Legends, Churchill & the BNP

I’ve recently finished the rather excellent comic book (note: I say “comic book” rather than “graphic novel”, which always struck me as a bit pretentious) series Preacher. In amongst the culture bashing and anti-god content I noticed a strong and prevailing theme: our ambivalent relationship to myths and legends. They exist for reasons yet almost entirely fail to inform us of the truth of our history and enslave us in subtle ways.

Perhaps this put the idea into my head while I sat down and watched Nick Griffin, head of the racist BNP political group, on the latest episode of Question Time. For those unfamiliar with the show, Question Time is a weekly panel series in which the audience ask politicians and notable figures questions concerning public policy and events in society. The BNP gained notoriety for the recent election of two MPs to the European Parliament as well as a slew of local council election victories.

A number of the panellists took issue with the BNP’s use of Winston Churchill’s image in its campaign material and propaganda. Griffin was attacked for his claims that “Churchill would be in the BNP” if he were alive today. It was dismissed as an outrageous claim, one designed to lure in the hapless voters while slandering the historical figure. The audience cheered and clapped in an outburst of agreement.

But how true is this? Being a 1st generation Englishman in an Irish family I have heard two sides of this argument my whole life. Churchill the hero, John Bull personified, who got the country to pull itself out of a death spiral to face off the Nazis. That is one side, the other is quite a bit more ugly. Churchill the oppressor, Churchill who served as Home Secretary during some of the bloodiest periods in Irish history. The same Churchill who ordered that striking Welsh miners to be shot but was only restrained by the fact that the authorities on site refused to do so - the last story I've never found proof of but remains a powerful image in my mind of who Churchill was.

While looking into this I found an excellent article on the myth of Churchill by the Guardian some years ago.

‘As president of the air council in 1919, he wrote: "I do not understand the squeamishness about the use of gas. I am strongly in favour of using poisonous gas against uncivilised tribes." A few years later mustard gas was used against the Kurds.

Nor did his distaste for the "uncivilised" stop there. He branded Gandhi "a half-naked fakir" who "ought to be laid, bound hand and foot, at the gates of Delhi and then trampled on by an enormous elephant with the new viceroy seated on its back".’

As much as it may pain people to admit it today: Churchill was racist. He was also highly militaristic having put himself in as much active duty combat during his military career from 1895 onwards, while pocketing money from his second job as a war correspondent.

So which party would he suit best?

"Why is it the greatest champions of the white race always turn out to be the worst examples of it? YOU! Where the fuck is your CHIN?"
- Jesse Custer, the Preacher, to a KKK member.

Hello Wembley!

That's a little shout-out to my Wembley readers. If google analytics can be believed, I seem to be rather big up north west... By "big" I mean relative to everywhere else and seeing as I'm not giving out any exact numbers to compare this against you can probably guess that "big" is a gross exaggeration.

Still: Hello Wembley! Do I need to talk about football and casual knife crime to keep your readership? … I'll do it. I mean, I don't want to but I will.

Anyway, I've been finding it difficult to gather the attention span to contribute much to this blog over the past few weeks. I blame moving, then no internet, then settling into the new job, then freelance work (btw: I do think the only comment on there is very fair and quite funny), then being quoted in the times (okay that last one really was just a selfish plug), to a slight sense of ennui over my cat's constant bullying of me while I sleep.

Safe to say things have been very busy but now that the obligatory "just moved" trip to Ikea has come and gone I will have time to write a proper update very soon... I promise.

"Do you regret leaving University?"

"Currently I am between jobs."

I've been job hunting recently and, to varying degrees of success, I've been attending interviews. In addition to this I've also been taking the time to speak to, and get to know, more people - seeing as how my long-term social circle for the past few years vanished recently.

A common question I've been asked in both interviews and social encounters is: "Do you regret leaving University?"

When I was making the decision it felt life alternating, I was so terrified I was going to make a mistake. Sure I hated my degree and didn't really have any friends at University, but it was still a degree and I had always been told that going through life without one was a horrible mistake. Street sweepers and garbage men were what people without degrees became and they were never going to be happy - or so the story went.

"Opportunities lost?"

So far, since leaving my course in Journalism unfinished, I have led a very interesting life. It has only been a year and a half but I have run my own business and been the editor of a globally respected website. I have flown around the world, met incredibly bright and ingenious people, some of whom I've admired since I was a child. On a shallower note: I've been treated with some bizarre respect that a posh sounding job title grants you from strangers and I've eaten in fine Michelin starred restaurants. It was all great fun... but as some of you know my unconscious had different plans.

"Crumbling edifice."

Following the breakdown of my three year relationship at the end of December and my taking up therapy at the end of January, I woke my unconscious up. It was a series of acts which I didn't quite realise the importance of, like knocking over the first domino in a chain that you didn't know existed.

I found myself unable to write, unable to sleep, and often unable to eat. What I was able to do was catch colds, flues, and minor illnesses. While I consciously wanted to continue on in my job my unconscious was staging a revolt. Around this time a series of friendships failed and I felt like my life had stagnated.

And then: I left my job.

I think I'll always be shocked at the rapidity my string of illnesses cleared up after I left. Within 24 hours I was back to being... me. I was happy, healthy and excited about the future. Which in fact seemed more like "me" than my previous experiences of "me" ever were.

"A better education."

Looking back it seems like leaving university was the smartest decision I ever made. I was sitting there, taking a journalism course I hated, wondering if I had made a huge mistake in my life plan.

So what did I do? I threw myself at the career, I gave it my best bloody shot. I started a business, I did work on the side, I volunteered for free writing gigs and then I was picked up by an established publication and put into a position which most people spend decades trying to reach... and I hated it.

I mean that's the long and short of it right? I had everything that was planned for me, by my Dad, by my sister, and by everyone who bangs on about careers and success and puts all that pressure on kids in schools, and it didn't bring me any happiness.

I only felt happiness when I took control again. Even now I'm happier than ever. I'm struggling for work, I'm unsure of my future, and I don't have anyone in my life that I haven't known for more than six months but god help me I feel happier than ever before. Especially as this gave me the impetus to pursue new friendships, rewarding and stronger in their base than anything I've had before.

I swear I think its crazy how I've been trying to avoid this knowledge.

I think a part of me wants to cling to this view that I've been abandoned by my loved ones and have failed in my career because it would keep me small and meek.

And now I feel stuck, I'm very unsure how to end this post - perhaps that's fitting given how I'm nowhere near the end of this journey. I'll keep you all posted :).

V for Vendetta - the movie isn't so good.

I remember seeing V for Vendetta the movie for the first time. I am a huge fan of the comic, however, I felt totally under whelmed by the film, which seemed to be scrubbed of all references to anarchism. But everyone else seemed to enjoy it and I was willing to accept that maybe I was just nit picking. So, I waited years to see the movie again, which I did last week. I was still under whelmed and disappointed, and I thought I'd share some of the the reasons below:

Why I like the comic (click page for larger image):

Why I dislike the movie:

Why I like the comic (click page for larger image):

Why I dislike the movie:

Hamlet: Act One, Scene Two

Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears

Had left the flushing of her galled eyes,

She married. O most wicked speed, to post

With such dexterity to incestuous sheets:

It is not, nor cannot come to good.

But break my heart, for I must hold my tongue.

Unnamed short story 1

Her heart was beating as her feet pounded the ground, she was not alone, others were along for her journey.  Each footstep resounded in darkness, each heart beat escalated as fear radiated outward with every step. The sound of footsteps and heartbeats created the percussion of tenseness as the crashing cymbal awaited them, just out of sight, just coming into focus, but waiting as inevitable as their journey's end was.

Juliet woke up. She rubbed her eyes and as she did the images and symbolism of the dream faded from memory. However, the emotion did not and the emotion was fear. Juliet sat up, she swung her small legs over the side the bed, her young feet still not able to touch the ground. While she didn't know the time she knew she awake hours before she should be, she wondered if this was early or late and how adults knew the difference. All she knew was that she didn't want to go back to bed. Juliet was disturbed and wanted to run down the hall to her parent's room for protection but she didn't, she was afraid. Their reaction to her was never really certain and she was sure they wouldn't like her waking them up so very early.

Instead she sat there, afraid to move, afraid to stay in her bed and definitely afraid to go back to sleep. She pushed herself off the bed and let her bare feet sink into the lush green carpet. Carefully she navigated around her room in the darkness.

She was surprised to find that what had been nothing but pitch black when she went to sleep was now almost entirely visible to her. It is a world of greys, she thought, like the colour has been drained out. Juliet wondered why no one told her you could see in the dark.

Maybe no one knew, she thought, maybe I'm special.

She made her way to the bedroom window, her feet making a slight padding noise as she moved. Nudging the heavy curtain aside and positioning herself under it as the drapes swung back, she looked out the window.

The London street looked so empty and peaceful now, no noises to be heard, except for the occasional car which broke the silence - but even then they seemed to make a 'shhh' noise. She wondered who was in those cars, why they were up so late, and where were they driving.

She heard creaking in the distance and froze with fear, the fear of being discovered awake at this time, to have the freedom she accidently found questioned and eventually take away from her.

The creaking stopped and she was safe. She wondered what the house beyond her door looked like. Opening the door with the greatest care she tip-toed down the hall. Her parent's room was open with a slight crack, she could hear snoring and heavy breathing.  Juliet made her way to the kitchen eager to look out the back window overlooking the garden.

Her feet met the cold sensation of tile as she made her way to the sink, pulled herself up on the counter and peered through the window. The garden seemed so still, but the trees were scary shadows, the wind pushing them to loom over the house in menacing disapproval.

Suddenly there was a burst of light that stung her eyes. Juliet pressed her chin against her chest as the bright pink of her pyjamas became a reality once more.

"What are you doing up!" her father hissed. "Get to bed now, we've got a big day tomorrow."

She wanted to ask him why he was awake and she couldn't be, but by this point she knew that was a mistake. Saying nothing she edged her way across the room, keeping her distance, and slunk back into bed, constantly aware of her father's angered gaze.

Digital Revolutionary!

Published on January 2nd, 2008. Interview conducted in November 2007. Please check out JamesLeeMedia.com for my full professional profile.

Digital Revolutionary!

When you think of revolutionaries you probably picture long haired Lotharios sporting rugged bears, wearing military surplus clothing and screaming messages from a pulpit to the socially disaffected.

Stefan Molyneux is a most unlikely revolutionary: he is bald, wears t-shirts and jeans, is clean shaven and in his early 40s but he does have a message of social and philosophical revolution that has enraptured thousands across the globe.

This message is not preached in the pages of any newspaper or made from soap boxes on the corner of the street but instead it is made to a microphone and, through his computer and the medium of podcasting, it passes along to his listeners.

His website, www.freedomainradio.com, offers free podcasts, articles and videos that are in high demand. The Freedomain Radio podcasts have over 200,000 downloads a month with over 20,000 regular listeners and growing.

Its prolific host is a man of many words, as over 920 podcasts published in just two years may suggest. He describes his philosophy as: “The application of rational philosophical principles, reasoning from first principles using the Socratic Aristotelian method, to just about every aspect of life that you could imagine. It’s taken us all the way from metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, politics, aesthetics, psychology, family relations, romantic relations, work relations and work optimization.”

Molyneux further explains his approach as: “Rationality equals virtue equals happiness… If you are rational then that is the same as being virtuous and if you are virtuous that results in happiness. It’s not a perpetual feeling of bliss, but in the same way that if you eat well and exercise you are generally healthy, though that doesn’t mean you never get a cold .” 

Throughout the course of the podcasts, which were originally audio versions of Molyneux’s articles, his unique approach to philosophy has led him to some startling and controversial conclusions about the nature of government, family and religion.

He explains: “Virtue is something that has to be earned by each individual and is not something which can be claimed by being voted into office, by donning particularly funny hats and claiming to worship an invisible god, or by having sex and giving birth to children.To detach virtue from abstract concepts like gods, governments and parents is pretty key to … being productive and happy in your life.”

When asked about the success of his podcasts and articles, which he refers to as “the discussion”, he attributes it to how he tries to make politics personal, explaining: “I think because we go from the very abstract principles right down the nitty-gritty of: do you go to a difficult family thanksgiving reunion - that is the real value of philosophy and I’m tying it from the abstract to the personal.”

Molyneux seems genuinely upset when he laments the way in which modern philosophy is only discussed in an abstract manner, recalling: “I’m on a [mailing] list of fairly prominent libertarians and they were debating recently about whether or not in a society without a government there would be vending machines dispensing cocaine. While that is a form of intellectual Sudoku that can be interesting, it seems to me intellectually equivalent to translating Shakespeare into Klingon. It’s an interesting intellectual exercise but nothing that is going to hit people where they live in terms of real freedom in their life.”

Molyneux has shared some of his most tender and traumatic memories with his audience, telling them of his abusive mother and of his childhood spent in poverty. He does this because he believes you cannot understand concepts like the government without first understanding your history with your family.

He credits his wife, Psychologist Christina Molyneux, for helping him make this connection, saying: “My wife … helped me to tie the most windy abstractions to the very personal… It was her who first put me hot on the trail of the idea that the state, as a sort of power structure, is an affect of the family, which is a power structure that we all inhabit very early on in life and which conditions all of our responses to power throughout our lives in an unconscious manner.”

“I was absolutely terrified to approach these topics,” he explains in a very candid manner. “It’s a lot easier to get people’s agreement on abstract philosophical issues than it is on core personal relationships.”

He continues: “The real question is: if these are your values what are you really going to do in your relationships where you have real power?”

His involvement in philosophy came as a surprise especially to himself, he explains: “The genesis of the whole thing was that I had an employee who was a Christian, we engaged in philosophical debates, and we were talking about pollution control one lunch time. I was white boarding the solutions and I realized suddenly you could have an economically productive solution.” 

That solution was the dispute resolution organization, or DRO, which would be his model as an ethical and profitable alternative to government. DRO’s are similar to insurance companies and credit rating agencies and, according to Molyneux, are a moral alternative to government force. Think of DRO’s like a government version of Ebay where each person has a rating which advertises their past history. A person with a low rating will find it harder to get a job, take out a loan or generally function in society.

Molyneux never imagined that his popularity would grow to such a point that he could leave his well paying job as a software executive and take up producing the podcasts full time. Somehow he does this, not by charging for any content but with the aid of voluntary donations that are made through his website.

“People were aghast!” He says, in reference to the reaction people had to the success of donations scheme. “20 bucks to subscribe, and what do you get when you subscribe? Well nothing really… People just want to do the good thing… and people like the idea that we’re resurrecting the philosophical roundtable.”

Looking back on his surprise success in the field of politics and philosophy, he reveals: “It never happens the way you think it would… I thought I’d be doing the lecture circuit.”