Weltanschaung

The Philosopher’s Stone

zenothestoic@protonmail.ch

Tag: Class

  • Man is born free and everywhere he is in chains

    Man is born free and everywhere he is in chains

    As the world writhes in the grip of rapidly increasing extremism and greed, it would be well to imagine what a better world would look like.

    A peaceful but profound revolution is needed in the way society is organised to achieve the highest possible degree of equality.

    It is sad to witness the behavior of the ruling US political class, and it would be unfair to blame the appalling shift in emphasis on the President alone. Primarily one must blame the voters, although once in, it is difficult to dislodge a rogue president, especially when his own party has a majority in both Houses.

    Behind Trump stand men and women equal or worse, ready and no doubt willing to take his place as age withers him. The talk is of aggression and power: we shall take what we want from the rest of the world whether you like it or not. Their playbook is depressingly familiar.

    Not satisfied with inflicting violence on foreign sovereign states, the ruling elite is also intent on coercing and subduing its own people. Those who dissent are swiftly dealt with by branches of the state which ought to be separate and impartial, but which are quickly becoming part of the political machine. How many times in history have we seen the same moves played out. Fear is rampant and the state has its boot on the face of the people.

    ICE and the National Guard send chilling reminders of the jackboots which paraded roughshod over people in another century. Killings are no longer to be investigated – might is right. The elite is right and woe betide anyone who gets in the way.

    The US has been riding down this brutal road for a while. Guantanamo Bay and extraordinary rendition, torture and murder come to mind. Now the ruling elite seems to be turning on its own people.

    Leaders in Europe and elsewhere refuse to call a spade a spade. Refuse to express their disgust and distaste for what is happening in the US. So far, no action is being taken on the threats to Greenland and elsewhere, and it is difficult to see much that can be done if the military juggernaut and its violent drivers are determined to invade.

    But it is certainly time to cut dependence on the US. Time to cease being yes men. Time to stand up for decency against greed, violence and hypocrisy.

    Time to accept that what is happening is inherently evil, and that such evil is by no means new. And by no means an American monopoly. What country in the past has not relied on violence to subdue both its own population and that of its neighbours. What country has not invaded, enslaved, stolen. Murdered.

    And so I come to the point of my post once again – the need for draconian reform of human society. Everywhere. The need to make sure that people like Trump cannot rule over us.

    The need to make sure that no one can: that we have rules but no rulers. I am a Utopian but it does no harm to dream.

    So here are a few well rehearsed ideas on egalitarianism. Which will, of course, never see the light of day.

    Tax Reform

    Establish global high progressive wealth and income taxes, close tax loopholes, shut tax havens. Abolish inheritance to prevent the inter-generational concentration of wealth. Abolish “wealth mountains”.

    Asset and Resource Redistribution

    Abolish land ownership to ensure that all individuals have equal access to essential resources and opportunities; provide fair use rather than ownership. Establish a Universal Basic Income to cover basic needs and Universal Basic Services including housing, education, food and healthcare.


    Political Reform

    Abolish elitism, elite institutions and the political class to give equal participation to all citizens. Move to proportional representation. Moving decision-making power away from central “corridors of power” toward local and regional bodies. Expose and outlaw vested interests. Establish and enforce credible legal sanctions for corruption.


    Legal Reform

    Abolish all forms of legal immunity for elites and ensure every human has access to the same quality of legal defense and due process.

    Environmental Reform

    Treat natural resources and the atmosphere as a “global commons” – a paradigm shift away from national sovereignty and private ownership toward collective stewardship and equitable distribution.


    Social Reform

    Enforce anti-discrimination laws that dismantle hierarchies based on race, gender, religion, and sexual orientation.


    Workplace Reform

    Mandate the transition of corporations into worker-owned cooperatives where employees have an equal vote in management and profit-sharing.


    Technological Reform

    Ensure that life-saving innovations and AI advancements are open-source and publicly owned to prevent a “digital divide” in human capability.


    Relational Reform

    Shift societal norms away from status-seeking and meritocratic elitism toward a culture of mutual respect, co-operation and horizontal social relations.

    Environment

    Encourage a severe reduction in the world population. Give rights to animals and prevent their use as food. Stop the concretisation of land and restore a nature based landscape. Stop pollution.


  • King Charles’s Roman Circus

    King Charles’s Roman Circus

    Today’s £125m fancy dress party both amused and bemused me.

    Vast inherited wealth and privilege sits uncomfortably beside a world engulfed in the flames of war and beset by poverty, want and savage cruelty.

    Life is still nasty and brutish and in all probability many only wish it had remained short.

    The King himself is reputed to have inherited £1.8bn and the day found him dressed in mediaeval garb surrounded by the flummery of crowds who could surely have found better use of their day. But of course the great and the good love to see and be seen.

    Religion could have made itself a force for good but to this day panders to the powerful and wealthy rather than remaining true to its humble and sincere origins.

    We understand from the Christian gospels that Jesus of Nazareth lived a lowly communal existence while he continued his short ministry. He famously declared that the meek shall inherit the earth and the New Testament quotes Jesus as saying in Luke 18:25 that “it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God” (Jesus and the rich young man).

    And yet today the church establishment continues a centuries old tradition of gratifying the fripperies and conceits of the rich and the famous, where once their founder sought to heal the sick and feed the poor and the hungry.

    The British Prime Minister ( a man of enormous reputed wealth, and, paradoxically a Hindu) read from St Paul’s epistle to the Colossians.

    “Put to death, then, the parts of you that are earthly: immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and the greed that is idolatry.”

    Wise words indeed from Verse 5, and much the same sentiments are to be found in all spiritual doctrines including the beautiful sacred texts of the Hindus.

    Whether Prime Minister Sunak is a supporter of such sentiments I would not know. But he would presumably have difficulty passing through the eye of a needle.

    What a great pity that as a species we have always been unable or unwilling to practice what the original holy men so rightly taught.

    I have no doubt that some of today’s “holy men” will wish to defend the institution of the monarchy and would be little wont to cast off their own regal garb and prominent position in the great Cathedrals and Abbeys. And yet one has a suspicion that Jesus of Nazareth would encourage such prelates to pull down the vast edifice they have built and to slum it with the masses.

  • Between the Cracks

    Between the Cracks

    I am frightened of homeless people.  They remind me how all too easy it is in this world to fall between the cracks.

    In a prosperous town in the South of England, one of the wealthiest countries in the world, a woman sat this afternoon in filthy clothing and a sleeping bag in an alcove outside a derelict shop.  I had heard that the best thing you can do for the homeless is to talk to them. Make them feel that they are not an outcast, a leper. Find out what their problems are and why they find themselves on the street on a freezing winter’s day.

    Its not something I have done very often – speak to such a person. Give them the common courtesy of acknowledging their normality, their humanity. And it is not because I do not care. It is because I am terrified of ending up in the same condition and I look the other way. Irrational, foolish, selfish. What do words cost? Why not look at life as it is, face up to the horrors suffered by all too many?

    I walked by her. I carried on up the street towards chocolate, diet pepsi, a cup of hot tea.  A beautiful little cottage with heating, a lovely garden and dinner out in a seaside pub. But god knows how, I made myself turn. I wanted to know her story, I wanted to see whether I could add anything. I wanted her to feel like a normal person, not an outcast.

    “Nowhere to go?” was my inane and tactless opening line. She was lucid, intelligent. She was not a wino; nor was she a drug addict. Her story was simple and sad. Her husband had died and she had been evicted from her accommodation (presumably for not paying the rent).  She suffered from epilepsy but it appears she managed to control this illness since in better days she had worked, with enjoyment and pride, at several nursing homes. She felt she would be welcomed back there as she had a good work record but could not approach them in a filthy state. If she was going to work at a care home she needed to bath every day and feed herself.

    And this is where it became truly scary. She had literally fallen between the cracks. She had no bank account and no formal identity and so the Benefits Office would not pay her what was due to her. She was being helped, thank god, by a charity called Torchlight and a doctor had offered her a letter of identity once she had been on his roster for two months. She still has a month and a half to go. Then, hopefully, the damn fools at the benefits office will pay her what she is due and she can get accommodation and food.

    Shame on those Benefits people. Shame on the whole damn stupid system. Shame on me, shame on the whole damn human race for leaving people starving on the streets in the middle of winter. Here was a woman who, god knows, needed and deserved help. And yet the damn fools would not give it her because apparently she had no “identity”. Is not a body identity enough? Is not a starving mouth and a freezing cold woman an “identity”?  Does a piece of paper from a bank, or a doctor, or some hateful government agency somehow make an “identity” whereas real  flesh and blood does not?

    Thank god some kind local had taken her in at nights and hopefully this will last until she gets her “identity” and her benefits. And, I hope, her job at the care home. In the meantime she has to sit huddled in the streets during the day, begging for her food.

    There but for the grace of god go I. It could happen to any of us. It does happen to many.

    We must stop this; we must act. Not just here in this privileged island, but everywhere. These people are not animals.  The homeless, the starving and the destitute – they are you, they are me.

    Surely to god we can do better than this?

     

  • Class Prejudice

    Class Prejudice

    Is it right to feel distaste for your fellow man?

    I was sitting on a train station this afternoon, waiting for my connection, minding my own business and munching a sandwich.  I had been listening to Dvorak and following along with the score, muzzing up for a concert at the end of June.

    So I was in a pleasant place.  I was sitting in my usual ivory tower, albeit in public rather than in my book-lined and very quiet study.

    I was in a contemplative mood; a mood in which I was likely to be interested rather than irritated by what was happening around me.

    My interest concentrated on my reaction to a couple of young men who started to chat to a couple of young mothers just down the platform.  I wasn’t being nosey but could not help overhearing their conversation.

    They were not a foursome: the two men (white, rough) just happened to start a chance conversation with the young mothers (one black and demure, the other white and not). It was simply jolly banter.

    The men were both shaven headed and in tracksuits. Both had topknots.  Both were either hungover or slightly drunk. One of the men was drinking wine out of a quarter bottle.

    One of the men said he would rather be back in prison than suffer the aggravation he had had the night before and the hangover he was suffering today. Every other word was anglo saxon. “F..k” this “c..t” that….and so forth.

    My language is bad anyway but not so openly.

    And it was all about graphic sex, alcohol and drugs. Their antics from the night before. One of them had slipped the other a big dose of some drug; I didn’t catch the name.  The victim was apparently curved round the lavatory bowl (I wasn’t quite sure why) and the drug donor apparently had to “p**s” all over him.   There were women involved the night before, casual strangers, it seemed.  For casual sex.

    You get the picture.

    I was not quite sure if I felt revulsion and if so, then why.  I don’t think I did and I was and am quite sure that if I did feel revulsion it was wrong to do so.  If some people choose to lead their life in this way, does it really matter? Is there anything wrong with it? Why should I mind or care? Or feel offended?

    And then I thought about my own luck in the genetic lottery; in having been born into the prosperous upper middle classes.  And my luck in the lottery of life in making out in a reasonably or comparatively satisfactory way.

    Pity would certainly be wrong: what business would I have to feel pity? Anger and derision would be equally wrong.  After considering it all and weighing things up in my mind, I found the right attitude (for me at least) was one of acceptance and neutrality.

    These were people. Living their own lives. They were not threatening or violent. They were simply different.

    Live and let live. They may have been far better people than I.  But I was glad I was not irritable, or tired or impatient today.  There are occasions when I am ashamed to say I can feel less charitable, although I know this is wrong.

    I made amends for my muddled thoughts by telling them they were on the right train when they enquired, a few stops down the line.

  • Bishop Michael Curry – the Royal Wedding

    Bishop Michael Curry – the Royal Wedding

    Bishop Michael Curry preached a fine sermon at the wedding today of Prince Harry and beautiful actress Meghan Markle.

    We must discover love – the redemptive power of love. And when we do that, we will make of this old world, a new world.

    It is all too rare that I listen to a sermon but when I hear a good one, delivered with passion and energy and providing an uncluttered message of hope it cheers my soul. Even though (as a devout atheist and christian apostate) I don’t have one.

    I keep thinking of Utopia. I can not help but hope that secular redemption is possible.  That indeed as the good Bishop preaches “we will make of this old world, a new world.”

    What beautiful sentiments and however you like to define love, I think we know what he means.  Even though when used in public “love” always somehow sounds a little overstated.

    I started wondering whether he needed to fill out his manifesto a bit. If like most good clergyman he seeks to make the earth into a kingdom of his god, then does he have any agenda? Any concrete proposals?

    You see I have been thinking of how to give weight to some of the platitudes I promote. A better world? Sure but what specifically does that mean? Does it require legislation? Higher taxes? Better education? Social awareness? How do we create our Utopia slowly but surely so that it does not degenerate into yet another disastrous killing field like Soviet Russia?

    And then I thought about Bishop Curry’s sermon once again. No, it does not contain any specific recommendations. It is not a political manifesto. It does not venture pedestrian practical steps to ensure the enslaved are freed and the hungry fed.

    I realised that it actually does more than all of that.  “Love thy neighbour as thyself” is actually all you need to do and suddenly his vision becomes realised truth.

    You don’t have to be a believer to realise the truth of this faintly embarrassing phrase.  And yet how difficult it will be to live up to that ideal. It is difficult enough to “love” ourselves yet alone our irritating neighbours playing headbanging music all night.

    But he is right; in the great simplicity of his message he is right. If we were all able to change our nature, to change human nature, to eradicate greed, envy, lust and anger and to treat others as we would wish to be treated ourselves, we would have no need for manifestos and grand political aims. It would all happen.  Food would be shared, shelter and treatment given, violence ended.

    A simple and beautiful message but one none of are likely to put into practice any time soon. Sadly.

     

     

     

     

  • Meghan Markle’s Royal Knees Up

    Meghan Markle’s Royal Knees Up

    I am trying to work out in my own mind my exact feelings about Meghan Markle’s Royal Knees Up and the role of the Royal Family in general.

    It’s all a bit muddled in my mind as I have changed my position once or twice over the past 60 odd years but I reckon I now know how I feel.

    As a schoolchild I think I must have been a fervent fan of Royalty.  Certainly I was delighted to be an usher at a couple of Royal Bashes at Westminster Abbey – being at Westminster School in the grounds of Westminster Abbey, we were asked if we would like to help.  The occasions were magnificent, no other word for it.  Princess Anne’s wedding was one such occasion, the other I am ashamed to admit I can no longer recall.  I guess it all arose because the school (with origins before the 12th Century) was re-founded by Queen Elizabeth I in 1560 and there has always been a royal tie.

    By the time of Prince Charles’ wedding to Diana I had become a bit jaded by privilege and wealth since I was having an utterly miserable time as a young banking lawyer at a renowned City law practice.  I vividly recall my first day there – it was like being handcuffed and chained to a desk. So I guess I became grumpy and jealous of those who appeared to lead sybaritic lives of “idleness and luxury” and had flunkies to put toothpaste on their toothbrushes.  What a childish motive I had – and envy is never a laudable trait. Nonetheless I think that is the truth of what I felt at the time.

    I became very disenchanted with the whole Diana charade, the hysteria over the death, Squidgygate, the War of the Wales and the whole silly national mourning fest.

    I was and am saddened by her violent death and her unhappiness but let’s face it she was hardly alone in misfortune. Torture, slavery, child prostitution seem equally grim fates.

    And what of Miss Meghan Markle? Well she is very beautiful and she is of black African descent somewhere along the line.  It seems to me that has to be a good thing, in the same way I was delighted by the election of President Obama for similar reasons. As with Miss Middleton, some of the relatives are a little different to those the Royal Family might be used to but that seems no bad thing.

    And what of Royalty and its role in modern Britain? Well, people seem to like them and they surely to do more good than harm?  I would rather have Queen Elizabeth at titular head of state the the truly awful Donald Trump.  Even if Royalty are un-elected they have no real political power so they can be forgiven the lack of mandate.

    Many make financial arguments – they are a waste of public money at one extreme and at the other they are claimed by some to actually help GDP by attracting tourist revenue. I have no idea where the truth lies.

    If I am to be honest I confess a smidgen of envy still for the palaces, the cars, horses, country estates and flunkeys but equally I could never have begun to do the Queen’s job.

    On balance I wish the whole lot of them well and particularly, on this their wedding day, I wish happiness and health to the young prince and his bride.

    There, I have said it.

     

  • Class War in Journalism and Politics

    Class War in Journalism and Politics

    Class War in Journalism and Politics is alive and well.  It is business as usual in Parliament and the news papers.

    It is unfortunate that some columnists in the Guardian are still looking to the outdated concept of class war as the answer to all their ills. It is a great shame that polarization still plagues our politics both on the right and the left. If you read some columnists in the Daily Mail or the Telegraph, everybody in the Labour Party is a communist and would send us all to the Gulag. If you read some columnists in the Guardian, every person in the Tory party is a ridiculous anachronism or a fascist.

    What we need is politicians and journalists who eschew narrow tribalism and espouse a new way for political action which looks to the good of everyone and not to demonise a perceived enemy. Enmity and class hatred have no place in a better, kinder world.

    It is very easy to be bitter, to become bitter. I should know – I have often felt that way over the past few years but at least I can see the error of my ways and battle against my negativity and nihilism.

    Columnist John Harris states:

    “where there were high levels of degree-educated people, the Conservative party lost support between 2010 and 2017”

    So we are to assume that those who vote conservative are ill educated and backward.

    Such divisive statements are simply not helpful and are certainly not conducive to the atmosphere of co-operation we need to ensure a better future for our children.  In politics we need to move away from division.  We need to move away from class war, from race war, away from divisive polarisation.

    We need to move from a system of party politics and enmity to a system where we stop bashing our perceived enemies and realise that we are all human.  We are all stuck on the same planet and suffer from the same enemies and fears.

    Our enemies are disease, poverty and yes, fear itself.

    It is time to work with each other, it is time to stop fighting.

  • Scandinavian Happiness

    Scandinavian Happiness

    Reading Sofia Helin’s thoughtful interview in the Guardian this morning, I am disappointed to hear that Scandinavian happiness is “more a matter of class whether you can afford to take time to take care of yourself”.

    I am really not too sure about the “class” aspect but you have to be correct on the “afford”. We humans need some basic level of material comfort to be “happy” although of course this is not of itself bound to result in “happiness”.

    In my ignorance when I watch the many excellent Scandinavian dramas available on Netflix or the BBC, I always work on the naive assumption that the world of smorgasbord is a happy socialist paradise. Rather like The Culture but without the Minds. I am disappointed to hear that it is not.

    Happiness or its lack is, currently, part of the human condition for most of us. Perhaps all of us. There are so many things we need to put right but my belief is that in the end “all will be well and all manner of things will be well” to quote Julian of Norwich.

    No amount of thought or cathartic writing or goodliness will save us. In the end, I fear, the worst and most serious aspects of melancholy have to be a medical affair. And on that front I believe eventually suffering will be abolished.

    I am sorry I can not share your faith in a god. But perhaps eventually my faith in human ingenuity and an eventual triumph of “good” over “bad” will come to amount to the same thing.

    An enjoyable and thoughtful interview. Thank you.

  • Am I a Guardian Reader?

    Am I a Guardian Reader?

    Do I have what it  takes to be a Guardian Reader?   I have always been desperately keen to say: “yes I am, I’m deeply socialist”.

    And yet these people can be so nihilistic and destructive.  Newspapers of the left are as full of useless political cant as those of the right.

    Here is a selection of today’s articles:

    Police have ruined my life.
    May 1968: the revolution retains its magnetic allure.
    Grammar schools are indefensible.
    The Windrush scandal was about racism.
    The rise of middle-aged renters exposes empty Tory promises.
    Queen Elizabeth sorry to bother you with this problem we commoners have.
    The privileged look the other way.

    So there you go; let me paraphrase:

    We must encourage violent revolution.
    We must encourage crime by having no police force.
    We must cut good education so that the masses are all equal in their ignorance.
    All ills of society are due to right wing racism
    The Tories are shysters
    Royalty are scum.
    The posh are scoundrels.

    You may be forgiven for thinking you are reading headlines in Pravda in 1922.

    Look, I acknowledge my privileged background and posh accent. I admit I won a random lottery at birth and ended up at a public school, then Oxford and a City law firm.

    But I hate the fact that most of the world live in poverty, violence and hunger. But violent revolution has not helped much has it?

    Does the Guardian have no memory of Soviet Russian atrocities? Does the Guardian imagine we would fare better under Mao Tse Tung? Has it forgotten that Mao put to death every “Guardian Reader” (aka “intellectual”) it could find?

    Do these fools actually believe the partisan nonsense they are peddling?  Are they so keen on bashing the well off they could not give a damn about the very people they are claiming to care for?

    There have been and are some heros who have fought valiantly for the poor, the abused and the hungry. But they have tended to do so in a constructive fashion by providing them with the education and sustenance they need. Robert Owen the 19th Century mill owner is a good example. Dear old Mother T in Calcutta. JC in  1st Century Roman Palestine did his best before he met his rude and untimely end.

    Ignorant, partisan polemic does no one any good.

    So no, I will pay no attention to much of the Guardian. Yes, I am a centrist, leaning left. But no I am not a supporter of polarised and foolish polemic whether that comes from the Left or the Right.

    I am certainly a Guardian Reader. But a very selective one.

  • Why I do not read the News

    Why I do not read the News

    I do not read the news because it is repetitive, dispiriting, boring and irrelevant.

    Ecclesiastes 1:9
    What has been will be again,  what has been done will be done again;
    there is nothing new under the sun.

    This quote is profound to my mind and sums up the very reason I have never, ever been interested in current affairs or politics.

    According to an article in Wikipedia “The subjects of Ecclesiastes are the pain and frustration engendered by observing and meditating on the distortions and inequities pervading the world, the uselessness of human deeds, and the limitations of wisdom and righteousness.”

    Well said whoever wrote those words.

    Here is an abbreviated list of world news headlines from the BBC  for today:

    • NY’s top lawyer quits amid assault claims.
    • Belgian singer dies days after comeback.
    • Pope Rihanna dazzles at Met Gala 2018.
    • Revolutionary leader win Armenia PM vote.
    • Melania Trump faces new plagiarism row.

    Here is what I would rather read about, although I will have to look beyond the media to find anything of interest or relevance:

    • How to improve human behaviour.
    • How to abolish poverty, hunger and disease.
    • How to increase happiness.
    • How to further knowledge.
    • How to transcend the limits of human consciousness.
    • Cheerful news as to the progress by anyone in any of the above!

    And then there are a few who by luck or design have managed to jump off the hamster wheel of mundanity and have the good fortune and luxury to seek answers.

    Who is it then that reads newspapers and watches CNN? It can’t be those struggling for basic physical survival.  It must be the unconscious ones.

    Some of the unconscious ones must have good motives for what they do.  Some politicians must (one hopes) be genuinely interested in the good of others.  Some businessmen must be genuinely interested in improving mankind’s lot by producing fairly priced goods or services.

    There is a good argument to be made that the unconscious improve all our lives by their very busy unconsciousness.

    By pursuing their dreams of world domination in business or politics perhaps such people create the wealth necessary for research and development.

    And yet I have a nagging thought at the back of my mind that all is not well with the world.  That a better order is possible, that loftier goals should be sought.