British democracy has lost its meaning. The political and economic system has come to serve the interests of a tiny elite, vastly wealthier than the run of the population, operating through corporate control. The state itself exists to serve the interests of these corporations, guided by a political class largely devoid of ideological belief and preoccupied with building their own careers and securing their own finances.
A bloated state sector is abused and mikled by a new class of massively overpaid public secotr managers in every area of public provision – university, school and hospital administration, all executive branches of local government, housing associations and other arms length bodies. All provide high six figure salaries to those at the top of a bloated bureaucratic establishment. The “left”, insofar as it exists, represents only these state sector vested interests.
These people decide where the cuts fall, and they will not fall where they should – on them. They will fall largely on the services ordinary people need.
Meanwhile we are not all in this together. The Vodafone saga only lifts the lid for the merest peek at the way the corporate sector avoids paying its share, hiding behind Luxembourg or Cayman tax loopholes and conflicts between international jurisdictions – with which our well provided politicians are very happy. The often excellent Sunny Hundal provides a calm analysis of the Vodafone case here:
Let me tell you something else about Vodafone. Vodafone took over Ghana Telecom three years ago. They paid an astonishingly low price for it – 1.2 billion dollars, which is less than the value of just the real estate GT owned. The value of the business was much higher than that, and there was a substantively higher opening bid from France Telecom.
The extraordinary thing was the enormous pressure which the British government put on Ghana to sell this valuable asset to Vodafone so cheaply. High Commissioner Nick Westcott and Deputy High Commissioner Menna Rawlings were both actively involved, with FCO minister Lord Malloch Brown pressurising President Kuffour directly, with all the weight of DFID’s substantial annual subvention to Ghana behind him.
What is the point of DFID giving taxpayer money to Ghana if we are costing the country money through participating in the commercial rape of its national assets?
And why exactly was it a major British interest that Vodafone – whose Board meets in Germany and which pays its meagre taxes in Luxembourg – should get Ghana Telecom, as opposed to France Telecom or another company? Was privatisation at this time the best thing for Ghana at all?
This Vodafone episode offers another little glimpse into the way that corporations like Vodafone twist politicians like Mark Malloch Brown around their little fingers. It mioght be interesting to look at his consultancies and commercial interests now he is out of office.
BAE is of course the example of this par excellence. Massive corruption and paying of bribes in Saudi Arabia, Tanzania end elsewhere, but prosecution was halted by Tony Blair “In the National Interest”. BAE of course was funnelling money straight into New Labour bagmen’s pockets, as well as offering positions to senior civil servants through the revolving door. Doubtless they are now doing the same for the Tories – perhaps even some Lib Dems.
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2009/01/jack_straws_cor.html
It is therefore unsurprising the BAE were able to write themselves contracts for aircraft carriers which were impossible to cancel and that their New Labour acolytes were prepared to sign such contracts. It is, nonetheless, disgusting. Just as it is disgusting that there is no attempt whatever by the coaliton to query or remedy the situation. There is no contract in the UK which cannot be cancelled by primary legislation.
Meanwhile, bankers’ bonus season is upon us again and these facilitators of trade and manufacture are again set to award themselves tens of billions of pounds to swell the already huge bank accounts of a select few, whose lifestyle and continued employment is being subsidised by every single person in the UK with 8% of their income. This was because the system which rewards those bankers so vastly is fundamentally unsound and largely unnecessary. Money unlinked to trade or manufacture cannot create infinite value; that should have been known since the South Sea Bubble.
Yet even this most extreme example of government being used to serve the interests of the wealthy and powerful at the expense of everyone else, has not been enough to stir any substantial response from a stupoured, x-factored population, dreaming only of easy routes to personal riches, which they have a chance in a million of achieving.
Conventional politics appears to have become irretrievably part pf the malaise rather than offering any hope for a cure. But political activity outwith the mainstream is stifled by a bought media.
I see no hope.
Craig’s original post was actually very important – and it is very sad that few of the responses have risen to the challenge. Why can’t we have a bit more humility in these threads? Instead of opinions, can people not perhaps share more analytically some of the perspectives which are out there on the possibilities of political and social action? I’ve just finished reading the inspiring 2003 book “One No and Many Yeses” by Paul Kingsnorth. At other levels there are the writings of David Korten and Olin Wright’s recent “Envisioning Realistic Utopias”.
Craig is absolutely right that political parties and corporations remain the last protected species – and we should focus our energies on exploring why this is so – and how we change it
Thanks to the guy who gave the Havel quote.
Poppies
Read Ben Griffin via Wales on Sunday, and the lie in the last line. I know that our Arab sisters and brothers know there are substantial numbers of people here and in other whitey states who stand with them against genocidal war. There is NO WAY of expressing it except through feeble word. They have intimidated marchers and marches are infiltrated. I have said we should be taking down the ‘Palace of Westminster’ stone by stone.
Ex-SAS soldier blasts Poppy Appeal as a ‘political tool’
Nov 7 2010 by Lisa Jones, Wales On Sunday
THE true meaning of the poppy is being forgotten as it becomes a political tool to support current wars, a former elite soldier has claimed.
Ben Griffin, the first SAS soldier to refuse to go into combat, also said the use of the word “hero” to describe soldiers glorified war and was an “attempt to stifle criticism” of conflicts the UK is currently fighting.
Mr Griffin’s claims echo an increasing body of opinion that the Royal British Legion’s Poppy Appeal’s promotion by key political and cultural figures is undermining the true message of Remembrance Day.
The Royal British Legion began using the poppy as a symbol for fundraising in the 1920s. Money used goes to help wounded servicemen past and serving and their families.
It also marks Remembrance Day, held on the second Sunday in November, which is usually the Sunday nearest to November 11, the date in 1918 on which World War I ended.
It commemorates the sacrifices of members of the armed forces and of civilians.
But Mr Griffin, who quit the army in 2005 on moral grounds, claims it has been turned into a “month-long drum roll of support for current wars”.
Griffin, who went to school in Machynlleth and Swansea, told Wales On Sunday: “This year’s [national] campaign was launched by inviting The Saturdays to frolic half naked in a sea of poppies.
“The judges on X Factor [at the request of the Royal British Legion] have taken to wearing grotesque poppy fashion items.
“The RBL would say they are modernising and appealing to a younger generation. I disagree. I think that their stunts trivialise, normalise and sanitise war.”
Griffin, now a London ambulance driver who served for eight years in the Parachute Regiment, went on: “The use of the word ‘hero’ glorifies war and glosses over the ugly reality.
“War is nothing like a John Wayne movie. There is nothing heroic about being blown up in a vehicle, there is nothing heroic about being shot in an ambush and there is nothing heroic about the deaths of countless civilians.
“Calling our soldiers heroes is an attempt to stifle criticism of the wars we are fighting in.
“It leads us to that most subtle piece of propaganda: You might not support the war but you must support our heroes, ergo you support the war.
“It is revealing that those who send our forces to war and those that spread war propaganda are the ones who choose to wear poppies weeks in advance of Armistice Day.”
Peace Pledge Union spokesman Albert Beale said: “Politicians clothe themselves in the red poppy. There’s something about a Remembrance Day ceremony that blinds you to reality.
“There’s also the sense that if you don’t wear the red poppy, you are not supporting our boys.
“Some people support them because of their suffering ?” but not the political aim they are being sent out to Afghanistan to fulfil.
“It is being used by politicians to support their agenda.”
Adam Johannes, of the Stop the War Coalition in Cardiff, said: “The politicians who lay wreaths at the Cenotaph will use the poppy to drum up support for continued unjust and unwinnable wars. It is no accident that we have seen an increase in the last five years of military parades, the invention of Armed Forces Day, militarism and jingoism.”
But former UN ambassador Sir Emyr Jones Parry disagreed, saying: “The poppy doesn’t glorify or seek to justify war, but it rightly recognises the sacrifices made by individuals on behalf of their country.”
And relatives of servicemen also questioned the claims.
Terrence Flowers, 79, from Blackwood, whose grandson Miykael Martin is serving in Afghanistan, where he has twice been shot, said what mattered was that Poppy Appeal money got to the right people.
He said: “I’m supportive of the army, but not the reason they’re fighting.”
Robert Lee, the British Legion’s spokesman, said: “There is nothing in our appeal or campaigning which supports, or does not support, war: We are totally neutral.”
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/2010/11/07/ex-sas-soldier-blasts-poppy-appeal-as-a-political-tool-91466-27614172/
“And for angrysoba to get so narked about me trying to keep my bottom clean using omni-sprayed-on public toilets, (my daughter tells me this can also occur in ladies toilets if everyone else decides not to sit down on the dirty toilet seat), .. shows that he knows that only Islam has the answers.”
Ermm…yes, I am sure that Islam has the “answer” to everything.
What to eat. How to have sex. Who to have sex with. How much of the woman’s labia should be cut off despite God’s perfect design. At what length a trouser leg should be. Who to stone. When to stone them. What should be done with music. What should be done with homosexuals.
The problem is that anno knows all the answers to these questions and what to be done with those who disagree but he probably can’t find more than five other people who agree with him to the exact letter of the law. Sure, there’ll be five others who think this has been cosmically revealed to slightly different specifications and he’ll no doubt consider them filthy.
Anyway anno, the Book of Mormon says you’re wrong and that is the word of God.
Anno,
Angrysoba,
do you think it is possible to find some principle, some point of fundamental agreement between the various faiths that could lead to better mutual understanding and peace? I think the main problem is that such a principle probably doesn’t fit well into human language. Some such higher principle is urging me now; I feel like admonishing you both not to pick a fight, but then realise that to do so would amount to ME picking a fight with both of you.
So argue about the toilet if you want; either it’s God’s will, or it’s god swill.
You have revealed your character by that post Angry. Being cynical is a downward spiral and achieves nothing. My wife’s father belonged to the Church of Latter Day Saints and he spent his life helping others, never trashing another’s faith.
Back on-topic, here’s that link again to the petition on EU corporate lobbying:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/eu_lobby_rules/
“do you think it is possible to find some principle, some point of fundamental agreement between the various faiths that could lead to better mutual understanding and peace?”
I know you’re not asking me, but it is an interesting question. Insofar as I can see any rational, non-malign reasons for religion, among the few is defining the identity of a group such that its members have a strong feeling of inclusion and an equally strong sense of the ‘otherness’ of others. This was probably of evolutionary value: johnny-no-mates didn’t live long. Religion arose as part of the defensive shell of early communities. Closely related, religion is an imaginary (but useful) bulwark against a capricious and uncaring world. I interpret the resurgence of ‘faith’ in the USA in this light – most people there live insecure and worritsome lives.
But religion became exploited later for its political utility. The political uses of religion are fairly obvious: it is worth inculcating from childhood the notion of unquestionable authority, accounting it a virtue to be able to suppress instinctive alarm at the absurdity of that authority. A professional politician usually doesn’t waste much time before assuring us of his deep religious conviction: like God he is Good, it just might not always seem so. The PR advisers (who resumably have the relevant statistics to hand) see these professions of faith as giving comfort. They make me very anxious.
Anyway, my answer to your question is ‘no’, but on two counts:
(1) religion was invented to define and reinforce difference
(2) this has been slightly adapted for use as a political instrument
On both counts, agreement is illogical – it’s not what religion is for. If you want agreement get rid of religion, or at least get it out of politics.
My question for Clark (or anyone else killing time at the keyboard). Which is more dangerous: a politician who feigns religious belief, or one who actually has it?
a~~
On Latter Day Saints (LDS), a story. I’m an old guy, and have maybe told you this before, but act interested anyway. My partner’s sister works with the disadvantaged in a corner of Utah. Lots of LDS around there – also lots of Spanish speakers, so it’s lucky she’s bilingual, having lived a while in Mexico. Going after one particular problem she knocked on a door. Out came the tenant, to demand in Spanish ‘Are you LDS?’ Sis-in-law hears this entirely in Spanish as ‘are you el diez?’ Are you a ten? She replies (modestly) that she thinks she is probably about a 7 with her makeup on, and then it takes a while to get back to the point.
@mark
Signed
On corruption, Hillary Clinton has urged for a power-share deal in Iraq. America wants Eyad Allawi in control. His Iraq National Accord (INA) is CIA sponsored and Allawi is related to CIA asset Chalabi who conjured the 45 minute WMD lie.
As usual we hear more rhetoric of Al-Qaeda taking advantage of the power vaccum, when in fact Nouri al-Badran another known secret agent and member of the INA is, I believe, behind the attacks on shiites loyal to al-Maliki.
I have recently learned of a plot exposed by doctorsforIraq to assassinate Prime-Minister Nuri al-Maliki and I have made that known to Iranian officials.
It is about time America stopped interfering in Iraq by stoking an insurgency. You have failed miserably in Iraq America so please take the British lead and bugger-off.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayad_Allawi
COURTENAY BARNETT ?” Your comments Nov 7 – !:11 AM & 1:24 AM. I found your comments yesterday to be distasteful and out of character for you. And then I remembered that you were working in the Caribbean area (T & C) and wondered if you had heard any rumours that appeared to show me in a bad light and that might cause these comments.
Just to recap, you will recall from earlier posting on August 29 that I too had worked in the Caribbean – Indeed, I had worked on some potential time share projects that related to Cuba, and in Jamaica as CFO of Sandals Resorts International (the hotel management arm of Sandals). I did an excellent job in all respects. But then when one is dealing with a manufactured (intelligence agency driven) slander campaign it can come from all angles, where one least expects it. As Cartoonist said about Zerzetsen (Zerzetsen) slanders … “It’s about manipulating people or groups of people by typical STASI methods (hearsay, gossip, lies, spreading rumours about someone … the list goes on).”
I found your comments yesterday to be completely out of character for you, and I wondered why. Then I recalled you were working in the T&C and almost certainly will have met * several people * who do business in the relatively small T&C community and know of me. For example, as a lawyer yourself, do you perhaps know my old friend Ian Phillipson – who was the Sandals lawyer, and partner to a former Prime Minister of Jamaica?? You shouldn’t have heard anything negative about me from any source whatsoever. But if you have, you do me a favour by telling me — Is there anything you should be telling me??
Roderick,
I assumed from the comments you refer to that Courtenay Barnett had simply consumed too much of the local variety of rum!
PS, You should consider returning to BC. Beautiful day in Victoria today: blue sky, 12 degrees or thereabouts and the political situation quite wonderful. A recent opinion survey showed the government with an approval rating of 6%. Yes, I said 6%, that is not a typo. LOL.
Re: Poppies and Mcrae’s
Politicians will use anything to justify anything including Remembrance Day to justify war. But it is perfectly reasonable to be a vehement opponent of the current wars and yet buy a poppy out of respect for veterans of all wars, including the present one, however unjustified.
The military do not decide who to fight, the civilian authorities do. Since civil society rests ultimately on force, we need and must therefore respect the military while always challenging the immoral or illegal use of military force.
In Flanders Fields
By: Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918)
Canadian Army
In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
Vronsky
I agree with everything you say, but add that God invented religion. Islam is a faith which has remained unchanged through many generations, having previously belonged to the Jews and other nations before them, for the benefit of human beings. Its purpose is indeed to discriminate between people and indeed for a political purpose.
A leader in Islam is commanded to look at each citizen’s case as if it was his own. Do we see David Cameron thinking what it would be like to be poor in this computerised bill society? No, he merely issues quasi-moral sound-bites which distract from the reality that his party’s policies have bankrupted the UK.
If I was in power, I would be telling people the truth, that until this country re-discovers faith, we will continue to destroy the lives of our young people, continue to launch illegal attacks on weaker sovereign nations, and continue to drift into economic isolation in a world community that still respects us for the civilised society that we used to be before.
Angrysoba, it is quite true that the enemies of Islam have tried for centuries to cause disagreements inside Islam. They publish false Qur’ans in Arabic and other languages. I don’t belong to any group at all, because every group in Islam tries to create a clique, which is forbidden in the Qur’an. I regard these cliques with their dogmas and their in-people and out-people with even more concern than both of you. Your criticism is absolutely fair.
When you get Saudi Arabia working with the CIA to create false flag bomb-scares in passenger planes, is it surprising that you get partisan religious leaders deliberately dividing the people over little tiny differences of law. I am with you, cursing them for bringing the truth of Islam into disgrace. Does anybody think that if they can buy silly, empty-headed English politicians from all parties with scraps of shares and directorships, they don’t buy up silly empty-headed mullahs who want to make a name for themselves in the Islamic political sphere?
The truth of Islam remains, in spite of these corrupters and corruptees. They sold their faith for a pathetically small price, a microphone and a means to control the available women to benefit the members of their group. There are no mosques in England practising straight Islam and if there are any elsewhere, I have yet to find where they are.
Vronsky, good point: perhaps the archetypal tales (fictions) ARE the archetypal lies: betrayal, quest, etc. etc. The Latin word for lies and the English word, ‘fiction’ are closely etymologically related.
Btw, with my hat on, I’m a number nine, number nine, number nine…
On good days, though, “I am not a number, I am a free man!”
Roderick: I don’t think Courtenay was not fully aware at first of the history of that troll team in relation to the persistent attacks on you, or indeed in general with respect to this blog. I sense he came to realise it after looking back through the posts/threads, etc. I’m sure he can answer for himself, though – this is just my impression.
What’s T and C, btw, is that ‘Turks and Caicos’? Looks idyllic!
Alfred
Many thanks for this poem.
I would go further than you: We respect the military BY challenging the illegal or immoral use of military force.
Shame on our politicians for posturing respect for the military, without re-engaging with the illegality and immorality of attacking a sovereign nation and an innocent population. We need to hang Tony Blair and strengthen our resolve against false-flag Zionist terrorism, which is constantly being used as a justification for war.
No one can hide behind the fig-leaf of anti-semitism any more. The Zionists have procured an international agenda against Islam and Muslims. Civilian politicians have bought or been bribed to accept the agenda, apparently thinking that their signing for war does not put blood on their hands. The blood of our servicemen and the blood of those illegally and immorally invaded.
We need a bronze statue of Tony Blair being hung, erected at the Whitehall Memorial, to remind our politicians that they have a duty of conscience not to follow the lies promulgated by the media and by their party leaders. A duty not to sign for blatantly unnecessary military force. Let this day of cold, November weather remind them of the tens of millions who have recently been displaced by war.
“We respect the military BY challenging the illegal or immoral use of military force.”
Absolutely.
My doctor’ son was just killed by an IED in Afghanistan while leading his men from the front. Damn it, we didn’t protest the war enough.
To all those religion-hating contributors to these discussions, let us respond to Clark’s plea to find some point of common agreement.
The motivation of the majority of war-mongers is economic. There is no doubt about that at all.
The justification, indeed science of justifying war, is provided almost completely by people who are fanatically opposed to another religion. In our present times this has been the proponents of Zionism against the followers of Islam. Are we agreed?
A lion kills by suffocating a victim by putting its mouth over their face. Another animal has another means of dealing with their victim. You analysers of economic power, follow and expose the antics of the corrupt elite, while I attack the false-justifiers of war, who control our media and our democratic servants at all levels.
You are not interested in what I am interested in, but my point is valid, that our liberal democracy has been unable to control the excesses of our elites, because of the lies of the Zionists who constantly justify and cover up the excesses of the powerful.
I don’t expect you to agree with me that these two groups are so intermixed that they are in fact a symbiosis of corruption. But I do believe it, and until you accept it, I am the one who thinks that you are the ones who are wet behind the ears. The lion’s mouth is closing, so it would be better to work together than argue constantly about who’s right. We may find ourselves very soon unable to comment or communicate by this internet medium. Clark is right, we should find some point of mutual agreement before we are suffocated or ripped to pieces by paws and claws.
Alfred, what a terrible waste of a life. Oh, those poppies… but they never learn. The Front never ended and they’re still marching into a hail of gunfire, for… someone else’s wealth-generation.
Anno,
God did not invent religion, man did, from interpretations of God’s messages sent through the prophets.
Understanding those messages is impossible unless one commits to the divine origin of them. Without that commitment the idea of revelations from God is alienating, incoherent and impossible.
Thus religion is intended to give an understanding to these messages so that one can commit to the miracle that a creator exists.
Sadly we know from history that religion has failed, predictably, because we are fallible, never perfect, always flawed.
Islam, Judaism, christianity can only become ‘straight’ if one has ‘seen’ and understood a miracle, a divine intervention that has changed some aspect of life for the better and moved it closer to the meaning of the original messages. For some that requires reflection or meditation, for others a sudden realisation, for many it passes unnoticed or simply strange and best forgotten. One thing is certain, we all have an opportunity to realise God’s presence is everywhere. If we are aware this leads to an understanding that makes us strive to be better, conscious of our innermost failings and the failings of others.
That appreciation cannot be forced, it is either learned or we live a life without it.
Okay, this is a blog of a pal of mine, Lila Rajiva, an Indian-American (as opposed to an American Indian) journalist who I think describes her political position as right libertarian. She wrote the very first book on the CIA’s black sites, Abu Ghraib, etc. Her blog has been systematically attacked by the CIA.
This will ring bells with Roderick Russell, I’m sure and Ruth too – and rightly so. Lila got personal harassment from the CIA. How dare they do this?!! It’s disgraceful. Absolutely disgraceful. The CIA: they are the pustules of the world, they are the snakes of the pit. Not lions, anno, snakes.
http://mindbodypolitic.com/
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lila_Rajiva
Suhayl Saadi at November 8, 2010 6:52 PM. Yes, hopefully Courtenay will find time for an explanation. I suspect he just came accross one of the untruthful rumors that are spread about to smear me – and naturally believed the rumor since they are all professionally done. That’s what Zerzetsen is. I would like to hear the rumor too.
Roderick,
There is no rumour, forget it, just read ‘Courtenay’ again – you will see he is ridiculing Larry’s slippery attempt at staring into the minds of others, in this case your mind, that is why he has involved you.
Courtney’s insight has surprised me he is an asset as you are, and your experiences are firmly in my conscious.
Mark, by ‘asset’, I assume you mean in the usual sense of the word, as in ‘you are of benefit to this blog’ and not in the secret service sense of ‘being an asset’. It’s just an interesting double entendre.
No it was ‘benefit’ – but yes interesrtng Suhayl – indeed the asset may well be an asset.
Poppy crapoganda contd.
Right on Celtic. From medialens
Respect to the celtic fans
Posted by Chris Shaw on November 8, 2010, 6:24 pm
Shame of Celtic after fans stage a ‘bloodstained’ protest against wearing Remembrance Day poppies
Celtic have apologised and launched an investigation after supporters at their Parkhead ground unfurled a huge banner describing the remembrance poppy as ‘bloodstained’.
The Glasgow club have agreed to wear poppies on their shirts at St Mirren on Remembrance Sunday, which has caused fury among a section of the club’s fans.
During the 9-0 thrashing against Aberdeen on Saturday, supporters held a banner split into seven parts and covering a large section of supporters, which declared –
“Your deeds would shame all the devils in Hell. Ireland, Iraq, Afghanistan. No bloodstained poppy on our Hoops.”
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1327697/Celtic-shame-fans-stage-bloodstained-protest-wearing-poppies.html#ixzz14iUlSMeW
BBC report just as biased as the Daily Mail
Posted by Chris Shaw on November 8, 2010, 6:28 pm, in reply to “Respect to the celtic fans”
Lots of voices criticising the Celtic fans, none in support. Good old BBC balance.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/c/celtic/9168655.stm
I have a complicated relationship with the Poppy, set out here:
http://photopol.blogspot.com/2008/11/remembrance.html
I will wear one again this year.
I do, however, vehemently protest against any organisation putting pressure on its employees to wear the Poppy. This is a short-term peer-pressured obsequious gesture of support for the current war mongering
The original meaning of the Poppy was to proclaim the futility of war and sympathy and support for its victims.
Back to basics, please.
Mark
Is it difficult for the Creator of the universe also to create religion, a system for humans to remember Him? You describe a tenuous link to a Creator, which is only accessible to the fortunate few.
God gave us a system for holding onto and focussing on our relationship with Him, and discarding our relationship with transient things. The sweetness of music, art and stories divert us from our relationship with Him, and are forbidden in Islam because they are unbeneficial.
When, about 1,000 years ago in Europe the belief in the Oneness of God was brutally exterminated, there arose a substitute, a relationship with a lover, a human being, a Romantic experience, which consists in reality of nothing more than sexual fantasy.
In our society people still believe that access to this transient excitement is a spiritual experience, and self-deny the accompanying disobedience of God’s laws that it leads to. Such concepts are fundamentally alien to the weakest in faith in Islam. It is obvious to them, through their upbringing, that these relationships with the created things and beings are mere animism.
The purpose of the prophets, peace be upon them all was to enable human beings to hold onto their relationship with God, and so to avoid the insanity of becoming attached to transient things.
Polo – the sort of experience I mentioned in an earlier post? I wonder.
anno – Let me try and understand your concept of transient and distraction; meanwhile, no, never tenuous; ‘One thing is certain, we all have an opportunity to realise God’s presence is everywhere.’