Great quotation

“All that is required for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing.”

attrib. Edmund Burke

Nice quotation

“Idealism increases in direct proportion to one’s distance from the problem.”

John Galsworthy

Associated:

“Farming looks mighty easy when your plow is a pencil and you’re a thousand miles from the corn field.”

Dwight D. Eisenhower

Great quotation

“Those who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.”

Benjamin Franklin, 1755

Great quotation

“Civilizations die from suicide, not by murder.”

Arnold Toynbee

Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 21 (Andante)

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This chap might have had some time for John Barry.

I’m not so sure he would be so impressed by any of the “music” currently found in the UK chart. I’m not sure he would identify it as music at all.

Vulgarians abound

One is exposed to depraved behavior during even on the briefest excursions into the general public in modern Britain, whether it is someone spitting, dropping litter, smoking or swearing.

While on the train passing through Imperial Wharf today I found myself standing next to an individual who was regaling his companion with the following tale, loud enough – needless to say – for the whole carriage hear.

“I was well f**kin’ worried, mate, I tell you. I thought what the f**k am I gonna do? I mean how d’you explain to the missus that you’ve lost your belt?”

It turned out he had been adulterous to his wife, and was very proud of this, but afraid he might be caught.

Fortunately for him, though not for the wife (who, it should be added, only had herself to blame for choosing such an obvious cretin in the first place) he had a solution to his dilemma – an explanation which would be acceptable to her:

“I told her I was so f**kin’ drunk I lent it to me mate to get whipped in the strip club and forgot to get it back.”

His friend was most entertained by this deceit.

The man continued to report his own antics in the strip club until an even louder individual began to bellow at the top of his voice at a fellow vulgarian who was eating hot and smelly food while seated among other passengers. Not for him to refrain from doing so, of course, but to alert him that it was time to alight from the train.

There was a conductor in the carriage, but it is not possible to eject someone from a train when they have already departed of their own free will. Nor is it possible to activate the doors, alas, while the train is in motion.

Out of Place

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I decide on my article titles virtually instantaneously and for this one I thought “Out of Place”, which reminded me of the song by Gavin Thorpe, so I have included it here. He’s a singer from Bristol, a friend of the family. I am surprised he is not an international star yet, as he has all the same ingredients as James Blunt, Damien Rice et al.

The issue is that I like to dress smartly, avoid cliches when speaking and treat others with respect (which, of course, includes avoiding cliches when speaking). I am finding, however, that current society requires me to dumb down. Whereas it used to be unacceptable for a gentleman to be seen in the street without a hat, for example, it is now almost unacceptable for him to be seen with one (unless it is a cap of some sort, ideally associated with sports).

Even at age 21 I found myself a genuine old Bowler hat and wore it around Durham, risking ridicule. Now I often wear a Trilby – not perched on the back of my head as some kind of joke, but as it is supposed to be worn. I’ve had a Panama too. I like traditional style. I merely observe that sartorial values, like many others, have now become reversed. It is done for millionaires to dress in rags, so as to appear to be “one of the people”. “Don’t look too good”, as Kipling said. One cannot dress too badly, even for the Royal Opera House (I’ve been there) but one can dress too well, and sadly must always be on guard about this.

One can also talk too well, and this is a danger too in the age of reverse snobbery. Good diction, clear elocution (mine could use some more work) alienates others and is therefore a crime. It suggests you might think you’re superior (sin of sins). You might even be superior (in that regard at least), and that is frankly, utterly unacceptable in the egalitarian age. “Don’t talk too wise” as Kipling said too. You must dumb down.

Manners and family are the fabrics that hold society together. The family has largely disintegrated in the UK now, and a short walk through any part of London will demonstrate to you that manners have now largely evaporated too (the F-word is the word you are most likely to overhear).

What originally motivated this article was my intention to use “Dear Mr..” when replying to somebody in a work capacity, whom I have never met. It’s not done. I would like it to be done, but it isn’t. Likewise I am not keen when people whom I do not know (who are usually trying to sell me something) are over-familiar with me, addressing me with my first name. Once was the time when this was never done. It’s just a little sign of respect, politeness. One would address a stranger with their surname until familiarity was established.

“It doesn’t matter”, many a liberal would respond. But it really does. Little tears all over the fabric of society weaken it, until one day it might give way altogether. Thus I noticed that I, and my values, are out of place with what modern society has become.

The immobility of Islam

Visiting a typical London shopping centre today, I observed that around 50% of the shoppers were of Arabic or Indian descent and a great many women wore hijabs, burqas or niqabs. This is quite normal in London now (as it is across many cities in the United Kingdom).

It reminded me of the standard liberal riposte that Muslims in “our” society are likely to convert to the ways of liberalism and all will be rosy in the future. Timely, then, that I also noticed this article by Sam Harris in which he explains the first problem with this view:

“When one reads the Koran and the hadith, and consults the opinions of Muslim jurists over the centuries, one discovers that killing apostates, treating women like livestock, and waging jihad—not merely as an inner, spiritual struggle but as holy war against infidels—are practices that are central to the faith.

Granted, one path out of this madness might be for mainstream Muslims to simply pretend that this isn’t so—and by this pretense persuade the next generation that the “true” Islam is peaceful, tolerant of difference, egalitarian, and fully compatible with a global civil society.

But the holy books remain forever to be consulted, and no one will dare to edit them. Consequently, the most barbarous and divisive passages in these texts will remain forever open to being given their most plausible interpretations.”

- Sam Harris

The second one is mentioned by Christopher Caldwell in his Reflections on the Revolution in Europe:

“Along the road to European modernization (literacy, empowerment, individualism and so on) lie the shopping mall, the pierced navel, online gambling, a 50 per cent divorce rate and a high rate of anomie and self-loathing. What makes us so certain that that Europeanization is the road that immigrants will want to travel?”

“There are many .. models for immigration, and not all of them end with the “absorption” of the newcomers into the host country: the arrival of a few hundred British adventurers in India in the eighteenth century was an immigration, and so was the settlement of ambitious ranchers in the early nieteenth century in New Spain (now Texas). Immigration enhances strong countries and cultures, but it can overwhelm weak [decandent] ones.”

- Christopher Caldwell

They don’t seem to have a problem with the shopping mall, but the western female preference for not having children until the late 30s (if at all) doesn’t sit well with their faith and nor do the other practices Caldwell mentions. They must eye us, and understandably, as a culture unsure of its values, and in decadent decline. By contrast, when you have faith, you have certainty and purpose.

Hence we can see that the dictates of totalitarian Islam must be rejected along with those of excessive liberalism, for together they present a threat to civilised society.

A visit to Westbourne Park

If you stay at home you don’t see anything revolting in the city of London. This is virtually the only way you don’t see anything revolting in the city of London now, providing you don’t watch TV, which I do not. On billboards you are likely to see vacuous advertising selling lies, on the TV you will see the same, and you will see obscene individuals being paid similar sums of money for exhibiting no apparent talents beyond those of the archetypal “man down the pub”.

But I’m not staying at home this week, I’m working – in Westbourne Park. I’m therefore exposed to the general public, therefore exposed to vulgarity and therefore having reason to write. I will embellish nothing – there’s no need. As the smell of chewing gum drifts from the person next to me on the bus, allow me to continue.

“For f**ks sake!” yelled the girl at the bus stop.

This not eliciting any response from me, she yelled it again, more loudly. “I just missed a call from Mummy”. I was intrigued by the use of such a juvenile term by one so vulgar (but not by the vulgarity of one so young, which is now commonplace).

The girl was perhaps 16. It’s hard to tell now. She could have been anything between 12 and 18. In any case, she was dressed in the typical attire of contemporary female youth – following the example of “celebrities” who are invariably common: midriff massively exposed, chains around her neck and a Louis Vuitton (or clone) bag (the de rigueur fashion accessory for cheap women who are unable to think for themselves). Not to put too fine a point on it, she was dressed as a street whore.

This reminds me: only last week a Community Support police officer mentioned to me that women in my area have been complaining that men have been propositioning them in the street. Little wonder, I thought.

The girl’s overt sexualising and cheapening of herself brought into my mind various other topics too. One was the way that women now have license to dress in a very provocative and revealing manner at the office, which is obviously intended to attract the attention of men, but if those same men are seen to observe the display then the woman may file a complaint against them. This is in fact a kind of mercenary sadism on the part of the woman. The attire is of course entirely inappropriate for the workplace and should not be allowed. Were it not for the inequalities introduced by modern, warped, notions of feminism, it probably would be.

Thrusting her phone away, the girl proceeded to inspect the scalp of a young girl (perhaps 6) whom she had with her – this was quite possibly her daughter, and she was perhaps also using gutter language by this time. The inspection constituted responsible behavior though, you might think, were I not to mention that she simultaneously dangled her smoking cigarette a mere two inches from the girl’s hair.

Some more “f**king” over various matters and the bus arrived. What hope for the girl? What hope for society generally you might well wonder, when the least responsible are encouraged with copious financial benefits to breed and the more responsible think twice about doing so?

I must not conflate this girl whom I observed with another whom I saw on the bus. This one also used the ubiquitous, almost meaningless now, word “f**king” but she managed it without even speaking. For her, the word was emblazoned on one of those ridiculous wristbands. It’s the only word I could make out – bold white on black – but this wristband was accompanied by many others, which were presumably to do with freeing Africa and Tibet. These wristbands are the means by which the ignorant, indifferent and conformist these days feign to be savvy, compassionate and independent.

I report what I see, but I wouldn’t want to be misperceived as misogynist. Let me therefore say that I have of course also heard F-words uttered by males today in the brief time I have been exposed to these uncultured thugs. I always find vulgar and coarse language somehow more disappointing, though, when heard from the lips of what is supposed to be the fairer sex. Women are supposed to have a softness and tenderness (for good reason), but many these days make a mockery of this with their grotesque behavior. The more decent women who remain will no doubt agree with me on this.

One day down, another to come tomorrow. I will look out for the people who appear to be gracious, cultured and humble. It isn’t fashionable to have those qualities, and they are rare. Lamentably few people realize that such qualities are a necessary prerequistite to any kind of valid self-respect.

Campaign Against Light Sentencing

Shocked at the amount of ludicrously lenient sentences being handed down by UK judges these days, for even very serious offences, I have started a group on the website Facebook. If enough people join, perhaps this will help apply pressure for the issue to be addressed.

Elgar: Nimrod from the Enigma Variations

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The shape of things to come

In 1933 HG Wells wrote a novel called The Shape of Things to Come which speculated on future events between that date and the year 2106. Wells had some hits with his predictions and many misses.

If transatlantic trends up until now are anything to go by, the shape of things to come in the UK is something like this image, and that’s something Wells did not predict.

After all, one is now confronted by flesh tunnels and face studs in almost any city location. It must surely only be a short space of time now until these “forehead implants” (horns) become more commonplace.

Since it would constitute the height of vulgarity in the current cultural climate to pass any kind of judgement (especially negative!) on the aesthetic (or medical) merits of these appendages, I shall refrain from doing so, and add only that if you wish to learn more about this person’s exploits you may do so here.

Yob Nation

Any reader of this blog will soon be able to see that one of my primary concerns is the extreme yobbishness of British society these days. I have recently been working at a large London advertising agency (not as a copywriter, I hasten to add, but as a digital developer) where I heard the F word on average 40 times per day (mostly uttered by “the fairer sex”, I might add). The speakers were not especially angry about anything, it just litters the sentences of nearly everybody these days.

People only self-censor if they feel they will be penalised in some way, but since they are more likely, in fact, to be admired by their peer group, they consider themselves free to proceed in an ever descending spiral of general amorality. Had I the gall to complain, I expect I would have been at least ostracised, more likely dismissed.

In another agency (part of the same group, actually) I overheard the following exchange:

Person A: “Alright, mate. Whatdyu get up to over yesterday then?” [Note the assumed nefarious nature of the activity.]

Person B: “I got absolutely f**king hammered mate.” [drunk, for international readers, no doubt appalled at the state of the UK]

Person A: “Cool…!”

This simple-minded exchange between these two highly paid executives perfectly encapsulates the most serious issue currently facing the UK: amoral behaviour (which is bad enough in itself) widely sanctioned by others. It is no wonder the hard-line Muslim constituent of the population take such a dim view of the infidels.

I have just finished reading a book called Yob Nation, which presents an inquiry into the yobbish state of the UK. I was not especially keen on the book, as its author admitted to being something of a yob himself (feet on seats, loud music, use of profanity). He even explicitly stated that Theodore Dalrymple (whom I much admire) would disapprove of his behaviour, and in this I am sure he is correct.

The author also seemed to be from the Left, which I believe is misguided, and the book did not present any truly deep analysis of the social problems it described (mainly through anecdote) or present any robust plan to combat them.

Nonetheless, any exposure of the pandemic of yobbishness is to be welcomed, and Yob Nation does contain many first person accounts of the most appalling (but commonplace) behaviour. It also correctly points out that yobbishness is not confined to to the poorest of society but is very often seen among the rich and privileged too, complete with extreme and unnecessary vulgar language. Indeed, both superficiality and vulgarity are richly rewarded by the BBC, for example, who continued to pay “serial vulgarian” Jonathan Ross obscene sums of money even after he disgraced himself.

Yob Nation also correctly describes the sense any decent British citizen has now of being bombarded, and hemmed in, be it from corrupt advertising broadcasting harmful messages or from hooded immigrants on buses. Yes, I did say that. The book notes that many Somalis, who are often trained boy soldiers, are now a serious problem roaming the streets of London in gangs picking on easy prey. We are sheep to their wolves. Do you remember voting to have so many third world immigrants come here and irreversibly change the culture of the United Kingdom? That’s funny: neither do I.

Furthermore, my neighbours, two elderly women in a better part of London, never leave their house after dark and feel alienated from their society even doing so in the daytime. They can barely walk, yet report that they are usually denied a seat on the bus so that our foreign guests can seat their brood. It’s no good them trying to reason: English is not spoken.

Yob Nation, then, certainly presents the problem, but does not go into detail about the solution. I believe the solution lies in a drastic reduction of the benefits culture, repatriation, a programme of public humiliation and hard labour for criminals, and in zero tolerance on the streets. These are policies a new government could introduce were it not for the EU perpetually restricting our laws in favour of criminals.

A trip to Manchester

Today I have visited Manchester.  I have been here before, but this particular visit required me to walk through the centre of the city for perhaps 15 minutes.

During this short time I saw numerous flesh tunnels and tattoos, as one would anywhere, but also a gay homosexual couple, two transvestites (presumably transexuals) and a lesbian bar, which is certainly more “diversity” that I would even see on a standard walk around London. I then saw approximately 1,000 under-dressed teenagers and a number of orthodox Muslims. My taxi driver, for example, informed me that he had to finish his shift soon in order to get back to say prayers.

I also saw rapper Snoop Dogg, who turned up in a motorcade more befitting of a head of state, and in an outfit more befitting of a footballer, but that is another matter.

It takes time, of course, to get a proper measure of a city, but superficially at least, Manchester would appear to have some social tensions which are only likely to increase.

Vote to have the religious slaughter exemption repealed

I’m really not writing as much these days, for two reasons:

Firstly I have been exceptionally busy with work. Secondly, I don’t feel the need quite as much. This is no doubt partly because I have been exceptionally busy with work: I haven’t been out  as much, meaning I haven’t seen as much. But another reason I don’t feel the need quite as much is that Labour are out of power.

It feels almost as if a bunch of criminals have been ousted. Sweet relief, and optimism about the future.

One the the things the new coalition has done (already!) is create a website specifically for us to be able to tell it about the stupid, unnecessary laws that Labour introduced and upheld which they can now repeal. This is a golden opportunity to complain about the exemptions allowed for ritual animal slaughter.

I have written the following:

“It’s a shame that “mabon2010″ had the first comment on this, as this person presents no evidence whatsoever for their claims. It has, on the contrary, been proven beyond any reasonable doubt that ritual slaughter is far less humane than pre-stunning. There has also been FAWC concern specifically about the careless handling of animals in religious slaughterhouses.

There is *no* justifiable reason for this exemption to still exist. The only reason is does is blatant appeasement. “The appeaser”, said Churchill, “is the one who feeds the crocodile hoping it will eat him last”. Let’s repeal this law ASAP.”

You can make your comment here. Unlike the “petitions” website run by the previous government, which was just a cynical means of placating the people, I believe this one will be listened to. Let’s see.

Theodore Dalrymple on football

“To fail to recognise, or to pretend to fail to recognise, football’s relatively lowly place on the scale of human accomplishment is to be uncivilised – or, in the case of the dissimulator, to ally oneself with enemies of civilisation, which is perhaps yet worse.”

- Theodore Dalrymple in this great essay

New Order: Bizarre Love Triangle

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Brings back memories.

Interesting quotation

“Tolerance and apathy are the last virtues of a dying society”

- attrib. Aristotle

This quotation is often attributed to Aristotle, however no source, to my knowledge, has ever been provided. In addition, apathy is not a virtue and tolerance is rarely a virtue, though it is often vaunted as one. Tolerance of the wrong things is certainly a weakness – we see far too much of this in society today. The important question, of course, and one which greatly concerned Artistotle in his Nicomachean Ethics, is “What are the wrong things?”.

The modern lady

I was just having my 5 minute weekly look at Facebook, which I am thinking of leaving altogether, and I noticed a group called “Polite individuals”. Unusual, you might think. Indeed, with its avowed mission “to see in the future a society that breeds kemptness, kindness, and educated speech as a mainstay of our environment” the group has only 328 member worldwide. Presumably around half of these are female, though when I scanned down the list most names seemed to be male.

I then found another group. The name of this one was as follows: “Intelligent, classy, well-educated women who say “F*ck” a lot”. This group had over 1 million proud members, with one – for example – expressing the following sentiment:

“LOVE this f**kin group its sooooooo good to know there;s other like minded women who swears and dont give a f**kin f**k ….”

They didn’t bother with the asterisks.

The name of  the group is of course a contradiction in terms. Though its existence might seem trivial, it is not. It is rather further evidence that previously valued qualities such as grace are all but dead in society, that the modern woman often has no idea how to behave, that decency is now something to be ridiculed rather than admired (because that’s easier), that people are often conceited in their vulgarity – above all that somewhere, something has gone very wrong.