When Daddy was King

Subject: When daddy was King.

The assumptions we made when we were young, under the protection of our parents was a rare time of assumed safety. Each journey we made with them was unwittingly made in the absolute faith they knew what they were doing and knew where they were going. Our faith in them was total as we trailed along in their wake barely understanding the transactions they were committing to to make the journey safe.
They of course were not filled with the same assurance, they were calculating the odds of probability, that given what we knew, then the best outcome should bring us somewhere nearly to where we wanted to be.

These twin worlds are particularly true in early parenting where the child assumes the subordinate role and the parent the authoritative. The assumptions were enough since the propositions had not been tested and it's only in adolescence that the trust we had is called into question and more often denounced as wrong. A  tug of war begins and  hard words spoken before the young person goes off into the world by themselves to test out for themselves the sense, or nonsense of all that parental teaching.
The clock ticks on and the years roll by. Our lives take many turns as we make a success or failure of our attempt to live according to our beliefs. Sometimes those beliefs are rooted in what we learnt on our parents proverbial knee and sometimes we learn the hard way, through trial  and error.
As we grow older our surety weakens not because we fail to see those markings we  followed throughout our lives but because those marking have become irrelevant in the modern world. It's a unique world we live in today, experience counts for little and most of the things we would count valuable are often challenged or simply found on a 'Do It Yourself Manuel on You Tube'.
The experience of knowing the way is now better handled by a 'route finder' on your smartphone. The knowledge you had which was shared and handed down by your parents is now found as a tutorial on the internet. So the regime which placed a parent first in the pecking order is shrinking fast.
The real shock comes when you realise how feeble and out of touch you have become in navigating your way around the most simplistic problem. The hurdles old age builds for itself is the way we find it difficult to take on and assume as a first point of call the problem solving technique of looking it up on our hand held encyclopaedic source of everything from A to Z, the smartphone.
As we stutter and grope around for answers our siblings have the answers at their finger tips, quick accurate solutions, aided and abetted by a plethora of electronic solutions which we never knew existed.
Everyone is an expert except you. The patriarch, no longer the head,  exists only with the patronage of those who in years gone by so longingly looked up to a Daddy, during in that brief period when he was King.

Colonial rule

Subject: Colonial rule.

It's interesting that white colonial rule is nearly always castigated and made the reason for the demise of the people of Africa. Even that statement is bound to cause a flurry of disquiet in certain quarters as we struggle to come to terms with the venal nature of mankind in general.
 Is a person who has lived in a family who's domicile covers more than a few generations on the African continent not also an African. We have no hesitation with claiming Britishness for people from Africa who settle on our shores and yet we seem strangely disquieted by the thought that white people are anything other than usurpers when they live in other lands where the bulk of the people are non white.

The colonial rulers, the British, the Belgians, the French and Germans not to mention the the Portuguese who were the first to settle roots on the continent,  are all seen in a poor light by modern day ideologues who wish for a better more equitable world encouraging multiculturalism in Europe but denying  it in terms of colonialism.
The phrase used most often in the description of colonialist rule is "brutal". They were brutal towards the native inhabitant, robbing them of their birthright, stripping the land of the riches which natural assets such as diamonds, gold, copper and rubber had a greatly magnified value in Europe, whilst in Africa they were virtually worthless.  The exploitation was if anywhere in the value system, between and within the societies. Without the potential asset being transformed into a commodity which had value in the one and not the other it seems to me a flawed argument to equate the one with the other. Does the fact that the Chinese now exploit their economic position over ourselves make them criminal, of course not, it's rather that the course of history which flows an uneven course exposes  some whilst protecting others.
Europe is currently being exploited for its social awareness, its protective human rights culture as it becomes a cherished destination for people of Africa. It's a reverse colonisation which, much as the colonial settlements caused dislocation in the tribal affairs of Africa so the cultural divide of the peoples of Africa causes disruption in the urban landscape of Europe.
The oft discussed propensity of African nations to wither away ( some would argue they are historically rejuvenated) back to a tribal  acknowledgment of power, power held in the hands of a tribal or political chief, with all the potentially despotic consequences which patriarchal dictatorship brings, is a better outcome than the colonial rule, now thrown on the scrap heap of history.
The trauma of the Congo or Zimbabwe are only the latest in a long line of post independence failures. The blame has always been placed on the colonisers and the decay in those countries of what we in Europe would call the assets of modern living, the roads, rail, fresh water, and sewerage disposal have been left to rot, somehow it was up to the colonisers to implant their importance on the local population.
Perhaps as the reverse colonisation takes hold the word will get back from the sons of the sons that colonial rule was not all bad.

Left holding the baby

Subject: Left holding the baby.

The scientific concept  that I am nothing more than a set of chemical and electrical nerve endings, a series of neutrons fired off by the reception of stimulus received by the brain from the world around around me. Nothing more than an totally individualistic entity who's social norms are little more than a primitive reaction learnt for the sake of collective security.  Or the cathedral  like imposition of "Gods Divine  Purpose" in our lives which seems based on nothing more than the primitive fear which lurks in all of us.
A sense of being possessed by something larger, of sharing a common ancestry which comes as a pre-planned exercise in social awareness with all its psychological assumptions regarding morality and ethics, even its assumption of love and responsibility.
When a women becomes pregnant and feel the baby growing inside her it's a unique bond, that sense of creativity which makes the baby hers. In most of us the sight of a new born child leads us to feelings which can only be described as fundamental, that primitive wonder at such an entity, totally dependent for survival and elemental in its lack of identity, other than being one of us. It's personality and it's tantrums are ahead and often defined by its parents but at this special moment, assuming it is healthy the baby belongs to that common stock of human kind and we love it as if it were ours.

I know there are aberrations to this fulfilment, mothers who want nothing to do with their baby. And men who are merely onlookers in this whole process, other than what their upbringing and social grooming has taught them, an awareness of tenderness unrelated to the requirement of actually giving birth or the initial responsibility which giving birth places on a women.
Is this instinctual ?  This acceptance of a role to be played, or is this a part of the social structure which faith, in its wider relevance to humanity suggests. Could we, would we have developed in the way we have, as social animals, without faith.
Watching chimpanzees or elephants perform inside a tight knit social structure, with care and love for their siblings, one has to ask do they have a faith. Is their mimicry of our socialisation, also with their apparent sense of responsibility not just an animalistic thing.  Have we in our mental probing, our constant search for answers not fallen into the trap of assuming that evolution has a goal. That the intricacies of the 'survival of the fittest' leads to a better outcome. What if the fittest were also the least competent in other fields of human endeavour and that strength was also a weakness in that it destroyed the life opportunities for all but a few Alfa males who's dynasty eventually leads us to a dead end.
Does it remind you of the present phenomena market led capitalism, where growth and market movements are cheered on regardless of where the growth is coming from or why and the movement in share prices do not reflect the quality of the stock held but rather the artificiality of computer driven algorithms which track movement for movements sake.
Will our faith in faith die out when AI (artificial intelligence) takes over and the mechanisms of a mechanistic world, freed from social awareness, unaware of that ethical consideration, finally transcends man's need for the reassurance of a father figure and the only moment left of our flirtation with love for loves sake, is that moment when we see and hold a new born baby.

Who's afraid of the big bad wolf.

ubject: Who's afraid of the big bad wolf.

Who's afraid of the big bad wolf. The wolf in question is AI, (artificial intelligence). 
Much of what I write in my blogs questions the changes in society. the way society has become much less defined, where the mix of norms and cultures lead to confusion in all but the diehard advocate of that, (as yet unachieved), multicultural state. Who's apostles speak of a seamless interaction with each other, but who are blind to the variances which environmental pressures bring. That utopian world were compassion irradicates prejudice. 
Perhaps looming over a not too distant horizon, the ultimate utility, Artificial Intelligence will circumvent all our fears and doubts by making "us" irrelevant.
What started as gadgets to assist us is rapidly progressing into gadgets to replace us. Given the speed with which a computer can learn to replicate a function and store the experience and therefore gaining an  ability to judge when that knowledge is appropriate. Not through trial and error, but by assembling, in nano seconds an appraisal or analysis based on previously assimilated experiences (much like we humans do) of what the next best action should be. But unlike humans, 'Artificial Intelligence'  is undeterred by any moral or ethical misgivings which so hinder our human response time. 
We already have the AI conditioning it in our use of the smartphone to "help" us navigate our way around. Many of us have surrendered ourselves to the 'sat nav' as being better than we are at knowing where we are and where we need to go. The emotion of trying to understand our environment, its tricks and complexity is substituted by the bland switch off of all our human emotional or predictive self analysis. We are 'wet nursed' by a machine algorithm and find the psychological impact of this "help" enough to comply eagerly to the next range of gadgets which will take over our cognisance. Surrendering our human awareness, our perceptive ability, and our conscious apprehension will inevitably lead us into becoming zombies. Like children reliant on their parent, we will give up more and more of that human spirit, the spirit of endeavour which has been our defining characteristic.
The time will arrive when we humans become so in thrall to living a computer aided life that the computer itself will rationalises 'our value' to it !!
This is not science fiction but science fact. 
The AI decision will not be a moral one, simply an appraisal of the cost benefit of having us around.
. 

Ode to Libby

Subject: Ode to Libby.

Like a mangy dog in its kennel I toss and turn seeking a soft spot to survey the world through the kennel door. The bone is in reach and the water bowl is full, what more can I want when so much outside the kennel is foreign.
There was a time when I could range around the neighbourhood sniffing here and there, doing the necessary without giving a thought to those pesky humans and their municipal rules. The cats sprinted up the trees as I strolled along, and only that large bull-mastiff  caused any grief as you passed his gate. 
Today there seem to be regulations against much of what we did back then. Humans have cast their myopic gaze over  our lives and now we have to be tethered to a human as they stagger along behind us calling out commands which only reflect their failure to understand our instinctive impulses.
Take cats. They are a scourge for a dog, getting a place on the couch whilst we have to make do with a smelly blanket in the kitchen. They come and go at their leisure the humans even provide a small hatch in the door for them to come and go whilst we have to wait for walkies. They don't have the same sense of commitment to humans as we do there's little tail wagging or genuine affection which we exhibit freely and without charge. Food seems to be the only reason for a cat to hang around and I have seen cats openly cadging a meals from around the neighbourhood.
Out in any weather we still provide that signal of companionship and affection, even on blustery wind swept days when we would be much happier tucked up in our box. We never complain to be hooked up to the leash and respond to words like walkies without ill feeling.
The ignominy of watching us poo and then rushing forward to scoop it up in a bag is very condescending. My nose can pick out any number of poo's left unattended. From the cat to the squirrel they lie all around unscrutinised but 'wow' if I have a No 2 the  whole world descends on my shoulders and plethora of sanctions fall into place.
No leave me alone here in my kennel to dream of catching that over indulged cat when it walks in after midnight. Then we will see who's boss.

Being self sufficient

Subject: Being self sufficient.

Sometimes when you make a decision you wake up the following day and say to yourself "my God what did I do that for". It's often the case that your actions have consequences and these consequences which are not on your horizon prior to the decision suddenly loom up like battleships on the horizon. The potential to do you harm is enormous but until the shells start to cross the water it's the threat which frightens us.
Our lives are full of moments when we turned this way and that and if you have a mind to you could spend hours contemplating, 'what if'. The fact is, we do things often on a whim, often because we believed what we hear, often because we are emotionally or ideologically driven by events.
Listening to the Noble Lords in Parliament hang their collective heads (with a few exceptions) and wish that "the people's vote" had never happened and that the plebs have been ignorant in not understanding the consequences, it was always so. 
As the Titanic went down and the first class passengers took to the boats their concern was for 'their families' not the third class or stowage class who's route to the lifeboats was blocked since the ship didn't carry lifeboats for them. 
The Lords are concerned, neigh terrified that their estate is going to be turned over and their lives disrupted. Who could wish to rock their boat and how can they prevent it.
52% of those who took the trouble to vote wanted to leave the EU. They very possibly misconstrued the dire state they were in, economically to those damn foreigners. The lack of jobs, lack of accommodation,  overloaded healthcare and the near non existent social contract they had been promised in old age. 
With the Daily Express and the Daily Mail bombarding them with false news, day in and day out, month in and month out, year in and year out, even decade in and decade out, was it any wonder that the brainwashed washed public, who had suffered, (particularly since the financial collapse in 2008) not from our relationship with Europe (Europe have pumped money into the hardest hit areas of Britain), but rather they suffered from that strange brand of Etonian leadership which, looking around to save money and balance the books, books which the bankers had pillaged when being payed out after the crash, settled on the poor and the already destitute and it was these very people who had hit back with the only weapon they have, their vote in the Referendum. Theirs is not, as they see it, given the wilful brainwashing by the establishment, a difficult choice, it was "Johnny Foreigner what did it".
Their Lordships much removed from the travails of Hull or Rotherham were never much exposed to what goes on outside the bubble of London and specifically Westminster, the nearest they get to a tenement is reading a paper produced by a think tank written by academics as part of the course requirement to get a First.
If we go off the high board in a couple of months time and providing they haven't drained out all the water, we will hit the water and instinctively learn to swim again. Perhaps it won't be in an Olympic pool with flashy facilities but rather like the municipal pool in Peel Park where I grew up, a bit smelly and run down but adequate. 
Adequate has to be our new adjective. We need to adequately adjust to being a second flight nation. We need to rid ourselves of grandiose ideas, of punching above our weight. We need to consider our own people before we worry about everyone else. We need to spend the money we flash around in 'overseas aid' and expensive expeditions to solve the wars that unruly nations across the world get themselves into and concentrate on educating our own children to be productive human beings. For too long we have ignored our own stock of home grown talent (other than the fee paying schools) and rather filled the work space with imports from outside. 
Sell off trident and reduce the fleet to patrolling our own waters. Keep the army, airforce and navy to a minimum like the Scandinavians, they too had a glorious past but grew up to realise the advantage of being small is also to be self-sufficient.

2019

 

Subject: 2019

The fireworks have gone and the starry sky given way to the black, never ending outer space. After the party we nurse our headache and wonder what it was all about, this celebrating a new year. As day follows night so we pick up where we left off struggling to piece together our place in the scheme of things. 

This will of course be a year to be reckoned with. It's the year when we came out again, like chicks emerging from their mothers protection surreally exposed after weeks of seclusion and forced feeding we now have to forage for ourselves. Full of dangers which we were protected from by the discipline of someone else who said they knew better, we now have to forge our own links with reality. That Bald Eagle in the sky or the Chinese dragon patiently waiting for our representative to call and are but two of a plethora of connections we have to forge to seek recognition in the world at large.
The chick, in its naivety noisily demands attention from its protector. The mother seeks to instil some sort of rudimentary knowledge before the young chick flies off the nest to make its own way but as every mother knows it's never enough and just around the corner lies some event which will be the make or break from there on.
We have reached that point as we attempt to leave the European nest. As in nature, it has to be done to fulfill our full potential, a potential we assume is there to assume. Soon we will know. Sufficient numbers of the population felt there was room for change. 
The cloister atmosphere of the EU Commissioners remit, like the monks in a monastery could only see what was inside the walls of their monastic desire but we, the Anglophile who remembers their colonial ambitions and the fame and fortune they brought wants to reopen the book, page 47 to try to rekindle those old fires who's embers never truly went out.