I AM NOT GETTING OUT OF BED TODAY

This country has made me far too serious.

A friend sent me an essay that drew together three threads of human tragedy, which I won't further elaborate upon, as the author hasn't given consent and I've no idea if he intends to publish. Suffice to say that it explores our inadequacies as humans. One of many intriguing considerations is our inability for any remedy, any kind word or embrace, to relieve the pain of the most fundamentally damaged.

I do not like to think of myself or any human, indeed, as damaged in ways beyond repair. But what stops us from being so? Some divine law preventing unfairness? Karma? The healing power of the universe? There is little justice on earth, especially where the law casts its shadow. It must be in the afterlife, then, that we are rewarded or condemned for our choices. Maybe that’s so. But it is guaranteed that this life, at least, may be filled with much more suffering than hope.

I have, after great struggle, found my own sense of God. But His existence does not mean, in my mind, a corresponding sense of purpose, or dedication to goodness, or even a natural order or process of events. Atheists live in a world where our existence was brought on by chance, and by the laws of physics; I would argue that the world of believers is worse. We live in an existence where God is real but cannot alleviate our suffering; our clockworks have been assembled by the Watchmaker but we have broken nonetheless; God created us of nothing but set us at odds with the rest of creation. If we are the chosen ones, meant to speak and read and invent, then our heartlessness and corruptibility means we have somehow broken a sacred contract. And if we are not, if we rose by accident long after the hand of God finished molding our planet, then our awfulness is inherent to all creatures; any living thing that becomes sentient will also likely take on our bizarre mix of good and evil. Chimpanzees, our closest living relatives, are also the only other animals besides ourselves known to kill for fun. Either our nature is a violation of God’s intent, or it is a symptom of self-awareness. Neither is palatable.

I will not say that there is no goodness in us, just that our goodness is so fleeting, so difficult to transform into real, tangible things. We are indeed crippled by the vast difference between intent and results. Some people are irreparably damaged and it is almost certainly other humans that damaged them. We are indentured to Nature at birth, but worse, we are indentured to each other. We rely on each other to survive, and yet, we too often make it difficult for each other. We hurt those who create for us, underestimate their needs, punish them for trying to negate their own pain - even for trying to negate ours. Our goodness is mired in mediocrity, hate, imagined differences, bitterness, jealousy, apathy. Each one of us creates suffering or hope; failure to produce one is a de facto creation of the other. Not enough of us create hope so it is suffering that overwhelms us. 

So part of me believes there is other life out there. All of me believes it is smart enough to stay the hell away from us. 

The British National Party

Because I'm hopelessly nerdy and possibly English, I receive The Guardian in my feed reader (as opposed to, you know, any newspapers from the country in which I actually reside). I was listening to a Guardian podcast a few days ago, and heard that the British National Party, the far-far-far-right federal party, had captured a significant number of seats in some former Labour strongholds. Naturally, I decided to check out their website, and WOW am I glad I did.

To be honest, it's probably one of the best-designed party websites I've ever seen, British or Canadian. From the nav bar to the very clear platform policies, there is no mistaking who the party is or what they stand for. The problem is, what they stand for is, well, primarily the protection and preservation of "Britain's indigenous people" - aka, whites.

Then, of course, there's the push to bring back corporal punishment for "petty criminals and vandals". Really? Their solution to rising violence and civil mutiny is spankings, or a couple turns with the Strap?

Next, they turn to defence: apparently, the same nation who entered World War I in defense of Belgium, following Germany's broken promise not to invade the neutral country, now has much more important things to do than participate in "meddling ‘peace-keeping’ missions".

And did you know white Britons are "second-class citizens" in England? So who exactly constitutes the first class, then? Frankly, I can't think of any country where white people are treated as second-class citizens. White people the world over are treated to their own affirmative action or "positive discrimination" every day. That's why the average white still makes more money, lives in a better neighbourhood, has more education, and is better represented in the government than the average individual belonging to any other ethnic category.

I find it particularly interesting that the BNP refer several times in their policies to the removal of "politically correct" language and double-speak from schools, the workplace, and law enforcement. It seems to me that a political party based entirely on a thinly-veiled platform of xenophobia would, by necessity, have to use that kind of language to defend themselves.

But hey, we're talking about the fascists here, and we know what a history of good planning and political integrity the fascist movement has always maintained.

Oh, and check this out. I laughed.
For a very long time.