I saw an angel once... a real one... many years ago. It appeared in a shimmering white light and had proper wings and everything. It was just as you'd imagine from descriptions of them, or as you may have seen from illustrations, and was watching over a mate of mine who was sat, asleep, in an armchair. It was a rather beautiful and touching scene.
The room was inhabited by several others, some awake and some sleeping. If any of those present witnessed our visitor none have ever said anything to me about it. Maybe they feared being ridiculed or maybe they didn't believe their eyes, maybe it was a vision for my eyes only. As it was, it took me a few years to mention it to my mate and he appeared to fully accept what I said I'd seen. He certainly didn't look at me as if I was stark raving mad and he didn't run screaming into the street, in fact he appeared more than a little pleased...
I admit, I wasn't exactly sober at the time of the event, nor was I free from narcotics - I'd been smoking opium that particular evening. Nevertheless, hallucination or not, I often think back to that moment and it gives me great comfort to think that something so wonderful is looking after him.
Wednesday, 17 August 2011
Monday, 15 August 2011
Everything Is Broken
"Society is broken" says King Cameron; indeed, he deems it "sick" - a simplistic statement from a simpleton.
I presume from his recent banter on all things societal we're going to have to suffer, yet again, endless debates on bringing back National Service, the hangman, the guillotine, transportation, the Divine Right of Kings, public flogging, corporal punishment, the "short, sharp, shock", Borstals, the ducking stool and chinese burns.
No doubt notions of providing cops with guns (as if they don't carry them already), reimplementing the "Sus Laws" (as if they were ever removed), prohibiting public protest (as if they don't have laws to deal with them already) and banning strikes (as if they haven't tried their hardest to do so since Maggie wore the crown) will emerge.
The idea of people being able to voice an opinion, other than that of their lords and masters, will be frowned upon and the ills of society will be firmly blamed on the poor, the ill-educated, single-parent families, the unemployed, youth, absent fathers and immigrants. It will have nothing to do with corrupt and deceitful politicians, one-dimensional policy makers, thieving bankers, criminal media moguls, heavy-handed policing, consumer culture or lack of resources for communities suffering desperate poverty and swathing cuts to much-needed social and community services. Divide and conquer has been and will remain the mantra of the ruling elite.
Me? I'm just reading Max Weber, you should try him. He's very good: "The impulse to acquisition, pursuit of gain, of money, of the greatest possible amount of money, has in itself nothing to do with capitalism. This impulse exists and has existed among waiters, physicians, coachmen, artists, prostitutes, dishonest officials, soldiers, nobles, crusaders, gamblers, and beggars. One may say that it has been common to all sorts and conditions of men at all times and in all countries of the earth, wherever the objective possibility of it is or has been given. It should be taught in the kindergarten of cultural history that this naïve idea of capitalism must be given up once and for all." (Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism).
I presume from his recent banter on all things societal we're going to have to suffer, yet again, endless debates on bringing back National Service, the hangman, the guillotine, transportation, the Divine Right of Kings, public flogging, corporal punishment, the "short, sharp, shock", Borstals, the ducking stool and chinese burns.
No doubt notions of providing cops with guns (as if they don't carry them already), reimplementing the "Sus Laws" (as if they were ever removed), prohibiting public protest (as if they don't have laws to deal with them already) and banning strikes (as if they haven't tried their hardest to do so since Maggie wore the crown) will emerge.
The idea of people being able to voice an opinion, other than that of their lords and masters, will be frowned upon and the ills of society will be firmly blamed on the poor, the ill-educated, single-parent families, the unemployed, youth, absent fathers and immigrants. It will have nothing to do with corrupt and deceitful politicians, one-dimensional policy makers, thieving bankers, criminal media moguls, heavy-handed policing, consumer culture or lack of resources for communities suffering desperate poverty and swathing cuts to much-needed social and community services. Divide and conquer has been and will remain the mantra of the ruling elite.
Me? I'm just reading Max Weber, you should try him. He's very good: "The impulse to acquisition, pursuit of gain, of money, of the greatest possible amount of money, has in itself nothing to do with capitalism. This impulse exists and has existed among waiters, physicians, coachmen, artists, prostitutes, dishonest officials, soldiers, nobles, crusaders, gamblers, and beggars. One may say that it has been common to all sorts and conditions of men at all times and in all countries of the earth, wherever the objective possibility of it is or has been given. It should be taught in the kindergarten of cultural history that this naïve idea of capitalism must be given up once and for all." (Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism).
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