"A Man's a Man for all that!" - Rabbie Burns

"Religion? No thanks. I prefer not to outsource my brainwashing."
Trying to get your average Joe creationist to understand the phrase scientific theory is as hard as getting a fish to enjoy mountaineering. Its an unimagined world for them - it requires a complete reversal of their normal modes of thinking and being. The fact that humans could explain the complexities of this world without a creating God is a world view they cannot grasp. It's like asking a tuna if it appreciates the view from the top of Mount Everest.

Jan 18, 2009

The Tories are right and I am going mad

I have a genetic inability to put my cross against a Tory candidate when I get to an election polling station. My hand just will not stop at the Tory candidates box and this instinct is so strong that I suspect that I would vote for a monkey if he was the only other candidate. Thinking about it I am sure that I probably have voted for a few monkeys in the past.

I am comfortable with this genetic pre-disposition and never really thought that it needed or could be cured. Much of the re-positioning on policy by the Tory party under David Cameron has seemed superficial. The old Tory party always seemed to lurk underneath.

However David Cameron seems determined that I am to go through some genetic re-engineering and he seems to want me to at least be able to hover my election pencil over the Tory candidate at the next election.

The method he has chosen is to turn the Tory party green and cuddly. It comes as a real shock to discover that the Tories are the only one of the main parties who are attempting to develop a strategic approach to green issues and that they are starting to come up with some substantial policies.

In the US Obama seems to be seeing green developments as a vehicle for stimulation the economy and laying the foundations stones for more secure and cheaper energy supply in the future. Just on these counts this type of development should be welcomed. Then of course there are the potential benefits in tackling man made global warming.

The UK government has been very unimaginative though and had failed to strongly link a drive for green energy to the possible stimulus of the economy. Instead they have been chucking money at the banks and seen their small VAT cut swamped by retailers sale reductions. Worse than that they announced recently the go-ahead for Heathrow expansion with little obvious regard for climate issues - or the need to focus development in the rest of the UK.

The Tories may not have got their green policies quite right yet but they do seem to be showing a real determination to come up with effective green policies. If they keep his up then one day I might even find myself voting for a Tory candidate. ( Shudder )

There is another possibility of course which is that I have had a mental breakdown, the Torys are still nasty and I am suffering from hallucinations. On reflection this seems much the most likely explanation.

See: Tories Plan energy revolution

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

And a potential PM from the other side comes over to South Asia and tells the world that the Mumbai terrorism is due to the Kashmir problem. If it is so, what are the London and Glasgow bombings due to?

Me said...

I would make a distinction between something that is a contributing factor and something that is a valid excuse.

The Kashmir conflict is undoubtedly a contributing factor to Islamic group terrorism directed at India. Is it a valid reason or excuse for it? Clearly not. There can be no excuse for terrorism which directs itself at civilian populations.

The London and Glasgow bombings clearly came in the context of the UK's engagements in actions to contain terrorism in Afghanistan and in relation to it's role in Iraq. This is the reality of the situation. That does not mean the terrorists are right either in their terrorism or in their analysis of these conflicts.

These types of explanations are however not sufficient to account for the rise of Islamic terrorism.

Islamic terrorism is akin to the kind of terrorism carried out by the red brigades. It flows from a particular world view which sees violence as the key to their desired new order in the world. For the red brigades this was Communism, for the Islamic groups it is the rise of the Islamic Umma and the return of the Caliphate.

These types of groups have all encompassing world views and see violence not as one way to achieve their ends but as THE way.

Islam at present appears particularly prone to promoting this kind of thinking.

Anonymous said...

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