It does not take a great brain to understand the vastly different concepts created and released by the title reference above? Mind bending or Mind blocking? Each one in its own way suggests a total view of matters at hand. Although it can be taken as a negative view, it would be much more thought provoking and stimulating taken in the positive sense with the question put in this way, a vastly more interesting perspective reveals itself.
As it is understood Mind Blocking is the imposed restriction, by self or outside determination, on the desire to learn, understand or investigate an idea, behaviour, or way of life that a body of influence feels, or considers on balance will be detrimental to the continued well being of the population at large or the ruling elite. The past century as the world's population mushroomed and the proliferation of ideas that disturbed the stability of many countries it became a mad scramble to solve problems under the age old salve of : might is right.
When despite two World Wars and many massive other conflicts the century apparently ended with a vast global stalemate. The economies, and moral disciplines; the two main crutches of social civility bankrupt. All the world leaders seemed agreed that a new approach had to be found, even as they grappled to understand how to avoid the mistakes of the past half century and more. So the Mind Benders who had been having a field day since the ferment of the Second World conflict, with their computers, satellites, and electronic devices of every hew competed to constantly improve and hone their inventions, to faster and more subtle applications.
A new concept had arisen in the last thirty years of the century. The computer, radio, television and a vast new array of intricate electronic devices, manipulated by young men and women had opened a cornicopia of possibilities that far exceeded the wonders of the tales of Aladdin and Thousand and One nights. With the mad dash for wealth, fame and influence, the previously sneered at oily rag merchants, mechanics and tinkers, had suddenly userpt the patronizing , lawyers, entertainers, and financial whizz kids. The long derided uncouth engineer was climbing to the top of the heap.
Of course there is more to it than that otherwise some smart cookie would have seen the defining trend. And it is true, one did so. He saw that the melding between the, new bursting with energy technology, had to be married to and exploited with the established arts. The intersection of the disciplines was vital, new and in the mind of Steve Jobs essential. Unfortunately before this became widely accepted a vast amount of totally unnecessary damage had been done by the indiscipline of the narrow minded in power, and the ill-disciplined young men and women exploiting matters while they could.
Thursday 29 December 2011
Thursday 15 December 2011
Cultureshock: Outside the box.
Cultureshock: Outside the box.
Do you know what this expression means? As someone who has been thinking outside the box since the beginning of 1973, it is absolutely certain to me, what most people identify this expression with is the small realignment of their thinking when their main comfortable belief constructs are shaken by new ideas.A good many of us have heard the expression: thinking outside the box, in this context it is quite often used in the past ten years or so as a political ploy to lull the long suffering electorate into thinking that this or that side of the political equation is about to let one of their colleagues, who has displayed a little more concern that their fellows for the plight of those they govern, and often pillage without too much conscious consideration in depth for their well being.
All too often, after the honour of a pep talk from the Might One, a good natured pat on the back from the media. The latest sacrificial goat from the back-benches disappears, charged to come up a year or three later with a number of solutions to a list of problems so they can be used to muddy the waters of indecision and maintain the lack of focus. This continues to handicap any real evaluation of the situation and how it may be overcome. The real point is that nobody who values their life, liberty and freedom wishes to put their name to list the obvious constructs that should be included in any box needed to be considered in the case of really original thinking outside the box. To start with perhaps the most obvious point to illustrate this confusion is not that we have too many people in the world but too little organisation.
The recent navel gazing brought about by the calculated arrival of the seven billionth citizen on Plant Earth threw up the fact that all the people in the world could be placed in the state of Texas, USA. I doubt whether the Texans would appreciate their sudden lack of space? To put it another way. It was also opined that France could accommodate the World's billions but even with space to spare the friction might be a little too much even for those with sharp elbows? A second vital point which is worthy of more than ribald laughter, is the length of the life span, which, after many centuries considered to be around the seventy year mark, has for some decades been increasing steadily.
Much of this increase can be put down to the ability of the human race to collect, collate and disseminate the good survival practises that have evolved in the twentieth century and have now been extended into this century. These advances worry many people who see a time when their own standard of life and well being will be eroded by the influx of people who, with the wealth of new communications opening their eyes, understanding, and desires of the less well off. This pressure to protect, and maintain what you have worked to achieve, or inherited by good fortune, often encourages a rush to re-erect the barriers of prejudice: anything will do; colour, race, gender, status, real or imagined. Blindly rejecting the evidence of our own experience and lives that the world has changed and continues so to do, at a breakneck speed.
Humanity is an intense mixture of good, bad and indifferent. Really we have not even begun to think outside the box yet. One thing is certain we are not going back to the old status quo. The genie is well and truly out of the bottle. All the old rocks of faith, certainty and acceptance have been washed away by a tsunami of new knowledge and empirical experience which refuses to be denied by old traditions and misplaced comforts. When my mental upheaval occurred in December 1972, the vision and experience left me not just thinking 'outside the box,' but totally, bodily removed to the outside, at least that for a time was my feeling experienced.
Difficult to give a satisfactory explanation to but the nearest description I have been able to relate is that of having my total knowledge condensed into a tiny spot of existence then exploded rapidly. Putting this experience into words is totally and utterly inadequate to do it in anyway justice. For months after this 'happening,' I spent many hours weighing up the possibility that my vision, or whatever it could be described was a viable experience and worthy of record and logical analysis. As I said it left my old constructs and rocks of faith completely shattered. Over the past four decades I have examined the whole approach to the accepted and ingrained concept that: give or take a few years, human life is limited to a span of seventy years.
Why should this be so? My own feeling that humanity started to evolve goes back to the acceptance of the greatest tool that the creator has placed into the mind of mortal men and women. Abstract Thought. To my thinking this greatest tool of all the creator's gifts has been, in the main, been overlooked, ignored and perhaps worst of all distrusted, or at least mistrusted. Often because it is a gift which is often discovered in the ignorant, poorly educated, the mentally unstable, or the disabled. In a phrase those who are outside the box, and think that way. Which obviously often makes their modes of expression and communication a chore, difficult, or at times impossible, unless the patience and encouragement is cultivated, when these minds are striving to express their alien ideas then the whole richness and this avenue of great potential this opens up can often be lost.
Do you know what this expression means? As someone who has been thinking outside the box since the beginning of 1973, it is absolutely certain to me, what most people identify this expression with is the small realignment of their thinking when their main comfortable belief constructs are shaken by new ideas.A good many of us have heard the expression: thinking outside the box, in this context it is quite often used in the past ten years or so as a political ploy to lull the long suffering electorate into thinking that this or that side of the political equation is about to let one of their colleagues, who has displayed a little more concern that their fellows for the plight of those they govern, and often pillage without too much conscious consideration in depth for their well being.
All too often, after the honour of a pep talk from the Might One, a good natured pat on the back from the media. The latest sacrificial goat from the back-benches disappears, charged to come up a year or three later with a number of solutions to a list of problems so they can be used to muddy the waters of indecision and maintain the lack of focus. This continues to handicap any real evaluation of the situation and how it may be overcome. The real point is that nobody who values their life, liberty and freedom wishes to put their name to list the obvious constructs that should be included in any box needed to be considered in the case of really original thinking outside the box. To start with perhaps the most obvious point to illustrate this confusion is not that we have too many people in the world but too little organisation.
The recent navel gazing brought about by the calculated arrival of the seven billionth citizen on Plant Earth threw up the fact that all the people in the world could be placed in the state of Texas, USA. I doubt whether the Texans would appreciate their sudden lack of space? To put it another way. It was also opined that France could accommodate the World's billions but even with space to spare the friction might be a little too much even for those with sharp elbows? A second vital point which is worthy of more than ribald laughter, is the length of the life span, which, after many centuries considered to be around the seventy year mark, has for some decades been increasing steadily.
Much of this increase can be put down to the ability of the human race to collect, collate and disseminate the good survival practises that have evolved in the twentieth century and have now been extended into this century. These advances worry many people who see a time when their own standard of life and well being will be eroded by the influx of people who, with the wealth of new communications opening their eyes, understanding, and desires of the less well off. This pressure to protect, and maintain what you have worked to achieve, or inherited by good fortune, often encourages a rush to re-erect the barriers of prejudice: anything will do; colour, race, gender, status, real or imagined. Blindly rejecting the evidence of our own experience and lives that the world has changed and continues so to do, at a breakneck speed.
Humanity is an intense mixture of good, bad and indifferent. Really we have not even begun to think outside the box yet. One thing is certain we are not going back to the old status quo. The genie is well and truly out of the bottle. All the old rocks of faith, certainty and acceptance have been washed away by a tsunami of new knowledge and empirical experience which refuses to be denied by old traditions and misplaced comforts. When my mental upheaval occurred in December 1972, the vision and experience left me not just thinking 'outside the box,' but totally, bodily removed to the outside, at least that for a time was my feeling experienced.
Difficult to give a satisfactory explanation to but the nearest description I have been able to relate is that of having my total knowledge condensed into a tiny spot of existence then exploded rapidly. Putting this experience into words is totally and utterly inadequate to do it in anyway justice. For months after this 'happening,' I spent many hours weighing up the possibility that my vision, or whatever it could be described was a viable experience and worthy of record and logical analysis. As I said it left my old constructs and rocks of faith completely shattered. Over the past four decades I have examined the whole approach to the accepted and ingrained concept that: give or take a few years, human life is limited to a span of seventy years.
Why should this be so? My own feeling that humanity started to evolve goes back to the acceptance of the greatest tool that the creator has placed into the mind of mortal men and women. Abstract Thought. To my thinking this greatest tool of all the creator's gifts has been, in the main, been overlooked, ignored and perhaps worst of all distrusted, or at least mistrusted. Often because it is a gift which is often discovered in the ignorant, poorly educated, the mentally unstable, or the disabled. In a phrase those who are outside the box, and think that way. Which obviously often makes their modes of expression and communication a chore, difficult, or at times impossible, unless the patience and encouragement is cultivated, when these minds are striving to express their alien ideas then the whole richness and this avenue of great potential this opens up can often be lost.
Monday 5 December 2011
Cultureshock: Michael Ashiel @ Ease.August 2011.
Cultureshock: Michael Ashiel @ Ease. August 2011.
This image [below] points up the difficulties people such as myself have in trying to extricate themselves from situations which some will consider of very minor proportions.This note has been added several weeks after the initial attempts to assemble in my mind just how to approach the writing of a look on the incident which happened to me in December 1972.
In essence this is an exercise to answer the question: Does all human existence and knowledge come down to a random hotchpotch of coincidence and luck? Or is there a plan to be discovered, manipulated and exploited? As I understand it the major religions of the world subscribe to the idea that all of us are subject to a preconceived plan, though, as the Christian believes in free choice then any plan by a Creator must be in distinctly broad strokes. Which reminds me that one of my initial, 'straws in the wind,' the term I used to suggest to myself that perhaps there was the odd person who saw in my writings, confused as they were, more merit than material for ridicule. On that occasion it was during a speech given during my elder son's prize giving by one of the academic staff. This of course was early days but time enough for the Word to have filtered through to the school. After all several years had passed since the incident.
To me one of the major difficulties with sitting on an unofficial, unacknowledged breakthrough in new knowledge is to discern whether a comment, chance remark, or ribald piece of humour is a signal of support, a put down, or a challenge.
* * * * *
I felt from the beginning this incident was a good deal more than a freakish aberration and something that had been troubling my sub-conscious for many years. Possibly going back as far as October 1953, while serving aboard the warship, HMS Diamond, at the time part of the Home Fleet on a NATO exercise.
1953 was an important and pivotal year for the nation, with the coronation of our present Queen Elizabeth,
the conquest of Everest, a triumph alone, but with hindsight can perhaps be seen as the apogee of British Empire's achievement and the beginning of the United Kingdom? In the same year what to many underlined this change of face for the British was the work of Watson and Crick in successfully illustrating the, DNA spiral of life and thereby opening a new frontier of knowledge. In amongst all these changes in thrust which sought to change the ambitions and expectancy of the new generation's aspirations The sinister overlay of a nuclear holocaust placed a constant reminder of the thin and fragile international relationships between the potential clashes of ideas, ideals and politics which could tip the world into a final conflict of Armageddon.
* * * * * * *
A classic pose of an individual, myself, who with tolerable comfortable in life, love and friendship, awaits the day when his strivings will be officially acknowledge so that, his place within the scheme of things is finally totally insecure. Why does he gamble his newly developed more relaxed view of the World, Universe and Everything , for a brief fifteen minutes of spurious fame? In his seventy-six years of life it would appear he has learnt nothing? Despite these doubts as to the worth of his efforts and the humiliation of the jokers' ridicule, his natural human desire to have his worth acknowledged, if only by his peers remains paramount.
This image [below] points up the difficulties people such as myself have in trying to extricate themselves from situations which some will consider of very minor proportions.This note has been added several weeks after the initial attempts to assemble in my mind just how to approach the writing of a look on the incident which happened to me in December 1972.
In essence this is an exercise to answer the question: Does all human existence and knowledge come down to a random hotchpotch of coincidence and luck? Or is there a plan to be discovered, manipulated and exploited? As I understand it the major religions of the world subscribe to the idea that all of us are subject to a preconceived plan, though, as the Christian believes in free choice then any plan by a Creator must be in distinctly broad strokes. Which reminds me that one of my initial, 'straws in the wind,' the term I used to suggest to myself that perhaps there was the odd person who saw in my writings, confused as they were, more merit than material for ridicule. On that occasion it was during a speech given during my elder son's prize giving by one of the academic staff. This of course was early days but time enough for the Word to have filtered through to the school. After all several years had passed since the incident.
To me one of the major difficulties with sitting on an unofficial, unacknowledged breakthrough in new knowledge is to discern whether a comment, chance remark, or ribald piece of humour is a signal of support, a put down, or a challenge.
* * * * *
I felt from the beginning this incident was a good deal more than a freakish aberration and something that had been troubling my sub-conscious for many years. Possibly going back as far as October 1953, while serving aboard the warship, HMS Diamond, at the time part of the Home Fleet on a NATO exercise.
1953 was an important and pivotal year for the nation, with the coronation of our present Queen Elizabeth,
the conquest of Everest, a triumph alone, but with hindsight can perhaps be seen as the apogee of British Empire's achievement and the beginning of the United Kingdom? In the same year what to many underlined this change of face for the British was the work of Watson and Crick in successfully illustrating the, DNA spiral of life and thereby opening a new frontier of knowledge. In amongst all these changes in thrust which sought to change the ambitions and expectancy of the new generation's aspirations The sinister overlay of a nuclear holocaust placed a constant reminder of the thin and fragile international relationships between the potential clashes of ideas, ideals and politics which could tip the world into a final conflict of Armageddon.
* * * * * * *
A classic pose of an individual, myself, who with tolerable comfortable in life, love and friendship, awaits the day when his strivings will be officially acknowledge so that, his place within the scheme of things is finally totally insecure. Why does he gamble his newly developed more relaxed view of the World, Universe and Everything , for a brief fifteen minutes of spurious fame? In his seventy-six years of life it would appear he has learnt nothing? Despite these doubts as to the worth of his efforts and the humiliation of the jokers' ridicule, his natural human desire to have his worth acknowledged, if only by his peers remains paramount.
Sunday 4 December 2011
Cultureshock: Macro/Micro vision.
Cultureshock: Macro/Micro vision.
Macro or Micro approach to thinking outside the box, while retaining faith and belief in the thoughts and gems of wisdom handed down from masters of past eras. The ability to accomplish this feat of schizophrenic thought, action, and execution can be considered perhaps the most difficult to master and bring to fruition. Attempting this feat with the stability of a mature mind, moulded by extremes of experience and nature, while tempered by the passion etched into a mind from instances of violent youth.
As an ex HMS Ganges boy seaman of early nineteen fifties vintage, the summing up of life can be taken in two contrasting ways from the famous poem, 'IF,' The po-faced version as written by Rudyard Kipling, and the wiseacres interpretation of the content. Nowadays only too easily taken as gospel even by High Judges, it would seem, I fuck. Although I missed this significance which may be an interesting reflection of the naivity of the fifties, or merely my own? This approach to life as a truncated and narrow vision was to be broadened and turned inside out in the next four years of naval life. Every line of Kipling's master piece can be twisted and corrupted by the agile minded cynic or world weary chancer. A great education but one that often needs time to gain the necessary perspective of its advantages, not always readily apparent at sixteen years of age.
Macro or Micro approach to thinking outside the box, while retaining faith and belief in the thoughts and gems of wisdom handed down from masters of past eras. The ability to accomplish this feat of schizophrenic thought, action, and execution can be considered perhaps the most difficult to master and bring to fruition. Attempting this feat with the stability of a mature mind, moulded by extremes of experience and nature, while tempered by the passion etched into a mind from instances of violent youth.
As an ex HMS Ganges boy seaman of early nineteen fifties vintage, the summing up of life can be taken in two contrasting ways from the famous poem, 'IF,' The po-faced version as written by Rudyard Kipling, and the wiseacres interpretation of the content. Nowadays only too easily taken as gospel even by High Judges, it would seem, I fuck. Although I missed this significance which may be an interesting reflection of the naivity of the fifties, or merely my own? This approach to life as a truncated and narrow vision was to be broadened and turned inside out in the next four years of naval life. Every line of Kipling's master piece can be twisted and corrupted by the agile minded cynic or world weary chancer. A great education but one that often needs time to gain the necessary perspective of its advantages, not always readily apparent at sixteen years of age.
Saturday 3 December 2011
Cultureshock: The Greatest Motivator?
Cultureshock: The Greatest Motivator?
Greed, fear, love, envy, revenge? All have their place in the criminal mind set but to me the greatest motivator is: belief. Naturally you need more than just an irrational belief in what you set out to do, or to stick at it through thick, thin and all the parasites who try to bleed you dry of all belief on the journey through to your goal. It is easy to try and tear belief away from its top place in the hierarchy of motivators, but the best I have found you can really do is to match it with all the usual suspects: greed, fear, love, envy, and revenge; alone, paired with belief, or grouped with belief, to reinforce any central and over riding aim. Without belief, the driving force, the backing motivator will eventually collapse under its own lack of conviction and logic.
To take an example of this point might be well made at this moment in time? The pressure the European idea, represented by monetary union in the shape of the Euro, is under with severe strain over this lack of belief, certainly with that of conviction and logic. There is an old saying: the road to hell is paved with good intentions. The idea of a European Common Market spawned from the conflict and upheaval of two world wars certainly seemed a good idea at the time, though Britain failed to be convinced and was not an initial signtory to the Treaty of Rome. Over the years their belief and conviction in the idea of following a logic which had cost so much pain and emotional upheaval,financial chaos and loss, never found a total conviction in the United Kingdom.
Certainly there were charasmatic individuals who could take the herd along with their persuasive oratory and rhetoric, but even though they enjoyed long periods of triumph, eventually the pragmatic and some would say bloody minded and stubborn islanders would defeat the smooth city shysters.
The real problem as ever remains the'short life span,' there is an old saying that even now remains true. That the moment you start to build a fund of wisdom from a life time of endeavour, you die. Even with the latest effort to record every syllable there are many who will kill off, with the almost unbelievable pressure applied to the new idea.
Greed, fear, love, envy, revenge? All have their place in the criminal mind set but to me the greatest motivator is: belief. Naturally you need more than just an irrational belief in what you set out to do, or to stick at it through thick, thin and all the parasites who try to bleed you dry of all belief on the journey through to your goal. It is easy to try and tear belief away from its top place in the hierarchy of motivators, but the best I have found you can really do is to match it with all the usual suspects: greed, fear, love, envy, and revenge; alone, paired with belief, or grouped with belief, to reinforce any central and over riding aim. Without belief, the driving force, the backing motivator will eventually collapse under its own lack of conviction and logic.
To take an example of this point might be well made at this moment in time? The pressure the European idea, represented by monetary union in the shape of the Euro, is under with severe strain over this lack of belief, certainly with that of conviction and logic. There is an old saying: the road to hell is paved with good intentions. The idea of a European Common Market spawned from the conflict and upheaval of two world wars certainly seemed a good idea at the time, though Britain failed to be convinced and was not an initial signtory to the Treaty of Rome. Over the years their belief and conviction in the idea of following a logic which had cost so much pain and emotional upheaval,financial chaos and loss, never found a total conviction in the United Kingdom.
Certainly there were charasmatic individuals who could take the herd along with their persuasive oratory and rhetoric, but even though they enjoyed long periods of triumph, eventually the pragmatic and some would say bloody minded and stubborn islanders would defeat the smooth city shysters.
The real problem as ever remains the'short life span,' there is an old saying that even now remains true. That the moment you start to build a fund of wisdom from a life time of endeavour, you die. Even with the latest effort to record every syllable there are many who will kill off, with the almost unbelievable pressure applied to the new idea.
Friday 25 November 2011
Cultureshock: Wishful thinking?
Cultureshock: Wishful thinking?
Earlier today I read a longish report on the Cambridge University speech by the Education Secretary Michael Gove. He was setting out his wish list which he feels will put the terrible mess the country has got itself into by following an utterly bankrupt philosophy, which put the emphasis on the tail rather that the head of the animal. In doing so it can only be hoped he has caught the tide of opinion as it climbs to its zenith.
It is now such an undisputed fact that the country is in a hole, economically, ethically, and morally that like the little lemming, a good slice of the educational establishment and their brothers and sisters of related public service endeavours wound up by their union activists refuse to see the wood for the trees and are insisting on their fifteen minutes of fame, as they rush boldly to the edge of the cliff, and the abyss.
Is it really that bad? Well surely like most things in life it really all depends in just what you want for your time and money? Like our Education Secretary Gove, it is my hope that I to have timed my effort correctly in my attempt to project my vision of the possible into the public consciousness. At the age I am now it would be a total irresponsibility not to place at least some outline of my ideas and their possibilities before my peers for their judgement and possible sport. I say sport advisedly because the potential for a great deal of ridicule and bear baiting does seem to be a given with the claims and ideas I hope to be outlining in the next months.
First let me place a thought on the wires, as they say these days. Does it seem to you that everything you have learnt since your early years, which had seemed set in stone, has been of recent years gradually, though with increasing speed of late, been crumbling to dust almost between your feet? I had this sensation some years ago, in fact in the early seventies. This period of rapid change, in my beliefs continued until the early nineties. For the best part of twenty years I had wrestled with a totally new concept of fundimentals, rocks of faith and a new realm of the possible. Time and again I had attempted to reject my new vision and return to the stability of my youth and early years.
Earlier today I read a longish report on the Cambridge University speech by the Education Secretary Michael Gove. He was setting out his wish list which he feels will put the terrible mess the country has got itself into by following an utterly bankrupt philosophy, which put the emphasis on the tail rather that the head of the animal. In doing so it can only be hoped he has caught the tide of opinion as it climbs to its zenith.
It is now such an undisputed fact that the country is in a hole, economically, ethically, and morally that like the little lemming, a good slice of the educational establishment and their brothers and sisters of related public service endeavours wound up by their union activists refuse to see the wood for the trees and are insisting on their fifteen minutes of fame, as they rush boldly to the edge of the cliff, and the abyss.
Is it really that bad? Well surely like most things in life it really all depends in just what you want for your time and money? Like our Education Secretary Gove, it is my hope that I to have timed my effort correctly in my attempt to project my vision of the possible into the public consciousness. At the age I am now it would be a total irresponsibility not to place at least some outline of my ideas and their possibilities before my peers for their judgement and possible sport. I say sport advisedly because the potential for a great deal of ridicule and bear baiting does seem to be a given with the claims and ideas I hope to be outlining in the next months.
First let me place a thought on the wires, as they say these days. Does it seem to you that everything you have learnt since your early years, which had seemed set in stone, has been of recent years gradually, though with increasing speed of late, been crumbling to dust almost between your feet? I had this sensation some years ago, in fact in the early seventies. This period of rapid change, in my beliefs continued until the early nineties. For the best part of twenty years I had wrestled with a totally new concept of fundimentals, rocks of faith and a new realm of the possible. Time and again I had attempted to reject my new vision and return to the stability of my youth and early years.
Wednesday 23 November 2011
Cultureshock: Flash- forward.
Cultureshock: Flash-forward.
Bored? Obviously not exactly the best question to ask if you want to grip someone and hold their attention?before I retired I used to pour scorn and derision on folks who said that I would be bored to death within weeks.
'Narr, ' I'd scoff back contemptuously,' Not half as much as I am now. You're only bored in life if your imagination is lacking.' Then as a rider would often add my favourite riddle; what is the difference between a rut and the grave? I had asked so many times they all knew the answer, quite often they did not wait to hear my reply; 'retirement you apes.' I would cry out, in frustration, or laugh at their derision, most thought my mental health was a little suspect anyhow. Despite this they loved to bait me on the occasions when life in the drawing office became too tedious. Nevertheless I would shout after their receding backs: 'It's twice as long!.' I knew it was all part of the game. The rich game of life, but who would have the last laugh?
Yes, there is usually at least one in every office. In most of the offices I worked in I was the one. The easiest to wind-up. The one who the phrase 'don't take yourself too seriously was written to describe.' Though I often could not see when the line had been crossed. And once again I had become the patsy of the hour. It was in fact to take me several years into retirement before the penny dropped, and I discovered just what a smart cookie I really was, not the sort of statement you would expect to hear from a modest before all things, Englishman.
In fact most of what I have already written on this blog and it is not very stimulating to state the obvious. So. So I thought why not? In my youth [many moons ago] when we went to the flicks, we were often confronted by the flashback. A device which I believe has, in the main , fallen into disuse. Probably because although the endings could surprise in the hands of a good writer,actors and director, most folks preferred the uncomplicated straightforward story line. Or perhaps it is true that with the demise of creative use of the imagination film and TV makers have make much plainer and straightforward the story line and their intentions. The drawback with the global imagination must then be is: one size fits all. Just like the euro. What a ghastly realisation that could be?
Then again in the past four decades events in the World at large have taken on a fresh and stimulating aspect to those who are interested in the huge panorama of these changes. Sometimes it appears that the whole of creation is in the same state of flux that must have heralded the start or end of the various ice ages. The difference in those past times was a certain lack of homo-sapiens to complicate issues and invent trials of guilt, especially those by default. As everyone will know trial by default is where most common folk know something is so because they have lived with it for weeks, months, sometimes years. Had their noses rubbed in the stupidity of the hierarchy who insist on the agreed way; the traditional route to damnation.
The expert who guards his knowledge with the passion only reserved for those who threaten his status and pension. Then suddenly a few gifted, or gilded bods from some university or other produce, at great expense, a pontification on the subject. A favoured hack is briefed and another sensational article or essay sallies forth into the public domain of opinion where grumpy old characters like me will say to their long suffering other halves; I've been telling them that for years. Mind you it is the great saving grace to me that I realised almost as soon as my vision receded and I began to assess the impact that there was no doubt in my mind premature claims on my part as to what this meant would lead only to total melt down.
Now with the past forty years in the United Kingdom, at least, in the hands of the wreakers, incompetents, point scores and general second raters the invaluable knowledge placed at their disposal appears to have been frittered away. Or has it? My own feeling for what it is worth. Despite the asinine short sightedness of the educationalists, still full of their own misguided theories of eqalitarisim, the rest of the World is moving on some might say at a very smart lick. Unfortunately it is almost written into our non-existent constitution that Britain should strip right down to their jock straps, or g-strings, before they take the threats of Johnny Foreigner seriously.
So to my mind there is absolutely nothing new in the present state of unprepared minds to face the challenge even though the enemy is hardly at the gates. They are already entrenched in a whole phalanx of jobs, ghettos, and all the other nasty little ways in which threatened minorities, consolidate from their breaches of the their host, who have been unworldly enough to allow not merely unrestricted entry but positively encouraged the situation. It might prove considerably harder to evict them than the misguided morons who created the situation in the first instance anticipated. Then again do we really want to evict them from their hard won initiative. They have shaken us up and given us a hard smack on the nose. Was it ever the British way to cry, 'foul,' when you are shown the way back to the correct path to repair your fortunes?
Fully aware as I am that shame has left by the back door. Ethics and well tailored clothes are a sign of the wastrel and popinjay. Uniform, illustrates the mind of those inside and is a preset to most of the thinking in the twentieth century. How easy it is to label by appearance instead of at least attempting to evaluate and appreciate? Now however we have the ultimate twin expressions of the new way of thinking as you strive to make your pile, Steve Jobs, and Mark Zuckerberg. The twin pinnacles of achievement, so we are given to understand? but I wonder just how much anyone really understands? This could be the last throw of Mammon, how can such frenzies not burn themselves to ashes?
Bored? Obviously not exactly the best question to ask if you want to grip someone and hold their attention?before I retired I used to pour scorn and derision on folks who said that I would be bored to death within weeks.
'Narr, ' I'd scoff back contemptuously,' Not half as much as I am now. You're only bored in life if your imagination is lacking.' Then as a rider would often add my favourite riddle; what is the difference between a rut and the grave? I had asked so many times they all knew the answer, quite often they did not wait to hear my reply; 'retirement you apes.' I would cry out, in frustration, or laugh at their derision, most thought my mental health was a little suspect anyhow. Despite this they loved to bait me on the occasions when life in the drawing office became too tedious. Nevertheless I would shout after their receding backs: 'It's twice as long!.' I knew it was all part of the game. The rich game of life, but who would have the last laugh?
Yes, there is usually at least one in every office. In most of the offices I worked in I was the one. The easiest to wind-up. The one who the phrase 'don't take yourself too seriously was written to describe.' Though I often could not see when the line had been crossed. And once again I had become the patsy of the hour. It was in fact to take me several years into retirement before the penny dropped, and I discovered just what a smart cookie I really was, not the sort of statement you would expect to hear from a modest before all things, Englishman.
In fact most of what I have already written on this blog and it is not very stimulating to state the obvious. So. So I thought why not? In my youth [many moons ago] when we went to the flicks, we were often confronted by the flashback. A device which I believe has, in the main , fallen into disuse. Probably because although the endings could surprise in the hands of a good writer,actors and director, most folks preferred the uncomplicated straightforward story line. Or perhaps it is true that with the demise of creative use of the imagination film and TV makers have make much plainer and straightforward the story line and their intentions. The drawback with the global imagination must then be is: one size fits all. Just like the euro. What a ghastly realisation that could be?
Then again in the past four decades events in the World at large have taken on a fresh and stimulating aspect to those who are interested in the huge panorama of these changes. Sometimes it appears that the whole of creation is in the same state of flux that must have heralded the start or end of the various ice ages. The difference in those past times was a certain lack of homo-sapiens to complicate issues and invent trials of guilt, especially those by default. As everyone will know trial by default is where most common folk know something is so because they have lived with it for weeks, months, sometimes years. Had their noses rubbed in the stupidity of the hierarchy who insist on the agreed way; the traditional route to damnation.
The expert who guards his knowledge with the passion only reserved for those who threaten his status and pension. Then suddenly a few gifted, or gilded bods from some university or other produce, at great expense, a pontification on the subject. A favoured hack is briefed and another sensational article or essay sallies forth into the public domain of opinion where grumpy old characters like me will say to their long suffering other halves; I've been telling them that for years. Mind you it is the great saving grace to me that I realised almost as soon as my vision receded and I began to assess the impact that there was no doubt in my mind premature claims on my part as to what this meant would lead only to total melt down.
Now with the past forty years in the United Kingdom, at least, in the hands of the wreakers, incompetents, point scores and general second raters the invaluable knowledge placed at their disposal appears to have been frittered away. Or has it? My own feeling for what it is worth. Despite the asinine short sightedness of the educationalists, still full of their own misguided theories of eqalitarisim, the rest of the World is moving on some might say at a very smart lick. Unfortunately it is almost written into our non-existent constitution that Britain should strip right down to their jock straps, or g-strings, before they take the threats of Johnny Foreigner seriously.
So to my mind there is absolutely nothing new in the present state of unprepared minds to face the challenge even though the enemy is hardly at the gates. They are already entrenched in a whole phalanx of jobs, ghettos, and all the other nasty little ways in which threatened minorities, consolidate from their breaches of the their host, who have been unworldly enough to allow not merely unrestricted entry but positively encouraged the situation. It might prove considerably harder to evict them than the misguided morons who created the situation in the first instance anticipated. Then again do we really want to evict them from their hard won initiative. They have shaken us up and given us a hard smack on the nose. Was it ever the British way to cry, 'foul,' when you are shown the way back to the correct path to repair your fortunes?
Fully aware as I am that shame has left by the back door. Ethics and well tailored clothes are a sign of the wastrel and popinjay. Uniform, illustrates the mind of those inside and is a preset to most of the thinking in the twentieth century. How easy it is to label by appearance instead of at least attempting to evaluate and appreciate? Now however we have the ultimate twin expressions of the new way of thinking as you strive to make your pile, Steve Jobs, and Mark Zuckerberg. The twin pinnacles of achievement, so we are given to understand? but I wonder just how much anyone really understands? This could be the last throw of Mammon, how can such frenzies not burn themselves to ashes?
Sunday 20 November 2011
Cultureshock: Vacuum and Threads
Vacuum and Threads.
We are always being told that nature abhors a vacuum. So I think my efforts today are an attempt to link this statement with what I'm attempting to achieve without getting too far up the tree of knowledge and end up not being understood by anyone, not even myself. This situation did occur some years ago, not very enjoyable,though it taught a valuable lesson.
The image on the right was taken I believe shortly after I started my new life, with a new name and family. My best estimate is that I was about fifteen months or so of age. So about early 1937.
So what has this all to do with vacuums? Good question, I had begun to wonder myself. I believe the answer lies in the the fact that I was adopted. In a very real sense my adoption was to fill a vacuum left by the death of a boy of eighteen months, from bronchial pneumonia. I have often wondered what was changed by his death and taking his place in the scheme of things. Over the years I have felt an odd extra spur to be worthy of this change and not be merely grateful to my adopted family for the chance to fill any degree of sadness over their loss. An impossibility naturally, it always has to be a case of your own merits. Not a second chance to make comparisons with your loss.
The image on the right was taken I believe shortly after I started my new life, with a new name and family. My best estimate is that I was about fifteen months or so of age. So about early 1937.
So what has this all to do with vacuums? Good question, I had begun to wonder myself. I believe the answer lies in the the fact that I was adopted. In a very real sense my adoption was to fill a vacuum left by the death of a boy of eighteen months, from bronchial pneumonia. I have often wondered what was changed by his death and taking his place in the scheme of things. Over the years I have felt an odd extra spur to be worthy of this change and not be merely grateful to my adopted family for the chance to fill any degree of sadness over their loss. An impossibility naturally, it always has to be a case of your own merits. Not a second chance to make comparisons with your loss.
Saturday 19 November 2011
Cultureshock: Decimation.
Decimation.
Probably before I had completed the conundrum, I had already realised the word formula with which I had attempted to encapsulate my vision, would not be the end of the necessary steps to try and ensure the knowledge that I was attempting to transmit and project to other minds was not short circuited.
From this acceptance and realisation the next days I wrote and transmitted articles to a variety of ten publications which I felt contained a fertile field of brain power which would be in a far better position to exploit my offering. Time was of the essence and my feeling was to take the chance that had been offered. Instinctively it was apparent that to labour at an effort to project every last detail that may have ensued from a book would be to waste a heaven sent opportunity that hardly came in a dozen life times.
So the articles went off sent with a passion and expectancy I had every right to expect the World would immediately sit up and take notice. Naturally enough the World did no such thing. Even the article I felt was the king pin and key to the whole terrific adventure, landed back on my doormat some time later. The impact of the vision: the effort to record and distribute my interpretation of the possibilities it presented. The cold silence of rejection, all combined to place me inside a psychiatric hospital, toward the end of January 1973.
Fortunately the medical staff appeared to be quite used to the traumas, tantrums and odd pronouncements uttered by those in their care. My case they took in their stride, so when rather to my amazement I managed to get back into work within the recognised period of two months, though heavily drugged, and cursing every second feeling more moronic than man I struggled through a hazy year and more putting one foot in front of the other with careful precision.
Probably before I had completed the conundrum, I had already realised the word formula with which I had attempted to encapsulate my vision, would not be the end of the necessary steps to try and ensure the knowledge that I was attempting to transmit and project to other minds was not short circuited.
From this acceptance and realisation the next days I wrote and transmitted articles to a variety of ten publications which I felt contained a fertile field of brain power which would be in a far better position to exploit my offering. Time was of the essence and my feeling was to take the chance that had been offered. Instinctively it was apparent that to labour at an effort to project every last detail that may have ensued from a book would be to waste a heaven sent opportunity that hardly came in a dozen life times.
So the articles went off sent with a passion and expectancy I had every right to expect the World would immediately sit up and take notice. Naturally enough the World did no such thing. Even the article I felt was the king pin and key to the whole terrific adventure, landed back on my doormat some time later. The impact of the vision: the effort to record and distribute my interpretation of the possibilities it presented. The cold silence of rejection, all combined to place me inside a psychiatric hospital, toward the end of January 1973.
Fortunately the medical staff appeared to be quite used to the traumas, tantrums and odd pronouncements uttered by those in their care. My case they took in their stride, so when rather to my amazement I managed to get back into work within the recognised period of two months, though heavily drugged, and cursing every second feeling more moronic than man I struggled through a hazy year and more putting one foot in front of the other with careful precision.
Monday 14 November 2011
Cultureshock: Distillation.
I recorded the following distillation in a word format to enable me to, I hoped, unravel the meaning at some time in the future, in late December 1972, the precise day I took as the 16, some small doubt remains in my mind concerning this date, however I feel it is as good as any as a yard stick.
This word formula represents the total distillate and essence of what I felt summed up the traumatic and mind changing experience I had undergone. How long this lasted in time I have no way of being in any degree certain. Nevertheless I do have the memory sensation of having my life time experience and knowledge condensed rapidly and violently into a miniscule point in time and space, then just as rapidly and violently reverted back to normal. Later I was to have the feeling that for a short period, which now might be recorded as a nano-second I was, or at least my consciousness was dead.
This is what I wrote and was published in: The Essex Bowman, magazine, in 1974.
To those who are interested in the Laws of Logic and may see the point of solving this riddle.
What goes round but must go straight to remain stable: with knowledge the key?
Initially jokers will be discarded to save time.
A few weeks later in a moment of hysterical depression on, 27 January 1973 I added the rider:
If this isn't the answer to everything I'll be damned to all eternity.
* * * * * * *
This word formula represents the total distillate and essence of what I felt summed up the traumatic and mind changing experience I had undergone. How long this lasted in time I have no way of being in any degree certain. Nevertheless I do have the memory sensation of having my life time experience and knowledge condensed rapidly and violently into a miniscule point in time and space, then just as rapidly and violently reverted back to normal. Later I was to have the feeling that for a short period, which now might be recorded as a nano-second I was, or at least my consciousness was dead.
This is what I wrote and was published in: The Essex Bowman, magazine, in 1974.
To those who are interested in the Laws of Logic and may see the point of solving this riddle.
What goes round but must go straight to remain stable: with knowledge the key?
Initially jokers will be discarded to save time.
A few weeks later in a moment of hysterical depression on, 27 January 1973 I added the rider:
If this isn't the answer to everything I'll be damned to all eternity.
* * * * * * *
Sunday 13 November 2011
Cultureshock: Assessment.
It occurs to me now that with all vibrant design dynamic there are so many threads competing with each other to be shown, considered , and allocated their own sphere of influence, space and time become of absolute importance and consideration. In casting my net as wide as political considerations and the safety and security of the realm will allow it is essential to use as broad a brush as possible to give hope and information where the intelligent and the more mature older view can fill in more of the missing detail that I am not privy to in any case.
My approach is to once again layout, as I have already attempted in my second unpublished novel, 'Change of Emphasis,' a sketchy scenario along the lines of possible impact, damage limitation and subsequent social engineering, using the latest in the science of behavioural technology. My own ideas still follow much the same line as they did when I wrote the novel in 1984/5. At the time I felt speed and dissemination of the experience and knowledge I felt I had indelibly gained was of the essence and to ensure as large a spread of this information as possible had to be spread over as wide a field that I was capable of accomplishing. Initially I felt in this I had failed, but slowly with my gradual return to health, which was not complete even after three years, I slowly became aware that perhaps a degree of paranoia I had developed due to the impact and gravity of the responsibility, I felt had been thrust upon me, was leavened by numerous subtle supports I felt I had begun to receive.
My one and only major confidant expressed the opinion that new theories would take at least a generation to have any real affect on the population at large and projected a view of unlikely success with my efforts. My mind reeled back and forth with hope and depression. I first shrugged aside his prognosis and then agreed with such a practical and empirical view. The mountain of disbelief, minds set in stone, minds fearing the new and untried that threatened their own fortunes and practises. Then in 1988, I finally managed to solve the conundrum, I had set out late in 1972, to save mind exploding experience disappearing forever.
My approach is to once again layout, as I have already attempted in my second unpublished novel, 'Change of Emphasis,' a sketchy scenario along the lines of possible impact, damage limitation and subsequent social engineering, using the latest in the science of behavioural technology. My own ideas still follow much the same line as they did when I wrote the novel in 1984/5. At the time I felt speed and dissemination of the experience and knowledge I felt I had indelibly gained was of the essence and to ensure as large a spread of this information as possible had to be spread over as wide a field that I was capable of accomplishing. Initially I felt in this I had failed, but slowly with my gradual return to health, which was not complete even after three years, I slowly became aware that perhaps a degree of paranoia I had developed due to the impact and gravity of the responsibility, I felt had been thrust upon me, was leavened by numerous subtle supports I felt I had begun to receive.
My one and only major confidant expressed the opinion that new theories would take at least a generation to have any real affect on the population at large and projected a view of unlikely success with my efforts. My mind reeled back and forth with hope and depression. I first shrugged aside his prognosis and then agreed with such a practical and empirical view. The mountain of disbelief, minds set in stone, minds fearing the new and untried that threatened their own fortunes and practises. Then in 1988, I finally managed to solve the conundrum, I had set out late in 1972, to save mind exploding experience disappearing forever.
Friday 11 November 2011
The Impact: Cultureshock.
In order to even attempt to understand what is happening now nearly four decades later, and what I sincerely hope will burgeon into the sunny uplands, often read about in the more high flown rhetoric of the politician. Wishing to give the hapless voter the feeling there is still room left on the gravy train for their dreams, if only they will allow a little leeway to the ambitious programme set out by the party.
Unfortunately to enable even a sketchy understanding of events we are contending with now does require at least a skate over what had led to the breakthrough in the early seventies. Naturally I use the word breakthrough really as a convenience as the ideas set out in the thesis article I wrote at the time: Going Through the Time Barrier, was really a representation of many previously presented ideas over the passage of centuries. They had been given added urgency and a little more sophistication by the addition of the wonder child of the mathematician, technologist and designer: the electronic computer.It began to seem to some the armoury of the philosopher, scientist, and engineer, was complete.
To put together a seemingly naive tract such as that projected by the presentation of the article needed a mentor to add more weight to my unqualified ravings. Who better than the next door neighbour, well qualified in the areas designated to support my case. Many times since the crucial events took place I have considered the apparent coincidence of excellent good fortune which placed him where he lived. Perhaps all endeavour to an extent is a miss mash, of intent, dreams, coincidence, good fortune, luck and fluke. Laced of course with application, the whole has to be married to positive striving for a wholly sustainable successful outcome. The historians among us will possibly be at issue with that premise but I believe it is so. If not it becomes a blind alley. The famous red herring of the who-dun-it, those who ache to turn every breakthrough of knowledge and invention into a double-edged sword of controversy and turn the event into the tragedy of a still birth.
Unfortunately to enable even a sketchy understanding of events we are contending with now does require at least a skate over what had led to the breakthrough in the early seventies. Naturally I use the word breakthrough really as a convenience as the ideas set out in the thesis article I wrote at the time: Going Through the Time Barrier, was really a representation of many previously presented ideas over the passage of centuries. They had been given added urgency and a little more sophistication by the addition of the wonder child of the mathematician, technologist and designer: the electronic computer.It began to seem to some the armoury of the philosopher, scientist, and engineer, was complete.
To put together a seemingly naive tract such as that projected by the presentation of the article needed a mentor to add more weight to my unqualified ravings. Who better than the next door neighbour, well qualified in the areas designated to support my case. Many times since the crucial events took place I have considered the apparent coincidence of excellent good fortune which placed him where he lived. Perhaps all endeavour to an extent is a miss mash, of intent, dreams, coincidence, good fortune, luck and fluke. Laced of course with application, the whole has to be married to positive striving for a wholly sustainable successful outcome. The historians among us will possibly be at issue with that premise but I believe it is so. If not it becomes a blind alley. The famous red herring of the who-dun-it, those who ache to turn every breakthrough of knowledge and invention into a double-edged sword of controversy and turn the event into the tragedy of a still birth.
Saturday 5 November 2011
With the best of Intentions.
With the best of Intentions.
With the next blogg of Cultureshock I feel I now have the confidence to put forward what from my extremely limited viewpoint maybe a possible scenario triggered by the writings referred to in 1972. The impact. The analysis and the plan to test, then exploit their potential.
This re-write and general expansion of what is in fact, the fourth entry in my blog is, to show that my confidence and resolution on matters I feel are to some large extent down to my own is an efforts and therefore my responsibility. Whether subsequent historical records and assessment will in fact allow a little more latitude as to the degree of that responsibility, will be in other hands. Time and the unravelling of events is very rarely an exact science as there are often too many threads to be plotted and plated and thereby unravelled before any semblance of sequence or chronology can be accurately arrived at with analysis. In my unique position, in the eye of the storm, as it might be said, I feel a certain duty to put forward my personal perspective and hope it will help matters.
Review of Cultureshock Blogg.
Review of Cultureshock Blogg.
Hard to believe it is now over two months since I last considered adding to this blogg which is not totally true as I had considered doing so many times but could not settle on a theme or approach. In fact it remains the case that a theme of intensity to explore still eludes me. I do remain convinced that my original thesis concerning 'Going through the Time Barrier,' remains valid and with the existence and exploitation of so many varieties and types of devices and gadgets assisting the dissemination of information and knowledge on a vast and ever expanding scale.
When the idea first hit me and I felt within certain parameters this could possibly be the answer to so many questions that had eluded the best brains for centuries. Initially the impact was such that feeling overwhelmed by the responsibility I felt had been thrust upon me I walked everywhere with an exaggerated care for myself. This was justified by the essential need to carry through the idea. Naturally this almost robotic extreme of existence was totally impossible to retain over anything but the shortest period and within a short few days, a week or so such stilted habits of self preservation where gradually rejected for a normal life style and habits.
As the initial phase of intense elation gave way to deep depression and the days gave way to weeks and soon the months registered the passage of a full year and nothing appeared to have changed I came to accept if anything was to change it would be in the long term and the long view was an essential aspect to be cultivated. As my psyche became more stable from the volcanic eruption of late 1972, then 1973 and 74 passed away with the necessity of maintaining a measured family man's life style and responsibilities, I merely felt others had to be working on the effort made to project my 'breakthrough,' as I felt it was and had to be.
The alternatives were; an aberration, temporary insanity, or with serious analysis a viable and serious solution to many of the world's difficulties. As time and events moved away from the creative and crucial point of upheaval and slowly I came to feel I would achieve nothing by attempting to gain any credit, advancement or status from what was given away freely from the initial culture shock. This had shattered my total mental fabric and structure back in December 1972. Despite many attempts to do so I could not fault the premise that had been put forward. Slowly as the years began to pass many other possibilities appeared to present themselves. It also became evident that there were many supporters attempting, in many discreet and subtle ways to indicate their support. I came to think of these as my straws in the wind.
Monday 29 August 2011
The Initial Post.
The Initial Post.
Most of my life I have managed to involve myself in the keeping of a log or diary, journal, whatever the name and the current one, blog, is taken from two words so it really is nothing new. Most critics of these personal and usually private commentaries on events in their immediate lives have no realistic prospect of being published and probably would not wish to be so. In many instances this would be out of concern within their immediate family circle with no desire to advertise their own minor squabbles and disagreements to a wider public.
If one has the conceit to feel that the efforts you are making and have made over a working life which has made, to all appearances no disernable impact on family, friends and working collegues,but still feel reluctant to conceed defeat. Perhaps like the character Forest Trump you merely have an odd coincidental connection with pivitol moments of history. Then again perhaps that is all you might wish for, the comforting knowledge, if that is what you seek, to know that you were there when this or that event took place and in the scheme of things, a satisfaction, even though your presence was an apparent complete irrelevance to those events?
In my case the whole approach and essence of this blog is to try and give some idea of what I attempted to put into the main stream of cultural life. If this effort had any impact with what those people who were given access to this knowledge made use of it, and what impact I it feel may have been to the general advantage or otherwise of the general population. I concede at the outset an almost impossibly difficult assessment to make, especially with any degree of accuracy as there are far too many variables. Nevertheless the effort maybe a more constructive exercise than the premise suggests.
Most of my life I have managed to involve myself in the keeping of a log or diary, journal, whatever the name and the current one, blog, is taken from two words so it really is nothing new. Most critics of these personal and usually private commentaries on events in their immediate lives have no realistic prospect of being published and probably would not wish to be so. In many instances this would be out of concern within their immediate family circle with no desire to advertise their own minor squabbles and disagreements to a wider public.
If one has the conceit to feel that the efforts you are making and have made over a working life which has made, to all appearances no disernable impact on family, friends and working collegues,but still feel reluctant to conceed defeat. Perhaps like the character Forest Trump you merely have an odd coincidental connection with pivitol moments of history. Then again perhaps that is all you might wish for, the comforting knowledge, if that is what you seek, to know that you were there when this or that event took place and in the scheme of things, a satisfaction, even though your presence was an apparent complete irrelevance to those events?
In my case the whole approach and essence of this blog is to try and give some idea of what I attempted to put into the main stream of cultural life. If this effort had any impact with what those people who were given access to this knowledge made use of it, and what impact I it feel may have been to the general advantage or otherwise of the general population. I concede at the outset an almost impossibly difficult assessment to make, especially with any degree of accuracy as there are far too many variables. Nevertheless the effort maybe a more constructive exercise than the premise suggests.
Saturday 20 August 2011
Cultureshock-aka- Change of Emphasis.
Cultureshock - aka - Change of Emphasis.
A very brief introduction to start this blog of mine today 20 August 2011. My choice of name for the blog derives to a degree from the book 'Future Shock,' by Alvin Toffler written before the turn of the century and forecasting to some degree the momentous social and cultural changes to hit the world in the twenty-first century. One of many interesting things he underlined was how so many of the things that came to pass in the early years of the new twentieth century had their genesis some considerable time before the turn of the century. These births, beginnings and stirrings of an intellectual fermentation in many ways seemed to concentrate toward the end of the nineteenth century, then explode with a massive vigour concentrated on the states of Europe, and the Balkans.
Naturally it depends just how on top of events the individual is as to how far they are able to predict the future and although this book and others he has written have enjoyed success within his realm of expertise few if any could have foreseen such dramatic upheavels that have been visited upon the planet in the past first decade of this new century. Perhaps the writer that stands out on the matter of prediction of the future, in the nineteenth and early twentieth century, was H. G. Wells, a medical doctor before making himself well known predicting future events, often with remarkable accuracy.
Younger people, certainly those below the age of twenty or so, will in the main accept the upheaval and collapse of many of the previously held social mores of the past several decades with few misgivings. It is however to the older more stable and considered generation that the rapid changes that have taken place in the past two or three decades, give cause to wonder, worry and fret. As the political leaders of the countries of Europe get younger and younger, and the balance of the decision making gravitas becomes more vital but fragile, in volatile climates in various regions of the world.
This blog is an attempt to offer a logical and reasoned alternative to the pedestrian explanations that are rife in the media, which to a considerable degree hold a substantial understanding to my own views of the trends and happenings of the past half century, or more. Nevertheless it cannot be completely overlooked that my own impact on events on two occasions, by severe mental upheavals, the first in 1955, which later resulted in my medical discharge from the Royal Navy, after four years service, then again in late 1972. It maybe that my reasoning is at fault but as the weeks and months pass it seems I have more confidence that my offerings may have a considerable bearing on the matters in hand and influence for the future. T: 18 : 27:
May 11 : 2012.
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