I am a confirmed and happy atheist; I make no secret of this. For all my thirty-ahem-nine and a bit years, I have never felt the presence of a deity within or without me. Logic tells me that the existence of any sort of higher being is simply not possible - my take on life tells me that such a supernatural caretaker is unnecessary.
While I accept that personal faith is often beneficial for believers, I have a strong dislike of organised religion and how it is used for subjugation, how it used to find excuses to turn people against one another, to be downright fucking nasty. Conversely, many people with faith take great comfort from their beliefs, they use their scriptures for guidance on how to behave in a way that makes them living examples of their gospel.
Good behaviour, citizenship, morals, ethics, philanthropy are not the exclusive realm of the religious though and humanists take the world view that all are treated equally and with respect, irrespective of belief. They believe in the good stewardship of the planet, based on rational thought and reason, and that.
So, if you take a humanist like me (I guess, if you're really bothered with labels) and a Christian like my girlfriend, you might expect there to be potential for conflict. I guess I'm lucky, I've got one of the good ones who has a pragmatic relationship with the scriptures, one who has the intellectual ability to see past her preacher's sometime literal interpretations of the bible. She lives her life according to Christian deeds, rather than words. And hallelujah for that. We don't talk about the things we know to be contentious (evolution is out of the question, well, creationism is) and we get along with it. I have absolute respect for her and her faith, she has respect for my lack of any and would never try to pressure me into believing.
We were having a discussion the other week and asked her if she'd prefer it if I was a Christian and she answered, "I only wish you could feel what I feel when I worship."
"But how do you know I don't feel that anyway? There are times when I'm out and about, or I read something, or see something, or hear some music, and it fills me with wonder and I get a great deal of energy from it. Honking geese, for example!"
"Yes, I know that, but this is something that completely fills you, something tremendous."
"What, like the first time I heard you tell me you loved me?"
"No, like the first time you thought you heard me to tell you I love you."
Power to the people
We have a new government with a Mega Prime Minister, it's exciting. The country is in a mess and the next few years are going to be rubbish no matter who is in charge, but a coalition of Conservatives and Liberal Democrats might be just what we need. I'd describe myself as a liberal Conservative, so I'm actually quite delighted with what's happened. If the Conservatives manage to get rid of a load of right winged fruitcake bigots, then this could be the best thing that's happened for generations.
I'm definitely one for doing everything possible to help the vulnerable, to providing opportunities for those less well-off, for building real aspirations to allow folk to move out of poverty, but when it comes to certain things, certain people, I have no patience. Lazy slobs who for generations have lived on welfare need a good kick up the arse, no excuses: you're offered a job, take it or lose your benefits. I don't think I'm alone in this either. Out for a meal with my other half and a couple of her friends, the topic came up for discussion, along with a number of things relating to what the new government might do. We were also talking about environmental issues, how many people cycling it takes to power an average home in the UK, that sort of thing. In combination with a cocktail and a few glasses of red wine, my beautiful, benevolent, caring, Christian girlfriend made this statement: "They should be made to get off their lazy, fat arses and take what ever job's offered to them. I'd make a load of new power stations with lots of bikes in and get the bastards to cycle to produce energy - this carries so many benefits. And if they refuse to do this, we should fuckin' burn them!".
No matter where you go
...Asda is horrible. Up there with Asda Hume in terms of taking the prize for supermarket scum is Asda Bolton, which I discovered today. In fact, I've discovered that every supermarket in Bolton is patronised by the most hideous people, even the Sainsbury's there leaves me feeling dirty.
I'm off to write to our new Energy Secretary with my idea to build a Super reactor in the heart of Bolton.
Sunday 16 May 2010
Saturday 1 May 2010
Students are wankers
I'm not sure I need to add anything further to qualify the statement made in the title. I encounter many students from universities in Manchester. These encounters often occur as I try to battle my way the length of Oxford Road to get from the big hospital where I work to the crank veggie healthfood shop a mile or so away. By the time I have repeated the round trip, I am often on the verge of trying to kill somebody by ramming a spinach and chickpea calzone and Greek loaf down their stupid, ignorant throats.
The reason for this? Students. They walk in their groups, dressed way too fashionably, pumps on their shuffling feet that they can't be bothered to pick up off the floor. They walk into me, they block my way, they're too engrossed in their texting, eyes down, to notice that they're about to collide with me. Such self-absorption cannot be healthy, such a lack of awareness must bring with it all sorts of dangers - mainly from people like me who, one day, will snap and go on the rampage with a responsibly-sourced canvas bag filled to the brim with heavy vegetarian delights, Moleskine notebooks and mechanical pencils.
That'll learn 'em!
Only sadly, it won't. But it might get me a few months' rest in a psychiatric hospital while they "do tests".
Veganism
The reason I visit the crank cafe is because it was suggested to me by mental vegan Ruthie when she was trying to assimilate me into the Borg of radical feminist lesbian, rentamob, anarchist vegans. I thought I'd give it a go, as it's something that's intrigued me, however I knew that I'd never seriously consider this is a lifestyle choice. Vegetarianism, a definite possible, but veganism, absolutely not. It's not just a case of making a choice of what you eat or don't eat, or wear, or feed your dog, or clean yourself or your house with..... there also seems an extremist core that turns what people eat into a political argument. And you can kind of see why this is; vegans don't want animals to be abused, in any way. And many feel so strongly that they see that they're not being true to themselves unless they actively try to do something to change humans' view of their relationship with animals that we share the planet with. In fact, the term "speciesism" is used in relation to this and, with my "I hate people, what gives us the right to ride roughshod over the planet, I wish we'd all just die off and give the rest of the world a chance" head on, I can see what they mean. But then things start getting a bit warped; people who use animal products have been likened to child rapists; we're accused of a global holocaust; we basically deserve to rot in hell.
So the dogmatic world view of vegans put me right off them. And the fact that the one I was sort of seeing (well, not seeing: texting mainly, the odd bit of instant messaging, but not seeing) was absolutely fucking mental was a slight turn off too. As was vegan food if truth be known. It's all too processed. You buy meaty sausages from a good butcher, you know you're getting pork from happy pigs with nothing else but seasoning, some herbs and a bit of fat for flavour. Vegan sausages? Processed shite. It's all processed shite and I don't like processed food.
Besides, I like sausages, I like ice cream, I love sardines, butter, the odd bit of cheese. And what's more, if we suddenly stopped eating meat and using animal products, such as dairy (which I acknowledge is cruel), what would happen to all the animals? All these animals that have been domesticated over thousands of years, what would we do with them? And how the hell would they learn to live in the wild?
But anyway my foray into the strange, dark World of the Translucent People, introduced me to a fabulous cafe and veggie health food shop, and to the delights of spinach and chick pea calzone. I won't name them, because if they searched for themselves and found their name associated with "cranks", "extremists", "fucking nutcases", etc, I think they might be offended. While it's OK to use such terms in a very tongue in cheek way (with the exception of when I refer to nutjob Ruthie and her merry band of weirdo extremists), even I concede that it's not fair to risk having a decent business being linked to them.
I wonder how easy it is to start a political movement based on food that you won't eat? I could certainly think of some foods that should be outlawed. Cottage cheese fans everywhere should be quaking in their boots.
The reason for this? Students. They walk in their groups, dressed way too fashionably, pumps on their shuffling feet that they can't be bothered to pick up off the floor. They walk into me, they block my way, they're too engrossed in their texting, eyes down, to notice that they're about to collide with me. Such self-absorption cannot be healthy, such a lack of awareness must bring with it all sorts of dangers - mainly from people like me who, one day, will snap and go on the rampage with a responsibly-sourced canvas bag filled to the brim with heavy vegetarian delights, Moleskine notebooks and mechanical pencils.
That'll learn 'em!
Only sadly, it won't. But it might get me a few months' rest in a psychiatric hospital while they "do tests".
Veganism
The reason I visit the crank cafe is because it was suggested to me by mental vegan Ruthie when she was trying to assimilate me into the Borg of radical feminist lesbian, rentamob, anarchist vegans. I thought I'd give it a go, as it's something that's intrigued me, however I knew that I'd never seriously consider this is a lifestyle choice. Vegetarianism, a definite possible, but veganism, absolutely not. It's not just a case of making a choice of what you eat or don't eat, or wear, or feed your dog, or clean yourself or your house with..... there also seems an extremist core that turns what people eat into a political argument. And you can kind of see why this is; vegans don't want animals to be abused, in any way. And many feel so strongly that they see that they're not being true to themselves unless they actively try to do something to change humans' view of their relationship with animals that we share the planet with. In fact, the term "speciesism" is used in relation to this and, with my "I hate people, what gives us the right to ride roughshod over the planet, I wish we'd all just die off and give the rest of the world a chance" head on, I can see what they mean. But then things start getting a bit warped; people who use animal products have been likened to child rapists; we're accused of a global holocaust; we basically deserve to rot in hell.
So the dogmatic world view of vegans put me right off them. And the fact that the one I was sort of seeing (well, not seeing: texting mainly, the odd bit of instant messaging, but not seeing) was absolutely fucking mental was a slight turn off too. As was vegan food if truth be known. It's all too processed. You buy meaty sausages from a good butcher, you know you're getting pork from happy pigs with nothing else but seasoning, some herbs and a bit of fat for flavour. Vegan sausages? Processed shite. It's all processed shite and I don't like processed food.
Besides, I like sausages, I like ice cream, I love sardines, butter, the odd bit of cheese. And what's more, if we suddenly stopped eating meat and using animal products, such as dairy (which I acknowledge is cruel), what would happen to all the animals? All these animals that have been domesticated over thousands of years, what would we do with them? And how the hell would they learn to live in the wild?
But anyway my foray into the strange, dark World of the Translucent People, introduced me to a fabulous cafe and veggie health food shop, and to the delights of spinach and chick pea calzone. I won't name them, because if they searched for themselves and found their name associated with "cranks", "extremists", "fucking nutcases", etc, I think they might be offended. While it's OK to use such terms in a very tongue in cheek way (with the exception of when I refer to nutjob Ruthie and her merry band of weirdo extremists), even I concede that it's not fair to risk having a decent business being linked to them.
I wonder how easy it is to start a political movement based on food that you won't eat? I could certainly think of some foods that should be outlawed. Cottage cheese fans everywhere should be quaking in their boots.
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