TONY ON CEOs AND SERFDOM

British Gas has just put up home heating gas by 35%, thus placing some 6 million households in the UK in ‘fuel poverty’ – i.e. having to decide between heating their home or feeding their belly. I’m expecting more elderly than usual to die this winter.

It is going up because of the ‘international situation’.

What does this mean? Well, as far as I can see it is all to do with the decision to link gas prices to oil prices. As oil goes up, so does gas. But the point is, their costs haven’t.
Are you beginning to feel ripped off yet? Well, let me put it plain and simple. If the CEOs stopped the link between gas and oil, the cost of home heating could fall massively without hurting the gas companies. So why doesn’t it happen?

Well, I suppose ‘shareholders’ wouldn’t like it.

But what ARE shareholders nowadays? Well, very few ‘people’ own large shares. The controlling shares of most of Big Biz belong to the mortgage and pension funds, whose decisions are made by a small number of other CEOs.
CEOs, it seems, are ruling the world – and maybe as few as 500 of them! Which is, of course, why I often call us ‘serfs’ nowadays. So, are you getting the picture? CEOs are our guardians, guaranteeing that your mortgage and pension doesn’t collapse by ripping you off so much that you can’t afford to pay your mortgage and pension … but don’t worry, Big Biz would still own your house, so they won’t lose. And well, if pensions collapse, they just don’t pay out, so they CAN’T lose.
But why is this so important? Well, maybe because if you didn’t pay in to a fat mortgage and pension plan, they wouldn’t have the money to HAVE their Big Biz in the first place.
No, business and society would be much smaller, more customer, environment and service orientated, and politicians would actually still be running our countries for us.
Ah! Serfdom is such a subtle thing nowadays.

© Anthony North, July 2008

TT #15 – HOW TO BE MORAL (?) & MORE

Welcome to my Wednesday Magazine post, featuring Thursday Thirteen, Totally Optional Prompts and Three Word Wednesday. Click my current affairs and stay informed.

13. Morality can be a dangerous word nowadays. The subject is concerned with what is right or wrong, or the goodness or badness of character or behaviour. As an intellectual subject, it is known as ethics.
12. Today, I’m dipping my mind into the moral maze, offering my basic views on the subject. Agree or disagree, vital to a moral outlook is the importance of debate and the right of any individual to offer their views.

11. I’ll begin with one important aspect often not appreciated.

Morality invariably involves more than one person – one to do and one to judge. After all, can every one of us say that when we’re on our own our behavioural standards are as high as if we were not?
10. Morality, to many, is religion based. Rules are definite, and breaking them risks Divine Retribution. This is a clear cut moral approach. But things changed with the decline of popular religion.

9. In a more secular world, ethics moved to the philosopher.

This involved personal reasoning, the outcome being that definite rules could not be guaranteed. To many, this was the beginning of a moral free-for-all.
8. Morality often becomes as one with an ideology. In the Industrial Revolution, for instance, laziness was immoral, thus requiring absolute industriousness from people. In all cases, I think this is wrong. It should be the arena for scripture or the philosopher. In other words, people who have influence, but not power. For morality should never be used as a political tool.

7. Many people believe that the modern liberal ideal of morality is correct.

It is proven by the general good order of society. I’d argue that this is not the case. Good order occurs because services are such that people do not have to strive to be ordered. Should those services fail, I think we could quickly revert to barbarism.
6. One central moral problem is separation. By this, I mean the failure to separate non-consensual physical acts against the person, society, or property thereof (criminality) from lifestyle. Whilst punishment can be variable, I think attitude towards transgression should be absolute. A crime must be a crime, regardless of the reason.

5. Lifestyle is different.

Nature flourishes because of total diversity. Whatever can be done is done. Hence, society can best flourish by following this same principle. What is done by consenting adults is no one’s business but their own.
4. There is one proviso to this. Any society reaches a ‘norm’ of behaviour. This is essential for order and manners. Hence, total diversity of behaviour is something to do in private, or clearly accepted public arenas. In the general public, I feel people should always moderate their behaviour.
3. This is an important point. All too often, morality concerning lifestyle is not morality at all. Rather, it is the furtherance of sensationalism. This is supposed to get a message across concerning lifestyle, but most of the time it is simply about exhibitionism.
2. One other important aspect of ethics is this. People will always transgress, and this is how it should be. Because if being moral is seen as easy, then our standards are not high enough.
1. Today, morality is moving in many new directions. Human rights verses the nation state; the morality of science; our moral responsibility towards the planet. It is a subject that I will no doubt return to in the future.

© Anthony North, July 2008

THAT’S FUNNY

Knock, knock, who’s there; I say, I say, I say,
this is a fun verse – do you want to play?
What do you get if … ? Well, you know how it goes,
sometimes the joke is corny; get’s right up your nose;
slap stick, stand up, so many types of fun,
clowns fire streamers from their big toy gun;
From stage or screen or big top, laughter rings out,
as tomfoolery goes on forever; ‘he’s behind you!’ we shout;
A serious business is comedy, you certainly can’t deny,
it offers us a choice to laugh, or give in and cry

(c) Anthony North, July 2008

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A LIFE OF CRIME – Fiction

Crime is what I’m involved with – it’s as simple as that. This last twenty years it has been my life. But how did I get into it?
Well, in my early adulthood I was at a loose end, not sure what I wanted to do. Everything seemed a gamble, and when ever I tried something new, it turned out only to be temporary. Maybe I was destined to be a drifter, but there wasn’t much purpose in that.
Eventually I met Cat Man Craig, or Cat for short. He was, well, a burglar, and damned good at it, too. No matter how secure a householder thought his house was, Cat knew they’d omitted something, and he always found it.
So, I got to talking with him – spoke about the ‘buzz’ that I wanted in my life – and he agreed to take me on the job he was planning.
I must admit, as we gained entry, and searched the darkened rooms, I had the buzz. And as we finished the job and Cat went home, I knew, from that moment on, this was the life for me. Sadly, though, as I took the police straight to his stash, it was the end for Cat.
I enrolled the next day – made detective in no time at all …
Yep, crime is what I’m involved with – it’s as simple as that.

© Anthony North, July 2008

TONY ON OILY SPACE

Welcome to my latest current affairs post. You’ll find at least four a week at Beyond the Blog. Click here for my fiction, poetry and essays.

The head of NASA has warned that once the Shuttle program is over, the organization will struggle. Hang on a minute! Didn’t Bush say a few years ago that he wants to begin real exploration of Mars?

Oh, sorry. Was it just political spin?

Of course it was. Make people feel good at a time when things aren’t going well. Which is, of course, a disgrace. We are explorers by nature. It is why mankind is so successful. We should be out there now.
So why aren’t we? Well, one reason is NASA – a government controlled organization. History tells us that governments make terrible explorers. It is done by private enterprise. So hopefully he is right about NASA. Scrap it! And turn that expertise over to a new breed of space entrepreneur.

The British oil giant, BP, has just announced its profits.

In the first half of 2008 they had a 23% rise on the first half of 2007. That adds up to 13.4 billion dollars. Yes, you heard it right!
So, as most of the world begins to struggle, we can rest sure that our tiny percentage of mega-rich will continue to rub our noses in it. The word ‘sick’ comes to mind. When will these mega-rich realize the truth of capitalism?
What is that truth? That profit goes hand in hand with service – caring for the customer, and riding the ups and downs with them. When profit becomes their only concern, then contempt is all they deserve.

© Anthony North, July 2008

NOTE: Regulars will notice a change here. I am condensing my literary endeavours into two magazine posts, on Wednesday and Saturday, allowing more time for some four current affairs posts a week. At present, it is a trial, to see how it goes. Hope you like it.

OUR FUTURE IS SPACE

Space, space, there’s stars to chase,
the ultimate role of the human race;
What are we doing sat on this Earth,
stuck in a frightful, boring dearth,
of courage, of vigour, of get up and go,
infatuated by celebs called so and so;
Wake up mankind! Realise your mission,
there’s more to life than your car’s tranmission;
Time to stop selfishness, mass consumerism, too,
time for daring, curiosity to renew;
So gather the CEOs and other toffs,
put ’em in a rocket, and blast ’em off!

(c) Anthony North, July 2008

TONY ON BURN UP, STORM & MORE

Including Manic Monday and ReadWritePoem.
Have you had a go yet?

Welcome to my Monday Magazine post.
Following one of the worst Labour losses in a By-election in decades, rumours are filling the UK media of the end days for the ‘esteemed leader’, Gordon Brownski. A man who never smiled, he seems to have a permanent one now – which is worrying in itself.

He is a disaster of a Prime Minister.

His incompetence is finally clear, and he is also unlucky, which should seal his fate. And as MPs go off for their summer breaks, the country awaits their return in the Autumn, and a round of politics as good as anything Machiavelli could have invented.
It will be interesting to see if he survives as leader until Christmas. But don’t take the Conservative’s cry for an election seriously. The last thing they want is to get in power now. Not with a recession coming. Brit politics should be interesting soon.

BBC2 screened an interesting thriller last week in Burn Up.

Starring Rupert Penry-Jones and Marc Warren, it was from the Spooks team, and concerned everything oil. I won’t give away the plot, ‘cos it may be being screened overseas.
Suffice to say, I found it excellent, and it ranged through all our fears of an oil-based economy. But one message near the end is worth pointing out. And yes, I know it was only fiction. But interesting nonetheless. Of course, if you don’t want to know, don’t read the last paragraph.
Basically, the US government secretly accepts man-made global warming, and are encouraging it. The military option for world domination is too expensive. So let environmental chaos wreck economies, countries and cut back on populations. Being the most powerful, the US administration will be the last man standing, and domination will be complete.
Rubbish, of course, but a thought. How many super-rich megalomaniacs secretly harbouring this thought would it take for things to turn out this way?
Tuesday, an essay on morality. Next Magazine post, Wednesday.

© Anthony North, July 2008

THE STORY OF LOVE

This is the story of the love of a girl,
by a man who’s life began to unfurl,
when he saw this vision of beauty true,
smitten – to his previous life, adieu

Her name was love, and he felt it inside,
so powerful it was, it could not be denied,
when she was not there he could not be complete,
yet little did he know he had to compete

Love was too powerful for only one man,
so many, after her, they ran and ran,
and each thought love was their ultimate dream,
startled by that omnipotent beam

The time came to pass when it was over for love,
peace went away, deserted by the dove,
and man fought man for the ultimate prize,
one fell down – dead, said his eyes

So love turned from something good to bad,
it is always so, isn’t it sad?
Jealousies, desires, stir in the pot,
and man’s existence – turmoil his lot

Wisdom does, of course, decree,
that lessons will be learnt by you and me,
yet although love deserted them all,
it was soon back, assisting man’s Fall

(c) Anthony North, July 2008

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THE STORM – Fiction

How do I explain what happened the night of the storm? Not the big one of last year – the REALLY big one – but this year; which, let’s face it, was big enough!
Lightning lit up the cliffs. Peter and I watched from the window of the house. We had been discussing him coming back into the firm after his latest bout of depression. I knew he had lost his wife in last year’s storm, and this must be particularly hard for him. The landscape, constantly crackling out of the darkness, seemed to add to the surreal nature of it all.
Peter stopped the discussion when he suddenly pointed outside and said: ‘Look!’
At first, I only saw darkness, but at the next flash I saw her, too. A woman, out there, alone. And then she began to run towards the cliffs.
I hadn’t known Peter that long, so I was shocked to see him run out of the house, chasing her, trying to stop her. I followed, shouting, ‘no!’ But it was only when he failed to return, and I made some calls, that I understood that it seemed to be history repeating itself.
Except, this time, it wasn’t his wife’s body found at the bottom of the cliffs, but his.
‘But I wonder what happened to the girl?’ the policeman said after we returned to the house.
I wondered myself – until I saw the photo on the sideboard. I guess I believe in ghosts, now. The woman I saw was his wife.

© Anthony North, July 2008

HOW TO EXPLAIN PSYCHIC CHILDREN

Paranormal literature is full of cases of psychic children. A poltergeist is almost certain to have a child at the centre of activity, and visions of the Virgin Mary are famous for involving children.
Go back to the days of the Witchhunts and you often read of children being easiest to bewitch, and many accusations of witchcraft came from children ‘affected’ by the supposed witch’s spells.

Can a study of children be of value to research?

By looking at the mentality within the child, can we identify elements that show the optimum state of mind for a psychic event to occur? Perhaps it can.
The sceptic will obviously jump straight in, here, and advise us that children are merely more fantasy-prone. Their minds believe more in wonder, so they are more easily conned by a trick, or even an illusion.

This is quite true.

But simply because such factors can be identified, it does not mean the subject is closed. For instance, many children have ‘imaginary’ friends. Do we just leave the subject alone by saying, ‘oh well’?
Of course not. We attempt to discover why this is so. And the obvious question to ask is this: does the average childhood mentality allow the mind to access something that is more remote from the adult?

I’ve often pondered a central sceptic’s criticism of phenomena.

If paranormality was real, why don’t we experience it all the time? And I think an answer can come from an understanding of the human mind.
We are said to have evolved from nature. Yet what is often ignored is the possibility of psychological evolution running alongside the physical. If we were part of nature, then chances are our drives were instinctual.

This would not have required the ability to think as we do today.

However, just as we evolved physically due to technology, I think the same holds for the mind. In effect, by using technology, we were required to ‘concentrate’ on a task at hand.
This would be an ability above instinct. And in order to concentrate, we have to clear the mind of all unrelated factors. Could this have caused the creation of a distinct conscious and unconscious mind – the former to allow concentration on the world; the latter, a repository for memory not required at that moment?
Evolution is thus applied to the mind. And we can argue that instinct was retained in the unconscious, whilst increasing technology, and the information it produces, would expand the conscious and move the unconscious further away from conscious thought.
Such a mind model explains why the paranormal is not experienced as a norm. Residing in the unconscious, it is only accessed when outside information declines, allowing the unconscious to move closer to conscious thought.
But it also shows that the more outside information we deal with, the less psychic we become. Hence, education, work – adult activity in general – becomes inhibiting to paranormal phenomena – unless, of course, they are of a mystical bent, thus being able to cut off outside information through meditation, etc; or retain the sense of wonder of a child.

© Anthony North, July 2008

TONY ON THEFT, HEALTH & MORE

Including Sunday Scribblings, Rockin’ Chair Writers, Matinee Muse and Friday 5.
Have you had a go yet?

Welcome to my Friday Magazine post.
A report has advised that the decline in theft in the UK could be a temporary situation. And I think this could apply throughout the west. Basically, theft has declined because people have had more wealth.

Now, I do not accept that poverty and crime are linked.

At least, not in a stereotypical way. The vast majority of poor people are just as law abiding as the rest. But the reality is, a minority of people will steal to raise their wealth.
The upshot of such thinking is that, now we are in an economic downturn, a minority of people could well return to theft. And the moral of the story is this: wealth does not moralise. Rather, it simply takes away the need for the urge.

Doctors in the UK have been told off.

They have been told to reduce the numbers of prescriptions they issue, particularly with antibiotics. The idea is to save the health service millions of pounds a year. And I couldn’t agree more.
Taking a tablet seems to have become a placebo effect all its own. Only by swallowing the pill do we feel we can be made better. Yet I suspect this attitude has been manufactured by the pharmaceutical industry with the same gusto as the pills they pop.
This legalized form of drug abuse is not only unnecessary in so many instances, but the overuse of antibiotics – not only in medicine, but also in healthcare of animals – seems to advance evolution in the viral world, causing a constant battle between illness and the power of pharmaceuticals to beat new strains.
Guess who profits most from that!
Next Magazine post Monday. Have a great weekend.

© Anthony North, July 2008

THE IMPORTANCE OF BOOKS

Sit me down, give me a book,
let it take me to an intellectual nook,
set the plot, characters aplenty,
dialogue, end, never sedentary;
A mind to exercise, that’s the key,
the thoughts that pass from author to me,
at once entertaining, but much, much, more,
reading a book is education galore!
Nothing delights me more than this,
reading offfers such unimaginable bliss;
Shame that they’re becoming increasingly rare,
without them, minds just lose their flair

(c) Anthony North, July 2008

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THE APPEARANCE OF THINGS – Fiction

A good action movie needed its shadowy villain. The director knew that. And he also knew the best ideas were taken from the every day things he observed.
His mind’s eye drifted back to that very morning. He was exciteable. It was the last day of filming, and it always had an effect on him. Indeed, he was lucky to have got to this stage. Powers high up in the movie business did not want this film made. And okay, there was editing, marketing, and much more yet to do, but he felt good it would be a success.
But all these thoughts had affected him that morning. And he was becoming increasingly paranoid as he saw the car following him, and later, the shadow.
He sat there, thinking what to do, ideas flashing through his mind …

The shadowy figure in the car knew he had a job to do. And as the car he was following pulled up outside the parking lot, he acted quickly but stealthily. His target had to be stopped. This he knew. And he was being paid big money to do it.
The target was walking, now. There were people around, a youngster playing by the road, a couple talking outside the laundry, and as the target walked passed the trellis at the side of the gate, he knew it was time to act …

The Director saw it all before him. The shadowy figure, the appearance of normality, but knowing this was defective. Intention showed on the man’s face as he walked from behind the trellis, smiled and raised the gun.
A moment’s silence and then the two shots rang out.
The director’s eyes bulged. Everyone around him waited, silenced by the scene. Until finally, he said: ‘Cut! Okay, that’s a wrap.’

The Director felt good as he left the party after the end of filming. He had had the idea for the sudden appearance of the gunman when he saw a shadowy figure behind the trellis by the gate that morning. And as he passed through the gate once more, he had just a second to notice it again before the gunman appeared. And as the gun fired, he liked the irony that he’d just filmed his own death.

© Anthony North, July 2008

TONY ON KARADZIC, DOOM & MORE

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

Welcome to my Wednesday Magazine post.
Radovan Karadzic has been caught. Living a public life as an alternative medicine guru, this has all the hallmarks of deep Balkan intrigue taking us right back to the opening years of the 20th century. Life CAN still be more intriguing than fiction.

So what to do with him now?

Well, first of all we must not forget what he did. This is the man who allegedly oversaw attempted Genocide. From shelling, to the insidious sniper, to wholesale slaughter, we must not forget how easily it arose, again, in Europe.
But is an international court the place to put him on trial? I cannot get it out of my head that this is the west imposing its own values on the rest of the world. Of course, Genocide should be insidious in anyone’s values. But I think it should always be up to those involved to decide this.

Tycoons are becoming doomsayers.

A new kind of statement is starting to come out of the mouths of British CEOs, especially in the power industry. Home heating bills could well rise more than another 60% in the coming year or two.
Now, I want you to think about this. Linked to the price of oil, just what would this mean? It would mean more than a doubling of costs in just a couple of years. Hence, if true, then we can look forward to an economic collapse on a level with the 1930s.
Personally, I think another agenda is going on here. Yes, it is going to get quite a bit worse, but not quite this bad. Rather, I suspect tycoons have realized that if they say it will be very bad, and it turns out not to be, then they can say they saved us from the worse.
Me thinks they’ve watched too much Scotty on Star Trek, saying it’ll take two hours to fix the engine, Cap’n, when he can do it in one.
Next Magazine post, Friday. See you then.

© Anthony North, July 2008

SHADOW LIFE

I want to be here, so let me out,
I want to exist, not as doubt;
I’m real, if not completely defined,
give me life – please be kind;
There’s room in there for me as well,
no need for fear on which to dwell;
Give me space to thrive and grow,
to stop me would be a cruel blow;
I may not be as corporeal as you,
but this is so with all things new;
I’ll grow, I’ll thrive, I’ll adapt in time,
and now I’m complete, I rhyme

(c) Anthony North, July 2008

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HE’S ONE OF THEM – Fiction

Miss Standing, the Headmistress, had admonished the boys the morning she heard them talking about Mr Smith.
The boys had got it into their head that Mr Smith was a vampire. Indeed, it had got so bad that they’d avoid class rather than come face to face with him. And as for extra curricular activities, you’d never find THEM in the school after dark.
It was his rosy cheeks that first drew their attention to the problem – that, and the distinct sharpness of his teeth. And then there was the delight he seemed to have dissecting little animals in the lab. Indeed, that was always a sticky situation. But nothing proved it more than the night they saw him in the darkened staff room, towering over Miss Jenkins, and lowering his mouth to her neck.
The next day, she seemed almost comatose, and more than a little pasty. No, there was no doubt he was one of them. And as the boys had noticed, rumours of all manner of spectral goings on at night had been reported since he arrived.
And when they spied Mr Smith taking Miss Jenkins to a secluded corner of the school, they decided they had to speak out again.
Miss Standing admonished the boys once more as they told her, but realizing a ‘situation’ was developing, she followed the boys to the suspect’s haunt. Going in by herself, a red faced Headmistress finally emerged, and the rumour following said they were two teachers down due to ‘inappropriate behaviour’, with several other women teachers on warnings. But as Miss Standing later pointed out: ‘Don’t worry, boys, it won’t be many years before you’re little vampires, too.’

(c) Anthony North, July 2008

ATLANTIS

A foreign land we’re told it was,
populated by men and gods,
working morally for the greater good,
ethical acts putting off the flood;
Great sages, workers, seamen, too,
they brought their splendour to all they knew,
empires created in their wake,
done not for them, but all our sakes;
Yet they’re wrong to call it a foreign land,
it seems to me a similar strand,
of any society above its station,
reaping their ‘truth’ upon any nation;
But remember the fate of this ‘moral’ good,
passing their message, written in blood,
sunk below depths, without a trace,
good so often becomes disgrace

(c) Anthony North, July 2008

TT #14 – HOW TO EXPLAIN FRUSTRATION

I haven’t done Thursday Thirteen for a while. My health meant I had to cut down, but I enjoyed it! So I’ve slotted it back in.

13. Is it a problem at work? Is it something you can’t quite grasp? Is it a woman (or man)? Or do you have a pimple on the end of your nose? Whatever it is, it’s none of them really. It’s just – frustration!!!
12. We all suffer from it – constantly. Things just don’t go right. This is wrong. That is wrong. The world is wrong. Or maybe – are you ready for this? – or maybe, it’s just you who’s wrong. And it’s so damned frustrating!!!

11. Life is a compromise.

We don’t like to admit it, but it is. But a compromise between what? Well, between what YOU want out of life, and what life allows you to do. And there’s a sensible reason why. Even if it is damned … well, you know.
10. We all have goals in life. If we don’t, we don’t really live. And those goals are based on our selfish needs – our urge for advancement. But society needs a degree of order. If that wasn’t the case, all we’d have is chaos. So life HAS to be about give and take.

9. It’s a good job this is the case.

You see, frustration can be so life enhancing. It drives us on to do things, to think things, to be things. In this sense, frustration is not a hindrance, but a creative capacity in life.
8. Unless you’re too impatient. If so, then frustration can cause violence. If you descend to the ‘it’s not fair’ crap, then instead of being creative, you punch out, attempting to knock down those obstacles instead of being ingenious, and working round them.

7. Frustration therefore offers us choices.

The choice to excel or fail. To be someone, or nobody. To evolve, or devolve. To be good or bad. Frustration is moralizing. Perhaps if we realized this, we’d be able to handle it better.
6. But frustration is also something else. Just imagine a world without frustration. Wouldn’t that be nice? You’re kidding! What would you do? Isn’t frustration the thing that drives you on? Without frustration, you’d never do anything.

5. But it goes even deeper.

Maybe frustration isn’t only a personal thing, but a social thing, too. Could it be that frustration is a vital element of what we do as a society – as a species, even? Let me explain.
4. One thing I’ve noticed about history is that thinkers will have a good idea for change, but in order to get the message across, it becomes sensational. The result of this is that revolution usually occurs, and the idea becomes extreme.
3. This, in turn, alienates many people who don’t like it. Thus, they get frustrated, which inevitably leads to conflict, and a new good idea comes out of this – but in order to get the message across it becomes sensational ….
2. What a vicious circle our society becomes. But interestingly, this could well be the valid process of social evolution. Which means, dear reader, frustration is the driving force of advancement.
1. Maybe, if we realized this, we could ease our general frustrations just a little, and make that advancement a little less extreme. I suppose it’s all about balance. And nothing is more frustrating than getting the right balance.

© Anthony North, July 2008

TONY ON OBAMA, LICK & MORE

Including Manic Monday and ReadWritePoem.
Have you had a go yet?

Welcome to my Monday Magazine post.
Barack Obama is coming to see me soon – well, not me personally, but Britain. He’s also journeying to Iraq, Afghanistan, Israel, Jordan, the West Bank, Germany, France … And if I could give him a message, what would I say?

‘Hi, Barack

‘You might be President soon, and there’s something you should know. I used to blame Amercia for problems such as Iraq. When I started blogging, I met many Americans and realized something. It wasn’t the American’s fault but their President.
‘Can the President change the world? No. Situations, yes, but not people. People are similar everywhere. They know when things are right. So if ever you do something that makes non-Americans hate you, remember, it maybe means Americans hate you, too.’
Okay, message over. What else can I rant about. Oh, yes …

Financial chaos is coming.

It is increasingly likely that the British government is about to rewrite the fiscal rules. At present, they are not allowed to borrow more than 40% of the national wealth, but already it is verging on 39%.
Think about this. After over a decade of massive growth, borrowing is still this high. What kind of mis-management is this? Further, what a situation to be in as we go into a possible recession. Saving for a rainy day was obviously not on the agenda.
Of course, when times are hard you first think about cutting back on public services (not in their ideology), before raising taxes (we’re already taxed to the hilt), so at the worst possible time, the only answer is increased borrowing.
So, this is the outcome of a Prime Minister who built his reputation on economic prudence. And they say ‘spin’ is dead.
An essay tomorrow. Next Magazine Post, Wednesday.

© Anthony North, July 2008

THE ANGEL

Angel, out there, can’t you see?
It’s always here for you and me;
Naked in its need to feel,
personal glory has no appeal

Angel, tell me, what do you do?
Are you here to help us become new?
Are you our guardian for all time?
Come from somewhere totally Divine?

Human, out there, can’t you understand?
I’m proof that life is not so bland;
I’m wonder, miracle, a creator’s tool,
to help you, guide you,
stop you being a fool

(c) Anthony North, July 2008

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LICK – Fiction

Mr Jobsworth was a thin, wiry social worker with attitude. He knocked on the door and entered as soon as it was opened. Depositing himself on a chair, he observed the single parent concerned. And he couldn’t help but notice her long black skirt, strange pointy hat and myriad books of spells about the place.
‘What?!!’ she said.
‘We’ve had complaints about your 16 year old son.’
‘What you done now?!!!’ she shouted to another room.
The boy came into view, sporting blood red eyes, extended canine teeth and covered in hair.
Mr Jobsworth gulped. ‘It appears he goes around licking people.’
‘So?’ replied the lady. ‘What do you expect? He has a vegetarian diet.’
‘But he can’t go around doing that,’ he said.
‘Better that than eating them, I’d have thought.’
Mr Jobsworth – a vegetarian of many years – saw the logic in that. ‘But how did this happen?’ he asked.
She blushed. Then looked downhearted. ‘Oh. It was a spell that went sort of wrong.’ She cheered up. ‘But at least, he’s harmless – with his vegetarian diet.’
‘Have you ever thought of muzzling him?’
The boy growled – began to pace up and down on all fours.
‘Don’t be silly. I can’t do that. Human rights, and everything.’
Mr Jobsworth doubted if that would apply in its entirety. He looked at the boy once more. The boy looked at him, lunged forward, momentarily, and snapped.
‘Well I think we ought to take him into care – for public safety, and all that.’
Which was too much for the boy, who lunged once more and bit Mr Jobsworth’s head off. Which wasn’t really that unexpected for his mother. After all, as she said, he DID have a vegetarian diet.

© Anthony North, July 2008

HOW TO EXPLAIN ENTITIES

An entity is something that has separate existence, but not necessarily in a material sense. As such, it can be a concept. But in regard to the paranormal, the term is traditionally used to identify a ghost, demon, etc.
Entities, of various forms, have appeared throughout human history. I’m not interested, here, in how they appear, but why? Do they have a specific purpose, or are they simply silly distractions of the fantasy-prone?

Entities are not cast in stone.

Rather, they change over time. Indeed, I’ve used the term ‘psychic waves’ to explain this mode of change over the centuries. And several theorists are fundamental to putting together the pieces of a possible reason why.
Take mythologist Joseph Campbell. He identified universal similarities in myths. I’ve used the term ‘universal psychology’ to identify this form of identical thinking that lies behind the phenomenon. Carl Jung also offered the collective unconscious, where ‘archetypes’ appear in myth and dream, also suggesting universality.

This suggests a standard pattern in our mind-set.

So could this suggest a standard pattern to entities, which are seen through the mind, are they not? Other researchers, such as Jacques Vallee, offer a possible reason for all this.
They speak of a ‘psychic menagerie’ lying below our conscious thought, acting as if a ‘control mechanism’ upon our culture, aspirations, etc. So is it possible that such a mechanism exists? And if so, why? Maybe a short natural history of the entity would be useful.

The first possibly known entities were animal spirits.

Fundamental to the first nature religions, the shaman would communicate with them in order to form a contract between man and nature.
This was important because nature was the central arena of man’s endeavour. As man began to move out of nature, he expressed ‘ego’, and entities changed into the ‘chimera’ – half animal, half man. The agricultural revolution then led to the city, and our new entities were the gods and superheroes of Classical myth.

Monotheism brought a change in entities.

Banishing the previous paganism, entities expressed ‘evil’, and were thus seem as demons, or more subtle fairies. Man was pure, so when he did evil himself, it couldn’t be him. Hence, much evil action came to be seen in terms of the werewolf.
As the Medieval world began to collapse and man gained predominance, entities became man-based, in the vampire. As we moved away from a spiritual world due to the Enlightenment, entities began to remind us of the spiritual in the ghost and, as the Englightenment crashed into 19th and 20th century conflicts, the spirit guide and communication with the dead.
Next, we began to look at the possibility of space travel, and the entity became the UFO and alien. And today, as spirituality becomes personal in the New Age, the entity has become the guardian angel.
Of course, various entities have always been seen, but there is a distinct pattern to predominant entities throughout history. And in every case they come in line with specific changes in man’s attitudes. It is as if they are born from our changing mind-set and the cultural expressions that arise – a kind of psychic media-form.
Of course, we must then face the possibility that, as with main media, an idea arises and is then symbolically represented in media, thus defining it and changing society in kind. And if we place this function upon entities, then the paranormal becomes the actual engine of historical change. In effect, it expresses a concept – which is, of course, the intellectual meaning of the word, entity.

© Anthony North, July 2008