A comment made here
The Beverage report and resulting welfare state were all set up on the model that 5 yrs after retirement you would be dead. Things you may have notice have changed. When I was at school in the 70s I was taught that men die at 69, now its pretty much 79, and there is no reason to not believe that in another 40 odd years with medical technology it wont be too far short of 89.
So we have now people looking for 20 plus years of retirement income plus increasing medical bills. So where do we get the bill payers, the earners? You might also have noticed that we are having less kids later (the workers of tomorrow) thru a rising costbase (taxes/regulation) young people are forced into their 30s before starting a family, by which time many will have given up hope. Immigration is one way around this but that also comes with a cost, we will have to build a new Birmingham every 5 years for the next 50 years at least.
Then of course we have this 1.4 trillion legacy debt around our shoulders brought from the false boom of the last decade which is a drag on growth and that does not include PFi. Yes John Major came up with the idea but did very few deals as they thought rightly that it was inappropriate in most cases, Gordon Brown and New Labour thought differently and the stats on PFi from 1997 speak for themselves.
So yes the old model of Bevens NHS is dying in front of our eyes, it has been since at least 1976 when the IMF bailed us out, but if if its the current Model what you want it was not Dave and Co who killed it. They are the ones trying to salvage a concept of a public health system which if not reformed urgently will go the same way as big banks, bankrupt.
And strangely enough the analogy is a good one. its not really a left/right issue its like the banks a size issue. The NHS is way too big, I suspect in the future hospitals will be only for the seriously ill, most minor operations will be done in community surgeries. One thing I am sure off is universal health provision through the state is finished. I suspect both opposite inefficient models that are Our NHS and the United States hotchpotch system will morph into something like the German health system, which is the oldest public health system in the world from the 1860s.
You will purchase a insurance product and if you cant afford one the state will purchase one for you. The state will act as universal insurer. You will need to work and get yourself a good policy which of course the babyboomers who stole from their children will not be able to do.
Maybe if they stuck to saving and spending instead of just borrowing their kids would not be at the loan sharks doors?
Saturday 29 December 2012
Friday 14 December 2012
Where Did All the Money Go?
THE No1 question people ask about the crash and subsequent great recession from 2008. I will attempt to answer it.
People talk about the whole issue being about Greed, but its not its a story of pure ignorant stupidity from the very top in Government, central banks thru banks and financial institutions.academia right down to the voters and borrowers. Remember my golden rule? people do not always act rationally to their own needs.
Imagine a cargo ship that was licensed to carry 1000 tones of cargo, it did this day in day out. Then suddenly over a few years the ship that was only supposed to carry 1000 tones started carry a little bit more every time to clear the ever increasing amount of goods on the key side. One day with way too much cargo on board the ship is in a storm, the kind it had faced many times in the past and unsurprisingly sunk without a trace.
Remember those £20 DVD players in the supermarket? They came in the main from Asia and in particular China. When you handed over your £20 note for yet another player you did not need but was too cheap to pass by, some of the money made its way to the Chinese workers who worked in the factory. They saved a lot of it, they have too they don't get the state goods that we get in education and health care or pensions. That money thru the interconnectedness of the global banking network arrived in the West looking for a home to grow. Remember the 6 times earnings mortgages, the endless credit card offers? The source of the money was the rise of the East.
Traditionally banks would take your money and turn that money into loans, this is called fractional reserve banking. Those loans are then turned when paid back into future money creation. (I borrow you a grand you pay me back £1200 in a year, we have created £200 of new future money) But seeing as the banks now had a new source of credit thru other banks pumping money around the world from Asia they and we did not have to bother about saving and investment anymore.
So the banks took the new money and multiplied that thru the reserve banking system and multiplied it again thru mad mathematical models with whiz bang new financial instruments. In effect banks had created their own currency that they controlled and could skim tiny percentages off the top that added up to massive salaries and bonuses. But the problem was this new currency was not backed by equal valued assets it was backed by a property bubble. Don't for 1 minute think this was just an American thing or even a British thing, property bubbles appeared through out the Western world, the first banking collapse actually happened in Germany. The Europeans actually made the whole thing a lot worse with the Euro, we took the money and just sunk it into the ground, they sunk it into the ground as well but they also lent massive amount to each other mainly thru German banks financing other people buying their goods, and French banks creating billions to lend to "ultra safe" governments.
In most industries when work dries up, the industry gets smaller to remain efficient. Small returns in banking lead to stupid risks being taken and it this dearth of suitable investments that is the key to the crash. In simple terms the West got big, lazy and unproductive, nothing much to invest in, and a lot of money chasing nothing much.
Its easy to blame bankers and blame they deserve, but more of the blame goes to the politicians they are the ones who developed and legalised the system, and were supposed to police it. They were the ones who allowed the ship to sail. Banks paid hundreds of billions in tax revenue and supplied endless cheap credit to voters who gave the politicians their jobs. Not a very virtuous circle was it?
Tens of millions if not billions are spent analyzing the world economy by Governments and private institutions and pretty much everyone was a sucker. Money is the drug and we got hooked on it big time. Cold turkey is proving hard. Blaming Dave & Co for locking the sweety tin is a bit childish. The sweety can is not coming out for a long time to come.
So where did the money go? its owed on a balance sheet for goods at the bottom of the ocean.
People talk about the whole issue being about Greed, but its not its a story of pure ignorant stupidity from the very top in Government, central banks thru banks and financial institutions.academia right down to the voters and borrowers. Remember my golden rule? people do not always act rationally to their own needs.
Imagine a cargo ship that was licensed to carry 1000 tones of cargo, it did this day in day out. Then suddenly over a few years the ship that was only supposed to carry 1000 tones started carry a little bit more every time to clear the ever increasing amount of goods on the key side. One day with way too much cargo on board the ship is in a storm, the kind it had faced many times in the past and unsurprisingly sunk without a trace.
Remember those £20 DVD players in the supermarket? They came in the main from Asia and in particular China. When you handed over your £20 note for yet another player you did not need but was too cheap to pass by, some of the money made its way to the Chinese workers who worked in the factory. They saved a lot of it, they have too they don't get the state goods that we get in education and health care or pensions. That money thru the interconnectedness of the global banking network arrived in the West looking for a home to grow. Remember the 6 times earnings mortgages, the endless credit card offers? The source of the money was the rise of the East.
Traditionally banks would take your money and turn that money into loans, this is called fractional reserve banking. Those loans are then turned when paid back into future money creation. (I borrow you a grand you pay me back £1200 in a year, we have created £200 of new future money) But seeing as the banks now had a new source of credit thru other banks pumping money around the world from Asia they and we did not have to bother about saving and investment anymore.
So the banks took the new money and multiplied that thru the reserve banking system and multiplied it again thru mad mathematical models with whiz bang new financial instruments. In effect banks had created their own currency that they controlled and could skim tiny percentages off the top that added up to massive salaries and bonuses. But the problem was this new currency was not backed by equal valued assets it was backed by a property bubble. Don't for 1 minute think this was just an American thing or even a British thing, property bubbles appeared through out the Western world, the first banking collapse actually happened in Germany. The Europeans actually made the whole thing a lot worse with the Euro, we took the money and just sunk it into the ground, they sunk it into the ground as well but they also lent massive amount to each other mainly thru German banks financing other people buying their goods, and French banks creating billions to lend to "ultra safe" governments.
In most industries when work dries up, the industry gets smaller to remain efficient. Small returns in banking lead to stupid risks being taken and it this dearth of suitable investments that is the key to the crash. In simple terms the West got big, lazy and unproductive, nothing much to invest in, and a lot of money chasing nothing much.
Its easy to blame bankers and blame they deserve, but more of the blame goes to the politicians they are the ones who developed and legalised the system, and were supposed to police it. They were the ones who allowed the ship to sail. Banks paid hundreds of billions in tax revenue and supplied endless cheap credit to voters who gave the politicians their jobs. Not a very virtuous circle was it?
Tens of millions if not billions are spent analyzing the world economy by Governments and private institutions and pretty much everyone was a sucker. Money is the drug and we got hooked on it big time. Cold turkey is proving hard. Blaming Dave & Co for locking the sweety tin is a bit childish. The sweety can is not coming out for a long time to come.
So where did the money go? its owed on a balance sheet for goods at the bottom of the ocean.
Saturday 8 December 2012
The Growth of Foodbanks. A Comment
A comment to this.
Mine seems to have strangely disappeared. How Odd......................
Cant remember soup kitchens in Darfield in the Miners strike.
I recall the WMC'S issuing food parcels, but I cant say it was an everyday sight, It was something that really kicked off when they got to Sept time and the 6 month mark and it was obvious that the miners had lost.
It was a disgrace that one of the most richest unions in the world at the time did not make strike payments. Scargill himself wanted them to suffer for his political aims.
The most sickening thing I saw was the "better red or dead" graffiti on the wall on the 90 degree bend, next to the old cinema/bingo. (Snape hill road) A few years earlier I had visited Poland to see relatives behind the iron curtain and before the Gdansk revolt, It stuck in my mind the atmosphere was exactly the same.
Soup Kitchens and Food Banks are one thing, standing in line for a can of meat and bread all morning like they did in Poland everyday is quite another.
AND TO ADD. We have contributed to a food bank every month for over 15 years, both here and in Australia. (here is a good place to start)
Mine seems to have strangely disappeared. How Odd......................
Cant remember soup kitchens in Darfield in the Miners strike.
I recall the WMC'S issuing food parcels, but I cant say it was an everyday sight, It was something that really kicked off when they got to Sept time and the 6 month mark and it was obvious that the miners had lost.
It was a disgrace that one of the most richest unions in the world at the time did not make strike payments. Scargill himself wanted them to suffer for his political aims.
The most sickening thing I saw was the "better red or dead" graffiti on the wall on the 90 degree bend, next to the old cinema/bingo. (Snape hill road) A few years earlier I had visited Poland to see relatives behind the iron curtain and before the Gdansk revolt, It stuck in my mind the atmosphere was exactly the same.
Soup Kitchens and Food Banks are one thing, standing in line for a can of meat and bread all morning like they did in Poland everyday is quite another.
AND TO ADD. We have contributed to a food bank every month for over 15 years, both here and in Australia. (here is a good place to start)
Sunday 2 December 2012
The Death of Childhood
Question. Child Abuses. Are we seeing something new, or now detecting something that was already there?
That is a very, very hard question to answer. For a start anything which is dealing with sexual behavior is going to come up against a wall of silence and lies. Its not something any of us really want to discuss. But it seems like we are going to have too in the post Savile, street gangs world.
My hunch, and it is a hunch after reading into the Child Commissioners interim report is we are seeing something new. The report is big on the new world of communication and the internet where gangs and individuals can more easily target the preferences they are looking out for.There is a lot in that. We know that venereal disease amongst the over 55s is rising as they are dating more easily through wider use of the internet. But I think there might be a much bigger problem emerging within society that could be a big driver in all this and will be very hard to combat and reverse.
Its a pretty much nailed on Granism that kids are growing up too soon and this is because of all the sex on TV. Half of that could well be true. In 1997 a study found that more kids were reaching puberty much earlier than thought and this trend is on the increase. This is called precocious puberty its being strongly linked to diet. We are eating too much, and that seems to be the trigger for what is now becoming a new normal, Doctors are seeing more and more children under 10 reaching puberty. Boys as well as girls.
If children are reaching puberty earlier and the trend continues the effects will be huge. When puberty is reached then sex itself comes into the equation. Yes you can chain them up if you like but my money is on mother nature. Sexual activity brings with it risky behavior. No 1 signal that a child has reached puberty is smoking, with it comes roaming, tantrums and misbehavior. This is I think the link to child abuse, if more young are having sex then ergo more of them are going to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, the instances will rise, as the numbers of sexually active children rise.
The other suspect in all this is stress. It seems there was a correlation with girls staying children longer by having Fathers in homes with male siblings, this is a very touchy subject for obvious reasons, it fly's in the face of the post nuclear family and the politics around it. Is feminism diminishing the natural role of men, sort of issue. Modern social Science says that the family unit is just a social construction. Thus the Fathers/males issue has been downgraded to "stress"
I think they got it right the first time, Happy children from happy homes have less stress. Stressed children comfort eat (especially Girls) and then we are back to the puberty trigger. An unhappy child is more likely to be in a unhappy situation and in the long run is going to have more chance of being one of the unfortunate children in the 16000 as being identified in the report as being at High risk of being abused. Its a self reinforcing cycle. And in the other direction we know that children from two parent families with siblings (if the parents stay together there is more chance of siblings) do better at school, especially in Language which is not surprising as they have more people to communicate with. Less chance of going on benefits and going to prison, the list is long. Thus in the long run you get the stratification of society with more of a gulf between the top and the bottom.
So Gran was half right, but its not the skimpy tops for young girls that are causing it as protested by feminists looking for an excuse, that's the symptom. I am pretty sure if they were not approaching puberty early they would still be desiring dolls houses and action man (or is that just plain sexist?).
Yes we can catch and punish, especially organised child abuse but the forces in mother nature could well thwart our efforts to go further.
I really do hope I am wrong, If we cant look after our children properly we really have failed as a society and civilisation.
Two Parent Families are best - Labour
Silver separation - the surge in older divorce
Starting puberty very early carries risks of psychological problems, RCOG
Study: U.S. boys face early puberty, too
Early Arrival
STD 1 in 4 Teens. 40% in Sexually Active
Size Zero not to blame, GOSH
3 in 100k Children with serious eating disorders
Afro-Carib Girls & early puberty
That is a very, very hard question to answer. For a start anything which is dealing with sexual behavior is going to come up against a wall of silence and lies. Its not something any of us really want to discuss. But it seems like we are going to have too in the post Savile, street gangs world.
My hunch, and it is a hunch after reading into the Child Commissioners interim report is we are seeing something new. The report is big on the new world of communication and the internet where gangs and individuals can more easily target the preferences they are looking out for.There is a lot in that. We know that venereal disease amongst the over 55s is rising as they are dating more easily through wider use of the internet. But I think there might be a much bigger problem emerging within society that could be a big driver in all this and will be very hard to combat and reverse.
Its a pretty much nailed on Granism that kids are growing up too soon and this is because of all the sex on TV. Half of that could well be true. In 1997 a study found that more kids were reaching puberty much earlier than thought and this trend is on the increase. This is called precocious puberty its being strongly linked to diet. We are eating too much, and that seems to be the trigger for what is now becoming a new normal, Doctors are seeing more and more children under 10 reaching puberty. Boys as well as girls.
If children are reaching puberty earlier and the trend continues the effects will be huge. When puberty is reached then sex itself comes into the equation. Yes you can chain them up if you like but my money is on mother nature. Sexual activity brings with it risky behavior. No 1 signal that a child has reached puberty is smoking, with it comes roaming, tantrums and misbehavior. This is I think the link to child abuse, if more young are having sex then ergo more of them are going to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, the instances will rise, as the numbers of sexually active children rise.
The other suspect in all this is stress. It seems there was a correlation with girls staying children longer by having Fathers in homes with male siblings, this is a very touchy subject for obvious reasons, it fly's in the face of the post nuclear family and the politics around it. Is feminism diminishing the natural role of men, sort of issue. Modern social Science says that the family unit is just a social construction. Thus the Fathers/males issue has been downgraded to "stress"
I think they got it right the first time, Happy children from happy homes have less stress. Stressed children comfort eat (especially Girls) and then we are back to the puberty trigger. An unhappy child is more likely to be in a unhappy situation and in the long run is going to have more chance of being one of the unfortunate children in the 16000 as being identified in the report as being at High risk of being abused. Its a self reinforcing cycle. And in the other direction we know that children from two parent families with siblings (if the parents stay together there is more chance of siblings) do better at school, especially in Language which is not surprising as they have more people to communicate with. Less chance of going on benefits and going to prison, the list is long. Thus in the long run you get the stratification of society with more of a gulf between the top and the bottom.
So Gran was half right, but its not the skimpy tops for young girls that are causing it as protested by feminists looking for an excuse, that's the symptom. I am pretty sure if they were not approaching puberty early they would still be desiring dolls houses and action man (or is that just plain sexist?).
Yes we can catch and punish, especially organised child abuse but the forces in mother nature could well thwart our efforts to go further.
I really do hope I am wrong, If we cant look after our children properly we really have failed as a society and civilisation.
Two Parent Families are best - Labour
Silver separation - the surge in older divorce
Starting puberty very early carries risks of psychological problems, RCOG
Study: U.S. boys face early puberty, too
Early Arrival
STD 1 in 4 Teens. 40% in Sexually Active
Size Zero not to blame, GOSH
3 in 100k Children with serious eating disorders
Afro-Carib Girls & early puberty
Monday 26 November 2012
Demographics V Economics, Dont Chain Yourself to a Corpse
I really don't subscribe to the prevailing view of the "older workforce", live longer work longer myth I think its very lazy thinking that has the potential for serious disaster.
Fact is when you get to your mid forties you realise that your body cannot function to the same levels as before, any one who thinks they can run an efficient productive economy with an older workforce is either someone who works in an office or a politician.
For us its a matter of moving away from our owner occupier culture and saving to live longer. For an efficient workforce you need a good stock off new blood, firstly to do the donkey work and then to take over the management as they get older.
We in the UK have done this by accident by our immigration polices, (a good or bad thing you choose) a sort of social Darwinism has been at work excluding the unproductive underclass through the benefit system (which is the reason for the Coalitions changes) and pulling in younger more energetic kids from mainly eastern Europe. Now it seems the new arrivals want to stay and have children. This is I think with the abundance of Shale gas we have down the West side of the country will be our get out of jail card in the medium to long term. (first we have to sort our banks and National balance sheet out) So the problem for us is keeping everyone happy, and thankfully we have a pretty good track record on inter community relations baring the odd glitch, and policy overkill, as we are seeing in Rotherham. Its never easy but we always get there in the end.
Take Italy for instance (most of EU has the same problem) it does not have the same record (just watch an Italy football match and listen to the crowd when a certain Man City player gets the ball) Italy is dying on its feet, with a replacement rate of 1.5 against 2.4 just to stand still) no matter what economics plan they come up with the fact is they are already in a tailspin of decline. The next generation of Italians/Europeans are going to be asked to pay Italys debt, look after grandma and try to make a living for themselves. (along with being part of the dysfunctional Euro system of course)
Just as mortgages here in the UK are going to be much more age sensitive you would expect gilts and bonds to be too, I suspect now the questions are really being asked, and thus the disconnect between the economic and budgetary numbers and gilt prices,
Italy's demographics From 2007, its not good reading at all. Maybe Silvio with his Bunga parties was trying to make a wider point to the Italian public.
For us its a matter of moving away from our owner occupier culture and saving to live longer. For an efficient workforce you need a good stock off new blood, firstly to do the donkey work and then to take over the management as they get older.
We in the UK have done this by accident by our immigration polices, (a good or bad thing you choose) a sort of social Darwinism has been at work excluding the unproductive underclass through the benefit system (which is the reason for the Coalitions changes) and pulling in younger more energetic kids from mainly eastern Europe. Now it seems the new arrivals want to stay and have children. This is I think with the abundance of Shale gas we have down the West side of the country will be our get out of jail card in the medium to long term. (first we have to sort our banks and National balance sheet out) So the problem for us is keeping everyone happy, and thankfully we have a pretty good track record on inter community relations baring the odd glitch, and policy overkill, as we are seeing in Rotherham. Its never easy but we always get there in the end.
Take Italy for instance (most of EU has the same problem) it does not have the same record (just watch an Italy football match and listen to the crowd when a certain Man City player gets the ball) Italy is dying on its feet, with a replacement rate of 1.5 against 2.4 just to stand still) no matter what economics plan they come up with the fact is they are already in a tailspin of decline. The next generation of Italians/Europeans are going to be asked to pay Italys debt, look after grandma and try to make a living for themselves. (along with being part of the dysfunctional Euro system of course)
Just as mortgages here in the UK are going to be much more age sensitive you would expect gilts and bonds to be too, I suspect now the questions are really being asked, and thus the disconnect between the economic and budgetary numbers and gilt prices,
Italy's demographics From 2007, its not good reading at all. Maybe Silvio with his Bunga parties was trying to make a wider point to the Italian public.
Friday 23 November 2012
God Of The Rules
Humans are irrational. Discuss.
When I said this in my last post I was not implying that I was rational and the rest of the world was not. That would be a very arrogant statement, and it would need a healthy chunk of ideology, the very thing the post was pointing too as the main destructive culprit in the Israeli/Arab dispute itself and our perceptions of it.
Of course I am irrational. The starting point for all our beliefs is not logical reason, we are not computers, we are brilliant but flawed creatures floating aboard a rock in eternity. Our starting point is our feelings and culture that we are born in. Its very hard for any of us whatever our cognitive skills or otherwise to open those beliefs up to scrutiny and let facts, logic and trial and error shape our world view. People are often personally offended when they are confronted with such evidence to contradict those views deeply and personally held.
My irrationality is legendary. I support a perpetual under achieving football club, most people do. I love sport, nothing much rational about sport is there? I believe in God, not the bloke with the beard sitting the afterlife, but a God of the rules. All I can point to in this belief is a logical statement by one of the greatest Mathematicians of all time *Kurt Godel, even his statement goes beyond what I can think could be *God.
I think what we have to do is try to divide stuff that is important, such as Poverty, Security ect, Against stuff that is not important, like the love of average football clubs. the former its important to try to aim for Objective Truth, the later you can take a chance with.
So what Is this thing called "truth"?. If seems our Universities have given up on it and are teaching the next generation that truth is just a matter of perspective, this is called "Post Modernism" I think this is one of the most destructive ideas in our culture, I will go further its Poison.
Our Society runs pretty much on a trial and error basis, our success and the Wests has been built on being able to adapt quickly to changing circumstances and if not embrace change, to be able to ride its wave without falling off. We have been teaching whole generations since the Sixties in humanities and now creeping into the Hard Sciences that we can ignore our failings, they don't matter, what matters is how we feel about it, how we perceive it. Thus we get worked up about things like relative poverty and being poorer than Richard Branson, more so than family breakdowns, changes in family dynamics and issues such as mental illness that are real features of Poverty. Progress demands we identify and correct error.
The truth is hard, it takes time. Its a bit like trying to take a photo of the inside of a Train carriage as it fly's past you at 150 miles an hour at a level crossing. Its possible, but the results are often a disappointing. It takes a lot of technical skill and bags of time consuming deduction to work out what was happening in the carriage as it went by. This for all our sakes cannot be undertaken without Reason and Logic, the very thing that comes second on our tools of thinking list.
"Truth is" whatever is the case. Switch off the emotion when its important please.
*More on Godel here
*An Absolutely brilliant Documentary on Mathematics and God.
When I said this in my last post I was not implying that I was rational and the rest of the world was not. That would be a very arrogant statement, and it would need a healthy chunk of ideology, the very thing the post was pointing too as the main destructive culprit in the Israeli/Arab dispute itself and our perceptions of it.
Of course I am irrational. The starting point for all our beliefs is not logical reason, we are not computers, we are brilliant but flawed creatures floating aboard a rock in eternity. Our starting point is our feelings and culture that we are born in. Its very hard for any of us whatever our cognitive skills or otherwise to open those beliefs up to scrutiny and let facts, logic and trial and error shape our world view. People are often personally offended when they are confronted with such evidence to contradict those views deeply and personally held.
My irrationality is legendary. I support a perpetual under achieving football club, most people do. I love sport, nothing much rational about sport is there? I believe in God, not the bloke with the beard sitting the afterlife, but a God of the rules. All I can point to in this belief is a logical statement by one of the greatest Mathematicians of all time *Kurt Godel, even his statement goes beyond what I can think could be *God.
I think what we have to do is try to divide stuff that is important, such as Poverty, Security ect, Against stuff that is not important, like the love of average football clubs. the former its important to try to aim for Objective Truth, the later you can take a chance with.
So what Is this thing called "truth"?. If seems our Universities have given up on it and are teaching the next generation that truth is just a matter of perspective, this is called "Post Modernism" I think this is one of the most destructive ideas in our culture, I will go further its Poison.
Our Society runs pretty much on a trial and error basis, our success and the Wests has been built on being able to adapt quickly to changing circumstances and if not embrace change, to be able to ride its wave without falling off. We have been teaching whole generations since the Sixties in humanities and now creeping into the Hard Sciences that we can ignore our failings, they don't matter, what matters is how we feel about it, how we perceive it. Thus we get worked up about things like relative poverty and being poorer than Richard Branson, more so than family breakdowns, changes in family dynamics and issues such as mental illness that are real features of Poverty. Progress demands we identify and correct error.
The truth is hard, it takes time. Its a bit like trying to take a photo of the inside of a Train carriage as it fly's past you at 150 miles an hour at a level crossing. Its possible, but the results are often a disappointing. It takes a lot of technical skill and bags of time consuming deduction to work out what was happening in the carriage as it went by. This for all our sakes cannot be undertaken without Reason and Logic, the very thing that comes second on our tools of thinking list.
"Truth is" whatever is the case. Switch off the emotion when its important please.
*More on Godel here
*An Absolutely brilliant Documentary on Mathematics and God.
Saturday 17 November 2012
Vote For Sale
Ive decided to sell my vote to the highest bidder, not cash of course heavens forbid, commitments will do, in writing of course.
So with 2 and half years to go instead of the politcos telling me what they can do for me and bribing me with my own money, I think we should reverse the process and allow them to bid on my core demands.
So here in my blog I give a firm commitment that if you Mr or Mrs Politico give me what I want, the trusty Wilko red bingo marker will be thrown in the recycling bin. No more spoiling.
I was going to make it five core issues that I wanted addressed but I decided to make it easy for the stressed political class, I would not wish to raise the bar too high, anyways here we go.
1, EU. in or out referendum. Now I accept that the EU is possibly leaving us rather we leave them as they head long into the uplands of progressive wonder, but just in case, in the lifetime of the next parliament I want the opportunity to vote to leave the EU.
2, Banks. Within the lifetime of the next parliament I want banks split from their retail and investment divisions, and I want their limited liability removed.
3, A new Beverage report. I want a proper judge lead obviously, independent report looking at the welfare state, the tax system and pensions with a view to over the course of time replacing the whole thing with Land Value tax, a simple tax system, and a system of basic income, all considered and a referendum on its results.
Nice and simple, I await your offers. but one last thing. A failure to deliver clause. You don't implement your commitments to me, you forfeit all rights to any sort of state funded pension. A technicality I know but as long as we don't have legally binding manifestos a little commitment is needed
So with 2 and half years to go instead of the politcos telling me what they can do for me and bribing me with my own money, I think we should reverse the process and allow them to bid on my core demands.
So here in my blog I give a firm commitment that if you Mr or Mrs Politico give me what I want, the trusty Wilko red bingo marker will be thrown in the recycling bin. No more spoiling.
I was going to make it five core issues that I wanted addressed but I decided to make it easy for the stressed political class, I would not wish to raise the bar too high, anyways here we go.
1, EU. in or out referendum. Now I accept that the EU is possibly leaving us rather we leave them as they head long into the uplands of progressive wonder, but just in case, in the lifetime of the next parliament I want the opportunity to vote to leave the EU.
2, Banks. Within the lifetime of the next parliament I want banks split from their retail and investment divisions, and I want their limited liability removed.
3, A new Beverage report. I want a proper judge lead obviously, independent report looking at the welfare state, the tax system and pensions with a view to over the course of time replacing the whole thing with Land Value tax, a simple tax system, and a system of basic income, all considered and a referendum on its results.
Nice and simple, I await your offers. but one last thing. A failure to deliver clause. You don't implement your commitments to me, you forfeit all rights to any sort of state funded pension. A technicality I know but as long as we don't have legally binding manifestos a little commitment is needed
Anti-Politics
I am often accused of being a cynic, hardcore anti-politics type, when of course I am not being accused of being a avid/rabid Fox News aficionado. (which as I get Virgin not Sky is unlikely) I accept and understand that it is very hard for some people to think outside of their political Paradigm. Being confronted by people who can think for themselves is not what the politicos want, they want you to be a part of their club.
Politics like the rest of the world is changing fast, just like people with odd sexual fantasies are now able to easily contact other oddballs with similar odd thoughts and find joint reinforcement, so too we are in the middle of something similar in politics. The fetishisation of politics if you like.
I think this process still has a long way to go, but I think the age of coalitions is here to stay like it or not, the question is how to deal with it so it does not devalue the democratic process and turn it into a farce.
The first test is that the electorate has the tools to remove a government without the resort to violence. The electorate have quite rightly worked out that we are now in a position where the legal framework mainly emitting from outside the UK in the form of the EU is chaining the politicos to a certain path regardless of their vote. It is in essence being diluted. This is a very dangerous paradox. Votes have to have value for democracy to function in practice not in the imagination.
It seems to me since 1972 when we joined the ECC/EC/EU and soon to be EU superstate, we have gone down a path of continental legalism and abandoned except in the criminal law, common law which is a process of constant evolution of law and practice through judgments made in courts.
We need to bring back into the democratic sphere Civil Law so jurys that are the ultimate in democratic action can shape once again the world we find ourselves in. Yes they will muck up and get it wrong, jury's are not perfect but over time through trial and error the right path will be arrived at. Allow them once again to judge and award damages.
Yes we will live in fear of Lawyers or gangsters with briefcases as P. J. O'Rourke correctly described them, but so what. I would sooner take on a speculative Lawyer who I can answer back in open court than a politico who either courts me or more often ignores me.
Added bonus with all this of course would be less politics and a more relevant political process. If I were to invent something that goes on to be found to be harmful to the public good I would be found out by the courts and have to give up any wealth earned through its manufacture, at the moment through limited liability and insurance I walk away with the money. Do you think bankers would have been more careful of the risks they were running under my preferred model of politics and law?
As I have said before the Internet is going to change things beyond what is presently imaginable. The politicos will work hard to stop it doing so, all monopolies will fight hard to hold onto their rights and privileges, but I am confident they will be swept away in the end too.
The whole politico industry that has mushroomed over the past decades is based on the idea that we can through a set of words regulate and legislate our way to a better world. This stupid and pretty much falsified theory is nearing its end, the money has been looted and we are running on empty.
Its time for a new model.
Politics like the rest of the world is changing fast, just like people with odd sexual fantasies are now able to easily contact other oddballs with similar odd thoughts and find joint reinforcement, so too we are in the middle of something similar in politics. The fetishisation of politics if you like.
I think this process still has a long way to go, but I think the age of coalitions is here to stay like it or not, the question is how to deal with it so it does not devalue the democratic process and turn it into a farce.
The first test is that the electorate has the tools to remove a government without the resort to violence. The electorate have quite rightly worked out that we are now in a position where the legal framework mainly emitting from outside the UK in the form of the EU is chaining the politicos to a certain path regardless of their vote. It is in essence being diluted. This is a very dangerous paradox. Votes have to have value for democracy to function in practice not in the imagination.
It seems to me since 1972 when we joined the ECC/EC/EU and soon to be EU superstate, we have gone down a path of continental legalism and abandoned except in the criminal law, common law which is a process of constant evolution of law and practice through judgments made in courts.
We need to bring back into the democratic sphere Civil Law so jurys that are the ultimate in democratic action can shape once again the world we find ourselves in. Yes they will muck up and get it wrong, jury's are not perfect but over time through trial and error the right path will be arrived at. Allow them once again to judge and award damages.
Yes we will live in fear of Lawyers or gangsters with briefcases as P. J. O'Rourke correctly described them, but so what. I would sooner take on a speculative Lawyer who I can answer back in open court than a politico who either courts me or more often ignores me.
Added bonus with all this of course would be less politics and a more relevant political process. If I were to invent something that goes on to be found to be harmful to the public good I would be found out by the courts and have to give up any wealth earned through its manufacture, at the moment through limited liability and insurance I walk away with the money. Do you think bankers would have been more careful of the risks they were running under my preferred model of politics and law?
As I have said before the Internet is going to change things beyond what is presently imaginable. The politicos will work hard to stop it doing so, all monopolies will fight hard to hold onto their rights and privileges, but I am confident they will be swept away in the end too.
The whole politico industry that has mushroomed over the past decades is based on the idea that we can through a set of words regulate and legislate our way to a better world. This stupid and pretty much falsified theory is nearing its end, the money has been looted and we are running on empty.
Its time for a new model.
Saturday 10 November 2012
Words That Are Nearly Enough......
Into my heart an air that kills
From yon far country blows:
What are those blue remembered hills,
What spires, what farms are those?
That is the land of lost content,
I see it shining plain,
The happy highways where I went
And cannot come again.
What are those blue remembered hills,
What spires, what farms are those?
That is the land of lost content,
I see it shining plain,
The happy highways where I went
And cannot come again.
Friday 19 October 2012
Market Madness
One of the things I come across on the net espeically from people on the left, its their ignorance as to what markets and capitalism truly are.
The first mistake they make is talking in terms of both capitalism and markets being the same thing, they are not. In this post I will deal with Markets and the next one I will talk about my opinions on the nature of capitalism. (note its capitalism without a capital "C")
A market in very simple terms is a mirror against human actions. You will often hear the cries of "the market has failed" thus it is someway a fault of the market that it failed. Thats a bit like looking in the mirror and blaming the mirror for you being ugly. When you need to get the cash together for some plastic surgery.
Markets should fail, that is what we want them to do if necessary. A bit like the fuse box on your electricity circuit, when its overloaded it fuses and shuts down all or part of the system. You inspect the system, repair if necessary and flick the system back on.
People look at the bust of 2008 and talk in terms of market failure, but its not failure at all. It was markets that alerted us to the failures in the housing bubble and the international movements of capital that facilitated that bubble. Very few economists predicted the crash, plenty predicted the housing bubble popping but not the resulting bank failures it would cause. He have had housing bubbles before without banking collapses. Few saw under the iceberg. In fact one study from the Netherlands found that out of 22k professional economists less than 200 got both the bubble and crash together in a perfect prediction, this is less than chance. Next time you hear about economics being a science remember that fact. Thats not to say economics is not important it is, but its not a science.
And how many Politicians understood and predicted the events of 2008? even less than the economists. Too busy telling everyone how clever they were producing all this growth from what turned out to be bad debt.
Markets give us information as to how well resources are being used, so we can make the decision as to how to proceed. Do you spend a million on paperclips or JCBs? Misallocation of resources is the reason we find ourselves in he mess we are in today, if we had taken the money from the far east emerging economies and did productive things with it then the debt would be a good debt. But we sunk the cash into the land through real estate and created a bubble. This is not markets fault its our fault.
There are really two distinct ideas as to what prices are. Firstly the Marxist one which believes that prices are based on labour (money being stored labour) and thus calculable through out the economy. The other being that prices are what ever people are willing to pay for the goods, (money being trust) thus much more fluid through the economy, the one I subscribe too.
The Lefts distrust of markets I believe comes from the idea that prices in someway can be fixed, they cant. There is too much changing information within any given market for that to be the case.
So they you have it in a nutshell, No great shakes, no need for all angst.
The first mistake they make is talking in terms of both capitalism and markets being the same thing, they are not. In this post I will deal with Markets and the next one I will talk about my opinions on the nature of capitalism. (note its capitalism without a capital "C")
A market in very simple terms is a mirror against human actions. You will often hear the cries of "the market has failed" thus it is someway a fault of the market that it failed. Thats a bit like looking in the mirror and blaming the mirror for you being ugly. When you need to get the cash together for some plastic surgery.
Markets should fail, that is what we want them to do if necessary. A bit like the fuse box on your electricity circuit, when its overloaded it fuses and shuts down all or part of the system. You inspect the system, repair if necessary and flick the system back on.
People look at the bust of 2008 and talk in terms of market failure, but its not failure at all. It was markets that alerted us to the failures in the housing bubble and the international movements of capital that facilitated that bubble. Very few economists predicted the crash, plenty predicted the housing bubble popping but not the resulting bank failures it would cause. He have had housing bubbles before without banking collapses. Few saw under the iceberg. In fact one study from the Netherlands found that out of 22k professional economists less than 200 got both the bubble and crash together in a perfect prediction, this is less than chance. Next time you hear about economics being a science remember that fact. Thats not to say economics is not important it is, but its not a science.
And how many Politicians understood and predicted the events of 2008? even less than the economists. Too busy telling everyone how clever they were producing all this growth from what turned out to be bad debt.
Markets give us information as to how well resources are being used, so we can make the decision as to how to proceed. Do you spend a million on paperclips or JCBs? Misallocation of resources is the reason we find ourselves in he mess we are in today, if we had taken the money from the far east emerging economies and did productive things with it then the debt would be a good debt. But we sunk the cash into the land through real estate and created a bubble. This is not markets fault its our fault.
There are really two distinct ideas as to what prices are. Firstly the Marxist one which believes that prices are based on labour (money being stored labour) and thus calculable through out the economy. The other being that prices are what ever people are willing to pay for the goods, (money being trust) thus much more fluid through the economy, the one I subscribe too.
The Lefts distrust of markets I believe comes from the idea that prices in someway can be fixed, they cant. There is too much changing information within any given market for that to be the case.
So they you have it in a nutshell, No great shakes, no need for all angst.
Monday 15 October 2012
'The Snatcher Keeps On Breathing'
An absolutly sick tweet from Harry Harpham @sheffharry
Here is the rest of it,
"How come someone like Neil Armstrong (who had so much humanity) dies, whilst The Snatcher just keeps on breathing"
What is interesting about this tweet is not its totally disrespect for another human being, one that was democratically elected three times in her life. Or its implied hatred of a sufferer of dementia, not dying in one go from a heart attack and the like, but is suffering a living death you would not wish on your enemy. No its not all that, its Harrys use of the death of Neil Armstrong that is the really interesting thing about this sick tweet.
The psychosis of hatred, is not unique to the Left, but as with their new and more current hatred of Nick Clegg you would have thought people who think they have something to offer the voters and people of the UK would put their energies into a positive pursuit of policies and ideas rather than petty hatreds.
20 July 1969 was an probably he greatest day in human history, no one will ever take away from Neil Armstrong the fact that he was the first human to step on a heavenly body no matter how far we make it out into the cosmos.And all I can remember is standing in my rubber nappy feeling a bit wet and half asleep, but there you go.
Todays smartphones are thousands of times more powerful than the computer used to get Apollo to the moon. Think about that for a second, we humans for thousands of years lived in a world that hardly changed then came the industrial revolution and within a few generations we had got to the moon and 40 years more had multiplied the computing power that we used to get to the moon by thousands. As a narrative that is almost unbelivable.
So ten years later we come to Thatchers first election victory and 4 May 1979. The first and only Prime minister with a scientific degree as well as being a woman of course. Three years after we had been bailed out by the IMF, and already into the agreed austerity measures that came with that loan (*that's right the Thatcher cuts started under Labour, that's what the winter of discontent was about, remember?)
The question I ask myself about Mrs T. is did she matter? To Harry and many more people around the North she most certainly does. She is the reason for their suffering and blight. Which is odd as this country even today is a much better place than it was in 1979. Would you really swap 1972 or 2012?
I don't have the figures to hand but say with certainty the number of man hours to make a tonne of steel has fell significantly and this is a result of the same thing that helped put man on the moon. The microchip.
So too coal, which was made uneconomic by North Sea gas. Microchips gave us the tools to discover and control the resource and even today the discovery and extraction of Shale gas is not possible without the computing power we have at our disposal. Every Industry in the world has been in some way touched by this revolution. And its highly probably that the reason we are struggling for growth now is that a lot of these efficiency saving we have got from this revolution are now priced into the economic system.
Another question I ask myself is one relating to Feminism from the 1960s onwards. Does that really matter? Seems to me the Pill gave women for the first time in history, power over reproduction. This discovery far exceeds anything political that feminists have come up with since 1960. They like to think it was them, protesting and eventually legislating but I doubt it, seems to me it was the changes in the demographics and dynamics the contraceptive pill brought about into the economy that mattered.
This revolution and the microchip one that we are still living through today, comes with advantages and disadvantages and regardless of who was Prime Minister, it was likely to happen anyway, we cant put the genie back in the bottle. I don't believe that anything is certain in life, but Trade Union reforms, the control of public finances were all highly likely to be the answers to the questions in the world we found ourselves living in. So why the hate?
No one likes economic change in their lives, Mrs T was the figurehead of that change. I for one did not like and still do not agree with her ideal of a meritocracy, that to me is a harsh society to live in, but she got the big stuff right, in so far as you can get political questions right. She was a lucky and skilled political leader. Clemente Attlee, and Margret Thatcher are the two leaders to study in British post war politics, they were in the right places at the right time. Agree or disagree with then both but they set the tone on if not the direction of the ship to varying degrees of success and failure.
I feel sorry for *Harry and his like, they are like primitive people in primitive societies, they have the same brains as we have today but they lack the cumulative knowledge that we have available. In those gaps like the ancients they put in superstitions,fears, and hatreds. Harry does not understand the link between Thatcher and Armstrong it would represent to him too difficult an issue to contemplate. His gaps he is filling are in his 'keep breathing' tweet.
Harry is like walking on the beach after a storm in the moonlight and coming across half dead and dead fish in shallow ponds trying to find the sea, some beginning to rot and stink, others shining in the moonlight as they slowly die, some flapping in desperation. Like Harry all lost. I pity him. I wonder if the fish have ever noticed the stars and wondered like me. We all know Harry hasn't.
*The Royal Hallamshire Hospital for a time was mothballed for a while due to these cuts and the completion was rushed to try and get it finished for the 1979 election.
*I suppose I should use the title of Councillor, but I think you need to be worthy of it.
Here is the rest of it,
"How come someone like Neil Armstrong (who had so much humanity) dies, whilst The Snatcher just keeps on breathing"
What is interesting about this tweet is not its totally disrespect for another human being, one that was democratically elected three times in her life. Or its implied hatred of a sufferer of dementia, not dying in one go from a heart attack and the like, but is suffering a living death you would not wish on your enemy. No its not all that, its Harrys use of the death of Neil Armstrong that is the really interesting thing about this sick tweet.
The psychosis of hatred, is not unique to the Left, but as with their new and more current hatred of Nick Clegg you would have thought people who think they have something to offer the voters and people of the UK would put their energies into a positive pursuit of policies and ideas rather than petty hatreds.
20 July 1969 was an probably he greatest day in human history, no one will ever take away from Neil Armstrong the fact that he was the first human to step on a heavenly body no matter how far we make it out into the cosmos.And all I can remember is standing in my rubber nappy feeling a bit wet and half asleep, but there you go.
Todays smartphones are thousands of times more powerful than the computer used to get Apollo to the moon. Think about that for a second, we humans for thousands of years lived in a world that hardly changed then came the industrial revolution and within a few generations we had got to the moon and 40 years more had multiplied the computing power that we used to get to the moon by thousands. As a narrative that is almost unbelivable.
So ten years later we come to Thatchers first election victory and 4 May 1979. The first and only Prime minister with a scientific degree as well as being a woman of course. Three years after we had been bailed out by the IMF, and already into the agreed austerity measures that came with that loan (*that's right the Thatcher cuts started under Labour, that's what the winter of discontent was about, remember?)
The question I ask myself about Mrs T. is did she matter? To Harry and many more people around the North she most certainly does. She is the reason for their suffering and blight. Which is odd as this country even today is a much better place than it was in 1979. Would you really swap 1972 or 2012?
I don't have the figures to hand but say with certainty the number of man hours to make a tonne of steel has fell significantly and this is a result of the same thing that helped put man on the moon. The microchip.
So too coal, which was made uneconomic by North Sea gas. Microchips gave us the tools to discover and control the resource and even today the discovery and extraction of Shale gas is not possible without the computing power we have at our disposal. Every Industry in the world has been in some way touched by this revolution. And its highly probably that the reason we are struggling for growth now is that a lot of these efficiency saving we have got from this revolution are now priced into the economic system.
Another question I ask myself is one relating to Feminism from the 1960s onwards. Does that really matter? Seems to me the Pill gave women for the first time in history, power over reproduction. This discovery far exceeds anything political that feminists have come up with since 1960. They like to think it was them, protesting and eventually legislating but I doubt it, seems to me it was the changes in the demographics and dynamics the contraceptive pill brought about into the economy that mattered.
This revolution and the microchip one that we are still living through today, comes with advantages and disadvantages and regardless of who was Prime Minister, it was likely to happen anyway, we cant put the genie back in the bottle. I don't believe that anything is certain in life, but Trade Union reforms, the control of public finances were all highly likely to be the answers to the questions in the world we found ourselves living in. So why the hate?
No one likes economic change in their lives, Mrs T was the figurehead of that change. I for one did not like and still do not agree with her ideal of a meritocracy, that to me is a harsh society to live in, but she got the big stuff right, in so far as you can get political questions right. She was a lucky and skilled political leader. Clemente Attlee, and Margret Thatcher are the two leaders to study in British post war politics, they were in the right places at the right time. Agree or disagree with then both but they set the tone on if not the direction of the ship to varying degrees of success and failure.
I feel sorry for *Harry and his like, they are like primitive people in primitive societies, they have the same brains as we have today but they lack the cumulative knowledge that we have available. In those gaps like the ancients they put in superstitions,fears, and hatreds. Harry does not understand the link between Thatcher and Armstrong it would represent to him too difficult an issue to contemplate. His gaps he is filling are in his 'keep breathing' tweet.
Harry is like walking on the beach after a storm in the moonlight and coming across half dead and dead fish in shallow ponds trying to find the sea, some beginning to rot and stink, others shining in the moonlight as they slowly die, some flapping in desperation. Like Harry all lost. I pity him. I wonder if the fish have ever noticed the stars and wondered like me. We all know Harry hasn't.
*The Royal Hallamshire Hospital for a time was mothballed for a while due to these cuts and the completion was rushed to try and get it finished for the 1979 election.
*I suppose I should use the title of Councillor, but I think you need to be worthy of it.
Saturday 13 October 2012
Wednesday 10 October 2012
Freaks! Knowing What You Dont Know
You are a freak, yes you, you are a freak.
Dont take it personally, I am a freak too. In fact take a good look around, there is plenty of freaks about. And its not just the living things, the landscapes, the clouds, the universe, all freaks.
Best guess on the origins of the universe at the moment is that its a freak of nature, a flux. If God made us he probably did not have much of a choice in the matter.
Then there is the earth, in the sweet spot with just the right conditions that life could crawl out of the sea and stand up and one day be you and me. Its all pretty much an accident.
Dont like the sound of all this? I for one am thankful for my blessings, I am happy to call myself a freak, the scum of the universe. Its a good place to be, in the sewer looking up at the stars (you should know which freak said that..or is it gutter? never mind)
The we get to human history, we are told that it is shaped and has a structure and destiny too it (well at least the Socialists do, and a few on the right) this too is a freak. It takes about 1 minute to pick any point in history a date and see that the events around what formed that event where in fact accidents and luck.
Winston Churchill should never have lived through the Boer War. Watson and Crick should have lost the race to the double helix, the list is endless. If you ever wanted to write a book its pretty easy to write any counter factual of history and change the names, many do.
This is a bit of a problem for us modern Humans. We see an ordered world of schools, hospitals, food on supermarket shelves, the idea this could all be an accident and cannot be relied upon in the future fills us with dread and fear. The future would be uncertain and we don't like uncertainty do we?
Luck plays a big hand in our lives, we like to think it was 'hard work' and 'perseverance', 'skill' and 'guile' when we happened upon the right place at the right time.
That is not to diminish the idea of hard work. hard work matters if you can muster the energy then the unlucky parts of your life will be easier to manage.
In this freakish world intelligence matters but not in the way you think it matters. True intelligence is not what you know or how well you understand it. Its about the things you don't know and how well you perceive them, and the risks therein that come with the things you do know.
This is the reason we find ourselves in the state we are in. We got over confident and misunderstood risks that we were storing up, we were masters of the universe, no more boom and bust, the riddle of history solved, quantified and classed as a science, which as with History ,Politics, Economics and Finance are not in anyway sciences, but strangely pretend to be so in our schools and universities.
This might seem a little odd, that's because it is odd, its freakish.
Good luck with the anti-knowledge, I have struggled all my life with it but even a glimpse within its mysterious orb is the most satisfying thing that you could wish for. A beauty like no other.
Dont take it personally, I am a freak too. In fact take a good look around, there is plenty of freaks about. And its not just the living things, the landscapes, the clouds, the universe, all freaks.
Best guess on the origins of the universe at the moment is that its a freak of nature, a flux. If God made us he probably did not have much of a choice in the matter.
Then there is the earth, in the sweet spot with just the right conditions that life could crawl out of the sea and stand up and one day be you and me. Its all pretty much an accident.
Dont like the sound of all this? I for one am thankful for my blessings, I am happy to call myself a freak, the scum of the universe. Its a good place to be, in the sewer looking up at the stars (you should know which freak said that..or is it gutter? never mind)
The we get to human history, we are told that it is shaped and has a structure and destiny too it (well at least the Socialists do, and a few on the right) this too is a freak. It takes about 1 minute to pick any point in history a date and see that the events around what formed that event where in fact accidents and luck.
Winston Churchill should never have lived through the Boer War. Watson and Crick should have lost the race to the double helix, the list is endless. If you ever wanted to write a book its pretty easy to write any counter factual of history and change the names, many do.
This is a bit of a problem for us modern Humans. We see an ordered world of schools, hospitals, food on supermarket shelves, the idea this could all be an accident and cannot be relied upon in the future fills us with dread and fear. The future would be uncertain and we don't like uncertainty do we?
Luck plays a big hand in our lives, we like to think it was 'hard work' and 'perseverance', 'skill' and 'guile' when we happened upon the right place at the right time.
That is not to diminish the idea of hard work. hard work matters if you can muster the energy then the unlucky parts of your life will be easier to manage.
In this freakish world intelligence matters but not in the way you think it matters. True intelligence is not what you know or how well you understand it. Its about the things you don't know and how well you perceive them, and the risks therein that come with the things you do know.
This is the reason we find ourselves in the state we are in. We got over confident and misunderstood risks that we were storing up, we were masters of the universe, no more boom and bust, the riddle of history solved, quantified and classed as a science, which as with History ,Politics, Economics and Finance are not in anyway sciences, but strangely pretend to be so in our schools and universities.
This might seem a little odd, that's because it is odd, its freakish.
Good luck with the anti-knowledge, I have struggled all my life with it but even a glimpse within its mysterious orb is the most satisfying thing that you could wish for. A beauty like no other.
Monday 8 October 2012
Pimps & Hoes & Carnage
"Glorifying pimps isn't fantasy; it's a nightmare!" Screams the ever helpful @PaulBlomfieldMP. Since when did dressing up for a night out result in the glorification of anything? if anything its people laughing at the realities of life.
Does Halloween result in Children growing up to be psychotic mass murderers? You would expect a politician to understand that reality and fantasy are two entirely different things.
Ed Balls dressing up as a Nazi did not result in the introduction of death camps in Morley and Outwood. We keep getting the usual crap from the usual suspects? Firstly its good easy headlines, who would ever want to be a pimp or a hoe, its a no brainier. except this is not what the event is about, or the dressing up is about. Nice simple Brownie points for protecting the civic virtue by a champion of women's rights. Keep up your Profile is @PaulBlomfieldMP mantra.
So if a women quite liked the idea of selling her body for sex, would @PaulBlomfieldMP protect her rights to do just that, after all its her body? I doubt it. @PaulBlomfieldMP would be the deranged priest in the middle ages telling the Peasants not to pretend to be farm animals, "ungodly" he would shout, expect in the 21st Century we have a brand new type of Puritan, the secular one. the same mind set, the flock need a Shepard, they are not wise enough or adult enough to know the difference between the fantasy and the reality.
Maybe I am too liberal in my social attitudes? maybe a more interesting and enlightening pub crawl based on the symbolism of the Pimps & Hoes event, but a Labour and Bankers one. Think Edutainment. After all its the current generation who the bill and social costs fall too.
The Pimps can be the Bankers, always looking to maximize their returns, little morality and even less sense. The Hoes can be the Labour party, selling their soul for a little bit of power, giving a snarling quickie "no more boom and bust" to a stupid punter, that would be us the voter. The money rolls in and your intelligence rolls out, anesthetised like all Pimp and Hoe relationships become. A quick thrill with no strings attached, no lasting feeling so you will be back for more. A relationship in tatters, zombie politics from the zombie party. It pretty well sums up the 13 years of Labour rule the young adults on the pub crawl will be paying for does it not? They are going to need a big dose of fantasy to help with the stark realities they will face, I would not begrudge them that.
Stay out of trouble and have a ball. And as you go through life look out for the real and dangerous Pimps & Hoes. Maybe for @PaulBlomfieldMP and his like the event is a little too close to the bone.
Ed Balls dressing up as a Nazi did not result in the introduction of death camps in Morley and Outwood. We keep getting the usual crap from the usual suspects? Firstly its good easy headlines, who would ever want to be a pimp or a hoe, its a no brainier. except this is not what the event is about, or the dressing up is about. Nice simple Brownie points for protecting the civic virtue by a champion of women's rights. Keep up your Profile is @PaulBlomfieldMP mantra.
So if a women quite liked the idea of selling her body for sex, would @PaulBlomfieldMP protect her rights to do just that, after all its her body? I doubt it. @PaulBlomfieldMP would be the deranged priest in the middle ages telling the Peasants not to pretend to be farm animals, "ungodly" he would shout, expect in the 21st Century we have a brand new type of Puritan, the secular one. the same mind set, the flock need a Shepard, they are not wise enough or adult enough to know the difference between the fantasy and the reality.
Maybe I am too liberal in my social attitudes? maybe a more interesting and enlightening pub crawl based on the symbolism of the Pimps & Hoes event, but a Labour and Bankers one. Think Edutainment. After all its the current generation who the bill and social costs fall too.
The Pimps can be the Bankers, always looking to maximize their returns, little morality and even less sense. The Hoes can be the Labour party, selling their soul for a little bit of power, giving a snarling quickie "no more boom and bust" to a stupid punter, that would be us the voter. The money rolls in and your intelligence rolls out, anesthetised like all Pimp and Hoe relationships become. A quick thrill with no strings attached, no lasting feeling so you will be back for more. A relationship in tatters, zombie politics from the zombie party. It pretty well sums up the 13 years of Labour rule the young adults on the pub crawl will be paying for does it not? They are going to need a big dose of fantasy to help with the stark realities they will face, I would not begrudge them that.
Stay out of trouble and have a ball. And as you go through life look out for the real and dangerous Pimps & Hoes. Maybe for @PaulBlomfieldMP and his like the event is a little too close to the bone.
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