Reality? #2 Our focus determines our reality....

Hi world,

By now you'll likely have read my breakdown of the "reality concept" from Nigel Warburton's book "Philosophy, the basics"

If not have a peak here... 

So, given I'd been thinking about that stuff a while, a conversation I've had recently popped back into my head, or specifically comment from it. 

"...Ok, so you're a trans woman, but in your previous life you acted like a man and you're (still) interested in bloke stuff..." 

It's a fair point. I like motors, a tuned V8 will make me weaker at the knees than most things in life, (and if its an RB series straight six.. I'm putty in ya hands.. ) I like geeky gamer shit, guitars, loud music, riding bikes, fixing bikes, and messing around with spanners and fire pits. 

But under it all was this issue of gender dysphoria. I'm not a particularly "camp" individual...(although I was once accused of being so, but that's a story for a another day) So where does it all the "bloke shit" fit in? and more to the point where does it all manifest from? 

Cause, effect? 

Well. Growing up I really didn't have much of a handle on gender stuff, however I was a curious kid blessed with some intellect of sorts. "Dad how does that work"  "Mum what does this do?"  "but Miss what does that mean?" were comments often heard from me...I'm sure I drove people nuts. I read lots, lapped up the stories of CS lewis, Timothy Zahn, and more factual historical books on things like the falklands war etc with equal abandon. 

I just got on with the business of being me, and of having an interest in the world around me. The old man was a truck mechanic, so it follows i might pick that up, yet mum's a gardening type and I can't grow anything... 

Perhaps societal expectations and assumptions might play a little here... "Son spends time with Dad in garage" is a well known and well worn outcome of a father son relationship after all. But I wasn't pushed into it. And I remember - indeed I'm often reminded by - my daughter of when she did the same.."daddy what does that bit do?" whilst pointing at the fan in the sports car's engine bay...

For a teenaged girl she probably knows more than the average kid about what happens under the bonnet of a motor... why? because she was curious.. and her Daddy made it cool..and took time to teach her  stuff, just like mine did. Mum often says to me: If I'm interested in a subject it gets 110%...if not.. 0% So it's extremely unlikely that young me was coerced into something as part of any gender profiling kinda deal.

There's evidence out there from the like of Simone de Beauvior about the performative elements of  human gender, which may be at issue here. Yet performative implies perception on the part of the  viewer, thus in the act of "doing" a meaning is ascribed to the doing of an action by the viewer not just the performer. 

Consider that if a natal female had similar or identical interests to me, then they would not be viewed as "a man". More likely they would be viewed as a woman with atypical interests when one looks at  the stereotypical models of gender behaviours. Similarly a natal male into "Girly stuff" 

So the interests and activities argument alone doesn't stack up to disprove, or indeed prove, a trans gender identity, but in this case that wasn't the intention of the original comment. It came from (or at least i think it did) a place of wanting to understand the process of forming identity....

How do we humans form our identities? 

It's been said that "you", your personality and learned behaviours etc are the sum total of the five most influential people in your life. Usually those you spend the most time with. 

Because I was perceived as a boy, I spent most of my time with boys, and my family, who again perceived me as a boy. Girls wouldn't look the side I was on cos boys were yucky, and geeky awkward boys with glasses and zero charisma were just icky... so .. yup .. pretty much a girl free environment. 

There were certain lessons that I learnt from the authority figures in my life at that point that I now no longer believe are true. Yet back then, because they came from a place of perceived authority I took those lessons on board.. believing that they must be right simply because of my faith in where they had come from. 

As we grow, our social circle and sphere of influence increases and we learn stuff, some of which is contradictory to prior information, from other sources. We form our own opinions & beliefs and as a result we become independent, thinking, adult humans beings....yeah scary shit huh? 

Yeah yeah I hear  ya say...but opinion doesn't equal identity...so what is it? 

Well ok, opinion isn't identity, but it sure is part of it. How we think, how we perceive the world and our place in it is a huge deal as far as our self awareness and sense of self goes. Knowledge is the  key to unlocking those mental doors that in some people remain resolutely closed for life. Curiosity is the means by which we turn that key and open ourselves up to a world of unknown behind the door. Fear on the other hand is the one thing that can stay our hand at the point of turning... 

For me, knowledge and context of the jigsaw puzzle pieces that just didn't quite "fit" came during the  first year of nurse training. 

Once I'd lost the fear, or perhaps over came it, or maybe my curiosity was greater than the fear, I'm not sure even to this day, which one occured but once that happened I turned the key. What ultimately came through that door was ironically enough more "knowledge". Knowledge of the possibility and plausibility of something that I had both discounted and left unexamined for decades, based on an erroneous assumption that it wasn't possible. Why not? because of everything that is in the first 7 or so paragraphs of this piece. 

The line in the title of this piece comes from Star Wars: The phantom menace. Qui Gone Jin says to a  young Anakin Skywalker: 

Always remember: your focus determines your reality... 

Now, ok it precedes what many think is the worst line in the franchise, but it speaks of an essential truth. How many times have athletes use creative visualisation? Belief in the possible and a concerted  and defined effort to strive toward that goal. 

Once I knew where I was, and what I had. (gender dysphoria) I had to decide what to do about that knowledge. Where to place my focus and thus my reality. 

As a result my focus moved - in time - from being about outward things, acquisitions and the distractions of life to keep me entertained and busy. I'd spent so many years just putting on film after  film in that cinema of perception that I spoke of in my last blog, that I never noticed the seats, the lights, the screen or the "inside of my head" as it were. 

My focus shifted, for once, onto me. For the  first time i started to pay serious attention to my internal world. And whilst my interests and collection of films on that cinema screen didn't change, and probably won't... I'll be less restricted in the adding of new ones, since I've now changed the reel from 8mm Cinefilm, to an 8k Imax, and can see a damn sight more of "the world" as a result. 

Right I reckon that's enough deep and meaningful stuff for one day... time to put a film on... But which one.... hmmm 

It's all part of the plan... unless you step off the script... 

Till next time.. keep smiling, do what you do and just let life take care of the rest... 

Sarah 

xx

The basics of ... Reality and perception.

Hi.

It's been a while since I managed to get my nose back into Nigel Warburtons book, all about The basics of philosophy. 

I had a spare quiet sunny afternoon (or at least I think I did ) so I made a cuppa, and sat down to go through the next chapter, one I have been looking forward to for some time.

Appearance, Reality and Perception. 

How do we know something is real? How do we know it is not? How do we know what reality IS?
How do we know things? How do we know we know?

I know it's Saturday afternoon, and I'm sat at my desk and typing this article. I also know that if I move my chair will squeak.

I know it's Saturday because I checked the calendar. I know I'm sat here because my brain tells me through all my senses that I'm doing so, and I know that my chair will squeak because  I've experienced it doing so and remember that fact.

Or do I? what I actually have in all three cases are perceptions. How many times have you thought it was Saturday only to realise it wasn't.. and you've looked at the information wrongly? My brain could well be dreaming that I'm sat here.. and thus my perceptions of my activity is skewed. Plus, we all "know" memory isn't infallible...

So is "reality" simply a set of electrical signals, current or historical, interpreted by the brain?

Philosophers frame these arguments under a number of headings.

Common sense realism

In essence the simplest and most often seen "lay persons" interpretation of  perception. Things exist and we see them as they are, as a result of their existence. An objects existence does not depend on its being observed, thus if a tree falls in the woods and no one observes it fall, then the tree both exists and falls.

Representative realism

This is an extension of the common sense position whereby it takes into account the idea that what we "see" is merely a representation of the object, not the object itself. For example a stick in water that appears bent but isn't, or a hot road appearing to shimmer when in fact it isn't moving. This also takes into account differences in the viewers. For example if two people observe a dress, one person may see a blue dress, but the other being colour blind, may not. Thus "blue" isn't a mechanism or quality of the dress, but rather of the mechanism of its perception.

Idealism

This is again an extension of relative realism. Since all we "know" is based on internal representation of the outside world, one cannot prove the existence of the outside world since all proof would be via  the means of our own sense, and thus merely representative. This theory also leads to the idea that physical things only exist when being perceived. So our tree would not only fail to fall if no one were to see it, but would also fail to exist.

Phenomenalism 

John Stuart Mill was a phenomenalist. This is again an extension of the idealism theory, yet it argues that unobserved objects can exist since it is "possible" to observe them. Although it accounts for  the existance of unobserved objects in this way it still postulates that all experiences of our external world is indirect, via internal representations.

Causal realism

This would be one that the scientific amongst you would probably like the most since it takes the view that the purpose of perception is to navigate our external world therefore our external world must exist. (A philosophical argument for "evolution" or the "design argument" perhaps?) Our external environment has certain qualities that over time we as beings have become attuned to recognising and navigating through and around. It does reduce all perception to merely information gathering, but it remains at time of writing the most satisfactory account of perception. It differs from the common sense argument above in that it allows for those errors or shifts in perception and doesn't assume that what is being perceived is actually always "truth" in the same way.

Head hurting yet? or do you just think it is? 

So, what we really have here is a chicken and egg scenario. Every one of us can only perceive our external environment through our senses. They are the means by which we determine the world around us, and we can never view the world but through them. (Think of it as akin to being locked in a cinema, with the screen and speakers the only window the outside world)

Do we know what we don't know yet? 

Hundreds of years ago, due to lack of astrological knowledge, people would perhaps take things at "face value" The moon for instance, getting bigger through the seasons or when near the horizon, would probably be believed to actually "be" bigger, since there was no knowledge base to refute that argument and people could see that it certainly "looked bigger"

Here we have the paradox. It is only through what we "know" that we can question the "unknown". We now "know" about the moon, its orbit and the reasons why it appears larger or smaller. We "know" it doesn't actually change its physical size. But that knowledge has been acquired through the use of human senses and thus is open to interpretation. With that comes the realisation that those interpretations may be inaccurate.

If you've ever seen the film inception, you'll get the idea of a dream within a dream, or perhaps the matrix where humans are all living in a VR world of computer generation. Those might be extreme version of the hypothesis that everything we perceive might not actually be as it is. But they are perfect illustrations of that concept.

Of course if you'll indulge me in a little conjecture here in stretching things beyond the bounds of pure theory,  if one brings in another human quality - "emotion"- things can change once more. Why? well much like the colour blind example above it has more to do with the observer than the observed. How we perceive things is one question, how we interpret that perception is another, but they are of course linked

It's why certain songs will raise a smile or a tear, and certain words mean many many different things to different people. 

The songs don't change, but our perceptions of them and the meaning ascribed to them does. So, since everything we observe changes us, does that mean we can never observe the same thing twice in exactly the same way? Since we are never the same having observed it the first time?

Yeah, sure you're welcome, that conundrumn might keep ya awake at night.. assuming you're actually not already asleep that is..

But the point of that segway into emotion is to highlight that were there only a screen and the outside world "not real", then one would be heading toward solipsism, or a view that only one's own mind exists and is real. In which case why do we have emotion? Emotion exists to enable us to interact with others, ergo it's an evolutionary mechanism the existence of which proves the existence of others.

Any how verbose verbiage and vexatious vagaries of language aside, that's it in a nutshell. Reality is something we only ever perceive and thus we cannot be sure it is reality at all since the scientific method would be to observe it via two independent routes, which of course we cannot do.

What we can do however is to observe two or three variation of phenomena to prove or disprove theories around reality and our world at large.

But that I'll leave for the next chapter in Nigel's book, which happily enough is all about Science...

Sweet dreams!

Sarah

Back in the training Zone...

Hey,

Those that follow my other bloggings will know I'm into bike riding, a bit of running and am what people might call a lapsed fitness nut with middle aged spread.

For a variety of reasons I didn't train from Sept last year through till the beginnings of last week, save from a brief running spell at the start of this year.

This period of idleness resulted in significant weight gain, but also coincided with some developments regarding my medical transition...

So here's a subjective view from the inside of my head of what its like to train "with" and "with out" testosterone...

Training, tenacity and Other T's 

Ok, so throughout my first 40 odd years wherever I got into the physical training habit my biochemistry was that of the "typical" male. Testosterone as I'm sure you're all aware does a number of things, and is responsible for both bone density, & muscle mass, as well as the reproductive stuff.

Roughly 12 weeks ago I started on a inhibitor that essentially prevents my body from producing testosterone and recent blood tests indicate that my circulating T levels are equivalent to that of a natal female. (i.e. not a lot and considerably less than a male) This is in conjunction with a graduated introduction of Oestrogen, which has been on going almost a year, since to leave the body with neither of these hormones would be a "bad" thing..

Oddly, I've always experienced ups and downs in my motivation to train, simply because I like to be  fit and healthy but in the past I've always reached a point where my body image and physicality didn't match up..Dysphoria wreaking havoc with the results of the training and motivation dropping to zero. Thus throughout my life training has always been an episodic activity.

This means I know what its like to train having "gained weight", and been "fitter" in the past, I know how my body "usually" responds, fatigue levels etc

So what of now?

Well first off the main thing I'm noticing is a distinctly higher level of exertion for lower output. Notable changes being "light headedness" on resting at a level of work that previously wouldn't elicit this response. Perhaps this is a result of a reduction in testosterone and therefore its influence on the mechanisms of red blood cell production, and thus my bodies ability to carry oxygen to my tissues.

Of course we can't be sure without scientific testing, and this is purely subjective, but it's interesting none the less.

Out right power on the bike isn't really different yet.. that won't be noticeable until I retain my former levels of form and fitness. A peak power average for me was 220Watts, which aint exactly pro TdF level's but I'm currently sitting in 160 ranges which is on par with previous efforts at this fitness level.

Recovery: This is an odd one. I'm doing quite alot quite quickly. From being very sedentary to running every other day and one bike ride a week. I'm definitely tired, but "more" tired? Hard to say.

However here's where "motivation" raises its head. For the first time in my life the changes I'm seeing in the mirror and the "effects" of the training are not playing against my motivation but rather adding to it.

I'm no longer fighting ageing, or my own biochemistry.. and it's kinda cool. It means that I can just get on with the business of being healthy, and enjoy the runs without worrying about the times...which btw I used to do religiously.. (old army habit) or feeling that i'm not fast enough, or doing sufficient to stay slim enough blah blah blah.

Obviously this is all subjective and pretty much an initial thoughts kinda deal.. I've no definitives here, just idea's, musing and wonderings. Body positivity is a whole subject in and of itself. When I started riding bikes and running in my teen's & 20's it wasn't for anything other than "because it was fun" and because I liked the endorphin buzz. I ran because I liked it. I cycled because I liked it.

Then of course some stupid bugger decided it was a good idea to join HM forces and "fitness" became "work" with all those connotations.

It does go to show however that dysphoria and the resultant complications of living with it, can have  far reaching consequences into other areas of life that one might otherwise not expect.

As that "baggage" diminishes I am beginning to feel free-er than I ever have in years, un encumbered by the weight of this "disruptive mismatch"

Now, I i'm just "doing" stuff..

And that surely, can only be good thing.

Sarah

Disappointment, Loss and when Protections become Prisons.

Hi,

It's been an interesting few days. The usuals ups and downs of life, plus some unusual ones.

A friend came around the other day who works in law enforcement and they, like myself have an interest in some of the ethical conundrums of life, and how we go about defining the legalities of it.
We had great catch up and natter about all sorts of stuff and have arranged to get some bike time in soon.. we have a shared history job wise and its nice sometimes to just take in that camaraderie.

Thankfully after an extended winter hibernation I've managed to pull my head out my arse and do some physical training. which is partly the result of something I alluded to in my last blog entry.

Belief.

My friend reminded me that many people have a belief in me, although sometimes I have a hard time seeing it and sharing in it.

I write a lot about trans stuff. After all its my lived reality so I tend to experience it and thus know a fair bit about some of it. However much of the discourse, difficulty & dilemma from that bleeds over into other things & other areas of life too.

Trans people often face rejections, abuse, recriminations, judgment, etc etc.. you've heard it all before I'm sure. But not just trans people. Anyone can experience much the same for various reasons, the results of which is that they develop coping mechanisms, just like trans people. Withdrawal, suspicion, distance and public fronts, or walls. We obviously do this as a self protection to prevent further harm, be it emotional or otherwise. Some of these coping mechanisms are healthy in moderation, and some particularly if left unchecked are not.

Withdrawal was exactly what I did when I lost my job back in Sept.. it took a random occurrence to shake me from that winter reverie and kick start what is usually a much earlier process of getting out on the bike. Somewhere during that time I'd lost the belief that there was any worth in attempting to change my predicament for the better, since it appeared most major decisions in that regard were not under my direct control.

If others have faced abuse, rejection, accusation and recriminations then I suspect many will do likewise. However you spend too long withdrawn behind those walls at your own peril. The solitude becomes like a warm fuzzy comfort blanket, and a safety net all wrapped into one. It's a low risk environment, and thus feels safe.

But as anyone in business will tell you:

Low risk is low growth and if you're not growing you're effectively going backwards. 

We reach a point where those walls and barriers no longer protect us, they imprison us. They prevent us from being free to be all we can be and to give all we can give.

Like any prison, an escape requires both the will to try and the effort to succeed. The beginnings of that will reside in the belief that escape is possible, and therefore that an attempt is worth the effort.

For now it would seem with the help of others I've escaped my own self imposed prison.

Perhaps in time others will do similar, and if so, I'll be around. 

Victims? Aren't we all... Believe it if you wish.

Hi world...

This might turn into rant of sorts, as I've currently got a mixture of feelings, & emotions happening and the resultant cacophony of mental noise is raising to quite the crescendo...

Firstly ..

Life has been both cruel and kind to me. I have succeeded, had the toys, had the fun, the agency the money the "Kudos" etc...

Then it all went away.....

When you have little or nothing you're left with what matters. You.

Oddly, at this point the very thing that one needs to believe in is so often also the very thing that screwed it up in the first place. yes, you guessed it. YOU...

After a while even the most optimistic of people can get worn down by that. ... and the constant uphill battle to retake lost ground, be it personal, professional or fiscal.

Then If you're lucky something odd happens, usually when you're not looking.

For reasons unknown you realise something. That the world still believes in you. Or rather certain people in it do.

What's that I hear ya saying at the back... ? "Beware external validation, for there be monsters....?" ...yeah sure fair point, but living in a vacuum sucks.... Or should I say existing in one.

Which is kinda my point here.

This morning I found myself looking back briefly at photos of my old Skyline  .. I do it quite often and I've probably bored some of you with pictures/videos of what I used to get up to with motors and my old sports cars...but this was different.

This wasn't cos of the money, the status, (whatever the fuck that is) or anything like that, and I wasn't feeling sad, hard done by etc. If anything I realised I was fucking angry.... but just a little, and if its possible to be angry in a happy way.. then I managed it.

I realised I missed the noise of that engine... I miss the smile it put on my face. The damn thing made the hairs on your neck stand up and the grin was always a mile wide when you dropped a couple of gears and booted it..... (ported head and race pipes. Well y'know.....)

Petrol is still there in my blood... and this morning I realised I want my life back. Not because I was better off. But because it was fun and worth sharing.

So.. lets start with the career...June 2018 bring it on.

And all this because I realised that someone somewhere believes in me....So perhaps I should too.

So for any of you reading this and doubting...

Keep going .... and believe that the Impossible can turn into #I'mPossible. 

xSarahx

Democracy and liberal decency being slowly "hung" out to dry on the rack of history.

Hi .

I didn't write much on here during our recent election campaign since I was busy writing in other places, and filming stuff.

So we have a hung parliament. Great.

Although I did mention my thoughts during the campaign regarding Mrs Mays actions, or rather lack of them. It's odd that she seeemingly did much to wilfully derail her own campaign.

Now given the result.. and her knee jerk readiness to align herself with the DUP, who at best are a morally questionable party and at worst merely government sponsored paramilitary forces, is further cause for alarm.

I dislike conspiracy theories as much as the next person .. twisting facts into theories and being different for nothing more than notoriety. Truth dies just as much there as in fascist propaganda.

And yet...

The parallels between the actions of Trump and May are staggering. Her speech that barely acknowledged her own role in the situation is unbelievable. Neither of these two individuals seem capable of taking responsibility for their actions and error. Narcissistic much?

Two close advisors have been given the boot ... but isn't that just cutting off the wagging tale of the dragon instead of killing it properly? After all there is a whiff of scape coating here.

So. Do we have a situation where britain is now seeing its own "Trump"  That is an egotistically inclined person blind to their own faults who merely wishes to remain in power, driven by some extreme version of "christian" Ideology.

Across the US 45 just "celebrated" LGBT month by addressing a conference of religious evangelical opposed to LGBT rights. In fact from a  ideological POV they are opposed to LBGT existence.

Theresa may aligning herself with the DUP is no less worrisome. Our one hope comes from the fact UK politics is (thankfully) set up vastly different to across the pond. There are those in her own party who oppose this move. Liberal conservatives who will do what is ethical, not politically expedient.

It's easier to remove a PM than a President.

Dragging up the past. 

Some parts of the media berated Jeremy Corbyn for his past role in working "with" the IRA. Some others with whom I speak remember that time and served in it. Draw sharp ethical distinctions between the loyalist and Republican armed efforts.

But if one looks back dispassionately, consider that the ONLY difference between these organsiations was that one parties aims coincided with the government of the day.

Ergo "this action is right and therefore good because those in control say it is so"

Heard that before... "cough" Atheist doctrine "cough"

Why did JC work with these people? Because fundamentally bearing arms to solve disputes is counter productive. Yes one can argue it's morally this or morally that, but in plain logical terms it just doesn't work long term.

These major political shifts of the power base to the right wing ideology and alliances with people & organisations who's viewpoints are examples of a polarised world vision are worrying. Chiefly because many will simply brush them off as "legal and lawful and therefore right" Or in the same vein a necessary evil.

BUT. When power, or it's retention is obtained "at any cost" without recourse to ethics and the reasons for that power to exist in the first instance, we begin to walk a very very dangerous path.

For that reason, although I am pleased to see the conservative have lost out right political power, I am deeply troubled by their reactions to that loss. Mrs Mays reason to sit down with the DUP are far far removed from those of years ago when JC met with members of Sinn Fein and the IRA. About as far from them as its possible to get.

I like many will be watching with bated breath for what happens next, and should there be another election called in short order, another call to action of the UK population, we need to be awake as to what our choices could mean at that time.

Dragging up old political issues, and "who sat down with whom at which table and when", without considering "why" is a sure fire way of repeating the same errors of our past and needing many more tables and chairs in the future.

It's not who we sit down and discuss differences with that matters. 

It's whether we - and our detractors - choose to do so, and why. 

Sarah

Feeling a little tyred, a bit flat and VERY fortunate...

The rain outside is frantically bouncing off the glass blown by a gusty wind.........and the cat has still gone out!

Daft animal.

So what am I sat at the computer poised to write about today?

I've done quite a few deep and meaningful, heartfelt articles of late. Some political, some more academic and still others .. situational.  In between the writing of which I've had three punctures in my van in the space of 15 days.

3 outta 5 tyres (including spare) Unlucky you might say?

Well it depends on how you look at it. I've been to Wales, Harrogate, and Stockton, plus just around more locally and clocked up well over 1500miles in recent weeks.

The first puncture went flat on my drive. A Screw. Oh well. I'll just fit spare. Then I discover the spare had knackered valve.

Got both repaired only to find the spare had a nail in it and thus a slow puncture ..(in an unrepairable place) and hard to see...

Oh well .. slow puncture isn't gonna be massively bad.. ill sort it asap says I. (payday)

A few days later whilst heading south the front drivers tyre tyre goes on the A1. ..8 miles north of Weatherby. So, having limped on the flat along the hard shoulder for about mile, then resigned myself to having to swap the wheel on the roadside because it was coming off the rim,  I'm delving in the back of the van not really wanting to change a tyre on the Motorway but with little option ... when an AA flatbed randomly bed passes, then pulls up asking if we need a lift and kindly drops us at Weatherby.. completely by chance and luck...

Also as luck would have it I change the tyre for the spare, pumped up to 32psi and it holds for the 70 miles home at a steady 55mph... Even with the slow puncture .. then promptly keeps up it's reputation by deflating on the drive over night.

Cue a new tyre and a quick check of the other front wheel to realise that It too is very badly worn and either something is wrong with the wheel(s) offset or the camber and tracking is massively out...

So .. I've had to replace the wheels and the tyres on 3 out of the 5 wheels on the van. but had any of the above happened in a different order.. Things could have been very different, dangerous and/or deadly.

So from a certain POV I'm actually incredibly lucky. Had I not gotten the first puncture I'd have been stuck in Weatherby with no spare, since until then i didn't know it was bust. Had either of my front tyres popped on the way too and from Wales or Harrogate...same deal..

So in this case I'm thankful for that silver lining or guardian angel, or natural 20 roll on evasion. Whatever you call it...

But in future.. i'll be checking the tyres juuuuuust little more  often .. and the spare will live in the warm inside the van, to be on the safe side!

xSarahx

Terrorism: Cause, effect and the clarity of thought.

Is this the dark side of the moon? 

Terrorism. 

The act of instilling fear in a population and/or its leaders to bring about your own ends, be they political or otherwise. The aim is to be as divisive as possible, creating "in fighting" in your target population thus preventing a coherent response, and effective counter action. 

Strategically the perpetrators don't want an effective response mounted against themselves for obvious reasons. So they create straw man arguments and deflect the investigation into their motives  by pledging false allegiance to ideologies other than their own. 

To vilify an entire faith for the actions of its extremists is not only wrong, it is precisely what the perpetrators wish to achieve. 

Extremism begets extremism. Be that dressed up as Muslim, Christian, Jewish or anything else you care to mention. 

Historically being wary and fearful of those who are different to us has lead the human race to labour under the yoke of bias. 

I wonder when are we going to start calling spades what they are and stop using the euphemisms like "manual labour single person digging implement" 

Humans, or if you like "mankind", has ultimately caused this cycle of violence many many times by virtue of his own blindness. 

We will only ever eradicate the effects if we deal with the cause. 

Throwing up more boundaries, and hiding behind walls be they cyber or otherwise will change nothing and save less. It merely perpetuates the "us and them" that began this in the first place. 

Forget euphemisms like left or right wing for a moment. Consider common human decency and integrity. Compassion for ones fellow humans. 

As I have written before "war" can be thought of as the failure of politics. Thus any politician who jumps towards a war footing too readily probably isn't a very good one. 

The US elected a buffoon who believes nothing and cares only about his own self aggrandisement. He is just as much a preening peacock of a man as the tin pot dictators of the African countries who adorn their chest with a rack of medals they never won . 

Except much more powerful, and infinitely less predictable. 

The UK currently is vulnerable. It stands isolated, since its uneasy initiation of divorce from the EU and the unpalatable relations with the peacock leave it with an uncertain future. A future the direction of which we are about to decide in a few short days. These attacks therefore destabilise the process, which in all honesty is probably their point, regardless of who the perpetrators are. They will almost certainly influence the outcome.

So politics at this point isn't about where whatever country you happen to live in ends. It has become something of a global knife edge. Deportation and retaliation will remove the problem. not solve it.  Like the many headed hydra of legend, the beast will return more powerful and dangerous than before. Even Hercules needed help to kill the beast, to cauterise the wounds and prevent regrowth... 

So before getting fearful & angry. Instead of throwing blame and insult and accusation, calling for security measures and yet more protection...bigger walls and more division, we need to THINK!

It is the one thing, the one ability, that right minded people have over perpetrators of these actions.

I hope mankind learns to use that ability, and apply it, before its too late. 

A philosophy of protectionism is a philosophy of war

Ludwig Von Mises

Made you think?..

The Philosophy of war

Theresa May and her mate Peter who is nobody's fool.

Hello!

I haven't written much in a wee while, at least not on here. (although you may find my writing elsewhere on the net if you look really really hard ... )

It occurred to me last night after the leadership debate that we have a great metaphor currently going on in the uk political arena for something that often occurs in the the business world.

A few months back Theresa May rose to the position of leader of the conservatives. As a result she also got a key to number 10 and the UK premiership to boot.

The Main stream media and related outlets like to set caricatures of our political leaders, more often than not based in a set of stereotypes. The reason for this is very likely because it make the process of writing about them a little less human and little more formulaic, I mean even the very word "politician" conjures up many a satirical image in the minds of the average person. For me, being just over the 40 hill, it's the cartoonish drawings of the "yes minister" intro.. and Sir Humphrey Appleby dealing with the matters of government in lunch breaks and at the club over a brandy.

But this over simplified version of the political posturing and deal making in Westminster is only a part of the story. It's fair to say that politicians of whatever colour do not get to certain elevated positions of influence and power without themselves having the personal means to get there. By which I mean they cannot be unthinking and un skilled people. (yes even Boris Johnson....)

Yes, ok , of course we all know that networks and old boys clubs are useful, in that regard politics is no different multiple business arena's. Networking and knowing where your allies are is key to success in any business. After all John Donne pointed out way back in the 17th century that no man is an island.

So where does that leave our elevated PM? Well since the election was called we have seen a vastly different approach between the Party leadership styles and their effectiveness. It puts me in mind of the X-Y McGregor management model. Essentially there are two types of management style that sit at the ends of a sliding scale. An X-type manager is authoritarian, and the Y at the other end is more of a collaborative and discursive type.

It would seem to me that Theresa May is in the former camp and Jeremy Corbin very much the latter.    If you like, this is the difference between a "Boss" and a "Leader"

During their respective careers in politics one can also see shades of this in their records and the negotiations that have been publicly put on record. Much has been made of JC and his negotiations in the irish peace process. I suspect that the outcome might have been a little different if a young bullish Mrs May had been given that task...

But this also raises another parallel with business and also oddly, many a local government office. In any organisation you will have competent people. Those competent people do well, and are thus promoted. There comes a point where they cease to do so well having been promoted into a position that they are competent with but no longer shine. Some even go one stage further... (networks again?) Ergo they are promoted to their level of "incompetence" This is known as the "Peter principle"

It is here that I feel Theresa May may have hit her zenith. Her style of management is too authoritarian and perhaps a little brittle for the massive arena of debate, discussion, compromise and conundrum that is facing the UK in the weeks and months ahead. She is no doubt probably well aware of this, as a result of her experience since she took office, and thus now rueing the day she ever stepped into Number 10.

As I said, Politicians do not get to high levels without the ability to think and manage their relationships with those around them. So what to do? Imagine you're Theresa May sat in the PM's office, knowing a little too late you've been handed a poison chalice, which the other leadership candidates decided not to sip from, and that seemingly you're not the right person for this job.

What do you do? You can't resign, that's political and career suicide. You can't push anything contentious through the house all that easily due to a very slim majority. You know you're gonna go down in history as the PM who did the brexit thing, for good or ill. So how do you give yourself an exit strategy?

You call an election, which you had previously ruled out before you knew all the above, and then refuse to fight it. That's how.

As I see it, There are two possible under lying motivations for calling this election ...well actually three..

• Theresa May believed she could, would & should win. 
• TM felt back into a corner and wanted out
• TM looked at the world wide situation and realised not only was she not up to the task but for reasons of avoiding world conflict Britain needs a shift to the left...The currently "trumped up" US is not a wise bed fellow. 

If she truely believed she could win and further more wanted to, then I believe she would have fought, argued and stood her ground. But instead she has sabotaged her own campaign and tarnished her own public image as a means to saying she was removed from office by the elctorate, rather than her own hand. 

Of course there is another possible side to this. That the woman is so unspeakably arrogant that she won't publicly debate and lead her own party, that she is scared of unscripted things or deals them unpalatable, ...and under values real accountable discourse. This ties in neatly to the X-type manager example, those who cannot deal with debate as they see it as merely dissent and thus a challenge to them, rather than constructive means to progress. But It's my position that were she this arrogant she wouldn't have been able to rise to the level she has, since she would have fallen on her sword of ignorance long long ago. 

Furthermore, if she were so utterly incompetent to have made all her recent mistakes actually by mistake then once again she would have been sidelined years ago, so I get the impression she knows exactly what she is doing, although of course I can only conjecture as to why. 

As part of that conjecture I watched with interest Theresa May's recent appearance in areas of religious opinion that would make Trump proud. Was this a late sign of personal opinions and and that in the early days of being in number 10, she thought - erroneously - that the UK special relationship with the US might herald a new right wing era, with changes to the global standpoint on certain freedoms and closer  links to a harder line christianity. Could that be the underpinning reason for her transatlantic dash..?

Who knows? but as they say a week is long time politics, and since Theresa May took office on July the 11th last year a great many things have changed around her. Regardless of affiliations to party and political leanings, every recent UK PM has visibly aged, without exception. It is not a task to be taken lightly nor is it ever going be an easy ride. 

So no, Peter in this case, is no fool, although there may be an argument for (deliberately?) having flown too close to the sun, after being dazzled by its size. 

Let us see what happens when the electorate go to the polls. And if the conservatives do ultimately remain in power, I cannot but wonder how long that power will continue to rest in Theresa May's hands.