Finding an element of trust – the banks well illustrate the nonsense of this!

What was it the former chief scientific advisor wrote in her article entitled, Finding an Element of Trust?: “We trust industry where it suits us: in the toothpaste we use, the pizza we buy or the car we drive. But people seem to have a problem in trusting industry when it comes to influencing policy making.”

The 21^st century’s ‘Great Banking Scandal’ was back in the news once more last week. In chapter one, the banks brought the global economy and its financial system to the brink of ruin through their casino antics, driven by … greed. And we the public, and our children, will be footing the bill for this for many decades to come.

In Chapter 2 of the 21st century’s ‘Great Banking Scandal’ we learned how four banks in Europe and the US, conspired, for reasons of greed once more, to rig the world's currency market. And last week the four banks involved reached agreement with the US Department of Justice to pay more than $5 billion in penalties and to plead guilty to their ‘criminal wrongdoing’. Note the words – this was a crime. They also agreed to assist with investigations aimed at bringing criminal charges against the individuals involved.

The bad news for us is that the banks will not be paying these fines! Oh yes they will hand over the money, but then they will pass this ‘cost’ onto us in the form of increased bank charges, so over time they will recover the money and all will be as it was before. And once again we, the public will end up paying a high price for the banks’ greed.

What was it the former chief scientific advisor wrote in her article entitled, Finding an Element of Trust?: “We trust industry where it suits us: in the toothpaste we use, the pizza we buy or the car we drive. But people seem to have a problem in trusting industry when it comes to influencing policy making.”

Now we know why we should not trust industry and also people like the former chief scientific advisor. I have said before and will say it again: we now live in a time when people advise in their own interests and that of the vested interest group they are part of. You would be very naïve if you thought otherwise. It is all about money – I am referring to science.

The really important question is: how could someone who wrote the nonsense that is the article Finding an Element of Trust?, who said so many stupid things like “science must have a seat in government”, ever get the job of chief scientific advisor to the President of the European Commission? The evidence against such a stupid notion that scientists are in anyway suited to having any role in government, beyond providing expert input when requested, is now overwhelming, but those caught up in the ideology and dogma of science, and who have convinced themselves that they have discovered the way to a better world (as CP Snow believed) will not see it this way – people caught-up in such thinking very rarely do, and neither do they see that the end can never justify the means.

Is it not time for the European Parliament to undertaking an inquiry in the whole affair of the scandal that is the story of the former chief scientific advisor?

Scientists excel in the art of making fools of themselves in public! And this is what the fragmented reductive mind results in. It is time to bring science and scientists under control before their collective delusions and pursuit of fortune and glory bring about … To be continued.

It is not a disease to be cured

This week I travel back in time – but only in a figurative sense – to April, and to something which came to my attention that I wanted to write about, but delayed doing so because I wanted to see the outcome.

On April 21st in London, it was planned to organise an event called the ‘Holy Sexuality Conference’ which was to be based on the rather odd belief that homosexuality is a disease that can be cured. So now I go back further in time, to the Victorian era, and their silly beliefs (which I also mentioned last week). No doubt people who look to the past for their inspiration for the future, find in this now remote age, a comfortable place of refuge where they can live knowing that, that which they abhor, is a disease waiting for a cure. And apparently a cure has been found, which is strange, because homosexuality is not a disease!

Thankfully this bizarre and offensive event was not held because the UK Home Office refused visas to the people from the US intent on coming to the UK to promulgate something called ‘conversion therapy’. This by the way has been widely condemned by the medical profession as well as people like President Obama. Nick Glegg, the former leader of the Liberal Democrats here in the UK, said: “If anything needs curing, it is the outdated belief that being gay is wrong or something to be ashamed of. Sexuality is not an illness but an inherent part of who you are.”

It is very much a Victorian belief. It is a belief that was part of callous age, dominated by Social Darwinism, and it has become an era where people today, in their minds, seek refuge, for the certainty of the past has an appeal when confronted with the complexity of life and modern times, especially when the future looks so uncertain, matters being the way they are.

Among the proposed speakers at the cancelled conference was one from that infamous extremist party known as UKIP – did I not tell you that they were a party of racists, nationalists, xenophobes and homophobes – just like the Nazis party in Germany in the 1920s, 1930s and the first half of the 1940s.

So why was I interested to write about this silly conference? There are three reasons. The first is that homosexuality is not the only aspect of human identity that people mistakenly considered as something to be cured. I have already mentioned in a previous blog that the profoundly deaf are also classified as being in ‘need of a cure’, but do not see themselves as in any way requiring a cure. What is needed, they say, is a cure for a society that considers them this way – Nick Glegg’s point. And in the case of the profoundly deaf, it is not religion that is the source of the nonsense, but science – this is because both have more in common than most people think! Of course you will not think this if your name is Richard Dawkins or you are part of his silly ‘science and reason’ movement and are one of his disciples. But people caught-up in ideology and dogma very rarely do any thinking – the whole point of ideology and dogma being that the need to think becomes unnecessary.

This now brings me to my second reason – that there are hidden things that I call ‘Silent Narratives’ at work that lead people to think that gay people, disabled people, and others are in need of cures, and these narratives are based on (perverse) notions of what constitutes a normal human being, from which flows classification, separation, exclusion, persecution, and the labelling of people as being in some way, deficient and not fully human (deficit model thinking). This is an area where European culture excels and is one of the foundations on which the modern world is built – with horrific consequences, as the Holocaust demonstrates. And deficit model thinking can be found in both religion and science – this is because they have far more in common than the ‘science and reason’ devotees understand.

And finally my third and final reason is again something which has been mentioned in previous blogs: gender is not binary. But if you are caught-up in these ‘Silent Narratives’, then you will think that it is, and for those who are of ‘Third Gender’, life is thus made intolerable.

And about all these things I will be saying much more in future blogs. I will also be moving on to address how these very complex ‘Silent Narratives’, which embody all sorts of strange beliefs, influence just about every aspect of Western culture – in particular its technology, its science, its engineering, some aspects of its art, and something called ‘ICT-ART CONNECT’ which now has a new name – STARTS. A rose is a rose by any other name. And one day I will reveal some of the 'Silent Narratives' of the vainglorious ‘enlightened ones’ in DG CONNECT, but I have a feeling that they will not appreciate being made the subject matter of art! Hard luck – when you sow the wind, you should expect to reap the whirlwind! Everything is connected …  

Richard Dawkins making a fool of himself in public – once again!

In my blogs I have several times made reference to nutty professors who make fools of themselves in public. I have mentioned extremists wearing the cloak of respectability. I have asked the question why people who seem so smart, can say such stupid things (“why so smart yet so stupid?”).

Of those who have perfected the art of making fools of themselves in public, scientists are at the top of the list so this week I turn my attention once more to the madness displayed by Richard Dawkins – yet another person confusing his self-constructed reality with reality. Yet another person caught up in collective delusion and denial. Yet one more person spouting half-truths and propaganda which have the effect of creating divisions and disharmony in a world that is being consumed and destroyed by ideologically based conflicts.

Recently I came across an article in the Telegraph newspaper with the title “For Once Richard Dawkins is Lost for Words: Atheist’s Arrogance is their Achilles’ Heel, as a Cringmaking Radio Performance has Proved.” If you want an insight into the real nature of Richard Dawkins and his obsessions, and why he brings science into disrepute through his thoughts, words and deeds, you can read the article yourself (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/9082059/For-once-Richard-Dawkins-is-lost-for-words.html). Perhaps though, you too are caught up in his ideology and dogma, and your mind, like his, has closed in on fixed opinions, so you do not want to understand how destructive, harmful, and negative Dawkins is?

In a world where extremism of many kinds is on the rise, we all need to begin to understand more about why people are so easily consumed by ideology and dogma, and what this does to them. The study of Dawkins will most certainly help in this for here is a man who well illustrates what ‘reason’ alone leads to.

Every era has its stupid beliefs. Just look back at the Victoria age, which embraced science and reason with great enthusiasm, yet time has shown that much of this was just plain claptrap which often contributed to the callousness of the age. But at the time it all seemed so credible. The example of phrenology is a case in point, as is the nonsense of Frederick Taylor’s so-called Scientific Management, which turned out to be a collection of precepts dressed up to look scientific. I would expect that 100 years from now, people will be looking at Dawkins and wondering why he said and wrote so many stupid things, and why so many people were taken-in by this very ‘Victorian’ nonsense, for this is surely the era in which Dawkins belongs.

One of my central interests is understanding the hidden forces at play which shape human lives, existence, beliefs, etc. which leads intelligent people to behave in stupid ways, and yet to convince themselves that they are being so advanced and sophisticated. This is part of my work on exploring what I call Silent Narratives.

The human mind is indeed a very dangerous thing, being as it is, inclined towards participation in collective delusions and denial. Dawkins and others, like the former chief scientific advisor, well illustrate that being highly intelligent and well educated does not protect one from the lure of ideology and dogma, from delusions, and from the appeal of simple but destructive sole truths that most often accompany Western ideologies.

We live in a time when it is essential to promote understandings among peoples, to encourage inclusion, to foster respect among people with diverse views and beliefs, to promote love … The list is long. Those who are engaged in ‘holy’ (religious or secular) wars against other peoples’ beliefs do nothing but create distrust, discord, hatred, … This list of negatives is also long. In Dawkins you will not find a path that leads to love, mercy, forgiveness, compassion, understanding of the need for human life to be regarded as sacred … Once more the list is long.

Reichsfuehrer-SS Heinrich Himmler was a Neo-Darwinist. Science and reason helped to create this monster and was part of the way towards the Holocaust. Religious extremists have certainly committed appalling crimes against humanity, but so have secular extremists. Both continue to do so. The rule of science and reason, if ever such a thing were to come about, would be no different to the rule of religion. People would be slaughtered and persecuted with the same enthusiasm and conviction as they were, and are, under theocracy.

I looked from religious extremist to secular extremist and back again and could not tell the difference. From both poured forth the demons that make Hell on Earth. In both cases the source is the same – the human mind. And it is the human mind that is the problem.

The West is deeply Abrahamic. There are seven Abrahamic worldviews; three religious (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) and four secular (Science, Capitalism, Communism, Western Atheism). Seven sources of sole truths; seven sources of demons ready to create Hell on Earth; seven refuges where people can hide from the complexity of human life.

And who among you knows the true nature of being human? Who among you knows the true nature of God? What we do know with certainty is that Richard Dawkins knows neither. He is indeed a very sad case who should be treated with compassion.

UK General Election: Britain’s shame at the level of support for the racist party known as UKIP

The UK General Election results are now known. The excellent news is that the (now former) UKIP fuehrer, Mr From-a-far-away-age, was not elected to Parliament. Unfortunately they did however win a seat elsewhere, but thankfully only one.

Overall though it is a shameful result for Britain, as 12.6 percent of those voting, cast their votes for the extreme nationalist party known as UKIP. This amounts to approximately 3.8 million people supporting a racist party. This is an appalling result for decency and respect for fundamental human rights, which UKIP party representatives continually violate via their racist, sexist, xenophobic and homophobic comments. It is shocking that so many people support such a nasty party that advocates classification, separation and exclusion – a party where racism, sexism, xenophobia, homophobia are part of the daily outpourings from its members.

On May 7^th 1945, Nazi Germany unconditionally surrendered to the allied forces. The surrender marked a great victory over the evil Nazi ideology founded on nationalism, racism and perverse notions of normality which resulted in the murder of anyone who did not fit with this dogma. Seventy years later, on May 7^th 2015, 3.8 million British people voted for a party similar to the Nazis. The difference between the two only lies in the fact that UKIP have not yet achieved power and have not therefore demonstrated their true nature. At the moment they are trying to hide behind a cloak of respectability. This however is the party where the neo-Nazi element in the UK can take refuge for they know that it is an organisation where they find a warm welcome. And if you doubt this, just note the words of one of its election candidates concerning his Conservative opponent of Asian origin: “I’ve got 400 years of ancestry where I live. He hasn’t got that.” “If this lad turns up to be our prime minister I will personally put a bullet in him.” “His family have only been here since the 70s. You are not British enough to be in our parliament.”

The above words are exactly the sort of thing that Nazis said in the 1930s. This particular unsavoury UKIP candidate clearly would be well qualified to join a British version of the Schutzstaffel, if ever one were created. Evidently there are people in UKIP who want to create such an organisation.

If you voted for UKIP you voted for a neo-Nazi party. Shame on you!

Evidently we have learned very little from the past and some are willing to place their votes behind a party that uses propaganda and half-truths to stir up nationalist and xenophobic feelings. This is exactly what the Nazis did in Germany.

Now is not the time for complacency. UKIP remain a fringe group, but a very dangerous one, and the threat is that they may move from being a collection of fringe lunatics, to being a mainstream party. The danger that UKIP poses needs to be recognised and understood. Now is the time for action not passivity. My message to the new Government, as well as to the President of the European Commission, is that we should be taking strong measures to counteract nationalistic and neo-Nazi sentiments.

Words alone though are not enough. Public relations campaigns and education will certainly help, but we need to start thinking beyond the binary mind-set that offers the choice of Europe or the nation state, on which extremists like UKIP thrive. Moving beyond this stupid binary perspective however means also looking at the outdated models upon which government at all levels is based. These models are still grounded in the Victorian era. It is time to move on and to create organisations and structures suitable for the 21^st century. Many however, especially those with a vested interest in maintaining the status-quo, will, I suspect, resist such calls for reform! People like to keep things as they were in the past, which always looks more attractive than an unknown and uncertain future, which may be one of the reasons why extremism, both secular and religious, is on the rise.  

As I have said before, Europe and the Western world is creating the social, economic and political conditions in which extremism will develop and thrive. You know already about the religious extremist because they are continually in the news, but as UKIP demonstrates, political extremism is also on the rise, as is secular extremism, which nicely links to next week’s blog.

Now is the time for peaceful resistance. Time now to turn away from all forms of extremism – and that means you, if you one of those caught-up in religious, political or secular extremism and have become blind to the fact that it is extremism.

UK General Election and the nasty extremist party that is UKIP

I tend to avoid making comments on political parties, but sometimes it is necessary to do so, especially when extremists are on the loose masquerading as respectable politicians. Hence here follows my comments on the nasty extremist party known as UKIP.

UKIP is a racist, xenophobic, homophobic (and many other nasty things) party that attracts people who wish to classify, separate and exclude people. Do not be fooled by its smiling, laughing, jovial fuehrer (Who are you? Who are you? Answer: the man who makes mainstream politicians look sensible!). We will not be experiencing laughter and joviality if this band of nutty extremist ever gain power, for their world, their ‘Little Britain’, will be a place of persecution and suffering for anyone who does not comply with their perverse views of normality. Once in power, the need for the pretence of respectability will disappear, and then we will see the true nature of this nasty party.

It is the nature of democracy that such extremists can form political parties and participate in the democratic process. And it is our duty as citizens to humiliate these nasty and deluded people when we cast our votes.

This is reason why people should participate in the election and vote on May 7^th. The election is an opportunity to humiliate and reject extreme nationalist parties advocating 1930s policies based on classification, separation and exclusion. If you do not vote, or you vote for such parties, you participate in opening the door to these extremists.

Next week we will discover just how many people voted for the extremists. Knowing that there is still a significant racist, xenophobic, homophobic stream of thought in the UK, it may well be the case that UKIP will attract a percent of the vote that will be counted in double figures. We do not though have a proportional system of representation, so the vote is unlikely to be translated into Members of Parliament. The result will however serve as a warning that we need to be continually vigilant against UKIP and other extremists, and continually work to ensure that they never gain any hold on power (the former chief scientific advisor and her nutty supporters please take note for you too are extremists).

Here it is worth recalling that, initially, the Nazi Party in Germany did not do well in elections. But social, political and economic conditions were such that eventually they gained power. This is the danger that UKIP  (and other extremists) pose. So on May 7^th, please send this nasty party and its fuehrer to where they belong – oblivion. There are plenty of decent parties to vote for.