Tuesday, 28 February 2012
Frog
I was walking the dog in the rain and I met another outsider
lost in the rain
Frome, Bath, Somerset are lovely
but it always feels like I am on holiday
travelled off to a place where there is no poverty
no social problems
how can anyone living here begin to try talk on political subjects
everyone is safe and well off
Body Torn and Used
Its'body torn and used
like a victim of some sex crime
some breif grasp at power
a spurt of lust and a slashing clean of memory
left
abandoned
layby
british manufacturing
all our hands
forgotten
The Lost Art of Den Building
Paul Farley and Michael Simmons Roberts failed to find a den on their Edgelands pilgrimage though the chapter in their book on dens has merit. The den should be invisible to adult eyes anyway. I was fortunate to find this fine example. I tried to advance the idea that den building was a lost art to a local from the area I am currently in and was informed that this was far from true. Sadly, as so often, when talking to those who have no knowledge of areas where city drifts in to countryside, I failed to translate what I meant. Not the sanitised father assisted structures of Ruperts and Ashleys. No, the den by definition is a high risk affair of often stolen or factory discard materials.
To quote from Edgelands, 'The den is a secret place, built outside the confines of the adult world. It is a place of retreat, but also a place of togetherness, a social place, that reinforces alegiances and bonds between small groups or gangs. Children have built them instinctively, but could it be that the english post war edgelands saw a golden age of den building? Children were widely encouraged to get out from under parents feet and play outdoors without too great a perceived fear of danger from predatory adults, and this coincided with shifts in social housing policy, the clearance of inner city dwellings and the construction of huge new housing estate developements, often on the urban periphery. All of a sudden it wasn't just Peter and Jane from the Ladybird Key Works Reading scheme who could play with tents in a greenscape of seemingly infinite resource; used to city housing with small backyards and streets to play in, children found themselves on the dege of what seemed a prairie vast wilderness, often littered with the detritus left behind after their new houses had been built.'
Shitty Memories
Filling days of recovery can be hard. I'd been past this derelict factory many times, always thinking to go beyond the Keep Out signs and have a look around. I figured the scrappers would have had any valuable metals so took the dog in for a recy. All night afterwards the place was in my head. I kept waking to find myself as if I'd been homeless and forced to stat there. Shit is all round the back and it doesn't look goglike. Asbestos warnings abound. Openings in the roof let pigeons in to roost.
Last Words on Religion
Just before Christmas, when I was coming round after the worst of being ill I heard of the sad death of Christopher Hitchens. I had followed his writings and particularly enjoyed his debate with Tony Blair on whether religion is a force for good or not. It wasn't to do with which side of the debate I personally agreed with but how well he conducted himself in presenting his argument.
This got me thinking in to why Richard Dawkins rubs people up the wrong way and why Christopher Hitchens who I strongly disagreed with over the war with Iraq still interested me. I felt it must be in their manners. This was what interested me. Not whether God or Yahweh existed or not. All the subsequent debate quite baffled me.
I was brought up to be an atheist or at least an agnostic who feels it highly unlikely that there is any sort of interventionist god. This is from where my thinking grows. It is important as you will see. Dawkins, and probably Hitchens I imagine grew up with religion as a given that they then looked in to and became 'enlightened' and felt it their duty to spread the word. I had thought the debate was over. To me questioning the existence of god is akin to questioning the existence of father christmas. I know it to be untrue. I know there are those who believe yet it would be ridiculous to try to discuss anything of that nature with someone who believes in the supernatural without question. I have no desire to engage in debates of this sort. It is done, resolved. Perhaps one day god will reveal himself and I shall save discussion until that day. I know you can ask, 'well if santa doesn't exist then where do all the presents come from?', but we should know that it is best not to interfere with the thoughts of people who are at that stage of their development. It is cruel to deprive a child of santa. Dawkins effectively does the same.
I regularly check my beliefs. I do keep my eyes open and change my belief to cater for fresh discovery. This is reason.
When I was about 14 I fell out with a catholic freind of mine. I was young and naive. I had not taken my agnostisism out to play before and assumed all reasonable people were the same as me. The christian made to strike me. I had pushed his buttons to the point where his facade of peacefullness was broken. From that day I decided it best not to point out gods' absence to others.
Yet when I saw Dawkins being abused, when I heard that christians that knew Hitchens had cancer were praying for his death I thought I ought to have a fresh look.
I read both Dawkins 'God Delusion' and Hitchens 'God is not Great'. Dawkins book is particularly strong but lacks the humour of Hitchens. There are hardly any areas Dawkins can not beat with his rational. It is a powerhouse of a book I would have as required reading in all schools. But why do the religious get so angry? why are they so violent. What is it that upsets them when Dawkins speaks?
There are no atheist murderers, no atheist suicide bombers, atheists do not hurt others. No, all the violence is one way.
Even secularism is under attack. Secularism has heald this country in peace since the enlightenment. The agreement that religion is as private as your sexuality. Something to be practiced in private. Not at council meetings. The questionably elected baronness Warsi taking time to speak out against secularism, her misunderstanding, thinking that secularism is atheism telling people not to pray when what it means is we are all allowed to believe as we want but do not expect preferential treatment at any governing juncture seems terribly worrying. How can these people have misunderstood that secularism is there to protect all our rights.
Why do some religious people insist on getting it wrong and dragging their superstitions in to all the wrong places. It isn't that we atheists wish to take away your beliefs, we just want sense, a world where it doesn't matter, a world where we are free to believe what we want. Not submit to supernatural dictators.
The better question is why do all societies have religion? Why do all cultures have religion?
The answer I believe is simple. You are better off with faith. When logic is not enough. When reason alone will not push you that extra mile, religion will. The best sportsmen, the best craftsmen are usually religious. The rest eventually give up. It doesn't matter that much. Reason takes over , why bother? The religious will always survive better.
Not only as an individual are you better off but as a culture, as a species you are more likely to survive if you will sacrifice yourself for your people. It is better to be part of the in crowd. Religion can make aliens subhuman when needed. It can make you help out strangers of your own kind. Atheists are less likely to succeed at virtually anything other than reason.
If you ever watch debates on the subject the atheists always win, their reasoning is superior. But when it comes to survival they come second. Religion is of help when you are ill, when someone close dies, when you are recovering from addiction, at any time where logic is unhelpful. Arguably we need something else. Our reason alone will not always do.
So I believe Dawkins and Hitchens were brought up believing then reasoned their way out. If they had been always atheist they wouldn't have felt the need to write books on the subject. You might ask why I spent time on this. The answer is I am jealous. I will always be agnostic unless god turns up, I can do nothing else. I have tried. I wish to God I could have faith but I just can't make him real. No more than I can believe in father christmas. I have to accept I am less well equiped for survival than those of faith yet I can do nothing about it.
Friday, 17 February 2012
aPoCaLyPsE sHeEpScAr - LeEdS (URBEX/Urban Exploration - Inner City - Leeds)
I like all this fellas vids
Monday, 13 February 2012
CARGO CULTS Part 1 of 4
To understand the Skreeworld religions such as Dollism we must first understand the Cargo Cults
Wastelands Rambling
Skreeworld holidays are now proud to offer a selection of outdoor holidays tailored to the needs and likes of all levels of Wastelands Rambler. The beginner can enjoy day long rambles through many Edgeland attractions from landfill site to derelict factory. Our guides are seasoned veterans of the overlooked parts of Skreeworld. For the more experienced rambler we have overnight trips involving the scaling of industrial achitecture, cooling towers, water towers and camping out with rubbish fires.
Changing Direction
We live longer now. It is outdated to think in terms of the single career. There is plenty of time.
Master Craftsman
Expertise so often becomes a sort of impregnable fortress inside which the passionate subjectivity that first made the desire of specialism wastes away
Skreeworld Politics
Skreeworld, well my entire creative output can be summed up by saying 'this is what it is like to be me'
Makes me feel all guilty, this attention seeking
but when I do nowt, when I just am I get this awful feeling that I ought to be doing something
Divisions in society are growing. Communication between different strata is becoming more difficult.
There is little real interaction outside of your own community. The nature of community has changed however. It no longer seems to be about where you sleep. We have on line communities grouped by cultural interest.
I abandoned facebook after realising that I couldn't present the same 'me' to all people. I can joke in the character of another to close freinds and they will recognise irony, they will know when I am being sincere. Acquaintances took a few things I said straight up when I meant them tongue in cheek so I packed it in pretty much.
It isn't so much class as some peoples sense of entitlement that revolts. Nature can be tough. The idea that meritocracy will save us is untrue. There are more routes away from lower class origins. But what if not only born poor you are also ugly and stupid? what then?
If these open doors pluck up all the lower class talent what are we left with? An underclass that appear on Jeremy Kyle.
I got to feeling like a performing chimp and wanted the comforts of home.
So it is the duty of the talented to stay down to keep it spicy down here.
The Big Society as I under stand it is the abandonment of all responsibilty by the government. You want a library? then go build one and man it.
The openings for upward mobility are closing quicker than any time in my life.
The idea that you should be able to profit from others ill health is abhorent to me.
Makes me feel all guilty, this attention seeking
but when I do nowt, when I just am I get this awful feeling that I ought to be doing something
Divisions in society are growing. Communication between different strata is becoming more difficult.
There is little real interaction outside of your own community. The nature of community has changed however. It no longer seems to be about where you sleep. We have on line communities grouped by cultural interest.
I abandoned facebook after realising that I couldn't present the same 'me' to all people. I can joke in the character of another to close freinds and they will recognise irony, they will know when I am being sincere. Acquaintances took a few things I said straight up when I meant them tongue in cheek so I packed it in pretty much.
It isn't so much class as some peoples sense of entitlement that revolts. Nature can be tough. The idea that meritocracy will save us is untrue. There are more routes away from lower class origins. But what if not only born poor you are also ugly and stupid? what then?
If these open doors pluck up all the lower class talent what are we left with? An underclass that appear on Jeremy Kyle.
I got to feeling like a performing chimp and wanted the comforts of home.
So it is the duty of the talented to stay down to keep it spicy down here.
The Big Society as I under stand it is the abandonment of all responsibilty by the government. You want a library? then go build one and man it.
The openings for upward mobility are closing quicker than any time in my life.
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