Why I don't believe in either Conservatives or Labour

My attempt at blogging about politics - this could make no sense, forgive me - I'm new at this stuff.

Ever since the run up to the recent election, I've been trying to improve my knowledge on politics, mainly UK politics, I felt embarrassed that I couldn't hold a proper conversation about something that I've learned is so important to each and every one of us, and the future of absolutely everyone and everything.

I have always been interested in philosophy, I was never religious but I wanted to understand 'the meaning of life' or whatever, I wanted to stop myself from being scared of death, to get the most out of life. I remember when I was young sitting at the dinner table chatting to my family and suddenly realising that I was actually dying at that point, saying something like "so we're all getting closer to death every second" and being so stunned and scared by this prospect. I discovered that's why a lot of people follow religion, they need faith in something to have a purpose, to feel safe and secure and to have a reason to be good, and to have hope when things go wrong. Often people go off the rails if they don't see any point or meaning. I couldn't grasp the concept of God, or as I was taught it at least - the Creator. I was always more drawn to the Big Bang theory, evolution, science - although at school I was useless at science. I read the book, 'The Curious Incident of a Dog in the Night-Time', I actually posted about it on my blog back in 2010. I was comfortable with the idea of dying and my energy being absorbed into the universe, as the boy in the book puts it:

"What actually happens when you die is that your brain stops working and your body rots, like Rabbit did when he died and we buried him in the earth at the bottom of the garden. And all his molecules were broken down into other molecules and they went into the earth and were eaten by worms and went into the plants and if we go and dig in the same place in 10 years there will be nothing except his skeleton left. And in 1,000 years even his skeleton will be gone. But that is all right because he is a part of the flowers and the apple tree and the hawthorn bush now..."

I listened to some of Alan Watts' lectures, and read some Hunter S. Thompson, Jack Kerouac, D.H. Lawrence... I suppose they would be bohemian types - some of their work influenced my perspective on life, all before I learned much about politics. So I had a base if you like, I began to feel like we are all part of something much bigger than our human society, yet that rules us all. We are alive in our consciousness for a short while, it's a great blessing in itself, yet so many people go through so much pain, it's so depressing. I believe that ideally those of us who are privileged really ought to share our good fortune with less fortunate beings, and encourage them to be more engaged, we should all be able to enjoy the ride.

Previously I had never voted. I'd never really been interested in politics, I felt completely disconnected and uninterested. My early realisations were:

1. I didn't fully agree with any of the parties' manifestos; I was under the assumption that no matter which party were in charge of running the country, there would always be groups of people in society who felt mistreated, there is no way everyone could agree and be happy.

2. There are so many aspects to it; we hear about it so often - the party currently in power having to fix the damage from previous years. We very rarely know the truth of who's to blame, and our opinions can often be distorted by those we should be able to trust, giving biased accounts of happenings.

3. The only possible saving grace would be to have a diverse government who collectively understand and have compassion for the lives and needs of all people, the planet, and everything else. Educated leaders who each had a unique perspective, coming from differing backgrounds. Then I thought, but that is why there is such mayhem in government, because many of these MP's have different views yet don't have the capacity to try to understand things from an alternative perspective or the ability to compromise fairly. It takes them so long to come to any agreement on important issues, it seems to take years to change broken systems.

4. A statement I heard quite often that I wanted to learn more about before jumping on the bandwagon: "the rich get richer and the poor get poorer"

Dara and I would chat about these things, both being liberals and not really knowing which party we should support.

Other than conversing with people, Youtube has been my main source of educating myself, firstly watching people such as Akala, the Artist Taxi Driver, Russel Brand, Frankie Boyle, Stewart Lee. All seemingly angry with the government, certainly opposing the Convervative manifesto. Listening to their views, I felt drawn to the left. I couldn't quite get my head around the injustice and lack of compassion for people lower down in society, under the current system. Particularly the unbalance of government spending - how can these people on one end be getting paid way more than they could possibly need to live comfortably even when in most cases they have been born into money, sure they may have worked hard but more often than not it was because their parents could afford the best education, therefore giving them that platform. While on the opposite end, less privileged people who may not have been given many opportunities, have had many battles to face throughout their lives, even those with disabilities, are all seemingly being categorised as scroungers and unable to access even the bare minimum financial support from their government, leading them into lives of destitute rather than prosperity. It seems as though if you are born into a middle to upper class family you are likely to live a life of prosperity, wealth and success, whereas if you're born into a lower working class or poor family, you are highly unlikely to escape that category. It doesn't seem right that your life can be planned in that way before you're even born. 

David Cameron is always saying "we stand for working people" in other words "we don't stand for scroungers", but they are not tackling the issue of 'benefit scrounging' in the right way. So many people are being forced into that category and not given any support. It seems to be so categorical, there isn't enough focus on rehabilitation. People need to be more engaged, encouraged and given better resources to lead a more positive and productive lifestyle. It seems to be so much about money, we need more compassion and education to spend the money in the right way. You can't just tell people that they need to change their lifestyle and turn their worlds upside down in the aim that they will one day find a balance and not need government help. People need real support, access to opportunities to give something back and be engaged with society. 

Rehabilitation is a word that I find myself using quite often. I believe that we are all born pure, sure we may have certain traits built into us, but we can all grow into something good, given that we can access to the right opportunities and resources. Likewise we are all capable of being bad, if we are drawn down those paths. We come to many crossroads in our lives where we can go off track, things can go terribly wrong, we can be lead into unhealthy, soul destroying situations. But I firmly believe that with the right resources, compassion, time and love - we can all overcome these troubles and be rehabilitated to our original form but with wisdom gained by learning from our experiences. Often we hear people saying 'find God', I believe this translates into finding peace and love within ourselves, reconfiguring our lives.

I recently went to Budapest, I learned more about Communism while I was there. More recently I watched a Socialism debate at Oxford University, called 'Does Socialism work'. My two favourite speakers were Jeremy Corbyn on the 'yes' side and Daniel Hannan on the 'no' side. It was a very interesting debate. Daniel argues that fascism emerges from socialism, which leads to communism, referring to the failing communist regimes we've seen in the past, similar to what I had learned about in Hungary. Jeremy talks about the principles of a communal health service and those socialist concepts, the evils of free market capitalism, access to decent housing and decent education for everyone. Daniel talks about the desire for material improvement being fundamental in human nature. Jeremy talks about eliminating poverty and injustice while Daniel believes that the 6 billion people in this world who can't afford the cars and dishwashers, WILL be raised to a higher standard of living in the future when free exchange, specialisation and comparative advantage run their course. It's difficult to take either side because you can see where they are both coming from. Two very passionate and intelligent speakers. We need to keep both sides in mind and try to meet somewhere in the middle, compromise reflects democracy. Perhaps Daniel is right that more and more people will be raised to a higher standard of living in the future, but Jeremy is right in that action needs to be taken NOW to help these people in poverty and suffering injustice.

Is this really how it is? 

Is this the morbid alternative?

Ultimately there will never be complete fairness and equality in our species, as Daniel Hannan says: "Socialism and capitalism are matrices, they are economic systems within which people can be generous or greedy, they can be selfish or altruistic." 

Capitalism is really run by cartels and corporations but ultimately that's always going to be the case. In history we've seen that communism was run by criminals and greed ridden businesses too and civilians ended up much worse. We need to find a way to distribute money more fairly without exploiting anybody. We need to find a way to reduce greed and the desire for fast and destructive development. We need to show Capitalist leaders how people are being failed by their system, and work hard to introduce innovative ways of engaging these failed people with society, encouraging an egalitarian system where everyone is given the compassion and financial support that they need, no more and no less. 

I felt a lot more against, or rather - unable to understand the Conservatives before listening to Daniel Hannan. Many people I know voted Conservative, a large portion of the population voted them in, they must have had their reasons to do so, it's unproductive to simply ignore that fact. My first thoughts still apply, except I know have a better understanding of the statement "the rich get richer and the poor get poorer". I still don't feel as though I would support either the Conservatives or Labour, however I now feel that no matter who's in power, we will still have battles to face, these need to be fought within communities, we need to focus our energy on making small changes. Creating a different world by these many small operations. We will always have to work hard as individuals and within our communities to create a positive impact on the world in whatever way possible depending on the resources available to us. 

We have a voice now more than ever; with the powers of social media, the widespread media attention on petitions that normal people set-up to make changes in the world via platforms such as change.org, easier access to alternative news sources such as Private Eye, Huffington Post, Youtube, bloggers. More and more young people are becoming engaged with politics. If we continue to educate ourselves and others, avoiding stirring up anger by only displaying our biased views, keeping conversations open by looking at things from different perspectives, developing our knowledge and sparking interest in other people, rather than constantly battling against the system, we can actually create a positive impact on society. We can shape the future. Let's not settle on just complaining about what we think is wrong with the world, lets also seek possible solutions and promote them. 

On a less serious note:

“No matter how corrupt, greedy, and heartless our government, our corporations, our media, and our religious charitable institutions may become, the music will still be wonderful.” 

― Kurt Vonnegut, A Man Without a Country

Can Socialism work?

I stumbled upon this debate that took place a couple of years ago. The topic really interested me as I've always known a little about Communism and Capitalism, and I wanted to know how Communism, which on paper sounds quite ideal, could end in such disaster as I'd recently learned about in the Tower of Terror, Budapest. 

I mostly enjoyed listening to Jeremy Corbyn on the 'yes' side and Daniel Hannan on the 'no' side. I'm definitely a socialist but I do understand what Hannan is saying. Unfortunately we do not live in my ideal sort of world. 

Click on their names to watch the full speech, or see my highlights below:

Jeremy Corbyn: 

"The party that is heavily represented by the other side here are presiding over an explotion of free market private rented flats which now make up a 3rd of my constituency and the people are being socially cleansed by high rents and insufficient benefits and the refusal of government to bring in any form of rent control.

Again, better quality housing leads to better education which leads to better health."

To John Redwood, " You promoted greed at the expense of an egalitarian society."

"The moral case about socialism - those people opposite that spoke will have you believe that there is something normal and natural about living in a society where dog eats dog, the poorest go to hell and the richest do well. Do you want to live in a society where there is no public provision of any kind of service. There is only private provision and the only thing to worship is money and getting rich at the expense of others, or do you want to live in a society where there is universal health care, where there is a protection against total destitution and poverty, and every child gets to go to school. I want to live in a society that has that kind of collective principle about it.

"I also think we have to have a thought about the natural environment in which we live. We live in a free market society - certainly the domination of the worlds multinational companies and banks very powerful indeed. Are they really caring about what happens to the environment, are they really caring about the level of exploitation of oil and other mineral resources, are they really caring about the damage they are doing to the environment. Only if you live in a society and a set of principles where u take from people what they can afford in order to give that to people what need it. In other words, from each according to their means to each according to their needs." 

Daniel Hannan interrupts with a point:

"That principle found its fullest expression in the Eastern Europe Marxist states, which taught that nature is a resource to be exploited and that resulted in the smoke stag (?) degredation which has not ben likened anywhere in the capitalist world. The best thing to happen to the environment was the fall of the Berlin wall so that property rights began to reverse the ecological catastrophe that Marxism had created. 

Jeremy's response: 

"There is some interesting parts of Marx that you obviously didn't get round to reading about Marx and the environment and about the sustainability of life. I have not actually said anything in defense of the exploitation of natural resources in Eastern Europe or anywhere else, I'm making a point that if we want to survive on this planet, we cannot go on exploiting and polluting at the rate we are, we cannot ruin our environment and destroy an Eco system and expect to survive. If you live in a free market society, a free market capitalist society will grab every piece of resource it possibly can and it wont give a damn about the environmental effects of it. A collective principal, where care about everybody does give us that opportunity to protect the natural world and the natural environment. 

If you want to live in a decent world then is it right that the worlds economy is dominated by a group of unaccountable multi national corporations? They are the real power in the world today not the nation state. And if u want to look at the victims of the ultimate of this free market catastrophe that the world is faced with at the moment, go to the shanty towns o the fringes of so many big cities around the world. When the world bank arrives and tells them to privatise all public services, to sell all state owned land to make inequality a paragon of virtue, that is what drives people into danger and poverty. Think about what kind of world you want to live in - Do you want the dog to eat dog or do u want us all to care for each other, support each other and eliminate poverty and injustice? A different world is possible." 

Daniel Hannan: 

"Contention that fascism had emerged out of socialism." 

"Socialism rests on compulsion. Its defining ethic is not equality but coercion.

Socialism and capitalism are matrices, they are economic systems within which people can be generous or greedy, they can be selfish or altruistic. Human nature is something that comes whether from our genes or from our maker. It isn't something that's created by an economic system. But what's unique about socialism is the readiness of a state to deploy coercive force. Now we've evolved a great vocabulary to describe this; We talk about things like 'asking people to pay a bit more tax', see what happens if they choose not to - behind all that polite sounding 'asking them to pay their share to contribute' is the threat of prison. Now of course there are some occasions where any society will need to rely on coercive force, on incarceration, there are some taxes that are necessary in any system, but the use of coercive and ultimately lethal force by the state is its most awesome and awful power. We should tilt the balance as far as we can to liberty. That power should be used as the prayer book says of marriage reverently, discretely, advisedly, soberly." 

"The idea that those of us on this side are in favour of dog eat dog, if by dog eat dog you mean the desire for material improvement, that is a fundamental in human nature under all systems, you had it under the communist regime, the feudal regime, but what is unique about capitalism is that it harnessed that ambition to a socially useful end. Under every other system devised by human intelligence, a group of people sat on top and the way to get rich was to suck up to those in power. We uniquely in this country - and we then exported it - came up with a system where you satisfied your ambition by serving the rest of your fellow citizens under the law. We channeled that desire for self improvement in a socially productive way. and that's why socialist countries are not just less wealthy, they are also less free. It's not just that socialism doesn't work in the sense that if fails to provide material advance, it doesn't work in that it takes away human dignity, and civil rights above all our freedom to make choices as antonymous individuals."

"Somehow on this side that we are said to be more materialistic, greedier, less humane that we have less by way of fellow feeling and sympathy than those of the other side. If you contrast socialist and capitalist economies, you see precious little evidence of that, but for what its worth, I'm a conservative politician, I spend a lot of my time with libertarians,conservatives and free marketers of every stripe. I can tell u hand on heart that I've never met anyone who derives more pleasure from a healthy bank balance than from listening to Beethoven or playing with his children, or going for a walk in the country. But what is it that enables us to do those things? Its economic progress. The fact that you have a dishwasher and don't have to spend all that time washing by hand means you can go for that walk in the country, the fact that you have a car and don't have to queue at the tram station means you can listen to Beethoven symphonies, the fact that you don't have to do 6 weeks of work just to feed your children means you can spend the weekend playing with them... and where did those economic advances come from? From the system that unlocked the inventiveness of a creative people, that tapped into the unlimited potential of human innovation and raised our species to a standard of living that a couple of generations ago would have been unimaginable. Now that has happened for about 1 billion people in the world, those of us who can afford the cars and the dishwashers. There are 6 billion people who can't afford cars or dishwashers, but they will, they will as free exchange, and specialisition and comparitave advantage run there course, raising people to a higher and higher standrad of living UNLESS we go down the road of Cuba or Zimbabwe or any other socialist country because ths notion doesn't work. Don't make the mistake of judging socialsm as a textbook theory but by judging capitalism buy its necessarily imperfect outcomes. Judge like with like - in the real world you find me a funcitoning socialist country that as delivered more than a free market alternative."

Feline & canine weekend

Soggy Sunday exploring with Darcie and Finn

Saturday with Tiger in Spelsbury... 

Miley Cyrus

Whatever opinions you have on this girl, I think she's on a mission to creative a positive impact on the world, it's not necessarily working on the music industry but she seems to be doing some great work with her Happy Hippie foundation.

Listen to this speech at AmfAR Inspiration Gala:

I am part of the sun

"I am part of the sun as my eye is part of me. That I am part of the earth my feet know perfectly, and my blood is part of the sea. There is not any part of me that is alone and absolute except my mind, and we shall find that the mind has no existence by itself, it is only the glitter of the sun on the surfaces of the water." D.H. Lawrence

Tuesday morning doggy social

Before I left London for Australia I always figured I'd move back there on my return, but since being back, I've been so against the idea. 

I went to London on Saturday for the first time in a while and while I was there I realised something; there are so many things I love about it, most significantly my wonderful friends who reside there. There's always so much going on, lot's of inspiration around, a load of fun to be had... but really, I just find it chaotic in a way, I don't know if that's the right word... I know that every corner of the city provides new surrounding and culture but I suppose the first and main factor you deal with is the transport, the populated tube's and road's.. It's that rat-race culture, the busyness, the lack of interaction with other people, that feeling of being alone and insignificant. One thing I really noticed this time, coming off the Overground at Hackney Wick; my mind was constantly being fed information from all over the place - signs, maps, posters, adverts, graffiti, stickers on vans and other marketing. That constant mind control. It's not necessarily negative information, some of it (particularly the graffiti) can be inspiring and pleasing to focus on. It's just that lack of option, there is no choice but to absorb this information surrounding us, whether we think it influences us or not. I suppose many people put their earphones in and block it all out with music, or call friends on their journeys from A-B, or try to keep their heads down in their thoughts. 

Since living in Oxford and spending more time out in the countryside - well actually it was living on Belka farm in Western Australia that really sparked my interest in the natural world - I find it so important to escape into the wild for at least a small amount of time each day. No human interference, just the open sky, the sound of the birds and other wildlife. A chance to breath, to wake-up, to clear your mind and find peace before getting on with your daily routine. 

This morning's walk was particularly good, as we bumped into 3 other people and their 4 lovely dogs - so all 5 dogs were in their element, as were we as we walked through the woods together getting to know each other, appreciating the peaceful morning.







The moral of the story... 

Got me dancing!

Current reading

Two books by Paulo Freire:

Pedagogy of the Oppressed and;

Education for Critical Consciousness 

"“Education either functions as an instrument which is used to facilitate integration of the younger generation into the logic of the present system and bring about conformity or it becomes the practice of freedom, the means by which men and women deal critically and creatively with reality and discover how to participate in the transformation of their world.” 


“It is not the unloved who initiate disaffection, but those who cannot love because they love only themselves. It is not the helpless, subject to terror, who initiate terror, but the violent, who with their power create the concrete situation which begets the 'rejects of life.' It is not the tyrannized who initiate despotism, but the tyrants. It is not those whose humanity is denied them who negate humankind, but those who denied that humanity (thus negating their own as well). Force is used not by those who have become weak under the preponderance of the strong, but by the strong who have emasculated them.” 

Such a great writer... read, read, read!

Mhairi Black: SNP MP - GO ON GAL

It's refreshing to see a politician speaking passionately from the heart, and one who doesn't seem controlled by money.

 

Bill Hicks - Revelation

Too funny.

Watch this if you have an hour or so to kill!

http://www.disclose.tv/action/viewvideo/162953/Bill_Hicks__Revelations__Complete_Entire_Video/

The Nature Of Consciousness (by Alan Watts)

Not I, But the Wind

"Be definite, my dear; be detailed, be business-like. The love is there - then let the common-sense match it."

- D. H. Lawrence to his Frieda

We are golden, caught in the devil's bargain

We are stardust, billion year old carbon. 

We are golden, caught in the devil's bargain.

- Joni Mitchell

Listen: Is Your Love Big Enough ?

This beautiful voice gets into your head and soothes, listen:

Sharada

When I was in India a couple of years ago, I had a bit of a sickness bug for a couple of days so I was bound to the hotel room. I found the music channel on TV and there was a show on commemorating the best Bollywood soundtracks of all time, or something like that.. anyway this song came on and I fell in love with it. I still think of it as one of the most beautiful pieces of music I've ever heard:

Alan Watts

"The meaning of life is just to be alive. It is so plain and so obvious and so simple. And yet everybody rushes around in a great panic as if it were necessary to achieve something beyond themselves." 

"When we finally got down to something, which the individual says he really wants to do, I will say to him, you do that and forget the money, because, if you say that getting the money is the most important thing, you will spend your life completely wasting your time. You'll be doing things you don't like doing in order to go on living, that is to go on doing things you don't like doing, which is stupid. Better to have a short life that is full of what you like doing than a long life spent in a miserable way."

“You are a function of what the whole universe is doing in the same way that a wave is a function of what the whole ocean is doing.” 

“The art of living… is neither careless drifting on the one hand nor fearful clinging to the past on the other. It consists in being sensitive to each moment, in regarding it as utterly new and unique, in having the mind open and wholly receptive.” 

- Alan Watts

Live in each moment

"After Admiral Richard E. Byrd spent nearly five months alone in a shack in the Antarctic, in temperatures that sank to 70 degrees below zero, he emerged convinced that “Half the confusion in the world comes from not knowing how little we need.” Or, as they sometimes say around Kyoto, “Don’t just do something. Sit there.”"

"And the more facts come streaming in on us, the less time we have to process any one of them. The one thing technology doesn’t provide us with is a sense of how to make the best use of technology. Put another way, the ability to gather information, which used to be so crucial, is now far less important than the ability to sift through it."

Read full article here on IDEAS.TED.COM

Wolf Alice - Bros

Sunday strolls

With Finn and Reggie; the two cousins.

That love

"How can one change one's entire life and build a new one on one moment of love? And yet, that's what you make me want to close my eyes and do..." Greta Garbo

Saturday dog life

ZZZ

All day

Life is so much better when you have a four legged companion by your side.

“The only creatures that are evolved enough to convey pure love are dogs and infants.”
Johnny Depp

Isn't that true. I can't wait to be a mother to an actual human that will grow inside me.  

Saturday July 4th

Walking across the plain, around the open fields and into the woods, enjoying that morning sunshine, inhaling that fresh air as the day begins. You can't help but find peace and happiness in such a beautiful woodland looking over Oxford, surrounded by wild life.

I watch my dog and think how happy he makes me and how happy I make him. I'm slipping into that obsessive dog owner type... 

Jimi Hendrix knows

TED conversation - Greed

http://www.ted.com/conversations/9337/how_do_we_as_a_people_overcome.html