"people denouncing consumerism and then spending a fortune on organic food, exotic condiments, alternative music, rare foreign furniture or "anti-consumerist" products"
The hypocrisy of the chattering classes is astounding - never have we been confronted with such a dirth of liberal thought as now. Liberal is not fair trade bananas, liberal is not using organic pastry for your canapes, liberal is not eschewing mainstream culture - liberal is not a label to apply to your consumerist lifestyle so that you can pretend you aren't just another part of the capitalist machine.
What are your beliefs? What are your ethics and morals? How are you making a stand against the injustices you lament whilst sipping cocktails?
THINK! That's what sheeple are - people without their own thoughts and beliefs.
Friday, 28 December 2007
But I definitely agree with this
and it made me laugh. Philosophy humour rules ;)
"the idea that all morality is subjective is an objective position on morality and therefore a paradox."
"the idea that all morality is subjective is an objective position on morality and therefore a paradox."
Not sure I agree with this...
But I find it amusing.
"The basics of male - female sexual relations are (and always have been) women will swap sex for what they want and men will swap sex for whatever they have."
"The basics of male - female sexual relations are (and always have been) women will swap sex for what they want and men will swap sex for whatever they have."
Monday, 24 December 2007
True dat.
Philip Larkin - This Be The Verse
They fuck you up, your mum and dad.
They may not mean to, but they do.
They fill you with the faults they had
And add some extra, just for you.
But they were fucked up in their turn
By fools in old-style hats and coats,
Who half the time were soppy-stern
And half at one another's throats.
Man hands on misery to man.
It deepens like a coastal shelf.
Get out as early as you can,
And don't have any kids yourself.
Saturday, 22 December 2007
Why I'm leaving part two
I read this on The Guardian forums today, it summarises what I see wrong with our culture.
"
"
Human beings are goal-oriented, problem-solving social animals. Despite the abyss beneath our feet we rise above our existential angst to find or create meaning in our lives. If we fail so to do, we fall into depression and much, much worse.
Young women without hope of purpose have fatherless babies far too young, only to find they do not fill the void; young men without hope fill their heads with dreams of dominance and their hands with the means to achieve it.
Blair's legacy is mere footnote to Thatcher: there IS no such thing as society; nothing to build, to contribute to or sacrifice for. Bankers are cool, billionaires are cooler and public servants are fools because they do not follow the money.
As Zola said: "If you ask me why I am here I will say I came to live out loud!"
Well your thugs and killers come to live out loud. Pity the society that values wealth above meaning and property above people; such are its children.
Black, white, male, female, we are all now in the belly of the capitalist Beast. Someone fetch a big, sharp knife and let's gut the vile animal."
Friday, 21 December 2007
Much needed blissful slumber
Well I slept for close to 11 hours. Given my usual sleep time is about 6 hours, I'd say I was fighting something off (exhaustion probably). I got into bed and actually sighed "ahhhh, I love bed", which is something I never do - sleep is a function I wish I didn't have to do. Anyway - revitalised and invigorated and ready to go. Did the rest of my shopping and fought my way through the hoards of scum in town.
Chili tonight and then off to a pagan solstice celebration where I shall put my dreams and wishes on the wind with everyone else. Clock burning
Should be awesome.
Tuesday, 18 December 2007
I sometimes wonder if we deserve to exist anymore
Just watching a program about "Extreme Porn" - not quite sure what I was expecting, but I got a lot more. 'Crushing' porn is a new one on me - taping/gluing small animals to a board and then crushing them under a high heel or bare feet. I don't know how this is supposed to titillate, but it has actually made me feel sick - I thought fecal freaks were as sick as it got, but this really is something else. Next the program is covering the market for 'violent rape' porn.
I'm sure I could make a very clever moral relatavist argument for why it's not actually 'wrong', but I can't even begin to think how this sort of stuff is acceptable - philosophy be damned, this is fucked up. With all the technology we have in the world, we're using it to distribute animal snuff porn on the internet. Apparently rapists are now filming themselves assaulting prostitutes and putting it on the web.
Sometimes we are shown the absolute bottom of the pus-filled pit of human nature. I'm an atheist, but I can see why fear of eternal damnation might be a good thing.
Sick to my stomach.
I'm sure I could make a very clever moral relatavist argument for why it's not actually 'wrong', but I can't even begin to think how this sort of stuff is acceptable - philosophy be damned, this is fucked up. With all the technology we have in the world, we're using it to distribute animal snuff porn on the internet. Apparently rapists are now filming themselves assaulting prostitutes and putting it on the web.
Sometimes we are shown the absolute bottom of the pus-filled pit of human nature. I'm an atheist, but I can see why fear of eternal damnation might be a good thing.
Sick to my stomach.
Monday, 10 December 2007
Why I'm leaving
People like me are leaving in their thousands - the educated middle-classes that earn enough to pay a lot of tax, but not enough to be able to blag non-dom status and pay no tax.
I'm leaving because there is a massed class of self-obsessed consumptionist fuckwits taking over. It's not about working class/middle class/upper class anymore. It's chavscum vs everyone else - and it is not something I've seen in other countries. The US and Canada have white trash, but that white trash don't seem to make up the majority of the population.
Go out on a Friday or Saturday night in any town centre in the UK, you'll see the same scene. Drunken/drug-fucked arseholes of both sexes fighting and vomiting and inflicting themselves on the people around them. I go out once or twice a month on a clubbing night, and every time I see it - I'm not a Daily Mail reader being told this, I'm seeing it first hand.
When I lived in Gravesend I got attacked for "talking posh". My wife got sexually assaulted by a 14-year old boy whose family then tried to batter me outside the police station - it didn't matter what their son had done, I was responsible for him being at the police station. My daughter got her drink spiked at a party and was raped. My ex-girlfriend had her head smashed against a radiator after a guy tried to force her into having sex at a party (he followed her to the bathroom and grabbed her). At my youngest daughter's 5th birthday party, she saw her uncle get his teeth knocked out by one of the other parents (unprovoked, the guy was drunk) - my daughter goes to private school as I wanted to shield her from the standard scum of the town, it didn't work. I punched some guy when he was trying to break into my bedroom through the window in the middle of the night. My experience of this country is that it's full of scum - maybe I'm just more attuned to it now, because I see these kinds of people regularly. I know that I've had more than my fair share of "bad things", but our lives are subjective, so this is how I see it.
I travel around Europe a lot for work, and I don't see the same behaviour when I'm out on the town over there. There has always been a drinking culture in the UK, and maybe 15 years ago when I started going out it was the same on a Friday and Saturday as it is now - perhaps I'm just seeing it through more cynical eyes. 15 years ago I don't think we'd have been booing the national anthems of other countries at sporting events - I really believe something has changed in our national psyche, and that it is getting worse.
On top of the personal safety/comfort issues - there's the failing health system, the ever increasing cost of living (rising way way above the rate of inflation), the surveillance culture, the nannying freedom-encroaching legislation, the failing infrastructure, the 'hand out' gimme attitude of a lot of the people and the shite weather. When I flew back into Heathrow yesterday, my bags were delayed by an hour due to "congestion". Only in the UK do we have congestion in the airport itself.
Just to balance it out - I love the natural beauty of the UK, I adore the South Downs. I love hot summer days in the New Forest. I love the heritage and history of the country itself - I'm not ashamed of our past. I love the fact that you can go and see real Roman baths/roads. Places like Stonehenge are awe-inspiring. But all of these things are "nice to haves" - and all of them are things from our past. What is there now to be proud of? The thing that we are immersed in is the current culture - what is the zeitgeist of now?
I've spent the past few months living in two places at once (Montreal and here). I prefer it there, so that's where I'm going. It is by no means perfect, but it is preferable to me. Just little things - like the police are generally respected, the streets are clean, the subway is on time and cheap, healthcare is good, in summer it's hot in winter it's cold (I ski and mountain bike so perfect for me), quality of life is high, the natural beauty is both varied and impressive. Quebec is different to the rest of Canada though - it's more European and less banal. There's even interesting architecture :) I just like it.
If I didn't have to work and I was 20 years older, then I could gladly live in the UK in the sticks in a bubble and enjoy all the good things about the country without much of the bad. But I have to work and socialise, and the UK is not a pleasant place to do either in my experience. YMMV.
I'm leaving because there is a massed class of self-obsessed consumptionist fuckwits taking over. It's not about working class/middle class/upper class anymore. It's chavscum vs everyone else - and it is not something I've seen in other countries. The US and Canada have white trash, but that white trash don't seem to make up the majority of the population.
Go out on a Friday or Saturday night in any town centre in the UK, you'll see the same scene. Drunken/drug-fucked arseholes of both sexes fighting and vomiting and inflicting themselves on the people around them. I go out once or twice a month on a clubbing night, and every time I see it - I'm not a Daily Mail reader being told this, I'm seeing it first hand.
When I lived in Gravesend I got attacked for "talking posh". My wife got sexually assaulted by a 14-year old boy whose family then tried to batter me outside the police station - it didn't matter what their son had done, I was responsible for him being at the police station. My daughter got her drink spiked at a party and was raped. My ex-girlfriend had her head smashed against a radiator after a guy tried to force her into having sex at a party (he followed her to the bathroom and grabbed her). At my youngest daughter's 5th birthday party, she saw her uncle get his teeth knocked out by one of the other parents (unprovoked, the guy was drunk) - my daughter goes to private school as I wanted to shield her from the standard scum of the town, it didn't work. I punched some guy when he was trying to break into my bedroom through the window in the middle of the night. My experience of this country is that it's full of scum - maybe I'm just more attuned to it now, because I see these kinds of people regularly. I know that I've had more than my fair share of "bad things", but our lives are subjective, so this is how I see it.
I travel around Europe a lot for work, and I don't see the same behaviour when I'm out on the town over there. There has always been a drinking culture in the UK, and maybe 15 years ago when I started going out it was the same on a Friday and Saturday as it is now - perhaps I'm just seeing it through more cynical eyes. 15 years ago I don't think we'd have been booing the national anthems of other countries at sporting events - I really believe something has changed in our national psyche, and that it is getting worse.
On top of the personal safety/comfort issues - there's the failing health system, the ever increasing cost of living (rising way way above the rate of inflation), the surveillance culture, the nannying freedom-encroaching legislation, the failing infrastructure, the 'hand out' gimme attitude of a lot of the people and the shite weather. When I flew back into Heathrow yesterday, my bags were delayed by an hour due to "congestion". Only in the UK do we have congestion in the airport itself.
Just to balance it out - I love the natural beauty of the UK, I adore the South Downs. I love hot summer days in the New Forest. I love the heritage and history of the country itself - I'm not ashamed of our past. I love the fact that you can go and see real Roman baths/roads. Places like Stonehenge are awe-inspiring. But all of these things are "nice to haves" - and all of them are things from our past. What is there now to be proud of? The thing that we are immersed in is the current culture - what is the zeitgeist of now?
I've spent the past few months living in two places at once (Montreal and here). I prefer it there, so that's where I'm going. It is by no means perfect, but it is preferable to me. Just little things - like the police are generally respected, the streets are clean, the subway is on time and cheap, healthcare is good, in summer it's hot in winter it's cold (I ski and mountain bike so perfect for me), quality of life is high, the natural beauty is both varied and impressive. Quebec is different to the rest of Canada though - it's more European and less banal. There's even interesting architecture :) I just like it.
If I didn't have to work and I was 20 years older, then I could gladly live in the UK in the sticks in a bubble and enjoy all the good things about the country without much of the bad. But I have to work and socialise, and the UK is not a pleasant place to do either in my experience. YMMV.
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