ink for thought: 11.08

Saturday 29 November 2008

the terror within

I saw a guy getting beaten up the other day. 7 or so larger youths took it upon themselves to lay in to him for no discernable reason. maybe they were refused a wallet or a cell phone.

so one defenseless young man was beaten. viciously, relentlessly. and people just walked on by. this wasn't in the meagre privacy afforded by a poorly lit alleyway or in the seculsion of some remote unused path, this took place in a mall. in public. before the eyes of a purposefully unseeing public.

7 or so youths, none out of their teens I would have thought, a law unto themselves, behaving like animals, unrestrained, undeterred, uninhibited by the possibility of repercussions. and the public shielded their eyes and walked on by.

I was incensed. furious. and sad. what kind of world do we live in when one young man cannot walk the streets in peace and safety, what kind of society spawns the type of vile, neanderthals that would do such a thing, and what kind of people stand by and do nothing?

maybe instead of calling for more gun and knife control we would do better to unfetter our vision, maybe then we could bring succour to a society intent of its own self destruction instead of roundly condemning the various victims, maybe we might ignite something of the heroic within us all by refusing to be intimidated and cowed in our own homes, schools, workplaces and so on, maybe then we would be able to live without fear. 

maybe, maybe...

Wednesday 19 November 2008

random


random non cohesive rambling......

bread and butter to the mentally infirm and those employed within the political structure. yet completely useless for blog writing.....

Saturday 15 November 2008

considering tomorrows


here I sit, considering tomorrows.

the middle of the night, it seems fitting. life hurries by at 60 minutes per hour. barely have I become acquainted with the moment before it is gone and in it's place a new one born, and the dance begins anew.

it seems though, that every now and then it serves to consider tomorrows. so here I sit. and I have to admit, from here it looks pretty grim. but that is the beauty of slowing down, appreciating the ride as it progresses, though grim, it is not unavoidable.

'I live in dreams' someone more romantic than me once said that. and I agree. now is the time to dream, to prepare, to idealise and to be free. I dream in the technicoloured frenzy of the 'now' so that my futures may not be so grey.

so, take a moment, come sit with me, and consider your tomorrows but thred lightly, for dreams are afoot.

Friday 14 November 2008

that common unity

Meaning.
Like air to our bodies, meaning brings life to our souls. for without meaning we, as people, stumble aimless, listless, fruitless through the muck and mire of existence without respite. Like heavy clothes and warm hearth meaning rescues us from simply 'being' and allows us to truly flourish.

Meaning.
Since earliest days we have striven for greater meaning, It seems we define ourselves our very personhood by what we mean to those who are important to us. (
Ah, but there is a thought, 'those who are important to us'. already we are assigning meaning, but on what grounds? for surely they are no more than we allow them to be? this is one egg that refuses to acknowledge the chicken from whence is most likely came. but I digress) From the very youngest seeking the approval and affirmation of their parents to the oldest seeking out the very faintest trace of themselves reflected in the face of our successors. We all want to know that we mean something to someone.

Meaning.
It seems a deep soul hunger that binds us all, keeps us in constant search of communion, it is in fact that common union that separates us from other sentient beings on the this planet. but, like most of our instinctive urges, meaning is a poor servant and a horrific master. we mask it, dress it up, disguise it to protect our pride or rename it to soothe our bewildered social consciousness. or, greater crime yet, we wield it, one against another.

Meaning.
it is baffling to see those for whom meaning, belonging, knowing oneself and being known has meant so much turn and use it weapon against those who have not yet found their own selfness. we manipulate our meanings to isolate the weak, oppress the defenseless and harangue the distressed. we, the civilised masses, have canabalised ourselves, feeding upon our own sense of superiority. our own sense of what. we. mean. to. our. selves.  

of course these are merely the observations of one and need not be the experience of the many. but it is my experience that the need to mean transcends the geographical. and so I urge caution. I propose that if we never mean more than what we see in the mirror, if we never mean something greater than our finest accoutrements, if we never mean something loftier than our accumulated wealth. then we mean nothing at all.

Thursday 13 November 2008

The New Danger

  This just in and hot off the press! a new danger has been identified in the battle against drug related gang activity in inner city areas! mothers, gather up your young! fathers, secure your homes! no one is safe against the threat of......

  74 year old pensioners!!!!

why, even just this morning one such criminal was apprehended on his way to "buy his sunday paper". at least that's what he would like the world at large to believe. after a stop and search session that would have made hans blix beam with pride, the eight brave police officers involved in the heroic venture in hackney were able to establish that apart from a freedom pass, a comb and some small change the nefarious thug, weighing in at a monstrous 81/2 stone, was, in fact, not carrying anything else.

Undeterred by a lack of evidence, opportunity, motive or in fact a crime, hackneys finest went on to interrogate the suspect.

At this point I am unable to go on describing the events. this is mainly because the sheer stupidity and gross incompetence of these wage slaves defies mocking.

but at the very least, the people of hackney can now rest safe in the fact that while their local education facilities maybe poor, nearby leisure facilities maybe underfunded and falling apart (you know who I'm talking to), unemployment levels maybe high and average income maybe low, regeneration maybe pricing them out of their homes and communities, they maybe under represented in parliament and over represented in jail, they may even be stereotyped and vilified six ways from sunday

......at least seventy four year old pensioners who still work 5 days a week to pay bills, pay for heating, pay for food and never once ask for anything from the government....at least that sort aren't free to wander around in the streets on a sunday morning buying newspapers and inspiring youth with their damn work ethic and never give up attitude. bravo