tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-76906112784532077262024-03-12T16:31:19.193-07:00Rob's Mind BanquetRobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16459547654381016432noreply@blogger.comBlogger16125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7690611278453207726.post-77434417608124620342022-09-16T19:01:00.000-07:002022-09-16T19:01:02.507-07:00Intelligent Design
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<span lang="EN-GB">If you find yourself arguing with a
religiously-minded person about creationism/intelligent design and evolution, stop and change
tack. Here are some ideas about how to avoid getting dragged into a futile
debate with someone who has already made up their mind on the issue:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">1. Ask them why they assume that only one
person was responsible for the design of the earth and all the living things in
it. Take a single thing that we know for sure has been intelligently designed
e.g. a Ferrari. How many people down the centuries have been involved in the
perfection of a modern day Ferrari? Don’t forget to include the invention of
the wheel and its development into an alloy construction with tubeless
low-profile tyres.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">2. Ask them where the evidence is of God
practising, since no intelligent person I’ve ever met got good at anything
without practice.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">3. Ask them to explain how assuming an
almighty creator can help to evolve human society in a moral rather than merely
material direction. If you get a sensible answer, please pass it on.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">4. Ask them to explain how the creator
might have been created.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">5. Ask them why pronouns for God always
have capital letters and why He created people, like me, who find it intensely
annoying.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">6. Ask them whether God is responsible for
the development, by seemingly intelligent people, of carbon dating techniques.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">7. Ask them if they accept that the idea of
an intelligent designer is based on observations of intelligent design by
humans. Then ask them if they think human society may one day evolve a new almighty
designer who will this time leave written records and allow future humans to
avoid wasting time on futile discussion of imponderables.</span></div>
Robhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16459547654381016432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7690611278453207726.post-13235038789019748612015-01-06T07:12:00.001-08:002017-10-05T02:06:21.998-07:00The Most Important Thing in the WorldWhat's the most important thing in the world? Is it equality, justice, freedom from want, health, wealth, survival, reproduction, pleasure...what? I have a simple answer. The most important thing in the world is...drum roll...<i>how we feel</i>. How <i>I</i> feel is important. If I'm poor, but I feel happy, then wealth is unimportant. If I'm treated unfairly, but it's water off a duck's back to me, then equality is of little importance, particularly if the person who is dishing out the bad treatment feels bad. However, if I feel good, but a person I care about feels bad then I won't feel really good and will focus on helping them feel better, so <i>we</i> can feel good together which will boost my mood even further. <br />
You may say that health is more fundamental, but why does health matter? It matters because it makes the sufferer feel bad. You might say that it's also about the burden - financial, time or energy - that it imposes on others, but what is at the root of this? The burden makes the burdened feel bad! <br />
How many people is we? There's me and the people I care about. If I and all my friends and family feel good, then all is well with the world as far as I'm concerned. But having said that I feel bad because you may be someone I don't yet know reading this post and I've effectively just said that how you feel is of no importance. But of course it is, not only to you and the people who know and care about you, but also to me because I could feel better than I do if I could expand my concept of the we who feel good. I'm not even sure if that's logical, but I believe it. We is everyone and everything that has the capacity to feel.<br />
Should some people feel bad because they have done bad things? If someone hurts or wrongs one of us, do I want them to feel bad? I think bad feelings exist for a reason. Perhaps one day we will evolve beyond them, but for now, in this less than the best of all possible worlds, they serve a valuable function. However, that doesn't invalidate the point. How we feel is still the most important thing in the world because if doing something that makes others feel bad didn't make the perpetrator feel bad there would be no motivation to increase the sum of good feeling in the world. Whichever way you slice it, the most important thing in the world is <i>how we feel</i>. Am I wrong?Robhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16459547654381016432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7690611278453207726.post-78420300372086365362014-10-15T08:00:00.001-07:002014-10-15T08:00:32.501-07:00An Englishman in the New World
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">What dream of myself
do I push away, thinking it’s too good to be true? This was the question posed
by Brian Swimme, mathematical cosmologist and philosopher at the California Institute
of Integral Studies in San Francisco and keynote speaker at the co-active
coaching summit in Napa this April. In co-active coaching this is known as a
powerful question. Training in co-active coaching is summarised by it’s
developer Henry Kimsey House as ‘context based, experientially driven
transformational learning’. “What I have to offer is perspective”, Brian Swimme
began. In effect 13.8 billon years of context. How did he bring the known
universe into the ballroom of the Meritage Resort and connect it to a coaching
question? Read on.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">My non-scientifically trained English mind remembers Swimme’s words
thus. When Einstein developed his ideas about matter and energy he didn’t
simply download them from his forebrain. He brought them forth from his
viscera. It is no accident that what came out was a reflection of the structure
of the universe; because we are all woven into the fabric of the cosmos.
Einstein’s cerebral cortex did, however, come into play when he modified his
equations so that they made sense to him. Which part of these equations didn’t
make sense to one of the greatest and most courageous minds of the twentieth
century? Well, when Edwin Hubble started looking really hard through his mighty
telescope and proved that the universe is expanding he got on the phone to
Einstein and said, ‘get your big old brain over here, there’s something you
should know.’ And Einstein was forced to confront the fact that the changes he
had made were actually chisel slips on Michael Angelo’s David. Or, as he put it,
the biggest mistake of his career as a scientist. Thus, what dream of myself do
I push away, thinking it’s too good to be true? Give it some thought, and then
some more. It is a truly transformational question.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Apparently
such ideas are commonplace in California, but to this cold, small island
resident they took the concept of mind-blowing out of the realm of cliché.
Here’s another one, again as I remember it. The sun makes life possible. It
sends out light which is transformed by chlorphyll and the process of
photosynthesis into energy. We are all light, pretty much. The part of us that
is not, that is matter, would take up less space than a grain of sand. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The sun has matter to
burn, lots of it. It burns the equivalent of 4,000 elephants every second to
produce the light that makes life on earth possible, sacrifices 4,000 elephants
worth of matter to make elephants, and rabbits, horses, daisies, cherry
blossoms etc. And the amount of the sun’s light that actually reaches earth is
one billionth of what is actually produced. And it doesn’t ask for payment. The
sun is infinitely generous. Coaching point: think about <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">that</i> next time you find yourself fighting over scraps or playing at
office politics. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">As well as the summit, I went to California to learn some new coaching
techiques at the Coaches Training Institute. Serendipitously it was training in
perspective coaching. In between the workshop and the summit I drove down the
central coast as far as San Simeon. I’ve seen Hearst Castle before, so instead
I drove around the Paso Robles wine growing region and added to my stock of
Pinot Noir. Apparently there was a late frost in 2011 and the quantity of the
harvest was much diminished, but this had a positive effect on the quality. I
learned this by chatting to the friendly round guy at Windward who was posted
out front, but it was self-evident in the tasting. He also gave me an
opportunity to challenge an assumption that some people make and which, me being
a Pinot fan, has impacted me negatively; namely that Pinot Noir is a girl’s
drink. I asked and of course he said it wasn’t, and how could it be if<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am a man and I love it this much?
Coaching point: never waste an opportunity to challenge negative assumptions
and once you make a gain to the positive, lock it in and don’t surrender the
ground again without a fight.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Later that evening I drove 50 miles through the fog to the hot springs
at Esalen, winding along the coast on route 1 with sheer drops on the seaward
side. I was headed for the night baths, unclothed (if you like which many
people did), communal, mixed, dark and set atop the rocks with the Pacific
waves crashing below. Before I went I did some reading. The Esselen Indians
used it as a place to heal from 6,000 years ago until comparatively recently.
In the 1880s Thomas Slate ’homesteaded’ Easalen. My suspicious English mind
immediately said “that’s American English for the British word ‘colonised’”,
though I do know I’m in no position to take the moral high ground. Since the 1960’s
Esalen has been home to practices such as meditation, humanistic psychology
etc. which, for me, made knowledge of the ‘homesteading’ even harder to stomach.
To cut a long story short it was gloriously relaxing, but the history stopped
my thoughts from wandering where they may have gone to the pulse of the
universe and ancient wisdom. Later, at the summit, I was complaining about this
to a lady who was planning to go there soon for a retreat. I apologised for
spoiling her anticipation and she said, “no problem I’ll just imagine I was an
Indian in a past life and am coming home”. Powerful question: In what ways do
you rain on your own parade?</span></div>
Robhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16459547654381016432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7690611278453207726.post-53539990715831099252014-05-02T07:40:00.000-07:002014-05-09T23:01:15.991-07:00No Eternal Reward will Forgive You for Wasting the Sunset<style>
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<span lang="EN-GB">I first wrote this as a contribution to a friend's book idea which she titled 'Dear Daughter'. The idea was to compile a collection of advice people would give to their daughter, real or, in my case, imagined. What I wrote was: "If you find yourself arguing with a
religiously-minded person about creationism/intelligent design and evolution, stop and change
tack. Here are some ideas about how to avoid getting dragged into a futile
debate with someone who has already made up their mind on the issue:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">1. Ask them why they assume that only one entity was responsible for the design of the earth and all the living things in
it. Take a single thing that we know for sure has been intelligently designed
e.g. a Ferrari. How many people down the centuries have been involved in the
perfection of a modern day Ferrari? Don’t forget to include the invention of
the wheel and its development into an alloy construction with tubeless
low-profile tyres.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">2. Ask them where the evidence is of God
practising, since no intelligent person I’ve ever met got good at anything
without practice.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">3. Ask them to explain how assuming an
almighty creator can help to evolve human society in a moral rather than merely
material direction. If you get a sensible answer, please pass it on.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">4. Ask them to explain how the creator
might have been created.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">5. Ask them why pronouns for God always
have capital letters and why He created people, like me, who find it intensely
annoying.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">6. Ask them whether God is responsible for
the development, by seemingly intelligent people, of carbon dating techniques.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">7. Ask them if they accept that the idea of
an intelligent designer is based on observations of intelligent design by
humans. Then ask them if they think human society may one day evolve a new almighty
designer who will this time leave written records and allow future humans to
avoid wasting time on futile discussion of imponderables."</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Since then I have had an experience that has changed my advice somewhat. I was sat on Cottesloe beach in Western Australia enjoying a beer and watching the sunset, as is my wont while on holiday. A man of God came up to me and demanded my opinion on this topic. I asked him most of the above questions and he just brushed them off, his technique when faced with something he couldn't possibly give a reasonable answer to being to chuck a non sequitur at me. His favourite brickbat was "the first thousand years in hell with soften you up". I realised later that such a conversation feels like being stoned (in the biblical sense). So here's the thing dear daughter: people who do not share basic assumptions can never really get beyond mudslinging when debating. Therefore there really is only one question to ask, Do you agree that scientific inquiry is a legitimate way to go about knowing who we are and how we and the world we live in came to be here and that, because of it, we know far more about the nature of things now than was known by (western) humans when all the major (western) religions were invented? If you are not satisfied with the answer you get, bid your evangeliser a polite good night and get back to watching the sunset. After all, however it came to be, it would be a crime against the creator to waste it. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Robhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16459547654381016432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7690611278453207726.post-26433811343431306282014-02-23T20:39:00.000-08:002014-05-02T08:19:41.876-07:00Have Your Cake and Eat itYou can't have your cake and eat it. That's what we are told, but why? In Japan, people love to take pictures of food. There is a saying in Japan that you taste food first with your eyes. This is what underlies the tremendous care and skill that goes into the presentation of Japanese food. When a cake arrives on the table it gets photographed, then eaten. In a sense this is having your cake and eating it. Obviously the phrase have your cake and eat it is not meant so literally. It usually implies the necessity of making a choice and giving up one thing in preference for another. If you want to go out with your friends tonight, you can't watch whatever on television. If you want a bicycle for your birthday, you can't have a train set. This apparently simple truth is complicated these days by recording technology and parents increasingly yielding to pressure from the consumer society to give children everything they want. It's actually hard to think of an example of some situation where it isn't possible, for some people at least, to have their cake and eat it. My pet peeve in this area is people who want to take something from you, time, money, attention etc in a way that is not really fair, but also want you to aid them in not feeling bad about doing it. Some people are highly skilled at this. And this links into the area of relationships. If you make a commitment, you are making a choice to <i>either</i> have the cake <i>or</i> eat it. You can't gain without sacrificing something. If you take the hedonist and enjoy the all night parties together, you have also to take the bags under the eyes and the tired moodiness in the daytime. If you take the interesting character you have also to take the troubled past that forged it. If you take the beauty, you have also to take the vanity and/or the constant competition. To try to have your cake and eat it in the sphere of romantic relationships means staying constantly on the move, enjoying some attractive feature and getting out before its less obviously attractive corollary becomes apparent. Again some people are very skilled at this, while others marry and have affairs. We are all subject to the temptation to have our cake and eat it, or at least to try. Let he or she who is without sin cast the first stone. My question is this: what do we lose when we have our cake and eat it? My own answer is that we lose our connection to reality: the nuanced pleasure of enjoying and being satisfied by something that is then gone forever except in memory; or the aesthetic delight tinged with frustration of having our visual sense stimulated by something we cannot enjoy the consumption of. These days we talk about reading books and watching films as consumption and advertisers would try to convince you that you can indeed have your cake and eat it. Something important is lost when we view the world that way. Give some thought to what we might mean in this day and age when we say you can't have your cake and eat it and you might just realize that it's as true today as it ever was.Robhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16459547654381016432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7690611278453207726.post-66563995656155124292013-09-18T04:24:00.001-07:002013-09-28T18:31:16.925-07:00The Weight of BooksNothing is heavier than books. Not granite, not lead, not McDonald's regulars, not even the 4 liters of water that my Japanese friend's parents-in-law insisted on taking to Germany because they didn't trust the local supply. The only time I've ever paid extra for luggage on a plane was due to books. Psychology books, which it seems have to be heavy due to some bizarre perceived correlation between weight and worth. My maternal grandfather was a collector of books. In particular fully illustrated books on birds and leather bound 'complete works of....'. I grew up surrounded by books because my mother had inherited her father's love of them; and after he died she also inherited his books, which my father built numerous capacious shelves for (without a spirit level he liked to boast). The shelves groaned audibly and I swear the house sunk an inch or two for each year we lived there. <br />
E-book readers have helped keep my luggage within the ever more strictly enforced airline weight limits, but in one important way they haven't made books lighter. I had a dream last night that prompted this post. I was back at university and I went to see a lecturer for a consultation about a piece of coursework I had submitted. He was an amalgamation of the nightmare head of department that Tony bests in the second season of Skins and Matt the killer from Top of the Lake. I got short shrift in the consultation and was gathering my books afterwards, but there seemed to be an increasing number of them, which I couldn't lift. An element of the dream was the recurring dread that I am unprepared for an exam and it is getting too late to catch up. I woke up feeling bad from the dream, but with a growing relief as I awoke to the reality that such fears are behind me. But what does the books being heavy signify?<br />
For me it's the weight of reverence that books engender. I grew up thinking it was a crime to mark a page by turning down the corner, and that not finishing a book I had started was a potentially cataclysmic failure of self-discipline with the added sin of disrespect to the author (to whose stature I could only dimly aspire). A year ago I finished my third degree (in Psychology you may have guessed). I spent too large a part of the following months getting a place on the Phd program and was absolutely convinced that's how I wanted to spend the next five years....until I wasn't. I confronted my misgivings and changed my mind. I'm going to coach, and teach (as far as possible unencumbered by textbooks) and I'm only going to read what I want to read, which doesn't mean not tackling the tough stuff if it seems like it will reward the effort. I've got my Kindle, and a variety of novels and tomes weighing down my Ikea shelves, but the weight of books is lifting month by month and I feel like our old house, rising again from the earth, lighter, more playful, less reverent.Robhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16459547654381016432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7690611278453207726.post-42951956696295979232013-09-11T08:24:00.001-07:002013-09-11T21:40:35.038-07:00What WILL they put on your gravestone?"Don't spend too long on that, they won't put it on your gravestone," are words, or words to that effect, we have all heard many times. Take a walk through a graveyard and stop for a read from time to time and you'll see that what actually gets put on gravestones are things like: "To Ethel, wife and mother, she will be sorely missed," or "For Fred, husband to Lottie, the world is a richer place because he lived." And that's flattering headstone engravers by picking the most imaginative examples and misquoting them by erring on the side of interesting. So what is <i>really</i> meant to be implied as the opposite of what they won't put on your gravestone?
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> In the Spike
Jonze/Charlie Kaufman film ‘Being John Malkovich,’ Maxine says: “I think the
world is divided into those who go after what they want and then those who
don’t. The passionate ones….they may not get what they want, but at least they
remain vital, so when they lie on their death beds they have few regrets…and
the ones who don’t go after what they want, well who gives a shit about them
anyway.” That’s a<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>brutal
assessment, but after many years of reflection, the truth in it to me is this.
We learn to associate getting what we want with the bratty child who wants a
new toy or to get their own way; or with the unscrupulous businessperson or
politician who will stop at nothing to achieve wealth or power.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But if you look deeper, what you want
is at the core of who you are and is the source of your most intense
motivations and reserves of energy. When you are going after what you want you
will have more vigour and staying power and although it won’t necessarily be
the easy way it will feel good on balance because you will be being true to
yourself and, in the deepest sense of the phrase, you will be doing your best.
If you act from the core of who you are, you are going after what you want; and
people will care because they will see that who you are and what you do
matters. And that's the mark you will leave on the world and thus what will be left of you after you're gone: an epitaph worth carving in stone.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> A better question is therefore: what do you <i>want</i> them to put on your gravestone? What I want on mine is something like: Rob Russell was a true friend who lived courageously and brought insight and stimulation wherever he went. I've still got some work to do to live up to that, but why leave writing your epitaph until it's too late to be of any use to you? What do you want on <i>your </i>gravestone?</span></div>
Robhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16459547654381016432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7690611278453207726.post-46033279059159686162013-05-18T06:24:00.003-07:002013-05-18T06:29:34.264-07:00AllianceI just finished reading a book about the alliance between Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin during World War 2. It would be redundant to repeat the big themes, but listing ten of the details that have stuck in my mind might be revealing in some way. Firstly, I did know that Roosevelt was wheelchair-bound, but I'd forgotten that I knew it which is a testament to his skill at managing his image and an indication of how much media technology has moved on since then. Secondly, Churchill had a habit of walking around naked from the waist down and a sketch of him thus exposed is reproduced in the book. Thirdly, Stalin might be the most charming mass murderer in history and his lack of illusions made him the most focused of the three. My favorite word used to describe Churchill is 'bellicose'. Roosevelt was a dreamer, thankfully. Fourthly, it brought home to me the enormity of the folly involved in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Fifthly, there was never a Russian banquet without lashings of vodka and suckling pig nor a British one without oceans of whisky, wine and brandy, and it seems Churchill at least was drunk pretty much throughout the war, which I would have been too in his position. Sixthly, Stalin was not a complete megalomaniac and had some feeling for which nations were and were not well suited to communism. Seventhly, Churchill comes across as the last of the old school champions of Empire, but at least that attitude served a higher purpose. In the light of this book, Thacher's tragic dalliance in the Falklands in the service of the 80s yuppie party that followed looks pathetic and shameful. Eighthly, the pressure that they were all under is impossible to imagine, but, at least some of the time, they were having a high old time while soldiers froze in the trenches, melted in the jungle and were slaughtered in their millions. Ninthly, I didn't know that the Polish government was exiled in London during the war or how important the fate of Poland after the war was to the members of the alliance and I still don't know how to pronounce the exiled leader's name. Tenthly, Harry Hopkins, Roosevelt's closest adviser is in a tie with Churchill for my favourite character in the book. Robhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16459547654381016432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7690611278453207726.post-28189325463178003522013-05-06T05:08:00.001-07:002013-05-06T05:08:13.331-07:00Thatcher in HindsightThanks to David Simon I have finally settled on an opinion about Thatcher's legacy. Many of her economic reforms were intelligent, hard won and ultimately beneficial, but she failed to understand the importance of distinguishing between a capitalist economy and a capitalist society. Like her role model Winston Churchill, she was a good PM when there was a war to fight, but inappropriate in peacetime. She waged war on entrenched union power, complacent male domination of politics and Eurocrat masters of the coin..oh yea and the Argentinians. With the exception of the real war (the Falklands) to which there were surely diplomatic alternatives that went untested, all these battles needed fighting and the 'enemies' of the second and third had it coming. It was the battle against the unions that points to the ugly side of Thatcherism. No doubt there were underlying economic imperatives related to globalisation and other macro-economic factors beyond the control of any post-empire British PM that made tackling the unions necessary and even desirable, but couldn't she have worked not only to win against the Skargills, but also to limit the collateral damage to people whose lives and livelihoods were in the front line?<br />
And then there were the privatisations. Couldn't we all have benefited? Now that I have money to invest I appreciate how easy it is to become a share holder, but in those days families like ours didn't own shares. I was 14 when Thatcher came to power and 25 when she was ousted and although I instinctively turned away when her face (and that condescendingly mocking voice) appeard on the telly I didn't begin to understand why until I spent a weekend in Leyland with a group of car plant workers one of whom, after half a dozen tins of Tetley bitter launched into a monologue about how people who had a few thousand quid to spare at the time of a flotation would buy shares, which they could because the big buyers were limited in how many shares they could buy, then sell them the following day at a huge mark up (because there was no limit the day after the floatation). "It's like Christmas in the better off neighborhoods," he spat, "they're all buying new cars and getting swimming pools built." Tory voters to a man, obviously.<br />
Thatcher was divisive because her economic reforms benefited some groups in society and hurt others. I have to confess that I like the emphasis on self-reliance that entering the job market during Thatcher's tenure has undoubtedly strengthened in me. However, a great leader should not only have the ability to keep going their own way and following their convictions in the face of opposition, but also have a feeling for how the consequences of their decisions fall on the less powerful. Thatcher's victories were ultimately pyrrhic because her lack of feeling for alternative world views to her own provincial and, let's be honest, at times mean-spirited one meant that she failed to see the larger meaning in the economic upheavals that she struggled to steer. Capitalism is trying to suck every last drop of human energy and striving-for-meaning into the zero sum battle to acquire money. A capitalist economy is an essential tool for improving living standards, something almost everyone wants. But society cannot and should not be allowed to be reduced to purely economic terms; and the grounds on which the distinction can be maintained are about community, social cohesion, equality and other related concepts which Thatcher was too caught up in her own battles and background to develop a feel for. Robhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16459547654381016432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7690611278453207726.post-34490921154592511382013-04-07T06:05:00.000-07:002013-04-16T07:07:55.083-07:00The Satanic VersesAlmost 25 years after it was published and about 3 months since I started reading it, I have finished Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses. Here are the answers to the main questions I had about the book:<br />
<br />
1. What's it about?<br />
<br />
It's about two successful Indian men, an actor called Gibreel Farishta and a voice over specialist called Saladin Chamcha. They both survive the explosion of a jumbo jet by terrorists over the English Channel. Gibreel gradually becomes deluded that he is his namesake the archangel and Saladin actually turns into a goat-like incarnation of the devil. Gibreel dreams the history of Islam from its inception in the city of Jahilia (built of sand) at some unspecified point in the past to the return of the Imam (based on Ayatollah Khomenei) from exile to ensure the triumph of the Islamic revolution. Along the way there are bucket loads of insight into the life of an ex-pat Indian in London, language, marriage and many other accessible topics.<br />
<br />
2. What are the Satanic Verses?<br />
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At first, the people of Jahilia worshipped 360 Gods of whom the Goddess Al-lat was the most revered. Mahound (Rushdie's version of the prophet Muhammed) and his small number of followers are committed to the idea that there is only one God (Al-lah). The most powerful man in Jahilia, the Grandee Abu Simbel, feels threatened by Mahound and offers him a deal: admit the worthiness of just 3 of the 360 Gods and I will not only tolerate, but recognise you. Mahound climbs Mount Cone to speak to his archangel (Gibreel Farishta feels it's him in the dreams). On the mountain he is told to admit the 3 Gods and on returning to the city conveys the message to an assembled crowd in verse. Later, he retracts the message as the work of the Devil (satanic verses) and he and his followers are forced to flee the city. <br />
<br />
3. Why did the Ayatollah and his fans throw their toys out of the pram?<br />
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The answer to this one is not clear cut, but after some Googling, this is my take:<br />
<br />
There is a brothel in Jahilia where the poet Baal hides out after Mahound has returned and imposed an Islamic regime on the city. At some point the prostitutes get the idea of naming themselves after each one of Mahound's many chaste wives to excite their customers and increase profits. This was taken by some as suggesting that the prophet's wives were whores.<br />
Satanic Verses is a phrase derived from an Arabic one which means something rather different. Its use was construed as implying that the verses in the Koran were the work of the devil. <br />
Mahound is a derogatory word for Muhammed used by the English during the crusades.<br />
In the novel the story of Abraham is told briefly, but in a way that shows him as a cold-hearted man who left his wife (Hagar) and unborn child (Ishmael) in the desert to die and which expresses surprise that the site of this act is worshipped not because of the miracle that Hagar found a source of water there and survived, but because Abraham had graced it with his presence.<br />
The scribe who writes down the words of Allah supposedly coming directly from him through the mouth of Mahound unchanged is suspicious and so makes some small changes. These are not picked up by Mahound causing the scribe to lose his faith and suggesting that Islam was born of self interest. <br />
Finally, and this seems like the kicker to me, the Ayatollah Khomenei character in the novel is portrayed in a less than flattering light with him ending the section lying in the palace forecourt with his mouth open swallowing people whole as they enter.<br />
<br />
4. Was there any justification for the Fatwa?<br />
<br />
It's easy to understand why Muslims were offended by the book and hard to imagine that Rushdie didn't intend this to some degree. However, even the most extreme versions of Islamic law don't allow for sentencing a person to death without a trial or at least the right to speak in their defence first. And Rushdie wasn't even living in a country subject to Islamic law. The Ayatollah actually encouraged Muslims who knew someone who was close enough to Rushdie to kill him to pay them to do so.<br />
<br />
The last word? The Ayatollah was under pressure after making a too little too late truce with Iraq and the publication of The Satanic Verses gifted him an opportunity to distract attention and reinvigorate his supporters. It wasn't an easy read, but was worth the effort, there's a lot more to it than the controversy and I have more respect for, and interest in the author than I did three months ago. Robhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16459547654381016432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7690611278453207726.post-5522143014705579212013-03-20T15:56:00.001-07:002013-03-20T16:00:01.340-07:00An Uncle ShouldAn uncle should arrive bearing gifts for his nephews and nieces. Preferably something exotic that you can't buy locally. I used to be strictly opposed to giving money instead on the grounds that it was lazy and showed a lack of imagination, but I've had to accept that it will not only do at a push, but is often preferred.<br />
<br />
An uncle should raise the stakes in dinnertime conversation by saying things to nephews and nieces that their parents usually rule unacceptable. Depending on age and the peculiarities of the family involved something that is verging on rude, that hints at sex or digs up something from the past that the parents have hidden from their children is best.<br />
<br />
A good uncle should have a flexible concept of uncle-hood which includes the children of friends as well as siblings.<br />
<br />
A good uncle should adapt as children grow up, but should not ever try to be 'cool' in order to stay popular as child becomes tween becomes teen becomes young adult.<br />
<br />
A good uncle should always retain an air of mystery and never allow the illusion, created during the early years, that he is wise to be destroyed completely. Evidence to the contrary need not be an insurmountable barrier in this respect.<br />
<br />
An uncle should be a friend of the family and a friend of each member of the family. Separation or divorce will be a challenge to this point, but magnanimity and skillful exploitation of the neutrality inherent in uncle-hood should be enough to win the day.<br />
<br />
A good uncle should visit and invite visits, knowing that the former will always be the default, and end each visit having added something memorable that only he can.<br />
<br />
<br />Robhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16459547654381016432noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7690611278453207726.post-65228740359054398932013-03-04T15:25:00.000-08:002013-03-20T15:22:40.436-07:00Just Say No to InsuranceInsurance was originally designed to save us from ruin in the event of an unpredictable misfortune. Shipping companies insured against their ship sinking in a violent storm and taking their cargo down with it. Drivers insured against being forced to swerve to avoid a drunken lunatic and writing off their vehicle in the ensuing back flip onto the hard shoulder. Everyone insured, if they could, against being hospitalized after illness or injury. This kind of insurance makes sense to me. Many kinds don't. Liability waiver insurance makes a cheap car rental not cheap. If I say no, almost 1000 pounds is blocked on my credit card and I'm faced with the loss of all of it if I so much as scratch the already heavily scratched 'Vauxhall Corsa or similar'. This is nonsense. That I am forced to take out insurance against an unexpected loss I can't possibly meet the cost of is common sense. But why, if I choose to risk an amount that would be painful, but not terminal, can't I be liable for the real cost of repair of whatever damage I cause? I take better care of the car if I know carelessness will cost me personally. In Thailand you see whole families traveling on small motorbikes without helmets. I asked a tour guide why they take the risk and he said "It's their family, they go slowly." He might have added that they pay attention. They don't wear iPods or talk on the phone, safe in the knowledge that someone else will pay if they lose concentration and crash. If they do crash, they have to take responsibility. And there's the rub: the more insured we are, the less responsible we feel for our actions. Say no to damage waiver insurance, say no to PPI, say no to identity theft insurance, say no to no claims bonus insurance and football shirt insurance and bad weather on holiday insurance and all the thousand types of insurance against the inevitable risks of life that won't bankrupt you if they happen. Take responsibility and feel the thrill of exposure.Robhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16459547654381016432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7690611278453207726.post-88737746862109462042013-01-12T00:11:00.001-08:002014-05-02T08:15:46.487-07:00Songs that Should Have Been Shot at BirthAs with Pol Pot and Robert Mugabe the world would be a better place if certain songs, despite their popularity, had been shot at birth. Just as one person's dictator is another's war hero, so the choice of song is highly subjective. Here are two of mine.<br />
<br />
Lady in Red by Chris de Burgh. He used to write songs that could best be described by adjectives like interesting, haunting, touching, melodious etc. These were songs that would make it onto the Old Grey Whistle Test, but probably not Top of the Pops. Songs that Annie Nightingale liked openly and other people had a cassette of in their car, but rarely talked about. Then he wrote Lady in Red and presumably got rich(ish) and well known, but for me broke the spell he had laboured to create and sowed the seeds of an annoying feedback loop in my head which popped up this week and prompted me to add this saccharine dirge to my 'hit' list.<br />
<br />
Another song born with a cute smile on its face that distracted everyone from the budding horns in its temples which begged a bullet to the brain is Candle in the Wind. Don't get me wrong I used to like it too, but now I thank the lord for digital albums which allow you to delete the songs you don't want to hear. Thanks to Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, I'm sure it's not just envy of Bernie Taupin who got to spend the late twentieth century swanning around in long leather coats, being filmed getting in and out of limos and generally living a life which was wildly large in proportion to his talent. And Crocodile Rock is ridiculous, but it has every right to life. CitW does NOT and don't even get me started on the Diana version.Robhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16459547654381016432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7690611278453207726.post-37330372827111573352012-11-12T03:14:00.001-08:002012-11-12T03:14:55.001-08:00Variety is the Substance of LifeVariety is not the spice of life, it's the substance. You can keep your body alive by doing the same repetitive job for years, eating the same staples day after day and sheltering in a generically furnished box made of ticky-tacky on the hillside, but you'll be dying inside. Your identity will stagnate and you won't be living, but rather enduring a slow death. I once met an English doctor who had fallen from grace in his profession. I met him on a campsite in the south of France while I was enjoying a very brief and un-illustrious career as a grape picker in a village called Trouillas. He was testing the theory that man cannot live by bread alone. He thought he could and that he was proving it, but was strangely oblivious to the fact that he was drinking a litre and a half of red wine a day and that his ankles were swollen to the size of basketballs. I lasted 5 days in the job and my biblical friend was so starved of company that he stopped talking about himself and started asking about me in an attempt to stop me from leaving. It worked and I got a fast track psychoanalysis out of it. The point is that the bread may have stood between Brion and starvation, but it was the wine and conversation that was making his situation tolerable.Robhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16459547654381016432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7690611278453207726.post-84342017920314976672012-10-26T05:52:00.000-07:002012-10-26T05:52:17.437-07:00Rip Her to ShredsI dreamed an idea for a TV show last night. It felt so good that someone popped into the dream and asked me who I was in love with to be having such good ideas. In the dream I refused to say what the idea was in case someone stole it. Really it was just a title and a feeling. It's called Rip Her to Shreds after the Blondie song. I think all that happens really is that women go on the show wearing outfits they think they look great in and invited guests do their best to make them doubt the wisdom of their choice. It might work best with American outfit-wearers and British guests. Americans are world class at projecting self-confidence, and the British are world class at putting people in their place. I'm wondering how you measure who wins. Maybe you could get a team of body language experts to scrutinise the outfit-wearers for signs of insecurity. Or maybe you could have some kind of sensor measuring stress levels. It would need a skillful moderator to police the border between criticism and cruelty. What you'd need is a stand up comedian who's skilled at dealing with hecklers to put the critics in their place if they went too far. Robhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16459547654381016432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7690611278453207726.post-54756087006534233502012-10-24T02:22:00.000-07:002012-11-11T02:04:50.217-08:00Winter is when...I used to binge on soap operas. Then never watch them again. I did it with Dallas, East Enders, Brookside and probably some others, but my longest binge was Coronation Street. According to Wikipedia, Coronation Street was first broadcast on December 9th 1960, 5 days after my minus fourth birthday though strangely Wikipedia has failed to record this. I think it was during the 25th anniversary celebrations that I started watching it. Anyway it was in the Stan and Hilda Ogden/ Jack and Vera Duckworth/ Eddie Yates era. Eddie Yates was a fat binman (that's a garbage collector to those who spell colour without the 'u') who had no luck with the ladies until he met the love of his life on CB radio. He wasn't exactly Oscar Wilde, but one quote from him that has stuck in my mind is: "Spring is when the bins start to smell". It's starting to get cold in the evenings here in Tokyo on October 24th in the year of our lord 2012 and I'm noticing the signs of encroaching winter and remembering Eddie Yates. Winter is when you can forget to put the bins out on a Tuesday night (after 11pm so you don't get busted by the local housewife mafia for not getting up early on Wednesday morning to do it) and not have them crawling with flies by Saturday. Winter is when, if like me you have no heater in your shower room, you have to fill it with steam before getting in. Then sprint to the living room leaving wet footprints on the floor. Winter is when you regret not having had your sweaters dry cleaned after you stopped wearing them the previous spring. Winter is when thoughts turn to skiing. Winter is when guitar strings go out of tune on the tight side. Winter is when the local fast food outlets give you hot tea instead of cold water and the vending machines start dispensing cans of hot drinks again. Winter is when...Robhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16459547654381016432noreply@blogger.com0