List of Contents

 Oct 23    Sycamore Gap or Rosebank Oilfield - Which is the Greater Crime?
Oct 23     Israel Palestine - Why not support and care for each other?
Oct 23     What has the Holocaust, Holodomor and Genocides got to do with Climate Change?
Sep 23    I have a dream!
Sep 23    Ukraine - What next? (How to break the cycle of endless wars 2)
Aug 23   Violence and how to reduce it.
Aug 23   Chinese and Russian elites Wrongly think wars will keep them in power.
Jul 23     Why the Majority accept man made climate change, but take no action.
Jul 23     Burning Fossil Fuels is a crime against humanity
Jul 23     Less is More
Jun 23     A 1.5 degree Course Change?
Jun 23    The Use of the world is ultimately a personal matter
Jun 23     Human behaviour Explained
May 23   The History of the World in a Single object
Apr 23    You have Free Will - do you choose to use it?
Mar 23    Make the world a better place.
Mar 23    Migration (Review of The Fourth Time we Drowned by Sally Heydon)
Feb 23     Marketing Sustainability
Feb 23     Charity Shops and how to fill the existential void.
Feb 23     Life’s a joy, or it should, would, could be.
Feb 23     The Tyranny of the majority.
Feb 23     We Each support and serve each other.
Feb 23     Being Green shows you are caring, intelligent and love the world.
Feb 23     Has Human evolution run it’s course?
Feb 23     Freedom of Speech is not freedom to lie or freedom to cause harm.
Feb 23     Why you should never invite Socrates to your diner party.
Feb 23    Natural Selection trends towards an improved understanding of reality.
Feb 23    Rationality and the crisis in democracy.
Jan 23     Letter to Ukraine.
Jan 23     Effective Financial Investment.
Dec 22    Letter to the Russian Ambassador to the UK.
Nov 22    The Climate Crisis Challenge - Ban the Burn.
Nov 22    The Mess the world is in and What to do about it.
Oct 22     Women Rule the World - They just don’t realise it.
Sep 22     Letter to the Russian Ambassador - All War is Tragedy
Sep 22     Armour for a Real World Mission.
Sep 22     The Multiply Butterfly Effect.
Sep 22    Letter to the Chinese Ambassador to the UK
Sep 22     Know Yourself - the wisest words ever written?
Sep 22     How to prevent wars - defluffed
Sep 22     Hierarchy of Needs - Social acceptance is top, not self Actualisation.
Sep 22     How to prevent Wars
Aug 22    Freedom Loving democrats Take Heart!
Aug 22    How to Stop a Tyrant Part 2
Aug 22    Putin the Coward
July 22     Fossil Fuels are as bad as the Slave Trade
Jun 22     Neurodegenerative Diseases disprove the existence of a soul and afterlife.
Apr 22    Atheist faith hope and Prayers.
Apr 22    Civilization Collapse - Is Humanity Committing Suicide?
Mar 22    World Leaders - do we really need them?
Mar 22    Human Progress - Don’t make me Laugh!!
Mar 22    Mr Putin - its ok to be gay.
Mar 22     How do we break the cycle of endless wars?
Feb 22     The Direction of Human History.
Jan 22     Now is the Time to End Tribalism.
Oct 21    A Gift from Mr Putin
Oct 21    Why the West is Best and the evidence to prove it.
Oct 21    Letter to the Chinese Ambassador to the UK - Super Hero Xi.
Oct 21    Fear
Jul 21     Fun and high Jinks at the Chinese Communist Party’s Birthday Bash.
Apr 21   Concerning Religion
Mar 21   The importance of international Travel
Jan 21    Time for a Universal Declaration of Human Obligations

Sycamore Gap or Rosebank Oil field, Which is the Greater Crime?

 It may be because I‘m a Sheffielder, who has witnessed many of our street trees being felled, but I can’t get worked up about the felling of a single sycamore tree on Hadrian’s wall. Especially when it occurred a few days after the UK Government announced it would be opening up new oil and gas fields, loosening its commitment to phase out gas boilers and pushing back targets to stop selling petrol and diesel cars. In my eyes both acts are wrong, but one is criminal vandalism and the other is a crime against humanity.

The motives of the vandals is currently unknown, but if they were trying, by the sacrifice of a single tree, to open our eyes to show how blind we are, I have to congratulate them on a job well done. The tree, because it is so wonderfully photogenic,  is world famous, being framed in perfect symmetry between two sinuously curving hills. It’s unforgettable image is ideal for our tiny screens that we now use to experience the world. Its destruction has left a hole in our lives and generated an outpouring of emotion.

But are we so obsessed with our tiny screens, screens that only allow us to view the world through a business controlled keyhole, that we have become blind to the bigger picture and what is really important?

Can we not see that the felling of this single sycamore, is insignificant compared to the damage that will be caused by the extra carbon dioxide emitted because of our Governments recent policy announcements?.  The felling of this tree harmed no one, but more CO2 in the atmosphere will damage the planet and will lead to more human suffering. 

Just because policy announcements don’t make a stunning photo, can we not see who the real criminals are?

Israel Palestine - Why not support and care for each other

 The recent attack by Hamas is morally wrong, but the reaction of Israel is also morally wrong. Both sides must be condemned, as the only justification for the State of Israel comes from a story dating back to the Bronze age and Hamas should not kill other human beings in order to further its cause. Neither side makes any serious attempt to integrate or find a final solution, which is to support and care for each other.

The modern state of Israel was formed just after the second world war when us Brits became alarmed at the scale of migration of Jewish people flooding into Palestine, and tried to control the numbers. A short war followed, but the war weary British didn't see the point of fighting and so left. Both the British and Israel didn't considered the Palestinian people already living there. Many in the middle east see Hamas as fighting for their homeland, just like Ukraine, and yet the west backs Israel, thus losing all credibility in the eyes of half the world. It's tribalism at it's worst.

Attacking Gaza with overwhelming force will only breed more hate, more violence and more entrenched view points on both sides. Cutting off water, power and food is morally wrong. It's the same as Stalin did to Ukraine in the holodomor when his communist regime took their food away and 4 million starved. One evil crime does not justify another. The West should be attempting to get both sides to stop basing their policy on history, and should try to get acceptance that neither side is going anywhere, and make all sides focus on how to make a better future,  respectfully living together, whether that be in some form of a two state solution or sharing the land.  

The past cannot be changed, but we shouldn't let the past restrict our options for a better future. Israel should seek justice not revenge, and never forget they have a responsibility to the Palestinian people whose home they now occupy and should share.

As I have said before, -

All war is tragedy. War is a primitive, backward and a base activity that is promoted by people who are not thinking of a better future and follow out of date philosophies. Those who start wars are people who do not have the skills  to solve their problems by normal political means, ie respectful negotiation and compromise. They can only achieve their goals by conning others to commit violence with threats and lies and so are not fit to lead. War only spreads destruction, desolation, misery and pain. It is no solution to problems. Everyone has a selfless duty, not to hide from the horrors of our past, but to stand together against such cowards and fools. We should all unite to consign war to the history books, to keep war out of our present and humanity’s future.

What has the Holocaust, the Holodomor and Genocides got to do with man made Climate Change?

 After visiting Berlin a few years ago, I wanted to learn why the holocaust occurred, and if it was possible to prevent similar events ever happening again. After reading and thinking about this troubling subject, I learnt that the circumstances and mindset of it's perpetrators has been common throughout history, it is just that in modern times, we have the means to carry out slaughter on a massive scale.

Firstly, it must be accepted that people like the Nazi’s, Hutu militias or Stalinist's are not monsters. They did monstrous, evil acts, but they were perfectly rational human beings. When they faced trial, they behaved just like any other criminal would. Many didn’t think they had done anything wrong, and went to their deaths unrepentant. To simply call them monsters, is to deny their humanity, which makes the problem too easy for us to dismiss. We must accept they were humans, just like us, and try to understand why and how they carried out such evil acts. We have to accept, that if we had grown up in Germany, Russia or Rwanda just prior to the Holocaust, Holodomor or Rwandan Genocide, it is highly likely that we too would have also participated, or done nothing too stop, crimes, awful crimes, against humanity.

Not any easy truth to acknowledge, but once accepted, understanding can develop and then prevention.

So having accepted the horrific fact that normal human beings are  capable of great evil against others, why does it happen? Well the key word is “others”. Crimes against humanity are always carried out against others. And prior to the crimes occurring, these others will have been portrayed as “lesser others” - People who are of lower status, inferior, unimportant, or descendants of some perceived past crime, such as migration or stealers of wealth. If this portrayal is carried to such an extreme, those other human beings are seen as not equal, as animals, filth, coach roaches or sub human, or, if they hold different religious or political views, as wrong, or just simply, such as rainforest people, not considered at all.If this is the case, then any cruel and barbarous act against them can be portrayed as actually doing good, similar to an act of cleansing, or progress or improvement to the world. If this view is widely held in a society, then genocides can, and in the past, frequently have happened.

Especially, when those views are held by those in power. When this occurs, even if the general population does not hold these views, the elites, by passing laws and rewarding those who enforce and obey those laws, can control behaviour to such a high degree that individuals will not stand up and speak out against, what becomes, the perceived majority view. To do so will mean a long prison sentence, reprisals against loved ones or even execution. Few have the moral courage required, and the elites ensure those that do, cannot join and work together. The elites know that if dissenters get organised, they become more powerful and pose a threat to their privileged position. At the first sign of trouble, alternative views are crushed. And so the genocide, holocaust and holodomor is permitted by almost everyone.*

What’s this got to do with our current problem of man-made Climate Change? Well, I’m getting worried. I see parallels in how we are thinking about man-made climate change, and how genocides have occurred in the past.

Because, when it comes to the issue of global warming, the “others” this time includes billions of  “future others“, Those “others” cannot vote today because they are yet to be born. Their needs, wants and lives are not heard, are not equal, not considers and seen to be of less importance to our own, They can be easily dismissed and ignored. By radically altering the planet, will we not be harming them before they even exist?

Because, when it comes to the issue of burning fossil fuels, are we not committing genocide, not against other humans, but this time against other species, whose habitats are being destroyed? The world of the Emperor Penguins and the Polar Bear are being rendered, for them, uninhabitable. The vast majority of us know this, but do we do anything? Are we not just looking the other way, while the concentration camps are in full operation, pumping out their carbon dioxide rather than Zyklon B and carrying out unseen mass murder on an industrial scale ?

Because, when it comes to rising planetary temperatures, are we, especially in wealthy high emitting countries not treating the "others" who live in the tropics, as human beings whose lives, wants and desires are  unimportant compared to ours? Are we not treating them as un-equals, as lesser beings?

Thermometers don’t lie. And we shouldn’t lie to ourselves, we are all capable of evil acts.And the future may look back on the continued burning of fossil fuels, as the most evil act of them all. 

* There is now an excellent book called Bystander Society by Prof Mary Fulbrook on this process. This book together with Orwell's 1984 should be read by everyone.)