TONY ON MORALS, HORRORS & MORE

Including One Single Impression, Sunday Scribblings and Manic Monday.
Have you had a go yet?

GURU TONY – On morals and crime

People are talking about a credit crunch crimewave here in the UK as incidences of burglary, etc, increase. To many, including myself, it was inevitable. And of course, people are putting the emphasis on a new poverty.

I don’t think it is as easy as that.

The poor are always easy targets. After all, they need the money, don’t they? Yet people forget that the poor can be just as moral, if not more so, than the richer.
Infact, I think it’s all to do with morality – not concerning lifestyle, but a sense of right and wrong. You see, I’m convinced that we have not become more moral, as liberals would have us believe.

It is all to do with order.

Affluence provides services, and services allow for better order. Hence, it is not that we’ve become more moral, but affluence took away much of the need to be immoral.
Affluence seemed to prove the liberal credo that we are moral, sociable beings instinctively. I don’t think we are. We become moral once a ‘thin veneer of morality’ has been educated into us. And then it is up to society to provide a reason to stick to it.

© Anthony North, January 2009

My Columnists

BRIT NEWS: Govt says all to have broadband by 2012; which means,
also, we can all be spied on. Remember, Big Brown is watching you!
*
BRIT NEWS: A 22% rise in girl violence since ’04. Hardly surprising. If
you culturally merge the sexes, you’ll have a single sex attitude.
*
BRIT NEWS: UK in worst recession than any other country, say IMF.
That’s because Brown told of end of boom and bust, & I
thought: Titanic!
*
BRIT NEWS: Cameron now wants peers who behave badly out of
Lords. He’s like a snappy Terrier, noisy but no substance. Headline
chasing.
*
BRIT NEWS: Cameron wants feckless bankers fearing prosecution. Oh,
if only! But who’d show initiative again if getting it wrong is a crime?
*
BRIT NEWS: Absent parents who refuse to pay for kids may lose
passport. They’re feckless but when did rights become dependent
on behaviour?

Find fiction, poetry and sayings on comment 1 below.

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READ WITH MUMMY

The Magazine Post with a gentle hint of horror

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SLOWLY

The faster I run, the slower it goes,
always ready to repose,
in front of where I want to be,
look this way, it’s there to see,
never will it leave me alone,
never allowing me to atone,
always ready to frighten me,
always changing my destiny;
Damn it! It just isn’t fair!
slowly, slowly, it’s always there,
pulling me back, offering a scare!
Will I ever escape this nightmare?

(c) Anthony North, January 2009

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ULRIKA AND HER GREAT REGRET – Fiction

Ulrika Feyn was a star traveller trapped in the universal mind, and she just had to think of being somewhere and she was. One day, she decided to visit home – see what her parents were doing; after all, they must be upset by her disappearance.
It was an emotional visit for Ulrika and she willed herself to escape Uni-Mind and be with them. Uni-Mind had spoken in her head and told her of such folly, but she ignored it. Indeed, as Ulrika thought this, her parents jumped and seemed to look straight at her.
‘Well, you manifested, didn’t you,’ said Uni-Mind later. Ulrika said: ‘You mean they saw me?’
This was indeed the case, and Ulrika was overjoyed – until, that is, Uni-Mind insisted she returned.
You see, no matter how advanced a society becomes, beliefs in ghosts will just never die. And Ulrika cried as she saw the devastation on her parents’ faces at her memorial service.

© Anthony North, January 2009

REGRETFUL CLOUD

From where it came no one knew,
a cloud so thick, obscuring view,
not remaining in the sky,
but down it came, on the ground it lie;
No weather came from this strange cloud,
rather, a psycho-malaise did enshroud,
everyone in its swirling mist,
invading their thoughts – get the gist?
A question it asked of everyone,
is there something you’ve done that’s oh, so wrong?
This fog is here for a specific reason,
to put it right – make things even;
So everyone thought of their greatest regret,
wanting to hide, make amends or forget,
but the cloud was a trickster, making other thoughts bereft,
so when it lifted, there was no one left

(c) Anthony North, January 2009

THE THING ABOUT ADAM’S RIB

Including Totally Optional Prompts and Three Word Wednesday.
Have you had a go yet?

Unlike many rationalists, I do not scoff at the Creation as described in the Bible. I don’t believe that Creation occurred as narrated, but I am convinced there is a lot of reasoned thought within the account.
Most scientists don’t like this idea. Rather, it is rubbish produced by a superstitious culture with no hold upon reality whatsoever. Hence, we have the two polarities of the Evolution/Creation controversy.

I disagree with both stances.

Taking the scientific view, it is blatantly not true that such ancient societies descended into superstition alone. Superstition didn’t build the pyramids, or work out agriculture. Reasoned thought had to be involved.
This said, I am always on the look-out for reasoned thought within the Bible, and I nearly always find it. And as an exercise in just what I mean, there is no better example than the idea that Eve was created from Adam’s rib.

The whole idea seems ridiculous.

But read on. Adam is created first, but he is then made to sleep and God takes one of his ribs with which to make woman. Of course, together they make a potent force, and procreation soon occurs.
This is the first important point – that procreation had not occurred before hand. A further point is that, during the Adam and Eve Narrative, the writer seems to embody the whole process of life in Adam.

We now have what we need to make sense of it all.

Indeed, it can become quite reasonable. And what we must first argue is that, if female was not yet existent, can we call Adam male?
I think not. Indeed, I would argue that we can best understand the account if we class Adam as a hermaphrodite – i.e. sexless. Now, prior to sexual reproduction, evolution relied on asexual reproduction.

How did asexual reproduction occur?

It involves cloning, by taking a cutting from the parent in order to produce an offspring. And with such information we can look at the Adam and Eve Narrative in a totally new light.
To me it becomes a perfect symbolic understanding of the change from asexual to sexual reproduction, with a cutting (rib) taken from a hermaphrodite, leading to male and female, and the obvious sexual reproduction that then followed.
One obvious deduction some could make from this is a process of incest, with Adam being the parent of Eve, but it implies no such thing if looked at it terms of symbolic understanding of evolutionary change.
Indeed, the narrative becomes a marvellous explanatory tale better than any scientist has so far managed to produce. And if correct, it shows that, underlying the general trend of Creation, is a reasoned mind-set at work.
One other point of importance, whilst this essay seems to favour evolution over Creation, as such, it actually does no such thing, for it leaves intact the possibility of a God-force driving the process forward.
Could such reasoning eventually lead to a middle ground between evolutionist and Creationist. Well, yes – though I won’t hold my breath.

© Anthony North, January 2009

OPPOSITES

Black and white, up or down,
Hot, cold; smile or frown,
Opposites side by side,
never meet, nor confide;
Left or right, bringing strife,
politics sticking in the knife,
yet male and female equal life,
now and then they meet, are rife;
Maybe we should remember this,
when opposites merge life is bliss

(c) Anthony North, January 2009

INNER THOUGHTS

Are we who we seem to be,
the very person others see,
or do we have an inner being,
closed from view, never seen?
Ruled by thoughts, often jagged,
carrying with them our life’s baggage,
sometimes serene, perfect caress,
full of love and tenderness;
At other harsh, spiteful, vile,
ruthless with a sadistic smile;
This inner life is closed from view,
but guiding us, never true,
a facade being our only task,
the real ‘us’ hidden by our social mask

(c) Anthony North, January 2009

TONY ON MINORITY TYRANNY & MORE

Including ABC Wednesday, Heads or Tails and Poetry Train.
You’ll find more prompts below.

POLLY TICKS – On Wossy and democracy

When entertainer Jonathan Ross was suspended from the BBC for three months, I was appalled. He’s back now, and so he should. What was the heinous crime he committed to warrant a suspension?

He made a sick prank call on radio.

Along with Russell Brand, it was unacceptable, and both immediately apologised. That should have been it. But once the bandwagon began, over 30,000 complaints followed.
These complaints were not to do with the prank call as such, but the nature of Ross’s comedy, which many think disgusting. I don’t particularly like his kind of comedy, but HE does is with style and is the exception.

But this is all irrelevant.

It raises a frightening aspect of people power. Is it correct that 30,000 people can dictate to the majority in this way? At what point do the ‘people’ actually speak?
This should be a warning that democracy is not perfect, and is played with at our peril. Democracy was perfected by inclusion of the rights of minorities. But it was never designed to allow them to be dictators.

© Anthony North, January 2009

My Columnists

NOTE: Don’t forget to check out Beyond the Blog’s sub-domains, accessed from top of site. From green to politics, crime to the unexplained, and plenty of fiction. This is a multiple website as well as a blog.
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THE CRIME POST

It would be a crime not to read it

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B is for …. BURGLAR

A tiny shatter, window gone,
creature of night, comes along,
slips in silently, looks around,
at what booty he has found;
Grabs a picture, your memory lane,
and ipod that can keep you sane,
lap top gone, your gate to the world,
jewellery bagged, you can no longer twirl;
Silently, he goes, he’s done his worst,
sells to a fence, reimbursed,
but he’s burgled your sanity, spoilt your home;
Damn him! Catch him! Make him atone

(c) Anthony North, January 2009

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HOW LOUD THEY ARE – Fiction

The voices are getting increasingly loud.
I don’t like them. They chatter incessantly. They tell me things I don’t want to know. About myself. About others. And I don’t want to hear it. I don’t!
They won’t stop. Once they start, they build and build to a cacophony of noise. They take many forms, the voices – but they speak with a single cause. They single out a single cause, a single task, a single journey I must make – and my conscience begins to run.
I like it when they go. It is peacefulness. I can live with that peacefulness, that tranquillity, even though I know the voices will come again.
They are reaching their crescendo now, urging me on, and the last hope of fighting them vanishes, and I wonder where the knife came from.
Outside, I walk, without direction, but purposefully, and I spy a woman …
Afterwards I go home for tea.
And tranquillity.

(continued in poetry chain below)

© Anthony North, January 2009

TONY’S POETRY CHAIN

Search Engine Stories – Writers’ Island
Three Word Wednesday

THE EMPTY ROOM

It’s bleak, it has no light,
my future, terrible, no respite,
no place for me in the world,
as my deeds unfurled,
she was, I’m told, someone’s wife,
for me? Life

A BRAND NEW DAY

New routines, new ways to be,
gone, for me, democracy,
gone my freedom, chance of love,
gone my hope of rising above,
gone any chance of touching the divine,
the mark of Cain my only sign

RESOLVE

My only hope is absolute resolve,
as day after day, the same, revolve,
making me humble, an institutionalised being,
cadence of life forever seen,
no hope in anything I do,
unless I’m good, always, and true

TIME TO GO

I’ve killed, I have, I know this now
understanding, remorse, a heavy brow,
trying to rationalise it in my head,
as moral behaviour I am fed,
time, now, to atone, I’m sure
this razor! now my blood runs pure

GRAVESIDE LAMENT

I heard today your killer’s dead,
suicide, yet no tears shed,
but now, stood here, my dear, sweet love,
I can think you happy up above,
I’ll never forget you, no matter how I try,
but his death brings closure,
See!
I can cry

(c) Anthony North, January 2009

TONY ON OBAMA SWEARS & MORE

Including One Single Impression, Sunday Scribblings and Manic Monday.
Have you had a go yet?

PAPPA RAZZI – On politicians – or not

So Barack Obama is the President of the US. Hopes are high of a new dawn in global politics. But what, exactly, can a politician achieve? Is it all really nothing but hype?

Most of the time it is.

But at certain times a politician, the people and media can come together into something quite different. Politics, as such, never actually works. But if a politician can become a symbol of hope, it can.
A politician is very much a product of his society, and the hopes, or fears, of the community. And if that community is on the change, he can become a kind of metaphor of the age, creating a communal thought among the people.

The politician usually takes the credit for this.

But he is, infact, just the catalyst, and it is the mood of the people which affects change, because they are ready for it, and focused through his appearances and rhetoric.
This can be a magnificent thing, best seen by Churchill rousing the British during World War Two. In effect, a feedback loop is created through the media. And once this is in place, change CAN come – and be almost miraculous.

© Anthony North, January 2009

My Columnists

NOTE: Don’t forget to check out Beyond the Blog’s sub-domains, accessed from top of site. From green to politics, crime to the unexplained, and plenty of fiction. This is a multiple website as well as a blog.
Follow me on Twitter – My Haiku, Brit Lines (American Sentences with dots), current affairs and general tomfoolery.

RATTLER’S TALE

A Voyage of the Imagination

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IF ONLY I HAD TIME

I’ve got to rush, I’ve got no time,
but I want to make it so sublime,
I want to get it absolutely right,
before the seconds start to bite;
If they do I’ll have to leave,
‘cos once they’re gone you can’t retrieve,
that part of life is in the past,
all you can do is offer a gasp;
I’m almost there, nearly done,
rushed, I know, but so much fun,
no time, even, to rehearse,
but tell me, did you like this verse?

(c) Anthony North, January 2009

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ULRIKA AND THE MYSTERIOUS LADY – Fiction

Ulrika Feyn was a star traveller from the future who became trapped in the universal mind. This was such a strange experience, she didn’t know whether she was real, or a thought in the mind of some storyteller. But regardless, she simply had to think of being somewhere and she was.
One day she found herself in a dusty room and in the corner was a mysterious lady of undefined age. The lady seemed melancholy so Ulrika asked her what was wrong.
‘You’ll know soon enough,’ replied the lady.
This intrigued Ulrika so she asked what she meant.
‘Oh, it’s a great adventure when you first get trapped in Uni-Mind,’ she said, ‘but after eons the excitement wears off and the fantastic becomes routine, and soon you realise you haven’t been given a gift, but become imprisoned. I remember once, when I was young and nearly got out of Uni-Mind, I actually spoke of my fantastic adventures to someone. If only I could communicate to him, now, how terrible the adventure becomes.’
Ulrika was worried by this, and realised she might be right. Maybe, she decided, it was time to think about how to escape. And as the rationalist she was, she decided to try to get into the mind of the person the lady had spoken to – see it from his perspective.
‘Do you know his name?’ she asked.
‘Yes,’ replied the lady, ‘Carroll – Lewis Carroll.’

© Anthony North, January 2009

FLAKES

They flutter and fall with total grace,
no need to rush, there is no race,
gently, gently, hushing down,
upon the ground they form a crown,
of brilliant white, a perfect hue,
what I need is dandruff shampoo

(c) Anthony North, January 2009

Updated: 24 Jan, 0900 GMT
PHANTOMS & SHADOWS

Shadows fall upon mind, bringing melancholy;
Memories of a time now gone,
cripple the sense of completion;
What was good, now only phantoms, unbalanced,
defeating, destroying …

Remembrance fading of eons past,
before he walked on two legs,
grasped thought,
produced tech,
did this to me,
your planet

(c) Anthony North, January 2009

A PARANORMAL CONSENSUS

When a person is abducted by an alien, where do they go? Well, answers vary, but there are two polar opposites – they go to a real flying saucer; or they go nowhere other the fantasies of their own mind.
I’d air towards the latter, but with a proviso – is it really their ‘own’ mind, or something more collective? Could it be that they go on to exist within a kind of communal thought?

Can a person really experience a ‘past life’?

That’s another interesting question. It is becoming a virtual industry today, as people go to therapists to explore their previous incarnations.
In this way, they seem to find themselves. In other words, it seems to be just another form of therapy. However, past lives and alien abduction seem to be linked in a rather interesting way.

Both can be the result of therapy.

Indeed, it is usually under hypnosis, or other psychological system, that ‘evidence’ arises of the phenomenon. So could we be dealing with the same phenomena?
At a cultural level, clearly not. One involves an alien, the other a long dead person. But psychologically they are the same. And it prompts the question: if therapists had been around in the past, would therapy have conjured up demons, fairies or Greek gods?

Personally, I think they would.

What seems to be happening is that the belief system of a therapist can be transferred to the mind of the client. Indeed, it seems to be the case that those therapists who believe in a phenomenon are more likely to find it in the client.
As to the power of such a process, we are only just beginning to understand ‘false memory syndrome’, where a thought can be placed in the mind, and it is considered, by the person, to be an absolute truth.
But of course, this is just psychology.

Earlier I mentioned the ‘culture’ is different, even if the psychology is the same. Culture is not an individual element, as in psychology. Rather, it is communal – a product of collective minds.
Hence, we can see a therapist infecting a client, not so much with his own idea, but a collective idea – a consensual idea of what culture considers a particular phenomenon to be. And in this way, psychology is born from sociology.
The nature of paranormal entities changes over time, and it seems to be the case that such entities are more cultural in nature than supernatural. It is merely that a consensus of how we see the supernatural as ‘being’ makes it so.
Culture, it seems, is a process of dripping thoughts through a system of sublime mass hysteria to confirm the consensus. So what, we must ask, will the next popular paranormal entity be?
Whatever our collective imagination can create.

© Anthony North, January 2009

TONY ON ECO-POLARITIES & MORE

Including ABC Wednesday, Heads or Tails, Totally Optional Prompts and Poetry Train.
Have you had a go yet?

POLLY TICKS – On green – or not!

The Tory Party want an environmental Smart Grid for a low carbon Britain. It includes ‘smart meters’ in homes to tell when electricity use is low, public charging points for electric cars and a new high speed rail system.

These are all great ideas.

But here’s the problem. They want to spend £1 billion. That’s it! So whatever system created would be rather paltry. It all seems like more spin and cosmetic politics.
At the other end of the scale, the Worldwatch Institute advise that a world with negative carbon footprint is our only hope. Their ten step roadmap to this includes lifestyle change, political stability and declining population.

This seems like Idealism in the raw.

And topped with a huge dose of sugary naivety. What is it about the eco-problem that it induces extremism and stupidity? Some say it is really a religion rather than a remedy.
In some ways it is, and if the ‘spirituality’ of the subject was moderated, it would be great. And others say it is all to do with politics, and jockeying for votes in the next election. Which tells me something quite simple: green is rarely about green.

© Anthony North, January 2009

My Columnists

NOTE: Don’t forget to check out Beyond the Blog’s sub-domains, accessed from top of site. From green to politics, crime to the unexplained, and plenty of fiction. This is a multiple website as well as a blog.
Follow me on Twitter – My Haiku, Brit Lines (American Sentences with dots), current affairs and general tomfoolery.

RATTLER’S TALE

A Voyage of the Imagination

**********

A is for … AARDVARK

We’re familiar with horses and animals aplenty,
with dogs and cats we’re complimentary,
though with elephants and lions we’re a little more careful,
and monkeys and things are particularly delightful,
but though everyone has heard of the aardvark thing,
few of us know what makes it zing,
even what it looks like we’re not very sure,
whether it’s rare or plentiful we can’t ensure,
infact, the only thing we’ve known all along,
is its habitat is the encyclopedia, page one

(c) Anthony North, January 2009

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THE LONG WALK – Fiction

To say my feet ached would have been an under-statement. What with blisters and bad circulation, I began to imagine they would never survive the walk.
Well, I call it a walk. It was more like the long march. Why I agreed to do it, I don’t know. Well, that’s not true either. I did it because Rod goaded me into it – super-fit Rod, out to get one over on me, again! And like a fool, I rose to the challenge.
Or so I thought. But once into the tenth mile, my error became obvious. Rod was fit. I wasn’t. But on and on I went, Rod constantly going a little ahead, and then coming back to pretend to encourage me onwards, but actually patronise me.
That incensed me, of course, and I decided I was going to complete this thing – AND, ahead of Rod.
By the twentieth mile I was in quite a state. My second wind had come and gone a long time ago, and I was like an automaton, simply plodding on as if a machine with nothing else to be done. And it was then that Rod made his mistake. Walking backwards just a little ahead of me to goad me more, he tripped over a fallen branch and twisted his ankle.
Well, that appeared to be Rod out of the game and I marched on with renewed enthusiasm. Until, that is, Rod passed me, hobbling along and held up by the branch that had made him fall.
Anger seemed to take me over, then. Indeed, it was a rage. And I was just about to quicken my pace when the realisation hit me, and I stopped and left the game.
Defeat, I suppose, is no shame if you’re only taking part due to ego – and a goading fool like Rod.

© Anthony North, January 2009

CEREMONIALLY SPEAKING

Influence is a startling thing,
changing people, going ping!
producing a symbol that people follow,
even if the message can be wrong or hollow,
a soup can makes you salivate,
but there’s worms within, things you hate;
Symbols, you see, can be a lie,
and sometimes we should just walk by;
Yet never was there a symbol stronger,
than public ceremony, short or longer,
rousing us into a throng,
everyone singing the same song;
Most of them are good and true,
belonging, tradition, enfusing you,
but beware of those with something bad,
they’ll so easily turn you into a cad

(c) Anthony North, January 2009

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TONY ON HEATHROW PROTEST & MORE

Including One Single Impression, Sunday Scribblings and Manic Monday.
Have you had a go yet?

GURU TONY – On planes ‘n’ things

And I thought protest was dead. I want to congratulate a group of green campaigners, politicians, celebrities and scientists who have bought a patch of land no bigger than a football pitch.

Where is this piece of land?

Slap bang on the required piece of land needed for the building of a third runway at London’s Heathrow Airport. Vowing never to sell it to the owners, it could hold up the expansion for years.
My advice to the government and owners is simple: go away and use the time and money to think up a proper green alternative to air travel. There is ample tech and ideas on the drawing board. All that is lacking is the initiative.

They must get over a simple error.

This is the idea that ‘big’ is better than ‘small’. It is not. Smaller and more airports have got to be the answer, using new ideas of stol, ceramic engines and ground effect designs.
The result would be a cheaper and eco-friendly alternative to air travel which could provide just as good a service as the present. The only difference business-wise would be that the system could be built and operated by smaller enterprises. Big Biz would have had its day. And that is why they’re not taking this alternative.

© Anthony North, January 2009

NOTE: Don’t forget to check out Beyond the Blog’s sub-domains, accessed from top of site. From green to politics, crime to the unexplained, and plenty of fiction. This is a multiple website as well as a blog.
My Columnists

THE PHILOSOPHY

To know is to empower

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FADING MEMORIES

A funny thing our memory recall,
keeping the past on the ball,
arranged in unimaginable ways,
experiences often on display;
But why, I ask, do we remember the bad,
above the things that should make us glad?
Are we attuned to pollute the past,
the horrors, stark, making us gasp?
Maybe we’re wired through emotions stark,
to more easily recall things that are dark,
bringing out phobias and terrible times,
sadness, disillusion, our little crimes;
The good things seem to fade away,
hard to grasp, kept at bay,
golden moments that should keep us sane,
are behind the queue of things that cause pain,
directing us towards trouble and strife,
forever deciding how we live life;
If only we could prize those good times out,
life would be better, there is no doubt

(c) Anthony North, January 2009

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THE BIG OFFICE – Fiction

He had been here an eternity. But he would have, wouldn’t he? He could survey his entire creation from where he sat, behind the big desk; and it was a creation bigger than mere mortals could imagine. Oh, they had written about him from time to time – tried to capture its majesty, his power – but could provide only a mere reflection.
He controlled it all from his Big Office. And the office itself could be anywhere he wanted it to be. Today, it was among the stars, where he felt he really belonged. Distance was irrelevant when you were this powerful; when your creation was so much of yourself. And anyway, his assistants Michael and Gabriel had little difficulty making sure his whims were met.
Eventually he decided it was time to leave the office for the day. He walked outside. To his left, Peter stood by the gate, his face shrouded behind the big white beard. He was busy checking the dead-looking people as they walked through. And as the man from the Big Office joined the queue, Peter felt only pity.
Perhaps he had been a nurse at the Big Biz CEO’s rest home for too long. After all, they all ended up here.

© Anthony North, January 2009

PILGRIMAGE

They never end,
we constantly send,
the religious on their journeys long,
happy of heart, singing their song,
on the route of the pilgrimage,
to meet the symbol of their age,
purest sign of their God so true,
or valiant saint to imbue,
their inner soul,
a true life’s goal

From earliest times they marched this way,
wars and Crusades, an Infidel to slay,
Knights Templars formed to guard the path,
from all who would show opposite wrath,
and holy relics became the game,
guaranteeing a place’s fame,
for Chaucer and co to display,
comedy all along the way

But always it was a spiritual form,
journeying long, against the norm,
yet life advances as cultures change,
or maybe devolves as we become deranged,
as the object of veneration becomes something new,
a novel way with which to imbue,
no longer a holy entity,
are we mad!!!? Venerating celebrity?

(c) Anthony North, January 2009

THERE ARE REASONS BEHIND REASON

Including Totally Optional Prompts and Three Word Wednesday.
Have you had a go yet?

The sceptical assault against the paranormal is unrelenting. Just writing about the subject, even if you’re offering reasoned ideas, is enough for a tide of ridicule. This is done in the name of ‘reason’, but is increasingly being seen as unreasonable.
Why is there such a loathing for the paranormal from science? Well, I think it goes back to the purpose of knowledge. If we go back to religious knowledge, it is said to be unreasonable.

This is not the case.

I’ve spoken to enough religious people to know that they consider their faith to be reasonable and reasoned, and they find evidence of the truth of their faith all around them.
The difference between religious knowledge and modern, scientific knowledge is that the scope of reason has shifted. It has changed from a holistic view of the world to a specialised and reductionist view.

Is this reasonable?

In one sense, certainly not. It is reasonable to summise that there is never a definite single way of thinking or doing things. If this is so, then the scientific mind-set makes the same mistake as the religious. It suggests only one way of thinking.
However, in order to get to grips with the reality of knowledge, I think we have to ask an important question. With all knowledge systems we must ask: is there a reason behind reason?

Consider the Big Bang.

‘Evidence’ suggests Big Bang is an increasing reality. Yet this ignores the argument that there is never just one definite answer. But it is enough to ridicule counter-theories such as Steady State.
What is the reason behind the reasoning? Steady State does not require a beginning and an end. Big Bang does. In other words, Big Bang better reflects our linear mind-set that things do not go in cycles, but advance or decline along a straight line from a beginning to an end.

Some things are taboo.

It is against the scientific mind-set to consider anything that does not fall in line with an atheist, materialist, linear system of thought. The paranormal seems to break this, even though I’m not sure it does.
But it does demand a more holistic way of looking at the world. Indeed, fringe science is already going in this direction. Quantum and chaos theory, ecology and even relativity suggest the present view of science is coming to an end. And here lies the possible reason for such extreme scepticism and ridicule.
The present paradigm is approaching its fall. The same thing happened in the early years of the 20th century, and die-hard defenders of the old system went to their grave denying the new.
The same is happening today – and paranormal research is at the forefront of the assault. Hence, the more they squeal, the closer comes the time when a new mind-set is let loose to range over the beauty of knowledge.

© Anthony North, January 2009

NOTE: I’ve now linked to my speculative essays. You can access from Psycho-Man or The Unexplained and look for The ‘Y’ Files. These sub-domains are part of Beyond the Blog, and accessed from top of this site.

GOING BAD

I remember when I was good,
nothing wrong, never out for blood,
a perfect angel, I tell you not,
never out for what other’s had got;
Now I’m in a different world,
new thoughts constantly unfurl,
of vengeance, hurting others for fun,
never seeing the eternal pun;
I’ll howl and scream and bang about,
causing fear, there’s no doubt,
there’s no situation I won’t contrive,
I was never this bad when I was alive

(c) Anthony North, January 2009

ENTWINED

Love, that greatest pursuit of man,
striking unexpectantly, destroying the plan,
of how you thought your life would be,
providing a wonderful destiny;
Love, two people, their lives entwine,
some things forfeit, others divine,
as one forever and a day,
by night, with them we always lay;
Love, the thing that can break your heart,
when one decides it’s time to depart,
unbearable, the longing deep inside,
a pathetic existence, no one to confide;
Love, a constant search to feel whole,
to bring the loved one back to the fold,
so now I’m approaching the ultimate tryst,
my suicide; I see her! It feels so nice

(c) Anthony North, January 2009

TONY ON HEALTHY COMPASSION & MORE

Including ABC Wednesday, Heads or Tails, ReadWritePoem and Poetry Train.
Have you had a go yet?

DR ILLYA NESS – On medical robotics – it seems

The head of a UK health think tank has recently said that there has been a deterioration in the level of compassion in the National Health Service. From my experience, this is indeed the case. But why?

Medicine is supposed to be the caring profession.

But I think the first indication of the problem is with that word, ‘profession’. Over recent years professionalism has seemed to increase in all areas of life, thus confirming authority and a career path.
It seems to me that professional standards and promotion have become primary over vocation. Of course, professionals argue this makes them more efficient, but it also makes them less caring and sympathetic.

And then there’s that word, ‘efficiency’.

Every large organisation must be super-efficient these days. But what does this mean? It means big institutions as opposed to small, and it means a regime where everything works like clockwork.
The upshot of this is that the professions are moving further and further away from the people they serve, and the ‘system’ must be so well oiled that normal human foibles are not taken into account. Medical care is becoming machine-like. But someone ought to tell them that we’re not robots.

© Anthony North, January 2009

NOTE: I’m building a quick-access archive of my flash fiction and poetry, accessed from My Fiction. This sub-domain is part of Beyond the Blog, and accessed from top of this site.
My Columnists

SCRIBBLERS’ NEWS

You know it’s the write way

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Z IS FOR … ?

What am I? I can’t decide,
help me, please confide,
how you think I should be,
‘cos I simply cannot see,
the difference in how you think of me,
so go on, answer my fevered plea;
It’s left me quite a nervous soul,
never reaching my ultimate goal,
of doing what I simply do,
making things easy for you;
So tell me, what am I supposed to be,
am I a ‘zed’, or a ‘zee’?

(c) Anthony North, January 2009

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MESSAGE ON A BOTTLE – Fiction

It seemed crazy. I know I wasn’t myself at the time, but this?
I’ve no idea where I was. It all seemed so hazy, but it was a hot, dark place and I felt so disconnected from ordinary life. But then again, I suppose I was, wasn’t I? Not myself. Not part of life at all.
The bottle was just floating there. It looked so cliché, as if straight out of some satirical story. It floated there, and I thought: I wonder if there’s a message in it.
Slowly, painfully, I picked it up, and it was immediately obvious there was no message in it. Then I looked at the label and realised the message was ON it, not inside – and it was stark:
OPEN THIS AND YOU’LL DIE
Well, what can we say about that? Was it meant for anyone, or me in particular? And if me, how did the sender know I’d be here? And anyway, when did I ever listen to advice?
I held the bottle a while, and eventually I opened it. I was just about to put it to my lips when I suddenly sat bolt upright, screaming, covered in sweat …
Yea, even more clichés. It was a dream, and I guess the sender knew it would be me – it was my unconscious. And I suppose I tried to obey, but as the shakes began, and I saw the half full bottle of whisky by my side …

© Anthony North, January 2009

YORKSHIRE-EESE

Diz thee ‘ere whet a’say,
wi’me words on’t display,
tarkin’ like people dee,
livin’ ‘ere ner t’me?
Ar’s askin’ ‘cos I used t’tark,
jus’ like this, an it’s nay lark,
allers avin’ te repeat me words,
gettin’ more sense outta’t birds;
So’s if iver yer meet ‘em from m’land,
‘old out a frindly ‘and,
says noo’then, ‘ow diz thee de?
and ar’ll sez, aye, noo, dis’thee yan some tea?

(c) Anthony North, January 2009

TONY ON CRIME, SYMBOL & MORE

Including One Single Impression, Manic Monday and Sunday Scribblings.
Have you had a go yet?

PAPPA RAZZI – On crime and image

A report into UK policing recently showed that 4 out of ten crimes were simply filed away because it seemed they couldn’t be solved. These include sex offences, burglary and drugs. What is going on?

During the last thirty years, policing has been degraded.

Policemen used to be on foot or bike and within the local community. Then they switched to cars. Then specialist teams appeared to deal with specific types of crime. All these ‘improvements’ created a gulf between police and society.
Then came science, and basic detection was forgotten. Then came targets and people became statistics. Then came politics, the most insidious thing of all. The upshot of this was that ‘behaviour’ and thought itself became a police matter.

The police were now not dealing with ‘people’, but concept.

And of course, a concept is little more than an image. How ‘society’ was seen to be was all that mattered – and similarly, how the police were ‘seen’ by us became important to them.
The result was that crime and society became nothing more than a media image, a reflection, a symbol, rather than a definite reality – which rather fits in with the rise of the information society, where ‘reality’ is just our media’s impression of it.

© Anthony North, January 2009

MY SUB-DOMAIN UPDATE: My new sub-domain, Psycho-Man is now up, including everything you want to know about cults and other subjects. Also, Inde-Pol now links to lots of short essential essays by me on its home page. These sub-domains are part of Beyond the Blog, and accessed from top of this site.
My Columnists

GREEN SCENE

Save the Planet – or you’ll be sorry!!

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A SUMMER’S DAY

The sun, it burns, so very bright,
enabling life, no respite,
forever glowing, bringing heat,
making the planet so complete;
A summer’s day is testament to this,
we look up, feel total bliss,
happy that it will go on forever,
allowing for our great endeavour;
yet summer days can come too soon,
bringing heat to make us swoon,
especially if we change the air,
trapping sunlight, causing despair,
’til summer’s day will never end,
and our endeavours go on to lend,
the seed of destruction of an angry sun,
burnt to a crisp, life’s no longer fun

(c) Anthony North, January 2009

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ULRIKA VISITS PLANET CELL – Fiction

Ulrika Feyn was a star traveller from the future who became trapped in the universal mind. This was such a strange experience, she didn’t know whether she was real, or a thought in the mind of some storyteller. But regardless, she simply had to think of being somewhere and she was.
Suddenly she found herself on Cell, watching the last humanoid on the planet die a painful death. All around her were bodies in varying stages of decay, as if a plague had slowly wiped them all out. ‘What’s happened to these people?’ she asked Uni-Mind.
When he answered, his voice boomed more than normal, shaking the very foundations of Cell. ‘It’s a fault in the universal program,’ he said. Not waiting for Ulrika to speak, he continued: ‘Occasionally a species will fall out of sympathy, which is a big mistake. They begin to see themselves as above the system, not realising that they don’t inhabit a planet, but a universal cell, as if a part of the universal body. And as you know, a body has an immune system …’
Ulrika realised what he meant. ‘You mean, it’s like a disease, and when that happens the universe fights back, eradicating it?’
‘Exactly right,’ boomed Uni-Mind, ‘and this little species got above itself, so Zap!’
Ulrika thought this a bit harsh, and asked: ‘Isn’t there some way a message could be sent instead, warning of their error.’
‘Been there, done that,’ said Uni-Mind. ‘It’s endemic to the immune system. It’s not invisible, you know. Infact, the signals can be witnessed for decades before the killing starts. But no, most don’t get the message. First they deny, and then they usually attach myths to what they see. Just take your own little planet, Earth. Flying saucers, I think you call them.’

© Anthony North, January 2009

ORGAN NICK

Don’t you love him, he plays so well,
organ or piano, he’s just swell,
arranging notes in harmony,
his own remarkable symphony;
Music is so sublime and true,
its vibes washing over you,
the musician playing in sympathy,
everything fits organically;
An audial reflection of nature’s chime,
all as one, a perfect rhyme;
We love our music attuned and pure,
so why make nature’s music poor?

(c) Anthony North, January 2009