, atheist, or otherwise uninterested in the matters spiritual is that one rarely has the philosophical workout of clarifying or redefining the basic tenets of their belief (or disbelief). After having a brief spurt in college as a starry-eyed undergrad ready to conquer the world, I'm finding the hodge-podge design of my spiritual architecture is extremely sketchy. Catalyst for dusting off my description / explanation is a newfound friendship with a charming but totally religious kid of roughly undergraduate age. When she dives into some insane explanation of God or story about missionaries or something else, I internally scoff at the very idea of such literal and active belief. But I can't communicate this disdain. Not for lack of tact but, literally, for lack of vocabulary.

So, though it may smack of juvenile theologism, I'm using this space to stretch the articulate legs on my spiritual structure. Those uninterested in the implicitly self-absorbed ramblings of one's personal belief system need not read further.