Make a wish...

We have ten seconds to save the world! Nah, only kidding. It’s probably already too late, but given the increasingly high pitch of all the outraged screaming going about lately nothing less dramatic would have been likely to convince you to read on. The western world has been obsessed with identifying evil of late. Meanwhile the medieval world has been content to merely practise it. But is it actually 'evil' or just plain and simple caveman barbarism? Given that the concept of evil is a religious superstition, maybe it is exactly the right word after all.

One thing is for certain, the particular primitive, twisted form of islam which is sweeping across the Middle East has no place in it for discussion or normal, sane reason. If I can see this and you can see this, how come our house-trained, domesticated, lap-dog western governments refuse to see it? But – phew – just in time, along comes another thing to divert attention away from any effective response to an out-of-control aberration which threatens to engulf the whole civilised wold unless it is militarily stopped in its tracks.

Robin Williams’ suicide could have been an occasion for a moment’s dignified contemplative silence followed by a celebration of a towering and complex talent. But no, that just wouldn’t do, would it? Alan Brazil decided it was diabolical – there’s that evil devil thing again – while Laurie Penny saw (and seized with gusto) yet another excuse to make it all about her… and then to go on Twitter and whip up a spate of self-trolling of such narcissistic proportions that even Russell Brand would shrink from its crass, infantile and oh-so-transparent plea for attention...

So, everybody gets aboard the fruit-and-nut charabanc and embarks on a poor-me tour of identifying with every other flaw in the funny man’s fragile façade. ‘Twas ever thus, though; very clever, very public, very erratic people are practically under contract to check out in ignoble circumstances. Why would you want to identify with that? Why, in order to avoid confronting the truth, of course. And the truth is that Williams’ death, sad though it is, has no real lessons for any of us, no profound revelations, no enlightenment. Light a candle, take a moment and then get a grip.

Face to the east; not in prayer but in opposition. Either muslims must change the nature of islam or the savage actions of those who speak in its name will forever condemn the followers of mohammed to be branded as savages, unfit to share the modern world. Anti-Israeli sentiment because of Gaza is also no reason to go easy on islam; I see no concerted, invasive outbreeding of indigenous populations by Jews, nor by any other racial or religious groups. I see no other ideology which openly declares such thirst for blood and dominance.

Three wishes, did I say? I lied...

So, mourn for Robin, if you wish. But don’t use it as an excuse to turn inward; it’s not about you. Instead, wake up and look around you. Look at the way your country has changed for the worse before your very eyes and how you have been progressively denied an opinion about it. Look upon the ugliness of islam and its appeasement and be ashamed we let it happen. It is not evil, but it is a hideous human travesty. We may not have only ten seconds to save THE world, but it’s quite possible we have under ten years to save OUR world.

Press Statin

It turns out that NICE or whatever they call themselves these days are no such thing. In a move that would draw admiration from many a totalitarian state, they are suggesting that practically everybody over fifty-five should be on statins. Well the nice people at NICE can go and fuck themselves. This is the healthcare equivalent of tax credits, signing you up to a dependency culture and using your own money to do it. No wonder the NHS is such a vast money pit, forever looking for ways to spend its astounding budget.

I know several people who have been put on the damned things, by GPs who are clearly – like concentration camp guards – just following orders. The reports are not good. In fact this story from a GP who took them himself is fairly typical. What a brilliant idea, eh? Let’s get people to do the costly drug research that Astra-Zeneca-Pfizer-Smithkline can’t be arsed to carry out by foisting unproven, unnecessary treatments on people too trusting or too stupid to realise what is going on. Mind you, it could do wonders for the jobs market as the flag bearers at the dawn of the Brave New Zombie Apocalypse shuffle off employment and stumble on to end their days on disability dole.

They could in time become willing participants in the big story taxing the minds of the House of Lords – the assisted dying bill. Worried about becoming a burden? Of course, many people worry about it, but this is hardly Logan’s Run, is it? This is an end of life measure that will be welcomed by many in pain who have simply had enough and are sane enough not to want to suffer any more. I don’t know why we don’t come equipped with an on/off switch.

And then, as if there isn’t enough doom and gloom in the world, what with the whole Arab/Jew thing kicking off yet again and Ukraine poised to kick off World War Three, we are treated to the whining of Twitter feminist Laurie Penny, drumming up sales of her book by bitching and moaning about all the things she bitches and moans about every day. I read the introduction (Free of charge, on Amazon – I’m certainly not paying for it.) and after two paragraphs I was already feeling quite stabby. I contended myself with an acerbic review instead.

I can’t help but feel all these ills are interlinked by a common problem; there are just too many human beings in a world that clearly isn’t big enough to contain them all without conflict. Arab on Jew, black on white, old against young, men versus women… PennyRed versus everybody; where will it end? The one certainty of life is death, so maybe that’s one bit of reasoning behind the big statin conspiracy – drive people insane with pain so that they voluntarily stagger towards the exit door.

Uh, yeah... feminism's the answer... 

What was the question?

But this is a solution fraught with imprecision; what if some of them actually do experience an increase in quality of life? How long can we afford to keep paying out pensions if they don’t opt for the ‘easy’ way out? It strikes me we’re missing a trick here and a cheap one at that. We could, at a stroke_[sic] solve the problem of overpopulation for at least half the humans on the planet. Just get all the men in the world to read a few chapters of Laurie Penny’s atrocious pile of crap.