Skewster

Came across this brilliant webcomic on Stumbleupon earlier today – reposting here, but visit the LOLDWELL site for more hilarious strips…

The Bible meets Internet-speak – brilliant!

I’m no fan of organised religion at the best of times, but this article by Steve Pavlina gave me some food for thought. Musing on the wealth of the Catholic Church, Steve estimates that they have several billion dollars worth of gold alone:

According to United Nations World Magazine, the Church has several billion dollars in gold alone, and when you consider their massive worldwide real estate holdings, their artwork collection, and their tax exempt status, the amount of wealth controlled by the Catholic Church is staggering.

Whatever the true figure, the fact remains that the Catholic Church is unimaginably wealthy. Do these riches sit untouched, hoarded somewhere while people are starving, destitute and in despair all around the world?

Maybe I’m missing a major piece of the jigsaw here, but surely some of this unholy treasure could be sold off and used to assist developing countries in a real way? I’d be interested to hear some of your thoughts.

It all started with The Matrix although I didn’t know it then…

Back in 1999, I had just started in my current job, and was hungrily pursuing a corporate lifestyle: introducing new technology, writing management reports, answering calls for support. In my private life, I was following the six-step Social Expectations programme : graduate, get job, buy house, get married, have children, work until retirement or death.

In 2001, something happened which has been gnawing at my soul ever since. Our daughter was born the month after 9/11.

It’s hard to explain the effect this had, but I ended up questioning the world we had brought our child into. Essentially, I didn’t want my child to have the same predictable life mapped out for her, to become a societal drone. Can you imagine bringing a child into this world, full of potential, a blank canvas, and then painting the same dull grey life that everyone else lives?

And after a few years of corporate life, the soullessness of this existence has left me feeling empty and unfulfilled. I sit in on office meetings and breathe in the hot air of self-important middle-managers, marvelling at the pure absense of passion in their lives.

In the last couple of years, I’ve become aware of a growing movement of people who are starting to challenge the accepted route through life. The most powerful statement I’ve heard asserts that if we’re all individuals, then it is not possible for a 9-5 lifestyle to suit everybody. You know, trail yourself out of bed, go through the motions, work for 8 hours or more, go home have dinner and watch Emmerdale, blah, blah, blah….

The Tailspin

The end result of this questioning has me in a complete tailspin recently. But at the center of it all, there’s one question to ask: am I happy?

Fundamentally, no. I’m in a dull, unfulfilling job working for employers that couldn’t care less if I lived or died (I have my suspicious about their preference though!). I had a few job interviews recently, and as I walked out of the latest one, I knew that moving jobs would only be moving the problem. Too many companies are like bureaucratic in a negative way these days.

And so I’m at a very interesting point in life which is both terrifying, but exhilerating. I feel a tiny bit insane with a combination of opportunities and fears. I want to spend my life doing something worthwhile, that I enjoy and that means something to other people. I don’t think I was cut out to be a drone!

Where Does The Matrix Fit In?

The central premise of The Matrix is that there are two worlds: one is the complex social model that we have been taught and indoctrinated with and through which we filter all our life experiences, and the other is how things really are. So, in their heads, people are running around living normal lives, but the reality is that they are all drones powering a giant machine.

Society can convince you that just about anything is acceptable: the clamour for more and greater riches, buying a Land Rover when you could get by with a Ford Fiesta, two parents working full-time while someone else raises their children.

The reality is that more and more people are chasing fantasies instead of cutting back the crap in their lives and enjoying the simple things. What hurts is that most people are still unfulfilled and unhappy. Even more so, because they’re in debt to the eyeballs, but that’s a discussion for another day.

Here’s something to end on a bright note.

Paint the front of your house with lamb’s blood, lock up your first born son and lead my people out of Egypt, Moses. Word reaches me that the classic 10 Commandments movie is about to be re-released.

Check out the updated trailer.

A thought-provoking piece by Dr Crawford Gribben about the relationship between Unionism and Protestantism, something which has been on my mind recently.

Dr Gribben makes the assertion that, demographically, Unionists no longer represent a political majority in Northern Ireland and that they need to broaden their appeal in order to regain their strength.

As the population statistics of Northern Ireland no longer reflect a Unionist majority, so Unionist leaders must make the case for the Union to a population broader than the conservative Protestants whose votes they have traditionally taken for granted.

Surely the same argument applies to Nationalists and Republicans in that they need to somehow broaden their appeal to attract new voters, not existing ones? This harks back to what I blogged about earlier – can the political parties broaden their appeal by actually tackling issues that affect the public?

Similar questions were being asked after the Whiterock riots last September, with some citing social differences between Nationalist and Unionist areas of West Belfast as a potential starting point for Gerry Adams to prove that Sinn Fein really wants an Ireland Of Equals, and that it’s not hollow rhetoric.

In a move destined to shock absolutely no-one in Northern Ireland, Ian Paisley Jr is

a) angry
b) offended
c) outraged
d) all of the above

by Tony Blair’s remarks about the Protestant Bigot. The gist of Blair’s outburst was aimed at Muslin extremists, but used a local analogy to spice things up:

“They are no more proper Muslims than the Protestant bigot who murders a Catholic in Northern Ireland is a proper Christian.

“But unfortunately, he’s still a Protestant bigot.

“To say his religion is irrelevant is both completely to misunderstand his motive and to refuse to face up to the strain of extremism within his religion that has given rise to it.”

Somehow, the outrage filter that exists in Paisley Jr’s head has picked up on this and amplified it into a mass insult of the entire Protestant population! Aided and abetted by “Friend of the DUP”, Reg Empey and former Presbyterian moderator Ken Newell, this formidable threesome have launched (seperate) attacks on Tony Blair on behalf of all Protestants. Hooray! Champions of the cause!

Is it possible that Tony Blair is speaking about a more distant period in (Northern) Ireland where the Catholic population were less well treated than they are now? I think so.

If Blair had launched an attack on ruthless Athiest murderers, I – as an Athiest – would not be offended. Because I am not a murderer. Therefore if I were a common-or-garden-Protestant, I would not be offended at the “Protestant Bigot” statement, because Tony Blair is patently not referring to me. Understand?

Now, if I was a Protestant bigot, or my father was a Protestant bigot, perhaps I’d be more pissed off. But let’s not blow the whole thing out of proportion, shall we?