Edward Ashton's Blog, page 4
November 22, 2017
An Excerpt
The sun is just above the horizon when the dry-bones rattle of the Stickmen’s drum calls Michaela to the fighting ring. The two priests she saw earlier wait there, along with another one, at least a foot taller, who wears a tiny triangular hat on his bald, chitinous head.
“A high priest,” Karina says from behind her. “I’m impressed. We only got an under-priest when they took Vanaheimr.”
Michaela turns. The other woman’s heavy cloak is gone now. Instead she wears a loose cotton tunic and knee-length leggings. A two-handed broadsword is slung across her back.
“You were at Vanaheimr?”
Karina nods.
“Why are you still alive?”
“I didn’t fight,” Karina says. “I got one look at the Stickmen, and I ran.”
Michaela stares up at her as the other fighters fill in around them.
“I don’t understand,” Michaela says finally.
Karina shrugs.
“What’s to understand? Now, there’s nowhere left to run.”
Michaela thinks to respond, but before she can, the high priest begins to speak in a voice like the buzzing of a swarm of bees.
“Today,” it says, “the people make claim on this city. Who comes to defend it?”
After a pause, Karina raises one hand.
“I do.”
One by one, the others gathered around the ring echo her, until finally only Michaela remains. The high priest’s flat black eyes fall on her. Michaela sighs.
“Right,” she says. “I do.” She folds her arms across her chest and looks up at the Stickman. “By the way, I like your hat.”
November 7, 2017
Well. That’s a relief.
Well. That’s a relief.
November 5, 2017
A word of advice on taxes and wages
If you believe that employers will either hire additional workers or raise salaries after receiving the tax windfall that is currently on offer, please understand this: they will not.
This is not because employers are bad people. By and large, they aren’t any more good or bad than anyone else. It’s simply because that’s not how businesses operate. Unless a company is literally going bankrupt (in which case tax rate changes don’t apply to them, obviously) decisions on either salaries or hiring have nothing whatsoever to do with how much money a company has in the bank.
Companies hire for one reason only: because they need more workers to support their business. Companies raise salaries for one reason only: because they have to do so in order to attract or retain talent. Note that neither of these reasons involves the amount of cash the company happens to be holding at the time.
When an already profitable corporation (the only kind that has to worry about corporate taxes) receives an infusion of cash, it does one of three things with the money: (1) stash it somewhere against possible future need; (2) return it to the shareholders in the form of dividends; (3) use it to raise share prices through stock buybacks. Again, this is not a moral failing on the part of corporate managers. This is what their incentive system drives them to do.
Does this mean that the capitalist system is inherently broken? Not really. It is what it is, and as long as we understand what it is and how it will react to changes, we can design public policy accordingly. It does mean, however, that when you’re deciding whether to support a particular tax bill, you should probably discount any trickle-down benefits that you’re being promised. Unless you make your money investing rather than working, they’re not going to materialize.
October 31, 2017
October 29, 2017
October 21, 2017
On Memes
Fun fact: the term “meme” was first proposed by the science fiction writer John Barnes. He used it to refer to malicious ideas or thought processes that spread from person to person like diseases, literally taking over their minds. This is a pretty accurate description of most political memes. They are not designed to convey information. They are designed to manipulate you, circumventing the thinking part of your brain and hooking directly into the crouching ape underneath. Every political meme falls in a range from manipulative distortion to outright lie. Try to bear this in mind when they show up in your Facebook feed - particularly when they hit your personal hot buttons. Those are the ones you’re most vulnerable to.
All that said, Barnes’ Meme Wars books are pretty awesome. You should probably give them a look: https://www.amazon.com/Orbital-Resonance-Meme-Wars-Barnes/dp/0812532384/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1508602173&sr=8-1&keywords=Orbital+Resonance
October 19, 2017
A Word About Fake News
I got into a discussion yesterday with a semi-friend. The topic doesn’t really matter. The important part is that it ended with him telling me that my problem was that I actually believed what the media was telling me. And you know, that actually stopped me for a moment–because the fact is, I do mostly believe what the media tells me. If I see a story in the New York Times or the Washington Post, or even in my local bird cage liner, I pretty much accept it as fact. In my friend’s opinion, that makes me one of the sheeple, easily led to believe whatever the powers-that-be want me to believe. For him, the only real truth is…
And that’s the problem, isn’t it? If you don’t believe what you see in the mainstream media, what do you believe? Breitbart? Infowars? Random crap your friends post to their Facebook walls? You can argue that the Washington Post leans left, or that the Wall Street Journal leans right, and on their editorial pages, you’d be correct. Their news divisions, though, employ fact checkers, and they know they’ve got an army of people on the outside waiting to pounce on any factual errors that make it into their pages. Are they perfect? No. But from an accuracy standpoint, they’re infinitely better than the alternatives.
The bottom line, though, is this: if you deny the validity of the mainstream media, you deny the possibility of an objective standard of truth. If you do that, you deny the possibility of an informed electorate. An atomized, partisan media leads to entrenched tribal voting, which leads to the erosion of the legitimacy of democracy as a system of government. This is why the first task of any would-be totalitarian is to destroy the credibility of the free press. Some of the things you see in the mainstream media may be upsetting. Some of them may contradict things you believe. Reality is sometimes inconvenient. That doesn’t necessarily make it fake news.
October 11, 2017
An Excerpt from A Brief History of the Stupid War
Rowan’s plan is a simple one. She holds the high ground. The top of the rock has a panoramic view of the mountainside, and it’s only accessible by a short, steep climb on the uphill side. Unless the UnAltered have grenades, she’ll be difficult to assail until she runs out of ammunition. Running out of ammunition won’t take all that long, though, and Aidan suspects that their friends know it. Rowan expects them to approach cautiously, to spread out around the rock and try to trade pot-shots with her until she stops returning fire. They’ve got no reason to be in a hurry, no reason not to settle in for a siege.
Unless they have grenades, of course. If they have grenades, she’s screwed.
Aidan’s part in the plan is simple as well. His job is to wait for the hunters to settle into firing positions, then creep up on them, one by one, and slit their throats.
“Head up-slope,” Rowan says. “Don’t leave a trail. Step from rock to rock. Don’t break any branches. Don’t fall down. Find a tree that’s still holding most of its leaves, and get as far up into it as you can. Wait for me to start shooting, then come down quietly and do your thing. Understand?”
“My thing?” Aidan asks.
“Right,” Rowan says, and drags one finger across her throat.
“That’s not actually my thing,” Aidan says. “My thing is writing whiny polemicals about social injustice. This?” He mimics her gesture. “This is pretty much the opposite of my thing.”
“Well,” Rowan says. “As far as I can see, you’ve got two choices. You can make this your thing, at least for this afternoon… Or you can work on figuring out how to get those nanos to shut down your pain receptors. I’m guessing getting chucked into a burn pit stings.”
Aidan opens his mouth to reply, hesitates, then thinks better of it and closes it again.
“Good boy,” Rowan says. “Now go find yourself a hideout, and try not to fall asleep. The shooting might get started any time now.”
Aidan nods, and climbs to his feet. As he’s clambering down the side of the rock, Rowan says, “Hey, Aidan?”
He looks back. She smiles, then shakes her head and looks away.
“Good hunting.”
October 3, 2017
October 1, 2017
Monsters - Flash Fiction Online
If you’re looking for a morning pick-me-up, I’ve got a story up in the October issue of Flash Fiction Online.
