Don't Forget To Be Awesome

So, here's the deal.

The human brain is pretty much the most complicated, advanced and fantastic single object in the universe.

The human body has evolved to a level where it can manipulate the environment around it like no species before it.

In short, humans are powerful.

And we not so much as can, but will use that power to either make the world better or worse.

I know it's easy to get intimidated by the humongous vastness, perplexing complexity, terrifying fragility and downright strangeness of the world.

But, remember: you are at the same evolutionary level at the people who founded philosophy, the men who first harnessed electricity, all the people who came up with the various ideas in politics, those who built Rome, those who built the aeroplane, those who sanitised water the first time, etc, etc.

In order to excersise your potential, you need to be aware of the awesome around you and the awesome within you.
The awesomeness in the world shows that the world is something worth improving, worth defending, worth contributing to. Because it's amazing and beautiful.
The awesomeness within you, your power as a human being and your unique abilities and virtues as an individual, reminds you that it is well within your ability to make good things happen.

In short, there is no excuse for apathy.

Many things are good, and you can make them better.

The slogan of the Nerdfighter community (the best online community in the world ever) is DFTBA- Don't Forget To Be Awesome. The reason this is such a fantastic slogan, is that whether you are awesome or not is down to whether or not you choose to be.
No-one is intrinsically un-awesome. You have fifty trillion cells and billions of neural relays to make use of, as well as a well of intelligence and thought processing. All you need is the will to kick your latent awesome into gear, and make the world better by creating, defending, changing.

So, go for stuff. Don't let your perceived flaws cripple you. You are well equipped to deal with life.

You, my friend, are a bucket of awesome waiting to be thrown onto the world.

Now, GO!

QUIZ: Just how unrepresentative is the British electoral system?

I'm going to ask a question. You will then have to think of an answer. Then, you will scroll down and read the actual answer. Then, you will hopefully learn something.


Of all Britain's Prime Ministers, who won the largest total number of votes in a general election? In all time, ever?


You might think it was Margaret Thatcher beating in either 1979 or 1983. It is neither of these.


You might think it was Tony Blair in 1997. Nope.


It wasn't Winston Churchill, Clement Attlee, Harold "Winds of Change" Macmillian, H.H. Asquith, or any of the other really obviously popular Prime Ministers.


Ready for the answer?


It was in fact John Major, in 1992. The Conservative's fourth successive election victory since the start of the Thatcher years; and the one with the lowest majority. That, apparently, is how badly the way Britain actually votes is represented by our electoral system.



As a bonus: the second largest number of votes received in a UK general election ever ever ever was Labour's Clement Attlee in 1951.

An election he lost.


Proportional Representation, anyone? 

Why Feminism Matters

Feminism: the advocacy of women's rights on the grounds of political, social and economic equality to all.

There has been a lot of misinterpretation and accusation when it comes to the feminist movement. People accuse feminists of degrading men and damaging the family structure. Or they say that feminism is irrelevant, that women have achieved gender equality and anyone who is still actively campaigning in the name of feminism is whining nor no reason.

Both these claims, I'm afraid, show misunderstanding bordering on ignorance. Yes, there are people who argue for the suppression of men and dismantling of marriage in the name of feminism, but that is not what feminism is at it's core. Feminism was started as, and the vast majority of it's adherents keep it as, a force for equality, acceptance and open-mindedness. The ONLY belief that is fundamentally feminist in it's nature is that women are equal to men. This is not a threat to men, as we can (or should be able to) flourish in business and politics and every other area with female competitors just as well as we could in a male-only environment. It is not a threat to marriage, as marriage can and does work as a partnership between two equals (and I would argue it works much better that way).
The other claim, that the aims of feminism have been achieved, is perhaps more damaging than the first. Yes, in a purely political sense, women are upheld as equals, and have all the same rights as men. And that's a fantastic achievement. But it's only half the battle- feminists still have a hell of a lot of work to do socially. How many men still believe it is acceptable to view women only as sex objects? How unequally huge is the pressure on women to look good and appealing to men, as opposed to the reverse? Feminism is needed as a counterweight to the anorexia-inducing sexual consumerist culture that has done so much damage to young girls in the West, if nothing else.

And then there are those who are still anti-feminist once you do strip away all the misinformation. Those of all genders who still say that being born a women should shut doors around your entire life; that you should surrender your will, your consciousness to the direction of other human beings just because those other human beings had the fortune of being born with other sexual organs to you. There is no justification for such a view. Anti-feminism and chauvinism is oppression and prejudice. There is no two ways about it. The pro-male-dominance viewpoint is no different from racism or homophobia. Any assertion that a person's unavoidable demographic group should cause restrictions to be placed around their life is unacceptable in my eyes.

Women are people, and people can think and speak and write and create and debate and contribute. If we were to remove feminism from our political and social consciousness, locking 50% of our human population into lives of servitude and mindlessness, then we haven't just done an enormous, unforgivable disservice to those people. We have lost out on a huge amount of potential beauty and intelligence and improvement to the human condition. Imagine if feminism had happened three millenia before it did. Imagine a twenty first century benefiting from twice the number of philosophers, artisans, politicians and scientists than it is today. It almost makes me weep to think how much has been lost because of humanity's long-standing horrendous, stupid attitude to women.
Well, we've almost reached the end of the path of chauvinism. But that "almost" is the kicker. Stop the feminists now, and we risk sliding all the way back down the hill we've been dragging ourselves up since the original suffragettes. Don't let it happen. Our society can't afford to halve the amount of intelligent people able to express their ideas.

And so, I think we've reached the end of that rantble. I am, undoubtedly, a feminist, despite the presence of a penis. And I really think you ought to be, too. 

You and your Parents

As a teenager, I'm going to confess something.

I don't appreciate my parents as much as I should.

They made me, they've kept me in the house for seventeen years and counting, they accept me for who I am, they've managed to make enough disposable income to keep me healthy and entertained, they're still together, they aren't drug addicts, they haven't hurt me in ten million ways they had the potential to. 

But because I'm a teenager, I tend to forget all this stuff. I place a vastly disproportionate weight on the times I think they've been unfair, or hurtful, or unsatisfactory in some other way. This is true for them more than anyone else I know. I'm usually quite good at focusing on the good in people when they irritate me, but not with my mum and dad. Why?

Because parenting is a job with a lot of responsibilities, the parent-child relationship is the least equal of any relationships formed between humans. Which is to say, parents are expected to put a hell of a lot more effort in the relationship than the kids. And that's okay- they have the potential to do a lot more damage to their kids than the kids do to them.

But despite this, our relationship with our parents is a relationship like any other in the respect that it's a two-way street. We might have a much narrowed stream of traffic to look after (or whatever), but look after it we should. And that means forgiving faults, remembering that no-one is perfect, and just generally being nice when we can.

I think a lot of us interpret the unequal nature of the parent-child relationship as "they should do everything for me, and I don't have to do anything for them"- or something very close to that. But that's not right. Because at the end of the day, your parents are still human, and they have the same emotional needs as anyone else. Humans, perhaps unfortunately, are very needy creatures, and we need love and appreciation from everyone we care about. Otherwise the caring hurts too much. 

So, the point is this. I know your parents have hurt you in some way, and I'm sorry for you in that regard. But please, try to remember that they are imperfect humans with the tendency to mess up, and were never going to be anything else. Try to remember that parenting is probably the most stressful thing humans ever do, and if they've managed to keep you alive and vaguely sane for as long as they have, then they've probably done better than they were expecting. Please, just try to forgive. Many of us seem able or willing to forgive friends, siblings, lovers, acquaintances umpteen times without batting an eyelid; but fall short of doing the same for our parents. Ironically, they are the people who have probably earnt your patience the most.

I don't mean to degrade the significance of any issues you might have had with your parents, and anything they've done to hurt you. But I will always call for compassion and forgiveness, because I'm a drippy-hippy guy like that, and forgiving your parents is not beyond that.

It's not just for their sake, either. It will make your life a hell of a lot easier if your let yourself stop hating/resenting your parents, too. 

Everyone needs forgiveness, and it's probably the easiest need for us to fill. So why not give it a go?

Whistleblowing on Gay Celebrities

There is a controversial practice in tabloid media which involves revealing the sexuality of a previously closeted LGBT celebrity. The reason it's controversial is that you have the people who cry for the right to privacy, and then you have the people who think such information is rightfully theirs. And the kicker is that there are out and proud gays on both sides.

Pro-whistleblowing homosexuals argue that the media should strive in all cases to break down the taboo surrounding homosexuality, and that opening up the closets of stubborn gays is a part of that. Their claim revolves around what many gay activists think; that LGBT youth need successful gay role models to help them accept themselves; and that the gay community as a whole benefits when the heteronomrative majority are exposed to singers, actors and writers they like being gay.

I agree that gay celebrities are beneficial for the above reasons. But it's no reason to violate the privacy of those in the closet.

Coming out the closet is a delicate procedure, and only you know when it is good for you to come out. You know the nature of your relationships best, and you can judge better than anyone (especially tabloid journalists) whether any one or several friends or family members will react badly. This is true no matter how famous you happen to be.
I do not think it can ever be moral to expose something so personal, and risk destroying a person's relationship with his parents, siblings or close friends in the name of benefiting the LGBT community as a whole. People have the right to privacy, and that right should never be overridden to further some ideological cause.

A sprouting of this debate is whether it's okay to whistleblow on anti-gay politicians and activists, in order to reveal the true motives behind their views (self-denial). I admit I've wavered on this- but I think that, essentially, the call for compassion is what is most important to me. Just because someone voted or rallied against gay rights does not give us leave to damage them in the way that being outed can damage.
And, we who argue in favour of gay rights shouldn't need to resort to discrediting our opponents. We have a great deal of logic on our side, as well as the call to love and unity amongst humans. Exposing closeted antigays simply isn't needed.

So, that's pretty much all I have to say on the matter.

You Don't Need That Much Advice...

It's come to my attention that people are losing more and more faith in their own capabilities as human beings.

A few years back, I found myself at the midnight release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Alongside the books were free leaflets for parents about "how to console your child if Harry dies in this book".

At the Waterstone's in the Galleries shopping centre where I live, I'm pretty sure the single largest non-fiction section is "self help", with every Tom, Harry, Sarah and Sue giving you their foolproof way to sort your life out.

If you browse the magazines at the WHSmith's a few doors away, a large proportion of the magazines their are telling you how much weight to lose and how to do it, how to entice and keep hold of sexual partners, how to deal with children, spouses, co-workers, bosses, employees, clients.


But the things is, these writers we put so much faith in are hardly more qualified than we are to judge how to live our lives. You can't get a degree in raising children or conducting a successful marriage. And I very much doubt the tabloid dietitians of the world have fathomed enough of the mysteries of the human body to know how weight loss works to the extent they claim.

And, so much is subjective, anyway. The author of these books and articles being brandished at us don't know our peers, our family, our own bodies. How on earth do they know which techniques work for our own lives?
Different children react to different inputs. Different people are suited to different pathways to physical health. Different partners require a different kind of romantic relationship. So much so, that any claim that a technique is going to work for every relationship, every family, every person is frankly laughable.

And yet, there is a market for all this stuff. Why?

I humbly offer that people have become far too hungry for someone else to take the reigns. It seems that many of us are willing to listen to the advice of any kind of authority on anything, even when, rationally speaking, we know there is little they can know more than us about a situation.
Many things in life are difficult. But we have each been blessed, either by a designer or by evolution, with remarkable rationlising and thought processing abilities. You, reader, have more or less the same mental functions as the people who split the atom, who founded agriculture, who built the aeroplane, who began to understand the human mind. The fact is, you have been designed to face life.

Of course we should listen to the views of other people. But equally, we should remember that they are just that, views, and the mystique of their location behind a word processor does not make their opinions worth any more than yours.

So when you have a problem, go with whatever your brain and instincts tell you is right. Not what the latest tabloiding or blogging sensation has to say on the matter.  

The ELDERLY!

So I watched a Simpsons episode not-very-long-ago in which Lisa accidentally makes a drug that placates cranky old people, and calamity ensues. The conclusion was that Grampa Simpson and his band of senior citizen buddies decide to stop taking the drug because the younger generations need their endless complaining to keep them in line and stop trashing everything.

It raised an interesting point, and openly suggested something I think many of us have been mulling over mentally. Is the reason so many people complain about the older generation simply because they pass judgement on our far more frivolous, materialistic modern lifestyle? When all those grandparents complain about how much better it was in their day, do we secretly suspect they might be right?

Okay. Lets go back to basics.

In many cultures, the older you are, the more revered you are as a source of wisdom and knowledge. This, to me, makes a lot of sense. While no-one should ever make the mistake of dismissing the insight of the young, there is a lot to be said of the value of experience and accumulated wisdom.
But something has happened in western culture which means those above a certain age are generally shunted to the sidelines, brushed under the carpet, and not listened to. At some point, the post-baby boomer generations decided that the wisdom of the old was irrelevant, and that old age was a time of rapidly decreasing social relevance.

Why?

In my view, it all comes from the intensely materialistic and capitalistic culture we have built for ourselves. The culture where consumption is the highest priority, and pretty much everything is judged by it's price. This is a problem regarding retirees in two ways.

Firstly , they cost money rather than making it. According the morality of materialism, this means they have intrinsically less value. Never mind what they've done in the past, or the advice they can give, or anything else- because they are an output and not an input financially, they are always in an inferior position in society to their younger counterparts.

Secondly, everyone above a certain age has grown up before the advent of ultra-materialism. Therefore, like we said before, they are able to judge it from the outside, and that judgement is rarely good. Because of the arrogance of humans, we find it grating to hear any criticism of our choice of lifestyle, especially when it's the life modern society has demanded we take.
This is the most ludicrous of all. It is healthy to hear criticism of whatever choices we take, and good to take on board the opinions of others. But, increasingly, we don't seem to be able to do that. Whenever someone has something negative to say about modern society, whether they are elderly, environmentalism or live outside the West, they are dismissed with sneering Tu Quoque arguments. The old are said to be incapable, environmentalists are hippies and freaks, non-Westerners are impoverished, primitive extremists who need civilising.

I am exaggerating to some extent here. But the central point, that we in the West who conform to consumerism, are all too eager to dismiss anyone who critisises our society as ignorant or extremist, is indeed the case.

And the even more central point, that the elderly deserve more respect than they get from our culture, is not only true, but vital for making ours a gentler, more human and morally superior society.