The Pyramid of Life

Following on from my article, ‘The Circle of Life’, I’d like to draw attention to a documentary which, if it were possible (for me), would personify everything I feel about the treatment and complete disregard humanity have for animal-kind.

The documentary ‘Earthlings’ is narrated by acclaimed actor Joaquin Phoenix. Earthlings is extremely graphic. Although I think every meat-consumer should watch this, I realise, after all, that ignorance is bliss. As a side-note, I couldn’t hold higher esteem for an actor willing to do such a documentary.

In the article I posted some time ago, I highlighted the different views we have towards animals in regard to size and companionship. In this article, and through watching Earthlings, I would like to highlight the ignorance most of us have as to where our food comes from, how it is treated and the utter contempt, as a species, we show to both nature and animals.

A problem within humanity is the air of dominance we quite often possess. It is commonly seen that we cannot treat each other as equals – let alone animals – and that is where we seriously err. Animals, including fish, may not be anywhere near the same intellectual level as we are; yet they have feelings, and they feel suffering and pain. This is particularly exemplified by the despicable way that we, as a species, participate in blood-sports.

All too often, blood-sports are justified by the word ‘tradition’. This is to say, it’s not a barbaric sport but a cultural activity. As ridiculous as that sounds, many people fight to keep these blood-sports alive under this ruse, as we have seen with fox-hunting in England in recent years; though, of course, it has not stopped. Tradition is an essential aspect in many areas of life, though, to evolve, tradition must be pruned. I cannot think of a finer example to consign to the history books.

Here are some examples of a few of these ‘sports’:

Fox-hunting, bear-hunting, deer-hunting, cock-fighting, bull-fighting, dog-fighting, hyena-fighting, cricket-fighting, spider-fighting and rat-fighting, amongst many more.

All of these sports have one thing in common; they are for the entertainment of human beings – and often have financial interests, as seen with betting rings. They all usually end with an animal being killed, usually in great suffering and pain, and with no chance of survival from the start.  I find it quite amazing that such practices are still carried out and justified. It is one of the worst examples of savagery on Earth.

The farming of animals can draw comparisons to the holocaust in many ways. This is especially apparent in beef, chicken and pork farming around the world. In the worst conditions, the animals are often cooped up in an incredibly small area, with limited movement, and forced to live in their own faeces. The restriction of movement often cause deficiencies in the growth of muscles, which can incapacitate and seriously deform the animal. Transport of these animals is much the same. The animals are so tightly packed into transports, without food or water, that many die en-route; albeit, usually, en-route to slaughter. Some animals are quite literally worked to death, which can be seen with the milking cow. As seen in the documentary, a milking cow can live past 20 years. It averages 2 to 3. After being worked to exhaustion, the cow is slaughtered and sold as cheap meat.

The slaughter process is heart-rending. Perhaps the most common way to slaughter an animal for meat is the throat being slit, whilst the animal is hoisted upside-down. This ‘bleeds’ the animal. Quite often the blood is collected in urns as the animal experiences its last few moments. Sometimes the oesophagus is also ripped through, which both makes the animal bleed faster and drowns the animal in its own blood. The most distressing part of this process is that the animal is still alive and often conscious. This ensures the last moments the animal experiences on this Earth are in extreme fear, pain, stress, and suffering. This is after the pitiful existence it was afforded by us. In a lot of cases, this is done in front of their kin. In the worst cases, animals can be clubbed, burnt and beaten to death by the few sadistic beings among us who are allowed to work in slaughterhouses.

Let me point out, these are not the conditions in every slaughterhouse, animals are often rendered unconscious before the slaughtering process. Whether the process is actually ‘humane’ is a matter for your own opinion.

Though a comparison to the holocaust may seem quite shocking and perhaps an over-exaggeration; to me, I think not. Looking into the subject, and watching the brilliant Earthlings, it doesn’t give you much faith in Humanity. To not contemplate animals as equals to ourselves does both them and us a grave injustice. The conditions and plight of these animals is simply an abomination, and an abomination that needs to be addressed.

After-all, are animals not man’s best friend?

Perception

Firstly, sorry I’ve not posted for a few weeks – I’ve just moved house into a new area, so I’m getting to grips with the place and trying to meet new people!

Perception interlinks with many of my previous articles – in the way that everybody thinks. Perception is, quite simply, everything a person bases their opinion(s) on.

It’s such a wide-ranging subject, it’s quite hard to pin-point a place where to start, and I’ll only be covering a small amount.

So many aspects of life influence individuals to think the way they do. Natural perception is a double-edged sword, it can be a beautiful yet a terrible thing.

In Western Civilisation, we have the luxury of free speech (and thought). This is a luxury which I, for one, take for granted. I feel my life should strive towards making enough money to support a family, having a good standing in society and being respected by my peers. That is a fairly common feeling in the capitalist state I’ve been brought up in, and no doubt matches the aims of basic fulfilment in life for many people.

In Eastern culture, no doubt the basic aims are similar; achieving a means to support a family and respect amongst communities and work-colleagues. There are massive differences in culture though. Free-speech isn’t always free. Culture is very different in the aspects of things we take for granted, such as healthcare, policing, law and justice amongst many others. Whilst we barely notice the level of infrastructure around us, some countries struggle to feed the population, law is marshalled by gangs, and such things as basic healthcare are non-existent.

Of course, from these two different extremes (being very general), perception of the same entities can produce completely different results. Take, for example, a lingerie model. In western civilisation, a model is common to see – and a fair majority of men might indeed think to themselves, “What a beautiful woman”. In contrast, in countries such as Iran – where women are very much second-fiddle and are indeed treated as such – a man might think this same woman was shameful and ought to be punished.

In some of the cases I have seen and read, it calls forth a recollection of George Orwell’s iconic tale 1984. The idea of thoughts being marshalled, and often marshalled by fear. Not just fear of civilisation around the given thoughts, but fear of being punished by a God.

Whereas perception is a product of everything around us, I find it almost a shame in the idealistic world that we don’t have a natural perception from our own minds. We are so heavily influenced from the way we are taught, it’s almost as if our thoughts aren’t even our own. We are taught the language we think with, by teachers who teach their style of language. Each and every subject we learn is the same; learning from parents is also very similar. Essentially everything that we actually think is the product of something or someone else. Quite a surreal thought, in hindsight – is anything original?

The luxury we have in being in such a free country is the freedom of literature, speech and thought. We can ‘choose’ what we feel and can research and develop our feelings in numerous ways because of our freedom to do so.

I find that hate is bred from ignorance of the unknown, as is commonly seen in the countries we live in. This is only worse for the countries without the basic freedoms we have. Without freedom to information and thought, hatred can be bred through generations – whether it be towards America, or the Jewish faith. We should take advantage of the liberties that we have and exercise the use of information we have been privileged with.

So perhaps the next time you dislike, or even hate something – it might be worth looking into the subject matter more, before placing your judgement.

After all, there are two sides to every story.

Racism

As aforementioned in my article about the meaning of life, this is going to be a piece all about the ignorance of racists.

The common perception of a racist is a person who discriminates against another because of a different skin colour and/or ethnic background. Racism, of course, actually covers a much larger ground than just skin colour: racial discrimination usually derives from highlighting taxonomic differences between persons or groups. This could include weight, religion, sexual orientation and, well, just about anything. In a sense, it’s simply bullying somebody because they’re different.

I’m fairly sure that most of us in our lives can hold our hands up and admit we’ve been racist to someone at some point. Quite usually, though, it’s a harmless jibe and not intended as anything hurtful. Unfortunately, in some cases, the roots to racism are much, much worse, and the results can be sickening.

The worst case of racism we’ve seen in recent years was the culling of the Jewish faith during the second World War. Around an estimated 6 million Jewish people died during Hitler’s regime. If we add in the Polish ethnic, homosexuals, Jehovah’s witnesses, the disabled, soviet civilians and prisoners of war, the actual loss of life could be anywhere from 11-17 million people who died for Hitler’s racism.

Hitler believed he could purify Germany into a master race called the Aryan race. According to Theosophy, the Aryan race was a master race that ruled the world from Atlantis some 12,000 years ago; around 10,000 BC. They were one of seven ‘root’ races that man descended from, the originator having lived some 18 million years ago. They are widely believed to be of northern European decent; the Teutonic knights were thought to be offshoots of the fifth race. What is also widely believed is that they possess a far higher intelligence than any other race. This was undoubtedly Hitler’s, as well as many other Nazis and theosophists, incentive to create this master race once more, believing themselves to be of this sacred blood.

This was the justification for Hitler to implement the Final Solution through Heinrich Himmler. This is the whole essence of why racism is so unimaginably wrong. A select few had opinions that the weaker of the race and the people believed not to be of Aryan descent should be preened from society, and millions upon millions of people lost their lives. The idea of  creating a blonde haired, blue-eyed race is beyond belief. Besides the fact that it’s impossible to trace bloodline back 18 million years to a legendary race, which in all likelihood was a myth, genetics don’t work that way either. This is showing the very worst side of racism, how the ignorance of a few can destroy a world.

In the modern-day world, not much has changed. There are those out there who still believe the Aryan race should separate from the rest of the world and create one super-race. The Jewish faith is still as discriminated against because of age-old stereotypes and cultural hatred. Homosexuals are riddled with abuse for a sexual orientation they are born with. Coloured people are stereotyped as thieves and thugs: in many countries they are still treated no better than farm animals. And vice-versa: white people are discriminated against by coloured people. The latest racism is Islamophobia, because of the extremist few who caused atrocities in the name of religion. It’s never-ending.

To change the views that some individuals and cultures harbour would take generation upon generation upon generation. Yet that would be far too optimistic. Some people are far too set in their hatred of anything different to accept and teach the ways of acceptance and understanding: some cultures often uniting together in the hatred of a shared perceived enemy.

Regardless of where you were born, what religion you follow, what colour you are or what sexual orientation you have, you are you. They way you were born is the way you were meant to be, and nothing in the world should make you feel differently about that, the same way that you should embrace all the different cultures around you, and certainly not discriminate against them.

It’s mindless, ignorant bullying. There is no justification for racism, it’s an abomination which destroys lives and cultures.

The only racism I’d like to see is against the racists themselves.

The Cycle of Life

My inspiration for writing this article is something that I feel strongly about, yet will never be able to physically change. But hopefully, by the end of the piece, I’d like  to have made some people aware of their actions and possibly change your perspective on certain aspects of the life around us.

The cycle of life is, quite simply, amazing. The complexity of our eco-system is truly breath-taking. Each and every animal or plant you see devours something else in order to sustain life and, considering there are an estimated 10 million different species on earth, the cycle of life is immense.

Think about the number of animals and plants we consume during our lifespan as humans. Say an average person lives for seventy years, the amount of life we consume to stay alive ourselves is phenomenal. This is just one cycle of life, the world as a whole has hundreds of thousands.

Death is integral to life. Without death, life wouldn’t (feasibly) be possible. Though I couldn’t be the one to shoot a cow or catch a fish, I accept that killing animals is part of the lives we have to live.

Vegetarians may well have a different view upon this: a natural argument being that we could physically survive eating only plants. This is a very interesting topic on morality in my view.

Where does plant-life come into it? Surely plant-life should have as many rights as an animal. Plants use the exact same cycles as any animal, though obviously the ingredients to sustain life are different. So shouldn’t the same respect be given to plants as is shown to animals, or does life have to have a brain to become worthy of consideration?

That is simply a thought for your own morality. I really don’t think there will be convictions for a person picking a daffodil in the future

What I find quite distressing is that size really does matter in terms of respect given to animals. It’s confusing to understand why. A person picks a flower in a forest, no-one minds. A person cuts down a tree in a forest, they are condemned. Animals are similarly afforded respect out of their simple uses to humans as well as their size. Why does a dog carry a higher right to life than an ant?

All too often I see people killing animals out of mere annoyance, savagery or even pleasure. Killing a fly for buzzing too loudly, a spider for being a spider, an ant because it’s small. You wouldn’t kill a dog for eating the last sausage roll you dropped. What possible right does anyone have to wipe out a life through annoyance. I truly abhor this notion.

Gamekeeper’s rearing pheasants, nurturing them through childhood, then letting them loose to hunt them down with guns. Fox-hunting and deer-hunting for social and sporting pleasure. Bullfighting for public entertainment. The list goes on and on for the unnecessary killing of animals.

That’s a list of things I’ll never be able to change, and no doubt the government will never effectively ban either.

But I implore you, the next time you see a fly buzzing around that annoys you, or an ant that strays into your path, think twice about needlessly destroying life which is so precious.

I, Robot

Unfortunately, if you’ve read this title and thought, “Wow, after 6 years, someone is finally going to do a decent critique of Will Smith’s I, Robot!” I’m afraid I’m going to disappoint you. Though I will put in my two pence and say I think that Will Smith is deservedly the biggest film star in the world.  I think ‘The Pursuit of Happiness’, ‘I am Legend’, and ‘Seven Pounds’ are three of the best emotionally provocative movies ever released.

I am actually going to talk about artificial intelligence. This is, ethically, a fascinating subject to look into. I’ve spent the last few days mulling this subject over in my head. Now this piece isn’t factual at all, I’m no expert in nano-technology or the development of robotics, but I’m just raising a few points which I find quite interesting to explore – please leave your thoughts on the subject, I’d be interested to hear.

The most powerful computer in the world (discounting George Bush Jr.) is undoubtedly the human brain – either singularly or as a collection. A computer can no doubt work out sums and probability at a much faster rate but, after all, they can only do this through the complex programming designed by humans.

I, Robot highlights the relationship of the character played by Will Smith (Del Spooner), and a robot (Sonny). This could well be something we may face in the future. Robots are being constantly developed to serve humans; such as the computer I’m using to write with now. Each of these computers are designed to respond in certain ways. I press the key ’3′ and sure enough ’3′ appears here. This is simple though. Robot design now has moved onto computer interfaces responding to speech and movement. In fact I’ve no doubt, before too long, there will be a robot designed which will be able to respond to humans as if you’re talking to a person themselves (though maybe not in appearance and movement) .

Now, surely the biggest moral question we must ask ourselves is: should the created become the creator? Effectively, we have the capability of creating life. To the created, we could be seen as Gods. After all, isn’t the human brain a computer itself? We respond to situations (though on a far more complex level, to date) exactly the same way. If someone jabs a pen in your knee, your natural reaction is to yelp in pain. If a self-learning computer interface is designed, then really we are designing something which could potentially be perceived as a personality. That is quite a worrying thought.

All of the surreal films we used to watch all those years ago, such as ‘The Terminator’, don’t actually seem so far-fetched to me anymore. Military forces will no doubt be replaced by robots in the near future, something talked about as recently as February of this year. Although the point was stressed that these robots would always be controlled by humans, and not independently, whose to say that this won’t happen. With robots capable of learning, Arnie’s terminator ripping through a police station, killing all in sight isn’t actually far-fetched at all, is it?

Technology is reaching unprecedented levels of complexity. The technological revolution is moving at such an incredible rate, the sky is no longer the limit – that is now the never-ending edges of the universe.

Maybe I’m getting far too ahead of myself mulling over these thoughts but, as a race, one day we’re going to have to ask that question to ourselves.

Do we have the right to become Gods?

The Meaning of Life

I haven’t written for a few days now and this article is why – naturally a lot to think about. I appreciate that this, like any of my other articles, is completely subjective but here are my insights – I hope you enjoy.

Now here’s an interesting topic to write about. Not many, such as the brilliant Monty Python crew, can pull it off successfully, but here goes. The meaning of life is a subject that just about every human will think about at some point in their lives. What is the purpose of us being here? Are we simply a complex mixture of chemicals, reacting to the probabilities of our genetic code? Or maybe we are something more.

Now there are several common paths which are widely accredited as possible truths. The most commonly known is procreation; the simple purpose of being born to produce offspring and carry on the cycle of life.

Now, personally, this isn’t a path I find credible. If we are simply created to create others, what of those males that are born, who would have much preferred to suckle on their fathers teat? Homosexuality as a whole could cover around 5% of the world’s population. Of course, it could be a lot more or less, but with certain societies incredibly closed-minded to such practices, it’s hard to know the actual number. (I won’t go into such bigotry here as I could, and will, do a whole article on the stupidity of certain racists.) Now that would be a rather crass mistake if procreation was our sole purpose. No doubt procreation is essential for life, but is it a sole meaning to our lives? I don’t think so, that would render possibly 30 million lives without purpose.

Religion is the next obvious path. The number of religions in this world are infinite. As the interpretation of everyone’s brain to either the teachings they follow or the philosophies they themselves believe, essentially every single person alive follows their own unique path – or ‘religion’. That’s what brings so much conflict to the inner parts of every religious organisation, which is why I find myself despising large amounts of religion. If everyone could accept the subjectivity of reading texts and interpretation, there would be a lot less conflict in the arrogance of individuals trying to convince everyone that only one word is truth – often by means of violence and threats. As an example, look at the leader of the Catholic church – the pope. Last year he claimed that condoms would help the spread of HIV and AIDs in Africa. I don’t think I need to highlight my view on that, as I assume everybody reading this has been to primary school and could make a more intelligent assessment.

That said, religion does bring such meaning to so many lives that, in fact, a lot of followers dedicate their whole life to the teachings of a few. What I find quite incredulous to my mind is that I see religion quite like a hereditary disease. Depending on whereabouts in the world you are brought up, and the parents you have bringing you into the world, you seem to be assigned a religion. I find that quite hard to get my head around this. I find it’s almost like tribal traditions. Some tribes slaughtered lambs in sacrifice, some slaughtered pigs. Depending on which tribe you were brought up in, that was the ‘word’ you believed. I could never personally base my life’s purpose on this concept. Especially as tribes kill each other because they chose the lamb, not the pig.

Next up – life. The meaning of life is life? Sounds a little surreal when put like that, yet isn’t it the path which makes the most sense? With each breath we take in, we move one step closer to the grim reaper. That’s quite a contradictory thought, potentially both morbid and inspirational. It can be taken either way: sit down and be depressed by the thought that death awaits or make the most of the time the reaper allows. This is a path many, many individuals follow. Live fa(s)t, die young: take in the full force of life, live it to its potential and disregard the consequences. This path can go in many directions depending on the nature of the individual. It could be drinking themselves stupid every night, taking every drug under the Sun. It could be trying that aforementioned procreation – except without the creation.

Sounds fun, does it not? Well, probably not to a Shoalin monk. Although this path no doubt fulfils some of the wildest dreams in a life with no regret, it can often lead to a person being spiritually and mentally unfulfilled. Look at the plights of many former rock stars: a life of unlimited money, sex and drugs often leads to deep depression. So, personally, this isn’t a credible path for me either.

Now the last meaning I’ll bring up: is that there’s no meaning at all. Some people may come to the conclusion that we are simply an anomaly. The whole universe is simply just a chemical reaction and we are a miniscule part of the result. There is no God, there is no meaning to our lives, we simply are born and then we die – nothing we do has the remotest effect on anything.

To counter this kind of argument, I find quite impossible – not because I believe it, but because it’s hard to prove that this isn’t true. For thousands of years philosophers and scientists have asked these questions, and none can give you a definitive answer. Perhaps, in years to come, they may discover the mathematical purpose of our being here, but I can’t see that happening. Life has an aura of mystery, one I’d love to discover, yet I along with many others doubt that I’ll ever find it.

So what is the meaning to life? I could answer you, but to be honest that’s personal.

Yet if you asked me what the meaning was to your life, well, that’s simple. It’s whatever YOU want it to be.

Escapism

Since I was a teenager, I’ve always harboured an ambition to have my own book published. After reading the truly masterful works of the late great John Tolkien and my personal favourite author Stephen Donaldson, I ventured into the world of fantasy. Now, as a perfectionist when it comes to writing a book, I set myself a precedent as high as they come following in the footsteps of these two. We can all dream!

Tolkien’s most famous works were undoubtedly ‘The Hobbit’ along with ‘The Lord of the Rings Trilogy’. In fact this masterpiece had been labelled the father of ‘high fantasy’, brought a resurgence to the genre and gathered  considerable acclaim. What fascinates me about Tolkien, is the level of depth in the descriptive content of anything he wrote, even to the extent of writing his own elvish language. This is where escapism comes to mind to me. Tolkien spent years writing about the episodes of middle-earth. How many of the years of his life did he spend in a world created by his own mind?

Stephen Donaldson on the other hand, has created several series which have become best sellers, the most notable of which is, ‘The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant’. Now as I’m sat here patiently waiting the 100 days left until the penultimate book in the Thomas Covenant series, I appreciate how authors such as these two truly capture the minds of the reader.

Donaldson’s use of description and character building, in my opinion, actually outstrips Tolkien. He is a true master of capturing the reader’s imagination, to the point where when reading his novels, you almost feel as if you’re there.

Of course escapism has many other forms, such as internet forums, alcohol and drug use to name a few. I was simply illustrating two masters at elevating us from the real world.

Life has many, many stresses: getting a new job, children, education, personal loss, inner battles, addiction, poverty. The list is endless. Many forms of escapism are seen as life necessities for many to live their lives. In fact, I doubt there are many people alive who don’t need to escape their day-to-day life in some way – myself included.

But the path of reading fantasy fascinates me. As children we learn tall tales of orcs, goblins, unicorns, centaurs, wizards, and so on. I used to love them. The idea of going on an adventure, retrieving treasure and slaying the evil wizard. What a great way to spend a few days of your life, imagining things that’ll never be.

As a second thought though, isn’t the greatest fantasy story that we could ever read, actually our own life story?

Maybe it be the mind-boggling statistic of actually being conceived. 1 in around 400 million if we’re talking about competing sperm. Take into account the problems of conceiving and troubled pregnancies, the actual statistic of your personal creation is as near a statistical impossibility as you’ll ever find (unless of course, you’re counting a cow actually jumping over the moon).

It could be the surreal notion of a piece of metal flying through the air carrying 100 passengers, or how that tin of beans managed to get to your plate. Each would be a fantasy story in itself a few centuries ago.

So maybe instead of escaping into a fantasy world or having a beer to escape that nagging wife, you could just take a couple of moments to appreciate the truly amazing feat of simply being here.

Where there’s a will, there’s a way.

Many believe, myself included, that the most powerful thing on Earth is the Human mind. As our society evolves it’s because of a collection of similarly minded people working together for the better of our people. You only have to look at medicine through time to see that.

Life expectancy would average around a low of thirty in the Middle ages compared to a figure pushing nearly seventy in modern-day Britain. This is an amazing achievement in itself, and this is only one aspect of our evolution. Take into consideration the amazing advancements since the times of ancient Greece in sewage works, water quality, heating systems, childbirth, freedom of knowledge, and education to name but a few.

As a collective power the Human mind has achieved some truly remarkable feats. The problem comes when the power is put into one.

For unfortunately, where there is a will, albeit an incredibly strong will, sometimes there is a way.

The wills of certain men can infect the wills of others. In certain instances to catastrophic effect.

Josef Stalin set his place firmly into History book for the repercussions of his famous iron will. Now to give a History lesson on Stalin would take a considerable amount of time so I’ll illustrate a brief overview.

From an early age, Stalin would be involved in many revolutionary acts, rising up through the ranks at a fast pace after joining Lenin’s Bolshevik movement in 1903. After playing a major role in the Revolution of 1917, and the Russian civil war 1917-1919 Stalin would be promoted. Firstly he was elected into the Bolshevik central committee. Before the civil war broke out he was appointed ‘People’s Commissar for Nationalities’ Affairs’ and further promoted into Lenin’s five member Politburo (Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union). This committee was essentially responsible for the policy making of the Soviet Union.

Stalin’s reign of terror began in 1919. He ordered the burning of villages to intimidate the proletariat into submission, and executed many Former Tsarist officers of the Red Army and counter-revolutionaries. He also ordered the public execution of any deserters or renegades of the army.

Stalin assumed control in 1922. His reign was pock-marked with murder, repression and death. In the form of purges, the exile of ethnic minorities, famine due to repressive policies, and executions of anyone thought to assume any threat to his leadership as many as 60 million people died. To try to get your head around this number, due to one mans iron will, he wiped out the population equivalent to the whole of England.

Stalin’s arch-enemy during the second world war was of course one just as notorious as himself – Adolf Hitler.

Coupled, they are no doubt the most notorious two dictators the world has ever seen. Combined, they were responsible for the death of approximately 1/100 of the world’s population today to put it into context.

Nothing shows more ignorance (Nick Griffin) than these two words – What Holocaust?

I find it very hard to get my head around a person who can sanction the murders of over 6 million of the Jewish faith in some of the worst conditions possible.

Unfortunately the wills of such men are contagious. Today you will find many people brought up with hatred in their hearts often as a consequence of the actions of but a few. Take Ireland for instance. Beneath the surface, there is a bubbling hatred still present, as there is in Palestine. Children are brought up from a young age to view the Jewish as nothing more the pigs that should be slaughtered.

A massive problem is hatred seems to override peace and stability. 10,000 people spreading peace can be destroyed by 10 inciting hatred.

Mistakes like this must be prevented in the future. As Weapons become more powerful, and man as greedy for power as ever, the next episode of hatred in our race could end in nuclear disaster. The next iron will of our race could end the lives of 6 billion, not just 6 million.

Where there’s a will, there really is a way.

Unfortunately this could be our downfall.

 

“I swear I can change!”

A phrase common to films, and no doubt in real life. Whether it be by your spouse, yourself or maybe even to a teacher or boss.

Does anyone trust the words? Often not, but isn’t everyone deserving of a second chance?

I view Humanity as an incredibly versatile race. Opinions can be changed, situations can be rectified and hate can turn to love, even in times of war. Take the Italians: all change there.

So by whose judgement is someone beyond change?

During the middle-ages in Britain, tolerance was always very low. Even for first time offenders, the range of punishment to crime was very severe. For stealing as little as a shilling, or goods over that amount, the culprit might well suffer punishment of death. For the lesser crime of stealing under the amount of a shilling, the culprit may merely be bereft of their ears or hands. And this is just for theft.

Vagrancy was another crime: anyone found to be homeless, poor, or unemployed was considered lazy, and a criminal. From the 16th century, vagabonds were whipped and facially mutilated with a ‘V’ branded on their face. Repeat offences would result in death.

Capital punishment was issued for a number of crimes, including highway robbery, theft, murder, arson and forgery. Uncommon to modern-day British courts, prosecution was always favoured during the middle-ages. The likelihood of false conviction was fairly high in some instances. The injustice of an incorrect life-ending conviction is a horrible thought but, even today, in America it happens and in the Eastern world it is commonplace, especially for women.

Muslim woman stoned to death.

The job of a torturer was an intricate art in those days. For those who were unfortunate enough to suffer the penalty of death, the torturer’s job would be to prolong life for as long as possible whilst employing agonising pain to the victim. There were many methods which they used, each as gruesome as the last.

To name but a few, firstly I’ll illustrate stoning (as seen above). The victim would have their hands tied behind their back, be wrapped in a blanket and buried up to their shoulders if male, and slightly below as a female. The executioners would draw a circle around the victim and proceed to throw medium-sized stones at them until either death or the victim’s impossible escape past the line drawn. Importantly, the stone couldn’t be large enough to kill the victim outright or so small as not to inflict pain, ensuring the victim suffered excruciating agony in the closing moments of their life. This ancient penalty is still practiced today in many eastern countries, often as a result of false convictions against raped women charged with adultery.

Next would be beheading: a practice very common in the execution of nobleman, Kings, and women. Unfortunately for the victims, it never usually worked out in the way of films and cartoons. Often a blunt blade would take several swings to part head from its body. The rich often paid for their own executioner to avoid this, and employed them to use a sharpened sword. Again, this practice is still used in horrific circumstances in the modern-day world. Splashed across the newspapers in recent times, we’ve seen to our dismay the use of beheading as a political tool. Innocent men such as Eugene Armstrong, beheaded in an attempt to destabilise the British and American occupancy of Iraq, to name but one of many, many instances.

Perhaps the most gruesome death of them all has to be the punishment for high treason. That is, to be drawn and quartered. A victim would initially be hung until close to death. This was to be followed by the victim being stretched. Then if the victim is particularly lucky, they would be beheaded. If not, they were cut open alive, and suffered the unimaginable pain of having their entrails burnt in front of them before the beheading. After death, the body would be quartered and displayed around the city or, in extreme cases, around the country as a deterrent to others.

This was common in the middle-ages. After death, bodies were usually left to rot and decay in the street to deter others.

Now the common theme with all these deterrents is that none of them worked. Crime did not lessen, even with the barbaric nature of the punishments. And make no mistake, execution in any form is barbaric.

To think of all the improvements in society since the 14th century, why has it taken so long to realise execution is not the answer. In Britain, a shocking fact to me, the last execution by hanging was as recently as 46 years ago in 1964. I’m surprised it took so long for Health and Safety to catch up.

If it took so long for us, how long will it take the Eastern world to realise the same thing and to stop setting laws based on age-old religious texts and the will of bigoted village elders. Examples should be set from the West of successful modern-day society.

And surely a big question we all have to ask ourselves is how long will it take America to join the civilized? Publicly passing electricity through a person, and drowning a person inside their own body, mix that with the torture of spending years on death row. It’s simply shocking that a Western country still lives in the dark-ages. A country that should be setting an example to the world, as frontrunners in the evolution of the human race.

No matter the nature of the crime, killing someone as a punishment is never the answer. Violence breeds violence, and no single judge or jury should have the right to kill.

“I swear I can change!”

Well maybe we can’t, but we all deserve the chance to.

Onward Christian soldier…

Like most my age, I was brought up to believe that, approximately 2000 years ago, the ‘messiah‘ was born. As a child, I never imagined this to actually be true, just another fanciful tale told by my elders to instil discipline and structure to my life, much like any frightening tale such as the bogeyman.

How wrong was I? A total of around one billion people would put me in my place claiming Jesus was truly the son of God, and that to not believe in this would condemn me to an eternity in hell. Which is nice.

Thankfully for these one billion, the days of Jesus’ life were recorded by men, and even tops the bestsellers list. Albeit, as records show, quite some years after he died. And, well, I say his life, they did miss the first 30 years out. But never mind, he was probably still the pure human being everyone portrayed him as, I guess.

It doesn’t take too much reading of the Bible to find the common link with many other religions. The pages are strewn with violence and murder, all sanctioned and justified by one greater than us all. Or perhaps it isn’t murder. After all, the Ten Commandments tells us what not to do. Perhaps it’s the modern-day equivalent of self-defence, as religion surely couldn’t contradict itself on the most important of all rules. Could it?

The one thing any religion does insinuate is that essentially man are a flawed race; corrupted by greed, power, personal desires and money (well politics really). Yet we are asked to put blind faith into age-old scriptures written by men. In a time where politics reigned!

Being brought up in a Christian country, from a young age, this is what we are brought up to believe. Yet if fortunes had placed us 6500 miles to the east, we may well have been Muslim.

The Muslim faith has found itself upon hard times in recent years due to the teachings of Islam. The atrocities of 9/11 and the London and Madrid bombings, highlighted the extremist nature of a select few. Yet is this their fault? If, from a child, they’re brought up with no contradiction to the belief that the killing of others brings eternal glory, how are they to know better? Most days you read of crimes for money, as petty as a few pounds. When the reward is far greater, eternal life (with a few untouched ladies thrown in), to them I’m sure it would be crazy not to.

But it’s not just Muslims. You only had to look at the news last week to see a ‘Christian’ one-man mission in Iraq. Armed with a gun, a Samurai sword and scripture, Gary Brooks Faulkner set out to kill Osama Bin Laden. Who could condemn him? Seeking justice for the murder of thousands of innocent Americans. Well God, apparently.

Still, he isn’t the first and he won’t be the last to use a name to cover up crimes. The same way that execution shouldn’t be covered by the veil of ‘law’.

So what is the real evil here? Is it man? Is it simply extremists?

Or maybe it’s religion itself.