Spring Optimism?
One of the great things about a garden is that it has its own way of telling the time of year - a natural calendar. Yesterday I spent a couple of hours trimming and laying a Hazel hedge and feeling rather guilty disturbing those catkin-laden branches that are reminiscent of gambolling lambs' tails. What could be more redolent of Spring, with all its inherent optimism, than that? Optimism, as we all know, is the spirit that keeps us plodding ever onwards, despite everything that might frustrate or disallusion. It shines brightest where conditions are most testing. It is an universal attribute, that requires faith that defies logic and unobtrusively runs deep in the psyche. Hazel is not the only plant with 'lambs' tails' though. Outside my window where I type, stands a plant I brought all the way from the much harsher climate of Leeds. It's 'Garrya elliptica', bedecked with golden ear-rings dangling in the breeze.
"HOLOCAUST REMEMBRANCE DAY" 27.1.2025.
TTV: Holocaust Day is pure propaganda and hypocrisy whilst jews are slaughtering tens of thousands in Gaza and elsewhere. Gaza has been a repeat of what the Nazis did to Warsaw (with Russian blessing) just as the West has condoned and excused the massacre in Gaza. Why are we celebrating a 90 year old event but not one that is happening NOW? As usual the public is being conned and brainwashed for a purpose. As to the actions of the Third Reich and the events of the 1940's there are those that question the whole 'gas chambers' narrative for very good reasons. See: https://veaterecosan.blogspot.com/search?q=holocaust
6.2.2025: Actions, both by individuals and nations are embedded in meta-physical ideas. Whether they are objectively true or not, their impact cannot be denied. We try to make sense of a chaotic and cruel world through our religious beliefs, political persuasions and tribal affiliations. It is a pot-pouri of billions of minds and bodies that have to share the same and only habitable earth with every other living thing. There is creation. There is destruction. There is life and there is death. Both are inevitable but we know what we prefer. Nor can we escape the observation that in the last century death and destruction have been predominantly linked to a Western philosophical mind-set, rooted in the Christian/Judeo tradition. The paradox between teachings and actions, does not need to be explained. It is a conundrum, explicable only in terms of infiltration and corruption by the worst human motivations of power, greed and aquisitiveness, best illustrated at this point in time, by jews in israel, backed by a marauding United States.
Like his predecessor, Keir Starmer has been relying chiefly on the BBC – the state broadcaster and main news source for most Britons – to keep the public
largely ignorant, both of the fact that a genocide is taking place in Gaza and of his complicity in it.
The BBC’s role has been to normalise genocide by recharacterising it as a “war” between Israel and Hamas. Israel’s carpet bombing of Gaza, the mass slaughter of Palestinians, and the starvation of the entire population have been implicitly treated as a “counter-terrorism” operation.
The aim was to gradually dissipate interest in the Gaza protests, shrinking the size of the demonstrations and leaving only a hard core of committed activists out on the streets.
Initially, the BBC kept the focus on the suffering of Israelis in the aftermath of the Hamas attack, and on the plight of Israeli hostages held in Gaza – even as tens of thousands of Palestinians in the enclave were killed and maimed, and its hospitals, schools, universities, libraries, mosques, churches and bakeries were levelled.
Then, as the genocide rolled on and selling it became harder, the BBC largely drew a veil over what was taking place. It minimised its reporting to the point where the horrors unfolding in Gaza were excluded from the main TV news for days or even weeks at a time.
A growing number of BBC journalists have come forward as whistleblowers. They have cited severe top-down pressure at the corporation to slant reporting in Israel’s favour.
Even now, as the first stage of a shaky ceasefire was implemented last Sunday, the BBC’s focus once again reverted to the Israeli hostages, and the release of three to their families. Each has been humanised by the western media, their stories and photographs shared widely.
Meanwhile, the Palestinian women and children they have been “swapped” for are barely visible. They are referred to prejudicially as “prisoners”. But like thousands of other Palestinians held in Israeli “prisons”, many were seized from their homes in the middle of the night by armed soldiers enforcing an illegal occupation. Many have been held for lengthy periods without charge or trial.
Even as the exchanges were taking place, Israel was abducting more Palestinians, including children, to fill its “prisons”, which Israeli human rights groups describe as “torture camps”.
All of this was reason enough for the organisers to select the BBC as the site for last weekend’s demonstration. The point was to protest its coverage and editorial complicity in Israel’s genocide.
The media’s biased reporting has given licence to the British government to back Israel’s genocide. And the same flawed coverage will give Israel licence to violate the ceasefire, as it is already doing, or to reimpose the inhuman, 16-year siege of Gaza that preceded the genocide and led to Hamas’ attack on 7 October 2023.
But as the demonstrations have shown no signs of abating, the Starmer government has grown more desperate. The BBC has failed to normalise the genocide, and British complicity has not been completely shrouded.
Starmer thus needed a new strategy for bringing to an end the rallies that have been embarrassing him. If the British public can’t be brainwashed into accepting genocide, then they will have to be scared off the streets. The velvet glove of the BBC has been swapped for the Met’s iron first.
More Dream Nonsense by Tim Veater.
As I awake from dreams, I'm such a raconteur,
Central to a crowded social milieu whirl,
A veritable Oscar Wilde or George Bernard Shaw,
A Quentin Crisp, Jonathan Miller or Frank Muir,
Or someone I do not recognise at all?
For whilst I'm sitting in an easy chair,
An extrovert enquires if he can put his hat on it?
I quip and wonder if by chance he is Niels Bohr,
The clever man who found the atom?
The room erupts and thinks me very clever,
With humour, I have charmed them all
And consequently treated like a treasure.
My charisma quite unstoppable.
Now outside in the open air,
There's quite a crowd has come to see me;
A harpsichord is playing in the field,
As two white swans take flight to greet me,
Whilst I, nailed to the earth, the holy weald,
Wonder if I'll be alright or disappoint?
Then coming to, dawn chorus in my head,
I question if it's real or some ancestral memory instead?
I open up the door to call the cat,
And discover twas all imagination.
The birds, if there, have flown and taken
All the aerial music with them.
Poor humans left alone in silence,
Deprived of flight and avian song,
Are hardly worth a toss, the loss
Like mocking dreams, all all are gone
Or never was and never there.
A figment of a troubled mind,
A product of the night or chilly morning air.
In reply to Andrew George MP. 24.1.2025: When in 1966/7 I studied 'the British Constitution' - "unwritten and flexible' and all that stuff - the lecturer highlighted the irrational state of local government. It was the result of a long and tortuous evolution from courts Leet and Baron; Royal Charters for fairs and Corporations; the great Reform Act of 1832 which among other things got rid of so-called 'Rotton Boroughs'; the Municipal Corporations Act 1835; poor law reform in 1834; the Education and Local Government Acts of the 1880's which endeavoured to make the system more logical and uniform. This created the system that prevailed, with added responsibilities, until the 1970's. This was one of 'two tier' local government (actually three if you include parish councils) of Counties and Districts - Urban and Rural. Counties and County Bouroughs were allotted the more strategic roles, districts more local ones. This still meant a wide variation in populations and function: some Boroughs were tiny but complete with historic mayor and regalia, whilst some urban disticts were huge but lacking status. This was all to change following the Royal Commission chaired by Lord Redcliffe-Maud in 1969 which led to the Local Government Act 1974. This kept the two-tier system but combined many second tier authorities into larger units. In Cornwall the six District Councils emerged which survived until 2009 and the creation of a 'unitary' Cornwall Council. Whether this change delivered the cost-benefits promised, is open to question. However it did undoubtedly make local government in the geograhical area, somewhat more remote and unaccountable. Over the same period, national government policies and trends have actually undermined local autonomy and functions, many passing to government departments, quangos and privatisation. Public health, education, water, environmental control, food standards and so on, yet despite this transfer of function, finances and balance sheets seem to have deteriorated, partly caused by reduced central government support and spiralling social service costs. (What implications will the 'grooming gangs' local enquiries throw up I wonder?) Meanwhile police, water, sewage and energy costs also spiral. The Cornwall Council may assert its Cornish identity but the practical effect is ephemeral when responsibilities leach away and government housing policy ensures the true Cornish character is continually diluted and replaced by incomers and urban blight. During Blair's administration various ad hoc local government experiments were tried, continued by Cameron. We now have a mish mash local government arrangement all over again. Perhaps it's time for a successor to Redcliffe-Maud?
Meanwhile back at the ranch: https://www.cornwalllive.com/news/cornwall-news/council-spends-116m-doing-up-9888075?IYA-reg=625f183d-aa30-407f-a762-b5a6a39dd349&utm_campaign=Daily-2412025&utm_medium=email&utm_source=IYA-DailyDigest&utm_term=news-link&source=email&sourceUserIid=625f183d-aa30-407f-a762-b5a6a39dd349
The western media, slavishly representing western government and interests, is deeply and dishonestly biased. The constant reference to Hamas and Hezbollah as 'terrorists' is an intentional slur, intended to influence the public mind. Israel can kill all it wants - it is a just war. These groups kill in the act of defending themselves and their territory - it is unjustified terrorism. It is long since time, Netanyahu and his cronies were made to get out of the occupied territories for good, stop grievously abusing its occupants and agree either a greater Israel for all based on equal human rights and protection or a truly autominous independent Palestinian entity. The people of the West must demand an end to the news bias and lies and an end to the USA/Israel hegmonic death and destruction. Western governments have alligned themselves with illegality, inhumanity and tyranny. If they can abandon their claimed 'values' so easily regarding Israeli despotism, how safe are we?
28.1.2025: TRUMP TAKEOVER OF GREENLAND? Not sure the Danes would want to go to war with America. Not quite up to what they were fifteen hundred years ago! lol But 'Greenland' covered in snow, in contrast to 'Iceland' which is largely green, being Danish territory is a throw-back to former times when in 1721 a missionary established a colony there. Trump is an egotistical nationalist who obviously appeals to a lot of Americans. It is a political strategy that works everywhere but often leads to disaster as the Second World War and subsequent ones have proved. Patriotism though considered a honourable trait, can lead to many evils, including the belief in superiority and desire to subjugate others. Trump is exhibiting these traits but nothing new about that. Whether his jingoism will translate to despotism awaits to be seen. He is subject to many costitutional checks and balances. As to whether it will result in war is dependent on a whole range of practical and emotional factors and how much desire the invaded have to resist. In 1983 America invaded Grenada, a British colony without our permission but it didn't lead to war, although Mrs Thatcher was a bit put out. Contrast this to Argentina's invasion of the Falklands the year before. America has made quite a habit of invading other countries and effectively reducing them to ruins. We might reasonably conclude they arn't very good at it. Perhaps the bombastic Trump isn't very good at history, despite his memory and intellectual capacity being far superior to Biden's. But then that's not saying much. Rhetoric is easy but what if Trump's comes true, including his promise to 'take back' Panama and incorporate Greenland? Only time will tell. Watch this space! lol
Nietzsche’s madman in the Gay Science
“Have you not heard of that madman who lit a lantern in the bright morning hours, ran to the market-place, and cried incessantly: "I am looking for God! I am looking for God!" As many of those who did not believe in God were standing together there, he excited considerable laughter. Have you lost him, then? said one. Did he lose his way like a child? said another. Or is he hiding? Is he afraid of us? Has he gone on a voyage? or emigrated? Thus they shouted and laughed. The madman sprang into their midst and pierced them with his glances.
"Where has God gone?" he cried. "I shall tell you. We have killed him - you and I. We are his murderers. But how have we done this? How were we able to drink up the sea? Who gave us the sponge to wipe away the entire horizon? What did we do when we unchained the earth from its sun? Whither is it moving now? Whither are we moving now? Away from all suns? Are we not perpetually falling? Backward, sideward, forward, in all directions? Is there any up or down left? Are we not straying as through an infinite nothing? Do we not feel the breath of empty space? Has it not become colder? Is it not more and more night coming on all the time? Must not lanterns be lit in the morning? Do we not hear anything yet of the noise of the gravediggers who are burying God? Do we not smell anything yet of God's decomposition? Gods too decompose. God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him. How shall we, murderers of all murderers, console ourselves? That which was the holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet possessed has bled to death under our knives. Who will wipe this blood off us? With what water could we purify ourselves? What festivals of atonement, what sacred games shall we need to invent? Is not the greatness of this deed too great for us? Must we not ourselves become gods simply to be worthy of it? There has never been a greater deed; and whosoever shall be born after us - for the sake of this deed he shall be part of a higher history than all history hitherto."
Here the madman fell silent and again regarded his listeners; and they too were silent and stared at him in astonishment. At last he threw his lantern to the ground, and it broke and went out. "I have come too early," he said then; "my time has not come yet. The tremendous event is still on its way, still travelling - it has not yet reached the ears of men. Lightning and thunder require time, the light of the stars requires time, deeds require time even after they are done, before they can be seen and heard. This deed is still more distant from them than the distant stars - and yet they have done it themselves."
It has been further related that on that same day the madman entered divers churches and there sang a requiem. Led out and quietened, he is said to have retorted each time: "what are these churches now if they are not the tombs and sepulchres of God?"
Ryan Tower: "The poetry is remarkable, and Friedrich was a very unfortunate genius, a tortured man. “How were we able to drink up the sea? Who gave us the sponge to wipe away the entire horizon?” These words capture the utter disillusionment that now faces the West after we “liberated” ourselves from God. Like a child running away from home our desire to liberate ourselves from expectation, from morality, from “law”, from responsibility, only delivered us into the hands of a much more dangerous law, the law of nature.
"The law of nature does not presuppose the dignity of the soul in each person. It does not presuppose the value of life. It is a cold, hard world without human touch and driven unconditionally by power. If you are willing to kill, you may live. Otherwise you are food. This is not human. If you think that down at the bottom of humanity there is nothing but a monkey and will to power, you will never produce a culture worth living in for any human being."
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