Friday, 6 July 2012

~Old Posts~ Drunken Reflections


What follows is a piece I am reluctant to share due to its massive exposure of, well, me. It seems a lot of my vulnerability went into these short paragraphs. But I am sharing it, in the hope that it makes some understand me better. 
N.B. Since I wrote this, I have stopped drinking. 
My Nan was a drunk. I can see why.
Every dim memory of existence fades into insignificance in the presence of grog. Life is a fantastic thing in the face and mind of the naïve and unwise. An experience provided only through youth and alcohol.
She was onto something my Nan.
Her death face was a pained and elfish withdrawal of features; slender, with pointed ears.  Her oxygen mask-scarred features drawn into a grimace as her breath drew heavy and her heart ceased caring. The hangdog expressions on her face betraying a near universal fear of that; the most inevitable of inevitabilities; the most ultimate of ultimate. If she’d been drunk, in the presence of my father and me, her face would have been the picture of nostalgic joy. Instead, it hung heavy, like a gaping, toothless, pained invertebrate.
She was far from that. My Nan was a paragon of strength defiance, injustice and, essentially, ‘fuck you’ism. Life was a constant struggle and she always fought it. “It’s just you and me against the world kid!” she used to say, apparently.
Well I agree. Fuck the world, like she has always fucked me. I owe my environment no favours, like the government that rules her, or the ceaseless dictation of marketing forces that control her.
Fuck sobriety, fuck tee-totalism and fuck thinking substance abuse is bad. It masks the truth, and the truth is life, love, dignity and joy all end. In death. In eternal.
If it just ends, why defend it. I’m no nihilist, I believe in something greater but really, what is offered so great as to be entirely virtuous for it. Not much, in all honesty. Even Dante Alighieri speaking of hell as a place of eternal pain and damnation can’t make me repent for my faith in booze. If hell were really full of sinners what the fuck makes Satan powerful enough to control billions? Because sinners far outweigh saints, let us remember that.
Heaven may seem an endearing prospect, but, all that virtue? Really? No offence but no one but God and Jesus are good enough to enter the kingdom of Heaven, and if they let in any other I’d assume a slip in standards,
When I die, I know where I’m heading. 
I’ll be at your bar grampy, The Dommy of the deceased, make mine a red wine and I’ll chat with you all about how I tried to do better. I’ll let auntie know I worked hard at it, I’ll let Nan know I fought for it, and I’ll let you know I wanted a Daimler like yours, and I always took care of my mum and dad. Most of all I’ll let you see the self-righteous, pretentious tosser I am, and hope you’ll appreciate the wisdom-beyond-years that plagues me, the fact that I tried to do better, and improve the family name.
I’m intelligent without being smart; Wise without experience, and, ultimately, sarcastically immodest. Better assets with lesser opinions, unfortunately, do not mix.
Fuck life, I’m inferior. But better than most.

~Old Posts~ An Eye for an Eye - The Murder of Troy Davis

Troy Davis is an innocent man. This would the stance of any jury, of any legal team and of any judge were his case to be presented today. He has spent the best part of two decades behind bars for a crime he didn’t commit and, if the State of Georgia has anything to do with it, today, he will be murdered. 
Yes, murdered. This is not an execution. This is murder. Pure. And. Simple. 

There has been a large movement, for a long time, against the death penalty for the simple fact that it is better to let a hundred guilty men go free than to kill one innocent man. Legal systems have, time and again, been prone to injustices either through accident, or authority coercion, and those injustices have seen innocent people get murdered by their state. It is an archaic, and barbaric practice that is merely one of vengeance and fails to solve any of the root causes of crimes. Nor, apparently, does it act a deterrent since, despite the death penalty existing, they are still committed. The case of Troy Davis is one such example, whereby a man was identified merely through flawed eyewitness evidence, despite no physical evidence, or forensic evidence linking him to the crime. Since his incarceration, 7 of the 9 witnesses have recanted their statements claiming mistaken identity or pressure from the police. The process of identification in the first place has been shown to be flawed and some have even claimed the real killer has confessed to them. 

Even if you support the death penalty, this case should rest heavily on your heart. It is a punishment that should only be incurred in the most extreme circumstances and where evidence proves beyond a reasonable doubt that the individual in question has committed the crime. Troy Davis has not had the crime he is alleged to have committed proved beyond a reasonable doubt, not to begin with, and now, due to the recanting of statements, even less so.   

It is a damning testament to our inability to progress as a society that the death penalty still exists in the world. Ghandi once said “An eye for an eye will make us all blind.” This seems, at a cursory glance, to be a statement of forgiveness in the face of crimes. However, if you study it deeper you will see it says something much more profound. We are all guilty. An eye for an eye will make us all blind because we have all sinned against our fellow man, we are all guilty of the system and how it operates. We are responsible for changing things and, we seem too reticent to do so. If you do nothing about this case. If you do nothing to at least try to help Troy Davis then you, too, have his blood on your hands. You are guilty of murdering an innocent man. 

Please, do all you can to stop this injustice from happening in your name. Please. 

~Old Posts~ How Do You Define a Dictator?


As many of you will be aware, there has occurred, live on most of our televisions, in the spring, a massive rise against authoritarian regimes in Middle Eastern territories. Scores of people, organising by any means they can, rising up against dictators who do not have their best interests at heart and looking to set up a new, more humancentric leadership. 
Many people have been injured, oppressed, abused, tortured and in some cases even killed for their freedoms. Because freedom, apparently, means that much to people. However, it appears that, unfortunately the mass people-support these protests and rebellions recieved was as a result of their freedoms being easier to define than ours. After all, we live in a state of freedom of speech, freedom of choice, freedom from tyranny and oppression via our democratic governments; don’t we?

Well, that depends on how you define a dictator. It is easy when you have one individual whose face is plastered on all officialdom. The people can look at that person, point their finger and say “That’s the villain. That is our dictator!” But in the supposedly ‘free’ world, it is not so easy. That is, unless you dig a little deeper than the superficial puppets who lead your national press conferences and sit in your house of power. Then, oh then the truth is revealed. 
Our governments, I am sorry to inform you, are not the democratically elected supermen they led you to believe. This should be no more self-evident than subsequent to the crises which have led to the current economical state of things. The first reaction of our superheroes in government was not to tax, fine, or even imprison members of the global banking cartel who had plunged us into the depths of austerity. The first thing they did was tax you more. The everyday folk. The hard working, salt of the Earth types whom they had so previously supported to borrow more and spend more and have more and get more and work more.  
Why would they do this? Why is it your responsibility to pay for the mistakes others have made?
The government will tell you that all your previous borrowing and spending is what has caused this, and that, really, you should have ignored their advice previously and had some common sense. But the public purse barely makes a dent in the vast amount of wealth being hoarded by the miserly top few. So surely this is a lie?
It’s everyone’s responsibility they say as they give themselves greater and greater leniency in their pay, and cuddle up to their banker friends hoping for nice, comfortable directorships once they have left office. Of course as if that wasn’t potential reward enough, while in office, they receive massive donations and sponsorship for conferences and round table groups and events. They call this ‘lobbying’ - I call it corruption, pure and simple. 
This is the truth of the matter folks. Even your halcyon elected officials are members of a group outside the collective elite, desperately banging on the door trying to get in. They don’t care about you. They care about money. They don’t care about social progress. They care about economic growth. They don’t care if you, or your children starve. So long as it makes them money. 

There is a cancer growing in the economic and corporate sector of the Western World and, unfortunately when faced with cancer there are only two options. One is to fight it tooth and nail, as hard as you can, no matter how hopeless it seems at times, in the hope that it goes into remission. The other is, with utmost finality, die. 
I am not scaremongering when I use this analogy. Our financial system is a mass consumptive cancer being controlled by a few and if you think they’ll be happy sharing the world with you then you are sadly mistaken and, obviously, oblivious to quite how selfish and megalomaniacal these people truly are. You are already slave labour. You are capital tied up with flesh and the labour market is little short of a butcher’s shop for remedial, repetitive, humanity sapping work. They use their media and news to fill you full of fear so all you wish to do is work and go home, work and go home. Never socialising, never expanding your horizons, never, ever dreaming of a better world. They dehumanise humanity, by filling your brains with all the negativity mankind can perform upon itself, all the while funding these self-same negative aspects of humanity. Every war that is fought is big bucks for some disgusting leech of a human being clutching desperately at his blood money.  

With protests worldwide from Yemen to Wall Street we are at a unique stage in history where all the people’s of the world seem to have an axe to grind with their governments. You can either turn your head, pretend it doesn’t exist, continue thinking everything is fine while you have your house, your TV, your car, your X-Box and a job. Or you can realise that soon you won’t be able to afford that house, that TV, that car, your X-Box and you will be laid off. You think it couldn’t happen to you? Why not try asking the millions of others in the western world who thought exactly the same about themselves before they had to swallow pride and plead poverty? Let us get this straight, this not about protesting against honest, hard working people who have earned their money. The people at the centre of all this were born with their money, and all of it comes slathered in blood. Whether it be from back in the days of the slave trade, to funding modern warfare and terrorism just to make a quick cash fix. These are not ‘innocent’ people, these people are so guilty they require a new definition of the word. These are the evil instruments of the world’s worst evils. And they want your blood too. They want you to work hard, pay your bills, keep working, pay for more stuff, keep consuming like happy, oblivious little worker ants. Because while you do, you will always be in the hopeless spot of barely being able to improve, and meanwhile they will skim the cream of your crop off of you and hoard it for themselves. 

The culture of ignorance, obliviousness and mind programming is scary. When you speak to people they all know the basic ins and outs of what is going on, but they feel it can never change. It’s just the way it has to be. This is exactly how your are expected to think. Don’t. 
Open up your mind, open up yours eyes and open up your hearts to your fellow man. See that the world doesn’t have to be this way. There are over 6 billion people in this world. That is enough to overrun all the elites, with their puppet politicians, their propagandist military and their poor, misguided police. This is not a battle that can be one without participation. Everyone needs to pull their weight if they believe that working hard should earn you a better standard of living rather than a worse one.  

It’s an unfortunate, and unprecedented state of affairs in the West that we have democracy. But we can only vote for whichever puppet wants to have his strings pulled by our corporate, dictator masters. Remember, the greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he doesn’t exist. If you have doubts, then it is a conspiracy, you were right, you should do something and YOU CAN ACHIEVE YOUR GOALS.  
This is a dictatorship. There is no one face we can point to as our dictator, but aspects of your lives from day to day are ‘dictated’ are they not? You have to work to pay your taxes and your bills. You have to buy things, otherwise how would you eat, and clothe yourselves and improve your lives? You are only free to do what is expected of you. All the while, meddling in the background are what must be no more than a few thousand who have somehow convinced the world they are free, laughing at us. Laughing at you. Laughing at your ignorance, and how pathetic you are that you have to work and struggle to pay your bills. You are being oppressed. You are slaves in a system they tell you that you cannot change. But you can. And you must. 

If we don’t act now then we will end up in a state, like in the Middle East, whereby the next time we have to take action it won’t be a protest. It will be a civil war.  

~Old Posts~ Celebrating Celebrity


The amassed crowds screamed and roared with joy as their star had arrived. Their banners and picket signs professed such love that the ambient air was almost filled with pink love-heart shaped butterflies flitting over everyone’s heads. Gathered press let off camera flash after camera flash looking like twinkling stars in a sky of crowded adoration. As the limousine pulled up, the screaming grew louder and more passionate and the swanky valet opened the door revealing…







…A 62 year old old lady from Nuneaton who, despite the complications due to her age, still manages to go out every day and do chores and errands for her older friend who is housebound through disability. 

Yeah. As if. 

Welcome back to the real world folks. Sadly, individuals like this fictional old dear are usually never recognised. OK so there’s the occasional ‘Bravery Awards’ or local news human interest story about them. But otherwise this world does not celebrate true hard work, determination, effort, heart, soul and care. No, instead we have upon our front pages rampaging hordes of actors, singers, footballers and women who get their tits out for money. 
Let me make my most controversial statement of my feelings on this subject now. Jade Goody. Died of cancer. I couldn’t give a flying fuck. 
For those who don’t know (possibly because you’re from the US) Jade Goody was a vacuous, ignorant, racist idiot who rose to fame after being on a reality TV show called ‘Big Brother’ whereby they stick a group of idiots in a house and watch them grunt at each other for a week or two. Apart from, having been diagnosed with cervical cancer, doing some good work to raise awareness of the subject, she did next to nothing for humanity besides breathe and some would argue that even that was just a waste of oxygen. She deserved no press or publicity whatsoever; and certainly not for merely living, and dying, which is what she got. We all live, we all die. Where was my Grandad’s Hello magazine tribute when he died of cancer? Where was my friend’s father’s front page when he died of cancer? Where was the interview exclusive for my friend on his feelings on it? Why did Kylie Minogue get a sky1 documentary about surviving breast cancer with the best, most expensive care, treatment and support money can buy when all my mother got was an infection and money problems? 

There are issues and events going on in this world that need addressing but our media is far too busy following an agenda of bullshit to mention them. There is no objectivity in our media anymore because they are all subjected to commercial pressures. There is no such thing as a free press if press costs, and earns, money.
Some of you might argue that I am only jealous. That I wish I got as much attention as these people got.  I will admit that as a human being I do quite enjoy attention at times. We all do. We are social creatures. We crave community and the attention and support of that community. But I don’t seek attention. I enjoy what comes my way but I want credit for what I do, not for who I am. If a musician releases an album they should be credited for and rewarded for that and only that. What car they drive, what house they live in, whatever their personal and social health may be and what bloody underwear they choose should be their business and their business alone. 
But what irritates me most is not the attention these people get, but the inexplicable wealth they receive. It is disgusting that there is still world poverty and meanwhile footballers could be earning anywhere from £25,000 to £250,000+ a WEEK for doing what a lot of men do for fun up and down the UK. There are actors and actresses who command huge fees into the tens of millions for starring in a movie and, well, they don’t fucking deserve it! How stupid do you have to be to think they do? Again, I am not jealous of their wealth. Money means nothing to me. Money is literally a valueless idea, and one that I think we have to get rid of if this species wants to maintain survival. I just can’t understand how any individual could feel they deserve that much money for playing football, singing a song, acting in a film or any other activity that could put you in the limelight or amass a bank balance (bankers, I’m looking in your direction…) and actually think you deserve it more than, say, a HIV positive African child who has to provide for his/her younger siblings due to their father having been murdered by militia and their mother having died of AIDs. They have to travel miles a day to get a small amount of food and dirty water just to survive and yet, they keep struggling. 

There is no perspective in this world and the proof of that is on your front pages, in your twitter trends, amongst your facebook likes and plastered over every major newsmedia website across the length and breadth of the World Wide Web. 

I’m getting rather angry and upset now…The trail of thought that was in my head is now just an explosive muddle of ire, upset and expletives. Because unlike a population of individuals who are so wrought with insecurity and banality that they have to aspire to be somebody, I just want to be me. And rather than worry about what some glamour model tart wore to a party, or what an actress or actor had to say about something, I’m too busy thinking about the unsung tales of that poor old lady, or the African child. 

I know this blog may offend some people who enjoy celebrity culture. For that I am sorry. I am truly sorry you’re an inhuman, vacuous, soulless dunce. I still love you. And I hope my words can at least make you think before you next purchase a daily tabloid, or before you tune into some mediocre reality TV programme. Because unlike you, I love everyone regardless of whether they make it into my newspaper or not. 

~Old Posts~ Endangered

For http://tigertime.info 

An issue that has come up with regards to myself, through twitter, recently has been the plight of tigers worldwide and, indeed, naturally, the plight of many native and non-native species. 

I am a bit of science geek and, biology just is my bag. Within the scope of biology I have a fond love of the zoological and, within the scope of that, I am a man of the cat. As such, the work of Tiger Time immediately appealed to me and, with it being run through such a reputable and amazing charity as the David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation you know that money and information is being used in the right ways. Charities don’t have to be huge to make a difference,  indeed, large charities require lots of experienced staff to run them and, sadly, those staff do not come with the charities best interests at heart…they expect to be paid. As such, smaller, but more efficient charities can get money where it is needed, when it is needed as directly as is possible and, thus, make a huge difference. 

The tiger is a fantastic creature, a walking paradox that is as cute as it is scary and as affectionate as it is murderous. But such is the appeal of the feline. Their subspecies have, sadly, been dwindling rapidly, with I believe around 4 subspecies going extinct in the 20th century alone. That kind of rapid extinction rate can only be attributed to man and, as such, it is our responsibility to make up for past mistakes and past ignorance in order to help support the species that remain in the world. 

It may escape the notice of a lot of individuals due to its lack of press but, amongst biological circles it is well publicised that we are in the midst of one of the largest ever extinction events known in the 4.5-5 billion year history of the Earth and it is one that is occurring directly as a result of mankind’s actions. It is not just the majestic Tigers prowling around from the Tundric plains of the Amur region to the humid forests of India, but many species worldwide that are under threat. 

One fantastic cetacean, the Baiji or Yangtze river dolphin is already functionally extinct. Essentially, a population may exist but it is too small to sustain itself, and, natural problems caused by unnatural death, inbreeding depression etc. is going to kill it off. I am sure the massive commercial and industrial forces in China are directly responsible for this. There sadly cannot exist ecological and economic growth based upon commercialist ideologies and, as a result, many species in emerging nations in Asia, Africa and the Middle East are going to see drastic declines in their populations and, scientists will see many more extinctions, unless we make urgent plans now to stop such from occurring. 

I’m no hippy. I get that money makes the world go round. But money and ecology do not have to be mutually exclusive. If the UK can spare £250m to murder innocent children in the name of Nato in Libya why can we not spare such an amount to assist in protecting populations of creatures that are now endangered, some of which are in their delicate positions as a direct result of British colonialism and the selfish breed of trophy hunter that helped us establish colonies. 

There is always money to help kill, apparently, but never any money to preserve life. 

~Old Posts~ The Arms Trade


The Arms Trade
You may notice below* a poem for which I, in my preamble, expressed a lot of scorn, despite the fact that I wrote it. This was because I was written very emotionally, and, being the common lad that I am, emotion generally equates to swearing. It is probably the most sweary poem I have ever written, and it’s content is quite graphic. But, I have to say I have changed my opinion of it. 
The poem itself is about the arms trade and is specifically aimed at the DSEi arms ‘fair’ currently going on in London (at the Excel exhibition centre in the Docklands area if you feel like going there and protesting on my behalf because I am too skint to get there…) 
Now, let’s just break this down a moment.
Arms - Many items may come under this term but, ultimately they are all involved in killing or the business of killing (i.e. support of killing, defending your killers etc. some things may not kill directly but are support mechanisms for killing)
Exhibition - A showing off. In this case it is a trade exhibition whereby people who make things to kill show off their killing machines. 

Pardon my language, but WHAT THE FUCK!?

I say again. 

Arms - Stuff that kills. 

Exhibition - Showing off that stuff

WHAT, THE, and FUCK!?

The truth is I had never really spent much time thinking about that sort of thing before. In the past I have often been a busy man and, my recent sedentary lifestyle has led to me thinking more about things and, when I heard about this ‘Arms Exhibition (WTF?)’ I got to thinking about that. 
Here in the Western world we like to tout ourselves as civilised people. The nations who lead the rest of the world in pursuit of what’s right and just in the world. And yet. In London. Right now. There is essentially an arms bazaar going on. To make it worse, the police and government know about it. Indeed the police are there, but they’re not there arresting international despots, tyrants, dictators and general blood-dealers. No, they are harassing and arresting the peaceful protesters who think, quite rightly, that there is something wrong with people dealing instruments of death on their doorstep. 
There is something wrong with it, and quite frankly our government should not be encouraging it. I am sick of this god damned war economy we are living in. Here is how the

world works. There will never be peace with our current system. There, I said it. Notions of world peace. Forget it. It WILL NOT HAPPEN in our current system. Because war is driving the economy. Rich people love to make money, and will do so any way they can, and countries (especially the UK thanks to our own homegrown arms dealers!) will be happy to throw their troops into stupidly expensive wars because it makes the political elites rich donors very happy. The upshot of it is money comes out of the public purse and lives are lost while a lot of evil rich men are exceptionally happy. 

THIS 
HAS
TO 
STOP!

Repeat. 
THIS
HAS
TO
STOP!

People, you might be happy with your little life. You might have a reasonable job, you might have a comfortable home, you might have your brand new iphone and your bose sound system and your sixty-inch widescreen HD BULLSHIT. But there will not be a world to enjoy those things in if this system carries on. This economy is a perpetual motion machine of consumption and destruction. It may not affect you in your lifetime but your children, and your children’s children will suffer. The basest natural instinct is survival, not of the self, but of the species. Unfortunately a group of people who know your psychology very well have managed to engage in our brains needs and desires that detach us from that base need so as they can make money. But stop. Think for a moment. Do you want your lineage. Your family name. Your proud and noble genes. Do you want them to continue in the future? 
Because there won’t be a future for them to carry on in. 
It really is that simple. 
The world as we know it will have all of its resources consumed and all of its land rend asunder by weapons if we don’t make a stand NOW for real change. 

Forget this ‘terrorists will get you’ lie. You’re probably about as likely to die of a petrified owl falling out of the sky and hitting you on the head as you are from terrorism. Your own government is a bigger threat to you than terrorism. A much bigger threat. To the extent that they unashamedly sell instruments of death at ‘Arms Exhibitions’. Do you not see something wrong with that?
Stop being scared of what little you might lose. You have nothing if you have no future. So you have nothing to lose. 

There is at the moment a large movement of people wanting change. Please join them. You have nothing to lose. Nothing except your guilt and shame at this current system. Please, world. Let’s make this change. Let’s get together as people and change this world. Please. 

I apologise if this piece has been a bit disjointed. My thoughts do not organise well when subjected to extreme emotions and I am extremely emotional right now. But thank you for reading and I hope you find some agreement with me. 
Let me just repeat for clarification. 
Arms - Death 
Exhibition - Showing it off. 

SHOWING OFF DEATH - WHAT THE FUCK!?

Wake up people. You are change. You are freedom. 
You exist, and that means that this world and everything in it are within your control. Use it. Change it. Before it’s too late.  
*************************************************************

*The poem mentioned above. 

Gun Runners
Blood stained hands in expensive executive wear;
red shirts. They were once white, now red. 
On their backs are skin-spun sacks
bundled full of body parts. 
Oozing fluids indiscriminately
across the slippery exhibition centre floor. 
Death is the currency here. 
Trades are done with limbs and torsos. 
Limousines fuelled with blood. 
Smoking cigars made from 
rend burnt flesh, rolled; 
the stench unbearable
as they disrespectfully fellate
these smoking, rotten cocks. 
These disgusting monsters,
their morals loosely hanging around their groin
as a pair of dishevelled, atrophied testis,
don’t need cock and balls. 
They’ve got a bigger sack, 
full of other people’s bodies. 
Their dick ejaculates bullets 
through a rifled bore. 
Their own body means nothing. 
They are not human. 
Soulless vacuum ghasts
inhaling, ingesting, consuming.

They tear off their clothes in a fit 
of onanistic, orgiastic death fucking;
Shooting holes in skulls 
to have more orifices. 
Fucking everything. 
Fucking the innocent. 
Fucking the guilty. 
Fucking the poor. 
Fucking the dead. 
Fucking the world. 
The future lies raped, defiled and sobbing. 
Twisted Necrophile beasts contorting their 
scarred and ugly faces in orgasmic ecstasy
at the thought of deaths bony hand
touching another child, 
another woman. 
Another man.
Another innocent. 
Poltergeists rutting 
rifle cocks, 
shooting hot-lead climactic fluids
into the hearts of all around. 
As each tear and gash in human flesh
becomes just another cunt to get fucked. 
Each bullet wound an exploitable hole. 
Each severed, dangling limb 
just a dildo to fuck some more. 
Disgusting 
Earth raping 
anima defiling
Incubi. 

When demons in hell have nightmares, 
they dream of a world where self-aggrandising pricks
preach peace and civility to the world, 
whilst marketing death on their doorstep.

~Old Posts~ Attractive

When Hans Christian Andersen wrote about the tale of The Emperor’s New Clothes, I don’t think he had the pretentiousness of the modern fashion industry in mind. But it does bear a striking similarity. 
For those who don’t know, The Emperor’s New Clothes goes thus; a vain emperor who loves nothing more than fashion and changing clothes (You thanks to mass marketing, globalisation and fashion advertising) gets taken advantage of by two very clever scoundrels (the fashion industry) who claim to have invented a fabric that is invisible to all but the worthy. Those who are ignorant, or incompetent cannot see the fabric. His ministers and courtiers all pretend to see the fabric so as not to seem incompetent and, indeed even the emperor himself does not see the fabric, but pretends he does so as not to seem like the idiot he so clearly is. The emperor then decides to flaunt his clothes to a waiting public, who all pretend that these new clothes are magnificent. That is until a child, a paragon of innocence and speak-your-mind-ism says “Dude, I see your ding-a-ling. You’re wearing nothing but the air. You’re naked!” maybe not exactly like that, I don’t know any children that talk like that…But you see my point. Anyways, eventually these ignorant, and incompetent peasants all agree with the boy, that the emperor is wearing nothing but his birthday suit. The emperor and his minions meanwhile continue in their charade happy in the knowledge that the subjects they rule over are all ignorant. 

The fact is, it doesn’t matter if you’re dressed in the finest, most expensive designer jeans and tee, or whether you’re wearing a mail-sack. You are beautiful. But there are many canny individuals all pretending they can weave you a garment in a fabric seen and worn by only those worthy. At what point in our insecure little lives do we forget the tale of the Emperor’s New Clothes and actually buy into this fashion nonsense.  At what point did we actually begin thinking it mattered? 

The fact is you worrying about your appearance is big business. There are a whole lot of people that you are happy to pay to make you feel like shit. There are a lot of people who know human psychology inside out who play on it to manufacture desires that are entirely false. We all know the expression ‘beauty is in the eye of the beholder’ but how many of us truly believe it? How many of us say that whilst tarting ourselves up to look nice for somebody else? How many of us say that while putting on a fashionable outfit? 

It’s a difficult thing to debate because, I don’t want to seem like I’m standing in your way of looking good. I do not think we should all be a scruffy mess. But we do need to reconsider what we consider beauty because our current perception of it is entirely mythical. Many will make note of how in civilisations and times past beauty was considered an amalgamation of different qualities. Handsome men and beautiful women, and what makes them so, evolve over time. But surely now have we not got to such a stage in our evolution of thought and culture that we can admit that, actually, it’s just not important what someone looks like. That the person is the important thing and not the outward projection of the person. 

I know it’s a difficult thing to try and shut off that judgemental first impression of appearance. But it was also difficult to make tools with our resources and establish a new dominant force in the natural order; but we did it. It was once difficult to travel from London to Sydney, particularly via one means of transport. But we did it. This is what mankind does. It evolves ideas, it evolves concepts and it evolves itself to suit its own needs as a species. Unfortunately those needs have been hijacked by economics, which now stunts progress. The fashion industry doesn’t want you thinking everything can be beautiful because feeling ugly sells. Feeling inferior makes them money. Why would they want mankind to develop out of superficiality when superficiality is a multi-billion dollar industry? They will pretend like they’re looking out for your interests, that you NEED to look beautiful, or people will judge you unfairly. They have twisted minds to judge people unfairly for how they look and how they dress. They pretend this is healthy for you but, to know if it’s healthy or not just think. How do you benefit from it? 

Yeah, you might say you benefit because you’ve got the latest fashions, the latest trends and the latest gadgets. But they’ll change in time and leave you behind. You’ll feel insecure. You’ll feel upset. You’ll be judged. You’ll be outcast. You’ll break down in tears and say that without your latest trends and make-up you feel ‘naked’. 
Until a child, the paragon of innocence and speak-your-mind-ism says “Christ love, take that coat off, you’ll roast in here. Too many clothes that’s your problem. Why are you crying anyway? You’re too pretty to cry.” Maybe not exactly like that, I don’t know any children that talk like that…But you see my point. I hope. 

You’re all so damn sexy, handsome, pretty, beautiful and attractive people. I love you all.