TECHNOLOGY

ABC Wednesday & more prompts below
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POLLY TICKS

Technology is good but we don’t understand it. We need a philosophy
of tech, taking into account its psycho-socio-political implications.
Tech made us human, in that it required an opposable thumb for
manipulation, also freeing our forelimbs for erect walking. But I think
its effect was deeper than this. Tech required us to concentrate on
the task in hand, freeing us from instinctual drives.

This required a repository for
thoughts not of relevance.

Hence, could tech have caused the split between conscious and
unconscious mind? If so, then a specifically shortsighted conscious
would have been the result, with the possibility that the more
information we have, the smaller and more individualistic our
conscious becomes. History bears out this possibility, with moves
against spirituality and community as tech information increased. If
this process continues, the time could come when tech shrinks our
mind so much that we are no longer human. We can see this in moral
behaviour. We seem to be far more benevolent to each other
nowadays, but could this only be because tech provides services and
order which cancel out our need to survive? It could be that we have
simply sidelined morality instead of being moral. Modern info-tech
holds problems. Information and surveillance has now come to the
point that the private is disappearing. As this trend continues, we are
increasingly monitored, and this is allowing authority unprecedented
control over us. Tech is taking away our freedoms. It is also taking
away our ability to think. Computer tech is rigid, with tasks now
following strict patterns taking away our ability to use our initiative.
This is transferring to society, where rules are becoming increasingly
fundamental. We are becoming cogs in a social machine. Forget The
Terminator. The machine world is already here, and it’s subtle! All
these problems can be overcome if we realize that they exist. Do so
and tech can be what it should be. Our servant, and not our
master.

Eye On the World
Essays on everything from science
to religion, politics to crime

BRIT NEWS: So the police
have passed 4 cases of possible
law-breaking MPs involved in the expenses
scandal to the Crown Prosecution Service. The rest
may not be suspected of breaking the law, but they did break
the spirit of decency and trust. Once upon a time certain institutions
had a culture of decency, which people offended at their peril. Once
trust goes, those institutions are tarnished for decades.

BRIT NEWS: The long awaited Iraq War Inquiry has begun. We’re told
its range will go far and wide. I’m always suspicious of such affairs,
as they cannot be independent as they are always headed by
an establishment figure, with certain endemic biases built
into the system. But we will see how ‘open’ this
inquiry becomes when Tony Blair stands
before it, most likely in January. But
sadly the very idea that this will
bring confidence back to
govt is laughable.

THE CRIME POST

It would be criminal not to read it

One Single Impression
ReadWritePoem – Friday Flash 55
Three Word Wednesday

THE LIGHTHOUSE

Banish disaster from the rocks,
Shine a beam, mental blocks
Conscience alert, fend off the crash,
Mind is safe with neuron flash;
The lighthouse there, within the mind,
Makes those dark thoughts hard to find,
Plain sailing through the ocean of life,
No wrecks here – avoiding strife

LITTLE MAN BIG

Fiction: I guess some people crawl through life happy. Ambition is
nowhere to be seen and the daily grind becomes somehow comforting,
adding security, belonging, meaning. My wife was like that, but I was
not. So often I’d dream of breaking out of the grind, making it big. But
always she’d laugh, remind me I’m just a little man – a little cog in a
big machine – and I should be happy with my lot. The world, she
advised, will never hear of me. And of course, when my promotion
came, she had plenty to say – taking too much on; trying to fill shoes
too big for my feet. Well, I did become big – eventually – and
everyone knew my name. Wife killers become big like that.

POMMY GRANITE

Not fruit but a Brit as hard as stone,
A Pom, as in Oz we’re known,
Masters of cricket and rugby, too,
Excellent sports, I’m telling you;
Ideas we have like seeds in a fruit,
From democracy to gravity we recruit;
But named after juices all the time?
Please don’t get me onto lime

FLASH 55 – VENETIAN OUTCOME

Fiction: It was an unreasonable demand. These merchants make lambs
of lions with their deals. But this lamb will not be silenced. This is one
merchant who has ripped me off once too often, and I was
determined to get justice. So I got my pound of flesh. It went down
well with a nice claret.

MANUFACTURED PLEASURE

Plastic taste, sumptuous cherries,
So soft inside, pleasure buried,
Fondle long before the kick,
Often it’s impossible not to lick;
Melting into delight so strong,
Even alone you CAN belong,
Satisfying that overpowering ache,
For another slice of that cream cake

© Anthony North, December 2009

Try my Pictures of Life, a novel

SCIENCE

ABC Wednesday & more prompts below
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PROF ISAAC GALISTEIN

Science is great. I love science. It confirms us as brilliant thinking
beings. But there are many problems with science. It has been so
successful that for too many people it is the only system that
counts. Unfortunately, single systems are always wrong.

Typically, it holds little
moral guidance.

Further, our knowledge is always reflected in how society thinks of
itself. Science confirms a universe that is chaotic, fragmented and
without meaning. So society behaves as if it is too. Knowledge should
be balanced by a belief, as used to be provided by religion. But belief
can only be superstition in the modern world. This, too, holds a
problem for science. It is so fundamental a means of knowledge,
banishing the idea of belief, that nothing can ‘be’ unless science can
measure it. Thus, unknown dangers could exist because science has
not yet caught up with nature. But these dangers are ignored in a
process I call ‘anti-superstition’. Most of science is not actually
science, but validation. There have been very few true scientists –
people who have moved forward our knowledge in a paradigm-shifting
way. These scientists were rebels at odds with the established view.
This confirms that the validators who follow are actually guardians of
old knowledge. Science is also choosy about what is valid data.
Without a hypothesis with which to sieve data, data seems chaotic.
It can only become ordered once a hypothesis is made. Yet if the
established view is more a guardian and validator of old knowledge,
hypotheses will reflect this and be dictatorial in nature, locking out
contrary data from analysis. Surviving hypotheses eventually become
theories within which data gives a probability of correctness. This
becomes scientific truth, but too often the ‘probability’ factor is not
understood by the public. This leads to a feedback loop of consensus
reality. Because the world clearly offers evidence of action, the idea
grows that the theory answers how that action occurs, and ‘reality’
becomes a mind model as opposed to a definite. Of course, this
process cannot be proved to occur, but neither can it be disproved,
as evidence would be identical whether it was true or false. Yet the
simple possibility should be enough to demand a little more humility
from science.

Eye On the World
Essays on everything from science
to religion, politics to crime

BRIT NEWS: The Police are becoming
worried by the number of private security
firms policing UK streets. Typically they don’t seem
to grasp that they may be to blame. Policing only works
properly when police are within the community. The Police have
divorced themselves from the people over the last 30 yrs under the
pretence of efficiency. Well, it doesn’t seem very efficient to me.

WORLD NEWS: As it becomes clear that democracy won’t work in
Afghanistan, moves seem to be coming to set a timetable for
withdrawal. It was an error to think democracy could work,
and is now compounded by an error in signalling to an
enemy your intent. The first rule of warfare – take
the enemy by surprise. Do modern governments
know the first thing about war? No wonder
there’s so many tragedies.

RATTLER’S TALE

A Voyage of the Imagination

One Single Impression
ReadWritePoem – Friday Flash 55
Three Word Wednesday

MIGRATION

I’m fed up here – getting dull,
All is done, can feel the pull,
Of new experience to be explored,
Of new thoughts racing – I’m so bored!
I’m leaving now for another host,
Sorry to leave you as a ghost,
But your body’s shot, and I’m still whole,
Goodbye from this migrating soul

FIND THE MOLE

Fiction: The Square. How did Brand end up here? It
was a normal square – shops, cafes, people milling around – which
ones would kill him? He’d been sent in to find the Mole – get him out
before he was compromised. But as their agents closed in on him
quickly, Brand realized it was maybe too late. Except … Well, he was
an optimist, and even if the Mole had been caught – was being
interrogated – he’d have left a path to the information. And sure
enough, as he played ‘spot the spy’ in the square, he knew all the
signs on his dangerous investigation led here. And it had certainly
been dangerous, nearly cornered twice, shooting his way out of
trouble. And as he surveyed the square, he felt the cold comfort of
his gun. Soon sure he had identified the agents he began to watch
the shops. Was it to be one of those? He thought. Of course, he
eventually worked it out – broke cover as he moved forward, his
disguise hopefully fooling the agents. And as he walked into the
taxidermist’s, he found the information – in the mole.

ADOLESCENT MEAL

Sausage, egg, beans & chips,
Food for life, culinary quips,
Sausage for body and friends untold,
Egg for vitality, feelings bold,
Beans for flavour, life’s delicate mix,
Chips for experience, fragmented picks,
Adolescence, that time so mad,
Rushing from the good to bad,
With brief excursions to the cafe to eat,
No time to choose, life to greet

FLASH 55 – THE RARE FIND

Fiction: It was a rare find – among the masses of humanity, who would
have thought? Of course, experts debated. How could it be? Would it
be a one-off; would it blossom into a better world? Though the
consensus grew that it was an evolutionary oddity. But who would
have thought? A banker with a conscience.

THE GIVER

To give it freely, asking for nothing,
It wasn’t his fault they ended up coughing,
Obvious thanks were nowhere to be seen,
As temperatures rose, a sweaty sheen;
He simply went about with a runny nose,
A handkerchief sodden with nothing to oppose,
Passing it on through fingers and sneeze,
Let’s not be so giving, if you please

© Anthony North, November 2009

Try my Pictures of Life, a novel

RELIGION

ABC Wednesday & more prompts below
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GURU TONY

I cannot believe in a God-form so what can I reason? Much conflict
has been placed at the door of religion. I don’t accept this. Conflict is
caused by politics, whether in a religious or secular culture. I am not
religious, but I am spiritual. To me, the former is a social interaction of
shared belief. The latter is an inner feeling – a bonding to fellow man,
environment & universe.

The two can work together
but are different.

If you strip culture from any religion you usually find the same things –
belief in higher intelligence, a way to commune with it, memory of a
previous perfect state, an understanding of our imperfection and a
moral code. Similarly, almost all major religious icons share a life
pattern. Frustrated in youth, they question. This leads to a spiritual
crisis within which they overcome adversity. This turns them into a
charismatic on a single-minded path to change things. We can argue
that below all religious expression there exists an ‘under religion’
shared by all, suggesting that all religion begins in a ‘universal
psychology’. Upon this a specific cultural story is built. This is
powerful and gives people meaning and direction. When the stage is
reached where a whole society believes, doing real physical things in
society, then the God-form takes on an element of reality, for if it is
‘truth’ or not, the outcome would be the same. A cultural force
becomes existent above the individual, and takes on an intelligence all
its own. This element is what I call OverMind. Thus, religion can be
seen to have a universal oneness in ‘under religion’, which is all
inclusive; and specific elements of OverMind based on culture or
environment, which fragments mankind. Could an understanding of the
former lead to a new tolerance in the latter? This said, I am
convinced that a real form of universal intelligence could exist. For
analysis of this, you need to read THE UNEXPLAINED page accessed
from top of this site, which delves into the possibility in the last two
parts. But as a taster, science tells us that evolution destroys the
idea of intelligence. Yet computer programs now exist that are
evolutionary in nature, evolving new programs of their own. Yet
before this can occur, a form of subtle direction must be placed in
the form of a ‘basic design function’. Is this so with the universe?

Eye On the World
Essays on everything from science
to religion, politics to crime

GREEN NEWS: The International
Energy Agency claims we are running
out of oil faster than thought. A clear sign
for Big Biz to go Green? Don’t you believe it. Green
tech can be done by smaller companies. Big Biz will go Green
when they’ve found a replacement that guarantees the big systems
they need to survive. Until then, the planet can go boil.

BRIT NEWS: The Tories will shrink the State, says would-be PM, David
Cameron. Social issues are best handled by private/volunteer
organisations working at the local level. Couldn’t agree
more. Big Govt places directives from the centre
based on ideology rather than need. The
only problem is, can we trust the
Tories to get it right?

READ WITH MUMMY

The Magazine Post with a gentle hint of horror

One Single Impression
ReadWritePoem – 3 Word Thursday
Friday Flash 55 – 3 Word Wednesday

THE MONSTER

Searching for monster, it’s here somewhere,
Turn my back I can feel its stare,
Its ravaging this land, getting its way,
Then its gone, as if a fey;
Things went wrong so it had to exist,
Solutions, hunters, got to enlist,
But the monster wasn’t there before the excuse,
Our inner terror can have devilish use

THE SOUL

Fiction: So often I feel disconnected. Go through life, traveling, trying
to find a place where my soul can be as one with I, but always I fail,
with just brief moments of calibration. Messages fill the ether now, all
we are is accessed through the keyboard, leaving man soulless, kexy,
aretaloger. And I feel it in every fibre of my being – this pointlessness.
But I caught my soul as this life tried to destroy it. I snatched it, filled
my gardeviance with it, so occasionally I can feel fulfilled, have
meaning, have dreams. And in those beautiful moments I sit, open
the trunk, take out my books and read.

aretaloger – endangered
kexy – more hollow
gardeviance – trunk

MONSTER WORDS

Procrastinate, prevaricate, a plethora of prose,
Monster words that don’t allow you to doze,
But how on earth did we end up with pea?
With its pernicious prickle of platitudinous glee!
No polyglot’s language can allow this to survive,
Pea must be plastered, processionally proscribed,
Choked in a parallelogram ’til porous, can’t flee!
We’re saved, at last! It’s a posthumous pea

FLASH 55 – HITCHHIKING

Fiction: He was hitchhiking. It had been so long since he started, he
hardly knew where he was going. The land just seemed to pass by,
ethereally. Of course, he knew he was hitchhiking to nowhere. He
used to hitchhike to somewhere – before he was killed. The car stops.
‘Hey, thanks for the lift,’ he says.

THE O B SCENE

The out-of-body scene is a spirited affair,
Swapping with another host, the public unaware,
‘He’s not himself,’ you may well say, and how close to the truth,
If only you knew how we could flit you’d certainly say ’strewth!’
Sometimes there’s an accident and we fall into the wrong mind,
Behaviour becomes obscene as you’re disloyal to your kind,
But it gives a whole new meaning to wife swap and other things,
Fancy a vacation from your cell? What benefits it brings,
But animating corpses can bring the greatest fun,
Wandering around spookily ’til the rising of the sun

© Anthony North, November 2009

Try my Pictures of Life, a novel

QUESTIONS

ABC Wednesday & more prompts below
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REMEMBRANCE DAY

11 November, Remembrance Day,
Think of those not here today,
Died in service to freedom’s song,
Taken from those to whom they belong,
Cherished always, such regret,
The glorious dead, never forget

BLOGGER BARD

Questions are intellectual milestones along a journey of discovery. I
say ‘questions’, and not ‘answers’, because whilst questions are
definite, answers rarely are. In all my years of research, answers have
been elusive. Indeed, I’m satisfied that, what we class as an ‘answer’
is really the latest definition of how we see ourselves as being, rather
than a reality. This is so for a specific reason.

We always answer a question
within a paradigm.

Questions mainly come in two forms – ‘how’ and ‘why’. ‘How’ questions
are based within a scientific methodology, whilst ‘why’ questions tend
to be of a religious or spiritual nature. Prior to Monotheism, most
questions seem to be about ‘why’. This was because intellect was
locked in a cyclical mindset based around nature. Most eastern
philosophy is still based in this mindset. However, in the idea of the
One God, monotheism broke the cycles, instigating a linear mindset
where man had to advance, providing a definite beginning and an end.
This would eventually lead to the ‘how’ questions of science. But
further to this, with the breaking of the cycles, our mindset moved
from nature to society, and thence to the individual. The new
paradigm was materialist, atheistic and scientific. Hence, we can see
‘how’ and ‘why’ questions as coming from specific mindsets, with any
answers based fundamentally within the attitude. To me, this has
proved destructive for knowledge. Such questions should not be
polarities – should not lead to conflict – but should form a duality of
knowledge – distinctly different, yes, but in intellectual balance. The
day we realize the importance of this duality of knowledge, then
knowledge may be just that.

Eye On the World
Essays on everything from science
to religion, politics to crime

BRIT NEWS: Bosses told make
new jobs fit in with family life. This
seems a good idea at first, but the reality
is it is about choice for the individual rather than
the family – part of the move towards giving you the
power to design your own life divorced from all other influence.
Except, of course, the provider of the means. Consumerism.

BRIT NEWS: It is clear by next Summer the Tories will be in govt. I’d
like to introduce the main characters to my o’seas friends. PM will be
David Cameron, who once said we should hug a Hoodie. Other
principles will be George Osborne, William Hague (a Yorkshireman, he
cannot pronounce ‘h’), portly Europe lover Ken Clarke, and on the
sidelines London Mayor Boris Johnson, and how about Anne
Widdecombe for good measure. I’ve decided on a Robin Hood theme
for these people, so from now on they will be Cameron Hoodie,
Sir G of Osborne, William Ague, Friar Ken, The troublesome
Sheriff of London and Maid Widdecombe. Of course,
Robin Hood took from the rich to give to the poor.
Hhhmmm. We’ll see.

BRIT NEWS: So the Lisbon Treaty is sealed and a
bureaucrat run European Super-State is with
us. For a brief moment I thought I’d vote
UK Independence Party in the coming
election as a protest, but realised it
is more important to get Labour
out. So I’ll vote Tory, and
when they’re in power
I’ll expect them to
save the UK from
totalitarianism.

FUTURE ZONE

What’s ahead … and Beyond!!!

One Single Impression
ReadWritePoem – 3 Word Thursday
Friday Flash 55 – 3 Word Wednesday

UNIVERSE INCARNATE

To die, dark tunnel, heavenly light,
Particle sucked into darkest night,
Soul enlightened, sent right back,
Black hole munching matter snack,
Reborn in another man,
Reality recycled to a plan,
Planets and lifeforms at their end,
Reform, reborn, eternal blend

PLANET ECHO

Sci Fi: They landed on the planet amid a battle. The small settlement
was under siege and the peaceful looking aliens looked so frightened.
This was in stark contrast to the attackers, who you could tell lived
for war. The Earthers immediately ran for cover into a cave. It was
there they found the ancient rimestock, and learnt of the sorrowful
history of the place; and it was obvious it would pudify. As one they
seemed to know what they had to do. Taking up arms, they counter
attacked, and soon the settlement was saved. Thanked, the Earthers
took off to carry on their journey. Leaving orbit, the wormhole took
them by surprise and they landed on a planet amid a battle. It was a
different area to where they had previously been, or been before
that, and before that, and before that … But they knew nothing of
this. They simply found an almanac and felt ashamed. Confabulation,
knew the aliens, made excellent mercenaries.

confabulation – false memory
pudify – to cause to be ashamed
rimestock – almanac

I DON’T DREAM

I don’t dream – well, no! I suppose I must,
Yet before I awake they always combust,
Mere fragments, incomprehensible in every way,
Those impressions simply refuse to stay,
No nightmares have I ever had,
I suppose for that I should be glad,
But I feel I’m missing out on such a lot,
Sometimes it’s hell being a soulless robot

FLASH 55 – THE ALIENS ARE HERE

Sci Fi: The alien pressed a button and another UFO shot through the
sky. Immediately, he began posting on the internet, stirring up
interest; the odd bug-eyed picture. How ugly that alien looked. Who
will it abduct today? Satisfied, he’d created enough conspiracy
theories to guarantee no one would believe he was here for another
day.

THE ABDUCTOR

There’s no doubt he was an errant soul,
Hankered to always achieve his goal,
Though his people had had enough of him,
Murky past, acting on perverted whim,
So banished, he was, to another world,
There he wouldn’t get the girl,
But they forgot his flying saucery,
And birthed the alien abduction story

© Anthony North, November 2009

Try my Pictures of Life, a novel

POLITICS

ABC Wednesday & more prompts below
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POLLY TICKS

Democracy is the best political system but has yet to be understood.
Born out of individual empowerment, it can only thrive in an ideology
which shares this value. Hence, democracy is actually the political
arm of capitalism, and can only work in a capitalist system.

This said, single systems
are always wrong.

They lead to tunnel vision and totalitarianism. Hence, a true
democracy should always have differing systems below the political
ideal, be they religious, philanthropic or socialistic. Similarly,
democracy provides no meaning or moral ethic against excess, so
underlying systems are required to define these influences. There is
always a danger of such influences becoming fanatical. This is always
wrong. Indeed, there could well be a ‘law of opposite effect’ which
states: the more fanatical a person or system, the greater the
chance of it achieving the opposite effect. Hence, essential to all
systems is the requirement of moderation and tolerance to other
systems. Any system should be seen as nothing more than a guide.
However, balanced debate requires such systems to be vocal.
Non-vocal debate – as seen in centre ground politics – does not
achieve this, resulting in extreme law. Vocal debate irons out all
issues and actually leads to moderate law. Counter to true democracy
is the political party. Parties infiltrate underlying systems into the
legislature where they do not belong. Further, parties offer careers to
members and inhibit members’ freedom of speech. These influences
take away their loyalty to electorate and conscience, and lead to a
system having overall power in society. Parties should be degraded by
the instigation of a system that encourages independent
parliamentarians. Such representatives would guarantee greater
debate and whittle away the power of all parties. Another important
factor is the ratio between representative, electorate and legislature.
If a parliamentarian represents too many people to allow adequate
access, he is divorced from the people and a single system will be his
primary concern. Similarly, if a legislature has too many
parliamentarians, it becomes nothing more than a rubber stamp for an
over bearing executive. As I see it, the very maximum of people per
representative is 100,000, and the maximum number of
parliamentarians per legislature is 600. If either of these numbers is
higher, the balance shifts from the people to the system, and
democracy moves towards totalitarianism.

Eye On the World
Essays on everything from science
to religion, politics to crime

BRIT NEWS: There is a covenant
between govt and forces concerning
responsibility of the former to the safety of
the latter. In 2006 a Nimrod plane blew up in flight
over Afghanistan, killing 14 personnel. The inquiry has now
directly blamed the govt for penny pinching above safety. This govt
should hang its head in shame. It is unworthy of leadership.

WORLD NEWS: Tony Blair never said he wanted to be the first
President of Europe, but we all know. But now it seems
the other leaders may not want him … err, excuse
me?!!! A political President decided by leaders?
No democracy, then. What a totalitarian
mess Europe is. Indeed, I won’t
cooperate on anything in
Europe until it is about
cooperation, and
not integration.

THE CRIME POST

It would be criminal not to read it

One Single Impression
ReadWritePoem – 3 Word Thursday
Friday Flash 55 – 3 Word Wednesday

DEPARTED

He’s departed – I know, I put him there,
Lying before me; those eyes, they stare,
Everything within him has now gone,
How can I ever belong?
It departed a little earlier for me,
Any sense of morality,
Reason, too – it took a bow,
And I killed him – I’ve departed now

UNWILLFUL DEATH

Fiction: They thought it was complete intellectual pigritude. After all,
what was the point? The psychologist thought it utible, if for nothing
more than finding out if hypnosis CAN overcome a subject’s moral
responsibility for action. And even though his words were tristifical,
the small gathering looked on. The subject had been hypnotized and
stood in the street, a shotgun in his hands. The instruction had been
given: to kill the first person to walk up the street. Of course, the
person selected was wearing body armour, but unbeknown to the
subject. As if on cue, the target rounded the corner and began to
approach the subject. Those gathered could see the increasing
anxiety on the subject’s face as he fought his moral values. But then,
decision made, he fired … There was shocked silence for many
seconds, and then they rushed to observe the body on the floor. Who
had won the argument was irrelevant now. The subject had shot the
sign – which had duly dropped on the head of the target.

tristifical – causing to be gloomy
pigritude – laziness
utible – useful

THE OTHER PERSON

Two people sit, shards on the floor,
One a woman, the other a bore,
He’s going now, his purpose done,
She’s regretting what she did – so much fun,
Driving her on to depravity and vice,
Never even thinking twice,
Until he appeared – her conscience, alas,
He’s going – she smashed the looking glass

FLASH 55 – THE SONG MAN

Fiction: Memories impact upon behaviour. And often it is through
music. He remembered many songs of love, and whenever he found a
new woman he would sing them in his head. His ways never failed and
she was his. It is then that the song that makes him kill comes into
his head. It’s playing now.

WHEEL OF CRIME

So Many lives you’ve ended up here,
Karma seems to offer no fear,
No progression up the Wheel of Life,
Cannot obey, always strife,
So down you go from human to critter,
Arachnid, insect, plants that wither,
Always you end up criminally insane,
And now as a virus, so much pain

© Anthony North, November 2009

Try my Pictures of Life, a novel

ORATORY

ABC Wednesday & more prompts below
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GURU TONY

Oratory is the art of public speaking, but how powerful is it? We’re
used to politicians spouting spin, but maybe it has more a hold on us
than we believe. To understand, we must go back to its beginning, in
the prehistoric storyteller, telling his tales by the campfire. He spoke
of the tribe’s past exploits and place in the universe. In other words,
he offered meaning and a will to glory.

This formed into the
great myths.

However, we now know myths are subtle. Whilst validating a ruling
elite, they were also as one with the people’s ways and placed taboo
upon them. This proved an important means of control. People could
identify with the tales, and slowly people become the story. And in
being as one in the story, a consensus grows. Such an ability is still
with us today. From the Medieval Christian media which portrayed the
life of Christ through the year, to the modern Soap opera with its
daily dose of storytelling, a powerful elite subtly defines the behavior
by which we live. Indeed, so powerful could be its influence that I’d
argue our view of reality changes to reflect the story. So remember
when you hear politicians speak, or descend into your favourite
storytelling media, it is usually defining the story of us, through the
power of the elite.

Eye On the World
Essays on everything from science
to religion, politics to crime

BRIT NEWS: So, British National
Party leader, Nick Griffin, gets his say
on BBC’s Question Time. And rightly so. His
party got a million votes, and despite their vile
ideas, freedom of speech must prevail. But the real
villains here are the main parties who’ve not only ignored,
but destroyed the entire culture of, the 20% British working class,
leaving this vile joke the only party that speaks for them.

WORLD NEWS: A re-run of the Afghan election farce is about to go
ahead in the hope that corruption and fraud can be avoided this time.
This is all very well, but is it right that western troops’ lives should be
put on the line to achieve it? When will the west learn, democracy
takes hundreds of years to achieve. It will not happen there.

BRIT NEWS: Bank of England governor says many banks should be
broken up. Totally agree. As with most organisations nowadays,
they’re too big, too distant from the consumer, and too
dictatorial in their approach. This is how we got in
this mess. Smaller and more would increase
true capitalism thru competition, and be
of a size where the consumer’s
thoughts matter. Remember,
Big Is Bad!!!

RATTLER’S TALE

A Voyage of the Imagination

One Single Impression
ReadWritePoem – 3 Word Thursday
Friday Flash 55 – 3 Word Wednesday

SHIFT IN TIME

I stand in this time and place,
Other things, though, want this space,
Atoms and particles and bugs galore,
Most go through but some can’t be ignored,
We’re only here for a blink of an eye,
If only a hint of them could be spied,
Like that truck hurtling down the line,
I just hope I can shift in time

THE LATE CLIENT

Fiction: Madame Gracie had been delayed getting to her séance room.
It had been a bad car accident outside and she hoped her client
wouldn’t be late also. While she waited, the ectoplasm seemed to be
forming easily. It was suffarcinate in nearly every facial orifice and
particularly spiscious. Perhaps it was the close proximity to death
today; so tristifical. And her initial contact with her spirit guide proved
difficult. Perhaps it was the archaic words she used. Eventually her
client appeared but seemed rather distant, as if not there at all. ‘Who
are you?’ he asked, frightened. Madame Gracie’s first thought was
that he had died, but as her spirit guide came through loud and clear,
she said, rather surprised: ‘Oh, I’M dead.’

suffarcinate – to stuff
spiscious – thick consistency
tristifical – causing to be gloomy

THE SPACE AGE FAIR

Roll up, roll up, the ultimate ride,
It’s quite an experience, I must confide,
A roundabout such as never seen,
Once you come out, you’ll be surprised where you’ve been;
Now don’t be put off by my big bug eyes,
Come ride the universe, get the prize,
Okay, when you’re back you may not feel whole,
We’ll implant a foetus and take your soul

FLASH 55 – PERFECT

Fiction: It was my virtual reality dream – to create the perfect woman.
I worked hard on the program and once complete the experience was
fulfilling in every way. At least, at first. But gradually disquiet crept
upon me. Where, her personality; the imperfections of humanity? How
can I love her when she makes me so insignificant?

NIGHTMARE SCHEMES

Sit on a thought, incubate ideas,
Hatching an answer to our dreams and fears,
This is the way progress goes,
Listening to he who we think must know,
But rarely does he produce our dream,
So often we end with a nightmare scheme,
Maybe because he claims it is true,
Such vanity from him, not thinking of you

© Anthony North, October 2009

I got this award from my blogger friend, Linda. Many thanks to her.

Try my Pictures of Life, a novel

NEW IDEAS

ABC Wednesday & more prompts below
Try my Paranormal Flash now!

BLOGGER BARD

As my regular readers will know, of late I’ve been working on a new
book. This has meant trawling through 25 years of unpublished
essays. In doing so, I’ve realized there is much more to it than a
single book – I’ve planned a whole series, requiring much editing,
rewrites, publicity and chasing agents.

I’m sorry but this means
more change.

In order to find time for this – and to visit my blogger buddies who I’ve
neglected of late – I’m now having to cut out some prompts I do, and
cut down to one Magazine Post a week for the foreseeable future.
This will appear on a Tuesday. I assure you there will be no more cut
backs. This should give me the time I need. Also, whilst reacquainting
myself with my essays, I’ve decided to begin future posts with a kind
of ‘back to basics’ series of flash essays laying out my ideas in the
raw.

All my ideas begin with
a single philosophy.

I call this Patternology, or P-ology. We live in a specialized world
where knowledge has been split up into many unrelated disciplines.
Whilst this has advantages, I’m certain that much knowledge is
missed by not taking a holistic overview of knowledge. P-ology is a
discipline that looks for patterns in this overview. I see it as a
bedfellow to specialization which can never offer truth, but questions
just where we are. Everything I do stems from this idea.

Eye On the World
Essays on everything from science
to religion, politics to crime

BRIT NEWS: New report says
begin formal education at 6. Please save
education from expert’s indecision. No wonder
education’s a mess.

BRIT NEWS: Brown to talk tough over public sector disquiet?
Labour always goes amid mass strikes. Why not go now? Save the
hassle.

GREEN NEWS: Is UK govt planning tax for nuke power plants? They’ll
come. Climate change beaten by global Nuke Pox? We must say no.

BRIT NEWS: Revenue to investigate 27 MPs over their tax
payments. Is the law finally catching up with
the lawmakers?

BRIT NEWS: Royal Mail hiring 30,000 temporary
staff to defeat striking workers. We can
expect severe disruption this week.

READ WITH MUMMY

The Magazine Post with a gentle hint of horror

One Single Impression
ReadWritePoem – 3 Word Thursday
Friday Flash 55 – 3 Word Wednesday

ELUSIVE

I’ve tried to get there many a time,
But often things just don’t chime,
Many roads I’ve been down, lost,
Who knows what is the cost,
I try to think of it in jest,
But I think my GPS is possessed

FLASH 55 – REALITY TV

Fiction: He was sat in front of the TV. He felt movement, opened his
eyes, lazily. It was just a little man but menacing, creeping forward,
dagger held high, ready to stab him. He shook himself – watched the
screen, where a man smiled wickedly as he held a dagger. He would
stay awake from now on.

CLIFFHANGER TECH

Site click here … or …
Wear (where?) … write on above … to …
On … read it, badge …
The … wear (it) loud, just proud,
Code display it … image poem …
Your the (one to) get the …

SMELLY ONE

Fiction: To experience xenization. It was uncomfortable at first. He
was maleolent and his pigritude was almost debilitating. Hence, I
struggled to place one step in front of the other. It had been a single
thought that triggered it off – a flash of memory – and he was in me,
possessing me. I could feel my mind disappearing, but I fought to
keep my sanity. I could not go back to my teenage years.

maleolent – foul smelling
xenization – walk as a stranger
pigritude – laziness

A GHOST’S LOVE

Reckless heartache, jangle soul,
Harrowing dirge, cannot feel whole,
Caught in sorrow, purgatory’s home,
No escape, never atone;
I killed for her, that was my boast,
But then revenge made me a ghost,
Yet I crave those moments of bliss,
Don’t fret, my love, it’s just a kiss

© Anthony North, October 2009

Try my Pictures of Life, a novel

WE’RE SOMETHING

Friday Flash 55 & more prompts below
Try my Paranormal Flash now!

PROF ISAAC GALISTEIN

Earth is an insignificant planet. Nothing special in the cosmos. Also,
mankind is nothing in universal terms. These simple facts should excite
us, ‘cos when you are nothing, it should be reason to be something.
This has fuelled advancement – bettering ourselves. Alternatively
being nothing can make you realize you’ll never be anything. This is
self-defeating and separates the men from the boys. When I look at
all the tech on the drawing board that could send us to the stars, and
the fact that we aren’t there, I ask: are we men or boys?

Eye On the World
Essays on everything from science
to religion, politics to crime

CRIME NEWS: Some prison governors
in UK think prison terms under a yr should
be scrapped. They don’t work. Well make them work!

BRIT NEWS: Labour to raise £16bn to help pay off deficit by asset
stripping. Parties are bidding for office. When’s the granny going?

SCI NEWS: Pill use over 40 yrs has put women off masculine men,
say scientists. That doesn’t explain why masculine men are rare.

TECH NEWS: Brit govt digital task force wants all online
by 2012. Can a situation ever come when this
is achieved? Will coercion be used?

FUTURE ZONE

What’s ahead … and Beyond!!!

One Single Impression
Sunday Scribblings – 3 Word Thursday

TO CONQUER TIME

We had to do it, it was our way,
If something’s to be done, we can’t go astray,
Knowledge demands that everything chimes,
And we’d learnt, at last, how to conquer time,
Create, for all, an eternal now,
Taking the ultimate temporal bow,
With all that had been at once, so plain,
Now we live knowing the universe is pain

FLASH 55 – CLOUD FLOATER
(Quilly’s word meanings below)

Sci Fi: They couldn’t get over the beauty of it as they watched. He
was nubivagant, graceful, tenellous, as if with wings. He seemed
surrounded by light and they knew he would be utible. Soon his flight
ended. And as he arrived on the slab in the flying saucer, the alien
smiled and picked up the probe.

tenellous – tender
nubivagant – moving thru clouds
utible – useful

SPAM

Spam is here, then it’s there,
Spam should make us all beware,
Of evolution in the raw,
Spreading like nature’s tooth and claw,
Filling environments like a weed,
Runaway capitalism’s holy creed

© Anthony North, October 2009

Try my Pictures of Life, a novel

MATRIMONY

ABC Wednesday & more prompts below
Try my Paranormal Flash now!

BLOGGER BARD

What does marriage mean? Well, to many it means living together until
irreconcilable differences decree otherwise. Indeed, many don’t bother
getting married at all, happy in serial monogamy with commitment only
to a partner until decided otherwise.

Now, far be it from me to
condemn any lifestyle.

To me, people are free to live how they want. But this always needs
to be done in full knowledge. And commitment to another person is
only part of what being married means. Marriage was also intended as
a commitment by a couple to their society in order to receive
privileged status. The modern idea of marriage is another example of
the throwing away of the social forces that used to keep us all
together.

Eye On the World
Essays on everything from science to
religion, politics to crime

BRIT NEWS: Ex-Army Chief Gen
Dannatt joins the Tories. Good. You
need senior military in govt to know how to
do best for forces.

BRIT NEWS: Royal Mail loses Amazon contract as strike
threat looms. If this trend continues, will strikes guarantee loss
of jobs?

BRIT NEWS: Cameron vows to pull down Labour’s big govt. Deserves
to be next Prime Minister for this alone. But then he
must deliver.

WORLD NEWS: Obama wins Nobel Peace Prize.
Why? What has he done? A great
symbol, yes, but is this all
you need to be to
win it?

THE CRIME POST

It would be criminal not to read it

Carry On Tuesday – Poetry Train
Heads or Tails – ReadWritePoem
Three Word Wednesday

THE CAUSE

It’s not my fault, there is a cause,
I may have robbed but take a pause,
Society hasn’t been good to me,
Things always go wrong, don’t you see?

No I don’t, you miserable cad,
When I think of the troubles I’ve had,
But they didn’t turn me towards crime,
There’s no cause for crossing the line

I KILLED IT

Fiction: It was Victor Hugo who wrote: ‘Life is a flower of which love is
the honey.’ Ha! Not in my world. It was so obviously fictitious. At first
I liked her – gave her so much happiness. But it was not long before I
used her, tormented her, became contemptuous of her – her ways,
her ideosyncracies, her very existence. And that’s why I did what I
did. That’s why I killed her. Yet it was soon so obvious I had been
wrong. The last four chapters without her were terrible. And they
didn’t even buy the film rights.

THE SPAMINATOR

Vowelised chelations, capricious progeny,
Vehement reprobates, irresistible infamy,
Cosmoramic investment, insolent language,
Exploded on my blog, exulting their baggage …
A literary thrasher I’ll use ’til they croak,
Freedom from spam I will invoke,
No more, then, will they steal my blog,
Eradicated, expunged, no more comments they’ll hog

IT’S INDECENT

It’s indecent, it is! They told me so,
Got to look, but they’re moving so slow,
Why do they frustrate people like this?
They don’t understand – we simply can’t miss …
At last I’m here, do you want to see?
Ohhh my! It was worth the fee,
In decent shape, I’m telling you,
Frustrated yet? Well join the queue

© Anthony North, October 2009

Try my Pictures of Life, a novel

COMPROMISE

Friday Flash 55 & more prompts below
Try my Paranormal Flash now!

GURU TONY

People always want to stop you from doing what you want.
And then there are those incidents that hold you up. Life can
sometimes be a drag. But I guess this is because we’re
forgetting an important element of society. Wants must always
be balanced with duties to others, or society would descend
into chaos. We must remember the importance of such
compromise or our dreams will forever be shattered.

Eye On the World
Essays on everything from science to
religion, politics to crime

BRIT NEWS: Soldier who lost
3 limbs in Afghanistan is taunted
in wheelchair by teenagers. Is this what
we sacrifice them for?

BRIT NEWS: London Mayor Boris Johnson had small
acting role in Soap Eastenders. Boris, very nice, but don’t
give up the day job.

HEALTH NEWS: The Lancet reports half of babies born in UK will live
to 100. No, long lived people today lived different lifestyle in youth.

BRIT NEWS: Airline union warns pilots are too tired to fly. Well, when
you use aircraft like buses, the standards inevitably decline.

CRIME NEWS: Brit police report burglaries up. This is inevitable.
We are not more moral. Crime increases as economic
wealth declines.

BRIT NEWS: Tories prepare for govt at their
conference. An honest message of
cutbacks & pain. Their gamble
may well work.

RATTLER’S TALE

A Voyage of the Imagination

One Single Impression
Sunday Scribblings – 3 Word Thursday

FLASH 55 – BLOB WORLD

Fiction: The pain hit him as he opened his eyes. What he had done
last night he could not remember. But soon he was to worry about
the world itself. Focusing, he finally stared out the window, only to
see macabre blobs where once the world had been. He froze.
Rubbed his eyes … Opened the curtains.

TALISMAN

Tali held the amulet close,
It protected her the most,
As she traversed this terrible place,
Frightened and with haste;
But as long as it was there,
She knew another would beware,
Arm around her, HE never ran
He was Tali’s man

SWEETIE
(Quilly’s word meanings below)

Fiction: The tragematopolist did not want to misqueme him. He’d
noticed the vacivity in the boy’s eyes when he had first entered the
sweet shop, as if there was something wrong with him. And when he’d
asked for a sweet, the confectioner could only say no. After all, he
must not give sweets to strange children.

misqueme – offend
tragematopolist – confectioner
vacivity – containing nothing

BUMP IN THE NIGHT

It’s coming close – I cannot see,
All is dark, eerily,
Hazards forming before my eyes,
Using night to disguise,
Shock! It comes – hints of Poe,
Ouch!
I’ve stubbed my toe

© Anthony North, October 2009

Try my Pictures of Life, a novel