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Change Isn’t Coming – A rallying cry, Not!
Posted Oct 9, 2009
Is it undeniable that the world is changing?
Is the Earth, whether you believe it to be six thousand or six billion years old, changing?
Of course, we only have our own statistics to refer to when it comes to our analysis of the evidently changing world.
Can we believe what we are told by the group of people who, not too long ago in history, told us that the world was irrefutably flat and that the sun rotated around the Earth?
How do we know, except that it all fits in with some mathematical theory that somebody worked out, that the current view of the world and its place in the universe is correct?
Perhaps the world really is only six thousand years old? Perhaps the dinosaur bones really are just a perplexing puzzle deliberately buried by a mischievous deity to occupy our tiny brains, a kind of elaborate gigantic brain training project?
We tend to put all the analysis of our scientific and anthropological beginnings into the hands of others.
This is ironic because one of the characteristics of all men and women is to be inquisitive and yet we have evolved into an ant colony-like state where the many allow the few to tell us what to think and what to believe while the rest of us simply beaver away, earn (and spend) our money and simply exist.
In a strange sort of parody of the plot of the movie, The Matrix, many of us have become so bored of this non-existence life that we turn to the internet for cyber-connectivity.
Here there are whole virtual worlds to enjoy. Chatting, sharing pictures, videos and even posting commentaries of our boring lives in tiny messages.
Some Internet “worlds” emulate real life but are populated by bizarre and extraordinary versions of people.
Some people become so involved in these virtual worlds that they begin to waste away. A fact that was predicted in the 1980s British sit-com series, Red Dwarf, in which a virtual computer game, “Better Than Life”, required users to plug in their brains making it virtually impossible to escape unless you realised that it wasn’t reality.
What is so wrong with the real world that so many of us feel the need to escape from it? Is this a new phenomenon?
Escapism isn’t new; we may have become better at presenting all the fantasy but we’ve simply gone from sitting by camp fires and listening to story tellers, through books, movies and computer games and on to the Internet.
Unless we do something, the next step will be needles in the eyes and electrodes in the brain.
Our ability to use our mind to escape into imaginary worlds sets us apart from other animals. But, of course, we only have the words of others who tell us that this is true.
The popular opinion of those followers of Darwinism would have us believe that we have changed or evolved over the last forty thousand years.
Creationists tell us that we, the world and everything in it were created six thousand years ago in just six days and that we are exactly the same now as we were then.
Probably neither of these is correct as they are both theories that have been put together by men and women and what can they possibly know about anything?
We haven’t even been introduced.
The fundamental question is; who cares?
Why is it so important to know where we came from? The simple answer is that it isn’t important to know. We’d just like to. But why?
We have been conditioned to look back. But we should be looking forward.
If you look at all the stories about people throughout history, the stories that are supposed to be true accounts of actual events, the one thing that seems abundantly clear is that people have not changed one bit since “records began”.
And if we haven’t changed since records began then you can be pretty sure that we didn’t change much before those records began.
But, what has changed is our ability to change things. We’ve learnt to be very good at that.
During the hundred years or so between now and the latter part of the nineteenth century men and women have created the internal combustion engine, wired and wireless telephonic communication, computers and the Internet.
They have discovered the internal workings of, and managed to split, an atom. They have managed to work out the structure of life itself and discovered the genes that make all living things the way they are.
Before that, people had done some pretty fantastic stuff with fire, wheels, guns, steam engines, clocks and a whole host of other clever mechanical things.
Not to mention all the advances that people have made in medical science.
In short, men and women have been applying their minds to bigger and better things over the last forty thousand years since (allegedly) Homo sapiens first learnt to walk erect.
They have managed to change the way we live and the environments we live in. They have made our lives more sedentary, if we want them to be, with gadgets and gizmos aplenty.
But have we changed?
No.
Should we change?
In the words of the Churchill Insurance dog; oh, yes!
The last question here, which is annoyingly rhetorical, is; can we change?
Essentially we have all been lazy. The world of technology has overwhelmed us. The Internet and other communications devices give us the perfect excuse not to bother interacting with anyone. We can buy anything on-line and have it delivered. Soon robots will be able to drive delivery vans and be programmed to open garage doors.
If we don’t interact we don’t mix, if we don’t mix we don’t diversify and if we don’t diversify we will never change.
The historical evidence, if you believe it, may be against us, that’s why you should never look back, enjoy everything you read in books but never believe a word of it.
Let’s all get off our arses (donkeys, mules, asses however you wish to spell it) and do something.
Let’s interact.
Let’s revolt. Let’s tell the media where to go. Let’s buck the trend.
Let’s ruin the statistics.
Let’s change!
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Latest reply: Oct 9, 2009
Warwick Castle
Posted Sep 2, 2009
After our trip to Stratford Upon Avon (see last journal entry) we travelled home via Warwick Castle. We planned to visit for an hour or two before completing our journey south. We ended up staying there for the whole day.
At the start of our day we helped open the gates of the castle and watched an entertaining presentation on the history of archery.
I was then press ganged (by my daughter) into taking part in the operation of the trebuchet. A trebuchet is a medieval device for hurling large chunks of stone at castle walls - not the same as, but similar to a catapult. This involved me walking on a tread mill for a few minutes which was extremely tiring.
Next we watched a very entertaining dual between several of the castles knights. Lots of booing at the villains and cheering at the good guys.
There were interesting historical displays in the castles state rooms too and we ended with a long walk of the walls, which involved going up and down several million small stone spiral stair cases.
An excellent day at an historic monument that has been well presented for the modern family visitor.
Definitely recommended.
Askme1
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Latest reply: Sep 2, 2009
A visit to the town of Stratford Upon Avon
Posted Sep 2, 2009
Most people who have heard of William Shakespeare will probably have heard of Stratford Upon Avon. It’s a small rather quaint little town in the county of Warwickshire in England and it rests on the banks of the River Avon, hence its name.
A brief search of h2g2 doesn’t reveal much about Stratford Upon Avon except in connection with Shakespeare. This isn’t surprising, I suppose, as Shakespeare is probably one of the most famous people in the history of the world and he was born, lived for some of his life and died there. Shakespeare’s wife and family also lived there although Shakespeare himself actually spent most of his adulthood in London.
To be honest, if you are not a fan of Shakespeare and his plays, there isn’t much about this town that would lure the casual traveller to it’s clutches. It's quite pretty in places, but then it also has some horrid modern bits.
My family and I visited Stratford Upon Avon in the summer of 2009. As ardent fans of Shakespeare’s plays, we had planned a trip to see “A Comedy of Errors” performed by the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC). And, as were going to be in the town, we thought we would “take-in” an historic house or two.
Our first bit of culture was a visit to the home of Anne Hathaway, the wife of William Shakespeare. This a pretty little thatched house which has graced the lids of chocolate boxes the world over with it’s colourful cottage garden and it’s exposed beam exterior walls. Sadly, the “Shakespeare” connection is tenuous in the extreme. Despite bedecking the garden with quotations from “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and extremely helpful and informative guides who are careful not to overplay the Shakespeare connection, it turned out that Anne Hathaway didn’t actually live in the house and hardly any of the furniture in it today had been there in Shakespeare’s time.
This was the beginning of a day and half of visits to properties that might, probably have been connected to Shakespeare at some point in his life. Possibly.
The fact is that history has preserved only about a hundred actual references to William Shakespeare and Stratford Upon Avon’s connection to him is implied but not explicit.
But the play’s the thing and it was excellent. Forget the rest. Go to Stratford Upon Avon for the plays. The rest is silence.
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Latest reply: Sep 2, 2009
Who cares?
Posted Aug 26, 2009
We really do live in dreadful times.
We have to watch awful talent shows (as loose a definition of “talent” is required to make this meaningful here) on TV.
These shows tell us that being smug, rude and generally unpleasant is “the way forward” in this sound bite strewn, molly coddling, petty humour riddled world.
Newspapers make “news” out of un-newsworthy events.
“We’ve found out, exclusively, this morning, that one member of a panel of people responsible for making some kind of decision that will ultimately mean nothing to anybody, didn’t agree with everyone else on the panel. This SHOCKING news came to light several days after the panel had announced its decision and thus means that not everyone agreed with the final decision. The panel were divided on the issue. So how can we be sure that what they decided was right?….”
We will be told tomorrow whether the newspaper thinks the panel were right and then the next day we’ll get another view and then the next day we will find out that one panel member is sleeping with another one…
Who cares?????
Well, as a matter of fact, I do. All this sensationalism is madness. Let’s stop this.
We are all going mad – why do we believe what we are told by the papers – why do we allow it to wind us up.
I read somewhere that nobody thinks for themselves anymore.
Did you see what I did there?
askme1
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Latest reply: Aug 26, 2009
Does it, cosmically speaking, matter...
Posted Oct 10, 2007
...if I don't get up today?
Well, I mean, the mortgage doesn't get paid, yes. But does it actually mean anything? What is the square root of 1,764 
?
Why do people always have to be in such a rush?
This morning I was standing at the station platform with a few other individuals who like to travel at a time of day where the chances of getting a seat on the train are a little better than probable. When a gentlemen (I use the term loosely) who was of an age that should have known better, came a stood next to me.
He was six feet tall and from his head to his chest he was, to all intents and purposes, of normal build. He was a little ruddy of face, perhaps, for 0615hrs but otherwise he seemed generally well proportioned.
However, at the level, probably, of his man boobs it all went wrong as his body ballooned out to a waste size that must have been in the early fifties in inches (british imperial measures). Now I'm not judgemental about people's size - it may be medical. And he seemed a nice enough looking chap.
So, picture us standing side by side waiting on platform 2 for the 0623hrs to arrive. And, as I was happily listening to Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd on my sleek black ipod (white is so 90s) the train pulled in.
Now, I am a bit of a regular on this train, so I know pretty well exactly where to stand to be where the doors are when the train stops.
As this morning's train pulled to a halt, the centre of the doors stopped about half way between us. I say about half way, but the central divide was a little in my favour.
Being the gentlemen that I am I hesitated to let fatty - sorry- to let the chap next to me go first but he was already barging me out of the way. I laughed at this as Dave Gilmore told me about Us and Them.
Once inside the train there is a choice to go either left or right into the body of the carriage. He plumped for right, I had already decided to go left so I tucked myself just behind him on his left. He must have known I was there, or maybe he thought he'd taken me out at the entrance and I was lying on the platform.
Anyway, just as I was about to execute my turn, he took against his right turn and began to turn left. Noticing the jinking turn I didn't stop, assuming that he might have an attack of guilt and let me go through first. And he did sort of hesitate for a brief moment before once again barging through, this time knocking me off my balance.
It's six in the morning. There are hundreds of seats. There's no rush.
Why do people always have to be in such a rush? 
Askme1 
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Latest reply: Oct 10, 2007
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askme1aboutfish
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