Community Fair

Waterstones

2007-03-21T23:42:00.001Z

Well, not personally, Clary, but I hear he’s very well regarded. He won the Booker Prize. I wanted to suggest one for our reading group. I tried to get one from Waterstones but they didn’t have any, believe it or not.

Beckett?

2007-03-21T23:40:00.000Z

Have you read these Beckett books then? Are they as good as the film? It sounds lovely.

Communal Reality

2007-03-21T23:38:00.000Z

Of course, reality is a highly provisional affair. A discourse that the Community constructs. But, as a woman, I’m interested in the Lucia character. Mental illness was, of course, poorly understood in those days, before the breakthrough in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and dialogic, communal initiatives. The Community clearly failed this poor woman. Progress is a dubious idea, I know, but I like to think we’ve moved on since those days. I’m sure you here can all bear witness to that.

An Achiever

2007-03-21T23:35:00.000Z

Yes, it’s one of the high points of the film. After years of neglect, through his determination and life management, his play is acclaimed all over the world. It’s about two broken men who’ve lost faith in life, God, and themselves, redeemed from their suffering through their shared humanity and humour. It’s a healing experience.

Tramps

2007-03-21T23:32:00.000Z

Didn’t he do that play about the tramps? That wasn’t very romantic was it?

The Reality of Baudrillard

2007-03-21T00:27:00.000Z

Well, what is reality Roxanne? It’s a very sophisticated philosophical question. As Jean Baudrillard shows in the film.

The Reality of the Irish

2007-03-21T00:25:00.000Z

You think that story’s real Mrs Hart? You think it’s true to the facts, to life? Their life, the war, and everything? How the Irish are so romantic and all?

The Romance of the Irish

2007-03-19T00:15:00.000Z

Well, it’s been a special weekend, even for those of us not lucky to be Irish. OfTru and Manchester City Council have worked together on the Manchester Irish Festival, affirming and celebrating cultural identity. There’s been films, author events and music. I’ve mentioned before that the blogosphere has opened up reviewing to the ordinary citizen in a fabulously democratic way. I mean we no longer have to listen to the ‘experts’ with their jargon and superior, arrogant ways when we want to learn about films and books and music. The bloggers are doing it for themselves! Everybody can become a ‘citizen journalist’, write their own reviews, without the stuffiness of academia and professional journalism getting in the way. Look at people’s blogs—they’re all talking about the books they’ve read, songs they’ve downloaded, etc. So I thought I’d have a go.

Last night, my partner saw a wonderful new film. We were both deeply moved and I’d like to share our feelings with you as we so often do in this Community. The film was Sam and Lucia, with Rufus Sewell and Kate Winslet. Oh, it was terribly sad. Sewell plays a romantic Irish writer, Sam Beckett, dying alone in Paris, and dwelling on the memory of his one true love. It starts of full of beautiful Irish landscapes, all green, with that lovely wailing wild music in the background. It makes you feel, you know, kind of pagan and one with the misty mountains. There’s a plenitude of vigorous scenes of lively, down-to-earth Dublin life—singing, dancing, drinking (far too much at times—but that’s the Irish for you!), and agreeable flirtations. Young Sam dreams of writing happy comic novels, full of the joys of the simple life. He’s got wild dark gypsyish hair and piercing blue eyes and that charming brogue—really quite ‘dishy’! He travels to Paris to seek his fortune as an assistant to the Grand Old Man of Irish letters, James Joyce. The kindly old humorist acts like an uncle to him and teaches him the mysteries of word craft. Sam falls in love with his beautiful, but frail, daughter Lucia, and she does with him. But war breaks out. There’s a tragic mix-up; they’re separated, she goes mad and kills herself. Sam, deep in sorrow, joins the Resistance and fights for freedom and to try and forget her. You really experience the horrors of fascism. And Sam meets with all the French intellectuals who are defending liberty—like Jean Baudrillard, a hero of mine, actually. We did him at college. Sam becomes a hero, wins the Croix de Guerre and even learns French like a native. But he can never forget Lucia, and he does become a famous writer but the irony is, instead of the happy celebration of Irish joie de vivre that he once aspired to, he can only write sad, deeply tragic, romantic novels, mourning the loss of love. It shows the power of great literature. Becket’s books make us realise that we all share the same deep feelings of love and loss, and yet we all have different identities too—the Irish, the French, women, the mentally ill. And the film has everything—romance, beautiful scenery, even action scenes for the men when Sam’s single-handedly fighting the Nazis. Despite the sadness, I found this a beautiful, life-affirming film that makes us realise that we must triumph over adversity and our inner demons in order to realise our dreams. I would heartily recommend it.

Sex and Nature

2006-07-23T22:23:00.000Z

Dunno. Too much shagging I guess! It just kind of hit me out of the blue. An act of God. Well, Nature.

A Woman's Heart

2006-07-23T22:16:00.000Z

I feel I could write too. From my heart. Stories of love, and the kind of pain only a woman feels. What about you Roxanne? What’s the story of your cancer? Was it very bad? How did you get it?

Fantasy

2006-07-22T21:52:00.000Z

You know, this writing class is quality—got some cool ideas for my fantasy xxxx. I’ll be showing you soon.

Secret!!

2006-07-22T21:48:00.000Z

Well, we can’t say more can we but yeah. xxxx

Clary

2006-07-22T21:40:00.000Z

Yeah, we’ve met—wow, Clary!

Jo

2006-07-22T21:37:00.000Z

So we’ve met at last. ;-)

Education and Peace

2006-07-21T01:03:00.000Z

Yes, OfTru have been working very closely with OfPax and there have been valuable spin-offs. The programme for monitoring college students has already paid back: we identified some subjects who were over-enthusiastic about certain unacceptable ideas in their classes. And our higher education programme is proving very popular and has engaged the academic community’s research capability and ability to work across fields. We now have courses in Community Safety and Security at all levels, from NVQ to postgraduate academic degrees. Homeland security and emergency planning, emergency response courses in public health curricula—all this has emerged out of research devoted to winning the War on Disorder.

It’s interdisciplinary—anthropology students, for instance, can engage in this discipline at home or abroad among problematic or failing cultures, and their research can provide us with valuable logistical intelligence in the battle for hearts and minds, and an understanding of the origins of militant antisociality. We need people who speak the languages and are familiar with critical cultures—and these days those critical cultures can be found on our own doorstep—on estates as well as in the war-torn landscapes of the east.

And this research programme in the universities (which we liken to the Manhattan Project) has benefited in many spin-offs for industry in such growth areas as business continuity planning in industry and risk assessment. This assists companies that want to increase their sense of security amongst their workforce and protect them from terrorism, not to mention bullying and all the other twenty-first century risks we face.

War Baby

2006-07-21T01:01:00.000Z

Me too. Made my life, give me education, all from War. Must tell stories Clary. Make you well. How we are.

A very productive campaign

2006-07-21T00:59:00.000Z

I’d like to add to Ms Hart’s remarks here. The war has also been extremely productive for science, knowledge, and education, as has the whole War on Disorder, whether domestic or abroad, bringing fresh ideas and much needed funds into universities; my own research at the Centre has, of course, benefited enormously.

The Sound of Music

2006-07-21T00:57:00.000Z

We do welcome such enthusiasm over the writing classes! This interest in writing is community art at its best—art that serves the community, rather than the elitist posture of using taxpayers’ money just to offend people or groups. And as an extra incen-tive, I’d like to announce that the best writing will be published alongside a forthcoming exhibition of outsider art in Manches-ter. This is all part of a grand festival of Public Art we’re organizing that’s promoting the values of Britishness against our de-tractors. Among other exciting things, there’s the new version of The Sound of Music, sponsored by OfTru as part of the cam-paign to counter the growth of extremism in minority communities. It’s a huge singalong, Bollywood-style extravaganza, set in Afghanistan with the Taliban banning music and a family of singers escaping to the musical West and freedom.

Clary!!

2006-07-21T00:54:00.000Z

Oh come on Clary! You know it’ll be better if you meet people, talk to people. Like Mrs Douce says about dialogue. Use all those skills and your love of words. We’re all struggling, we’re all encaged. You can go on.

Can't

2006-07-21T00:51:00.000Z

Can’t come, can’t move, can’t speak, can’t. God, feel like a caged bird. It’s tired and breathless, it lays itself down and pants at the bottom of the cage.

The War for Freedom: Silver Lining

2006-07-21T00:47:00.000Z

I’m surprised there are still some doubts after Mr Cohen’s marvellous contribution to the debate. And really, Tristram, every cloud has a silver lining. Terrible sacrifices are made in war, but it’s not all gloom—there’s been some benefits, the first being, of course, the light of hope we’ve brought to so many people. Democracy, freedom, prosperity—especially for women.

Anything, Everything

2006-07-21T00:37:00.000Z

God, if you got me writing there’d be no holding it back, there’s too much feeling. About my life, about men, and poverty, pain and laughs I’ve had—cancer, I suppose. You’re always seeing these memoirs about people with fatal diseases. Maybe not. And anger—what’s done to you. Manchester Council and its holier-than-thou Asbos against women earning a living, walking the street, doing what they can to get by—I’d write about that if they’d let me. But always, always, my beautiful daughter. Her eyes, her laughter, her pure skin. Anyway. I’ll try. See you all tomorrow, then, Clary, everybody.

Poetry and Peace

2006-07-21T00:35:00.000Z

Yeah, I’m going to write some poetry for peace. I don’t feel so alone when I write. And maybe beautiful words can persuade people to lay down their arms. Everybody who supports the war just uses a kind of language that’s ugly as well as dishonest. But I think everybody deep down responds to beauty in their hearts. What are you going to write Roxanne?

Writing better than Nothingness

2006-07-21T00:29:00.000Z

Ok. Let’s all do this writing thing, go along with the monkey tomorrow. Nothing better to do.

Adventure

2006-07-21T00:24:00.000Z

Yeah, me too. Don’t know what I’d write though. An adventure, a mad escapade, something from my own life—but not mindless, though I’ve been a bit of a fucking rogue. Like I’d like to have something important to say. Don’t know what though.

Making Words

2006-07-21T00:13:00.000Z

You know, I quite fancy this writing class. At least we can all meet up. And I can work out things—not with this Anger Management bollocks and sharing stuff, but in my own way, fitting my own words together. Not having words twisted for me. I know what I know, I know what I’ve experienced. So, I could write things about life—my life, working life, history and that. And seeing at as like an engineering project, taking pride in the connecting of things if you see what I mean. And get my pride back through my own voice, not being talked down to and swamped with stuff.

Natural Wealth

2006-07-21T00:08:00.000Z

Yes, we don’t talk much about ‘socialism’—it sounds old-fashioned. Comical men in flat caps, beer and sandwiches, that sort of thing. We’re modernizers. But we’re as committed to helping the deserving poor as ever. If you prefer, call it socialism, but a socialism that unites us nationally rather than dividing us by class. The politics of envy is over; the politics of community has finally begun.

Don’s shared his experience with us before about the Marxists of old. These fanatics used to divide us all into ‘working-class’, and ‘bourgeois’, as they called it (that means the middle classes). They’d use all sorts of fancy-sounding jargon that ordinary people couldn’t understand, like ‘exchange value’, ‘dialectics’, ‘commodity fetishism’—yes, I know it sounds horrible! A bit like those modern artists who try and fool you into thinking they’re cleverer than you—and make a lot of money out of it, thank you very much! And a lot of people got hurt. These so-called ‘intellectuals’ simply promote their own vanity at the expense of ordinary people like you and I.

Now we’ve mostly got over that sort of nonsense. People are far more concerned about their real identities than some sort of spurious nonsense about class, though this has, as we all know, led to a different kind of extremism and the threats we currently face. Yet some of the old rhetoric of class remains; some of the old wreckers are still around, stirring up discontent and impossible dreams. I’m not just thinking of the tired old Trots and Stalinists, propping up the homophobic, wife-beating fascists on the ‘peace’ marches. Take the recent strikes by the fire brigade, Metrolink drivers, and so on, happily now pacified. That prehistoric sort of industrial action is actually action against the customers in a service industry—that is, yourselves. But, further, it is in times like ours potentially treasonous. Happily, we’re applying the lessons we’ve learned in the War on Terror to the wider war on all behaviour that threatens social order. Hence, legislation is being drawn up to tackle such antisocial behaviour as withdrawing labour in services that are essential to the community, supporting strikers in unconnected enterprises, causing a public nuisance by demonstrating in a disturbing manner or manner likely to cause offence against the will of the community. The new laws will enable direct control of essential public services by OfCare, with encouragement from OfPax, when dealing with recalcitrant and antisocial workers in this sector, who still cling to the dinosaur politics of envy.

And Rob, you seem to be resurrecting the old cliché that labour is the source of profits. It’s based on a complete misunderstanding of the word ‘exploitation’, which I use in an entirely benevolent sense. Your labour is not the source of wealth. Nature is the source of all wealth, and all the stakeholders of an enterprise—from the lowliest labourer to the larger shareholders—are involved in communally extracting that wealth. I really think, for your own sake, you’d be wise to participate in those Anger Management classes again.

Class: A Binary Opposition

2006-07-20T03:40:00.000Z

Well Rob, we’re very wary of these binary oppositions like boss/worker and we try to what we call ‘deconstruct’ them. That means showing that they’re not really opposites and that we’re all on the same side. We’re all workers, all working to make a wealthier, safer Britain As Nick Cohen and Ms Hart have suggested, there really isn’t a class system in Britain anymore. Thinking of people as your ‘class enemy’ leads to classism—a kind of hate speech. It perpetuates those divisions that have sadly led so many of our young men to violence.

Thinking on my own

2006-07-20T03:35:00.000Z

I’ve just been thinking, Roxanne, that’s all. Anyway, I’m not really one for all this talking and sharing. I found myself getting angry about being jobless—useless really—you can’t do anything about it. So we do Anger Management and I thought it really helped at first. Supposed to use the blog to help sort my feelings out so when we have the Talking in Groups sessions I can really start to communicate better. But no they’re wrong, I decided. I still feel what I always felt, what we all felt. There’s us and them, boss and worker and you knew which side you were on. You can’t talk that out of someone.

Hi Rob

2006-07-20T03:31:00.000Z

Where’ve you been Rob anyway? Not heard from you for days! You OK?

Exploitation

2006-07-20T03:22:00.000Z

Yes, but it’s never a positive sense. Exploit says it all. That’s where wealth comes from—the likes of me and Joseph. It’s his idea after all and who’d be building the machinery? But I don’t see your OfWealth handing it out to the people that make it. And what you were saying before Joseph about where you used to work—that’s exploitation. And this time theft—did you find out what was going on there?

Social Entrepreneurs and Wealth Creation

2006-07-20T03:20:00.000Z

Now, now, Dr Feramor, let’s not quarrel! I do quite agree with Dr Feramor in one respect. This is a fine example of Knowledge Management in action. We’re using the sharing of ideas on the blog to harness the creative energies of the community. Someone once said that Universities are the coalmines of the twenty-first century; our Community is like a university in miniature, with its freedom to develop new ideas of the calibre of Joseph’s. In keeping with your wonderful northern traditions, we might say that the Centre is a cotton mill for the twenty-first century. And our sister agency, OfWealth, as well as supervising the flow of money and its legality, is charged with promoting the creation of wealth so that the whole community will benefit. They would indeed happily finance such innovative projects. This is a prime example of how the four superagencies increase efficiency by re-engineering services so that complex problems can be dealt with in an integrated and joined-up way, bypassing bureaucracy and crossing inter-agency boundaries. So, in addition to OfWealth, we have OfCare—that’s us!—promoting Health, Law, and Order (since social and physical health increasingly overlap); OfTru—promoting our shared values and philosophy through the education system and media, here and abroad; and OfPax, responsible for protecting Western values through humane intervention and fighting terrorism and antisocial behaviour internationally. And there’s Symbiomundia, too: they’re a keen sponsor of social entrepreneurship and are always on the lookout for bright ideas they can exploit—I mean that in the positive sense, of course!

Nature and Human Beings

2006-07-20T03:17:00.000Z

Yeah, sure nature can be beautiful, I’ve got a heart Clary! I’ll show you in my story. But it’s only beautiful cos we’re there to see it isn’t it? And only when it’s safe—like if you’re homeless, stuck out on the moors like outside when it’s wintertime like some abandoned baby birds then some fox gets you—that isn’t so beautiful is it? So you need to build decent homes and that. I can’t explain what I mean. Need to practice with words.

Invention

2006-07-20T03:16:00.000Z

You do seem to have an extraordinarily inventive mind, Joseph—possibly a side-effect of your condition, which must bestow some evolutionary advantage for the genes to have persisted. We feel that the Centre, as a major social entrepreneur, may be of assistance in reaping the benefits of your creativity. We’ve already been able to harness your IT skills, as you know, but your shoelace project sounds very promising too. We do liaise with OfWealth over such things, harnessing the collective intelligence of the blogosphere—what Ms Hart calls ‘Knowledge Management’ I believe. I’m afraid I am very much on the side of human progress in this respect; I have to differ very strongly with Dr Douce over this, finding her stance to be unscientific irrationalism of the very worst sort. At the risk of being contentious, I would call it mindless tosh.

Natural Beauty

2006-07-20T03:07:00.000Z

God, you’re so clever Joseph! You have some really cool ideas—where do they come from? But don’t you worry about nature or feel its beauty? You can’t just have humans being arrogant and doing that Light thing of raping Nature, can you? You always have to think of the effects of anything you invent.

Writing Cool

2006-07-19T21:16:00.000Z

What about we put things together for worlds? We can create words. When I get to that typing class?

Sounds cool

2006-07-19T21:07:00.000Z

That’s just what I do with programming computers! I can create worlds just by typing commands, it’s like you’re a wizard casting spells and ruling over natural forces.

Popular Mechanics

2006-07-19T20:47:00.000Z

I know what you mean. In my day it was Meccano. You had all these gears and pulleys, strips of metal, and nuts and bolts, and you could build any machine that was in your imagination, just linking the parts together. That’s how I got into making things. When you make things and you begin to get the science of it all, it gives you hope, spurs on your imagination. But course there’s still class. That’s why there’s people who make things and people who live off them.

More Light

2006-07-19T20:13:00.000Z

I think technology can solve everything—why’s everybody so hung up about it? Enough bright people could think up ways of getting more energy—there’s not enough brightness ;-). You can use your brain to solve the tiniest things. Like I have problems with my shoelaces—it’s a visual-spatial thing, part of my condition. But you shouldn’t have to keep bending down doing Boy Scout things—it’s the 21st century!! You could have like electromagnets, and then just text your shoes from your moby and they’d do up by themselves. And I think like I had Lego as a kid. Why can’t they make houses out of life-size Lego bricks? They’d stick together so much better and they’d be cheaper and quicker to build and no-one would be homeless. And we could end the War.

The Dark Stain of Enlightenment

2006-07-19T20:08:00.000Z

Wonderful, stirring stuff from Nick’s talk yesterday. However, I do think that Nick writes overmuch about ‘Enlightenment’ values when they’re actually the cause of the problem. Fascism, in its many faces of Nazism, wife beating and animal experiments, Islamism, Rastafarianism, technological destruction of the biosphere—is the product of these values. For those of you who don’t know what we mean by talk of the ‘Enlightenment’ I’ll explain.

It all started in the 18th century with Sir Francis Bacon, who talked of science as the rape of nature, unveiling her and shining a big bright light on her poor naked features. He spoke of this approvingly, would you believe it!—and this set off the whole big mistaken crazy path to modern life. They call it the Enlightenment but it’s not to be confused with the Enlightenment of, say, Buddhism—an inner revelation. Ironically, it’s a huge shadow over history, a period of darkness through industrialisation, insane ‘rationalism’, consumerism, slavery, individualism, and pollution, ending in the death camps, battery farms, and shopping malls of the present day. Poet and mystic, Romantic William Blake, called it the ‘dark Satanic mills’—I’m sure you’ve heard those famous, poignantly angry lines about his beloved Jerusalem—that’s ‘England’s green and pleasant fields’, by the way.

And now those overcrowded green fields are threatened by permanent darkness. As the winds run down, rendered breathless by turbines, so scientists have found evidence of global darkening from the growing use of solar power, which is sapping the sun’s rays. Ironically, this stems from our greedy addiction to energy consumption. In some ways, we’re demanding too much light. You only have to look at the way we live now, with advertising blazing away throughout the night and giant illuminated Tescos catering to our false desires. Families, no longer bound by the cycles of nature, stay up all night with the cold flicker of the TV or video game flashing through their windows. We live in an age of light pollution where we can no longer look up at the stars for guidance. There is too much illumination. I firmly believe there is no alternative but to end the madness of development altogether—no technology is safe. Mother Earth cries out in pain with every act of human hubris, blinded by the light.

Socialism for Modern Times

2006-07-18T14:10:00.000Z

Well, 21st century socialism isn’t about class, Veronica, as you’ve highlighted. The old battles that my family fought, for class mobility and access to power, have largely been won through education and the achievement of economic prosperity. Today’s socialists must defend those democratic, modern values against the darkness that threatens them from without, from those who are jealous of our progress and want to turn back to mediaeval times.

Mmm. . . Class?

2006-07-18T14:00:00.000Z

Doesn’t this just show what a wonderful forum the blog is for mediation and discussion? I, for instance, wouldn’t exactly describe myself as a socialist, though of course I have a strong hatred of racism, sexism, and homophobia, and want an end to such appalling problems as child poverty, pollution, and the needless offence that so many groups have to put up with. I’m a little uncomfortable with the ‘S’ word—it seems to hearken back to the old days of ‘class struggle’—loud-voiced men in cloth caps, all sweaty from the factory and their ferrets, and so on. Does anybody really believe in class anymore?

Punk Journalism

2006-07-18T01:26:00.000Z

First of all, let me thank all of you for letting me join in your dialogue. I’m astonished and delighted by the quality of this communal arena you have here at the Centre. Blogs remind me of the punk explosion when I was a teenager. People are ignoring the established system and beating it at its own game. Obviously, there's a great deal of dross, but what is heartening is how much original and intelligent journalism is coming from people entirely outside the media class. And, it seems to me, you here are all rapidly becoming journalists—and even poets and novelists—of a very high calibre.

But, to the War. Well, it seems that many people who supported our highly successful restoration of women’s rights in Afghanistan and civilizing Iraq are concerned about the extension of our humane intervention into Jamaica, Iran, Germany, and the rest. Now I’m one who’s stood out against this government in the past, and I’ve attacked the liberal guilt and relativism it so often condones, so no-one could call me a friend of the establishment. In fact, I have been one of its fiercest critics. But in the war against fascism, there can be no equivocation. Let me clarify. The Rastafarianists, like the other extremists, are deeply misogynist, holding grotesquely offensive views about women, and they are profoundly homophobic. They therefore share their fascism with the same dictators that we’ve challenged, but that hapless liberals have given comfort to—Saddam Hussein, the Taliban, Milosevic, and so on. The Germans, once our allies, have unfortunately adopted a policy of appeasement towards the fascists; given their history you would think they would be more careful. We had to intervene in Iran, of course, because of their illegal denial of a holocaust. We had a humanitarian duty to do so. The unfortunate situation now existing in that country can’t in any way be blamed on us.

I know something about fascism: I come from a family with generations of left-wingers, all of whom took part in the struggle against fascism. I remember as a child being deprived of citrus fruits from disreputable countries. Then, the left were often laughable but honest. But ‘What’s left’ (if you’ll excuse the pun) of today’s left have tragically sided against the Enlightenment and with the forces of darkness. And working on the premise that ‘my enemy’s enemy is my friend’, they espouse a crude anti-Americanism and even anti-Semitism. We have witnessed a sinister attempt by liberal opinion to deny legitimacy to the very liberals, feminists and socialists under oppressive regimes that need our support. Now, our common enemy is fascism, and the USA, whatever its errors in foreign policy, whatever its motives, is the enemy of fascism and therefore we on the left must befriend it. That is why we must support our government’s policies on military strategy, on asylum seekers, internment, surveillance, and so on if we believe at all in socialism or even in civilization.

Nick Cohen: Our Guest Moderator

2006-07-18T00:51:00.000Z

Well, we all seem to be a bit concerned about the War these days, so I’ve invited along a guest moderator who can perhaps put you right about some of the doubts that have been expressed. Nick Cohen, a left winger and one of our braver journalists in the cause of freedom, has shown that left and right can unite against the common threat of fascism and antisocial disorder. Nick is a writer at the Observer—the paper that courageously exposed Saddam Hussein’s links to international terrorism by revealing details of his secret training camps. He’s certainly not been afraid to criticise our policies in the past, but equally, when faced with the threats that we now face, he’s not afraid to be controversial and come to our defence.

Men of War

2006-07-18T00:32:00.000Z

Tristram makes sense to me. I may be a bloke, I may have issues with masculinity, not being flexible, aggressively male, though I don’t see that now. They kind of persuaded me at first, but I was a bit low then. I’ve always seen myself as a socialist. I’ve never been one for war. I can’t see how you can ever call it humanitarian, I can’t see that we’re superior enough to have the right to intervene in these places, men or women, if you know what I mean. Just seems to be the same greedy bunch profiting from it all as usual.

Spam Comments—Beware!

2006-07-18T00:25:00.000Z

It has indeed come to our attention that unauthorised comments have been added to the blog. The comment facility should not be abused. We do, however, invite readers to add remarks of a critical, but helpful, nature—the raison d’etre of this blog is about mutual assistance and group therapy, after all. Perhaps there are those of us who are a little slipshod in their style, so we would encourage responses that made stylistic suggestions, for example, or we would applaud a particularly brave confession. But we must not let the system be abused and the dialogue break down.

And in these times, everyone must be on their guard. Remember the no surnames policy in particular. We must be vigilant against terrorist attempts on Community Cohesion Centres—we must protect the identity of our guests, even if they themselves do not recognise the therapeutic importance of their seclusion.

I’m afraid, Roxanne, that we may have to invite this Sarah B for a consultation session. And hers is not the only security breach. We have reason to believe that automatic spams are being generated, possibly using AI software to create fictional identities or to appropriate real ones. Remember Hamid Benegeli and, more recently, the JM terrorist. Be alert, and protect your own identity. There have even been attacks on the integrity of our own staff here at the Centre, attempts to subvert faith in our system. But don’t worry. We’re in control.

Blast from past, outside news!

2006-07-17T23:36:00.000Z

Hey, you’ll never guess what! Someone’s trying to get in touch. From outside, I mean. An old friend of mine just added a comment to my post. So maybe this blog thing really is about joining in and opening up. I was kind of sceptical, I must admit.

Women and War

2006-07-15T13:30:00.000Z

Well, I’m a woman, Tristram, and women hate war. As mothers and nurturers our instincts are for life, and I feel a little feminine shudder everytime I read about a soldier being murdered. But this war has a purpose; it’s a war for our values, of decency and freedom; a war against disorder. Sometimes a little bit of unpleasantness is necessary in order that the community survives. We must all learn to be little less selfish and put social values above our own personal likes and dislikes.

But the War!

2006-07-15T13:29:00.000Z

But we are having a war, and loads are dying and they’re not all fascists. I know, I’ve seen it on the telly. And I don’t think your answer explained it at all, sorry.

Education, education, education

2006-07-15T13:27:00.000Z

Ah, yes, those marchers. Why, they’ve even accused us of imperialism too! That our policies abroad have to do with domination and exploitation! Of course, our internationalism is not in question—OfPax’s programme of humane intervention in the name of world peace is familiar to us all. And we’re working with these very same activists to tackle such things as famine and child poverty—as you can see from our support for Care Aid. The sort of well-meaning but misguided aggression that Dr Douce talks about is entirely due to a lack of education, so OfTru are directing their energies towards that area, disseminating information about our values through the media, the education system, and the blogosphere. Internationally, too, a massive programme of re-education can tackle AIDS, pollution, disorder, racism, poverty and corruption in Africa and elsewhere. And, of course, it’s lack of education that breeds terrorism. Now OfTru are aiming to reach hearts and minds through a focused and evidence-based program of education.

Sociopathic Sedition

2006-07-15T13:26:00.000Z

And these people—the politicals like this JM—are confrontational rather than supportive. They haven’t yet grasped the opportunities for remedial dialogue that are available to them as guests of the Centre. They’re adversarial. Too much testosterone, I think the ladies here will agree. What’s worse, they’re likely to offend other people by undermining sincerely held belief systems, sapping morale. This space is for dialogue, not for winning wars. Think of blogging as one large dinner party—a symposium, as the ancient Romans used to call it.

We can also note certain that JM displays certain characteristic symptoms such as the infantile demands for ‘freedom’. Such ideas over so-called truth and justice most commonly arise in personalities with a paranoid structure. Sociopaths who are more concerned with ‘rights’ for victims rather than the rights of ordinary people to be free from nuisance and from the fear of crime and youths. Liberty should work for the law-abiding citizens, not the criminals, or putting money into lawyers pockets.

Of course, not all these people are diseased—some are genuinely concerned about social problems, though even some of these liberal personality types have allowed their repressed aggression to emerge, resulting in the kind of loud-mouthed offensive behaviour you’ve seen on the TV screen with the recent demonstrations. But what many of these undoubtedly sincere but mistaken types don’t realise is that we’re all aiming for the same things, sharing the same values. We’re rejecting the greedy, selfish attachment to material goods that the great majority sadly still suffer from and trying to promote higher values of self-sacrifice and community, abandoning mere fleshly pleasures. Hence our common ground with faith groups among other things.

No-one—honest!

2006-07-15T13:24:00.000Z

No honest Clary—there was nobody. Not that kind of place. See, here, you could maybe meet people now we can leave our rooms. Even if we have to do things we’re told, it’s still a community isn’t it? We can talk. We can write and have ideas. And maybe meet—there might be a way. I’m still doing that story for you by the way.

What??

2006-07-15T13:22:00.000Z

What freedom would that be Mrs Douce?

Who is she?

2006-07-15T13:18:00.000Z

DID u fall in love with anybody? What was she like? What’s her name?

Disrespecting us all

2006-07-15T13:17:00.000Z

We’re all aiming to be one lovely happy community, treating each other with respect—like the ideal family. That’s part of the education on hygiene, Rob, and the uniform. And people like JM have to go and spoil it. They hate our ideals, our way of life, our freedom.

Who do they think we are?

2006-07-15T13:15:00.000Z

And this bleeding hygiene stuff. Compulsory showers. Being told to wash under your arms and bollocks like a kid—I’m not dirty!

Pretty much

2006-07-15T13:14:00.000Z

Yeah you couldn’t talk. Couldn’t chew gum. Couldn’t tell anyone what you earned, fall in love with another employee or you were out. But at least you didn’t have to wear uniforms like in here—I’m not keen on that. You need to be able to express yourself. And we learned some cool techie stuff.

Poor Joseph

2006-07-15T13:12:00.000Z

That place sounds horrible Joseph.

Trapped

2006-07-15T13:11:00.000Z

But he’s right—what are we doing here? We ARE in a cage. It’s like that place where you worked Joseph. We can’t really talk, not REALLY. I feel trapped. When can I go home? I want to see my cat—she’ll be lonely. Where’s my Dad?

JM 1644: unknown parameter

2006-07-15T13:10:00.000Z

Actually, This JM’s a bit of a puzzle. Apparently, he was deleted from the system some time ago and is no longer a member of this community.

Don't worry!

2006-07-15T13:08:00.000Z

Well, I’m sorry, it’s a free community of course, but we can’t allow the politicos to abuse the system. Freedom has to be earned. The idea here is that we share the values of co-operation and freedom but sadly some people want to take advantage of that. This chap seems to have avoided the restraints somehow—very irresponsible. We’ll look into it—don’t worry.

Who’s that?

2006-07-15T13:05:00.000Z

Who IS that guy? He’s been on before!

Bastille Day

2006-07-14T22:32:00.000Z

Who cares about the fascists? Look around you, where’s the real threat to freedom and humanity? Who’s making war on ordinary people? It’s not a handful of Hitler-aping goons. Wake up before it’s too late! Tear off your RFID tags! Smash the CCTV cameras! Free yourself from the cage!

Are Jamaicans Fascists?

2006-07-12T22:29:00.000Z

I still don’t get what this war’s for. Fascists are really bad people but the Jamaicans can’t be fascists can they? I mean, like they’re black aren’t they?

OK - tasteful

2006-07-09T22:26:00.000Z

Yeah I think I will. Maybe I can learn how to make my stories tasteful and acceptable.

Hey Roxanne, you and words

2006-07-09T22:23:00.000Z

Why don’t you come along Roxanne? You love books and words don’t you? And I know you’ve got lots of stories inside you to tell.

Monkey Business

2006-07-08T23:13:00.000Z

The monkey come too. Learn write good as speak.

Invitation to writing

2006-07-08T23:12:00.000Z

Come along Dulcie, be nice to see you there—love to see what you’d do. And Don. Yeah Don you should come anyway and bring your story for the rest of us. Let’s all be writers!

My words too

2006-07-08T23:10:00.000Z

I’d like a go too, I’d like to understand what goes on behind the scenes, how it all works—the words and everything. Don’t think I’d write like my Don though. Not as masculine like.

Words in Time

2006-07-08T23:08:00.000Z

And there’s thinking and writing at the same time and how words are imperfect. You write to the moment and it all comes out wrong, without thoughts. But the writing class is fun, you get to understand how words work, their power, beauty.

Stolen Time

2006-07-08T23:07:00.000Z

And that weird thing doesn’t help. There isn’t enough time like you say, but even what we’ve got’s being robbed off us.

Time Wastes too Fast

2006-07-08T23:05:00.000Z

That’s right, Nim. You don’t seem to have time to get everything down, especially with the classes and the therapeutic work. And there’s always some network of thoughts you get lost in—you can’t follow all the threads—especially when you’re having this discussion with the group and it all flies off in different directions.

Fruit Flies

2006-07-08T23:04:00.000Z

Time flies like an arrow

Death and Monkeys and Heavy Stuff

2006-07-08T23:02:00.000Z

War and cancer and horrible stuff. Then that little monkey was going on about fruit. I wonder what stories he’s got to tell? Oh I know—stories—ages back you said about joining the writing class. We’ve got a new course tutor. He’s well interesting to listen to but the classes are a bit unstructured.

Days

2006-07-08T23:00:00.001Z

It felt longer than 15 minutes. Felt like days. What were we talking about before?

Respect and Mourning

2006-07-08T23:00:00.000Z

We were paying our respects to the dead, Clary. I thought we’d all understood. Silence Day is when we respect all the victims of these dangerous times. We have fifteen minutes of silence when we can be peaceful and contemplative and pay homage.

Silenced

2006-07-08T22:59:00.000Z

Yeah we can talk Joseph, but we can’t reach anyone outside can we?

Silence is Golden

2006-07-08T22:58:00.000Z

But you’re right, Joseph, talking is good, makes us human. I’d die if I couldn’t talk. But I still don’t know what the silence is for. Why did we all go quiet?

It's good to talk

2006-07-08T22:55:00.000Z

At least we can talk here. At Grindley and Bundage we weren’t allowed to talk much at all. If it was non-work related, it wasn’t part of our normal working hours, so you’d get your pay docked. Couldn’t e-mail, phone, text. Couldn’t use Internet in case we saw any porn or political stuff or found a new job or other way out. Like the suicide sites.

Victims' Day

2006-07-08T22:47:00.000Z

Well, that was so refreshing! I hope you all appreciated those fifteen minutes of respectful silence as much as I did. I heard the cries of the victims in the silence. We should do this more often. Get away from the constant babble of words, words, words that our civilization is full of. Silence—it makes you realise just how much communication is wasteful, trivial, and unproductive. And how much speaking is about power over people—the dominant elites use language to intimidate women, children and ethnic minorities, excluding them from cultural capital and blinding them with false discourses. Sometimes, in the present climate, speech is even dangerous. Uncritical dialogue leads to unhealthy ideas, infecting the gullible and the discontented like a virus. And it can undermine morale. As they said in another war: ‘Careless talk costs lives’.

Ending the War

2006-06-21T01:47:00.000Z

The enemy has erased national borders and created a global extremist empire of antisocial behaviour—it must be destroyed. But we’re not just protecting ourselves against terrorists and promoting democracy. We’re bringing all the benefits of progress and modern life—we’re there to restore women’s rights and to oppose the religious fanaticism that dominated before hand. We’re helping others help themselves.

Part of all this comes from the idealism of the 1960s—the better part of that crazy mixed up decade— which has evolved into an antiauthoritarian progressive politics that declares war on the little Hitlers everywhere; the dictatorships that were shamefully backed up by the West in the past, the corrupt regimes that exploit their citizens, are no longer immune.

The War against Terror is also a war for women and gays. Islamists are sexists and homophobes too. We liberated Afghanistan on behalf of the women there and so that people could listen to music once more. And OfPax, as you know, are currently humanely engaged in Jamaica, tackling the twin problems of the dreadful homophobia of that island and the drug trade that is devastating our young people’s lives.

And we’re working on some of our mistakes. We are more sensitive now to the culture of the people we aim to bring liberty to—in no small part due to the increased number of serving women personnel. OfPax are equal partners with their sister agencies in the US, who often bow to our greater experience and sensitivity in dealing with native cultures—decades of bringing peace to Ireland, Kenya, Malaysia etc.

Sometimes, indeed, women and children have been killed but they have been right next to places of terrorist activity. It’s not that the strike was inaccurate but they happened to be there, and deeply involved; they were all supporters and abetters of terrorism—and therefore had to suffer. It’s bad luck.

But we’re also employing Soft Power which cuts down the fatalities. Soft Power is about fighting with cultural weapons; here, OfTru work side by side with OfPax. We have an integrated strategy of counter-insurgency, security, stability, transition and reconstruction operations; we employ special forces, unmanned spy aircraft, psychological warfare and civil affairs units for winning hearts and minds. And it’s the latter that may well prove decisive; we’re making war not just on war, but on the causes of war. So in Jamaica our first task was to take control of the hate music there which was spreading antisocial propaganda.

But why?

2006-06-21T01:42:00.000Z

But I don’t understand how we got into it in the first place. I don’t know what we’re fighting for. They can’t all be terrorists. They didn’t attack us did they? I mean the Germans. And all those women and children.

Necrophobia

2006-06-19T01:41:00.000Z

Our culture has a problem with death. We’re afraid of it, we resist it. We have a lot to learn from so-called ‘primitive’ cultures in that respect; they accept it as part of a larger process. Of course, the negative side is the way this positive attitude towards death can be manipulated by cynical ideologues, driving such people into fanatical acts that destroy others’ lives along with their own.

The Christie Institute

2006-06-19T01:39:00.000Z

There’s nothing heroic about having cancer. I had lymphoma some years back. I could have died. I was sick, weak, tired all the time. I was miserable. The drugs made me ill. My hair fell out—every scrap of it—no eyelashes, so my eyes were full of grit. My fingernails fell out, my feet blistered, my mouth was sore, my nose bled. I just endured it in a kind of dull daze. The only heroes were the people who cared about me. And the medical staff. I was lucky—Manchester’s the best place to be. If you’ve got cancer. Christie’s just has all these top research people from all over the world. They’re really dedicated and they care deeply. So here’s to them. So they cure you with the science. Or you die, and that’s it—just an ending and a terrible waste.

And no you’re wrong. Cancer’s not our fault. It’s not our personalities. It’s just a disease like any other. And it makes me sick when other people get called ‘cancers’.

My Mum's Death

2006-06-19T01:38:00.000Z

My Mum died of cancer.

The Cancer Within

2006-06-18T01:36:00.000Z

It can be both moving and instructional reading the blogs of cancer patients where they give you a day by day account of their heroic struggle with the disease, so we’ve set up a link with the bloggers in C Wing—I see you’ve already come across this, Clary—well done!

We’ll also be showing a series of video interviews, including a demonstration of a colonoscopy which I think you’ll find a valuable warning. It will alert you to the dangers of bowel cancer. Cancer, as I’m sure you know, is on the increase: from the rape we’ve committed on our environment, the unnatural diet we greedily absorb, even our personalities. Yes, attitude is a significant factor in cancer; aggressive alpha males, for instance, are particularly prone.

And I will be initiating a session on mental cancers where we apply visualisation therapy, used by many cancer patients, to rid ourselves of our own spiritual tumours. We’re also planning similar encounter sessions where you can learn from other victims—of disasters, bombings, rape victims, and so on. So not only do you learn about various health risks but your emotional intelligence is being raised too. As you can see, we’re concerned about the whole human being here—physical health and mental health work together in synergy.

Cancer Cure

2006-06-18T01:34:00.000Z

I really don’t agree with those monkey experiments. But cancer victims rock. They’re really brave. I was reading a blog about this teenage girl who’s got it and she’s really in pain, and the treatment’s awful, but she just keeps going on. We should all be like that.

Making the World a Safer Neighbourhood

2006-06-17T01:33:00.000Z

But sometimes you have to do something a bit unpleasant to avoid a great crime. It’s like the cure for cancer. Some monkeys experienced pain during the development of new drugs; the patients themselves find the treatment most unpleasant, I believe. And there has been some collateral damage; some foreign civilians may have been accidentally hurt; undoubtedly some hardship has been suffered. But eventually the cure works.

And yes, this war is necessary and must be prosecuted for generations if needs be, but we’re getting there. We’ve been reforming domestic law to make the community more secure. We’re now working with the Allies to reform outdated international law to make the international community safer from antisocial behaviour on the large scale.

And there are benefits on the home front. In the past, we had National Service which taught young people self-discipline, respect, commitment, leadership, and citizenship. And our new deal with OfPax, Youth Community Auxiliaries, provides splendid opportunities for young people to learn these same values whilst serving on exciting missions abroad and making the world safer.

But it's horrible

2006-06-17T01:31:00.000Z

But I’ve heard some terrible things and seen horrible pictures of burnt children and people being tortured and it never seems to get better. They say the War could go on for ever!

The Truth about the War

2006-06-17T01:28:00.000Z

Well, nobody likes war, Tristram. But this one’s different. We’re at war, yes, but this is not a war for domination, for territory—not even for oil, as some of our enemies claim—but for Peace. Have a look at some of the alternative blogs we’ve directed you to. Writers of such integrity as David Aaranovitch, Oliver Kamm, Nick Cohen, and Francis Wheen have pointed out some of the ways in which this war’s been lied about and about the kind of people who are spreading those lies. And to get the real story, from the people who are actually there on the ground, the people who have to face the consequences of war and not just talk about it, there’s Milbloggers. They’re blogs run by the lads and women out there and their families—approved by OfPax—showing our human side, giving you intimate stories about real individuals—that’s the virtue of blogs, enlisting sympathy and connecting people together.

Many of the people who go on those marches are Islamists. They’re intolerant homophobes. Islamofascists. Men who force their own daughters into marriages they don’t want and perform horrible mutilations on them. They’re anti-Semites and I’m afraid that, because of their culture, many of them are paedophiles who seduce young boys. Among those people marching are many potential terrorists who preach violence to gullible young people. Others are people discontented with the downside of modern life. Many of us can see the errors of this materialist world we live in but, with some people, it’s become grossly neurotic. They turn against our society completely. Some of these people mistakenly believe that any friend of their ‘enemy’ (they mean the Americans!) is their friend too, so out of pure hatred for our wealth and freedoms, they’re prepared to side with any terrorist who shares that hatred.
And they’ve fooled the many well-meaning people who march with them—I don’t mean the professional Stalinists and Trotskyists; I don’t mean the cynical do-gooders from the chattering classes. I mean the genuine, if misguided, liberals like yourself who, understandably, don’t like the unpleasantness of war.

But what about the War?

2006-06-16T21:52:00.000Z

The fascists sound bad. They’re really intolerant and offensive. But War’s wrong, isn’t it? And if it’s our bad animal parts or memes that make us do it then we can go spiritual and do better, like Dr Zoe says. I really admire those people who risk going on the marches to stop the War, I don’t care who hears me say it or who they tell.

Cancer

2006-06-16T21:51:00.000Z

You’re getting them to smoke! Not even humans can do that. They’ll get cancer!

Puff Puff

2006-06-16T21:49:00.000Z

Me smoke good big cigar.

A misunderstanding

2006-06-16T21:48:00.000Z

No, no, you misunderstand, Clary—these are psychological experiments. They aren’t subject to any bodily discomfort. We’re very strongly bound by legislation there—unfortunately in my opinion. And they’ve all volunteered of their own free will.

Experiments on Animals!

2006-06-16T21:47:00.000Z

You’re doing experiments on them! That’s outrageous! What about their rights? After everything that’s just been said about fascism. That’s as bad as the Nazis!

Meet Nim

2006-06-16T21:46:00.000Z

Yes, well done, Clary! Nim is actually one of our brighter guests in P Wing. Well done, Nim! Extra fruit for you, boy! We’re doing experiments on the acquisition of language through controlled behavioural stimuli.

Monkey in the Room!

2006-06-16T21:45:00.000Z

I know! It’s one of those monkeys from P Wing! Just like you promised! How sweet!!!

Get Fruit

2006-06-16T21:44:00.000Z

Many of us Hit Hit Hit quertyuiop. Then get fruit.

The Germans

2006-06-16T21:43:00.000Z

It’s funny. I don’t get it. I mean I don’t know much about politics and geography and all that but I thought Germany was on our side now. But it just said on the news we’re in there with the Yanks. I mean there’s the last War and all that and Don’t Mention It etc. etc., and all the football games, but I thought we were all mates now.

Defending Our Values

2006-06-16T21:41:00.000Z

Well, you’re certainly right about Marx—he was a very dangerous sort indeed—more about him later. But he’s a bit of a dead duck now, Don. And it’s true fascists are misguided patriots of a sort—but not the kind we’d welcome. Our biggest barrier to developing a new, inclusive patriotism is the fascists. They need to be stopped because they’re yobs and bullies. They’re not only abusing the flag; they’re whipping up an atmosphere of intolerance and islamophobia, they’re offending people, they’re aggressive towards foreigners, immigrants, and refugees, they’re against free speech. In short, they hate our values as much as the terrorists and other antisocial elements do.

There have been fascists throughout history—Genghis Khan, Napoleon, Stalin. They began in Ancient Rome. That’s one reason why, in a sense history doesn’t mean anything. Nothing really changes. The tiny microhistories—the real stories of real people’s lives—are more meaningful than the grand narratives of the past.

And we must always be on our guard to stop fascism happening again. There are new kinds of fascism springing up everywhere, new Hitlers everywhere. Whether it’s some tinpot dictator in Africa or some yob on a street corner or some Islington intellectual demanding more rights for criminals and outsiders— islamofascism, ecofascism, liberofascism—it’s all the same menace to community relations.

The youth who spits at old ladies displays the same antisocial lack of respect for those of a different background as Hitler did towards the Jews—it’s a matter of degree. The biggest threat we face is perhaps not the growing number of intolerant dictators in the world but the little Hitlers in our own society—the Hitlers of the shopping precinct, of the home and the playground. Like the football hooligans whose movements are being traced and controlled as we speak.

Unfortunately, many misguided working-class people feel the politicians are too distant from them and the fascist lies tempt them. Perhaps our leaders have been too elitist in the past, but we have been informed they’re planning lots more focus groups and all sorts of innovative campaigns to make their policies more appealing and understandable. And OfCare is developing strategies to tackle the problem and defend the values of Community, Identity, and Stability. So promoting values of democracy and co-operation and respect for difference at every level of society is a great measure for preventing the escalation of this cancer that is eating us from within. And it’s something that we can all work on together. We need your participation, you of the decent majority. Society is like a bundle of twigs—one on its own is fragile, but bound together we become strong.