Passing Thoughts

Eek - Politics!

I've gotten into the really bad habit of only posting journal entries if I've also got something else to post - music, poem, picture or whatever. So in an attempt to break that habit here is an unaccompanied entry.

For one reason or another I've been thinking this week about politics. It started from a passing comment to my Mum that I had become more right wing than when I was younger. Then the other morning Tony Benn (who I admire greatly - although I don't always agree with him) was on the radio. On top of this I discovered this The Political Compass. You can see my results Here (check the analysis page on the political compass site for comparison). I guess that this means that either I am wrong about drifting to the right in my personal politics OR I was very left wing indeed when I was younger. I guess the real things I have learned as I have gotten older is that Ideology of any kind is a bad thing - it leads to inflexibility of thought and deed and blinkers people into taking paths that they don't necessarily agree with. The other thing is that I think that the free market is and essential part of the way we build our society and in itself is not necessarily a bad thing. The way in which we structure our society should be a mirror of not only our personal desires and wants but also of the values that we hold to be important - that is to help the needy, ill, unemployed, those that do not contribute financially to our society. Very simply put we are rich enough as a society to have both nice houses and help out other people.

This morning I woke up to hear a small plane flying over very early (5 O'clock) and most unlike me I actually worried for a moment that it was terrorists - Grangemouth is very close and a small plane packed with explosives could do a lot of damage to a very large area. Last time I remember waking in the night to worries like those was as a small boy when I dreamed that I woke up and there was a nuclear wasteland outside my bedroom window (complete with comic book mushroom clouds - too much 2000AD :-)) a dream I still vividly remember to this day. The thing that did worry me though was that terrorism on this scale is very hard to fight - catching the perpetrators doesn't do you any good - it's a bit like arresting the postman who delivers a letter bomb. In fact if I where a terrorist organisation I would get the people who delivered the bomb (or whatever) to give themselves up to the authorities straight away just to make the point of how helpless they are. Also if the terrorists really started going for it the western world would be in a lot of trouble indeed. All a bit worrying really - given as well that they have fundamentally opposing goals to ours. I mean would you like to live under the Taliban - that is the kind of society that Al Queda would like to see.

This weeks music selections are: Tori Amos - Strange Little Girls. I find this album really disturbing - especially the version of the Eminem song "'97 Bonnie and Clyde". Excellent though - well worth a listen. Been listening to loads of John Zorn as well this week. Very, very talented man.

This website is well worth a read - it essentially a list of things the author of the website and his girlfriend argue about but its very well written (very hitch hikers) and there is a real sense of two people who love each other in their own odd reality. It had me laughing out loud.

Posted by Mark at October 15, 2002 04:02 PM