Hindu Bullshit

Why am I even having to write this new post on my blog? Why does society tolerate such obsessive religious nonsense? The Skanda Vale in Wales recently has been the place for legal wranglings concernings Shambo (what the fuck?!) the bull. Shambo was diagnosed many weeks ago with bovine TB but was not immediately slaughtered as would usually be the case because this bull was considered sacred by a group of Hindu monks. Are you kidding me?! If this bull had been transported even short distances across the country it could have infected herds of cows causing farmers to lose their livelihoods; and farmers who had already lost their livelihoods through such an epidemic must have been livid at the blatant double standards. Let's also not forget that bovine TB has the potential to infect humans; frankly I wouldn't have particularly cared if the monks had been infected but they could then have taken it outside their 'sanctuary' and allowed it to pass to innocent hard-working people.
Thankfully, yesterday a group of police officers were finally allowed to barge their way in and take the bull to the slaughterhouse, an act which should have been carried out weeks ago instead of having to wade through acres of possibly infectious red tape! This is simply another example of how religion causes more problems than it solves. I only wish Michael Jackson had been there to scream out "Shambo!"

Diana, The Sheep's Princess

Yesterday afternoon, I had the severe misfortune to catch some of the Concert For Diana on the BBC. It was basically full of fawning, servile 'celebrities' wanting a bit of publicity as they knew that thousands would be in attendance and millions watching on TV. They talked in what they hoped would be perceived as humble rapture about the woman who was killed by her own love-hate relationship with the press. Everyone seems to have forgotten that dead people did sometimes have failings when they were alive; Diana was a considerably capable manipulator of words and emotions, controlling her own destiny with crocodile tears in front of Martin Bashir, and always being certain to demonise the Royal Family as every hero needs a good villain. The hysteria of the people at that concert (who obviously have had nothing better to do with their whole lives for the last ten years) was only matched by the hysteria on the day of her funeral, when the entire country shut down for a day of self-glorified mourning. I went for a walk that day; the only good thing about it was that there was so little traffic on the roads that the country felt much more peaceful; I didn't feel depressed at all. These people who obsess about this decidedly average woman never seem to want to recognise the intelligent work that Prince Charles has performed for many charities, because they still hold a grudge that he had an affair in a marriage that he never wanted to be involved with in the first place! These people, are of course, sheep. They do not want to think outside what they have seen on the sensationalist television channels or read in the tabloid newspapers. That is why they love Diana so much: because the people's princess did so love being the shepherd.

The Social Construction Of Ties

Social Constructionism is the premise where the norms of society are passed from generation to generation to the point where they become taken-for-granted assumptions that people automatically believe to be true without any sense of rational thought. These assumptions become followed on a daily basis, never being considered or analysed as people cannot bring themselves to believe that generations of social well-doers in the past could possibly have all been weak-minded sheep or just plain wrong. And so things that vary from social constraints ('hard work is good for the soul'!) to the downright ridiculous (a roast beef meal should only be eaten at Sunday lunchtimes) permeate society to the extent that only the free-thinking few can think outside the box and will continually be ostracised for it.
A good example of social construction which fits somewhere in between the two extremes is the tie. If you work in professional white-collar employment (as I unfortunately do), every morning (after having been woken up by the socially constructed alarm clock) you will then proceed to take a long piece of strangely-shaped material and tie it in a methodical knot around your neck. Let's think about this for a second: you take what is in effect a noose, put it as tightly around your jugular as is humanly possible without causing permanent damage, and then ensure that it will not be dislodged from that zone of discomfort by doing up your top shirt button and folding over the collar! And why do we perform this masochistic practice every day? Because somebody - god knows who, but somebody - in their eternal wisdom of stupidity, decided many moons ago that this was a really smart thing to do. So now, the sheep in the world automatically presume this to be true as so many have done it before them. But, my friends, if you think about it rationally, there is no logical basis as to why we wear these restrictive contraptions of clothing; it is pure social constructionism. Of course, nobody will ever pay attention to this argument, because the overriding principle of being a sheep is that you don't want to think for yourself. Nevertheless, I will always hate ties!

From Casinos To Piracy

A casino is set to open in the Midlands any time now; not one of the 'super-casinos' that have been widely discussed as of late, but still the largest such venture to date in the UK. Casinos are bad for society for one simple reason: the average gambler doesn't stand a chance; or, in more common terminology, 'the house always wins'. This precisely represents the moral decay that is currently taking place around us. Only money matters; big businesses and the strengthening of the economy are given high priority over the fiscal affairs of the indebted masses. As long as the casinos are making this country richer, then the government is blind to all other arguments, and the gap between the rich and the poor continues to widen. Personally, I think hardcore gamblers are foolish who ought to learn more willpower and realise that desperation that excessive very quickly gets out of hand; but I still don't want to see free license granted to exploit these people out of their hard-earned cash at every turn. Governments simply demonstrate moral corruption by endorsing this kind of behaviour.

The only gamblers I respect are those intelligent few who are able to temporarily con casinos out of the money which usually resides in the fatcats' grubby paws. Which brings me to...
Piracy of CDs and DVDs. The reason I see a connection here is because I view both these issues as the rich versus the poor; except with piracy the poor are winning! People who, due to working far too many hours in a week or are restricted to a piss-poor minimum wage, don't have the time or the money to go to the cinema every week or buy original discs from the shops at ten pounds a time, are able to gain copies from their friends at much lower cost to be viewed at home at their leisure. Sure, I understand the arguments about organised crime funding terrorism and all that, but all of the 'pirates' that I've ever come into contact with have just been ordinary folk trying to get by with luxuries that they just can't afford. They're decent people who want to watch the latest film without having to steal their kids' lunch money! And anyway, do you really think that the celebrities and multi-millionaire producers give a damn about organised crime? Of course they don't, that's just their sound bite. All they care about is retaining more money and power for their own future; and it scares them to death to think that the little people might be able to take all of that away from them. Bless their little cotton socks if they have to work a bit harder for their millions nowadays and they can't live in mansions anymore. And, to be honest, it's their own fault to begin with; all pirates are doing is setting up their own small businesses and allowing the silent hand of free market economics to run its course. Capitalists have been hoist by their own petard. So up the pirates I say, it helps with redistribution of wealth. Now if only casinos could be razed to the ground...

Abort the Catholics!

Yesterday Cardinal Keith O'Brien, Scotland's most senior Roman Catholic (RC), stated that RC politicians who are pro-choice regarding abortion were no longer particularly welcome in the RC church. He said that abortion was a "social evil", an "unspeakable crime", a "wanton killing of innocents", and that children were being "murdered in their mothers' womb". In one speech, Mr O'Brien managed to set back the morality of Roman Catholics about 40 years.
In 1967, abortion was legalised (along with homosexuality, another thing which sticks in the craw of the Catholic faith) because it was deemed by intelligent politicians that all women had the right to choose whether they wanted to have a baby or not, and by intelligent scientists that the extremely limited level of consciousness demonstrated by a foetus in the first trimester of birth was not nearly enough to constitute murder. Since then, although abortion is quite rightly not something that society takes lightly, it has become generally understood that sometimes giving birth is a really terrible decision for a woman to be forced into. For instance, if a woman were to get pregnant after having being raped, how can any religion say that this is an act of God (probably working in his 'mysterious ways') and that the woman should then have to live with that bastard child for the rest of her life. I wonder what Mr O'Brien would say if one of his female relatives got pregnant like this; would he truly tell her that to have the pregnancy terminated is against God's will and could damn her to Hell?! Surely that attitude is significantly sicker than condoning pro-choice for abortion. The excessive, inflammatory and just downright conceited language that the Cardinal used in his speech could be damaging to young ladies who gave in to temptation one night and then felt manipulated by her family's religious zeal to live with her mistake by never again being given the chance of independence (or at least not for another 16 years). Penalties like this are simply too harsh in a modern society of opportunity. If only there were a gene for religion then genetic screening of foetuses could take place so that all Roman Catholic's could be aborted! This might stink a little of ethnic cleansing, but no more than what RCs believe will happen to us heathens after we die: an eternity in Hell while they bathe in the luxury of Heaven.
Really all Keith O'Brien is doing is preaching a culture of fear. A power-mongering obsessive who can't bear to relinquish his control over the society around him, and would quake in his boots if he had to admit that his own warped upbringing was incorrect. His words are despicable and should make the Roman Catholic faith feel utterly ashamed. But of course they will mew and follow him like blind sheep, because most religious followers lack the capacity for independent thought. Therefore I forward a motion here and now that all primary school pupils, when being taught collective nouns in English class - a school of whales, a coven of witches - are taught the phrase 'An abortion of Catholics'!

Formula for economic repression

1. Pay people exactly the right amount of money so that if they scrimp and save they can just about get by, thereby making them seem ungrateful and lazy if they show concern about the redistribution of wealth.
2. Make all jobs formulaic and similar in their levels of mediocrity so that any hope of leaving one job for another is quickly dashed.
3. Make job interviews conformist so that only by succumbing to a set of scripted answers which the employee can then be held to account with will they ever achieve any level of monetary success.
4. Ensure that alongside the tight-fistedness of the jobseekers' allowance there is also an incredible difficulty of gaining further employment if the loss of the previous job was due to resignation or a demonstration of a free independent spirit. This will guarantee that people live in fear of unemployment or any sense of true choice.
5. If an employee goes to an employer stating that they are in financial dire straits and desperately require more money just to live, ensure that employer states, "Show me what you can do for the business and I'll tell you what the business can do for you." This will sufficiently break their spirit.
6. If an employee finally loses their temper and does something aggressive, focus on their negative personality traits to reassure other people that society is never to blame for mental illness, nervous breakdowns or pure rage.
7. Reward anyone who only cares about money and materialistic gain at the expense of all else.

P.S. Anyone who truly believes any of the above points is immoral, corrupt, brainwashed, narrow-minded or just a complete wanker!

Dictatorship and Cowardice

Dictatorship
It was decided today that Gordon Brown would enter No. 10 Downing Street as British Prime Minister entirely unopposed. This is shameful for the democracy of a civilised nation. The obsessive control freaks of the New-Labour party have closed ranks yet again so that their members and trade union links will be denied their right to a vote. Brown must be creaming his pants right now with delight; spin and dictatorial methods of leadership have once more won the day. The left-wing opinion has been shoved out by a totalitarian ideology due to fear and a need for power. The only slight silver lining is that the deputy leadership contest looks to be very exciting and close; I only wonder exactly what say they will have in the running of this country.

Cowardice
It was also decided today that Prince Harry would not be allowed to go to Iraq. Where have the days gone when our great leaders would charge the country's forces into battle, when legends could be made of figureheads such as Henry V and William Wallace? Of course I understand that these times were long ago, but the world needs heroes and bravery - this was denied us today. Harry isn't afraid! It's just the politically correct 'leaders' who are scared for their own jobs! Where will they be when the charge of war commences? Probably back home drinking vintage wine and patronising their juniors. One senior army figure even had the demeaning attitude to say that Harry has "determination and undoubted talent - and I do not say that lightly"; if he truly meant that, he wouldn't hesitate to send the Prince into battle; there are more ways to get the Prince into Iraq than having to continually inform the gluttonous media about it, just have some guts and determination. I can't help feeling that the British armed forces, along with this country, has become cowardly.