Recently, there has been a mass of these 'Reforms' going through the UK's political elite, collected in their respective houses with the green or red leather benches. In terms of modern governmental practice, these reforms seem to be either one of two things. The first is the depriving of the public of necessary and previously workable services under the guise of 'austerity' - a sort of reverse Robin Hood scenario where the government rob from the poor to pay the rich, despite the rich having made the costly mistakes through gross financial mismanagement in the first place. The second kind of reform is one whereby it means little or nothing to no one and serves merely as a nonsensical distraction, to keep the public from getting truly up in arms about the first kind.
The currently proposed House of Lords reform is an example of the latter. People will argue that these reforms would be the greatest shake up of the House of Lords in living memory...but that's not exactly a difficult thing to do when the house of lords is only outdone in its anachronistic capability by the monarchy this country still recognises as its supreme authority. The abolition of hereditary peerships was supposed to be the biggest shake up in the Lords, making it less cliquey and elitist and yet it is, not surprisingly, still a who's who of elitist twats. This reform would be no different.
"Ah!" you say, "but we want to make it so that most peers are elected!" Oh brilliant! So now, instead of being able to blame an antiquated and unfair political system built upon lies and nepotism for the out-of-touch nature of the House of Lords - Now we can blame ourselves! YAY! Presumably, if elections to the Lords were to take place they would take place using the same ridiculous, redundant, false, farcical, two-party popularity contest we use to elect our public servants today. Now, there would be further need to boost party coffers as election campaigns for Lords needs take place as well as for MPs, and as if our outdated 'first past the post' political system were not nearly unrepresentative enough, now your Lords could all find themselves from the political party in favour at the time of their election, too...Potentially increasing the stranglehold that destructive, elitist wankers following bullshit, false ideologies in the guise of 'political parties' have on this country!
You might think this lack of support for these reforms means I prefer the old way of doing things. "Oh, you'd rather it stay just as it is!" You'd say with a knowing, condescending snort that makes me want to punch your smug face! NO! I don't like the system the way it is, but nor do I think it needs reform. As far as the House of Lords goes I think it needs complete demolition, along with the farce that is the House of Commons, and that inbred elitist demon-slug that is the monarchy. I think we need a completely new, more representative and barely existent political system in this country that lets people get on with their lives, does little to interfere and doesn't have a foreign policy susceptible to lobbying from companies that produce weapons, or need natural resources. I want a system that doesn't seek to take something so wonderful as the National Health Service, a system that is the envy of much of the world, and dismantle it into nothing short of a deconstructed cash cow on something so base as the whims of their own avarice. Reform is not going to achieve this. All it is going to achieve is distracting you from the fact you're being robbed blind, manipulated and treated like capital and not human beings. It's going to give you something to moan about over your coffee while you read whatever agenda laden newspaper you happen to prefer, but never actually do anything about it. An elected House of Lords is just another distracting sideshow to make you feel like you have any say, power or control. But you don't have any while you allow yourself to be so easily distracted and manipulated. You don't have any power while we continue this false left-right paradigm in politics. You don't have any control while politics is manipulated by the media - who shape your opinions subconsciously. Opinions you later claim are definitely your own. The only reform I would support is a reform of your consciousness. See the truth, learn from the past, be in the present and change the future.
Tuesday, 10 July 2012
Friday, 6 July 2012
Human Civilisation in a Nutshell...
...Still fighting each other over the thoughts of those who claim to be in contact with omnipotent, invisible sky people or shiny rocks and the artificially prescribed values thereof.
~Old Posts~ Make Sports, Not War
Being, as I am, a simple man I do quite enjoy sports. Not so much playing them, alas my passion for that was killed many years ago. But watching them.
It is while enjoying the IRB Rugby World Cup 2011 that I wondered if sports could not be used to solve international disputes.
You see, war, well war is a terrible thing. Hideously, grotesquely expensive not just in terms of actually monetary wealth but in terms of life as well. And not just human life either, let us consider that ‘collateral damage’ must also include animal life too. It makes you wonder why, instead of investing massive amounts on weapons, the technology of killing, the science of killing, the psychology of killing and invading. Why do we not, instead, invest all that money in sports?
I don’t think it is too farfetched an idea, indeed both methods of international dispute resolution are as redundant and futile as the other. But sports, like military training, pits one group or team against another. Sports training, like military training, has a great deal of emphasis on discipline and hierarchy. Sports training, like military training requires the participant to be physically fit and mentally sharp. They are essentially one and them same thing. Except one can be fun, and one most certainly isn’t unless there is something dreadfully wrong with you.
What is more, there is less dehumanisation involved in sport. When you are on the pitch/field/area of play the atmosphere may well be hostile, passions may flare, sparks may ignite little battles, but once time is called you can all be friends again and go share a drink and a meal. Unlike with war whereby, if you are the victorious party, you will presumably have very few people to go share a drink and a meal with. Indeed you may very well not have anywhere to go to get a meal, because you’ve bombed it.
It is while enjoying the IRB Rugby World Cup 2011 that I wondered if sports could not be used to solve international disputes.
You see, war, well war is a terrible thing. Hideously, grotesquely expensive not just in terms of actually monetary wealth but in terms of life as well. And not just human life either, let us consider that ‘collateral damage’ must also include animal life too. It makes you wonder why, instead of investing massive amounts on weapons, the technology of killing, the science of killing, the psychology of killing and invading. Why do we not, instead, invest all that money in sports?
I don’t think it is too farfetched an idea, indeed both methods of international dispute resolution are as redundant and futile as the other. But sports, like military training, pits one group or team against another. Sports training, like military training, has a great deal of emphasis on discipline and hierarchy. Sports training, like military training requires the participant to be physically fit and mentally sharp. They are essentially one and them same thing. Except one can be fun, and one most certainly isn’t unless there is something dreadfully wrong with you.
What is more, there is less dehumanisation involved in sport. When you are on the pitch/field/area of play the atmosphere may well be hostile, passions may flare, sparks may ignite little battles, but once time is called you can all be friends again and go share a drink and a meal. Unlike with war whereby, if you are the victorious party, you will presumably have very few people to go share a drink and a meal with. Indeed you may very well not have anywhere to go to get a meal, because you’ve bombed it.
I stress again, both methods are strikingly similar in many ways, and both are as redundant as each other in regards to settling scores. All that is proven when one army is victorious over the other is that one army had better weapons, tactics and/or numbers than the other. All that is settled in sports is that one team had better players, tactics and or training than the other…See how similar it is? If anything sports is a much fairer way of solving disputes but maybe that’s where the problem is.
I’m missing the rugby to write this piece. If it seems at times my thoughts are distracted or being interrupted then that is the reason. But, I just think sport was an evolution. I think sport was mankind evolving a way of conflict so that rather than have blood spilling all over the place and families torn apart by bereavement and destruction of land, homes and habitats - Instead there’s just an hour or so of fun, followed by a friendly handshake and resolution as one team proves itself victorious over the other in the spirit of fairness. I think it’s time we started demanding this. No more war, just sports!
And another thing. If we invested all that money that goes to war in sports the populations in the Western world would be easily able to solve their obesity crisis. I mean, I would gladly sign up for two years compulsory service if all it meant was two years playing football, cricket, rugby etc. and the possibility of playing in an international match for my country and her allies…A lot of men and women would gladly sign up for that! Hell, they’d do it gladly to save them a fortune on gym subscriptions! Our children would be raised in a happier, healthier world where they are taught that even the most serious issues in the world are trivial when there is fun to be had in their resolution. There shall always be conflict, and disagreement. That is a fact. But to say that, as a result, there must always be war is to be completely blind to any other possible solutions or resolution methods. Make sports, not war. That’s the answer.
And another thing. If we invested all that money that goes to war in sports the populations in the Western world would be easily able to solve their obesity crisis. I mean, I would gladly sign up for two years compulsory service if all it meant was two years playing football, cricket, rugby etc. and the possibility of playing in an international match for my country and her allies…A lot of men and women would gladly sign up for that! Hell, they’d do it gladly to save them a fortune on gym subscriptions! Our children would be raised in a happier, healthier world where they are taught that even the most serious issues in the world are trivial when there is fun to be had in their resolution. There shall always be conflict, and disagreement. That is a fact. But to say that, as a result, there must always be war is to be completely blind to any other possible solutions or resolution methods. Make sports, not war. That’s the answer.
~Old Posts~ Occupy
There are, at this moment in time, multiple movements across the US and the World to occupy financial districts in major cities in protest. Indeed, Occupy Wall Street has already being going on for about two weeks now, with estimated numbers of occupiers at 300-700, and estimates of people joining the protests daily at up to 5000+ (with estimates set to get higher as more unions take to the streets.) But the message has unfortunately been blurred. People are confused as to what these protesters wants and, with Occupy the London Stock Exchange coming up, I want to clarify quite what my intentions are when I am protesting.
This is not just about workshy hippies moaning because they can’t get a break, although of course that does come into it. My participation is for one goal and one goal alone; the removal of corporate power from our Government. The removal of ‘lobbyists’ - whereby lobbying is essentially corruption but given a silly name so people don’t think of it like that. Corporations, and particularly banks have far too much power and influence in our political systems to the extent that we are living in a virtual dictatorship. If you go to London today you will find Transport for London (a government organisation) have for-hire bicycles all over the place. This is a very good idea. What isn’t a good idea is the fact that this scheme is sponsored by notorious tax dodgers ‘Barclays’ - who are a bank. No government initiative should have corporate sponsorship, this is not acceptable. Particularly when the sponsorship would not be required at all if the companies actually coughed up their taxes. It is disgusting, it is amoral, it is unjust, it is corrupt and it has to stop.
With the country operating at a huge deficit, and the people. The good, honest, hard working people, being pressed more than ever due to higher prices, higher taxes, even a fucking increase in VAT - The least equal tax of all because all of us have to pay it! - Companies like Vodafone get off paying BILLIONS - Yes, BILLIONS - of pounds in taxes thanks to cushy deals being instrumented behind closed doors, without public consultation, without professional consultation with the Inland Revenue’s own lawyers and tax experts! This is a country that is working AGAINST you, not for you. You are being squeezed ever tighter so that the vile financial institutions who made the mess our economies are in at the moment can be bailed out time and again. The reason you are being used as collateral is simple. Sure, banks could lend to each other to get themselves out of trouble. But all the banks are broke. So they go, cap in hand, to your governments for help after having caused the mess themselves and use your tax monies to pay them because, well if banks lend to each other and one bank forecloses and can’t pay, no one wins. But if an individual can’t afford their bill to the government, well then you can see all sorts of legal proceedings against that person. You cannot, unfortunately, be a conscientious objector to taxes.
So what can you do? You can protest. It has got to a stage in our political arena whereby the supposed ‘democratically elected’ officials are no longer working for we the people as they are obliged to do so. They have become so comfortable in an atmosphere of apathy and bullshit two party politics that they’re happy to take turns. Left wing, right wing, it doesn’t matter, the Imperial Eagle needs both to fly and that Eagle’s name is finance. Whichever party gets power in the UK, they will always serve the financial institutions and large corporations. There may be a little more union give-and-take from Labour, there may be a bit more mollycoddling of the middle and upper classes from the Conservatives but they both shall always work in favour of the banks and large corporations. This has to stop.
This is why we need to occupy. To let it be known that this is OUR country, that we, the people, are the power base here. We elect our officials to work FOR us, not to control us. The Prime Minister is not our ‘leader’ he is our BITCH and he should do what we, the people, want. You only have to look at the country to realise what a shambolic mess it is in, but if you’re not part of the solution you are part of the problem. Apathy never solved anything. Doing nothing never achieved it’s goals. Political change and reform never came from sitting on your arse watching football, X-Factor or bloody soaps. This is not beyond your control. This is not just ‘how it is’ - You have the power to change it. David Cameron is not an immortal, he is not a God, he is not a superman, he is a human being, like the rest of us. He is a man. He was born a crying baby, he bleeds red, and he shall one day die, like all of us. He has no more power than you or I besides that which we believe he may have. Stop believing. Stop thinking he has power when it is you who truly have the power. Take your country back. Before they ruin it for all of us.
Occupy the London Stock Exchange - October 15th until we win.
To all the occupiers worldwide - There is no defeat. You’re already winners. I love you.
This is not just about workshy hippies moaning because they can’t get a break, although of course that does come into it. My participation is for one goal and one goal alone; the removal of corporate power from our Government. The removal of ‘lobbyists’ - whereby lobbying is essentially corruption but given a silly name so people don’t think of it like that. Corporations, and particularly banks have far too much power and influence in our political systems to the extent that we are living in a virtual dictatorship. If you go to London today you will find Transport for London (a government organisation) have for-hire bicycles all over the place. This is a very good idea. What isn’t a good idea is the fact that this scheme is sponsored by notorious tax dodgers ‘Barclays’ - who are a bank. No government initiative should have corporate sponsorship, this is not acceptable. Particularly when the sponsorship would not be required at all if the companies actually coughed up their taxes. It is disgusting, it is amoral, it is unjust, it is corrupt and it has to stop.
With the country operating at a huge deficit, and the people. The good, honest, hard working people, being pressed more than ever due to higher prices, higher taxes, even a fucking increase in VAT - The least equal tax of all because all of us have to pay it! - Companies like Vodafone get off paying BILLIONS - Yes, BILLIONS - of pounds in taxes thanks to cushy deals being instrumented behind closed doors, without public consultation, without professional consultation with the Inland Revenue’s own lawyers and tax experts! This is a country that is working AGAINST you, not for you. You are being squeezed ever tighter so that the vile financial institutions who made the mess our economies are in at the moment can be bailed out time and again. The reason you are being used as collateral is simple. Sure, banks could lend to each other to get themselves out of trouble. But all the banks are broke. So they go, cap in hand, to your governments for help after having caused the mess themselves and use your tax monies to pay them because, well if banks lend to each other and one bank forecloses and can’t pay, no one wins. But if an individual can’t afford their bill to the government, well then you can see all sorts of legal proceedings against that person. You cannot, unfortunately, be a conscientious objector to taxes.
So what can you do? You can protest. It has got to a stage in our political arena whereby the supposed ‘democratically elected’ officials are no longer working for we the people as they are obliged to do so. They have become so comfortable in an atmosphere of apathy and bullshit two party politics that they’re happy to take turns. Left wing, right wing, it doesn’t matter, the Imperial Eagle needs both to fly and that Eagle’s name is finance. Whichever party gets power in the UK, they will always serve the financial institutions and large corporations. There may be a little more union give-and-take from Labour, there may be a bit more mollycoddling of the middle and upper classes from the Conservatives but they both shall always work in favour of the banks and large corporations. This has to stop.
This is why we need to occupy. To let it be known that this is OUR country, that we, the people, are the power base here. We elect our officials to work FOR us, not to control us. The Prime Minister is not our ‘leader’ he is our BITCH and he should do what we, the people, want. You only have to look at the country to realise what a shambolic mess it is in, but if you’re not part of the solution you are part of the problem. Apathy never solved anything. Doing nothing never achieved it’s goals. Political change and reform never came from sitting on your arse watching football, X-Factor or bloody soaps. This is not beyond your control. This is not just ‘how it is’ - You have the power to change it. David Cameron is not an immortal, he is not a God, he is not a superman, he is a human being, like the rest of us. He is a man. He was born a crying baby, he bleeds red, and he shall one day die, like all of us. He has no more power than you or I besides that which we believe he may have. Stop believing. Stop thinking he has power when it is you who truly have the power. Take your country back. Before they ruin it for all of us.
Occupy the London Stock Exchange - October 15th until we win.
To all the occupiers worldwide - There is no defeat. You’re already winners. I love you.
~Old Posts~ Nice Weather
It is quite warm, and, by all meteorological accounts, it is set to steadily get warmer. “Why is that a problem?” I hear you cry with a unity unfortunately lacking in your political aspirations. Well, it’s a problem because unlike you sun-loving, skin cancer chasing, bikini wearing, shorts and flip-flop donning, sunglasses worshipers I abhor hot, sunny weather.
While you’re outside slathering yourself in oils and lotions and believing the hype about sunny days being in some way good for you; I am inside with a thousand fans blazing, panting like an over-worked dog. While you’re out squinting past the burning rays of the sun and her oppressive, dazzling light I’m at home, curtains drawn, probably with a DVD on or something. People always say “It’s a nice day, you should get out.” But, let us analyse that statement.
Firstly, the description of the day as ‘nice’ is entirely subjective. Unless of course that is you’re some pre-programmed sheep, inherently incapable of defying your programming that tells you that just because the big yellow thing in the sky is present and making the temperature a little higher then the day must be ‘nice’. Secondly, I don’t want to get out more on days like that. It’s hot, you get all sweaty, In order to somehow survive without melting you have to dress like an idiot and what is worst of all about hot, sunny days when you don’t like hot sunny days is you have, surrounding you, a thousand and one idiots who all think you’re in some way a bit malfunctioned because you don’t like it as much as they do.
Fuck you sun worshippers. I do not like hot, sunny days. They’re shit, at least to me. Because I am a human being, with a free mind, and free will, and as such it is perfectly well within my rights to think that a hot sunny day is NOT NICE. It does not make me weird, odd, strange, misplaced, out of touch, out of sync, malfunctioned, malformed or disabled. I JUST DON’T LIKE HOT FUCKING SUNNY DAYS, OK!?
I am so sick of everyone always telling me how nice it is. Where is the objectivity!? I don’t think it is nice, and that means there must be others like me out there because I am fairly certain out of nearly 7 billion people I am not the only one who thinks hot, sunny days are not nice. It is one of those things, like language, whereby some things are considered ‘good’ and some things are considered ‘bad’ almost arbitrarily because, well, they just are. The word ‘fuck’ for instance is considered ‘bad’ by most, although common of use. But there’s nothing bad about the word fuck. It’s just a fucking word. I’ve never seen a word knife someone to death for their iphone. I have never seen a word start a war. The same is true of weather. Just because you all think it’s ‘nice’ it doesn’t mean it is. I’ve never known a hot sunny day to prevent world hunger. A hot sunny day has never caused a ceasefire in a war, so the opposing armies can go have a fucking picnic. There is no good or bad in either context, there just is. There are words, there is weather - No good or bad.
The flipside of this, of course is that surely I can’t enjoy bad weather; because that is ludicrous. Well, no it isn’t. I love walking in the pelting rain. There is something about it that is free and cleansing and right; and there is something so lovely about arriving home after a walk in the rain, soaked through, and peeling off your wet clothing (maybe taking a quick shower thanks to all the pollutants and shite in rain) and then just warming yourself. I love the cold. I love an autumn morning more than anything else; when the delicate backdrop of the pink-hued sunrise kisses the orange, red and brown leaves and everything looks gilded. And as you walk past fields and parks that golden morning sun twinkles on the dew and it looks like a sea of stars before your feet. You’re wrapped up relatively warm but you can still feel a slight chill, and the air has such a harsh bitterness that it tickles your lungs after you’ve just left a warm abode. The delicate scent in the air of wood smoke from someone’s chimney.
Storms are another thing. They’re lovely. The air aflame with licking forked tongues from some electric-blue reptilian devil in the sky. The booming roar of the heavens as clouds collide in epic battles of air pressure. The hard, yet gentle rapping on windows, doors and rooftops as rain, like some majestic tapdancer, clicks its heels with wondrous choreography.
There is such romance that can be extrapolated from those weathers that cannot from hot, sunny weather which, unfortunately for me carries connotations of idiots getting too drunk for their own good, alcoholics tanning themselves to the point that their rotund beer-guts look like bulbous leather domes. Toothless skanks wearing far too little clothing. Sweaty masses ambling about in the oppressive humidity. When it is hot, you toss and turn at night, distancing yourself from a loved one as you have to peel your bodies apart with discomfort. In the colder seasons it’s all about snuggling. Coming together to keep warm. Staying indoors a lot and communicating. To me there is something very civilised about the cold, the damp and the dreary. Spring and summer may pack the heat. But Autumn and winter are cool, and they have soul.
While you’re outside slathering yourself in oils and lotions and believing the hype about sunny days being in some way good for you; I am inside with a thousand fans blazing, panting like an over-worked dog. While you’re out squinting past the burning rays of the sun and her oppressive, dazzling light I’m at home, curtains drawn, probably with a DVD on or something. People always say “It’s a nice day, you should get out.” But, let us analyse that statement.
Firstly, the description of the day as ‘nice’ is entirely subjective. Unless of course that is you’re some pre-programmed sheep, inherently incapable of defying your programming that tells you that just because the big yellow thing in the sky is present and making the temperature a little higher then the day must be ‘nice’. Secondly, I don’t want to get out more on days like that. It’s hot, you get all sweaty, In order to somehow survive without melting you have to dress like an idiot and what is worst of all about hot, sunny days when you don’t like hot sunny days is you have, surrounding you, a thousand and one idiots who all think you’re in some way a bit malfunctioned because you don’t like it as much as they do.
Fuck you sun worshippers. I do not like hot, sunny days. They’re shit, at least to me. Because I am a human being, with a free mind, and free will, and as such it is perfectly well within my rights to think that a hot sunny day is NOT NICE. It does not make me weird, odd, strange, misplaced, out of touch, out of sync, malfunctioned, malformed or disabled. I JUST DON’T LIKE HOT FUCKING SUNNY DAYS, OK!?
I am so sick of everyone always telling me how nice it is. Where is the objectivity!? I don’t think it is nice, and that means there must be others like me out there because I am fairly certain out of nearly 7 billion people I am not the only one who thinks hot, sunny days are not nice. It is one of those things, like language, whereby some things are considered ‘good’ and some things are considered ‘bad’ almost arbitrarily because, well, they just are. The word ‘fuck’ for instance is considered ‘bad’ by most, although common of use. But there’s nothing bad about the word fuck. It’s just a fucking word. I’ve never seen a word knife someone to death for their iphone. I have never seen a word start a war. The same is true of weather. Just because you all think it’s ‘nice’ it doesn’t mean it is. I’ve never known a hot sunny day to prevent world hunger. A hot sunny day has never caused a ceasefire in a war, so the opposing armies can go have a fucking picnic. There is no good or bad in either context, there just is. There are words, there is weather - No good or bad.
The flipside of this, of course is that surely I can’t enjoy bad weather; because that is ludicrous. Well, no it isn’t. I love walking in the pelting rain. There is something about it that is free and cleansing and right; and there is something so lovely about arriving home after a walk in the rain, soaked through, and peeling off your wet clothing (maybe taking a quick shower thanks to all the pollutants and shite in rain) and then just warming yourself. I love the cold. I love an autumn morning more than anything else; when the delicate backdrop of the pink-hued sunrise kisses the orange, red and brown leaves and everything looks gilded. And as you walk past fields and parks that golden morning sun twinkles on the dew and it looks like a sea of stars before your feet. You’re wrapped up relatively warm but you can still feel a slight chill, and the air has such a harsh bitterness that it tickles your lungs after you’ve just left a warm abode. The delicate scent in the air of wood smoke from someone’s chimney.
Storms are another thing. They’re lovely. The air aflame with licking forked tongues from some electric-blue reptilian devil in the sky. The booming roar of the heavens as clouds collide in epic battles of air pressure. The hard, yet gentle rapping on windows, doors and rooftops as rain, like some majestic tapdancer, clicks its heels with wondrous choreography.
There is such romance that can be extrapolated from those weathers that cannot from hot, sunny weather which, unfortunately for me carries connotations of idiots getting too drunk for their own good, alcoholics tanning themselves to the point that their rotund beer-guts look like bulbous leather domes. Toothless skanks wearing far too little clothing. Sweaty masses ambling about in the oppressive humidity. When it is hot, you toss and turn at night, distancing yourself from a loved one as you have to peel your bodies apart with discomfort. In the colder seasons it’s all about snuggling. Coming together to keep warm. Staying indoors a lot and communicating. To me there is something very civilised about the cold, the damp and the dreary. Spring and summer may pack the heat. But Autumn and winter are cool, and they have soul.
~Old Posts~ The Scientific Agenda
Science! Oh it’s a wonderful thing is it not? Turning the imaginings of the past into present reality. Who would have thought videophones would actually exist one day, but not just that, they would fit in the palm of your hand, and you could use them without the aid of wires and things…It really is a marvel isn’t it!?
Well, yes but, let us not forget that we still have incurable diseases, poverty, famine, and war. And indeed, technological advancement has been of huge benefit to war. So let us not go giving blowjobs to scientists just yet, eh?
Here is the problem with science. Rather than grant monies being doled out to people performing the most worthwhile research, every single bit of funding comes with an agenda. That agenda is always to the detriment of actual scientific advancement and that is why we, as a human race, are being held back. You see, instead of having every able mind slaving away trying to cure cancer; a lot of able minds will be away in their top-of-the-range labs doing work funded by a women’s magazine on why men get Man-Flu. Think I’m joking about that - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/8793301/Women-found-to-be-the-tougher-sex.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter - I am not joking about everything but it being funded by a women’s magazine.
Let’s fucking face it. I’ll make an admission now. I am a science student. Well, all being well. I can give you one bit of advice for free; as a scientist. There is NO FUCKING POINT studying the common cold virus. NONE. ZERO. ZILCH. Why? Because it mutates too quickly. If, perchance, we ever do invent a ‘cure’ for the common cold (which we probably won’t…but if) then it would be one of the most dangerous things mankind could do, because rhinovirus will not go away, and its next mutation may well kill ALL OF MANKIND! There is a precedent. A lot of the ‘superbugs’ you can catch in hospitals are so dangerous because they are mutated strains that have developed a resistance to antibiotics. So, leave the cold alone, let us have the scientist spent wasting time on this putting their time and energy into researching actually important stuff like, I don’t know, say the massive epidemic of HIV and AIDs in third world countries.
But, sadly, the funding for those sorts of projects comes from charities, and even then, the charities budgets are split between paying wages of staff, paying for existing projects and treatments, etc. etc. Actual research gets very little in the way of funding. And herein lies the issue.
Funding always comes from somewhere and that somewhere will always have an agenda. Sadly, science and agenda do not go hand in hand. The basic dogma of science is that everything is theory - Everything has the potential to be proven wrong. There is no bias in that system and any bias in scientific literature comes from one thing and one thing alone; Who funded it?
For example, the commonly held belief is that smoking is very bad for you. This is just a theory but, it is one that has a mass of evidence in its favour. However, research funded by tobacco companies, for instance, may have a different view. It may underplay links, it may even claim benefits. This is just a hypothetical example but I am sure if you check back in the literature you can find tobacco company funded research and check whether or not my hypothetical is true.
This is something that has to stop. Scientific advancement should have no agenda but the betterment of mankind. One obvious, controversial field for example would be genetically modified crops. Research funded by companies with an Anti-GM agenda will be biased in their favour; research funded by companies with a Pro-GM agenda will be biased in their favour and somewhere in the middle the truth is being obscured as a result. Science should always be unbiased, and have NO agenda whatsoever. As a scientist-in-training I have always held the belief that I know nothing. That I know absolutely nothing about what I am researching and thus, the results are the results. There is no point to prove. There is no agenda. There is just experimentation, and data at the end of it to be analysed.
If every scientific study were to be carried out with this level of objectivity; and if the market driven economy were to support it, advancement would flourish. Unfortunately, as it is, all we are going to get is bullshit stories telling us one week how tomatoes help skin and the following week how make your skin worse. Instead of a cure for cancer you’re going to get another pointless piece of research about why women are better than men or men better than women. Rather than have any REAL discovery, all we are going to have is endless newspaper dross making scientists look like nothing but boffin pranksters in labcoats.
When you next read a story about a nonsense piece of research. Don’t giggle and think it’s funny. Ask quite why your relatives are still dying of cancer while the finest researching minds the world has to offer are being made to devote their time to such bullshit. Write a letter to the newspaper, website, or agency that promoted that story and tell them you are ashamed that they are publishing such nonsense and not helping fund research into real issues. And ask your politicians quite why private corporations are being allowed to fund such useless research when there are still REAL ills in this world waiting for a eureka moment.
Well, yes but, let us not forget that we still have incurable diseases, poverty, famine, and war. And indeed, technological advancement has been of huge benefit to war. So let us not go giving blowjobs to scientists just yet, eh?
Here is the problem with science. Rather than grant monies being doled out to people performing the most worthwhile research, every single bit of funding comes with an agenda. That agenda is always to the detriment of actual scientific advancement and that is why we, as a human race, are being held back. You see, instead of having every able mind slaving away trying to cure cancer; a lot of able minds will be away in their top-of-the-range labs doing work funded by a women’s magazine on why men get Man-Flu. Think I’m joking about that - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/8793301/Women-found-to-be-the-tougher-sex.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter - I am not joking about everything but it being funded by a women’s magazine.
Let’s fucking face it. I’ll make an admission now. I am a science student. Well, all being well. I can give you one bit of advice for free; as a scientist. There is NO FUCKING POINT studying the common cold virus. NONE. ZERO. ZILCH. Why? Because it mutates too quickly. If, perchance, we ever do invent a ‘cure’ for the common cold (which we probably won’t…but if) then it would be one of the most dangerous things mankind could do, because rhinovirus will not go away, and its next mutation may well kill ALL OF MANKIND! There is a precedent. A lot of the ‘superbugs’ you can catch in hospitals are so dangerous because they are mutated strains that have developed a resistance to antibiotics. So, leave the cold alone, let us have the scientist spent wasting time on this putting their time and energy into researching actually important stuff like, I don’t know, say the massive epidemic of HIV and AIDs in third world countries.
But, sadly, the funding for those sorts of projects comes from charities, and even then, the charities budgets are split between paying wages of staff, paying for existing projects and treatments, etc. etc. Actual research gets very little in the way of funding. And herein lies the issue.
Funding always comes from somewhere and that somewhere will always have an agenda. Sadly, science and agenda do not go hand in hand. The basic dogma of science is that everything is theory - Everything has the potential to be proven wrong. There is no bias in that system and any bias in scientific literature comes from one thing and one thing alone; Who funded it?
For example, the commonly held belief is that smoking is very bad for you. This is just a theory but, it is one that has a mass of evidence in its favour. However, research funded by tobacco companies, for instance, may have a different view. It may underplay links, it may even claim benefits. This is just a hypothetical example but I am sure if you check back in the literature you can find tobacco company funded research and check whether or not my hypothetical is true.
This is something that has to stop. Scientific advancement should have no agenda but the betterment of mankind. One obvious, controversial field for example would be genetically modified crops. Research funded by companies with an Anti-GM agenda will be biased in their favour; research funded by companies with a Pro-GM agenda will be biased in their favour and somewhere in the middle the truth is being obscured as a result. Science should always be unbiased, and have NO agenda whatsoever. As a scientist-in-training I have always held the belief that I know nothing. That I know absolutely nothing about what I am researching and thus, the results are the results. There is no point to prove. There is no agenda. There is just experimentation, and data at the end of it to be analysed.
If every scientific study were to be carried out with this level of objectivity; and if the market driven economy were to support it, advancement would flourish. Unfortunately, as it is, all we are going to get is bullshit stories telling us one week how tomatoes help skin and the following week how make your skin worse. Instead of a cure for cancer you’re going to get another pointless piece of research about why women are better than men or men better than women. Rather than have any REAL discovery, all we are going to have is endless newspaper dross making scientists look like nothing but boffin pranksters in labcoats.
When you next read a story about a nonsense piece of research. Don’t giggle and think it’s funny. Ask quite why your relatives are still dying of cancer while the finest researching minds the world has to offer are being made to devote their time to such bullshit. Write a letter to the newspaper, website, or agency that promoted that story and tell them you are ashamed that they are publishing such nonsense and not helping fund research into real issues. And ask your politicians quite why private corporations are being allowed to fund such useless research when there are still REAL ills in this world waiting for a eureka moment.
~Old Posts~ Don't Sweat the Small Stuff
I like to consider myself quite an objective person. My emotions are not easily stirred by trivial things. Well, that is in most circumstances. You see, as an objective individual I DO get annoyed by the big things, when it comes to morality or politics I have my lines drawn and if you cross them I will argue my point until you’re a jelly like wreck tucked in a corner begging for your mother. I will respect your opinion. I will just argue mine fervently.
But every now and then, regular folk can do things that just really wind me up. It’s an inexplicable sensation that overcomes me. Not so much one of tutting minor inconvenience but one of summoning the vengeance and ire of the universe to rain down unholy hell fire on people. This does not happen often; and it is always for the silliest, least important things.
For example, one thing that gets me EVERY DAMN TIME. When you approaching a road crossing that is at a junction, as a pedestrian. A car is coming your way so you decide to wait, always hoping, usually in vain, that the driver will let you cross. When they don’t, they pull up at the junction and you’re always left in a quandary. Do you attempt to cross the road now, and walk around the car? Or do you wait for the car to go? While you’re thinking of an answer to this small question a few seconds pass, and, just as you have made your mind up to cross, you walk around the length of the car and just as you are round it’s back end, breathing in noxious exhaust fumes, the driver pulls away; leaving you a few short steps away from your optimum line of crossing the road. For them it’s nothing! They’re in an automobile, that back end of their car is irrelevant. But to you it means two things; one, energy expended for NO reason. Yes, it might only be a few steps, but it’s a few pointless steps that need not have been taken. but two, and this is the most important one, you have to walk DIRECTLY into their barrage of exhaust fumes, polluting your lungs with their gaseous emissions. If they are going to subject you to this, the least courtesy they could provide you is waiting at the junction until you have crossed the road so you don’t feel like it has been entirely pointless. Those are steps you could be using to do productive things like…I don’t know…Walking to feed the homeless or, helping an elderly lady cross the road. Instead they’re spent dawdling around the length of Captain McSmallDick’s massive vehicle only to find that, when at the furthest point away from where you wanted to be, said vehicular obstacle is removed! It’s ridiculous. Every junction should have a bloody zebra crossing or something to prevent idiots like me getting annoyed about small things like this! Plus, it would just make the world a nicer place; particularly for people like me who, despite being able to drive, choose to be pedestrians because they’re not lazy and have a conscience that makes them worry about pollution. Grrr!
But this is my point; that is such a small thing. Such a tiny irritation. It is something that if I were in a vaguely good mood I probably wouldn’t even notice. But I have noticed it and since noticing it I continue to notice it and I just cannot help but be annoyed by it.
There is one more anecdote of minor irritants, but this one had a good reason. I was late. I was already late thanks to a delayed train (i.e. not my bloody fault) and I managed to jump a bus that would have got me to my intended destination JUST on time. That was until two obviously quite well off idiots decided to get on the bus. And each. Yes EACH wanted to pay their paltry fare with a £20 note! I’m not sure what buses are like where you are, but where I was they didn’t tend to carry buckets of small change to service idiots like these and thus, the driver rightly told them he hadn’t enough change. For one thing, these two knew each other, so why didn’t one offer to pay for the others fare out of his money and, if he’s that much of a miser he can’t spare a few quid, he could have been remunerated at a later time or date that was more convenient. The other thing, however is the incredibly irritating behaviour of the driver who WAITED while these two court jesters went into a nearby shop to buy something to get change….HE WAITED! He delayed the bus because two people who should have known the driver wouldn’t have change tried to pay a very small fare with the 2nd largest denomination bank note in circulation in British currency. I was late, as were, no doubt, many others on the bus and that kind of behaviour annoys me. What is more annoying was the bus journey for me was around about 45 minutes but they were only going around the bloody corner. They could have walked it, the lazy shits, but they chose to attempt to get on the bus I had no option but to be on due to an already delayed train and they may as well have been trying to pay in bloody gold bullion! JUST WALK YOU LAZY BASTARDS! WALK! It’ll do you good! ARGH!
But I take a lesson out of all this. I know I can often find myself in situations where I consider someone else’s behaviour an inconvenience, but if I feel that minor inconvenience then it lets me know one important thing. I am OK. If I have enough sense about me to be irritated by the small things, then it shows I have a brain capable of processing them, a body capable of being annoyed with them, and thus, a life that is OK. Some people say “Don’t sweat the small stuff.” But I find if you’re not sweating the small stuff, you probably have bigger things on your mind and that is probably a lot more unhealthy. So I shall continue getting irritated by minor inconveniences, and I will continue enjoying portraying them to people in a way that is much exaggerated and littered with hyperbole so as to make them vaguely humourous to people. because while I do, I know I’ve got my health and that’s all that really, truly matters.
And so long as I have my health, I shall also be busy fighting for peace, justice, equality and most of all, love. Because as much as I get annoyed by these things, I love having things to complain about. I complain about them in such a way as to make people laugh and laughter is, truly, the music of love.
That said, if you’re happier not moaning about little things, that’s fine too. So long as you have your health you’re capable to think and feel what you like. I’ll always continue getting annoyed about stupid little things for you.
But every now and then, regular folk can do things that just really wind me up. It’s an inexplicable sensation that overcomes me. Not so much one of tutting minor inconvenience but one of summoning the vengeance and ire of the universe to rain down unholy hell fire on people. This does not happen often; and it is always for the silliest, least important things.
For example, one thing that gets me EVERY DAMN TIME. When you approaching a road crossing that is at a junction, as a pedestrian. A car is coming your way so you decide to wait, always hoping, usually in vain, that the driver will let you cross. When they don’t, they pull up at the junction and you’re always left in a quandary. Do you attempt to cross the road now, and walk around the car? Or do you wait for the car to go? While you’re thinking of an answer to this small question a few seconds pass, and, just as you have made your mind up to cross, you walk around the length of the car and just as you are round it’s back end, breathing in noxious exhaust fumes, the driver pulls away; leaving you a few short steps away from your optimum line of crossing the road. For them it’s nothing! They’re in an automobile, that back end of their car is irrelevant. But to you it means two things; one, energy expended for NO reason. Yes, it might only be a few steps, but it’s a few pointless steps that need not have been taken. but two, and this is the most important one, you have to walk DIRECTLY into their barrage of exhaust fumes, polluting your lungs with their gaseous emissions. If they are going to subject you to this, the least courtesy they could provide you is waiting at the junction until you have crossed the road so you don’t feel like it has been entirely pointless. Those are steps you could be using to do productive things like…I don’t know…Walking to feed the homeless or, helping an elderly lady cross the road. Instead they’re spent dawdling around the length of Captain McSmallDick’s massive vehicle only to find that, when at the furthest point away from where you wanted to be, said vehicular obstacle is removed! It’s ridiculous. Every junction should have a bloody zebra crossing or something to prevent idiots like me getting annoyed about small things like this! Plus, it would just make the world a nicer place; particularly for people like me who, despite being able to drive, choose to be pedestrians because they’re not lazy and have a conscience that makes them worry about pollution. Grrr!
But this is my point; that is such a small thing. Such a tiny irritation. It is something that if I were in a vaguely good mood I probably wouldn’t even notice. But I have noticed it and since noticing it I continue to notice it and I just cannot help but be annoyed by it.
There is one more anecdote of minor irritants, but this one had a good reason. I was late. I was already late thanks to a delayed train (i.e. not my bloody fault) and I managed to jump a bus that would have got me to my intended destination JUST on time. That was until two obviously quite well off idiots decided to get on the bus. And each. Yes EACH wanted to pay their paltry fare with a £20 note! I’m not sure what buses are like where you are, but where I was they didn’t tend to carry buckets of small change to service idiots like these and thus, the driver rightly told them he hadn’t enough change. For one thing, these two knew each other, so why didn’t one offer to pay for the others fare out of his money and, if he’s that much of a miser he can’t spare a few quid, he could have been remunerated at a later time or date that was more convenient. The other thing, however is the incredibly irritating behaviour of the driver who WAITED while these two court jesters went into a nearby shop to buy something to get change….HE WAITED! He delayed the bus because two people who should have known the driver wouldn’t have change tried to pay a very small fare with the 2nd largest denomination bank note in circulation in British currency. I was late, as were, no doubt, many others on the bus and that kind of behaviour annoys me. What is more annoying was the bus journey for me was around about 45 minutes but they were only going around the bloody corner. They could have walked it, the lazy shits, but they chose to attempt to get on the bus I had no option but to be on due to an already delayed train and they may as well have been trying to pay in bloody gold bullion! JUST WALK YOU LAZY BASTARDS! WALK! It’ll do you good! ARGH!
But I take a lesson out of all this. I know I can often find myself in situations where I consider someone else’s behaviour an inconvenience, but if I feel that minor inconvenience then it lets me know one important thing. I am OK. If I have enough sense about me to be irritated by the small things, then it shows I have a brain capable of processing them, a body capable of being annoyed with them, and thus, a life that is OK. Some people say “Don’t sweat the small stuff.” But I find if you’re not sweating the small stuff, you probably have bigger things on your mind and that is probably a lot more unhealthy. So I shall continue getting irritated by minor inconveniences, and I will continue enjoying portraying them to people in a way that is much exaggerated and littered with hyperbole so as to make them vaguely humourous to people. because while I do, I know I’ve got my health and that’s all that really, truly matters.
And so long as I have my health, I shall also be busy fighting for peace, justice, equality and most of all, love. Because as much as I get annoyed by these things, I love having things to complain about. I complain about them in such a way as to make people laugh and laughter is, truly, the music of love.
That said, if you’re happier not moaning about little things, that’s fine too. So long as you have your health you’re capable to think and feel what you like. I’ll always continue getting annoyed about stupid little things for you.
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