If there’s one thing that can be relied on never to change in this somewhat dubious and uncertain world , it’s the arrogant and supercilious attitude of the Christian churches.
While the beauty and artistic merit of the latest embellishment to the Cornish town of Saint Austell is undoubtedly in the eye of the beholder, the reaction to it by the local clergy was predicable.
In a letter signed by seven of their resident Christian reverends to the local council who sponsored the project, it was claimed that the statue was “an offence to God.” Perhaps it was the name, “Earth Goddess,” that upset them the most.
“One of the signatories, Rev Pete Godfrey of the Light and Life Church, said the concern was not the look of the piece but the spiritual significance apparently attached to it. He added: “We see very clearly laid out by God that we are to have no gods but him and we are not to make idols, which is essentially a statue that represents another god.””
The general consensus among the populace of this very conservative part of southern England is that they don’t like the “Earth Goddess” and would prefer it was removed.
…when it first appeared overlooking the A1 major trunk road near the north of England town of Gateshead. Now, if it was threatened with removal, there’d be a major outcry.
The “Earth Goddess” stands higher than two double-decker buses and is situated in one of the town’s squares. It does seem a little incongruous, but not because it lacks colour or fascination to the beholder. No, around it is some of the worst examples of modern architecture one could hope to see.
Behind the statue sits a grotesque building now occupied by the local “Boots the Chemist.” To the left (as it’s viewed) a tall grey, almost menacing slab of concrete, under which, and somewhat dwarfed by this monumentally diabolical construction, is a shopping arcade.
It’s truly hard to know which of the two camps one could enjoy insulting the most, the band of pitiful clergy with their outdated and medieval doctrine of life, or those with the nerve to call themselves architects, who were responsible for the grotesquely ugly, concrete structures that surround the “Earth Goddess.”
Maybe one day the people of Saint Austell, like the folk of Gateshead with their “Angel”, will wake up and embrace the colour, strangeness, and, yes, amusement even, that the mighty “Earth Goddess” can bring into their lives, if only they’d open their eyes and their hearts.
Posted on - Comments Off on Brexit Is Working. The Hell It Is!
Prime Minister Boris Johnson is dragged out of office still swearing Brexit is working for the UK despite the economy tanking out of control. Liz Truss, who looks likely to succeed him, has her own crackpot ideas how to fix it. Sunak is too busy with his new oversized swimming pool…
… to be concerned (just one of four homes!) His new pool, tennis court, and gymnasium is costing £400,000 for his £1,500,000 pad near Northallerton. His economy’s doing very nicely, thank you.
The figures in the chart above speak for themselves. Despite Covid-19, the war in Ukraine, and other external influences, EU countries energy price rises are well below those of the UK.
Average energy prices over the whole EU are only 41% up on this time last year, 2021. Italy is the highest with a rise of 77%, and Germany up a mere 23%. France comes romping home a clear winner with only a 4% increase over the same period, while the UK hardly made the field with a whopping 215% increase.
Brexit is working? For whom? Certainly not the average UK citizen forced to rely on food banks, faced with either freezing or eating this winter.
You may well ask how France has kept prices at such a low level despite the rising cost of electricity and gas? It’s really simple: France holds an 84% stake in the biggest electricity company, EDF, and so was in a position to cap price rises at 4%. The French state owns Engie (Gaz de France) outright so can regulate prices to suit.
According to the English language online news media, “The Local”:
“The French state owns a lot of service and utility companies including the country’s rail provider SNCF, postal service La Poste and France Télévisions. One notable exception is the country’s autoroutes, which are run by private companies, although the government sets limits on toll charges. “
Socialism, a dirty word to the UK Tory Party, but have they done any better with their “free market deregulation” over the last twelve years? French citizens may pay a little more in tax, if they can afford to, than their British counterparts, but they get an awful lot back in return, and if they don’t they’re not slow in causing their government a few headaches.
Brexit is working? You be the judge.
Posted on - Comments Off on Annihilation: Nuclear Or Climatic? Take Your Pick!
The war in Ukraine rumbles on. The imminent threat of another war between Taiwan and China is building to a climax. In Brazil there’s a real fear Jair Bolsonaro is planning to disrupt the upcoming elections and retain power, and in the Philippines the son of Ferdinand Marcos (Ferdinand Jnr) has brought the disgraced family dynasty back into ultimate power in that unfortunate nation.
The British government is on its knees, with the Prime Minister and his Chancellor both absent at a time of serious economic emergency.
Abortion is now illegal in most states of the USA following a political decision by the Supreme Court (a court corrupted by the three Donald Trump appointees who all pledged Congress they’d not interfere with Roe v Wade) that has split that nation asunder and given kudos to a Republican Party still led by the tainted ex-President Donald Trump, who aims to retake power in 2024.
These are just a few of the serious issues confronting the people of the world today, people at odds with each other, tribalized by social media companies who make billions of dollars by encouraging disagreement, argument, and vicious trolling among their users.
What Has Changed?
Surely the world has always been like this?
No, not in the way it is today. There have always been problems between nations, but in the past the law and moral code was always well defined, and when broken, action taken to bring the perpetrators to justice.
Today, those laws and that code are breaking down. Nothing is clearly defined anymore. Even supposed morally responsible nations like the United States assassinate with impunity. They are applauded for actions, which by definition, are not short of premeditated murder. The rule of law is under constant threat.
Nuclear arms proliferate. Legally binding treaties, designed to keep a nuclear balance between nations, are dashed aside, broken, as the ghastly reach for ultimate power becomes the goal of despotic political leaders. NATO nations find themselves hamstrung as Russia’s Vladimir Putin threatens global annihilation should NATO interfere in his invasion and desecration of Ukraine.
The “Ultimate Deterrent” has become the “Ultimate Weapon” to blackmail the world. It’s one we can be sure that Xi Jinping will use when his People’s Army bloodily retakes Taiwan for the Chinese motherland.
The human race is today suffering more chaos than it has produced for itself since 1939.
Our Faulty Belief Systems
Fear, uncertainty, and chaos grips the human race. When that occurs, human beings turn to their belief systems to sustain them. Negative beliefs, such as an inbuilt disdain for politicians, can surface and allow populists like Bolsonaro, Orban, Marcos, Trump and others (including the UK’s Boris Johnson) into power. These political fakes promise to make life better for their people. Their citizens cling to the lies they are fed, their belief systems categorizing them as truth.
Religion ranks high in the belief systems of many people. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the distorted, capitalistic, right-wing Christian religion of the USA, that allowed Donald Trump to win the presidency and brought about the withdrawal of nationwide abortion rights. Behind it all is social media to arouse and inflame those belief systems.
“Covid-19 was a hoax perpetrated by dark political forces for their own ends.” (no-one actually defined what those ends might be, though there were a few crazy theories). eu.usatoday.com
“The election was stolen from President Trump.” (A quarter of Americans, over 76 million citizens, still believe Donald Trump is the legitimate President of the United States. That’s an awful lot of distorted belief systems).
“5G phone towers produce deadly viruses.” Some 50 fires targeting cell towers and other equipment have been reported in Britain this month, leading to three arrests. Telecom engineers have been abused on the job 80 times, according to trade group Mobile UK, making the U.K. the nucleus of the attacks. ABC News April 2020
Russian propaganda, through it’s state-controlled media platforms, brainwashes and corrupts the belief systems of Russians into believing the deaths and suffering in Ukraine are justified because Ukrainians have been “Nazified” and need to be purged.
The human belief system is a comfort system that will believe what it’s owner wants to believe, even when it bears little or no resemblance to reality.
Climate Change
What is causing all this fear, uncertainty, and chaos gripping the human race? Rampant consuming fire, ravaging flood, deadly virulent germs. All these and more, the result of climate change.
The speed at which the climate is degenerating has shocked scientists, who until recently were talking “end of century”, or “generations to come.” Manmade disasters are already knocking at our doors today. The human race is well used to disasters, but except on the rare occasion it actually happens to them it’s usually happening to someone else far away in the world.
“It’s a shame but, hell it’s not happening to us so let’s get on with life.”
Climate change now affects everyone to some extent, and it comes with a guarantee: that extent is going to get greater. Already, in Britain, the village of Wennington was almost wiped off the map in July by a fire that consumed nineteen houses, “like a scene from the Blitz” as one resident described it.
It was hardly a national disaster, such as the mega bushfires of Australia in 2019-2020, or the huge blazes that are now an annual event in the USA, coupled with a decade long drought in many parts of the nation that has seen reservoirs so low the debris and human remains from years long gone are now appearing in the shallowed waters.
Complacency
When the Third Reich began to re-arm Germany in the 1930s, no-one took much notice. The Western world, at least, was too busy celebrating nearly twenty years of peace after the “War to end all wars.” Life wasn’t too bad for most people and there was always the Rhumba, Samba, Balboa, Lindy Hop, and Jive…
…dance crazes to keep the populace entertained. Consequently, 1939 came as something of a shock to many.
There are millions today whose belief systems have succumbed to decades of anti-climate-change propaganda from the fossil fuel companies, and who still refuse to believe that the changing climate is a threat to their very lives. “Just a great British summer,” said one man basking on a beach in the UK as the temperature touched 43oC.
He was not alone.
Unless those multitudes realize it’s not just another “great British summer”, or any great summer wherever they happen to be, then the politicians will continue to have their pockets lined by the fossil fuel companies, and any serious attempt to combat a manmade phenomena that is on course to kill off every living thing on this planet, will not happen until it’s too late.
Breakdown Of Civilization
Studying the world as a whole, it becomes obvious that, slowly but with gathering pace, climate change is causing a breakdown in our civilization. Unless something drastic is done to curtail the effects of atmospheric pollution and CO2 emissions, then it may not be climate change that wipes us out, but our own inability to maintain the frameworks of our lawful societies that we collectively label under, ‘civilization’.
Nuclear annihilation, by superpower leaders gone insane with power, is in a neck-and-neck race with climate disaster to eliminate us, and may well be edging in front before the horror of the finishing line is reached.
We like to think we’re all individuals. In some ways we are, but in terms of a species we’re all very much alike. Human beings like to argue and bicker and disagree, but our communal psyche works best at pretending nothing untoward is happening.
