When people start to do really bad things....

On 14 December 2012 a maniac, Adam Lanza, in Newtown Connecticut went on a shooting spree that left over 20 children and 6 teachers dead. At the same time a similarly incomprehensible event took place in China, where one Min Yongjun stabbed 23 children, including chopping one child’s ears off. Last year, in Norway, in an act of terrible violence, a smiling Behring Breivik went on a shooting spree killing 69 people at a Youth Camp; this after bombing a government building earlier in the day, where 8 died.

 

Violence committed against children is probably the easiest and least contentious to classify as horrific and of inexcusable evil. But what about other acts? What about suicide bombers? The victims are almost always random, and are as likely to include children as not. It seems we live in a world where we are not yet able to explain, scientifically/ medically, why these sorts of things happen.

 

Some, on the face of it, might appear easier to explain, if not justify. A suicide bomber has presumably been brainwashed into believing whole sale slaughter and sacrifice will lead to a positive outcome for him or her, both in terms of the cause they support and for them personally as individuals. In these cases, personal dysfunction has met collective dysfunction as morally and intellectually bankrupt ideologies confront the 21 century and are exposed by its immense challenges and realities. Classification of them as lunatics or fanatics is easy, truly understanding what turn individuals into these killers is not so simple, but it is becoming increasingly important that science is able to do so.

 

Take Youngjun above, a severe epileptic. Local Chinese Government reports say he had been “strongly psychologically affected” by the wave of ridiculous speculation and hype about the end of the world on 21 December. If this somehow triggered his horrifying attacks, then in retrospect, could this ever have been predicted? At the very least, his and the others acts should focus our attention on the science of mental instability, and specifically, what genetic, environmental or sensory triggers, internal or external, can suddenly compel people to behave like this.

 

This is becoming increasingly important, because the world is becoming an ever more challenging environment in which to exist, both for individuals and collectively. Our ways of life are changing faster than at any previous time in the history of the human race. And it is these changes, which as they speed up and multiply, it will prove ever more difficult for dysfunctional individuals, communities and the more conservative sectors of society to adjust in future.

 

As individuals, we are facing pressures and challenges that simply did not exist just a few generations ago and for which perhaps our current state of evolution is going to leave us increasingly unprepared. As technology arcs at increasing speed up a curve of progress tending towards the vertical, it draws lifestyles, social behaviours, economies and all sorts of issues which influence us along in its slipstream. It seems highly likely that the speed of this transformation will mean that increasing numbers of us, individually and collectively are destined to be left stumbling in its wake as it accelerates away from us.

 

For instance, in the east, the move from an agrarian society to an urbanised one has taken place in a generation; it took place at a much slower more measured pace in Europe (although still quickly). In East Asia and China a generation is emerging from universities with degrees in computer science that will have grandparents, if not even parents, who worked in an agrarian economy. Although this illustrates just one particular aspect of this huge process of global change, clearly just from this we can see how the scale of economic and social transformation is simply breath-taking.

 

Change on this scale and at this pace can only have major implications for the societies experience them, and indirectly, on all of us regardless. How as individuals we respond is going to be increasingly difficult to predict. The impact upon established norms of behaviour will become increasingly powerful (and disruptive), and how those mentally "less able to cope" respond (and I don't mean those who we might currently classify as suffering from any mental condition) may seem to be increasing dysfunctional.

 

The same will apply to societies and social groups who find sacred and cherished beliefs and perspectives challenged, even overwhelmed. The manner of their reaction cannot always be known or predicted yet, in one small and chilling illustration of this risk, the recent attack by the Taliban on a Pakistani teenage girl for promoting the right of girls to attend school, demonstrates how ridged and backward ideologies react to perceived changes to their status quo.

 

I am not for a moment suggesting in any way that the terrible killings or acts mentioned above, can simply be blamed on poorly managed lunatics' inability to cope with accelerating technology or medieval mind-sets confronting reality.

 

It may be though, and this is the somewhat obscure point to the blog I guess, in the years ahead an inability to adapt smoothly to what will become a technological, social, economic and political tsunami that gets faster and faster, may see increasingly frequent acts of dysfunctional and often tragic behaviour. This will be from the swelling numbers of individuals, groups and communities whose coping mechanisms have become redundant in a world that is overwhelming all that they understand and whose speed of endless transformation means their previously manageable and understood ways of life are vanishing before their eyes. 

Also see "Future Shock"

Does Russian Prime Minister Medvedev believe in UFOs and the end of the World?

When asked during a very recent interview (08 December) on Russian Television, the Prime Minister, Dmitry Medvedev advised his incredulous audience that “the president of the country is given a special 'top secret' folder. This folder in its entirety contains information about aliens who visited our planet."

No doubt this caused more than a frisson of excitement to go rippling through the already over-excited ranks of those eagerly and morbidly preparing for the world to end on 21 December 2012. On that day all sort of terrible things are due to happen as we have been informed with more than a touch of sadistic glee by those somehow in the know. The Mayan calendar is ending (shocked gasps all round) and a rogue planet called, somewhat unimaginatively, “X”, and peopled by zombies…sorry,…alien reptiles (note to self…get facts right!) is just going to miss us (which I thought would be cause for relief but evidently not).

Now it seems a volcano in Yellowstone is also going to join the fun and erupt (which is most annoying as we were planning to go on holiday there next year). I hear reports of other terrible, yet unconfirmed happenings too, including Arsenal moving closer to winning the FA Cup and the Pope supporting gay marriage (ok, the last one is the most unlikely of the lot) converging on this day. No wonder there is global panic.

Then, to add to all this awful worry and just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse, Mr Medvedev confirms to the world that the aliens are already here – perhaps an advanced raiding and reconnaissance party? He didn’t clarify. I wonder what Mr Putin is going to do about it as Russian President – perhaps he has challenged them to a karate contest? Is there is a cover up?

Well, does Mr Medvedev knows more than he is letting on? More information is available, he dead panned, “from a well-known movie called 'Men In Black' ... I will not tell you how many of them are among us because it may cause panic".

Don’t say you weren’t warned….
also see Starmap-of-doom-aliens-asteroids and The long shadow of the dark ages

Motorhead: 100 things to do before you die

Last weekend I survived another Motörhead concert. I’ve been a fan of the band for more than 30 years, which amounts to a great deal of sonic abuse over the decades.

A Motörhead concert is a unique experience, perhaps worthy of inclusion in those lists of 101 things to do before you die. The volume is pulverising, and the crowd is a seething, heaving sea of people seemingly plugged into another wavelength. It is like no other concert, it is like no other place on earth, it is Motörhead live.

Formed in 1975 just before the birth of the UK punk movement, Motörhead were outsiders from the get-go and, in truth, nothing has changed after all the years. Band founder  Ian “Lemmy” Kilmister has passed during that period, from being a rock and roll joker through to a counter culture icon. Motörhead are called after a song of the same name penned by Lemmy. The song epitomised the band at the time, which epitomised a lifestyle and outlook that seemed almost impossibly excessive and over-the-top in every respect:

 

“Sunrise wrong side of another day
 Sky-high and six thousand miles away
 Don't know how long I've been awake”


Motörhead's music however is much misunderstood; casual observers (if that’s the right word to use when referring to those confronted with the band’s sonic blizzard) experience only a loud, if not shocking aural assault. But Lemmy traces his roots back to the music of the 1950s and 60s and the band’s music is based upon, an admittedly very heavy very fast form of, pure rock ‘n roll, infused with a dose of blues that might even have had Robert Johnson smiling:

 I seen 'em come, & I seen 'em go,
 I seen things & been people, that nobody knows
 I'm talking in pictures and I'm painting them black,
 I seen Satan coming honey in a big black Cadillac

The magic, or perhaps even the genius, of the band is something that is hard to define. The uncompromising, jagged sonic tsunami that is Motörhead combines a surprisingly accomplished range of lyrics that go careering across the exploding landscape of the music. Lemmy writes about those issues which preoccupy him most, from that trio of sacred cows: war, politics (he doesn’t like them) and religion, to his personal demons, and, of course, his memories. He writes as the outsider, as someone who has never been part of the normal world that you and I inhabit and when he rasps out the poetry of his philosophies, it is often a thing of dark tortured beauty, even sadness. It is all this which adds the unique, often hidden dimensions to the band’s music that simply cannot be appreciated by those who only hear a loud noise, from a strange looking man.

Death in the stars, rain on the wind,
 Came to the mission, couldn't get in,
 Came out of nowhere, guess I'll go back,
 All down to bad luck,

Fire in the sky, nowhere to run,
 Came to the desert, burned by the sun,
 Came out of somewhere, I ain't never been back,
 All down to bad luck

With Johnny Cash’s death nearly 10 years ago it is Lemmy who has now ascended to that strangley popular pedestal Cash occupied. Like Cash, it is Lemmy who has now become the iconic rebel, but somehow with an image softened by a public affection that transcends boundaries and generations. Lemmy is 67 (next month), now only four years behind Cash. For all that Lemmy seems near indestructible he seems to recognises the limits of time and age in his profession in his typically uncompromising way:

 

“Stay on the right track, you can't live a lie
Make sure you don't come back, look me in the eye
Know I ain't no angel, broken wings don't fly
I know the law, I know how to die”

 

Yet, towards the end of his career, it is now that he has gained the recognition, whether sought out on not, for what he has done, and not “sold his soul” to become. Motörhead and Lemmy have escaped the cloying gravity of fickle, transient media opinions, chart fashion and record label pressure. He is his own man; there is no need for shallow posturing, no one left to impress, no corporate schmoozing. His music remains brutal, un-tempered and honest, yet it is sometimes strangely fragile, sad and bittersweet, the reminiscing of a hard life on the road, of times, faces and places long gone.

This is music written to rupture the sweet dream we have been sold, where the only reward is obsolescence and a fading promise of an eternal life somewhere else when the shutters come down ….

…I have nothing but the world
 I have nothing to take its place
 I don't believe a word, I don't believe a word...

At nearly 67, Lemmy has joined a small unique group of musicians who have  escaped the straight-jacket categorization of their generation. It’s inevitable now that he looks back, not just on times good, but with the haunted memories of dark times too,

…..Out of the night comes a song that I know
 Twisted and ruined and black….

And the tragedy of the wasted lives of those now long passed on. The dark pain and poignancy uncurls itself in band’s the harsh guttural anthems:

….I can remember the people they were
 Nobody knows if they ever come back
 Lost in the ashes of time they still sing
 Echoes of romance gone bad
 I can remember them better than you
 I shared the darkness they had
 Dead and gone, dead and gone”

But the real thrill is of course seeing Motörhead live. Standing there, the very clothes you wear vibrating against the crushing volume, the giant reverb like a second heart beat beneath your skin, physically feeling that you can lean forward at 45 degrees into the sonic wall coming at you; shouting out the words to songs that vanish wordlessly into the hurricane of sound. And all the while, carried irresistibly along on the giant pulsing, overwhelming surge of the music, the heavy fast moving waves of primordial, crashing musical thunder rolling across the crowds, washed in strobe and blinding neon, and for a few precious moments, nothing matters any more.....

INNOCENT UNTIL FOUND GUILTY BY JOURNALISM

The current fits of guilt, fury and outrages swirling around the BBC are the latest symptom of the dilemma posed by and for traditional media in the early 21 century. There is an increasingly sinister confluence where objective news reporting seems to have been overwhelmed by the subjective, dark art of “news analysis” and the commercial imperative to “break the story first”. To this add the frenzy around the hunt for ratings and audience reach and the media’s seeming intoxication with its own sense of importance in the affairs of the world.

Following the recent scandal around the late Jimmy Saville, an allegedly notorious paedophile, last week the BBC’s (formerly) respected News Night programme found itself in very hot water(again) by “outing” a senior political figure in all but name, and accusing him of paedophilia. Incorrectly. Without any reliable evidence. Without checking their story properly. Without giving the target of their attack even the courtesy of a response before airing their fictions. In complete disregard for even the most basic tenants of fairness and proper journalism.
 

Only days ago ITV also pulled a similarly shameful stunt where a shoddy and dubious list of alleged paedophiles was compiled by one of their “allegedly serious” presenters quickly searching the Internet for a few minutes and then chucking his “list” at the UK prime minister in a live television interview. This stunt was no more than shameless media bandwagon jumping and political game playing where trying to embarrass politicians is now the emblem of the serious news reporter. In this instance it backfired spectacularly, although the wretched ITV presenter in question will probably exercise a little more care and humility in future, given the volume of opprobrium he has so deservedly brought down on his head.

However, what journalists and news reporters are managing to do is rather amazing. They are on the verge of making themselves even more reviled than politicians – no easy task. And that is surely not as it should be. Yes, much of the media is probably over-powerful, irresponsible, arrogant and on the evidence, even out of control in many cases. Yet, in so many countries, it is the media that is the first line in defence against governments and other powerful organisations that would otherwise abuse their power without fear. It is the media’s spotlight that corrupt officials fear most. It is the media that exposes wrongdoing, crime, waste and inefficiency, oppression and state violence. Just think of Syria and Libya. In oppressive states, it is journalists that often suffer threats and violence for seeking to expose wrongdoing and abuse.  In this sense its value is hard to over-state. Yet there is a nagging worry about the media's own immense power too, for surely power corrupts all its handlers equally and none are immune.

About the most unfashionable thing to point out at the moment is that Jimmy Saville would have been considered innocent until properly proven guilty. Saville would also have had the right to a fair trial in a sober court of law. He may have been the world’s most monstrous paedophile and found to be so – but once we make exceptions to that right we are on a slippery slope.  That a man like Saville would still have had that right is the best guarantee of all our rights to such a fair process.

There is a risk now that people, more than ever before, are being judged in the inferno of hysterical headlines and disgraceful journalistic posturing. The role of the media is pivotal to the proper functioning of civil society. However, it has no role whatsoever in the weighing of evidence and the passing of judgement  under the law and should be scrupulously careful not to undermine this, one of the most basic and fundamental right in a free society.

VOYAGER 1 AND THE NEVER-ENDING JOURNEY

There are few things in life that truly justify the word “extraordinary”.  The Voyager space craft though are most certainly among them.

Voyagers 1 and 2 are small, now rather primitive space probes that, at their launch way back in 1977, weighed in at just over 800kgs each. Built with early 1970s technology and nuclear powered, they were designed to visit Jupiter and Saturn and then, just perhaps, go a bit further depending upon how long their plutonium lasted. No doubt ambitious at the time, their journeys have now become quite the most extraordinary odysseys whose scale and duration are moving beyond our ability to comprehend in terms of time and distance.

For instance, when Voyager 2 reached Uranus in 1986, NASA estimated it was about 120 miles of its pre-planned course.  At the time scientist Carl Sagan compared this to the equivalent of throwing a pin through the eye of a needle that was 50 km away. But for Voyagers 1 and 2 such statistical miracles are now common place.

But amidst the near statistical impossibilities, there is poignancy too. The last picture ever taken by Voyager 1 was to look back over its shoulder for one final glimpse of our solar system though which it had travelled so far. Even then, the picture showed our sun as just another star in Voyager’s sky, so far had our intrepid explorer travelled from home.  That was 22 years ago. Voyager’s camera has been still ever since. Yet, its other tiny measurement systems, ancient by today’s technological standards, continue to send almost impossibly faint signals home, whispered data steams arcing back over tens of billions of  miles, telling a story of a journey into the true unknown. However, scientists reckon that by 2025 the last of its instruments will fall into silence and Voyager will be, finally and utterly, alone as its last link with earth is lost.

Already though, for the Voyagers the outer planets of our solar system are long distant memories. Voyager 1 is now passing out of our solar system. Last month (October 2012) evidence emerged to show that Voyager 1 was entering deep, interstellar space, the first human made object ever to do so. In cosmological  terms, I guess you could consider it to be leaving the local neighbourhood.

As it does so, Voyager 1 is now on the verge of entering what is known as the Oort cloud, a vast area of space debris and comets, ever so loosely kept in orbit by the sun’s faint and fading gravity. Passing through the cloud, which hopefully it will do without incident, may take it up to 28 000 years. In terms of the journey that awaits Voyager 1 however, this will be no more than the blinking of an eye. Thereafter, it will continue into the nothingness that is interstellar space, a tiny mote of ancient technology moving in a near infinite gulf of emptiness.

For Voyager though time will have for all intents and purposes stopped. Perhaps, long after our sun has exploded and consumed earth and all trace of life here have vanished forever, Voyager will still be on its eternal passage across the void and into infinity.  It is destined to be a lone ambassador carrying with it the simple story of our race, with its gold record of earth recordings from the sound of whales whistling to greeting in a number of earth languages through to Chuck Berry rockin’ out to Johnny B Goode.

Yet amidst the marvels of Voyager 1, there is room for a little retrospective irony too. Aboard there are printed messages dated 1977 from the US President Jimmy Carter and U.N. Secretary General Kurt Waldheim. Should space faring aliens ever encounter Voyager, little would they know these noble missives penned on behalf of planet earth and the human race are being conveyed from possibly the feeblest ever leader of a distant planet’s super power, and the other from a man subsequently outed as a former Nazi?

Yet the chances that alien eyes and ears will ever experience our long lost messages, is a near impossibly small probability. Moving at 37 500 miles an hour, its unlikely Voyager will ever be disturbed again; an infinitesimally small frozen dot of wires and metal on an extraordinary, never ending journey to the stars.

Emperor Berlusconi cast to the lions....but not yet

Former Prime minister Silvio (“the Stallion”) Berlusconi has been given a 4 year jail sentence for tax fraud by an Italian court. In what passes for the circus (maximus) otherwise known as Italian politics, this is quite a development. However the chances of the great Emperor Silvio ever ending up behind bars and in chains (prison ones that is) must be very slim given the number of appeals and the span of time over which it can all be dragged out. Almost certainly he is unlikely to be intimidated by this ruling. No, the King of Bunga-Bunga will come out fighting, after all this is the man who apparently held “hard-core ballet” parties (Olympic accreditation pending?) and indulged in all sorts of similarly soft-gladiatorial activities more likely to be associated with the lecherous and debauched decline of the Roman empire than contemporary Mediterranean politics. But there again…..

 

So we can sit back inexpectation of further entertaining twists and turns as Italian politics masquerades as farce and pantomime. By turn, we will see  Enraged Silvio, like a bull elephant, trumpeting his hot indignation to his media channels, the populist Silvio of the People, dismissing his accusers with smooth panache and disarming charm and perhaps warming up for another comeback? From time to time perhaps the Serious Silvio will put in an appearance, bald head (sans pirate bandana) a-shining under the glare of camera spotlights, invoking the rhetoric of the champion, bloodied but unbowed, fighting on bravely against unjust and corrupt judges (left wing toadies in Silvio’s view), and so on.

 Is Silvio though not getting a bit old for all of this now? Well into his 70s, his ageless, well botoxed and perma-orange features belie his vintage. Undimmed though, he remains a connoisseur of cultured pass times, most notably those lively expressions of the performing arts (belly dancing) and fine cuisine and entertaining (orgies). It’s unlikely Silvio will in fact be able to make any return to front line politics. Instead though, he will entertain us all, acting out the role of a modern day Roman emperor facing the treacherous tribunes trying to drag him down. Italian justice masquerading as ancient comedy – it could be worse…

NOBEL PEACE PRIZE FOR FARCE

This week the Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded the European Union (27 nations and counting) the Nobel prize for peace. Why we may well ask? Perhaps it’s because there is no prize for overwhelming bureaucracy and economic mismanagement? In any event, it is as ridiculous as it is meaningless and continues the trend of undermining the entire credibility of the award.

If you thought awarding the prize in 2009 to newly elected US President Barak Obama – who in fairness seemed as bemused as everyone else - was both a bizarre and sycophantic decision of the Committee (and rather misjudged in retrospect), then this goes a good stride further down the path of politically loaded decisions. (Interestingly, if you are a past US Democratic President or VP, you are statistically more likely to win the prize than anyone else).

After having birthed World Wars 1 and 2, this is apparently a reward for the EU countries for not yet having started number 3 and, for most of the time at least, being able to live in relative, democratic peace with each other. In that sense it’s deeply insulting to Germany (especially as it will be up to them to bail out their spend-thrift and rioting southern fellow EU citizens). Angela Merkel obediently made the correct noises about how wonderful it all was, although it’s doubtful if the “German street” shares her view as this week they watched her crudely and distastefully being caricatured as a Nazi by furious mobs when on a visit to Athens.

 As expected, Europe’s other politicians were also mostly very excited by this even if no one else was.  EU cheerleader in chief and president of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy, was positively ebullient. Van Rompuy is a caricature of a European politician. Unelected, unknown and mostly incomprehensible, he is blessed with the personality of an empty paper packet; his speeches are the verbal equivalent of a vast slow- rolling wave of thick grey carpet under-felt. “We are all very proud that the efforts of the EU for keeping the peace in Europe are rewarded” he intoned, with the implicit and unfounded assumption that, had the EU not been there, there would have been war. That it was bound up in a NATO military alliance for 40 of the past 65 years with America in a cold war against a common foe (the USSR) seems to have completely slipped his mind. Without that enormous US support, the chances of Europe having been invaded by Russian tanks would have been very high. So much for the EU keeping the peace then…

Von Rompuy’s chum and President of the European Commission (another unelected and numbingly ineffectual, overpaid bureaucrat) Jose Manuel Barroso was just as excited and also described it as a great honour. In his utterances ripe with cant, Barroso claimed “I believe it is justified for the European Union to see its work for peace recognised, not only in the unification of the continent, but also outside our Europe".  Well, I’m not sure how the tens of thousands who were victims of genocide in the former Yugoslavian wars of the 1990s might feel about all these fine words when it was the EU that stood bravely during those terrible years, resisting the temptation to try to stop the ethnic cleansing most sides indulged in.

More recently, the EU’s fractured, disjointed stance on Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya was on international display. In Libya’s case it was France (with the UK) which had to “do the deed” whilst once more the rest hovered anxiously on the side-lines insipidly wringing their hands and looking on. These behaviours are typical but hardly prize-worthy, for in truth the EU is normally afraid to “keep the peace” where it requires a little courage to first seek it out. As for Syria….

Barroso also claimed it was, “a great honour for all 500 million citizens”; a fair proportion of which are currently rebelling in the streets against the EU’s centrally imposed austerity. What intellectual, not to mention mathematical, nonsense. The concept of all 500 million people being Nobel peace laureates is of course absolutely meaningless as the vast majority of these individuals cannot play any part in this process nor on their own influence the course of national or continental events. It’s the pointless, out-of-touch, “sounds good but means nothing” language so beloved of self-important politicians like Barroso, Van Rompuy and others whose contact with the real world has long since withered and died.

If the Peace Committee cannot come up with a sensible nomination, it should rather holds its decision over for that year, instead of devaluing the credibility of the award with the silly, meaningless nomination of 27 nations and 500 million people.
 

RUSSIA: EVERYTHING CHANGES AND EVERYTHING STAYS THE SAME…

Russia has in the last 12 years changed almost unrecognisably from that grim, despairing place following the fall of communism. The turning point was, in many respects, when Vladimir Putin took over from the vodka-sozzled rule of Boris Yeltsin. Yet 12 years on it’s clear now that Putin is the natural successor, not to Boris Yeltsin, but to Leonid Brezhnev. In many ways it is like other westernised societies in its big cities and the lifestyles of their inhabitants, but in other ways Russia appears to be going back to its cold war past.

Inwardly state brutality is now employed as the response to those who do not do its bidding or who criticise its ways, as seen early on with the murder of journalist Anya Politkovskaya.  Its rule of law is used by the State to crack down on its opponents in any shape or form as with the utterly pointless and heartless imprisonment of 3 harmless members of punk rock outfit Pussy Riot. The intimidation of businessmen and the targeting of opposition politicians like Yevgenia Chinikova and Alexie Navalny, illustrates that Putin’s Russia is increasingly a place of political intolerance.

Laws have been passed aimed at curtailing freedoms and preventing the free exchange of ideas not in synchrony with the state’s own desired version of the world.. Corruption is rampant and foreign enterprises are increasingly reluctant to invest in or relocate to Russia, as BP is finding out to its peril.

Then there are its vast security apparatus. The KGB was always a chilling embodiment of the dark security state. It would be wrong to say it is now back for it never really went away; it’s just emerging from the shadows with a changed acronym – the FSB. Like the KGB before it, and the NKVD, OCPU, GPU and Cheka before that, the FSB is increasingly the hammer used by Putin’s state to beat, smear and intimidate its opponents into submission.

The FSB’s lineage is long and sinister; stretching back to Lenin and his director of secret police, “Iron” Felix Dzerzhinsky, his notorious remark “We represent in ourselves organized terror” embodied Communism’s legalized murder of untold millions of its citizens.  Whilst it would be wrong to equate modern Russia as currently being organised and run through a comparable level of state terror, its direction of travel over the past few years is not towards a more tolerant and open society, but instead back towards where this past lies.

Externally too, Russia under Putin, is steadily becoming more intransigent and bitter. Its invasion of tiny Georgia bore all the hallmarks of a crass, bullying and arrogant regional power. It’s blocking of any moves to deal with the situation in Syria verges on political perversion. It is as if there is no limit to the cost in blood it will see others pay if it means snubbing the West or holding on to its naval facilities in that ruined country.

 

Like all politicians, Putin plays to his home gallery. Although suspicions are that he rigged the last election, it is one he would still have won, relying upon a vast non-urban vote which sees him as having brought, with some legitimacy, stability and a measure of prosperity to their vast country. Yet, not unlike a paranoid dictator, nothing can be left to chance, the outcome to the game of democracy must be guaranteed beforehand.

 

When Putin came to power in 2000 there was a sense of optimism; here was a man to lead Russia into the modern age out of the chaos of the post-communist era. To an extent this has been done by the ruthless exploitation of Russia’s vast natural resources. Yet there has been minimal investment in the modern technological and industrial infrastructure to support a long term economy. Perhaps this is not something to worry about today. Tomorrow, though, will come.

 

But Putin has other plans. With his KGB background Putin has more in common with the old USSR. For him, democracy is at best a tool to legitimise the exercise of central power, at worst a frustrating threat to the ruler’s prerogative to do as he pleases for as long as he likes. Putin’s problem though, is that now too many Russians are part of the modern world, especially those in its cities, and scorned as liberals and elitists. Russia’s urbanised citizens are increasingly part of a new, challenging world the state cannot control, cannot banish by decree and does not appear to understand.

 

Earlier this month tens of thousands demonstrated against the Government on the streets of Moscow. They are part of the wave of the future that threatens to wash away the huge, crumbling dam wall of state control. Yet unlike the demonstrations elsewhere in Europe, where angry mobs vent their fury at the austerity they knew was coming and which has been introduced by the Governments they voted into power, the demonstrators on Russia’s streets require real, true courage. They do not have legions of lawyers and barricades of human rights legislation to ensure their safety. Russia’s demonstrators show their resolve in the face of a state machine that cares not for their rights or well-being; their only shield being their access, still in place, to social media, the internet and the world's savage media spotlight of which even Putin must for now remain as least slightly wary.

Russia’s history of the last 100 years is unique in terms of the terrors visited upon them by their rulers. It is now at a cross roads. Putin would drag them back towards the past. Those on its streets are engaged in a brave and high risk attempt to stop him from doing so…………….

 

 Also see "Putin - Not a punk rock fan"

2012 STARMAP OF DOOM: ALIENS, ASTEROIDS AND DOOMSDAY: ITS ALL IN THE MIND

The date is the 21 December 2012. That is when an event, momentous in its implications for the human race, is due to occur and which will entail a catastrophe in 2013 and 2014.

This is according to a “researcher” and author of these sorts of doomsday scenarios, called Marshall Masters, who used to work for CNN. Along with several books, Masters has produced a slick video viewable on line, in which he talks through his predictions and beliefs. Briefly, in his video Masters seems to be claiming, that a comet or sort of rouge nomadic planet called Planet X (or the Destroyer, Hercobulus, Nibiru amongst other names), is heading towards us and will pass earth in a sort of “near miss” on 21 December this year.

This near miss will apparently cause a sudden shift in the earth’s pole which will result in all sorts of terrible things happening (that part of the prediction would no doubt be true). Although Masters doesn’t give much detail in his video, this is a pretty well-worn doomsday scenario that mistakenly assumes that there would be a very sudden pole reversal which would momentarily leave Earth without the magnetic field that protects us. We would be left to the mercy of solar flares and sun storms and that would toast anyone wandering around without sunscreen, or not hunkered down in a bunker.

As he goes on to explain, the confirmation that this is all imminent is drawn by Masters from his analysis of a crop circle in 2008 near Avebury, which is not far from Stonehenge in the UK. If you stand at Avebury on 21 December then, so Masters believes, a second sun will appear in the sky. This is the arrival of our rogue Planet X.

In his video he talks of friendly and hostile aliens. Masters says he believes the Avebury crop circle was created by an alien intelligence to warn us of this event. These aliens are apparently the good guys, because they are warning us about the alien “bad guys” who will return at the time of this event. These bad guys are known as the Anunnaki, and apparently live on Planet X and are a reptilian super race.

There is cross over here with David Icke, who also has his reptilian fixations. Both think we are a genetically engineered slave race created by these Alien bad guys.  These doom-filledpredictions appear to be broadly drawn from the ancient creation myths of Babylon and Mesopotamia.

Masters call on others to support his contentions. Not scientists or astronomers, who would add some weight to his wild theories if they could confirm the approach of planet X on or about 21 December 2012. Instead Masters falls back on the predictable like the Mayan calendar. The Mayan Calendar also been used to claim 21 December is a special date.  Masters doesn’t mention that the Mayans believed a year was 360 days long and did not know about leap years. However the Mayan calendar already has great traction with new agers and Doomsday scenario junkies – indeed, the current theories to do with the arrival of Planet X may have been cast so as to conveniently dovetail with the Mayan’s calendar to add more weight to the theories.

Masters also resurrects the ghost of infamous American psychic Edgar Cayce in building support for the 2012 doomsday event. Cayce made lots of predictions, most of which never came true. Cayce never spoke specifically about 2012, but rather his predictions were supposedly going to happen by the year 1998. Perhaps he was being advised by mischievous spirits who deliberately confused him. Anyhow, being 14 years too early is not a matter to bother Masters and he merrily quotes Cayce as evidence for his 21 December theories.

Masters unfolds his prediction in his video, which comes complete with the normal pseudo-scientific trapping, such as pictures of shining pyramids and spaceships flying over them and the drawing of conclusions based upon the most circumstantial and flimsy of “facts”; the sort of stuff to get any conspiracy theorist’s pulse racing.

Inevitably, he discovers “evidence” of a Government cover-up (in the form of no real evidence of it – a sort of logic that is equivalent to saying that invisible teapots must exist if you can’t see them (paraphrasing Bertram Russell for a moment), taking the adverse inference to almost cosmic lengths. He claims that incontrovertible evidence of this was that an internet site hosting pictures of the Avebury crop circle site vanished (that’s the evidence of Government interference) and then reappeared again without explanation. It’s all very mysterious to the goggling Mr Masters but not to casual observers.
Masters voices over all this in clear, unemotional tones which lending some respectability to the incredulous predictions he makes. Bespectacled, balding and with the air of a lecturer, he intones like a scientist talking about his research into DNA.  For all that, Masters is genuine in what he believes yet is but one of many taken in by the tantalizing attraction of the pseudo-scientific.  Mixing ancient creation myth with selected extracts of modern science (in this case what would happen in the “almost impossible” scenario of a very sudden polar shift or the terrifying consequences of a major earthquake along the San Andreas Fault line say) a superficially compelling alternative is put forward to the normal scientific narrative.

Masters is “sure” of a government cover up. With a mind set in lock down on this point, Masters would see any attempts to argue there wasn’t as confirmation of his views. In one unintentionally hilarious quip, he sanctimoniously tells “religious fundamentalists” that they have got it wrong, believing that his fictions trump theirs.

Whilst much of it is so obviously far-fetched to make serious questioning all but a waste of time, there were 2 questions that intrigued me.

 
1. Why would aliens communicate via Crop circles? Why not just land your space ship on the White House lawn, and hold a press conference. That, or some other similar display of power, would leave no room for doubt.

2. Why haven’t astronomers and scientists noted the approach of Planet X? It must be well within their range by now if it’s got to be here by 21 December. After all, it was amateur astronomers (not Governments) who, back in 1994, discovered that the Shoemaker-Levy 9 comet was going to collide with Jupiter. Presumably astronomers would spot incoming Planet X.

I’ve asked this question more than once. Why do people believe this stuff? What neurological or psychological constructs in our minds predispose us to accept as a form of reality those scenarios which, with a little clear though and analysis, we would soon see through?

Is this some residue from our most primitive past? As we developed the capacity for thought and as our brains and minds developed, so too we would have started to dream. For primitives confronting visions and scenes that seemed very different to the grimness of the short brutal lives we lived in those early millennia, this must have been difficult to understand or explain. How did we make sense of those dreams, how did we link them to our realities? Perhaps, therein is the basis of our earliest beliefs, myths and original religions as we sought to explain these strange nightly visions. It may be that we are not just naturally gullible then – perhaps, neurologically, in a way we don’t yet understand, we can’t help ourselves but naturally want to believe these fantastic tales.

Scientist Carl Sagan wrote an excellent book about the compelling power of pseudo-science, which he called the Demon Haunted World. Whilst he is long gone now, he would be saddened to know that, even in the 21 Century, demons, aliens and monsters still seemingly remain alive in our minds to walk with us all the days of our lives.
 

Marikana Murders: A strange form of Justice

Following the Lonmin mine shootings in South Africa, where around 34 miners were shot by the police, the public prosecutor has now arrested those responsible for the shootings. The police who shot the miners, you might well have thought?  Nope – actually, several hundred of the miners who the Police didn’t have time to get round to shooting dead are the ones who have now been arrested for the murder of their colleagues, including several wounded by the police (I wonder if they will be charged with causing GBH to themselves). Not unpredictably, this has caused an uproar. Cooler heads in the ANC Government are now wondering if this has been, perhaps, handled in a rather provocative manner.

Apparently the Prosecutor is relying upon some arcane piece of legislation from the dark days of Apartheid when some fevered mind dreamt up a piece of “legislation” that seems to imply that, in this case the survivors of a riot, because they were not the ones shot, are therefore to blame for the deaths of the others and thus the guilty parties. After all, the Police were, presumably, only following orders.

What it does demonstrate, in halogen bright light, is the inherent hypocrisy of Governments. When in exile the ANC spent its time in a state of perpetual moral outrage at the excesses of the apartheid Gov’t. Upon getting into power it seems to have decided certain aspects of the former state's laws were not perhaps as awful as it made out. As a result, it has retained various pieces of the previous regime’s odious legislation on the books…”just in case, for a rainy day, you never know when….” But its not really different to any other Government in terms of what is says it will do when in opposition, and what is does when in power.

Obama railed against the last Republican Govt over Guantanamo Bay and how, when he was President, it would be closed down once and for all. Well, Obama is running for re-election, and Guantanamo Bay is still open for business. Apparently, once in power he realised it was easier to keep it open than to close it down. Far more convenient to keep your enemies locked up in another country than have the bother of keeping them on your home turf where they could claim all sort of annoying rights. 

Elsewhere the Socialists in France went bright magenta with moral outrage when former President Sarkozy tried to tackle the problem of the eastern European Gypsies in a robust manner. Now in Government, their leader, Mr Hollande, faced with the same problem, is reacting just like the man who he vilified when in opposition.

The only surprising thing about all of this is that we continue to be surprised by it. But then again, hypocrisy is the great leveller - it seems to apply to politicians one and all, regardless of political leaning left or right, race, gender, age or any other characteristic.....

Julian Assange: Endangered Species

The President of Ecuador today surprised his countrymen by according protected species status to the rare Assange toad. It was a quite extraordinary move for President Correa, who is well known for his intense dislike of chirping amphibians. However, in a speech that critics believed was to assure his country of his pro-amphibian credentials, Correa declared that in Ecuador the rare toad, which goes by the full name of the Much Lesser (these days) Spotted “Julianne Assange” would henceforth be a protected species. Botanists pointed out that in Ecuador there are currently no Assange Toads and that this gesture was therefore largely symbolic and playing to the amphibian gallery.

Correa gave as the reason for this move his suspicion that CIA agents were trying to abduct the Assange and exterminate it for being a dangerous propagator of malicious information and unpleasant odours.

However, what is most extraordinary is that, at the moment, the Assange toad is hiding in a small box in a building in London, unable to make its way to Ecuador to enjoy its protected status. Ominously for the toad, between it and the nearest airport is a thin blue line of toad catchers, desperate to apprehend the Assange.

The Assange Toad is indeed a rare amphibian, with its origin in the Antipodes. It is currently located in northern Europe, although it is said to have an extreme aversion to Scandinavian climates, especially that of Sweden.

 It can easily be recognised by its loud and self-righteous croak. It is of rather a pale, pusillanimous appearance, and is said to be extremely harmful to the female of its species. Of late it has reportedly taken on a rather clammy appearance, having scalded itself by intentionally getting into very hot water.

……………..to be continued

Gutter Politics and the waning of Democracy

It’s probably fair to say that one of the most competent Governments in Europe, if not the world today, is Italy’s. Never minds its chronic economic woes, Italy’s actual Government is skilled, professional, sensible and focused…and it’s unelected. Following the circus that passed for Berlusconi’s rule, Italy is now governed by a Brussels imposed state of technocrats with (thus far) seemingly no political ambitions, but charged only with trying to stop the country from disappearing down the southern European plug hole. This situation follows the embarrassing reality that, by following a normal democratic process, Italians could not have elected even a demi-semi sensible set of politicians. Their democracy has become and remains broken.

It’s nearing that point in Greece too. They have a chaotically riven and weak coalition of the corrupt and discredited to see them through an economic crisis that seems destined only to end it absolute failure. Whether modern democracy in the world’s “oldest democracy” will survive in the short term is no longer certain. Their crisis is, in significant part, a failure of a corrupted and abused electoral system.

Elsewhere democracy stumbles and trips to a different tune. In the USA, the quadquennial mudslinging begins, where electoral success, and the triumph of democracy has a near direct link with the most successful fund raiser and telegenic candidate.  It’s a case of who has the most money to stoop the lowest to conquer. Arguably its democracy in action, yet the current contenders plumb new depths. Obama perhaps ranks first amongst those who promises-to-delivery deficit is the greatest in American history – a case perhaps of “Yes, I can’t”. It is by no means certain either that, should Romney win, he would fare any better. 

In the UK democracy faces a different challenge. Our media hungry politicians are being devoured by the beast they have sought out and invited into their lives. Britain’s highly politicised media apply relentless, microscopic, high volume scrutiny to their every breath and twitch. All of it is amplified through the dark prism of their bias and manufactured to feed the morning headline diets of their readers, sowing despair and confusion in equal measure. But therein lies part of the problem – for politicians now, every day is an election campaign and a contest to secure good ratings.

A case in point is Prime minister’s weekly question time. Embarrassing broadcasts originally meant to demonstrate accountable democracy in action, instead reveal what could pass for an oversized cage of shrieking monkeys. Shouting obscenities, pulling faces and displaying, in a sense, their private parts for an increasingly disenchanted electorate to behold, it’s no surprise that politicians are held in such low esteem.

Elsewhere the ghosts of democracy haunt the political landscapes of less fortunate countries. Russian democracy seems only to exist to elect President Putin or one he has anointed to look after him and his business cronies. The same applies in Zimbabwe which is a democracy that has only ever had one or two free elections in over 40 years. In democratic terms, Mugabe is the absolute “President with no clothes” threatening his impoverished people with “another 5 years” of grinding despair and famine. Elsewhere, Iran’s rulers unsuccessfully seek to apply a green tinged veneer of respectability to a theocratic dictatorship.

In South Africa, the ANC says it is a staunch supporter of democracy. However, just how staunch it would feel about this noble principle if its election prospects were ever called in doubt by another party is questionable. A predictable change of heart and re-ordering of priorities could well be on the cards, after all it has said it will stay in power till the second coming of Christ. Whilst this might please its (optimistically expectant) Christian supporters, what is left unspoken is what it might do if any other parties threaten its holy reign before the much awaited event comes to pass, currently outstanding 2000 years and counting….

It seems we are all part of the scam, where with electoral nods and winks, we listen to the lies we are told by the campaigners. They know that we know that they cannot fulfil their promises, but we all "know"it’s the best option around. As Churchill said in 1947, “It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time”.

Yet the world has become incredibly more complicated. The challenges that face a nation and its leaders are much more complex that they were in Churchill’s time. We look back at great leaders like him, and wonder why they are none of that calibre today. However, perhaps faced with the world’s incredible complexity today, Churchill would not have fared much better that his current contemporaries.

Our politicians seem to be raised as a special breed, without enough of them having graduated from the school of hard knocks, or being absolute stars in their field. Italy’s unelected prime minister appointed himself as unelected minister of finance and the economy. Nobody minded, because he is also a Professor of economics; perhaps there was relief that the post was finally filled by an expert on the subject, a rare event in politics.

National and international events move at great speed. The financial and economic structures that underpin a country’s prosperity are now so complicated, interwoven and out of control, it’s questionable if anyone truly understands the forces at work, least of all the politicians. It’s an increasingly interconnected world too, of shifting nations, peoples and wealth that have long bypassed the rhetoric of lazy politicians trying to sell the illusion of keeping promises made in past years but now rendered void by a changed world.

Added to this is a phenomenal new feature of the 21 century – the digital revolution, which given its exponential rate of change, will ironically always seem to be in its infancy. One of the most potent manifestations of this revolution is the internet, where reality and truth have been so spun and twisted in the centrifuges of mass, instant and near-infinite on-line identities, that it’s impossible to know what is believable or real any more. Politicians are being rendered obsolete, slow and reactive to events beyond the control of governments or nations.

This is just a snapshot of the challenge. Our world is one of rapidly accelerating technological sophistication, perhaps now already beyond the comprehension of us as individuals. So, whilst there is no alternative acceptable to democracy, our current concept of democracy increasingly resembles a tiger-moth biplane in a race of supersonic jet fighters. And, unless we find some way to upgrade how democracy and governments function in the new age, then, like the tiger moth, they will more probably than not be doomed to “museumhood”……

PUTIN - NOT A PUNK ROCK FAN?

Recent events must be striking a rather sour note for Russian president Vladimir Putin. Having recently “won” a second term, it’s not all going quite according to the script. In fact, it’s all going a bit pear shaped.

First time, Putin cast himself as the strongman bringing stability and prosperity to Russia after the drunken chaos of the final Yeltsin years.  After two terms he had to stand down, so he orchestrated it that his protégé, Dmitry Medvedev, replaced him. After a bothersome few year languishing as PM, Putin prepared for his comeback. And that’s when script and reality parted ways.

First Vlad launched his comeback campaign with a bit of PR. Bad move. To start with, Vlad unintentionally albeit hilariously, turned himself into a gay icon by posing bare-chested atop a fine stallion ostensibly whilst on holiday (the intention of striking a heroic tough man pose falling flat). This was followed by further silly gaffs – Vlad the Black Belt winning a Karate competition as competitors conveniently fell over their own feet, Vlad the mean Hell's Angel riding a harley, and Vlad the ping pong demon, beating the hapless Medvedev at table tennis. This was topped off with a ridiculous stunt where Vlad the Diver discovered two ancient Greek urns whilst diving in the Black Sea. A beaming Vlad posed, emerging from the water, with his two chipped and broken old jugs, not dissimilar to those mass produced large faux-Grecian flower pots available at most garden markets. Not very presidential…

Next came the 2012 presidential election. Putin on the campaign trail alternated between the maudlin shedding of tears and wittering on about how much he loved Russia and appearing stony faced in response to the massed demonstrations against him by…er… thousands of others who loved Russia.

This would not do - clearly the masses were getting above themselves. So, as soon as he was re-elected, Vlad embarked upon a banning frenzy. An Orwellian sounding new "Law of Strengthening the Fight against Extremism in the Information Space", to tighten the rules for evil foreign publications (i.e., clamping down on any view not an echo of his own), is apparently being planned. A ban on internet alcohol advertisements is coming in (nope, thats not made up). A ban on unsanctioned public demonstrations (those in favour of Vlad of course being sanctioned) is already in place.

Vlad must have felt well pleased with all his handiwork. No foreign or unacceptable views on the internet, no public demonstrations against him and no more adverts for drunkenness. But then, earlier this year, a punk rock band went and spoilt it with an act of outrageous public indecency. The band, Pussy Riot (que gasps of shock in the Kremlin), sang a rude ditty about Vlad playing' uninvited we can assume' in the Cathedral of the Russian Orthodox Church. It took the form of a punk prayer, asking the Holy Mother rid them all of Putin. Pussy Riot also took a pot shot at the Orthodox Patriarch, Krill, one of Vlad's toadys. Krill called the performance “blasphemous” – well, it’s certainly a bit disjointed and discordant, but there again, its punk. Perhaps Krill, like Vlad, doesn’t like Punk very much. Quite what the outraged Patriarch must have made of the band’s name, history hasn’t yet related although we can probably guess.

Putin’s answer to this challenge is to put them in the dock and then, no doubt, apply some pressure to the court to have them locked up for about 7 years, all for singing a song. Why Putin objects so much to Pussy Riot is a mystery. Perhaps it’s because their name offends his conservative sensibilities. Perhaps it’s because, as an ABBA fan, he finds it all a bit hard on the ear (by contrast Mr Medvedev is a Deep Purple fan–no argument about who wins the macho musical contest there then). No – it’s more likely because, like anyone else who publically annoys him (oligarchs, businessmen closing factories, small neighbouring countries etc.), Putin’s default response is to crush and humiliate.  Dealing with a couple of naughty girls singing rude song was going to be small beer. But, it’s not going to plan like it would have even just a few years ago.

Firstly, thousands of the Church’s followers, other believers and atheists signed a petition to Patriarch Kirill, asking him to stand up for the girls. Then the whole thing has gone viral online, on TV and in the international print media. Predictably, it’s getting millions of hits on YouTube, the following being a small selection:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uptv4ubOr_k&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdcyDZ4bsY8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uptv4ubOr_k&feature=related

Putin seems incapable of grasping just how the world is changing. He is being globally humiliated by sticking by his murderous chum in Syria. He is despised by more and more of his own people. He doesn’t understand how the world has become interconnected and what this means both for individuals and nations in terms of liberty, information and the virtual dissolution of borders. He tries to ban views dissenting from his own - he may as well ban the sun from rising.

His Russia is fast disappearing. It is no longer a docile, subservient union, silently going along with the abuses of its leaders. A new, restive Russia is growing in its place in which there is no place for leaders longing for the days of the cold war, wishing they were “back in the USSR”. Putin is fast becoming a man out of his time and a nasty reminder of a fading era.

There is much talk about the Arab spring, but Putin may have inadvertently turned Pussy Riot’s song into the soundtrack of Russia’s own spring.

Taliban Justice

A few days ago horrific footage of an Afghan woman being shot dead by the Taliban was broadcast on television and the internet. Her alleged crime? Adultery. Whether she had any trial (or what kind of sordid excuse for a hearing this takes under Taliban law) is irrelevant.  Perhaps all that was required was for a bearded accuser to make an allegation?

There she knelt, or crouched, in a final pose almost too painful to watch, bent in the dirt and the heat before her merciless executioners. She was the wife of a local Taliban leader. Or something. It scarcely matters. Some of the turbaned heroes were caught on film, pitiless smiles, grinning. A crowd had gathered, perhaps in expectation of some light entertainment to relieve the monotony of another long, hot and pointless day in a world trapped in the intellectual dark ages.

A couple of Kalashnikov shots rang out. Footage swept quickly over a crumpled form, motionless in the grainy dust. Some more smiles and another execution. She was not the first by a long way. There will be many more.

It is quite difficult to describe the people who live by this sort of code where a defenceless, probably innocent woman, is shot for something only slightly more than sport. Without resorting to pointless expletives, they are despicable and barbaric. They are intellectually diseased. They are poisoned by a kind of viral psychosis, imprisoned in a twisted wicked philosophy that defies the modern world and which is frighteningly resilient. They have been bombed, shot, “droned” and hunted down. Yet, like some deadly tide, they wash back, like a mutating virus resistant to all attack, they reappear.

At roughly the same time a mega conference was being held in Japan about the future of Afghanistan. Deep pocketed worthies (or at least big talking worthies) pledged support to poor Afghanistan as it writhed in its agony of being torn between worlds that are centuries apart. The US Secretary of State pledged the US to stand side by side with its new best friend in the glowing future of the years ahead. What else could she say?

And with those fine words comes that horrible juxtaposition – the twisted body of an executed woman in the bloodied dust and the echoes of the fine words and ghostly platitudes of fading “friends”, heading for the exits.

Afghanistan will, once again be left to its fate. Its future, more likely than not, lies in its past. Once again, the long shadow of the dark ages prevails.

See earlier blog The long shadow of dark ages.

THE VERY STRANGE CASE OF MR JULIAN ASSANGE.

I must be upfront to start with.  I have never been able to warm to Mr Assange. Perhaps it’s the smooth silky soft spoken delivery or the ghost of a perpetual half smirk as he piously intones about the moral failings of those allegedly ranged against him. Perhaps it's when he tries to explain why he should not face those who accuse him of rape.

Mr Assange is the great exposer. He is Mr Wikileaks who allowed the bright light of day to shine on the dark and murky goings on in those vast and sinister organisations like the CIA and the US military.

Having riveted and bolted himself to the moral high ground, Mr Assange has successfully cast himself as the champion of openness who is now being persecuted for daring to allow the truth to emerge and for taking on institutions vastly more powerful than he. For him, nothing is more important that exposing the truth for all to see. No one expected Mr Assange to have any caveats around that, after all, as a result of the leaks he orchestrated, people lost their lives, some in very unpleasant circumstances. But Mr Assange could not be shaken from the rock of his self-righteousness, someone else was to blame for that, not him.

And then, slowly, it started going wrong.  Two Swedish women claimed he sexually assaulted them when in Stockholm. Most reasonable people would have assumed that, facing such clearly outrageous accusations, Saint Assange would have rushed back to Sweden to clear his name so unfairly impugned by these wicked, deluded hussies. But no, Mr Assange was having none of that. It was obviously a put-up job. Taking on a view shared by the mullahs in Iran, Saint Assange claimed this was all a plot by the evil empire otherwise known as America. The US wants to extradite him, put him on trial and then execute him for leaking all their secrets, so he would have us believe.  I am not sure if he thinks aliens are involved, but clearly he wants us to think very dark forces are moving against him.

Nope, said the Swedes, it’s not a put up job…we want you to answer these accusations of sexual assault. But, whilst transparency is evidently good for everyone else, Mr Assange believes he is exempt from this annoying provision of justice. He has tried every legal trick in the book to avoid the UK extraditing him to Sweden where he will have to face his accusers. A long list of suitably outraged and high profile backers posted bail for their man, none evidently too concerned about the actual accusations of assault against their hero…that it was all an American inspired plot was an easy explanation to soothe away any doubts that the angelic Mr Assange might not be quite and pure as he makes out.

The wheels of British justice grind very slow…but they grind. They drew the completely unsurprising conclusion that Mr Assange’s mortality, not to mention his human rights, were not being put at risk by sending him to Sweden to answer sex assault charges. Dark legions from the US were not about to descend upon him…and anyway, even if they were, he would be just as well off in calm, civilised Sweden as he would be in London.

 
But Mr Assange is remarkably reluctant to leave the UK. Perhaps it’s because he has tickets for the beach volleyball event at the London Olympics, but somehow I doubt that’s foremost in his mind at the moment. He has now fled to the Ecuadorian embassy….seeking political asylum. From exactly what is not too clear, but presumably allegations of sexual assault don’t qualify. Some of his highest profile backers are now having second thoughts too. Jemima Khan wants him to face the accusations of rape now saying that his accusers also have a right to a response. Apparently Assange thinks otherwise.

Perhaps the US is still simmering with rage and does want to get its hands on him. No doubt they were humiliated by the leaks. Perhaps, notwithstanding that he is entering a bitter presidential re-election campaign, the naughty behaviour of Mr Assange is preoccupying Barack Obama’s thoughts to such an extent he wishes to divert the forces at his disposal to capturing our warrior of truth (er…that’s others’ truth, not his own of course). Perhaps Mr Assange genuinely believes he is the victim of a global manhunt and that he is only safe in London (or Ecuador). Perhaps he believes Sweden is in the back pocket of the US, perhaps he read it in the stars or heard it from an alien…perhaps this, perhaps that…perhaps those two women in Sweden making those “outrageous accusations” are actually telling the truth. 

Pakistan to ban Twitter (and perhaps all other forms of communication?)

Pakistan has apparently banned the use of twitter due to its blasphemous content. Gasp – what dreadful thing was being tweeted? Well, Twitter was wickedly tweeting about a competition on Facebook involving caricatures of Mohammed (oh no, not again you may well ask).  Not sure why Pakistan hasn’t banned Facebook instead (whose shares opened at about $40 notwithstanding heavenly disapproval), but perhaps Facebook, now that they are listed and corporate, have to be more compliant in the face of righteous fury.

Perhaps Pakistan should consider banning pencils too. And while they are about it, evil pencil-sharpeners, drawing paper and pens too and all other tempting means by which people communicate non-verbally.  That would avoid any further blasphemous forms of communication and prevent people from daring to speak out about that which has been declared unspeakable.

Here is a quote from Salman Rushdie, who knows a thing or two about this sort of thing:

“The moment you declare a set of ideas to be immune from criticism, satire, derision, or contempt, freedom of thought becomes impossible.”

Astrology - Debunking the nonsense….

Millions of people believe that practically everything about them, from the makeup of their personalities through to the events they will confront in their lives over the next 24 hours or months can, more or less, be foretold by the planets and stars.

I’ve always struggled with this. I mean, how it can possibly be that everything about a person can be foretold by the position of a lot of large stones and stars out there in space at the time of their birth. Makes no sense, in fact it’s so far-fetched and so devoid of a jot of any evidence to support it, that it must rank as one of the great hoaxes in history.

Trapped with its past?

Astrology has a very long history. It means the study or account of the stars, and its origins go back to ancient times. Initially it explained how the moon affected the tides and how the sun affected the seasons. All well and good. It all started getting a bit dodgy though when it moved from this into the area of horoscopes, relying upon human gullibility instead of celestial observation.

Astrology still largely treats the skies according to what was visible to the human eye at the time of Ancient Greeks and Babylonians.  Its Zodiac is unchanged over millennia. What about all the many new planets and other astronomical elements that have been discovered since and continue to be discovered? Surely they must have an impact upon the astrological affect?  What about black holes? What about near earth asteroids – presumably such potentially devastating phenomena would have quite an impact (excuse the pun) on horoscopes? (Just think of the impact they have had on Hollywood).
As a result, astrology has become a prisoner of its past – if it acknowledges that newly discovered planets and stars will affect its readings, in one stroke it automatically has to call into question its entire history of previous astrological predictions. Not so good for business or its credibility.

Consequently it must focus on finding ways in which it can’t be disproved, wrapping itself up in impenetrable pseudoscientific psychobabble.

How does it work?

I’ve always wondered that - just how does a planet affect my personality and the type of day I’m going to have? It makes no sense. Astrology birthed astronomy, but the child has been largely responsible for exposing its parent for the sham it is. No astrologer has ever been to explain how astrology works – just what is the extraordinary mechanism by which a planet, say, Jupiter, is able to exert an influence on you or I in our daily lives – what is the “it “ that is influencing us. Astrologists need to show some new law of nature at work. Some astrologists used to claim it was magnetism. But how does that affect events and behaviour? Besides, the pots and pans in your kitchen, your car engine or the change in your pocket, will exert more magnetic influence on you that a planet millions of miles away. Nope – that one falls at the first hurdle. There is no way it has yet been shown it can work.

Inconsistency and contradiction

Astrology is inconsistent – different astrologers give differing readings for the same event, contradicting each other. There is no properly controlled evidence of its reliability as a discipline. It cannot pass any properly controlled scientific test. 
Flawed assumption

Astrology’s key assumptions are also farcically flawed. Take Mars. Because it has iron oxide on its surface, Mars is seen as a red, “bloody” planet. Hence the easy association with aggressive and warlike character traits (Mars, the God of war etc.). This means that astrological predictions about daily events involving these character traits are a direct result of the fact that Mars has a lot of iron oxide on its surface.  Nope – I can’t really see much connection there either but I look forward to hearing about the relationship between Martian iron oxide and human conflict…….

Predicting the future doesn’t work

In short, astrology does not rely upon any of the laws of nature. It operates outside this, in the realm of pseudoscience.  It relies on the faith of its adherents, and its longevity is probably more to do with what is (or isn’t) going on inside its believers’ heads than what is happening out there in space or in the sequence of earthly events it purports to predict. Of course, a law of nature may suddenly be discovered which unexpectedly provides a basis to prove astrology works even if at some level. However, don’t hold your breath – as Carl Sagan said, extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof.

Ultimately though, astrology fails the first and most basic test- it does not work and that is because it is nonsense. Astrology did not predict 9/11 or the Fukushima nuclear meltdown. It did not proudly tell us in advance who would score the final goal in the last football world cup. It will not predict the next natural disaster and like any of us, it can only guess how Hussein Bolt will feel when he wakes up on the morning of the 100 meter final in the forthcoming  Olympics in July (excited I predict).

 

It can’t do what it says on the tin. This is because the future cannot be read, whether with astrology, tea leaves or tarot cards. You will not find out about what lies in wait for you by listening to David Ick or by consulting the Mayan calendar. The future does not yet exist –and any person or any discipline that says they have a secret or specially revealed, magical way of knowing what it holds, is lying to us and to themselves.

Hollande is elected...French mad man to the fore?

They have elected a socialist. His name is Mr Hollande.

Run.

If you believe the press. Mr Hollande apparently believes the rich are evil and must be taxed heavily for their obvious sins. He taps effortlessly into that painful assumption that modern and new-fangled is somehow immoral and cheap (and probably a nasty import from perfidious Albion) and responsible for the fading dreams of Gallic grandeur. He would like them all to be living in some socialist post enlightenment idyll where no one works (well, others somewhere else must work but let’s not worry about that) and if you are not on holiday, then you should be retired early. Ok, I’m exaggerating…slightly.

As one paper put it recently, Mr Hollande has already promised to spend money he has not yet even been able to borrow. Such is the rock upon which most socialist dreams flounder. Socialism is a wonderful hypothesis, yet the facts of history don’t bear it out. Humans by nature are greedy hunter gatherers who have always sought to accumulate goods and material wealth. Whether we like it or not, it is Capitalism that syncs most closely with this very fundamental and consistent aspect of human behaviour. 

But, back to France – it is not in a good place. Its banks resemble a cosmic phenomenon, most notably in that they have black holes instead of healthy balance sheets and they are light years from recovering their injudicious loans (notably to places like Greece and Italy). Many of its best and brightest have semi-grated to places like London and other northern European capitals where the wish to work hard (i.e. more than 35 hours a week) is not viewed as a character flaw and from which they can train-it back home at weekends. As a nation they seem preoccupied with their seemingly waning international influence as De Gaullism moves from the sunset into the shadows.

It has also recently been usurped by a resurgent Germany as the “political mover and shaker” in the Eurozone.  For years it has worried about the real or imagined loss of its influence, the way its culture is besieged by a sea of shallow and vacuous Anglo American imports, with their transient trends, pop fashions and associated vulgarities. Let’s not even get on to those “illegal foreign wars” or the irresistible tide of the English language. And to add insult to injury, the Far East now rises like a burning ultra-competitive sun on France’s horizon generating dark talk of trade tariffs and protectionism.

So what do you do when faced with all these problems – it appears you elect a man whose plan to save your sinking ship of state is to make a few more strategically placed economic holes in the hull. 

Because they are in such debt but still want to live beyond their means, Mr Hollande will borrow more money that will grow the bloated public sector a bit more. This he says will be good for growth, which has the logic of saying that eating more hamburgers is good for growth, even if not the kind you really want.

He says he will tax the very rich very heavily. For all that it is largely empty rhetoric, this has gone down very well indeed. In France no one likes the rich, although everyone wants the good life cushioned with generous state welfare paid for by that mythical sector of society known as “someone else”. There is an irony, not delicious but bitter and cynical, of resenting the rich but wanting the State to fund a standard of living you can’t afford – a trait by no means limited to France alone. No such thing as a free lunch, eh?

On the tax question, Mr Hollande, with all his talk of taxation and spending, risks becoming preoccupied with wealth distribution, as opposed to wealth creation. Like most politicians keen on embellishing their credentials with easy hand-outs, he prefers to ignore the reality that the distribution of wealth without equal attention to its creation is disastrous. If he is not careful, he will kill off the “golden goose” leading ultimately to wealth destruction. Just as you can’t dig your way out of a hole, you cannot tax your way out of a deficit. Over-taxation is like a bad smell in a small room. Those who are able, head for the door. In this case, the rich head for the exits (taking their proverbial sacks of wealth with them of course) and go and live somewhere else more welcoming like London (which is something like the 7^th largest French city now).

He will also placate the electorate with bland, reassuring speeches – he will apply a growth policy, as if he thinks this is like applying another layer of make-up. He will tell Germany that he is going to renegotiate the Eurozone fiscal stability pact that ensures austerity. What does he think this pact is – some local arrangement like the window cleaning contract at the Éllysée Palace? He may find there are a few problems with this. Germany likes its pact (and everyone else’s austerity). It likes its low inflation. The pact is also already agreed by France, which is thus at its mercy.

Yet, Mr Hollande tells the French that nothing is as bad as they say, it’s almost as if he is telling them that if they bury their heads deep enough in the sand, then they won’t be able to see it all those dark clouds above their heads and they can remain safe in the dream of a unique French way of life. Yet that is but a nostalgic yearning for what is now passed.  It is as if Hollande promises them a last glance over the nation’s hunching shoulders, back to the sunlit, halcyon days of a youth passed but irresistible in its recall.

So we await the miracle of socialist economics. Perhaps he also believes that the earth is flat; confirmation is pending….