The rights of those suspected of crimes are not to be put over those of the innocent majority. Suspects are innocent until proven guilty. Does that mean we’re all innocent or we’re all suspects? Or are we all guilty until we can prove our innocence these days? It has to be a joke hasn’t it?
How can you talk about politics these days? Each time I type out a sentence I realise that it means the opposite of what I intended it to mean. So I try again and I get it right and then I realise that I don’t agree with what I was trying to type.
It always seems to be about what someone else thinks I want. But these things in no way represent what I want. So I wonder; who actually does want these things, and what are these things that we are offered? I am offered safety from crime, or rather a lower chance of it happening to me. I don’t want that. I want people to have no desire to commit crimes, that’s what I want. I’m offered security from being blown up by someone who feels strongly enough about something to do so, but I don’t want that. I would rather that the people who want to blow someone up do not think that I am complicit with whatever it is they are blowing things up for. Better still would be a situation where the urge to blow people up was not one that was ever satisfied.
All I seem to hear is talk of punishment, war and justice and how great it is that we’re having more of it because it is what I want. I must acquire some new aspirations because these ones are shit.
23 comments:
I know what you mean, too much emphasis on treatment rather than prevention;let's dream up marvellous ways to fight the problems instead of measures to ensure they don't arise in the first place...?
That's right. It just seems like it is all about votes and not about making our lives better. And that makes me sad.
Bonjour Stewart and Miss Monica! How are you both? Missing me I hope. Was very nice catching up with you the other day, am only sorry that I didn't get out of bed to go for a coffee with Mon on Wednesday-bad Jenny!
I'm very sorry Stewart, but I did not wave at the internet for you. The people I work with already think I'm mad, I can't give them any more ammunition for this conclusion!
Still hate my job. The problem with schools are the teenagers and the teachers! Get rid of them and life would be a great deal more harmonious.
Lots of love to both of you. I hope to see you soon. Be good.
Jenny xxx
(p.s. Stewart, please don't post this for everyone to see - you know that I am shy!)
Lovely to see you too Jen. Next time we will have 100% extra funningtons.
(Jen, I don't think anyone will notice, but you posted that comment where everyone can see it. If we don't say anything I think we'll get away with it....)
I saw it! I saw that comment by someone called Jen! But when did I see it? When, I cry?
...about the same time cats appeared...
That's when! That's when I saw it, I say!
I heard about that.
I saw it too.
But I may have been hallucinating.
The problem with preventitive measures is that they have a tendency to create a whole new set of problems and grievances for a different set of people which, in turn, require new preventative measures. Very often these new preventative measures are in direct conflict with the first ones the Government had to put into place and have the effect of not only undoing any good work that the original prevantative measures might have done but also actually exacerbate things so you're not just back at square one, but worse off than you originally were because people who were originally pissed-off and wanting to blow things up had felt that they had their issues addressed but now the problem has come back so they're even grumpier than they were originally.
Not only that, but to make matters worse, when people want to moan they'll moan; it doesn't matter how much you try to please the ungrateful bastards. If you bend over backwards to please they'll only moan about the way in which you did it down to bitching about the actual angle of your back.
Ignorance of the phrase "you can't please everybody" is the seed from which all bureaucracy comes; it creates an enormous weighty machine built of red tape and paperwork. Each piece of paper specifically and carefully designed to prevent someone somewhere being unhappy and each piece of paper seemingly perfectly designed to contradict all the other pieces of paper.
There's a kind of frightening harmony to it, but it is there. The word 'machine' is wrong in some ways because that implies results or output. A bureaucracy is like an administrative black hole - it sucks in all activity and gathers an exponentially increasing number of works to produce an amount of work that is inversely proportional to the size of the staff. A truly huge and successful bureaucracy can make whole countries grind to a halt.
The secret of successful Government is to fire all the civil servents, put up with the fact that some people are really going to hate your policy decisions and then knuckle down to just doing what's best for everybody.
The trouble is, who the Hell has the right to do that? Almost by definition anyone who wants power is a sick freak and shouldn't be allowed to wield any (and really ought to be locked up for good measure).
Yes, they ought to be locked up for good measure. I agree with that. But when should they be locked up, when exactly?
...about the same time cats appeared...
That's when! That's when they should be locked up!
...About the same time prog-rock appeared...
...and grown men sang of bluebirds whilst wearing lacey blouses....
...and elipses appeared as both prefix and suffix to every written statement...
...and eclipses occurred as both Airfix and Weetabix issued written statements...
Okay, so maybe we should prevent some things but let some other things happen so we can have some problems to solve, see which way works; it's all about balance!
I still maintain that someone somewhere will want to blow something up. Human beings just aren't happy unless they're miserable or angry, preferably both.
Whereas cats are just happy that they appeared (about the same time the forests took over the land -- you heard about it!)
Does he mention trilobites at any stage?
Did you know that the smallest known species of trilobite was less than millimeter in length?
Did anyone hear about that?
Hey, I know bugger all about politics, I was probably just thinking of an ideal world where these things were prevented by people not being so fucking stupid. I suppose that's never going to happen. That makes me a sad panda.
If a cat appears and there's no-one around to see it happen, does its breath still smell of cat food?
Welcome back Monkeychops, I missed your unique humour. A round of applause...
I for one prefer a round of drinks to a round of appluase, but I prefer either to a round of golf.
The original lyric was "It was about this time that bats appeared and I know that they are still the same size as ever; not much change there." which you will agree neither scans nor sheds light on anything much.
Politics-wise I have totally given up and find the whole thing laughable and i'm surprised that some of you are worrying about it. People have been blowing themselves up for hundreds of thousands of years and politicians are all just politicians. You need an idealist but, oh, what sort?
I still believe that fascism is the only safe recourse in a mad overpopulated capitalist mad house where nothing is ever planned and things go to waste for stupid reasons dictated by twelve people in the Cayman Islands.
I think we need a little less love and a little more inhumanity because we still don't realise just how bad things are. We are sleepwalking. Our country is at war and it is our fault because we continue to allow this to happen. When do the suicide bombers stop? When we tell them to.
I'm not worried about anything to do with politics as such, the thing that bothers me is the inertia caused by bureaucracy rather than politics itself. As you know, bureaucracy can rear its ugly head in any system or hierarchy, not just a political one.
Fascism. Honestly Mr lewis. Any particular race you'd like gassed?
I don't know what I want, whether it's the right thing to want or if anyone cares anyway. This has all got far too clever for me, I'm keeping quiet from now on.
...about the same time Anthony Lewis appeared... at last!
Answer my e-mails, you Einzatsgruppen commander, you! I've done everything to get your attention: I even blogged you on my blog!
The cartoons you did for me are now in print. I want more!!!!!!!!
Mr Burnsy; don't keep quiet! We would miss your rapier-like wit, sensible ideaological suggestions and so forth!
Mr Lewis; your irony is appreciated! As is your silvery and your goldy, (to paraphrase Mr Baldrick, of course). It's nice to hear from you again.
Mr Rhysaurus; as soon as any cats appear up here in Cheshire (where I believe there is a long literary tradition of appearing/ disappearing cats) I will let you know!
Mr Fric; Isn't it time for another fresh post? This one has got a bit long and confusing even by your own very high standards for length and confusion!
You know what else is long and confusing? My penis; as I was telling Mr Lewis the other day, it looks exactly like an elephant's trunk studded with hundreds of babies' arms holding apples. Long, confusing and quite horrifying too.
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