illusionofjoy | The Stretchy 61C to Squirrel Hill via Oakland, Predestination & Iraq (Reply)

I like the library I've found to indulge my internet addiction. It's the Carnegie-Mellon library, located near the Pitt campus. There are computers scattered all throughout the building. I usually go up to the second story, where the Music & Art Center is located and use one of the machines in their. I feel most in place in the Music & Art Center; it's as if I belong here. It's also a bit out of the way, so there's usually a machine free and I don't have to worry about being asked to get off after an hour because others are waiting for internet access. I'm certain such things happen with some degree of regularity on the first floor.

Being unemployed, I've been visiting the library on a daily basis. This allows me to feel that I'm getting my money's worth out of my monthly mass transit pass. I have unlimited rides so I may as well use them, right? Yesterday and today I rode on what I like to call "the stretchy bus." I suspect that this is the only bus of it's type in the whole of Pittsburgh's mass transit system.

The "stretchy" bus is built similarly to a Pittsburgh trolley car in that instead of being a long vehicle constructed in one piece, it is actually divided into two sections. The middle joint moves in turns, making the ride more interesting if you're into that sort of mass transit "excitement." I usually situate myself in the rear half of the "stretchy" bus, as it amuses me to watch the front halfway through a turn before the rear begins to follow suit.

Interestingly enough, this bus, despite it's increased capacity, never seems full. Other busses I've ridden on in the city will be packed, however this one doesn't even seem to ever carry even a third of the riders it could be carrying. It makes me wonder if the locals have some sort of aversion to extra-long busses. Maybe because it's one of a kind, Pittsburghers secretly fear this bus. Perhaps I'm just really bored, which is why I'm pontificating on mass transit again.

Truly though, for interesting sights, mass transit is the way to go. I enjoy watching people board and exit the vehicles. I think it's interesting to observe how they're dressed and what they do to pass the time as they commute. Sometimes I'll make up little stories in my head about what their lives must be like. These aren't always happy stories, because the aura of some doesn't lend itself to joyous ends.

Last night I watched Donnie Darko with masochistmonkey and his boyfriend. I enjoyed the movie greatly, given that it carried not only the Sci-fi theme of time travel but also was set in the late 80s - sci-fi and the 80s being two things that greatly pique my interest. In any case, the plotline follows Donnie from a pivotal point in his personal history, to the occurrence of a paradox, at which juncture the error in the timeline (what was referred to in Farscape as an "unrealized reality") is corrected. There; if you haven't seen the film, I've just spoiled it for you.

While I enjoyed the film, I found myself resistant to its heavy reliance on the idea of pre-destination. I've never been a big fan of pre-destination as the implication therein is that a singular god does exist and has all of existence mapped out. This, in turn, clashes with the idea that the universe left to its natural "order" is predisposed to chaos. From this we arrive at the question of whether or not this chaos actually is order. I digress, however...

In the film, it was pre-destination that enabled the paradox. Donnie was on the wrong path; one that turned from what had already been laid out for his personal timeline. This, in turn, affected the timelines of everyone around him, much like dropping a pebble into a pond creates ripples that touch shores that would otherwise be left unchanged. The pivotal point where the paradox corrected itself was like a tape being rewound back to where the wrong turn - or the wrong path - started out. One could say that a new recording with the correct path was made after "the tape was rewound."

My problem with predestination is perhaps fear-based, at best. I readily admit that I do not like the idea that a set path has been laid out for me and I must follow this path. Fear aside, however, my agnostic nature creeps in once more.

Say you drop a pebble into that pond again. You hold it about two feet above the water and release it. Since the laws of physics can not be broken, you know that gravity will act upon this pebble once you release it, pulling it downward until it breaks the surface of the water, creating ripples which will radiate out from the impact point. This is the path set out for the cause and effect relationship of dropping a pebble into a pond; nothing can change this...or can it?

What if a strong gust of wind blows your pebble off course and it lands on the shore instead of in the water? What if an animal surfaces as the pebble strikes the water, swallowing it? What if somebody shoots you before you even have a chance to drop your pebble? Was this all predestination that the pebble would not follow the expected course? Would these events be the ordered chaos of the universe, or the simple chaos of the universe? Is the universe an ordered chaos of predestination, or simple chaos of events being random?

I'm really not finding any answers here. I think I'll scale back the philosophy a bit and go scowl at the Pitt students I saw outside who were putting up signs which read, "Support the troops in Iraq! This is a war for freedom, not for oil!" And here I was under the mistaken impression that college campuses were bastions for enlightened thinking.

If predestination is true, then I see Iraq no better off after Bush is done with it than Afghanistan was. The mobius strip of history tells us that nearly every war the United States has fought in has been for economic gain. Freedom is not a concept that Dubya is greatly familiar with, lest we all forget his political track record prior to and up past September 11^th.

Ah, but I'm about to start ranting and I shouldn't do that - I should be out waving the red, white and blue and supporting the troops. Hmph. My support for the troops goes something like this: bring the boys back home before they get killed in the fucking desert in a war that serves no other purpose than to allow Bush and his mooks to prove what big cocks they have. The campaign in Afghanistan didn't improve the quality of life there. The same will happen once the bombs stop falling on Iraq and whatever other nations the Bush administration decides to blow up next (I hear North Korea and Iran are getting ripe for the plucking).

Yeah, that's me: still a damned peacenik liberal. At least I don't have to worry about being drafted...yet.

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