Disillusioned Discordian

Brighton Livewire was a small little community forum, that was born out of the collapse of the Old Argus forum. As with most small forums it had its own wonderful idiosyncrasies unfortunately it has decided to ban the top poster, because it thinks they are dominating posts to much. The admin then decided to ban all discussion of its reasons for making this decision, resulting in another two more members including myself from being banned. Further posters are staying away in protest. I’d like to say a special thanks to everyone on that board, but in particular Bornihove, LTNS & Pel.

If livewire was to act this way out there in the larger online community it would soon develop a very poor reputation. The internet was born as an amazing tool to connect people and facilitate discussion and free thought. In recent years attacks on freedom of speech, zealous enforcement of copyright law and increasing commercialisation have ripped the heart out of the internets original endeavour. All is not lost so long as we are still able to create our own spaces for discussion and we can protect ourselves from being spied on by corporations and governments.

You may have noticed that I have been blogging less recently. In part this is because I’m devoting more time to campaigning against ID cards. Also however I have decided that I prefer forums as means of communicating rather than blogs. I think the blog is too egotistical a format compared to a forum where no one person is in control. Many blogs have become nothing more than shameless attempts at self-promotion, although I still cherish those that provide an independent and uncensored platform for discussion.

If you have enjoyed reading my posts then thanks a lot, I’ll hopefully talk more with some of you in other places. In the meantime I reccomend you check out Geeklawyer or PFLD. For the time being I can be found in the Invasion power board.

Moon

Well Carrot day is nearly upon us, i’ve been ticking off the days on my calander. Judging by the search engine hits there is a fair amount of interest in this fantastic day. Unfortunately I’ll be at work at 2pm so I’ll have to buy my carrots when I clock off. So save some for me! I’m getting in a large tub of hummus to dip my carrots in. Man this is going to be great.

There was an interesting article in the independent this weekend about how a Morris side has been reinventing the tradition in the pagan style. This interests me not only because I dance Border Morris, but also because I have an interest in what some call Paganism. Anyone who studies Paganism will be aware that it comes from the Latin Paganus, meaning country dweller, rustic, which is ironic when you consider this side admits to having quite an ‘urban’ style. In effect what they are really doing is dancing in a neo-pagan style. Wiccan is perhaps the most prominent of neo-pagan traditions, it’s really become more of a religion or fashion statement. Its history dates back only the C20th and the likes of Gerald Gardner. The claim is that it’s a recreation of an unbroken pagan tradition dating back to the likes of the Celtic Druids. Unfortunately there is scant evidence of this claim of a lost goddess based spiritualism. Like the legend of Arthur it’s more romance than realty.

Morris dancing is in a similar situation. Most of the modern dancers were collected by a few Victorian collects such as Cecil Sharp, who painted their own particular brand of the tradition. Border Morris’ tradition is even more flakey, it largely being an invention of the 1970s folk revival. What we are able to claim is that across rural Britain there have always been different folk dances of different regional styles and traditions. There are other border sides such as the Widders, Wharfedale Wazygoose and Stone the Crows which are a lot less overtly Neo- Pagan, although they could be described as Paganus. From Cotwold to Northwest from Border to Rapper. The goth sides are nothing new with the Witchmen having danced in this style since the 80s. All stories grow and change as do all traditions and languages.

Modern Britain is a mixing pot of culture and I think it’s great that people are going out there and creating their own new styles. The danger is that you may end up with something along the lines of nu-rave, or as the Might Boosh say “Taking elements of the past, with elements of the future, to make something not quite as good as either”. Of course the excellent imagines village project shows that a new mix can produce fantastic results, Not having seen this team dance I couldn’t comment, the Witchmen however are excellent dancers!

Drawing deeply on the well of inspiration that is the featured items on Yahoo’s homepage… actually my sense of the world is becoming strangely affected by this site. Yahooification if you will. Well some bright spark has come up with a guide to describe us brits. It’s summation is uncannily accurate

“As a glance at the tabloid newspapers will confirm, England is a nation of overweight, binge-drinking reality TV addicts,” it says.

Yep we are addicted to binge drinking. In fact we now only binge drink to fuel media stories about binge drinking, such is our depravity. Yahoo has it’s own binge drinking news page where you can keep track of the latest news from the front-line where stuck up neo-labour health ministers who need a decent shagging do battle against the uncouth Viking/Saxon/Celt hordes.

“Reserve is still a key national trait — attempting a conversation with a stranger “can be seen as tantamount to physical assault”, the guide says — and a person’s accent is the equivalent of a consumer brand.”

They obviously have only been to the south east. In Yorkshire you can’t get down the street with out a discussion on the various merits of whippets and pork pies.

“Social inequality is rife, too, as “a tiny aristocracy, who in some cases trace their roots to the Norman Conquest of the eleventh century, still own most of the land” and there is an attack on creeping materialism.”

Yep damn right, mostly european invaders make-up the aristocracy. We even tried a civil war and managed to cut one of the bastards heads off. We ended up with a complete religious nutjob leading us instead. Still Charly boy now does Duchy Originals that has helped absolve him of much ill contempt and Harry occasionaly dresses up as a Nazi which provides a good level of entertainment value

“The guide also rails against “identikit” provincial towns and “overpriced, under-funded public transport”.

Yea thanks for that tesco’s, I actually disagree about the public transport. There are now many first class companies providing dynamic transport solutions in a challenging and ever changing world ….

Foreign tourists are also warned that the English are “the most contradictory people imaginable”.

Aside from leprechauns

But the guide is not entirely negative, reserving a soft spot for the country’s love of animals, generosity to charities, irony, its openness to refugees, thriving arts and culture and the soothing quality of BBC Radio 4.

Soothing quality of Radio 4??? Has this person listened to John Humphreys grilling politicians in the morning? It’s like reality hitting you like a ton of bricks before the warm dreamy feeling has even left. Nietzsche would listen to the today program in a cold bath. The Archers theme music is about the only soothing thing about radio 4, reconnecting us with the joy of folk music.

Having only just recovered from the moral outrage that GTA IV invoked you can imagine the horror invoked by learning that young people who drink and take drugs are having more sex! Whilst this story is most likely designed to trigger outrage, I fear it also provides scientific proof that if you take drugs and drink lots you are more likely to get laid… People should be working to save up for patio extensions instead.

Gordon Brown seems determined to ignore the scientific advice of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs and push for Cannabis to be re-classified as a class B. Instead he feels fit to pass on his critique of such reports by clamming the following:

“I don’t think that the previous studies took into account that so much of the cannabis on the streets is now of a lethal quality and we really have got to send out a message to young people - this is not acceptable.”

This statement contains a lie. Skunk is not of ‘lethal’ quality. A lethal quality is an amount that is by definition lethal. If this report had backed up his assertion which he believes to be particular popular then he would without doubt be heralding the scientific basis for his thinking.

I shall take immense joy in not voting for labour on Thursday, not that I was ever mislead into doing so in the first place.

What an example of our free and democractic society.

Poor old Michael Brown is being viciously persecuted simply for trying to live in a civilised household. I mean surely a man of public office such as he, should be entitled to view fine pieces of art as he relaxes from a day serving our great nation in the mother of all parliaments. £25,000 over a few years is a barging for the works he has collected, a model of Whitehall efficiency. Acting as a good husband of course he should look out for his Wife, who unlike dear Harriet has no stab proof vest to protect her from the vicious ruffians and plebeians who line the streets of London, £4,000 in taxi bills is a perfectly reasonable amount. Finally just because he does not have a mortgage on his other home in Glasgow why shouldn’t he be entitled to £75,000 a year like other MPs,  After all he still needs to pay for his cleaner, dog walker and cook.

 Honestly the cheek of these lefty types who would have us all eat gruel and live in council flats (yuk the thought of it).

Well I had a rather delightful visit to Bilbao. It’s really a city that has been transformed by the ‘Guggenheim effect’. I can see why though, it’s such an amazing art gallery that I actually left feeling rather inspired.  A particular favourite of mine was Richard Serra’s The Matter of Time installation. Being largely quite a cynical person it takes quite a place to make me think positively about what humans can create, but this place managed it. It was an interesting time to visit the Basque region, with the Spanish elections taken place. There were a few Spanish anarchists and Basque separatist on the streets urging people not to vote, and turnout in the region was down to 60% compared to a higher average of around 70% throughout the rest of Spain.  

The hospitality of people I visited was splendid and I had an excellent dinner at a local gentleman’s club with some interesting people. I couldn’t help but think about the Spanish anarchist across the road in their squat as I ate my foi grois (a rather disappoint food made enjoyable only by a sadistic smugness at the cruelty caused in it’s consumption). My command of the Spanish language was however rather embarrassing, and I realized quite how uncultured it is possible to be when one spends the majority of their time in the UK.  Best of all, the Riojca. 

There is somewhat fine line between a state that supports people choosing to be healthy and a state that forces people to be healthy. Freedoms of the individual to choose to do things like smoke and drink probably should be balanced against the large tobacco, fast food and alcohol producers that persuade that their products are the solution to our ills. It’s an issue which touches on a couple thousand years of debate within philosophy on the subject of free will vs determinism. Still under the banner of ‘paternal liberalism’ officials all over the country are now on  a moral crusade to save us Britons from our mistaken choices and set us on the path to health, happiness in order that we can fully contribute our economic value to the nations GDP.

Governments that try to remove what they consider to be ‘negative’ influences always restrict people’s freedoms. When it was named European city of culture 2008 someone should have told Liverpool council that it wasn’t meant to focus on the European tradition of fascistic totalitarian regimes…. Apparently they want to reclassify ‘denigrate’ films containing the hated and forbidden capitalist Jew pastime of smoking, as certificate 18s. Saving the future generation of the scouse race from the sinister influences of films which include the likes of the great corrupter of youth ‘Peter the Pan’ and the evil 101 damnations (both of which show cartoon representations of people blowing the devil’s smoke from their mouths).