Category Archives: Philosophy…

.Life, The Universe, Everything

DEMOCRACY DEMOCRACY DEMOCRACY!

Chatting to a friend of mine about politics the other day I told him that all Tories were scum. He accused me of being over emotional and offensively irrational by claiming that ( he did not notice that it was not a claim, it was a fact!). He could not understand that I hold that view, not because of any political allegiances that I may have but because it is my ‘Lived Experience’ that I have never met a Tory who wasn’t scum.

Scum is the term for the thick layer of unpleasant effluvia and detritus that floats on top of a liquid or whatever stagnating and polluting it.

So why are Tories scum?

It is the role and responsibility of a democratically elected government to care for the welfare of all of it’s citizens and to foster an environment where these citizens are able to work towards achieving their aspirations, it is not the purpose or right of a government to ostracize or ignore the needs and wants of one section of the populace in favour of facilitating the desires of another.

Conservative/Tory governments have always been what Matthew Arnold, the 19th Century essayist and social commentator termed as ‘Aristocratical’ a term he used to include not only the landed gentry but the oligarchs and wealthy citizens of the land, the aristocrats cronies; all those who have a vested interest in there being a ‘small’ state intervention in the internal structure of the nation and there being ‘allodial’ rights to land and property ownership (allodial rights are where the property owner has sole rights without state intervention, although the state can exact punishment or fines if the property owner does something untoward. Since the ‘aristocrats not only own the land but comprise the State, the government that sets and exacts the punishments levied, there is a clash of interests and no great impetus to set punishments at a worthwhile or deterrent level)

A Feudal system allows a property owner rights over his land but also it insists that he has responsibilities towards his tenants and the law upholds the rights of those tenants to be treated responsibly. With the eventual and inevitable decline and extinction of the Feudal System there came to the fore a plutocracy and an untrammeled aristocracy that could ride roughshod over the rights of the plebeians and ‘working classes’ nnnmmm

The Conservatives praise a ‘low tax economy’ where citizens have more money to spend on what they want but do not explain that people will need to spend that ‘extra’ money on health care, education costs and pension provision for their old age; these financial outgoings of the populace will be administered by privately owned agencies who will take an administrative fee for doing so. So a low tax more spending money regime implies a low tax more statuary outgoings scheme and more money and profits for private companies. Is that fair?

The Tories/Conservatives still hold to the methods and means that they held to back in the days of yore, dividing society, ignoring the least ‘worthwhile’ and exacting hardships for the needy. In Victorian times the Workhouse was the place appointed for the needy to go to but the authorities made the places so hard to access and so unpleasant and undignified that people would rather die than go there. In the current day Universal Benefit is made so hard to access and to survive on that people have to jump through hoops to get it and to live in fear of losing it when they get it and to rely on food banks to feed themselves, a system which some Conservatives see as a thing to be proud of whilst they and their companies and consortiums pay less tax than is equitable.

That is why they are scum.

in a future post I may have something to say about the Labour party abandoning their principles and the Working Classes and thereby becoming ‘aristocratical’ bedfellows of the Tory scum.

Think about it

What a Waste

I don’t know why I keep doing it but once again I have started reading modern Atheist stuff. The Atheist philosopher John Gray described present day atheism as having only ‘entertainment value’ as it rarely or never says anything of import and I must agree; there is little in today’s output from non-theists, be it from the ‘top’ ones like Richard Dawkins to the very bottom grade: ‘Atheist Republic’. And that lot really are the ‘bottom’ , what a batch of assholes with more axes to grind than they have brain cells to think with! I recently dug out their book of ’50 essays that prove how small god is’ or some such title. My self appointed task is to find something, anything, within it’s pages that can be construed as a serious argument that I or any theist can engage with meaningfully. I will let you know if I find one or else try to explain to you why not if I can’t locate one.

Think about it.

ps

I found the ‘edit’ key so tidied up this post

Feudalism v. Democracy

Plato, the ancient Greek philosopher, believed that a society should be ruled by philosophers because he reckoned that they were higher minded and less likely to be corrupted than ‘ordinary citizens. Alas such a style of government he surmised would not work in practice for it would eventually and inevitably ‘decline into democracy and then tyranny.’

For a a political or social system to work well and fairly does it necessarily have to be a democracy? Winston Churchill opined that democracy was a flawed system but its main virtue was that it was better than all the others.

Feudalism was a system, undemocratic in the extreme with very little opportunity for ‘social mobility; within it every free person had their rights and responsibilities from the lowliest yeoman to the highest King.

For Feudalism to work successfully it had to acknowledge that there is a greater and higher Truth than ‘experience’. Call that Truth ‘God’ if you wish, but even God has his responsibilities as well as his rights.

If God created the Universe out of ‘nothing’ then said Universe exists/subsists in the mind of God. For the Universe and all that is in it to continue God has to hold it in his mind all the time, if he forgets the Universe it will cease to exist. That ‘remembering’ is God’s Responsibility.

If God created the Universe out of ‘something’ then the only ‘something he could have used was of himself. The Universe is part of him for there is no ‘thing’ existing beyond the boundaries of God.

It is therefore also God’s responsibility to maintain himself in a continual state optimum equilibrium and ‘health’, for if his health lapses then the universe that he has created diminishes and fades away, it declines into existentialism, atheism, entropy. Chaos.

It is the responsibility of the Universe to award God praise and glory, not because God needs it to survive but because the Universe needs God to remain in relationship with it to survive; without that the Universe stops existing.

God cannot stop loving the Universe but the Universe (the sentient part) (us) can choose not to accept or acknowledge God’s love and he cannot force it to love him (you cannot force or demand someone to love you, that is tyranny and abuse)

Feudalism in its ideal state replicates that hierarchy, that synergy, that symbiosis if you will. Democracy does not.

Can a case be made for, not a return to the Feudalism of old but for a new Feudalism?

Think about it.   

BEING WHAT YOU WANT TO BE

I was reading a post on Facebook a little while ago where the poster was trying to give comfort to people with depression and anxiety by saying that they needn’t be too harsh on themselves as they did not choose to be so affected by their emotions. A nice comforting sentiment but not totally true.

Depression is called the illness of the past because we become depressed about something that has happened to us. Anxiety is the illness of the future because we become worried/anxious about something that is going to happen to us ‘We think’ .

Anger is the illness of the present as we become agitated about something that is happening to us in the here and now.

In my experience both as a Therapist and a sufferer of depression it is by our own choice that we endure it ,and the same goes for anxiety, it is our choice to put up with it.

The best, although difficult way to treat these inflictions is to accept that you’ve got them but to decide that they are no longer helping you, thank them then ask/tell them to go.

Depression is a reaction to an upsetting or distressing event and as such shuts down the brain and body to give you the chance…to force you to take the opportunity…to withdraw from life around you and to sit quietly whilst your mind works out how to cope with the outcome of the negative event that you’ve just experienced. The process of the mind adjusting to the loss takes about 2 weeks; not 2 weeks from the tragedy or whatever but 2 weeks from the time you tell yourself, or behave as though, you are depressed. Some people, most people can stay in the depths of depression for years by continually reminding themselves that they are depressed. Stop saying it, stop behaving like it, and it will go within 2 weeks.

Anxiety is trying to protect us from danger and threat, particularly from a threat that may take us off guard. It pays special attention to our peripheral vision, physical, social and psychologial, where. it assumes, threats lurk around and loom over us.

The reasoning for this is that if something is in our central vision, dead ahead of us, we can work out how to deal with it , either fight it or run away from it (interestingly in the jungle and other wild places lions , tigers and other carnivores know that only food runs, so flight is not a real option, we would have to find a more effective way of dealing with the danger.

We can do this by bringing the ‘threat’ or anxiety provoking situation into our central vision ; focus on it, although doing so could increase or sense of harm in the short term once the object is in full view it becomes less of a threat and becomes a problem which we have to deal with.

To be continued…

Identity Politics

The Western world seems to be going to hell in a handcart.

The Left Wing Establishment (actually the middle class ‘intelligentsia’.. the so called ‘chattering classes’ in Days of Yore.) appears to be ignoring the aspirations and needs of the working classes and to be actively sponsoring cultural anarchy.

One of the areas that are being used as a battlefield is that of gender/sex.

This elite are doing this by campaigning for the acceptance of Diversity in all aspects of daily life (except in Thought). If anyone should hold and dare to express an opinion different from that that meets the approval of these Left Wingers then woe betide them as the full wrath and ire of this clique will be vented upon the opinion maker. It is very similiar in attitude to that of Fundamentalists of all religious beliefs and the Puritans of the 17th century. “I am right, so you are wrong; you are evil and must be punished for not agreeing with me.”

Now, if a man wishes to wear a dress and call himself Deidre then good luck to him I say but if he then claims that he is a woman and always has been one with all the rights and privileges of being a member of the female sex then there is a problem as he is not, and could never be, female. To give that same ‘opportunity’ of changing their sex to 16 year old children is ludicrous. A young person/adolescent can change their self-identity at the drop of a hat and change it back again just as quickly. these children are not allowed to vote, to drive a motor car, to buy a drink in a pub, to get married without parental permission or to leave school (in the UK) yet it is okay for that child to ‘change’ their sex. It is tantamount to child abuse to encourage them to do so.

To prey on the psychological and emotional insecurities of a teenager and lead them into a lifestyle that will cause them trauma, physical pain and discomfort for the rest of their life is a great failing of the ‘adult’ having and exhibiting responsibility for the welfare of the child.

Think about it.

Psalm 1

i am reposting this from my other blog;-

Psalm 1  King James Version (KJV)

1 Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.

2 But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.

3 And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.

4 The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away.

5 Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.

6 For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish.

Who is your god? Does your god give you the strength that the Psalmists god does? If you believe (can prove?) that Science and reason are your ‘god’ then does your god give you that strength? Do you live by the laws that your god has given you? Read the psalm, not as a religious tract but as a statement of belief in the benefits and strengths of your god, of the Laws of Reason or Science or Common Sense or whatever gives your life meaning and structure. ‘Blessed is the man who walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly’… But his delight is in the law of the Lord and in his law he doth meditate day and night… vv 1-2 If the ungodly are those people in our life, or thoughts in our heads, that lead us towards contrary or unreasonable thoughts and actions then we are best served by ignoring or avoiding them; having no place for them in our life.

To an ‘atheist’ that means that any argument that you make or support must be founded on Reason and Empiricism, there is no place for opinion or unreasoned, emotional arguments. Your faith sic in the laws of Reason etc should preclude you from making unsupported or irrational statements, not because the ‘law’ says you mustn’t but because you know how important it is to live within the guidelines of the ‘law’. ‘He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season: his leaf also shall not wither and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. The ungodly are not so, but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away. VV3-4 Some expositions of this psalm state that the rivers spoken of are ‘irrigation channels’ How exciting is that! Your belief in the Primacy of the Laws of Reason will irrigate your thoughts and allow them to bear fruit, but any thoughts not irrigated by those rivers will be withered and will die; any unreasoned or irrational thought process is pointless and doomed because it is unsupported by empirical evidence. …the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous …For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous but the way of the ungodly shall perish. vv5-6 You know that as an atheist anything you say that is not supported in all it’s aspects by the Laws of Reason is worthless by your laws. What are the benefits of following this ‘edict’? Read Psalm 23 to find out! Think about it!

In My Humble Opinion

So, as I struggle to adjust to this new WordPress editor I just want to try to say again that In MY humble opinion if someone wishes to exercise their right to have an opinion and to express it in public they have the responsibility to make sure that their opinion is based on rational, logical thinking and that it is not just emotionally charged irrational ranting. Unless of course they start their post with ‘In my humble oponion.

If you want to see examples of such futile thinking and Argument then search WordPress or Twitter or whatever for ‘Atheist’ and you will find instances galore of assinine comments (actually if you read Bertrand Russell’s ‘Why I am Not a Christian’ you will find that even he has problems tackling the subject so these lesser mortals have only two chances of hetting it right…no chance and a dog’s chance!

It is not someone’s opinion to be an atheist that offends me it is the ludicrous, specious and irratonal mode of Arguing or supporting their decison that I find offensive as it demeans their humanity and insults  my intelligence.

Think About it