Bribe, the - the form of corruption (look up: Corruption, the) - an unofficially presented opportunity to improve one's situation, by obtaining some values (material, or others) in exchange of mis-performing (performing in the wrong way, or not performing at all) one's duties in his/her official capacity, or just performing them rightly, when where are no simple and reliable means to ensure that otherwise. Whenever human beings are used as the parts of hardware (look up: hardware) of the formal system (look up: Formal System, the), a Bribe is introduced as the simplest way "to oil the mechanics" - to make a man act as intended by the rules of that formal system - to say, put the system to its proper use, or to bend the performance of that system to your goals - to misuse it. The clan values (look up: Clan Values, the) systems are so tightly linked to the concept of Bribery (the process and phenomenon of giving and taking the Bribe) , that I would rather call them an implicit Bribery, than an alternative to the phenomenon of Bribery.
Bribery, the - the process and phenomenon of giving and taking the bribe (look up: Bribe, the).
Bureaucracy, the - the corrupted (look up: Corruption, the) staff of the formal system (look up: Formal System, the).
Clan, the - a group of people, closely tied by the common blood, spilled blood or common interests. To be a part of the Clan (member), one have to perceive himself as such, or there should exist some simple and reliable means to make him do so. A Clan remains rather virtual and insignificant entity, till it starts to enforce its clan values (look up: Clan Values, the) efficiently.
Clan Values, the - the usually unwritten system of laws (look up: Law, the) of the clan (look up: Clan, the) which are supposed to be in the best common interests of the clan members. In real life however, just as any real law code (look up: Law, Real), they do, for the most part, include a lot of outdated, worthless stuff, which, together with a lot of endeared and honored by tradition idiosyncratic peculiarities, do well to hide duality, double standards and sub clan oriented inclusions in the code. The Clan Values, when their enforcement is efficient enough (look up: Enforcement, the), may implement the implicit bribery (look up: Bribe, the) schemes, bending the working of the law and other formal systems (manned by human beings) to the will, to the interests of the Clan - without the explicit promise of any immediate personal gain, but rather, by its implicit promise - as the consequence of the general advance of the Clan as the whole. Thus, the Clan Values may work as the bribery substitute.
Corruption, the - the form of crime (look up: Crime, the), inherently peculiar to the bureaucracy (look up: Bureaucracy, the), especially - to the state bureaucracy (look up: State, the). The most common form of corruption by far is common bribery (look up: Bribery). Generally speaking, Corruption is abuse of the power (look up: Power, the) to the end of achieving some goal, different from the one's duties in his/her official capacity - personal/clan/political /etc. material/ideological/philosophical /etc. When one is managing any kind of resources - not really belonging to him/her, or wielding some kind of power - which isn't sure to remain his/her to wield to the end of his/her life, there is always a conflict of interests between one's official function and one's interests and of both aforementioned with the interests of the third parties. From such a conflicts the Corruption is borne.
Crime, the - a misbehavior, misconduct, punishable under the law (look up: Law, the) and committed within its jurisdiction (look up: Jurisdiction, the). There is no crime outside the code of law and its jurisdiction. While the modern law (look up: Law, the Modern) states, that Criminal (judicial) justice (look up: Justice, the Criminal) are the one with the common justice (look up: Justice, the) - there is no connection between these concepts but those, dwelling in the minds of idealists.
Crime, the Organized - one of the most profitable types of the criminal (look up: Crime, the) enterprises. The [alternative] state (look up: State, the). The most bitter competitor of the state in its favorite racket - the racket of protection, including the military racket. It does provide some kind alternative to the state, but, when it clashes with state really hard, it's rather bad for business. Any business. The basic one of staying alive including. Nevertheless, when some kind of really profitable racket, such as the drug dealing (look up: Drugs, the), is considered too dirty even for the state, it have to co-operate with the Organized Crime, forming some kind of hate hate partnership. On the other hand, it may well be stated, that some deeds, like throwing into the prisons the miserable sick men - the drug addicts, are to foul even for the Organized Crime - and never mind the profits. Then, for a share in those profits, the state officials do take upon themselves the dirty part of the mutual enterprise. Even as the Organized Crime is a venerable enterprise rooted in history may be even somewhat deeper, than the state and its government (look up: Government, the), the modern Organized Crime became one of the most powerful international entities as the result of the alcohol and then drug Prohibition american laws (look up: Law, the). The gang makes a healthy profit on whoring, gambling, arms trade and even the legal businesses and institution, but to make its jump-start for that kind of power it needed something simple and enormously profitable and the drug dealing fit the description to T.
Criminal, the - whoever breaks the law (look up: Law, the) within its jurisdiction (look up: jurisdiction, the) and get seized and persecuted and convicted for it. Note, that it isn't sufficient to commit a crime (look up: Crime, the), to be considered a Criminal. If you do commit crimes, but may not be properly called a Criminal, you'd make a good politician, if you aren't one already.
Drugs, the - as some kinds of job kill one's body and/or mind and/or soul, so do some kinds of drugs. Of those, the most dangerous are the drugs, that manage to give their victim some kind of a pleasure, some kind of a relief, at least, as they start their unholy job. Of those, the most dangerous are the drugs, that make their users became addicted not only psychologically, but physiologically too. The faster and stronger develops an addiction, the stronger and more dangerous is the drug. As these drugs do kill slowly and the personality, integrity of the addict goes away well before his health, otherwise, and his health go away ways before his life, the addiction isn't just a personal matter, but a materially costly and psychologically harmful social disease. Thus, it's nothing, but natural, that the most successful world religions (look up: Religion, the) do outlaw the most dangerous drugs and, in some cases, even the plain alcohol - for the good measure. It may seams just as natural, that the law (look up: Law, the) does... outlaw them, too. It would seam far less natural to you, when you would consider the states (look up: State, the), where the law fails to do so. There are no more addicts there. The drugs are cheap. Therefore, the rate of the drug induced crimes is nonexistent. So, this prohibition, like that alcohol prohibition in USA, which gave birth to the modern organized crime (look up: Crime, the Organized), is just an innocent error? It's rather difficult to believe in so profitable an error. The billions dollars (USA) are made from it yearly. The organized crime goes hand in hand with corruption (look up: Corruption, the).
Enforcement, the - the important part of the operation of any formal, and even not so formal a system (look up: Formal System, the). State (look up: State, the), law (look up: Law, the), government (look up: Government, the), clans (look up: Clan, the), organized crime (look up: Organized Crime, the) - everyone needs it. When the operation runs smoothly, there is hardly any need for anything more, than a simple implication, that the Enforcement, the power (look up: Power, the) to enforce the rules of the system, is out there, somewhere, that it exists. But, in the end, there should be an option to apply as much force, as the bigger picture (the bigger system, the agreements and practices of the dealings between the systems) allows - and, usually, that means the deadly force at least. Even nowadays, tortures aren't all that unheard a practice in the dealings between a state and its citizens, just like some quite real threats to the relatives of the opponent. The state may use, for the purpose of enforcement, its military and paramilitary units and the police (look up: Police, the). It isn't all that important, how does the organized crime call them, but it surely does have its own military and paramilitary units and the police too. More peaceful enterprises do call their police "the security" and do rely of the state's and organized crime's enforcement units most heavily, when the shit hits the fan - as that is the crucial part of any protection racket "insurance" deal, that the insurer's enforcement units would stand by, ready to answer the "client's" call to arms. In fact, there would be nothing unethical in the protection racket, would the state and the organized crime be less territorial animals. Should they start to offer their protection to everyone, who's ready to pay for it, instead of forcing it on everyone inside their area of control, their useful services would surely became more competitive and less disagreeable by far.
Formal System, the - the finite automaton, the Turing machine. Well, its the scientific definition. Practically, to understand the functioning of the Formal System, one don't have to understand all about its states, transitions and language. The main point is, that the Formal Systems are built to perform their tasks in predictable manner. Well built formal systems works efficiently and doesn't enter the infinite loops and stumble on the conditions, that its creators failed to take into account. For the big enough systems, it's almost inevitable, but, at least, it shouldn't happen on the most frequently encountered inputs (in the usual situations). But even a badly designed state machine is predictable. Well, it is - unless it is built of the human beings. The problem with this, last kind of the Formal System is, that they are, well... rather informal. As the human beings are anything, but predictable, such formal systems tend to exhibit stochastic and even erratic behavior. The Turing machine may be stochastic, but it may never be erratic. The interplay of the human interests make such informal systems infinite, unpredictable automaton. The human formal system tends to develop its own interest, quite different from its designed functions. Such a system starts to fight for its own existence and the well being, starts to fight for its own place under the sun - just as it's human components do.
Government, the - the bureaucracy (look up: Bureaucracy, the) of the state (look up: State, the). The formal system (look up: Formal System, the), which manages the affairs of the state (look up: State, the) is also called "the Government". The main branches of the Government are: the lawmakers (look up: the law), the executives, and the justice (look up: Judicial System, the). The power branch (military and paramilitary), the intelligence and the press are considered the lesser branches - but they aren't by any means less important. The balance between the Government's branches ensures stability, while any asymmetry brings contention and troubles.
Hacker, the - the representative of the youngest by far of all the powers (look up: Power, the). His power lies in his knowledge of and/or his abilities with the nets - the human-computer webs. He knows how to crack them and how to protect them. He may prefer to deal with its human or computer side vulnerabilities, but he just have to be proficient enough with the both types. There may be no freedom of speech nowadays without him - but, on the other hand, he is the one to breach the privacy, too. He may create an amazingly big value all by himself - but all that pales in comparison with the amount of harm he is capable to deal single-handedly. They do claim, there are all kinds of the Hackers out there, but the whites and blacks may interchange all the way - without even the bother of passing through the grey zone. As most of the Hackers aren't employed as such, we may not speak about the corruption here (look up: Corruption, the). We have to invent a new word to describe, what exactly does tend to happen, when nobody recognizes in any positive way whatsoever the enormous power, that a person wields. The lawmakers (look up: Law, the) do tend to criminalize the Hackers as well as all the classical Hacking activities indiscriminately. Well, on this stage its just about as stupid as an attempt to outlaw the government (look up: Government, the) or the police (look up: Police, the). It won't work, even if it sounds like the thing to do. In the way, when the lawmakers started to outlaw the organized crime (look up: Crime, the Organized) they did, in effect, criminalized the government as the whole and all its structures separately. And what good did it bring to our life, but some more hypocrisy? You see, nowadays every power needs to employ Hackers to remain the power for so much longer. You may claim, you have no interest whatsoever in the offensive hacking, but you would still need to employ the number of hackers, proportional to the amount by value product of all you hackable assets - to do some defensive hacking for you. One already may not claim any degree of control over his military and/or paramilitary units, unless he have all the information security measures in place. Tomorrow, as the military robots come to life, one may see his weaponry turn against himself, unless his Hacking forces are superior to his opponent's ones. To keep you in power in the future you may need all kind of scientists - technologists, mathematicians and physicists, microbiologists, mass psychologists, etc. - but to be in power today, you need Hackers. It may seams, that the Hacker force needs some kind of the brute force to defend them, to amount to anything, but, in fact, the distributed Hacker network needs nothing, but secrecy - and it's the one most qualified to provide that commodity, too.
Hardware, the - one of the two main components of the formal system (look up: Formal System, the). The division between the hardware and the software is an artificial one and the border is rather blurry and arbitrarily drawn at that. Wherever you do design the formal system in formulas or in some kind of hierarchical diagrams, there is no "Hardware" and "software" in the design. When the Egyptian priests built their amazing machinery, they didn't think of it in the Hardware/software terms. This division most probably originated in the programmable machinery, such as all kinds of musical boxes and mechanical looms. The Boolean algebra designs Hardware and programs in the same way, but the real production on the very dawn of electronics (and, most certainly, before it) differed. Charles Babbage could or could not see the dividing line, as his calculating devices were not, in the strict sense programmable - but he could dream to make them so. When Von Neumann proposed to store the program (software) and data in exactly the same way (nowadays, its very difficult to change that status quo - and most of the computer security problems, that may not be traced to the human factor and standardization are rooted here; well, the latest 64 bit PC software and hardware come with some improvements in the area) the separating line were, finally drawn in the minds of about all the computer professionals. You build it from the metal, semiconductors and other raw materials - then, its the Hardware. You write it and store in the memory sells (flip-flops) - then, its the software. When all kind of programmable circuitry come to life, however, the division was exposed for what it was all the way - the blurry, arbitrary and, sometimes, even misguiding concept.
Intelligence, the - once upon a time, it wasn't about brains at all, it was "just" an information gathering. You harvested precisely the same kind of data, the opponent tried to "hide" from you under the secrecy label, thus marking it out for your convenience. Afterwards, the amount of the "secret" information grown - exponentially, enormously so. Even the public schools started to label their documents as "top secret". In fact, there usually are some secrets in there, but not what you generally expect to extract from your opponent. In fact, most of the "secrets" nowadays do hide nothing but some kind of the corruption (look up: Corruption, the). Surely, it may be readily exploited by any kind of opponent, but to sort out the data on the thousands of separate, but not all that independent cases of corruption, to make some kind of sense out of it, you need a lot of really intelligent labor and most of it is done by the computer specialists, too. Thus the computer nets became the essential part of keeping, protecting, processing and stealing intelligence and the hackers (look up: Hacker, the) became the key element in the intelligence services. Just how important the intelligence service may be? They used it in the Rome, it was rediscovered by the author of the "Robinson Crusoe" and even in those times one could be easily ambushed and utterly destroyed by the "weaker" but more informed an opponent. And yet, most of the wars (look up: War, the) of the past were won by the economy, by the amount of steel produced, rather than by the intelligence services. The modern "War on the Terror" was the first one to prove, that even the two orders of magnitude advantage in the firepower gives you no real edge without the superior intelligence. In the conflict between some two states, the brute force may still win the day. But when the elephant have to squat a mouse, no amount of random stamping around would do. Nothing would do, but the perfect knowledge of the mouse's exact location and plans. What does it tell to you? - Well, it should spell the chaos and anarchy to all the states, who won't shift their priorities from the army to the intelligence services. They may just die out, like dinosaurs.
Judicial System, the - the "thinking" part of the law enforcement (look up: Law Enforcement, the), the part, that interprets the law (look up: Law, the) and pronounces the judgments. It's one of the main branches of the state's (look up: State, the) government (look up: Government, the).
Jurisdiction, the - the area in the common space and in the legal (look up: Law, the) space, where the given law or the given part of the given judicial system (look up: Judicial System, the) have the legal right, the authority and the real power (look up: Power, the) to make and enforce (look up: Law Enforcement, the) its judgments. It should be obvious from the very definition, that the concept is very complicated one for any practical implementation. There always are some disagreements as to the exact borders - and to try to decide them by the direct application of the power is very bloody and unprofitable an approach. Even well within its physical borders, the state in general and its law enforcement branch in particular may lack the power and the will to take all the affairs in their Jurisdiction. On the other hand, there is such venerable an institutions, as the exteritoriality and all kind of the martial law. Namely, the military may take the matter of jurisdiction on their covered by the spilled blood hands and apply the deadly force to everyone inclined to dispute their right to do so. By the modern american standards, if you do cross the borders on you way to do something, you'd rather check, if your activities are legal in that state - otherwise, you are crossing the border of state with the intention to break its law! How do you like that one? As if this outrage to the very principles of the law wasn't sufficient, the same applies to all your electronic information - and some 90% of all the data flow in the Internet is routed through american servers! Sky is the limit, as they say. Than, if you won't recognize the jurisdiction of some court of law in such a matter, you'll get a prison term for the lack of respect to the court - even if it finds you nor guilty in the original case...
Justice, the - the christian concept, based on such a venerable cornerstones, as the Good and Evil from the ancient legend of the humanity (Adam and Eve) downfall, including the evil snake, naive Eve, the fruits from the tree of knowledge and the punishment of the sin of disobedience by non other, than the god almighty. As the result of the consumption of the ecologically (of thought, naturally) suspicious fruit, we are, along among all the living creatures, able to discern between Good and Evil. Now, tell me, please, which ones from: the eating of grass by sheep, the eating of a sheep by wolf, the eating of a sheep by man, the killing a wolf by man - are Good, and which are Evil? There is no Good and no Evil among the natural things, in the ecology. Most of the unnatural things, invented by humans do look Evil enough, but then, how may we judge in our ignorance of the far consequences? So, the concept of Justice, of the just reward of Good and Evil - by the Talion Law, namely "eye for eye", even as it sounds quite independent of the underlying concepts of Good and Evil, as its almost always impossible to repay literally in kind - and we are practically unable to judge the far consequences and reasons of the event.
Justice, the Criminal - the formal goal of the law enforcement (look up: Law Enforcement, the). When those, who break the code of law (look up: Law, the) within its jurisdiction (look up: Jurisdiction, the) do receive their punishments according to the law (look up: Law, the Real), we say, that the Criminal Justice is served. Note, that the Criminal Justice doesn't care overmuch about the [positive] rewards - which is the main concern of the common justice (look up: Justice, the). It doesn't care, whether the criminal (look up: Criminal, the) acted for Good or Evil case - even as it states otherwise. The law's wrong, but it's - the law, - as the romans said. But even this rather unjust variety of justice is an ideal one and could not be implemented in real life. The best we may have is the real criminal justice (look up: Justice, the Criminal, Real).
Justice, the Criminal, Real - the practical implementation of the abstract concept of the criminal justice (look up: Justice, the Criminal). To deal out the proper (according to the law (look up: Law, the) punishments to the law breakers and thus to serve the criminal justice, one have to prove (look up: Proof, the) the fact of the crime (look up: Crime, the) and the persons of those, who committed it. The jurisdiction of the law (look up: Law, the) under which the crime was committed (the law that was broken) and the jurisdiction of those, who enforce that law (look up: Law Enforcement, the) should be established too. To prove anything in our real world positively is too difficult and costly a process, to be practical - even when it isn't outright impossible. So, the Real Criminal Justice settles instead for the standard legal proceedings, which it does call "proofs", even when they aren't. So, the Real Criminal Justice doesn't even have to be corrupt (look up: Corruption, the) to be unjust. And corrupted it is - just like any and every bureaucratic system. It does use the fingerprints as the convincing evidence, even as anybody may easily collect your fingerprint from the glass you used - and put it wherever he wishes - and there is no corruption here, but the pure economy. Unlike the criminal justice, its real implementation should keep the peace as well, as the law. To that end, its model incorporates the mechanisms for the peaceful solutions to the inevitable contentions. It is competitive - which allows the participants spend their resources and apply their power (look up: Power, the) in the peaceful, rather than in the murderous manner. The expensive lawyers may cloud the matter at hand, till there remains no chance for truth to emerge - which is, anyway, preferable to the outright violence. The expensive settlements not only allow those, who break the laws escape the necessity of being criminals (look up: Criminal, the), but also do make the blackmailing of the innocent men a profitable activity. As the blackmailing in the courtroom isn't punishable by the law, it isn't even considered a crime.
Law, the - an explicitly stated in writing and exactly enforced universal code of conduct and punishments for misconduct. Its a purely theoretical concept, absolutely inapplicable to the real word. This abstract concept nevertheless does give a birth to a lot of more or less practical implementations - vulgarizations of the pure concept. Look up: Crime, Clan Values, Lawyers, Judicial system, Bribe, Drugs. This abstract concept nevertheless does give a birth to a lot of more or less practical implementations - vulgarizations of the pure concept (look up: Law, Real). In some very real sense, the Law is the state (look up: State, the) and the state is the Law - as it structure is described in the Law and the Law enforcement (look up: Law Enforcement, the) should hold it together and make it function properly. The Law is the genotype of the state, it ensures its continuity in time - and its enforcement shapes its phenotype to the design.
Law, the Modern - the modern hypocritical implementation of the law (look up: Law, the; Law, the Real). The Modern Law doesn't call itself just genotype of the state (look up: State, the), describing it's design (structure and operation) as the formal system (look up: Formal System, the). It doesn't just add, that its goal is the peacekeeping and protection of the rights and the privileges of "the best" citizens and serves the flourishing of the state, as it deed in the first known European codes. No. Nowadays, it does state, that it serves the common Good and gives the justice (look up: Justice, the) not only to the citizens, not only to the residents of state and its people, but to everyone. All these statements are impractical in the implementation, as the interests of all these categories are highly mutually contradictive. They may profit in any material sense nobody, but the lawyers (look up: Lawyers, the). However, they may put some balm on the ill conscience of the lawmakers and judges and make the courts of law proceeding at least sound like some kind of civilized shaw. Like any kind of the ambiguity and the internal contradiction in the human manned formal system (look up: Formal System, the), they do breed corruption (look up: Corruption, the).
Law, the Real - the vulgarized practical implementation of the law (look up: Law, the). Historically, the modern Law codes are the descendants of the first known ones, like the Code of Hammurabi (Babel). When the first such codes were introduced, the real purpose was just the simplification and standardization of the daily running of the state. It took quite some time to realize, that by implication, the very existence of the written code of Law does limit the power of state officials, including the head of state and his most powerful satraps and viziers (counselors, advisers, ministers). It gives every literate man a frame of reference to judge the state officials by the standards of the state itself. Thus, the tool, devised by the rulers of the growing in size and complexity states to free themselves from the rather dull, boring and not by any means glorious labours of daily running (managing, judging) the state, became mixed up with the abstract concepts of rights (look up: Rights, the) and justice (look up: Justice, the). This unholy alliance gave the birth to the hypocrisy, we call the modern law (look up: Law, the Modern).
Law Enforcement, the - the enforcement (look up: Enforcement, the) of the law (look up: Law, the) - as the branch of the government (look up: Government, the), action and phenomenon. There are a lot of different names for it, but the power (look up: Power, the) hand of the Law Enforcement is known as the police (look up: Police, the), and its brains - as the judicial system (look up: Judicial System, the). The penitentiary system (look up: Penitentiary System, the) may be considered as the part or the by-product of the Law Enforcement as well.
Lawyers, the - the ones who do prosper of the judicial system (look up: Judicial System, the). They do have the knowledge to exploit the its (and the law's (look up: Law, the)) contradictions and general corruption (look up: Corruption, the). In the third world, they do have the knowledge and connections to exploit the individual corruption of the servants of law. In any case, they do provide the contending parties some relatively peaceful means to compete in the court of law. These their primary functions, but they also do try to keep the police (look up: Police, the) from breaking the law too impudently, they may give their clients a useful counsel and they may, even, apply the pressure to their clients opponents in the ways, that may not be proved to be criminal.
Penitentiary System, the - the important part, or by-product (depends on how do you look at it, as the concept changes all the time) of law enforcement (look up: Law Enforcement, the). Historically, the ancients enslaved, killed, mutilated and exiled their criminals and other captives (look up: Criminal, the). As the fortified castles became the part of the medieval life, however, the imprisonment of the criminals, captives and other undesirables became a practical concept. By limiting the freedom of one's victim in space, one makes visiting every imaginable kind of indignity and outright torture upon his victim all that much simpler, as he's depraved of the opportunity to run, or hide or even to defend himself. As the prisons and more modern concentration camps seamed insufficiently cruel to the sick minds of their inventors, the freedom of prisoners was restricted even more by all kinds of chains and other restriction devices. Nowadays, this sad list starts to include all types of shrewd electronic devices. The torture list expanded and sophisticated in time, too - and now it includes, in the addition to the good old roman and medieval inventions, electrical, chemical and psychological tortures. Furthermore, the modern state (look up: State, the) does have the means and certainly doesn't lack the will, to make the "free" life of its citizens just as restricted and observable as that of the prisoners, thus finally uniting the imprisoned and temporally free parts of the people. The Penitentiary System uses the very taxes (look up: Taxes, the) you pay to break the health of the poor bastards that would have, afterwards to receive their medical treatments from you taxes, or your insurance money. To break their personal integrity - in so much as they had one in the first place and thus to make them the most dangerous kind of miscreants. To bread diseases.
Police, the - the muscle behind the law enforcement (look up: Law Enforcement, the), the "ultimo ratio reginam" - the last argument of the kings (state) (look up: State, the), the government (look up: Government, the), the judicial system (look up: Judicial System, the) in their quest to gather the taxes (look up: Taxes, the) and enforce (look up: Enforcement, the) their law (look up: Law, the), just as the army, the military force is the last argument in the external conflicts. Police is the army, the state uses to make war (look up: War, the) upon its own citizens. The citizens know, that the Police is paid with their taxes and thus, most erroneously, may consider it in their employment. The state does actually encourage such an misapprehension - up to the certain point. The Police itself does realize fully well, that it's paid by the state - and the citizens do cough up their taxes voluntarily or under the pain of... pain. The judicial system does have the penitentiary system (look up: Penitentiary System, the) and the Police to drive the point home. In fact, would the Police not be balanced by all other kinds of military and paramilitary unit, it won't feel, that it needs the state with its government any more. The Police doesn't really feel, that it protects the law. It just does wish to became the only successful lawbreaker in the vicinity. No other kind on organized crime (look up: Crime, the Organized) does have that kind of manpower, that backing from the state and such a global co-operation. Even when you are in the hands of the army, if you're still alive and aren't mutilated enough to consider yourself murdered already, there are a lot of forces in the world ready - and even actually eager to challenge that particular army - and even your tiny case may serve as a nice pretense. It isn't nearly as easy to challenge the actions of the police, its always costly even to attempt to do so, and in the most cases it may not be done in the real time - even the costly help won't arrive in time for anything more, than the attempt to avenge you. The good part of the story is, that even the state with its government does fear that kind of power - and doesn't let it go unchallenged. All kind of diplomatic immunities do exist only to create some thin layer of these, that doesn't have to fear the Police. Even the lawyers (look up: Lawyers, the) do have some kind of imminence in the eyes of the police... but that's based on some kind of the unwritten accords, that prevent the police going after a lawyer on the condition, that he won't question certain police practices. As compared to the actual power he wields, even the big policeman's salary looks like a pittance. It make the Police one of the most corrupted (look up: Corruption, the) bureaucratic (look up: Bureaucracy, the) organizations. Just a few years ago, some government attempts were made to determine the exact location of the Police connections with the organized crime. The simplest way is the surest one - and the important information was handled to the heads of the different Police departments, under the label of the top secrecy and with varying "small" but important differences, distortions. Would you be surprised to hear, that EVERY version leaked to the organized crime in the space of few hours? The interesting thing to determine is the question wherever the information leak is one-sided or does it work both ways? How many does the Police know about the plans of the organized crime? Actually, it's the question of the power structure, you may ask, instead, just how high ranking are the Police department heads in the organized crime hierarchy?
Power, the - the ability to perform the enforcement actions (look up: Enforcement, the). Certainly, it does require some manpower. But there is so much more to it. The moral, the will, readiness and the ability to do violence counts for more, than the shear force of numbers. Even the army did understand it from the dawn of times. Then comes the material part of the enterprise - starting from the money that may buy it. The ancient Greeks were, probably the first ones to realize its importance - and to call the money the bloodstream of the war (look up: War, the). But even the gold isn't all there is to it. To be ready to the ultimate forms of violence, to the real and final test of Power, you should keep your arms in the state of the permanent readiness, to have the logistics, which brings the newest weapons to you service no later, than they became practical ones to use. From the viewpoint of the Power, everything is considered a weapon, starting from the good roads and water supply. The Romans were probably the first people to realize it. Then, there is the feedback between the modern technology and the desirable qualities of your manpower to consider. Once, the Spartans thought, that the strength, health, dedication and training were everything. Then, their days as the military power were gone, as they were outsmarted by their opponents. So, the general have had to be smart enough even then. Not too smart, mind - the Caesar was more of the threat to his motherland, than any barbarians could ever be. Nowadays, you need a quick mind to drive the simplest tank and to pilot the simplest jet fighter. You need to be more intelligent by far to design them. Today, even the army sees that the power is in the military machinery, these, who may man it, and even these, who design it. So far, so well. But nowadays, there are hackers (look up: Hacker, the) to consider. Well, there is always some hackers. They are these people, who may conscript the machinery to their service, just as the state (look up: State, the) may conscript the manpower - with no moral right for it, but with the plenty ability to back, to enforce their desires. To keep the service of your own machinery and/or to conscript your opponent's one to your service, or, at least, to deprive him from the services of his own, you need to have the very best hackers on your pay check. Yes, on your pay check. However the shocking does come the fact to the officers, the more ability you do require in these, who serve you, the more honor you have to show in your dealing with them. The soldier may be conscripted, even the general may be shouted upon, the technician shall be paid, but, in the addition to it, he may be put under pressure too - but the scientists are of no use, unless treated and paid well enough - and hackers are the threat to anybody, who tries to cheat them in the least. Currently, the Powers do try to outlaw the hackers to press them into their service from the position of strength - and I may almost pity those, who do indulge their stupidity in so costly a way. And even that doesn't seams to be the last stage in the evolution of the power. As the war becomes less and less practical an option, as it becomes more and more costly, more and more impossible to contain and threatening to the very existence of our species, the Powers have to compete in the more peaceful ways. They always did so, but once the military competition was the most crucial to the survival, and today, it seams, its gradually replaced by the economic competition, but in the future, it may become the competition in the technology - with less and less relevance to its practical impact - be it military, or in economics. And than comes the ability to sell your achievements to the people, and even to the technological elite. Here comes the age of the power over the minds, rather, than the power over the bodies. Now, they do call it the informational warfare, but there is so much more to it, than the deceit - there are powerful concepts, there are working concepts, there are the entities, that were called the informational viruses, symbiotic abstractions and even the gods by some - and just "The Sheep" - by Haruki Murakami.
Proof, the - the strict proof is the positive one. You have to ensure, that something actually did happen this way. You have to recheck your Proof and let a few specialists to help you with it. You'd rather proof, that where wasn't any other way for it to happen to, to rule out any conceivable alternative - but, in the strict sense, all by itself it doesn't constitute the Proof, as there are other logics about, but Aristotelian one. Nowadays, most of the scientists do agree on what does constitute the scientific Proof. And that bears no resemblance whatever to what does constitute the legal proof (look up, Proof, the Legal).
Proof, the Legal - the abomination used in the judicial system (look up: Judicial System, the) instead of the proof (look up: Proof, the). They put some publicly known possession of yours on the crime (look up: Crime, the) scene - you are the criminal. The criminal "looked sort of like you" in the middle of night, in the middle of fog, viewed for a halve a second, as remembered after a couple of months to the witnesses - you are the criminal. You were threatened, or outright tortured into confession - you are the criminal. The state's prosecution, or some costly lawyer did manage to convince few non too bright a citizens in your guilt, or they just didn't like you and get too bored of the proceeding - and you are the criminal. Well, here we are, and even this kind of criminal justice (look up: Justice, the Criminal) is ways too costly to implement - that is, not even speaking of the humanitarian aspect.
Protection, the Racket - the principal racket of the state (look up: State, the) and an important one to the organized crime (look up: Crime, the Organized) too. The simple, unvarnished fact is, that no peaceful activity is possible in our world without some kind of armed protection to back it. In fact, even the most warlike organizations do need some kind of the mutual security system. When such an armed forces to reckon with are uniting to increase their defensive power (look up: Power, the), they do it "voluntarily" - to say, forced by the circumstances, by the life itself, rather by their potential "allies", even as even them rarely have much choice in the matter. In such relatively equal, symmetrical an alliances the profits are the stability, increased security and, maybe, saving some money on that security, too. The real profits came, than a powerful organization is "proposing" such an insurance to someone relatively defenseless - for a fee. In such "misalliances" the service is, usually, enforced on the client. The states and other organized crime organizations do traditionally enforce such a "taxes" (look up: Taxes, the) on everyone within their controlled territory and even do try to go a bit more far afield, when something sufficiently fat and defenseless turns up. As the forced protection means, first of all, the protection from the protector itself, when the client does actually need the protection he paid for already, he is, in the very best case offered some lame excuses, instead of one - and usually he is tolled that it's all his own fault and he shall consider himself really lucky, if he wouldn't be officially blamed, persecuted and punished for it. The state won't protect you from the crime (look up: Crime, the), and the crime won't protect you from the state, and when one state is trying to protect you from the other, or one criminal organization tries to protect you from the other... well, if the actual hostilities would eventually break up, you would, most probably, be the first one to suffer the consequences. Whoever does shear his sheep, doesn't mean to skin them and lose their wool in the future, but, when there are too many sheerer per single sheep - well, the skinning just tend to - sort of happen.
Reader, my - reader of these lines, I do not, by any means try to rob you out of your love to your god father, your holy father, your president and your jailer. I argue you to spend a moment in contemplation each time one of these near and dear fellows asks you to spill the blood - yours or some poor son of bitch and/or to act in conflict with your consciousness, if you have one - and that's it.
Religion, the - historically, the first power (look up: Power, the) to bring the humanity some kind of culture, some kind of law (look up: Law, the) and order, some kind of state (look up: State, the) organization. It is, also, the first power behind the large scale wars, large scale repression and other large scale atrocities. The first significant cases of genocide recorded were brought about by the than young monotheism - but then, as it brought about the first known and recorded attempt to achieve the general literacy, too - that may be the case of its rather sad priority in all kind of recorded atrocities... The secular culture has, in the last couple of millenniums, grown far beyond the wildest dreams of the rigid adherents of religion. Even the modern flexible religions may not change nearly fast enough to incorporate the latest achievements of the modern science. The religious law is so much outdated as to be totally inapplicable in the modern society. The religious "morality" sounds absolutely immoral as it speaks approvingly of the slavery and contradicts the church practices all the time. So, is that it? Alas, not nearly so. We started the twenty first century with the new generation of the religious conflicts and rather gruesome atrocities. The very laws, that separated the religion from the state and defined its place, rights (look up: Rights, the) and freedoms - and were so progressive at the time, all of the sudden became our lethal undoing. Instead of stripping the state religion of all its privileges, we just extended them to all the religions - and suffered the consequences. Than, these privileges were stripped from the sects - and that proved to be an insufficient halve measure. Should we just outlaw the Religion, now? Oh, but the monotheism has some venerable tradition of the existence out of the bonds of the law! It would nothing, but flourish, if criminalized (look up: Crime, the). It thrives in poverty, it prays to it martyrs. The religion fills some kind of emptiness in the people's souls - and there is nothing around that may replace it, as yet. Like the drugs (look up: Drugs, the) it should not be criminalized. Stripped of all its privileges, carefully watched, but, still, not an outlaw.
Rights, the - the list of activities, allowed to you - by the human law (look up: Law, the), laws of nature, tradition, some kind of agreement or public accord - without the need to personally take care for the enforcement (look up: Enforcement, the) of your Rights - as they are enforced otherwise. Surely, it's an idealized concept. All of us do think, we have the Right to breathe - till somebody actually tries to suffocate us. In reality, we do often need to protect our Rights - even as, in theory, there should never be any need for that. The rights weren't invented by humans. For example, the very existence of the rituals of submission in the animal kingdom implies some kind of the one's right to remain alive and, in fact, even relatively healthy after losing the battle to a peer, or even the leader, one chooses to challenge prematurely, even unwisely. Your dog would scream, if you would step on it's paw - and you may call that an instinctive reaction; but it would scream at you if you try to deprave it of some right, that you granted it yourself right to the bones, which remained from your dinner, its place on its pallet, or in your armchair, etc. - and it looks as a cultural kind of the response; it calls to it's rights - and shouldn't even imply any violence. In fact, if your dog seriously growls at you - both of you are in need of some help from the specialist - and if it's ready to bite you - the help is long overdue.
Rights, the Human - the rights (look up: Rights, the), we, in our mania of grandeur, do claim to be our own - by the right of birth as the human being. We do claim the right to live - even as the earthquakes, tsunami and tornado don't recognize it. Actually, the state (look up: State, the) and its law (look up: Law, the) do claim the right to take our lives as they will - in wars (look up: War, the), in the course of the execution of our "duties" and in other kinds of just (look up: Justice, the) retributions. We do have the right not to be tortured, even as the states and other kinds of the organized crime (look up: Crime, the Organized) do it to us all the time and we do it to one another too. The religious ones, at least, do claim their god given right to the unlimited propagation - even as the biosphere of our planet may not support it for much longer. Nowadays, in the most of the world, the rich do acknowledge the right of the poor to some kind of food and shelter - they don't won't to feel themselves the inevitable pray of the choice of the despaired, after all - but this "right" is really affordable only in the relatively rich societies and is hardly compatible with the "right" to the endless propagation.
Taxes, the - the protection (look up: Protection, the Racket) money, that the citizens have to pay to their state (look up: State, the) - as well, as to any other states, that have the power (look up: Power, the) to enforce (look up: Enforcement, the) their Taxes upon their persons and/or upon some of their activities.
State, the - As the gangs of the law (look up: Law, the) breakers grown up in their size and power, they gradually divided among themselves, growing into the organized crime (look up: Crime, the Organized) and governments (look up: Government, the). Namely, the daytime racket of protection became government just as soon, as its leaders started to fight among themselves for the better place in the hierarchy and build themselves some kind of fortified castles; while the night-time protection racket, that gave more freedom by far to its ranks and didn't care overmuch for the hierarchy and fortification, became organized crime of the mafia type - honor, family values, etc. Every time you do hear loud noises about the honor and family values, it may be worthwhile to consider this point. Well, when it decides, that the time came for a good, messy war (look up: War, the), the government takes the traditional mafia values out of their dusty closet, air them up a bit, and presents to the general public for its own. A rather dirty business, as they go, the state is - but there are, currently no alternative to this and other forms of organized crime, as the anarchy manages to be worse, still. So, however you would call the fiefs of the other kinds of the organized crime, the territory, which the government thinks, that it owns, was called The State - together with the government itself, and everything inside its borders. Today, the States are associated with the peoples, just like the slaves of the household were the part of the family in the ancient Rome on the very dawn of its existence, and the pets are even now. Some peoples go so far, as to consider themselves the owners of their states - but there is no way, as yet, for the whole people to manage the State efficiently - and thus, the only real power, that the peoples may have - is the power to change their governments, which work hard on making even that power of the peoples an empty illusion, by dividing themselves into a small number of interconnected alternative governments, which are the one with one another and other types of the organized crime.
War, the - the ultimate demonstration of the lack of power (look up: Power, the). While the belief in power is strong, while it looms huge in the mind's eyes of all other powers - big and small, there would be no real need for any kind of the enforcement (look up: Enforcement, the) of its law (look up: Law, the), its interests and the power shows in general. When the belief is weakened, there comes the time for some power show, some demonstration, some example. Still, its a far cry from the real war. Being a power is all about the ability to intimidate one's opposition into surrender, failing intimidating it into the total inaction in the first place. But when the power becomes unsure in itself - and most rightfully so, when it lacks the ability and/or will to control the territories it claimed by its own - to protect its "clients" and to protect itself - then comes the time for the War. When the government (look up: Government, the) of the state (look up: State, the) wages a large scale War, it does the most perverted and even humorous thing: it conscripts its citizens. It actually pays back a small part of the taxes (look up: Taxes, the), the protection money (look up: Protection, the Racket) to the very same clients it sold its protection services to - and, of all the things, actually requires their protection! Moreover, it actually tries to FORCE them into protecting it! Now, speaking about temerity... The organized crime (look up: Crime, the Organized) does nearly the same things - but in a far more neat way. It collects the unpayable debts, it provides the services it didn't care to put the fixed price tag on in the first place - and then, as the way of repayment you have to provide your services in return. Sounds kind of just (look up: Justice, the), free choice, that everybody makes for himself... but in the end, it covers about the same shit as the conscription does. With each technological revolution, smaller and smaller the power may challenge the biggest fellows - as the very meaning of the power evolves and the oldest components became more and more obsolete. The unconventional weapons may replace millions of soldiers - even as they don't all by themselves spell the end to the age of tanks, planes and rockets. Few dozens of the top level hackers (look up: Hacker, the) may give you all the enemy's technology on the plate - his research, all his know-how and the use of all his high technology systems. Just a couple of hackers may deprive your opponent of the use of his technology and wreck the chaos in all his high technological systems, intelligence including. Even as the hackers don't all by themselves spell the end to the age of unconventional weapons and robot, they just change the priority of development and funding. The problem with the mass destruction weapons is their ever increasing availability. The problem with hackers is their tendency to be thinking and even self employed a force. The problem with robots is, that very existence of the military ones puts an end to all the efforts to make them capable of the peaceful coexistence with us. When the self replicating military nanotechnology or artificial intellect would be developed - whatever comes first we may kiss our planet good bye. We are coming to the stage, where we won't be able to afford to wage the actual Wars. The War becomes more and more incompatible with the very existence of the mankind. So does the military funded research - even without the actual application. You may see the War as the straight and brutal approach to the redistribution of the limited resources and power; it always was the simplest way to prevent the overpopulation - just like the natural disaster and plagues did, but, supposedly, it's more easily controlled (not really, and, alas, no more); now it helps to get rid of the results of the overproduction too - with some nice money making opportunities for some interested parties on the way. However, it's hardly worth the exponentially increasing risk of our self-destruction.