Conspiracy theory

By and large, the world's press is an out of control machine, designed to promote propaganda and the views of the wealthy owners.  Yes there are newspapers and other media outlets that try to present information in a balanced and truthful manner, and then there are the rest who see their role as sellers of newspapers and advertising.

Rather like politicians, the media are no longer trusted and many look at each story as being a fabrication, or at least a distortion of the truth, and who knows? they may well be right. However to see every catastrophe as a conspiracy is probably not a good thing.

There are plenty who believe that America never put a man on the moon, that area 51 hides evidence supporting the existence of aliens, and that the attacks of 9.11 were either bogus or home grown as a means of turning the west against all things Islamic.

The social media give a platform to anyone who has an opinion. Last week, the tragic events in Paris were being blamed on Israel. Allegedly the killers were not fundamental Islamists, but Mossad agents, there to encourage France to make war on Syria.  An interesting idea, and one can see that any action against the Arab nations by the west would be applauded by the Israelis, however it does seem unlikely that however demented they may be, Mossad agents  are unlikely to become suicide bombers.

Some believe that Jeremy Corbyn's rise to the leadership of the Labour Party was engineered by the Tories, knowing that he could never lead the party to an election victory. His humanitarian views, his care for social welfare and for those unrepresented by the government make him an easy target for the tory press and so the labour party are and will remain toothless for the foreseeable future.

Many believe that ISIS is a construct of the West and that it is supported and fuelled by arms manufacturers and governments that make profits from war.  This does seem believable, though the truth does have a habit of seeping out eventually, so time will tell.

It gets harder and harder to keep anything quiet. Any organisation that fosters wrong doing will, sooner or later be exposed by whistleblowers, either out of a wanting to do the right thing, or out of revenge. Public shaming is so easy today and in that there are dangers.

The truth is out there somewhere, and probably lies between the press and the social media. Perhaps we are not ready to accept it yet.

Fools and their money

Groupon has an offer this morning, selling two acre patches of Lunar land for ten pounds.  For this sum, you also receive a certificate that purports to prove your ownership.  No doubt there will be some eager to purchase such a thing and I am sure that many will receive these certificates as christmas gifts. It would seem that the purveyors of snake oil have resorted to online sales.

Plastic crap seems to drive what is left of the economy. Everywhere you look there is ready made garbage that appeals to children and is bought by the tonne by adults at their wits end trying to appease the voracity of appetites for Peppa pig, Ninjago or whatever happens to be in fashion right now.   Within weeks the garbage that is being purchased now  will have lost any sort of attraction and will  be consigned to the black bins along with the superfluous wrappings.

Much of what we buy has redundancy built in.  So we no longer maintain or repair, we just replace things because that is the cheapest option and of course the skills needed to repair things are slowly dying out as are venues where repairs can be done.  I cannot remember the last time that I had shoes repaired for example. Maybe modern materials are better, but my shoes seem to last forever and if they should wear out they will just be replaced.

Everyone wants your money. Never a day goes by without some charity or other sending out pleas for cash, online scams are there in abundance and comment are bleeding the bank accounts of the unwary and unprepared. Of course if you have any left then the tax man wants to take his share too.

I remember a friend who got involved in a pyramid scheme and tried to convince me to participate.  I think it was a company that sold cleaning products. Each salesperson was supposed to recruit eight others, each of which made some payment to the recruiter and so on.  What he hadn't realised was the exponential nature of the scheme and how quickly the population of the world would become Amway salespersons if it continued.  He eventually conceded that it was a stupid idea, unfortunately he had paid in his dues.

So should I buy up a chunk of lunar land in the hope that prices will rise?  I don't think so.

Subservience

The leader of the Labour party certainly makes an impact. We all know that he can never become Prime Minister, and yet there are plenty out there who love to criticise and condemn him for even breathing. He is it seems a man of principle and he is not afraid of challenging the status quo; for that I admire him.
The tabloids have been pointing out his refusal to bow to the queen; a move that some see as shocking behaviour. Why should any human being bow down to any other? It is an act of subservience and one that says "You are my better and I know my place."  Throughout history the ruling classes have had their way, they have been obeyed and worshipped even and the population as a whole have been kept in their place.  Children have been brought up to follow along in the same paths as their parents and so the process has continued.
The monarchy and their underlings have enjoyed this for long enough and it is high time that political leaders,  of whatever party, used their own free will rather than continue along the usual lines just because it has become deeply entrenched in our traditions.
Maybe humanity has evolved to be led by the nose by those deemed stronger or fitter or smarter than they are. The current Royals seem neither strong, fit or even smart, and the most likely next monarch is certainly not one to command a great deal of respect.
Royalty, like religion, has served a purpose, in the suppression of free thinking and thus maintained a stable society in which the wealthy use and abuse those less well off. Fewer and fewer people are so easily conned by either organisation, despite the efforts of the press, and Mr Corbyn was right to demonstrate his refusal to adhere to the ritual, however symbolic it may be.  To accept that someone is better than you is also to accept that others are worse and in a modern world that is not acceptable. I will bow to no-one; we are all human beings.
  

Educational standards

Never a week goes by when someone is having a go at schools and/or teachers. Every one of society's ills is blamed on the establishments that are charged with the education of our children. If kids display a lack of manners, it is the school's fault, bad behaviour, abuse of drugs, knife killings, you name it are all the fault of the school.

We are living in strange times where the needs of the workplace are constantly shifting and because of this, the politicians like to fiddle with the running and the purpose of our education system. More and more is being squeezed into a curriculum that has been overburdened for decades; more and more is expected of teachers, who are constantly bombarded by "new" initiatives that pop in and out of fashion every few years or so, and then there is the accountability that has shifted from student to teacher.

I was browsing through some of the old textbooks that we used in the seventies; the Nuffield Science scheme and the Schools Council Integrated Science Project, and the quality of the material and the demands placed on students were worlds apart from what is expected today. Yes students are still expected to learn, but it seems to me that the emphasis is no longer on the process of learning but on the assimilation of a lot of unrelated facts. Practical work is being phased out on economic grounds, and health and safety concerns have reduced worthwhile experiences to a complete sham.

Taking children out of school has become an administrative nightmare as well as a dangerous activity, taken on only by the brave or foolish, and so for many children, school has become intolerably dull.

Social pressure is a huge factor in how attitudes have changed too.  Learning is seen as being uncool and succeeding academically has very little street credibility. Many young people want to be successful, but their role models are footballers or talentless celebrities that shoot to fame via reality TV shows.  Some come from families that place no value on education, but see schools as containment for their children for part of the day.  They are not taught the most important of life's lessons at home, the parents expecting someone else to take on that role, or not caring one way or the other.  Education is not valued by much of the population; it is seen as irrelevant by some and who can blame them - for many the curriculum is irrelevant. We seem only to value things that we pay for and everything else is taken for granted.

Educational standards are not down to the schools, they are the responsibility of all of us, parents, grandparents and adults in general have a role to play is changing the attitudes of young people and engendering responsibility and self worth in a generation that is in danger of losing its way.

Poppies

Every November, the British Legion takes to the streets and floods every retail outlet with trays of artificial poppies.  This is their big fund raiser and I assume that the cash raised goes to good causes, though these days you can never be sure.  Apart from raising money, the idea is to raise awareness of the terrible events of 1914-1918, when so many lives were lost in a seemingly avoidable conflict. The poppy is seen as a symbol of peace and it is easy to imagine the battlefields, once red with blood, changing in the aftermath to fields festooned with the fragile poppies.

It seems ironic that now the poppy has become a point of conflict in itself. Some feel that everyone should wear a poppy in November, and because that is the way that they think, anyone seen without a poppy is branded as some sort of traitor.  There is a jingoism that blossoms every year and the symbolism has been hijacked by the far right groups such as Britain First, which seems to have taken over from the BNP and the National Front.

There are a number of pro military organisations, that seem to be emerging and growing in size with passing time, and just like in the first world war, it is those who get killed or maimed for life that are labelled as heroes.  In reality of course, some that go to war were heroic, but the majority were ordinary people in the wrong place at the wrong time and had no choice in their actions.

Modern warfare is very different to that of the early twentieth century. Much of the carnage is now delivered from afar and soldiers do not spend months at a time knee deep in mud in trenches infested with rats. Hand to hand fighting and the ridiculous charging at machine guns probably never happens. Those that had to do so had no choice - they either faced the hail of enemy fire or were shot by their own officers if they refused.

Being killed in warfare is tragic and rarely heroic. Yes of course there were men who sacrificed their own lives to save their comrades but for most soldiers they were trying to survive as would anyone in their position.

Petty arguments over symbols have a habit of escalating and each year the conflict over who wears poppies and their "Britishness" seems to grow.  While the poppy is seen as a support for war in general, many people will refuse to wear one and I do not blame them.

More and more silliness.

This has always been a silly time of the year. When we were kids, this was the time when we'd have access to fireworks. Penny bangers appeared in october and we would buy as many as we could afford. Tuppence bangers were better but of course you didn't get as many, so we would wander the streets armed fully with pockets filled with explosives.  They were of course relatively harmless and would frequently explode in your hand if you were not careful; it was painful but I still have all my fingers and I don't remember anyone getting hurt. They were materials for experimentation and we'd explore their potential to the full.  They were quite small and slender, no more than three or four inches long including the blue touch paper and a short fuse. That was the unreliable part, a fuse burning could take two or three seconds but sometimes they would burn almost instantly and so throwing them at each other was risky in so many ways.  We would insert them into plastic airfoil models that we had grown tired of, causing our Messerschmidts and spitfires to shatter and burn and we'd wrap them in clay so they would sink in the river hoping to kill poor unexacting fish. The results were always a disappointment.  One day we discovered that soft parcel string would smoulder for ages and therefore made a great time fuse. We'd put timed bangers under people's door knockers and then run away to watch from a distance.

There was always a village bonfire night. It wasn't well organised and families would just take their own boxes of fireworks to the recreation ground where the communal bonfire had been constructed. It was an opportunity for people to get rid of their rubbish and that pile seemed to grow and grow through october until by november it seemed enormous. Quite often it didn't make it as far as the fifth because some idiot would ignite it just for fun and so we'd have to build a new one.   The fireworks were generally pretty tame and lasted a very short time and as the fire diminished everyone went home. WE'd all dash down in the morning to find the heap still smouldering and we'd get it going again, piling all the unburned debris at the perimeter on top. Then we'd look around for failed fireworks and throw them not the fire too. Our pleasures were very simple in those days.

We now have the continuum of craziness that begins in October with Halloween and runs through until christmas with a media driven spending spree, parting the people from their money with a fluency that is frightening.  Even the film industry chooses this time to release the huge blockbuster movies.

November the fifth is now about huge commercial displays and the consumption of mountains of processed food and the sales of chines manufactured rubbish designed to attract the eyes of children who seem to be given anything and everything that they want.  The parties and displays are not limited to the gift either, they seem to begin as soon s Halloween is done and continue for many days afterwards.

I still love fireworks however and wallow in the smells and sounds that take me back to times when austerity was the norm.