In 1997 the Tories used a now infamous poster caricaturing Tony Blair as having a demon’s eyes. This was so over-the-top that it probably backfired.
Yet two years later I was asking friends if they thought Blair was mad. They looked at me as though I was; though perhaps they see things differently now. He was the reason that for the first time in my life I voted Conservative in the 2001 General Election - not that I expected it to make a difference in a rock-solid Labour constituency, but I had to make my little Horton-hears-a-Who squeak.
Such was the grip of New Labour on the media that it was years before I discovered that the adulating multitude waving Union Jacks outside Downing Street the day after the 1997 landslide were handpicked Labour Party workers and supporters corralled inside the security gates. It was a PR fake and I fancy you can see a slightly embarrassed tightness in the smile as Blair waves to No One.
Nowadays his blue eyes have a frosted quality, a defence against our using the ‘windows of the soul’ to peer into his mind. Clarissa Dickson Wright, who knew him when they were both young barristers said '‘He has psychopath eyes. You know those dead eyes that look at you and try to work out what you want to hear?'
His gaze had the inward absorption of someone on a mission; and what a mission it was! Peter Hyman, one of Blair’s former aides, told Peter Hitchens that the New Labour 'project' was 'infinitely more revolutionary than anything proposed by Jeremy Corbyn'; another said ‘You have no idea how extensive this project is.’
It’s not yet complete and if Hitchens is right Sir Keir Starmer is here to finish the job. Starmer has a similarly abstracted look, that of a man driven by a plan. He will say anything and its opposite, in order to get his hands on the levers of power; only then will we see his true intent. It may be that he himself does not understand where the Project is taking us, what is the final stop on the line.
Russian philosopher Aleksandr Dugin thinks he knows. Talking to Tucker Carlson, Dugin views the West as on a journey towards extreme liberalism, systematically cutting us off from any form of collective identity. The latest binding thread to be severed is gender; next is human nature itself, as (according to Noah Harari) technology helps homo sapiens evolve into homo deus.
What for? What will it help us if we know everything except who we are, and our society collapses into chaos, a Bedlam of squabbling minorities and individualists?
Once ultra-freedom has atomised us we will be nothing - and be treated as such. An all-powerful State can dispose of us wholesale in the pursuit of grand plans - think of Stalin’s mass deportations; and inhuman ideals - when Chairman Mao was told a nuclear war would kill a third of humanity he replied ‘Good, then there will be no more classes.’
Anyone who thinks ruthless fanaticism could not take hold here needs to read about Cromwell’s Protectorate; or indeed the wars of religion, in which sects wore their beliefs like rival football hooligans, forgetting how Christ himself summed up all the Law and the prophets in two sentences about love.
The same insane combativeness has characterised modern politics, so that New Labour reportedly saw unrestricted immigration as a way to ‘rub the Right's nose in diversity’ without considering the consequences. One of them is to have introduced a rival for the Left’s universalist nihilism in the internationalist religiosity of Islam, whose adherents in this country, though largely peaceful at the moment, are a gathering underbrush awaiting some spark to cause a conflagration. We shall see whether Gaza is enough to split Labour’s vote even as the backlash against Tory Party treachery threatens to destroy most of its MP base (leaving, one fears, the wrong rump in Parliament.)
We do not need fiery, fully-articulated philosophies that threaten to divide and harm us. Such peace and prosperity as we enjoy today depends on not miring ourselves in great controversies. We cannot right the whole world but we can tend our own country like a garden, planting practical improvements and weeding abuses without submitting all to a destructive big-picture buzz-cut. If we can turn from dogmatism to the Confucian principle of ‘jen’, human-heartedness, we can look at each other with clear eyes.
Wednesday, June 12, 2024
Sunday, June 09, 2024
Treat child behaviour with diet, not drugs?
Poor behaviour in children may be partly caused by dietary deficiency. In this YT video Patrick Holford says that there is a connection between lack of Omega-3 and emotional dysregulation.
Wikipedia is happy to trash Holford by superficial reference to his views on HIV and autism (‘not in line with modern medical thought and have been criticised for putting people in danger and damaging public health’) without giving links to expert analysis. On the other hand there is research tending to support what he says about Omega-3, e.g. ‘Omega-3 Fatty Acids Are Related to Abnormal Emotion Processing in Adolescent Boys with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder’ and ‘Study reveals how Omega-3 can help the brain to regulate impulsive reactions to aggressive behaviour.’
I worked for years in an educational unit for excluded primary children where ADHD diagnosis was often treated with Ritalin, an amphetamine. Most of the children came from the lower social classes where less-skilled parents and a shortage of money were likely to have influenced the dietary choices in the family.
The video is much more wide-ranging - mostly focused on preventing dementia - and interesting on how our evolution from marine life has led to a continuing need for compounds found in fish and marine algae.
Btw Holford says our brains are some 20 per cent smaller than they were in prehistoric times and suggests this coincides with our progression from a marine diet to a more agricultural one. However the connection may not be a simple one of dietary intake: I note there is a rough correlation between body mass and brain size and prehistoric humans were more muscular - and perhaps more physically skillful - being hunters and gatherers.
Plenty of food for thought in this video.
Wikipedia is happy to trash Holford by superficial reference to his views on HIV and autism (‘not in line with modern medical thought and have been criticised for putting people in danger and damaging public health’) without giving links to expert analysis. On the other hand there is research tending to support what he says about Omega-3, e.g. ‘Omega-3 Fatty Acids Are Related to Abnormal Emotion Processing in Adolescent Boys with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder’ and ‘Study reveals how Omega-3 can help the brain to regulate impulsive reactions to aggressive behaviour.’
I worked for years in an educational unit for excluded primary children where ADHD diagnosis was often treated with Ritalin, an amphetamine. Most of the children came from the lower social classes where less-skilled parents and a shortage of money were likely to have influenced the dietary choices in the family.
The video is much more wide-ranging - mostly focused on preventing dementia - and interesting on how our evolution from marine life has led to a continuing need for compounds found in fish and marine algae.
Btw Holford says our brains are some 20 per cent smaller than they were in prehistoric times and suggests this coincides with our progression from a marine diet to a more agricultural one. However the connection may not be a simple one of dietary intake: I note there is a rough correlation between body mass and brain size and prehistoric humans were more muscular - and perhaps more physically skillful - being hunters and gatherers.
Plenty of food for thought in this video.
Friday, June 07, 2024
FRIDAY MUSIC: The Blues, by JD
'The Blues' is a music genre and musical form that originated amongst African-Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues music incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the African-American culture. The blues form is ubiquitous in jazz, rhythm and blues, and rock and roll.
It seems to have gone out of fashion in the 21st century for some season and is rarely heard on radio but the music has not died. And, as with all forms of music, it changes and evolves but the spirit remains. Judging by these recordings as found on YouTube it is as popular as ever (one of the videos below has had 119 million views) So herewith a selection of modern blues which are very definitely 'after midnight' in mood and style.
Detroit Blues Band - Tears From My Eyes
Daniel Castro - I'll Play The Blues For You
Tony Tucker - The Black Water Rose [Relaxing Blues Music 2020]
Chris Bell - Elevator To Heaven
Detroit Blues Band – Walkin' Out The Door
----------------------------------------
Detroit Blues Band
Daniel Castro
“Daniel Castro is one of the most dynamic blues guitarists performing in theWest Coast.” --Willie Brown, President, Sacramento Blues Society
Tony Tucker
Chris Bell
Solo artist and bandleader, Chris Bell is a highly compelling singer, songwriter, guitarist, producer and teacher with roots planted in the fertile soil of American roots music! Without compromising authenticity and soulful integrity handed down from his North Carolina Mom and New York City Dad, he draws equal measures from traditional and contemporary Blues, Country and Rock.
Tuesday, June 04, 2024
Ukraine: work till you drop
Ukraine is facing a crisis of pensioner poverty says Darya Marchak, deputy head of the Ukrainian Ministry of Social Policy.
She expects the country’s head count to fall by a third - from 38 million in 2022 to 25 million by 2050. The demographic imbalance means that in future a Ukrainian will have to work and save until ‘he physically cannot provide for himself.’
The dwindling population is not just because of war casualties - President Zelensky recently said they numbered only 31,000, though others have estimated much higher. Following the Soviet collapse in 1991 economic crises and labour migration had already slashed the population numbers from c. 52 million, and reduced the fertility rate to 1.4 per woman prior to the Russian invasion. Since then some six million have fled Ukraine (a fifth of those to Russia), taking their money and breeding potential with them.
Ignoring Zelensky’s plea for social security assistance, the US’s multibillion dollar military aid package passed in April stipulated that none of the money was to be used to pay pensions.
Is it Russia the Americans want to crush, or resource-rich Ukraine?
She expects the country’s head count to fall by a third - from 38 million in 2022 to 25 million by 2050. The demographic imbalance means that in future a Ukrainian will have to work and save until ‘he physically cannot provide for himself.’
The dwindling population is not just because of war casualties - President Zelensky recently said they numbered only 31,000, though others have estimated much higher. Following the Soviet collapse in 1991 economic crises and labour migration had already slashed the population numbers from c. 52 million, and reduced the fertility rate to 1.4 per woman prior to the Russian invasion. Since then some six million have fled Ukraine (a fifth of those to Russia), taking their money and breeding potential with them.
Ignoring Zelensky’s plea for social security assistance, the US’s multibillion dollar military aid package passed in April stipulated that none of the money was to be used to pay pensions.
Is it Russia the Americans want to crush, or resource-rich Ukraine?
Sunday, June 02, 2024
SUNDAY SUPPLEMENT: Time, by JD
Henry Van Dyke knew when he wrote 'time is not' (or alternatively 'time is eternity')
==============================
The Symphony of Time
Featured in the video are, in order of appearance-
- Dean Radin, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Dean_Radin - Robert Lanza, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Robert_Lanza - Maurizio Benazzo, who produced this video http://mauriziobenazzo.com/
- and in glorious monochrome the legendary Alan Watts, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Alan_Watts - Michio Kaku, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Michio_Kaku - Brian Cox, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Brian_Cox_%28physicist%29
... and a transcipt of the video -
"Our experience of time is an illusion; there is no clock out there in the world.
No Clock, keeping time!
No Clock, out there in the world!
Space and time are tools of our understanding.
Time is just a concept, an illusion, a construct of the mind.
The concept of the time, creates what we call the self.
What is the I without time?
The only reason for time to exist is so everything does not happen at once.
Your mind has the capacity to put this together and add to what's going on.
Time is like a super glue keeping our story in order while we navigate the world around us.
While we navigate the world around us!
Science says that's space and time are these whole external objects.
What we need to do is readjust the way of thinking.
The concept of time creates what we call the self, what is the I without time?
The concept of time, creates what we call the self, what is the I without time?
For all human beings time is a matter of extraordinary importance and perhaps this is one of the principle ways in which we differ from animals.
Time drives every second of our lives in ways we can scarcely imagine.
Is one of the greatest mysteries in all of nature!
It's time that makes us uniquely human and it's knitted into the fabric of our being.
Time is also intimate. It comes from within.
From the journey of the Sun to the atomic clocks, we can accurately track the passing of time.
But what is time?
Did time have a beginning or has it always been. This is truly the unknown!
What time is it?
It's not even straight forward as you might think.
What time is it?
It's a problem that's confounded us to these day.
Our perception of time can change, time can speed up, time can slow down.
Time is just a concept, an illusion, a construct of the mind.
The concept of time, creates what we call the self, what is the I without time?
The concept of the time, creates what we call the self, what is the I without time?
Time is like a super glue keeping our story in order while we navigate the world around us.
While we navigate the world around us!"
------------------------------
Above is the scientific view of time and this next part is the poetic view of time.
Shakespeare knew, of course. He had Harry Hotspur say with his dying breath-
“But thought’s the slave of life, and life’s time’s fool,
And time that takes survey of all the world
Must have a stop.”
…..and the metaphysical poet Andrew Marvell (1621 - 1678)
“But at my back I always hear
Time’s wingèd chariot hurrying near,
And yonder all before us lie
Vast deserts of eternity.”
"Time present and time past
Are both perhaps present in time future,
And time future contained in time past.
If all time is eternally present
All time is unredeemable."
- [T. S. Eliot, in the Four Quartets]
There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven — A time to give birth, and a time to die; A time to plant, and a time to uproot what is planted. A time to kill, and a time to heal; A time to tear down, and a time to build up. A time to weep, and a time to laugh; A time to mourn, and a time to dance. A time to throw stones, and a time to gather stones; A time to embrace, and a time to shun embracing.
A time to search, and a time to give up as lost; A time to keep, and a time to throw away. A time to tear apart, and a time to sew together; A time to be silent, and a time to speak. A time to love, and a time to hate; A time for war, and a time for peace.
- [Ecclesiastes 3:1-8]
” Ah fill the cup – what boots it to repeat
How time is slipping underneath our feet
Unborn tomorrow and dead yesterday
Why fret about them if today be sweet!”
- Omar Khayyam (via EdwardFitzgerald)
------------------------------
If you are finding it all a bit confusing, here is an alternative explanation of the mystery of time by 'Professor' Terence Milligan -
and who is to say this alternative is any more or less plausible than the 'scientific' one!
"Time is
Too Slow for those who Wait,
Too Swift for those who Fear,
Too Long for those who Grieve,
Too Short for those who Rejoice;
But for those who Love,
Time is not."
- Henry Van Dyke (1852 - 1933)
------------------------
This story is sort of related and also shows how thinking about the mystery of time can make scientists become unhinged!...
http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/science/2012/03/one-time-zone-for-the-world
Friday, May 31, 2024
The De Niro Verdict
Actor Robert De Niro has done his country a favour by making explicit what the New York trial of Donald Trump was really about, and it wasn’t dodgy accounting:
I love this city. I love this city. I don’t want to destroy it. Donald Trump wants to destroy, not only the city, but the country, and eventually he could destroy the world… I don’t mean to scare you. No, no, wait, maybe I do mean to scare you. If Trump returns to the White House, you can kiss these freedoms goodbye that we all take for granted. And elections, forget about it. That’s over, that’s done. If he gets in, I can tell you right now, he will never leave. He will never leave. You know that. He will never leave.
Trump isn’t running for mayor in New York, but so what. As for destroying the world, we have just learned that the current President has authorised Ukraine to fire missiles into Russian sovereign territory, building on Kiev’s partial destruction of Russia’s strategic early warning system in Krasnodar Krai a week ago. This echoes Lord Cameron’s ‘fire away’ call on 3 May and a similar Franco-German one a couple of days ago.
Take that planned summer holiday now, before these people get us all killed.
De Niro was a prominent diner at the Golden Globes in 2020, where Ricky Gervaise told the luvvies:
So if you do win an award tonight, don’t use it as a platform to make a political speech. You’re in no position to lecture the public about anything. You know nothing about the real world. Most of you spent less time in school than Greta Thunberg.
Maybe De Niro was noisily eating some crisps at this point, for he clearly missed that lesson.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (Republican) swiftly issued a statement on the Trump verdict, accusing the District Attorney, the trial judge and his family of politically motivated bias.
The issues are now much bigger than what to do about the preening, blustering Golden Oaf. The focus is on the danger to social cohesion when the institutions of society cease to be clearly impartial, and the electorate is to be swayed by ignorant and hysterical public entertainers.
I love this city. I love this city. I don’t want to destroy it. Donald Trump wants to destroy, not only the city, but the country, and eventually he could destroy the world… I don’t mean to scare you. No, no, wait, maybe I do mean to scare you. If Trump returns to the White House, you can kiss these freedoms goodbye that we all take for granted. And elections, forget about it. That’s over, that’s done. If he gets in, I can tell you right now, he will never leave. He will never leave. You know that. He will never leave.
Trump isn’t running for mayor in New York, but so what. As for destroying the world, we have just learned that the current President has authorised Ukraine to fire missiles into Russian sovereign territory, building on Kiev’s partial destruction of Russia’s strategic early warning system in Krasnodar Krai a week ago. This echoes Lord Cameron’s ‘fire away’ call on 3 May and a similar Franco-German one a couple of days ago.
Take that planned summer holiday now, before these people get us all killed.
De Niro was a prominent diner at the Golden Globes in 2020, where Ricky Gervaise told the luvvies:
So if you do win an award tonight, don’t use it as a platform to make a political speech. You’re in no position to lecture the public about anything. You know nothing about the real world. Most of you spent less time in school than Greta Thunberg.
Maybe De Niro was noisily eating some crisps at this point, for he clearly missed that lesson.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (Republican) swiftly issued a statement on the Trump verdict, accusing the District Attorney, the trial judge and his family of politically motivated bias.
The issues are now much bigger than what to do about the preening, blustering Golden Oaf. The focus is on the danger to social cohesion when the institutions of society cease to be clearly impartial, and the electorate is to be swayed by ignorant and hysterical public entertainers.
FRIDAY MUSIC: More music from Galicia, by JD
Mercedes Peón - Marés Vivas (O Mar de Portozás), Adoro Galiza
If you are wondering what they are doing climbing over the rocks on the coast of Galicia, they are harvesting Gooseneck Barnacles. They are known as Percebes when they are served in restaurants and they are delicious as well as being very expensive.
"Europeans call the barnacles percebes, and in Spain and Portugal, they fetch a pretty penny. Combined with a lack of economic opportunities, this lures fishermen in Galicia, Spain, to Costa de la Muerte—the Coast of Death. As the name suggests, multiple sea-battered men have died among rough waves and strong tides while prying these prized morsels from beneath the water line."
Malvela - "O Pirimpimpín"
"Labregos" - Carlos Valcárcel & Fuxan os Ventos
Fuxan os Ventos - 'Muller' (con Mercedes Peón)
Fuxan Os Ventos O meu amor e mariñeiro
Susana Seivane - Gaitera Celta
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See also Luar Na Lubre
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