Philosophers is so stoopid

So my roomate just borrowed Fatal Strategies by Jean Baudrillard, a collection of essays by the Sociologist-Philosopher dealing with the rationale of present day humans dealing with the information age of technology and overload. I normally avoid more modern philosophers, since their theories seem to be overdeveloped and specialized to a particular area, as opposed to earlier philosophers which have stood the test of time and are more useful in their ubiquitous application. However I found myself getting sucked in after reading the back cover, and I am really enjoying parts of the book, but ONLY PARTS. This is because he, like many philosophers, choose to write in philosopher-speak. This is great if you are used to reading the jargon and overly complex structure of the inner circle of philosophers (like any specialized field).

However, this is confusing, because I would imagine that philosophers want to reach many people, to hopefully affect peoples thought patterns in a positive way and give them new interesting ideas that will change their lives and make them more fulfilled human beings. but then why no plain English? I have a degree in Biology and Sociology, and I have taken an introductory course in Philosophy as well as read countless sociology papers and read some other philosophy and related books on my own time. So why is it I can easily understand less than fifty percent of what he is trying to tell me? Does he not actually want me to know? Is it some sort of subconsious urge to exclude the majority of people?

I would hope not. His elegant portrait of modern day society is facinating, but lacking in what the layman needs to grasp it's full meaning - that is, in my opinion, concrete examples, easy to understand language, full definition of key terms and a style that lets someone focus on understanding the concept rather than struggling to relate what they are saying at the moment to the context of the rest of the paragraph.

That all aside, if you are okay with this style of writing, you should definitely check it out. Even if you have to read resummaries and interpretation by other people, on websites or wherever, its good stuff.

WHOOP!!! WHOOP!!! That's the sound of the Police!

Last night I was woken up by loud lights and bright sounds of the glorified security guards known as the Victoria City Police. It was probably my most hands off encounter with them, since usually when I see them they are telling us to pour out our beers. This time however, I have no clue what they were doing, since the car blasted their sirens in short bursts every once in a while but the lights were going bright and full tilt.

Since they weren't kicking down my door and yelling my rights at me, I tried to ignore it and go back to sleep. However, they didn't go anywhere, or stop sirening. For half an hour. And I only say 'they' because I found out the next day that people could hear them in other parts of Fernwood. I only heard this one because it was pretty much right beside my bedroom, about 30 or 40 feet away most of the time. I carefully peeked out the window, and they would drive forward for awhile, and then back up again. It didn't make any sense, and still really doesn't. I assumed they were tracking down some junkie that maybe stole a bike light or package of meat to sell for meth, but the interesting thing was, people had different takes on why they were there - a roomate said the police car was taken for a joy ride by some kids and were trying to annoy the neighborhood, and another suggestion was they were aliens, but of course nobody actually knew anything or had any proof. It may have been a training excercise, with the side effect of waking up the entire neighborhood. A training excercise for what? I dunno man, just seems like something they would do.

At one point I wanted to put some pants on and go outside, see who was running that thing and find out what was going on. Then I realized I had nothing to gain and everything to lose by stepping outside and drawing any attention to myself. Best case scenario, they would ignore me or tell me to go back inside, worst case, they would start asking me questions or get upset by my curiosity, which the police have been known to do. It has been drilled into their heads that they ask questions, not answer them. They are still just people though so they may have said something, but I'm still doubtful.

The next morning when my roomates and I exchanged stories, I mentioned that I thought about going outside, they said the similar thing, but that they didn't want to go near the cops since they didn't want to get randomly thrown in jail. This is the common sentiment of pretty much everyone. The police are avoided authority figures that tell you what to do. Sort of like parents for people over 18?