I was invited to be on the Murnaghan programme on Sky News this morning – which I always find a great deal more intelligent than the Andrew Marr alternative on the BBC. I declined because I did not want to get up and get a 7.30am train from Ramsgate on a Sunday morning. I had a meeting until 11.30pm last night planning a conference on human rights in Balochistan [I still tend to say Baluchistan], and I have a newly crowned tooth that seems not to want to settle down. But I am still worried by my own lack of energy, which is uncharacteristic. Is this old age?
I also have some serious work to do on my Burnes book, and next week I shall be staying in London to be in the British Library reading room for every second of its opening hours. So there may be a bit of a posting hiatus. I have in mind a short post on an important subject on which I suspect that 99% of my readership – including the regular dissident commenters – will strongly disagree with me.
This is a peculiarly introspective post, perhaps because my tooth is hurting, but I seem to have this curmudgeonly spirit which wishes to react to the huge popularity of this blog by posting something genuinely held but unpopular; a genuine view but one I don’t normally trumpet. The base thought seems to be “You wouldn’t like me if you really knew me”.
Similarly when I wrote Murder in Samarkand I was being hailed as a hero by quite a lot of people for my refusal to go along with the whole neo-con disaster of illegal wars, extraordinary rendition and severe attacks on civil liberties, sacrificing my fast track diplomatic career as a result. My reaction to putative hero worship was to publish in Murder in Samarkand not just the political facts, but an exposure of my own worst and most unpleasant behaviour in my private life.
I am in a very poor position to judge, but I believe the result rather by accident turned out artistically compelling, if you don’t want to read the book you can get a good idea of that by clicking on David Tennant in the top right of this blog and listening to him playing me in David Hare’s radio adaptation.
Anyway, that’s enough musing. You won’t like my next post, whenever it comes. Promise.
Well, not to muddy the water further for the Authoritarian, but worker productivity ( interest peaks !) declines 2.4% for each degree of temp increase. Is that a motivator?
http://themonkeycage.org/blog/2012/09/21/2-per-degree-celsius-the-magic-number-for-how-worker-productivity-responds-to-warmhot-temperatures/
Phil: impressive background research, I think everyone must agree. Geoff, ditto. Thanks.
Passerby 21 Sep, 2012 – 4:26 pm – Fucking hell the bottom has fallen off even the crime business now:Warning issued over plans to close 11 sheriff courts in Scotland
Not for G4S it hasn’t. They have just got the tagging contract for Scotland.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-19675087
Scousebilly, I had hoped (genuinely) for a better quote from them. Something that actually went along with what you were saying – about the ‘best accredited’ and about nothing but peer reviewed work (I assume you meant peer reviewed work, rather than peer reviewed experts which was what you actually typed)
What you gave me was a speech to an audience with the only relevant line being “the collective effort of almost four thousand of the world’s best specialists” No mention of accreditation, not peer review.
I fail to see how this is the ‘smoking gun’ of hypocrisy in relation to a report being carried out by an expert in the field who is working towards their PhD rather than having already obtained it.
Oh well, it was worth a try.
Craig, have you made it to Question Time on the BBC yet 😉
Yet another military death makes Mr Flynn’s expulsion from the HoC even more disgraceful.
BREAKING NEWS:A soldier from 28 Engineer Regiment has been killed in a “non-hostile” shooting incident in Afghanistan. Next of kin told
The latest STWC newsletter refers mainly to military deaths and to ‘bringing the troops home’.
Ben Franklin, I was born ’63, and adopted; I have no memory of either genetic parent. I had no adoptive siblings. Adoptive Dad was never religious. Adoptive Mum sent me to Methodist Sunday school until she converted to Witlessism when I was 3 or 4, so I was 12ish when Armageddon was scheduled in 1975. I think I started to escape at about 15, but I still had lapses into fear until my early 20s.
Mum was devout and pious, we did the whole thing; two hours each Sunday (Public Talk and Watchtower), half an hour’s preparation for the one hour Group each Tuesday, one hour Kingdom Ministry School followed by another one hour public lecture each Thursday, an hour Bible Study / Watchtower Study every Friday evening, to be ready for Watchtower on Sunday. Assorted “Work” (out “on the doors”) usually a couple of hours per week. Extra for Assemblies.
I never really got to know my dad, because, of course, he was scheduled to be annihilated at Armageddon. Mum hated him anyway, and made sure I knew it.
I didn’t escape by disbelief; the indoctrination and fear were too strong. Rather, I started to get to know non-believers and most of them seemed quite nice. I decided that if Jehovah God was going to kill the 99.95% of the population who weren’t In The Truth, the moral choice was to die with them rather than buy Eternal Life by believing what I was told.
Sorry, I’m still pretty bitter about all this. I hope your experience was less heavy.
I might not be on-line much this evening, but I’ll check in again later.
Oh, I wasn’t allowed to study the fossil record, or anything that would contradict The Truth. Mum wrote to the school and ensured I was excluded from such things. In school Religious Education I sat alone copying the latest Witness book by hand into my exercise book. I was excluded from Christmas carol singing. For the Christian parts of school assembly, I had to go to the room that all the Jewish kids were sent to. For the first three years of secondary school I was the only Witness in the school. It’s remarkable I’m not crazier than I am.
Clark, thanks for sharing. My horrible dragged-through-religion experience seems like a cakewalk in comparison! Bitter too here, sadly, but working through it. Authoritarian religion in my family was a natural shelter for my vicious mother, who had so many untreated neuroses that she subconsciously avoided all kinds of personal moral responsibility. Ergo, she attached herself to a faith in a cruel God, a deeply hierarchical society and various shades of war-mongering and anti-libertarian Government. Suffering was regarded, in the Puritan way, as a good thing, and the Devil was painted as a literal, real entity, who influence was sometimes declared to be at work.
Phew, it all looks surreal and counterproductive at a distance, doesn’t it? But, children kept in thrall to frightening ideologies will believe anything. I’ve not seen my mother in seven years or so by choice, but I hear she is still a slave to her nonsense, and I’m sad for her. Not everyone escapes it.
I wonder, have you considered an ex-JW group? I spotted a Midlands one whilst idly browsing some while ago. Here’s one for the South, and they’ve a do coming up in December: http://www.meetup.com/ex-jehovahswitness-uk/
The member list of the above XJW group is closed, but this Midlands one is open, and a number of people there have been kind enough to share a little about their JW experiences. Stories about “disfellowship” [presumably ex-communication] within family groups are greatly saddening:
http://www.meetup.com/The-Midlands-Ex-Jehovah-s-Witness-Meetup-Group/members/
Jon, thanks.
Yep, sounds very similar. One of the last things my mum said to me before she died was:
Or was it the other way around? Doesn’t really matter, does it?
Clark You are not crazy. You are amazingly open about your upbringing. I wonder what made your adoptive mother like the woman she was? It is a pity that you were the only child in the family and had no brother or sister to share some of the flak? It’s a very strange coincidence that both you and Jon had the same experience and fortunately emerged from it.
Old Philip Larkin was right.
http://www.artofeurope.com/larkin/lar2.htm
The thing that keeps getting to me is that she could adopt a child and do that. It’s illegal these days to perform that horrible conditioning that turns out attack dogs, but children apparently have less rights than that.
Well that explains the hedonist atheist ….
Trouble is being frivolous is not called for……..
Guys I am really sorry for your experiences, however you have opened my eyes into a world of hurt that I never knew existed.
The nice little JW guy who calls on me, I hope will bot be putting his kids through the crap that you have been put through.
I know some people cannot cope all on their own and need some deity of sorts to be around them to help them through their live.
Propaganda for war from Channel 4. The introduction dispassionately talks of war as if tea on the vicarage war was being discussed.
http://www.channel4.com/news/catch-up/display/playlistref/210912/clipid/210912_4ON_ISRAEL_21 6.32 minutes
‘When will Israel attack Iran’ or similar. There is no mention of unlawfulness or of the warlike entity being the only ME nuclear armed state. It was terrible including the croaking from Kissinger at the end.
The same entity killed two Palestinians in an airstrike on Gaza yesterday.
Mary, yes – I knew that had to be “Here Be The Verse” before I clicked it :). British psychologist Oliver James quotes the poem in the preface, and respectfully takes the first line as a title, for his book on surviving family life.
Mary, thanks. I don’t think I have any offspring out there…
Oh Mum was probably fucked up by having an illegitimate child twenty years before she got hold of me. He was brought up thinking she was his sister and his gran was his mother. Mum kept it utterly secret. I only found out when his wife found me through Facebook, last year. He wanted to know who his dad was, but Mum wouldn’t reply to him. At least Mum heard from him, though, so she knew he’d found her. That gave me some grim satisfaction. Then she promptly died.
Fedup, I really don’t think the problem is a belief in The Divine, which is pretty universal across societies. The problem is religious conditioning, which is required to sustain its dogmas and its authoritarian structure. Religion seems to have little to do with “God” whatsoever. That’s what the story of Jesus is all about, but people just had to turn it into yet another set of religions. Ultimately, these are opposites. One says, “you have a conscience, which is your connection to the divine, Follow it.” whereas the other says “ignore your conscience, and follow these rules, which, we repeat repeat repeat, were written by God.”
And Fedup, be as frivolous as you like. God, I need a laugh occasionally!
Fedup, don’t get cross with the JWs on the doorstep, because it is highly counter-productive. I’ve been there, and angry “householders” (that’s the approved JW term) just prove that The Devil is at work, which strengthens the faith.
Religion can be defeated, and eventually diffused, by its internal belief structures. The stuff written in the “holy” books, well, obviously, some of it is there because political power structures preserved it for its utility in controlling the masses. But much is there because it’s good moral sense.
You need a good knowledge of a religion to use its own principles to confound its adherents, but eventually, by asking questions about appropriate bits of their own belief-set, you can get them to think for themselves.
Man reading your histories makes me feel guilty for even thinking that I have had any hardships. Life ought to have been a world of shit for you guys.
I know of an old lady (German extraction) whom sometime ago walked into the family dinning room and announced that she had an illegitimate child to a love affair during WWII, that she had given up for adoption. Then she proceeded to let her other children know that she had found the child, and she intended to make up for all the years of separation, and her children could like or lump it!
The sad story of years of separation somehow ended well with her other children actually accepting their half sister with open arms and the whole family seems to be lot more happier and the old lady is really enjoying herself with her long lost daughter. (I admired her honesty and balls to be frank)
But to read stories of rejections, and totally fucked up shit, man that is heavy. I am lost for words and that does not happen too often, how do you recover from torture like that?
,,,
,,,
,,
Mary,
The mad tosser ziofuckwit is facing elections in a month time, if I am not mistaken hence the empty threats of fire and brimstone all around. However to find Bullshit Broadcasting Corp. playing the stenographers is a puzzle.
Clark, yes – being cruel to an adopted child is a particular mystery. It reminds me of “Hot Sauce Mom”, a Mormon parent who appeared on the “Doctor Phil” US talk show to explain her extreme methods of punishing her seven-year old adopted son. Various videos of this are easily found on YouTube.
The mother had submitted a home video illustrating her approach to the TV network. What she didn’t expect was that the talk show crowd practically wanted to lynch her, and the local police department received so many calls after the broadcast, she was a year later found guilty of child abuse, and received a suspended sentence.
Clark
My own stance about religion; a first attempt in construction of paradigms for communal life that minimised the degrees of friction and set out means of arbitration, as well as addressing the inheritance and gene pool diversity. Most prophets were in fact highly intelligent social scientists. Further the independence (differing opinions) of the individual members of the early societies was addressed/resolved trough the referral to higher authority of “God”.
Most pagan religion have their roots in female forms of life (menstruation ie bleeding and not dying), later evolution of religion was somewhat stifled with failure of Zoroaster.
Zoroaster was the first unified God prophet but failed to embody the good and evil in one God, and the concepts of god and anti god were born that in effect brings about the constant fight of the good and evil.
The specialisation of a good god, and evil god extrapolated leads to all manner of good people being devoid of evil and bad people being devoid of good, a primitive notion that itself is a great source of confusion.
However, as I said before, life is tough (no need to remind you guys) so if a pilgrim is happy in believing a deity of sorts is guiding and protecting the pilgrim thought the crap maze then so be it. However it appears life is not as simple and straight forward and these pilgrims in turn make others’ lives a misery.
Frankly at times I really wish there to be a hell, and after life for the bastard war criminals, but the sad fact is; it is only wishful thinking.
Although I must admit I have read the main religions books and still keep reading them, for clues.
Further I disagree with the new religion of atheism that itself is rapidly becoming a dogma. I find this to be akin to the devil worshippers that in fact take the Christian religion and turn it upside down/reversed/mirrored, to the recitation of the lords prayer backwards!
Right, I am logging off. For a nice lighter note, I am listening to an awesomely beautiful new record, warmly recommended to all. Shades of Morcheeba and Zero 7.
Am listening now on my new Grado SR80 headphones, bliss 😀
My arm has had a bit of a rest now and is ready for some more pointing. Apologies beforehand for the long post.
Regarding the Oregon petition project: it seems that the consensus by Geoff and Phil is that the over 30,000 signers of the petition should be utterly dismissed because a) a few randomly picked signers have the cheek to not believe in big government b) some dare to have a measured opinion that differs from theirs c) some randomly picked members even have the audacity to have died.
Like it or not guys (and i think you don’t) the fact is, although you may dislike them for having an opinion or being dead, a massive number of people, many highly qualified scientists and climatologists across the world, and not just in this particular petition, are fast realising that what the IPCC has been peddling is unreliable and cannot be taken seriously.
Going back to that initial IAC report on the IPCC – it also found that Government officials appoint scientists from their countries, and report that they “do not always nominate the best scientists from among those who volunteer, either because they do not know who these scientists are or because political considerations are given more weight than scientific qualifications” (p. 18). In other words, as Joseph Bast puts it: “authors are selected from a ‘club’ of scientists and non scientists who agree with the alarmist perspective favoured by politicians”
Bast goes on ‘The rewriting of the Summary for Policy Makers by politicians and environmental activists — a problem called out by global warming realists for many years, but with little apparent notice by the media or policymakers — was plainly admitted, perhaps for the first time by an organization in the “mainstream” of alarmist climate change thinking’: “[M]any were concerned that reinterpretations of the assessment’s findings, suggested in the final Plenary, might be politically motivated,” the IAC auditors wrote. The scientists they interviewed commonly found the Synthesis Report “too political” (p. 25). Even the scientists involved in writing the reports felt the summaries were “too political.”
As the Galileo movement also demonstrate on their websites: ‘The UN IPCC’s political Summary for Policy Makers was written and given to national governments and media before the science chapters were written. UN IPCC guidelines state that where there is conflict between the science report and the summary for policy makers, the summary takes precedence. Thus science reports are modified to reflect the political summaries’
Here is the instruction in the IPCC procedures. “Changes (other than grammatical or minor editorial changes) made after acceptance by the Working Group or the Panel shall be those necessary to ensure consistency with the Summary for Policymakers (SPM) or the Overview Chapter.”
Further more, here is how the IAC described how the IPCC arrives at the ‘consensus of scientists’:“Plenary sessions to approve a Summary for Policy Makers last for several days and commonly end with an all-night meeting. Thus, the individuals with the most endurance or the countries that have large delegations can end up having the most influence on the report” (p. 25) In other words, the biggest countries that can stay awake the longest get the most influence – as long as they are politically palatable of course. Sounds very scientific
According to Bast ‘Another problem outlined by the IAC is the use of “confidence intervals” and estimates of “certainty” in the Summary for Policy Makers (pp. 27-34). Scientists simply gather around a table and vote on how confident they are about some prediction, and then affix a number to it, such as 80% confident’ That is how the super scientific IPCC operates. The IAC authors say it is “not an appropriate way to characterize uncertainty” (p. 34) You can say that again hombre
The IAC authors also warn that “conclusions will likely be stated so vaguely as to make them impossible to refute, and therefore statements of ‘very high confidence’ will have little substantive value.” But don’t let that keep you or the media from citing them over and over again as irresputable ‘proof’
Crucially, the IAC noted, “the lack of a conflict of interest and disclosure policy for IPCC leaders and Lead Authors was a concern raised by a number of individuals who were interviewed by the Committee or provided written input” as well as “the practice of scientists responsible for writing IPCC assessments reviewing their own work. The Committee did not investigate the basis of these claims, which is beyond the mandate of this review” (p. 46) How convenient.
It has also apparent that the majority of the authors and contributors to various chapters of the IPCC reports are environmental activists and not scientists at all – another major discrediting factor to add to the long list. Was any of this reported in the mainstream media i wonder? -16 years of global science undermined? Nah…nothing to see here,move on
Like i stated before, i am not a scientist and was, like a great deal of people i’m sure, happy to go along with the international experts who, i thought, must know what they were talking about. What reason would they have to mislead? It would be ludicrous to suggest that wouldn’t it? Now that there is overwhelming evidence that the whole process can’t be trusted, it is the IPCC itself that is looking ludicrous
Still no explanation on how the IPCC graph completely changed from its 1996 model to the 2001 model by the way. Maybe it’s just a fashion thing. Maybe it’s those naughty birds leaving crumbs in the circuits again
Saddened by your post Clark. If you need support you know where. Your welcome.
Hi Clark – Thank you for disclosing what is obviously a very painful experience of religious childhood abuse. Very glad you didn’t get into a medical situation where a blood transfusion would have been necessary. Because it makes the Baby Jesus happy to see children die pitiably, rather than be saved (in the literal sense) by well established medical practice. Just ask any “Jehovah’s Witness”.
It’s pretty terrible that a child has to expect Armageddon as a date on the calender, only to have it rescheduled. Pretty much akin to a mock execution, I imagine. I’ve had a gun pointed at my head at close distance – pretty unsettling. To have it looming for years is unimaginable.
Not surprised you’re a bit bitter about it mate. Excellent choice to pitch in with the non-believers, even though it appeared at the time a damnable decision. Very brave.
*
There was an atheist kid in school (by which I mean he came from atheist parents), at the age of about 10-11. He explained – when put on the spot by a teacher, who told him to stand up in front of the class to explain himself – that when we die we return to elements of the Earth, and life is simply what we have right now. The teacher, with a display of exaggerated, shuddering disgust, cast her gaze around the class and told him that us good God-fearing Christians had a beautiful future to look forward to while he rotted and was eaten by worms.
A group of my more thuggish classmates stopped me a little later, wanting counsel on how best to punish this infidel. I considered. Not liking him at all for other personal reasons, it struck me that his receiving a good hiding would be no bad thing – but on behalf of God? No – I told them. Truly considering myself a Christian, Christ would not want someone to be beaten up because they didn’t declare themselves a follower. The fellow (Kevin Stockley) never knew about it. I persuaded the thugs not to do him any harm.
*
Sorry you got so segregated because of your parent/guardian’s whacked-out belief systems, Clark. All schooling should be entirely secular. These “free schools” and religious schools are an absolute outrage. If secular schools were mandated in Northern Ireland, we’d be free of “the troubles” in a couple of generations.
Fedup said “Further I disagree with the new religion of atheism that itself is rapidly becoming a dogma. I find this to be akin to the devil worshippers that in fact take the Christian religion and turn it upside down/reversed/mirrored, to the recitation of the lords prayer backwards!
I’ve no idea why you should make such a frankly idiotic statement, at the end of one of your better posts.
A “religion of atheism” is as oxymoronic as a “scientific belief” – the definition of the first precludes the second. Atheists don’t worship devils, because they have no Gods, no masters, and think for themselves! JHC.
What’s this about a thread with 4.5k comments? whos got time for that?
IDF are on live excercises.
To muse on the topic much less informed than others: I think, the population around them all supports retribution to some degree for decades of harm.
So the idf want to let their weapons off on everyone who supports retribution – everyone around them, except settlements. That would be the only thing which would satisfy their security, it seems.
Elsewhere, besides, Artic krill are down to 20% of their mass since levels where monitored in 1970s.
Levels of cynicalism are so high, im lead to believe that this finding will have been exaggerated by the ecologicaly minded academics for funding purposes. Artic Krill follow their own cycles and couldnt ever be bothered by mammon.
Craig is off far and wise, doing his book, grumbling about an overimportant opinion or two.
His next post will be about internet twittering and blabbering, of the noisy yet not so informative kind, link flooding favourite pet peeves and such. oooh they are so wrong you Must read this. This way forward fellas ive seen lights like you havent a quack!
Party season approaches, im pondering the ethics and potential humour of bad taste costumes such as the classic ‘hitler’, perhaps now ‘the joker’, others.. a ‘hindley’… hmmm, thinking about it bad taste can be truely bad – in the distasteful sense. But someones gotta fall of the edge of the carpet. I hope i dont this year anyway, being no Charlie Chaplin.
The news just reported meteorite sightings, like an early scene in many a sci-fi film.
How do you tell meteorites from ‘live fire’?
– They are far less aimed at reasonable people.
Why do we resort to calling out ‘innocent’ victims? Few are very innocent; Humans are a guilty kind. Almost everyone would neverless agree to fair terms.
The only fair terms sought are literary, so its like meteorite strikes are it.
careful with the sky ^^
There is no need to trash the person known as Jesus to make a point about the hypocrites who claim his name. Atheism is a religion of faith, as much as any Christianist POV. It takes as much faith to assert THERE IS NO GOD, as it does to assert THERE IS A GOD. Therefore, it is just as much ideology as the religion of the uninformed or, low-info religionists.
Clark; I am sorry your experience was one of servitude which arose from your dysfunctional maternal authority. It is different from mine, as I was an adult, making my own decisions. If your bitterness were more subdued I would pursue further, but I see your anguish and feel a discussion would be counter-productive. I just think the hypocrites of Christendom have perverted the message to an inordinate degree, and don’t wish to stir up any dust from the past. Cheers.