subjectivities

Heylo my freunden.

I received a compliment on my poor spellingness today. What fun!

What? Fun?

Anyways. I'm about to expose my jaded side and for that I truly apologise. We know it happens, but that doesn't mean we should revel in it. I will no doubt be berated by the misses.

Anyway.

I find the education system to be a little confusing at best. There seems to be so much that's imposed from outside/on high that talks of aiming high, of making sure that the best that can possibly be achieved is achieved, that results go from strength to strength and so on. Yet for all that (and here comes that subjective, jaded opinion that's gonna get me busted) it feels to me like the country gets more and more mediocre.

Further to that (and boy do I really despise the fact that I'm getting on this bandwagon, but what can you do?) it appears that to satisfy this endless target setting grades are getting better, but standards appear to slip. Which leads to a situation where you're telling an ongoing population that is getting dumber (just look at reality tv if you don't believe me :P) that they are getting smarter.

That's some scary sheet right there my friend. It's almost as if someone wanted us to be subdued whilst making us think that we're not. Not that I'm a conspiracy.. um.. ist?

What I will say, however, is that we're training people to look like they're doing the right thing, sound like they're saying the right thing, and appear to tick all the boxes. Surely that's got to be good for something?

Right?

Having said that, you can't have it all..

not that they wouldn't anyway

I wonder what prospective employers would make of all of this here. Hire or fire? It's an interesting question. Does this guff have any relevance to my professional potential? Is the title of my blog a deterrent perhaps?

Maybe I shall never know..

Do you think they should maybe cut the clandestinity of the exercise and mark your internet presence and its bearing on your employability out of 10 on a form for you.

Well Mr Toby One you scored high on general dedication to blogging and getting yourself out there (or whoring yourself about as we like to call it) but you fall and fall hard on overall content and on your slipshod, nay slovenly, approach to language, entertaining an audience and, quite frankly, making any bl*ody sense what-so-ever. Please do not darken our doorstep again.

Could be good. I await the day when people start businesses that will assess someone's online 'portfolio' for companies and summarise in a one-page writeup. There's money to be made I deem.

By the way I self-censored back there because I know that I may have picked up a few readers of a 'sensitive disposition' somewhere along the line. And I like to look out for them, bless their little trepidacious souls.

overandout

Propaganda

"Propaganda is the deliberate, systematic attempt to shape perceptions, manipulate cognitions, and direct behavior to achieve a response that furthers the desired intent of the propagandist."
- Garth S. Jowett and Victoria O'Donnell, Propoganda and Persuasion, 4th edition, 2006

I sometimes think the word propaganda is only ever applied to materials, methods or views that the person using the word disagrees.

Is it ever possible to tell a full objective truth that the other person receives objectively in its entirety?

Do we ever write something public without wishing or hoping to shape perceptions? Perhaps not to further our intent, but probably to propagate our views.

I think we react more to perceived propaganda when we see the manipulation. For instance, in a program I watched recently, images were used that were not directly related to the commentary but had been (I assume carefully) chosen to create a certain mood that would help convey the overall message. I think, "propaganda", but perhaps those that agreed with every word being said wouldn't. Or perhaps those that had not spotted the conceit.

But does it matter? I guess people don't like to be manipulated so on principle yes. But then everything we see, hear, touch etc. will be manipulating us in some way. It then comes down to whether we know we're being manipulated and whether we like it. Or it becomes about whether you think it is right that other people should be manipulated in that way. But if you cry foul you're still deciding what is right and wrong for someone else. Who ultimately decides what is good propaganda and what is bad propaganda? Surely training people to choose for themselves is in itself a form of propaganda?

My final question may seem a little trivial but I don't mind. Do you think that a rare bearlike mammal of the mountains of China and Tibet, having woolly fur with distinctive black and white markings would think this rant to be propapanda?

Didn't think so.

overandout

stark

Hello hello.

My current nark is all about the humility. I'm guessing that when your business is writing words it doesn't pay to be unsure of them so it's understandable that you state your position and you state it boldly.

I hate to add to the countless words already written in the wake of the recent retirement announcement, but I'm surprised that I haven't read or heard many balanced pieces of thinking about the 10 years with Tony Blair in charge.

Most of it's RAH RAH RAH IRAQ, or HEALTHCARE this or Oh whatever. Pieces either blind in their praise or blind in their hatred. What emerges is that there are many with an issue or an axe to grind (bad axes or good axes) and most of it would maybe rest on a few personal experiences of life under Tony that have colored overall opinion.

So many things are summed up with such self-belief and arrogance it's hard for me to take any of them seriously. Perhaps I'm just nervous of stating any case too boldly.

My own guess is that this country hasn't been run all too badly for the last 10 years. I think the government has probably been a little spin-happy, but I defy anyone not to be in the current media climate. I see triumphs and disasters and so-sos and maybes. There are people who have been let down, people who have been well served, people undermined and people lifted up.

I have a sneaking suspicion that life creeps on, and also a slightly nervous inclination to believe that in more cases than we'd like to admit, we do bad things to ourselves. The General Public of the United Kingdom is a strange and unruly beast.

In closing I see a country and a system and a decade too complex to bring down to a few paragraphs (though you will see that even I am trying :P). Also I see a job impossible to be done to the satisfaction of all. I try to understand that not everything is as it seems and that there is good and bad in all walks of life from the lowest to the highest.

Finally I deem it unwise to try and second-guess what history will make of things. Hindsight is a scarce commodity.

I hope this hasn't appalled you.

Overand out..

farewell to arms

They said the road to hell was paved with good intentions. It was found instead to be littered with those you left dead and bloodied in your eagerness to get there.

I despair of the trend towards tearing down we seem to have established.

I wish I could put it more eloquently.

I rather think that's enough for this post.

overandout

Homophobia

Hello again.

Sorry, just had to blog this one:

"And in an earlier interview with the Observer newspaper, [Elton John] said he would like to see all organised religion banned and accused it of trying to 'turn hatred towards gay people'."

From http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6475255.stm

What a genius!

I want to see all organised (or otherwise) Elton Johns banned because they're trying to turn hatred towards organised religion.

If you paint with such broad brushstrokes Mr John, you are guilty of the bigotry you so rightly despise.

vorenaodtu

Against whom?

Just had an interesting start of a thought process in the car. It was down to a conversation with El, the origins of which are difficult to pinpoint in my redwine-addled brain.

Nevertheless let's try and spark this thought into the webbernet and see what criticism it gets us (precious).

I find it interesting the way that some people (coughchristianscough) carry on against this and that and the other..

I do have in my mind a particular example, although I could most likely come up with others. I recently received an email that tells us to:

Take a second to cast your vote in the Evening Standard online poll to determine public opinion about whether a mega mosque should be built for the Olympics.

The vote so far is 62 % in favour. It looks like the Muslim community is casting its vote in droves, and as usual the Christians are burying their head in the sand.

Let's leave aside for a second the "Muslim community.. in droves" comment as I'm sure you can all appreciate the overstatement without my drawing attention to it (oops just did never mind).. What message is being sent here? What message should be sent?

Don't get me wrong, I think it's a good thing to stand up for what you believe in. But I think I'm right in saying that people like Jesus and Paul made stands mainly against people on the inside who were opressing other people. I suspect (and bear in mind that I really wouldn't consider myself a scholar in this area) that these guys wouldn't have wasted their time signing a petition against the local temple to whoever or local businesses or laws or whatever. I think they'd have been out there talking to people and oh so more importantly LOVING people EXACTLY WHERE THEY WERE. No sodding strings attached.

I actually would love this to be a debate (although this is not the best setting for that) because I'm very interested in learning what people have to say on all sides.

The only thing is that I'm right and you're wrong so bite me. Just kidding folks, that's what the fundamentalist in all of us would like to be saying. But we won't let it, hey?

As an aside did you know that the spirit of fundamentalism resides outside of religions? It's true. There's fundamentalist atheists out there too. BEWARE.

Ok I'm about done. Over to you..

To die by the sword is a fine way to die..

What day is it today? It is Wednesday. I was inspired by one of my dad's
posts to comment and I feel I should elucidate a little further.

The question to be asked is firstly can we trust what we're told by the
national press/media and by extension, can we trust anything we hear secondhand?

The cartoon here discusses a similar issue and concludes in probably much the same way that I will (ie. facetiously). I haven't planned this ending yet, but let's be fair, the odds aren't going to be long are they?

I'm not an expert but I'm guessing that whenever you read something the following factors will enable you to come to a conclusion on whether you believe what you're reading

• Your knowledge of the subject matter including:
• previous first-hand experience
• previous knowledge acquired through second-hand means
• Your knowledge of the author including the same
• Your gut reaction to the piece which will be based on a number of factors
• the first two factors above
• the author's style and language
• your mood
• probably a number of other factors such as upbringing, worldview etc etc.

Added to this, you have the probability of something you read being 100%
correct based on a number of other factors.

• The author's knowledge of the subject matter as above
• The author's motives for telling the truth, dictated by
• money
• power
• sex
• poops and giggles
• other
• The complexity of the subject matter and the inherent difficulty in fully understanding it
• The limitations of written language to communicate an exact thought - both on the part of the communicator and the communicatee
• If the piece of writing is constrained in length, whether the subject can be fully explained in that length.
• The author speculating or hypothesising
• I'd imagine this list is far from exhaustive

Bearing in mind I'm specifically thinking of supposedly objective pieces of
writing about events and such. Bring in opinion and you're on a whole 'nother level.

The issue of whether to trust a source to my mind seems arbitrary. There are so many mix and match circumstances that unless you are a first-hand observer how can you know what to trust? Even as a first-hand observer can you fully know your subject?

My conclusion? Well this is historically where it all falls apart of course. I was never really cut out to be a philosopher or a jedi. I guess I'm saying I don't know who to trust. Cynical? Bitter? Jaded? Yeah but I'm one helluva party-animal as well..

You shall know the truth and it shall set you free. Indeed.

post new-year's lull

It's dark, grey and rainy. Just like on my blog. Kinda.

Blogging about blogging is rather self-defeating actually. Kind of like cooking a saucepan. But since the whole thing is rather self-indulgent anyway and since there's so much space on the webbernet to fill and since and since and since and.. I DON'T CARE I'M GONNA ANYWAY.

See I'm not feeling it. I know that y'all can hollah because I've seen that nones of you are feelsking it either. I think back to December when I was posting every day (sometimes a couple of times a day) and I'm scared. What was I posting about? I can't imagine and I don't think I'll check because frankly I probably don't want to know.

Having said that, I posted that Very Thoughts post just a couple of days ago. That wasn't so great, hey? But I did post a Jeff Buckley video before that.

This post causes all sorts of metaphysical problems. Actually probably not, but stick with me here. The problem I'm posing here is, "Can you solve a problem of not having anything to post by posting about the problem of not having anything to post?" I suspect not.

So I will end.

You can't have it all, after all.

a cheery thought on the bus

I was sat on the bus today, thinking. For some reason I got to thinking about afterlives.

Pretty much any concept of the afterlife is bearable except hell.. I know that's fairly obvious, but there you go. I'm a fairly obvious kind of guy.

Think about it..

annihilation - wouldn't care would cease to exist
joining a greater consciousness/god/whatever - weird but again would cease to be self-aware so dealable with
reincarnation - pain in the ass going through life to get to the fun bits again but again, wouldn't realise I'd already done it and you get to try some different stuff to what you tried this time round
heaven - best of the bunch. Or else it wouldn't be heaven

All good and well. The beliefs essentially stack up as don't carry on, carry on in a new form, carry on in the same form in a different place. But hell is unthinkable. I think someone once conceptualised hell as being like here but going on for ever (basically saying that that would be hell). That's dumb. Sometimes life can be a chore here and life going on for ever here would be an eternal chore but there's so many opportunities to take joy in small pleasures - a glass of wine, laughter, a mountaintop etc etc - that you could deal with it. Now imagine the worst parts of life as we know it and imagine that there could be no respite from them. Gah.

Oftentimes when I start things like this, I have no idea where I'm going. This is no exception.. ha.

Often people questioning beliefs in a deity of some description will say, "how can you believe a good being would send people there". I would tend to struggle with the same question, although I still believe in God. But I can't help but wonder, what if there was such a place and you went there of your own choosing?

Frightening.