In the Grim Etcetera

Darwin is a fascinating man. He is for his theories and his scientific prowess, but mainly, I believe that he is fascinating because of the level of controversy he has created. Darwin has been the cause of some of the major political, religious, and scientific debates all over the world since he first came up with the idea of natural selection, evolution, and the possibility that intelligent design might not be a correct theory.

In conclusion, hes pretty cool.

As a person that studied Biology at A level, under the misconception I was good at the subject, but also because of the age old reason, I wanted to "make my father proud", I was a student of a Mr. Moore, who was a strong believer in the theories of Darwin, and the absolute empirical belief that he was right. Any person who would take him to task on such information, or try and best him was immediately and severely mocked. After all, Mr. Moore had done a masters, and a PhD on Darwin, so he knew quite a few things. Also, what were those people thinking? theyre in a biology lesson for Christ sakes, what did they think they were getting?

Anyhoo, moving on. Mr. Moore, for all his arguing and reasoning, and the most solid belief that he was correct, still had to give the speech about how "Darwin's theories are just that: Theories, and the theory of Intelligent Design must be considered".

For a Darwin purist, this must have been agony.

Now, for the infamous third lecture in the politics half of my journalistic tutelage, which focused on KINGDOM, and the history of how we alllllll became united and such. The amazing thing was this lesson how I found out how much of a bastard Oliver Cromwell really was. Chris described it as Nazi rule, crossed with something even more dangerous that I have forgotten, and after a little research, Ive found out hes actually more like Dr. Doom crossed with Nazis, Mugabe, Darth Vader and Hannibal Lecter. Except he doesn't eat people. That we know of.

But yes, he is a bastard, and I'd imagine that today he'd be killing kittens with battery acid, just because he could, and nothing displays this effect than the recent Channel 4 drama The Devils Whore. Not only is Cromwell shown to be an arsehole, but there was an interesting twist in the portrayal of King Charles I, which showed him as not only a power grabbing tyrant, but also as a very human character. A loving father, with children who see him as such, instead of a tool. Anyway, its definitely worth a look, as it were. And because I cant think of an end to this section.

The next thing I have to talk about is the news that scientists have mapped the modern words that have changed very little in tens of thousands of years. These six words are I, WHO, WE, THOU, TWO, THREE and FIVE. That's great science men, but what about four a-side football? Doesn't that get a look in?

You bastards with your science and your Darwin.

For Your Consideration

I have absolutely no interest in Che. Parts one or two. In fact, I'm not sure I could give a fair review. Also, I haven't seen it, so I'm probably not the best person to ask? Oh, you didn't ask? Well fine. You bastard.

I haven't been watching many movies recently, mainly because the cinema in Winchester seems to have a cross between a monetary crisis and a stick up its arse, showing two movies at a time like it's some sort of selection committee. Frost/Nixon, a film I've been aching to see was in the cinema for a couple of days, whilst The Curious Case of Benjamin Button remains in the theater like a bad smell. I suppose I'm just bitter, because I haven't seen any of these films, but then again, when they only show them for a couple of days, I can't see them, so who's fault is that? I guess its mine.

Next up on the agenda, Jade Goody.

Ahhhh, Jade Goody. Isn't it amazing how since she got cancer we've all forgotten how much of a horrible person she is. This is not to say that I am not sympathetic of people with cancer, quite the opposite. I had a very surreal sort of experience when I was working as a porter in my local hospital, wheeling around patients like a human taxi cab. except they...werent...inside me. Anyway, there was a patient who was a frequent passenger on the Luke express, a woman who was a sufferer of late stage leukemia. When I started wheeling her around, she seemed rather perky, she chatted and such, but then as the weeks went on, she lost more and more hair, she talked less and less, and her husband became more and more sombre. Then suddenly, one week, she wasn't on the request list. It was pretty clear what had happened. I had it third hand and I was still affected.

Jade Goody however, decided the best way to go about her untimely death was to grab as much attention as possible about HER, rather than drawing attention to one of the most curable kinds of cancer. If she really wanted to do something good, she would donate the money from the over exposure of her wedding, and her death, to the cervical cancer fund, and not all to her children.

For God's sake. Perhaps I'm just an angry man, but I really think I have a valid point. When hundreds of people die of cancer every single year, with every case being as sad as the last, and the media focuses on the one person they almost destroyed a couple of years before, without drawing on the serious issues.

Last thing, as this is getting rather long, check out this disgusting little snot. We've all seen this by now. An 8 year old boy seemed to have had a seething libido, and couldn't keep his minuscule member inside his Lonsdale tracksuit, and the product is a child that will be a detriment to the system. I want to smack all of the parties involved in the encouragement and conception of this child on the head. Except not the child, because apparently that's illegal.

And I'm fairly sure I would be raped in jail.

The Widgeteer

Ahhhh, economics. After the last lectures misanthropic tirade, the soothing calm of economics washed over me like a warm bath, and I was able to marinade in it for some time, before roasting it on a gentle heat and producing the well cooked blog you see before you two days later.



The economic struggle of this country was something that i really never paid a significant amount of attention to. Of course, I read about it, absorbed the information and understood it (mostly, kinda sorta) but the real fact was it wasn't really that important to me at the time. I didn't need to know, because it wasn't affecting me that much, and so I was mostly indifferent. With that smooth segway, lets move on to this weeks politics lecture.



I'm a big fan of Empiricism. I didn't know that the term existed before this week, but certainly I was a big fan of the underlying concept well before I knew the definition. The idea that you don't believe in something unless it is available to you sensually (which sounds dodgy) is one that can fit into a world that intends to progress into the future. Empiricism allows experimentation, an idea that seems to be wildy discouraged among the God fearin' members of society, which sadly, still has a very significant impact on today's world. If we were all to embrace Empiricism, in one form or another, and the red tape were to come down, then there is no measure to what the human species could achieve.



This brings me onto a hugely controversial subject regarding experimentation. During my university interview process, I was asked to discuss, with a group, a certain scenario. The general assumption was that this would weed out the weak and ugly, in order to allow the confident and powerful people progress to higher learning, where they would gather the skills needed to rule the world one day maybe. I still think it was to see who was a dick and who wasn't, but that's just me.



The question posed to us in this little debate-a-thon, was simple: "Do you think a screening process to see if an unborn child has down syndrome would be morally viable?"

Now...lets make one thing perfectly clear. I respect, and am a strong supporter, of the rights of disabled people to live, work, and pretty much do whatever they want in the world without being bothered, but my answer came under a lot of scrutiny, when i took in a deep breath, and unleashed my bombshell. "Of course" I had agreed with pre-birth screening. The main reason being that if we can rid future people of these life altering conditions, then why wouldn't we? Why would we stop progress? The one answer that came amidst the gasps was "Because its morally wrong. God wouldn't like it"



Maybe not, but considering I don't believe in him, i think him and I can call it quits.



This is why I like Empiricism. People are able to use these experiments without some justice force telling us the "big guy won't like it".



Basically, "Empiricism leads to the scientific method and empirical method leads to highly effective technological advance"



A good lecture on Empiricism: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BC6DNdkt0IU.

It also says stuff about Hume, who as we all know thought of a bit of a step up from Empiricism, with a bit more added assumption.

Next up in the batting cages: A Priori. Buh. BUH. It seems non negotiable. Or rather, half of it seems non negotiable. The half which is concordant with Empiricism, that is to say, provisional ideas. As it were. The trancendent part is a little silly. Mainly because I'm an atheist, and the idea that God might exist is laughable. Therefore, it is always laughable. See what I did? That's A priori right? I could later turn into a religious person, which would be...good?

A good example of A priori reasoning in the press lately would be the furthering of the Guantanamo cases. The idea the geoverment seems to have used is that:

Extremist Muslims attack America
Therefore all Muslims are terrorists
That guy looks like a Muslim
Oh, He is a Muslim
Therefore he is a terrorist.

As for Idealists...well some of them are just plain nuts.



In the second part of the lecture, we focused on the ideas behind economics. A large part of the section was devoted to the Karl Marx contradiction to capitalism. I like Karl Marx. Not because of his ideals, but because his name sounds like Groucho Marx, and that makes me laugh.



Anyway...



Karl Marx had a strategy, that I will lovingly copy and paste from the Winchester Journalism site, simply because it is pretty concise. Also funny.

1. WORKER GETS PAID £1 TO PRODUCE A WIDGET


2. WIDGET SELLS FOR £2 (THE ‘MARKET PRICE’ – ADAM SMITH)


3. CAPITALIST MAKES £1 PROFITCAPITALIST SPENDS THIS ON THE STATE


4. CAPITALIST WASTES SOME ON PLATED WIDGETS, TOP HATS, ETC


5. CAPITALIST INVESTS SOME IN ANOTHER WIDEGET FACTORY
   WORKER GOES TO SHOP TO TRY AND BUY A WIDGET


6. OH DEAR – WIDGETS COST £2. WORKER ONLY GOT £1 (SEE LINE ONE)


7. WIDGET REMAINS UNSOLD – IT’S A WIDGET CRUNCH


8. MASS PANICWIDGET FACTORY CLOSES – WIDGET WORKER EVEN MORE ALIENATED


9. WIDGET WORKER THROWS OFF DELUSIONS


10. VIOLENT REVOLUTION LED BY LOCAL PSYCHOPATH


11. CAPITALISTS SHOT DEAD, ETC


12. END OF CAPITALIST SYSTEM


13. MASSIVE BOOZE UP/TEMPORARY MOMENT OF MISPLACED OPTIMISM


14. UNFORTUNATE ANIMAL FARM TYPE SITUATION ENDS BOOZE UP


15. CAPITALIST SYSTEM RE-ESTABLISHED UNDER ANOTHER NAME

Now we've all had this friday night.

A Quick Reminder

Evening, Drinkies. After not posting for a while, I feel as though I've let the team down abit, especially since my friend Andrew has bested me in his journalistic ability by posting almost every day, wheras I seem to post once every week. Its not good enough, and rest assured I will be punishing myself severely. I'm not sure how yet, but you can bet it'll involve a whole lot of whips and chains.

And possibly rats. Holy crap, this is scary right?!

Lets move on.

Its recently come to my attention that the BBC website has been doing a very interesting thing, where they put the 5 most-viewed stories of the day on a little chart. How long theyve been doing this for is anyones guess, and im sure the more educated of you out there will know, like the brainiacs you are, and will trump me in a conversation with a mighty "HA" whilst I bow my head in shame and turmoil. Crying will ensue. This (the top five, not the crying) at face value was particuarally interesting, considering the stories involved. It was a real indication of quite how morbidly curious our country (and possibly the world) has become, and how our attention has switched from subjects such as tea, coffee, conversation and knitting a quilt, to the three subjects that all of us read most of all.

Rape, Murder and Child abuse.

It was incredibly twisted. Admittedly, they were shocking stories, and no doubt very important, but with so much going on in todays United Kingdom, the recession, the tax gap, wars, conflicts etc, it seemed weird that the public focused on this. I'm scared of this. It makes me scared. I'm gonna leave this here, because I got off track with a project I'm working on.

CUT SHORT!

Luke Hates You All

Or at least, according to Aristotle, I should. This information is some that is pondered by scholars and intellectuals, and considering I'm neither, and that right now I'm listening to Warren Zevon, this truth is not so self evident. The barbarian concept put forward by Aristotle suggested that the state should be ruled by enlightened men, indeed men that are Philosopher kings, athletes, politicians, thinkers, rulers, all of which do not describe the current UK administration. Take a look, we are in the middle of one of the biggest recessions in a long time, and we are still engaged in an illegal war. Even the new president of the united states is angry at us, and considering he seems to be quite a nice and generous fellow, perhaps we should think of this as a bad sign.

Still, as has been discussed, our current political system is much better than the Babylonian technique of all powerful emperors, or "God Kings" as they are more commonly know, and personally I believe Cromwell did us a favour by creating a Parliament. Democracy will be something i will always defend, to the point where i am threatened with torture, where i will probably say "alright, I guess totalitarian or monarchy is a better method. Did i mention I'm pure British and not at all a little bit Irish. You don't need to check that..."

I'm not sure that'll hold up in front of a modern day Hitler, with his incredible amount of rage for people who aren't "German". It sure is a shame that didn't work. Boy howdy. I mean, who would have thought people would have not accepted that?! Man, damn.

Personally, I'm for whoever can create a state of equal people and lack of poverty. But that's not going to happen, so in the meantime, I say lets all try the Darwin theory. Everyone who is insubstantial, that is to say, idiotic, in this day and age, will slowly be weaned out like an insufferable noise in a spa, and we will all accept the incredible power of evolution in order to continue the species.

God is dead, as Nietzsche said, but we didn't kill him, he was already dead.

Rock on motherfuckers.

Politics Blog #1