Wednesday 31 May 2017

Neanderthal Man

But I was not poor so I did nothing.
I'm just a fat white bloke.
I don't vote.
Then they came for the disabled,
But I was not disabled so I did nothing.
I'm just a fat white bloke.
I vote Tory.
Then they came for the immigrants,
We are all immigrants but I didn't know that.
I'm just a fat white bloke.
I don't vote.
Next they came for the old,
But I'm not old so fuck 'em.
I'm just a fat white bloke.
I vote Tory.
I mouth off in the pub.
I talk out of my arse.
I'm just a fat white bloke.
I don't know how to vote
I vote Tory.
I see life in a binary way.

©Paul Garrard 2017




Saturday 27 May 2017

Oh Moses! - Murder in the family - Update

I've been meaning to write this blog post for quite some time. Back in 2011 I wrote a blog about my great, great grandfather Moses Whiting. He sadly murdered his youngest son, and as a result spent the rest of his life in Broadmoor. I speculated in my previous post the Moses might have had Huntington's Disease. But my theory about my great, great grandfather having Huntington's Disease might well be wrong.

About a year and a half ago I was contacted by a member of the Binks family. William Whiting, my great grandfather (Moses Whiting's son), married Elizabeth Binks. Elizabeth Binks was my grandmother's mother. My grandmother (and subsequently my father) had HD. Perhaps it didn't come from the Whiting line after all?

So when Moses in a fit of pique murdered his young son it might well not have been due to HD. Or maybe by some cruel twist of fate both sides of the family had the disease; either because HD was a bit more common in this region, or because it was a tight-knit community and some family connection occurred at some point before the birth of Moses. We will never know the answer.




Sunday 14 May 2017

Superstition

Religion and right wing politics exist to exploit and oppress large groups of people; enabling a few to control the many. They both offer easy answers. Answers that people can accept at face value without any thought. Answers that are no more than advertising slogans. It doesn't matter that the answers they give are not evidence based, or what they promise fails to materialise; there will either be an excuse, a distraction or a lie to cover up their failings, a papering over the cracks to hide their charlatanism.

Reactionaries and devotees of magic men with beards (right wing politicians and clerics to the simple) operate using the K.I.S.S. form of delivery: 'Keep it simple, stupid'. Not my phrase but one once used in business presentation circles. People like simple. Simple enables them to believe without intellect. They can relate to X being the problem and Y being the solution. They can't relate to the possibility that the solution might require measures that are complex and perhaps need to run in tandem or appear on the surface not to be directly connected. If chaos theory is correct (obviously it's a theory so it might or might not be) then existence is a multitudinal array of chain reactions going on ad infinitum.

Of course some questions/problems in life might not have a known answer/solution. This never worries the right-wing politician or man of religion. In religion if there's something wrong it's the work of a devil or the punishment of a god; little matter that there is absolutely no proof of the existence of either. In right-wing politics if there is a problem it's the fault of someone 'different' to their perceived norm; they'll blame foreigners, the sick, the infirm, the poor etc. There's always a handy scapegoat.

'Humankind cannot bear very much reality'. T. S. Eliot.

It used to be said that the Church of England was the Tory party at prayer. I'm not sure how accurate that is but in many ways they were/are similar in one respect in that they both peddle lies. Religion and reactionary politics are not based on facts; they are based on a warped faith. Faith is illogical, it is not thinking, but laziness. They are each no more than superstition.


Nothing is ever black and white. There isn't always an answer.




And now a few words from the master of right-wing propaganda* Joseph Goebbels:

'A lie told once remains a lie but a lie told a thousand times becomes the truth.'

'There was no point in seeking to convert the intellectuals. For intellectuals would never be converted and would anyway always yield to the stronger, and this will always be "the man in the street." Arguments must therefore be crude, clear and forcible, and appeal to emotions and instincts, not the intellect. Truth was unimportant and entirely subordinate to tactics and psychology.'

'...the rank and file are usually much more primitive than we imagine. Propaganda must therefore always be essentially simple and repetitious.'







* These principles are still being used today.



Monday 8 May 2017

Broken Britain - Thatcher's Legacy

Towards the end of last year, a couple we are friends with gave us a small package, and sniggered as they did so. It was a commemorative plate of Margaret Thatcher. It was amongst the effects of their late mother/mother-in-law. 'Was she a fan of Thatcher?', we asked. Apparently not. She couldn't stand her. They felt sure that someone had given it to her as a joke. So why were they giving it to us we wondered? We loathed Thatcher too. Their reason for giving it to us? They felt sure we would know what to do with it. So a couple of months ago they came round to dinner, along with another couple who just happen to come from Syria.

After dinner we all trooped out to our balcony armed with our weapons of choice to deal with the porcelain pornography in a fitting and proper manner. With two cameras set up we videoed, for posterity, justice being done. And, despite being somewhat bemused by the proceedings, and not really understanding who this vile woman was, fair play to our young Syrian friends for joining in with the spirit of the event.

I've now taken that footage and mixed it with some other material to make 'Broken Britain - Thatcher's Legacy' and, with apologies for the speak your weight machine style commentary, here it is:



Also, if you are interested, here is the transcript from the video:

Broken Britain - Thatcher's Legacy

If you didn't live through the Thatcher era you possibly won't understand the contempt and loathing that the majority of right thinking people felt for what she did.

Jo Brand summed her up very well: “God, what a depressing day that was and what an irony that Britain’s first female prime minister had to be Margaret Thatcher. She was the woman who asked, ‘What has feminism ever done for me?’ Well, dear, if you need to ask that question then you’re obviously not very bright

Thatcher broke Britain. She presided over the ruination of our nation. When she entered Nº10 all decency left.