Archive for year: 2015

When humans moved out from the Eden of the African plains to populate the world we took possession of territories, which in turn became tribal domains, kingdoms and countries. As we did this we created a sense of belonging. We began to own our territory that belongs to “us” and no one else.

When we identify with a group of human beings we see them as ‘us’. Those people that we do not identify as ‘Us’ who exist outside of our group we identify as ‘them’. ‘Us’ equals inclusion acceptance and support. ‘Them’, equals denial and rejection. When ‘They’ seek to take what ‘We’ have or what we feel that we own we fight to defend it.

And so in 2015 the ‘Us’ that is the UK has an army of migrants massing on the borders attempting entry. The ‘Us’ that is the UK says you cannot come in becomes you are not ‘Us’ so they are ‘Them’ and you do not belong here.

And yet Britain is, and always has been, a melting pot of many people that has been mixed for thousands of years by people from all over the world.

1968, Kenyan Asians flee to Britain
1951, people from the colonies mainly the West Indians were encouraged to work here
1881, Jews flee to Britain from the Russian pogroms
1066, it was the French and William the Conqueror who populated the UK.
793, it was the Vikings
410, it was the Angles and the Saxons.
43, it was the Romans
500 BC, the Celts invaded Britain

I am only picking out a few of the events that I am aware of. I am sure that there are many, many more as people, that have, for a variety of reasons moved around the world, and will continue to do so. On the basis of what I have written above should we concede the domain of the UK to the Celts? That would be the people of Scotland, Ireland, Wales and Cornwall.

I do not know anyone who is pure British or who could even claim to be Celt. With the wonders of the Internet we can now do amazing research and discover all sorts about our own ancestry. In my own case on my mother’s side there is Irish, Negro and Chinese and on my father’s eastern European Jew and Viking. Yet I would say that we are as British as you can get. My lot all fought in the last two World Wars and I guess we all fight again if we feel threatened.

Human beings are all one people. We choose the divisions of colour, race, religion and ethnicity. What would solve the world’s problems, our problems, would be inclusion, tolerance and the law of allowing.

Perhaps we should be asking ourselves why are these migrants wanting to be here with us and not staying where they come from? Perhaps our energy should be focussed around helping heal and develop their places of origin and in so doing, help to expand the concept of humanity rather than developing our bunker mentality and reinforcing that sense of “Us” and “Them” because in the end surely we are all one.

The big question is do we own the territories that we deny other people?

The coming years will test our concepts of who owns what.

Take care and be happy

Sean x

Alcohol, nicotine, tannin, caffeine, legal highs, all easily available on the high street. What about exercise, chocolate, carbs? They all create a chemical dependence in our brain chemistry. But would we think of religion, education, reading or knitting as addiction?

We all have an internal and individual chemical normal. Your internal chemistry is different to mine, but when yours is in balance you feel that all is as it should be. If you had my chemistry you would feel horrible, like wise if I had yours.

The nearest we get to normal is at the moment of birth, yet even then our individual internal chemistry is set by the genetics from our parents and from the things that we ingest like our mothers milk. As we grow and move on in life different experiences create different internal chemical states that, when repeated, we experience as normal. In the end we say, “that’s just the way I am”, no it is not, it’s the way we have taught our system to be. What it comes down to is that you normal chemical balance is your addiction and you will do things to maintain your normal. That is called ‘your addictive behaviour’. So what is yours? Remember the person who needs to go to mass everyday is as addicted as the cocaine user, it is us that see it as good or bad.

A class drugs are those substances that we, collectively as a society, have decided are so bad they should be made illegal and people, our population, should be (are) banned from using them. The popular image of a Class A addict is of a spotty no-good living in the gutter. Yet, functional addicts are everywhere.

Functional alcoholics famously run governments, functional cocaine addicts run the financial sectors and functional heroine addicts run businesses. I am not saying that we should all go around ‘off our cake’ and ‘out of our tree’ but being stoned is more common than we realise.

Does drug addiction damage people? Yes! Should we do something about it? Yes!

Human beings have used drugs throughout their evolution. The chances of this stopping are remote. Making drugs legal enables us to take control of them and it stops the negative associations such as people trafficking, violent crime, robbery, prostitution, and so on.

There is another issue of balance. The government creates income from the tax on cigarettes. There is also a cost in the health costs of the diseases caused by smoking. Is the income greater than the health costs? I do not know the answer. However, if all drugs were legal and subject to tax, we would create income to deal with rehab and recovery. At the same time we would reduce violent crime and maybe make the world a little safer.

Whatever your addiction is, be happy and live in the present.

Take care

Sean x

I once heard a wonderful talk given by Stephen Fry. He read out a quote about a new invention that suggests it was, and would, ruin the world. It was destined to destroy society, break up families and relationships, turn children against their parents and people against their governments it would be the end of society as we know it. The invention he was talking about was, the book.

The book, at that time, was a creation that followed on from the invention of the printing press. The book was not seen as a good thing. Thinkers and philosophers of that time thought that if someone was sat alone, or in a corner of the family room, having an exclusive experience in their own mind that was not shared with their friends and family, that this would destroy the fabric and foundation of what a family is. Of course, prior, to the book on a winter’s evening in front of the fire, people talked, told stories, shared the day’s news. Would or could the book stop this?

Now we are in the position where people fear that the book will now be lost to the Kindle book reader, the computer, the tablet and the mobile phone. Seems to me that as each new invention of social distraction comes along what we fear most of all is change.

So what about social media?

Facebook allows people to share in a digital electronic way. It allows people to share at anytime with anyone anywhere in the world. It opens up the world and creates an awareness of other people in other situations and other countries. But what it does is creates change. It is a new form of communications. Those people that grow up with modern technology will see it as normal and the way that it is. They will not feel bereavement for the loss of the paper book when they can hold 200 books on their Kindle.

Just as the book was a feared when it was first developed so too is social media now. For many it is a threat. Some governments are so scared by its existence that it is blocked from the servers in that country. Why would a government or an interest group be sacred of people openly expressing their thoughts and feelings in a public forum? It is probably that they have things that they would rather keep hidden.

I think, that like most things, social media is neutral. Think of a knife! The knife is neutral; it is neither good nor bad. It is what we do with it that makes it good or bad. There are good books and bad books. There is good social media and bad social media. It is not what it is, it is what we do with it that counts.

Be happy, live in the present, and use your social media positively.

Take care

Sean x