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Quangoes of Religiosity. Church Schools and Faith Schools UKMy terminology.Theo- combining form relating to God or deities (dictionary). Theocracy - priests ruling in the name of God or king. Origin - Greek, theos - 'god'.
Theoact or theoacting - the teaching of religion to children and vulnerable adults at a school or within an institution. Mostly - derogatory, 'with' or 'without' - brainwashing, repetitive language with penalties and threats: 'temporal' or 'imagined'; for, and related to: Church Schools and Faith Schools. UK.
PN. Amongst, a 'mostly secular' population/culture.
Why we are all 'blind', or at least - most of us are 'blinkered', at this present time, in our human history! Because, we are personally 'irresponsible' - not fit for purpose in global (globally) terms, "clever imbecile's", living in - "a closed system of thought". Ref, A.Koestler.
"The mentality of a person who lives inside a closed system of thought ('conviction' vs 'reason' or within/in the - 'leap of belief/faith', 'conviction', or 'primitive science', or in the state of 'anthropological anomie/anomy'), can be summed up in a single formula. "He can prove everything he believes and he believes everything he can prove". The closed system sharpens the faculties of the mind, like an over-efficient grindstone to a brittle edge, it produces a scholastic Talmudic, hair-splitting, brand of cleverness, which affords no protection against committing the crudest imbecilities. People with this mentality are found, particularly often, among the intelligentsia. I like to call them the clever imbeciles, an expression, which I do not consider offensive, as I was one of them".
And, Colin Renfrew 'Prehistory' - My note, a 'matrix in global understanding' and the individual 'responsible' global consciousness, abridged, see, 'books'. "'Realities' of the modern world are institutional facts - products of concepts and social relationships worked out a millennia ago in prehistoric times. Cities of Sumer or of Mesoamerica and the (compelling) belief systems of Karnac or of Teotihuacan. We should recall them, at a time when globalisation is complete, and there is uniformity in the contemporary world".
Catholic Schools in India protest about murders! (Church Schools and Faith Schools, UK - Sectarian violence - dangers, so on...)
Two-thirds of homes now online http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7582081.stm "Global interconnectedness is lethal against mass religion and ideology". Designer of 'Microsoft Word' - Richard Brodie 'Virus of The Mind'. Website and level 3 learning group.
What is Globalization? http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-globalization.htm
Gabor Steingart 'The War for Wealth'. 'The True Story of Globalization or Why The Flat World is Broken'. http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/programmes/global_business.shtml
Naturism. Naturist. Nihilism. http://luckyme0.spaces.live.com/Blog/cns!A18BF3FCC5E126A2!858.entry this is to be improved, and corrected, as part of 'the nature/morality within natural evolution', as in whales and dolphins - altruism, even they show it! - 'primitive man had a 'morality'. Some religionists are unable to see beyond the closed system, or it is, by its very 'nature' - much more difficult for them!? Nihilism is to be included, as is unfounded derogatory, and demeaning, to the naturist and the 'so called' nihilistic. The religionists are concerned about 'ethos' in Schools or a lack of ethos, choosing religious dogma for this, which most have now grown out of: due to an inherent, blatant, and obvious experience, of most within the 'educational religious framework'. Tradition is mostly recognised as being cruel, fairly ghastly, and has on the whole - 'no great exemplary legs to stand on'! Church Schools - Faith Schools. UK.New pressure over Church Schools and Faith Schools.
Church Schools. Faith (or Religious) Schools. UK.Why Not?
Maximising your child's, "God Given Potential"! Maybe, the premise: 'not such a good idea'.
Church of England (Anglican), and (the 'latest schism') a Roman Catholic School may not be for you, at all! "Lesbian and gay pupils who attend faith schools are significantly less likely (23 per cent) to tell someone than lesbian and gay pupils who attend non-faith schools. Only four per cent of gay pupils felt able to tell their local religious leaders about bullying". http://www.stonewall.org.uk/documents/school_report.pdf And, http://www.camhs.org.uk/ "For some young people, simply meeting their LGBT peers, accessing accurate information, positive adult role models and support whilst 'coming out' - 'particularly to their parents' - and 'parental acceptance', is all that they need to develop and fulfil their potential". http://www.cypf.csip.org.uk/social-inclusion/social-inclusion/lesbian-gay-bisexual-and-transgender-lgbt-young-people.html Look for 'links' to your Church, Synagogue, Mosque, School...! Ref, Mental Health.
Could your child tell you (Parent, Police, or a Special Separate Authority) about it, "If they are being 'sexually abused' or 'bullied' at School by any teacher or other who is working in a 'Faith School or Church School'"? Would your child really dare to - report them? Past history shows that most would not! Is your particular 'risk taking' on this matter acceptable? You may only find out what has happened to your child much later on - your child may only realize or even think about (much), what has happened to them, at some; 'much later date'! Do you inspect - are allowed to and without any notice, constantly, as advised by SNAP Survivors!
And, children and vulnerable, 'self-harming' - http://luckyme0.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!A18BF3FCC5E126A2!1111.entry
And, "Hush Money" http://luckyme0.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!A18BF3FCC5E126A2!723.entry
And, "Bare Buttocks" http://luckyme0.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!A18BF3FCC5E126A2!726.entry
And, "The Great Creationism Cover Up" - can they be trusted? http://www.humanism.org.uk/site/cms/newsarticleview.asp?article=2464
PN. A 'secular' school could present just as many problems, but the above may produce some 'other odds on this matter of your risk taking, as a parent or guardian'! I am looking at the more secular approach for my children, just in case, and, so very much - due to their 'current' and quite appalling 'childish schisms'!
"Do young people model their behaviour on the Adult Delinquents?" Yes - "The reason for the lack of public outrage is because the (whole) system so strongly favours the aspirational and manipulative middle and professional classes who are the ones who would normally be making the most noise (against it)". Ref, past blog entry, with the name of 'the author'.
The 'Divine Right of Kings'. Promoting 'ideas' and 'symbols' in the interests (the 'unquestionable power') of a 'rich ruler', a 'ruling house', and (stable/rich/ancient) 'government' UK - with 'divine sanction'. (the 'notion' of a hereditary monarchy with divine power) Ref, Primitive Mind.
"Charles 1 of England was willing to promote civil war to uphold the 'divine right of kings'".
"They preferred the ancient light of divinely blessed authority to the distant glimmer of democracy. "God saith, 'Touch not mine anointed'", wrote a 'Cavalier Knight' as he reluctantly girded on his sword for the battle". 'English Civil War' Sir Winston Churchill.
"The British monarch today still contains rich symbolism signifying divine blessing", the Crown placed on the monarch by the high priest (i.e. the Archbishop of Canterbury) and coronation anthem 'Zadoc the Priest', ending with the words: 'God save the King. Long live the King. May the King live for ever. Amen.'" 'Prehistory' Colin Renfrew
Jim Knight MP, Schools Minister. UK. New Labour http://www.jimknightmp.com/denominational_school_transport_survey
Dorset County Council. Ref, Quangoes of Religiosity. UK. http://www.theredirectory.org.uk/lea.php?n46
Why there may be no other choice than New Labour for the, 'freedom from religion' or 'freedom for/of religion' (freedom from the bigotry and hatred of sexism, sexual orientation, ageism, and so on... Would, 'any other government have taken on the establishment in the UK - I doubt it, they just have to do more, but I never thought I would see this in my lifetime'!
'The mentality of a person who lives inside a closed system of thought ('conviction' vs 'reason' or within/in the - 'leap of belief/faith'), can be summed up in a single formula. "He can prove everything he believes and he believes everything he can prove". The closed system sharpens the faculties of the mind, like an over-efficient grindstone to a brittle edge, it produces a scholastic Talmudic, hair-splitting, brand of cleverness, which affords no protection against committing the crudest imbecilities. People with this mentality are found, particularly often, among the intelligentsia. I like to call them the clever imbeciles, an expression, which I do not consider offensive, as I was one of them'. Koestler. See, 'Bricks to Babel'. 'Thought for the Day' Rev, Dr Alan Billings, University of Lancaster, Ethics and Religion. http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/aod/mainframe.shtml?http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/aod/radio4_aod.shtml?radio4/tftd . Pope Benedict XVI "When God's word... is neglected, and when God's law is ridiculed, despised, laughed at, the result can only be destruction and injustice."
And, http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/programmes/thought/documents/t20060529.shtml 'Make up anything you like'.
Surely, our children and adults, will be so much 'happier', if they are taught from the nursery school upwards about the "clever imbeciles" (within religion, ideology, and government propaganda - one really hopes that most people - now - in the age of the 'modern enlightenment'; from a very young age have got the message, as in, the wonderful and very aware reaction of most children to the BBC 1 Panorama programme 'True Brit' and all the current 'Britishness Day' propaganda). Ref, Department for Children, Schools and Families. Ofsted and The National Curriculum Authority.
'Mack the Knife' 'Prehistory' Renfrew -
Channel4. 'The Genius of Charles Darwin' Richard Dawkins. Out of the great darkness of 'religion and superstition' and into the light (History, Evolution, & Cosmology - HEC). "Some science (all) teachers in GB are 'running scared'", as no doubt they will be in many other countries!" The wonder at our 'natural world' and our 'closeness' and 'connectedness' to it, being far greater than any superstition or religion; giving personal first class comfort instead of all the second class imagined 'horrors', which some parents, families and students prefer. Why not challenge them! http://www.channel4.com/science/microsites/F/famelab/ Ref, 'The Proper Structuralised View of the World' or 'The Proper Structuralized View of the World'. 'The Structural World View' - Dawkins. This is missing in a large proportion of the world's people. Therefore, and more so today (globalisation); we continue to live in the very unpredictable, frightening and "unstable world of unreason". A 'new age of superstition' being just around the corner - "the rational intelligence only just being able to prove itself over the irrational". Ref, J.Bronowski. And, 'Jerusalem Sadness' http://luckyme0.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!A18BF3FCC5E126A2!1107.entry Why Dawkins is right and his critics are wrong: http://www.secularism.org.uk/100386.html http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7083015.stm UK Parliament. MP's, 'Oath to Queen' (loyalty oath) 'not to you', challenged, at last! http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7562949.stm Demonstrating - Labour's leading the way (consistently) for 'challenge and change'. Europe had maintained the philosophy of force, and had built up hatreds and fears, and alliances, over the heads of the peoples whom they inflamed with passion or duped lies. "The politicians are the guilty ones", said one cavalry officer.
"I am all for revolution after the bloody massacre. I would hang all politicians, diplomats and so-called statesmen with strict impartiality".
"I'm for the people", said another.
"The poor bloody people who are kept in ignorance and then driven into the shambles, when their rulers desire to grab some new part of the earth's surface or to get their armies going because they are bored with peace".
"What price Christianity?" Asked another, inevitably. "What have the Churches done to stop war or preach the Gospel of Christ? The Bishop of London, the Archbishop of Canterbury, all those conventional, patriotic, cannon-blessing, banner baptising humbugs. God! They make me tired"!
"The Same Words" Strong words to hear in a cavalry mess! Strange turmoil in the souls of men! They were the same words I heard from the 'London Boys in Ypres' ("Wipers" 1914-18 - World War 1) spoken just as crudely.
But, many young gentlemen who spoke those words have already forgotten them or would deny them! 'Realities of War' Philip Gibbs. Vol.1. P.244. http://luckyme0.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!A18BF3FCC5E126A2!1893.entry
"Amid the horrors of war, what makes one man turn to God and another to atheism? Former Bishop of Edinburgh Richard Holloway explores what happens to faith when one's life is on the line". 'With God on Our Side' http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/archivehour/pip/h6xvj/
Supernatural science: Why we want to believe. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26268698/BBC Radio 4 'Beyond Belief' Fergus Stokes.More people are damaged than helped by religion. "Religion and Mental Health".
How about the children and vulnerable?
Can we take 'legal action' against those of "authority" in the future for promoting a "lack of self-esteem" and if they have led to 'damage or psychosis' in some vulnerable children or adults? http://www.selfharm.org.uk/Article.aspa?PageId=255&NodeId=259
http://switchboard.real.com/player/email.html?PV=6.0.12&&title=Radio%204%20Monday%2016%3A30&link=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bbc.co.uk%2Fradio%2Faod%2Fshows%2Frpms%2Fradio4%2Fbeyondbelief.ram Note: This content may require the latest RealPlayer, which is not available on Windows 95, Mac OS9 or Linux systems. "It is probably true that in general, the higher the education of the individual becomes, the more their views are differentiated. If we wish to find a high degree of uniformity and similarity of outlook, we have to descend to the regions of lower moral and intellectual standards, where the more primitive and common taste prevail. This does not mean that the majority of people have low moral standards, it merely means that the largest group of people whose values are very similar are the people with low standards. It is, as it were, the 'lowest common denominator', which unites the largest number of people". F.A. Hayek. Nobel Prize Winner. Economics. But, Fergus Stokes, a former priest turned humanist, said that Christians and other believers were trying to have it both ways: "Either God has a hand in the fishbowl, in which case you can pray to him, or he doesn't." "There is some kind of inbuilt desire to hang on to supernatural forces. More and more, religion is not working for people and supernatural explanations rarely help." http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2005/jan/03/tsunami2004.world In Search of Mr Average, believes in "some sort of a God" and lives in Swindon. He is, what is called, "The Lowest Common Denominator" i.e., "The greatest (largest) amount of people sharing..."'The Road to Serfdom' F.A.Hayek in the UK. 2011 Census Data http://luckyme0.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!A18BF3FCC5E126A2!1906.entry Humanists and most people in GB (67% don't want Church or Faith Schools and 86% think that Religion does more harm than good) 'appalled' that 'creationism' is taught in more than 40 schools at the taxpayers expense (I bet, in most of all Nursery Schools - emotionally simple and appealing; the formative years; lower qualified teaching staff)! Ref, "Money in muck and plenty of it" and, "The Westminster Money Planet". http://www.humanism.org.uk/site/cms/newsarticleview.asp?article=2464 And, the 'Regulations on Spiritualism' Act of Parliament and the Law UK. The (appalling) Facts about creationism in British Schools - The Department of Children, Schools and Families, have been asked by the BHA to use their power to require Ofsted to investigate the possibility of "schools covering up creationism". The investigation and report was conducted by More4 News! http://www.play.com/Channel4/DVD/DVD/PROD/3-/5890253/The_Richard_Dawkins_Collection/Product.html "Only Five Men"
My note :- The importance to you personally; your country; your culture; your heritage!
(Anything else is 'madness' - esp, it is very dangerous {globalised, urbanized, densely populated, interlocking culture's, so on...} to indoctrinate or teach fundamentalist or religious creationism to the young and vulnerable, as it is such a very 'painful and difficult' form of brainwashing (cult/religious involvement) to remove it or 'to get out of it' fully; it lies beyond that of 'normal everyday reasoning' or 'reason', so that it could become an impossible task in an individual or a group - "power of the sub-group", and seeming to have some inherent genetic (primitive, group survival, past advantages for {an individuals} natural selection, i.e., group stays together so we can all eat lunch tomorrow) advantage that one hopes, now, lies in the most advanced countries, to some gentle degree in their past history; with the great advancement towards the 'freedom of the individual' and the adoption of 'modern human rights' and "Children's Human Rights" - to be taught facts, and not as fact, as in: what is not self-evident, or/even, 'unreasonable' for the ambitions of an ideology or the myriad of purposes (some 'unfathomable' and 'outside of reason') that come within the auspices of any religion or ideology.
"Charles Darwin, Sir Charles Lyell, Joseph Hooker, Thomas Huxley, and Alfred Wallace, had evolved into the most creative and productive group in the wide area of Natural History in Great Britain. Without the others Charles Darwin knew his life would have been narrow and restrictive. Minus, the life giving fluids of friendship, constructive criticism, encouragement, and acceptance.
Everything they thought and projected came partly from each other's brain. Their hailstorm of letters, articles, monographs, and books, travelling all over the world, affording insights and knowledge; educated an entire generation.
Together they had 'turned the world around'. Had changed the patterns of man's thoughts about himself and the world he lived in, wiped out prejudice against those who were unorthodox in their religious beliefs, provided release from the rigid dogma of the Church, as well as escape from the power of the Clergy, Rabbi or Imam. And not only the hierarchy's interlocking control of the schools, press, government, but the mass of the of the people who did not have the right to determine their daily lives.
Now there was hope for intellectual independence, the individuals freedom from the shackles of dictatorial restraint. With man's brain no longer encased in the iron chains of mythical belief, what wonders would he not accomplish. Becoming his own master, men would have freedom, which causes greatness". Irving Stone 'The Origin'.
Do the 'creationists' or the 'intelligent designers' really miss out on any type of understanding, so on...? http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26334112/ I have never met one, but the 'superficiality' (boredom) in the person's mind and in their education (school), must be quite unbelievably staggering! 14 out of 19 Jewish Schools who responded to the More4 News 'Investigation into Creationism in British Schools' - All 21 Evangelical Schools following the Accelerated Christian Education Syllabus - 5 out of 10 Islamic Schools (covering up?) - 5,822 pupils +++ 5 State Schools that admitted teaching creationism!
Teachers 'fear evolution lessons'. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7028639.stm
Admiration and Celebrity Worship. Palin's ('Social' Christian - 'fundamentalism' - a ridiculous anti-abortionist, dogmatist, and - what else?) 17 year old daughter is pregnant http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7592636.stm O.K. For preachers, behaviourists, and some (rich people) - still a taboo for all 'others'! Let's Talk Sex http://www.channel4.com/learning/microsites/L/lifestuff/content/up_close/letstalksex/index.html
"No point in educating anyone, if you are going to make an early mess of your life by not understanding fully your own sexuality".
Study Finds That Teenage Virginity Pledges Are Rarely Kept
Tutu: "God is weeping". http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7602535.stm August 26 Olympics London 2012. China to GB.Short and Sweet
"Today in Capitalist and Communist society many consider that the only knowledge worth having is that which will help them achieve some economic or bureaucratic goal, which they happen to think important. In Capitalist States this attitude of mind relegates the neocortex, that wondrous instrument of unimaginable sophistication to a near full time cash register. In Totalitarian Nations concentration on climbing the dangerous and slippery bureaucratic ladder, leads to fanaticism and religious fervour (fundamentalism) reminiscent of the Middle Ages. The brain becomes the humble servant of the state ideology. The individual counts for nothing. Thus, cruelty knows no bounds. Ref, 'the greater degree of civilization within any society can be measured by the popularity of astrology (superstition - religion and 'conformity' to a state ideology) and the prevalence, or in: 'a general acceptance of acts of torture'. BBC 1 Panorama 'True Brits' http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00d7p6r/ . And, MI 5 - only one example!, http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/aug/22/uksecurity.guantanamo And, http://news.uk.msn.com/Article.aspx?cp-documentid=9377864&ocid=MSNToolbar100
The balanced individual who worships neither money or power needs a map of the natural and historical environment, which he inhabits.
Without a map, orientation is impossible, the trivial appears to be important and the mundane becomes profound. Russell writes, "A man should be aware of the minuteness of himself and his environment, in relation to the world in time and space. He should see his own age in relation to the past and the future. He should be conscious of the vastness of geological epochs and astronomical abysses. He should be aware of all this as a vast panorama, which enlarges the mind that contemplates it".
Without this panorama the individual may function with successful efficiency, but remains imprisoned in a machine, which he does not understand, but must pretend to himself that he does.
Only, "Useless Knowledge" is capable of exposing the purpose and nature of the machine to rational enquiry about the life support machine, in which he and his children live, breathe, and have their being! IT SURELY MERITS SOME ATTENTION!!!" Bertrand Russell, 'The History of Western Philosophy'. http://www.mindmeister.com/maps/show_public/6005710
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/6294643.stm Just what we all don't want! Slavery Lessons - http://luckyme0.spaces.live.com/Blog/cns!A18BF3FCC5E126A2!1414.entry Drake http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7582004.stm
The UnHoly Trinity
Philosophy Cigarettes Whisky
'I See No Radiant Tomorrows'
Vaclav Havel former President of Czechoslovakia 1989-92 & Czech Republic 1993-2003 MEETING Vaclav Havel in his fourth floor Prague apartment can be unnerving. In the era of glasnost, the bugged telephone, rings constantly. Cigarette smoke blues the air. Whisky glasses rarely stand empty. Policemen sometimes stand guard outside the apartment across the street, as in a Kafka novel. Mr Havel’s dog was shot dead by the secret police on the doorstep.
This atmosphere of state repression gets on my nerves, but Mr Havel is a calm and remarkable host. Short, slight and sandy-haired he is I described in police files as a “subversive” and an “anti-Socialist element”. In reality, he is a courteous, shy, soft-spoken rebel with a democratic cause. He is also among the most brilliant European writers and public figures of our time. Time is precious. We don’t waste it an small talk. Mr Havel begins to speak with measured passion. The problem of totalitarian power weighs most heavily upon him. He explains that regimes such as Czechoslovakia, Romania and East Germany are unique. Using more sophisticated methods of control than the dictatorships of the Third World, they are all-embracing and soul-destroying,“Totalitarian regimes get under society’s skin,” he says. His words against totalitarianism are matched by a deep suspicion of the West. He is not a professional anti-Communist. He tells me that both systems contain huge, faceless organisations which treat people as mere objects. “The world is losing its human dimension,” he says. “Self-propelling mega-machines, large-scale enterprises, faceless governments and other juggernauts of impersonal power represent the greatest threat to our present day world: Totalitarianism is no more than an extreme expression of this threat". Havel reaches for more, whisky and cigarettes, Our conversation turns philosophical. He is is against Utopian visions - “radiant tomorrows” as he calls them. Life is ever-changing and ultimately intangible. Attempts to master it fully, to clamp it down to a blueprint, therefore always end up strait-jacketing and destroying life. Mr Havel sees a direct link between beautiful Utopias and the gruesomeness of concentration camps. “What is a concentration camp, after all, but an attempt by Utopians to dispose of those elements which don’t fit into their Utopia?” he asks. Pol Pot and Khomeini are on his mind. His question reminds me why the Western enthusiasm for Mr Gorbachev is considered unrealistic, even disheartening for many people in the East. The disgust produced by failed Utopias is something that people, living in the other half of Europe feel acutely. I remind him that in his play Temptation a character says: “l don’t give any specific advice, and I don’t fix anything or anyone. The most I do is to stimulate now and again.” He agrees that that could be his credo as a playwright. Theatre, he says, should not try to thrill or charm playgoers or make things easier for them by providing positive heroes. “l try to fling my audiences into the heart of problems that they can’t avoid,” says Mr Havel, pausing to light another cigarette. “I try to push people’s noses into our common wretchedness. Theatre should remind people that the time is getting on, that our situation is bad and that there’s no time to lose.” He describes how he began working in the theatre as a stagehand and soon became literary adviser at the famous Prague Theatre on the Balustrades. His first play, The Garden, Party, brought him overnight fame in the Sixties. Since then he has become known as a master playwright of the Theatre of the Absurd. He has written more than a dozen important plays, not all staged in Britain. Among the best-known are The Increased Difficulty of Concentration, an adaptation of The Beggar’s Opera and Temptation, performed by the Royal Shakespeare Company at the Barbican last year. He modestly forgets to add that he has received many awards, including the American Obie Prize for the best off Broadway play, the Austrian Award for European Literature, and the 1986 Erasmus, prize. These brilliant accomplishments have their painful side. For more than two decades he has been banned by the, Czechoslovak authorities from directing his own plays. Worse still, during the same none of his plays has been performed in his Country. The sole exception - an amateur production in 1975 of The Beggar’s Opera in a village near Prague - led to a police raid and to the interrogation of all those who took part in it. This clampdown visibly anguishes him. Mr Havel, the playwright with an aversion to power - grabbing politicians; has been dragged into politics against his will. He has served three prison sentences in the past 10 years. He tells me that politics “from below” is one of the few ways individuals can seek. meaningful existence in world threatened by impersonal organisations. “Only by looking outward,” he says. “and throwing ourselves repeatedly into the tumult of the world, with the intention of making our voices count - only in this way do we really become human beings.” Surrounded by police and constant threats of arrest and imprisonment, his personal courage is awesome. I now understand why the Czech authorities fear him. Mr Havel appealed to Mr Tadeusz Mazowiecki, the Polish Prime Minister, and Mr Imre Poszgay, the Hungarian Communist reformer, to support two human rights activists imprisoned in Czechoslovakia. By Professor Keane Director of the Centre for the Study of Democracy in London. UK Gov 'plans to snoop' http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7671046.stm 16/10/08
Admiration http://luckyme0.spaces.live.com/photos/cns!A18BF3FCC5E126A2!1613/?startingImageIndex=0&commentsExpand=0&addCommentExpand=0&addCommentFocus=0&pauseSlideshow=0
Map of an Englishman http://luckyme0.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!A18BF3FCC5E126A2!1335.entry
London 2012 Ltd, the company bidding to bring the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games to the UK, announced today that respected British theatre director and cultural ambassador, Jude Kelly OBE, will chair the Arts, Culture and Education Advisory Committee of the bid. http://www.london2012.com/news/media-releases/bid-phase/jude-kelly-obe-to-chair-arts-culture-and-education-commi.php
Icons - a portrait of England. Vanity Fair - Vanity, maybe that is what we can talk about: http://www.icons.org.uk/theicons/icons-timeline/1840-1860
August 19 PM. Jeremy Clarkson - epetition response“We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to make "Jeremy Clarkson" Prime Minister.”
Critics fail to see funny side of No 10's Jeremy Clarkson video (boring gits) http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/blog/2008/aug/20/gordonbrown.media
Better that they are doing this, than in the planning of another half-a-billion pounds to go to the propping up of the opium harvest in Afghanistan; even though you do get some really nice dreams from it.
August 13 Portishead. Bristol. England.Socrates was condemned to death for corrupting the youth of Athens. No mean feat! His charge sheet read, "Socrates is an evil doer and a curious person, searching into things under the earth and above the heavens and making the worse the better cause and teaching all this to others". His pupil Plato was heard to murmur, "Better to be Socrates discontented, than a pig contented". Only a few heard him then, or hear him now!
Roman Catholic Priest. Town has "spiritual forces of wickedness". And, more...(silly nonsense). Ref, Church Schools and Faith Schools. UK.
In the Fifth Century BC Euripides wrote, "Blessed is he who learns how to engage in inquiry, with no impulse to harm his countrymen or to pursue wrongful actions, but perceives the order of immortal and ageless nature, how it is structured".
And nearly one thousand years later St Augustine said, "There is another form of temptation, even more fraught with danger. This is the disease of curiosity... It is this which drives us to try and discover the secrets of nature, those secrets, which are beyond our understanding, which can avail us nothing, and which man should not wish to learn". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_thinking The magic switch from observational thought or conversation to that of analytical thought or conversation, which so many of us have some great difficulty in attempting. Ref, Notes of Dad's, 'living with the miners' 'Toff Down the Pit'.
Is this why (some of) our children are so bored, disruptive, and self-harming? Ref, Church Schools and Faith Schools. UK. And, 'muddled thinking'.
To do evil, a human being must first believe that what he is doing is good or else that it is a well-considered act, in conformity with natural law. Fortunately, it is in the nature of the human being to seek a justification for his actions. Macbeth's self-justifications were feeble and his conscience devoured him. Yes, even Iago was a little lamb too. The imagination and the spiritual strength of Shakespeare's evildoers stopped short of a dozen corpses, because they had no ideology.
Ideology, that is what gives the evildoer the necessary steadfastness and determination.
That is the social theory, which helps to make his own acts seem good, instead of bad, in his own and others eyes so that he will not hear any reproaches and curses, but will receive praise and honours.
That was how the 'Agents of the Inquisition' fortified their wills by evoking Christianity; the conquerors of Foreign Lands by extolling the 'grandeur of their Motherland'; the Colonisers by 'Civilization'; the Nazis' by 'race' and the Jacobin's (early and late) by equality, brotherhood, and the happiness of future generations. Ref, "Evil and Ideology". The appalling, inexcusable, and 'indoctrinational idea', in the belief of 'Original Sin (evilness)'. Cern Lab (LHC)"The most powerful (scary) physics experiment ever built".
"The day that the world woke up from ('the sleep of everyday living') boring science".
The ATLAS Experiment. Mapping the Secrets of the Universe. http://www.atlas.ch/
August 06 Julie Burchill and Britain's Class (caste) System. Evolution and Religion in Schools.'GREENS'
Wealthy old Etonians are leading the green brigade. "Have you noticed that Green is the first socio-political movement in which every single leader and spokesperson is filthy rich - they make the Conservative Party look like the Jarrow marchers. Even the suffragettes - a pretty posh posse - could count working-class women among their star turns. But look at the Greens - not one chav champion in the whole stuck-up setup that is chock-full of Etonians. The new generation of Private Frazers - 'Doomed, doomed, we're all doomed!' - tend to be from hugely wealthy families, too, though their ancestors tend to be barons. It doesn't take a psychiatrist to work out that what these silver-spoon scions may be experiencing is a good old-fashioned bout of class guilt to make them turn on the cut-throat carpet bagging that made their families' fortunes. But whereas getting a dose of socialism would have led them to turn - quite rightly - on their own kind, the rich and powerful, the warped logic of ecology encourages them to turn on the poor and powerless. Hence the constant harping about how cheap food, cheap clothes and cheap travel are the enemies of the planet - so, presumably, prices should go up and the well-off won't notice a difference while the poor should starve, go barefoot and stay at home. Just like in the good old days, eh, chaps?" Julie Burchill. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1038122/MRS-ANGRY-Grande-dame-poison-pen-Julie-Burchill-lets-rip-modern-life.html
Evolution and stupidity. 'The Genius of Charles Darwin' Richard Dawkins. Channel 4 - TV. 'Depth' of Education in the UK!"Poor Richard Dawkins. He took a bunch of kids from a school science class to the seaside to collect fossils, hoping to enthuse them about evolution and to persuade those who were afflicted by religion to "think again". There's the problem. How can you "think again", when you haven't done much thinking in the first place? Dawkins waved his hand at the cliffs, mentioning how many million years ago they'd have been under water, while one or two of the kids seemed to be wondering where Adam and Eve fitted into this story". http://theanswers42.blogspot.com/2008/08/evolution-and-stupidity.html Church Schools and Faith Schools. Religion in Schools. REBT and Disconnection. UK. BBC.
"Do young people model their behaviour on adult delinquents?" - Yes - "The reason for the lack of public outrage is because the (whole) system so strongly favours the aspirational and manipulative middle and professional classes who are the ones who would normally be making the most noise". Ref, past blog entry with the name of 'author'.
 "An artist's impression of Mitochondrial
August 05 Colin Renfrew and the 'Others'. The (human) Primate to (modern) human cognition. Cognitive Prehistory. Archaeology.Researching - on the "reason" within the 'Modern Enlightenment' - the rejection of it by many in 2008, and on, the 'latest mass resurgence' of the nonsenses, ignorance, and fundamentalism's in some human attitudes, cultures, and worldviews: the 'popularity of holding personally, and even - 'on mass', cognitively, some irrational, impossible, and preposterous - hazardous to downright dangerous: "conviction"'.
'The Making of the Human Mind' by Colin Renfrew and the 5 sequential stages of human development, "a very persuasive one". The first three stages are 'unilineal' (where the idea of memes or memetics of Dawkins is found to be a bit loose in its terminology) as in the evolution to Homo sapiens from Homo erectus. Based on 'Origins of the Modern Mind' Merlin Donald 1991 and refined by Colin Renfrew and later accepted by Donald.
How did Primitive Man Think? (My note: 'difficulties' or the greatest 'burden' of humankind with/and the Malthusian, population, argument? - "They depended on kinship where we have developed democracy, they espouse one way of thinking while we embrace another: they are "pre-logical" "bricoleurs" while we are scientifically rational; they are pre-literate but we are literate; they are pre-capitalist, we are capitalist; they are pre-modern, we are modern; they lacked privacy, we have privacy and freedom; they are close to nature, we are buffered by our technology; they are collectivist and we are individualistic; they tended to emphasize the social costs and benefits of undertakings, we accentuate the rational, economic aspects in a search for efficiency. We look back and across from the urban society of which we are members. Condensed - 'The Domestication Of The Human Species' Peter J. Wilson. Also, "power and sharing in community, distribution and dispersal" - "To examine this situation I analyse witchcraft, which seems to be an institution of beliefs {my - note: religion} (and to some extent practice) common to domesticated societies {level - not 1 or 5?! 2/3 to 4 - only?!) but uncommon in both hunter/gatherer and urban industrialised societies.)
Ref, 'An Adults Guide To God's' (part 2).
"Higher primates other than man, including the Japanese monkey and chimpanzees, possess the rudiments of culture. Only in man has culture infiltrated virtually every aspect of life. Among the fastest cultural responses in industrial civilizations are the fashions in dress and speech. Somewhat slower are political ideology and social attitudes towards other nations, whilst the slowest of all include incest, taboos, and the belief or disbelief in particular high gods. The sacred rituals are the most distinctively human. Their most elementary forms are connected with magic, the active attempt to manipulate nature and the gods. Upper Palaeolithic Art from the caves of Western Europe shows a preoccupation with game animals. There are many sacred scenes showing spears and arrows embedded in the bodies of the pray. Other drawings depict men dancing in animal disguises or standing with their heads bowed in front of animals. Probably the function of the drawings was sympathetic (fetish) magic, based on the quite logical notion that 'what was done with an image will happen with the real thing'. Magic was and still is in some societies practised by special people variously called Shamans, Sorcerers or Medicine Men. They alone were believed to have the secret knowledge and powers to deal effectively with the supernatural, and as such their influence sometimes exceeded the Tribal Headmen.
Formal religion has many elements of magic, but is focused on deeper more tribally oriented beliefs. Its rites celebrate the creation myths, propitiate the gods and re-sanctify the tribal moral codes. Instead of a shaman controlling physical power their is a priest, who communes with the gods and curries their favour through obedience, sacrifice, and proffered evidences of tribal good behaviour. In the more complex societies, polity and religion have always blended naturally. Power belonged to kings by divine right, but high priests often ruled over kings by virtue of the higher rank of the gods.
It is a reasonable hypothesis that magic and totemism constituted direct adaptations to the environment, and preceded formal religion in social evolution. Sacred traditions occur almost universally in human societies. So do myths that explain the origin of man, or at least, the relation of the tribe to the rest of the world.
But belief in high gods is not universal. Among 81 hunter-gatherer societies surveyed in 1968, only 28 or 35 percent included high gods in their sacred traditions. The concept of an active moral God, who created the World is even less widespread. The concept of an active moral God who created the World, most commonly arises with a pastoral way of life. The greater the dependence on herding, the more likely the belief in a shepherd god of a Judo - Christian model. In other kinds of societies, the belief occurs in 10 percent or less of the cases. Also, the God of Monotheistic Religions is always male. This strong patriarchal tendency has several cultural sources.
a) Pastoral societies are highly mobile, tightly organised and often militant; all features that tip the balance toward male authority.
b) It is also significant that herding, the main economic base is primarily the responsibility of men not women.
c) Because the Hebrew's were originally a herding people, the Bible describes God as a shepherd and the chosen people as his sheep. Islam, one of the strictest of all the monotheistic faiths, grew to early power among the herding people of the Arabian Peninsular.
The intimate relation of the shepherd to his flock apparently provides a microcosm that stimulates deeper questioning, about the relation of man to the powers that control him. Elementary religions seek the supernatural for the purely mundane rewards of long life, abundant land, and food, the avoidance physical catastrophes, and the defeat of enemies. A form of group selection operates in the competition between sects. Those sects that gain adherents survive, those that cannot fail. Religions vary in their oppressiveness. Religions that are promoted by chieftains and states are the most oppressive, because religion can be effectively harnessed to the purposes of warfare and economic exploitation. ('The Compulsory Worship Law' in schools and institutions, UK)
The paradox of religion is that although so much of it is substance is demonstrably false, yet it still exists in all societies. How can such a force in society be extracted from a tissue of illusions? One answer is that virtually all forms of sacred rites serve the purposes of communication. In primitive societies ceremonies can offer information on the strength and wealth of tribes, and families. For example, a group gives a ritual dance and individuals indicate their willingness to give military support to a leader. In more advanced society's military parades, embellished by the paraphernalia and rituals of the state religion serve the same purpose.
To sanctify a procedure or statement is to certify it beyond question! This certification, the heart of all religions is granted to the practices and dogmas that serve the most vital interests of the group. The sacred rituals for the supreme effort and sacrifice, prepare the individual. Overwhelmed by shibboleths, special costumes, and the sacred dancing, and music, so accurately keyed to his emotive centres he has a religious experience. He is ready to reassert allegiance to his tribe, and family, perform charities, consecrate his life, leave for the hunt, join the battle, and die for God and Country. "Deus Vult" (God wills it) was the rallying cry of the First Crusade.
A second force has been identified leading to the formalization of religion. To counteract selfish behaviour each society codifies itself. In each family (in a tribe) that worked out its own rules; the result would be chaos. Sanctification, adds force to the code. However, this process engenders criticism and in the more literate (advantageous and/in educational respects, many are totally denied this - some Religious or Faith Schools) , and self-conscious, society's visionaries and revolutionaries: set out to change the system. Reform meets repression, because to the extent that the rules have been sanctified and mythologised (fetishisation), the majority of the people regard them beyond question and disagreement is defined as blasphemy. This leads to the essentially biological question of the evolution of indoctrinability. To any intelligent and unbiased student of the human animal, two facts are clear.
a) Most people would rather believe than know.
b) Humans are absurdly easy to indoctrinate, in fact, they seek it!
Assuming that indoctrinability (like limbs) evolves, at what level does natural selection take place? This is probably both at the group and the individual level, each one reinforcing the other. If in a particular tribe the willingness to believe (indoctrinability) becomes weak, individualistic members gain the upper hand and multiply at the expense of others. This weakens group solidarity, thus making the tribe vulnerable to competing tribes and it eventually it becomes extinct.
Thus, conformism and indoctrinability has gradually become part of the human genetic make up, only a minority of individuals in any generation escaping. This theory is sufficient to account for the evolution of indoctrinability by natural selection. Education may be used to reinforce or to diminish the process". Professor E. O. Wilson 'Sociobiology' and condensed. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4975549474851602314 1) Episodic Stage - Primate cognition 2) Mimetic Stage - 4 million to 400,000years (peaking with Homo erectus) 3) Mythic Stage - first use of complex language - 500,000 years to the present (peaking with Homo sapiens) 4) Material Symbolic Stage. Leslie White recognised this as defining the 'importance in human culture' (icons of religious faith, amongst the many other symbols) 5) Theoretic Stage. Donald calls this 'institutionalised paradigmatic thought' (writing - 'massive external memory storage'). A better and more detailed explanation can be found in Colin Renfrew's fascinating book 'Prehistory'. Writing this to try and clarify it in my own mind, as it must be (and in my great ignorance), the ground breaking formation of a basis (and) origin for all leaning! - stunning!
"We do most of our "thinking" without ever being conscious of it". Neuroscientist Chris Frith. Partner choice - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7558499.stm
And, "We risk never learning that some of the expectations of reason are just, well, unreasonable" Philosopher Mary Midgley. Does this mean that we can let in our 'Global Urbanist 2008 World' the odd suicide or car bomber through the 'security net' for the sake of "unreasonable"? Give back to the Taliban Afghanistan for the sake of the tolerance of "unreasonable"? Carry on with miseducating our children with a divisive and sectarian Education Policy of Church Schools or Faith Schools and 'Compulsory Daily Worship' and accepting the usurpation of "unreasonable"? Ref, Teacher PC-ness in 'science' classes UK.
"Systematic thinking, is apparently, a comparative late development in human experience. It has not played any great part in human life until within the last 3,000 years, and even today those who really control and order their thoughts are but a small minority of humankind. Most of the world still lives by "imagination and passion", see, "profile". There is no sort of savage so low as not to have a kind of science of cause and effect. But, primitive man was not very critical in his associations of cause, with effect. He very easily connected an effect, with something quite alien to its cause, "You do so and so", he said, "And so and so - happens. You give a child a certain berry and it dies. You eat the heart of a valiant enemy and you become strong". There we have two bits of cause and effect association, one true, one false. We call the system of cause and effect, in the mind of a savage, "fetish". But, "fetish", is simply, a savage science. It differs from modern science, in that it is totally unsystematic and uncritical and is more frequently wrong". H.G.Wells. (commonly used - 'fetishisation' of a race or culture and in giving abnormal attention to something). Anthropological, 'fetishisation' of some parents' or 'fetish' in Education Policy UK. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/education/2218064/Faith-schools-undermined-by-'Government-witch-hunt'.html
"They preferred the ancient light of divinely blessed authority to the distant glimmer of democracy. "God saith, 'Touch not mine anointed'", wrote a 'Cavalier Knight' as he reluctantly girded on his sword for the battle". 'English Civil War' Sir Winston Churchill.
Teacher Tube
Atlas of the Human Journey
How Did Prehistoric Man Think? http://luckyme0.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!A18BF3FCC5E126A2!1520.entry
August 01 Front Row. Kirsty Lang. BBC Radio 4.What is wrong with our schools? PC-ness of (science) teachers and their 'kowtow' to 'ignorant religious fundamentalist' parents, causing miseducation in the UK. 'Conviction' or 'reason' - fairly impossible to 'argue', due to 'conviction' being beyond 'the bounds of normal and everyday reasoning', but easier to instill 'reason' (or conviction) at a younger tender age. Ref, "born to self-down" or "born to self-downing". Ref, Scientific and Anthropological 'learning process of all humans', the book 'Prehistory' 'The Making of the Human Mind' by Colin Renfrew and the 5 sequential stages of human development, "a very persuasive one".(the same with sex education and the fear by teachers of a gross and smutti obsessed popular press - most child pregnancies UK, except USA, in the Western World. Also, UK is the worst for childhood happiness in the 17 industrialised nations)
Why? Faith Schools and Church Schools. The 1944 Act of Parliament (Law UK) Compulsory Worship Law! Ref, "self-harming". Freedom from an outdated law must be 'fought for, and 'guarded'', as in, the latest freedoms for sexual orientation, sexism and ageism. UK!
44% of Americans think the world created as - is now. A puritanical nation built by Puritans - preferring the 'Good Book' instead of Darwin and by ignoring his Theory of Evolution! (properly taught)
Richard Dawkins
Popular but controversial science writer Richard Dawkins discusses his new 3-part television series The Genius of Charles Darwin, in which he retraces Darwin's journey and his confrontations with fundamentalists and theologians. The Genius of Charles Darwin starts next Monday 4 August on Channel 4 at 8 pm We have totally ignorant smiley parents, and stupid smiley teachers, at my children's school too, most, though, are just tagging along with PC-ness and covering their own backs. Maybe, their particular form of spinelessness and smiley-ness is better orientated in this direction instead of beating the Hell out of you with a cane or some other, easy to come by and handy implement; this was, not so many years ago in the UK and done without any smiley-ness - usually, masturbation over your pain, bottom, or much worse! Now we are told to respect the teachers (some of them) who are part of this disgraceful exhibition of UK Education Policy. Ref, Compulsory Worship and other superstitious stuff/nonsense coming from the dinosaurian Parliament, and in not standing up firmly to unutterable crass stupidity (44% of UK population, can't be, can it?)! Especially, as all this nonsense is strongly prevalent in the very smiley 'girly orientated nurseries', where they are doing so much appalling long term damage ("I think, I will still say my prayers", with the 'ignorant cowards smile' on the face of Dawkins's student when confronted with the 'truth of life' and for the first time (unbelievable - no wonder we have self-harmer's, suicide or car bombers; going to Heaven amongst countless heavenly virgins, with this smile on their faces). Nursery School being a good place for some of the totally ignorant 'dolly day dreamers', no doubt, but some of them are really very vicious fundamentalists, with this smile on their faces! Ref, "The Playground for Faith and Belief in UK Schools". My own children at the start of one of their New School Years in 2005. Ref, "backward" Britain - "You can't be a member of my class unless you believe in...so and so on..."! http://theanswers42.blogspot.com/2008/08/evolution-and-stupidity.html
'Prehistory' Colin Renfrew - book review @ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2008/01/03/boren130.xml
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