What good would Warhol be?

Imagine.
The ideal World. MY ideal World actually (subjective as this blog is going to be).
A scene from a child’s book, written by a child perhaps. There is no war. There is no extreme poverty. There is no one living on the street. There is no National pride or any other form of man-made diversion from the reality of the species of humanity. There is no racism. There is no Capitalism or disproportionate spread of wealth. There is no global warming or animal cruelty. There is no violence or hate. There are no natural disasters. There is no disease. There is no crime or abuse. There is no heart break or depression. There is global happiness, harmony, love, respect, hope, admiration. Everyone is fed. Everyone is sheltered. Everyone is safe. Everyone is free. All authority is legitimate. The rain falls when and where it is needed. The sun shines at the perfect moment. People say hello as they ride past one another on bikes, every morning. Black, White, Asian, Gay, Straight, Male, Female, it doesn’t matter.
The ideal World.
I wake up one morning, and I exist in it all of a sudden. Everything is perfect. The very ideals I strove for are no longer questions or theories. They exist. The World is how I think it should be.

I hate it.
Who the fuck am I now? There is nothing for me any more. I don’t need to question anything anymore. My personality doesn’t fit this ideal World.

But then I go back to sleep and the World is now. Capitalism, Poverty, war, disease, hate, Nationalism, racism, homophobia, Religion, crime, abuse, murder, rape, anger, cruelty, heart break, depression……..

I hate it.
It goes against everything I stand for.

So now what? Is “everything I stand for” one huge pretentious paradox? Is it really the end goal of a general utopia the motivation behind my values. Or is it the chase for perfection, rather than the perfect end, that might motivate my values, if it is indeed the latter, then I should reassess my entire World view.
If Plato, or Descartes, or Van Gogh, or Warhol, or Plath had awoken to find their perfect World outside the window. Their genius would have gone unnoticed. What good would Warhol be?

Ever let the Fancy roam

“The World fascinates me”
- Andy Warhol

I haven’t wrote anything for quite some time for a very specific reason. I’m struggling to understand what I actually want from my life, or who I actually am and it’s plaguing my mindset at the moment. I write this, to attempt to unravel strands of confusion that just appear impossible to dissolve by my own thoughts. The deviously manipulative prerequisites for what society tells me, is essential for a happy, fulfilled life, and how I’m just not buying into it. The confusion this causes me, is fucking annoying.

I want far too much. I cannot stick to one way, for too long. My indefinable (and annoying, to a few people I know) need to question everything around me, like a child. Normality and expectation wears thin, I want difference and change to inject a sense of wonder into my life. I’m not ambitious in the traditional sense, in that I do not have a specific career path in mind, I’m not dedicated to a chase for a materialistic paradise that simply doesn’t exist except in the minds of the have-nots. I want to do things my way, not a set way that we’re expected to live. I am ambitious in my own sense. I want to be everything. I want to be a Photographer, a Journalist, a Philosophy Major, an Author, a Teacher and a Politician. I struggle with authority, I can’t handle it. I cannot use the word “Sir” or any other such ridiculously self important, pretentious title. I see myself, on the same level as the rest of humanity, regardless of the power of wealth. I struggle deeply with the Managerial class. I start to feel like nothing more than a piece of money making machinery and yet I’m always acutely aware that spiritually, the veins of humanity run far deeper than the chase for gold. My mind is simple to everyone else, and yet it confuses me every second, of every day. I can’t work myself out. And yet, to me, my mind is the most important aspect of my being. I do ask myself “what do I want from life?” and the question seems too ambiguous. There is no definite answer to that question. I don’t know what I want. I never have done.

I get the horribly, soul destroying feeling that I bore everyone, all the time. I tend to stay quiet about myself because I get the feeling no one actually gives much of a shit. Which is fair enough, my life is no one else’s problem. But the moment anyone asks me how I’m actually feeling, I could potentially talk for the rest of the day, but it’s boring, and so I just stay quiet. I absolutely hate, with a passion, the idea that I’m boring someone. Now, I’m not saying that I hate my life and need to cry it out, because that’s not true. I love life. I have a great family. Great friends. I just need someone to talk it out with, to make sense of my own confusion.

It seems to me, quite evident, that humanity has allowed life to become filled with worries, angers, grudges, hates, and insecurities which in turn drowns out the mellifluous noise of beauty. We have allowed ourselves to lose sight of exactly what is important, and what makes us smile, because smiles are few and far between, they have become more of a luxury than a necessary part of everyone’s day. The mind becomes closed, and fixed on a specific goal linked to money. A holiday once a year. A new car that says nothing other than “i’m an extension of Jamie’s dick“. Houses become investments rather than a home, to live in, as the World starts worrying about how little their house is now worth….. as if it matters. LIVE IN IT! I feel like whilst the World is becoming more and more obsessed with money, I’m sat on the pavement, left behind. And the odd thing is, I’d rather be on the pavement, left behind. It’s almost like a prisoned feeling, being told “be this way, or you’ll fucking fail“.

“Open wide the mind’s cage-door,
She’ll dart forth, and cloudward soar.“

I constantly read books exploring obscure subjects that really does not enrich my life on a consumerist level. There are no life skills to be found in a book detailing the process and the meaning behind the figures present in God’s robe within the Creation of Adam fresco etched beautifully into the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Whilst ex-school mates are out making their fortunes, starting families, and running a household; I’m sat agreeing with Chomsky; reading Ginsberg; attempting to understand the troubled yet genius mind of Plath; and three quarters of the way through Dante’s Divine Comedy. Essentially, I’m putting my incessant need to learn, above the inescapable truth (or perhaps it’s just my own cynical preconception) that modern life is linked almost exclusively to a lugubrious, untrustworthy, miserable vision of a working week. A working week, that in the minds of each passing generation, is slowly becoming more and more the defining essence of being. You’re a plumber, you’re a technician, you’re a brick layer. It should not be the defining essence. None of us, are our jobs. Our jobs, should not have become as important a feature of our lives, as they have.

It eats away at me, because I know it’s the wrong way to live. A largely gratuitous way to live. I’m not naive, I know that the chances of unimaginable success and wealth lay far beyond my reach. But it isn’t my fault. It’s the way I am. I can’t change that. Nor, do I want to change that. I actually love who I am. Of course I have my insecurities, as everyone does. But ultimately, I like me. I like that I’m cautious about who I chose to associate with. I like that I question every aspect of life. I like that I’m not an abusive violent thug. I like that I know exactly what it is that provokes a sense of extreme serenity within me. I like that I want to learn everything about everything. And there is where the confusion lies. I like how I am, and yet how I am, in the long run, futile.

ARRRGH!

The assassination of the Left

“As one digs deeper into the national character of the Americans, one sees that they have sought the value of everything in this world only in the answer to this single question: how much money will it bring in?” – Alexis De Tocqueville

I over heard two little old ladies discussing Obama, on the Bus a few days back. One said to the other ..”..he’ll be assassinated before long, all the good ones are…” . This statement got me thinking.

According to The Telegraph, last year; “Security surrounding Barack Obama has been stepped up amid fears he could be an assassination target“. So the threat is there.

As I watched the Inauguration, the preposterous thought lingering at the back of my mind as the motorcade (As i’m sure it did with many people watching that day) made it’s way down Pennsylvania Avenue, was “If he gets out of that car, he could be killed“. He got out. He lived. I was clearly being a little over paranoid.

However, if you’d have asked people on November 22nd 1963, if they thought the President could be so easily killed, they’d have laughed at you too. They’d have claimed it ridiculous to even consider. And even afterwards, the blaming of such a colossal historical event such as the Kennedy Assassination is widely blamed on one crazed man, despite an incredible amount of evidence pointing to the contrary.

Strong Left Wing characters on the World stage with deep influence do not last very long. John Kennedy was one of many which to date includes Robert Kennedy, Dr Martin Luther King Jr, Ghandi, John Lennon, Fidel Castro (who despite being alive, has been the subject of many plots), Che Guevara, and half the establish Left wing of Chile. It’s something even the late comedian Bill Hicks picked up on. Especially when it comes to Kennedy, there could not be more evidence to suggest a connection to people like E.Howard Hunt (who even admitted his involvement in the assassination) Who was also involved in the removal of the Left wing government of Guatamala, Che’s death and in Watergate. It seems that when the Left wing becomes pretty powerful, the Left Wing pays the price. Do I believe it’s one big right winged conspiracy? No. Not at all. I believe that when the power of the rich becomes threatened, they act to protect themselves. Who do I believe the Kennedy assassination can be largely attributed to? Lyndon Johnson. It’s all about power, it’s all about money.
Unfortunately for the Kennedy conspirators… they didn’t count on a film of the event taking place that day. Nor did they count on Hunt being identified pretty conclusively by a Photographer that day. They should also be slamming their heads into the wall over the ridiculous notion that a gangster like Jack Ruby shot Oswald purely because he “felt for Jackie and the kids“.
Having read the Warren Commission’s report all the way through a couple of times, and having likewise read the Hutton Enquiry’s report into the death of Dr David Kelly over here in England, it’s not very long before you come to the conclusion that a Commission’s Report will never tell the entire truth.

A man named David Sanchez Morales, who is somewhat of a legend in CIA circles, who colleagues have claimed “if you see him walking down the street in a foreign country, then you know a coup is about to take place”… is quoted as saying to a friend and reporter in 1973; “I was in Dallas when we got the son of a bitch and I was in Los Angeles when we got the little bastard.” The evidence is overwhelming in that if they want to, the powers that be can eliminate the President of the United States and his brother, and get away with it.

So based on the logic, is it possible that President Obama could be assassinated? Yes… based on the fact that he’s clearly left wing and i’m not sure if America is ready to accept such a President for very long. I’m not suggesting that those who disagree as strongly as many do with him, are all out to see him dead, not at all. Like those of us who hated George Bush, we did not want to see him killed. We wanted to see him democratically removed from Office. Likewise, the majority of those who disagree strongly with President Obama want to see him removed Democratically and peacefully. But there will be those, who do not care for such notions.
Capping the wages of guys at the Companies who demanded bail out money; although a fantastic and much needed move, was also incredibly dangerous.
Princeton University professor of Political Science, Melissa Harris-Lacewell stated that ” “For many black supporters, there is a lot of anxiety that he will be killed. It is on people’s minds.“. The fact that he is Black is much less of a fear for those of us who like Obama, than it is that he’s a Left Winger. His ideology presents the most problematic of dilemmas.

The Hindustan Times referred to President Obama as the “biggest ever assassination target in US History“. I think that’s true. His skin colour is one thing, but mix that together with his ideology and he’s easily the biggest target for assassination that has ever stepped foot in the White House.

Now, i’m in no way claiming to hero worship either Kennedy brother. They were both a little bit dodgy to say the least. But as ideologies go, I relate to them. Much as I do to Obama.

The fact is, if the unthinkable were to happen and Obama were to be injured or worst still, killed, regardless who committed the act, it would be blamed on White Supremacists. The Kennedy assassination was blamed on an Anti-Castro lone gunman. The RFK Assasination was blamed on a disgruntled Palestinian.

Whatever the truth may be in these cases, the public will never know. We will never know why people heard shots coming from the Grassy Knoll. We will never know why a man had an umbrella opened on a sunny day. We will never know why a tramp was arrested who looked like Howard Hunt and the interview that took place between the police chief and the tramp was never recovered. We will never know why Oswald chose to say “I’m just the patsy“. We will never know why Jack Ruby killed Oswald. But we have our own minds. We can look at the evidence, and we can use our common sense to come to our own conclusions. I conclude that Kennedy was killed because Johnson was a little bit too ambitious. I conclude that RFK and Martin Luther King were killed because they threatened the status quo. I conclude that if Obama is killed, it’s because agents for hope and change, even including President Lincoln, do not last too long in Politics.

Perhaps i’m wrong. Perhaps the 1960s was such a turbulent decade. Perhaps those who wanted such powerful change both economically and on the issue of civil rights, were ahead of their time. Perhaps they were easy targets. Perhaps the threat of Communism was such a worry that anyone with Left Wing values were considered a threat. Perhaps those days of such malicious undercover CIA operations is over. Perhaps Obama has inherited such a financial mess, and such a hated ex-President, that that fact alone will keep him safe. Let’s hope so.

Israel, Palestine and the Religious problem

“Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.” – Blaise Pascal

I’ve purposely reserved judgement on the entire Gaza problem that has dwarfed the region in war over the past few months, simply because I do not know enough about it.

All I hear is “Israel did this to us!!!!” and then “Hamas have done this to us!!!!!” Both sides have legitimate greviances. It isn’t as if one side of the argument is right and the other is wrong. It just isn’t that simple. The debate goes back generations. And rather disgustingly, involves religion. How many people need to die before the ignorant start to turn their backs on their destructive and evil religious beliefs based on disastrous levels of intolerance.

Jews are seen as just Jewish. Muslims are seen as just Muslims. They are not observing each other as people, as having lives, emotions, ambitions, a sense of humour, a sense of love, a friendly side, a sensitive side, these people view each other as either Muslim or Jewish. This, is so indescribably wrong in the modern World.

My thoughts echo those of my fellow left wingers, across the planet. Palestinians deserve there own settlement equal in rights to that of Israel. Do I think a two state solution would solve the issues? No, of course not. Israel has systematically attempted to displace all Muslim life from it’s borders since it’s creation and similarly, the Palestinians have no desire for peace with Israel.

I refuse to succumb to Palestinian influenced blogs doing the rounds on WordPress, that speak of a rather disturbing and an increasing hatred toward Israel. Some, such as Maqtanim who says on his rather bias and simplistic over view of the conflict “I always spoke against Hitler. I could not support what he did with the Jews. I hated him… until this January!” I do not know what kind of intelligent human being can connect the horrendous suffering of the people in Nazi occupied nations during the 1930s and 1940s to the war in the middle East today. It makes very little sense to me, other than the very loose link with religion and Judaism. The innocent lives lost during the Second World War have absolutely nothing to do with the Israeli Government and it’s disproportionate use of force in Gaza.

The people who lost their lives to the Nazi regime of the 1930s and 1940s have deeper links to the people who have lost their lives during this conflict today, both the lives of the Israelis and the Palestinians who have died, than they do to any religious sect of the past.

“Religion to me has always been the wound, not the bandage.” – Dennis Potter

One of the comments on Maqtanim’s blog states “i really don’t find it wrong…what Hamas did…” It is obnoxious and ignorant comments like this, that penetrate the hearts of generations of Israelis and Palestinians who blindly follow the cause of their leaders without stopping to think of the devestation left in it’s wake.
Hamas sending rockets into Israel during a ceasefire is not Israels fault. Nor is it the fault of the innocent people killed during those rocket attacks. Nor will it dismantle the state of Israel, it simply makes matters worse. It works only to provoke Israel into a war that Hamas could not possibly win, but will unite the blindly acquiscing Gazans to it’s rather dubious cause of, and I quote from Hamas’ Charter “”Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it.” Israel exists. Innocent lives are growing every day. Hamas and the Muslim people cannot change that. And killing people in order to raise it’s profile, is not the answer.

Now forgive me for my niavity, but if Canada suddenly declared it wanted to “obliterate” America, sending rockets across the border, America has a right to blockade Canada’s ports and America has the right to fight back, and to do whatever it can to protect it’s citizens against a Fundamentalist evil that wishes to “Obliterate” it. The Muslim leadership of Gaza in the shape of Hamas is hypocritical, and represents the oppressive, fundamentalist and destructive wing of Islam. The same Muslims who marched on London in protest of the Iraq War with signs reading “Europe; your 9/11 is coming” and “behead those who insult Mohammad“. These people give Islam a bad name. Hamas represents these people.
Hamas’ Charter also states “There is no solution for the Palestinian question except through Jihad. Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are all a waste of time and vain endeavors.” These people are designed for war. The Palestinians seems to assume that they have a right to kill whoever they want to kill, to threaten whoever they want to threaten purely because they’re Muslim, and Israel should just let it happen. Until the Palestinian people, and the completely disgusting fundamentalist Muslims understand that they are not a higher form of human than any one else, and that their elected officials are provoking war, this conflict will never be resolved. The comment on Maqtanim’s blog, goes to show the level of blind obediance shown to Hamas.

“You’re basically killing each other to see who’s got the better imaginary friend.” – Richard Jeni

This is not to say that Israel has acted respectfully and with dignity. Up until this war, Israel had my full support. At the present time, Israel is responsible for the slaughter of 1500 people, many including children. That is not war, that is genocide. The Israeli government should be held responsible. They have acted with malice and harnessed their entire military might with the prime objective of shameful murder. Some, like myself would say they have gone too far. Others, and I can see where they are coming from, may say that with the continued threat from the parasites of Hamas threatening security every second, who seemingly expect no retaliation for their rocket attacks, Israel is well within it’s right to say “enough is enough, this cannot continue.“

I differ somewhat with my fellow left wingers, as many seem to be in complete support of the Palestinians, I on the other hand feel somewhat uneasy by the goals and aspirations of Hamas, and therefore the goals and aspirations of the millions of people who voted for Hamas…..
Hamas member “cleric Yunis Al Astal” stated in 2008 that Rome would soon become….”an advanced post for the Islamic conquests, which will spread though Europe in its entirety, and then will turn to the two Americas, even Eastern Europe.” If an Islamic group were to launch rocket attacks against Rome whilst systematically call for it’s immediate turn to Islam, and Rome struck back, like Israel is well within it’s right to do now, can I assume that people such as Maqtanim would refer to Rome as murderers too? Or will he finally admit that the Palestinians are not all together free of blame?
The problem within Islam lies with groups like Hamas and it’s supporters. It leads groups within Countries like Britain to preach hatred toward Islam on the whole, as if every Muslim on the planet is some great evil, which is wrong. Similarly, when such a large portion of the muslim population of Gaza vote for a terrorist government whose mission includes the destruction of Israel, they do not do themselves any favours.

There is no easy conclusion, the Palestinian people properly and accordingly elected a terrorist government hellbent on war and destruction, who now take the “woe is me” route when their devious little plan didn’t work out too well. However, the Palestinian lives that have been lost were innocent, many children, slaughtered for political reasons. One government disliking another government has lead to a genocide perputrated by the Israeli government, and this is entirely wrong. It doesn’t matter what religion one is, it doesn’t matter what Country you are born or who your allegiance is too, systematic slaughter of innocent lives, is wrong. They have gone too far. All I can possibly say on the matter is that neither side is innocent, boh sides have committed evils, and so both sides cannot be held too far from the overall blame. Nor can Religion be far from the blame.

As usual, religion, or more specifically; the blindly faithful, in their attempts to please their oppressive God’s, stand to create an ‘us versus them’ mentality, whether it be pro-life vs pro-choice; Homosexuality vs the anti-homosexuality brigade; the role of women as nothing but sub servant to man vs the role of women as free and equal; Palestine vs Israel. All of this is based on nothing more than personal feelings of intolerance; based on the past; based on something they cannot prove but use quite disturbingly to justify their own appalling prejudices and grandiose ambitions. This in turn leads to violence, hatred, ignorance, a feeling of supremacy in comparison to those of other faiths, and ultimately to death and war. I firmly believe that Religion and those who refuse to question some of the more extreme perversions hidden deep within their respective doctrines have nothing to offer the World other than a barrier to peace and justice, hope and progression. This is the real issue facing the middle East and the World in general. Defeat Religion, defeat intolerance.

“One of the great tragedies of mankind is that morality has been hijacked by religion.” - Arthur C Clarke

President Barack Obama

****

“To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history; but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.” – President Obama

My grandparents claim to have felt the hope that echoed around the World when John F Kennedy became the President of the USA way back in 1960, from as far away as we are in the United Kingdom. The glimour of hope that change had come, that the World super power was not in the firm control of the Business elite, and the anguish and sorrow they felt when they heard of Kennedy’s assasination. They both say that the feeling of hope rekindled was evident in their minds yesterday at the inauguration of President Barack Obama.

Sky News played a video this morning of an interview with a Black American child. The interviewer asked what the election of President Obama meant to him, the child said…
“It means that when people see a black man on TV, they won’t see only a criminal or an athlete. They’ll see a president, a lawyer or a doctor.” – How beautiful and powerful can one child’s voice be? This voice, this single sentence, encapsulates a new America spectacularly.

In the hearts of those of us who have become disillusioned with America, (which includes Democrats, and the entire World, apart from the Republicans) hateful of the Bush Administration, sick of out dated intolerant Republican policies, it was a monumentous occasion to witness the end of such intolerance, not just with a new administration, but with an African American President who less than a century ago, would have been banned from sitting on the same bus as the white man.

Often i’ll be searching online blogs and come across those of cynical Republicans who have already condemned Obama to political hell, judging his legacy before it’s even begun, purely because he’s a democrat. Ridiculous comments like “He’s socialist“, when Socialism is about as far from Obama as a word could be, “He wont hand over his birth certificate“… as if they don’t adequately vet a potential senator and President before they take the job. “His middle name….. Hussain….. like Sadam….. AARRRGH!!!“…this one speaks for itself. “He refuses to swear on the bible, proving he’s a muslim“…. as if it matters what faith a man is.
All of this before the inauguration, even though he did in fact swear on the Bible. Republican smear tactics, tactics of an extremist party with extremist views, and who put forward an extremist candidate for Vice President. It was hope versus continued fear, and hope presided, thankfully. Why wont those same Republican Bloggers admit that their President over the past eight years has achieved nothing short of criminal, and should be taking the place of those at Guantanamo.

Aside from the policies Obama has which are right, good, and above all, hopeful for a country that has relied too long on the reckless behaviour of the wealthy, it’s the symbol that is enduring and so attractive. The symbol of a new World based not on the colour of somebodies skin. The symbol that you do not have to be somehow affiliated with Oil production to be welcomed into Washington. The symbol that the last eight years is dead, and a new era based not on fear or on hidden corruption and lies is replaced by intergrity, human decency, and kindness. It’s a symbol that becomes increasingly difficult to avoid buying in to. I certainly buy into it fully. I do not expect Obama to be a sort of Jesus-like figure, like some do. I merely welcome the departure of the destructive nature of Republican Conservativism. It has to be fair to say that the Republicans, who have spent eight years killing, silencing, looting Nations for nothing more than individual wealth whilst all the time letting Americans know that if you feel guilty that America is causing so much pain and suffering across the planet, then you’re not a true American, is over. Already, my faith in the most powerful nation on Earth is slowly renewing.

For the past eight years, or four years at least, it’s been difficult to envisage a time when “President Bush” was no more. The moment Obama was sworn in, his speech; his passion for what he was saying, inspired a smile from me, knowing it marked the end of the Bush regime so beautifully and eloquently, it rolled back the policies of the past eight years. The speech needed to renew hope and faith in America, it did just that.

BBC News interviewed a Republican voting couple in their home in Kansas. Their home, was a 200 acre land, sixteen room house, who claimed to be “struggling“. The lady they interviewed, was speaking to them from her library. I thought to myself, this is the legacy that has died today, the stupidity of people like this, the absolute nerve of these kinds of people to claim to be “struggling“. The BBC did it beautifully with the voice over man saying “We interviewed the family from their 200 acre property, that they really don’t need.” That alone, embodies the passions of the Left.

As I sat watching the inauguration, I could not emit the image from my mind, of the Black Panthers, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Muhammad Ali dumping his Olympic medals because they wanted to send him to war yet wouldn’t let him sit on the same bus as a white man, Rosa Parks, and all those who suffered the wrath of the Ku Klux Klan, the slaves who built the White House, the thousands of black Americans who have struggled for equality across America over the generations. Yesterday, was the greatest day in the history of black America, and a day that will be remembered forever.

The election of President Obama is not about one man. History alone will judge the substance of his Presidency. The election of President Obama is a symbol. A symbol of how far America has come. How America does not need to be all about slamming an iron fist across the World, that love and hope is not dead, that the Republican Party has not indoctrinated the American public in intolerance, disunity and callous individualism.

When it was all over, Obama was stood with his wife and children, the new occupants of the White house, smiling gleefully at the future, after a speech that should be carved into stone, it pained me to see them walk off without turning to George Bush and say “You do not have to say anything unless you wish to do so, whatever you do say will be used as evidence in court”….. maybe one day.

Still, Did the BBC really need to tell me what roads in Washington were closed today? My car barely gets me to Tesco in Wigston.