End the Insanity: For the love of God STOP CHANGING THE HOUR

This weekend the hour will be brought forward, and then in six months, it will be brought back again, for no reason whatsoever, thus inflicting yet another unnecessary disaster on the British Isles. It is estimated that in Britain and Ireland, bringing the hour back in the autumn costs between 100 and 160 lives a year. It raises carbon emissions by up to 3 per cent, equivalent to almost half of all aircraft pollution. It brings misery to families up and down the islands. It causes depression and health problems for hundreds of thousands.

How long must we suffer this indignity? How long will this pox continue to govern and control our lives? How long must we endure with bovine complacency the animadversions of the pro-clock changing fanatics and propagandists? How long must the silent majority cower before the sinister forces of unreason? For how many more winters must we face 6 months of mid-afternoon darkness and dreariness?

End this insanity now – stop bringing the hour back!

The Menace of “Populism"

I notice that the media have started labelling the anger of people at bankers and the existing financial system, as “populism”. This is an interesting manoeuvre. The implication seems to be that the ignorant “populace” is succumbing to visceral and unfounded rage against its masters. According to the Economist magazine, people have been “seized by a spasm of fury” and there is a disturbing “storm of outrage”. Most horrifying of all there is a new political disposition that “tries to return power to ‘the people’” (note the inverted commas around "people"). Is this “just a storm in a teacup?” asks the Economist, hopefully. According to the Financial Times, there is a worrying “McCarthy witch-hunt” against bankers that could “send the country back to the stone age”. One senior banker told the FT that recent taxes aimed at bankers were “the most profoundly anti- American thing I’ve ever seen”. He objects to such anti-free-market measures. But presumably he does not object to the anti-free-market multi-billion dollar bail-outs of all the world’s banks?

“A recent Harris poll” the Economist observes with dismay “shows that 85% of Americans believe that big companies have too much influence on politicians and policymakers”. If only the irrational masses understood what was really going on, seems to be the argument, they would not be surrendering to their base emotions. But even Martin Wolf, chief economic commentator of the Financial Times, says his “blood boils” at some of the bonuses that bankers have recently received. But he hastens to reassure his readers: “I am no populist”. Phew!

In recent decades, the Economist magazine notes with satisfaction, “economic populism was trumped by cultural populism. The Republican Party championed the interests of the ‘silent majority’ against bra-burning feminists, civil-rights activists and effete liberals who were more interested in protecting the rights of criminals than preserving law and order. The Democrats made desultory attempts to revive economic populism in 2000 and in 2004”. But unfortunately this Republican tactic may no longer be working - trembles the oracle of the powerful “Economic populism is returning to the heart of American politics” .

The chief economic correspondent of the London Times says that “the only way to revive the system is to offer vast public subsidies and support to the banks. Who owns the banks and whether bank shareholders or managers benefit unfairly from public subsidies are irrelevant … What politicians must now do is to persuade the public that the time for quibbling about the precise rules of bank rescues is over”. He says that the BBC should play its part in performing “a priceless national service by distracting the British people and the media from throwing tomatoes at pilloried bankers”.

So what exactly is unfounded about this “populist” rage? The rage is, in fact, entirely justified – and its source is precisely the fact that people can clearly see, for once, what is “really going on”. The system is profoundly unjust. The rage is a function of this awareness of injustice. We live in a world where some people get slapped in prison for minor thefts, or taking drugs or whatever, and where other people work hard in order to earn modest wages. Meanwhile, people in charge of financial institutions earn millions, and when they lose billions, they are supported by the rest of us. Many of these charitable donations to bankers have simply been pocketed by them in the form of massive wages, bonuses, and pensions. The credit crunch was one of those moments where the essence of the state capitalist system is revealed for all to see: socialism for the rich, free-markets for everyone else.

There’s nothing wrong with having a bit of a tummy on you …

… not if you’re the Buddha, there isn’t.

“Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment”

“Ennui has made more gamblers than avarice, more drunkards than thirst, and perhaps as many suicides as despair”

“It is better to conquer yourself than to win a thousand battles. Then the victory is yours. It cannot be taken from you, not by angels or by demons, heaven or hell.”

“In the sky, there is no distinction of east and west; people create distinctions out of their own minds and then believe them to be true.”

Kill the Buddha

My new-found obsession with Buddhism is now escalating into a very un-Buddhist like frenzy.

“Embrace nothing:
If you meet the Buddha on the way, kill the Buddha.
If you meet your kinfolk on the way, kill your kinfolk.
Only live your life as it is,
Not bound to anything.”

How cool is that!

Buddha

I wonder is there ANYTHING in what the Buddha said or did that any sane person could object to?

• “Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense.”

• “Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn't learn a lot today, at least we learned a little, and if we didn't learn a little, at least we didn't get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn't die; so, let us all be thankful.”

• “Have compassion for all beings, rich and poor alike; each has their suffering.”

• “He who experiences the unity of life sees his own Self in all beings, and all beings in his own Self, and looks on everything with an impartial eye.”

• “No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path.”

• “Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.”

• “Work out your own salvation. Do not depend on others.”

• “Hatred does not cease by hatred, but only by love; this is the eternal rule.”

• “The only real failure in life is not to be true to the best one knows.”

• “The whole secret of existence is to have no fear.”

"Cull the Living Flower"

“Religious suffering is, at one and the same time, the expression of real suffering and a protest against real suffering. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people… The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is the demand for their real happiness….The criticism of religion is, therefore, in embryo, the criticism of that vale of tears of which religion is the halo….Criticism has plucked the imaginary flowers on the chain not in order that man shall continue to bear that chain without fantasy or consolation, but so that he shall throw off the chain and cull the living flower.” Karl Marx

Michael Fingleton – even worse than Sean Fitzpatrick?

I see that after his “bank” was bailed-out by the rest of us, Michael Fingleton took the trouble to award himself a one million euro bonus and a 27 million euro pension.

Will Michael Fingleton apologise and give back all the money he has stolen from the rest of us? No chance. And even if he did it would be too late. We already know what kind of man he is.

www.brianbarrington.com

Celebrating the arrival of www.brianbarrington.com

Who amongst us has not dreamed of becoming a dotcom? I toyed with the idea of becoming a .ie, but this blog is an international event with global implications, so that kind of parochialism would be inappropriate. I also considered .net and .org – on the basis that .com sounds too commercial, too mercenary. But let’s not fool ourselves – I’m in this for the money! So dotcom it is.

Will the world ever be the same again?

Er, yes, if I continue to desist from posting anything new on this website.

"Make me happy, not suicidal"

A READER WRITES: "This blog is supposed to increase happiness? Now I might be missing something, but I get enough doom and gloom from the RTE News, Vincent Browne and Pat Kenny without you joining in......get back to basics........make me happy, not suicidal".

• If you are not happy here and now, as you read these words, then you never will be - Author Unknown

• I don't know why we are here, but I'm pretty sure that it is not in order to enjoy ourselves - Wittgenstein

• You can never get enough of what you don't need to make you happy - Eric Hoffer (Readers will note that U2 stole this idea for a line in one of their songs)

• Unhappiness is best defined as the difference between our talents and our expectations - Bono (that's Edward de Bono, not Bono)

• Happiness is having a large, loving, caring, close-knit family in another city - Burns

• It is only possible to live happily ever after on a day to day basis - Bonnano

• Love is a condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own - Heinlein

• What a wonderful life I've had! I only wish I'd realized it sooner - Colette

• Happiness is a form of courage - Holbrook Jackson

• One should be either sad or joyful. Contentment is a warm sty for eaters and sleepers - O'Neill

• Happiness is a function of accepting what is - Werner Erhard

• It is strange what a contempt men have for the joys that are offered them freely - Duhamel
  

• The only way to avoid being miserable is not to have enough leisure to wonder whether you are happy or not - George Bernard Shaw

• I have diligently numbered the days of pure and genuine happiness which have fallen to my lot: they amount to fourteen - Abd-El-Raham

Real World Maps

The above is a map of the world based on wealth - the size of each country is in proportion to its nominal GDP. The larger the GDP the larger the country. The below is a map of the world based on tourist destinations - the more tourists a country receives the larger the country is shown on the map.

Great site. http://www.worldmapper.org/thumbnails/mapindex1-12.html. It shows world maps based on everything from nuclear arms to prisoners to murders to agricultural output.

The latest on the global economy: screwing ordinary people again

All the world’s largest banks are insolvent, due to bad debts, and they will go bankrupt without government intervention. The major Central Banks in the US, Europe and Japan are creating money in an attempt to stop these banks going bust. The governments will, at the behest of the banks, try to avoid nationalising those banks – they will give the banks the money in return for no increase in control over them, although cosmetic changes to “regulation” will be talked about. The new money will be given directly to the banks so that they can “recapitalise”, write off debts and start lending again to “consumers”, so that people can borrow more.

Note that the newly created money is NOT to be given to “consumers” (i.e. ordinary people) in form of higher wages or higher incomes of any sort. The chief economist at the Financial Times identifies the main problem with the world economy: “The highest priority is to halt the free-fall in demand”. What does he mean by this? He means that people have stopped spending. There are two ways to increase demand and spending: increase people's incomes or increase the amount they borrow to spend. Now, most people's incomes have not been going up much. Remember: nearly all the increase in wealth from the last 30 years has gone to the wealthiest 10% of the population. Inequality of wealth has increased hugely. Median incomes have hardly increased at all, and now they are decreasing.

The governments and banks know that they need to increase demand, and get “consumers” (i.e. ordinary people whose average real incomes have hardly increased over the past 30 years) spending again. But they want to make sure that the money is borrowed by those consumers, and that the current bank system is kept in tact. At all costs they need to avoid increasing the real incomes of the non-wealthy – because then the non-wealthy would be able to buy what they need without borrowing, and the banks would not be so necessary. In short, people are to borrow the money, and get themselves further into debt, because modern Western economies and financial institutions depend on keeping most people is a state of debt-slavery.

When the banks make profits they keep them; when they lose money they are bailed out and everyone else pays. Then they are given more money to lend, so that the process can start again. This is all in keeping with the basic principle of state capitalism: socialism for the rich, free markets for everyone else. As Nicolas Taleb (who predicted this current crisis) says: “Banks have never made money in the history of banking, losing the equivalent of all their past profits periodically – while bankers strike it rich.”

In sum: The governments and the banks are hoping that they can manufacture inflation by creating money, and that this will force people to keep borrowing. Whether this attempt to create another credit boom will succeed or not remains open.

Do YOU have a problem? Leave an anonymous comment, or send your problem in confidence to brianbarrington@gmail.com

Christian Reader thinks Brian Barrington might be engaging in "Tribal Apologetics"

A READER WRITES: A popular suburban myth has it that when asked, many primitive tribes identify themselve simply as "The People." They assume that their own tribe is set apart from all others, that they are human in some innately superior way.

I thought of this after reading Brian’s post called "tribal mentality versus humanist mentality”. Brian begins his post as follows:

"Humans can broadly be divided into two types - those with a Tribal Mentality and those with a Humanist Mentality. Both mentalities exist in most people to varying degrees."

Brian is a smart fellow, and presents his argument with grace and wit. My question is, could his argument ultimately be an exercise in tribal self-justification?

The term "humanist" often can describe a tribe, rather than the cosmopolitan brotherhood Brian refers to. It may refer to a (1) late Medieval movement in literature; (2) the vaguely progressive "Enlightenment" project and its modern disciples; (3) "secular humanism" in the sense set out by Paul Kurtz, for example -- the assumption that there is no God, death is the end, but we should therefore care for ourselves and for others (which itself splits into hundreds of tribes); or (4) the assumption that "all men (and women) are brothers & sisters . . . no man is an island." (5) There is also something called "Christian humanism," a subset of 4.

I think Brian may have a good point about psychology types. But I am wondering if he confuses some of these meanings, and philosophical positions that he happens to hold, and social groupings that he happens to feel comfortable in, with the characteristics of a nascent psychological Ubervolk -- "We are the people."

As a Christian, I feel I can identify with people of all ideological tribes, Marxist, Buddhist, Hindu, neo-Platonist, Stoic, Muslim, or, yes, secular humanists, on many levels. We are all created in the Image of God. We are all sinners. And each of these ideologies carries some implicit shadow of the divine Logos, some "seed of the Word," that as a Christian I affirm and respect. While I think it is necessary to fight Osama bin Laden, I don't question his humanity, and we might be able to talk (if one of us were held captive by the other, maybe) a common theological language that would seem foreign to many "cosmopolitan" humanists.

So what is the relationship between skepticism and humanism? Is there any relationship? Might there sometimes be an inverse relationship, and those who are most inclined to see all humanity as one, be those who reject materialism, or even political liberalism?

BB SAYS: I think the Tribalist\Humanist distinction is an attempt at a personality distinction, not unlike the extrovert\introvert distinction. Introverts and extroverts are found in most groups. So are Tribalists and Humanists. Now, there are Christian introverts and Christian extroverts. Similarly, there are Christian Tribalists and Christian Humanists. And the same can be said of most large, diverse complex societies and groups.

Now, your question is: can you have a Tribal Humanist? Well, can you have an introverted extrovert? You can’t.

Personality theorists think there are five big personality distinctions: introvert\extrovert; agreeable\disagreeable; conscientious\not conscientous; stable\neurotic and open-to-experience\closed-to-experience.

The Tribalist\Humanist distinction is closest to the closed-to-experience\open-to-experience distinction. People with low scores on openness tend to have more conventional, traditional interests, they prefer familiarity over novelty, they are loyal to their own group. People with high scores tend to be the opposite. This is not an exact parallel with what I mean by Tribalist and Humanist but perhaps there is some overlap.

You have to hand it to the Yanks

The guys who caused the collapse of Bear Stearns being dragged from their homes in handcuffs in front of the media by FBI agents. Now that’s why the US has not had a coup d’etat since independence.

Wisdom of the Ancient Romans:

• Ignoranti quem portum petat nullus suus ventus est – Seneca (translation: If one does not know to which port one is sailing, no wind is favourable).

• Nemo enim fere saltat sobrius, nisi forte insanit – Cicero (translation: No one dances sober, unless he is insane).

• Parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus – Horace (translation: The mountains will be in labour, and a ridiculous mouse will be brought forth).

• Sedit qui timuit ne non succederet – Horace (translation: He who feared that he would not succeed sat still)

• Semper avarus eget – Horace (translation: The covetous man is ever in want).

• First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do – Epictetus

• Say to yourself in the early morning: I shall meet today inquisitive, ungrateful, violent, treacherous, envious, uncharitable men. All these things have come upon them through ignorance of real good and ill – Marcus Aurelius

• There is nothing so ridiculous but some philosopher has said it –Cicero

Do YOU have a problem? Leave an anonymous comment, or send your problem in confidence to brianbarrington@gmail.com

The Irish Blog Awards: Boycott this Farce

A READER WRITES: “Did you know that the Irish Blog Awards take place this Saturday in Cork - I wonder how people get nominated? You should definitely be in the running - I wake up happy every morning knowing that I'll get to read your blog, it's FAB! Maybe you could investigate the Blog Awards thing for the future, it's essential to the well-being of the nation that as many people as possible know about your website.”

BB SAYS: I was not aware of this. I see that I am not nominated for any award, even though my blog has been up and running for over a month now. They don’t even have a “Best Irish Philosophy Blog” category. What a farce. Boycott the Irish Blog Awards.

Friday Visual Miscellany

Stolen from:
http://untilthestarsturncold.soup.io/


Garfield minus Garfield

The Global Cities Index

More on Global cities - where it's all happening. Check out the map. The top five most global cities are New York City, London, Paris, Tokyo, Hong Kong. Other top European cities are Brussels (13th), Madrid (14th), Berlin (17th). Dublin sneaks in at 44.

Internet Ads

A READER WRITES: “Dear Brian, Do you ever click through onto the ads that magically appear on your site? I went to this one - http://theonesoul.com/ . Should I be clicking on MORE ads or LESS ads in these worrying economic times I wonder?”

BB SAYS: Click more. Click, click, click like a maniac. Somebody told me that I get 99 cents every time one of these ads is clicked. I’ve no idea how it works, or how I will ever get the money. But supposedly that’s what happens. It all works by magic.

Anyway, these days you can find great bargains by trawling through ads on the Internet. Downloading two-for-one discount vouchers might even be overtaking porn as the number one activity of websurfers. Unbelievable.

Yet another rant about the economy

A READER WRITES: “You have not provided us with a rant about the economy for a couple of days now. I miss it. Please rant”.

BB SAYS: Ok, ok. But this is the last one. No seriously. I promise. This is my last word on the matter. From now on I won’t be mentioning it again. Honest. I’m boring even myself at this stage.

The predicted German bailout of Ireland is now being talked out openly:

“The German finance minister is raising the prospect of a rescue becoming necessary. While declining to identify countries facing problems, the German finance chief said Ireland, which has a widening budget deficit, is in a ‘very difficult situation’”.

Of course, Ireland is already being kept on life-support by the European Central Bank in Frankfurt:

“The ECB is able to get cash indirectly to countries by buying bonds under repurchase agreement in the secondary market. The ECB does not make public what bonds it holds and that made it unclear which countries, if any, might already be receiving this form of indirect help. But Mayer said he thought some countries were.”

Ireland is. The ECB presumably has reasonably reliable information about the real condition of Irish banks – I would imagine that Anglo Irish Bank has virtually no deposits (what rational person would have their money there?), and billions of loans owing to foreign banks that neither it nor the government will be able to pay back. The other Irish banks are not that far behind Anglo Irish Bank. Ireland borrowed billions from abroad to build and buy property - if banks increase lending by 20% then house prices go up by 20%. Now, if people think house prices are going to keep going up, the link between house prices and household income is broken – until such time as the bubble bursts, and then the link is re-established. Household incomes in Ireland are not nearly as high as people think, and they are falling fast.

As I wrote to a friend on the 9th of January 2008: “The big problem in Ireland is new financial instruments such as 35 year mortgages, or 120% mortgages and so on. On the face of it, people might think that 35 year mortgages are good for house-buyers because they allow them to buy a better, more expensive house. But all it does is allow everyone to get a bigger mortgage, thus driving up the price of houses for everyone. So the purpose of financial instruments like 35 year mortgages is to get ordinary people deeper in debt, to push up house prices, and benefit banks and above all builders. The Irish government has connived in all of this deliberately, in order to keep its biggest donors happy. The people who lose out the most from these scams are young people who either can't afford a house, or who have to plunge themselves into a life-time of debt in order to get a house”.

Much of the borrowed money will never be paid back. So now nobody will lend to Ireland except the ECB (indirectly). But don’t think for a second that any bailout will not come at a price. The people who provide the bailout dictate whatever terms they want, and the recipient country has no choice but to obey. When countries are bailed out the quid pro quo is always the same: huge increases in taxes and murderous reductions in public spending.

Some commentators are worried that the Irish economy now faces a Japanese-style “lost decade”. Certainly, house prices in Japan fell for 14 years in a row after its bubble bursts in the early 1990s. But unemployment only rose to 5 percent in 2001 from 2.1 percent in 1990. Its economy expanded in all but two years (1998 and 1999). In Ireland unemployment is going to rise to at least 12% this year and GDP is going to fall by 6% at least. The government’s tax revenue will be decimated. Nothing like this ever happened in Japan’s “lost decade”.

What is Genius?

A READER WRITES: “I am at a loss as to how you managed to exclude Rome from your list of Ten Best Cities!!! Is there an as yet unmentioned reason for this? Or did you just simply forget?”

BB SAYS: Yes, the Eternal City belongs on the list of course. Largely because it is home to the world’s greatest painting. Painting is visual philosophy, and Raphael’s Stanza della segnatura is philosophical genius of the highest order. The painting is a room in the Vatican. The four walls of the room are painted with frescoes by Raphael.

The paintings on the two largest walls face each other across the room as equals – on one wall the School of Athens (pictured above); on the other wall the Disputation of the Holy Sacrament. The School of Athens represents Philosophy, the Disputation represents Religion. The former contains paintings of great figures from the pagan Greek era, the latter contains great figures from the Christian era. So here, Reason and Faith face each other as equally valid ways of life – Raphael suggests that the choice between philosophy and religion, between reason and revelation, is the most important one that a human being needs to face.

This is a Renaissance painting. What does that mean? The Renaissance was the moment that existed between the Middle Ages (i.e. the great age of Christianity) and the Enlightenment period that followed it (i.e. the Age of Reason). The Renaissance was the moment between these two eras when religion and reason faced each other as equally valid choices. Raphael’s Stanza della segnatura is the graphical representation of that moment – the moment when Renaissance humanists conceived of a harmony between the teachings of Greek philosophy and Christian theology.

At the centre of the School of Athens are the two greatest philosophers of Ancient Greece, Plato and Aristotle. This-worldly Aristotle, the proponent of the Golden Mean, extends his hand in a balanced, moderate fashion. Other-worldly Plato, the idealist, points his arm to the skies and towards eternity. On the lower level of the painting there are representations of scientific figures such as Pythagoras and Euclid. On the higher level are philosophers – such as Socrates, who is painted in conversation with a group of youths. There is also a portrait of the great Muslim philosopher Averroes, a controversial figure who was suspected of being an atheist. So here, at the very heart of institutional Christianity, at the centre of the Vatican, Raphael has painted a portrait of a man who was heretic, who was either a Muslim or an atheist.

To the right, hidden amongst all these figures in the School of Athens is a self-portrait of Raphael himself. The message could not be clearer – Raphael is saying: “I am a philosopher. I belong with the Ancient Greeks - and maybe even with Averroes”.

The Disputation, which represents religion and faith, is also divided into a higher and lower section, although here the division is more definite. At the centre of the higher level we have the Holy Trinity (the father, the son and the holy ghost), surrounded by the Virgin Mary, angels and biblical figures such as Moses. On the lower level are popes and theologians such as Augustine and Aquinas, discussing the meaning of the Eucharist. So even here, discussion and philosophical disputation are present.

What about the other two smaller walls of the room that join the School of Athens to the Disputation? One is devoted to poets and the muses, and the other to law and political virtue. Raphael suggests that art and politics mediate between reason and revelation, between philosophy and religion. The depictions of the poets include Homer (the greatest poet of the pagan Greek era) and Dante (the greatest poet of the Christian era). Art and music (including Raphael’s art) are the means by which harmony can be achieved between Reason and Faith. The fourth wall contains a representation of the four Greek Cardinal virtues – Moderation, Courage, Justice and Wisdom. Again, these practical virtues mediate between Reason and Religion. Later, Christians added three cardinal Theological virtues to the four cardinal Philosophical virtues - those Theological virtues are Faith, Hope and Charity - making a total of seven Cardinal Virtues.