I WAS READING the comment trail for an article I wrote recently entitled “Alien Anthropology: Religion Is Dead But Faith May Yet Prevail” when it sparked off a few chaotic thoughts in my noggin and got me thinking about a hypothetical scenario. It’s a simple enough question to ask, but the implications for any answer are likely to be far reaching and widely debated.

I’m not looking to evolve a perfect answer here folks, but I do think it might be interesting to see what perspectives you can bring to this topic, so please do feel free to comment on it. And so to the question at hand…

What if there were no religions?

Imagine a world without religion, any religion; what would it be like? Not a world where religions suddenly ceased to exist, rather a scenario where they never began in the first place. Would we be better or worse off as a result?

Please don’t just run to your comfortable corners with this one folks and spew out any practiced positions if you can avoid it, rather take some time to examine the possible implications and then let rip with your views. To kick things off here are my initial thoughts on the subject.

I decided to look at some key topics and examine if they would be significantly changed or not in light of the hypothesis and to be honest (speaking as an agnostic) I was quite surprised by the results myself because I would have predicted a completely different outcome…

Fundamentalism

Relgious fundamentalism is an oft used phrase these days, particularly in relation to either the extreme Christian right or the various middle eastern islamic factions, but if religions didn’t in fact exist would we still have fundamentalism as a concept?

In a paper entitled “Fighting the Good Fight: Fundamentalism and Religious Revival” William O. Beeman writes that the term fundamentalism has rapidly entered the vocabulary of social science in the past two decades as a general designation for revivalist conservative religious orthodoxy. Though originally applied only to Christianity, Gananath Obeyesekere theorizes that the extension of the term to other religious traditions dates from the time of the Iranian Revolution in 1978-79. Today it is used to describe Evangelical Christians, Iranian revolutionaries, ultra-orthodox Jews, militant Sikhs, and Buddhist resistance fighters, among others. Its categorical use is so widespread and so easily applied, that the misperception persists that it has always been with us.

The specific origin of the word fundamentalism dates to an early 20th Century American religious movement. The movement took its name from a compendium of twelve volumes published between 1910 and 1915 by a group of Protestant laymen entitled: The Fundamentals: A Testimony of the Truth. These volumes were circulated in the millions and served as the concretization of a cross-denominational set of traditions with roots in previous centuries. It owes its existence particularly to the same evangelical revivalist tradition that inspired the Great Awakening of the early 19th Century and a variety of early millenarian movements. Spurred on by reactions to Darwin’s theory of evolution, the original Fundamentalist Movement was seen as a religious revival. It came to embody both principles of absolute religious orthodoxy and evangelical practice which called for believers to extended action beyond religion into political and social life.

In other words the term ‘fundamentalism’  was borne from a religious context, but if we had no religions would we have no fundamentalism? Unfortunately the answer – in my humble opinion – is “no”. We may never have had any religious wars or fundamentalism in the name of religion, but that’s not to say there wouldn’t be wars or fundamentalist behaviour, but it just wouldn’t done in the name of religion. Would this be any better or worse than the world we live in today? I think not unfortunately; given that human nature seems to be hell bent on destruction by default. We may not have religious or sectarian violence, but we would still have violence of some description I think.

Sexual Repression, Prostitution & Porn

An obvious area to explore (in my addled mind at least!) is the wonderfully messy world of sexuality and related items. In the absence of religion would we still have such hangups as sexual repression? Would the porn industry have evolved to the multi billion dollar industry it is today and would we still have prostitution?

Sexual Repression 

Western religions have spent millenia inflicting shame, guilt, repression and punishment upon human sexuality - especially upon women’s sexuality. Asian faiths aren’t so punitive. They generally accept lovemaking as a natural part of life, hell some Tantric sects even practice ritual intercourse, but the West presents an opposite, ugly story: a long chronicle of religious hostility to lovers.

Sexual repression is nothing new. Many societies around the world place restrictions on the sex lives of their citizens, often with heavy consequences should an individual deviate from what is considered acceptable in that society.

Adulterers, unwed lovers, homosexuals, and even people caught in the act of masturbating have been institutionalized, tortured, mutilated, or even executed for committing acts of sexual gratification.

The Old Testament raged against “whoredom” and decreed brutal penalties for unapproved sex. It commanded that non-virgin brides be stoned to death (Deut. 22:21). The earliest known papal decree, issued by Pope Siricius in 386, sought to forbid church elders from making love with their wives. Today, the church’s ability to imprison, torture, mutilate or otherwise inflict penalties on nonconformists has receded (in the West at least).

However, every censorship effort, every attempt at sexual repression, pretty much still comes from religion in one context or another. If there were no religion it logically follows that there would no sexual repression… but what about prostitution then? Without religion and sexual repression would there still be prostitution?

Prostitution

In a paper entitled “Authentic Herstory of Prostitution” by Gabriel Loch-Lainn Seabrook  it is suggested that early humans were already promiscuous. Like our closest living relatives, the gorilla, chimpanzee, and orangutan, they were pansexual; that is, prehistoric women and men engaged in sexual activities with all other group members, female and male, young and old. This sexual behavioural pattern would eventually change, however, from rampant promiscuity to one in which we formed pair-bonds based around female prostitution. This transformation occurred around 1 million years ago in an early human ancestor known as Homo erectus.

Any animal behavior that spans such an enormous length of time will become biologically programmed into that animal’s genetic code. And this is precisely what happened in humans when we switched from promiscuity to pair-bonding. To this day-because it is now a genetically determined behavior-pair-bonding is the type of bonding that the majority of women and men in every culture and society engage most actively in.

Anthropological studies show however that humans are not designed for lifetime monogamy, and that even in societies where lifetime monogamy is held to be the ideal, only a tiny fraction of couples actually practice it. To the contrary, nearly all people, following our prehistoric ancestor’s basic mating pattern, form a temporary pair-bond with a single mate, separate, then go in search of a new partner with whom she or he forms another brief, tenuous bond. This primal custom is overtly reflected in our obsession with dating, and in our extremely high rates of desertion, infidelity, divorce, and remarriage. More to the point, the modern human practice of both serial polygamy, and the far less popular lifetime monogamy, are rooted firmly in the soil of prostitution, an element without which no sexual relationship could exist.

So, no sexual repression but still a healthy trade in prostitution… so what does that mean for the porn industry? Would it still have evolved in the vacuum left behind where religions currently exist?

The Porn Industry

The answer is a resounding “yes”. Before early proto-men could even fashion a jagged rock into a cutting tool, pornography existed, in the form of voyeurism. Keep in mind that mortality rates were certainly impossibly high in ancient times, perhaps 50 percent or even higher, so propagation was almost as important an enterprise to the survival of a species as eating.

Once a member of any species reaches sexual maturity, hormones take over, and sexual behavior ensues as a healthy matter of course. Once early Homo Sapiens developed enough brain capacity to think abstractly, early forms of pornography were scrawled on walls inside of caves, perhaps as fertility icons, or just perhaps simply to arouse one’s sexuality.

So we’re seen that the absence of religions would not improve our lot from a violence perspective, would almost certainly have done away with sexual repression (and therefore hopefully helped us evolve into healthier happy humans) but would not have had any impact on the porn industry or prostitution… so where does that leave us?

Shrinks, Education & The Sciences

Shrinks

If we’re not sexually repressed anymore do we still need shrinks, psychoanalysts and their like?

Unfortunately the answer is again “Yes”. Rather the answer is that these areas would still have evolved in the absence of any religion whether people felt sexually repressed or not, so no domino effect there unfortunately. Psychoanalysis got its start in Vienna in the 1890s in the work of Sigmund Freud, a neurologist who treated numerous patients with “hysteria,” a collection of somatic symptoms (such as paralysis, motor automatisms, blindness or deafness, etc.) that appeared to have no physiological basis.

The history of psychology as a scholarly study of the mind and behavior dates back to the Middle Ages. It was widely regarded to a branch of philosophy until the middle of the 19th-century when psychology developed as an independant scientific discipline in Germany. Ancient psychiatry originated in the 5th century BC with the ideology that psychotic disorders were supernatural in origin.

At that time clergy were the individuals in society with the responsibility of “curing” mental disorders – so its possible that if religions didn’t exist then no clergy therefore no psychiatry… but suspect if it wasn’t the clergy it would have been someone else.

So – no happy ending there either; the absence of religion does nothing to cure us of all those damn expensive shrinks, and that probably also follows for the freakin’ lawyers and accountants too!

So what about education then? Those pesky priests and religious orders have had the market on education cornered for a long time… would it still be the same without them?

Education

Once again I have to dissappoint by saying “no”… things would not be that different. Education was the natural response of early civilizations to the struggle of surviving and thriving as a culture. Adults trained the young of their society in the knowledge and skills they would need to master and eventually pass on. The evolution of culture, and human beings as a species depended on this practice of transmitting knowledge. In pre-literate societies this was achieved orally and through imitation. Storytelling continued from one generation to the next. Oral language developed into written symbols and letters. The depth and breadth of knowledge that could be preserved and passed soon increased exponentially. When cultures began to extend their knowledge beyond the basic skills of communicating, trading, gathering food, religious practices, etc, formal education, and schooling, eventually followed

The Sciences 

Is it possible however that the sciences would have a more dominant role in our society today if they didn’t have to contend with the various religions down through the centuries? Imagine a world with no Bible to interpret, no Koran or ten commandments to hand down as rules and/or guidelines of behaviour.

Since the beginning of human history there have been many explanations for events that seem out of human control. In recent civilized history, religious and scientific views have often clashed with one another. Religious ideas are usually presented first and then enough scientific evidence accumulates to dare religious beliefs. These findings of science are met with incredulity and most are considered a heresy. Since the middle ages until the 18th century, religious ideology was the most accepted way of explaining the unexplained. During the next couple hundred years, many members of academia(a school of philosophy), using science to back them up, came up with new ways of dealing with the unanswerable questions. When the church had the greatest power, the men and women of science were viewed as the bad guys.

In most cases it was safer to believe in the church and their ideas, in order not to be excommunicated or shunned by society, than to place their trust in charlatan scientists. As a result, many conflicts arose (and continue to do so today) between men of religion and men of science. Scientists like Darwin and Voltaire accepted the risks involved in presenting new ideas and pushed the boundaries of science as a result. In the absence of any religions would science still have evolved?

The answer is “yes”, however the real question is would it have evolved in the same way if it didn’t have the religious orders and views to contend with? I guess on that front we will never really know, however it is likely that without the religious viewpoints to contest the advancement and adoption of the sciences it’s likely people would have developed a more reasoned and logical worldview based upon those things that they could see, touch, feel, measure and predict, rather than the faith-based views held today by the various religions.

What About The Athiests & Agnostics? 

Atheism

Without religion would there be any atheists? 

Although the term atheism originated in the 16th century, based on Ancient Greek (roughly translated: “godless, denying the gods, ungodly”) and open admission to positive atheism in modern times was not made earlier than in the late 18th century, atheistic ideas and beliefs, as well as their political influence, have a more expansive history.

The spontaneous proposition that there may be no gods after all is likely as old as theism itself (and the proposition that there may be no God as old as the beginnings of monotheism or henotheism). Philosophical atheist thought appears from the 6th or 5th century BC, both in Europe and in Asia.

Agnosticism

Agnosticism (from the Greek a, meaning “without”, and gnosticism or gnosis, meaning “knowledge”) is the philosophical view that the truth value of certain claims—particularly metaphysical claims regarding theology, afterlife or the existence of God, gods, deities, or even ultimate reality—is unknown or, depending on the form of agnosticism, inherently unknowable due to the nature of subjective experience.  Agnostics claim either that it is not possible to have absolute or certain knowledge of the existence or nonexistence of God or gods; or, alternatively, that while individual certainty may be possible, they personally have no knowledge. Agnosticism in both cases involves some form of skepticism. Some agnostics are termed agnostic theists since, while they do not claim to know any deity exists, they do believe (with varying degrees on skepticism) in, at least, one.

It seems likely therefore that if there were no religion to begin with, no belief system in a god or gods… then there would be no need for a counter-point perspective either so both athiesm and agnosticism would not be required.

Conclusion 

So where does that leave us then? If religion had not evolved or taken hold all those centuries ago would we be better off or worse off today?

Contrary to my own internal assumptions the absence of religion would not yield that many changes in the world. There would still be wars and fundamentalism of some kind, but it would probably just have a different name associatied with it; humanity would have evolved as agressive and self destructive with or without religion I suspect. Sexual repression would not exist (at least as strongly as it does now) and perhaps we would all have less of a fascination with the porn industry and prostitution as a whole, but overall the differences would probably be marginal.

On the upside education would not be hampered by the absence of those wonderful christian brothers and their like, and the sciences would possibly have a stronger hold over us today without the various religious orders to hold them back in the embrionic stages, so I suppose we would live in a more reasoned and logical world as a result – which is a good thing from my perspective, but then again the absence of any religion would also logically lead to the absence of any anti-religion and therefore atheism and agnosticism would not exist because we wouldn’t need it.

When I started down this road I did actually think that in the vacuum left behind by all the religions the world would be a very different place, but in fact it appears that not a lot would be changed in any radical sense. I thought there would be many many reasons to do away with religion but actually, after doing a little light research for this article it probably comes down to one thing (tongue firmly in cheek!).

The Real Difference?

There is one overwhemling reason to do away with religions, in particular Western religions, given all of the above context and it is simply this…  if they themselves did not exist then we wouldn’t have to put up with any television evangalists!

That’s got to be worth a thought though, right?

And speaking of thoughts… have you got any?

Technorati Tags: agnostic, agnosticism, atheism, atheist, education, fundamentalism, porn, prostitution, Religion, Science, Sex, sexual repression

LANGUAGE IS A WONDERFUL thing, but it’s also a convenient way to mask the truth sometimes. One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter yes? Are they prisoners of war or “Enemy Combatants” over there in Gitmo? When does Iraq become a civil war and not a police action? Actually when does a conflict become a war? The list is endless.

The use of language has always been a very powerful weapon in the politics of persuasion and the media generally laps it up and plays along because it’s all good press and sells newspapers and TV advertising slots. It’s a perfect symbiotic relationship between the media, the politicans and the consumers. The politicians invent the lie, the media propagates it and the public eat it up willingly and convince themselves that they are “informed” as a result.

So how informed are you about the cyberwar cyberterror information warfare denial of service issue which occurred in Estonia earlier this year? Did you realise it was the beginning of the end? Have you started building your electronic proof bunker yet?

In April Estonia’s government moved a Soviet-era war memorial commemorating an unknown Russian killed fighting the Germans. Not a big deal you would think, but you’d be wrong. Estonia broke away from the then Soviet Union back in 1991 and has been making it’s own decisions and carving it’s own future ever since then. This seemingly innocuous decision to move the statue sparked off riots in the country between the ethnic russian communities and those who couldn’t care less about the “old country”. To make matters worse in Moscow, President Vladimir Putin very publicly criticized Estonia and demonstrators blockaded the Estonian embassy.

And that’s about the point when things started to go all cyberpunk and weird and the cyberwar broke out…

The Estonian government says its state and commercial websites – including a number of banks – were bombarded by mass requests for information – overwhelming their computer servers. Despite the fact that there are only 1.4 million people in Estonia it is actually one of the most wired places on the planet, largely due to the country’s parliament deciding that Internet access is a basic human right. They have even had e-voting since 2005. This very connectivity is what was exploited in a three week denial of service attack which – at the time – was alleged to have been orchestrated by Russia in retalliation for the insult of moving this war memorial.  Russia denied any involvement and then NATO were called in to assist. Yes, you read that right. NATO were called in to provide technical assistance in beefing up Estonia’s electronic defences against this 21st century implementation of a siege. Welcome to the cyberwar.

Some pundits called this the first instance of real cyberwarfare and hint of what was to come. The media jumped on the bandwagon and there are lots of news items out there in the ether helping to raise the paranoia levels around the planet. “It’s no longer science fiction” the articles scream. “The future of warfare is here” they proclaim. “State sponsored computer crime” is a reality. All the usual hyperbole and paranoia fuelled articles surfaced and were consumed by hungry readers across the globe. Eventually though Estonia changed its language and the press followed suit. Cyberwar was downgraded to “cyberterror”. An analysis by Arbor Networks’ Jose Nazario concluded that the distributed denial of service attacks targeting Estonia websites beginning in late April were not the work of the Russian government – so the need to change the language was obvious. The focus then shifted from a state sponsored attack to “terrorism”, everyones favourite word these days.

And of course we can’t have a cyberwar without a complimentary cyberconflict now can we?  The prevailing opinion is that the denial of service (DOS) episode in Estonia was the work of disgruntled (but ‘Net savvy) protestors. In this respect it’s being referred to as a cyberconflict rather than a war, much the same way the ongoing electronic exchanges between Pakistan and India are being called a cyberconflict. That’s not to say however that the powers that be aren’t already warming us consumers up for even more threat level orientated paranoia of the state-sponsored kind. Bad-guys-du-jour China are getting in a lot of press lately because of their so-called first strike cyberwar strategy and capability.

Hell it won’t be long before the USA tries to convince us that all those islamic militants and terrorists around the world are actually connected to the web and wreaking havoc across the globe. Can you see it yet? A bunch of appropriately dressed terrorists (they have to be so that the public can identify them as the bad guys) crowded around a PC plotting the downfall of western civilisation.

The bottom line here is that a rose by any other name… is still a rose. A cyberwar cyberconflict cyberterrorism event is still a bloody attack by one party on another, in whatever form it takes. The only difference is the medium, the method… but the same thing has been going on forever. For what it’s worth I have always rated things on a very simple sliding scale as follows:-

1) State Sponsored: I don’t care if it’s called a conflict, a police action or a war, it’s still one state or nation forcing itself on another. Ever since one nation developed an army and inflicted itself upon another we’ve been refining this practice and even now with all the technology and button pushing it still results in the same finale; dead bodies, smoking ruins and huge budget deficits.

2) Corporately Sponsored: Espionage is espionage, business is business. It’s been going on since the dawn of commerce and will always be there. Get over it. It’s part of doing business that your competitors will always want to get the advantage on you so whether its insider trading in Wall Street or dishing the secret formula for Coke Cola, it’s nothing new. If you want to play in the big leagues, bring a baseball bat.

3) Privately Sponsored: Ah yes, the perfect expression of a grudge. Revenge, divorce, dissolution of partnerships… it’s all the same. One party wants the other one fucked and as long as you have the money anything is possible. There are whole industries out there which developed from this primal urge to get one over on your ex. It helps if you have the cash though.

4) Non-Sponsored: Hackers, phishers, slackers, script kiddies, students, kids… the usual collection of miscreants with too much knowledge and time on their hands. A little knowledge goes a long way and whether it’s hacking into the school computers to change your grades or splatting your college professors car with eggs it all amounts to the same thing. Too much talent combined with too much free time equals trouble; always has and always will.

So – next time you pick up a paper and read all about the latest cyberwarfare or information war event around the globe; don’t panic. It’s nothing new. It’s not the end of the world. It’s not even the start of the end of the world. It’s all just the same old crap regurgitated into a new language to suit the political need to keep you afraid and under control; because when you are scared you are easier to control. When you are scared you will buy into anything they tell you.

So don’t be scared. You don’t need to switch off your PC just yet. No need to build an electronic proof bunker under your house. It’s just language folks. See through the language and discern for yourself what is actually going on if you can.

Oh – and a little bit of cynicism will get you a long way

DEAR FUCKWIT, How many dead bodies will it take? How many ruined lives do we need to add up before the numbers start to take effect on you? In case you missed it, there were 8 more road deaths this weekend, just like every bloody weekend; but do you care?

I read a story recently that claimed the cops are making on average over 400 drink-driving related arrests per week here in Ireland. I’ll bet you didn’t realise that. Even after all the advertising campaigns, after lowering the limit so much it’s hardly relevant anymore (one drink is enough!), after the seemingly endless weekly lists of road deaths… there are  still over 400 of you dumb fuckers who insist on drinking, then turning yourself into a weapon on the roads, every fucking week.

WTF is wrong with you people? What will it take to get through to you?

It’s a simple enough formula… drink + drive = death. Simple as that, and yet over 400 of your stupid bastards are out there on the roads every single week, causing mayhem and destruction. Jesus H, it’s not as if you are brilliant drivers when you’re sober for fucks sake. What the hell makes you think you can do it better when drunk? That’s 400 who get caught every week… just how many of you are getting away with it I wonder?

When you get behind that wheel you are making a conscious choice to do so. You are in effect committing an act of terrorism, albeit a localised one. You turn yourself into destructive weapon which can – and does – kill, maim and ruin lives almost every day of the week. You, my druknen friend, are a murderer. And all it would take to change that is for you to just get a bus, grab a taxi, take a lift or friggin’ walk home instead of getting in that car.

So my drunken friend I’ve decided to apply some chaos thinking to this problem and I believe I’ve come up with a potentially workable solution, however there is something you need to know first…

The problem is that there is no real deterrent – you fuckers think you are invincible with a few beers on yez. Loosing your license is not tough enough. Prison time is not tough enough. You should in fact be charged with murder – pure and simple, but you’re not. When you knowingly get behind the wheel of a car, when you are over the limit and you then end up killing someone in the process – that’s murder, and the penalties should follow suit.

But they don’t. And you know it. And you continue to risk your life and the lives of those around you every week. Well my drunken friend I’ve some news for you…

There are several problems here which need to be addressed. Let’s start with your drinking shall we? The latest survey from Europe finds that Ireland tops the scale for binge drinking, across all of Europe; now there’s something to be proud of isn’t it? I’m guessing that’s you by the way, a binge drinker. Someone with no sense of moderation. That tells me you lack balance, so a reasoned approach with you won’t work.

There is however another statistic which really says something about you. It seems that 96% of people in Malta have no actual idea what the legal drink driving limit is. You on the other hand know full well that one drink is enough to put you over the limit and yet you go ahead and get in that car anyway. That tells me you are not just stupid – you are selectively ignorant, which means an educational approach won’t work on you either.

I also know that the authorities are trying to deal with things, and there has been a suggestion that setting up a special court for ‘impaired driving related offences’ will help speed up things and free up cops on the beat to do more important work than baby sit you in court, but it’s not enough. Most of the time you just sit there and laugh at them, behind your legal aid solicitors or your expensive barristers. That tells me the legal route is not likely to make any difference to you either.

So basically a new approach is required. A more stringent deterrent is needed Something that would scare you people shitless, something so nasty that it couldn’t possibly ever be worth taking a drink and then getting behind the wheel of your car again. Ever.

But what kind of deterrent would work on you? Well you see chaos thinking has it’s uses, and I’ve applied literally seconds of hard thought to the topic and come up with a viable solution, and I just think you should know about it before you put yourself in harms way again.

You have already proven that graphic ad campaigns are useless. Pictures of crashes and news items of the damage done to families hasn’t worked either. Penalty points on your license hasn’t worked. Loosing your license entirely doesn’t seem to put you fuckers off for one second. So what will make you sit up and take notice then? What is it that will finally make you so scared of the possibility of getting caught that you will literally shit yourself at the prospect?

I’m thinking there could be an opening here for the lads in the balaclavas. Since peace broke out they’ve really been struggling to find a role in the community, but this presents a perfect blend of rough justice and community service for them I reckon. When the lads held sway up North, no one dared cross the line, because they knew what would happen if they did. That same clarity is perhaps required here too and let’s face it the drugs business is just too much hassle for them these days; sure some of them are almost on the breadline so they will probably be well up for the challenge of sorting this little problem out, for a fee of course.

It’s rather hard to drive when you’ve been kneecapped; and that’s just a love tap for a first offence. Imagine what these lads will do if you actually kill someone on the roads.

A dark night, a baseball bat or two, some rusty nails and a ‘chat‘ with some motivated balaclava boys would do wonders for you fuckers wouldn’t it? Three months is all it would take to get this whole thing sorted. Three months of like-for-like and I’m betting no one would ever take the risk again. Road deaths would drop dramatically. The 400 or so arrests for drink-related driving would practically vanish over night.

Legal? No.

Effective? Hell Yeah.

Next time you stumble towards your car after a few too many, and you fumble around in your pocket for your keys… I suggest you look over your shoulder before you open that car door. You never know who might be waiting for you to have a little ‘chat‘.

IT’S PRETTY HARD to ignore the parallels between Vietnam and Iraq, and yet that is exactly what Bush & Co. seem to be doing in their latest anticipated announcement – due later this evening – when it is widely expeceted that the new ‘strategy‘ will be to send an additional 20,000 troops into the fire over in Iraq, in order make things better apparently.

Yeah – I know. Go figure!!

Still – it amazes me how the current American administration can just ignore the lessons of the past, and in particular those hard learned lessons from the disasterous Vietnam conflict war campaign - or whatever the hell the revisionist historians will end up calling it if they get their way.

This could take a while, so get comfortable, make sure that coffee is hot and settle down in that chair of yours. I hope by the time you have finished this article you will have found it both informative and just a little bit disturbing. I know I did while writing it. You see this is what happens when I get a few unexpected hours off work – I end up writing long bloody posts on the site. So - where to being then?

There is a quote from the poet and philosopher, George Santayana, which says “Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it” but personally I think the more apt quote is this sentiment from George Wilhelm Hegel: “What experience and history teach is this – that people and governments never have learned anything from history, or acted on principles“.

This is certainly the case when we compare the Vietnam situation of the past to the Iraq debacle of today. Just take the following four scenarios for example:-

To start with, Washington has realised that it is not in fact winning the war in Iraq – the very same thing happened back in the Vietnam scenario. Unfortunately the same stupid conclusion was reached back then too (let’s send more troops at the problem!).

Then of course we have the so-called method (I can’t bring myself to call it a ’strategy’) of bringing control to the area in question. The current strategy in Iraq is to hand over control to the local Government while the war is still being fought. The proper way to handle this is in fact to resolve the conflict first, then hand over control. America made the same mistake with Vietnam (reference: Vietnamisation).

Interestingly enough, one parallel which I didn’t expect is the belief by those outside the Administration that sending more troops is not the right move and that in fact the correct approach is to disengage from the conflict as soon as possible. Until the recent elections it was looking like the Reds ruled supreme in this respect and dissent was not allowed. This opposition also happened in relation to the Vietnam situation. In current times the Democrats are doing all they can to oppose Bush & Co and his latest plan, including looking to change legislation which would force Bush to seek approval from Congress before sending the troops over.

The of course we have the really ugly parallel. In the case of the Vietnam era, Nixon sought the advice of an external expert group (they were known as the “Wise Men“) and they advocated a policy of withdrawal. Their advice was ignored. In current times, the advice of the Iraq Study Group was sought by Bush & Co and – you guessed it – their advice was of a similar ‘get the hell out of dodge’ type, but it is being ignored in favour of sending in an additional 20,000 troops to Iraq instead because obviously Bush & Co. know better.

So – is it a case of history repeating itself again then?

For the most part I’m afraid the answer is a resounding yes. This has ‘doomed’ written all over it for the Americans, not to mention the ongoing body count in Iraq for innocent civilians too. There is however one significant difference between what happened back in Vietnam and what is happening today. Take a look at the chart on the right hand side of this page. This is an extract from an interesting survey carried out back in May 2006 (which I snagged from the Pew Research Center).

Notice the differences in the way opposition to the war progressed? To quote from the research:

While opposition to the two wars traced a similar arc, the nature of that opposition differed politically. Although Vietnam is recalled as a divisive conflict, opinions about whether the war was a mistake did not divide sharply along partisan lines. Gallup trends from the mid-1960s through the early ’70s show that the difference of opinion between Republicans and Democrats about Vietnam never exceeded 18 percentage points.

In contrast, Iraq divides America along partisan lines in a way that Vietnam never did. The latest Pew survey finds that 73% of Democrats believe that military action in Iraq was the wrong decision, compared with just 14% of Republicans – a gap roughly three times as great as the largest partisan gap in opinions about Vietnam. (In June 1967, 51% of Republicans viewed Vietnam as a mistake, compared with 33% of Democrats. To a considerable degree, this partisan reaction reflects the extent to which views of the war in Iraq are linked to opinions of President Bush’s leadership.

Bush (as a leader) is obviously having much more of an impact - in respect of catalysing the opposition - than his predecessors did in the Vietnam context. So – where does all this theorising and postulating leave me then? What great conclusion have I reached about the situation? It’s quite simple really, but I shall defer to the words of a great late Irishman, George Bernard Shaw to express how I feel:-

“We are made wise not by the recollection of our past, but by the responsibility for our future”.

I can only hope that someone, somewhere in America is thinking about the future (theirs and ours), because Bush & Co. sure as hell aren’t.

IT’S THE FIVE YEAR anniversary of the attacks on the twin towers and most of the media, blog sites and politicians are focused on either reliving the tragic events again or looking at how the US/rest of the World has changed since then. Me? I’m not walking that path, I’ve been down that way before and it’s a dead end. I choose instead a different path to explore.

Suffice to say that any loss of life is tragic and remembering the dead is good for those that need it; a cathartic process which seems to yield some levels of comfort as time passes to most folks. This post is not about those terrorist attacks five years ago, it’s about the absence of something which we will come to regret more and more as time passes. It’s about seeing through the illusions and looking for the real information. What it boils down to is essentially a simple question.

Five years on from this attack, does anyone really know the truth?

By anyone I’m referring to the majority of us, you know – you, me the public in general. I’m sure there are a privileged few who know those elusive facts, but for the rest of us the truth is still shrouded in mystery. It always has been. Consider the JFK asassination for example - what really happened there? We still don’t know because just as the files came up for public consumption, the date was put back. Theories and conspiracies – absolutely, but hard facts? Nope.

Similarly the actual facts of 9/11, WMDs, Iraq, Afghanistan and the so-called ‘war on terror’ remain hidden. All we have to go on is the spin. It’s either the politicians spewing forth their rhetoric and whipping up the public into a frenzy or it’s the media, doctoring images and putting their own ’spin’ on things to increase publication statistics and profit. Where do we go for the actual truth of things anymore? Even in remembering the tragic events of that September in 2001, there are changes and adjustments in the streams of digitised ‘facts’ being implemented for public consumption.

Does truth even exist?

If it came up and bit you on the ass, would you recognise it? In this spin-fuelled, mass marketing, soundbite world we live in… where do we go to hear the truth?

Religion? Don’t think so, since the so-called ‘truth’ there is simply more intepretations and spin from clerics and priests based on manuscripts that are more metaphor then substance in the first place. It’s a great gig for anyone preaching because there are no established ‘facts’ which can be used to counter any slant or perspective on the subject matter texts.

Politics? Don’t even get me started on the myriad of reasons why there is no truth in this realm; in fact I’m not sure there ever was to start with. Can you honestly say that you believe even 50% of the stuff that your local/regional/national politicans feed you? Exactly what qualities are prized among politicians – because it sure as hell isn’t straight talking?

Science? Well it could be argued that science brings us closer to the ‘truth’ of things, but the problem here is that it’s based on theories, which frequently get disproved and changed by even more radical thinking than the last lot to attack any given problem, so over time it’s in a state of flux.

Economics? Of all the possible ways to view ‘truth’ I like this one the most. I read a book recently which said that if Morality is how we want to see the world, economics is how it actually is. In other words, the appliance of economic analysis to data (facts) results in outputs and answers to any range of applicable questions. This works (sort of) but it is dependant on quality data in the first place. Numbers don’t lie? Yeah right!

The more I think about it, the more I’m convinced that ‘truth’ no longer exists. It no longer has a place in society; it’s been over-ridden by national security interests and need-to-know mentalities, it’s been replaced by spin doctoring and profiling, it’s become defunct because as a population we now respond more to threats and fear than we do to actual facts. Would we even recognise a fact these days? Exactly where do you go to check the data and the information to establish if it’s ‘fact’ or not?

Some things happen – that’s a fact. The holocost – for example – happened and all the holocost deniers in the world can’t change that, but the truth of what happened is still being uncovered, gradually. Eventually, maybe we may find the truth behind 9/11 and all the subsequent bullshit and spin which has led the world to the state it’s in now, where we seem to be gradually sliding towards an apocalyptic East Vs West stance. Eventually the facts may see some daylight. Hopefully those facts will help yield some truth as well. Sometime. But not anytime soon.

Until then we have learn to question everything and accept nothing at face value, for to do otherwise relegates us to the level of sheep being herded from one field of lies to another to graze upon the carefully prepared info-grass of the mass media and the politicians until such time as it’s our turn to be sent to the slaughter house to feed the self-fulfilling prophecy merchants and make the fat cats fatter.

And all without ever knowing the real reasons, the real truths behind things.

If such fantasies even exist any more.

PICTURE THE SCENE. There I am on a nice Sunday afternoon, heading down to the local multiplex in my shiny new toy, listening to a long ago forgotten CD when suddenly the lyrics hit me, and I nearly crash into the car in front of me as I come to a stop at some traffic lights. I had just transferred a new selection of CDs into the car, stuck it on ‘random’ and then I came across “Armageddon Days (are here again)” from the album “Mind Bomb” by The The and my jaw dropped.

Keep in mind folks that the album and this song are 15 years old – and yet the lyrics on this song are so relevant to what is happening today, so absolutely accurate that the song could be considered a prophecy. I was so struck by the lyrics that I decided to reprint them here today, and draw some parallels to what is happening around us. Some of you will find this uncomfortable, possibly even objectionable – but the theme of this song is so accurate it’s frightening – so I ask you to take the extra 3 minutes you will need to read the rest of this post and then make your own mind up. I believe it will be worth it – but as ever, you will be the judge of that.

They’re 5 miles high
As the crow flies
Leavin’ vapour trails
Across a blood red sky
Movin’ in from the East
Towards the West
With balaclava helmets
Over their heads
YES!But if you think that Jesus Christ is coming
Honey, you’ve got another thing coming
If he ever finds out who’s hijacked his name
He’ll cut out his heart and turn in his grave

Islam is rising
The Christians mobilising
The world is on it’s elbows and knees
It’s forgotten the message
And worships the creeds

It’s War” she cried
“It’s War” she cried
“This is War!”
Drop your possessions
All you simple folk
You will fight them on the beaches
in your underclothes
You will thank the good lord
For raising the Union Jack
You’ll watch the ships sail out of harbour
And the bodies come floating back
Watch the ships sail out of harbour
And the bodies come floating back

If the real Jesus Christ were to stand up today
He’d be gunned down cold by the C.I.A.
Oh, the lights that now burn brightest
Behind stained glass
Will cast the darkest shadows
Upon the human heart
But God didn’t build himself that throne
God doesn’t live in Israel or Rome
God doesn’t belong to the Yankee dollar
God doesn’t plant the bombs for Hezbollah
God doesn’t even go to church
And God won’t send us down to Allah to burn
God will remind us what we already know
That the human race is about to reap what it’s sown

Islam is rising
The Christians mobilising
The world is on it’s elbows and knees
It’s forgotten the message
And worships the creeds
The world is on it’s elbows and knees
It’s forgotten the message
And worships the creeds

Armageddon days are here again
Armageddon days are here again
Armageddon days are here again
Armageddon Days Are HERE!!!

15 Years Later – More Relevant Than Ever

Some of the references are obvious. The military conflict in the intro is a give away [Iraq, Afghanistan etc.], and we’ve had more than enough of those haven’t we? However it’s a central theme that should Jesus/Allah ever return and see what people are doing in his name – he would be repulsed and shocked to the core. So much for the second coming eh? Then it gets interesting… christians and islam mobilising against each other because they have forgotten the message and instead worship the creed. This sounding familiar to anyone yet? [Killing people over a cartoon FFS!!] It’s happening right now, in your town, in your country and across this planet of ours. We are being driven to hatred and division in the name of religions, in the name of creeds and no one seems to care anymore what the original and central messages of these belief systems were. What ever happened to peace and harmony?

Then they lyrics deal with the potential of a divine visitation, a second coming… which (pretty accurately I think) the song depicts would end in the appropriate deity being gunned down cold by the CIA. Anyone doubt this would happen? [CIA Rendition Flights, Gitmo, Domestic Spying in the USA etc] Nope – nor do I, and I’m agnostic!!

The lines that I love most about this song however are when it refers to “the lights that now burn brightest behind stained glass will cast the darkest shadows upon the human heart” Get it? Those in power, those in religious orders (doesn’t matter if it’s Islam, Christian or any other one), these people are directing these wars, this head long rush to conflict in the name of the Lord, in the name of Allah, in the name of Mohammad… but sure as hell not in our name. They are exerting control over people and directing them to defend a position, their position, in the false belief that it is defending the religions and the belief systems behind them.

Perhaps the most relevant lyrics however are about where God (whatever god you believe in) does not live here in this world… Not in Rome, Not in Israel, not even in Church. What is happening around us has nothing to do with Allah, nothing to do with Mohammad, and sure as hell nothing to do with any God. It’s us. Humanity doing to each other what we have always done – but we’re hijacking a God as a way of justifying it to others.

Time To Stop Hiding

It’s time to stop hiding behind religions and creeds people. Time to stop believing the misinformation and venom that your so-called leaders are feeding you with. What you do – you do in no ones name except your own, so take responsibility for it and stop hiding behind the illusion of truth. It’s time to realise that you are being herded like good little sheep towards your own destruction and our collective armageddon, and all for nothing but money and power – both of which you will never see.

This has nothing to do with which religion you belong to, or which God you pray to – because ultimately they are all the same. The problem is that everyone has forgotten the message, and now you just worship the creed as dictated by those in control, obligingly, blindly, and dutifully. Time to wake up people. Time to stop the insanity and see each other for what we are.

… AND NEITHER IS THIS WEBSITE. More Importantly – it never will be! Don’t believe the hype folks. The world is collectively trying to get you to believe that life is a soundbite, that less is more, and that everything must be smaller, faster, more efficient in order to be better. It’s all bullshit however and if we are to have any hope of getting beyond the Illusion of Truth to the actual reality we inhabit, then we must challenge this status quo. Why now you may ask? Well it’s a combination of several things actually, but it all began to take shape in my head a few nights ago when I was stopped in the street by a perfect stranger who asked me a very personal question out of the blue, a heart felt question if you will, and when I realised they were serious and wanted an answer I thought about it for a while, answered as honestly as I could and then carried on my way… I was kind of shocked that this had happened at all; it’s never happened before, but it got me thinking and we all know that’s a dangerous thing right?

I’ll deal with the question later and more importantly the answer, but let me throw some other things into the mix as well. You see, today is an occasion of sorts. On the one hand Howl @ The Moon! is nearly one year old and on the other hand it’s also my birthday. It’s a milestone birthday according to some, the kind where you find yourself looking back on life, considering where things are at right now and contemplating what lies ahead. In this respect I’ve decided to put forth my reasoning for arguing against the soundbite. I’ve also been reviewing some of the interesting content and discussions which have taken place here in the last year and it’s reminded me of some things which are appropriate to this article. If you find yourself among the legions of hopeless who believe the hype, the folks who can’t handle an article which takes more time to read than a goldfish takes to swim a circle, the walking talking attention deficit disorders who have bought into all the directives and behave like good little sheep to bolster all those wonderful statistics – then by all means continue your pointlessness and skip over to another site and admire the pretty graphics.

If on the other hand you want to delve deeper into this issue, if you are prepared to consider an alternative to being driven in a singular direction and have become used to my Chaos Thinking approach to things – then you are in for a treat and I hope to teach you something useful which you actually already knew, deep down, but just forgot for a while.

Less is More?

We are bombarded with a single message from almost every angle in society; less is more. It permeates every social and technological circle of our lives. It is ubiquituous and impossible to avoid as it has become a rallying cry for the argument that progress cannot be achieved except by going faster, smaller and more efficiently. You may think I’m exaggerating, but check out these examples below and see for yourself where these influences are coming from, and more than that, consider the implications that they carry – namely that we (the joe and jane public) must be spoon-fed, cajouled, controlled and led to our/their conclusions.

1. Politicans love the soundbite; they build entire careers on squeezing everything meaningless into a bite sized chunk fit for public consumption.
2. The Media assumes it’s reading and viewing public are idiots and can’t handle real information, so they dumb down the news into more manageable bits of easy-to-understand text and images.
3. Technology is driven the concept that less is more, that the next revolution is at a molecular level and that the only way forward is faster and more efficient.
4. Fashion considers us ugly unless women are stick thin and men are perfectly built according to standards set by unrealistic people living in a fantasy land so far removed from daily life it would be funny if it wasn’t so tragic.
5. Our work lives consist of packaging and distributing information in ways that we believe clients will respond to; so we keep presentations small and words simple and try to be as ‘effective as possible’, because that is what is expected.
6. Webmasters espouse the theory that casual browsers will only stay 15 seconds on a website, and if they don’t like the graphics or aren’t enticed by the content they will move on.

The simple truth about all of the above influences is that they are designed to control us. As long as we behave in this way, as long as we are predictable, then the above will hold true and life will continue on as planned, driven by commercialism, consumerism and (more lately fear). It’s all about control and stability. This may have some place in our working lives, but what about our lifes. Remember – you only work because you want to be able to afford to have a life, right? The two are not to be confused.

The Work Life Balance Thing

A long time ago I came to a simple conclusion, a truth if you will which has helped me survive the chaos of living. It’s based upon a simple forumla which goes like this…

We work because we have to. On average (just go with this for a bit ’till you see where it’s going) we work 8 hours a day, sleep 8 hours a day and live 8 hours a day. I know it’s never that simple, but for the purposes of example, let’s just assume that every 24 hour period of our lives is divided just so. This means that for 1/3 of our life we are unconcious. For the remaining waking moments, 50% of it is spent in work leaving only 50% to actually, you know, live.

Therefore the balance I speak of in the title of this section is the balance between the waking moments in your life, the split between working for a living, and living. Now – here is the trick… IT WILL NEVER BE IN PERFECT BALANCE and the sooner you accept this the quicker you can take advantage of it. There will be times when you work too much, and hopefully – if you are smart – there will be times when you live a little too much to make up for it. The trick is to average it out over the long term, to plan for periods of insane activity and long hours in work which may take you away from your loves, your lives and your dreams for a while… but to balance these with times when work is just the furthest thing from your mind, when you don’t give a shit about your career development because your focus for those periods is on living, on actually reaping the rewards from all that time in work, on experiencing life to it’s fullest extent. If you don’t do this you are likely doomed to make the same mistakes over and over again, and never learn from them.

This is the key. This is the simple trick which gives you the opportunity… but if you believe in the soundbite, if you live your life to the beat of someone elses drum, the way the politicans, the media, the fashion industry, the technology companies and everyone else wants you to… well then in my humble opinion you are missing out on something amazing, something unique and I am about to tell you why.

The Life Switch

Life – is like a light switch, in fact i call this theory of mine the “LifeSwitch”. It can be over in an instant. A simple click of the switch and we are road kill, run over by a drunk driver, caught in a cross fire in some unknown conflict in a country no one can pronounce, erased in some plane crash that should never have happened but somehow did anyway. Life is fleeting, it is here and then gone – all in the blink of an eye. Our average lifespan may sound great (living to 80s or 90s) but in reality, when taken into consideration with our natural world around is, it is a blink. It can be given and taken away in an instant – just as easly as switching on or off a light switch. I have learned this myself (as I’m sure you all have) through plently of personal tragedies and experiences – but it’s a lesson I’ve learned well.

Living, on the other hand, is not instant or immediate; it is not a soundbite and it should never be taken as one. Living is the difference between existing and experiencing life. We can exist, simply going through the motions and fooling ourselves that we are living, but the reality is somewhat different. Living takes time, it takes enthusiasm, it takes patience but most of all, it takes effort; which means the soundbite doesn’t cut it in such circumstances.

The Unexpected Question

So – picture the scene. It’s late, around 1am in Dublin. I’m walking down a street having come from a very good night out with a great friend of mine. We hadn’t seen each other for well over a year, and catching up was great craic. I am in this regard very lucky to have such amazing friendships, over many decades of ups and downs, and long may it continue. The upcoming occasion of my birthday was the catalyst for getting together and shootin’ the breeze over a few beers and a great meal.
After going our seperate ways at the end of the evening I’m then walking down a street towards a taxi rank, minding my own business, thinking about the night just had and the conversations, and the future; thinking about the upcoming Year of Debauchery SusiQ and I have planned (more on that later!) when suddently a complete stranger grabs my attention and the conversation goes something like this:-

“Do you mind if I ask you a question?” he says, stepping out of cover of an awning outside the Mercantile Pub in Dame street.

“Me?” I reply, slowing my pace but keeping my distance, just to be on the safe side.

“Yeah, you. Look I’m not drunk, and I’m not looking for anything from you… it’s just that I’ve been watching you walk down the street while I was standing here having a fag and I wanted to ask you something”

“Shoot” I said, thinking what the hell it’s probably one of those ‘do you have the right time’ or ‘can you direct me to’ type questions.

“What the hell are you so happy about?” he asks me, sincere as hell.

I’m stumped. It’s not a question I’m expecting, especially from a complete stranger at 1am on a rainy Dublin night in the middle of the City. I thought about ignoring it. I thought about moving on and just smiling it off, but then I decided if he had the balls to ask me, the least I could do is answer it, honestly. It’s not every day a complete stranger confronts me with such a question.

“To be honest” I said “It’s probably the fact that I figured out what it is that makes me happy ages ago, and I’m doing it ever since”.

He looked dissappointed. I could see the quizical look forming and I knew what was coming next so I headed him off at the pass. “It’s probably different for everyone, but I can’t help you figure out what will make you happy chief – that’s something you need to do for yourself” I said.

“I understand. Thanks for giving me an answer” he said and turned away, heading back into the shelter of the overhead awning and drawing deeply on his cigarette, lost in thought.

I continued on my way, marvelling at the unexpected encounter and rolled the circumstances around in my head for a while, which ultimately led me to this article.

Get To The Point Coyote!

So – what is the point of all this? Well it’s simple, and it goes like this…

Howl @ The Moon! started off as an experiment in open source software and somehow grew into a blog and then into something more than that. It has built up a regular set of intelligent, interesting and interested readers and I have really enjoyed the cycle of think-publish-feedback-learn which happens here. Today I’m older (and somewhat wiser) than before, and looking back on my life thus far I can say that I have never marched to the sound of someone else’s drum. I’ve never followed blindly into anything, I’ve always questioned and I always will. This site is a testament to that philosophy.

My life is not a soundbite, and neither is yours – but it could be if you let it. It will be if you listen to all the bullshit being pushed at you about “less being more”. Sometimes more is more. Don’t live your lives vicariously through the successes and failures of others, go do it yourself. Don’t talk about seeing a sunrise – go see it. Make the time for each other, live life to the fullest extent and fuck the begrudgers. Just because the world tells you something – doesn’t make it right, or even right for you.

So – to all my readers I’d like to say “Thank You” for making this site as interesting to publish at as I hope it is to visit. I will continue to develop the content here and I will also continue to throw a few curveballs now and then with the occasional rant and rave, but none of it would be worth doing unless there was consistant feedback and commenting, unless there was the opportunity to learn from others – which I’m happy to say takes place here a lot.

FREEDOM HAS MANY FACES and I’ve been thinking about just how much it has changed in the last hundred years or so. Sometimes we are so busy, so caught up in our lives that we forget just how much things have changed, and to some extent I suppose how much they haven’t when we really examine it. So – here is a chance to see the last hundred years through a fresh pair of eyes and some chaos thinking, a regular stable here at Howl @ The Moon!. If you feel up to it, take a deep breath, free your mind of all preconceptions (we all have them) and prepare to be surprised at just how many faces freedom has worn in your lifetime and what we have done with it.

I make no promises however at this point except to say that I’m passing through the century at the speed of sound, or soundbites to be precise. I am sure there are many items I will miss, and some I will give too much credit to, but the key thing is to just go with it and see where we end up. Trust me… after all, have I ever let you down yet?

Introduction

Let’s consider the last 100 years or so, and in particular the decades we (that’s the royal we, humanity, the species) have seen and experienced, and more importantly what they have meant to us. It’s a universal principle that change is a constant, so putting that to one side let’s take a quick review of the key drivers and changes each decade has brought, the cause and effect if you will on what freedom has meant to us along the way, and what it means to us now.

1900 – 1910: The Shape Of Things To Come

We take to the roads and the skies, experimenting with various forms of both technologies. It’s a time of progress, a time of great possibilities and future freedom (in motion). We marvel at our inventiveness and rush headlong towards an unknown but glorius possibility, but society as a whole isn’t particularly challenged. The advancements, the passion and the drive is restricted to the lucky few. Freedom is only a concept but a growing one.

1910 – 1920: The Great War

Fodder for the cannons and fresh meat for the trenches, the ‘Great War’ (although what was so great about it is a mystery to me ) is upon the world and we have never see it’s like. The wonderful technological advances of the previous decade are brought to bear on the troops in the front lines. Freedom it seems has a price and it’s the young who pay it in their millions, neatly dividing the theatre into “us” and “them” in order to defend principles, territory and belief systems.

Freedom is an elusive mistress, teasing but rarely delivering the goods for most people. It has grown beyond a concept for some at this point. Those lucky enough to survive the war must now learn to cope with that survival; psychology grows as a science to fill the vacuum and we learn a valuable skill; denial. It’s a skill which we will use a lot in coming decades.

1920 – 1930: Boom & Bust

Post war optimism and an uncertain freedom comes in the form of musical exploration (jazz and blues explosion), in the form of construction (engineering feats and building frenzy) and many believe the best is yet to come. Sadly, it all turns sour by the end of the decade and we learn a new valuable skill to accompany denial; suicide (usually by exiting a rather high window of a tall building).

Depression looms and the future looks bleak for many; freedom is now as simple as a meal, as food on the table, as the possibility of survival. “Us and them” grows; the rich (the lucky ones) avoid the recent unpleasantness and carry on, the poor aren’t as fortunate and the black market is born. Gangs rise, crimes rise and the need for law and order becomes a priority. Protect the rich lads, protect the good people who run your country.

1930 – 1940: The Rise of Fascism

We rush headlong into a conflict of ideologies and beliefs. The depressive years provide a perfect spawning ground for a new approach to solving problems. The poor turn to religion for guidance and the church grows stronger than ever; the rich see trouble ahead and start planning in advance.

Advances in technology provide us with wonderful opportunities to keep ourselves entertained. We will do almost anything to avoid having to face the truth, any truth. Hollywood stars shine and freedom comes in the form of imagination. We imagine our lives being better, being as good as ‘theirs’. Maybe one day our ship will come in, but until then we will just soldier on.

Thinking is too difficult, and so is dealing with reality…so how about we let the state and the church do our thinking for us instead? Denial has served us well in the past, so why change now? Anyway – things are better aren’t they, it’s not as bad as all that is it?

1940 – 1950: War & Intolerance

Freedom seems like a fairy tale now. Once again the meat grinder calls for human sacrifice in the face of advancing technology and territorial / ideological gains. Time to pay the freedom price again only this time the taxes are higher and we separate the world itself into a larger “us” and “them”. This time will be better, we have the technology and we have the will to use it.

Fear drives us to do terrible inhuman things to each other; intolerance is the norm and there is a sense that we have reached a pivotal point in history, yet again. This time will be different; this time we will put things right for good, so that we may never face this evil again. So what if we have to split the atom to do it…marvel at our power for we are right, we are just and we are not to be fucked with.

The sleeping giant awakes and eventually the job is done; the world breathes a sigh of relief and then begins to count the cost. “It cannot be allowed to happen again” we agree, “we must learn from our mistakes” we say and then promptly switch our attention to other things.

It’s a time now for absolutes, a time for heroes and villans and we feel secure in our comfort zone. Now we know with absolute certainty what is wrong and what is right, so what’s the problem? Freedom has been earned, so it’s time to enjoy it. Still – to be on the safe side we decide to build bigger, faster, more devastating weapons, just in case. Fuck with our freedom at your peril; xeonphobia gets a real grip and keeps denial company and our bag of skills just keeps growing. We throw some intolerance in there too for good measure, never know when we might need it later.

1950 – 1960: Erosion of Society

The establishment decrys the ‘devils music’ and society morns the passing of decency, of family values and all that has been considered ‘normal’ for the preceding decades. The young taste individual freedom for the first time, and like it. Now freedom takes on a new twist, it’s no longer about the country, the religion or the state, it’s about personal freedom and choice. It’s about me!

It’s the devils work for some; bringing rock and roll to the world. It’s the lords work for others, gathering about them their disciples and building their new empires on a solid foundation of donations and desperation. Why should we change, what’s wrong with the perfectly “nice” society we created for you? It was “us” who died on the battlefields fighting “them” and this is how you repay us, you throw that sacrifice back in our faces? You don’t deserve to be free, you haven’t earned it. We know better, we were there, why does anything have to change?

But the cries of the parents and the aged fall on deaf ears… change is a constant, and the rise of the individual cannot be stopped at this point. Freedom of expression grows in art, in music, in taste. Freedom is on the very air, it whispers in the youth of most western nations and entices new experiences and new promises, and we rush towards it with open arms once again to embrace its delicate aroma, and start to chill. We learn a new skill and claim to be righteous. We now know what’s best for us. We will decide our fate.

1960 – 1970: Free Love & War

Flower power, children of the sixties, hippies, drugs and lots and lots of uncontrolled sex lead to unheard of levels of personal freedom, choice and of course the freefall which ensues. Responsibilities are someone else’s problem; everyone is free as a bird… that is until Vietnam hits, but the reality of this ‘conflict’ will not make it’s mark until the next decade.

We learn to live and let live, we want to love our fellow man and do no harm and most of all we want to just ‘be’. Be at one, be in love, be anywhere but here, man. We want to discover ourselves and the wonderful rock we find ourselves living on. We want to travel, to experience, to share. For one brief shining moment in our hundred year fly-by we are tolerant, we love each other, we are at peace – possibly in danger of becoming pointless, but still, we are at peace and doing no real harm. The rude awakening however hits in the latter part of the decade and it’s time for the meat grinder again.

1970 – 1980: Rebellion

We rebel against war, we rebel against the establishment, punk rock and anarchy find a voice amongst us and are brought into the world kicking and screaming. Hard rock and individuality rise and now freedom is something we deserve, it’s something we’ve become used to and are unwilling to give it up. We are owed it. This is ‘my freedom’, go find your own brand of ‘free’ and get out of my way

The dark days of trade unions and corporate control come into the spotlight and now suddenly ‘them and us’ takes on a new meaning. War – huh – what is it good for? Stop trying to control us, you are out of touch man. Hippies are old news, mods and rockers rule; freedom is old news, supercars rule. We learn a new skill called angst and use it to great effect. It sits nicely with denial and xenophobia and our bag of skills continues to grow.

1980 – 1990: Money & Power

Experimental music slides into electro and synth; corporates rise and fall, but mostly rise; watchwords are ‘more’ and ‘mine’. We measure success in monetary terms and freedoms by levels of excess. Greed is good, wealth is better. Around the globe economies may fall, but as long as “I’m all right” it doesn’t matter. Freedom has a new formula (money = power = choice = freedom to choose). Wave bye bye to communism, say hello to good ole fashioned consumerism.

Fashion takes a nosedive, Hollywood continues to “save the world” again and again, trying valiantly to resurrect heroes and villains and help us understand right from wrong, to guide us to their ’safe’ version of the truth but it’s too late; we don’t’ care anymore. As long as I have enough money, I’ll determine whats right. I don’t need religion, I don’t need to vote… I don’t need anyone or anything as long as I’ve got the cash and the flash.

Miami Vice is king and we all dream of being cool. It’s convenient to pay lip service to things so every now and then the charitable donation comes into play, we have the ‘feel good’ factor of live aid and help the starving millions for a few seconds. Aids is something other people worry about and everyone gets abducted and anally probed by aliens as the world goes sci-fi nuts. Freedom has a new burgeoning voice in the internet, but it’s a privilege restricted to the few initially. Our bag of skills increases and we add indifference to our list.

1990 – 2000: Politically Correct

The blandness is palpable. Creativity dies a death (from a musical perspective) and progress is measured in technological terms again. Too much freedom becomes a bad thing, and political correctness gains ground; time to return to ‘family values’ is the battle cry; the moral right find their soapbox, drugs get a grip on our youth and all forms of violence (gang, domestic, random, crime related) rise beyond control and we all wonder how things changed so fast. “It wasn’t like that when I was growing up”.

Conflicts ensue (not wars anymore, not politically correct you see) and we all watch the CNN video game reports on TV as the body count rises, and then switch channels to see who our favourite soap star is dating this week. Reality is now a TV show.

Freedom comes in the form of a lawsuit, personal space, harassment claims and perfect teeth. I’ve paid for my freedom so I’m damn well going to get my monies worth – it says so here on the voucher; I’m entitled. Censorship becomes a way of life; big brother is everywhere (satellites, cctv, email monitoring etc.) and trust is a thing of the past. We are at the mercy of technology again. Scandal after scandal rocks our world for a few seconds, and then we return the internet chat rooms and the virtual existence. Freedom is hiding in the shadows of the neon lights and the halogen bulbs. We throw another skill into the bag; Procrastination

2000 – Present: War & Intolerance

It’s time to feed the meat grinder again. “Us and them” forces the world into its respective corners; East vs west, Red vs Blue, Christianity vs Islam. Freedom becomes a concept again, the reality lost somewhere in between the political rhetoric and corporate scandals. The lunatics are outside their cells and waiting to take over the asylum, their time has come again, and we are so ‘over’ it all that no one cares anymore. The price of freedom is eternal vigilance it seems, or so they would have us believe, however we gave at the office – so no worries there then right?

Religion is on the rise again on the back of military campaigns (Gawd is on our side) and now the debate is iltelligent design vs creationism. Truth and reality are distant cousins who barely recognise each other any more. Terrorism goes global; insanity follows suit. Security takes precedence in our lives and makes absolutely no difference. Fear and consumption drives everything and everyone closer and closer to the brink.

We continue to sharpen our skills and apply them to the cause as best we know how, certain in our conviction, convinced of our cause and blinded by the holy light of political righteousness and vigor.

And What Have We Learned About Freedom?

Well – let’s see. Time to review our skills that we collected over the last hundred years and how we have applied them. We are now at the stage where our intolerance has grown to a knife point; denial is rampant and keeping reality at bay thank you very much. The truth is over rated now, it seems, and xenophobia has more company than it can comfortably handle, however the ground pounders are sent into battle by the bible thumpers with a willing heart and a promise of absolute righteousness and redemption even. The certainty is comforting isn’t it? At least we have that.

WOODY ALLEN IS CREDITED WITH SAYING that “There are only 3 things in this life of which we can be sure; death, taxes, and the fear of both.” however I think there are some other certainties which we can also add to that list. Given the way society has developed (at least in the western world) over the last few hundred years I believe we need to expand that list a tad. So – why am I even writing about this? Well I’ve been getting some responses recently to an article I wrote a while ago concerning how we are being driven towards an apocalyptic binary which then gave me pause for thought. Specifically it got me thinking (chaos thinking to be precise!) about the challenges we face in trying to change things, in trying to avoid repeating the mistakes of our past. Maybe it’s the fact that I’ve had some time off recently; maybe it’s just the season that’s in it… but I’ve suddenly come over all optimistic and hopeful – so make the best of it while you can; you know it won’t last!

Over the last few weeks a number of folks in the blogosphere have been linking to Howl @ The Moon!, and exchanging views and ideas which are not that distant from the random items of sanity expressed here. Most I’ve encountered are of a similar type… free thinking, liberal, political, idealistic and sometimes cynical but always hopeful that things can be changed, that somewhere, somehow a difference can be made. Change of course is not without its challenges and issues. Of the many challenges that lie ahead, two stand out for me as being potentially the most difficult to overcome; the Illusion of Truth and the Certainty of Doubt. I’ve had an idea for bringing together like minded folks to get past these challenges and to create something useful on this interweb, something which may help advance our thinking and our understanding of each other in the medium to long term, however the first step is to understand these challenges before then moving on to dealing with them. So if you are interested in what I have to propose and would like to take part in this experiment in the new year, then read on…

The Illusion of Truth

Do we take anything at face value any more? Do we believe what we read in the papers, what we see on the news? I know I don’t. Let’s take my reaction to the recent news that the Brits have had a spy in the Irish Republican movement for the last 20 years – which hit the headlines over the weekend. Was I surprised? Not really; I’d expect there to be even more moles and connections which have yet to be uncovered – it is after all what an organisation like the UKs MI5 does for a living. Was I then surprised to learn that the whole spy-ring affair in Stormount was a complete fiction, fabricated by the PSNI Secret Service in order to discredit Sein Fein and the Republican movement and further to destablise power sharing in Northern Ireland? No. Nothing really surprises me about revelations like this. It’s the sort of thing I’ve come to expect…but why is that? I know I’m not alone in this reaction – so why is it that we now auto-respond on cynicism setting 10 by default to such news?

Aristotle may well have been a tad optimistic (see image) however I believe that it’s down to a few things actually. On the one hand there are all the environmental influences like Hollywood and the endless thriller and spy movies we have all watched, then there are the books, the TV series and of course there is what our own imaginations make up as we grow up. This is what I would call a fictional influence. We have become used to being suspicious about pretty much everything because we are used to seeing the world through our suspicion-filter. We even have all the terms in our collective knowledge base – double agent, misinformation, dead drops, double cross etc. So naturally our brain rushes in to fill in the blanks when confronted with new information, based on our fictional influence.

Then we have the facts; the stories which make it into the press and national news which used to shock us, and now just barely rate a ‘harummph’ from most of us as we pass by the TV screen or casually browse the headlines on some Internet news site. We have reached saturation point and very rarely do we take these items onboard unless it is of personal interest. We have become jaded in how we view new information, and more than that, we have become guarded. This is because we have all learned one valuable lesson when it comes to what is true and what is not. We have learned that truth is a complex thing. It is almost never what is seems. In essence it is in fact an illusion, a perception of a reality.

I’m sure you have all heard the expression that “perception is reality.” This stems from the point that if enough people propogate a lie, it will eventually become a truth, or at the very least it will become a reality for most until such time as another ‘reality’ is crafted. We have seen many many examples of this in the past (and of course the present). So – what was my reaciton to the news about the British spy? Well – I started thinking about the timing of things. It’s not a coincidence that the case against the lads was dropped in the courts earlier this month. It’s not a coincidence that Donaldson was informed his life ‘may be under threat’ this week and it’s no coincidence that he denounced the Stormont spy-ring as a complete fiction as his parting shot from being expelled from Sein Fein this week.

The real question is – what is actually going on behind the scenes? What is the real game at play here becuase experienced handlers of 20 year spies do not make mistakes like this, no more than the US Government made a ‘mistake’ when it invaded Iraq looking for WMDs (which we all knew didn’t exist, but gee look at all the pretty oilfields!). The US knew exactly what it was doing and why it needed to go into Iraq; the stories that were spun on the TV and in the press were just to keep the masses happy. The truth is most certainly something else. These things happen for a reason, they are part of a plan drawn up and agreed and then carefully executed. The truth is sometimes far stranger than fiction, so how do we then distinguish truth from fiction when we have all become so world weary and so cynical? A challenge isn’t it? Well, that’s what leads me on to the next item…

The Certainty of Doubt

As you can see from my initial reaction above to the spy story in Ireland my cynical side comes to the forefront. In addition, the realist in me conditions my thinking to apply certain logical processes to the information being processed. Do I trust the information? If not then what is really going on? Look for patterns, look for links to see if the real story can be unearthed. Nothing happens by coincidence etc. etc. If there is one thing that you can be certain of these days… it’s doubt. It’s almost the first reaction to any news story or article. It’s how we are now conditioned to respond due to so many examples of how we (the public) have been lied to, misdirected and lead around by the nose like good little sheep by public relations experts and political spin doctors. It is – for want of a better way of putting it – a certainty. We doubt by default.

Doubt can only be eliminated when trust is involved, however trust – like respect – is earned, not given. We try so hard to protect ourselves these days that sometimes it’s as if we have forgotten how to trust. It’s such a precious thing that to gain it and then loose it is sometimes more painful than to never have trusted in the first place. Some people go through their whole lives without really, truely trusting another human being entirely – which is a tragedy in my book. If you are lucky, and you have some kind of ‘world experience’ (i.e. you have travelled widely, you have experienced other cultures, creeds, peoples etc.) you can develop an incredible network of trusted friends and collegues over time which will give you a world-view on reality. I say ‘reality’ because everyone has a different perspective; everyone has their own reality and if you don’t get it from multiple sources, from outside your own ‘reality’ – then you may as well be living in a dreamworld because you are fooling yourself into thinking that your reality is truth. If you are really lucky – you will have a close circle of family and friends in whom you trust without question. The trouble is – it takes time, sometimes years to build these types of friendships and quality relationships. So how then are we to get past the challenge of certain doubt, of this constant questioning companion in our heads which tells us to question everything?

Accepting the Challenge & Taking a Risk

It seems to me that the first step is to accept the challenge that lies ahead, and take onboard the risks that will be needed to make a difference on this spinning rock of ours. We will never progress if we cannot overcome the doubts, and in order to do that we must learn to trust. We must build networks and communication channels of like minded people who want to make a difference and adhere to a universal manifesto of behaviour which compliments the lofty goals of sorting this rotting cesspool out, of changing the way we do things around here, of making things better for everyone; not just the privileged few.

That of course means that we need to deal with the illusions of truth which surround us. It means we need to develop a way of thinking which harnesses natural cynicism and a questioning nature into something more productive and effective. Being free to doubt is a privilege – we should use this wisely. It means comparing our own illusions with those of others (outside our geographic, religious, race boundaries) in order to get to the real truth behind the headlines. It means we need to step up and actually agree that in order to make a difference, we need to take a risk and accept that although it may fail miserably and end in things ‘lost’, it may also succeed – eventually – and result in a better world. If we want to pull back the curtain and expose the wizard within, it will require us to actually go forward and seek the truth in the first place. The possible gains far outweigh the risks in my opinion.

Remember this is one planet, with one species and (with a lot of effort and probably pain) it has the potential to become one people if we can get past the illusions of truth which are spun by the establishment and if we can turn the certainty of doubt into a more positive force for seeking change. I have some ideas here which I’ll publish in a week or so. I’m still working out the details, but essentially I think it will be an expirement in bringing like minded people from around the world together, hoepfully from opposite ends of the spectrum, from different political, cultural and religious realities – all sharing one common goal – which is to get to the truth of things, to get beyond the spin doctoring and mantras, to try to understand what is really happening on our spinning rock. To quote John Keats: “Beauty is truth, truth beauty, that is all Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.”

The Reality Exchange

It will be a risky expirment and it could potentially fail miserably…but at least it’s worth trying. I think I’ll call it the Reality Exchange. I can see the tag line now…“Trade in your old realities for some new (and hopefully more informed) ones”.

If you are interested in participating – let me know. I’ll work up the details and publish soon but only if I get enough of a response from folks willing to contribute and see where it leads. My challenge to you is to extend some trust here, and leave yourself open to others realities and perceptions in order that we may collectively learn from each other and move forward. It could be the start of something very interesting… you never know. I hope to launch this in the new year as a regular feature with lots of participation. Drop me a comment or contact me at my site and I’ll organise things from there.

LISTENING TO THE latest round of newsbites today about the rise of gangland style hits in Dublin gave me pause to consider the logical implications of such a trend, and of course – being the altruist and peacenik that I am – I applied some thinking to how we could in fact solve this growing problem, since our government and/or police force can’t seem to cope on their own I figured I’d help them out
Essentially the problem is that the criminal families / gangs in Ireland are feuding. To put it simply, there is a struggle for dominace in motion here. It started with the official withdrawal of the IRA from the scene with a rush to fill the vacuum left behind, and then morphed into the situation we find ourselves in today where a combination of previous “freedom fighters” find themselves in competition with the up and coming guerriers and wannabes. It was only logical that the arms race within this conflict would gradually escalate from the odd beating or kneecapping on to a gentle slice and dice with a knife or two and of course now we have finally arrived at the bullets solve all problems stage, with contract hits being placed on family members and the nefarious deeds being carried out in broad daylight. It is interesting to note that the government/police response to people being gunned down in the streets is to now consider allocating additional resources (Shock! Horror!) to help curb gangland violence on the streets. I personally favour a more direct approach to solving this issue…

The Solution – A Liberal Application Of Indifference

Essentially I’m for applying a combination of two general principals. The first is the theory of natural selection. If these gangs and families want to wipe each other out – then why stop ‘em? In fact – I’d go further. Let’s give them the numbers and contact details of really good professional hit men – so that we can ensure the job gets done right and no civilian casualties are incurred. It’s a simple approach really… let them smack seven shades of shit out of each other, and gradually one family will emerge as the victor, saving us (the taxpayers) the cost of all those lenghtly trials, the expense of hiring all those legal eagles and of course the ongoing expense of keeping these sods alive and well fed in jail.

So – now that the gangs have been reduced in numbers, and are essentially on the defensive (having spent all their resources on killing each other off), we can simply apply the second principle which comes to mind – that of creating an effective deterrent. When someone tells you the penalty for stealing is to have your hand chopped off – guess what? You Don’t Steal!. Yup, you figured it out pretty quickly didn’t you? See – that’s because that primal, instinctual part of your brain kicked in and the need for self preservation took over and immediately communicated to the rest of your brain that this is a no win scenario. What we need to do, is simply create a deterrent which will evoke the same kind of response from our wayward surviving gangland family. What kind of deterrent you may ask? Well – that’s where the really profitable bit comes in

Reality Bites Back

See – the world seems to have gone pretty reality mad over the last few years, content to watch celebrities pretend to escape from jungles, to watch families tear themselves apart on screen for entertainment, to watch employees fuck each other over for a top position and even to watch models compete against each other for a contract. It’s a lucrative business and shows no sign of slowing down yet, so I say let’s apply the same principles to our surviving family – let’s call them the Irish Gang for now.

We take this Irish Gang, and then put them up against other national gangland families in a fight to the death – deathmatch style – on TV, broadcast around the planet and we take the proceeds from the spectacle and donate it to charities and of course any of the victims of crimes committed by these families. I know what you’re thinking… You’re going with the whole “Running Man” theme here right? Well – why not? The family that survives gets to stay alive, on some godforsaken island somewhere in the southern hemisphere where even the seaguls are afraid to land and we never hear from ‘em again. The others are not a problem anymore either way.

Think about it… a liberal application of indifference and natural selection in order to weed out the competing families and arrive at one winner, and then we simply use them up until they can’t earn a profit for their victims any more, and then cast them aside on some devils island paradise. Those that want into a life of crime – face an uncertain future where they will either get whacked by a state provided professional, or possibly survive long enough to become a fatal entertainment statistic for our viewing pleasure or, if they are really lucky, will survive long enough to live out their miserable last few days/weeks/years being shat on by frigid seaguls. Hmmm.. think that’s definitely a deterrent!

In fact – I’ve even thought of a name for the show – Payback. Works for me. I’ll bet you’re wondering where you can buy tickets right?