Anti-Austerity Demo

Yesterday (depending on reports) between 100.000 and 150.000 people attended the anti-austerity demo, organised by The People's Assembly Against Austerity. Those of us who attended had 4 Demands: health, housing, jobs, and education - the 4 areas which have been hit hardest under austerity measures and the budget statement.

Full Automation?

http://www.kitchensoap.com/2012/09/21/a-mature-role-for-automation-part-i/

Technology and Society.  The robots are after us and human life as we know it is going to end.  That’s true.  Our understanding of humanity and existence is going to end, but we’re not going to be exterminated from this planet.  Our conceptualisation and the applied meaning of the human relationship is evolving, and with technology we can reach a higher state of meaning.  Autonomous machines offer new ways of defining humanity, and the changing relationship between humans and machines.  

Only the Illusion

The cycle of war continues its familiar path, with memory its first casualty. The demonisation of enemies. The fabricated pretexts. The casualties covered up. The costs hidden off budget. The lights always at the end of tunnels.

False Pretences

"You know how you're upset about the baby dolphin those egomaniac humans killed for a selfie?  Go look in the mirror because you're one of them.  2.5 TRILLION Sea Creatures are dredged from our Earth's oceans per year to satisfy your tongue... This includes plenty of dolphins.  At this rate the oceans will be dead by 2050.  Why are you pretending that you care about that one dolphin?" - Elijah Valk

Untitled

The modern war appears to be a long period of suffering and destruction for millions of anonymous, but still important, citizens, an obscure period of exposure to death, in the concreteness of existence amid the ruins.  Yet, this time creates something that exists beyond time; this death creates something beyond death.

Freedom of Passage

Something struck me the other night, as I stood waiting to pass through border controls in London upon my return to the country: ignorance. Behind me in the queue stood a couple complaining about the wait time to scan their passports and continue their journey. (Admittedly, the length of the queue was exceptionally long for 1am, but that's besides the point). Their complaints were centred around refugees, and their argument was something to this effect:

Symbolism versus Analysis

Is it not another incumbent aspect of capitalist society that we think of ourselves in terms of nothing more than the mere volume of value we offer to public life?  That we are credible to those in power, rather than credible and accountable to ourselves?  We’re told that our actions are of importance, that we can make a difference.  Yet we’re subjected to paltry compensations from those in power in order to suppress those ideas which are deemed counter-productive or pose a threat to the existing order.  

Yet this in and of itself is problematic.  Our actions and political statements are extensions of our passions and beliefs, and to consider them in reference to compensations of mankind undermines their power and their potential for social good.   Political activism is artistic experimentation.  It is symbolic.  And so such symbolism cannot be applied to paper, nor analysed by those obtuse enough to apply such symbolism to paper.  

Hope in an Apathetic Climate? Some Reflections

We have built fantastical architectural designs which reinforce the order of spatial existence we occupy, but our reliance on set structures has created a dogmatic permanence.  We have become consumed and blinded by such dogmatic claims that we cannot observe the planned obsolescence nor the impermanence of the structures we have created and our existence.  Our order is fragile and yet we protect it, upholding the notion that it is a strategic operation of co-existence, when, in reality, we use it to isolate ourselves.  We exist in an interconnected series of power structures, failing to recognise our very existence and constructed order as powered, thus negating our innate ability to reclaim power through deconstruction.  We can create a power, through the creation of an anti-power.  There currently exists a thin veil between private and public: it is time to renegotiate such terms. 

Should Feminism Rebrand Itself for a Wider Audience?

It has been suggested that feminism, as we know and understand it, should rebrand itself because the brand of the movement, not the message, is turning people off and away from the realities of the feminist fight. 

Therefore, I find myself asking whether feminism should rebrand itself to appease those who dislike the brand so it can appeal to a wider audience.  And I find myself answering no.  Feminism should not need to rebrand itself to be duly accepted by the mainstream.  Feminism should be a movement with a name that continues to be unapologetic in its demand for attaining equal rights, the advancement of women and marginalised groups in society, and the restructuring of patriarchal demands.

In short, no.  Feminism should not rebrand itself.

Cameron's Massive Shiny Forehead on the Big Screen

08.05.2015 – Conservatives have won a majority government with 331 elected seats in the House of Commons

We can rant and rave and say, ‘look at what you’ve voted into Britain.  Look at what you've done to our government’ as much as we like.  Yet the sad fact is that the Conservatives have been voted in, and there is no changing this fact (at least not for another 5 years).  We just need to accept that Cameron is now running our government, and we have the joy of experiencing a laissez-faire centric, neoliberal elitist party control our futures. 

The Politicisation of Social Media

Observing the latest trends, patterns and issues raised on social media highlights the power the internet has had in connecting people, not only with each other, but with politics and issues of social justice. 

Through the use of social media, many sociological issues are raised and answers / solutions ignored, and this just proves that radical change within ourselves is the first necessary step in combatting the existing systematic oppression of many social group (whether that is racially, sexually, or in terms of class). 

UK Porn Laws

Before considering the latest governmental changes to porn laws, it is important to be aware of how the porn industry was already sexist, racist and degrading.  Yet new legislation in the UK makes these laws blatantly misogynistic, further devaluing women and their role within society.

Due to an amendment made this month on the 2003 Communications Act, a new list of sexual acts have been banned from being produced in British-made adult films.  On-demand adult films are now required to meet the same standards of production as those of films available on DVD in sex shops.  The list of banned acts consists of spanking, caning, female ejaculation and face-sitting, amongst others, due to being deemed life-threatening.  However, many of the acts that have been contributed to the list are those associated with female pleasure and sexual satisfaction. 

Christmas, Greed and Consumerism

Firstly, it is not that I dislike Christmas.  I dislike the exaggerated build up to a day which rarely lives up to expectations.

Secondly, Christmas is no longer centred on a traditional Christian celebration.  It is focused on consumerism.

Every year, without most of us realising, Christmas starts earlier and earlier.  This year it started in October.  Shopping centres and adverts entice us to become festive once again and join in with the Christmas spirit.  But what is Christmas spirit?

Political Apathy

Within society, there is a substantial number of “apathetics” – those people with no interest in politics, and they make up around 30% of the population.  This figure is reflected in low election turnouts, both local and national, and the low percentage of political party membership.

But, is being indifferent to political changes and participation in fact another, less recognised, form of participating in politics?

Vagaries of Perception

Collective Conscience?

Is everything just an illusion, a grand social construct?  Temporary constructs of a feeble human intellect that has been trying desperately to justify an existence that is supposedly without meaning or purpose? 

Social constructionism is the idea that through human choices, rather than laws related to human judgement, the social mechanisms, phenomenon, or categories are created and developed by the individuals in society.  Social constructs are the by-products of these choices, and this explains why nothing in society is absolute or standardised.  Every individual has their own social reality because of these constructs.  This involves examining social factors and beliefs, and how they become institutionalised, known and engrained in the human psyche.  The social construction of reality is an ongoing, dynamic and fluid process, open to change (yet denied by society), that is reproduced by people acting on their interpretations and knowledge of the society they live in.

Don’t Study Sociology If You Want To Be Happy

Freedom?

Sociology is about confronting and challenging the morality of our fragmented society because, when we pry beneath the surface, we quickly realise that everything we have been socialised into is an ideal, and that very few people can live up to the unrealistic standards of society's institutions.

Studying Sociology will lead to the eventual realisation that the world is penetrable by insight.  It is not necessarily a happy experience, nor a negative one.  Instead, it is supremely insightful.  Meaning becomes an abstract social thing, and not a fuel for your life as we have been led to believe up until this point.  Whatever social problem comes up, you can imagine the great causal chains which supports, but also holds back, groups of people.  An analytical mind can be a burden, but also a liberator.  Once you can see the ball and chains that restrict people, you can begin to free yourself from them.  If you can at first liberate yourself through knowledge of the ephemeral beauty of life, you can eventually emancipate others by subtly altering the structure of their individual lives to include things that will release them from this socially constructed trap.  Now that you know better, you have to do better.

Economic Disaster, Crime and Society

Who is responsible?

Society has been divided by capitalism, and as a result, there is a conflict between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat.  Therefore, social inequality and economic disasters, stemming from capitalism, are the causes of crime, thus supporting the claim that the law operates to serve the interests of the ruling class. 

Capitalism is an exploitative system whereby the bourgeoisie exploit the proletariat because it is a system that espouses the extraordinary belief that the nastiest men for the nastiest of motives will somehow work for the benefit of all.  Crime is the result of poverty which is generated by the capitalist system.  People steal because

World Change

Are we the revolution? 

Should we not all want to do something that is outside of our comfort zone that really makes a substantial difference on a wider scale, in a country outside of our immediate locality?  It would give us the opportunity to communicate with people from different cultures, gain their trust and a deeper insight into how their lives and communities are supported and affected by social and economic policies by local governments.  Throwing money at a problem is not the solution.  It is about working with local people to discuss the problems that affect them directly and find sustainable routes which will help them improve life chances, and this is far more effective than distanced monetary aid. 

It's A Fracking Disaster

Hydraulic fracturing, more commonly known as “fracking”, is the process of drilling far into the earth, and injecting a liquid mixture of water and toxic chemicals at a high pressure into subterranean rocks, boreholes, and so forth, so as to force open existing fissures and extract shale gas.  Over the last century the exploitation of fossil fuels has developed from tunnel mining for coal and drilling shallow oil wells to tearing apart whole mountains and drilling in a mile or more deep of ocean.  These have inevitably led to many environmental disasters.  Yet fracking has been hailed as the “revolution of the energy industry”, and investors and corporations do not want the general public to be aware of the destruction and negative impact that this new “solution” has on the environment. 

Fracking is simply a symptom of a much wider problem.  As easier to extract energy resources are exhausted and drained by the unsustainable energy consumption and consumerism of our present system, we are resorting to ever more extreme methods of energy extraction.  But at what cost?

We Need a Revolution

The fact that so few people actually have their own opinions about world issues (or at the very least do not openly share them), but instead conform to media inspired beliefs is something rather concerning.  We need a revolution, yet this won’t happen unless everyone realises the ideological control of the media and societal institutions in biasing our perception of the world.  So many people do not care nor have opinions about things that really matter, such as the state of humanity, the way we so easily obey the people at the top of hierarchy because we believe they’re better than us, or the way the environment is used for capitalistic gain.