The Pun - Justice Not Vengeance is Our Foundation

"Third Time Unlucky" was The Pun's headline regarding Ian Huntley's suicide attempt.

It is important to realise how deeply barbaric a headline this is.

Firstly it is not news worthy of a front page given what is happening in the world.

It is indicative of a warped worldview.

Secondly, it could be taken by someone to imply that The Sun's view is that they wish harm to come to Huntley.

This is against the law and against all civilised values.

It is an essential point that justice shall rule and not vengeance.
This is the cornerstone of our world. Without it we are nothing.
Justice not vengeance is our foundation.

The Sun is the epitomy of barbarism.

It is without doubt one of the least civilised newspapers in human history.

Which country has vetoed the most UN resolutions?

I was really pleased to see Dubya's speech to the UN.
I was really enthused by what he said. I agreed with it and I think he is saying the right things.
Praise the Lord!
It should be noted all the same that the USA has vetoed a great deal of UN resolutions.

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Question: Which country has vetoed the most United Nations resolutions?
Answer: The USA.

Industry Shmindustry

"What’s made me align myself with Finkelstein is the implication that what he says should be unsayable."
Someone writing in the Jewish Chronicle.
BUT HE HAS NOTHING TO SAY! if the summary of his book on his webs(h)ite is anything to go by..!!
READ IT! Read the summary..... NOWHERE AT ALL IN THIS SUMMARY DOES HE SAY EXACTLY WHAT HE MEANS BY THE PHRASE "HOLOCAUST INDUSTRY." Some of it is rather higgeldy-piggeldy:)
Well I will be off to be consoled as I read my Einstein and Spinoza:)

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Mind you, NOWADAYS we talk of a
POP "Industry"
MUSIC "Industry"
PORNOGRAPHY "Industry"
FILM "Industry".....

etc.

Everything's an "industry"...
Well, all I can say is... er....Industry Shmindustry! and leave it at that...
I think I understand how useful this Yiddish (?) way of expressing scepticism (?) is now..:)

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Unrelated - sort of....
"The love of money - the root of all kinds of evil." - was that only in the Christian Bible/New Testament?
Is there anything like that in the Torah?
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Unrelated.
"What one Christian does is his own responsibility, what one Jew does is thrown back at all Jews."
ANNE FRANK.
Why?



Well, that may have been true once upon a time, but I hope that we live in a world where this does not have to be so.

How psychiatry oppresses

Psychiatry oppresses me and millions of others.

How can something that is supposed to help me oppress me?

1 I have to take toxic brain-damaging medications.

I do not have the freedom not to take these medications, as I would have with any other kind of medication and as I would have were they prescribed by other kinds of medical doctor, and as I ought to have. I ought to have the freedom to do what I want with my own body and to refuse toxic medication in any circumstance.

2 I have to see psychiatrists and other "mental health" workers.

I do not have the freedom not to see these people as I would have with any other medical workers. I should have this freedom.

3 I - and anyone else for that matter - can at any time be incarcerated by "mental health workers" backed up by the state for no crime and for no reason.

No other medical specialism has this power.
I ought to have the power to refuse incarceration against my will in any circumstance unless I have committed a crime.

4 By putting me on benefits and into the meaningless category of someone with "mental health problems" psychiatry precludes me from various activities that I should have the right to take part in such as for example full time paid employment.

And hence the oppression of millions and crime against humanity that is psychiatry.

This is what it means for millions of people who have been arbitrarily defined as "mentally ill".
And this is what it means potentially for all human beings.

I hope that the 21st century will see an end to this oppression.

Psychiatry is a crime against humanity. There is a strong case for abolishing it.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=-P6_FwpVo_s&feature=related

http://www.antipsychiatry.org/25reason.htm

"Let Them Die" and "Against Multiculturalism".

I think Kenan Malik's essays

"Let Them Die"
https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/magazine/letthemdie

and
"Against Multiculturalism"
https://newhumanist.org.uk/articles/523/against-multiculturalism

are excellent essays.

I agree with them.

All the ones

All the ones I want don't want me.

All the ones who want me I don't want.

It's never mutual and I can't work out why.

24th September 2007

"Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel."
Why so much talk of our country and national pride and so much other associated guff?

Politics is not entertainment.
Why is politics treated as entertainment by both politicians and the media?
What about reality?

Is the NewLabourParty now a democracy-free zone?
Even I remember when policy was debated, agreed upon and voted on.
But Big Brother Brown won't have this.

Languages as a study - Philosophy is the only subject

I studied languages at university.
I now wish that I had studied a proper subject like Philosophy.
That's probably the only proper subject there is.
Philosophy in a sense is the only subject.

Philosophy at universities in the English-speaking world is maybe not the same thing as it is elsewhere. Which is one reason I was never encouraged to do it.

In England Philosophy is sometimes seen as a quaint hobby and not a mainstream subject and fundamental activity as it is often is in France for example.

If I had my time again I would study philosophy and anthropology and politics and social sciences.
Not languages. I am thoroughly disillusioned with the idea of specifically learning languages as an academic study and activity.

Learning languages in itself should not be an academic study. It is a task not a study."Studying" a language is possibly something different.

But learning a language is a task not a study.

Learning a language is nothing more than a sometimes enjoyable chore.
Something that can be done easily simply by exposure, by staying in the country and a perhaps a little study. Anyone can do it. It's like riding a bike.
The most proficient speakers of languages other than their mother tongue (or mother tongues) are almost always people who have simply lived where they are spoken, or used them a great deal, rather than those who have studied them.

I thoroughly regret the many hours I have spent in a classroom learning languages - learning another way to say the same thing - when I could have actually been actually learning things.
And I could have learned the language in a far more enjoyable way.

The reasons why I did languages at A-level and degree level were that I was good at them and because I was advised and encouraged to do them and because I could. I enjoyed languages.

I was told and I believed that studying languages or more specifically learning languages was useful.

But even then I knew that it was not really a study. I couldn't really see any other proper subjects around to get my teeth into. I nearly applied to do Politics. But that appeared not philosophical enough. As did philosophy itself.

I also harboured a belief that some kind of metaphysical transformation would happen to me when I could speak, write, understand and dream another language fluently. That I would grow a new self. Not remotely true.

A language definitely does have aesthetic and cultural qualities that can be appreciated once learnt. However a language is fundamentally a means of communication.

"A country without a language is a country without a soul": This may be true. A language does also articulate the culture that it is part of, and is part of that culture.

But the actual process of learning a language is a task and not really a study.

I was put off studying Social and Political Sciences at Cambridge which was the course I wanted to take at one point. I was disillusioned with literature as something to study. I loved literature I just thought you can't really study it in a meaningful way. I much preferred the idea of trying to learn things scientifically about life - hence social sciences. Literature can teach you about life, but is it scientific?, I reasoned.

The man who helped put me off S.P.S. was Mr. A.R.M. Little who taught me English A-level and who later became headmaster of Eton, himself an Old Etonian. Oh I say what ho, old bean!

He said to me - "Sociology? That's the kind of thing taught by sniffy types in donkey jackets."

He seemed to have a low opinion of it at any rate which rather rubbed off on me. He didn't seem to give much more of a reason than the comment already related. Such analysis! Hmm.....

He is now supposedly an expert on education since his retirement from Eton. But I remember him as a bit of a snob. But that is precisely what Eton produces and is designed to produce.

You don't need to be an expert on education to know that Eton in its current form is utterly immoral and wicked. You only need to be a 9-year old child.

I was taught to respect people like him and his views. But I wish I had stuck to my own thinking even at that young age.


If I'd been educated in France I would have been studying Philosophy at the same age and hence would have had the chance to think about things.
If I'd been educated in the USA I would have specialised a lot less at university anyway.
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All of the above does not apply to linguistics, the study of language, which I believe is a very important subject and distinct from the learning of languages, an activity which I am questioning here as an academic subject.
Linguistics is an important discipline. Learning languages is a chore.
Discuss. etc.

There are other skills and subjects that go with language learning - e.g. interpretation, translation etc.
These are also to some extent a part of linguistics.

May 08

Maybe everyone at University should study some form of philosophy or intellectual history.
I think in the Hispanic world many Arts degrees are awarded by a faculty called Filosofi'a y Letras: Philosophy and Arts......
In the English-speaking world these two activities - Philosophy and the Arts - can often be separated...

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In France, they realised long ago that philosophy is the only subject so they teach it to you at school. It is also a country where people value education for its own sake as well.

In England, those with power know that philosophy is the only subject, or the most fundamental subject, so therefore they avoid teaching it at school at all costs.

And even at English universities it is regarded as little more than a hobby.

I exaggerate for effect. As usual.

..........

March 2018


I am further confirmed in my opinion that it is not worth studying languages by Bernard Shaw's sententious observation: "No man fully capable of his own language ever masters another."
At the age of 45, I am quite sure that this contains the greater part of the truth.
Those who say that people are naturally fully capable of being highly multilingual are not really telling the truth in my opinion.

What further compounds my frustration is that I fully realized the truth of this observation when I first read it aged about 18. I very nearly acted upon it and chose not to study languages but circumstances and inertia prevented me from fully acting upon it and rejecting languages as a study. I truly wanted to apply it to my life ,but I got stuck in a course of action that I partially felt to be in some way more suited to me and which I then had to re-persuade myself to fully follow.
Overall, I regret having studied languages and wish that I had studied Philosophy.

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March 2018. A note on Education.

The decisions I made when I was between the ages of about 16 and 20 affected my entire life.
I remember being very conflicted and tortured by the decisions I had to make - mainly with regard to choosing what subjects to study. I remember how hard I found these years and looking back I feel that I made a lot of bad decisions at this time.

I feel that a less specialized education system after the age of 16 and an education system that involved the study of philosophy from the age of 11 would have helped me a lot.

Also an education system that was less competitive and less obsessed with exam success would have helped me too.

I also think that education should be universal, of good quality and a human right rather than something that parents have to pay for. A society should not need to provide Education through privatized institutions. An education of a high standard across the whole of society is essential.

Popper and "Begging the question"

Popper says that a scientific statement is a statement that can be falsified.

"God exists"
"Schizophrenia exists"

Neither of these statements are scientific as neither can be falsified.

Depending on what is meant by the two terms.
I mean by them their conventional meanings.

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These statements - or similar ones - are also related to examples of "circular reasoning" or "begging the question" or - in Latin - petitio principii (which literally means "begging the principles" I think).

For example, in order to prove the conclusion, "Schizophrenia exists";
it may be said that "all schizophrenics have been found to have brain lesion x,y,z"; and as "schizophrenia is a brain disease"; it therefore must be true that "schizophrenia exists."

This would be an example of petitio principii because the propositions assume that schizophrenia exists, which is that which it is being attempted to prove.

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MBS

Had an interesting experience today in a bookshop.
Was looking through the various sections in a Waterstone's - which seems to be the only kind of bookshop left, but more on that later - and came to History, then to Religion, then to MBS - MBS? What was that? It was a temporary paper sign. MBS? I looked at the books in MBS and they were stuff like astrology and New Age stuff and Paul McKenna and all that. It was quite a large section, 2 shelves wide. MBS? I racked my brains. What did MBS mean?
I asked an attendant, "What does MBS stand for?"
She said "Oh that's Mind, Body and Spirit"
I said "Are you sure it's not Miscellaneous Bull Shit?"

"Fundie"

I am an anti-psychiatry fundie - there is no such thing as mental illness and no such thing as madness.
There are no such things as lunatics, nutters, madmen, loonies, headcases, nutters.
Van Gogh, Hitler, Nietzsche, Ezra Pound - none of them were lunatics or madmen because there is no such thing.
Didn't Nietzsche eventually "go mad" in later life?
Well, he may have suffered from a brain disease in later life but he didn't "go mad" because this is meaningless.

OCD exists?

OCD exists?
Does it?
The psychological patterns are so similar in many "cases" of OCD.
Surely it can be said to exist if only as a metaphorical illness.
It has no biological cause or biological existence therefore it does not exist strictly speaking.
And as has been said before a metaphorical illness is a metaphor and not an illness.
It is absurd to say one person "has OCD" or "mild OCD" and another person does not "have" it.
It is totally normal psychological patterns and tendencies that we all have that have gone haywire.
Everyone - or everyone responsible - can check the back door is locked before they go out.
So anyone can do it ten times.

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31.01.08

Such thought patterns may constitute a brain disease of some kind but there is no evidence for this.
And to say that OCD is a brain disease is not justified at the present time.
There is no evidence that OCD is a disease of any kind so it can't really be a brain disease.

It is probable that all it is is activity in the upper brain or cortex - and probably normal activity at that.

to be continued...
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.......

If the mind is entirely sustained and created by brain biology then surely everything in the mind has a biological cause? and a biological footprint?

This may be true but it is possible for psychological and/or mental events to have no biological cause and for them to have only a neurological or memory footprint???

When I scratch my nose because it itches - does this have a biological cause? no. In so much as my free decision to scratch my nose is free and does not have a biological cause....

see previous blog about the mind....

Does it leave a biological footprint? no. it is a normal body process.

What is the point?

What is the point in not going metric?

Graffiti

Graffiti is as natural as plant growth.

I think graffiti is art and should be legal as far as possible.....

"Inverted" "commas"

In my experience, nothing shows disdain more effectively than a couple of so-called "inverted" "commas".

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"Rehab": CitizenSofa Version

They tried to make me go to rehab
and I said "no fucking chance"
so they got the police,
hand-cuffed me and stuck me in the back of a cop van.

"Rehab"

They tried to make me go to rehab
I said No No No
They said "We'll make you go"
And I said
"No you can't call the police
Because I am a rich and famous pop star."
And they said "Oh OK. You have a point there."

Why oh why fucking why don't pop stars ever get sectioned???

This is the most profound philosophical musing I can think of at the moment.

I must say the idea of Doherty getting sectioned fills me with glee. Only joking.
He wouldn't hack psych ward. He'd be climbing the walls.

You may say but he is not mad and you are.

Well I disagree.

It is my contention that when you say someone is "mad"
all you mean is:
"I disapprove of this person's thoughts and behaviour"
and NOTHING more.

Eric Fromm Party

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/neil_clark/2007/02/wanted_an_erich_fromm_party.html

6th September 2007.

I have decided to put the blog up because there are at least some bits of it that are worth putting up.

"Saint Joan"

Saw "Saint Joan" by Bernard Shaw.
Great play.
Always had a soft spot for Joan of Arc.
One theme of the play - how society tolerates difference and dissidence is interesting.
In 1431 Joan was executed as a heretic.
Nowadays she would undoubtedly have had the pleasure of interacting with psychiatric services.
Something of an improvement on being burnt alive.

Crime

Crime is caused by capitalism.
Capitalism is a crime.

No, seriously if you ask a lot of criminologists what causes crime, they will say Thatcherism and neoliberalism.

But you won't hear this in The Sun and The Mail.

Wednesday 5th September 2007.

The discrepancy between advertland and tellyland and reality is getting bigger.

Adverts about spacious wonderlands.

In reality there is hardly room to breathe.

Hard to keep the show on the road, surely?

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The fact that loads of people are single is not accidental.

It is deliberate.

Capitalism wants atoms.

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"Freedom Next Time"

Just read "Freedom Next Time" by John Pilger.


Excellent as ever.

I challenge anyone to read it and not be compelled and convinced.

Also just read a great article by him in The Morning Star.

www.johnpilger.com/