No, you are going to die, really. I guarantee you that.
I am quite amazed I have lived this long. I survived the real flu epidemic of 1968. I survived the coming of HIV/AIDS. I survived the scares over SARS and avian flu. Now I have to survive swine flu as well. Given the apocalyptic warnings over SARS, avian flu and swine flu, it is quite incredible that not only have I survived them, but all my family have too.
Except, of course, it is all bollocks. Viruses are a fact of life. Death is the most important fact of life. Nobody lives forever. Of course healthcare is important, of course deaths are sad. But the extraordinary over-reaction to a possible flu epidemic, and extreme distortion of the scale of individual threat, appears to indicate a societal belief that death shouldn’t happen at all.
The media projects a fear of death and sickness which is positively unhealthy.
Women get colds, men get flu and governments get swine flu. I expect with almost total certainty that I’ll survive it. If not, I’ll die. So what? I was going to do that anyway.
The Guardian on Monday was a hoot. It outlined what European countries are doing; in France, for instance, was: ‘Public health officials on alert and crisis unit set up at health ministry.’ Fair enough (even if, as I reckon, it won’t come to much).
Then came Italy: ‘Makers of Parma ham have issued a statement to say their product is safe to eat.’
Another laugh: an Israeli health official has called for the disease to be called ‘Mexican Flu’, as calling it ‘pig flu’ is an insult to those who don’t eat pork.
I survived the coming of HIV/AIDS
I am saying nothing. NOTHING, you understand!
The point here is that it is better to die when you’re old, having lived a full and rich life, than to die when you are young, before your potential has been realised.
That is why, when you read a report of a venerable public figure who has died in their 90s, you say:
“S/he had a good innings”.
However, when you hear about a young person who dies senselessly from disease or some other accident, you say:
“What a terrible waste”.
Yes, but to paraphrase Augustine
“Let me die, but not just yet”
In the splendidly British words of Balfour:
“Nothing matters very much, and few things matter at all”.
Well, if I snuff it, I hope they invite me to the funeral !
Craig,
You are a special case. I have read your book. You should have died several times over, through multiple causes already.
I hope the film finally appears and gives that period of your life some justice. Of course no one will believe it.
Considering what you’ve been through – you look remarkably healthy. Long may it continue.
I think you must be blessed by some God that believes in you – even if you don’t believe in it.
Tony
Sentimental tosh, David T! The longer you live, the more you have to relish and to regret. Young people, babies, and those who are never born at all will never know either how rich or how tragic life can be or regret the prospect of leaving it as we old ‘uns do.
As for all this rubbish about Mexican swine ‘flu, it’s just another ploy – like the “war on Terror” – to keep the servile population permanently scared and pitifully grateful to our wonderful government for keeping us “safe”.
You lot should have lived through the Blitz. 40,000 civilians killed in one year, and no moaning and wailing about how frightened we all were! We just got on with our lives and said “Sod ’em – if a bomb has our numher on it, that’s the luck of the draw”.
Nowadays, after every disaster or personal tragedy all these cretins appear on television and whine “Why did this happen to ME?” Why not? What did they do to prevent it happening? At least Craig endeavours to stop torture perpetrated in our name from happening.
I like the idea that by the time I’m 90, I’ll have had enough.
I certainly haven’t yet, though.
I remember getting flu in 1969, that was like an acid trip on a sea of vomit.
They don’t make flu like they used to.
Whilst your morbid insouciance is reassuring, in a cheery sort of way, I quote McEnroe in his 1981 address to the umpire,
“YOU CANNOT BE SERIOUS”
“They don’t make flu like they used to”.
Interestingly this new strain shows similarities in its structure to the Spanish flu of 1918, which killed more people than WW1.
Anticant – David T (if it’s the same one) has pointed out in another place that Simon Jenkins dissed the “war on terror” in 2004 on the same day that 191 people died in the Madrid bombings. Now he is dissing swine fever. Er, perhaps he may be wrong, again? I too would rather live to an old age and not die needlessly from some man made disease. I know there has been a lot of hysteria over sars, cjd, avian flu etc and none of it has ever come to pass, but you never know. Remember that 50 million died in the 1918 outbreak.
I do it all better than Simon Jenkins for £220,000 pa less
A’aht-oink-sho, pardon me!
slap my thigh, I declare; Where is my cyber mask?
I ought not have looked up Mexico, or is that Brazil, or whatever, on google maps! Now I have caught the swine and I don’t know what to do?
Alas the funnier part is Scottish Health Service having sprang into action has been isolating the probable patients, and quickly getting on with the job of identifying the future potential victims, to treat and monitor these too.
Our health service on the mainland, having been so ruthlessly destroyed in search of the profits for the boys, and cutting expenses on the books for our neocon government. Therefore we find we have been subject to closing down of the schools, because the girl travelling on the same craft as the lucky Scottish couple, has been left to get on with going to school, and contaminating a whole host of people, before she was diagnosed.
Although whilst mass shut down instructions are getting issued, concurrently instructions are issued to the airlines to keep the data for seating arrangements on the aircraft, for longer periods, in case our neocon government finds the need arising to see whom was sitting next to whom, which hopefully would then be accompanied with the mp3 recordings of the conversations taking place between the suspects, i.e. the passengers, whilst they are all videoed on CCTV systems in place too.
Hence comparing, and contrasting the policy on the mainland is to frighten the dickens out of the flu virus and make it to keep away from our shores (wait until Daily Mail starts writing up on the flu virus that was clinging onto the wheel rim of the jet landing from Cancun), with heavy handed surveillance and mass shot downs, and home arrests (no hospital beds, so the homes are good enough as prisons and isolations wards too, with the suspects, ie the patients getting tagged to keep an eye on their movements, before sending these to the prisons for breaking the terms of their curfew, I mean isolation), whilst Scots are left to get on with treating their ill, and those whom have come into contact with those falling ill.
Therefore, it is somewhat ironic that sponsors of the neocons in charge in the “mainstream” media are conducting such a high profile campaign of henny penny buy any amounts of Donald Rumsfeld Tamiflu tablets, and masks. These sponsors are banking on the fact that frightened punters will not be analysing the problem, and concluding that our health service is incapable of handling a mass pandemic, and the best methods are back to painting crosses on the entrances of the houses, and forcing the ill to carry bells, whilst repeating; “unclean”, if these intend to go out for a loaf of bread, and a pint of milk!
http://tinyurl.com/bsfde
Distraction..
Good points here via ICH:
Putting Swine Flu in Perspective
4 Minute Video
Congressman Ron Paul gives his thoughts on the swine flu issue.
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22507.htm
As we none of us know when we are going to die until we do, surely the most sensible thing is to live in the here and now as much as we possibly can, and avoid morbid ruminations about what hasn’t happened yet.
In any case, there are worse things than death – human-inflicted cruelty such as torture for example.
Yes we all must die – and it’s perfectly possible to take a positive view of this. Rather than trying to avoid all the things that they say will kill you (which changes from day to day and never seems to include anything that you would gladly do without) why not do as I do, and decide what you want to die of.
You can then list all the nice things that you absolutely must take in order to achieve your chosen exit – loose women, coffee, chocolate, red wine, white wine, sunshine holidays in Mexico – the list is long and highly attractive. And then just go for it.
Craig’s right – the fuss is out of proportion. Any one of us who has lived for several decades could/should have died several times over, Craig more than most – and there are far more painful and lingering ways to die than from flu.
I am seriously thinking of putting a notice up in every doctor’s waiting room:
Living Is Bad For Your health.
Cytokine storms, that is what it’s all about…
I wonder what the weather forecast is?
‘As for all this rubbish about Mexican swine ‘flu, it’s just another ploy – like the “war on Terror” – to keep the servile population permanently scared and pitifully grateful to our wonderful government for keeping us “safe”.’
Well I was going to post pretty much that, but anticant already did… I saw a shoolgirl almost in tears on the news. Not her fault I guess. Almost drove me to tears seeing it!
Follow The Money.
It’s (yet) another excuse for governments to spend huge amounts of (our) money on things of their choosing. In this case, where does it go?
Into the pockets of the pharmaceutical industry of course, which is about as equally skilled as the arms industry in taking our money out of our pockets and putting it into theirs.
I like the Buddhist religion. Well, like a lot of people, I feel it’s more a philosophy than a religion.
A particular Buddhist meditation goes something like this: (after relaxing properly, clearing your mind as much as possible by, for instance, the classic method of concentrating your whole mind and all thoughts on the sensations of your own breathing):
Concentrate your entire mind and thoughts on: “Death is utterly certain. The time of death utterly unknown. What should I do?”
That should bring some interesting answers.
Ken I expect you know that a US company Gilead have the rights to Tamiflu and guess who has an involvement with Gilead – Rumsfeld.
Actually, there is no escape by death. I thought our theory developed with my pal Paul whilst studying for our “A” Levels in maths, physics and chemistry sucked a bit in terms of justice – but it wasn’t about justice it was about time.
We came to the conclusion that because time appeared to be linear and go on to infinity – that it probably wasn’t. It seemed far more likely that it was cyclic or kind of global in nature. This was before we had seen Hawkwind or read the book by the bloke with a similar name.
So when you die – you go to heaven.
Heaven is your awareness of you own existence in your mother’s womb – like when you suck your thumb.
You then live your life – exactly as you did before. As does everything else.
There is no beginning and there is no end.
It has always been like this and always will be.
When you die – you have no perception of time – so it doesn’t matter how long it takes to get back to your point of conception – it will be instantaneous from your point of view.
We did of course think our theory was completely original.
However, I recently found that it has been endemic throughout many cultures and religions for thousands of years – long before Christianity etc was invented by Horus etc et al.
So be good and have fun and be nice to people. This is your only life and you have to live it forever an infinite number of times.
Of course it always seems like the first time and you do have free will to change anything you can.
Tony
In the long run we’re all dead, yes of course. The trick is knowing when to die.
I reckon: aged 80, sitting in a bar on a nice beach with a large drink in hand (paid for with your last $5), watching the girls go by – at 80 I expect watching is all I will be able to do…
John D. Monkey,
My father-in-law had a complete replumb job when he was 80. His water works stopped working – so they gave him a tube and a tap.
He still used to go and see Wigan Athletic – and pissed his Pendle Witch away by opening the tap at the bottom of his leg.
Then the NHS in Ormskirk – put all his original bits back together after they had healed.
He has since been able to wee completely normally.
So far as I am aware – all other functionality has also been returned. His wife always has a great big smile when we see them.
Now – if he lived in London – he would almost certainly have simply been allowed to die – 6 years ago.
I reckon he will easily make 100.
Tony
Well I’m coming up to 82, have had a chronic illness [leukaemia] for the past four years, and still haven’t given up on enjoying life as best I can, and even having ‘fun’ with significant others when opportunity serves.
While there’s life, there’s hope.
This might make you all chuckle. On my local news this evening (South Today) they did a feature on local people helping the authorities spot terrorists. They had some nearby residents to Gatwick airport give some brief interviews. One woman stated she saw a camper van she had never seen before in a field and reported it. She said it turned out that everything was above board, but that it easily couldn’t have been. Another chap heartily explained that he was proud to be doing his patriotic duty. They may well be lovely people, but it made me cringe watching it all.
anticant,
Assuming you are in the UK or living somewhere on this planet with a similar climate – then…
Get out to your local woodlands on a sunny day sometime within the next couple of weeks.
We saw them today – and they were completely stunning in their magnificence – but they won’t last for much longer.
You have simply just got to see and smell…
The Bluebells
Tony
‘Ken I expect you know that a US company Gilead have the rights to Tamiflu and guess who has an involvement with Gilead – Rumsfeld.’
I didn’t know that. It doesn’t surprise me much. I found this page that explains it all quite well.
http://money.cnn.com/2005/10/31/news/newsmakers/fortune_rumsfeld/
On the BBC news yesterday I also saw it mentioned that you could get tamiflu for £30-£50 and that it could prevent the flu in the first place. By the time people saw that I doubt it put many off by saying that you shouldn’t really go and get it yourself!
The Toronto Sun claims to have very strong evidence that a “weaponised flu virus” has been deliberately manufactured and almost accidentally released. Someone tested it on ferrets in Checkoslavikia and they all dropped dead. They weren’t supposed to.
I saw the article a couple of months ago. I’m sure you will be able to find it on the Internet by a Google search if you look.
But the real question is about the integrity of the Toronto Sun.
Were they telling the truth ( I believe they were ) ?
But I could be wrong.
However when I found out the history of aspartame – I went through everything in the kitchen that contained it. If it was liquid – I poured it down the drain – which was probably a bit hard on the fish.
Everything else containing aspartame went in the bin.
Rumsfeld has a history. He can stick is Tamiflu up his bum.
If the BBC series Survivors in HD actually comes true – there is no effin way I will stick any of Rumsfeld’s products into my body – even if 99% of the population of the World appear to be dead with flu.
I will ride it out or die. My body has more anti-bodies in it as a result of acquiring all the normal childhood illnesses + a lot of the other supposedly deadly ones like Scarlet Fever and whooping cough – that I reckon only going to see a doctor when I have an ear infection (about 3 times over the last 30 years), – as a result of swimming in polluted sea – has probably kept me alive so far.
I am even older than Craig Murray.
Tony