I stood among the ruins of European civilisation ...

I stood among the ruins of European civilisation and marvelled at its achievements for the remnants of these were all about me. I was impressed, for a moment, until I realised that I was standing among what was left of that which, I imagined, its citizens believed would last forever. “What could possibly go wrong?” they must have thought, at least those few willing to partake in such self-reflection, “for we are militarily powerful and economically successful, and we lead such a good life, which the rest of the world …”

Such thoughts, perhaps, run through the minds of all those who find themselves living the good life as a result of military and economic might (for the two go together), and who use scientific, engineering and technological achievements to construct for themselves a world of power and riches (for the two go together). How easy it must have been for the vainglorious inhabitants of this European civilisation to think that the future would be a continuation of the past, only better, with more riches and the higher standard of living that goes with this. Yet I stood among the ruins of their civilisation.

As I stood there I realised that I was viewing the achievements of arrogant peoples with an over inflated opinion of themselves, who, in true European style, lived life like a plague of locusts and made of this a virtue. These people were aggressive, violent and warlike. They conquered others, enslaved people, and took for themselves that which did not belong to them. And those who opposed were crushed. Resistance was not tolerated. And this is how it was for many centuries, until, with the barbarians at the gate and society falling apart, it eventually all came to an end – as do all civilisations.

Why people of the modern world think that their fate will be any different to that of other civilisations that have risen and then fallen is no mystery. Like the Ancient Romans to whom I refer to above, the fate of the Western world will be as it has been for other past civilisations, for the seeds of destruction are sown by actions that are grounded in the animalistic behaviour that is ever present. Only by choosing to walk a different path will Europe and the West survive. The barbarians are already at the gate. Society is becoming dysfunctional as more people pursue the acquisition of money and material gains. And people are retreating into familiar and destructive patterns of behaviour as they seek to reduce the bewildering complexity of life to simple views that encourage extremism (e.g. Dawkinism based on scientific ideology and dogma, or UKIP political dogma based on classification and exclusion).

Like the Ancient Romans, the modern European, those of the Western world, think highly of the Ancient Greeks. Why this is so makes no sense, for these people, like the Ancient Romans, created a barbarous way of living, which was not that different to the so-called barbarians found elsewhere – barbarity with fine clothes and a face of learning one might say.

As for modern Europeans, they are also in many respects no different – being somewhat like Ancient Greeks wearing modern clothes, who should be seen not in a binary way, e.g. in comparison with modern barbarians such as Islamic State, but as potentially, people capable of the same atrocities – all it takes are the right circumstances, as is evident from the example of Nazi Germany. And one of the surest ways that will lead to a repeat of this is through science and reason, for many adherents of this dogma have already lost sight of reason (e.g. Richard Dawkins).

Now more than ever we need a different approach and this means dealing with extreme ideologies like – capitalism, Dawkinism, neo-Darwinism, Western secular fundamentalism, religious fundamentalism, scientific extremism, communism … The list is long for many are the simple sole truths where people find refuge.

Now is the time for The Tao and about this I will have more to say in the future.

The Western world and its stupid binary choices: capitalism vs. communism

I grew up in a period of history known as the cold war which was primarily an ideological conflict between capitalism (with the US in the lead role) and communism (led by the Soviet Union). Most people in the Western world, and since end of the communist era, those in the former Soviet Union and its Eastern European puppet states, prefer the capitalist ideology. And one of the reasons for this is the way that Soviet style communism was implemented – by coercion, the use of state terror, and the persecution of those who questioned and rejected the communist sole truth.

Yet capitalism is also a tyranny with its own sole truth, but one of a different kind, which requires people to subscribe to collective delusions, to ignore the many destructive aspects of the system, and to turn a blind eye to the fact that a minority of the world’s population live in relative luxury at the expense of the majority who will never achieve this lifestyle. It also requires from some, as you will increasingly witness in the coming years, the payment of the ultimate price when called upon to do so – peace is just the period when the citizens of the capitalist world are waiting for the next war, which is invariably linked to ideology and the control of markets and resources. Resource and ideological wars are your future – they have already started.

Capitalism, it can be said, makes a virtue of living life like a plague of locusts, with little or no thought for the future. Such a way of behaving however has no future. But do not worry, for you can forget all the problems that this system creates by immersing yourself in materialism, through your latest Apple device, and so forth. Just keep telling yourself that “the emperor is wearing a fine suite of clothes.”

What history now shows, for those who care to step beyond the ideologies of communism and capitalism, is that neither system is viable as a model for a sustainable civilisation. The time has come to move beyond this stupid binary choice and to the re-conceive human civilisation along completely different lines.

Capitalism vs. communism is a stupid choice - it is no choice at all. Real choice has yet to appear in our world.

And more about the West’s other ideological battles and its stupid binary choices which are not choices at all, will follow in due course.

This is the world that men have created, along with those women who choose to behave like men.

Fukushima in the news yet again!

Fukushima, the world’s first triple reactor-core melt-down nuclear power disaster has been in the news again this week with a report published in The Guardian newspaper that traces of radioactive contamination from the stricken plant have been detected off the coast of Canada.

As is now fairly standard, scientists are saying that the levels of contamination are safe, but this is not the point. The issue is that there are consequences that arise from disasters such as Fukushima, and the denial or dismal of such, is convenient for those in industry and science with vested interests in maintaining this dangerous form of power generation.

The scientists in question did not have anything to say about how the apparently safe levels of contamination might affect human health in the longer term, when combined in the human body with all the other unnecessary sources of radioactivity that the body is exposed to as a result of science. This of course is virtually impossible to assess, which is why it is ignored. Those scientists who do ignore this may well be party to placing our health, and that of future generations, at risk. This is something to consider next time you hear those words “I am a scientist, so I have no bias or axe to grind”. More likely this means that “I am part of a vested interest and quite frankly I do not care for the bottom line is that Fukushima and other such places are about making money.” Someone gets rich at the expense of others – most probably the unborn. It also means “I am a scientist so while it may seem that I am smart I behave as though I am stupid, because my life is controlled by ideology and dogma.”

Fukushima also illustrates that the other delusion, that the ‘risks can be managed’, is patently not true. But again, the vested interests do not care because … you know why.

Once again scientist’s Will to Power is seen for what it is, and now is the time to deal with this while we can. A new approach that goes beyond the ‘risks can be managed’ and ‘there are no consequences’ has to be developed. But do not look to science for such developments for science is lost to the power of money – fortune and glory is what modern Western science is about.

The Deaf: A culture not a disability

Hanging on the walls of the National Portrait Gallery in London last November was an artwork produced by Grayson Perry with words “The Deaf: A culture not a disability” writ large across it.

Grayson Perry – whose female alter ego is called Claire – is an artist who is a living demonstration that gender is not binary; in every man there is a woman, and this is a natural state-of-being. This observation is relevant to the theme of this week’s blog, which is about perverse notions of what constitutes a normal human being. Here in Europe, humans are only allowed to exist in a binary state-of-being – male of female. States of indeterminacy – people who are both male and female are not recognised. This is because perverse notions of normality in humans have been developed and are a deep rooted characteristic of the European mind. These classifications are also a means of exercising power over people to force normality upon them, with the branding of ‘abnormality’ applied to those who do not submit to this power. Note the word ‘classification’ once again …

This particular blog however in not about gender indeterminacy, but another form of ‘classification’ of the lack of normality – disability. I will have more to say about gender in the future, so for the time being I will focus on the subject of the art object in question, and the European notion of disability and the ‘normal human being’.

The so called disability in question is (mostly) congenital profound hearing loss. So I am referring to people who have been profoundly deaf since birth, whose first language is often not English, but British Sign Language (BSL). BSL, in case you did no realise, is an entirely visual language comprised of signs, gestures and facial expressions. It has no written form, and has its own grammar. It is not signed English.

In keeping with the perversity of European thinking about what constitutes a ‘normal human being’, those who are profoundly deaf and use BSL are considered to be abnormal. They have been discriminated against, patronised, prevented from using BSL, and forced to conform with what the hearing world demands.

According to the medical profession, with its grounding in science and reason, profound hearing loss is a medical condition that has to be diagnosed, treated and, ultimately, cured. But if you were born profoundly deaf, and were brought up to use BSL as your first language, you would not consider yourself as being disabled or abnormal. You would not feel yourself in need of medical assistance. In fact you would consider yourself as part of a distinct culture, not only with its own language, but also with its own history, humour, etc. You would think instead that the disability lies not with those who are part of this culture, but with a (so-called) civilisation that has made life very hard for the profoundly deaf and have persecuted them and sought to destroy this culture. And to avoid any misunderstanding, I am not talking here about what happened in Nazi Germany, but a disgraceful story of the way the profoundly deaf were treated in the UK from the mid–nineteenth century up to very recent times. This is history of the persecution of a minority by the majority who looked to science and reason to justify their actions.

Society though is changing, and the rights of minority cultures are being increasingly recognised. Yet there still persists the belief that being born without functional hearing is abnormal. This is because Europeans are engaged in a quest to become supermen (yes I do mean men, for it is a male thing) and this is part of an obsession with control and domination – the male Will to Power, with its manifestation in science and the desire to reengineer humans so that profound hearing loss disappears from the gene pool. And with this will go a unique culture - and you will call this ‘progress’.

So in what way are people who believe in this stupid notion of ‘progress’ any different from the Nazis?