Views

These views are mostly not normally expressible in these days of cancel culture, which seems to have taken hold of normal polite society, not just public figures.

I now try (it's difficult) not to express them - to anybody - it is considered boring and counter to the generally accepted "narrative".

But here, you can just ignore them, see if I care.

Habits

Some good things, such as thinking something thoroughly through before saying it or writing it down, or waiting till you have swallowed a mouthful before putting something else in (another crisp, perhaps), are surely habits (which I, unfortunately, do not have).

Precautionary principle

Remember that? It was all the rage on the 80s. Don’t prove it is unsafe, you must prove that it is safe. Before putting a spade in the earth, you should prove that there is not a worm underneath which may be sentient, and you should prove that there is not a mine buried underneath. Some of the principles have been (rightly) adopted, but the crazy stuff has thankfully disappeared.

Party-gate

Has lockdown been advisory rather than legal, as most people (and other countries) thought, then Party-gate would not have bothered anyone. We all bent the rules a little bit, and some quite a lot. When the police started to fine people, most thought it daft.

Favourite rhyme

From "Peoria", a shipwreck song by Clancy Hayes

"Why did I ever roam with those sailor boys?

I should have stayed back home, in Illinois!"

Ukraine

Trump was far too unpredictable for Putin to have dared to invade Ukraine while he was US president.

Climate change

Unintended consequences: Farm prices in Wales are rising steeply and farmers are selling land to London businesses who plant tree forests to offset their carbon footprint.

Virtual Reality

I find virtual reality slightly embarrassing, particularly when Mark Zuckerberg does it, like digital cos-play. All methods of graphic representation have been led by pornography, so one shudders to imagine where it will lead.

Climate change 1

The IPCC has determined an effort to keep, by 2050, the increase in climate temperature to within 1.5 degrees from pre-industrial levels.

There has already been an increase of 1.2 degrees since pre industrial levels.

So the IPCC wants to limit the increase from now to 2050 to 0.3 degrees. Really? Really?

Climate change 2

Climate change has become an industry, with over a million (or 10?) earning their living at it.

Covid

Nobody seems to know how it is transmitted. Do you remember that they recommended that you wash your hands whilst singing happy birthday to yourself? Then masks were on, then they were off, then on again in Wales, and so on. And contact tracing. But, if a number were in close contact with someone who had the bug, then maybe all, or some, or one, or none would catch it. And we were told to be guided by the science. But in fact nobody had much of a clue, particularly not the 'science'.

Wokeism

There is a cultural revolution starting in USA, wokeism, where people are determined to negate and counter history so far. Well, you ain’t seen nothin' yet! Every so often, with no apparent reason, civilisations do this, to an astounding extent. Ref China’s Cultural Revolution in the 1960’s, European religion in the 1500’s, Islam, and countless others throughout history. You think What? Where did that come from? Blooming heck! But then it all calms down again after a while. People are astoundingly stupid sometimes. And when they are being so, they look with disdain on previous occurrences.

Amazon & Ebay

Most people, especially those with a cervix, like to physically shop. I was in a market the other day and I took enormous pleasure in looking and buying some things, something I haven't done for years, not since going to the Chinos in BA. That is how I justify my online shopping, and a very great thing it is. And, 99% of what I buy goes just round the chair where I sit. So there.

Corruption

Large-scale corruption is almost universal in 2nd or 3rd world countries. But people ignore it in 1st world countries like Britain. But that's only because we are better-educated, and have made the corruption institutionalised. Take 'quantitative easing', which transfers billions and trillions from the poor to the rich. Or local councillors who become rich.

Jan 6

It was well known and anticipated that a large crowd of angry republicans would be marching towards the capitol on Jan 6. The generally extremely competent capitol security authorities, and particularly Nancy Pelosi, would be expected to be specify an exceedingly cautious, and probably over the top, security operation to protect themselves against an expectedly large crowd of deplorable Trumpers. They did not, and in fact ordered that the security should be reduced to a low level. This was not bad luck, it was either amazingly incompetent (unlikely), or deliberate. The big winners from the events were the Democrats, and certainly not the Republicans. It was not the brave resistance of the outnumbered security guards against armed insurrectionists and revolutionaries which saved the US from the biggest threat to democracy in 150 years (the civil war? the murder of Lincoln? the first world war? the big depression? Pearl Harbour? the second world war? Korea) Viet Nam? etc.). The demonstrators were not armed (odd for a crowd of pro-gun insurrectionists supposedly trying to take over the government), and in fact just one shot was fired, by a security guard killing a female demonstrator. Just 4 other people died, reportedly of heart attacks (it was a large crowd). Videos of the insurrectionists inside the capitol showed them walking about taking selfies, and keeping to the corded walkways,

Binary

In medieval times, mostly concerned with religion, some things were completely right or wrong - a matter of opinion transformed by various societies into certainties. What has happened, probably influenced by the binary design of digital computers, is that more and more things have come to be perceived as binary, either on or off, right or wrong, black or white, like or hate, box ticked or unticked, People’s Front of Judea or Judea People’s Front.

"Did you like it, yes or no?"

"Well, I like it a bit more than I did yesterday, but I wasn’t to keen about that bit on the bottom, but I loved that bit at the top."

"Then, you, like, hated it'"

As before, this was started by the lower orders, and then adopted by the intelligentsia when they saw it as another way of exerting their powe

Voting

I do not vote, and have not done so since my 20s.

In general, I think that a binary view, in life, is overall a bad thing,

I like some Labour ideas a bit, and some I don't like a bit. Same with Conservative, Lib-Dem, etc, and my views change by the hour.

Sexual attraction

I find that I am mostly attracted to slim women, with small breasts, usually within a few years of my age. I am not much attracted to young women, women with large breasts, women of another race.

I am not at all attracted to overweight women, girls under 18, men, children, animals, etc. I like the idea of "normal" sex, and mild perversions, but not multi-participant or violent sex.

Racism

Again, racism is viewed as a binary thing, either you are racist or not.

I like some people, and some not. it depends on how they are behaving. I don't think I actually hate (ie 100%) anybody.

Certainly I chose, in some situations, to be amongst people with a similar view of life, and usually with a similar social standing. Everybody is like that, has been like that for ever, and animals are like that too. Everyone is racist, and all animals too.

Gender & Gay

They are much more relaxed about this sort of thing in Argentina. People are accepted as being varied, and are left to get on with it. Two men, or two women, dancing together in San Telmo square raise no undue interest, unless they are dancing well in which case they would be admired, in exactly the same way as a straight couple would.

Here, I suspect that it is all to do with sex, and the feeling that they are attempting to make sexual interaction too easy for their own groups. As far as I'm concerned, let everybody do as they like, but don't involve children, don't frighten the horses, and accept the fact that we are not really interested

Disabilities 1

In Buenos Aires we once went to a bar where they had a regular milonga, ie 2 or 3 or 6 or 8 musicians playing tango music and people dancing. Then that night there was a special show, 4 couples of young people with Downs syndrome dancing, and dancing well. They were all enjoying it hugely, as were the customers. Good for them, they were using their talents to make a living. Can you imagine such a performance being contemplated in the UK?

Disabilities 2

In general I find the facilities for disabled people (pavements, ramps, toilets, etc.) are excellent, and I am sort of surprised that societies are willing to spend so much resources on them.

One thing I will say about Argentina (sorry about that) is that people are very willing to be helpful and friendly about it, whereas in UK people tend to avoid any personal interaction with disabled people.

Energy

Wind and solar energy total about 20% of the UK's required power. It is only economical to build them because the price they are paid is higher than the cost of gas-fired electricity . They are not pretty, their numbers are increasing dramatically, and they will be a nightmare to take down in 40 year's time (standard lifespan for engineered equipment). And even if their capacity is increased to 100% (as some greenies want), then when the sun don't shine and the wind don't blow, we will need another 100% of energy capacity produced by (oh, the horror) fossil and nuclear fuel.

Electric cars

Can you imagine the amount of lithium ion (or whatever) batteries for 20 million cars in Britain alone? And by 2030 range will not have been increased by that much (the science tells you that much) so long journeys will very difficult, and electric vans and lorries will only be able to run less than half the time. And think of the power required! Better plan to build a few more wind turbines!

Thomas Babington Macaulay

1850 We know no spectacle so ridiculous as the British public in one of its periodical fits of morality.

G K Chesterton

Those who stop believing in God do not believe in nothing, they believe in anything.