HOW TO EXPLAIN MIDDLECLASS

Featuring Writers’ Island. Have you had a go yet?

Back in the Middle Ages the class structure was simple and straight forward. There was the king and his aristocracy, and there were the serfs, with a fledgling middleclass in between in the form of monk (who offered assistance to the poor) or knight.
During the Renaissance, this middleclass moved into two main areas – enterprise and the intellect. Cities suddenly became predominantly merchant centres richer than the monarch, and the universities powered the new philosophies of the Enlightenment.

The middleclass was on the rise.

And what followed was the most successful revolution in history. Central to its success was the removal of power and wealth from the aristocracy. In some countries, such as France, it was a bloody affair, whilst in Britain, it was much more subtle.
First of all, non-Conformist denominations arose such as the Methodists, removing power from the established Church. Second, philanthropists and philosophers worked towards institutionalized assistance for the poor.

This second point acclimatized the poor.

This was for the institutionalization of the factory, which was soon to follow, kick-starting the Industrial Revolution, and giving the middleclass the economic power base to finally de-stabilize the aristocracy.
Once this was achieved, the revolution was completed by the institution of the middleclass jury to oust the judicial power of the aristocracy, and the growing influence of ‘commoner’ Parliamentarians, finally grasping control of the sovereign power of the State.

This darker side to the story is not often told.

But the reality is, ‘middleclass’ was a revolution aimed at moving power from the aristocracy down to the next class level. And essential to the process was the idea of the ‘individual’.
In this new revolution, anyone could grasp the individuality to better himself. And to allow it to happen, the power of tradition had to be smashed. Now, I tell this story how it is for an important reason. Because the revolution never stopped.

We live, today, in its latest manifestation.

Middleclass intellectualism went on to complete the job of smashing tradition with the rise of political correctness. And whilst the initial phase concerned philanthropists, this second stage brought about freedoms for minorities, but this does not discount the initial urge to power involved in the process.
Political correctness worked hand in hand with a new resurgence of entrepreneurialism, in that it began an assault on the remaining traditions in family and State. This removed ‘meaning’ from people’s lives, which was then provided by the entrepreneur in mass consumerism.
With allegiance to the State in decline, and mass consumerism providing a new economic power to enterprise, the multi-national corporation grew to overshadow the political State, actually funding the politicians of their choosing.
And so we arrive at today. The middleclass has expanded to include most of an advanced population. Yet in doing so, they have automatically become the subservient class to those middleclass individuals who rose high in the corporate world.
Offered supposed wealth and freedoms, this new middleclass has now become the new serf, to the new ‘aristocracy’ of the 1% mega rich. Thus, the revolution is complete, and we have arrived back where we began.
After all, that is what ‘revolution’ really means.

© Anthony North, May 2008

TONY ON OIL, FOOD, BULIMIA

Including Sunday Scribblings and Friday 5. Have you had a go yet?

Welcome to my daily Diary post. A summit of world leaders is to meet in Rome next week to discuss the global food crisis. As prices soar, millions face starvation. Immediate aid is being talked about, as well as long term strategies.

That no doubt means a bit of cosmetic aid.

And then talking, talking, but never deciding. But maybe we need to look at why there is a food crisis. And the obvious answer is we are now reaping what we sowed with the Green Revolution.
This was a Big Biz take-over of the agricultural production of the Third World, destroying indigenous farming methods, and slaving them to western methods and products – at a cost that could not be afforded. It was inevitable it would eventually collapse.
And the west thinks WE have the answers? God help them!

Truckers have been at it again.

On Tuesday, hundreds of trucks descended on Central London, causing chaos. Protesting about the cost of fuel and road tax increases, many are being forced out of business.
Now, I’m a bit of an environmentalist. And I would like nothing better than reducing the amount of traffic on our roads. But ridiculously high taxes is not the way – especially as the price of oil is rocketing anyway.
This is the perfect way to turn people off environmentalism. The answer is proper research into cheaper, more eco-friendly tech for cars and public transport. Offer an excellent alternative, and people will take it. It isn’t rocket science.
Well, have a great weekend. Enjoy my selection below, and call back Monday.

© Anthony North, May 2008

THROW IT UP

Look in the mirror, what do you see,
Is that a curve growing on thee?
Surely that yogurt didn’t do this to you,
so maybe it was that piping hot stew;
You didn’t throw it up quickly enough this time,
in future you’ll know, and you’ll be fine;
With hair like straw, a voice like gravel,
pigment of ochre, too weak to travel;
Such lack of self-worth, you’re heading for a crash,
hormones going crazy, growing a moustache;
A pitiful sight, I think you’ll agree,
too much missed dinner, breakfast and tea;
And too many magazines full of stick-thin insects,
calling themselves celebrities, and the way it infects,
the feeling of self-worth in so many young girls,
locked in material values, in fashion and curls

(c) Anthony North, May 2008

THE CURVE

Draw a straight line, an impossible task,
Why is this? You may well ask;
Draw it all across the world,
you’ll end up back where it first unfurled;
Even the universe adheres to this rule,
gravity bends light, as if a spool;
It may be something that we really hate,
but absolutely nothing can ever be straight;
There is always a curve to it all,
whether it be big, or be it small;
People believe we think in straight lines,
but even here the universe defines;
Be it science, religion, politics, whatever,
keeping it straight is an impossible endeavour;
Always we go in neverending cycles,
forever repeating the human recital;
Things are curved, undefined, never true,
learn this secret and we can begin anew

(c) Anthony North, May 2008

TONY ON EDUCATING, AIR, TRANSIT

Including Totally Optional Prompts. Have you had a go yet?

Welcome to my daily Diary post. Britain’s independent schools are getting worried. Demanding that the government scale down its curriculum for the under fives, they say it violates the human rights of parents. Well, it’s good that someone is saying so.

The state schools seem to be comatose.

But the reality is, the State is moving more and more into family life. Parents are no longer to be trusted with the education or morals of their children. Now, I agree that many lack parenting skills nowadays, but why is this?
I’d put it down to the liberal style of education over the last 30 years, with the teacher as friend, and morals something to take or leave – which eventually led to the government we have today; a government that is increasingly destroying family and creating the typical ‘State’ child. If it goes on like this, I’ll give it 50 years before the State hatcheries appear.

The UK must re-think its aviation policy.

So says an influential environmental advisory group. When we think of the recent cock-ups at the new Terminal 5 at Heathrow, we can see why. Everything – aircraft, airports, queues – just have to be ‘big’ today.
To me, this is madness. Big means extra complication, and additional possibilities for things going wrong. This is commonsense. So why do governments throughout the west insist on big, today, instead of lots more ‘smaller’?
Well, I think it’s all to do with Big Biz and ideology. ‘Big’ means only big corporations can afford to run them, thus keeping any growing competition out of the arena. Seems to me another example of environmental, and social, chaos just to keep the big guys secure.
Don’t forget to fly by tomorrow.

© Anthony North, May 2008

NOTHING OUTSIDE

I miss my shadow, it’s never there,
nothing hidden, all is bare;
where is my reflection? I see it not,
as if skin and bone is all I’ve got;
What is me if these things are gone,
I hope they’re back before too long;
I seem to be nothing more than me,
discarded, maybe, ‘cos of vanity;
where is anything exterior to my self,
without them I have nothing, no wealth;
I’m just an empty shell of an original kind,
a metaphor concerning what’s in my mind,
empty,
alone,
and blind

(c) Anthony North, May 2008

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I’M NOT ALL THERE – Fiction

I couldn’t quite grasp what was missing. I was stood in the middle of the hall, a hive of activity all around me. Public announcements lanced into my mind – directions left, directions right, directions up, directions down. And off people went – as directed.
The attendants weren’t much help. ‘There’s something missing,’ I said.
‘Yeah, right,’ was the only answer I could get.
I wasn’t even sure how I’d got here. I knew I was here, in this strange, transitional place, but my memory just didn’t want to work.
So I just stood there, in the middle of the hall, confused. And a queue of people began behind me.
The attendants came over, then. After all, I was causing an obstruction.
‘Move along,’ they said. ‘Go where you know you’re supposed to be going.’
‘But I don’t know,’ I said. ‘I haven’t a clue.’
I think they realised something was missing then. After a little head scratching, they directed me in the right direction, I suppose. And it was clear I was not yet ready – hence, the confusion, lack of memory and the knowing that something was missing.
And as my spirit entered the gateway marked ‘purgatory’, I knew the thing that was missing was my body.
Death, it seems, has a habit of doing that.

© Anthony North, May 2008

TONY ON ILLEGAL, TECHNO, QUEEN

Including Three Word Wednesday. Have you had a go yet?

Welcome to my daily Diary post. A solicitor was recently charged £4,900 for watching three TV programs on her mobile phone while on holiday. Now, you’d have thought a solicitor would understand the small print of a contract, but obviously not. Which is quite worrying.

Technology is becoming increasing complicated.

And I think this is for a purpose. Basically, we are not supposed to understand it. This is, infact, a useful form of social control, used since ancient times.
Feelings of inadequacy – you’re a sinner, etc – guarantee that you need a higher authority to explain things. Soon, you invest this higher authority with dominion over your life. And finally, you accept only ‘it’ understands higher purpose, and you’re just dumb little serf.
Crafty devils, aren’t they?

Queen Elizabeth’s grandson, Peter Phillips, recently wed.

The wedding caused a right royal furore. It seems rights to pictures were sold to the celebrity magazine, Hello, resulting in pictures of the Queen in the magazine.
She has since banned all future royal weddings doing such deals. And I, for one, totally agree with her. What we are dealing with, here, is celebrity glitz verses tradition. Now, I know tradition has come in for a lot of criticism in recent years. But a simple question.
What is the best way to attempt to curb excess? A celebrity culture enshrined in the ‘me’ society, or a long established tradition of service and restraint? Now, I know this tradition often fails, fuelling claims of hypocrisy, but as an ideal, it must hold value. Should we remember this, and say goodbye to celebrity indulgence such as Hello?
But don’t forget to say hello to me tomorrow.

© Anthony North, May 2008

THE SPIRIT OF THE LAW

Argument For

The law I certainly don’t impute,
but has it to be so absolute;
Often actions that are incurred,
can be, as to intent, quite blurred;
Now I know the villain is easy to catch,
the police offering quite a match;
Yet often intent is not so clear,
making illegal something to fear,
when really it was not meant to be,
and the law should show some leniency

Argument Against

I see at times you have a case,
and legal minds can act with haste;
But laws are there to be obeyed,
or civil society, it will fade;
There is a right way to always be,
but some people break the law with glee;
We must be sure to lock them up,
when from the devil’s brew they sup;
So now found guilty by your peers,
As the Judge, take him Down!
Ten years

(c) Anthony North, May 2008

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Fiction Xtra – A VISION THING – A tale of confusion

Mother and son had finished the shopping and decided to go to the zoo. ‘Yea! Great!,’ said the son. Then a frown. ‘Now you’re sure you’ll find it. You know your visions blurred and you need glasses.’
‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ said the mother, who knew her vision was a match for anyone.
Predictably, following a few wrong turns, they made it to the zoo. Stopping for a snack, the huge bird in the cage caught the mother’s attention. She walked over. Watched it. Then she noticed the sign: ‘To feed this eagle.’

Pulling a piece off her snack she held her hand out to the eagle.

The son looked on in shock. And as the eagle took it, the son advised if that was wise.
‘Don’t be silly,’ she said, ‘a hamburger never hurt anyone.’
Consequently, the eagle adopted a rather strange look, fell off the perch, somersaulted a couple of time on the ground before vomiting.
‘Oh, look, dear, he liked it,’ said the mother. She took some more, held it in her hand, which just passed into the cage.
The eagle approached slowly, cautiously. Jumping onto the perch, it thrust a bulging eye in her direction. Then, moving a beak slowly towards the hand, the eagle dived, taking off a finger at the lower knuckle.
The son said ‘yuck’ as the blood spurted everywhere. The eagle flapped its wings and squarked in triumph as it spat out the finger.
Seconds later the zoo attendants pounced, carting the mother off, first, to the hospital, and second to the optician, before placing a £100 fine upon her. The finger followed later, the eagle showing a vindictive attitude and refusing to give it back. But at least, with a brand new pair of glasses, the mother was safe in the knowledge that next time she saw a sign saying ‘to feed is illegal,’ she’d eat the hamburger herself.

© Anthony North, May 2008

TT #13 – HOW TO EXPLAIN REALITY

Featuring Thursday Thirteen. Have you had a go yet?

13. What we’re told is reality invariably isn’t. Consider ‘reality television’. Nothing can be further from the truth. It’s a lie. Unless you believe it. Then it’s a psychosis.
12. Television also gives us the ‘celebrity’. The ‘reality’ of this is that they are robots. This is the only explanation I can think of for such stupidity. Except …
11. The urge to be famous is such that they are so adaptable to image that the ‘person’ disappears. Hence delete ‘robot’, insert ‘zombie’.

10. So, ‘non-existence’ of celebrities as real people?

This would be understood by the sociologist, Baudrillard. He argued that media is now ‘infotainment’, merging reality and fantasy to such an extent that we no longer know which is which.
9. Mind and culture conspire to increase un-reality. The world is full of ‘signs’ that guide us, but lie. A soup can makes us salivate. Yet do you know it doesn’t contain worms?
8. We also have a societal understanding of what is ‘normal’. This defines what is ‘abnormal’, and to be marginalized as ‘different’. But is anyone normal?
7. We have our own view of ‘reality’. Philosophers have theorized we each have a ‘mind filter’ that views the world in our own particular way. So how can there be a definite reality when we each have our own?
6. Your mind is even in conflict over what is ‘reality’. We have a left and right brain, one looking at things emotionally, the other rationally. Who’s to say which is right? Argue this one out with yourself!

5. We also hallucinate ‘reality’.

Now, people think this way madness lies. But the mind constantly interprets sensory expression. And if our attention isn’t on the world, it makes up its own mind. Spooky!
4. Science complicates it further. The properties of the subatomic particle are such that we can never know its true state. The world is fundamentally a matter of probability.
3. But if this is so, how can we ‘see’ a definite reality? Well, the theory is that a definite reality is created by our ‘observation’ of it. Before we see it, it isn’t.
2. This makes us our own magicians. The world we create is as much about our perception of it as the actual existence of it. If it exists at all.
1. Confused? Come now, haven’t you seen The Matrix? Maybe not an exact reality (pun), but there is a theory that God is a baseball capped computer geek, and he’s playing a video game called ‘us’.

© Anthony North, May 2008

Fiction Xtra – TOO MUCH REALITY – A tale of life

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Reality sucks. I always knew that, but today I just feel it all the more.
He was stood in front of me, I remember. ‘So you DID do it,’ he said.
‘Well,’ I countered, ‘I suppose that depends on your view of reality.’
‘How’s that work, then?’
‘Well, its relative, you know. What you think happened, and what you think may have happened can often get confused.’
‘So you didn’t do it?’
‘Well, I suppose in some parallel universe I must have. And it just COULD have been this one.’
‘So you DID do it?’
‘As long as we don’t take the probability of quantum theory into account.’
‘A real wise guy, huh.’
‘In a relative kind of way … ‘
I never got to finish the rest. Reality hit me all at once. And then Dad sent me to my room. And I’m just not gonna listen to them wise-ass teachers any more.

© Anthony North, May 2008

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SCIENCE’S GREATEST FEAR

The paranormal and science have an uneasy relationship. The occasional scientist is courageous enough to take the plunge into researching the paranormal, but in the main, the subject is anathema.
This has led to what could be called a ‘paranormal phobia’ amongst those who claim to be rational. The world is explained through individualism, atheism, materialism and specialization.

The paranormal doesn’t fit into any of these, so forget it.

And science does a marvelous job at doing so. Indeed, many scientists become evangelical in their manic need to show that they are right, and paranormalists – well, mad.
They’ve even recruited an army of groupies – non-scientific types who nonetheless have absolute belief in the wrongness of the paranormal. Forming sceptic societies the world over, they do a marvelous job of publicizing paranormalists, even being responsible for some careers.

This manic need is interesting.

They doth protest too much, me thinks. And when someone exhibits this kind of fundamentalist mentality, we really must ask if the reason is not ‘rationality’ based, but an exhibition of fear.
If we go into the history of science, it is clear that it grew out of mysticism and philosophy. Even just over 400 hundred years ago, many scientists were of a mystical bent. Think Keplar and Newton. Even in the 19th century, it was a monk – Mendel – who defined genetics.

But somewhere along the way, science crossed the line.

It divorced itself from mysticism, and the absolute idea of inquiry it entailed. This seriously reduced the things it could study – namely, the definite physical world, if such a thing actually exists.
At first, they could be comfortable with this, for society was still religious enough to allow science a repository for things they could not explain. Some things could still be the preserve of God.

But as God was banished from the universe, it had to change.

And the repository for awkward ‘bits’ was taken away. And once this occurred, science did something that was the exact opposite of the rational.
It created what I call ‘anti-superstition’. You can see it at work all the time in statements from scientists such as: ‘There is no evidence for this.’ Now, think about what is being said here.
The vast majority of people accept science as the last word on an issue. Science itself accepts the world works based upon their theorizing. But the above statement suggests that what ‘is’ is defined by what science can investigate and explain.
All else is non-existent. Thus, the world becomes not a reality, but an image created by the ‘thought-form’ which becomes scientific consensus. Only as a scientist sees a place for other things do those other things exist.
But the reality is, those things still existed. It is just that science was not yet up to the task of explaining them. Which leaves us existing in a world virtually ignored through science’s fear of non-explanation and superstition.
The paranormal is just one casualty of this mentality. Who knows what dangers may be creeping up on us through their fear.

© Anthony North, May 2008

TONY ON POETIC, MARS, RELIGION

Including ReadWritePoem. Have you had a go yet?

Welcome to my daily Diary post. Cherie Blair, wife of ex-Brit Prime Minister Tony Blair, said last week that it was possible to be a good Catholic and use contraception. Now, I don’t often agree with Mrs Blair, but does she have a point?
Does a religion have to be cast in stone, or is there room for moving with the times? For instance, if we take Scripture, the reality is, it was written for a certain community at a certain time in history.

Does Scripture always have to be adhered to, word for word?

Or is there room for compromise as times move on. Of course, a fundamentalist will no doubt say no. It is the word of God, or whatever deity the religion involves. But not all religions are like this.
Hindu scripture is layered, covering a vast amount of time. And with each layer you can see how it was adapted to the times. In some ways, you can say the same about the Gospels changing much of the Old Testament. It seems to me that religion was meant to be adaptable. Do you agree?

Nasa has safely landed its Phoenix spacecraft on Mars.

The most significant exploration yet on the Red Planet, its brief is to search out signs that there may have been life. Of course, they won’t find the most obvious signs of life.
This is because the most obvious signs of life on Mars should be us. Phoenix is no doubt a brilliant piece of equipment, but does sending ‘intelligent’ toys into space qualify as exploration? I don’t think so.
I cannot say this enough: mankind is failing to continue the greatest story of our existence – our ability to be curious and explore. What Phoenix should have found was a well-established colony of human explorers of at least 20 years standing.
Mankind is currently suffering a bout of collective cowardice. Columbus will be turning in his grave.
Don’t forget to call by tomorrow.

© Anthony North, May 2008

AN AVERAGE DAY

Woke up happy, never sad,
kissed my wife, made me glad;
got up, washed, went to eat,
the kids were waiting for me to greet;
read the paper, knew the world,
current events as they unfurled;
Got in the car, drove to work,
it was a thing I’d never shirk;
Enjoyed my lunch, with my friends,
talked about the latest trends;
Finished work, went back home,
after dinner, read the latest tome;
After supper, said goodnight,
in bed I held my wife so tight;
Imagination I did display,
about my life, and my way;
Nothing else, can I say,
since I died yesterday

(c) Anthony North, May 2008

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Fiction Xtra – HE ISN’T THERE – A tale of persecution

The Techno-Lord looked once more into the eyes of the Heretic. ‘He isn’t there,’ he said. ‘Say it. Say it! He isn’t there.’
The Heretic sat within the force field. Immobile except for his head, his body was covered in probe holes, where the ‘treatment’ had been inserted. His eyes still held, within them, the after-shock of expression as he remembered the pain.
His head seemed to hang from his shoulders. But still he found the strength to raise himself. His eyes burned into the Techno-Lord with an intense heat. ‘He IS there!’ he declared, defiantly.
The Techno-Lord shook his head. So many of them, he thought. So many retain the delusion.
A gasp came from the audience. It had been his last chance. And now, the Techno-Lord pressed the button.
Slowly, the juice flowed down the tube. The audience watched it with a mesmeric intensity. Eventually, it entered the body of the Heretic and his eyes closed.
He seemed to float, then, for so long. Where he was traveling he had no idea, but knew that soon he’d know whether his death had been in vain.
Eventually, the floating stopped, and he opened his eyes …

© Anthony North, May 2008

TONY ON SINGING, LABOUR, CITY

Including Writers’ Island and Monday Mural. Have you had a go yet?

The Eurovision Song Contest is not the greatest musical extravaganza of all time. Indeed, many would argue there isn’t much music there at all. But for decades it has provided a bit of ‘fun’ in Europe.
Well, I think it is now becoming predictive of what the future face of Europe will be. For the second time in a row, the United Kingdom entry has come almost bottom, and the winner has come from eastern Europe – last year Serbia, this year Russia.

You could say this is simple sour grapes from a disenchanted Brit.

But it’s much more serious than this. Since the break up of the Soviet Union, east European countries have proliferated, and it is clear that their voting patterns are following a ‘bloc’ mentality.
Hence, a west European country now has no chance of winning the contest. But consider a similar pattern emerging as more and more of these countries join the European Union. I fear the time is coming when this ‘bloc’ mentality will enter the political and economic arena. And when it does, Europe could well be split once more.

Britain’s NuLabour is said to be finished.

Following a massive bi-election defeat last week, the Conservatives are riding high in the polls, and dissent is beginning amongst the ranks for the removal of the ‘esteemed leader’ Brownski.
The Cons should not be too comfortable, however. This WAS a mid-term bi-election, and they are infamous for offering a protest vote that will not be repeated in a General Election. After all, there was no danger of NuLabour being chucked out of government.
Ever since 1997, Brownski, as government Number Two, has been playing with the demographics of the country. Placing huge numbers of the population on top-up benefits, and creating tens of thousands of pointless politically correct jobs for the new middleclass, these people know they’re only safe with NuLabour.
Ten years of bribery is going to make them more difficult to shift than we think.
Don’t forget to call tomorrow.

© Anthony North, May 2008

A BEAUTIFUL WORLD

What a pleasure it is to live,
in this world with lots to give;
The end of strife, the end of war,
and for all, food galore;
We love the planet, we’re so green,
to animals we are never mean;
Anger gone, there’s no crime,
no criminals left, to do time;
Poverty was banished long ago,
to money itself, we said no;
For every wrong we reimburse,
in this parallel universe

(c) Anthony North, May 2008

FALLEN CITY

Oh, city proud, so vibrant, I greet
you as mankind’s greatest feat,
bringing civilisation to ancient man,
fuelling thought, an intellectual van,
organising people into a force,
that negotiated history’s on going course,
forever evolving to something new,
providing all important social glue;
Yet into this noble, mighty cause,
you let so many darkened, evil mores,
politics to conquer, and empires created,
millions dead, we are so fated,
and environment you shunned, knowing best,
sucking resources from nature’s breast,
damaging the planet along the way,
did you not realise it couldn’t last, I prey?
And now the planet is more mighty than you,
rumbling constantly, ongoing and true,
shaking the city under your feet,
race away, quickly, you must retreat!
For this is the might of nature’s blows,
felling your buildings like brittle,
inconsequential dominoes

(c) Anthony North, May 2008

WHAT SURVIVES DEATH?

The paranormal is full of supposed phenomena relating to an afterlife. From ghosts, to possessions, to reincarnation, to mediumship the idea is prevalent that there is life after death, and it interacts with those who are alive.
Sometimes, I seem skeptical about such claims. Rather, psychology can answer it, with phenomena such as cryptomnesia, multiple personality, hallucination, split-brain and hysteria all playing their part.

I remain convinced that these DO play a part.

But this does not imply that the mystery is explained fully with such phenomena. For I am also convinced that there is much more to it.
For instance, what do we KNOW survives death? Quite a lot, actually. Death causes decay which is the seed of new life. If you had offspring, your DNA survives. But also remembrance of you survives in the minds of others.

This can form a cultural link.

For instance, if the person was a writer, his words continue to exist. Stories about a person can go on to enter culture. This was even an early religious form in ancestor worship, and myths seem to suggest remembrance of past feats.
This all suggests that the dead can continue to have a cultural influence upon our thought processes. And in an important sense, this is a form of life after death, including interaction with the living.

Moving away from culture, what else is there?

Well, the more I study the mind, the more convinced I become that it is not yours. Rather, we have become too infatuated with the idea of the ‘individual’ as a separate entity.
Carl Jung identified specific ‘archetypes’ within the mind. These seem to be expressions of human character traits. If this is correct, then the various ‘character’ elements we can have are actually shared throughout the species.

Emotions seem to follow a similar idea.

Whilst our emotional expression can be specific to the person, the actual emotions themselves seem to be ‘shared’. Emotions seem, again, to be more species traits than personal.
Bearing this in mind, we can have a new model of individuality. Rather than being ‘separate’ to the species, it seems to be that what we class as the ‘individual’ is a specific pattern – an amalgam – of various species traits. We are more of the species than the person.

This has a bearing on life after death.

We see death in terms of the individual. When a person dies, we seem to think what he was dies with him. Of course, religionists have known this to be wrong. Rather, his ‘spirit’ survives.
Are we now in a position to define what ‘spirit’ is? If all the elements that made up your mind are of the species, then when you die, those traits remain within the species. ‘You’ may not be as dead as you think.
Earlier, I noted how the person leaves elements of himself in ‘culture’. Now, could it be that, after a person’s death, this cultural input could somehow merge with the species traits, thus producing a form of afterlife of the person?
Such a view is highly speculative, and in order to be experienced, the known phenomena I spoke of earlier would have to be invoked. But it is, perhaps, wrong to say that a rational theory cannot be made of a real interactive survival of death.

© Anthony North, May 2008

TONY ON GLOBAL, FOOTBALL, ARTISTRY

Including a poem for Friday5. Have you had a go yet?

Welcome to my daily Diary post. Have you noticed that, of late, there hasn’t been much environmental news? Following mass exposure recently, do the news channels think we’ve had enough of it? ‘Cos believe me, the news is still happening. We’re just not getting it in the main media.
There’s a bleak new study on global warming. Analysing reports back to the 1970s, scientists, including the IPCC, have blamed rising temperatures for disruption to wildlife and environment everywhere.

The study clearly blames human activity for this.

Which will be met with derision from the growing global warming skeptics. Especially as there is evidence of political skulduggery in the UN-employed IPCC.
But to the skeptics, I offer a simple message. It is generally accepted that warming is occurring. The debate is over whether it is man-made or not. Yet, whether it IS man-made or not, the eventual measures we would have to take are identical. So what’s the point of arguing?

There was a big football match on Wednesday.

That’s Soccer to my American friends. In an all-English European Cup final, Manchester United beat Chelsea in Moscow. The UK media is, of course, going wild. After all, it’s the national game.
But is it sport? It certainly appears to be. And it certainly used to be. But nowadays I wonder. Let’s take that ‘all-English’ tag. Well, the majority of players were not even British. And who owns those clubs?
Well, Manchester’s American billionaire owner, and Chelsea’s Russian billionaire owner seemed to play out a new Cold War, spending a fortune on getting the best players to play in these best clubs. Now that is really sporting isn’t it?
Seems to me it’s no longer about a place called Manchester or Chelsea. And it’s no longer football, but Big Biz gone mad.
Have a good weekend. See you Monday.

© Anthony North, May 2008

A TORTURED ARTIST

I’m only a shell of my former self,
empty,
pitiful,
laughable,
like a comic book;
An artist such as me, reduced,
to this,
to poverty,
wearing rubber soles,
and rags;
It was to be so different,
so magnificent,
so inspirational,
so innovative,
yet, they cast me aside like a discarded soapbox;
Don’t they understand my brilliance?
My talent?
My determination?
My yearning?
But reduced to painting postcards, I am!
Wish you were here

(c) Anthony North, May 2008