What Is Dark Matter?

 

What is dark matter? Well, I now know the answer. It is the thing that exists within our heads and radiates out of our eyes blinding us to simple truths. The other day I received an email from Avaaz. Avaaz, for those who don’t know, is a non-political organisation which finds out information and arranges petitions and action for news stories that do not generally make the mainstream media. The email arrived during Easter, at the end of the Jewish holiday of Passover, however, it could have been sent 50,60,70,80,100 etc years ago.

 

When one mentions the holocaust one thinks of not only the tragedy that happened but the complicity of governments and citizens. The evidence is that everyone (who matters) knew that it was happening however, did not intervene due to political reasons. We sit there and shake our heads, and scowl and decry such barbarity of those who would have been our friends, family, acquaintances and so forth. How dare they know of such things and take no action! How dare the political parties, the world police, the academics, the leaders, do nothing! If I had been there…! Yes? How would you finish that? If you had been there what?

 

The email was about Chechnya (one of those Russian-ist countries) and the email was about concentration camps that have been opened to round up and torture homosexuals, the purpose of the torture to find more homosexuals to torture (not necessary kill but hey, you can’t make and omelette without some cruel cold blooded murder).

 

Three days later the New York Times took up the story and then the story disappeared from consciousness (the Times article was five days before this was written). Is it still happening? Probably not, after all we now have important issues such as Trump’s defence of sexual predators (which, in many ways, is self-serving) with Bill O’Reilly being sacked moments after signing a brand new contract, ten years after the first pay-off for sexual assault happened (legally, assault is only the threat of action). The swearing O’Reilly sauntered off with his 25 million dollar pay off and this dominated the headlines. Meanwhile, in Chechnya people were fantasising about only being sacked (with a massive pay-off). Why did Fox sack O’Reilly after so many years of support? Well, a lady said that he sexually propositioned her to obtain a promotion. The company told her lawyer that this was impossible as no one has ever called the in-house helpline so the lady called the helpline, advertisers found out and distanced themselves from Brand Caveman, and Mr O’Reilly got paid $25 million.

 

All’s well that ends well, no?

 

Meanwhile, news, such as Chechnya, is not being broadcast in universities or schools or mainstream media or at dinner tables. Everyone is far more interested at looking down at their own little pile of dust that they call existence, to sit there with their egos and denials and claim that there are no trees, only woods, meanwhile, a man is being tortured to death for the gall of falling in love.

 

Sumer writes about how bad behaviour within groups is better rewarded than good behaviour without the group and this is true, the only problem is, we are, as a race, the group and the sooner we get out heads out of our backsides and let some light in such atrocities will go not continue to go not only unpunished but unnoticed.

 

Now it is known, shouldn’t the international community intervene? No, my dear friend, Russia is an honourable man.

 

‘till next time (which seems inevitable)

Hard Power, Soft Head

 

 

The other day the world woke (actually and/or) figuratively to media coverage of missiles being launched into Syria. Yet this was not the most chilling article on the news. Juxtaposed with it was a press conference from (not real)President Trump who distinctly gave the impression of just having turned on the television and, seeing children dying from a sarin gas attack, decided to let lose the dogs of war. Ok, this is fine unless you are the leader of one of the strongest armies in the world (America spends more (and wants to increase by cutting the EPA (created by Nixon) and other environmental and welfare initiatives) than the next 12 countries on defence, makes you wonder just what they are going to do to annoy the other 12 countries into attacking them).

 

Surprisingly, Trump found this as an excuse/opportunity to mention his dear friend and role-model former (real)President Obama. In 2013 Assad gassed his own people and the response was not military but an attempt to prevent it happening again. Now, in glorious hindsight and in the afterglow of the great leader Trump, Republicans and Democrats (and Tea-party), the very same who, when Obama asked for authorisation to take military action against Syria refused to vote on the matter (they even considered using the preposterously named bomb recently used but given how many troops were on the ground it was deemed too dangerous to use re: retaliations). After the missile attack, Trump wrote to Congress to tell them that he had done it and was lauded a hero by the (mostly) same cowardly Senators who are now attacking Obama for being weak (need I mention the hypocrisy?)

 

Let us consider what happened in 2013. Obama came to office in 2008 with America involved in two wars that he had voted against and that the country was sick of. Obama ‘ended’ the wars and started using soft power to impose sanctions on Russia et al, sanctions that Russia did not break. Obama’s decision in 2013 was to remove the chemical weapons to prevent it happening again and, to appease Russia to form a bond, let Russia take the lead. Obama, I’m assuming, as a religious man knows the passages in the bible of violence begetting violence and knew that military involvement would likely result in war. Obama also, I’m assuming, knew that if he told Assad that they were coming for him then Assad may use the weapons again to wipe out all the people of Syria. In terms of risk-reward the risk was too great. Yes, people attacked Obama, the same people who are now praising Trump, however, the criticism of Obama is in relation to short term targets whereas he was focusing on long term, realistic goals (such as Iran being able to enrich plutonium but in public with monitors because they would do it anyway and this way one can know that the chances of attack/accidents are decreased). Yet now Obama is gone, Europe is breaking up and countries such as China and Russia being insecure and weak (in terms of infrastructure, market stability and identity) meaning that insignificant countries such as North Korea can delude themselves that they are world powers and, with no one strong enough to oppose them, the world is becoming a truly terrifying place.  

 

It was later revealed that the bombing of Afghanistan happened under the control of the Pentagon who were given complete control over military action, which Trump later is evasive about when asked if he knew that it was going to happen (nothing ever bad comes from putting the military in control.)

Trump has said that the US have achieved more in the last 8 weeks than in the last 8 years, with regards to Syria et al, however, it is the next 8 years that concern me

 

(hopefully) ‘till next time 

Modern Ancient

 

Let’s talk China. Personally, I am relatively indifferent to cups and plates, but that is not what we mean by China. China is a country that I knew only by political reputation and archaic historical aspects, such as philosophy, poetry, theology and mythology. Over the last few months I have encountered Chinese people for the first time and, ever eager to learn, I set about asking them questions about what modern China is like and what it is like for a girl (as most of them are girls) growing up in China. Most of them bored quickly with me or had better things to do (usually subtlety conveyed by point-blank ignoring), and occasionally some would stop talking to me as their peer group had decided that being friends with a non-Chinese person is unacceptable (I have been informed that due to coming from different cultures means we cannot have any meaningful friendships with cultural perceptions creating a, sort of, great wall), but with the scant information that I could glean from them, plus deeper conversations I have had with people I now call friends, I have, I believe, started to answer questions as to the national psyche of China.

 

The few things that puzzled me most were- why did there always seem to be groups of only Chinese and seldom were Chinese seen in mixed groups, why did they ignore other nationalities and only speak mandarin, why did they all seem to take photos of themselves and/or food (or the two together) and why do they seem to have no interest in politics or the world within or without China.

 

Most of my questions were greeted with shrugs or other forms of indifference, some responses gleaned were that they feared a) talking to me as I was English b) being laughed at for their poor language skills (some can not even complete a whole sentence) but this did not answer the questions. One answer was that I did not make enough effort to talk to them as they would never talk to me first. So, I started talking to many of them, only a few had any interest in responding, and then only briefly.

 

Then I started to analyse the data that I had and then the obviousness of it struck me. The Chinese were heavily focused on food, entertainment and capitalistic success and wilfully dismissive and ignorant of politics and other cultures. Sound familiar? Bread and Circuses. Bread and Circuses were what the Imperial Roman Emperors and Caesars used to keep order in their cities and provinces. Then I started thinking about the other questions. There seemed to be an inability to interact with people from different backgrounds. Mainland China has very few visitors and the minorities are kept away from the main Han population and have a very bad reputation. This all stems from the One China policy which was implemented, as was explained to me, to make everything good. Good for whom? I thought, for the Tibetan? The Uyghur? Or any of the other lands colonised? Similarities once more with Marcus Aurelius who, whilst conquering the world for the Glory of Rome (One Rome), wrote stoic meditations on knowing thy own self and the unity of the cosmos…               

 

The belief in a superiority and an inability to interact sounded familiar. The Ancient Spartan army was revered as the greatest army in the world therefore no one (except Athens) would attack Sparta and the Spartans, fearing a loss and loss of reputation, stayed within their borders. However, once this changed and the Spartans conquered the other Greek States they quickly found that they could not govern as they did not even have the personal skills to trade with people who weren’t Spartan. The great state had become so great that it had become isolationist out of fear and once it expanded its parameters found the fears well founded and found defeat, not in battle, but in daily life.

 

The more I learn of China the more the models (Rome and Sparta) seem to fit and the more concerned I get. A country seemingly run by policies of fear will be likely to be found wanting in times of hardship.

 

China is not a superpower and it never will be as long as its culture (personal, political and economic) is built upon an illusion.

 

‘till next time

The Safety Of The Herd

 

The other day I was in a room with self-proclaimed liberals, the type who say everything they think is great and everything everyone else thinks is (I don’t want to repeat their words). One of the people was bragging about how when Mormons knocked on their door they tried to give them copies of Dawkin’s books. Everyone laughed, ha! Take that Mormons, but I sat quietly and then said, ‘that was cruel.’

 I was instantly shot down by the liberals tolerant to any opinion that mirrors theirs and/or comes from within their group (see Sumner) who laughingly expressed ways that they could be cruel as the others whooped and agreed with themselves. I shrugged and said, ‘I like Joseph Smith’, and then told the story of how Mormons were persecuted and chased across America, eventually making Salt Lake City, and then Smith being arrested and murdered in his cell by, it seems, a ghost or the invisible man. The response was ‘he was arrested for fraud, he made a fake religion’. At this point I, eventually, realised the futility of engagement and stopped talking, thinking to myself, maybe but maybe his ‘fake’ religion saved lives by giving hope to those without hope? judge not less ye be judged and be kind to those whom you meet for they are struggling too etc.

 

Recently a friend of mine was banned from an internet forum for arguing with the mass population about Trump (he is pro-Trump). When I found he had been banned I wrote a message saying that I found the conversation stupid so I stopped reading it and it was the personal responsibility of everyone to stop reading/engaging with it if they do not like it. Of course, I was vilified for suggesting personal responsibility (The bank sold me 4 mortgages on my one home at 200% its value each time! How dare they! Um, you could have said no…)

 

Too often nuance is lost in the blindness of ignorance. Certainty is the name that we give to the ignorance of our ignorance however, people have some absurd notion that they can think and see things that others cannot. Many seem to assume that they see with 20-20 vision and the rest are bumbling in the dark yet most cannot see the wood from the trees (pun intended- ‘You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.’)

 

The same people as the previous conversation were then speaking of how animals should be given rights and how important it is. Whilst they were talking I was thinking, I agree but how can you expect to do so if you cannot even respect another human with a different opinion and would (if we could read the thoughts and understand the language of animals) you be so eager to defend the rights of animals which may be a big fan of Genghis Kahn and want a speciescide of humans?

 

Who knows?

 

‘till next time